Page images
PDF
EPUB

ing to Florida in the Spanish-American War Veterans. In the Spring of 1899 he enlisted in New York City at the recruiting office at the corner of Forty-second Street and Park Avenue, the site of the present Belmont Hotel, as a private in Company L, of the Twenty-sixth United States Volunteers. He enlisted for service in the Philippine Insurrection, and went to the Philippines with his regiment. He was on active duty with his command for twenty-two months on the Island of Panay, with headquarters at Ilo-Ilo. While there he participated in thirteen engagements with the insurrectionists. The campaigning in fact was almost continuous, and his regiment suffered the loss of between ninety and a hundred men.

After his honorable discharge from this service Mr. Bartnett returned to New York and engaged in the contracting business with his father. In 1916 he left New Rochelle and came to Miami. Here for some time he specialized as a contractor on plastering and stucco work, but for several years past has been a general contractor, building both residential and commercial structures, and has handled a large and gratifying volume of business in this line.

Mr. Bartnett has taken an active part in both the local and state organizations of the SpanishAmerican War Veterans. In 1919 he was honored by his comrades with election to the office of State Commander of this organization for the department of Florida, and served in that capacity one year. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is a past official of the Royal Arcanum. Mr. Bartnett married Miss Edith Maney of New Rochelle. Their four children are Peter E. Jr., Leslie Robert, Elliott and Edith.

JOSEPH FENNER ANGE. Almost any young man with educational advantages, influential friends and financial backing, may find the way to success and prominence, but his life story is in no way as interesting and instructive as that of the young man who acquires these desirable things largely through his own efforts. Joseph Fenner Ange, banker, builder and prominent business citizen of Orlando, Florida, began at the bottom of the ladder and through industry, determination and sterling traits of character, has honorably reached financial independence together with the respect and good will of his fellow citizens.

Mr. Ange was born on a farm in Martin County, North Carolina, May 3, 1872, a son of Joseph B. and Sarah (Hodges) Ange. He grew up on the farm and attended the country schools, but as farming did not appeal to him, early learned the carpenter trade, and followed the same until he was able to go into business for himself as a contracting builder. He is a man of thoroughgoing ways and studied every angle of his business, making a special study of architecture and civil engineering, and at one time, for a period of two years, was a member of an architectural and engineering firm at Kokomo, Indiana.

In 1913 Mr. Ange came to Orlando and embarked in business as a contracting builder, in which line he met with immediate success, an example of the numerous buildings he has erected here being found in the fine mercantile and office building of the Yowell-Drew Company. But Mr. Ange has not confined his activities at Orlando to this field alone. He was prominent in the organization of the Bank of Orange & Trust Company, of which he was the first vice president for the first six months after its organization, when

he was chosen president and has continued in that relation ever since. Believing from the first in the promising future of Orlando, he has not hesitated to make large personal investments and on every side has the satisfaction of seeing a justification of his judgment.

Mr. Ange was the prime mover in the organization of the Orlando Mortgage Loan Company, dealing in real estate, insurance and loans, which has enjoyed a constantly increasing volume of business under the able direction of Mr. Ange, its president. He is president also of the Orange Hotel Company, which was organized in 1922, for the purpose of erecting in this city one of the finest and best equipped hotels in the State of Florida, a forward going enterprise that promises to be of great commercial importance to this city. The new hotel is an eleven-story steel structure, of handsome architectural design, centrally located and thoroughly outfitted, every modern comfort and convenience of hotel construction being installed, with many pleasant features that make it an ideal winter home for visitors and an unexcelled temporary one for tourists. It was erected at a cost of more than $1,000,000 and stands as a monument to the thrift, enterprise and civic pride of the men who made such a great undertaking possible, under the leadership of Mr. Ange, whom they honored by incorporating his name into that of the hotel, the Angebilt.

Mr. Ange was married in North Carolina, to Miss Anna L. Smith, and they have seven children. With his family he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. Although nominally a democrat, he has never been active in the political field, big business problems having so absorbed him that, as a friendly contemporary expresses it, "he has been too busy for politics."

