USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume III > Part 13
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Raymond Randorfer.
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formation of the Haffen Realty Company, a real estate holding corporation, on August 31, 1912; he was appointed secretary of that company, which was consolidated with the J. and M. Haffen Brewing Company, June 30, 1920, under the title of Haffen Realty Company. Fraternally, Mr. Korndorfer is affiliated with Hopewell Lodge, No. 596, Free and Accepted Masons, and with Suburban Council, No. 1354, Royal Arcanum; and he is also a member of the Schnorer Club, Scarsdale Square Club, and Scarsdale Town Club. He is a communicant of St. James, the Less Church at Scarsdale.
Harry Walters Korndorfer married, October 22, 1890, at St. Ann's Episcopal Church, One Hundred and Fortieth Street and St. Ann's Avenue, Julia A. Acker, daughter of Edward A. and Grace (Wolf) Acker; and their children are: 1. Harry W., Jr., born August 4, 1892, treasurer of the Ray L. Korndorfer Company, Inc. 2 .. Raymond L., a review of whose life follows. 3. Irene J., born January 3, 1903.
RAYMOND L. KORNDORFER - A native of The Bronx, Mr. Korndorfer has established himself at the head of one of the most prominent insurance brokerage houses in the county which he knows best. As the young men of the community take their places in the business world, those who have gone before are glad to recognize in these new-comers the qual- ities which contribute to the continued success and prosperity of commercial pursuits. Mr. Korndorfer, possessing alert mental energy, keen perception and capacity for hard work, has forged his way to fore- most rank in his chosen field. Far flung admira- tion has been accorded him by the leaders through- out the insurance profession for his faithful and diligent devotion to the vocation which so intimately pertains to every phase of human endeavor. At the age of twenty-nine, he has achieved many notable accomplishments and numbers among his friends, men who are high in the realms of business and finance. He has a commanding personality and a genial tem- perament which has not been sullied by strenuous commercial activity. He is the son of Harry Walters and Julia A. (Acker) Korndorfer (see preceding biography). His father is prominently identified as secretary of the Haffen Realty Company.
Raymond L. Korndorfer was born at No. 756 Prospect Avenue, Bronx County, New York, October 18, 1895. He attended the public schools of his district and was later a student at the Morris High School until 1912. Thereafter he took a commer- cial course at the Eastman-Gaines Business College. Upon the completion of his studies, he secured em- ployment as office boy for the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company. Mastering the de- tails of the insurance business in its various branches during the following years, he was made secretary and treasurer of the Benjamin, Korndorfer and Hast- ings, insurance brokers, at the age of twenty-one. Mr. Korndorfer is now president of the Ray L. Korndorfer Inc., brokerage office at No. 2804 Third Avenue, and has one of the most extensive clienteles in The Bronx insurance circles. Inspired by the world's mark for the greatest number of completed and paid for applications, he inaugurated a campaign
during the month of April, 1925, and during the twenty-four working days of the month wrote in excess of five hundred and sixty policies establishing thereby a new world's record. A unique feature of his drive was that every policy was written up for residents of the Borough of The Bronx. In- troducing ingenious and novel methods, Mr. Korn- dorfer won the good will and enthusiastic support of his host of friends and fellow-citizens, and he modestly attributes much of his success to the co- operation which he received. He put his personality into the drive and soon became known throughout the field of insurance as the "man with the red carnation," for he wore a bright red flower on all occasions as a symbol of his ardent vigor and de- termination for success. In the course of the month, he also created a record for the number of policies completed and paid up in a single day and for the largest single policy ever written in this section. Another distinction which is his is that he is the most heavily insured salesman in New York, and perhaps in the entire world. Among his insurance affiliations number the Sun Insurance Company, the oldest concern of its kind in the country, the Mary- land Casualty Company and just recently added rec- ognition has been accorded him by the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, which was the first company to secure a charter, and has entered The Bronx, through Mr. Korndorfer, as general agent, for the counties of The Bronx and Westchester. This is the first time that any mutual company made a gen- eral agency appointment in The Bronx, and in itself is a fitting tribute to the position which he enjoys in his profession. He is likewise identified with The Bronx County Trust Company, and is the youngest member of the board of directors of the firm.
