USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume III > Part 46
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Trade. In politics, he is an Independent, casting his vote for the candidate whom he believes best fitted for the office irrespective of party membership. With his family he is a communicant of the Episcopal faith and attends the Church of Atonement of that denomination.
Frank L. Landsiedel married, November 26, 1902, in Manhattan, New York City, Amelia Ryan, a daughter of Sergeant John M. and Mary (Scott) Ryan. Mr. and Mrs. Landsiedel are the parents of the following children: 1. Frank W., who was born October 9, 1908, and is studying architectural engineering at Columbia University. 2. Florence, who was born March 8, 1910, and is a student at the Monroe High School. The family residence is at No. 1468 St. Lawrence Avenue, The Bronx, New York.
DR. EUGENE MONAGHAN-One of the long- est established medical practitioners in The Bronx is Dr. Eugene Monaghan, whose offices are located in his home at No. 1199 Boston Road, The Bronx. Dr. Monaghan has been engaged in general medical and surgical practice since 1898.
Henry Monaghan, father of Dr. Monaghan, was born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland, and came to this country when he was a lad of sixteen years, settling in New York City, where he found employment as assistant in a drug store. He then studied in the College of Pharmacy, from which he received the degree of Graduate Pharmacist, after which he opened a drug store on the corner of One Hundred and Sixty-seventh Street and Third Avenue. This enterprise he continued to the time of his death. He married Mary Elizabeth Trainor, who was born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland, and after the death of her husband Mrs. Monaghan studied pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy, from which she was graduated with the degree of Graduate Pharmacist. Thus equipped she continued to oper- ate the pharmaceutical business which her husband had developed, and when the daughter, Seraphene Monaghan, became old enough, she also entered the College of Pharmacy and secured the degree of Graduate Pharmacist, in order that she might assist her mother in the conduct of the business, which at that time was one of the best known old establish- ments in The Bronx.
Dr. Eugene Monaghan, son of Henry and Mary Elizabeth (Trainor) Monaghan, was born in the house on the corner of One Hundred and Sixty- seventh Street and Third Avenue, in The Bronx (the same place in which his father conducted his drug store for many years preceding his sudden death by heart failure) June 8, 1874. He received his early school training in the old Public School No. 61, on the corner of One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Street and Third Avenue, and then matriculated in the College of the City of New York, then located on the corner of Lexington Avenue and East Twenty- third Street. Later, however, at the request of his mother, he made a change and entered St. Lawrence College, at Fon-du-Lac, Wisconsin, where he com- pleted his course with graduation, receiving the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts. By this time he had de- cided to enter the medical profession, and he now
began professional study in the Medical College of New York University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in 1896. He served an interneship of two years in Fordham Hos- pital, and then entered municipal employ as super- visor of the Board of Health, Bronx Division, an office which he filled for a period of five years, while carrying on his private practice. He is still en- gaged in private practice as a physician and surgeon, having been ministering to the needs of a very large number of people here for nearly thirty years, and he is also surgeon at Fordham Hospital. In addition to all these responsibilities Dr. Monaghan is also surgeon for the Union Railway and for the Forty- second Street Line, also for the Interboro Rapid Transit Railway. Fraternally, he is identified with Bronx Lodge, No. 871, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; and he is a member of the Schnorer Club of The Bronx and of the Jackson Democratic Club.
Dr. Eugene Monaghan was married, in the Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, No. 505 East Fourteenth Street, by Father Tierney, Au- gust 18, 1923, to Margaret Rooney, daughter of Thomas and Anna (Wallace) Rooney, both of whom were born in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. They reside at No. 1199 Boston Road, The Bronx.
JOSEPH MCCARTHY-One of the most popular and highly esteemed citizens of The Bronx, New York, is Joseph Mccarthy, who has for fourteen years ably filled the responsible position of Deputy Sheriff of Bronx County. He has always been in- fluential in politics. His first claim to fame was due to his great success as a semi-professional base- ball player who reflected great credit on his team and league. Sheriff McCarthy was born on February 7, 1869, in an old house at No. 32 Madison Street, on the lower east side of Manhattan, son of Cor- nelius and Delia (Donegan) McCarthy. The father, born, like the mother, in the old Fourth Ward, New York, whence came Governor Smith and many other political leaders of New York City, was much in- terested in local affairs and a highly respected man. To him and his wife were born thirteen children, of whom the following are mentioned: William Harry; George; George (2nd); James; Frank, married to Julia Fitzsimmons, by whom he has two children: Julia and Anna; Catherine, married to Timothy Peter- son and has children: Edward, Charles, Catherine; Julia, married James Gunning and has two children: Harold and Dolly; and Joseph, subject of this record.
