Portrait and biographical record of Queens County (Long Island) New York, Part 131

Author: Chapman, firm, publishers
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : Chapman Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1220

USA > New York > Queens County > Long Island City > Portrait and biographical record of Queens County (Long Island) New York > Part 131

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Now a resident of Flushing, the Doctor is a native of Long Island, his birth having occurred in Brooklyn in 1867. The family of which he is a member originated in Holland and was rep- resented among the early settlers of New York. His father, Dr. William H., who was a son of John Peer, a native and business man of New York City, was born near Passaic, N. J., and graduated from the University Medical College

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in 1851, after which he opened an office in Brook- lyn and continued in practice there until his death, November 13, 1887. In order to supply medicines for his patients he was obliged to start a drug store, and as this proved profitable he afterward opened another. As a physician he took front rank in his profession. His lifelong study of materia medica, his extensive practice that brought him in contact with every form of disease, and his acknowledged skill in the treat- ment of cases that require long experience, placed him among the most prominent physicians of his locality, and during the thirty-six years of his practice he was known as a skillful, efficient and successful physician.

The mother of our subject, who still resides in Brooklyn, was born in Ulster County, N. Y., and bore the maiden name of Lucretia Roberts. Her father, William Roberts, was a descendant of English ancestors and for many years carried on merchandising at Clintondale, Ulster County. Our subject is the only son and youngest of three children, and was reared in Brooklyn, where he attended Public School No. 34. Later he was a student in the University Grammar School of New York City, after which he took a year's course of study in the scientific department of the University of the City of New York. His medi- cal studies were carried on in the University Medical College, from which he graduated in 1888 with the degree of M. D., having gained a thorough theoretical knowledge of the profes- sion. For one year he was a member of the house staff of St. Catherine's Hospital, Brook- lyn, and then practiced in that city until 1891, since which time he has been located in Flushing, having his office at No. 100 Amity Street. So- cially he possesses qualities of a high order. Liberally educated, a fine conversationalist, of polite and agreeable manners, he is the life of a social circle. He is a gentleman of generous impulses, sanguine in temperament, whole-souled and open-hearted, and attracts and secures con- fidence at first sight.

F FRANKLIN BOOTHE, M. D., a prominent physician of Newtown, has been engaged in practice here for the past twenty-one years and is therefore well known to the residents of this portion of Queens County. The Doctor was born in Hartford County, Conn., October 13, 1836, and is the son of Samuel C. and Eunice

(Day) Boothe. The other members of the family were Albert, a retired minister of the Methodist Church; Harriot; and Clarissa, the wife of Henry Treat, who is descended from old Revolutionary stock of Hartford County, Conn.

Samuel C. Boothe was also a native of Con- necticut, having been born in Tolland County in the year 1795. After obtaining a good practical education he learned the trade of a machinist, working at this business for many years. His last days, however, were passed in peace and comfort on a good farm which he purchased. He became well-to-do, cultivating the soil in a thorough and profitable manner, and was well and favorably known to the farmers for many miles around his home. He was sixty years of age when he departed this life.

The original of this sketch, after completing the course of study in the Munson (Mass.) Acad- emy, entered Yale College, from which noted institution he was graduated in 1859. He then began for himself by teaching mathematics in the West Jersey Academy at Bridgeton, thus earn- ing the wherewithal to procure a fine medical education. He read for a time with Dr. Potter of New Jersey, and was also in the office of Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, a prominent physician of New York City.

Dr. Boothe was graduated from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1864 with high hon- ors, and as the Civil War was then in progress he soon thereafter entered the service of the Union army as assistant surgeon in the depart- ment of the South, where he rendered valuable service until the close of hostilities. Afterward he located for the practice of his profession at Holyoke, Mass., and two years later moved West to Iowa. During the two years of his stay in that state he built up a paying practice, but not liking the western country as well as the East, he returned to his native state, and for four years was one of the most successful physicians of Litchfield County. At the end of that time he came to the island and made his home in New- town, which has been his abiding place for the past twenty-one years and where he is in the enjoyment of an extensive practice, and has been very successful in his chosen profession. The Doctor keeps fully abreast of the times and recent discoveries in the medical world by taking the leading journals, keeping up his studies, and by attending the medical societies to which he belongs.

