Henry Christian MULLER

Born in the Bronx, New York City, October 23, 1860, Henry Christian Muller is a son of Christian and Marie Muller. He received his academic instruction in the public schools of New York City, and without delay obtained a position with the Steinway piano factory of Astoria, Long Islane. From 1895 to 1899 he was employed in the tax office, Long Islane city, as searcher of records; and it was at this point that his career as tax searcher began. Shortly before the turn of the century, Mr. Muller started in business for himself as tax searcher, with offices in Court Square, Long Islane City, and during the years that have succeeded he has created what is generally considered the largest business of his kind on the country. The business was incorporated in 1923, and Mr. Muller is president; Charles I. Duke, Secretary; Edward E. Parbst, Treasurer. In his office are more than ninety thousand records of title research. Among Mr. Muller's hundred of current clients are the New York Title and Mortgage Company; Long Islane Title & Guaranty Company; Home Title Insurance Company, the National Title Guaranty Company, the Empire Title Guaranty company, and many of the leading lawyers of the State of New York.

While Mr. Muller has thus been busily occupied with matters of his career, he has not neglected other affairs. In all movements supported by good citizens he is active. Fraternally, he is an outstanding member of the Knights of Pythias, Lodge No. 228, Long Islane City, in which he has held all chairs. He was a charter member of the Long Islane City Lodge, having entered it in 1886. Mr. Muller is one of the founders of the Reformed Church, of Winfield, Long Islane, which was organized in 1907. In it he has served as elder and treasurer.

On April 27, 1886, Mr. Muller was united in marriage with Louise Kastner, who died March 12, 1912. He married (second), June 6, 1913, Matilda Doepel, sister of his first wife. To the first union were born five children: 1. Harry Christian, born in 1888, died February 20, 1920. 2. Charlotte Pauline, born in 1890, wife of William H. Roden, and they have three children; Henry W., born 1916; William H., born 1918; Audrey N., born 1921. 3. Matilda Catherine, born in 1891; married E. E. Parbst, died December 19, 1924; they had two children, Edwin, born June 25, 1914, and Raymond, born in 1917. 4. Rose Margaret, born in 1900; married to William T. Gerbe; two children William T., born 1922m Ruth Arline, born 1926. 5. Adele Louise, born in 1903, married Charles I. Duke.

ARTHUR LEONARD ANDREWS

Engaged in the practice of law in Albany for almost half a century, Mr. Andrews is considered one of the leaders of the New York bar. For the last quarter of a century he has practiced his profession independently under his own name, with offices located at No. 452 Broadway, Albany. He is a director and an executive officer of many of the large corporate interests of which he is the counsel, and his practice is one of the largest and most important in Albany. In spite of the heavy demands which his legal activities have made for many years upon his time and energy, he has found it possible to give much attention to public affairs and to the fraternal, social and religious life of the community, and he has also been actively connected for many years with several of the leading educational institutions of New York's capital. There he enjoys to an unusual degree the respect and confidence of wide circles and is considered one of the most representative, useful and substantial citizens.