C. JAY HARDEE. Although one of the younger men of Tampa, C. Jay Hardee is well known to the legal fraternity of this city as one of the rapidly rising young lawyers, and one who is enjoying a large and successful practice. His professional reputation is enhanced by the interest he displays in civic matters, and the future spreads out before him very invitingly. He was born at Madison, Florida, February 14, 1898, a son of Charles J. and Mattie E. (Peacock) Hardee. Charles J. Hardee was born in Taylor County, Florida, became a talented lawyer, and died at the early age of thirty-six years. He was a son of J. B. Hardee, a native of Georgia, who came to Florida in an early day, and is now a resident of Madison, Florida. The mother of Charles J. Hardee, who died at the age of fortytwo years, was a daughter of S. H. Peacock, also a native of Georgia, and an early settler of Florida. Mrs. Hardee was born in Florida. She and her husband had two sons, of whom C. Jay Hardee is the elder.

C. J. Hardee was reared at Madison, Florida and Asheville, North Carolina, and his schooldays were divided between the two localities. He took the grade and high-school courses, and studied the higher branches in the universities of Florida and North Carolina, and was admitted to the bar in 1921. Coming to Tampa, he established himself in the practice of his profession, and at once began to attract attention by the masterly manner in which he handled his cases. possesses in marked degree both natural and trained capabilities which specially fit him for his calling, and those who know him and realize his accomplishments declare that he is going to do great things in the near future. Fraternally

He

he is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner, he also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Knights of Pythias and Dramatic Order of Knights of Khorassan. Mr. Hardee is unmarried.

JAMES C. KEEN. One of the younger members of the business community of Delray, James C. Keen has established himself on a prosperous scale as a wholesale vegetable and fruit shipper.

Mr. Keen was born at Macon, Georgia, in 1888. His talents destined him for a business career, and even while a school boy he went to work in his father's store at the age of twelve. At seventeen he was bookkeeper in an office, and the next year was employed in a wholesale produce house at Macon. These experiences gave him a practical knowledge of the produce industry.

Mr. Keen first came to Delray in 1913. In 1915 he began business on his own account as a buyer and shipper in the wholesale vegetable and fruit industry. He has developed and is proprietor of the East Coast Produce Company, one of the leading individual concerns of the kind. The company distributes all its products to jobbers and wholesalers.

Mr. Keen is also a director of the Bank of Delray and the Ocean City Lumber Company. He takes a wholehearted interest in the welfare and progress of the community. In 1918 Governor Catts appointed him to fill out an unexpired term as county commissioner of Palm Beach county, and he is now a member of the City Council at Delray. During the World war he was local chairman for all the Red Cross drives except the first one, and was community chairman for the Delray section of the Palm Beach County Liberty Loan campaigns. He is a member of the Masonic order.

Mr. Keen married Miss Sarah Winn of Clarksville, Tennessee. They have two children, Mary Catherine and James C. Jr.

F. J. SCHRADER is an architect by profession, and since locating at Delray in Palm Beach County he has in every sense been one of the constructive factors in the life and progress of that community. His energy and public spirit have led him into a number of enterprises of a business and civic nature. He has developed and has brought special fame to this region of the East Coast through his pineapple plantation. Many northern markets learned to recognize Delray as a pineapple producing section through shipments made from the Schrader place.

Mr. Schrader is a Northern man by birth and early training. He was born near Buffalo in Erie County, New York, was educated in the high school of Gowanda, his native state, and studied architecture by correspondence course and in night school and acquired a practical experience in the profession in architects and builders offices in Buffalo. On leaving New York Mr. Schrader went to Oklahoma, about the time the territory was admitted as a state, locating at Enid. And later built the Oklahoma Hotel at Tulsa, that state. After about four years in Oklahoma, he came to Delray, in 1912.

