Later years

Later years

• Jul 01, 2025
• 0 Comment

The changing neighborhood in the garment district came to Matthew Rehm’s door when the building on 27th St. was demolished for new loft construction in the late 1890s. The family first moved to a building nearby on Ninth Ave., but then by 1905, with the oldest son married, the family was residing in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, years before the original Yankee Stadium would be built nearby. That same year, Matte Rehm, after 40 years in the country, was naturalized as a United States citizen.

By 1910, Matthew and Eliza, along with 30year-old Pauline, were living on Franklin Street in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., a recently created borough of Bergen County, nearby son Edward and family in the same town. Eliza died at age 74 in 1916 and was buried in Weehawken Cemetery. Matthew may not have enjoyed suburban life, because in 1920 we find him and Pauline back in Manhattan, in a building at 2 Jane St. in the west Greenwich Village area where his son William also resided with his wife and daughter.

Matthew died at age 84 in June 1926. He left an estate valued at $8942.60 after taxes and expenses, primarily consisting of stocks and bonds. We have his full will and probate proceedings. Edward Rehm served as executor. Each child received $1750 and Pauline also received any remainder, which amounted to another $1942.60. Probably her extra share accounted for the fact that she was the one caring for Matthew in his final years.

Most of Matthew’s individual investments are not listed, but one stock holding of 21 preferred shares and 19 common shares of Urban Motion Pictures, Inc. is called out as having no value because “this company went into receivership in the spring of 1925.” That was a venture by cinema pioneer Charles Urban to produce documentary films in a studio at Irvington, N.Y., which failed when Urban’s business interests collapsed.

I wonder if Matthew Rehm had a personal connection with Urban or if he maybe had an investing interest in motion pictures. Matthew was buried beside his wife in Weehawken.