USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume III > Part 7
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John A. Mason
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
The Bronx school is celebrated among the Drake Schools for its social atmosphere. All of the students have been brought together in sort of one great family. The Bronx school boasts of a literary so- ciety, holds an annual dance, has its athletic teams and participates in every variety of in-door and out- door sports and track meets, conducts an educa- tional club, and publishes the "Drake School News," edited by the students and alumni of the school. The Drake methods are not an experiment. They have met the demands of business men throughout a long period of years. They are thorough, concise, up- to-date, and every year has seen an increasing demand for Drake graduates. But a school cannot prosper through methods and business men's demands alone; it must be supplemented by efficient management. In this latter the Bronx school has been called fortunate in having for principal-manager Mr. March, an aggressive, interested and competent school man, and one who knows from actual contact what the office requires. He is known as the friend and ad- viser as well as a teacher of the students of the Bronx school. The courses given are business train- ing, office practice, business English stenography (both Gregg and Pitman), typewriting, bookkeeping, accountancy, Spanish, drafting, and French stenog- raphy, salesmanship, advertising and secretarial studies. The school maintains its own employment bureau. The tuition fees are moderate.
Frank D. March, son of Dominick and Mary March, was born in New York City, February 17, 1900. His father, now retired, came from Italy as a boy. The son worked while going through the public schools successively as an office-boy, stenog- rapher, salesman, and then as tour conductor with Thomas Cook & Son, specializing in Bermuda tours. He has the distinction of being the youngest of the Drake School principals. He heads the Drake School Literary Society, and conducts a column in the "Drake School News," of which he is editor- in-chief. He has also served as a member of the editorial staff of the "Fordham Bulletin." He is a member of the Field Artillery Reserve of the United States Army. He holds membership in the Unity Council of the Knights of Columbus, The Bronx Lions Club, Mott Avenue Community Club, and he is a communicant of the Church of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, in The Bronx. He was formerly secretary of the Fordham Merchants' Association, and served on the celebration committee at the opening of the Grand Concourse. He is also a member of The Bronx Board of Trade, and aside from his profes- sional duties displays at all times a fine sense of civic duty. He is unmarried.
DR. JOHN JACOB DECKER-Dr. John Jacob Decker, one of the leading eye, ear, nose and throat specialists of The Bronx, was born in Beverly, New Jersey, July 29, 1873, the son of William J. and Cornelia (Brinkerhoff) Decker. The family moved to New York City while he was very young and he received his early education in the public schools of that city. Later he entered Colgate Academy, and in 1897 was graduated from the Medical Depart- ment of the New York University. In 1900 he
started practice in the Tremont neighborhood of The Bronx, but for the past three years has been located in the Areco Building, No. 391 East One Hundred and Forty-ninth Street. Dr. Decker is surgeon of the Harlem Eye and Ear Hospital, consulting oph- thalmologist to the Home for Incurables, oculist and aurist for the Home for Aged of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and is a past president of The Bronx County Medical Society, and of the Medical Society of the Borough of The Bronx. During the World War he served his country on the medical advisory board of The Bronx. His fraternal affil- iation is with Guiding Star, No. 565, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and his religious connection is with the Tremont Baptist Church.
Dr. John Jacob Decker married, June 29, 1898, in New York City, Jessie Gilbert Fairbanks, daugh- ter of Isaac and Mary Fairbanks. Dr. and Mrs. Decker are the parents of three children: Katharine, born June 8, 1899; Richard, born November 5, 1902; and Jean, born June 4, 1912. The family residence is No. 1966 University Avenue.
JOHN ALFRED MASON-Political affairs of the Democratic complexion in the State of New York have received for many years an influence, both strong and intimate, from the actively constructive part played in many a hard-fought campaign and from the ably administered offices held by John Alfred Mason, now a resident of The Bronx, and Com- missioner of Jurors, long a conspicuous and powerful figure in Democratic councils, both State and Na- tional. As a journalist in two cities of the State for a number of years, he was a strong and loyal supporter of the Democratic party's policies and candidates; he is a former supervisor of Orange County, many times delegate to Democratic State and National conventions; a chief officer of the Demo- cratic State Committee, a former deputy collector of customs at the Port of New York; a former member of the New York State Board of Assessors; a former collector of internal revenue; a former secretary to the Governor of the State of New York, and a former member of the Government on the Borough of The Bronx. Thus he has contributed most of his life and the greater proportion of his attention and energy to the welfare of his party. He is held in high esteem for his political integrity and sagacity, and now, having passed his threescore years and ten, he is looked upon as one of the elder sages of his party.