Since then Mr. Schrader has been a leader in practically every movement for the progress of this community. He is president of the Ocean City Lumber Company, a $100,000 corporation, which, in addition to handling lumber and building materials, has engaged in an extensive building program. The company own tracts and

lots, finance the building of homes under a plan that involves a fractional initial payment and balance on easy terms, and has thus been the means of supplying not only good homes to people of modest means, but has built a number of handsome modern residences and also erected the Kentucky Hotel, a modern tourist hotel, one of the best assets of the town. Mr. Schrader handles all the architectural work for the company. He is also a director of the Bank of Delray and is vice president of the Delray Pineapple Product Company. For five years he served as a member of the Palm Beach County Board of Public Instruction.

His hobby and what seems likely to be his greatest contribution to the wealth and prosperity of the Delray section is the growing of prize pineapples. Soon after coming to Delray Mr. Schrader selected his home site about a mile and a half north of town, on what is now known as Swinton Avenue. He started there with a small acreage, but has since added to the tract until the plantation comprises forty-one acres, extending from Swinton Avenue westward to the shore of Lake Ida, with an ample frontage on that beautiful body of fresh inland water. This land when he acquired it was in a raw and uncultivated state. He has developed it into a place of great beauty and attractiveness. Nearly all varieties of citrus fruits and the avocado pear are grown there, but the main product is pineapple, the production of which is now on a commercial basis. The variety grown is the Red Spanish. For several years past this fruit from the Schrader place has been given first prize at the State Fairs at Tampa and Jacksonville and the Palm Beach County Fair, and his exhibits have always taken first, never a second prize. The most interesting feature, however, of the industry is the commercial side. For two or three years, including 1922, Mr. Schrader has shipped an average production of from ten to thirteen carloads of pineapple to the Northern markets. A carload consists of 300 crates.

Mr. and Mrs. Schrader have reason to take great pride in their estate. The residence and grounds, with their tropical surroundings, possess charm and comfort unknown in any place outside of Florida. The home is on an elevation overlooking Lake Ida and the surrounding country. Mr. Schrader married Anna Bettcher, of Erie County, New York. They have one son, Everett Schrader. Mr. Schrader is a member of the Scottish Rite bodies up to and including the thirty-second degree, also a member of Mahi Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. of Miami, Florida.

AUGUSTUS STROUSE HALL has been working in various phases of the fruit industry the greater part of his life, is familiar with the growing, harvesting, packing and shipping, and for several years has been actively identified with the South Lake Apopka Citrus Association as general manager. The headquarters for this association are at Oakland and its packing house is at Tildenville in Orange County.

Mr. Hall was born in Wayne County, North Carolina, June 4, 1880, son of George Peola and Martha Virginia (Blount) Hall, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of South Carolina. His grandfather, William Hall, was born in North Carolina, and the grandfather Blount was a native of South Carolina. Both were of English ancestry. Martha Virginia Hall is still living at the old homestead farm twelve miles south of Goldsboro, North Carolina.

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

On that farm Gus Hall was born, one of a family of twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. During his youth he acquired a common school education, and came to Florida at the age of twenty-one. For a time he was employed in the Warnell Crate Factory at Plant City, was for a time an orange picker in DeSoto County, and worked in a number of fruit packing houses in Florida and Georgia. At Plymouth, Florida, he was a packing house foreman, and since the season of 1911-12, has been identified with the Florida Citrus Exchange in his present post as manager of the South Lake Apopka Citrus Grove Association. Mr. Hall is also an individual orange grower.

He married in Orange County in 1912 Miss Mary Baker. They have six children as follows: George Brocton, Willis, Mattie Elizabeth, Carl, Augustus, Jr., William David.

J. C. WAGEN Since 1917 has been chief engineer of the Lake Worth Drainage District. This district, organized in 1915, embraces 125,000 acres of land extending from the City of West Palm Beach southward about twenty-five miles to the Town of Deerfield, and is about eight miles wide. The extensive drainage program for this district is now practically complete. The average cost per acre involved is about $22. The land embraced in this district was practically worthless before the drainage enterprise was carried out. At various times of the year water stood on the land many feet in depth. Drainage, however, eliminated this condition, and the result is that land formerly covered with water is now worth from $100 per acre up. It is one of the largest and most practically beneficent enterprises ever carried out in Florida, and is a great asset to the state as well as to the immediate district involved.