He holds an intense interest in all civic affairs which promote the welfare of his community and country, and is prominently active in the fraternal and social life of the borough. During the. World War he enlisted in the United States Army Transport Service, and performed his duties with an honorable record. He is a member of the Marble Lodge No. 702, of the Free and Accepted Masons, the New York Chapter, No. 238, of the Royal Arch Masons, and holds all the intermediate degrees up to and including the thirty-second in the Ancient and Ac- cepted Scottsh Rite. He is also affiliated with the Mecca Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in which body he is a mem- ber of the Arab Patrol. He belongs to Lodge No. 871 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and to the American Legion. Mr. Korndorfer is likewise identified as a member of The Bronx County Children's Society. His clubs number the Piano Club of New York, The Bronx Rotary Club, the New York Athletic Club, the Grassy Sprain Golf and the Scarsdale Golf clubs. With his family, he attends the Church of St. James, the Less.
He married, June 4, 1918, Elsie Marion Hunneke, who died December 15, 1921, leaving a son, Raymond Henry, born May 13, 1919.
PIUS FRANCIS HENNING-The practical equipment that was the possession of Pius Francis Henning, when he established his present real estate
Bronx-4
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business in The Bronx, one of the principal sources of the success that he has achieved, was his un- limited fund of practical information concerning the territory as a whole, and in particular with ref- erence to property values and the suitability of es- tates for residential and business purposes. Upon this foundation and its gradual expansion, Mr. Hen- ning has rendered his business indispensable in realty matters in this section of the city. Here he not only serves his patrons with great care and reli- ability in their home-seeking and business-building, but he has also won an enduring popularity as a business man and a citizen. He is a son of Henry Henning, a leather refiner, who was born in 1836 in New York City and died in 1872, when Pius F., the son, was but two years old, and of Mary (Uhline) Henning, who was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1839.
Pius Francis Henning was born October 6, 1870, at the Second Street residence of the family, in Man- hattan, and he attended the public schools in Har- lem, where his parents had moved when he was a child; afterwards he was a student in Manhattan College. When he was fourteen years old he began work for the E. G. Worley Electrical Supply Com- pany at No. 125 Lexington Avenue, New York City, where for three years he served an apprentice- ship in the electrical business; then for two years he was employed by the Hazazer & Stanley Elec- trical Construction Company, on Frankfort Street, Manhattan. Mr. Henning then accepted a position with Charles Corey & Son, a firm specializing in electrical equipment for boats, lighthouses, and such, continuing with that company for seventeen years.
Mr. Henning then established himself in the real estate business, opening his first office at the corner of Westchester Avenue and Havemeyer Street, The Bronx, a short distance from his present office, No. 2301 Westchester Avenue, to which he removed in September, 1924. His headquarters are accounted as among the best equipped in this part of the State. Mr. Henning, himself, has resided in this section for many years, and has aided very materially in the building up of The Bronx, and is one of the best versed men in values in the Unionport section.
CHARLES WILHELM is at the present time (1926) in his seventy-fifth year, and he is as active both mentally and physically as most men twenty- five years his junior. He is a retired construction machinist, in which field of endeavor he was very successful; but he is also the present treasurer of three important organizations of The Bronx, all of which have to do with the Volunteer Exempt Fire- men's associations, and the distribution of the benevolent funds of those organizations. Altogether, Mr. Wilhelm is one of the well and widely known men of The Bronx, and since his many activities keep him young and robust, it is hoped that he will continue to be such for many years to come.
Charles Wilhelm was born in the family home on Sixth Avenue, New York City, on September 1, 1851, the son of John A. and Catherine (Starke) Wil- helm, the latter, who was born in 1818, departed this life in December, 1900. The father, John A. Wilhelm, was born in Germany in the year 1816,
came to America when he was about eighteen years of age, and died in the year 1898. The mother was also a native of Germany.
Charles Wilhelm received his education in the New York City Public School at College Avenue and One Hundred and Forty-eighth Street, follow- ing which he attended the Third Avenue Public School. He then embarked upon his business ca- reer by becoming a machinist, which work led him by degrees into the field of invention. Since a boy he had had an inventive turn of mind, and before his retirement from active business he had become interested in about thirty-two different patents, the majority of them pertaining to the mechanism of watches and clocks.