Arthur Leonard Andrews was born in Marion, Iowa, April 16, 1855, a son of the late Dr. George and Julia Ann (Hooker) Andrews, the former for many years a successful practicing physician to the time of his death in 1895, the latter, a native of Charlton, Massachusetts, surviving her husband for two yeas until 1897. He was educated at Westfield, Massachusetts, High School, from where he went to Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, graduating there in 1875 with a degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the meantime, he had taken up the study of law in the offices of Stedman & Shepard, one of the leading law firms of Albany. Admitted to the bar in September, 1877, he established himself in the practice of his profession in the same year in association with D. A. Thompson under the firm name of Thompson & Andrews, an arrangement which continued until 1885. In the latter year, Mr. George L. Stedman became a member of the firm, the name of which was changed at that time to Stedman, Thompson & Andrews. Mr. Stedman retired from the firm in 1896, and his two partners resumed the old name of Thompson & Andrews, under which they continued to practice until 1902. In that year, the partnership was dissolved, and since then Mr. Andrews has carried on his large practice without a partner and under his own name. He is director and the general counsel of the National commercial & Trust Bank of Albany, a director of the consolidated Car Heater company, and of the Versare Car heater company, secretary of the Tioga Fuel Corporation, secretary of the anthracite Mining corporation, president of the South Texas Development Corporation, and a director or executive officer in a number of other corporations. During the war he was government appeal agent in connection with the national draft for the district of Albany. In politics he has always been a staunch supporter of the Republican party and its principles and for many years he was effectively active and one of the principle figures in local politics. He enjoys the distinction of having served as corporation counsel of Albany for twenty-one years, from January 1, 1900, to December 1, 1920, no other incumbent of this important office ever having held it for so long a term. Governor Levi P. Morgan appointed Mr. Andrews as a member of a committee of five, entrusted with the difficult and important task of preparing a new and important charter for cities of the second class, and Governor Charles E. Hughes appointed him a member of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission. He is a member of the American Bar Association; the New York State Bar Association, of which he served as secretary; and the Albany County Bar Association, of which he was one of the founders and incorporators and which he has served as president. During his college days he became a member of Psi Upsilon Fraternity, and he also distinguished himself to such an extent in his studies that he was elected a member of the honorary fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa, while later in life he became associated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the various Masonic bodies up to and including the thirty-second degree, and Masters Lodge, No. 5, Free and Accepted Masons (as well as the Cyprus Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine), of which latter he is Senior Warden. His clubs include the Fort orange, Albany, Albany City, University, Capital City, Unconditional Republican and several other clubs. His religious affiliations are with the Presbyterian church, and more particularly with Westminster Presbyterian Church, of Albany, in the affairs of which he has always taken a leading part, having been president of its board of trustees for fifteen years.

Mr. Andrews married, in Albany, September 4, 1879, Alice Anable, of Albany, a daughter of Samuel and Phoebe (Badgley) Anable. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews are the parents of one son, Harold F., a graduate of Yale University, class of 1926, with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy; married and father of four children.

EDWARD MONAHAN

Holding the important position of city recorder and judge of the Johnstown Municipal Court, which post he has occupied for a score of years, Edward Monahan truly can be designated as one of Fulton County's prominent citizens. Mr. Monahan has attained his present responsible office after many years of close and unremitting attention to his duties as a railroad man on the local lines.

Mr. Monahan was born in Albion, Oswego County, March 8, 1865, the son of Edward and Matilda (Waldby) Monahan, the former a native of Albion, Oswego county, and prominent farmer of that section who had been formerly in the employ of the New York Central Railroad.

The early education of Mr. Monahan was obtained in the public schools of Albion, after which he took a course of two years in the Pulaski academy, followed by one year in the Albany Law School. He even took a position in the ticket department of the New York Central, and quickly worked his way up to the post of ticket agent and telegraph operator on the New York Central lines, after working as agent for ten years for the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad. He was at Fonda for the New York Central for four years, and then was appointed assistant ticket agent at Albany, which post he held for seven years until, in 1908, he was elected recorder and judge of the Johnstown City Court. During the World War, Mr. Monahan was very prominent in all drives for the Liberty Loan and Red Cross projects. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is an active member of the Fulton County Historical Association.

On June 13, 1894, Mr. Monahan married Mary Jones, daughter of Michael and Bridget (Lynaugh) Jones, the former a native of Fermanagh County and the latter of County Mayo, Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Monahan are the parents of five children, as follows: 1. Mae, born in 1895. 2. Edward, Jr., born in 1897. 3. William Floyd, born in 1899. 4. Albert, born in 1901. 5. Carol, born in 1903.