Mr. Wagen, the chief engineer, has had a wide and varied experience in the technical problems involved in general engineering. He was born at Mankato, Minnesota, in 1880. His parents were among the pioneers of that section of Minnesota, going out to the country in covered wagons. Mr. Wagen was reared and acquired his early education in Mankato, Minnesota, and subsequently attended the University of Minnesota, where he specialized in engineering.

His technical experience since leaving university has been almost entirely in the South. He did engineering work with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and subsequently was locating engineer on the construction of the Virginia and Southwestern Railway. For about a year he was in Haiti as division engineer for the National Railroad of Haiti.

Mr. Wagen came to South Florida in 1912, and since then his professional and other interests have been centered at Lake Worth, in what is now Palm Beach County. Lake Worth was founded that year. It has since grown to be one of the most progressive and important towns on the Florida East Coast, and is famous for its municipal enterprises, including seventy miles of paved streets, a great Casino, modern high school building and other facilities.

As chief engineer of the Lake Worth Drainage District Mr. Wagen's duties have been executive as well as technical. He has also built up a large general practice in engineering, and is chief engineer of the Jupiter Inlet, the Lake Worth Inlet and the Palm Beach Inlet, and is chief engineer of the Palm City Drainage District. He is a member of the American Society

of Civil Engineers and the Florida Society of Civil Engineers.

With Lake Worth as his home town he has been interested in community affairs. He is now chairman of the Board of School Trustees of Special District, which embraces the Town of Lake Worth and surrounding country. Mr. Wagen married Miss Fredericka Burr, of Morgantown, North Carolina, a member of the historic Burr and Avery families of Burke County, that state. They have one daughter, Mary Burr Wagen.

ADELBERT W. MASON, proprietor of the Winter Park Automobile Company, has been in Florida for a number of years and at first spent only the winter season in Winter Park as athletic coach for Rollins College. Old time baseball fans all over the country knew him when he was one of the big league pitchers.

Mr. Mason was born at Lockport, New York, October 29, 1884, son of Charles and Ida (Dutton) Mason. He was reared at Lockport, educated in high school there, graduated in 1902 from the Genesee Wesleyan College at Lima, New York, and some years later in 1908 he also graduated from Rollins College in Florida. Mr. Mason was a professional baseball player fourteen years. During that time he was on the pitching staff of the Washington team in the American League, the Cincinnati team in the National League, and he was also on the staff of the New York and Baltimore teams. For several years after the baseball season ended he was head coach for Rollins College. He finally gave up professional baseball in 1914.

In the meantime he had engaged in the automobile business in 1912, as salesman for the Oldsmobile, Lincoln and Ford cars, and has since developed a very prosperous business under the name of the Winter Park Automobile Company. Mr. Mason is a member of the Business Men's Club, the Board of Trade and is a Mason and Elk. He married in 1914 at Winter Park, Miss Dorothea Temple, daughter of the late W. C. Temple. They have two children, William Temple and Catherine.

VERY REV. C. STANLEY LONG, dean of St. Luke's Cathedral of the Episcopal Church at Orlando, was ordained to the ministry in England after four years of service with the British armies in the World war, and all his active work for the church has been done on American soil.

Dean C. S. Long was born in Glostershire, England, January 25, 1890, son of Christopher Samuel and Elizabeth (Stephens) Long. His parents were life-long residents of England. An only child, C. Stanley Long was educated in Fairfield College, in University College, and took his theological work in St. Catharine's College, all in England. He received his diploma from St. Catharine's in 1912, and during the following two years was a

master.

In 1914, soon after the World war began, he joined the British Army as a private, and subsequently rose to the rank of second lieutenant in the London Rifle Brigade. He was on duty until the armistice.

May 23, 1920, he was ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church, and soon after was appointed curate-in-charge of St. Clement's Church in the Missionary District of Honolulu. On December 12, 1920, he was ordained priest and made rector of St. Clement's Church. In February, 1921, he

« PreviousContinue »