USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913 Volume III > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02255 6515
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490
A HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEWARK
NEW JERSEY
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1836
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EMBRACING PRACTICALLY TWO AND A HALF CENTURIES 1666-1913 PUBLISHING CO.
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VOLUME III.
PUBLISHERS THE LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO. NEW YORK CHICAGO
1913
УЯОТГІН А OL :LUE ХЯАШЛИ ПО УТЮ
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HISTORY OF NEWARK
BIOGRAPHICAL COPYRIGHT, 1913 THE LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO. OLUME III.
1917116
HISTORY OF NEWARK BIOGRAPHICAL
VOLUME III.
Jucat J. Jerlinghuy sms
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BIOGRAPHICAL
FREDERICK T. FRELINGHUYSEN
Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, one of the most brilliant and suc- cessful of New Jersey lawyers, who attained the position of Secretary of State in President Arthur's cabinet, came of distinguished ancestry. He was the son of Frederick and Jane (Dumont) Frelinghuysen, born in Somerset, New Jersey, August 4, 1817, died May 20, 1885, in Newark.
On his father's side Mr. Frelinghuysen was descended from a line of talented men, filling positions of distinction in pulpit, army and state. The Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen was a native of Holland, educated there, and ordained a divine of the Reformed Dutch church. He emigrated to America in 1720 through a call of the American churches to the Classis of Amsterdam, Holland, and in this country was given a parish that covered almost the entire county of Somerset, and parts of Middlesex and Hunterdon. As a worker in this missionary field he was successful and diligent, and his character is better understood from the motto which was inscribed upon a small collection of his sermons, printed in 1773-"Laudem non quero; culpan non timeo," which means "I ask not praise; I fear not blame." The evidences of his faithful teachings are still to be found in the lives and memories of the present generation in Somerset county, who show in their faith and character the impression of his own. He was also one of those who stood for religious freedom and protected the interests of the Reformed Dutch church to which he belonged, against the encroachments of the Church of England, whose endeavors to drive them out after the surrender of New Amsterdam were resisted in the colonial courts of magistracy.
His son, the Rev. John Frelinghuysen, was educated and ordained in Holland, and moved to Somerville, where he succeeded his father in 1750. He there founded a preparatory and divinity school for boys and young men. This was made the nucleus of a college, and one of his pupils, the Rev. Dr. Hardenburg, helped to erect from it Queen's College, whose name was afterwards changed to Rutgers College, now one of the leading institutions of New Jersey. This Rev. John Frelinghuysen was a brilliant and popular preacher. He married, as her first husband, Dinah Van Berg, a woman of remarkable gifts and beautiful Christian character, daughter of a wealthy merchant who traded with Asiatic India, but lived in Holland. She married (second), after Dr. Frelinghuysen's death in 1754, the previously-mentioned Dr. Hardenburg. The son of Rev. John and Dinah Frelinghuysen was General Frederick Frelinghuysen, born in Somerville, April 13, 1753. He matriculated at Princeton University, and was graduated in 1770, having as one of his class- mates the gentleman who afterwards became President James Madison. Mr. Frelinghuysen studied law and was admitted to the New Jersey bar. He was then elected a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, and just at the opening of the Revolutionary War was appointed on the Committee of Safety. At different times he was a member of the Continental Congress. As captain of an artillery corps he took part in the battles of Trenton and Monmouth, under the command of General Washington. During the whiskey rebellion he was made major-general of the militia in New Jersey. From 1793 to 1796 he became a United States senator. His death occurred in 1804, and many were the culogistic speeches made in courts and senate chambers to express the appreciation of all classes of citizens of his worthy services in the cause of the republic and the splendor of his courageous character.
