Aladar Hugo Hamborsky (1892-1954)

From the South Bend Tribune, October 31, 1926.

  The first native Hungarian to be profiled here on the site, Aladar Hugo Hamborsky settled in Indiana in 1921, having earlier been a resident of Pennsylvania. Following his resettlement he established a law practice in South Bend and was active in Republican party circles in St. Joseph County, being a candidate for judge of the superior court and, later, county prosecuting attorney. Several years following those candidacies, Hamborsky removed to Michigan, dying in Detroit in 1954.  The son of the Rev. Julius and Elizabeth Hamborszky, Aladar Hugo Hamborsky was born (depending on the source) in either Bacs-Kiskun County or Besztercze-Nazsod, Hungary on December 6, 1892. 

  The Hamborszky family immigrated to the United States in either 1895 or 1899, with the Account of St. Joseph County, Indiana giving the date as 1898. A Presbyterian minister, Julius Hamborszky is remarked as having been the first Hungarian minister to preach in Pittsburgh, and the family later resided in Mount Carmel and Scranton. Young Aladar attended the public schools of Scranton and later enrolled at the Rutgers Preparatory School in New Jersey. Following his removal to Indiana, Hamborsky (as his last name was then spelled) entered the Wabash College, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1916. 

  Deciding to pursue a career in law, Hamborsky enrolled at the Indiana University Law School where he earned his degree. He put his career on hold to enlist for service in the First World War and served with the Army Ordnance Department for eleven months. He had earlier married in November 1917 to Ruth Kelsey (1895-1962), to who he was wed until his death. The couple had two children, Dwight Kelsey (1918-1974) and Phyllis Harriet (1924-1996).

  Following an honorable discharge from the Army Hamborsky returned to Indiana and was soon after named as assistant attorney general for the state. Residing in Indianapolis, he served in that capacity until late 1920, and during his tenure:

"Had charge of the collection of escheated moneys and estates, the prosecution of liquor violations which came to the attention of the attorney general's office, and he prepared briefs for criminal appeals to the supreme court."

From the Indianapolis Star, January 7, 1921.

  In November 1920 Hamborsky relocated to South Bend to take on the post of deputy prosecuting attorney for St. Joseph County. He took office in January 1921, and during his South Bend residency was active in the Hungarian Presbyterian Church, where he was an elder. In April 1926 he was selected as a lay delegate to the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church held that year in Baltimore. Dedicated to his Hungarian ancestry, Hamborsky is recorded as editor of a "Hungarian weekly" in South Bend during the early 1920s and was a member of the Hungarian Civic Club of South Bend, where he taught citizenship classes. Additionally, Hamborsky was a master linguist, being fluent in Hungarian, Polish, Slavish, and German, in addition to English. A prominent club-man in South Bend, Hamborsky held memberships in Lodge No. 294 of Free and Accepted Masons, the Elks Lodge, the Eagles Lodge, and had an affinity for both golf, fishing, "and all outdoor sports."

  Setting his sights on higher office in 1926, Hamborsky filed papers that March as a Republican candidate for judge of the St. Joseph County superior court No. 1.  After winning the nomination, notices of his candidacy appeared in South Bend newspapers throughout the remainder of the year. In October 1926 he addressed a large number of Hungarian citizens, where he detailed his platform of "no leniency towards lawbreakers", and:

"Urged the people to vote for the man best suited for the office and disregard politics and parties in order to secure a person whom they think capable of holding an office. He also stated that if they wanted a Hungarian judge, they should vote accordingly."

From the Detroit Free Press, March 20, 1932.

  Opposing Hamborsky that year was incumbent Democrat J. Fred Bingham. On election day it was Bingham who triumphed, besting Hamborsky by a vote of 20,057 to 11,875. Bingham would go on to serve as superior court judge until his retirement in 1955, having served 32 years on the bench. Two years after his loss Hamborsky reemerged on the political scene, announcing his candidacy for Prosecuting Attorney of St. Joseph County. In May 1928 he was dealt another loss, polling just 516 votes in the Republican primary.

  In 1930 Aladar Hamborsky and his family removed to Detroit, Michigan, where he established a law practice. He continued affiliation with his old fraternity of Delta Tau Delta, and in 1932 was elected as fraternity president for a one year term. Hamborsky died at his Detroit home on August 22, 1954, "having been bedfast for several months." He was survived by his wife Ruth and two children, Dwight and Phyllis. A burial location for him remains unknown at this time and is presumed to be in the Detroit area.

