USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 33
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Food Products-Food products, as has been said, figure largely from Kansas, beef from Illinois, bananas from Porto Rico, sugar from Lou- isiana, tomatoes from New Jersey, peaches from Delaware, grapes from Ohio, salmon from Washington and wheat from the Dakotas, all assem- bled in the great storehouses of Manhattan and The Bronx, for distribu- tion to the hungry millions of Europe. The New York Produce Ex- change serves as a daily clearing house for huge cargoes of grain, and the various mercantile exchanges handle in bulk enough staple foods to supply fifty per cent of the western world, in addition to the current supply required for the daily consumption of its citizens and visitors. To regularly feed the more than eight million people who reside within the Port Authority District, and to keep the larder sufficiently well- stocked to entertain the fluctuating hordes of visitors who come daily to the city, anywhere from 250,000 to 750,000 strong, there is required an aggregate of materials and service sufficient in itself to furnish perma- nent employment for the entire gamut of industries of a good-sized na- tion. This, however, is but one side of New York's interest in food products. As the principal seaport of America, New York has also be- come one of the greatest depots of the food supply of the world. The actual production of prepared food products in modern New York is a natural though unexpectedly large outgrowth of efforts by the original Dutch citizens to provide ample food for their little community situated on the edge of the great unknown American forest.
A good proportion of the bakeries of New York are situated in The Bronx. Bakers were among the first tradesmen to reach the New Neth- erlands and the business of baking bread developed early in its history.
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Both trades required apprenticeship; some of the early millers were either bakers themselves or employed bakers to make their flour into bread. The making of confectionery was also a business of early devel- opment. The koek-huys, or cook-house, kept by Philip Gerard, the Pa- risian, and his wife, Marie Pullet, became the favorite resort of such personages among the Dutch merchants as Jan Domen. The first regu- lation of the bakery trade was made during Stuyvesant's administration when the bakers were evidently trying to make undue profit, either by selling short weight bread or by making it of an inferior quality of flour.
As the population poured over the Harlem the baking industry in- creased in The Bronx. As congestion became greater many of the smaller establishments did their baking in cellars and in the poorer dis- tricts conditions arose which were analogous to the sweatshop system in the manufacture of clothing. An inspection made in 1912 by the Fac- tory Inspection Committee appointed by the State, brought out the fact that out of 2,962 bakeries in Greater New York, employing 13,676 men, 479 were of this type. They have decreased in number, however, and for the most part the bread supplied to the inhabitants of The Bronx, as well as of the other boroughs, is made in large, clean, airy factories, such as Cushman's, Schultz & Company, the Ward Bakeries and others. There are also cake factories, like Cushman's, and Drake's and Wards. Moreover, bread is made almost entirely by machinery, from the meas- uring of ingredients to the wrapping in waxed paper in which it is de- livered. This custom of wrapping is an improvement devised since the beginning of this century. It is not many years since a horse-drawn bread wagon, laden with loaves in open baskets on top as well as inside, was a common sight in New York. The white-clad delivery man with gloved hands is contemporary only with the coming of the motor truck. In 1923, 900,000,000 pounds of bread were baked and consumed in The Bronx and the other boroughs of New York.
Musical Instruments-Musical instruments, particularly pianos, are another of the staple industries in The Bronx. As late as the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, few pianos had been manufac- tured in America, and makers of instruments of this type were still pro- ducing variations of the harpsichord. Most of the American-owned pianos of that time and for many years later, were importations from England, France and Germany. Nevertheless even then, American pi- ano makers and inventors, such as Alphaeus Babcock, had already laid the foundation of the present great piano business of the United States. By 1924 American piano production had reached phenomenal propor- tions, and the greater part of them were manufactured either within the metropolitan district of New York or for firms which had large estab- lishments in the city. The first man who is recorded as having built
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pianos in New York was John Geib, the organ builder who, about 1802, began to make small square pianos. The next maker seems to have been Robert Stodart who came from London in 1821. In 1820, a London firm of piano makers, also named Stodart, purchased the rights for an invention, covered by patent issued in 1820, to James Thom and William Allen, which was a direct anticipation of the iron frame. About the same time Alphaeus Babcock invented a complete metal frame which he patented in 1825. Within a few years the Broadwood, a piano that John Jacob Astor had been importing following 1789, had made great ad- vances and became widely used, but soon was improved upon by pianos of American make. About 1830 there began an influx of German crafts- men who had an important influence on the industry. The first of these, William Lindeman, who came to New York in 1834, established himself in business in 1836, the year the Bacon piano first appeared. In 1835, John B. Dunham began to make pianos in Third Avenue, north of 26th Street, thus showing how New York was already creeping towards the envelopment of The Bronx. Dunham is chiefly of interest, however, be- cause at some time between 1835 and 1849 he engaged a German named Frederick Mathusek, a piano maker and inventive genius, who made many improvements in the piano. Mathusek seems to have worked a long time for Dunham, but in 1863 he established the business which is still carried on by his descendants as the Mathusek Piano Manfacturing Company, a house with an enviable international reputation.