Frederick Frelinghuysen was the youngest of his three sons, born November 7, 1788, in Millstone, New Jersey. Like his father a' Princeton
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graduate, he was admitted to the bar. He began practice of law at Millstone, and there soon built up a fine clientele. He was a natural orator, like so many men of those stirring days, when conquest by Great Britain ever hung over the young nation, and was only silenced as a threat by the war of 1812. He made a strong reputation before the juries that he argued with, in his short span of manhood, by the imagination with which he sketched in words pictures of crime or innocence, and the versatility of thought and judgment with which he met the difficulties of each case presented in court. He mar- ried the daughter of Peter B. Dumont, owner of a rich plantation on the south bank of the Raritan river, near Somerville, New Jersey, but suddenly died in 1820, leaving her the responsibility of bringing up their small family of three daughters and two sons.
Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, youngest of his sons, and the in- heritor of this splendid line of intellectual forbears, was only three years old at the time of his father's death. His uncle Theodore Frelinghuysen, a lawyer of some prominence, then living in Newark, was in 1829 made a senator of the United States, and gained a wonderful reputation for vigorous and telling oratory by his famous speech on the subject of the removal of the Indians to lands west of the Mississippi river. In 1838 he became mayor of Newark, and in 1839 was appointed as Chancellor of the University of the City of New York. In 1844 his name was coupled with that of the eminent Henry Clay, on the ticket of the Whig party, who nominated him as candi- date for vice-president of the United States. His popularity was evidently very great, even though the party failed to carry its ticket through to vic- tory. This good man later became president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and held the same office in the American Bible Society. Chosen in 1850 to be president of Rutgers College, the insti- tution whose history was briefly sketched in a previous paragraph, he filled the position with distinction until April 12, 1862, when death denied him further usefulness to his country at the beginning of its most tremendous political struggle. This distinguished man, on the death of his brother in 1820 adopted the small son, and took him to live with him at Newark. Brought into daily contact with his wonderful uncle, the boy early developed those traits of intellect and character, whose seeds lay latent in his mind. Having no children of his own Theodore Frelinghuysen delighted in giving the young Frederick Theodore, his namesake, every advantage in the way of education and culture. The boy inherited his mother's beauty and his father's emotional and gifted nature, and well repaid his uncle's generosity.
Frederick T. Frelinghuysen was prepared for college at the academies in Newark and Somerville, and entered Rutgers College as a sophomore in 1836, at the age of nineteen. A classmate speaking of him at this time, says that Frelinghuysen's "natural talents were of a high order, but he had no specialties in his studies, no genius for the higher mathematics, no special fondness for the physical sciences. While his standing was good in the classics and in the general studies prescribed, it was evident that he enjoyed most the branches of mental and moral philosophy, logic and rhetoric. Ora- tory had a charm for him." Naturally upon graduation Mr. Frelinghuysen passed into the office of his uncle Theodore to carry out his purpose of be- coming a lawyer. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar as an attorney, and in 1842 as counsellor. At this period he made profession of faith in the church of his fathers, the Reformed Dutch church, and soon after was married.
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His success as a lawyer began in his uncle's office, and library, and his growing acquaintance with the clients of the older man, and profiting by the counsels of so wise a man and lawyer. During the latter's absence as Chancellor of the University of New York, young Frederick won encomiums as his uncle's representative, and soon received the support of the business men of Newark. Everywhere confidence was reposed in him, and if he felt embarrassment at these reflected glories, such feeling was soon removed by the friendly help of such great men as Chief Justice Hornblower, Governor Pennington, and many others who knew his family well. His appointment as City Attorney brought him into association with the working classes, and interested him in city government. The New Jersey Central Railroad soon retained him as counsel, to be followed by the Morris Canal and Banking Company. His wit and the resources of memory and insight were called into the desperate battles of the courtroom, where he met the most eminent counsel of New Jersey and other states, and in the conflict of intellect proved himself to be at least the equal of any member of the New Jersey bar. Yet these victories were not won alone by the force of natural genius, for with every case he spent much time in study and research. His eloquence, and the inheritance of the strategic instincts of his military ancestors, made him a formidable antagonist. Such success as his easily drew about him a lucrative circle of clients, and placed him in the first rank of advocates.
