Family Time

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Amy

Of course, doing genealogy means every day is a day of family time. But this week and next will be time with the current members of the family—starting this week with my dear grandson Nate.

He’s been with us all week, and it’s been such a pleasure to be with this wonderful boy. He was my initial inspiration for researching my family’s history. When he was born six years ago, it made me think about the links back in a long chain that didn’t start with his parents, his grandparents, or his great-grandparents. It started long before that, but I knew nothing, or almost nothing, about those earlier generations. I wanted to be able to share their stories with him, but first I had to learn those stories myself.

So here I am, six years later, still working at it and planning to do so until I am done. And as genealogists often say, we are never done. Maybe my grandchildren won’t care about any of this—at least until they have grandchildren. But just in case, I am sticking to it.

The blog may be relatively quiet in the next week or so, though I do have a few things that I am almost ready to post. (And I may also fall behind in reading other blogs, but I will catch up.) My mission is far from complete, so for all those generations to come, I will return to tell the stories of the generations who came before them.

Ray, Arizona: Home of Gertrude and Hettie Schoenthal

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Amy

Some of you may remember that about six months ago I wrote about Gertrude and Hettie Schoenthal, two of the daughters of Simon Schoenthal, brother of my great-grandfather Isidore. Gertrude had married Jacob Miller in 1898 and moved to Arizona. Jacob and his brothers were merchants in the Tucson area. Gertrude’s younger sister Hettie followed her out there around 1906, where she met her husband Henry Stein and eventually settled as well.

Eventually both the Millers and the Steins moved to the small mining town of Ray, Arizona, where they lived for several years before returning to Atlantic City, where most of the members Schoenthal family were still living. Hettie and her son Walter Stein wrote wonderfully descriptive memoirs of their rough and tumble pioneer life in Ray, Arizona. I quoted extensively from their writings in this blog post.

A week ago I was Skyping with Sharon Lippincott, who is married to Ezra Lippincott, grandson of Hettie Schoenthal, and Sharon and Ezra were excited to share with me a photograph that their daughter-in-law had found somewhere on the internet. It is a panoramic view of Ray, Arizona, taken in the time that Hettie and her sister Gertrude were living there. In fact, you can see the Miller Brothers store in the photo if you zoom in to the right side of the picture. Just click, and then click again to zoom in to the photograph to see it more clearly.

Here’s a closeup of the section showing the Miller store:

Both Hettie and Walter described their first house in Ray. Walter wrote:

Our first house was placed on the side of a hill with one door. The back of the house was against the hill. To reach the house you walked up steps that also took care of other householders on the hill. I cannot remember the location of the outhouse. I do remember to bathe, water was heated on the stove and then poured into a galvanized tub that had been placed on the floor.

Hettie’s description is similar:

I will tell you a little about the house. It was up on a hill, just four rooms no bath or toilet. It was terrible. I did not think I could live there, but we did. Your grandfather and a helper built a room and we bought a tub. The pipes had to be on top of the ground. Well, the sun was so hot we had to draw the water and let it stand for hours before bathing.

Can you locate the house in the photograph above? The houses are all to the far right in the panoramic photograph, and I have a guess as to which one was the home of Hettie Schoenthal and Henry Stein and their children. Which one do you think it was? (Look first before looking at my guess at the bottom of this post.)

In my head I am humming the Final Jeopardy theme song.

Here’s my guess:

See the house in the left foreground with the huge cactus in front? I think that’s it. It’s built into the hill, and there is a staircase behind that leads to the other houses. It looks like the outhouse was right in front of the house.

What do you think?

My thanks to Ezra and Sharon Lippincott and their daughter-in-law Carrie for sharing the photograph with me.

Tilda Baer Stone and Her Children: Massachusetts Cousins

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Amy

Like Amanda and Josephine, her two older sisters, Tilda Baer lived a long life (a few months shy of ninety) and outlived her husband by close to twenty years. But she didn’t live in a big city like Philadelphia or New York; she spent her entire adult life in Attleboro, Massachusetts, where she raised her four children.

As written about here, Tilda married Samuel Einstein in about 1907, according to the 1910 census, and their first child, Stephanie, was born in June 1908 in Attleboro. They had three additional children, Samuel, Jr. (1910), Harriet (1913), and Babette (known as Betty, 1919). By 1927, the family name had been changed to Stone, which was the name used by all family members thereafter (until the daughters married and adopted their husbands’ surnames, that is). Samuel was by 1930 the President of Attleboro Manufacturing, and he and Tilda remained in Attleboro for the rest of the lives, living almost all those years at 224 County Street in that town.

Samuel and TIlda Baer Einstein/Stone and children from 1923 passport application
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Roll #: 2295; Volume #: Roll 2295 – Certificates: 304850-305349, 08 Jun 1923-08 Jun 1923

Their daughter Stephanie graduated from the National Park Seminary in Washington and the Garland School of Homemaking. She married “the boy next door” on November 14, 1936—or at least the boy down the street. Her husband was Royal Packer Baker, who was a native of Attleboro like Stephanie and whose family also had lived on County Street (#148) as of 1920. Royal was four years older than Stephanie, and he came from a family with a long history in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Boston Herald, November 15, 1936. p. 61

Royal’s father, Harold Baker, was the owner and co-founder of Attleboro Refining Company, a gold, silver, and copper refining business. According to the website for the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum, which is housed in what was once the Attleboro Refinery Company building:

In 1899, Harold D. Baker and his brother George W. Baker, both of Providence, Rhode Island, formed a partnership to establish the Attleboro Refining Company in Attleboro, Massachusetts. It specialized in the refining of gold, silver and copper byproducts. The refinery followed established refining methods used at that time known as a stripping process. The process dated back to the late 18th Century. Base metals such as copper and zinc were eaten by a compound-acid solution. The precious metals underwent succeeding operations where they were reduced to a certain degree of fineness.

