USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume III > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81
91
THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
cluding the heavyweight team championship of the United States-a signal honor in itself. A fact which "adds further honor to this brilliant season of un- defeat was that one of the opposing teams (a team from the New York Athletic Club) outweighed by about fifty pounds per man the team on which Mr. Stephens was anchor-man. Shortly after that memor- able season Mr. Stephens joined the Union Boat Club, and did considerable rowing, in which he proved to be extraordinarily proficient. In the well and widely known Harlem Regattas he won the single scull event on five different occasions. One other notable race was in Philadelphia, rowing in a double scull event with E. F. Haubold. Mr. Stephens repre- sented the New York Athletic Club, and with Mr. Haubold, made what was then and still is the record for a mile and a half race, their time being 7:53-1/2.
During the late World War, Mr. Stephens assisted in all of the many drives and served as Bronx County chairman for the several Liberty Loan drives as well as for most of the other drives for funds with which to carry on the war. Also, during the war and for several years after that time, Mr. Ste- phens was chairman of the Executive Committee of The Bronx County Chapter of the American Red Cross, and at the present time is a director of the New York County Chapter. He has also been chair- man of the Annual Bronx County Campaign Com- mittee of the Salvation Army for a number of years. He was president of The Bronx Board of Trade for two years, and has been a member of its board of directors since its incorporation about thirty years ago. Mr. Stephens is also active and interested in the welfare of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, being a member of the Committee of Manage- ment of the Bronx Union Branch, as well as chairman of the Finance Committee. His religious affiliation is given to St. Margaret's Protestant Episcopal Church.
Olin James Stephens was married, at St. Timothy's Protestant Episcopal Church at Fifty-seventh Street, New York City, on June 5, 1884, to Elizabeth Sexton, a daughter of John and Catharine Antoinette (Mil- ler) Sexton, residents of New York City. Olin James and Elizabeth (Sexton) Stephens are the parents of two children, as follows: 1. Roderick, born No- vember 27, 1885. 2. Marion, born June 25, 1892. The family residence is at No. 125 East One Hundred and Forty-sixth Street, The Bronx, New York.
JAMES DRISCOLL-Among the picturesque and successful older men of The Bronx who are still alert and keenly interested in general progress, a conspicuous figure is that of James Driscoll, retired lumberman. After residing for years in his home at No. 1976 Bathgate Avenue, The Bronx, he has recently acquired a new home on Pondfield Road, Bronxville, Westchester County.
James Driscoll was born December 11, 1850, in what was then known as the Cork Settlement behind St. Stevens, New Brunswick, Canada, son of James and Mary (Scanlan) Driscoll, both natives of County Cork, Ireland. The father, born in Clairnakelty, came to the United States at the age of sixteen in a sixty-ton vessel which spent three months mak- ing the trip. He settled in New Brunswick, engaging in the lumber trade up and down the Saint John's
River. His wife, born in Barehaven, came to the United States when she was sixteen years old on the old brig "Tryanagain."
The parents saw to it that their son received a good elementary education and sent him to the public schools in Calais, Maine, across the St. Croix River from St. Stevens. When he was nine years old he started to work in the lumber camps on the St. Croix. As he mastered the various branches of lumbering, he came to be considered one of the most expert in that section of Maine, which supplied at that time most of the pine lumber used throughout the eastern Atlantic States. Gates and Wentworth, a leading lumber firm in Calais, Maine, soon sought his services, for he enjoyed a wide reputation for his skill as lumberman. After serving the same firm continuously for more than thirty years in Calais, he was transferred to the New York City plant and yards of Church E. Gates and Company, where he continued until his retirement in 1920. He thus remained with the same firm for forty-seven years. Although seventy-seven years old, he is still alert mentally and healthy, remarkably virile for a man of his advanced years.
In the year 1878, in Calais, Maine, in the Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, James Driscoll was married, by Rev. Father Durnin, to Bridget Maria Murray, a native of Calais, where she was born November 14, 1855. Like her husband, she is still vigorous. She is the daughter of Pierce and Nellie (Crowe) Murray, natives of Cashill, Tip- perary, Ireland. Children: 1. Alice Theresa, born February 5, 1879, married William Ambrose Fox (q. v.), and they had children: Alice Theresa, Helen Catherine, William Ambrose, Jr., James Thomas, and Thomas Edward Fox. 2. James Augustus Dris- coll, born in 1881, married Mabel Bennett, and they have children: Irene Driscoll and Alice Driscoll. 3. David Francis, born in 1883. 4. Walter Patrick, born in 1885, married Martha Lane and they have children: Mary, Florence, Walter, Jr., James Joseph, Martha, Alice, and John. 5. Ella. 6. Joseph Aloysi- us. 7. Anna Maria, married to Dr. Frederick Mc- Candless, and they have children: Frederick, Jr., and Anna Marie McCandless.