EBERHARD FABER

It is a far cry from the little eighteenth century workshop, crude materials and primitive methods of Casper Faber, a pioneer pencil maker of Bavaria, to the refined materials, highly developed complex machinery and specialized technic in the scientifically organized pencil factory of Eberhard Faber, his New York descendent I the twentieth century. Not only the United States, but the world owes much to the Faber family for the present-day perfection of this universally used and indispensable tool of modern life. Probably no other family has been engaged continuously for so long a period--one hundred and sixty-seven years--in the manufacture of lead pencils. Each generation in turn has been both progressive and aggressive, taking its inheritance of technical knowledge and skill and by its own research, experimentation, industry and inventive genius building upon the solid foundations laid by its forebears higher developments, each a decided advance in volume as well as in quality over that of its predecessor. In this country the history of the Faber family may be said to be the history of pencil making. Eberhard Faber, the father of our subject, was one of that large number of Germans who left the turbulent Fatherland in 1848 and sought a haven and opportunity in America. And the debt this country owes to the newcomers of that race and time is past computation. Many of them fought to preserve the Union a few years later, and in times of peace they have been constructive forces in every phase of economic, social and cultural activity.

The Faber family is one of ancient lineage in Bavaria, where the name appears as early as 1623. Three of that name were raised to the nobility by Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria. One of these, Johann Faber, was a physician in ordinary to the elector of Bavaria, and family tradition says he was the ancestor of the family of lead pencil manufacturers. The first ancestor of the family of whom there is definite record in America was Casper Faber. In 1761 he was engaged in making lead pencils in the village of Stein, near the city of Nuremberg. Apparently, the industry had been established by an earlier generation of the family. He had a son, Anthony William Faber, who grew up in the business, finally succeeding to it and passing it on to this son, George Leonard Faber. He had three sons: Johann Lothar, Johann George, and Johann Eberhard, the latter of whom was born in the village of Stein on December 6, 1822. He attended the Volks-Schule, prepared for college at an academy, and matriculated in the University of Heidelberg for the study of law. But before completing that course, he decided that a commercial career would be more to this liking, and that the United States was the field offering the best opportunities. As already stated, he came here in 1848, and the following year, having gotten his bearings, as it were, he opened a store for the sale of lead pencils and other stationery items at No. 133 William Street, New York City. In 1877 he removed his place of business to Nos. 718-720 Broadway, which was well uptown in those days. It need hardly be said that the venture prospered from the beginning, for the founder of the business possessed those qualities and attributes that win success in any field--knowledge of his business, industry, honesty and thrift. Mr. Faber discovered that this country produced a quality of red cedar most admirably adapted to lead pencil requirements, and as early as 1852 he began to export red cedar logs to the Faber pencil factories in Stein. But Mr. Faber was ambitious; a degree of success in merchandising that would have made many men complacent and dissatisfied, had in his case the effect of spurring him on to broaden the scope of his enterprise. Accordingly, he opened in 1861 the first lead pencil factory in this country. It was located along the East River, between Forty-first and Forty-third Streets, New York City. When he first went into business he dropped his first Christian name, and so from the beginning to the present time the business has been conducted under the name of Eberhard Faber. In addition to the qualities already enumerated, Mr. Faber was also possessed of splendid mechanical ability and inventive genius. He improved old machines and designed new ones. He introduced the rubber tip now so generally used on pencils. He designed the metal tip to protect the point of the pencil when not in use. He had early added the manufacture of pen holders to that of pencils an he was the first manufacturer to nickelplate the metal parts of these.

In 1872, the plant in New York City was destroyed by fire; but nothing daunted, Mr. Faber immediately set about the erection of a new factory. He chose a site on Kent and West streets in the Greenpoint district of Brooklyn. The new plant was the last work in modern design, construction and equipment, and was built with a view to expansion Mr. Faber was not disappointed, for he lived to see his plant the largest of the kind in the country; for by this time he was not without the competition that the success of a pioneer is sure to inspire. One indication of his forethought was his insuring the control of large acreages of cedar trees in Florida and other southern points, and the establishment of a sawmill at Cedar keys, Florida, where the logs were worked up into sizes that could be shipped with the greatest economy and handled most efficiently in the Brooklyn plant. He made the name of Faber known all over the world, and in his death on march 2, 1879, the State of New York lost a pioneer manufacturer, a citizen of the finest type who was ever mindful of his civic responsibilities, a man whose straightforward business methods, breadth of mind, keen discernment and warm sympathies had won the highest esteem and made an indelible impress upon his time.