The second phase of his career began when he became a member of the original Hopkins Morrisania Fire Department, of which only two members be- sides Mr. Wilhelm are now living. From that time (1870) until the present (1926) Mr. Wilhelm has been actively engaged and deeply interested in the work of the local volunteer hose companies. Mr. Wil- helm became a member of Hopkins Hose Company No. 3, of the Morrisania Volunteer Fire Department, located at Robbins Avenue and One Hundred and Forty-ninth Street, in the year 1870, and served as foreman of this company until it was dissolved in 1874. Now, at the age of seventy-five, he finds himself the treasurer of three organizations, all pertaining to the volunteer exempt firemen benev- olent funds. Mr. Wilhelm is the youngest mem- ber of the Exempt Firemen's Benevolent Fund Association of the Twenty-third Ward, and is treas- urer of this veteran Bronx organization, with head- quarters in the old firehouse, a relic of the 1850's, which is located at One Hundred and Forty-seventh Street and Third Avenue. He is also treasurer for the board of trustees of that organization, as well as treasurer of the trustees of the Ex- empt Volunteer Firemen's Benevolent Fund of the Borough of The Bronx. In each of these three positions, Mr. Wilhelm handles thousands of dollars annually, and in two of them he dispenses money monthly and bi-monthly among the needy widows of Bronx Exempt Firemen of volunteer days, as well as among the needy and indigent members of the organizations themselves. But not one cent of these moneys goes to Mr. Wilhelm himself, because, he explains, he is not needy, neither is he indigent nor unable to provide for himself.
Mr. Wilhelm is the only living member of the twenty-eight charter members of the Exempt Fire- men's Benevolent Fund Association of the Twenty- third Ward, which in the old days of volunteer hose companies comprised the fire department of Mor- risania. Mr. Wilhelm sadly recalls the friends of yesteryear who have passed on, as does he also when he recollects the little two-story frame dwelling on Third Avenue, between One Hundred and Fifty- second and One Hundred and Fifty-third streets, which his father built and into which the family moved when Mr. Wilhelm' was but two years old. This old landmark of his younger days now houses a motion picture theatre. It was here that Mr. Wilhelm resided until his twenty-fifth year, when he married a Bronx girl and established a home of his own.
John J. Llumigon
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The Exempt Firemen's Benevolent Fund Associa- tion of the Twenty-third Ward has been in existence for more than fifty years, and Mr. Wilhelm has served as its treasurer for thirty-five years, for at the end of each term he is prevailed upon by his associates to serve another. He has likewise served as treasurer of the board of trustees of the organiza- tion for the same length of time. As treasurer he pays all incurred bills and handles the interest re- ceived from mortgages and bonds which comprise the organization's funds. As treasurer of the board of trustees of the same organization, he pays once every two months, to the widows of deceased ex- empt firemen who were members of the organiza- tion and who do not benefit from the Exempt Volun- teer Firemen's Benevolent Fund of The Bronx, fifteen dollars each; and to members of the associa- tion who are in need and who also fail to benefit from The Bronx Fund, twenty dollars each.
The Exempt Volunteer Firemen's Benevolent Fund of the Borough of The Bronx was organized in 1915 by an act of the Legislature. Under the provisions of this act the fund was placed in the charge of a board of trustees, and Mr. Wilhelm has served as treasurer of this board since its organization. Under the act all fire insurance companies whose home of- fices are situated outside of Greater New York and who operate in the section of The Bronx, are taxed two per centum of their earnings in the borough. Ten per centum of this tax goes toward the main- tenance of the State Home for Firemen at Hudson, New York; forty per centum is turned over to the Relief Fund of the New York City Fire Department; and the remaining fifty per centum is given to this Bronx Benevolent Fund. Similar provisions are made in all other boroughs of the city. The act provides that from the moneys received, the needy widows of members of the former volunteer fire de- partments of the sections now comprising The Bronx, as well as the living and needy members themselves, be aided in a financial way, providing that these volunteer firemen were in the service of the various departments for a term of at least one year. Of the two hundred and eighty-seven firemen who formed the benevolent fund of the Twenty-third Ward, less than forty are alive today, and all are members of the association. Many of these, however, had been in service for less than a year when the volunteer service was abolished in 1874, and therefore do not participate in The Bronx Fund. For this reason the association was organized in the same year, and a separate fund established. Mr. Wilhelm, acting for the association, at the present time pays twelve mem- bers thirty dollars and five widows twenty dollars every two months. In the event of a member's death, the widow is given two hundred dollars. In 1923, for example, Mr. Wilhelm paid out for deaths and benefits more than $6,000.