From the South Bend Tribune, August 23, 1954.

Amorine Montgomery Wilson (1882-1966)

From the Sullivan County Times, October 29, 1948.

   Featured on this site's Facebook page back on May 28, 2019, Amorine Montgomery Wilson was a farmer and attorney residing in Sullivan County, Indiana who ran three unsuccessful candidacies for state circuit court judge. Prior to those campaigns Wilson had been elected as a bank director and was a trustee for the Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. The son of Uriah and Mary (Wood) Wilson, Amorine Montgomery Wilson was born in Pleasantville, Indiana on December 8, 1882.

  A student at Dennison University in Granville, Ohio, Wilson earned his bachelor's degree in 1908 and later enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor of philosophy degree in 1912. Wilson married in September 1909 in Sullivan County to Rose Florence Benefiel (1883-1971), with who he had one son, Roger Montgomery (1911-1960). The couple later separated, and in September 1930 he remarried to Edna Wantland, who predeceased him in 1940.

  Following graduation from the University of Chicago, he pursued a teaching career in Carthage, Illinois, and by 1920 is recorded as a farmer residing in Burnside, Illinois. He returned to Chicago in 1920 to enroll at that university's law school, where he earned his law degree. After being admitted to the Indiana bar Wilson established his practice in Sullivan County, which continued for over two decades. This period saw him serve as attorney for the First National Bank of Carlisle, Indiana, and for an indeterminate period served on the board of trustees for Franklin College. In 1946 he was elected a director of the Sullivan State Bank, filling a vacancy occasioned by the death of director Flaud M. Lloyd.

  Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 Wilson put his law practice on hold to focus on farming, "having closed for the duration to produce food." He operated a 321-acre farm in the town of Haddon and would serve as chairman of the Haddon Farm Bureau. 

  Wilson entered Hoosier politics in 1930 when he launched his first candidacy for circuit court judge. His candidacy failed to extend past the Republican primary, and in 1934 was selected to preside as a special judge in the case of Dugger-Martin Coal mine superintendent Ted Smith,  who had been charged with endangering the lives of mineworkers by "permitting dynamite shots to be fired in the mine while then men were at work."

  In March 1936 Wilson announced his second candidacy for judge of the 14th judicial circuit and was again dealt a loss in that year's Republican primary, polling 1,142 votes. Wilson is also recorded as having served as mayor of Sullivan prior to 1940, though no sources relate his dates in office or how long he may have served. In 1948 Wilson made a third run for circuit judge, and in that year won the Republican primary. That November he opposed Democrat Norval K. Harris, and prior to the general election was featured in a large campaign advertisement in the Sullivan Daily Times, which noted his two decades experience and law degree from the University of Chicago. Wilson himself would state:

"These qulaifications were brough about by my own hard work, therefore anyone can understand why I value work and respect the laborer, whether he be on the farm, in the shop or in the mine."

  On election day in November Wilson was defeated by Harris by nearly 1,000 votes, but Wilson was not to be deterred. Crying foul, he contested Harris's election by bringing a suit against him, declaring that Harris was "ineligible on the grounds that he had once served a federal prison term upon his conviction of a forgery charge." Harris countered by bringing charges of slander against Wilson for $100,000, alleging that Wilson had referred to both he and his daughter as Communists. The brouhaha subsided in the latter part of November when Wilson was shown an earlier presidential pardon that Harris had received and withdrew his suit against him. Harris, in turn, forgave Wilson and noted that when in court both "he and his client would be treated fairly and courteously at all times." Nearly four years following the election Harris would wind up wearing a prison uniform, having been ousted from the bench due to a contempt of court conviction, and would serve sixty days at the Putnamville State Penal Farm.

  Little else is known of Amorine Wilson's life after 1948. In the early 1960s, he and his third wife Ida removed to Sebring, Florida, where he died on February 23, 1966, aged 83. He was survived by his wife and was returned to Indiana for burial at the Indian Prairie Cemetery in Carlisle.

From the Terre Haute Star, February 24, 1966.

Iden Salathiel Romig (1865-1947)

Portrait from the South Bend Tribune, March 3, 1947.