On July 1, 1854, Eberhard Faber married Jenny Haag, who was born November 23, 1836, in Munich, daughter of Ludwig and Johanna (Mangstel) Haag, members of old Bavarian families. From this union six children were born: 1. Bertha, born April 11, 1856. 2. Sophia, born August 14, 1857. 3. John Eberhard, of whom further. 4. Lothar W., born September 27, 1861. 5. Louise, born January 2, 1866. 6. Rosie, born February 3, 1871.

John Eberhard Faber was born in New York City, March 14, 1859. His elementary education was received in the public and in private schools, after which he matriculated in Columbia University for a two years' course in civil and mining engineering as a member of the class of 1878. This was followed by a year of intensive study in his father's plant and then he went abroad to Nuremberg to absorb any ideas in connection with such lines of merchandise as were produced in the Faber plant that could be adopted at home. Young Faber also studied for a time in Paris; but his visit to Europe was cut short by the fatal illness of his father. The death of his father threw upon his young shoulders the responsibilities of chief executive. He was not dismayed, however, but applied himself with courage, confidence and determination, and quickly proved himself a worthy scion of the Faber family tree. Like his father, he dropped his first Christian name, when he took charge of the business, thus continuing the name of Eberhard Faber, which had come to mean so much to the stationery trade. Under his ambitious direction and youthful aggressiveness the business received a fresh impetus and expanded at a rapid pace. A few years after he assumed control of the business, Mr. Faber admitted his brother, Lothar, W., to partnership and when, in 1898, the business was incorporated as the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, Lothar W. Faber became president and the elder brother vice-president and treasurer. Some idea of the growth of the business may be gained from the fact that the business was incorporated for $250,000 and is now capitalized for $4,000,000. In 1898, the Eberhard Faber Rubber Company, of Newark, New Jersey, was incorporated, and Eberhard Faber has been president from the beginning. The plant in Brooklyn is devoted chiefly tot he production of pencils, penholders, etc., that in Newark specializes in the manufacture of rubber erasers and rubber bands. Most of these products are turned out by ingenious automatic machinery, reducing the amount of human labor required to a minimum; yet, employment is furnished to more than a thousand people. The products of these plants go all over the world. For many years Eberhard Faber has given his attention principally to the marketing phase of the business.

In noting Mr. Faber's many affiliations and interests outside his business, one can but marvel that a single individual can find time for even a part of them. He is the director of the Northern Insurance Company, and the Sterling Salt Company. His memberships include the Merchants' Association of New York City; New York City Board of Trade and Transportation; the American Institute of New York, one of the oldest business organizations in the city. Mr. Faber is president of the United States Trade Mark Association and president of the Pencil Manufacturers' Association; member of the New York State Chamber of Commerce; United States Chamber of Commerce; International Chamber of Commerce; Rubber Association of America; National Association of Stationers; and the Stationers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland. Mr. Faber is a believer, apparently, in the strenuous life and in living abundantly. His interest and recreations, intellectual and physical, cover a wide range, and he seems to find time to indulge them all. He is an enthusiastic chess player, and is equally interested in whist. He is a member of the Knickerbocker Whist club of New York City, and the American Auction Bridge League; honorary member of the Women's Whist League; and is a past president of the American Whist League. He is a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Academy of Political Science; National Geographic Society; the Missouri Society; the Mexican Society; the Pan-American Society of the United States; the Luther Burbank Society. Mr. Faber is also much interested in educational work, especially that of New York and Columbia universities.

