Portrait and biographical record of Queens County (Long Island) New York, Part 75

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 75

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Mr. Flanagan is a member of Typographical Union No. 6, with which he has held member- ship since the age of twenty years. He has a commodious and pleasant residence at No. 542 Lockwood Street, which is kept in perfect con- dition by his estimable wife, formerly Miss Eliza- beth Egan, who is a native of the Emerald Isle. The following children have been born to them: Annie, May, Sadie, Frank, Nellie, Charles, Rose, Joseph, Gertrude and Betsey and Bess (twins).

In the fall of 1895 Mr. Flanagan was elected on the Democratic ticket for alderman of the fourth ward and has discharged the duties of that position most acceptably. He is a member of the finance and law committees, besides two or three others. Socially he is a member of John Allen Lodge, No. 330, A. O. U. W., of Astoria, of which he is past officer and has been a delegate to the grand lodge.

A RNOLD NELIUS, a contractor and builder residing at New Hydepark, was born in the city of New York April 7, 1858, to Balthaszar and Mary (Miller) Nelius, natives of Germany. His father, who was a shoe- maker by trade, settled in New York after com- ing to America and there married. In 1861 he moved his family, consisting of wife and two children, to Mobile, Ala., where he remained about three years. Thence he went to Brazil and settled at Santarem, a place of about one thou- sand inhabitants, situated on the Amazon about fourteen hundred miles from its mouth. The

LUCIEN KNAPP.

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climate, however, was so unhealthful that, after two years, he concluded to return to the United States. He took passage on a vessel northward bound, but soon became fatally ill and died when about five days out from New York.

The widow was left with two children, Arnold and Elizabeth. The latter became the wife of George P. Simon and died February 18, 1895. The mother came to New Hydepark when it was a village of but a few houses; here she bought property, built a house and made her home until her death, January 30, 1890. Our subject was a boy of thirteen years when he came to this village and here he grew to manhood. At the age of twenty-two he apprenticed himself to learn the carpenter's trade under James H. L'Hommedieu, whom he served for six years. He then worked at his trade for a year in the vicinity and for six months in the city of Brook- lyn, after which he settled at Floral Park and, in partnership with Charles B. Cox, engaged ex- tensively in building and contracting. After a partnership covering three years, during which the business aggregated about $40,000 annually, the connection was dissolved by mutual consent.

Coming to New Hydepark, Mr. Nelius has since carried on work as a contractor, having built about thirty houses here. Among them are seven that he built for himself, four of which he still retains. Politically he is a Republican, and with his wife belongs to the Reformed Church. At this writing he is serving as trustee of school district No. 11. He is a Master Mason, belong- ing to Morton Lodge No. 63, at Hempstead, and a member of the Shield of Honor, belonging to Lodge No. 3 at New Hydepark. October 13, 1886, he married Louisa, daughter of Joseph Britton, a native of Germany. Mrs. Nelius was born in New Hydepark April 6, 1860, and is the mother of four children: Elizabeth, Adelia, Ellen B. and Arnold B.

L UCIEN KNAPP, city treasurer and re- ceiver of taxes of Long Island City, en- joys the distinction of having been the first Republican city official elected in this place. Active in political affairs, he is also energetic and successful in business, being president of the Knapp Manufacturing Company, a close corpo- ration of which he is the principal stockholder. The business which he follows, that of a manu- facturer of metal goods, has been the chosen oc-

cupation of his family for many generations, and he brings to it a discriminating judgment, sound common sense, habits of close observation and unwavering integrity, qualities which are his by training as well as inheritance.

The Knapp family are of Saxon origin and in that country of iron mines and iron industries they have for generations been engaged as work- ers of metals. The subject of this article was born of French and German extraction, in 1848, on the Rhine at Strasburg, in Alsace, when that prov- ince was French territory. His father, John G. Knapp, went into France, where he engaged with the firm of Coulaux Aine & Cie, large manufac- turers of sheet steel, fire arms and hardware. There he married Sophie Melina Dubois, daugh- ter of Jules Dubois, one of the firm and its me- chanical engineer. Jules Dubois was consid- ered to be one of the most progressive business men of his time, and at the World's Exposition in Paris, early in 1800, he exhibited the first model of the endless bandsaw, since so universal- ly in use and of such general utility. Branches of the Dubois family came to the United States with the early Huguenots and settled in South Caro- lina, Connecticut and New York, many of them serving in the Revolutionary War with distinc- tion.