As treasurer of The Bronx Fund, Mr. Wilhelm distributes monthly thirty dollars among forty widows and forty dollars among twenty-seven former volunteer firemen. In 1924 the fund received $20,- 958.14 through the tax on outside insurance, and paid out $18,750. Mr. Wilhelm files an annual report of all receipts and disbursements with the Fire Commissioner. Other trustees of The Bronx Fund
are Daniel P. Murray, president; Samuel S. Miller, vice-president; William Wallace, secretary; Joseph Rice, and Charles Kirk, who is also president of the Exempt Firemen's Benevolent Association of the Twenty-third Ward. Mr. Wilhelm is an active mem- ber of Charter Oak Lodge, No. 306, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; the Southern New York Firemen's Association; a life-member of the State Firemen's Association; and one of the organizers of the Old Timers' Club : and The Bronx County Prop- erty Owners' Association. His religious affiliation is given to St. Matthews' Lutheran Church, at One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Street and Melrose Ave- nue, The Bronx.
Charles Wilhelm was married in The Bronx, on June 2, 1878, to Elizabeth Frees, a daughter of Ber- nard and Elizabeth (Springer) Frees. Charles and Elizabeth (Frees )Wilhelm are the parents of the following children: 1. Elizabeth. 2. Charles, Jr., in the drug business in Brooklyn, New York. 3. Catherine. 4. John A., associated with his brother in the drug business. Mr. Wilhelm also has two grandsons: John A. and Warren.
CHARLES JOHN KENNEDY-A native son of The Bronx and one of the most active amongst the younger members of The Bronx bar, Mr. Kennedy belongs to a well-known family of Scotch and Eng- lish descent whose earlier representatives fought in the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812, his own paternal grandfather, Charles Victor Kennedy, being a veteran of the Civil War. He was born in The Bronx, May 31, 1891, a son of Clarence V. and Elizabeth Kennedy, the father being a manufactur- ing jeweler with C. D. Reese, No. 57 Warren Street, Manhattan.
Charles John Kennedy was educated in New York City, attending Public School No. 90, from which he graduated in 1904, and Dwight Preparatory School from which he graduated in 1909. He then entered the College of the City of New York, and later New York University from which latter institution he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in June, 1913. Admitted to the New York bar in October, 1915, he immediately began the general practice of law with offices in the Haffen Building, No. 2804 Third Avenue, The Bronx. During the World War he served as a member of Local Draft Board No. 8, for New York City, receiving his honorable discharge January 31, 1919. He is a member of The Bronx County Bar Association, Society of Medical Jurisprudence, Schnorer Club of Morrisania, Lions Club of The Bronx, Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, and Lily Lodge, No. 342, Free and Accepted Masons. His religious affiliations are with the Congregational Church.
Mr. Kennedy was married, February 24, 1914, to Elsa E. Herrlich, daughter of George and Barbara Herrlich. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy are the parents of two children: Elsa E., born December 16, 1915; and Clarence C., born June 4, 1919. The family home is on Alta Drive, Mount Vernon, New York.
HON. JOHN JAMES DUNNIGAN-For some two decades The Bronx has been the scene of the very successful professional activities as an architect
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on the part of Mr. Dunnigan. Though some of his work has been done in other parts of New York City, most of it, in recent years, has been devoted to the development and building up of The Bronx, where he is widely known and very highly regarded, not only as a very able architect, but also as a very useful citizen of great public spirit and long and effective experience in public affairs. Elected for the first time as a State Senator in November, 1914, he has been reëlected continuously ever since, and in 1926 was serving his sixth successive term, a record which is exceeded only by five other members of the New York Senate now in service.