J. & C. Fischer, the next makers listed, succeeded to the business of R. & W. Nunns. Nunns & Clark began to make pianos and continued for twenty years up to about 1853. In the forties Hugh Hardman founded a piano house which continued under the name of Hardman & Peck. The Needham piano was made by Ellis Parkman Needham, who was also an organ builder and famous for the development of the reed organ.
In 1852 Alfred Weber first made a piano in a little shop at No. 103 West Broadway, and thus laid the foundation for a famous company which now has a factory in The Bronx, capable of producing 5,000 pianos in a year. The Weber Piano Company was absorbed by the Aeolian Company in 1903.
The country was very prosperous in the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury, a number of piano making houses having been established in New York within the thirty years which elapsed between 1845 and 1875, and the proportion of the present-day piano makers in The Bronx and in the other boroughs, which had their origin at that time is large. The.house of Kranich & Bach was established in 1864 as a cooperative concern by a group of seventeen craftsmen who had been variously engaged in dif- ferent piano factories in New York. As was natural, however, among
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so large a number, disputes arose which resulted in the withdrawal of six of the men, and these men in 1866 established the firm which later became Kranich & Bach. These firms in The Bronx and Manhattan and Queens, help to make New York not only the artistic centre of the country's musical life, but one of the leading domestic centres for the production of pianos and other musical instruments.
Reference has been made to the Mathusek Piano Manufacturing Com- pany, and as this is one of the most important companies in The Bronx, a word or two may be added to it. The founder, as has been said, was Frederick Mathusek, born at Mannheim, on June 9, 1814. He learned piano making at Worms. After serving his apprenticeship he traveled through Germany and Austria and finally landed in Henri Pape's shop in Paris, where he became thoroughly infected with the inventor's bac- teria. Returning to Worms, he began to build pianos similar to those he had seen at Pape's. One of his Octagon "Table Pianos" built at Worms, is among the collection of antique pianos at the Ibach Museum at Barmen.
In 1849 Mathusek landed in New York and was immediately engaged by John R. Dunham to draw new scales and make other improvements. It was about this time that Frederick Mathusek revolutionized piano construction by his invention of the over-stringing system for which he was granted a patent in October, 1851. This wonderful invention en- abled him to secure longer strings and add another string to each treble note, giving one third more tone and a more perfect unison, and al- though this invention would have made him enormously rich, he gave it for the benefit of his craft and it was adopted by other manufacturers in 1855. There were numerous other inventions made by Frederick Mathusek. His whole existence would seem to have been dominated by the desire to produce in a piano that ideal musical tone which he could hear mentally, just as the deaf Beethoven heard his symphonic poems when he wrote them.
In 1863 Frederick Mathusek became the head of the Mathusek Pi- ano Manufacturing Company at New Haven, Connecticut. It was here that he did his best work. His inventions of the linear bridge and equal- izing scale enabled him to produce in his small "Colibri" piano a tone richer and fuller than could be found in many large square pianos, while his orchestral square piano has never been excelled, if it has ever had its peer. In volume and musical quality of tone these orchestral square pi- anos were far superior to many of the short grand pianos of the present time, possessing, especially in the middle register, an almost bewitch- ing sweet mellowness of tone, reminding vividly of the 'cello notes. It is no exaggeration to say that Mathusek could, as a voicer, produce a tone quality in his pianos that no other man could imitate.
