USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume III > Part 32
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JOSEPH LEITNER-To the stability and re- liability of those business institutions that are the foundation of the commercial structure of The Bronx there is being contributed a goodly proportion by Joseph Leitner, a progressive real estate and insur- ance man. The principles that enter into the conduct of this enterprise are the same as those learned by the hardest knocks in the school of experience by Mr. Leitner in the days when, as a young emigrant boy, he was struggling might and main to keep body and soul together. That was where he acquired the habit of thrift, of trying to make one dollar do the work of two; and the habit of pay-as-you-go; of keeping one's slate clean of debts; and the spirit of never giving up the contest, of plodding straight on until the peak of the hill of difficulty was passed and the goal achieved for which the purpose had been kept firm and true to its charted course. Those prin- ciples and habits early adopted and acquired have worn well and told out a goodly measure of suc- cess in the more than twenty-five years that Mr. Leitner has been a factor in the business life of The Bronx.
Joseph Leitner was born in Neudorf, near Marien- bad, Bohemia, Austria, February 22, 1873, a son of Abraham and Josephine (Kraus) Leitner, natives of that place, his father a dealer in general merchan- dise and an agriculturist in Bohemia. He attended the schools of Durrmaul, Bohemia, and there ob- tained a fair knowledge of the rudiments of an edu- cation as afforded by the province. For some time he had been filled with a longing to come to America, where so many of his elders had reported that op- portunities for employment at good wages were only waiting to be embraced. When he was four- teen years of age, he was enabled to realize his vis- ion, in part at least, for he started on his journey to the United States. Arriving in New York City, he found a place to lodge on the lower east side of Manhattan, in the old German settlement, in the vicinity of Avenue A and Second Street. His board and lodgings cost him four dollars a week. He hustled about and obtained employment at a job paying two dollars and a half a week. How to balance his budget was a problem beyond the ability of a certified public accountant. But this Bohemian boy had learned that where there is a will there is a way, and he proceeded to make both ends meet by working seven days a week. In addition, he was determined to add to his education, and he carried out this high resolve by attending night school, first at Fifth Street and First Avenue, and afterward on First Street, near Second Avenue. In this crowded life of hard study and harder work he eked out an existence, pursuing one form of work after another until he was given a real position with Manheimer & Lauferty, at No. 456 Broadway, with whom he remained from 1887 to 1895. He had now made a good start in life, and his next employment was with Hammerslough & Saks, clothiers, at No. 702 Broad- way, with whom he continued until 1898. A vision of a larger and more lucrative field began to dawn upon him while he was working for the clothing concern, and he chose the insurance and real estate business for his life-work. After an interval of few years, he opened an office of his own in The
Bronx, and subsequently established the business at its location, No. 391 East One Hundred and Forty- Ninth Street. After passing through the getting- acquainted stage, Mr. Leitner found his business in the growing state, and his clients began to increase in number and importance. From the early humble be- ginning, his enterprise now has its headquarters in a well-equipped office in the A. R. E. Co. Building on One Hundred and Forty-ninth Street, The Bronx, through which many transactions of large value are consummated each year. Mr. Leitner is pleased that indirectly his business endeavors meet with the ap- proval of those with whom he has relations out- side his intimate contacts made strictly within the lines of real estate and insurance, since all this but adds to the good will of his concern, and enables him to be of a broadly helpful force in the promotion of the community interests of The Bronx area.
Mr. Leitner is affiliated with Adelphi Lodge, No. 23, Free and Accepted Masons; and Wendell Phillips Lodge, No. 365, Knights of Pythias, chartered in 1894, and of which he is a charter member.
Joseph Leitner was married, May 17, 1900, in New York City, to Sophie Kraus, daughter of Leopold and Theresa (Rauscher) Kraus. They are the par- ents of one daughter, Josephine B., born March 15, 1905. Mr. Leitner and his family have their resi- dence at No. 1749 Grand Concourse, The Bronx, New York City.