Joseph Mccarthy attended St. James' Parochial School on the lower east side. At the age of fourteen he learned the carpenter's trade, serving without pay for four years as apprentice. Baseball then engaged his attention. In 1888 he was on the New York "World" team and was so excellent a player that it was in large part because of his skill that his team won the championship of the Eastern Newspaper League for several years until the or- ganization disbanded. He then played with the Connecticut State League in 1889 and 1890, with the Des Moines, Iowa, club for a year, and the Hamilton, Ontario, club for a year. His last baseball
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connection was with the Omaha Club, of the Western League, in 1892. Mr. McCarthy then returned to the building trades. He was foreman for F. Heicher, builder, for five years, and resigned to accept a similar position with Martin T. Garvey, builder, where he remained for four years. In 1910 he was appointed city marshal under Mayor Gaynor, with his office at No. 885 Brook Avenue. He resigned on December 29, 1913. In 1914 came his appoint- ment to the position he has since held, as deputy sheriff of Bronx County, when that unit was created in 1914, his appointment coming from the first sheriff, James F. O'Brien. Sheriff McCarthy resides in The Bronx and has a lovely summer home at St. James, Long Island. He is a member of the board of direc- tors of the James W. Brown Association on the Concourse, The Bronx; and a member of the Monroe Democratic Club of The Bronx; in 1914 he was sergeant-at-arms of the First General County Com- mittee. He is a member of the Holy Name Society of St. Jerome's Roman Catholic Church.
In 1890, Joseph Mccarthy married Sarah Gal- lagher, daughter of John Gallagher, born in Ireland, and his wife Bessie (Warnock) Gallagher, born in the United States. A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy: Cornelius Joseph Mccarthy, born July 20, 1893; married to Eva Wilson, by whom he has children: Joseph and Frank McCarthy.
LOUIS ROOS, clerk of The Bronx County Court, has had a varied experience in the real estate field and the World War, after which he entered upon his duties as clerk in the engineering department of Bronx Borough and was advanced to his present position. He enjoys a deserved popularity, based upon efficiency and personal characteristics, and has added greatly to borough community life.
Mr. Roos was born September 9, 1882, on Cypress Avenue back of St. Mary's Park in the Mott Haven section of The Bronx, son of Louis Roos, a native of Germany, and Mary (Miller) Roos, native of New York who makes her residence in the Williamsbridge section, and still enjoys good health at the age of seventy-three years. He attended the public school on Concord Avenue and then Public School No. 85 under Jonathan D. Hyatt, principal. He began work at seventeen years of age, assisting his father in the real estate business, located at that time at One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street near Third Avenue, the elevated station. Later the office was moved to Willis Avenue and One Hundred and Forty-first Street, andi still following the progress of newer developments he moved to the Mckinley Square section, Boston Road and One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Street. The elder Mr. Roos was one of the pioneer real estate men of his time; always progressive, he reached out to meet the new develop- ments, and proved a good citizen is every understand- ing of that term.
Louis Roos remained with his father until 1913, when he went to Washington, District of Columbia, to accept a clerkship in the House of Representatives, and here was receiving wonderful training in na- tional affairs, when he resigned in 1917 to enter the World War and go overseas to France with the First Division. He was later detailed to General Headquarters with General John J. Pershing as
second lieutenant in charge of all dispatch riders of the different divisions. He returned to the United States in 1919 and was kept at the port of debarkation at Hoboken from May to September, at which time he was sent to Camp Meade, Maryland, in charge of one hundred men doing special work for the War Department. In March, 1920, he returned to New York, and received his discharge at the port of de- barkation, Hoboken. He then accepted a position in the Engineering Department of Bronx Borough under Chief Engineer Josiah Fitch, where he re- mained until he received an appointment in May, 1924, to his present position as clerk of The Bronx County Court. The multifarious details of this office are such that it requires painstaking effort to dis- charge them, and it has been said of Mr. Roos that he is admirably suited by nature and acquirement to so discharge them.