  The Strangest Names In American Political History makes its first stop in Indiana for 2021 to highlight the life of South Bend resident Iden Salathiel Romig. An attorney in St. Joseph County for over fifty years, Romig served as city attorney for South Bend for several years and also served one year as St. Joseph County Attorney. In 1940 he was elected as a Democratic presidential elector for Indiana, having been a candidate for alternate presidential elector four years previously. A lifelong Hoosier, Iden Salathiel Romig was born in Marshall County on January 6, 1865, the son of Abraham (1841-1892) and Sarah (Ringer) Romig (1840-1928). 

  Descended from Dutch settlers who had settled in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Iden Romig attended rural schools in Marshall County as well as the Logansport Normal School. He continued studies at Valparaiso University, and after deciding to pursue a career in law enrolled at the Indiana State University at Bloomington. He earned his degree in the class of 1892, and took further study under the tutelage of Judge Albertus Clinton Capron, then Judge of Indiana's 41st Judicial circuit. Romig was admitted to the Indiana bar sometime later and briefly practiced law in Plymouth.

  In 1893 Romig removed to South Bend, where he resided for the remainder of his life. He partnered with Charles Kreighbaum in the firm of Romig and Kreighbaum, which continued until Romig partnered with his brother-in-law, W.E. Miller. Romig married in South Bend in August 1897 to Carrie Daugherty (1868-1929). The couple's three-decade union was childless.

  Romig's decades-long career in law saw him acknowledged as one "of Northern Indiana's leading attorneys", with the South Bend Tribune noting that he gained:

"A very high reputation through honesty, truthfulness and the upright practice of his profession. Most of his legal work was of an office character although at times he appeared in open court and was an open and convincing pleader. He was not of the oratorical type but convinced by sound legal reasoning, by common sense presentation and by the feeling of honesty and truth which his pleading prompted."

  A member of the St. Joseph County and Indiana State Bar Associations, Romig was active in the fraternal life of his county, being a former grandmaster of the local chapter of the International Order of Odd Fellows. He held further memberships in the Knights of the Maccabees, the Round Table, the Worth Club, and was a parishioner at the South Bend First Presbyterian Church. 

  "A born and reared democrat", Iden Romig was an influential figure in South Bend politics beginning in the early 20th century. In 1908 he was re-elected as chairman of the St. Joseph County Democratic County Central Committee, and in 1925 served as chairman of the South Bend Democratic City Committee. Additionally, Romig was elected treasurer of the county central committee, and during the administrations of mayors Charles Goetz (1910-14) and Chester Montgomery (1926-1930), served as South Bend city attorney.

From the South Bend Tribune, February 8, 1925.

  In June 1924 Iden Romig took office as St. Joseph County Attorney, succeeding Cyrus Pattee, who had been nominated for state circuit court judge. Named to that post by the St. Joseph Board of County Commissioners, Romig served a one-year term, and left office in June 1925, "having competently discharged the duties of his office." Following his term, he returned to private practice and in 1928 was named St. Joseph county chairman for the Indiana State University alumni "Founder's Day" celebration, held to honor the 108th anniversary of the university's founding.

  Romig returned to city politics when he was appointed by Mayor William Riley Hinkle to fill a vacancy in the city attorney's office. He served as city attorney until January 1932, and in June of that year was named a special circuit court judge to preside over a suit between the Colpaert Realty Corp. and George and Mabel Bachman, who had brought suit over the construction of a gas station "in a restricted residential section."

  Iden Romig continued to tread the political waters through the late 1930s, being a candidate for alternate Democratic presidential elector from Indiana in 1936. In 1940 he was elected as one of twelve Presidential electors for Indiana, representing the 3rd district. The final years of Romig's life were marred by ill health, and in the early 1940s entered a Chicago hospital for an operation. Following a battle with pneumonia, he recovered sufficiently to return to his South Bend law practice. He continued to practice until his death from cancer at a South Bend hospital on March 3, 1947, aged 82. Predeceased by his wife Carrie in 1929, Romig was interred alongside her at the Riverview Cemetery in South Bend. 

From the Indianapolis Star, March 4, 1947.

Gibbons Gray Cornwell Jr. (1902-1986)

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, July 12, 1959.