Mr. Frelinghuysen's oratorical gifts were so well known, and his reading of state politics was so thorough, that he willingly responded to the call of large political meetings to express popular views or give them a loftier direction. In 1840, at the age of twenty-three, he was a speaker at the Whig State Convention, at Trenton. Ambitious to follow in the footsteps of uncle and grandfather he sought public office, and was successful in every instance except when, in 1857, he ran for the attorney-generalship of New Jersey, being defeated by ex-Senator William L. Dayton. Governor Olden, however, in 1861 appointed Frederick T. Frelinghuysen to fill the place when It was left vacant by Attorney-General Dayton becoming minister to France. At the expiration of his term in 1866, Governor Ward reappointed him, for Mr. Frelinghuysen had risen to the tremendous opportunity afforded by civil war times and met the puzzling legal questions of that day with un- varying penetration and indefatigable zeal. He lived at this time in Trenton, which was a center of lively discussion of war topics and the governmental principles involved.
In 1866 Mr. Frelinghuysen was appointed to the United State Senate by Governor Ward, of New Jersey, and was subsequently elected by the legislature to fill out the unexpired term of William Wright, his lately deceased predecessor. In 1869 he left the senate, not being re-elected by his state legislature which had become Democratic, but in 1870 by President Grant he was appointed Minister to England, which honor, however, he declined. In 1871, the state legislature having again become Republican, Mr. Frelinghuysen attracted their regard as the most pleasing candidate for senator, and this position he again won for a term of six years. During the reconstruction period he entered the senate chamber again to lend his mighty powers to the important questions arising from the change to civil after military rule in the south. He won the admiration of every hearer by his courteous manners combined with the skill of a long-trained debater, and the patriotic courage that was blended with his knowledge of the science of law. He was appointed at various times as a member on the judiciary, finance, naval affairs, claims, railroads committees, and was chairman of
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HISTORY OF NEWARK
the committee on agriculture. He introduced many notable bills, and took part in famous debates.
Democracy again becoming triumphant in the offices of his native state, Mr. Frelinghuysen retired from the senate March 4, 1877. After a brief interval in which he enjoyed the quiet refinements of his dearly loved home, Mr. Frelinghuysen was again called forth to the stormy world of officialdom by his appointment to the chair of Secretary of State in the cabinet of Presi- dent Arthur, soon after the assassination of President Garfield. During this episode of his career, the famous lawyer responded successfully to the de- mands of his trying position, negotiating various treaties, one of them for the building of the Nicaragua Canal failing to be ratified.
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Secretary Frelinghuysen was as dearly esteemed and as highly admired in private as in public life. For some time before his death he was president of the American Bible Society. He became one of the trustees of Rutgers College in 1851 and continued thus for thirty-four years. In 1862 he de- livered a memorable address before the literary societies of Princeton Uni- versity, which then conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. On leaving his seat in the cabinet, March 4, 1885, Mr. Frelinghuysen returned from Washington to his home in a desperately ill condition, and soon after passed away, at the age of sixty-eight, leaving a widow, three sons and three daughters. Expressions of sympathy and respect poured in upon his bereaved family from officials of the national capital as well as of his native state, and all classes united in profound and sincere testimonials of grief at their great loss in such a distinguished and capable statesman. A statue of bronze, of colossal size, was unveiled August 9, 1894, to his memory, by the citizens of Newark.
Frederick T. Frelinghuysen married Matilda, daughter of George Gris- wold, a well known merchant of New York City. Their children were: Frederick, of whom a sketch appears later in this work; George Griswold, Theodore, Matilda, Charlotte, and Sarah Helen, who married John Davis. His life at home was as beautiful as his official life was resplendent. In his church relations, and among his own familiar circle, Secretary Freling- huysen was regarded as the exemplar of all the Christian virtues.
FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN
Frederick Frelinghuysen, son of Secretary Frederick Theodore and Matilda (Griswold) Frelinghuysen, and born in Newark, September 30, 1848, has copied with distinction the virtues and acquirements of his famous father, and proved himself worthy to bear a name already of such promi- nence as having been borne by three notable lawyers-the first a patriotic member of the Continental Congress, the second dying before his remarkable talents had been crowned with the laurels of official position, the third known in both hemispheres as our brilliant Secretary of State under Presi- dent Arthur. This fourth Frederick Frelinghuysen, however, without attain- ing such exalted position, has proved himself more than worthy to bear his lofty patronymic.