Mr. Faber is a lover of the great outdoors, and from boyhood has been keenly interested in sports. He not only finds a great interest and amusement in golf and other active recreations, but thereby keeps himself physically fit for the exacting demand upon his time and strength. Bowling is one of the sports that appeals to him. He is a past president of the Staten Island Athletic Club; he is a member of the New York Athletic Club; he was one of the founders of the Richmond County Country Club. He is also a member of the Englewood Golf Club of New Jersey, and the Hudson River Country Club; the Sea View Club of Atlantic City; fox Hills Golf Club; the South Shore Country Club of Chicago; the Tin Whistle Club of North Carolina; and the Westchester-Biltmore Country Club. In New York City he is a member of the Mercahnts' Club; Aldine Club; Traffic Club; Lotus Club; Rotary Club; and German Club. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, and a contributor to many philanthropies; but in this connection he obeys the Scriptural injunction to keep the left hand in ignorance of what the right hand does. His Masonic Lodge is Chancellor Woolworth, and he holds the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite, is a member of the Mecca Temple, ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Faber is fond of travel, and is well acquainted with every section of his own country. He makes frequent trip to Europe and has a wide acquaintance with men of international repute and importance.

Henry TROWBRIDGE SEYMOUR

The rise and fall of nations have been determined by their contacts with one another. No other nation can depend entirely upon its capacity to consume its own products; a market must be found for its surplus; and a period of expansion must come to any nation when it enters the family of world-traders. In making foreign contacts, the hardy New Englander of the seventeenth century laid the foundation of American foreign commerce. Long before the days of modern steamships, Yankee clipper ships carried the manufactured products of New England to the far ports of the Orient and returned laden with spices from the Indies and the silks, teas and other products of china. But, probably, the expansion of trade and the material benefits that accrue therefrom are the least of the great gains realized from the contacts established in the development of foreign trade. Modern civilization is the accumulated culture of a people plus the culture acquired through contacts with foreign peoples. So, the adventurous spirits who develop foreign commerce perform an incalculable service to humanity in making peoples acquainted with one anther's customs and modes of thought and in breaking down the barriers and prejudices that are born in ignorance.

To such worthwhile enterprises has Henry Trowbridge Seymour, vice-president of Dodge and Seymour, Limited, who are engaged in business as exporters, having their home office in New York City, devoted the endeavors of a lifetime. So far as known, his only New England forbear who went down to the sea in ships was a maternal ancestor, Henry Trowbridge, who engaged in trade with the West Indies; but Mr. Seymour counts many other New England ancestors dating back to the colonial period. For the Seymour family was established in this country by Richard Seymour, who came from Devon, England, to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1639, and became one of the founders of Norwalk, in that state, in 1650. Mr. Seymour's maternal lineage goes back to England to the time of the Conquest, Trowbridge being one of the oldest of the surnames. The emigrant ancestor of the family in this country was Thomas Trowbridge, who came of a family of wealth and prominence in Taunton, Somersetshire, and is on records in Dorchester, Massachusetts, as early as 1636. Three years later he removed to New Haven, Connecticut. By marriage these families bring into Mr. Seymour's ancestry many of the oldest and best of the pioneer families who helped to establish the ideals and institutions that have made this country unique among the nations of the world.

Henry Trowbridge Seymour has proven himself a worthy scion of such stock. He was born in New York City, July 24, 1860, son of Henry and Cornelia Bowne (Trowbridge) Seymour. His paternal grandfather was Rev. Ebenezer Seymour, a Presbyterian clergyman and educator. He began his ministerial labors in Albion, this State, but after a few years he became pastor of the old church in Bloomfield, New Jersey. There he labored many years and so assiduously that his health broke down; whereupon his thoughtful parishioners send him to Europe. Upon his return he established a boarding school for boys in Bloomfield, which became famous not only for the mental training the pupils received, but also for the inspiration to fine endeavor and the high ideals of personal character and responsibility as citizens its master set before his youthful charges. Rev. Ebenezer Seymour married Mary Hoe, a sister of Richard Hoe, famous as the inventor of the modern cylinder printing press.