John James Dunnigan was born September 6, 1883, at No. 337 East Twenty-second Street, Manhattan, a son of James and Mary (Bergen) Dunnigan. He was educated in both the public and parochial schools, attending at first a public school in Manhattan, then St. Monica's Parochial School on Eightieth Street and Second Avenue, later Bronx Public School, No. 3, at One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Street and Third Avenue, and finally Morris High School at Boston Road and One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Street, The Bronx. After leaving school he went to work, but for the next five years continued his education by taking the night course in architecture at Cooper Union, Fourth Avenue and Eighth Street, Manhattan. Graduating there in 1906, he began his career as an architect and rapidly gained recognition and a very high standing in his profession. In recent years he has also built up, as an adjunct to his pro- fessional activities, a very substantial bond and mort- gage business, with offices located at No. 2382 Grand Concourse, The Bronx.
In politics, Mr. Dunnigan is a supporter of the Democratic party, and he has found it possible, in spite of the heavy demands made for many years upon his time and energy by his constantly increasing professional and business interests, to give much attention to politics and public affairs. He is con- sidered one of the most popular and useful men in the public life of The Bronx and has been a mem- ber of the New York State Senate ever since 1915. His first election occurred in November, 1914, and since then he has been reëlected consistently at the expiration of each of his terms of office, a record the more remarkable because his high and responsible office has always come to him without solicitation on his part. In the Senate he has proven himself a most able and conscientious public servant, render- ing notable services not only to his own constituency and to Bronx County, but also to the State-at-large. During the World War he was a member of the important Senate committee on the War, while during the 1925-1926 session, the one hundred and forty- eighth session, he served as a member of the Senate committees on finance, public service, insur- ance, and banks. He is a member of St. Raymond's Council, No. 871, Knights of Columbus; the New York Society of Architects; and the Chippewa Demo- cratic Club.
Mr. Dunnigan married, in 1910, in The Bronx, Margaret Gilligan, a daughter of Bernard and Mar- garet Gilligan. Mr. and Mrs. Dunnigan are the parents of four children: Margaret, James, Ruth,
and Joseph. The family residence is located at No. 2715 Grand Concourse, The Bronx.
FRANK J. REILLY-Loyalty to the responsi- bilities entrusted to him and faithfulness to the in- terests of both his company and its patrons has brought advancement and an excellent reputation to Frank J. Reilly, who has for twenty years been as- sociated with the banking business. He is now as- sistant cashier in charge of the Fordham Branch of the Cosmopolitan Bank in The Bronx.
Frank J. Reilly was born July 16, 1890, at No. 2320 Chamberlain Avenue, The Bronx, son of Edward and Maria (Murray) Reilly. The father, born No- vember 2, 1859, in the North of Ireland, died Decem- ber 7, 1926, after forty years of service in the Tre- mont Post Office, to which he was the sixth letter carrier appointed. The mother, born on One Hun- dred and Seventy-eighth Street and Bathgate Ave- nue, The Bronx, is still enjoying good health. His maternal grandparents, Andrew and Mary Murray, lived at Tremont and La Fontaine avenues.
The son was educated in Saint Joseph's Parochial School in Tremont and at Public School No. 32 on One Hundred and Eighty-third Street, from which he graduated, and completed his preparation for his life-work by a two-year course at the College of the City of New York. At the age of seventeen he began work as messenger in the Colonial Bank at Eighty-first Street and Columbus Avenue, and for two and a half years there acquired the knowl- edge of banking externals possible to an alert and well educated young man. The experience enabled him to secure a more advantageous position with the Greenwich Bank at Eighteenth Street and Broadway, where he remained for twelve years, be- ginning with a clerkship and working his way stead- ily upward by virtue of his keen intelligence and de- pendability to the position of assistant manager. Mr. Reilly's next position was with the Irving National Bank in the Woolworth Building, in their credit de- partment. After two years there, he entered the employ of the Cosmopolitan Bank in The Bronx, October, 1923, and has advanced there to his present position, occupied since October, 1926, of assistant cashier in charge of the Fordham Branch, at No. 273 Fordham Road. He is a member of the North End Democratic Club of The Bronx.
On November 15, 1914, in the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mercy, Frank J. Reilly was married, by Rev. Father John Brezlin, to Amelia Harz, daughter of Albert Harz, born in Harlem, New York, and his wife, Matilda (Bergman) Harz, also a native of Harlem. To Mr. and Mrs. Reilly were born: Matilda Rita, October 25, 1915; and Edward Thomas and Frank James, twins, September 15, 1917
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