By 1907, however, the Bakers were convinced that better methods were available that would involve lower costs. They experimented with the then-existent electrochemical equipment available and finally succeeded in adapting the ELECTROLYTIC process to jewelers’ scrap. Theirs was the first refinery in New England to do so. The process underwent continuous improvement and development where gold was finally purified to .9991/2 fine and every trace of silver or other precious metal was re-claimed in the chlorination and succeeding copperas processes.[1]

Although his older brother Harold Jr. worked at the family business from the start of his career, Royal started his career taking a different path. He was a graduate of Dartmouth as well as the University of Virginia, according to the wedding announcement. By 1935 he was a lawyer practicing in Attleboro.

According to the 1940 census and their wedding announcement above, like their parents Stephanie and Royal also lived on County Street in Attleboro (#170), and Royal was working as an attorney in private practice. In 1941, their son was born. In 1946, Royal was listed along with his father and older brother Harold Jr. as an owner of Attleboro Refining, but was still practicing law. By 1949, however, he was the treasurer of Attleboro Refining and no longer listed himself as a lawyer in the Attleboro directory. (His brother was now the president of the company; their father had died in 1947.)

Former building of Attleboro Refining Company https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3500/4561405595_a2f6c67d9f_b.jpg

Stephanie’s younger brother Samuel Stone, Jr., graduated from Michigan State University and Babson Institute. In the 1935 Attleboro directory, he is listed as married to “Ruth M” and working as the treasurer of Quaker Silver Company, a company in North Attleboro that manufactured silver products such as flatware, bowls, and salt and pepper shakers.

Ruth M was Ruth Mills, born in Massachusetts on February 5, 1913. Samuel, Jr. and Ruth had two daughters born in the 1930s, according to the 1940 census, which lists Samuel’s occupation as a jewelry manufacturer. On the 1939 Attleboro directory, he is listed as the president of C H Eden Co., another jewelry company originally created by his father in 1901 that was acquired in substantial part by Charles Eden in 1903. (Apparently, Samuel Stone, Sr. and Maurice Baer established a number of separate companies in Attleboro, all engaged in some aspect of jewelry manufacturing.)

By 1946, however, Samuel Jr’s marriage to Ruth had ended as he married his second wife, Marie Eames, on May 1, 1946. Unfortunately, that marriage did not last either as they were divorced in 1952.

By 1956, Samuel, Jr was listed in the Attleboro directory as the president of Swank, Inc., the successor to Attleboro Manufacturing Company, the company his father first founded with his uncle Maurice Jay Baer back in the late 1890s.

As for the two younger daughters of Tilda Baer and Samuel Stone, Sr., Harriet attended the Northampton School for Girls, then Wheaton College, and received a degree from Simmons College. (Cape Cod Times, September 6, 2002, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/100B3AE9F09E0868-100B3AE9F09E0868 : accessed 13 July 2016))

In 1941 she married Lionel O’Keeffe. He was the youngest son of Irish immigrants and was born and raised in Boston. His father had worked in the grocery business, and in 1930 two of his brothers had been working as purchasing agents for First National Stores, a supermarket chain (later known as Finast). Lionel was a graduate of Boston Latin High School and Dartmouth College. (Boston Herald, December 22, 1987, p. 53.)

On the 1940 census, he was living as the head of household in the house at 61 Pond Street in Jamaica Plain, the same house where he and his family had lived when he was a child. But in 1940 he was living there without any other family members, but with a maid. He listed his occupation as an executive of a chain store, which according to his obituary, was First National Stores. The following year he married Harriet.

Lionel enlisted in the military on May 8, 1942, and he and Harriet had their first child five months later in September, 1942. Lionel was discharged from the military on January 3, 1946, having served for the duration of World War II. He and Harriet would have two more children during the 1940s. In 1948 they were still living at 61 Pond Road in the Jamaica Pond section of Boston, the same house where Lionel’s family had lived, and Lionel was working as a buyer, according to the Boston directory for that year. He continued to work for First National Stores for the rest of his career.

The youngest child of Tilda Baer and Samuel Stone was their daughter Babette, also known as Betty. She graduated from the Northampton School for Girls in 1937 and then graduated from Smith College, later getting a Masters in Social Work from Simmons College. In 1944, she married John Saunders Parker, known as Jack. He became a doctor. They would have two children. (Boston Globe, February 21, 2013.)

Samuel Stone, Sr., the father of Stephanie, Samuel, Harriet, and Babette, died on February 4, 1957, when he was 84 years old.