JACOB BROSCHART-A native of The Bronx, and, with the exception of some years during his boyhood, a lifelong resident there, Mr. Broschart was engaged in the metal work business for some thirty years, from 1888 until 1918. For the larger part of this long period he was connected with one and the same concern, first known as Alfred A. Briggs and later as Broschart & Brown, and from 1896 to 1918, when the business was discontinued, he was a member of this firm and a part owner of it. Its discontinuation was brought about by a radical change in the building methods, a change which resulted from the World War and which did away with a great deal of the type of work, which Mr. Broschart's firm had up until then, been doing. Dur- ing his many years' connection with the metal work industry he was known as one of its leading, most experienced and most able members, and enjoyed a very high reputation and a very large and pros- perous business. Since 1918, he has been connected
92
THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
in a position with the Q. R. S. Music Roll Company, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Street and Walnut Avenue, The Bronx, in which new field of activity his great interest of long standing in music has been of great value to him.
Jacob Broschart was born September 21, 1864, on what was then known as Fourth Street in Morris- ania, now part of The Bronx, a son of the late Jacob and Christina Sophia (Müller) Broschart. His father, born in Bavaria, Germany, in August, 1841, came to the United States when a mere boy and was engaged in the woodworking business throughout his active life until the time of his early death at the age of thirty-seven years in New York City, July 13, 1878. His mother was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, December 18, 1841, and died in New York City in December, 1894. While Mr. Broschart was still a small child his parents moved from The Bronx to No. 28 Scholes Street, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where he received his education in the public schools, attending Public School No. 18 of that period under Principal Edwin Bush and being taught by Miss Sarah Wilson. Later he received private instruction in German, English and music. When he was fourteen years old, in 1878, he began to work in a cigar box factory in Brooklyn. His father dying in the same year, Mr. Broschart, to- gether with his mother, moved back to The Bronx, where they went to live in the Melrose section. At that time he entered the shoe factory of his grandfather on East One Hundred and Sixtieth Street, between Courtlandt and Elton avenues, where he remained until he was eighteen years old. In 1882 he took up metal spinning, which at that period was an important trade. Serving his apprenticeship with a leading firm of lamp makers, he continued with this concern until 1888, when he became general manager for Alfred A. Briggs, sheet metal and ornament manufacturer. Eight years later, in 1896, in association with William A. Brown, he bought this business from Mr. Briggs, after which it was known as Broschart & Brown. Under Mr. Broschart's able and experienced management this firm became one of the leading enterprises in its special field and for many years did much of the most important high-grade metal and ornamental work in America. One of the many specimens of the work carried out is the beautiful statue on top of the new Munici- pal Building on Chambers Street, Manhattan. The World War brought about such radical changes in building methods that much of the work up to then done by his firm was no longer required. This situation caused many sub-contractors to fail, which affected the firm's business to such an extent that it was ultimately found necessary to close up the business in 1918. Since then Mr. Broschart has occupied his present position as receiving clerk with the Q. R. S. Music Roll Company. He has always been deeply interested in music, of which he is a great lover, being himself a performer on the zither of no small talent and having taken a leading part in many notable concerts. He is a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Chippewa Democratic Club of The Bronx.
Mr. Broschart married, October 2, 1886, in St.
Jerome's Roman Catholic Church, on Alexander Avenue, The Bronx, Margaret Gertrude Falk. Mrs. Broschart was born on Washington Avenue, between One Hundred and Sixty-seventh and One Hundred and Sixty-eighth streets, The Bronx, August 24, 1865, a daughter of John and Margaret (Koenig) Falk, the former, a carpenter by trade and a brother of Louis Falk, a leading builder of New York City, where he was born in 1835, and where he died in 1908, the latter also a native of New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Broschart are the parents of five chil- dren: 1. Jacob J., born January 21, 1888; married Anna Wanamacher and is the father of two sons, Joseph, born in 1909, and William, born in 1912. 2. Mary Sophia, born November 2, 1890, who became a nun in the Dominican Order and died in 1921, in Amityville, Long Island, where she is buried. 3. David, born February 15, 1895; married Irene Lundri- gan. 4. Josephine Sophie, born August 28, 1903, wife of Rudolph Kacin and mother of one son, Ru- dolph William, born June 4, 1926. 5. Margaret Gertrude, born January 15, 1906; married Ellsworth Lent. The family home is located at No. 2418 St. Raymond Avenue, The Bronx.
