USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume III > Part 1
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HISTORY
OF
MIDDLESEX COUNTY
NEW JERSEY
1664-1920
UNDER THE ASSOCIATE EDITORSHIP OF
JOHN P. WALL AND HAROLD E. PICKERSGILL ASSISTED BY AN ABLE CORPS OF LOCAL HISTORIANS
HISTORICAL -= BIOGRAPHICAL
VOLUME III
192I LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR. LENOX AND .. LDEN FOUNDATION! R 1922 L
BIOGRAPHICAL
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The F. Daly .
PUBLIC L.LNARY
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDON FIXU. F
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BIOGRAPHICAL
PETER FRANCIS DALY, the County Judge of the county of Mid- dlesex, has been one of the foremost and most forceful leaders in the civic, professional and governmental life of this historic county since his very early manhood, and his prestige with its people generally and their esteem and affection for him have constantly grown stronger and deeper with the years. First elevated to this position of large respon- sibility as well as power by Governor Woodrow Wilson in April, 1911, he was reappointed by Governor James F. Fielder in 1916, and again in 1921 by Governor Edward I. Edwards-three terms in succession, a record in this respect unprecedented in the history of the office, in this county at least.
He was born in New York City on May 19, 1867, son of Timothy Edward and Catharine (O'Grady) Daly, natives of the County Galway, Ireland. The family moved to New Brunswick when he was seven years of age, and there he has since resided. He attended St. Peter's Parochial School and later the Livingston Avenue High School. At the age of seventeen he entered the law office of Senator James H. Van Cleef, and in November, 1888, was admitted to the New Jersey bar, being then in his twenty-first year. Soon afterward he became a partner in the law firm of Van Cleef, Daly & Woodbridge, the other members being Senator Van Cleef, and the Hon. Freeman Woodbridge, now judge of the District Court of the city of New Brunswick. This partnership continued for three years, and since then he has continued the general practice of his profession alone.
During the first ten years of Judge Daly in the general practice of the law, he was engaged in most of the important criminal cases tried in Middlesex county, but since has given his attention almost entirely to the practice of the other branches of the law. Because of his nineteen years experience in the surrogate's office and ten years as judge of the Orphans' Court, he is recognized by the profession as a specialist in matters of probate law and procedure. He has also had an unusually wide experience and practice in municipal law. He was county counsel for four years from May, 1899, and was the attorney who directed the incorporations of the boroughs of South River, Roosevelt and Spots- wood, and has been the counsel for those municipalities as well as for the townships of Piscataway, Raritan, Monroe, East Brunswick and Sayreville, and the borough of Helmetta. Since its organization in 1895, he has been counsel to the Workingmen's Building and Loan Association of New Brunswick, New Jersey, one of the most progressive and sub- stantial corporations of the kind in the State.
Judge Daly's first elective public office was that of alderman of the Sixth Ward of New Brunswick. The vote for him in the ward where he had lived since childhood was three hundred above the next highest candidate on his ticket. During his term of two years on the board of
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aldermen, 1894 to 1896, he was its leader and the chairman of the finance committee. This period included what was called the "great refunding year," the most important epoch in the financial history of the city up to that time. He was also chairman of the sewerage committee, and in that position he established the beginning of a general sewerage system in his own ward-the Sixth, personally securing the right of way for the trunk line over private properties, more than a mile in length, and without a cent's cost to the city. Because of the increase of other public and professional duties he could not accept a reelection, though the same was assured to him without opposition.
He was deputy-surrogate of the county of Middlesex during the two terms of the Honorable Leonard Furman as surrogate from 1892 to 1902, and succeeded him through election to the office of surrogate. He was elected twice, and at his election in 1902 he ran nine hundred votes ahead of his ticket, and at his reelection in 1907 he was eighteen hundred votes ahead of his ticket. There was over a year and a half of his second term left when he was made county judge by Governor Wilson.
