Charles Peter Behre (1872-1926)

Biography
He first lived in Florham Park, New Jersey [] close to his father and a some other Behres (relationship unkown at this time).

While working at Noe's farm on Southern Boulevard in Chatham Township, NJ, [] Charles Behre met and married (Nov. 23, 1893) Mary McCarron, who worked in the kitchen. During his time at Noe's, Charles Behre and one or two other men dug Noe's Pond by hand. It was at Noe's farm that Charles Behre learned the rose growing business.

After leaving Noe's, he went into partnership with his brother-in-law, Paul Erber. They founded a greenhouse business on what is now Lucent Technologies (was Bell Labs) in Murray Hill. [] They had an opportunity to buy that property for $450 in the ealy 1900's. They parted, however, in 1913 and Charles started a new greenhouse business in West Summit where he rented three greenhouses. Paul Erber moved to Athenia, NJ (now a section of Clifton) where he started his own greenhouse business.

Next, Charles Behre bought property on Passaic Street [] in New Providence, NJ where he started building (1917) what eventually became six greenhouses, and also built a new house. Initially, he had the first three greenhouses built on the property and commuted each day from West Summit. Next he had the house built. They moved into the new house in New Providence in 1920. He died in 1926 before the last greenhouse was completed.