On the last Juniper Berry cover you had a pic of the greenhouse in Forest Park. You are not going to believe this but Anton Schafer’s son George, who’d be my great, great uncle, was in charge of building those hot houses in the early 1900s. He worked there until he retired in the early 1940s when he was in his seventies. He was also a member of the Fearless Fire Department. Below is his obituary from 1949. It mentions his position as the horticulturalist at Forest Park. (There is a mistake about the Fearless date. I believe it should have been 1886.)
“GEORGE A. SCHAFER, 79. George Anton Schafer, who was born in Middle Village, L. I., the son of Mr. and Mrs. Anton Schafer, passed away at the Hamilton Ave. Hospital,
Monticello, on September 14, 1949. Mr. Schafer who had resided with his sister, Mrs. Walter G. Seardefield Sr. for the past several years, was retired from the New York City Department of Parks where he served as horticulturist in Forest Park for forty-five years prior to his retirement. He was also a member, since 1906, of the Fearless Hook and Ladder Co., No. 7, which was one of the very last companies absorbed by the regular fire department of New York City. Surviving the deceased are: a sister, Eva D. Seardefield of Kenoza Lake, 3 nieces, Mrs. John B. Harrison of Lynbrook, L. I., Mrs. George Winkelstern of Kenoza Lake, Mrs. Adam Goldschmidt, Jeffersonville, and three nephews, Philip Linnemann, Middle Village, Arthur Linnemann of Bellmore, L. I., and Walter Seardefield Jr., of Jeffersonville, 2, foster nephews, Arthur and Ernest Terwilliger, also grandnephews and grand-nieces.”
Thanks, Art Linnemann