Their son, Henry Seymour, was born in Albion, about 1833. He received a sound common school education, and early in life became a manufacturer of shears, in which business he continued as long as he lived. His plant was located at Elizabethport, New Jersey. Henry Seymour married Cornelia Bowne, daughter of Stephen Barnum Trowbridge, of Amenia. He was a farmer in his early years, but later in life became a prosperous merchant, acquiring a competence that enabled him to retire at the age of sixty to the enjoyment of about twenty years of well-earned leisure.

Until Henry Trowbridge Seymour was twelve years of age the family lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and it was there that he began his education in the public schools. The family then removed to New York City, where young Seymour finished his grammar school work and attended the College of the City of New York for a year and a half. He then began his career as an employee of an important firm and remained with them for twenty-two years until 1900. He then engaged in manufacturing for about a year and a half. In 1901, became secretary of a company organized to engage in the exporting and importing business, which company was the predecessor of the present corporation. Here Mr. Seymour was able to work out ideas that had come to him as the result of more than a score of years in the importing business, during which he had studied the psychologies and wants and business customs of the Oriental peoples with the application of a student. Up to that time the export business was handled in this country by people who acted as buying agents for foreign customers. Mr. Seymour believed that a method just the reserve would prove more satisfactory and profitable; so the new company assumed the role of selling agents for American manufacturers. The soundness of this idea has been amply demonstrated by the steady growth of the Dodge and Seymour business to large proportion. The company was reorganized under its present name in 1916. The company maintains its own offices in Shanghai, china; Osaka, Japan; Singapore; Harbin, Manchuria; Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Lahore, and Karachi, India; Colombo, Ceylon; and Hong Kong. New offices are being opened at frequent intervals. Besides the foregoing, the company is represented by agencies at the following points: Mesopotamia; Palestine; Persia; in Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide; in New Zealand in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin; and in South Africa in Capetown, Johannesburg and Durban.

Dodge and Seymour are distributors of Judson and Essex motor cars and Federal Trucks. For about fifteen years, until 1927, the company distributed Ford cars in British India. The Mr. Ford conceived the idea of opening his own assembling plant there and organizing his own sales force. Other products handled by the company are motor accessories, tools and hardware, proprietary toilet articles and hosiery. The number of employees in foreign countries is large, there being fifty in the Shanghai office alone. Every year some principal member of the company from the home office visits every branch. Mr. Seymour himself has been around the world a number of times. In 1922 and 1923 he covered the entire territory--60,000 miles. His partner, Mr. Villard A. Dodge, has been around the world about fourteen times. And Lawrence D. Seymour, out subject's son, has been in some of the field for three months at a time and has also been around the world several times. Mr. Seymour is a director and vice-president of the American Exporters and Importers' Association. At college he became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity; and he is also a member of the Century Club.

Henry Trowbridge Seymour married Elizabeth Damrosch, daughter of the famous orchestra leader, Leopold Damrosch, and sister of the equally famous orchestra leaders Walter and Frank Damrosch. Mr. and Mrs. Seymour have the following children, all of whom inherit musical talent from their mother: Lawrence D., married Dorothy Ross, of Utica; a daughter Clair; Elizabeth, married Robert Brewster Ransom, who is manger for the General Electric company in West Hartford, Connecticut; Ruth, married Stayman Lattimer Reed. She prepared for college in the well-known Westover School. After completing a course in architecture at Cornell University, Mrs. Reed spent a winter in Rome, Italy, and studied under Maurice Sterne, and since her return from Europe has practiced as a professional mural designer.

Mr. Seymour has always had a flair for writing, but has permitted only his writings on export subjects to be published. These have appeared in trade journals. From boyhood his principal recreation has been found in art--landscape drawing in pastels direct form nature. In his youth he attended night sessions at the Art Students' league and studied under Francis Jones. There was a period of years when his time and attention were pretty well monopolized by the demands of his business; but on more recent years he has been in a position to resume his sketching, and his work has evoked complimentary comment whenever it has been exhibited.