He received his early education at the Newark Academy and entered the college, of which he must have been proud to think as the outgrowth of the school founded by his great-great-great-grandfather John Frelinghuysen. From Rutgers College he graduated with honors in 1868, and at once began to study law in his father's office. Benefiting by such companionship he passed his examinations and was admitted as attorney in 1871, in the year
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that he received his degree of Master of Arts. He was admitted as coun- sellor three years later. Entering into the practice of his profession, he became mainly interested in financial affairs and became connected with the conduct of institutions devoted to them. He became receiver of the Me- chanics' National Bank, of Newark, on its failure in 1881.
During the same year he was made president of the Howard Savings Institution, of Newark, and while still in this position was also elected president of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. This latter cor- poration still retains his interest and he gives to its affairs a large amount of time, necessarily. His private legal practice, however, still continues, and he is both well known and highly admired for the high character of his work both in court and office.
His responsibilities are more far-reaching, however, and he has for some years been treasurer of the Commission of the Sinking Fund of the City of Newark. Rutgers College demands his attention to the details of its management, as one of its trustees, and in the office of treasurer. He is also the executor and trustee of several large estates. Many cares and profitable labors along dull and absorbing lines of thought, have not con- quered Mr. Frelinghuysen's inherited chivalry of temperament, and his liking for the alarms and hardships of a soldier's life. As soon as he reached years of discretion, he enlisted in the National Guard of New Jersey, and has done service in state riots, the suppressing of minor difficulties in state administration, and has seen the exciting results of many a sham battle- field. Ready for any necessity of real war, he has tasted the dangers of a soldier's career in times of peace.
Mr. Frelinghuysen is another member of his family to be true to the Reformed Dutch church. His character reflects the nobility of his ancestry, with a personal charm of his own which attracts the love and admiration of all who know him.
He married, July 23, 1902, Estelle, daughter of Thomas T. Kinney, and they have five children: Frederick, Thomas Kinney, Theodore, George Gris- wold and Estelle Condit.
JOHN F. FORT
As Governor of the State of New Jersey, John Franklin Fort summed up a political career in which he served his native state with conspicuous fidelity, and with the dignity, zeal, and courage that had characterized his entire work from the time of his admission to the bar. Not only was his mental attitude one of simplicity and impartiality, but his actual contact with every one was based on that belief in human brotherhood, so frequently unheeded, that made him an ideal magistrate. Rich and poor were alike dealt with by him on a plane of simple equality, and with a dignity and courtesy that was only the outward aspect of great firmness, courage, and a far-reaching progressiveness.
Born March 20, 1852, in Pemberton, Burlington county, New Jersey, the son of Andrew Heisler and Hannah Ann (Brown) Fort, John Franklin Fort came of one of the oldest and most distinguished families in New Jersey. Of Welsh origin, the American progenitor, Roger Fort, came to this country in 1696 and settled in Burlington county, New Jersey. His descendants occu- pied an honored place in that part of the state, John Fort, the great-grand- father of Governor Fort, serving as a private of the Burlington county militia
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in the Revolutionary War. Andrew H. Fort, father of John Franklin Fort, was in 1866-67 a member of the house of assembly, and his brother, George F. Fort, uncle of John F. Fort, was governor of the state from 1851 to 1854.
Governor Fort had the advantage of being a country boy, laying in that stock of vitality in early life which would prove of inestimable benefit in a busy after life. His first school was one kept by a Miss Nicholson in Pemberton, after which he went to the Pemberton Academy, where he was the pupil of Charles E. Hendrickson, who became a warm personal friend and later his associate on the bench of the supreme court. Another school he attended was the Mount Holly Institute, from which he went to Pennington Seminary, whence he graduated in 1869.