Mr. Roos is a member of the Williamsbridge Post of the American Legion and of the Jackson Demo- cratic Club, in both of which organizations he enjoys a deserved popularity and prominence.
Mr. Roos married, January 11, 1922, at Saratoga Springs, New York, Emma Ryall, daughter of Wil- liam and Emma Ryall. Her father, now retired, was for forty years assistant superintendent of the Spencer Trask Estate at Yaddo, New York; he is now seventy-five years of age and in good health. Her mother was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and like her husband was a member of an old-established and well-to-do family.
THOMAS L. ZIMMERMAN, Jr .- Now and then the services of an attorney for a commercial concern become so valuable that he is placed in high executive position, where his legal talent often finds its best expression. Such a promotion was given Thomas L. Zimmerman, Jr., of New York City and The Bronx, who was made president of the Indiana Floor- ing Company, of No. 232 Rider Avenue, this borough, after he had served the firm for several years as head of its busy legal department. Mr. Zimmerman brings an unusual equipment to an industry noted for its practical aspects; for nine years prior to form- ing a connection with the Indiana Flooring Company he practiced law at No. 60 Wall Street; then he was called to take over the legal section. So multi- farious did the work's duties become that he gave up his general practice and devoted all of his time and attention to the business, and finally, as a fitting reward of his close application and abilities, was inade president.
Mr. Zimmerman was born at New York City, Feb- ruary 18, 1887, son of Thomas L. and May (Gard- ner) Zimmerman, both of whom are still living in Brooklyn, the former having retired from business. The father was formerly railroad agent for the Gould Lines, the Missouri Pacific and the Texas Pacific, and became one of the best men in the country in transportation circles.
Mr. Zimmerman attended Public School No. 103 in New York City, preparatory school, then matricu- lated at the New York Law School, from which institution he graduated in the class of 1908 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws; in the year follow- ing, 1909, he was awarded the degree of Master of Laws at New York University. Upon obtaining
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his admission to the New York bar he entered upon the practice of his profession at No. 60 Wall Street, and had built up a gratifying practice when called in 1917 to represent the Indiana Flooring Company. This concern was formed with ample capital some years ago, and it absorbed the well-known firm of G. W. Koch & Son, established in 1857. From a historical and descriptive monograph prepared under the direction of Mr. Zimmerman, the following illu- minating account is taken:
Almost three-quarters of a century in business is a long time, when the average life of a business enterprise is con- sidered. However, we have this distinction. During this time, the manufacture, handling and installation of wood floors has been with us not a specialty but our entire busi- ness.
The finished wood floor is the most important part of the interior decoration of any building, be it home or apart- ment, club or office, school or hall; and is in every building an integral part of the whole. It is therefore true that the planning and installation of the wood floors need at least the same and possibly more care and proper selection than do the other component parts of the structure.
These years of experience with wood floors give us per- mission to speak with anthority. We are not lumber mer- chants to whom Flooring is one of the many items of building material. We are first of all designers of wood floors, then we are manufacturers of wood floors, then distributors, and finally, we install these same wood floors and finish them completely.
Our business slogan, "From Forest to Floor" is literally true in every sense of the word. Our factory in New York is manned by experts in the designing and manufacturing of fine floors, many of them of precious woods; our Ohio fac- tory manufactures oak in strip and parquet; our factory in Michigan manufactures monthly a million feet of maple flooring . for commercial work. Our business, national in its scope, is handled through the main office at New York and branch offices at Reed City, Michigan, at Washington, D. O., and at Coal Grove, Ohio; and at all four points we carry large stocks of wood floors, and nothing but wood floors. We are, in fact, the largest handlers of wood floors in the world.
The company has put in flooring for several of the Government departments and patriotic agencies at Washington, District of Columbia, and a list of its patrons in the various larger cities looks like a reprint of the Social Register. Mr. Zimmerman is familiar with every detail of the business, and since woodwork is ranked among the prettiest products in the world, he feels that his efforts to improve the industry have been well rewarded.
