The Bronx and Its People/William Henry Steinkamp

by James Lee Wells

William Henry Steinkamp. An outstanding figure in The Bronx in his capacity of learned and dependable lawyer, banker and citizen, is William Henry Steinkamp, surviving partner of the thirty-two year old firm of Salter & Steinkamp. He is president of The Fordham Saving Bank, and serves on the boards of various philanthropic organizations. William Henry Steinkamp was born September 23, 1864, on New York's lower east side, at the corner of Sixteenth Street and First Avenue, in the heart of an old German settlement, son of Christopher Henry and Maria (Watjen) Steinkamp. The father, born in Westphalia, came to the United States as a boy and settled in the German neighborhood where his son was born. He conducted a grocery store for many years in that vicinity and later at Forty-sixth Street and Second Avenue, prospering in that and in important real estate investments and accumulating a competence before his retirement. He died in 1911 in his seventy-fifth year. His wife was born in Hanover, Germany, and died in 1881, at the age of thirty-eight. William Henry Steinkanap attended Grammar School No. 40, on East Thirty-seventh Street, graduating in 1879. He then entered the College of the City of New York on East Twenty-third Street, pursuing the commercial course, and graduating. His next objective was the law, which he studied at New York Law School, graduating in 1894 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, with honor. Admitted to the bar in 1895, be began to practice that year as a partner of A. Oldrin Salter, with offices at No. 140 Nassau Street. Both the partnership and the location continued to thrive until Mr. Salter's retirement in 1920, when he was one of the oldest practicing lawyers of the New York bar, having reached the ripe age of eighty-two. He died in May, 1921. Since the retirement of this fine old man, Mr. Steinkamp retrained at the old offices on Nassau Street until 1927, when he removed to No 342 Madison Avenue, and has retained the name of the old firm in order to keep alive the memory of the long and pleasant association. The partners always engaged in general practice of the law and achieved an enviable reputation for their keenness, their integrity, and their generosity. Mr. Steinkamp's interest in his profession has always been keen and lam displayed itself in pad by active membership in the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. and The Bronx County Bar Association. In addition to his legal activities, Mr. Steinkamp has played an important part in civic affairs. In 1923, in association with other prominent men, he organized The Fordham Savings Bank. which has since grown to an important place in local esteem, with over eleven thousand depositors and more than five million dollars in the form of deposits. Mr. Steinkamp has been president since its organization and has been a large factor in rousing public confidence. He is president of the Wartburg Orphan Farm School, member of the Fordham Hospital Association, of the Lutheran Hospital Association, and the Union Hospital, a member of the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Zoological Society, the Museum of Natural History of New York City, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His club is the New York Athletic. On November 20, 1889, in New York City, William Henry Steinkamp was married, by Rev. Dr. E. F. Moldenke, to Dorothea Clausen, daughter of Berman and Dorothea (Riechers) Clausen, both rates of Hanover, Germany. Children: 1. Christopher Herman Steinkamp, born October 27, 1892; married Marion Carroll, and they have a son, William Henry Steinlaunp. 2. Marion Lenore Steinkamp, married Reginald Franklin Pierce, and they have a son, Reginald Franklin Pierce, Jr., born December 24, 1924. 3. Mildred Emily Steinkamp; married Edwin Gwen, Murray. 4. Willard Clausen Steinkamp, born April 29, 1903. 5. Alfred Frederic Steinkamp, born January 12, 1906.