  From Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, we journey to Chester County to examine the life of another Keystone State burgess, Gibbons Gray Cornwell Jr. So far the only "Gibbons" this author has discovered, Cornwell was a fixture in the civic and business life of West Chester for over forty years. A former president and director of a major office supply and paper company, Cornwell served four years as Burgess of West Chester in the 1950s. The son of Gibbons Gray (1861-1912) and Ella (Eberman) Cornwell, Gibbons Gray Cornwell Jr. was born in West Chester on August 8, 1902.

  Cornwell's formative years were spent in West Chester, where his father was an attorney and prominent figure in the state National Guard. Young Gibbons was dealt tragedy with the suicide of his father in 1912, who shot himself while onboard a Philadelphia-bound train due to allegations of financial malfeasance. Following his father's death Cornwell was a student at the Haverford School and in the mid-1920s graduated from Yale University. In October 1928 he married in West Chester to Eva Chambers Parke (1903-1975), with who he had five children: Anne, Gibbons Gray III (1933-2013), William Parke (1936-2018), Daniel, and Timothy.

   For nearly fifty years Gibbons Cornwell was affiliated with the Denney Tag Co. of West Chester, a major supplier of office supplies, labels, and tags. Cornwell worked his way up the company ladder being assistant sales manager, sales manager, and general manager, and in 1945 was named company president. In 1948 he oversaw the move of its shipping department to a three-story structure in West Chester, and in 1960 saw the business expand with the purchase of the Reyburn Manufacturing Co., a Philadephia-based tag manufacturer. The company underwent a name change in January 1961 to the Denney-Reyburn Company, with Cornwell continuing as president until his retirement in 1968. Following retirement, he continued to sit as a member of the board of directors until 1973.

  In addition to his long tenure with Denney-Reyburn, Cornwell served twenty-six years (1946-1972) as president of the Southeast National Bank, and from 1949-1967 was president of the Downingtown Paper Co., located in Chester County. He was further active in the civic life of his county, serving on the board of managers of the Chester County Hospital for nearly three decades, and for fifteen years (1957-72) was board president. Additionally, Cornwell served a one year term as president of the West Chester College Board of Trustees from 1939-40 and was chairman of the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute board of directors from 1949-50.

  Cornwell's numerous business and civic activities garnered him wide distinction in his region and in 1962 was named West Chester's "Outstanding Citizen" by the city chamber of commerce. He entered local politics in 1949 with his candidacy for the Republican nomination for burgess of West Chester and won the nomination in September of that year. He was elected that November, and served two terms, 1950-54, having not been a candidate for reelection in 1953. 

  Following his retirement from business in the 1970s Cornwell engaged in two unique pastimes, needlework and bas-relief sculpting. He would donate molds of his work for use by the Chester County Bicentennial Commission, and "created the 175th anniversary coin for West Chester and a U.S. bicentennial medal." In 1977 Cornwell created the "Remember Paoli" medal for the Paoli Memorial Association, a body devoted to the memorialization of 53 Revolutionary War patriots massacred by the British near Paoli, Pennsylvania. This medal, produced in a limited edition quantity, depicted both the battle itself, and the Paoli Memorial historic site.

  Widowed in 1975, Gibbons G. Cornwell remarried in 1978 to Mary Webb Parke (Bleecker) (1909-1979), who died of injuries sustained in a car accident a year following their marriage. Cornwell married for a third time in the 1980s to Barbara Ward, and continued residence in West Chester until his death at age 83 on February 25, 1986, at his home. His five children survived him, with his burial location being unknown at the time of this writing.

Kenelm Lawrence Shirk Sr. (1894-1956)

From the Lancaster New Era, June 13, 1942.

  At the same time as Menno Brubaker Rohrer's service as Burgess of Lititz in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, another curiously named man was serving as that county's District Attorney. That man was Kenelm Lawrence Shirk, a World War I veteran who had previously served as U.S. district court commissioner and as assistant district attorney. Shirk's time as district attorney was cut short due to his resignation to enlist in the U.S. Army, where he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. Following his return from service, Shirk served nearly a decade on the Lancaster city council, being appointed in 1946. The son of Martin and Anna (Landes) Shirk, Kenelm Lawrence Shirk Sr. was born in Lancaster County on August 11, 1894.