Mr. Zimmerman is a member of The Bronx Board of Trade and the New York Credit Men's Associ- ation. In secret order circles his principal affiliation is with the Bethlehem Commandery, No. 27, Knights Templar, of which he is Past Commander; and the Free and Accepted Masons. In religious affairs he is a member of the Presbyterian church.
The marriage of Mr. Zimmerman took place at Brooklyn, May 30, 1912, his wife having been Mar- garet Green, daughter of George and Hannah (Dancer) Green. A daughter, Margaret Zimmerman, born March 3, 1915, has blessed their union.
The Indiana Flooring Company boasts a pic- turesque figure in its vice-president and treasurer, A. J. Lehmer, who for half a century served G. W. Koch & Son as vice-president and general manager and who has witnessed a remarkable evolution in the business, and in the leading concerns composing the industry. The present company was organized In 1911 by D. W. Von Bremen and operated in down-
town New York as jobber and distributor. Mr. Von Bremen succeeded in bringing together under the standard of the Indiana Flooring Company sev- eral concerns, including the G. W. Koch concern, and Mr. Zimmerman was employed as attorney. The new company claimed the seventy-five years of pre- vious service of the Koch unit, andi started off aus- piciously. The year 1925 found Mr. Zimmerman in the position of general attorney and secretary of the company. In May of that year Mr. Von Bremen retired and Mr. Zimmerman was named president; T. M. Ralston has been sales manager since 1923. The plant bought its present site in The Bronx in 1914 and moved there to enable it to realize a much needed expansion.
S. ALEXANDER SHEAR-Prominently identi- fied with a number of realty and holding companies in The Bronx, S. Alexander Shear, who has since 1920 been engaged in the real estate, insurance and newspaper advertising business in that borough, and is actively interested in building as well, has been par- ticularly successful in his business venture. Mr. Shear had previously served for over twenty years as a teacher in the New York public school system and had won a reputation as a thoroughly efficient teacher. He is a son of Samuel and Goldie Shear; the father, who came from Austria to the United States in 1889, is now retired.
S. Alexander Shear was born in Austria, February 22, 1884, and came to this country in 1892 at the age of eight. He attended the New York public schools, graduating in 1889, from Public School No. 160, Manhattan; then entered City College, taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts there in the class of 1904. He then became a teacher in the New York public school system, but later did graduate study at Columbia University, which gave him the degree of Master of Arts in 1915. Mr. Shear taught in Public School No. 3 in The Bronx and later in Stuyvesant High School, where he was for many years in the English Department. His career as an educator covers the years of 1904 to 1926. In 1920, however, he had become actively interested in business in The Bronx, and since that time has been giving much of his time and interest to the building up of this section, finally withdrawing altogether from the schools. His business at No. 1995 Jerome Avenue, which includes real estate, insurance, news- paper advertising and building, was established in 1920, and has been very successful. Mr. Shear is president of the Shear-Cohen Building Company, Inc., president of the Shear-Cohen Realty Company, Inc .; vice-president of the Washington Credit Union; secretary and treasurer of the Henwood Place Realty Corporation; secretary of the Frejo Realty Corpora- tion, and secretary and treasurer of the Goldie Realty Company, Inc. These various concerns have done much to build up certain sections of The Bronx, and in his connection with them Mr. Shear has abundantly proved himself a realtor who plans and builds con- structively for the future. He is a member of The Bronx Board of Trade and takes a keen personal interest in all that pertains to the growth and progress of the borough, in a civic as well as a commercial sense. Fraternally, Mr. Shear is identified with
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Progress Lodge, No. 1041, Free and Accepted Ma- sons, and is now Senior Deacon of the Lodge. He is a member of the Level Club, Inc., and of the Tackamuck Democratic Club, in which he takes an active concern. He is also a member of the Alum- ni Association of Columbia University and of the Graduate Club of that university.
Mr. Shear married, in New York City, March 24, 1907, Josephine Meyers, daughter of Morris and Rachel Meyers, both deceased, the mother dying in 1925 at the age of eighty-six. Mr. and Mrs. Shear have four children: 1. Morton L., born April 2, 1909. 2. Janice S., born October 11, 1911. 3. Julian D., born January 18, 1914. 4. Rose, born January 17, 1923.
FREDRICK HERB-High on the list of promi- nent and successful business men of The Bronx, whose enterprises are a community asset, stands the name of Fredrick Herb, president and treasurer of the Tremont Bottling Company, Inc., an industrial factor in The Bronx since 1910.
Fredrick Herb was born in Württemberg, Ger- many, May 23, 1868, and came to this country at the age of twenty-four, after being liberally educated in the public schools of his own country. His father, Jacob Herb, died at the age of eighty-two, in Ger- many, where he spent his life as a farmer; and his mother, Anna Maria Herb, also died in her native country. Fredrick Herb began in business in this country as an employee of William E. Seitz & Com- pany, in 1892. After some time, during which he was learning the customs of the country, he became associated with his present business, then in Man- hattan, and known as the Consumers' Bottling Com- pany. In 1910 the company moved to The Bronx and assumed its present title, and under the able and aggressive leadership of Mr. Herb it prospered greatly. All kinds of mineral and soda waters are bottled and distributed to the groceries, drug stores, and retail centers throughout the city and contiguous wider areas. Mr. Herb is a member of Wieland Lodge, No. 714, Free and Accepted Masons, and Harlem Independent Schuetzen, to which he has be- longed since 1902. He is also affiliated with The Bronx Board of Trade.
In New York City, April 21, 1897, Fredrick Herb married Ernestine Hirschberger, whose parents had died during her infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Herb are the parents of two children: 1. William Herb, born October 18, 1897; William Herb is married and the father of two children, Fred, Jr., and Katherine. 2. Charles, born March 3, 1914.
P. CHARLES MURPHY-One of the best known embalmers and funeral directors of The Bronx is P. Charles Murphy, whose well equipped and modern funeral parlors and reception rooms are located at No. 337 East One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Street, where he is taking care of a very large patronage. Mr. Murphy has been associated with this line of business from early boyhood, and succeeded his father and his grandfather in the business, although the location was originally on Madison Street, lower east side of Manhattan, from which location he removed to The Bronx in 1912.
P. Charles Murphy was born in the old family home on Madison Street, January 21, 1867, son of Felix and Elizabeth (McClusky) Murphy. He re- ceived his first school training in St. James' Par- ochial School, and later became a student in La Salle Academy. When he was eleven years of age, how- ever, his father died, and this made it necessary that he should leave school when he was fifteen years of age in order that he might assist his mother, who after the death of her husband had continued the undertaking business which was originally established by the grandfather and had been conducted by Felix Murphy to the time of his death. From the time he left school at the age of fifteen to the present time (1927), Mr. Murphy has been associated with the undertaking business. He continued the business at the old address, No. 49 Madison Street, until 1912, when because of the greatly changed character of the neighborhood, he removed to The Bronx and opened his funeral parlors at No. 2542 Marian Avenue. Later, he purchased his own place at No. 337 East One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Street, and here he has fitted up a thoroughly modern and well appointed funeral parlor and reception rooms for his patrons. He is a skilled and scientific mortician and his present well appointed establishment enables him to render exceptionally fine service. Moreover, Mr. Murphy himself is exceptional in his personal qualification for the profession to which he has devoted his life. A man of fine bearing and poise, his presence adds dignity and distinction to the services which he super- intends and directs, and his fine tact and courtesy make his personality one which is peculiarly ac- ceptable to those who require his services in their times of bereavement and sorrow. He has for many years been well known as a mortician and funeral director of unusual ability, andi his patronage has steadily grown until at the present time (1927) he is one of the leading men of his profession in this section of The Bronx. Fraternally, Mr. Murphy is identified with Nativity Council, Knights of Colum- bus; and with the Holy Name Society of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mercy; also with the Fordham Catholic Club. His religious affiliation is with the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mercy.
P. Charles Murphy was married, in New York City, to Nellie T. Ryder, daughter of William and Mary (Hayes) Ryder. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are the parents of five children: 1. Elizabeth Agnes, married Arthur C. Lumly. 2. Edith. 3. Charles Augustus, married Lillian O'Brien, and they have two children: Helen and Joan. 4. Felix Joseph, married Irene Wisker, and they have four children: Felix, Jr., Edith, Irene, and Kenneth. 5. William Francis, married Josephine Murray, and they have one child: William Murphy, Jr.
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