He began the study of law under Chief Justice Edward M. Paxton, then a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, but after six months he returned because of Mr. Paxton's appointment to a judgeship of the court of common pleas. Young Fort then entered the office of Ewan Merritt, in Mount Holly, teaching at the same time in Ewanville in order to defray expenses. He also studied under Colonel Garritt S. Cannon, at Bordentown, going from there to the Albany Law School, from which he was graduated in 1872 with the degree of LL.B. Among the friends he made at the law school, a friendship which has lasted to the present day was former Chief Judge Alton B. Parker, who in 1904 was the Democratic candidate for president of the United States. Mr. Fort returned from the law school, and in November, 1873, having only just attained his majority, he was admitted to the bar. Since 1874 he has practiced his profession in Newark.
His first office was that of journal clerk of the New Jersey Assembly, which he held in 1873 and 1874. In 1878 he was appointed by Governor George B. McClellan, and reappointed by Governor George C. Ludlow to the position of Judge of the First District Court of Newark, serving until 1886, when he resigned. Governor Fort has taken a prominent part in political affairs since 1872. He returned home from the law school in 1872, when the Greeley-Grant campaign was in progress, and he threw himself into it with great ardor. He made, during the subsequent two months, twenty-seven speeches in South Jersey. Hle had scarcely established himself in Newark, a step he took upon the advice of John W. Taylor, then president of the senate, before he went on the stump for George A. Halsey, the republican candidate for governor in 1874. He was a member of the Republican na- tional conventions of 1884, 1896, 1908 and 1912. In 1896 he had the dis- tinction of placing Garrett A. Hobart in nomination for the vice-presidency. He served for three years as a member, and later in 1889 as vice-chairman of the Republican State committee. He was chairman of the Republican State conventions of 1889 and 1895, and took a leading part in the reform move- ment that resulted in the election of John W. Griggs as governor. This was a victory notable as having seated the first Republican governor in thirty years. Governor Griggs appointed Mr. Fort judge of the court of com- mon pleas of Essex county in December, 1896, and on May 4, 1900, he was appointed justice of the Supreme Court by Governor Voorhees. This date marked the twenty-sixth anniversary of his coming to Newark. As a member of the supreme bench Justice Fort sat in many of the counties of the state winning in all the reputation of an able and incorruptible judge. He pre- sided at different times over the courts of Morris, Monmouth, Middlesex, Ocean, Union and Hudson counties. In Monmouth county his efforts were directed with success to driving out the gamblers who had driven a thriving trade at Long Branch.
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The campaign speeches of Governor Fort had already established his reputation as a speaker of grace and direct and incisive force. His work in behalf of a needed reform showed his liberality of view and the trench- ant vigor of his arguments in carrying it into execution. In 1899 he made a study of European prison conditions under a commission from the United" States. The principles of probation and of the indeterminate sentence was then a new one, and while he advocated its adoption with great vigor, he had trouble in getting anyone to stand sponsor for the bill providing for them. When, however, a hearing was given on the bill and he appeared in its behalf, it was carried with what was next to a unanimous vote in each house.
In 1907 he was elected Governor of the State of New Jersey as a Re- publican. He gave the State an able and clean administration, in which the interests served were those of the people at large. His record as an executive officer was the same as his record as a man and as a judge,- manly, upright, faithful and able. He attended the National Progressive convention in 1912, which placed Colonel Roosevelt and Governor Johnson in nomination for president and vice-president, actively supported the Progressive party in the campaign, being chairman of the Progressive state committee of New Jersey.
He has had various other positions of trust that have shown the appreci- ation of his worth and ability. In 1895 he was appointed by Governor Werts for a term of five years a member of a commission composed of men from each state in the Union to confer upon bringing about a uniformity in the laws. He was one of the founders and, from July, 1895, was president of the East Orange National Bank until it became a trust company. He is counsel and was one of the incorporators of the Security Savings Bank of Newark, was for many years a director of the Manufacturers' National Bank of Newark; was for several years local counsel for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, and is a member of various social organiza- tions. Through his great-grandfather, John Fort, he is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He attends the Presbyterian church, and is a trustee of the Spring Lake Presbyterian Church. Governor Fort has received the degree of LL. D. from Dickinson, Lafayette, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Middlebury Colleges, and Union and New York Universities.
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