24 



The Florists* Review 



Fkbkuaky 24, 1921 



OBITUARY 



Peter Reinberg. 



Chicago was shocked Monday inoni- 

 ing, February 21, when the city dailies 

 came out with extra editions carrying 

 8-colunin heads in huge black type, 

 "Peter Reinberg Dead," for, in addi- 

 tion to being one of the largest growers 

 of cut flowers in America, Mi. Reinberg 

 was much in the public eye, being presi- 

 dent of the board of county commis- 

 sioners and president of the forest pre- 

 serve, which is famous the world around. 



Mr. Reinberg had not been well for 

 some time. He and Mrs. Reinberg had 

 recently returned from a rest in Florida, 

 in company with Mr. Reinberg 's cousin, 

 N. J. Wietor, and Mrs. Wietor. The 

 trip did him much good and he resumed 

 his many activities. He was in the 

 market February 18 and spent the eve- 

 ning of February 19 in the company of 

 Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Kill, apparently 

 feeling better than usual. In the earlv 

 hours of February 21 he left his rooiii 

 to visit the bath. Mrs. Reinberg heard 

 him fall and called assistance, but he 

 died without regaining consciousness 

 and before the doctor arrived. The 

 cause of death is stated to have been 

 cerebral hemorrhage. 



Peter Reinberg, the son of Henry and 

 Catherine Beck Reinberg, was born 

 March 5, 1858, on a truck farm eon- 

 ducted by his father where North Robey 

 street and Balmoral avenue now inter- 

 sect and one of the Reinberg green- 

 house ranges stands. The son's first oc- 

 cupation was as salesman for his father; 

 he drove a wagon each day, in season, 

 from the farm to the old* Eighteenth 

 street market, where he sold the load of 

 produce. When the father died, in 1881, 

 two sons continued the business. About 

 1885 greenhouses were built at the 

 market garden and cut flowers were 

 grown. The glass was developed until 

 it covered about 2,000,000 feet of ground 

 and Mr. Reinberg had at one time the 

 distinction of operating the largest 

 greenhouse establishment in the world. 

 When the production had been developed 

 to only a moderate beginning Mr. Rein 

 berg started to sell his output direct 

 to the trade, opening a salesroom in 

 the Atlas block, where it still is locate<l. 

 The business covers ])ractically the 

 wliole of the United States, a consid- 

 erable trade in rooted cuttings, etc., be- 

 ing done, in addition to the slii])ping 

 of cut flowers, whicli in itself covers all 

 the middle west. 



Mr. Reinberg was the leader in tlie 

 characteristic type of greenhouse con 

 struction for which the Chicago district 

 has been noted for a quarter of a cen- 

 tury and from which it only now is be- 

 ginning to break away. He it was who 

 first built the large ranges of ridge-and 

 furrow houses, first on wood and then on 

 iron gutters, without partitions. He was 

 among the first to sjjecialize, devoting 

 acres of glass to one variety of rose or 

 carnation for cut flowers. In the earlv 

 'lays Beauty, Bride, Bridesmaid and 

 Meteor were his leaders, but in the quar- 

 ter century which has pas.sed since these 

 were in their zenith he has bought an<l 

 grown in a large w;iy i)ractically every 

 new variety wjiicli h;is- come to the mar 

 ket. He made a fortune in the busi- 

 ness and gradually developed many 



other interests. He was a director of a 

 national bank and of a trust company. 



In 1904 Mr. Reinberg entered politics, 

 which since has been his avocation. In 

 that year he was elected as a Democratic 

 alderman for the Twenty-sixth ward, a 

 strongly Republican district. In spite 

 of the difference in party, he was re- 

 elected three times. It was during that 

 period that he became known as paying 

 more personal property taxes than all 

 the rest of the members of the city 

 council put together and established the 

 reputation of being unshakable in any 

 course he believed to be right. When 

 Mr. Reinberg left the council his friend. 

 Mayor Harrison, appointed him presi- 

 dent of that turbulent body, the board 

 of education, where Mr. Reinberg suc- 

 cessfully directed the expenditure of 

 many millions a year for the schools. 

 In 1914 he was elected head of the 

 county government and was reelected 

 in 1918. In each of his elections he ran 

 far ahead of his ticket and was being 

 groomed by Democratic leaders as their 

 candidate for mayor in 1923. 



The forest preserve will be Mr. Rein- 

 berg's monument. This great belt of 

 outer parks, mostly natural woodland, 

 encircling the city, has been developed 

 under his close direction. He has 

 watched every move, to make the money 

 go as far as possible and to use its 

 maximum purchasing power for the pul)- 

 lic. In years to come his foresight and 

 incorruptibility will be even more 

 widely recognized than now. 



I'^nassuming and modest, Mr. Rein- 

 berg, nevertheless, was noted for his 

 charities. He maintained a number of 

 free beds in several Chicago hospitals 

 and specialized his philanthropies among 

 the widows and orphans of city and 

 county employees. 



May 27, 188.'], Mr. Reinberg married 

 Mary Kroiienbertjer, who survives him. 