Both by birth and inheritance Lucien Knapp is a Republican. His father participated in the German Revolution of 1848 and later was com- pelled to leave France when Louis Napoleon sub- verted the Republic and made himself Emperor. In 1861, when the tariff for war revenue was placed upon importations, the hardware business received a great impetus and the demand for metal goods was so great that John G. Knapp en- tered into partnership with Lalance & Grosjean, then importers of hardware, to manufacture iron spoons and other articles of household use. The factories of Lalance & Grosjean. located at Woodhaven, Queens County, where two thou- sand men are employed, are now the largest in the world in the line of seamless stamped metal ware.

In 1870 Mr. Knapp, Sr., withdrew from the stamped ware business and later engaged with his son in the business, then, as now, under the title of The Knapp Manufacturing Company, in which he remained until his death in Newtown, in 1887. One of his brothers. Prof. Frederick Knapp, settled in Baltimore in 1850 and founded Knapp's Institute, chartered by the state of

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Maryland. Professor Knapp was distinctively an educator, and received many honorable mentions and diplomas as professor in pedagogy from European universities. He was among the first to establish kindergarten systems, and the first to teach deaf and dumb how to talk by articula- tion instead of signs. More than twenty-five thousand names appear on the roll books of his institute, and the diplomas of graduation from Knapp's Institute are held by distinguished men all over this country, in commercial, political and educational life. The professor died in Balti- more in 1893, and his death was the occasion of tributes from all branches of his fellow-citizens.

This sketch of the antecedents of the Knapp family explains the character of Lucien Knapp. He is aggressive, original, enterprising and fer- tile in resource. Receiving good educational ad- vantages, he graduated from the free schools of New York City and later from the New York Free College. In 1866 he entered into business, making a study of engineering, which he pre- ferred to remaining in the counting room. At twenty-one years of age he began to do business on his own account, and for twenty-five years has devoted himself assiduously to his manufactur- ing interests. As salesman and commercial trav- eler he has visited every city of note in the United States and Europe, introducing and sell- ing his goods in the line of sanitary and plumb- er's specialties and machinists' supplies. In 1883, in addition to his other enterprises, he assumed the general management of The Metallic Burial Case Company and The Winfield Foundry Works at Winfield and Newtown, L. I. These he successfully managed until 1889, when ill- health compelled him to reduce his labors, and he resigned from the company.

In politics Mr. Knapp has been a Republican by conviction and a representative of the business man in politics. Never wanting an office for himself but ever ready to work for good men in office, he has been fearless in the expression of his views and independent in action. Believing in organization, he has always been a consistent "machine" man, but fights for good methods and organization inside the party lines. Crooked men in politics fear his frank honesty, and underhand- ed plotters have reason to beware of him. His labor has been directed to bringing the party ma- chinery close down to every individual Repub- lican. For this purpose he organized the election district plan, being among the first in this state to

put the plan to practical test. The constitution and by-laws of the party in Queens County are the results of his progressive and aggressive la- bor. His platform is to "bring the party work down to the people, and you will have a strong party." In all conventions of the party his in- fluence is apparent and his wisdom recognized. Being a fluent speaker he is often called upon as orator for the defense and extension of party principles. As city treasurer he has attracted great attention by his stubborn and successful fight against a ring in control of city affairs. His career in office thus far justifies the claims of his friends that he would be the people's and tax- payers' man in the city treasury.

The family of Mr. Knapp consists of wife and two children, the latter being Louise, wife of Walter C. Foster, attorney-at-law; and Harry Wilson. Mrs. Knapp is a Southerner by birth, and as is customary in that section of the coun- try, dispenses hospitality with a free hand. Her musical abilities are of the very highest, and the Knapp household has always been the center of an educated, aristocratic circle.

