The Mueller-Harder Family

On our way back home from New York City, Karen and I went by way of the village of Grand View-on-Hudson. We were specifically hoping to see the house that my grandfather — and that his father, too — lived in briefly during their childhoods. I believe that my grandfather’s grandfather lived there with his wife for many years.

The alert reader will notice that I have not yet given any of the ancestors a name; I will now. All three, as well as my grandfather’s grandfather’s father, were named “William Cook Disbrow.” At one point, they were named relatively logically “Sr.,” “Jr.,” “III,” and “IV.” However, at some point, “Jr.” became “Sr.,” “III” became “Jr.,” and “IV” became “III.” My mother maintained that it was because only royalty have “retired numbers,” and that after the second William Cook Disbrow died, the third should then have become “Sr.” and the fourth should then have become “Jr.” This never happened, and neither did the next logical step; so, my grandfather, the fourth William Cook Disbrow, grew up as “IV,” changed to “III,” and remained “III” throughout his life. It’s probably fortunate for the sanity of future genealogists, therefore, that my grandfather had two daughters and no sons. The “William Cook Disbrow” line was gone, at least in name. On this site, I will consistently refer to them by their chronological suffixes: “Sr.,” “Jr.,” “III,” and “IV.”

We know that the Disbrow’s house was on the uphill (west) side of Piermont Avenue, right in Grand View-on-Hudson. Unfortunately, we didn’t really have any extra time to do research, and we weren’t able to positively identify the house visually. Here’s a picture of it, though, which we believe to be from the 1920s, as well as one of the second William Cook Disbrow and his wife Elizabeth. I know we have more, probably better photos. I’ll try to post one when I’ve unearthed them.

Well, now, that didn’t take too long — I found them, all right! I’m posting this twice, because we have two hand-painted post cards; because they’re hand-painted, they look a little different. There’s no identification other than the printing on the front, “River Road looking South, Nyack, N.Y.” On the back, it says it’s “Printed in Germany” and that it requires one cent for domestic postage, two cents for foreign. This doesn’t help too much with dating the card: domestic postage for postcards remained at one penny through 1951! I cannot find a rate history for postcards sent internationally from the U.S., though I suspect that two cents was probably the going rate for most of the same time.

Today, Karen and I drove to New York to attend John’s award dinner. Neither of us was quite sure what to expect, as we have no experience with either pollsters or fancy award dinners in New York City.

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research was awarding John for his 1973 book, War, Presidents, and Public Opinion. John used based much of the book on public-opinion poll results archived — mostly on IBM cards — at Roper, Gallop, and other sites. This was long before the internet, so “sites” of course means boxes and shelves and filing cabinets at each of these organizations. (The Roper Center was at that time still located at Williams College in the beautiful but out-of-the-way town of Williamstown, Mass.) John was one of the first to use archived Roper Center data (in the case of War, Presidents and Public Opinion to compare the progression of public opinion through the Korean and Vietnam wars); the data had hitherto been considered ephemera.

Karen and I had a delightful time, met many fine people, ate delicious food, got to spend a little time with John, and met some of Warren Mitofsky’s family — practically neighbors of ours, from Montpelier, Vt. Bryan Mitofsky owns the not-to-be-missed Coffee Corner.

It was a fun evening, and definitely worth the drive down to “the city.”

Clara’s school picture.

This appeared in the May, 2006, issue of the ARRL’s QST magazine:

“This is the special event station K1D I put together for the 24th Milton Hamfest and ARRL Vermont State Convention in February. The station was manned (kidded) only by under-18 operators. From the left: Timothy Mueller-Harder, KB1NBR (age 8); Ron Rossi, KK1L, control operator, and Erik Mu[e]ller-Harder, KB1NBQ, Timothy’s father. Erik and Timothy had just gotten their licenses the week before.”
— Carl Dow, AB1DD

[Sometime in the 1960s]
[Upward Wing, Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts]

[unknown Boston-area newspaper]
[between 8 & 12 February, 1965]

DISBROW — February 7, Anna (Dykstra), age 82, formerly of Florida,
wife of the late William Cook Disbrow Jr. Services at the Sparrell
Funeral Home, Central Street, Norwell, Saturday, February 13, at 3
P.M.

937A PST MAR 29 63 0B053 BC189
B LLC049 PD WUX BOSTON MASS 29 1207P EST
ERIK HARDER
  262 28 ST OAKLAND CALIF
DEAR ERIK: WELCOME. CANT WAIT TO MEET YOU — GLAD DADDY MADE
IT. MY LOVE
  JANNY

JANNY
(31).

[Probably summer of 1934]
[The Hipple house, Pierre, South Dakota]

Ella Bowman Cole (Ruth Bowman Hipple’s sister) with her needlepoint in the garden.On the back, we read:

Taken in Ruth's
garden the summer
of 19

in what I believe is Rachel Cole Cooper’s writing. “34″ has been added in a different pen. Jean Cooper Disbrow has added in her thorough style:

Grandmother Ella Bowman Cole
Mrs. Francis W. Cole
Rachel Cole Cooper's mother
Kathrine Cole Lyon's "
Phillip Bowman Cole's "

[Probably February, 1934]
[The Cole’s house, Interbay, Florida]

Jan with her grandmother (Rachel Cole Cooper) and grandfather (Frank Lafayette Cooper).

[Probably mid-January, 1934]
[Interbay(?), Florida(?)]

Jan and Jean Disbrow.