ELBERT OSBORNE SMITH-For slightly more than thirty-five years the growth and develop- ment of The Bronx, and, indeed, of the entire north- ern section of Greater New York were the principal objects of Mr. Smith's extensive operations as รก realtor. He was born in Williamsburg, Long Is- land, now part of Brooklyn, May 6, 1865, a son of Charles and Emily (Crowley) Smith, his father hav- ing been a veteran of the Civil War and a member of an old Long Island family of English descent from which the town of Smithtown, Suffolk County, Long Island, derived its name.
Elbert Osborne Smith received his early education in the public schools of New York City, especially in Grammar School No. 70, from which he was graduated in 1892. He then attended New York Law School from 1892 to 1894, taking a special course in real estate during his final year at this institution of learning. For a short while after leaving law school he took up the study of medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, then lo- cated at Twenty-third Street and Fourth Avenue, Manhattan, but finding that his tastes did not, after all, incline towards the medical profession, he dis- continued his medical studies and decided to enter the real estate field. In 1897, at the age of twenty- five, he therefore established himself in business un- der his own name with offices at No. 5 Beekman Street, Manhattan, where he remained until 1914. Though located in the down-town part of New York City, he became interested in Bronx real estate very early in his business career, and, considerably prior to 1914, had opened up-town branch offices at One Hundred and Eighty-first Street and Amsterdam Avenue and in two other locations. As his interests and operations in Bronx real estate became more
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and more extensive, he finally decided to remove his main office into closer proximity to his principal ac- tivities, and in 1914 the Beekman Street office was transferred to The Bronx at No. 5 East Burnside Avenue at Jerome Avenue. There Mr. Smith con- tinued to carry on a very successful, active and ex- tensive real estate and insurance business, including the management of estates, appraisals, mortgage loans, and all other branches of real estate, and so large and steady was the growth of the enterprise that it was eventually incorporated under the style of E. Osborne Smith, Incorporated, with its founder as president. Mr. Smith had a very wide knowledge and was a very keen judge of real estate values throughout all of New York City, but especially in The Bronx, and he was frequently called upon by the municipal authorities to act as an official ap- praiser of real estate, his judgment always being accepted as sane and trustworthy, not only by those who had requested it and by his business associates, but even by his competitors. He was for many years a very active and enthusiastic member of the New York Real Estate Board and of The Bronx Board of Real Estate Brokers, and also held mem- bership in The Bronx Board of Trade, and in Lafay- ette Post, No. 140, Sons of Veterans.
Mr. Smith was married (first) to Adeline Bethel, by whom he had one son, Geoffrey M. (see following biography), and a daughter, Phyllis O'Brien, of Arizona; he married (second), in New York City, January, 1915, Nora Cahill, daughter of Martin and Alice (Burke) Cahill.
In 1922 Mr. Smith's health broke down, and in December of that year he retired from active business, being succeeded by his son as president of E. Os- borne Smith, Inc. His condition showing no im- provement, he was taken to a private hospital, where he died, January 2, 1923, from the effects of an operation.
In his dealings with others he had always been honorable, and he possessed to a remarkable ex- tent the respect and esteem of his business colleagues and associates. His private life was based on the same high principles of conduct and there he also found scope for his innate gentleness and kindness. He was a friend to the poor and never refused a helping hand to the deserving needy. Mr. Smith was especially fond of children whom he understood and appreciated and in whose welfare he took a deep and abiding interest and, if he had been spared, he would undoubtedly have been elected a judge of the Children's Court. All these many admirable traits of this fine character endeared him to a very wide circle of sincere friends who will always cherish his memory.
GEOFFREY M. SMITH-Following in his fath- er's footsteps and, indeed, succeeding him as the head of a business founded in 1887, Mr. Smith has devoted himself to the real estate business in The Bronx ever since he left school as a young man some ten years ago. He was born in New York City, June 23, 1896, a son of Elbert Osborne and Adeline (Bethel) Smith (see preceding biogra- phy), his father being one of the prominent realtors
of The Bronx for many years and until his death, January 2, 1923.