John Alfred Mason was born in Batley Carr, York- shire, England, May 6, 1855, the son of William and Sarah (Hargraves) Mason, both natives of that village. He was a pupil of the Batley Carr local schools until he was nine years old, and at that age, being unable to resist longer the smell of printer's ink, he became an apprentice to the trade, and served his master without compensation during his bound period. Eventually he received the "munificent" wage of three shillings per week, and at the end of four years on that job he was receiving four shillings a week. He then was thirteen years old, and he had a vision of New World opportunities that distance could not dim. He came to the United States and at once settled in Newburgh, New York, where he was given employment at his trade, his wage being
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
five dollars per month, with board. For one year he continued in that position, acquiring a knowledge of American methods as applied to the printing business, and keeping his eyes open for a chance to better his condition. He next went to Goshen, New York, and went to work for Herbert P. Kimber, who had bought the "Goshen Independent Repub- lican." Mr. Mason's affairs were looking up a bit; his salary was twenty dollars a month, plus his board. He was enabled to fortify his hope of ful- filling his ambition for an addition to his education. While working for Mr. Kimber he practiced close economy and out of his meager wage saved the sum of two hundred dollars. This amount was one-half of the tuition fee of four hundred dollars for one year's study at the Hudson River Institute at Claver- ack, New York, and he had a strong desire to attend that school without further delay. Here is where his resourcefulness and business acumen were brought into play; by paying down the two hundred dollars of his savings and entering into an agreement to do the school's printing for a specified period, he was enabled to take his place as a student at the institute for one year. The "Fourth Estate" con- tinued to exert its grip upon him, and at the end of his period at school, he found himself a printer and writer on the "Portchester (New York) Journal." He remained in that connection for eight months, and then returned to Newburgh, having been offered the editorship of the "Newburgh Mail," a newly- established daily newspaper. His salary was ten dollars per week. Later he became associated with his former employer and old friend, Herbert P. Kim- ber, and with him founded the "Newburgh Daily Register." Together they merged the "Mail" and the "Register," under the latter title. This paper became the leading Democratic medium in Orange County, New York. Mr. Mason's association with Mr. Kimber continued pleasant, profitable and with- out interruption until the latter's death, upon which Mr. Mason became the sole owner and editor.
Journalism and political activity, as has been true of so many newspapermen, early began to be most efficient handmaids of Mr. Mason's career. While loyally supporting his own party, he added to his personal prestige, and soon began to take his place in the public service, for which, as time proved, he was naturally adapted. In 1879 he was elected on the Democratic ticket a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors from the Second Ward . of Newburgh, in those days a Republican stronghold. This remarkable victory was accomplished on a ma- jority of ninety-seven votes, as against three hundred Republican majority for candidates of that party for alderman. He made a good record in office, and could have had a renomination, but declined the offer. In the fall of 1879 he was elected one of the three delegates from the First Assembly District of Orange County to the Democratic State Conven- tion at Syracuse, New York, whose proceedings were fraught with great import to the Democrats of this State. That was the convention which renominated Lucius Robinson for Governor, and made memorable by the bolting of Tammany Hall under the leadership of John Kelly. Mr. Mason was either a delegate to, or an officer in, every Democratic State Conven-
tion from 1879 until 1914, in which year that form of political assembly was abolished. During that period he rose to a position of great influence within his party, and a power to be reckoned with in its de- liberations and the framing of its policies and execu- tion of its campaigns. In the State campaign of 1895 he was chairman of the executive committee of the New York State Democratic Committee, and from that year until he was appointed Commissioner of Jurors of Bronx County, he served as secretary and executive officer of the Democratic State Com- mittee. As a member of the New York State delega- tion he attended the Democratic National Convention, held in 1884, which nominated Grover Cleveland for President. He was a delegate to every succeeding Democratic National Convention, including that in 1912.