Samuel Stone Sr obit February 5, 1957 Boston Traveler p 58-page-001

Boston Traveler, February 5, 1957, p. 58

His wife, my cousin Tilda Baer Stone, daughter of Amalia Hamberg and Jacob Baer, died on August 2, 1974. She and her husband Samuel are both buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Attleboro, Massachusetts, the place they called home for their entire married life and where they raised their four children, two of whom also spent almost all of their lives in Attleboro.

As for the children of Tilda and Samuel, Stephanie’s husband Royal Baker continued to work as the treasurer of Attleboro Refining for the rest of his career. Then on April 3, 1967, Royal died suddenly at age 62. A year later Attleboro Refining was sold to another company. According to the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum website, “on June 26, 1968, Handy & Harman Refining Group, Inc. purchased the Attleboro Refining Company. In November 1973, Handy & Harman left 42 Union Street for a new facility located on Townsend Road in the “new” Attleboro Industrial Park.” Handy & Harman is still in business today engaged in the recycling of metals.

Stephanie Stone Baker died on March 1, 1993; she was 84.

Her brother Samuel Stone, Jr., died at age 70 on December 28, 1980.

The third child, Harriet Stone O’Keeffe, lost her husband Lionel on December 20, 1987. He was 76 years old. She lived another fifteen years, dying on September 5, 2002, when she was 88. According to her obituary, “Mrs. O’Keeffe lived in Brookline for many years and was active in volunteer work. She spent summers in Hyannisport and moved there year-round in 1973. She enjoyed gardening and bridge. She was a member of the Hyannisport Club, the Oyster Harbors Club and the Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda.” (Cape Cod Times, September 6, 2002, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/100B3AE9F09E0868-100B3AE9F09E0868 : accessed 13 July 2016))

The youngest sibling, Babette, died just three years ago on February 19, 2013, at age 93. Her obituary reported that:

She loved people and was a frequent volunteer in the activities of her children and an outgoing devoted friend to so many. She was an active volunteer in the Wellesley Community including the Service League of Wellesley, the Garden Club of Wellesley and was a past president of the Smith Club of Wellesley. She devoted many hours to the support of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and loved her Investment Club and Bridge Club, as well as her activities at the Wellesley Country Club, Wianno Club, The Country Club and The Moorings and Riomar Clubs of Vero Beach, Florida. She cherished all the interactions with the people that were brought into her life by these varied interests. (Boston Globe, February 21, 2013, located at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?pid=163199572)

I’ve not yet connected with any of the descendants of Tilda Baer and Samuel Stone, but hope to be able to connect with these cousins whose roots are here in Massachusetts where I now live. They are descendants of two people who seemed to have achieved the American dream—Samuel, a German Jewish immigrant who came to the US as a young teenager and became a highly successful jewelry manufacturer, and my cousin Tilda, the daughter of two German Jewish [2] immigrants who grew up in Pennsylvania; she raised four children, all of whom received a higher education and lived their lives in Massachusetts.

[1] There was a bitter dispute between the Baker brothers in 1918, which apparently ended in with Harold as the sole owner of the company. See “Attleboro Receivership Granted for Attleboro Refining Co. Decree Handed down by Superior Court, Wednesday,” Pawtucket Times, April 11, 1918, p. 12.

[2] It seems that at some point Tilda and Samuel and their children became members of the Universalist Church and no longer identified as Jewish.

Another Writer in the Family: Alan Baer Green

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Amy

In many ways the life of my cousin Josephine Baer parallels that of her sister Amanda. As I wrote here, Josephine Baer married Morris Alon Green in January, 1906. Their son Alan Baer Green was born less than eleven months later. They were living in Pittsburgh. In 1918 Morris was an executive with the Crucible Steel Company in Pittsburgh. In 1925, they were living in New York City, and Morris was working as a manager. In 1930, they were still living in New York, and Morris listed his occupation as “financial.” Their son Alan was working in advertising.

In 1931, Alan married Gladys Bun, and they had three sons in the late 1930s. Although Alan continued to work in the advertising field, like his first cousin Justin Baer Herman, he also became a successful writer. As reported in his obituary, Alan wrote “Love on the Run,” which became a movie starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in 1936. It is a screwball comedy about two competing newspaper reporters covering the wedding of a socialite.

He also wrote several other books during the 1930s, primarily mysteries, sometimes written under the pseudonym Roger Denbie (co-written with Julian Paul Brodie), sometimes as Glen Burne (co-written with his wife Gladys).

Alan’s parents are listed in the 1938 directory for Los Angeles, so I thought perhaps they had all moved out to Hollywood, but Alan himself is not listed in that directory. And by 1940, all three were listed as living in New York City in the census.

Josephine Baer and Morris Green 1940 US census
Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: T627_2655; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 31-1349

On the 1940 census, Morris and Josephine were living on East 77^th Street, and Morris was retired. Alan and Gladys and their three sons, ages 2, 1, and eleven months, were living on East 86^th Street. They had two nurses living with them. Alan listed his occupations as “author” and “advertising.”

Alan Baer Green and family 1940 US census
Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: T627_2658; Page: 61B; Enumeration District: 31-1454

During World War II, Alan served on the War Writers Board, a privately established organization that worked with the government to create propaganda to promote the war effort. The US Holocaust Museum had this information about the War Writers Board:

Two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., proposed organizing the nation’s writers as civilians “under arms” to promote the war effort. A month later, a group of prominent American authors formed the Writers’ War Board, a private association partially supported by government subsidy. The board coordinated more than 2,000 writers in diverse activities including slogans, poster contests, syndicated articles, poems, radio plays, dramatic skits, government publications, books, advertisements, and war propaganda. In May 1942 and 1943, the board sponsored anniversary observances of the Nazi book burnings to keep alive the connection between the destruction of books and the consequences of intolerance.