A NDREW G. APPLEGATE has had a very successful career since establishing himself in the bicycle and sporting goods business in Long Island City, where he now has one of the largest houses of the kind in the county. Mr. Applegate was born in Freehold, Monmouth County, N. J., January 21, 1870. His father, Edwin F., was a native of New York City, where also the birth of the grandfather, Wil- liam Applegate, occurred. The latter was a printer by trade and the job office which he started in the metropolis is now known as the James B. Cameron Printing Company. He died when forty-seven years of age.

The father of our subject managed the print- ing office for a time after the decease of the grandfather, and when selling the office went to Providence, R. I., but afterward removed to Red Bank, N. J. There, during the Civil War, he raised a regiment which became known as the Twenty-seventh New Jersey. When ordered to the front he was chosen colonel of the regiment, and remained in command until the last six months of the war, when he returned home on account of sickness. His place was filled by the lieutenant-colonel, Dr. Remsen W. Taylor, who

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is now one of the prominent physicians of As- city. In 1895 he moved into more convenient toria, Long Island City.

When recovering from the effect of his hard- ships and privations while in the war, E. F. Ap- plegate established the "Red Bank Standard," and remained in charge of the office until selling out and removing to Freehold some time later. He then inaugurated the "Monmouth Inquirer," which he conducted on a paying basis for about twenty years. During nine years of his resi- dence in Freehold he held the position of post- master, and was the incumbent of the office at the time of his death, January 21, 1885. He was a true-blue Republican in politics and a promi- nent Grand Army man, being commander of Conover Post for many years. In religious af- fairs he was an Episcopalian and for a long time was vestryman of St. Peters, the old historic church that was used as a hospital during the Revolutionary War.

Mrs. Mary L. (French) Applegate, mother of our subject, was born in New York City and died in New Jersey in 1890. Of the thirteen children whom she reared to mature years, ten are now living. Andrew G., who was the young- est of the household, was educated in the Free- hold Military Institute. When leaving school he entered his father's printing office and learned the trade. He was a lad of fifteen at the time of the latter's death and his brother Maxcy succeeding to the business, he went to Philadelphia and was engaged as compositor with the James B. Rodgers Printing Company for eighteen months. At the end of that time he located in New York City, where he found employment in the office of the "Times." His stay there was of short duration, for we soon find him en route for South Carolina, in which state he traveled for some time and then returning north located in New York and secured employ- ment with the Frank L. Hamilton Printing Com- pany, at No. 18 Spruce Street. Afterward for three years he was foreman of the "Bayonne (N. J.) Times."

In August, 1891, Mr. Applegate came to Long Island City as foreman of the "Queens County Herald," which paper was established about that time, and remained in charge of the printing de- partment until resigning in 1893. In the spring of that year he rented a store room at No. 127 Jackson Avenue, in which he placed a large stock of bicycles and all kinds of sporting goods, being the first to engage in this line of business in the

and commodious quarters and is now found at No. 139 Jackson Avenue. His partner is Charles J. Harvey and the firm have established a very paying business and are well known to all who ride wheels or engage in the numerous other sports and games which have become so popular of late years. They handle the Columbia and Spaulding wheels and their sales have been so large from the first that their customers have been obliged to wait a considerable length of time, as the factories could not turn them out fast enough to supply the demand. They are now prepared to manufacture wheels of their own, for which they find a ready market. In connection with their business they have a re- pair shop.

November 1, 1895, our subject was appointed enumerator of school census of this city by Mayor Sanford. With this exception he has never held public office, as his business interests have occupied his entire time and attention. Mr. Applegate was married in New York City in 1889 to Miss Amy Sharman, a native of London, Eng- land. She was brought to America when quite young by her parents and was educated in New York. Her union with her subject has resulted in the birth of a son, Andrew, Jr.

Mr. Applegate is a member of the Lincoln Club and is a strong Republican in politics. He is also a member of the Ravenswood Boat Club and pulls a strong, steady oar. The Long Island City Wheelmen regard him as one of their prom- inent members, as do also the League of Ameri- can Wheelmen. He belongs to the Associated Cycling Club of this city and has represented the same in various national gatherings in different parts of the country.