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The piano industry of America is largely indebted for its wonderful development to the genius of Frederick Mathusek. In 1890 Charles and C. Allen Jacob became the financial backers of the Mathuseks, en- abling both Frederick Mathusek and his grandson, Victor Hugo Mathusek, to devote their time exclusively to improvement in piano construction. The high ideals of the founder of the house were pre- served and the piano has been by this cooperation brought up to the highest grade of development. The products of this company have found favor throughout the world and are particularly in demand in foreign countries where they are well qualified to contend with the cli- matic conditions on account of their special construction.
Another prominent piano manufacturing company in The Bronx is the firm of Jacob Doll & Sons. In 1871 Jacob Doll began the manufac- ture of pianos in a modest way. The span of half a century has thus witnessed the firm's development from an unpretentious little factory to ownership of a magnificent modern seven-story structure covering a full city block, which now represents the Doll & Sons' enterprise. Standard- ization in manufacture, unusual facilities, and thoroughly modern equip- ment are important factors in the success of this institution. These con- ditions have made possible quantity production of pianos of intrinsic value. Jacob Doll was among the pioneers in American piano-making. He had not only broad vision but the dogged persistence which enabled him to keep at his task until he overcame numerous obstacles and es- tablished his business on a solid foundation.
The great plant of Jacob Doll & Sons is a vast cooperative organiza- tion of skilled craftsmen and inventors, rather than a factory in the or- dinary sense of the term. The executive and manufacturing staffs are largely composed of men who have been continuously in the company's employ for more than twenty-five years. All their work is done with care and fidelity and the highest standards of musical excellence are continually held before them. It has been through the maintenance of this thoroughly experienced manufacturing organization that Jacob Doll & Sons have secured the standard of quality which has been the out- standing characteristic of each instrument produced. Naturally Doll & Sons first gained distinction in the United States. From the earliest days, however, the company conducted also an export business and their instruments have come to be known in many other parts of the world as representing a high grade of American manufacture.
Grand and upright pianos, player-pianos, foot-driven player grands, electric expression player grands, and reproducing pianos (Welte-Mig- non Licensée) of the finest class and distinction, and made in a variety of artistic styles, comprise the products of Jacob Doll & Sons. It is a matter of interest in the piano industry that this firm was among the
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first to perfect a dependable player-piano. The many exclusive patented devices with which their player-piano is equipped enable the performer to control, with absolute precision, every shade of musical expression. Concert artists of international fame have endorsed the Doll & Sons grand piano for its rich orchestral tone.
The firm's fine factory is situated at No. 100 Southern Boulevard. Well appointed retail branches are centrally located in Manhattan, Jersey City and Newark to take care of the large demand for Doll & Sons' in- struments in the metropolitan district. Since the death of Jacob Doll in 1911, the great industry which he founded has been conducted by his four sons. In their team work they illustrate ideally the principle of business unity and coordination which is essential to bring an enterprise of this kind to successful fruition. They comprise the official person- nel, which is as follows: Otto Doll, president; Frederick Doll, vice- president; George Doll, treasurer; Jacob Doll, Jr., secretary. Jacob Doll & Sons also own and operate the following companies: Stodart Piano Company, established in 1819, makers of nationally distributed in- struments famous for more than a century; Wellsmore & Company ; Baus Piano Company, the Frederick Piano Company, Electrova Piano Company, Ernest Gabler & Brothers Piano Company and the Duerk Piano Corporation. These organizations form a group in the piano in- dustry, holding fast to the best traditions of the past but coordinating them with the spirit of modern achievement.
The oldest firm of organ builders now in New York is that of Davis & Son of The Bronx, although they have not built organs continually. Morgan Davis, the founder, came from England in 1798 and began making pianos in Barclay Street. In 1840 his son, William H. Davis, be- gan organ building. Their first large organ was for the Calvary Prot- estant Episcopal Church. It was the first American-built organ equipped with Barker's pneumatic lever. At the death of William H. Davis in 1888, the business was continued by his sons, who, with their sons, have maintained it to the present time. They have built a great many organs of medium size and good quality. The list of houses actually engaged in 1924 in manufacturing organs in Greater New York, or with very well-known interests in the city, is brief compared with the earlier status of the organ industry and present dimensions of the piano industry.