 They had no children, but had made a 

 son of Charles, now 16, the child of 

 one of Mrs. Reinberg 's deceased sisters. 

 He left a brother, George, also a large 

 grower and wholesaler, and five sisters, 

 two of whom married well known flo- 

 rists: Mafhew W^eiland and Adam 

 Zend(>r. Mr. Reinberg also had several 

 uncles and aunts in the business and the 

 relatives by marriage are a numerous 

 clan, embracing nearly every old fam- 

 ily in the greenhouse district north of 

 Chicago. 



Scores of organizations did honor to 

 Mr. Reinberg 's memory. The city and 

 county buildings will be closed for the 

 day of the funeral and the boards held 

 special meetings to adopt resolutions of 

 respect. The wholesale cut flower mar- 

 ket will suspend business for the hour 

 of the funeral and the numerous trade 

 associations of which he was a member 

 will adopt resolutions and attend the 

 funeral. It has been arranged that fu- 

 neral ceremonies should be held at St. 

 Cregory's church at 10 a. m. February 

 24. Solemn requiem mass will he cele- 

 brated by the Rev. Father Michael Klas 

 sen, the pastor. Burial will be at St. 

 Henry's cemetery, with the funeral in 

 charge of the Knights of Columbus and 

 the C.ntholic Order of Foresters. 

 John S. Nicholas. 



John S. Nicholas, proprietor of the 

 flower and fruit store at the Grand Cen- 

 tral Terminal, New York, died suddenlv 

 of heart failure,' at his residence, 270 

 Ri\ersidc drive, Tuesday, February 1.". 

 lie was liorn in Crete, in IS.'t. .and came 

 to New York in ISS."), where he found 



employment as caretaker of a building 

 not far from tlie present store, where he 

 also sold a few flowers to add to his in- 

 come. From this small beginning he 

 subsequently occu[iied stores of consid- 

 erable size until he came into the one 

 occujiied at the terminal, which he had 

 secured on lease before its completion. 

 He was a diligent, hard-working man, 

 and prospered so well that his real estate 

 holdings at the time of his death were 

 large and included several of the build- 

 ings on West Twenty-eighth street occu- 

 pied by wholesale florists. He leaves a 

 widow and two children. The funeral 

 took place Friday, February 18, from his 

 residence, where services were held. 



John M. Good. 



The death of John M. Good, of Good 

 & Reese Co., Springfield, O., occurred at 

 his home, at Springfield, the morning of 

 February 16. Mr. Good was 67 years 

 of age. He was widely known in the 

 trade as a grower of roses and was presi- 

 dent of the United States Nurseries Co., 

 at Rosacres, Miss., and also of the 

 Perennial Gardens Co., at Springfield, O. 

 Mr. Good was at one time mayor of the 

 city of Springfield and has many friends 

 there who learned of his death with 

 regret. 



His fatal illness extended over a 

 period of about a year. He recently re- 

 turned from Florida, where he had gone 

 in search of health. Surviving are his 

 widow, a daughter, Helen, and one son, 

 John M. Good, Jr. 



O, F. Brand. 



The recent death in California of 

 0. F. Brand was a shock to his many 

 friends in the florists' and nursery trade. 

 More than fifty-five years ago Mr. Brand 

 organized the firm that is now the Brand 

 JvTursery Co., at Faribault, Minn. For 

 many years he conducted this business 

 with success and had one of the finest 

 collections of specimen peonies in the 

 country. In the fall of 1910 Mr. Brand 

 sold his interest in the nursery firm to 

 his son, A. M. Brand, and went to Cali- 

 fornia to spend the winter. He has 

 returned to the east since then many 

 times and has many friends in Minne- 

 sota. He was one of the organizers of 

 the Minnesota State Horticultural So- 

 ciety and was a life member at the time 

 of his death. 



James C. Scorgie. 



James C. Scorgie, for forty years 

 connected with the Mount Auburn ceme- 

 tery, at Cambridge, Mass., and for 

 twenty -five years its superintendent, 

 died", February 16, at the St. Elizabeth 

 hospital, Brighton, Mass., following an 

 operation which he recently underwent, 

 lie was born in August, 1850, at Aber- 

 deen, Scotland, and came to Cambridge, 

 Mass., in 1873. Mr. Scorgie was a 

 draftsman in a stone-cutting estab- 

 lishment, later going to Mount Auburn 

 cemetery. During his term of oflice, 

 Mr. Scorgie greatly enlarged and beau- 

 tified the cemetery until it was the fin- 

 est of its kind in New England and the 

 last resting place of many of New Eng- 

 land "s illustrious dead. 



Mr. Scorgie was a member of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 Boston Horticultural Club, American So- 

 ciety of Civil Engineers, Boston Society 

 of Civil Engineers, New England Asso- 

 ciation of Cemetery Superintendents, 

 Scottish Charitable Society and the 

 Boston Scottish Society, as well as a 

 member of the Alasonic, Grange and 

 other orders. He was also a prominent 



