Stephen Henry McFadden

Stephen H. McFadden represented American business interests for many years in Berlin, Germany and Geneva, Switzerland. From 1892 to 1915 he was based in Berlin.⁴ In May 1915 the family moved from Berlin to Switzerland, perhaps due to the war raging in Europe.⁵ Stephen continued to represent American and international business interests while residing in Switzerland, inlcluding the New York-based Chesebrough Manufacturing Company and the Russia Cement Company in Gloucester, Massachusetts.⁶ Chesebrough manufactured a variety of products, including the iconic Vaseline brand of preparations.⁷ The Russia Cement Company in the 1920s was the largest manufacturer of glue in the United States and was known for another iconic name, Le Page's Glue, which it produced for the Canadian-based LePage Company.⁸

Stephen and Anne had one child, Helen Edson McFadden, who was born on July 27, 1895 in Berlin, Germany.⁹

During the two decades that Stephen, Anne and Helen lived in Berlin, they were active in the so-called American colony and appear to have traveled in prominent social circles. Articles in the New York Times periodically reported on their activities, and from those newspaper articles we can gather a bit of information about the family. One newspaper article from 1909 reports on a farewell luncheon given by Anne McFadden at her home on Bambergerstrasse for Katherine Wright, sister of Orville and Wilbur Wright.¹⁰ Anne and Katherine had just returned from a Rhine trip. This association with Katherine Wright would later play an interesting and important role in court proceedings when Anne's daughter Helen (McFadden) Comfort defended herself against accusations made by her husband, Roland M. Comfort, when he was attempting to annul their marriage.¹¹

Anne died at Swinemunde, Germany, on July 29, 1933, and shortly thereafter Stephen appears to have returned to the United States. About seven months after his return to the U.S., Stephen was struck and killed by an automobile in New York City.¹² He had been residing at the Hotel Wellington, 7th and 55th Streets, in New York City prior to his death. Stephen Henry McFadden died at Bellevue Hospital on April 6, 1934, in New York, NY, and was cremated at Fresh Pond Crematory on April 7, 1934.¹³ The death certificate indicates that he was an "importor."

¹ Certificate of Death, Department of Health of The City of New York, Borough of Manhattan, certificate number8751, April 6, 1934.
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³ Marriage recorded in family Bible. Pages from what was likely an Acker family Bible were recovered and preserved by my parents, Franklyn Lowery Delaney and Dorothy (Abbott) Delaney at the time that my grandmother, Edwina Acker (Lowery) Delaney was closing up her home in Malverne, NY, in preparation for a move circa 1965 to Ventura, California.
⁴ On a 1918 U.S. passport application, Stephen stated that he had resided in "Berlin, Germany from 1892 to May 1915." Consular Form 176B, American Consulate, 6 Rue Michel Chauvet, Geneva, Switzerland, April 16, 1918.
⁵ April 1918 U.S. passport application cited above.
⁶ April 1918 U.S. passport application cited above. Also, an October 29, 1919, letter from the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company, in support of passport applications by Anne and Helen McFadden, stating that "Mr. Stephen H. McFadden resides in Geneva, Switzerland, and represents this Company's interests in that city." When I first embarked on the project to document our family history in 1999, my father, Franklyn Lowery Delaney, told me that he believed Stephen McFadden had been employed by a cosmetics company and that he had worked in Germany for many years. His information proved to be remarkly accurate when, almost ten years later in 2010, I found documentation of Stephen's employer.
⁷ The firm was founded in 1870 by a chemist named Robert Augustus Chesebrough (1837-1933). A merger in 1955 between Pond's Extract Company and Chesebrough Manufacturing Company resulted in the formation of Chesebrough-Ponds, which was purchased by Uniliver Corporation in 1986. In its early years, Chesebrough was based in Brooklyn, NY, which could provide some insight into how Stephen came to work for the company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesebrough_Manufacturing_Company
⁸ http://www.lepage.com/AboutLepage.aspx
⁹ Helen's date of birth is listed on a 1920 passenger list. S.S. Lafayette, LeHavre to N.Y., January 21, 1920, NARA, T715 Roll 2720 Page 12 Line 18.
¹⁰ "Miss Wright Charms All," New York Times, October 10, 1909, p. C3.
¹¹ In the 1920s, Roland M. Comfort, Helen's husband, tried to annul the couple's marriage based on a variety of charges including an allegation that his wife was not loyal to the United States of America. He accused Helen of tearing up an American flag as one piece of evidence, but in a court appearance Helen produced the small American flag (11.5 inches by 15 inches) to disprove his allegation. The flag was an item that Helen E. McFadden had been given by her close friend Katherine Wright when the two individuals were in Berlin in 1909. The flag was distinctive as it had been signed by one of Katherine's famous aviator brothers, Orville Wright. The flag is inscribed in ink, "To Helen McFadden with my compliments - Berlin: Oct 15th, 1909 [signed] Orville Wright." The flag had been flown by Orville on one of his "Wright flyer" airplanes during a demonstration flight for military officers and government officials in Berlin.
¹² Stephen was killed in New York City when he stepped off a curb and was struck by an automobile. Source: Conversation in 1999 between Robert F. Delaney and his father Franklyn Lowery Delaney, who was the grandnephew of Stephen McFadden's wife.
¹³ Death Certificate for Stephen Henry McFadden - 1934, Certificate #8751 (Manhattan), Department of Health of the City of New York, Bureau of Records.

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