Geoffrey M. Smith was educated in the public and high schools of New York City and in private schools in Connecticut. Having completed his edu- cation, he became associated with his father in the latter's real estate business which by that time had grown from small beginnings in down-town New York in 1887 to one of the leading concerns of its type in The Bronx and was then operated under his father's name. Besides a general real estate business the firm also handled insurance, appraisals, manage- ment of estates and mortgage loans and, in recent years, has been located at No. 5 East Burnside Ave- nue, at Jerome Avenue. Beginning at the bottom, Mr. Smith received a most thorough training in all departments of the business, and, enjoying the bene- fit of being guided and taught by his father, one of the keenest and sanest judges of real estate values, especially in The Bronx, he has become one of the most versatile and best equipped of the younger generation of Bronx realtors. In 1922 his father's health broke down, and Mr. Smith assumed the management of the business which, some years pre- viously, had been incorporated under the style of E. Osborne Smith, Inc., with its founder as presi- dent. The latter, his health showing no improve- ment, retired at this time from business, and, in December, 1922, Geoffrey M. Smith was elected president to succeed him, a position which he has occupied since then with marked success and in which he has continued to maintain the principles of integrity, fair dealing and progressiveness estab- lished by his father. He is a member of The Real Estate Board of New York, and The Real Estate Board of The Bronx, and devotes most of his leisure time to his family.
Mr. Smith was married in New York City, May 7, 1920, to Kathlyn Langford, daughter of Frank and Kathlyn Langford. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the parents of one child, Priscilla.
GOMER B. DAVIES-A native of New York City and throughout most of his life a resident of The Bronx, Mr. Davies, after having had some fourteen years of experience with various concerns, entered the automobile business early in 1919. This was after his discharge from the United States Army, with which he served for some time during the World War. Since then he has continued in this business with headquarters at No. 2442 Grand Concourse, The Bronx, where in recent years he has been presi- dent of the Noble-Davies Motor Company. His thorough knowledge of the business, his untiring energy and his pleasant personality have contributed greatly to the steady growth and continuous pros- perity of this enterprise, and he is considered one of the successful business men of the younger genera- tion in his section of The Bronx.
Gomer B. Davies was born in New York City, July 3, 1890, a son of John and Mary Davies. His father was a native of Wales who came to the United States as a young man. He engaged in the building business, in which he became very suc- cessful, and in which he continued until an acci- dent prematurely cut short his life, in 1892, when
Geoffrey hn Smith
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he was only thirty-six years old. Among the more important building operations with which he was connected were Carnegie Hall, the North End Pres- byterian Church and the Hotel Netherland, and it was during the erection of the latter building that he was killed.
Gomer B. Davies was educated in Public School No. 85, on East One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street, The Bronx, and then entered the employ of H. O'Neill Company, a prominent department store of that period, located at Twentieth Street and Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, where he remained for three years. The next six years he was connected with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, and he then established himself in business as a public accountant. After five years of marked suc- cess in this profession he enlisted in the United States Army, when this country entered the World War, serving as a private in the One Hundred and Fifth Field Artillery Regiment. He had previously been a member of the New York National Guard, Second Battery, for about six and a half years. After some time in a training camp, his regiment reached a port of embarkation, when the armistice made it unnecessary for additional troops to pro- ceed to Europe. Mr. Davies received his honorable discharge, January 16, 1919, and then entered the automobile business with the Elsey Motor Company at No. 2442 Grand Concourse, The Bronx. In this new line he met with marked success and has since become the head of his own company, which oper- ates under the style of Noble-Davies Motor Com- pany, and of which he is the president. He is also active in fraternal and social circles and is a mem- ber of the Fordham Merchants' Association, of which he is a vice-president; the Schnorer Club; the New York Athletic Club; the Grassy Sprain Golf Club; and Guiding Star Lodge, No. 565, Free and Accepted Masons.
Mr. Davies married, in The Bronx, July 16, 1919, Loretta Boyle, a daughter of John and Mary Boyle, the former for many years connected with the New York Central Railroad Corporation. Mr. and Mrs. Davies are the parents of two children: 1. John Harding, born March 4, 1921. 2. Gomer B., Jr., born August 10, 1924. The family residence is lo- cated at No. 599 Walton Avenue, The Bronx.