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Our subject married Miss Frances L. New- comb, of Dedham, Mass., the daughter of Rev. George Newcomb. To them have been granted four children, those living being Lucy, Franklin H., now a student at Yale, and Eunice C. In politics the Doctor is a stanch Democrat. He belongs to Mizpah Lodge No. 738, F. & A. M., of New York City, and is also a member of the Royal Arcanum.

C HARLES E. COMSTOCK. The steady advance of Long Island in population, and the commercial and manufacturing importance has made the real estate interest a most inviting field for the exercise of business talent of the highest order. One of the most successful operators in realty in Queens County is Charles E. Comstock, and he is also the agent of the Bradley Fertilizer Company of Boston, at this place. He was born in Wash- ington, R. I., July 15, 1838. His parents were Archibald and Henrietta (Pettis) Comstock, the former of whom was a master stone mason and built many of the largest manufacturing estab- lishments of that state. Among his finest pieces of work were the stone arch bridge over Black- stone river and the stone wall around the Orchard Street residence of William W. Sprague. He was twice married, and the subject of this sketch is the youngest of seven children of the first marriage. Politically he was a Democrat and held the rank of colonel in the state militia for many years. Although offered the position, he declined becoming minister to Peru for the United States, owing to the ill health of his wife. He became a prominent Mason, and after an active and well spent life died on his farm at South Scituate, R. I., September 19, 1864.

The subject of this sketch was left motherless at the age of nine years, at which time he had not yet learned to read. Immediately after her death he began to make his own way in the world, laboring on a farm during the summer months and attending school during the winter. What money he earned he carefully saved and was thus enabled to spend three terms in the Smithfield Academy when he was sixteen years old. Soon after this he went to the island of Rhode Island, and there his summers were spent in profitable labor for three years. The year 1857 found him in Providence, R. I., where he took charge of the business of the "Evening Tel-

egraph" as local reporter, soliciting advertiser and salesman, but about seven months later he again returned to the island and remained a year. The succeeding six years were spent on Patience and Prudence Islands, but in 1863 he came to Long Island and began the raising of onions on shares. During the two years that he was thus employed he was united in marriage with Miss A. Frances Wood (December 4, 1864), daughter of William H. and Polly Wood, of Swansea, Bristol County, Mass. One year after his marriage he took charge of a farm at Provi- dence, R. I., and about twelve months later he leased a farm near North Providence, R. I., for four years and embarked in the milk business, at which he made money. For the succeeding two years he was in the fish business in Provi- dence, but during the panic of 1870 he lost con- siderable money but kept clear of debt. He was not so successful after his removal to Locust Valley, but after his removal to Glencove, L. I., in 1879, he engaged in gardening and his fortunes again began to brighten.

Since 1886 Mr. Comstock has been general agent for the Bradley Fertilizer Company, his territory being Long Island, New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania, and in connection with this he has devoted considerable attention to the real estate business, for which he seems to be fitted. He possesses good business qualities and has learned many useful lessons in the hard school of experience, and his early career was such as to make him self-reliant and independent, although it never hardened him or made him unsympathetic. His marriage resulted in the birth of four children: Opal, who died at the age of six years; Elizabeth, who died January 19, 1889, at the untimely age of twenty-three years; Jessie E., who was born in Glencove June 17, 1881; and Louis Embert, born in Rhode Island August 6, 1874. He is also in the insurance and real estate business and is a bright and pushing man.

Mrs. Comstock is a granddaughter of Israel Wood, member of one of the oldest families of Massachusetts, and the originator of a very im- portant invention, of which he held control until his death, doing nearly all the work in that line for large rendering establishments in his state. Albert Wood, of Dighton, Mass., the noted phy- sician and surgeon, was an own cousin of Mrs. Comstock. Her maternal grandmother, who was a native of Swansea, Mass., attained the great

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age of ninety-nine, dying about ten years ago. A very intelligent woman, she retained all her faculties to the last and could tell interesting stories of the Indians that dwelt near her child- hood home. On one occasion she had the pleas- ure of seeing Washington. Her daughter, the mother of Mrs. Comstock, is still living (1896) at the old homestead, and is now nearly eighty years of age.