Metal Products-Metal and metal products constitute another of the leading industries of The Bronx. Rarely if ever does any expedition venture into a new country without its forge and blacksmith. History appears to be silent as to the details of the early Dutch arrivals, a fact due no doubt to the peculiar characters of the Dutch themselves. To this day, in addition to their merchandising, they are principally fisher- folk and agriculturalists and little given to mechanics. Their structures,
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both ashore and afloat, are mostly of wood and, strange as it may seem, within the memory of the present generation, Swiss engineers built and shipped overland the best of the steel power vessels that ever sailed under the Dutch flag. The people of the British Isles were very different. They were so accustomed to the familiar "ironmonger" signs at home, a teakettle, a vise, "vice" as they spelled it in the early days, an anvil and other emblems of the trade that they very naturally became equally fa- miliar with the smithy, where dwelt the "mighty man" who fitted their tires, forged their spuds and mattocks, and mended the innumerable tools and other articles of steel or iron.
In 1749 New York's population was approximately 9,000 and the iron- monger's trade was still small notwithstanding the numerous branches of his trade. It might have been very important except for the fact that the home authorities in England placed an embargo on all iron manufac- turing operations within the colony. They were well aware of the exist- ence of great deposits of iron ore in different parts of New York and neighboring states. In 1750 the British Parliament passed an act to encourage the exportation of pig iron from New York, but expressly forbade all further fabricating operations within the colony. One enter- prising colonist, Samuel Scraley, a blacksmith, undertook the construc- tion of a platform forge to operate with a "tilt hammer" but was soon suppressed. Robert Livingston, however, was more fortunate as, in 1756, he was operating an iron works which had commenced five or six years previously. No doubt the Livingston Mill limited its production to bar iron in compliance with the British Act of 1750. Barrett states in his "Old Merchants of New York" that William Hawkhurst obtained a thirty-year grant in 1771 for making anchors and anvils in New York. Also that he, or a son, engaged in business with a Mr. Franklin as iron- mongers. From 1767 to 1776 several New York men of means operated a small foundry for making pots and kettles, but the Revolution seems to have put it out of business. After the States achieved their independ- ence the iron trade immediately assumed the proper place among the ac- tivities of the new nation. Apparently the leading ironmonger of that period was Joseph Blackwell. When the British gained possession of New York in 1776, they confiscated the Blackwell property and Jacob Blackwell fled. In 1830 or thereabout the city purchased the Blackwell's estate interest in the island and devoted it to philanthropic and peni- tentiary uses. The successors of the firm, McFarlane & Ayers, became interested in the Morris Canal and supplied most, if not all, of its equip- ment such as drums, cables and other gear for the land sections of the route.
Manufacturing in the region of The Bronx did not begin until a period contemporary with the Revolution, when the Non-Importation agree-
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ment forced the colonists to make many goods which they had previ- ously bought in England. Besides the English laws forbade manufac- turing in the colonies, in order to give the British manufacturer a mon- opoly, which was further secured by the obnoxious Navigation Laws. Grist-mills and sawmills were located wherever there was sufficient water power, as on Tippett's Brook, which was dammed for the purpose, or on Eastchester Creek, where the rise and fall of the tide gave power to turn the undershot wheel of Reid's mill.
Furniture and Cabinet Work-Although much of the furniture sold in local shops is made in Grand Rapids and elsewhere, cabinetmaking has never been driven from New York. The census of manufacturers made in 1919 showed six hundred and eighty-six furniture factories, great and small, in which seven per cent of the furniture manufactured in the United States was produced. A good proportion of these factories are located in The Bronx. A good deal of the furniture was made of willow and rattan, but some very fine furniture was also being made of wood, especially of mahogany, which is brought to New York factor- ies from the West Indies, South America and the Far East. Obviously furniture forms but a small part of the cabinet work produced in a center of commercial activity like The Bronx and Manhattan. The single item of office partitions, "made by the mile and sold by the foot," has become a truthful jest, and the thousands of standardized products such as tele- phone, sewing machine, and radio cabinets, show cases, bar fixtures, kitchen cabinets, yacht fittings and wood finish of all kinds attest the extent of this industry.