During the period of the World-wide War, Peter Francis Daly, through the profoundly efficient discharge of the broad and varied duties of his high official county position-made abnormally onerous and exact- ing by the extraordinary conditions of the times ; through his distinctive genius in the work of organizing popular movements, his tireless energy, his stirring eloquence and his strong hold upon the imagination and good will of the people and their admiration for the intensity and zeal of his Americanism, was indisputably the most outstanding leader and chief spokesman of America's cause in this county of one hundred and sixty-eight thousand people and which embraces within its confines so many different racial strains.
Judge Daly was chairman of the county legal advisory board, with former Senator Theodore Strong and Judge Freeman Woodbridge as associate members. This board, under authority of the United States government. had the general supervision and direction of the Selective Service Law as well as many other serious duties confidentially as well as publicly assigned to them. He organized the Patriotic Force of the city of New Brunswick, composed of five representatives from each of one hundred and twenty-six distinct organizations of the county seat and its immediate vicinity, representative of all that went to make up the civic, religious, social, fraternal, industrial, professional, educa- tional, mercantile and financial life of the territory and making a power- ful unity and cohesion of every element of the community. He was active in the executive work and direction of all the Liberty Loan Drives and of the campaigns of the Red Cross, Y. M. C. A. and Salvation Army. and was chairman of the Knights of Columbus War Drive and treasurer of the Jewish Relief War Drive and a director of the United War Drive.
Judge Daly is a Democrat, and for twenty years before he went on the bench was second to none in his constant, prominent and arduous activities and labors in the organization, councils and leadership of the
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party, and throughout all that time was recognizedly its leading advocate on the public platform. For a number of years he was chairman of the Middlesex County Democratic Executive Committee.
Upon the organization of the present Middlesex County Bar Asso- ciation, Judge Daly was unanimously elected its first president, and has since actively continued his membership therein; he is also a member of the American Bar Association. He was the founder and first grand knight of New Brunswick Council of the Knights of Columbus, and is a charter member and past exalted ruler of the New Brunswick Lodge of Elks and is a member of the Royal Arcanum. For a number of years he was an officer of the University Extension Society of Rutgers College, and is on the executive committee of the Dante Society of the city of New Brunswick. His clubs are the Union, New Brunswick Country Club; also the East Jersey Club of Perth Amboy and the old Colony of New York City, of which latter he is a director. He is a member of St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church.
After ten years' service on the bench, the reappointment of Judge Daly was generally and earnestly urged from every section of the county and by people in every walk in life, and Governor Edwards made the reappointment and it was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. A splendid tribute to the judge was the petition of the lawyers advocating his reappointment. and a most remarkable tribute it was, as well, from the fact that it was signed by every practicing lawyer in the whole county, save two or three. This petition, the work of the lawyers themselves, and done entirely upon their own initiative and because of their admiration, esteem and affection for the man and their desire for an impartial, able and exalted administration of law and justice, not only f -: 41-fully expressed their own estimate but that of the people generally of Judge Daly as a man, a citizen and a jurist. It was as follows :
The members of the Bar of Middlesex county are interested in seeing the judicial affairs of our county administered in a capable, dignified and honest manner, and because of this do most respectfully petition your Excellency to reappoint as County Judge of the County of Middlesex, the Honorable Peter Francis Daly, who has for ten years most signally honored that position.
The reasons moving us to urge this appointment are: During the ten years that Judge Daly has acted as County Judge, he has shown an extraordinary keen grasp of the legal questions that were involved in the administration of the probate law, the criminal law, and the many and varied duties imposed upon him as such Judge: he has been fair and just in his determination of all matters brought before him and his decisions have been rendered conscientiously with regard only for right and justice. Never during that time has the least hint of bias or prejudice, affecting his public acts. been breathed. His industry is meeting the great volume of work that has come before him has been unflagging and the public's business has been handled by him with skill and dispatch.
On many occasions he has been singularly distinguished by the Justices of the Supreme Court to preside over important cases in other counties and his work in such counties as well as in his own county whenever taken up for review by higher courts has been uniformly approved.