Although reared a Democrat, Mr. Comstock cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lin- coln, but voted Democratic up to 1876, and has voted the Republican ticket ever since. He has been excise commissioner for the past two years and was elected by the largest majority ever given a town officer. He is a member of Eagle Lodge No. 2, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Providence, R. I., since about 1872 or 1873, has filled all the chairs of that order several timesand on numerous occasions has rep- resented his lodge in the grand lodge of the state, held at Buffalo and Utica. Although it has been said that "A rolling stone gathers no moss," the career of Mr. Comstock is in direct refutation of this old saying, for although he has followed va- rious occupations throughout his busy life, he is in comfortable financial circumstances, is a useful citizen and is universally esteemed.

T HOMAS F. TUOHY, one of the most extensive general contractors of Flushing, was born in this village December 31.

I853. His father, Patrick Tuohy, a native of County Tipperary, Ireland, came to Flushing about 1843 and for five years was in the employ of a contractor, William French, after which he engaged in the same business for himself. In 1873 he took his son, Thomas F., into partner- ship, their connection continuing until 1880, when he retired from business. He died in 1893, at the age of seventy-eight; his wife, whose mai- den name was Sarah Hogan, died here in 1867. During his residence of fifty years in Flushing he witnessed the growth of the town and was instrumental in securing the opening of streets and roads here.

Of eight children, five of whom are living, Thomas F. is fourth in order of birth and is the only member of the family now in Flushing. He was educated in the private and public schools, and when scarcely more than ten years of age began to assist his father in the business of which he was given full charge ten years later. In 1879

he married Miss Rose Brouder, a native of this village, and they are the parents of four living children: Mary, Thomas, John and Florence. Clara died at the age of three and one-half years. The family occupy their attractive residence near the corner of Parsons Avenue and Lincoln Street.

The year after his marriage Mr. Tuohy suc- ceeded his father in the contracting business, and this he carried on alone until 1891, when he ad- mitted Mr. Fitzpatrick as partner, the title of the firm becoming T. F. Tuohy & Co. At times he gives employment to hundreds of men. Among the contracts which he has had were those for building the road from the town of Flushing to Roslyn, North Hempstead; com- pleting Jackson Avenue from the Long Island City limits to Flushing, which cost about $60,000; putting in the sewerage for the villages of Flush- ing, Whitestone and College Point; and paving the streets here. Many of the prominent real estate firms have employed him to open prop- erty, among them being the Germania Real Es- tate Company, which gave him the contract for opening their property in Flatbush. He also opened land for John Z. Lott and Jere Johnson, Jr. In 1895 he bought out the coal yard owned by E. F. Harris and situated in Lawrence, on Flushing Bay; this he has since conducted. For his work he uses about twenty-five teams. He had the contract for the landscape work on the finest places here, including the homes of G. Howland Leavitt and F. P. Morris.

At the time of the reorganization of Flushing Bank Mr. Tuohy took a leading part in the work, and is now one of the directors of the institution. He is also interested in the Flushing Building and Loan Association. At different times, he has erected fifteen residences for himself in Flushing, and still has fourteen of these, his property hold- ings being large and valuable. In politics he does not identify himself with any party, but maintains an independence of action in public matters. He is a member of St. Michael's Church and is president of the Catholic Benevo- lent Legion, in the organization of which he was a prominent factor.

H ENRY C. RATH. Few investments have proved more profitable than those in real . estate in the village of Flushing, and on general principles nothing shows the rapid growth and importance of any place more than

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the increase in the value of that character of property. Among the real estate dealers here none are able to give better advice or offer greater inducements for investing capital than Henry C. Rath, who has had the experience in the handling of real estate to make himself and his advice val- uable in the extreme to operators who entrust their interests in his hands. He has been a resi- dent of Flushing for many years, and in that time has displayed characteristics which have engaged the regard of a very large circle of ac- quaintances.