Alan and Gladys had moved to Westport, Connecticut, by 1943, where they would live for more than thirty years. After the war Alan was a founder of the Writers Board for World Government, an outgrowth of the War Writers Board formed to promote peace through a “world federation” of all nations.

In 1950, Alan won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his book, What A Body, which was selected as the best first mystery novel of that year. [1] It is a murder mystery involving a police officer who falls for the niece of the murder victim.

On December 9, 1954, Morris Green died at age 79 in Atlantic City, where he and Josephine were then living. A year later Josephine established a scholarship in his name at the University of Pittsburgh; as reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, although Morris himself did not have much formal education, he “was always devoted to the higher ideals of higher education.”

At some point after Morris’ death, Josephine moved closer to her son Alan in Connecticut. Alan continued to write. One of his best known books, Mother of Her Country, was published in 1973. It was subtitled, “A Comic Novel about Pornography and Censorship.” Kirkus Review wrote the following about it:

A clean joke about porn which doesn’t run to more than one line but tells you something about publishing in general (Mr. Green was around in it for quite some time) and censorship and those not too fine distinctions to be made between words whether they appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary or Macbeth. Laura Conroy, a vestal virgin from the Midwest comes to New York to get a job in the book business which she does — with a small press — to the consternation of her mother who is the Carry Amelia Nation of something called the Americans for Clean Entertainment. There’s a court case and a tacked on coda re a rediscovered journal as to where George Washington might really have slept but the story’s not really much more than a stretcher to fill the space between brou and haha — however cheerful and sensible its reprimand.

Two years later, Alan Baer Green died on March 10, 1975. He was 68 years old. He was survived not only by his wife and three sons, but also by his mother Josephine, who was almost 97 years old.

Josephine died in August, 1975, less than six months after the death of her son.

So how did Josephine’s life parallel that of her sister Amanda? No, she didn’t marry her sister’s widower and raise two nephews. But like Amanda, she raised a son who grew up to be a successful writer. Like Amanda, she survived her husband by many years, 28 for Amanda, 21 for Josephine. Like Amanda, she lived a long life. Amanda was 89 when she died, Josephine was 97.

[1] I am not sure how he qualified for this as it seems he had already written and published several mystery novels by that time, but perhaps those didn’t count for some reason.

The Screenwriter and the Real Estate Mogul

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Amy

This is the story of two boys who lost their mother before they were even four years old and who, despite that tragedy, grew up to be very successful.

As I wrote here, my cousin Hattie Baer died at age 33 in 1910. Hattie and her husband Meyer Herman had had two sons, Justin Baer Herman and Richard B. Herman; Justin was three when his mother died, and Richard was just a few months old. Five years later in 1915, Hattie’s sister Amanda married her brother-in-law Meyer when those boys were still only eight and five years old, respectively.

Meyer was in the clothing business. In fact, according to one cemetery record, he worked for the Snellenburg Clothing Company, a clothing manufacturing company and a department store in Philadelphia.

Meyer Herman and Hattie and Amanda burial

Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Collection Name: Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records

In one of those “small world moments,” I realized that Meyer Herman was working for a company that was owned by the family of another of my relatives: Carrie Snellenburg, who married my great-great-uncle Joseph Cohen, my great-grandfather Emanuel Cohen’s older brother. The twisted family tree creaks one more time.

By 1930 both of the sons of Meyer Herman and Hattie Baer (nephews and stepsons of Amanda Baer) were working, Justin as a newspaper editor, Richard as a real estate salesman. Meyer, Amanda, Justin, and Richard were all still living together in Philadelphia. Justin was 23, Richard 19 at the time of the 1930 census.

Meyer and Amanda Herman and sons 1930 census
Year: 1930; Census Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: 2104; Page: 23A; Enumeration District: 0627; Image: 902.0; FHL microfilm: 2341838

Ten years later Meyer and Amanda were still living in Philadelphia, and Meyer was still working as a clothing salesman. He was 69 years old, Amanda was 58. Justin and Richard were no longer living with them. Both had already established themselves in their chosen careers.

After graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Justin had become a successful writer, cartoonist, and screenwriter. He wrote for The Philadelphia Record as a reporter and also established a magazine, The Town Crier, during the early 1930s. He then moved to New York by 1935, where he was a contributor of poems, short stories, and cartoons to The New Yorker magazine. During that decade he also starting writing screenplays for short films. Between 1934 and 1940, he wrote nineteen screenplays for short films, working for Paramount Pictures. “Justin B. Herman Dead at 76; Writer and Producer of Films,” The New York Times, December 10, 1983. As of 1940, he was single and still living in New York City.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118-124 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, built 1872-75, Frank Furness, architect, William A. Armstrong, builder, National Historic Landmark, 1975. Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy, the oldest art institution in the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Meanwhile, his younger brother Richard was also doing quite well during the 1930s. According to his obituary, Richard “got an early start in the business. He convinced his family and teachers that he was bright, and in elementary school, he was permitted to skip two grades. He entered high school when he was 12, and at 17 was working in real estate for the Lionel Friedman Co. In 1933, at age 23, he founded his own real estate firm. Concentrating on major properties, he built Richard B. Herman & Co. into one of the largest real estate firms in Philadelphia. His forte was real estate investment and management.” “RICHARD B. HERMAN, 71, REAL ESTATE, CIVIC LEADER,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 27, 1982, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/0FBAE8CA0B3A0215-0FBAE8CA0B3A0215 : accessed 5 July 2016).