Recognition of political services so effectively ren- dered began to be bestowed upon Mr. Mason soon after Grover Cleveland was installed in the presi- dency. In 1885, at the request of President Cleveland, Secretary of the Treasury Daniel Manning, and Colo- nel Daniel S. Lamont, secretary to the President, Mr. Mason accepted the appointment of deputy col- lector of customs at the Port of New York, his special task being the formulation of rules for the establishment of civil service procedure in the making of appointments and promotions at the Port of New York. In order to execute this commission, he changed his residence from Newburgh to New York City, where he has since made his home. In 1889 he resigned his position as deputy collector, and again yielded to the lure of his first love, the news- paper business. He participated actively in that field, taking over the plant and good will of the "Harlem Local Reporter," a semi-weekly publication issued from East One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Street, Manhattan, New York City. He also continued to pub- lish and edit the "Newburgh Daily Register" until 1891, when he sold that paper and began to devote all his attention to the "Harlem Local Reporter." Polit- ical honors continued to come to him-this time from his home State. In 1892 Governor Roswell P. Flower appointed him a member of the New York State Board of Assessors, which position he held for about four years, during which time he was the means of inaugurating marked changes in the method of assessing the State tax, which accomplished the sav- ing of two million dollars to the city of New York alone. In the latter part of 1895 (his term as assessor expiring in January, 1896), he was appointed by President Cleveland as collector of internal revenue for the Second District, which position he held until the latter part of 1898.
In 1901 he suffered a severe loss when fire destroyed the building in which was housed the "Harlem Local Reporter." So complete was the loss, that Mr. Mason did not attempt the resumption of publication, and he withdrew from the newspaper field. In 1893 he established his residence in The Bronx, and in 1902 he was appointed to a position in the Bronx Borough Government under President Louis F. Haf- fen. Following the New York State campaign of 1910, in which he was the executive officer of the State Committee, he accepted from John Alden Dix, the newly-elected Governor, the appointment as Sec-
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
retary to the Governor. This position he held until the expiration of Governor Dix's term in 1912. While serving as Secretary to the Governor, he strongly advocated the passage of the bill providing for the erection of Bronx County, and used his good offices with the Governor for the affixing of his signature to the bill, which was enacted into law. In 1913 he was appointed to the office of Commissioner of Jurors in Bronx County, and still holds that position.
Mr. Mason is a communicant of St. Ann's Protes- tant Episcopal Church of Morrisania, New York City, and for a number of years has been a vestryman and warden of that church.
John Alfred Mason married, in 1877, in Newburgh, New York, Georgianna L., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis A. Niver of that city. Children: 1. J. Warren T. Mason, for several years the American correspondent of the "London Daily Express," and a writer of note on philosophical subjects. Harper Brothers are the publishers of his new book, "Creative Freedom." He married Edith Halbert, daughter of Captain Halbert of London, England. They have one daughter, Margaret Edith Halbert Mason, born in 1904, graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University, 1925, and now taking a post-graduate course in philosophy at Newnham College, Cam- bridge University, England. 2. Hudson N. Mason, died in 1918.
HARRY ALFRED REICHARDT-Among the men identified with the banking world of The Bronx, few are better known than Mr. Reichardt, who, by the force of his character, plus commendable ambi- tion, great industry and personal integrity, has blazed the trail that leads to reward and distinction. By meritorious service he has become the manager of one of the most important branch banking houses in the borough. Mr. Reichardt has the will power, coupled with a native ability and a high sense of honor, that served him in the battle of life. He has, too, those qualities which spell success in the banking field. He is a man of excellent judgment, accurate and keen of penetration, a good judge of character in others, great ability and highly developed industry, and he is positive and incisive but deferen- tial. These qualities together constitute a man of fine mental balance and poise. He has always com- manded the highest respect because he merits it. He has never shirked a duty nor sought a reward for its performance.