J OHN BANNON, of Astoria, is overseer of the poor of Long Island City, and is also en- gineer of Our Lady Mt. Carmel's parochial school. He is a native of Ireland, having been born in County Tipperary in 1847. His father, Dennis Bannon, was also born in that portion of Ireland, and was in turn the son of Dennis Ban- non, Sr., a well-to-do farmer. The father of our subject having been reared to agricultural pur- suits, chose that occupation when starting out in life for himself, and followed it with signal success until his decease.

Mrs. Mary (McGrath) Bannon, the mother of

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John, was likewise born in County Tipperary and some time after the death of her husband came with her son to America, making her home with him until her decease, which occurred when she was seventy-two years of age. She was the mother of seven children, of whom John was the eldest. He passed the first seventeen years of his life in his native land and for the greater part of this time attended the common schools.

In 1864 young Bannon, desiring to come to America, engaged passage on the sailing vessel "Atlantic," and six weeks and six days after leaving Liverpool was landed at Castle Garden, New York. He at once made his way to Kings County and at Gravesend found employment as a farmer. He made this place his home for two years, when he went to the oil regions of Penn- sylvania, working in the oil wells of Pithole City and Oil City for a period of five years. At the expiration of that time he returned to New York, and in 1870 we find him a resident of Long Island City. At first he was engaged as fireman and engineer for the East River Ferry Company, holding these positions for seven years, after which he was stationary engineer for various firms, and in 1892 was employed by the parochial school of the Catholic Church, which position he still holds.

The marriage of Mr. Bannon and Miss Ellen O'Brien, who was also born in Ireland, occurred in Long Island City, and of their union Mary is the only survivor. Mr. Bannon is very prom- inent in his community and for three years, from 1890 to 1893, was school commissioner. In the fall of 1895 he was the successful candidate for the office of overseer of the poor, being elected by a majority of over two hundred votes. Janu- ary I, 1896, he took the oath of office and en- tered upon the duties of this responsible position. He is a Jeffersonian Democrat in politics and is a member of the general commission. For sev- eral years Mr. Bannon served on old Jackson Engine No. I.

C HARLES F. ALIESKY. Germany has contributed to the population of America by giving some of her most worthy citi- zens, and among the number may be mentioned Charles F. Aliesky, of Seacliff, a descendant of an old patrician Polish family, who was born at Mayence, dukedom of Hesse, Germany, October 22, 1842. During the latter part of the fifteenth

century the family lived at Rüdesheim, on the River Rhine, where there are still Alieskys on the same old village estate, as wine growers and wine merchants.

Our subject's great-grandfather spent his life in Mayence, which was the family residence of this branch for several generations. The father of Mr. Aliesky, Paul, was born in Mayence, Aug- ust 12, 1800, and served his time as an appren- tice with his father, who at that time was pur- veyor, confectioner and caterer to the archbishop of Mayence. Later he was engaged in agricul- tural economy (vintage, flour mill and red sand stone quarry) in the small town of Nackenheim on the banks of the Rhine. He married Miss Elizabeth Wenz, daughter of Francis Wenz, royal over-forester to King Frederick William the Fourth of Prussia, Germany. When their son, Charles F., was a small boy they came to America and settled in New York City. After receiving a fair education in the public schools he was put as errand boy in a banking house in 1856. Financial business, however, did not suit him, he being of a mechanical and artistic turn of mind.

Designing and modeling being his only pleas- ures, there was no peace until our subject was entered as an apprentice in an engraving, chas- ing and enameling establishment. After serving five years (and during that time entering Cooper Union Art School and graduating there) he be- came a pupil to the National Academy of De- sign, where he spent, at various times, about eight years of study, from cast and life, in oil and black and white. During this time he began the study of medicine under Dr. De Penhoel, physician and surgeon, later in the service of the United States Army. He also attended anatom- ical lectures at the Academy and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, more for the pleasure of information than for the purpose of making it his life work. He was one of the founders of the Art Club Pallette of New York City, of which society he was president for the first two terms.