As of the 1940 census, Richard had married Marion Cohn, and they were living in Philadelphia. Their son was born later that year.

On August 25, 1941, Meyer Herman died from coronary thrombosis at age 70. He had survived the loss of his first wife, Hattie Baer, at a very young age and raised two very young sons in the aftermath of her death before marrying Hattie’s sister Amanda five years later. He must have been very proud of those two sons.

Meyer Herman death certificate
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1963. Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

During the 1940s Justin Baer Herman married Alma Baer (as far as I can tell, the fact that her surname was Baer was coincidental; she does not appear to have been related to Jacob Baer’s family). They would have two daughters. Justin continued to be a successful screenwriter for Paramount. Two of the films he wrote were nominated for Academy Awards in the category of Best Short Subject. According to the Imdb database, he was credited as the writer on 61 films between 1934 and 1955 and as director on 49 of those films, producer on forty. His obituary claimed even higher numbers: “Mr. Herman produced 118 short subjects in 35 years of film making. Three of them were nominated for Academy Awards – ”Life Line to Hong Kong,” ”Roller Derby” and ”Three Kisses.” “Justin B. Herman Dead at 76; Writer and Producer of Films,” The New York Times, December 10, 1983.

Justin Herman
Photo located at http://alchetron.com/Justin-Herman-1349987-W#-

Richard also continued to have success in his career. His obituary reports that:

One of the original developers of Penn Center, he played a major role in the revitalization of Center City. He helped build, and his firm operated, many of the buildings added to the city’s skyline since 1950. … Working in Penn Center, he was responsible for much of its growth through such transactions as the sale for Penn Central of the 16th and Market Street sites on which stand such buildings as the Central Penn National Building. He was also responsible for the sale of the Suburban Station Building to the late Matthew H. McCloskey Jr., and the construction of the IBM Building. When major buildings were placed on the market, he usually was involved – he handled the sale of the Curtis Building, for example. [As of 1971, his company] was responsible for the operation and leasing of more than 30 major office buildings containing 4.5 million square feet of space.

In fact, Richard’s real estate development firm was responsible for building the huge apartment building, The Philadelphian, where my aunt Eva Cohen lived for many years.

“Philadelphia to Have Largest Apartment, Camden Courier Post, Saturday, May 6, 1961, p. 2

The Philadelphian

Unfortunately, Richard suffered a tragedy in his personal life. On February 28, 1953, his nine year old daughter Barbara died from acute cardiac dilatation.

Barbara Herman death certificate
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1963. Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: Luanne, a fellow genealogy blogger, asked what I knew about Barbara’s cause of death, so I asked my brother/medical consultant. He said, “something like viral myocarditis that resulted in cardiogenic shock…would be the most likely diagnosis in a 9 year old. Acute cardiac dilatation isn’t really a diagnosis, it’s a finding or a descriptive term.[It means an acutely enlarged heart.] Rapid onset cardiogenic shock can also be caused by an MI, valve dysfunction, wall rupture and dysrhythmias, but these would be pretty unusual in a 9 year old. It is also possible she had septic shock which, in the end, caused her heart to dilate (enlarge) and fail.” For those (like me) who need a definition of cardiogenic shock, MedlinePlus says, “Cardiogenic shock is when the heart has been damaged so much that it is unable to supply enough blood to the organs of the body.”

Justin and Richard’s aunt and stepmother Amanda Baer died on July 28, 1969; she was 89 years old. She was buried in Mt Sinai cemetery in the same lot as her husband, Meyer Herman, and her sister, Hattie Baer, Meyer’s first wife. Meyer was buried between his two wives, the two Baer sisters.

Mt Sinai cemetery record of burials of Amanda Baer Herman, Meyer Herman, and Hattie Baer Herman

Like Meyer, Amanda must have been very proud of her two nephews, Justin and Richard, whom she had helped raise perhaps even before she had married their father in 1915.

Richard Herman died on June 25, 1982. He was only 72 years old. I have already quoted extensively from his Philadelphia Inquirer obituary, but want to add these additional insights into who he was beyond a highly successful real estate developer:

He was involved in a wide range of activities. … He was vice president and a member of the board of the Medical College of Pennsylvania, a member of the board of trustees of the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, a former chairman of the Easter Seal drive, and served on the board of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

Mr. Herman was a member of the prestigious Committee of 70, and a director of the Philadelphia Museum School of Art and the Franklin Institute. He was former chairman of the nonsectarian National Jewish Hospital in Denver and of divisions of United Fund and United Way drives. He was active in the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

Mr. Herman was the only man to head both the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians simultaneously.

He was a member of the Citizens Council on City Planning and the Germantown Historical Society.

He was a man with an endless curiosity and an I.Q. high enough to make him eligible for membership in Mensa, an organization for the very intelligent. He taught himself art, sculpture and music. He learned to play the organ on his own. He had his own observatory.