Harry Alfred Reichardt, son of Joseph and Martha (Silber) Reichardt, was born in the Borough of Manhattan, New York City, on Avenue A at Tenth Street, March 29, 1888. His father was born in Erfurt, Germany, in 1852, and died in New York City in 1917. His mother, who is living, was born in Posen, Germany, in 1868. The son was educated successively in public school at Carlstadt, New Jer- sey; at high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then at Packard's Business College. Finally, he was graduated at La Salle Institute, Chicago, Illinois. He began a business career when he was nineteen years old as assistant bookkeeper for John C. Wilson & Company, hat manufacturers on Waverly Square, New York City, where he remained for ap-
proximately one year and a half. He then transferred his affiliation to the banking world, entering the New York Produce Exchange National Bank, Broad- way and Beaver Street, as a bookkeeper. After two and a half years there he accepted a position with The Bronx National Bank of the city of New York. Beginning as bookkeeper, he was ad- vanced to receiving teller, and later to the joint post of paying teller and general bookkeeper. He was then appointed manager of the Branch Bank at No. 32 Westchester Square, The Bronx, familiarly known as the "Westchester Square Branch," a posi- tion he still retains. He is a member of the Wood- men of the World, and of the Marion Masonic Lodge in The Bronx, and he is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Harry Alfred Reichardt married (first), September 3, 1913, Martha Gardner, daughter of Simon and Matilda (Kirchof) Gardner, of New York City. Martha (Gardner) Reichardt died, August 29, 1917. The child of Harry Alfred and Martha (Gardner) Reichardt, Doris, was born April 12, 1917. Harry Al- fred Reichardt married (second), August 16, 1919, Augusta C. Bothner, daughter of Charles and Lena (Krebs) Bothner.
HAROLD CONRAD PEDERSEN-Throughout his interesting career as a manufacturer and an in- ventor in gold and silver-smithing, Harold Conrad Pedersen, both by his practical enterprise and his valuable innovations, has benefited the various con- cerns with which he has been associated, and has therewith rendered a progressive service to the firm that bears his name. He is one of the leading ex- perts in a trade and a business in which he has engaged throughout the larger part of his active life, and the results of his mechanical ingenuity are everywhere known in the world of invention and utility.
Harold Conrad Pedersen, son of Hans Pedersen, farmer and whaler of Tansberg, Norway, and of Karen (Nelsen) Pedersen, was born March 21, 1878, in Tansberg, Roren, Norway, where he was gradu- ated at a private school. As a boy, he went to work on his father's farm, and then began serving ap- prenticeship in the blacksmith trade when he was but sixteen years old. After about a year, he decided to learn the machinist's trade, and after serving four years as an apprentice in a machine shop, he con- tinued with that concern four more years during summer months, while in the winter he followed the hazardous and thrilling vocation of the whale fishery in the North Sea.
Coming to the United States, Mr. Pedersen settled in New York City, where he entered the employ of Wood & Chadlier, gold and silversmiths, on Twenty-first Street, near Broadway, and he remained with that firm two and a half years, this being his first venture upon those activities that were to con- stitute his vocation. He then accepted a position with Sweetser & Company, at No. 31 West Thirty- first Street, New York City, this association continu- ing four and a half years, and during the following nine years he worked for Seenfinn & Thomas, No. 71 Nassau Street. Mr. Pedersen then entered into part- nership with Joseph Frankel (see following biog-
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THE BRONX AND ITS PEOPLE
raphy), and established the present firm of Peder- sen & Frankel, gold and silversmiths, in 1919, opening their factory in The Bronx at No. 1060 Stebbins Avenue, where they continue. Mr. Pedersen is the inventor of the cigarette case that is now sold all over the world, with the small tubes in the centre for holding each cigarette, that keeps loose tobacco from falling away from each cigarette, and prevents the cigarette from breaking up. He is a master in his line of work, and a finished, all-around mechanic.
Harold Conrad Pedersen married, January 27, 1900, in Tansberg, Norway, Olufine Marie Broberg, daugh- ter of Otto and Marie (Landin) Broberg. Their children are: Ruth Pedersen, born in Tansberg, Norway; Ebba Pedersen, born in The Bronx; Henry Olof Pedersen, also born in The Bronx. He owns the home at No. 833 Panfield Street, The Bronx.
JOSEPH FRANKEL-For almost two decades connected with the jewelry trade, Mr. Frankel first entered this business right after he left school as a boy of thirteen years, then served a long and thorough apprenticeship with a well -known Maiden Lane firm, and finally established himself in the jewelry manufacturing business as a member of the firm of Pedersen & Frankel, with factory and offices at No. 1060 Stebbins Avenue, The Bronx, their es- tablishment being the only one of its type in The Bronx.
