George Washington Schoonmaker Jr. (1874 - 1911)

Born 2 Apr 1874 in Manhattan, NY

Husband of Elsie Wood Yeaton — married 14 Feb 1896 in Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA

Descendants

Died 10 Mar 1911 at age 36 in Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA

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Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import.^[1] It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Birth

Birth:

Date: 02 APR 1874

Place: Manhattan, NY

Birth:

Date: 02 APR 1874

Place: Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA^[2][3]

Found multiple copies of BIRT DATE. Using 02 APR 1874

Death

Death:

Date: 10 MAR 1911

Place: Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA

Death:

Date: 10 MAR 1910

Found multiple copies of DEAT DATE. Using 10 MAR 1911Array

Burial

Burial:

Place: Woodlawn Cemetery, N.Y. City

Event

Event:

Type: Fact 3

Place: Newspaper reporter, lawyer, Mason

Event:

Type: Fact 4

Place: Graduate of Cornell U. law school

Event:

Type: Fact 6

Place: Lawyer, newspaperman

Event:

Type: Fact 8

Place: Jamaica, Queens, New York, USA

Event:

Type: Fact 7

Place: Mason; Lt. in the 23rd Brooklyn Regiment

Event:

Type: Fact 9

Place: Episcopalian

Note

Note: #H1448

Sources

1. ↑ Schoonmaker-346 was created by Paul Botts through the import of Botts GEDCOM Sept 2014_2014-10-12.ged on Oct 12, 2014. This comment and citation can be deleted after the biography has been edited and primary sources are included.
2. ↑ Source: #S178 Data: Text: Some info on sourcing for this person can be found in notes fields that are part of either this person's record or that of a parent. CONT FOOT Paul R. Botts, AA: For source info look in the notes fields., Some info on sourcing for this person can be found in notes fields that are part either this person's record or that of a parent.
3. ↑ Source: #S179 Data: Text: One or more photos and/or documents related to this person can be viewed online at www.paulbotts.net. Access is free and will be approved for any researcher through the site's apply-for-a-login procedure. CONT FOOT Paul R. Botts, AB: Media for this person is online., One or more photos and/or documents related to this person can be viewed online at www.paulbotts.net. Access is free and will be approved for any researcher through the site's apply-for-a-login procedure. Note: #N8665

• Source: S178 Author: Paul R. Botts Title: AA: For source info look in the notes fields NOTESome info on sourcing for this person can be found in notes fields that are part either this person's record or that of a parent. CONT
• Source: S179 Author: Paul R. Botts Title: AB: Media for this person is online NOTEOne or more photos and/or documents related to this person can be viewed online at www.paulbotts.net. Access is free and will be approved for any researcher through the site's apply-for-a-login procedure. CONT

Notes

Note H1448

Raised by his aunt after being orphaned; see notes for his father. Birth and death dates confirmed from his tombstone.

Info on this family comes from a combination of Schoonmaker Family Association records, the reminisences of Mary Elsie Schoonmaker (daughter of this George Sch., and my paternal grandmother), and a visit to his gravesite in the Schoonmaker family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery, NYC. My sister Elizabeth Botts interviewed Grandma in March 1990, and left notes which included that this family's home in Jamaica, Queens, NY was "at Grand and Fulton streets, on a trolley line." The street names and numbering were changed in the 1920s and that is now the intersection Jamaica Blvd. and 168th St., the commercial heart of Jamaica which is one of the older and more densely populated parts of Queens.

A 1908 insurance map found at the Long Island Division of the NY Public Library shows that Fulton St. did indeed have a trolley line, and was at that time an area with a number of apparently good-sized (probably Victorian) upper middle-class houses with yards. Grandma's recollection is that after her father suddenly broke down and then died in 1911, the family's finances fell apart and they sold the house they had lived in. They had built that house in 1899 on a parcel of farmland they had inherited (I don't know from whom). They sold off other parts of the farm as building lots, and the modern town of Jamaica, New York grew up around them.

We also have an 1896 wedding notice from an unidentified newspaper, which says they were married "in the Presbyterian church." Miss Mary Schoonmaker (sister of the groom) was among the bridesmaids; first cousin Lester C. Clerke was a groomsman. The notice says that "after a wedding trip the couple will take up residence in Jamaica" (Queens, NY). A different notice also lists those present, including: Mr. and Mrs. Granville Yeaton, Miss Laura Yeaton, Granville Yeaton Jr. of Jamaica, Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Yeaton, Mr. and Mrs. S.C. Yeaton, Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Grube, Mr. and Mrs. George Yeaton, Miss Amelia Yeaton, Charles Yeaton, Mr. and Mrs. W.L. Yeaton and daughter of Hoboken, NJ, Mr. and Mrs. Remsen, Mrs. P.H. Remsen, Mrs. C.A. Wood, George, WIlliam and Miss Fannie Remsen, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clerke.

Death date for G.W. Jr. is confirmed by a newspaper death notice. That notice says that the "Brilliant Young Lawyer of Jamaica Succumb(ed) to Nervous Prostration," at a "health resort." According to his granddaughter Gretchen (Schoonmaker) Ellis (private letter), family lore has it that G.W. Jr. was injured during law school at Cornell when he dived into a lake near Ithaca and hit his head on a submerged piling. He had seizures for months, and then in 1908 began having severe headaches. He was hospitalized permanently in 1909, Gretchen says, and an autopsy revealed brain lesions and evidence of serious bleeding into the brain at some earlier time.

His most recent case had been as a defense lawyer for a murder defendant before the state Supreme Court (he won). The death notice says he had at one time been Clerk of the County Court.

Another clipping says he had first been a journalist, for the Jamaica Standard and "a prominent newspaper in Albany," before entering law school and that profession. Another clipping attributes his collapse and death to "an injury to his head received several years ago while a lieutenant in the Twentythird Regiment of Brooklyn," and says he had been a reporter for "several Manhattan and Brooklyn papers."

Note N8665One or more photos and/or documents related to this person can be viewed online at www.paulbotts.net. Access is free and will be approved for any researcher through the site's apply-for-a-login procedure.