His art was displayed in his home and his office, accompanying his collections of such things as pipes. He also collected instruments related to astrology and medicine, children’s toys and signs.

His brother Justin died just one year later on December 3, 1983. He was 76 years old and died of emphysema. “Justin B. Herman Dead at 76; Writer and Producer of Films,” The New York Times, December 10, 1983.

These two men who lost their mother before either was four years old certainly left their mark in their respective fields, one an Oscar nominated screenwriter, the other a highly successful real estate developer and civic leader.

The Jeweler and the Suffragette: Star-crossed Lovers?

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Amy

What would have brought a 71 year old Massachusetts jewelry manufacturer together with a 68 year old suffragette from Birmingham, Alabama?

As I wrote last time, Attleboro Manufacturing, the jewelry company that ultimately supported four of the children of Amalia Hamberg and Jacob Baer, was founded by their oldest child, Maurice Jay Baer. This post tells the story of the rest of Maurice’s life and his mysterious marriage to a woman named Bossie.

Maurice somehow eluded the census taker every decade after 1900, that is, every decade after he moved out of his parents’ home in Pittsburgh. In fact, I am not even sure he was still in their home in 1900 since by then he and his future brother-in-law Samuel Stone had founded Attleboro Manufacturing in Attleboro. And Maurice does not appear on the 1910, 1920, 1930, or 1940 census as best I can tell.

What makes this particularly strange is that he does appear in many directories for the city of Attleboro in the years ranging from 1907 through 1933, and for almost all of the years in which he appears, his residence is 224 County Street in Attleboro. That is also the address he gave on his World War I draft registration form.

Maurice Jay Baer, World War I draft registration Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.

Maurice’s sister Tilda Baer Stone and her husband Samuel Stone (ne Einstein) also were living at 224 County Street in Attleboro, according to the 1920, 1930, and 1940 census records. If Maurice was living at that address with his sister and her family, why wasn’t he included in those census records? Was he hiding from the census enumerator?

Tilda Baer and Samuel Einstein [Stone], 1920 census
Year: 1920; Census Place: Attleboro Ward 2, Bristol, Massachusetts; Roll: T625_681; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 9; Image: 794

Making it even stranger is the fact that there are numerous passenger manifests listing Maurice as a passenger on ships going back and forth to Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, and on a number of those manifests, Maurice gave a New York City address as his residence. Perhaps he had a pied a terre in New York as well as a home in Attleboro, but he doesn’t appear on any census record in New York for those years either.

Maurice Jay Baer 1928 ship manifest with NYC residence
Year: 1928; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 4195; Line: 1; Page Number: 29

Although his absence from census records made it hard to determine whether Maurice had married or had children, I assume that at least until 1945 he had not married. Then on June 19, 1945, Maurice married Julia Hendley in Tryon, Polk County, North Carolina. I know this is the correct Maurice because of the marriage license application identifying the names of his parents:

Maurice Jay Baer and Julia Hendley marriage license, 1945
Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.

The marriage register for Polk County lists Maurice’s residence as New York City and Julia’s as Birmingham, Alabama.

Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.

So who was Julia Hendley? And how did Maurice meet her and decide to get married, presumably for the first time, in 1945?

According to the marriage license application, Julia’s parents were Frank P. O’Bride and Indiana McBride, both deceased as of 1945. But my research suggests that Julia’s father’s name was O’Brien, not O’Bride. For one thing, it just seemed odd to me that the mother’s birth name was McBride and the father’s O’Bride. Plus I could not find a Frank O’Bride in Birmingham, Alabama, but I did find a Frank P. O’Brian married to a Dannie O’Brien on the 1880 census in Birmingham, and Dannie seemed like a possible nickname for someone named Indiana.

1880 census
Year: 1880; Census Place: Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama; Roll: 17; Family History Film: 1254017; Page: 490A; Enumeration District: 075; Image: 0290

That census lists four children of Frank and Dannie O’Brian: Mary, Anna, Margaret, and a fourth daughter named Dannie, born in 1876. The only one who is close in age to “Julia” would be Dannie, as Julia claimed to be 68 when she married in June, 1945, so she would have been born in either late 1876 or early 1877. Could the daughter Dannie be Julia?

I also found Indiana McBride (or McBryde) in other sources, and several trees on Ancestry report that she was married to Frank P. O’Brien (spelled with an E). One tree included a three page biography of Frank O’Brien, saying that his wife was Julia Indiana McBride. Perhaps Dannie, the daughter, had her mother’s full name and also had a first name of Julia that she didn’t use except for legal documents? I contacted the owner of the tree with that biography of Frank O’Brien to ask about the name, and apparently it was written by a now-deceased family member in 1969, and the tree owner did not have any other source for the name Julia for either Frank’s wife or daughter.