JOHN E. VIRDEN, M. D .- On his father's farm at Meeker, Ohio, John E. Virden was born on Oc- tober 15, 1862, son of Henry M. and Josephine Virden.
His early education was obtained at public schools, and he then attended the Northwestern Ohio Nor- mal School (now the Ohio Northern University), at Ada, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1886. His professional course was taken at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and in 1890, he received his degree, Doctor of Medicine. Since that time he has practiced as a general physician, but has specialized on the eye since 1905. Before coming to The Bronx, Dr. Virden spent a year in Bellevue Hospital, two years as a physician in Indianapolis, five years in his old home town of Meeker, Ohio, and then he moved to The Bronx, locating in West- chester Village, and later on Willis Avenue, but for the past ten years he has had his office at No. 529 Courtlandt Avenue. In addition to his private practice, Dr. Virden is visiting ophthalmologist to Lincoln Hospital and Union Hospital, and is associate professor at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School. During the late war, Dr. Virden was com- missioned as captain in the Medical Corps and served on the Medical Advisory Board of The Bronx.
Professionally, Dr. Virden holds membership in the New York Academy of Medicine, the American College of Surgeons, the American Medical Asso- ciation, the New York State Medical Society, and The Bronx County Medical Society, of which he was president in 1916. His fraternal relations are with Wyoming Lodge, No. 492, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he was Master in 1907-08. He also held the office of District Deputy Grand Master in 1908-09. By virtue of his direct descent from John Hart, of New Jersey, he is a member of the Sons of the Revolution. Dr. Virden is a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Westchester, and also a warden. This church is one of the most inter- esting historic spots in this section, holding its char-
-
John Wirden U.S.
93
THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
ter, which may still be seen, from King George, of England, and some gifts from Queen Anne.
On June 22, 1892, Dr. John E. Virden married Charlotte C. Austin, daughter of Samuel J. and Re- becca Austin, of Jersey City, New Jersey. To Dr. and Mrs. Virden were born three children: Vara, on October 17, 1893, wife of A. B. Osborne; Elmer A., on March 5, 1896; Emerson H., on May 13, 1897, both sons serving in the World War. Dr. Virden was bereaved by the death of his wife on March 23, 1919. On April 27, 1921, he married Mrs. Minnie M. Dreher, of The Bronx.
THOMAS CROSBY LARKIN-Prominent among the well-known members of the legal profession in New York City is Thomas Crosby Larkin, who was formerly assistant corporation counsel of New York City and is now a member of the law firm of Knox and Deignan. Mr. Larkin has been successfully en- gaged in general practice since 1908, but has special- ized in corporation law. Prior to his admission to the bar he was a teacher in the public schools of this city.
Thomas Crosby Larkin was born at Saratoga Springs, New York, September 4, 1882, son of Martin C. and Mary E. (Lynch) Larkin. He received his early and preparatory education in the public schools of New York City, and then matriculated in the College of the City of New York, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1902. He had decided to enter the legal profession, and the following fall he began profes- sional study in the Law School of Fordham Uni- versity, where he completed his course with gradua- tion in 1908, receiving at that time the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bar that same year and since that time has been continuously and successfully engaged in practice. Fraternally, he is identified with the Knights of Columbus. His clubs are the Transportation, the Fordham University and the Grassy Sprain Golf, and his religious affiliation is with St. John's Roman Catholic Church, of Kingsbridge.
Thomas Crosby Larkin was married, in New York City, July 10, 1911, to Mary E. McCarthy, who was born in Kingsbridge, New York City, daughter of Moses and Margaret (Burns) McCarthy. Mr. and Mrs. Larkin are the parents of four children: 1. Mary C., born June 15, 1912. 2. Elizabeth, born November 7, 1918. 3. Jane, born April 14, 1920. 4. Peggy, born September 1, 1923. The offices of the law firm of Knox and Deignan are located at No. 110 East Forty-second Street, New York City.