Bronx Board of Trade-A word might be added here about The Bronx Board of Trade as it stood in the year 1926. The Board was organized on March 6, 1894, as "The North Side Board of Trade of the City of New York," having for its purpose the material advancement of the dis- trict of the city of New York lying north of the Harlem River, until a few years ago better known as "The North Side" than as the "Borough of The Bronx." The membership, which on December 1, 1925, totalled close to 1,600, is composed of active and energetic business men of the district, or other men having local business interests. In order to better carry on its work, on November 8, 1909, "The North Side Board of Trade in the City of New York" was incorporated. As an incorporated body, The Board of Trade made greater progress than before, and as an evidence of this may be cited the fact that a plan to erect a building with suitable meeting rooms for the organization was successfully carried out. The structure is at 137th Street and Third Avenue, The Bronx, the Board Rooms being located on the third floor. They were first occu- pied on July 22, 1912.
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In the fall of 1914 the name of the body was changed to "The Bronx Board of Trade, Inc.," in the city of New York. Today this Board of Trade has a working system and a standard of efficiency that are second to very few in the whole of the United States. The active work of The Bronx Board of Trade is carried on through bureaus and standing com- mittees, which consider matters brought before the Board and report and make recommendations thereon to the Board of Directors, in order that the Board may take suitable action on these matters. The principal bureaus and standing committees are as follows :
Civic Bureau-To promote and encourage efficiency in Municipal, State and Federal matters, and to work for the civic advancement of the community.
Trade and Commerce Bureau-To protect and foster the interests of local merchants.
· Industrial Bureau-To protect and foster the interests of local manu- facturers.
Traffic and Waterways Bureau-To promote business route improve- ments, especially those for local railways and waterways.
Publicity Bureau-To disseminate information about The Bronx.
Membership Committee-To maintain present memberships and to secure the membership applications of newcomers to The Bronx, in order to ensure a steady increase in the membership status.
Law Committee-To render legal assistance to the other bureaus and standing committees of the Board; to consider legislation pending at the City Hall, Albany, and Washington; and to make recommendations thereon to the Board. "It can be said without fear of contradiction," observes the Board's own Bulletin, "that in the thirty-one years during which The Bronx Board of Trade has existed, it has never once deviated from the path of working actively and disinterestedly, without regard to political or selfish interests, in the best interests of the community, The Bronx, of which it is the representative civic-commercial organiza- tion, an organization that has a reputation for well-directed activity that is nation-wide; an organization that commands the respect of pub- lic officials; an organization, the voice of which, raised in the interests of the public, is respected wherever men foregather."
CHAPTER XXI THE PRESS
No newspapers were published in Westchester County until long after the Revolution, but it is stated that the colonial news-letters and journals were eagerly read and discussed by the inhabitants, many of whom were subscribers. The first newspaper published in The Bronx was' the "Westchester Patriot," which was issued by a printer named Lopez, at West Farms for a short time in 1812. The "Westchester Gazette" was commenced in Morrisania in 1849, and Stephen Angell was editor of it for some time; but the paper was discontinued about 1856. The "Westchester Co. Gazette," an organ for the Old and New Villages (of Morrisania), was first published at West Farms in 1899 by John T. Cogswell, but was removed to Mott Haven on August 5, 1852. A Democratic paper, the "Westchester Co. Journal," was issued by James Stillman in 1853; and the "Westchester Times" was published by Dubois B. Frisbee in 1864. In recent years there have been published in the borough two daily papers, the "North Side News" (Democratic), and the "Bronx Home News." The weekly edition of the "Bronx Record and Times" began in 1864. The "North Side News" was published as a weekly in 1897, and as a daily in October, 1901. Weekly newspapers of recent years in The Bronx include the following: the "Union," at Melrose, founded in 1869 and Democratic in politics; the "Globe," Re- publican; the "Sentinel" (Independent) ; the "Independent," Demo- cratic-all in Westchester village; the "Bulletin," Independent, in the Twenty-third Ward; and the "German-American," Democratic, at Wakefield.
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