I did, however, find a great deal of information online about Frank P. O’Brien. He was a Civil War hero (on the Confederate side) and a beloved mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. The Alabama Pioneers website wrote this about O’Brien:

Frank P. O’Brien was one of the best known and most popular citizens of Birmingham. He born in the city of Dublin, Ireland,. February 29, 1844…. [His family immigrated to Pennsylvania when Frank was a young boy.] Frank P. O’Brien attended school from the age of five until fourteen years of age, when he ran away from home, at which period he began to learn the trade of scenic and fresco painter, under the instructions of the celebrated artist, Peter Schmidt, who secured the second prize for merit at Washington for work in the Capitol buildings. Mr. O’Brien followed his trade until 1874, coming to Montgomery,Alabama, in 1859, with Mr. Schmidt, who had contracted to paint the scenic and fresco work of the Montgomery Theatre. … Mr. O’Brien erected some of the most substantial buildings in the city. … Mr. O’Brien was one of the most enterprising and popular men of the city, and as a manager, through his determination to exclude all companies that did not furnish entertainments of an elevating nature, has established the reputation of Birmingham as one of the best theatrical cities in the South. …. O’Brien was Jefferson County Sheriff from 1896 to 1900. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor against incumbent George Ward in the 1907 mayoral election. He was elected in the 1909 Birmingham mayoral election and served most of one term as mayor, before his death in 1910….. – See more at: http://alabamapioneers.com/biography-frank-p-obrien/#sthash.9DEYGNLZ.dF0taqNz.dpuf

This photo of Frank P. O’Brien appears on the same site:

OBrien-Frank_OBrien1844-Montgomery-and-Jefferson

Frank P. O’Brien

There is more information about his life here.

But was this Frank P. O’Brien the father-in-law of Maurice Jay Baer, my cousin and co-founder of Attleboro Manufacturing? Was Julia Hendley, wife of Maurice Jay Baer, in fact the daughter of Frank P. O’Brien? Was she the daughter identified as Dannie on the 1880 census?

The next clue I found was a listing in the Alabama Select Marriages database on Ancestry for the marriage of Daniell McBryde O’Brien to Oscar R. Hundley on June 24, 1897, in Birmingham, Alabama. It seemed likely that this was the same person as the daughter named Dannie on the 1880 census. Her middle name was the same (albeit spelled with a Y, not an I) as her mother’s birth name on the marriage record to Maurice, and her surname matched her father’s surname.

When I then searched for the actual record on FamilySearch, I saw that the bride’s name was actually Dannie, not Daniell, and thus was convinced that this was in fact the daughter of Frank P. O’Brien and Indiana McBride/McBryde who later married Maurice Jay Baer.

Marriage record for Oscar R. Hundley and Dannie McBryde O’Neil Alabama, County Marriages, 1809-1950,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-34000-18845-98?cc=1743384 : 16 July 2015), 007251058 > image 33 of 649; county courthouses, Alabama

So why did Dannie O’Brien Hundley later marry Maurice Jay Baer using the name Julia Hendley? Since the marriage record for Maurice in 1945 had misspelled the bride’s father’s name as O’Bride instead of O’Brien and the mother’s as McBride instead of McBryde, certainly Hundley might have been misspelled as Hendley. It also recorded Maurice’s age as 65 when he was actually 71. I still was baffled by the bride’s first name, but was now quite sure that the woman who married my cousin Maurice was the daughter of Frank P. O’Brien and Indiana McBryde and had once been married to Oscar R. Hundley.

On the 1900 census, however, Dannie O’Brien Hundley was using yet another first name: Bossie. She and Oscar, a lawyer and for a short time a federal judge, were living in Huntsville, Alabama, with a servant.

Oscar and Bossie OBrien Hundley 1900 census
Year: 1900; Census Place: Huntsville, Madison, Alabama; Roll: 28; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0100; FHL microfilm: 1240028

They would have a daughter Margaret in 1909, and on the 1910 and 1920 census records, Dannie is also named as Bossie (spelled as Bessie in 1920).

Oscar and Bossie O’Brien Hundley

In addition, she is listed in several Birmingham city directories as Bossie O’Brien Hundley. That this had become her legal name (or at least the name she used on all formal and informal documents) is further evidenced by the fact that when Oscar died in 1921, the petition for probate was filed by Bossie O’Brien Hundley.

Probate petition for estate of Oscar Hundley

Petition to Probate Estate of Oscar Hundley Ancestry.com. Alabama, Wills and Probate Records, 1753-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Alabama County, District and Probate Courts.

And Bossie O’Brien was not just the daughter of the mayor of Birmingham and the wife of a federal judge; she was a well-known person in her own right: a woman who fought for the right to vote in the Suffragist Movement in the 1910s. As noted on the BHAM Wiki, a website about Birmingham, Alabama:

[Bossie O’Brien] Hundley joined the Birmingham Equal Suffrage Association soon after it was formed in 1911 and quickly rose to a position of leadership in the group. She became president of the Birmingham Chapter and then legislative chair of the statewide association. In 1914 she organized a petition drive which collected over 10,000 signatures calling for a referendum on women’s voting rights. She and fellow suffragist, Mrs A. J. Bowron, drove across the state on a publicity tour in her Hudson Six. She debated Congressman Tom Heflin in front of a crowd of thousands in Wetumpka. Despite her efforts, the legislature ignored the AESA’s demand for a referendum.

Bossie OBrien Hundley, 1915
http://www.bhamwiki.com/wiki/images/a/a4/Bossie_O%27Brien_Hundley.jpg

The story of her confrontation with Congressman Heflin was described in the Montgomery, Alabama Daily in 1915, and is reprinted here.