Henry Rath, the father of our subject, was a native of Germany, born near Bremen, and when a young man came to America, landing in New York City, where he was bookkeeper and ship- ping clerk for a large house. He had his home in New York and there died in 1882, when fifty-two years old. He had married Miss Au- gusta Stobesandt, also of Germany, and this lady now resides in Flushing with her daughter, Mrs. Williams. To her marriage were born three chil- dren: Edward H., who was interested with our subject in developing Murray Hill, Dunton, and Dunton Park, Jamaica, Woodhull Park, Hollis, and Hollis Wood, was killed in a railroad acci- dent. Our subject is the second in the order of birth, and Mrs. Williams (Augusta) the youngest.

In the public and grammar schools of Brook- lyn Henry C. Rath received his education, and while still but a boy began handling messages for the Western Union Telegraph Company in Newark, N. J. He subsequently took up teleg- raphy and worked in the main office of New York, Jacksonville, Fla., Savannah, Ga., and Washington, D. C. After about six years in the telegraph service he entered the employ of Jere Johnson, Jr., where his brother was working, and remained with him two years. After that he be- gan handling real estate, and from the start made a success of this venture. To his energy may be ascribed the development and improvement of some of the finest villages on the island, for he is constantly building, improving and selling.

Mr. Rath has a fine residence at No. 71 Smart Avenue, where on nearly an acre of ground he has extensive greenhouses. He makes a specialty of carnations and supplies the Cut Flower Exchange of New York, of which he is a member. He is also a charter member and stockholder of the New York Florist Club. Mr. Rath was married in Washington, D. C., to Miss Margaret Ockers- hausen, a native of that city, and to them were

born two children, Gertrude, deceased, and Ed- ward. Formerly our subject published the paper, "Rath's Home Guide," a monthly. which found its way all over New York City. Brooklyn and Long Island. He is a member of the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, Mechanics' Lodge, New York; a member of the American Legion of Honor and other organizations. In politics he is a Democrat. He has been a delegate to numerous conventions, is president of the Democratic Club of the sixth district, and in April, 1896, was elected assessor of the town of Flushing. He holds membership in the Flush- ing Boat Club, Mercury Wheel Club, and was organizer and president of Flushing Park Im- provement Society, of which he is still a member and trustee. In religion he is a Lutheran and was one of the organizers of that church in Flush- ing.

A LFRED MITCHELL, attorney and coun- selor at law and notary public, with office at No. 816 Temple Court, New York City, and residence and branch office at Whitestone, was born in England in 1841. He was reared to manhood in his native land, where he received a good common-school education and then stud- ied under the University of Cambridge Exten- sion System, receiving from its senate the exam- iner's certificate of merit in literature.

During his later studies he was associated with a solicitor of the court of chancery, imbibing the great principles upon which the laws of England and America are both founded, and, after repre- senting the Cheque Bank of London for a tinie in his own country, came to Boston, Mass., in 1879, to promote a mercantile enterprise for an English firm. His great love for American in- stitutions and the opportunities offered to indus- try and ability in this country were so alluring that he determined to establish his home here as a citizen, and, coming to New York City, settled at Whitestone in the fall of the same year. resuming his legal studies with Counsellor D. Edgar Anthony, in the Tribune Building, later with Hon. John F. Quarles, of Georgia (formerly United States consul at Malaga, Spain), and finally under the preceptorship of Counsellor S. F. Kneeland, LL. D., the long-time lawyer for the colossal mercantile house of The H. B. Claflin Company of New York City.

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Mr. Mitchell was shortly thereafter taken upon the legal staff of The Equitable Mercantile Com- pany of New York City, and began practice in the lower courts in 1880. In May, 1892, he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the state of New York as counsel, and in January, 1894, was also enrolled as an attorney, proctor, solicitor, counsel and advocate of the supreme court of the United States, being the only lawyer in Whitestone having this distinction.

His varied practice soon made him familiar with commercial law, and he is now the attorney for The J. B. Sanborn Collection Company, and the Gilbert Elliott Law Company of New York City; the Alleman Law Company, of Philadel- phia and New York; The Lloyds Company, The Martindale Agency and the Tappan-McKillop Company, of Chicago; The Collector and Com- mercial Lawyer, of Detroit; The Davies Bar and Collection Company, of Cincinnati; The Walters Collection Company, of Omaha, and others. From seniority of service he is also dean of the legal staff of New York City of The Equitable Mercantile Company, of which concern his friend, H. B. Niles, Esq., has been president twenty years.

