the retiring mr julius vom hofe

[Robyn Summerlin]

Just a guess, but since the US went off the Gold Standard after WW I, the notes were no longer legal tender but still redeemable by the govt.

[marius]

i still don’t get it: was the entire estate, valued at $238,504, including the illegal $172,000 gold bills?

and what was the point of not returning the gold bills, in exchange for ordinary bills, if they were illegal and thus worthless after may 1. 1933?


for the nerds, more here : gold certificates, and executive order 6102.

[Mike N]

When a person dies testate (i.e., with a will) the decedent's last will and testament is admitted to probate (made a public record) and an estate is established (with its own tax identification number). The estate is then administered (completed) by a fiduciary, typically an executor who is designated in the will.

The assets of the estate are then determined and marshaled by the executor, and then are listed in a public document known as an inventory/appraisement. From this inventory document, the gross value of the estate is determined. If there are inheritance taxes due to the state, an estate return is filed.

Estate assets are then liquidated (turned into cash) or redeemed at a bank and are "paid over" to the estate (hence the "check" that was issued to the estate). The fiduciary of the estate then distributes the net sum to the heirs named in the will.

[Note: If the gold certificates had been held in the name of Julius and another (as joint tenants with right of survivorship or POD - pay on death, for instance) they would have passed to the survivor (the other person named) by operation of law and would have been non-probate assets typically not listed on the inventory since they passed outside the will.]

[Ben]

HI Guys
Great stuff, here is something more you may want to check out-----
It is my understanding that Julius Jr had a live in maid(girl friend ) ??
kids ???? I was told this many years ago from an old timer. back when I was
collecting Vom Hofe reels
also we think they went out of business around 1934 ?
Ben

[marius]

@Mike:

thanks for your explanation. however, as in this case with the gold bills, they only existed to the knowledge of julius jr. vom hofe, and thus went straight to the treasury - which in my opinion simply means that they were all maculated - and could therefor not have been part of any check issued to the estate. the report of dec. 14. 1939 in the brooklyn eagle is written rather confusingly, at least to me.

@Ben:

it is possible, and even probable, that julius jr had a live-in maid, or several, (although his sister emily is always recorded as being in charge of his housekeeping this is probably just a formality. in those days, for the wealthy, that simply means she was in charge of the running of the household, not necessarily swiping the floors herself) but i’m not sure what you mean when you say:

«It is my understanding that Julius Jr had a live in maid)girl friend ) ??»

and

«kids????»

please elaborate a little more about exactly what you remember as being told from the old timer.

..........

evervess sparkling water ad 1947 with edward vom hofe reel

[marius]

if i am not mistaken, it seems that new york city death records are only publicly available prior to 1949. i believe that alfred vom hofe died in 1949 or later, so that may explain why i am not able to track down information about him during his last years.

is anyone here capable of verifying my inklings?

(it is also possible that i must be a u.s. citizen to receive certain information.)

..........

321 east 43rd street, new york. the 10-story building was erected in 1927,
and is part of tudor city complex developed by fred f. french & co, and is within the tudor city historic district.
it is the last known 1940’s address of alfred vom hofe. the photo dates 1935.

[marius]

the end of the road in the julius vom hofe line is his son alfred frederick vom hofe. he seems to have inherited everything, and i think it will be of the greatest interest to learn what he left to his estate + the contents of his will. if there were personal belongings and photo albums from the life of julius vom hofe and his family, they are to be found there, in the estate of alfred.

on alfred’s ‘u.s. world war II draft registration card’, i discovered that his address had been corrected. it says:

——a r—en— Apts (the lines representing letters i cannot read clearly. it could be ‘Parkend’, thus meaning ‘Park End Apartments’)
4 Dartmouth Street
Forest Hills
Long Island
New York

this address belongs to the borough of queens, and queens is also the borough in which ernest worret lived in when he died august 22. 1946 (the death certifacte number of ernest worret is 6880).

let us suppose this long island address to also be the true last address of alfred vom hofe. if so, then it would be easier to find his death certificate, and possibly more, in the new york city department of records.

i would very much come to the bottom of julius vom hofe's direct family line before proceeding with those of his siblings. help!

