Manuscript Group 1515, O’Fake-Lynch Family Papers, 1861 – 1941

Archives Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs

Manuscript Group 1515, O’Fake-Lynch Family

Papers, 1861-1941, 2.5 linear feet, 3 manuscript boxes and 6 oversize boxes

Call Number: MG 1515 + box & folder number

Summary

• Biographical Note

• Provenance Note

• Container List

  • • Series
      I.  Family

  • • Series
      II.  Photographs

  • • Series
      III.  Scrapbooks

  • • Series
      IV.  Bound sheet music

  • • Oversize
      materials

Summary:

Contains materials documenting several prominent nineteenth and early twentieth century African-American families from Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey.  The collection includes music and leather-bound sheet music relating to John H. O’Fake (ca. 1818-1901) who was a prominent dancing master and music teacher in Newark; his brother Peter P. O’Fake (d. ca. 1889) who was a barber and also taught music and ran a dancing salon in Newark; and John H. O’Fake’s son, John Peter O’Fake (ca. 1876-1949) who also taught music in Newark.  Also included are materials related to other family members: Mrs. Susan S. Brown, who was a celebrated hairdresser, having taken over her father’s family business in Jersey City in the 1880s; and Emma Amelia (O’Fake) and Jeremiah G. Evans, founders of St. Philip’s, the Negro Episcopal parish in Newark (now merged with Trinity Cathedral)

Gift of Mary Lou B. (Bythewood) Lynch (Mrs. Albert Lynch), 1998.

Biographical Note:

“On Bank Street near Broad Street in Newark, Peter P. O’Fake (d. 1.23.1884) conducted a dancing academy.  There he taught the socially prominent the graceful dances of the day.  His father, Charles M. O’Fake (d. 1869) a musician, conducted business under the old hotel located on Broad Street opposite the present Central Railroad station.” (Newark Evening News, Feb. 12, 1967)

“John P. O’Fake, who is a decendant of a musically talented family which settled in Newark 150 years ago, worked as a messenger for Amzi Dodd (6 yrs.) and Frederick Frelinghuysen (22 yrs.) at Mutual Benefit Company.  Studying with his father, John O’Fake, he mastered the piano, violin, cello and viola, composing, arranging and instructing music.  He taught hundreds of students and composed and arranged a score of marches and other musical selections for piano and orchestra.  He was a member of the Clef Club and The New Amsterdam Club of New York City, an organization of African-American musicians.” (Mutual Benefit newsletter, 1941)

The O’Fake family united with the Lynch family in 1868 when Peter P. O’Fake’s granddaughter, Sarah Viola O’Fake Evans (d. 1901) married Albert M. (Melvin) Lynch (d. 1917).  After her death in 1901, he married Catherine Mousserone.  Their son, Albert E. O. (Edward O’Fake) Lynch, graduated medical school (NYU, 1927) and practiced medicine in Montclair.

Edward S. Lynch, Albert’s brother (d. 1940), married Margaret Francis Brown (d. 1956) in 1905, the daughter of Susan S. and Alban Brown.  Her mother, Susan S. (Saunders Innis) Brown, was a prominent hairdresser whose own father was a successful barber.

Provenance Note:

The O’fake-Lynch Family papers were a gift of Mary Lou B. (Bythewood) Lynch (Mrs. Albert Lynch), in 1998.  (Two family bibles…)

Container List:

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