  Shirk spent a portion of his early life in Richmond, Virginia with his family, and his early education was obtained in schools local to Lancaster County. Following graduation from the Ephrata High School in 1912, he enrolled at Washington and Lee University in Virginia and graduated with his law degree in the class of 1915. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar the following year and put his career on hold to enlist for service in WWI. By December 1917 he was stationed at Camp Meade in Maryland and was commissioned a lieutenant. Assigned to the 314th Infantry of the 79th Division, Shirk served through the duration of the war and returned to Pennsylvania in May 1919. Following his return, Shirk was commended for his bravery by the Philadelphia Inquirer, titling him the "Damndest Daredevil Yet." In a writeup on his actions, the Inquirer further related that:

"There is another regimental hero who has no decorations at all. He doesn't even have a wound stripe to show for his bravery. His name is Lieutenant Kenelm Shirk, and he resides just outside of Philadelphia. Shirk, he did not. Anytime there was a hazardous job Shirk did it. Where the bullets and shells were thickest Shirk was. Every risk he took. Men were killed all around him, but his was a charmed life, and because nothing happend to him his specialty was walking around with a couple of hand grenades in his pocket, ready for any action."

Kenelm Shirk during WWI, from the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20, 1919.

  After returning to Lancaster County Shirk was cited for "gallantry in action and meritorious service" in June 1919 for his actions on the evening of November 8, 1918, when he "made repeated trips to keep contact between companies under heavy artillery fire, which necessitated great personal danger." He recommenced with the practice of law in Lancaster, and in the early 1920s was a member of the law firm headed by John A. Coyle.  In February 1922 Shirk married Beatrice Marie Wertz and had two children, Kenelm Lawrence Jr. (1922-2006) and Joan Shirk Janeski (1925-2010). The couple later separated, and Shirk remarried in June 1937 to Alice Margaret Cawood (1895-1991), who survived him upon his death in 1956.

  In the 1920s Shirk was selected as a U.S. district court commissioner for Lancaster County, and in 1930 was elected as the exalted ruler of the Lancaster Lodge No. 134, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. In October of that year, he was elected president of the Young Republicans Club of Lancaster and held that office until at least 1933. He continued his rise in public life in December 1931 when he was appointed assistant district attorney of Lancaster County.

From the Lancaster New Era, October 10, 1930.

  Shirk's time as assistant district attorney extended eight years, and in July 1939 announced his candidacy for district attorney of Lancaster County. That November he trounced his Democratic opponent, A.E. McCullough Jr., by a vote of 34,360 to 13,681, and took office in January 1940. Several months into his term Shirk made headlines by ordering the arrest of seven Communist Party candidates in Lancaster County for "conspiracy and perjury under the election laws", arising from falsified signatures and duplications. Two of those men, J. Granville Eddy and Reuben Carr, were candidates for state office that year and had circulated petitions which had garnered over 1,200 signatures. Following a two-month investigation, a number of those signatures proved to have been obtained under false pretenses, with dozens being recorded as either duplications or forgeries. Interviewed by the Lancaster New Era in August 1940, Shirk remarked that:

"I think its one of the rottenest things I've ever seen...The further into it you go, the more you find the Communist circulators had no regard whatsoever for the Commonwealth's election laws. One person whose name was on a petition told us that the circulator said 'We've got to get to 2,700 names somehow.' Apparently that's what they did. They didn't care how they got them."

 In addition to the police investigation and Shirk's comments on the arrests, "similar investigations" were announced in other Pennsylvania counties where the Communist Party obtained signatures in 1940. Shirk resigned as district attorney in May 1943 to join in the war effort and reentered the U.S. Army as a major. Early in his service he was stationed at the Army School of Military Government at Harvard University and was later transferred overseas. His full period of enlistment extended 29 months and saw him stationed in North Africa, Sardinia, and Italy, and was a provincial commissioner in the latter two areas. These positions saw him responsible for organizing "local Italian governments and directed operations in hospitals and orphanages." He also was named a trial judge advocate for the Fourth Army Corps near Trieste, Italy. Upon his return stateside in February 1946, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel at Indian Gap, Pennsylvania.

   Just months after his return to Lancaster Shirk reentered city politics when he was appointed to a vacancy on the city council, being assigned to the Department of Public Safety. He won a full term of his own in November 1947 and began his third term in November 1951. He retired from the council in early 1955 as director of accounts and finance, and for the remainder of his life practiced law in Lancaster with his son Kenelm Jr. In addition to his time on the city council, Shirk was a member of the State Tuberculosis Society Board, the Lancaster Post 34 of the American Legion, the Reserve Officer's Association, the Loyal Order of Moose, and the Kiwanis Club, among other organizations.