[wrong99]

One had to register for the draft when they were 73 years-old? I had no idea?
Mark

[marius]

mark, he is "only" 62

[marius]

here is the complete collection of all 10 patents invented by julius vom hofe. click on pics to enlarge. enjoy!


may 20 1862 patent #35,339



nov 26 1867 patent #71,344



jan 17 1882 patent #252,554



nov 17 1885 patent #330,811



jun 15 1886 patent #343,782



oct 8 1889 patent #412,685



jun 10 1890 patent #430,022



dec 20 1892 patent #488,408



jul 1 1902 patent #703,585



oct 20 1903 patent #741,909

[Ben]

Hi Marius,
more great stuff here, Heck I can't remember what I did yesterday ( old Age)
it had to be 25-30 years ago that I was told but when I get a chance I will
look thru some of my old files and see what I can fine for us.
years ago I had over 250 vom hofe reels.
Ben

[marius]

fellow orcans -

i am going to make a special post right here in this space about julius vom hofe’s raised pillar trout reel with squared offsets, so if you have any information/facts/pictures/photos - anything - of such reels, i will appreciate very much if you send or discuss with me via pm before i publish my little essay here. thank you!

engraving made by petri & pels, new york, ca. 1890.

[Dennis Sexton]

Would his older brother Frederick provide a lead.
In 1900, Frederick and his wife Helen lived at 316 S 4th Street. Occupation fishing reel maker.
In 1910, Frederick, wife Helen, son Richard are listed as boarders. Richard is noted as having been married 24 years. Frederick has "no" occupation.
More digging might find a descendant of Richard.

Dennis

[Mike N]

Would his older brother Frederick provide a lead.
In 1900, Frederick and his wife Helen lived at 316 S 4th Street. Occupation fishing reel maker.
In 1910, Frederick, wife Helen, son Richard are listed as boarders. Richard is noted as having been married 24 years. Frederick has "no" occupation.
More digging might find a descendant of Richard.

Dennis

Here is an ancestry.com link on the Vom Hofe family, including one from the 1900 census for a Richard and his wife, Minnie. It's always tricky to make sure you have the correct person when a surname is relatively common. An expert in genealogy could locate an heir relatively simply, I believe.




http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse. ... &gsln_x=XO

[marius]

there were certainly an older brother to julius and edward - thanks for telling dennis!

i didn't know about him being into the fishing tackle business as well. according to my documents, frederick (often abbreviated fred'k) vom hofe was (born in 1833, and died in 1911) a highly successful glass engraver and sign maker. indeed he also held patents relevant for his profession.

he was married to helen (also written hellen and ellen), born in 1838.

they had two sons, william (born ca. 1861) and richard (born 1862).

richard was a book-keeper, and married minnie (born 1867), and they had two children, ralph (born 1888) and aubrey (born 1895).

this frederick vom hofe line is very interesting, because i'm pretty sure they are still thriving, and i will dig into them as soon as i have finished the julius line (will i ever finish that?).

and mike - thanks as well for the additional information. will certainly look into it all somewhat later. i must create a vom hofe family tree to keep track of them all!

[kingfisher]

If you have Ted Bingham's book 'The Celebrated Reels of Edward Vom Hofe' it already has a family tree on page 20 and details on the following pages.

[marius]

unfortunately i don't have bingham's book. it would probably save me some work. i have no clue as to why it isn't part of my bookshelf. it's almost a crime

[m3040c]

If you make a trip over to Amazon.Com and type in the search window (Edward Vom Hofe), you will find the late and dearly missed Ted Bingham's book.

You are doing some very important work here. Love to see the published results.

[marius]

thank you so much for your encouragement mike. i shall certainly continue this thread, just being extremely busy right now. i'm also having a dialogue with a few museums in the u.s. and am awaiting their replies.

[Teal]

Marius,

In the process of finishing the new ORCA book on Julius vom Hofe I discovered a photo of JVH Sr. Drop me a PM.

-- Dr. Todd

[Richard Lodge]

Well, Todd. Hardly fair to keep that a secret from the many ORCAns hanging on this fascinating thread. What, pray tell, did he look like?

[oc1]

Great that this thread has resurfaced. I had not looked closely at the patents first time through. It is an impressive body of work. Do I correctly understand that in 1867 JVH made the first fishing reel with a bridge?
-steve

[Teal]

Thinking about putting him on the cover of the ORCA book, which I think will be titled "The Julius vom Hofe Reel Collector's Bible" ... so maybe I'll just make everyone wait!

[joe klaus]

Such a great thread.