In New York City June II, 1866, Mr. Aliesky married Miss Minnie Link, who was born in Maiden Lane August 30, 1847, daughter of Rob- ert and Elizabeth (Emerich) Link, natives of Germany, her grandmother on her father's side being Wilhelmina von Horst. For a few years Mr. Aliesky followed the occupation of a por- trait painter and crayon artist. In 1872 he estab- lished himself in the place where he is now, as

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artistic engraver, chaser, die and metal cutter and enamel miniature painter. Being a patentee of a process of enameling, he was also very success- ful in introducing painted enamel flower jewelry in 1876, which caused quite a revolution in the jewelry business. Not only is he fluent in the use of the German and English languages, but he also spent five years in the study of natural his- tory, entomology, which gave him some insight of Latin. He was twice chosen president of the Entomological Society of Brooklyn, whose monthly reports he illustrated with specimens of coleoptera, diptera and lepidoptera. These ex- periments insured him designing for the "Rural New Yorker," an agricultural scientific weekly paper. His winters are spent in Brooklyn, and until 1891 he spent a portion of each year in Seacliff, but after his residence there was burned down in 1891 he erected a house on Hempstead Harbor, in sight of Long Island Sound.

To Mr. and Mrs. Aliesky were born eight chil- dren, as follows: Charles Francis, whose birth oc- curred in New York; Paul Robert, born in Brooklyn; Elizabeth, who died when four days old; Annie, who died September 14, 1875, at the age of one year and two months; Olga Beatrice, who died July 16, 1883, aged eight years and two days; Minna Barbara, Amelia J. and Kurt Fred- erick. Mr. Aliesky's political sympathies are with the Democratic party, but he is not a strong par- tisan. His first vote was cast for George B. Mc- Clellan in 1864. At the present writing he is president of the village of Seacliff. He and his wife were reared Catholics. Fraternally he is a Mason, a member of Hiram Lodge, No. 449, of New York City, and has served as marshal. He has been an active member of the German Lieder- kranz Musical Society of New York City since 1863 and for a number of years has been a member of the board of trustees.

W ILLIAM W. WRIGHT, of Ravens- wood, conducts one of the most flour- ishing groceries in the place and in ad- dition to giving his personal attention to its management conducts a paying business as coal merchant. He is also a member of the board of police commissioners, is agent for the Western Union Telegraph Company, having the office in his store, which is also the station for the post- office branch for Long Island City. He was born in Astoria, L. I., January 2, 1860. His father,

Jacob Wright, was a native of Newtown, and the grandfather, William Wright, was also a native of Queens County, in which portion of the island he is still living. He was a farmer for many years at Newtown, but when reaching advanced years sold his possessions there and is now making his home with a son at Patchogue. He is eighty-nine years of age and is a member of the Episcopal Church, and while in Newtown served as ves- tryman for many years.

The father of our subject was reared on the old home farm which belonged to his parents and when ready to engage in some business in life secured a position as clerk in the grocery of a Mr. Blackwell, of Astoria. He saved a suffi- cient sum of money during that time to enable him to embark in business for himself, and opened up a grocery in Fulton Avenue. His ventures in this line were not as successful as he had wished and he sold out after a time and in- vested his money in real estate, handling this and carrying on an insurance business until his death, which occurred when he was forty-eight years of age.

Our subject's mother, formerly Lydia H. T. Webb, was a native of New York City. She was a granddaughter of William Webb, who was warden of Randall's Island during Tweed's ad- ministration. Mrs. Wright is still living and makes her home in the metropolis. Of the seven children of whom she became the mother, five are living. William W., the eldest of the house- hold, attended the public schools of Astoria and when seventeen years of age was thrown upon his own resources, owing to the death of his father, which occurred about that time. He learned telegraphy in the Western Union office at Astoria, and in 1876 was made agent for the company and has had charge of their business in this place ever since. Thus early in life he was made assistant postmaster, and when only ninc- tcen years of age embarked in the grocery busi- ness. So well has he succeeded in this under- taking that he has given it his attention ever since that time, notwithstanding many other cn- terprises have consumed much of his time. In his grocery and coal business Mr. Wright uses seven horses and runs four wagons, having orders to fill all over Long Island City. He gives con- stant employment to eight men, and by the able manner in which he manages his business inter- csts has become one of the most substantial men of the city. In 1881 Mr. Wright was appointed

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Portrait and biographical record of Queens County (Long Island) New York, Part 75

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