  After decades of prominence in Lancaster, Kenelm Lawrence Shirk Sr. died at the Lancaster General Hospital on May 18, 1956, succumbing to the effects of a stroke he'd suffered a week previously. He was survived by his wife and two children and was interred at the Keller Cemetery in Springville, Pennsylvania. Public service continued in his family with his son Kenelm Jr., also a veteran of WWII. A past president of the Lancaster Bar Association, Shirk served as chairman of the Young Republicans of Pennsylvania on two separate occasions and from 1964-71 served as chairman of the Lancaster County Republican Committee.

From the Lancaster Daily News, May 18, 1956.

Menno Brubaker Rohrer (1910-1993), Menno Wissler Hess (1874-1950)

From the Lancaster New Era, November 5, 1941.

  From New York, we journey to Pennsylvania to examine the lives of two men named Menno, both of whom served as Burgess of their respective communities. The first of these men, Menno Brubaker Rohrer, was long active in the civic life of Lititz in Lancaster County, where he was an attorney. He served eight years on the Lititz borough council and had previously served as burgess of Lititz in the 1940s. Born in Warwick, Pennsylvania on February 15, 1910, Menno Brubaker Rohrer was the son of Ira and Bertha (Brubaker) Rohrer.

  A student at the Lititz High School in the 1920s, Rohrer went on to study at the Millersville College and the Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Menno Rohrer married on September 15, 1934, to Nellie Melba Griffith (1910-2001). The couple were wed for nearly sixty years and had two children, John W.M. and Carol. A law student at Harvard University at the time of his marriage, the Rohrers resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts during his period of study. 

  Following his graduation from Harvard, Rohrer and his wife returned to Lititz, and after his admittance to the Pennsylvania bar maintained law offices in both Lititz and Lancaster. Active in the civic life of the borough, Rohrer was a member of the Lititz Lions Club and the Community Chest Board. He served as president of the Lititz High School Alumni in the early 1940s and was a member of the Christian Education board of the Lititz Moravian Church. In November 1941 he was elected as Burgess of Lititz, having never before been a candidate for political office.

  Rhorer served as burgess until September 1943, when he resigned to take part in the ongoing war effort. Enlisting in the Army, he would serve in the "criminal investigation department" during his service, and was honorably discharged in November 1945 as a technician fourth grade. After his return to Lititz Rohrer again practiced law and by 1947 was connected with the Independent Union of Trap Workers, serving as its spokesman. He also was retained as the solicitor for the boroughs of Lititz and Ephrata and their respective school districts. 

  Rohrer returned to local politics in 1950 with his election to the Lititz Borough Council, where he served until 1958. A founder of the Lancaster Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society in the 1950s, Rohrer was elected as a chapter trustee in 1958 and later served as its chairman. A member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Rohrer served on the Pennsylvania board of the ACLU and in 1968 served as president of the ACLU Lancaster Chapter. In addition to those organizations, Rohrer was long active in the Garden Spot Post 56 of the American Legion, and for an indeterminate period served on the board of directors of the Urban League of Lancaster County.

  Menno B. Rohrer continued residence in Lititz until his death at home on September 10, 1993, aged 83. He was survived by his wife Nellie and two children and was interred at the Moravian Cemetery in Lititz.

From the Lititz Record Express, September 16, 1993.

Portrait from the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, May 5, 1942.

   A decade prior to Menno Rohrer's arrival on the Lancaster County political stage, another "Menno" was in the midst of serving as Burgess of Ephrata, Pennsylvania. That man was Menno Wissler Hess, and, like Rohrer, was a lifelong resident of Lancaster County. Prior to his terms as Ephrata burgess, Hess sat as a member of the school board and borough council and was reelected to the latter following his last term. The son of Samuel Risser and Martha (Bomberger) Hess, Menno Wissler Hess was born in Ephrata on March 13, 1874.

   Menno Hess graduated from the Ephrata High School in 1894, having been designated class historian. He married on June 11, 1895, to Magdalene Sensenig (1876-1968), to who he was wed for over fifty years. Five children were born to the couple, those being Lloyd S. (1896-1979), Ralph S. (1897-1982), James Galen (1900-1996), Anna S., and Marian. 