Even in his native land Mr. Mitchell was al- ways an ardent advocate of a republic over a monarchy, and this enthusiasm for the right led his opponents there to describe him in the news- papers when quite a young man as a "Radical of the deepest dye," but he has lived to see much of the Radicalism of that day come to be re- garded, by even such opponents, as the wisest conservatism of the present. In the many strug- gles for Liberalism in the Old World he gave long services and money unstintedly in support of the great fights against Toryism. His first vote was given for the "Grand Old Man," Premier Gladstone, and during the American Civil War Mr. Mitchell was a stanch supporter of the Union as a means to destroy slavery. Having years be- fore learned the Declaration of Independence by heart, he cited it and the Federal Constitution in public meetings in England to prove that the North alone in our great conflict was worthy of English support. On settling in the United States he took part in promoting the election of President Garfield, but in 1884 he left the Republican party because of its continued sup- port of the theory of protectionism, and has ever since been an independent Democrat. An auto- graph letter received from Henry Ward Beecher

by Mr. Mitchell at this period is a much prized memento of that soul-stirring time of Blaine's great defeat. Mr. Mitchell has always contended that free trade is the true and proper American Economy, and when adopted will open up new avenues of commerce for our country and en- hance the prosperity of the nation as a whole, particularly the working people. He considers that protection engenders a money aristocracy at the expense of the great body of the people; that it is a worn-out legacy which America in- herited along with slavery from England, and that its retention here is a serious drawback to this country's progress. In the Democratic party, as a local leader, he has taken an ever active part in municipal and national politics. He is opposed to all rings, but all matters having for their object the promotion of the public welfare, of the many against the private interests of the few, receive his cordial co-operation and unwav- ering support. His knowledge of history, parlia- mentary procedure and every phase of law ren- ders his advice valuable in all civic affairs. He is not a politician, being "too fond of the right to pursue the expedient."

Counsellor Mitchell was elected police justice of Whitestone in 1889, holding the office for three years, and he is now quite frequently men- tioned for one of the new justices in his division of Greater New York. His knowledge and high character and judicial temperament eminently qualify him for the post. He was one of the founders of the Whitestone Lyceum, holding the office of secretary for many years, and was also secretary of the Whitestone Improvement Asso- ciation several terms, and twice its president. He is of extremely temperate and regular habits of life, does not drink intoxicants nor use tobac- co, but does not believe in prohibition, and has never acted with that party, though often solic- ited to run as their candidate for various offices. Nor is he in favor either of high license or local option. He considers that the liquor traffic should be as free as all other businesses, upon the liquor dealer giving a substantial bond against lawlessness, and that if the laws against disor- derly conduct were enforced impartially, the liq- uor trade would then become as respectable and well conducted as the selling of dry goods or hardware, and its evils reduced to a minimum.

His well known outspokenness against abuses, his firmness of opinion, large will power, com- bined with a tenacity of purpose which cannot

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be daunted by opposition, have made him a for- midable opponent of political humbugs of every kind. These sterling qualities reveal themselves by his advocacy of whatever he believes to be right, even if unpopular, and in his long and eventually successful contests with bad govern- ment in Whitestone these characteristics have been ever conspicuous. Cases which come to the surface in his professional career show the same indomitable spirit. An instance occurred when he was retained by a committee of citizens of Whitestone in 1892 to compel the calling of a special election to fill a vacancy for alderman, which was being kept unfilled by the authorities for political reasons. He secured a mandamus from the supreme court compelling the board of trustees to call the election to fill the vacancy, and after a siege of eighteen months in the courts, in which he was successful at every stage, his action was finally confirmed, after having been passed upon by some half a dozen judges, and also when carried by the village right up to the court of appeals. The law reports (71 Hun., 188) show this matter now forms a leading case. The opposing counsel all the time was the re- doubtable ex-district attorney of Queens County, Counsellor Benjamin W. Downing, who, though a veteran of veterans, yet had, all the way through the long legal contest, to succumb in every instance to the sounder legal learning of Counsellor Mitchell.

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Portrait and biographical record of Queens County (Long Island) New York, Part 131

Author: Chapman, firm, publishers Publication date: 1896 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : Chapman Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1220

Author: Chapman, firm, publishers
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : Chapman Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1220