JOHN MESKERS-Lifelong association with flor- iculture, wide experience in various types of garden- ing and work with plants, and enterprises have com- bined to make John Meskers, of The Bronx, New York, one of the most prosperous and most widely known florists of his section of the country. Besides his business at No. 3240 East Tremont Avenue, he operates other greenhouses outside New York.
John Meskers was born on October 11, 1886, at Wormand, Holland, son of Adrian and Marie (Van- dervoort) Meskers. The father, born in Wormand, is a floriculturist and horticulturist in Hillegom, Hol-
land, and the mother was born in Sasenheim, in that same pleasant country.
John Meskers attended public and parochial schools at Hillegom, Holland. At the age of twelve he began to help his father in his greenhouses, learning all the details of gardening and how to distinguish as to the quality of seeds and plants. He was thus an experienced gardener when he came to the United States in 1907. For two years he was a florist in River- ton, New Jersey. He was then in Parkersburg, Penn- sylvania, where he was head gardener for a Mrs. Beal for a year, a position from which he passed to that of supervisor of the greenhouses of George Childs Drexel, of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. After two years there, Mr. Meskers returned to Holland on a visit to his parents. Three months later he found himself in America, where he occupied him- self for some time as traveling salesman for his brother, a wholesale bulb dealer. He then estab- lished his own greenhouses on what is now Two Hundred and Twenty-fourth Street, in the Williams- bridge section of The Bronx, where he continued un- til the Park Commission bought up the property in 1915. His next location was that which he still occu- pies on East Tremont Avenue. Purchasing a plot one hundred by two hundred feet in extent, Mr. Meskers there erected three greenhouses, each one hundred feet long, on land adjoining St. Raymond's Ceme- tery, and there he has since conducted a flourishing business. So great has been his success that he has established a branch of his business on land adjoining the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, at Kensico, New York, or Mount Pleasant, and in association with his brother, Theodore Meskers, purchased a plant of ten greenhouses at Ocean Heights, between Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Ocean City, which is now in operation.
Mr. Meskers is an expert on the growing of plants and all the details of the selection and manipulation of seeds, slips, etc. He loves the work and has had wide experience in every phase of it. Merited suc- cess has therefore come to him, with a promise of even greater development. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus; St. Raymond's Council, No. 811; and the Throggs Neck Democratic Club.
In June, 1912, in St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, in Philadelphia, John Meskers married Mary Elizabeth McGill, daughter of Hugh McGill, born in County Tyrone, Ireland, now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Meskers were born: 1. Sarah Elizabeth, September 24, 1913. 2. Marie Ann, born July 26, 1915. 3. Joseph Bernard, born April 6, 1917. 4. John Hugh, born August 6, 1925.
JOSEPH G. GROSSMAN-To the further suc- cess and the yet broader business scope of the Ward LaFrance Truck Corporation, Joseph G. Gross- man has added his own valuable mechanical engi- neering experience and his personal ability and busi- ness equipment to share in and aid towards the progress of this extensive manufacturing project, Though Mr. Grossman applies his chief business attention to the expansion of the many interests of the motor trucks and bus manufacturing concern of which he is the secretary and treasurer, he is also associated with real estate matters of a most de-
94
THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
sirable sort. He is a son of Jacob Grossman, who was born in Hungary, in 1865, and came to Hudson early in life, where he had engaged in farming, and was prominent in local politics. He married Rose H. Kaufman, who was born in Hungary in 1870, and she survives her husband who died April 6, 1925. They had six children; four of whom survive: Bes- sie, who married Michael Feldman; Joseph G., of whom further; Milton; Sylvia.
Joseph G. Grossman was born August 9, 1890, at Hudson, where he attended the public schools, and afterwards matriculating at Cornell University, was graduated there in 1912 with his degree of Civil Engineer. For some years he engaged in civil en- gineering, when he became associated with the ma- chine and tool business, with his headquarters at No. 144 Greenwich Street, where he continued for a year and a half. From that time onwards he has been prominent in the popular manufacturing busi- ness of the Ward LaFrance Truck Corporation, at One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Street and South- ern Boulevard, as secretary and treasurer. He is also much interested in Bronx real estate affairs. Fraternally, Mr. Grossman is affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons. His hobby is football; and he played on the baseball team while at Cornell. His religious faith is that of the Jewish synagogue.