  Following his marriage, Hess was employed by his father in the latter's nursery, titled S.R. Hess & Son, in Ephrata. He subsequently engaged in real estate transactions in his region, and "did much towards developing farm lands into residential areas." Hess first entered local politics with his candidacy for the Ephrata school board in 1904. He proved successful at the polls and sat as a member from 1904-14, and served as board secretary for several years. In 1914 he won a seat on the Ephrata borough council, where he served for fourteen years. This period saw Hess as a booster for the construction of Ephrata's "municipally owned electric light plant", which was completed in 1924.

  In 1928 Menno W. Hess was elected as Burgess of Ephrata, with his full tenure in office extending until 1933. Midway through his terms he participated in an "elaborate radio program" dedicated to Ephrata, featured on radio station WGAL. This feature, titled "the Ephrata Community Program", heard Hess speak on the borough's "Past, Present, and Future", and also featured the Ephrata Community Men's Chorus, Harry Heineman's String Orchestra, and other local musicians.

   Nearly a decade after the conclusion of his term, Hess returned to local politics with his reelection to the Ephrata borough council in 1942. He was chosen as its president, succeeding outgoing president William Carter, who had resigned. Hess served as council president until his death, and during this period was affiliated with the Ephrata Community Hospital, being elected to its board of directors in 1948. 

  On December 22, 1949, Hess took ill while surveying a portion of his property in Ephrata, and was subsequently taken to the Ephrata Community Hospital. His health continued to decline, and on January 11, 1950, he died while still under hospital care. Hess was survived by his wife and children and was interred at the Hammer Mennonite Church Cemetery in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

From the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, January 11, 1950.

Brockholst Ludlow Carroll (1847-1905)

Portrait from the History of the Rockaways from the Year 1685-1917.

  Following on the heels of Sag Harbor's Clothier Hathaway Vaughn, another curiously named New York village president is profiled, Brockholst Ludlow Carroll of Far Rockway. A once-prominent business leader and politician in this Long Island community, Carroll engaged in the bottling of soda and mineral water, and prior to his election as village President of Far Rockaway had served as excise commissioner for the neighboring village of Hempstead. The son of John L. Norton Carroll and the former Elizabeth Jennings, Brockholst Ludlow "Brock" Carroll was born in New York in 1847. Carroll's middle name is recorded in New York state death records as Ludlow, and this spelling can also be seen in his death notices published in the Brooklyn Times Union and the Hempstead Sentinel. An alternate middle name for him is listed on Ancestry.com, where it is given as Ludwig. Very confusing!

  Little information could be found on Carroll's early life, including mention of his education. In the mid 1870s he entered into the bottling of mineral water on Long Island, with his bottling plant being located in Far Rockaway. This business later burned in 1892, and by 1899 had been succeeded by two other bottling plants, one in Far Rockaway and another in Lawrence, located in Nassau County. 

  Carroll entered local politics in the 1870s with his service as a member of the board of excise for the town of Hempstead. He served in that capacity for twenty-five years and in 1883 was appointed as a delegate from Queens County to that year's Democratic state convention held in Buffalo. In 1887 he was named as a representative from Hempstead to a Queens County Democratic central committee, then titled the "Reorganized Regular Democracy of Queens County".

  "Brock" Carroll married in November 1882 to Johanna Dwyer, who survived him upon his death in 1905. The couple had five children, Josephine (born 1887), Elizabeth (born 1889), Benjamin Lockwood (1892-1944), Catherine (1892-1968), and Grace (born 1895).

  In 1896 Brockholst Carroll was nominated by the Citizens Party as its candidate for Village President of Far Rockway. In September of that year, he devised a novel way of courting voters by giving a clambake on the lawn of his home. Carroll spared no expense in the venture, chartering four horse-drawn carriages for the purpose of transporting partygoers to his home. A write-up on the festivities, published in the Brooklyn Times Union, records that only male residents were extended invitations. Carroll won the election that November and served one term, 1897-98, and is noted as having been the last village president of Far Rockway prior to its annexation to New York City in 1898.

  The final years of Carroll's life were spent battling rheumatism and Bright's disease, the latter claiming his life on January 29, 1905, at his home. Prior to his death Carroll rallied for a time and was able to sing several hymns, the last of which, "Think of Me", was uttered as he died. He was survived by his wife and children and was interred at Woodmere, now known as Trinity Cemetery, in Hewlett, Long Island.