FRED W. HERBERTZ-One of the prominent men in the insurance field in The Bronx is Fred W. Herbertz, born in New York City, December 14, 1873, the son of Charles and Hilda Herbertz. Charles Herbertz came to the United States from Germany when he was twenty-one years of age, and established the insurance business in 1880 in which his son and grandson are now interested, making three generations of this family in the same line of activity. He died about 1905, his wife following him in 1909, four years later.
Fred W. Herbertz attended the public schools of New York City until he was thirteen years of age. He then became identified with his father's insur- ance business, remaining with him until his death in 1905. For twenty-five years he was located in The Bronx, and for the past seven years has had his
office at No. 391 East One Hundred and Forty-ninth Street, being manager of the branch office of the New York Underwriters Insurance Company, and New Amsterdam Casualty Company. He is also interested in a co-partnership with his own son under the firm name of Fred W. Herbertz & Son, they be- ing the agents for seven fire, accident, plate glass, and liability companies. During the World War Mr. Herbertz was very active in all the various forms of activities, and was chairman of Exemption Board No. 15, for The Bronx. He is affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, being a member of Wieland Lodge, No. 714, and with Bronx Lodge, No. 871, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is also a member of Schubert's Singing Society, Service Veterans of United States, Steuben Society of America, Hoo Hoos of America, Damphyns Bowling Club, (since 1909, president), Morrisania Pinochle Club, Cold Feet Club of The Bronx, Wie- land Tourist Club, Morrisania Yacht Club, and is a member of the City Island Improvement Company, and a member of many other societies and clubs.
Fred W. Herbertz married, in New York City, September 18, 1900, Katie Mahnken, daughter of Carstin and Gersina Mahnken. Mr. and Mrs. Fred W. Herbertz are the parents of two children: Charles F., born June 18, 1904, associated with his father in business; and Alma, born November 21, 1905. The family are communicants of St. Paul's Lutheran Church and reside at No. 646 East One Hundred and Seventy-fifth Street, The Bronx.
MORRIS SAMUEL SCHECTOR-For almost a quarter of a century actively and successfully en- gaged in the practice of law, Mr. Schector has spent the last fourteen years of his legal career in The Bronx. He was born January 11, 1879, at Yassey, Roumania, a son of Samuel and Alta Schector, his father dying soon afterwards. Four years later, in 1883, his widowed mother brought her family to the United States and settled in Manhattan.
Morris Samuel Schector was educated in the pub- lic schools of New York City, and then studied law at the New York Law School, from which he gradu- ated in 1898. He secured his education in the face of great difficulties and, when he was only nine years old began to sell newspapers in front of the old Boreel Building at No. 115 Broadway, where he continued as a newsboy until 1897. He then be- came a professional stenographer, until he was ad- mitted to the bar, in 1902, when he began the prac- tice of law at No. 34 Pine Street, Manhattan. This office he maintained until 1914, when he concentrated all his legal activities in The Bronx where, how- ever, he had opened an office as early as 1912. His extensive practice, carried on from offices in the Areco Building, No. 391 East One Hundred and Forty-ninth Street, is of a general nature, including a considerable amount of corporation practice, as, for instance, the organization of the first American wireless telegraph company in this country, when connected with E. H. Moeran at No. 34 Pine Street, in 1899. In politics he is a Republican and he was one of his party's representatives in the 1912 State Legislature where he was a colleague of Governor
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Smith, and Senator James J. Walker, elected mayor of New York City in 1925. The most notable in- cident of his legislative career was, perhaps, the preparation and introduction of the bill making the Borough of The Bronx a county, a bill which was ap- proved by the voters of New York State by refer- endum in November, 1912. From 1914 to 1917 he was a deputy attorney-general of the State of New York. During the World War he served on three different Draft Boards, No. 2, No. 5, and No. 8. He is a member of The Bronx County Bar Association, Grand Street Boys' Association, the Jim Brown As- sociation, five different Republican clubs, the Royal Arcanum, and the Fellowcraft Eternal Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons. His religious affiliations are with the Jewish faith and he takes an active in- terest in Jewish charitable organizations, being a member of the Beth Abraham Home for Incurables and the Federation for the Support of Jewish Phil- anthropic Societies.
