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History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Carl Bernhard Machold

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[This information is from Vol. III, pp. 194-195 of History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925, edited by Nelson Greene (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1925). It is in the Reference collection of the Schenectady County Public Library at R 974.7 G81h. This online edition includes lists of portraits, maps and illustrations. As noted by Paul Keesler in his article, "The Much Maligned Mr. Greene," some information in this book has been superseded by later research or was provided incorrectly by local sources.]

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Carl Bernhard Machold, secretary and treasurer of the Amsterdam Builders Association, an active and influential member of the Board of Trade of that city and one of the best known architects and builders in the Mohawk valley, active in the building trades since the days of his young manhood, was born in the city of Amsterdam and has lived there all his life. He was born on November 20, 1877, and is a son of Paul Bernhard and Martha (Mehlam) Machold, natives of Germany, who for more than fifty years have been residents of the city of Amsterdam, where their home was established following their marriage in 1872.

Paul Bernhard Machold, who for many years was one of the most active and successful building contractors in the Mohawk valley and who is now living pleasantly retired in Amsterdam, was born in Germany, on April 17, 1841, and is thus now in his eighty-fourth year. As a lad he was apprenticed to the trade of stonemason and in his native country became thoroughly proficient in that craft, a vocation at which he worked in his home land until he was twenty-seven years of age, when, in 1868, he came to the United States and became employed as a builder in stone in the city of Albany, this state. In the next year (1869) he became established in business as a building contractor at Amsterdam and has ever since resided there. From the beginning of his activities in and about Amsterdam Mr. Machold took a leading part in the general building trade throughout that section of the state and many years ago became recognized as one of the real leaders in that line hereabout, a large employer of labor in the building trades and a successful and popular contractor, maintaining his activities in that line until his retirement from business in 1909, since which time he has lived quietly at Amsterdam, giving oversight to the varied interests he long ago established there. It was on November 24, 1872, that Paul Bernhard Machold was united in marriage to Miss Martha Mehlam, who also had come to this country from Germany, and to that union were born nine children, seven sons and two daughters: G. Frederick, C. William, Carl Bernhard, H. Edmund, Frank, J. Walter, Lillie M., Laura and Albert, deceased.

Reared in Amsterdam, Carl Bernhard Machold received his initial schooling in the schools of that city and then entered Syracuse University with the class of 1898. He then entered Cornell University, class of 1899, at which institution he spent three years. Under his capable father's direction Mr. Machold had been from the days of his boyhood interested in the building trades and in the architectural course in college he thoroughly equipped himself to follow in his father's footsteps as an architect and builder. For a year after leaving college he was employed as an architect in the office of Edward W. Loth at Troy, New York, and then (in 1900) became associated with his father's and brothers' operations at Amsterdam, a connection he continued until his father's retirement in 1909, since which time he has been carrying on a business along that line on his own account, a general architect and building contractor, and has been quite successful, many of the chief buildings erected during this period in and about Amsterdam bearing the marks of his skill and handicraftsmanship. Mr. Machold is the secretary and treasurer of the Amsterdam Builders Association and is widely recognized throughout the state and industrial circles he has so long represented. In the general commercial and industrial affairs of his home town he also takes an active and helpful interest and is one of the influential members of the Amsterdam Board of Trade. In his political views he has ever aligned himself with the republican party but is not known as an active party worker. Mr. Machold is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight Templar, and a Noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, affiliated with Oriental Temple at Troy. His blue lodge connection is with Artisan Lodge, No. 81, F. & A. M., at Amsterdam; his Knight Templar connection with Holy Cross Commandery, No. 51, and his Royal Arch connection with Chapter No. 51. His interest in Masonic affairs has been long expressed and widely recognized among his associates in that ancient order and he is the president of the Masonic Association at Amsterdam and an active member of the Masonic Club. In the ranks of the membership of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks he also is widely known throughout New York, is a past exalted ruler of the local lodge of that fraternal order at Amsterdam and a member of the Past Exalted Rulers Association of northeastern New York. He also belongs to the Montgomery County Historical Society and the Antlers Country Club.

On June 6, 1910, at Amsterdam, Carl Bernhard Machold was united in marriage to Miss Laura J. Kline of that city and to this union have been born two children, both daughters: Emily Josena, born on April 7, 1911; and Martha Jean, born January 20, 1916. Mrs. Machold is a daughter of William J. Kline, editor of the Amsterdam Evening Record, concerning whom further and fitting mention is made elsewhere in this work, together with interesting details regarding the Kline family, to which narrative the attention of the reader is respectfully directed in this connection.

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