Joseph Frankel was born in Odessa, Russia, January 4, 1895, a son of Herman and Eva (Kreek) Frankel, both natives of Odessa, where his father was born in 1862 and his mother in 1870. His parents came to the United States when he was three years old and settled at No. 49 Essex Street, in the lower East Side of Manhattan. There his father established himself in the tobacco business in which he continued for many years. However, when the movement from this overcrowded section of Manhattan to the wider space of The Bronx began, his parents were among the first to seek improved living conditions for them- selves and their family and they moved to The Bronx while he was still a child. His father con- tinued with his business in its downtown location until the time of his death, which occurred in New York City in 1909, his wife surviving him only a short time, dying in 1910.
Joseph Frankel was educated in the public schools of The Bronx, being a pupil of Public School No. 42, at Claremont Parkway and Washington Avenue. He left school when he was only thirteen years old and began work in the employ of the jewelry firm of Charles B. Byron, No. 291 Seventh Avenue, Man- hattan, where he remained for one year. He then secured a position with Schanfein & Tamis, manu- facturing jewelers, No. 38 Maiden Lane, continuing in their employ for nine years. It was there that he laid the solid foundation of his knowledge of the jewelry craft and business in all its branches, a foundation on which he has built in later years to such good purpose that today he is considered one of the leading members of his trade. Serving with this firm a well-balanced apprenticeship in the art of gold and platinum smithing, he has become a finished artist in all branches of jewelry crafts-
manship. In 1918 he decided to go into business for himself and for that purpose formed a partner- ship with Harold C. Pedersen (see preceding biog- raphy), like himself a thoroughly trained jeweler and artist. The new firm, operating under the name of Pedersen & Frankel, established their factory and offices at No. 1060 Stebbins Avenue, The Bronx, where they have continued since then, meeting with immediate success which has steadily grown as the years passed by.
Mr. Frankel is a member of Lebanon Lodge, No. 191, New York City, Free and Accepted Masons. He remains unmarried and makes his home at No. 1813 Crotona Avenue, The Bronx.
THOMAS ALOYSIUS MAHER- Among the leaders of men who followed to New York in the train of Anthony Nicholas Brady a generation ago, a group which included John A. McCall, president of the New York Life, and Edward McCall, Justice of the Supreme Court, was Edward A. Maher, whose son, Thomas Aloysius Maher, is Chief Deputy Regis- ter of The Bronx. Edward A. Maher was mayor of Albany for one term before he came to the Metropolis. He served his native city with con- spicuous success, and lived there about half of the span of seventy years allotted to him, for he was born in 1848 in Albany, and died September 12, 1920, in New York City. He was married to Jennie Tiernan, who also was born in Albany in 1848, and died in New York on October 26, 1910. For eighteen years Edward A. Maher was president of the Union Railway Company, and when that road was merged with the Third Avenue Railway Company he became vice-president, and afterwards president of the Third Avenue Company. He resigned as president in 1918, and retired from active life. Edward A. Maher, Jr., is counsel to the Third Avenue Railroad Com- pany, and a man of influence in railway circles in New York City.
Thomas Aloysius Maher was born May 6, 1870, in Albany, New York. He attended the public and high schools of Albany, from which he was gradu- ated in 1889. He forthwith entered the Park Bank in Albany as a messenger, being nineteen years of age. After continuing this connection for two years he entered the South End Bank in Albany as book- keeper, remaining one year. He came to New York City in 1892, and accepted the post of chief clerk in the office of the Union Railway Company. At the same time he was secretary of the Southern Boulevard Railway Company. He continued to serve in these two positions until 1898 when he was ap- pointed deputy city clerk of the Borough of The Bronx. He was the first to hold the office which he assumed at the time the Borough of The Bronx was erected under the charter of the Greater New York. After one and one-half years in this office he became the manager of the New York offices of the Pennsylvania and West Virginia Coal Company, continuing until 1901, when he accepted the ap- pointment of clerk of the Municipal Court, second district of The Bronx. This post he held until January 1, 1914, when he was appointed Deputy Register, and subsequently Chief Deputy Register, a position he continues to hold. Mr. Maher is a
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