Mr. Schector married, in Manhattan, December 30, 1909, Jasmine Cerf, of Texas, daughter of Henry and Sarah Cerf, both now dead. Mr. and Mrs. Schector reside at No. 900 Grand Concourse, The Bronx.
H. CURT PALM-The history of the engraving business in The Bronx is contained in but one chap- ter, that of the Palm Engraving Company, of which H. Curt Palm is the proprietor, and whose activities are broadly inclusive of the business and social interests of this district and of those even farther afield, Mr. Palm having increased to a remarkable extent the value of the plant and its product within a very few years of its recent progress. With his resourcefulness, originality and abundant enterprise, Mr. Palm has secured a general and very appreci- ative recognition of the excellence of his plant and of his work, and his standing is that of the foremost men in the engraving business in city and State.
H. Curt Palm, a son of John and Clara Palm, was born May 13, 1897, in Berlin, Germany, and with his parents he came to the United States, where they first settled in Pittsburgh, removing to The Bronx in 1906. Here he attended the public schools, finishing in 1908, afterwards attending an evening business college for one and a half years. He has had a lifelong interest in the engraving business that was first established by his father in 1913, and that was taken over by himself in 1922; and today the Palm Engraving Company, the only concern of its kind in The Bronx, produces steel and copper plate engraving, including embossing, together with cards of popular style and order. During the World War, he was a member of the Heavy Field Artillery, First New York Regiment, located at Camp Jackson. He is a member of the Rotary Club, and his religious fellowship is with St. Mark's Lutheran Church.
H. Curt . Palm married, March 17, 1922, Anna Kiesling, daughter of William Kiesling, a well-known Bronx Rotarian, who died in September, 1924, and of Anna Kiesling, who survives her husband. Their children: 1. Curt William, who was born in January, 1924. 2. Eugene Charles, who was born August 10, 1925.
REV. A. HAMILTON NESBITT-Because he is a forward-looking and forceful executive, a broad- minded scholar, and a sincere Christian, Rev. A. Hamilton Nesbitt is the ideal minister of the Mott Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church of The Bronx, New York City, which since its inception has always been unusually open to new and effective ideas. He was born in Maryborough, Queens County, Ireland, in February, 1885, son of Samuel W. H. and Rosalie T. (Metcalfe) Nesbitt. His father was also a minis- ter, for thirty-three years in active service, and was killed in a subway accident in New York City, on his way to visit his son in Nebraska. The son was liberally educated at boarding school, under private tutors, and at Wesley College, Dublin, Ireland. It was in 1906 that he came to the United States, his first charge being in a missionary field in Nebraska, where he remained until 1909. In that year he re- turned to New York State.
The year 1917 found him in western Connecticut. He organized the "American Protective League," a voluntary auxiliary to the United States Department of Justice in Litchfield County and received high praise from department officials for the zeal and ability with which he and his aids worked. These commendatory letters read, in part, as follows:
Chester Middlebrooks, United States Marshal, wrote:
I desire very much to express my appreciation for the valuable assistance rendered by you in carrying on the many activities made necessary by the war. The Department of Justice was fortunate indeed to have had a man of your calibre, especially in that section of the State, where it is difficult to reach except by automobile, for no matter how much of your time was required or what inconvenience you were caused, you were always ready and willing to comply with every request.
George W. Lillard, special agent, Bureau of In- vestigation, United States Department of Justice, in charge of Connecticut affairs, wrote, among other things, the following:
I have always, since becoming acquainted with you and many of the other gentlemen associated with you and your methods of handling matters entrusted to you, had the feeling of confidence in the successful outcome of that work and so have been relieved of any anxiety lest the work be neg- lected. I can safely' say that there was not in the State of Connecticut an organization superior to yours, either in efficiency or loyalty. I realize more than anyone else con- nected with the government departments the sacrifices made by you and those associated with you in order to carry on the work so successfully in your territorry. It is indeed a source of great pleasure and satisfaction to me to have been associated with such public-spirited and unselfish men. I have never before been so deeply impressed with the true Amer ican citizen as I have been since assuming charge of the Bureau's work in that State. It is rare indeed that there is such a combination of man and minister as exists in your case.
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