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 30, 1905.

From the Brooklyn Times Union, January 30, 1905.

Clothier Hathaway Vaughn (1834-1906)

From the Brooklyn Times Union, January 30, 1906.

   The inaugural posting for 2021 takes us to Long Island, New York, and Clothier Hathaway Vaughn, once a leading business and political figure in the village of Sag Harbor. Endowed with a first name that is a misnomer, Vaughn never owned a haberdashery and has no connection to the sale of clothing! While his name is certainly unusual, Vaughn briefly followed a career at sea during his youth, taking passage aboard a whaling vessel. After returning to Sag Harbor he engaged in business, including operating a grocery. He held several local offices in his community, being coroner, constable, deputy marshal, and in 1885 was named as U.S. Collector of Customs at Sag Harbor. In the twilight of his life, Vaughn would be elected as village president of Sag Harbor, serving one term.

  The son of Joseph (1792-1851) and Tryphena Vaughn (1792-1864), Clothier Hathaway Vaugh was born in Suffolk County, New York on August 24, 1834. His first name is spelled as both Clothier and Clother, the former spelling being recorded in the 1870 and 1880 U.S. census, the New York state census, New York state land records, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac. The latter spelling can be found on his headstone in Sag Harbor, as well as the 1891 Official Register of the United States. 

   Little is known of Vaughn's early life and education, and during his youth took work in the office of J.E. and E. Smith, a shipping concern on Long Wharf. In 1850 he took passage on the whaling ship Charlotte, then under the command of Capt. Jonas Winters. Within a short period the vessel had captured "100 barrels of sperm", and eventually touched port at Fayal (Faial) Island in Portugal. The latter period of the voyage saw Vaughn and his fellow shipmates dock at the Island of St. Helena for ship repairs, where Vaughn visited Napoleon's tomb. The Charlotte later worked along the African coast before returning to Fayal and later transported 45o barrels of whale oil. The ship would make another trip to St. Helena, with Vaughn "making several voyages coasting" prior to his return to America.

   In 1855 Clothier Vaughn married Josephine G. North (1838-1922). The couple were wed for fifty years and had a total of 12 children, listed as follows in order of birth: Ida Mandora (1856-1949), James Smith (1857-1874), Lorenzo (1859-1935), Claude (1861-1935), Edna (1865-1875), Nellie Josephine (1866-1911), Carlton (1867-1939), William T. (1868-1963), Loretta (1873-1939), Edwin Smith (died in infancy in 1874), Mabel (1876-1978; died aged 102), and John Raymond (1881-1963).

   Following the return to Sag Harbor Vaughn was again affiliated with J.E. and E. Smith, and "succeeded them in the ownership of the North Battery storehouses." After the passage of the Enrollment Act of 1863, Vaughn entered into a contract with the Union Army, and "engaged in supplying substitutes for drafted men" that could pay $300 for a man to enlist in their place. In 1864 he became chief engineer of the Sag Harbor Fire Department and was returned to that post on two further occasions, 1871-73 and 1882.

   Clothier H. Vaughn continued to raise his public profile through the remainder of the 19th century, and at various times held the posts of town constable, town coroner, notary public, deputy U.S. Marshal, Suffolk County deputy sheriff, and U.S. Special Detective. Following the start of the Cleveland administration in 1885 Vaughn was named by Secretary of the Treasury Daniel Manning as U.S. Collector of Customs for Sag Harbor, serving until June 1890. 

  Vaughn's other local political offices include a nineteen-year tenure as Sag Harbor village trustee, and for over a decade sat on the village board of education. In 1890 he served as president of the village board of health, and beginning in 1897 served as Village President of Sag Harbor. His full dates of service remain undetermined at the time of this writing, but the Brooklyn Daily Alamanac of 1899 indicates he was still the incumbent at the start of that year. 

  The latter period of Vaughn's life saw him operating a grocery store in Sag Harbor, and in January 1903 was elected president of the Sag Harbor Businessmen's Association. Following his retirement from business pursuits, the ownership of Vaughn's grocery passed to his sons Lorenzo, William, and Raymond, and he continued residence in that village until his death at age 71 on January 29, 1906. Flags in the village were lowered to half staff to honor Vaughn's memory, and he was survived by his wife and ten children. Both Vaughn and his wife were interred at the Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor.

From the Brooklyn Times Union, February 1, 1906.