Written by: Doron Zeilberger.
First written: July 11, 1999.
Previous Update: Aug. 20, 1999; Oct. 23, 2000. Nov. 24, 2000;May 26, 2004. (To add Rogers's son's name (Karl) and census information of 1910 and 1930).
Last Update: Oct. 24 (2015), thanks to Nancy Tomala.
Rogers Adolphe Pinner (July 23, 1874-July 26, 1960), was senior partner of the Mutual Electric Company. For many years he shared the same business address as his father Moritz Pinner. He also lived with him, and his mother Melissa Rogers Pinner, at 1036 Sherman Ave., Elizabeth, NJ until after 1900.
On Dec 1902 in Alexandria, VA, Rogers Pinner married Alpharetta 'Effie' C. Woodruff (July 1876, Waverly [now Newark, Essex Co., NJ]-1918) and they lived, for awhile, on Evergreen Ave, Waverly Park, NJ (now part of Newark, NJ), right on the border with Elizabeth, and only a five-minute walk from his parents' house. On April 27, 1904, Effie and Rogers Pinner had a son, Karl Pinner, who died in 1918, the same year as his mother. A few months later, on Aug. 27, 1904, Rogers Pinner was shot by his `former girlfriend', one Mrs. Augustina Hermann, a pretty hat-maker/designer of French extraction, who was a two-time widow. This story made it to the front page of the New York Times (Aug. 28, and Aug. 29, 1904, where Pinner is misspelled Piner) and all the other major NY newspapers. The most accurate account, was given by the Elizabeth Daily Journal. Here is an Account of Rogers Pinner's Shooting as told by the Elizabeth Daily Journal. [Note that they call him erroneusly Roger rather than Rogers, and misstated his middle initial twice, once as H. and once as T., and misstated his wife's first name as Elsie where it should have been Effie].
Apparently, Rogers's father, Moritz, (referred to as `Captain Moritz Pinner'), was very embarassed and tried to cover the story up by telling the police that the incident was due to a tenant-landlord dispute, but Rogers admitted that `he called on her a few times', and then she `went up in the air', when she found out that he got married to someone else. Luckily, Rogers recovered completely (he lived 56 more years, dying in 1960). As a true gentleman (or perhaps out of fear of what Augustina might say in court), he refused to testify against his agressor, and she was released after a few weeks.
Rogers's second wife was (another!) Effie, Effie D. Pinner (Ridgefield Park, NJ, 22 May 1894- Maplewood, NJ, Mar 1973), and they lived in 39 Riggs Place, South Orange, NJ. Effie D. Pinner was born in Ridgefield Park, Bergen Co., NJ, to Alfred Augustin Leger and Laura Minnie Bancker Leger. She had (at least) one brother, Alfred B. Leger, who was born in 1896, and lived in New York, New York, in 1920, with his widowed mother, Laura Leger.
Rogers and Effie Pinner's house still exists, and its present inhabitant was kind enough to let me in, and show me around. The house is a five-minute-walk from Seton Hall University.
After Rogers's father's retirement (and then death, July 30, 1911), Rogers moved his business, (Mutual Electric Co., that later became R. A. Pinner and Co., machinary), to 122 Water Street, NY, two blocks from Wall Street. This house still exists and serves as residence and as the location of `Old Blarney Pub', a bar that according to one of the bartenders exists at least since 1940.
On March 28, 1934, Rogers and Effie D. Pinner sold their house at 39 Riggs Place to Peter and Gertrude Leyendecker (the vilage of South Orange, NJ, town clerk kindly gave me a copy of the deed. According to the City Directory for the Oranges of 1934, they moved to Boston, Mass.
By 1943, Rogers and Effie reside at 28 Verandah Place, in Brooklyn, NY, where Rogers's mother Melissa lived after she became a widow. Their townhouse now overlooks Cobble Hill Park. The phonebooks from 1951 to 1964 lists him as: Pinner R 28 Verandah Pl ... MAin 5-0842 (even though he died in 1960). She continued to live in 28 Verandah Pl until her death on March 1973. She is listed in the Brooklyn phonebook of 1971/72 as: Pinner E 28 Verandah Pl ...625-0842.
As mentioned above, Rogers had a son, Karl W. Pinner, who was born April 27, 1904. Karl is listed in the 1910 Federal census (Roll 911, Part 1, page 193A), as living in Union Twp, Union County, New Jersey together with his father Rogers Pinner, whose occupation then was a machinist, who owned his own shop, his first wife Effie (Woodruff) Pinner and his mother-in-law then age 70 (so she was born ca 1860), Mary E. Woodruff, a widow, who had two children.
Until 2015, when I got an email from Nancy Tomala (see below), I was unable to trace Karl Pinner besides this record. As mentioned above he died in 1918, possibly from the flu epidemic.
In the the 1930 Federal Census, Rogers and his second wife, Effie (Leger) D. Pinner, live in South Orange, without any children.
Rogers Pinner died on July 26, 1960, and is buried in Ballston Spa Cemetery, Section E, lot 21, together with his second wife Effie (the stone has no date, and perhaps she was never buried there), and his parents.
" Rogers' first wife Alpharetta 'Effie' C. Woodruff is my 1st cousin 3x removed. Her mother is my 3rd great aunt, Mary Elizabeth Cross and her father is Jonathon C. Woodruff. Effie was born July 1876 in Waverly, Essex, NJ (now Newark). She married Rogers 8 Dec 1902 in Alexandria, VA. and died Dec 1918. Their son Karl W. Pinner was born 27 Apr 1904 and also died in 1918. They are both buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, NJ (Sec. A, plot 87) Also buried in the same place are her mother and father, brother and a Cross uncle. I have not yet found out exactly when, where or how they died. Could it have been the Spanish flu??? I hope to check the cemetery records and also the NJ Archives in Trenton for birth and death records. Hope this helps you.
Rogers Pinner's father was Moritz Pinner, and his mother was Melissa Rogers Pinner.