Wayne Flynt in his book, Alabama in the Twentieth Century (University of Alabama Press, 2004) p. 260, wrote this about Bossie:

Bossie O’Brien Hundley, daughter of Birmingham’s mayor from 1908 to 1910, was a Catholic graduate of a Kentucky convent school and the wife of a federal judge and a power in the state’s Democratic Party. As chief strategist in the 1915 lobbying effort on behalf of enfranchising women, she sat in the gallery while one legislator after another quoted Scripture to justify denying women the vote. Hundley finally offered a proof text of her own, Psalm 116:11: “All men are liars.”

Bossie sure sounds like someone I would have liked to have known—a strong woman who didn’t back away from confrontation.

But how did she meet my cousin Maurice Jay Baer, a man from Massachusetts?

After her first husband died in 1921, Bossie took several trips to Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Maurice, as noted above, also took numerous trips to Europe during those years. In fact, both traveled to Europe in 1926, 1928, and 1929, although on different ships arriving home in different months. But in October 1930, they were on the same ship returning to New York, listed together on the ship manifest (the last two names on this page):

1930 ship manifest listing both Maurice Jay Baer and Bossie Hundley
Year: 1930; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Microfilm Roll: Roll 4849; Line: 1; Page Number: 183

Were they in fact traveling together? Or had they met on that ship and coincidentally ended up listed one after the other on the manifest? It certainly seems that they knew each other by at least October 1930. But they didn’t marry for another fifteen years.

Bossie continued to live in Birmingham, but by 1940 she moved to Black Mountain, North Carolina, where she was living at the Monte Vista Hotel. What would have prompted the move at that point in her life? Was this a place where she and Maurice could be together?

She married Maurice five years later on June 19, 1945 in North Carolina. Sadly, Maurice died less than a year later on April 25, 1946, in Asheville, North Carolina, from pyelonephritis, that is, a kidney infection. He was 72 years old.

Maurice Jay Baer death certificate
Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.

There are a number of strange things about this death certificate. For one, it reports that Maurice was single, not married. The informant was his brother-in-law, Jerome Grant. Did he not know that Maurice was married? Also, it shows his residence as New York City. Did he and Bossie live together in New York? North Carolina? Or did they live separately?

And Maurice was buried in Philadelphia at Mt. Sinai Cemetery with his parents and brother Alfred and sister Hattie.

Baer headstone, Mt Sinai cemetery
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=142568110&PIpi=135486843

His death notice in the New York Times did not even mention Bossie as one of his survivors, just his siblings.

Maurice Jay Baer death notice
New York Times, April 27, 1946

Maurice must have left a fairly substantial estate. The New York Times reported on May 16, 1946. that a petition had been filed to probate the estate in New York County Surrogate Court and that Maurice had left money to a number of charitable causes and institutions:

New York Times, May 16, 1946, p. 22

I was hoping to obtain a copy of the will, but it appears to be quite costly to do so ($90 just for the court to do a search and then $1.50 per page for photocopying the will if they find it). If I can find a less costly way to obtain the will, I’d be very curious to see whether his will named Bossie as a beneficiary.

Records certainly suggest that Bossie and her family knew about and acknowledged her marriage to Maurice. Bossie lived another twenty years, dying on November 15, 1966, at age ninety. Her death certificate describes her as a widow, and it names Maurice Jay Baer as her husband. She died in Asheville, North Carolina, and at the time of her death had been still residing in Black Mountain, North Carolina, where she and Maurice had married in 1945.

Bossie Baer death certificate
Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.
Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Her obituary describes her as the widow of Maurice Baer.

The Birmingham News, November 16, 1966, p. 26

But she was not buried with her husband Maurice at Mt. Sinai nor with her first husband Oscar Hundley in Alabama. She was buried in Black Mountain, North Carolina, where her daughter Margaret was also living. Margaret was buried there as well when she died a month after her mother.

Photo courtesy of Lori Hager at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=86283517&PIpi=135883493

Something is quite odd about all this. Had Maurice not told his family about his marriage? If not, why not? I don’t know. My best guess is that the religious differences were the issue: Maurice was Jewish, Bossie Catholic. Her family certainly knew she had married him, so was he hiding it from his Jewish family because they might have objected to his marriage to a Catholic woman?

Maurice Jay Baer was an intriguing member of my Hamberg family, an oldest son who started a successful business, a man who appears on no census record after 1900, a man who seemed to have had homes both in New York CIty and Attleboro, Massachusetts, and a man who married late in life, just a year before he died, but whose family seems not have known or at least acknowledged his marriage to a Catholic woman from Alabama who had been an activist in the movement for women’s suffrage.

So many unanswered questions. How did Maurice and Bossie meet? What drew this lifelong bachelor to a woman from such a different background? Where did they live after marrying? Why didn’t his family know about the marriage?

I’m afraid these are questions that are not likely to be answered in official documents or even newspapers, but will remain unanswered. Unless somebody out there either has the answers or some suggestions for where I might find them?

Brotmanblog: A Family Journey

Adventures in Genealogy

Monthly Archives: July 2016

Family Time

Ray, Arizona: Home of Gertrude and Hettie Schoenthal

Tilda Baer Stone and Her Children: Massachusetts Cousins

Another Writer in the Family: Alan Baer Green

The Screenwriter and the Real Estate Mogul

The Jeweler and the Suffragette: Star-crossed Lovers?

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: