USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume III > Part 52
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HIRAM TARBOX, son of Fones Whitford and Sarah Tarbox, was born in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, June 15, 1817. He was a descendant of Miles Standish, through the intermarriage of the
Reb. Joseph C. Ryan
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Tarbox and Standish families. He was eighth in descent from John Tarbox, who settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, between 1600 and 1610, and of the ninth generation from John Greene, of Quidnessett, Rhode Island, and later, General Nathanael Greene, of Revolutionary fame. Named for his uncle, Hiram Tarbox, a manufacturer and importer of watches, he was called Hiram Tarbox, 2nd, until the death of his uncle in 1878. At the age of seventeen he left his father's home and went to live with his uncle in Lisbon, Connecticut, purposing to learn the watch- making trade. He there met Mary Clark, of Canter- bury, Connecticut, whom he married in 1839, and who died at her home in this city in 1897, in her eightieth year. She was a descendant of the old New England Adams-Davenport families; an es- timable woman, a true and sincere friend, long mourned by those who love and cherish her memory. In 1844, Mr. Tarbox left Connecticut with his family for New York City, where he entered in business as a watch-maker and expert adjuster of marine chronometers in Maiden Lane. When Upper Mor- risania was laid out in 1848, he, with about four dozen men of the same mind, purchased from Gouv- erneur Morris the farm on which Upper Morrisania was then located, selecting plots by choice, and, two years later, he completed and moved into the house, now No. 1883 Washington Avenue, which he continued to occupy until his death. He was well- called the Patriarch of Tremont, coming to the place in those early pioneer days when there were but a handful of scattered inhabitants, and remaining a resident for nearly fifty-four years. In 1856 the name of Upper Morrisania was changed to Tremont through the influence of Mr. Tarbox, and a number of the other early settlers. It was argued that, as there were three hills or mounts in the neighborhood, -Mount Hope, Fairmount and Mount Eden (Tri- mount),-it would be appropriate to have the name changed to Tremont.
Mr. Tarbox was one of the founders of the Re- publican party in this locality, and furnished the lot on which they erected their wigwam when that party assumed a commanding position in this State in the war times. He helped organize a fire department, a free library, a stage line, and steamboat company. He was instrumental in getting the National govern- ment to establish a post office at Tremont, and was the only postmaster that Tremont ever had, having been appointed through Hon. Salmon P. Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, to that position in September, 1861, when the Tre- mont Post Office was established. Messrs. William A. Bedell and James F. Beames, both long since having passed away, were his bondsmen. When on January 1, 1874, this section was annexed to the city and county of New York, the former Tremont Post Office became a branch of the New York Post Office, and Mr. Tarbox was appointed super- intendent of the branch office, holding the position for nine years, thus making twenty-two years of continuous service.
Mr. Tarbox had great faith in the future of upper New York City, and really did much to make the locality, by his pioneering work, what it is today. For forty years, Mr. Tarbox conducted the watch
and chronometer business in Maiden Lane, Nassau and John streets and Broadway of this city, and was one of the founders of what is now the American Waltham Watch Company, he having conceived the idea of producing and dressing watch movements by machinery instead of by hand. In 1884, he re- tired, thereafter giving his attention to interests nearer home. He was classed by the trade one of the brightest minds in his line. He was born a genius, and made some of the most intricate tools and machinery in the carrying on of his business, and being a very skillful mechanic, his mind naturally ran to mechanical improvements, which resulted in much of his handiwork reaching the patent office in Washington. At the first World's Fair held in the Crystal Palace on Forty-second Street (now Bryant Park), he exhibited many of his inventions, which were totally lost in the destruction of the buildings by fire in 1856. At the age of nearly eighty-seven he perfected his last invention, intending to have it patented, but his untimely death, as proven later, made it impossible.
In his religious views Mr. Tarbox was a staunch Baptist, with a very broad, liberal, open and kindly feeling toward all denonrinations, attending other Protestant and Catholic churches, where he was well known, as well as synagogues. He, for about forty years, was a member of the Pilgrim Baptist Church of West Farms, of which he was both deacon and trustee. A very amiable and thoroughly honest man, a gentleman and a devout Christian, much beloved at home and everywhere he was known, he respected himself and commanded the respect, and admiration of his associates and acquaintances. Situated as he was, many of the troubles and vicissi- tudes in the life of others came to his notice, and his charitable and kindly acts were exceedingly numerous and unnumbered, extending in every direc- tion. His helping hand and heart were always ready to aid the needy. Selfishness and he were total strangers.
Mr. Tarbox passed away in July, 1904, in his eighty-eighth year, the result of a fracture of a hip bone caused by a fall two months before. He had a wonderful constitution which enabled him to fight so long for life while suffering terrific agony, and which was due to his temperate life and habits. Just prior to his death one of the leading surgeons in this city examined him and pronounced every organ in his body perfectly sound and in better condition than the majority of men at fifty years of age, pro- claiming that he should have lived for over one hundred years. He maintained all of his faculties to the end. The Rev. Dr. Croker, who conducted the funeral services, said that the world needed more men like him, and that there was no need of offering a prayer for such a pure and upright man, and his words were true. With the death of Hiram Tarbox, the last of the original men who settled Tremont, passed away. He was survived by four children, two sons and two daughters: Hiram Thomas, a leading structural engineer and mechanical expert, originally of this city and now of Boston, Massachusetts; Mary C. and Sarah E., both now retired, but formerly very successful teachers in this city; Charles Wakefield, a biography of whom fol-
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lows; and one grandchild, Elsa Davenport Tarbox.
The longevity of the Tarbox family is further indicated by the fact that the descendants of Hiram Tarbox, referred to in this and the following biography, are all still living.
CHARLES WAKEFIELD TARBOX, having been in the real estate business extending from the Battery to Yonkers-since about 1870, over a half century, and long a city appraiser in condemnation proceedings-a position need we say, of great re- sponsibility-is well and widely known throughout the entire city, Westchester County, and, in fact, as far north as Albany. He is also of note as a worker in the Democratic cause, his initial work in this line having been exerted with great influence and his whole energy toward the election of former Mayor William R. Grace. He has fought for the election of good, honest, capable men to public office, though never an office holder himself. He has, in fact, refused nominations to office several times.
Charles W. Tarbox, son of Hiram Tarbox, a sketch of whom precedes this, was born June 8, 1850, in the lower part of this city, but removed during his infancy, and lived, up to 1924, on the same property, Nos. 1887-99 Washington Avenue, which was pur- chased from Gouverneur Morris in 1848 by his father, the late Hiram Tarbox, who was one of the original settlers in the Tremont section. He is a direct descendant on his mother's side of Paul Davenport, one of the earliest settlers in Connecticut, where the Colony of New Haven was founded by Paul's brother, John Davenport, and also a descen- dant of Samuel Adams of Revolutionary fame, and John Adams, who was second President of the United States, and also of John Quincy Adams, who was sixth President of the United States and a son of John Adams. The name of Davenport has been continuous for several generations down to Mr. Tar- box's grandmother, Abigail Davenport, who married Seth Clark, of Connecticut. On his father's side he is a descendant of the noted General Greene, also of Revolutionary fame, and who was considered next to General Washington.
Mr. Tarbox attended the public schools of New York City as a boy, graduating in due course. He secured employment with the American News Con- pany, then in Nassau Street, and was energetic from the first, a hard worker, self-reliant, and might properly be called self-made. With no tutor but himself, he mastered engineering and made it an important stepping stone to his ultimate success. As an inventor of no mean ability, he has perfected more than one hundred and fifty mechanical, hydraul- ic, pneumatic, electrical and other devices, his first patent being secured at the early age of sixteen; his genius seems to have been a gift, or to have been hereditary, as his father showed similar mechan- ical ingenuity and was one of the founders of what is now the great American Waltham Watch Com- pany, he having been the pioneer in the conception of producing and dressing watch movements by ma- chinery instead of by hand.
Mr. Tarbox was for years, a member of the Democratic Club of the city of New York during
the time that Richard Croker and John Whalen were chief officers of the club, is a member of the Schnorer Club, and also of the Fordham Club. He was a director of the Provident Saving Loan Invest- ment Company, and has been connected as a trustee and otherwise with several institutions in this and other cities. He now resides at No. 228 East Tremont Avenue. Mr. Tarbox has a brother, born in 1842, who has lived in Boston for the last fifty years and is noted as a structural engineer, having been en- gaged upon one of the greatest engineering feats of his days, the construction of the Eades Bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, after he had served from the beginning until the end of the Civil War as a four-time volunteer. Mr. Tarbox was a very firm friend of Henry D. Purroy, James Mitchel, father of former Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, and also of the latter.
Mr. Tarbox married in June, 1889, Margaret Behrens, and they have one child living, Elsa Daven- port Tarbox.
WILLIAM L. STARCK-A mercantile firm of well-established and popular repute in The Bronx is that of the Starck-Rawlings Coal Company, of which William L. Starck is the president. Mr. Starck has secured his influence and place in The Bronx business world through the proven abilities that have substantially aided in the progress of the concern of which he is the executive head; and in all movements for the welfare of the community he is a dependable factor, and a representative of the highest type of citizenship. He is a. son of John C. Starck, retired master plumber, born in Manhattan, descendant of an old American family, and of Cath- erine Starck, who died in January, 1926.
William L. Starck was born July 10, 1882, in New York City, where he attended Public School No. 74, and was graduated at the College of the City of New York. He has always been associated with the coal business; and with the incorporation of the Starck-Rawlings Coal Company on June 1, 1924, suc- ceeding J. F. Rawlings, who established the business in 1904, he became president of the concern, a whole- sale and retail coal establishment. In his political views, Mr. Starck is a Democrat, and he is much interested in civic affairs. During the World War, he was active in both Liberty Loan and Red Cross drives. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Bronx Lodge, No. 871, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; and he is a member of The Bronx Board of Trade; the Lions Club; Tackamuck Club; New York Athletic Club; and the Schnorer Club, in which he has served as a member of the board of directors.
William L. Starck married, June 14, 1905, in New York City, Josephine O'Connell; and they are the parents of Ethel Marie Starck, who was born No- vember 14, 1906.
BENJAMIN BENENSON-Widely experienced, possessed of a quick and active mind, foresight, and personality, Benjamin Benenson has become a great constructive force in The Bronx, where as realtor and philanthropist he is prominent. He was born in Minsk, Russia, July 4, 1880, son of Charles and Dorothy (Vigdoe) Benenson, both of Russian
Mary Starck
Arthur Agagnon
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birth. The father, a farmer, died at the age of thirty-two, and the mother at thirty-four, leaving three sons, all of whom live in The Bronx now: Isadore, a builder; Benjamin, subject of this record; and Robert, in the realty business with Benjamin.
Benjamin Benenson attended Russian schools until he reached the age of thirteen, and at nineteen he came to the United States. Settling in New York City, he worked at the trade he had learned in Russia, that of carpentry, until 1903. For two years thereafter he applied his knowledge and his unusual acumen to the contracting business. From 1905 until 1918 he was busy erecting all sorts of structures in The Bronx and other parts of New York, although he has specialized in Bronx property. From 1918 to the present, Mr. Benenson han been busied with real estate, his offices being at No. 50 East Forty- second Street, New York City. He is vice-president of the Port Morris Bank, and a member of the North Side Board of Trade, The Bronx and New York City Real Estate boards, and the Builders' Associa- tion of The Bronx. In all these organizations Mr. Benenson is active and progressive, his energy and influence being expended freely on every forward- looking program. In spite of his manifold affairs, he finds time to serve as treasurer of The Bronx Hospital, director of Montefiore Hospital, and as an active philanthropist. His religious affiliation is with Tremont Temple, of which he was a trustee and officer.
On March 25, 1912, in The Bronx, Benjamin Benen- son married Frances Shapiro, daughter of Morris and Gertrude Shapiro, residents of The Bronx. Children: 1. Charles, born January 30, 1913. 2. Harold, born April 13, 1916. 3. Laurence Allen, born March 11, 1918. 4. Raymond Elliott, born December 12, 1925.
THOMAS JOSEPH DOLEN-Long associated with political matters in The Bronx, New York, Thomas Joseph Dolen as secretary to its president now helps to shape municipal policy in that thriving and busy community. He came there to live at the age of four and grew up with the district, watching it grow from a small suburb of New York to a large and flourishing, semi-independent community. Almost from the beginning he has been connected with the center of its government. Thomas Joseph Dolen was born in Amsterdam, New York, April 27, 1877, son of James E. and Ellen Dolen. His father, who was in the lumber business in Amster- dam and New York City, died when the boy was still in school. In 1881, when Thomas J. Dolen was four years old, he was brought to The Bronx to live, and there he grew up. He received a good elementary education at Public Schools Nos. 63 and 90, but he could not continue at school because of his father's death. At fifteen, therefore, he began his political career as office boy under the first borough president, President Haffen, who was at the time, 1894, commissioner of street improvements. Since that time Mr. Dolen has been acting secretary to miany subsequent borough presidents, and with the election of Bruckner to the office in 1917, Mr. Dolen was made secretary. His ability was often demonstrated in a position which required tact, loyal- ty, the ability to assume responsibility, and a broad
yet accurate and detailed knowledge of municipal affairs. Possessed of these in large measure, Mr. Dolen won golden praise from many of the most important city officials for his intimate knowledge of conditions. For the past two years he has been Democratic leader of the Fourth Assembly District. He is on the Executive Committee of the Demo- cratic County Committee and leader of the Jackson Democratic Club. His wartime service to his coun- try consisted of ready response to appeals for aid in selling Liberty bonds, and his success in this work was great. Mr. Dolen is a member of Lodge No. 871, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of The Bronx, and of the Wingfoot Golf Club. His religious affiliations are with St. Augustine's Catholic Church.
Mr. Dolen married, in The Bronx, June 21, 1902, Catherine Deere, daughter of Harvey and Mary Deere, who belonged to an old Bronx family. Both are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Dolen are the parents of two children: William H., born July 12, 1903; and Marian, born in 1908.
DANIEL A. FORCE-With extensive interests in the realty, insurance and general mortgage busi- ness in The Bronx throughout his active career, Daniel A. Force, now a member of the firm of Strong, Force & Gagnon, Inc., stands prominently at the front of a business in which his influence and his thoroughgoing abilities have become widely recog- nized. He is a son of Henry Lyon Force, wholesale druggist of Newburgh, who died in 1907, and Sophia Madeline (Kaupp) Force, who survives her husband.
Daniel A. Force was born September 19, 1888, in Newburgh, where he attended the public schools and a private academy. Since 1908, he has been increasingly successful in the real estate and mort- gage business, at first under his own name, with the firm of Shaw and Sanford, from 1923 to 1925, and from 1925 to the present as a member of the firm of Strong, Force & Gagnon, Inc. The present firm was established in April, 1925, with Edwin H. Strong as president, Daniel A. Force as vice-president, and Arthur J. Gagnon, whose sketch follows this, as secretary and treasurer, and with offices at No. 2036 Grand Avenue, deals in real estate, insurance, mort- gage loans, and general brokerage.
Fraternally, Mr. Force is affiliated with Newburgh Lodge, No. 309, Free and Accepted Masons, and he is a member of The Bronx Real Estate Board.
Daniel A. Force married, March 28, 1911, Ethel Margaret Strong, daughter of Edwin H. and Hattie Strong. Their children: 1. Margaret Helen, born June 22, 1913. 2. Robert H., born April 29, 1918.
ARTHUR J. GAGNON-Engaged in the business of assisting others to become established in business, and in their home-making in The Bronx, Arthur J. Gagnon, secretary and treasurer of the firm of Strong, Force & Gagnon, Incorporated, is one of the best informed men in his line in this metropolis, his prudence and foresight proving leading qualities in his success in the direction of his mortgage loans and general brokerage activities. He is a son of Pascal Gagnon, now retired, and Georgianna L. Gagnon.
Arthur J. Gagnon was born July 28, 1890, in Quebec, Canada, and coming to the United States
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with his parents in his early years, he attended public and parochial schools in Vermont. He first entered upon real estate fields in 1913, with F. R. Wood and W. H. Dalson at Eightieth Street and Broadway and then associated himself with the firm of Shaw and Sanford up to the date of the present corpor- ation. The firm of Strong, Force & Gagnon, In- corporated, was established in April, 1925, with Ed- win H. Strong, as president; Daniel A. Force, whose sketch precedes this, as vice-president; and Arthur J. Gagnon as secretary and treasurer. With their offices at No. 2036 Grand Avenue, they deal in real estate, insurance, mortgage loans and in general brokerage matters.
Mr. Gagnon is a member of The Bronx Real Es- tate Board; and he is a communicant of the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit.
Arthur J. Gagnon married, September 16, 1915, in New York City, Katherine Mulvay, daughter of Thomas and Mary Mulvay. Their children are: Arthur J., Jr., born June 30, 1917; Dorothy R., born April 10, 1919.
AUGUSTUS VICTOR KOEHLER-The manu- facture of pianos is such a complicated business that the very best talent is required in all depart- ments. No other activity, perhaps, surpasses in im- portance that of secretary, which in the case of Bjur Brothers, at Whitlock and Leggett avenues, The Bronx, is efficiently discharged by Augustus Victor Koehler, a resident at No. 2332 Walton Avenue. Mr. Koehler spent some time in other lines before he entered upon his life-work in the piano manu- facturing business, and he has attained his present position and influence from the post of bookkeeper, in which he served faithfully for five years, at the end of which time he was given a deserved promo- tion to the place he now holds.
Augustus Victor Koehler was born November 18, 1882, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, son of Victor and Anna (Wagner) Koehler. Victor Koehler, the father, was born at New York City, August 9, 1858, and died March 14, 1919. His father, August Koehler, was born in Saxony, Ger- many. Victor Koehler married Anna Wagner, daughter of Anthony Wagner, a native of Berlin, Germany. She was born April 4, 1855, in Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, and died September 30, 1925, in the seventieth year of her age. For several years Victor Koehler was engaged in the wholesale produce business in Washington Market and Harlem. He served his day and generation well, and was greatly missed when he passed away.
Augustus V. Koehler removed with his parents from Brooklyn to the old Ninth Ward section of Manhattan (now known as Greenwich Village), and he first attended the old Grove Street Public School and later Public School No. 16 on Thirteenth Street. His parents then removed to the Yorkville section of Manhattan and he transferred to Public School No. 77, First Avenue and Eighty-sixth Street, where he completed his scholastic education. He then ac- cepted a position, at the age of fifteen years, with Henry B. Hebert & Company, grain dealers, in the Produce Exchange, which concern he served faith- fully for four years. He then entered the organiza-
tion of the Callman Wholesale Millinery House at No. 594 Broadway, with which concern he remained for twelve years, mastering various commercial details and providing himself with further foundational material. At this point, in 1910, circumstances so shaped themselves that he met with a real oppor- tunity; he formed a connection with the Bjur Brothers Piano Company in The Bronx. He began as a bookkeeper and was such a steady and trusted em- ployee that at the conclusion of five years William L. Bjur, one of the partners, arranged for his eleva- tion to the secretaryship. This firm had been founded in 1887 by Wilhelm L. Bjur, who later took into the business his son, William L. Bjur. The firm continued a family partnership until 1908, when it was incorporated under the laws of New York State by the younger Mr. Bjur and his brother. It was in 1915 that Mr. Koehler was made secretary, and from that time the concern entered upon additional constructive activities, until it is today known as one of the best in its field of endeavor.
Mr. Koehler takes great interest in secret order work, having become prominent in the work of Lily Lodge, No 342, Free and Accepted Masons; Metro- politan Chapter, No. 140, Royal Arch Masons; Con- stantine Commandery, No. 48, Knights Templar; and Mecca Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks his affiliation is with Bronx Lodge, No. 871.
Mr. Koehler married June 30, 1907, at Holy Trinity Church, on East Eighty-eighth Street, Man- hattan, by the Rev. James V. Chalmers, Mathilde Fredrickson, daughter of Theodore and Mathilde (Stamp) Fredrickson. Theodore Fredrickson was born in Flentzburg, Denmark, as was his wife, and in 1927, they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anni- versary. Mr. and Mrs. Koehler have a son, Alfred Frederick Koehler, born October 17, 1908, who grad- uated in 1927, at the Evander Childs High School.
SAMUEL WEISKOPF, M. D .- Prominent among the younger medical men of The Bronx, is Dr. Samuel Weiskopf, who has been engaged in general practice there since 1919, with special attention to gastro-enterology. Dr. Weiskopf has risen high in his profession and is greatly respected in his com- munity.
He is the son of Michael and Leah (Zimmerman) Weiskopf, the father a merchant, and was born in Russian Poland, March 23, 1894. His early educa- tion was received in the elementary and high schools of New York City. In preparation for his medical career he entered Long Island College Hospital, where he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1917. He served as an interne at the Lebanon Hospital, where he now conducts his gastro-en- terological clinic, of which he is chief, and is on the attending staff of same hospital in medicine and bacteriology. In 1919 he began the general practice of his profession in The Bronx and is rapidly building up a substantial clientele in that borough. Dr. Weis- kopf has been particularly successful with his special- ty 'of gastro-enterology, although he still devotes some time to general medicine. He is a member of the County, State, and National Medical associations.
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