Joseph G. Grossman married, April 2, 1917, at Hartford, Connecticut, Helen Annie Stein, daughter of Morris Stein, a realtor, and Katherine (Cohen) Stein.
DANIEL AUGUSTUS McCORMICK-One of the oldest residents in the Webster Avenue section of The Bronx and one of the most highly respected citizens of that community, Daniel Augustus Mc- Cormick has long been adjuster and investigator for the Third Avenue Railway. Company. He has been successful in whatever business ventures he has undertaken and has contributed to the general prog- ress of The Bronx.
Daniel Augustus McCormick was born September 13, 1857, on what was then Laurens Street, now West Broadway, at the corner of Spring Street, Manhattan, son of Daniel Hawley and Georgiana (Woodcock) McCormick. The father, born on Bayard Street, January 16, 1824, died November 12, 1886, in his sixty-second year, and was interred in Cypress Hill Cemetery. His father, the first Stephen McCormick, was born in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1786, died March 11, 1839, aged fifty-three years. His early life was spent as first mate on board ship.
Daniel H. McCormick and his wife were the parents of six children: 1. Stephen Augustus, born No- vember 23, 1844, who died at the age of eleven. 2. Caroline, born in 1847. 3. Mary Amanda, born in 1850. 4. Stephen Hawley, died at the age of three years. 5. Augusta, born November 27, 1859, died January 15, 1916. 6. Daniel Augustus, subject of this record.
Mr. McCormick attended old No. 10 Public School on Worcester Street until he reached his fifth year, when his parents moved to The Bronx and sent him to the Melrose School on Third Avenue and One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Street, then under the direc- tion of Jonathan D. Hyatt as principal. He later
studied at the school on College Avenue and One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street, from which he grad- uated. He began work at the age of sixteen as clerk in the law office of Mann and Parsons, of No. 56 Wall Street, leading attorneys of that day who served as counsel for the American Sugar Refining Company and other important industrial corporations. He remained with this firm, consisting of William P. Mann and John E. Parsons, for two years. Mr. McCormick then entered the employ of Julius Hess, a commission merchant of Central America, with headquarters at No. 17 South William Street. After a year and a half in that location, Mr. McCormick then accepted a position with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, at general work in the yards, and was thus occupied for a year and a half. Then began his long period of association with the Third Avenue Elevated Railroad. He first oper- ated in the switch towers, remaining at this occu- pation for twenty-five years and seven months. Then he became foreman of bridge mechanics for the city of New York, during the period when Louis F. Haffen was president of The Bronx Borough. At the same time Mr. McCormick served as secretary of the Old Timers' Association, a unique organization made up of residents of The Bronx for fifty years or more. He succeeded the first secretary, Mr. Pur- dy. After six years of this joint activity, Mr. Mc- Cormick joined the services of the Third Avenue Railway Company as adjuster and investigator, a position he still holds. He was among the first to see the advantages of the Webster Avenue section, where he built the home in which he continues to live. Always active in local civic affairs, he was one of the organizers of the Bedford Park Tax- payers' Association.
On February 16, 1880, in the parsonage of the Lutheran Church at One Hundred and Twenty- sixth Street, Harlem, Daniel Augustus McCormick was married, by Rev. Dr. Ehrhardt, to Caroline Von Regelmann, daughter of Frederick Von Regelmann, only son of a German baron of that name who was born in Bavaria, and his wife, Kunegunde (Krauss) Von Regelmann, also a native of Bavaria. To Mr. and Mrs. McCormick were born: 1. Sadie Cornelia, November 11, 1880, who married John C. W. Ruhl now deceased, an architect who drew the plans of the Supreme Court Building at One Hundred and Sixty-first Street and Washington Avenue, The Bronx; they had a son, John M. Mrs. Ruhl married (second) George W. Conley, after the death of her husband in 1920. 2. Louise McCormick, born De- cember 19, 1882; married George W. Thomson, and they have two children: George, Jr., and Kenneth. 3. Mason Daniel McCormick, born July 18, 1893; mar- ried Margaret Louise Coyne, and they have two children: Gladys and Kenneth McCormick.
HENRY BUHRE, who ranks today among the oldest citizens of The Bronx, is a man who served so long and so valiantly during the terrible days of the Rebellion that his civil life following that time, and, indeed, the entire lives of most men, pale in comparison. Henry Buhre was born on July 30, 1839, on New York Island, and grew to manhood on his father's farm opposite the old "Haunted Oak,"
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.