Just, fearless and capable as Peter Francis Daly has been as the Judge, he has always been a man of large and generous heart desirous of blending mercy with justice in every justifiable case and ever ready to lend a sympathetic ear to worthy petitions for clemency addressed to him. He has treated the bar and litigants with consideration and courtesy; and both on the bench and as a citizen, he has taken an active. honorable and leading part in every movement, having for its end the
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relief of suffering, the inculcation of patriotism and the advancement of American- ization. His time and talents have been at the service of the people of the State, at all the charitable, educational and patriotic organizations, who, both before, during and after the War, have been of such great service to our country.
We feel that the record of this faithful, conscientious and able Judge, who has so richly earned the esteem, confidence and affection of the people of this county, entitles him to reappointment; and are glad of this opportunity to express to Your Excellency our approbation of him and of his work and our carnest hope that you will reappoint him to this high office in which he has so eminently distinguished himself and which he is so particularly fitted to fill by temperament, training, experi- ence, knowledge, heart and rare good judgment.
Judge Daly married, September 25, 1893, at the Church of the Sacred Heart, New Brunswick, Mary Rose Mansfield, daughter of William and Margaret (Fitzgerald) Mansfield, her father a member of the firm of Harding & Mansfield, wholesale and retail shoe dealers. Mrs. Daly died January 13, 1917. Judge and Mrs. Daly had one daughter, Margaret Mansfield, who married William Thornton Campbell, of New Brunswick, June 5, 1920.
GOVERNOR JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD, fourth governor of New Jersey under Revolutionary and State governments, traced his descent from Henry Bloomfield, of Woodbridge, Suffolkshire, England, who fled from England in Cromwell's time and came to Newburyport, Massachu- setts, in 1632. The line is traced from the founder through his son Thomas, of whom further.
(II) Thomas Bloomfield, son of Henry Bloomfield, came from Eng- land with his father, and accompanied by his sons: John; Thomas (2), of whom further; Nathaniel; Ezekiel; and a daughter, Mary. They also settled in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
(III) Thomas (2) Bloomfield, son of Thomas (1) Bloomfield, mar- ried, about 1640, Mary -, and their children, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, were: Mary, Sarah, John, Thomas (3), Nathaniel; Ezekiel, of whom further ; Rebecca, Ruth, and Timothy.
Sir George Carteret was appointed governor of New Jersey, and he deputized his brother Philip acting governor to go to New Jersey and represent him. Philip Carteret settled at Perth Amboy, and made that the seat of his government. To induce settlers from New England, he sent agents to invite them, and in consequence several persons came from Newburyport and settled in the township, later called Woodbridge for that of the town in England. Among those who came to Woodbridge township, now in Middlesex county, New Jersey, were Thomas Bloom- field. William Bloomfield, and five others, who came and patented many acres of farm land, in December, 1669. Thomas Bloomfield was a freeholder in 1670; represented Woodbridge in Colonial Assembly in 1670: and was a magistrate in 1675-80.
(IV) Ezekiel Bloomfield, son of Thomas (2) and Mary Bloomfield, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1653, died in Woodbridge township, Middlesex county, New Jersey, in February, 1702. He was a deputy in 1686-87. He married Hope Randolph, and they were the parents of : Timothy, Ezekiel (2), Rebecca ; Joseph, of further mention ; Jeremiah, and Nathaniel.
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JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD ESQ! Governor of New Jersey
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(V) Joseph Bloomfield, son of Ezekiel and Hope (Randolph) Bloom- field, was born in Woodbridge township, Middlesex county, New Jersey ; he married Alice Dunham. Joseph Bloomfield held important town offices, and was a man of influence.
(VI) Dr. Moses Bloomfield, son of Joseph and Alice (Dunham) Bloomfield, married Sarah Ogden, and they were the parents of four children : Governor Joseph, of whom further; Dr. Samuel; Nancy, who married Dr. Wall; and Hannah, who married General Giles.
(VII) Governor Joseph Bloomfield, son of Dr. Moses and Sarah (Ogden) Bloomfield, was born in Woodbridge, New Jersey, October 18, 1750. He married (first ) Mary McIlvaine; (second) Isabell Ramsey. There were no children of these two marriages. Governor Bloomfield died at Burlington, New Jersey, October 3, 1823. The following head stone marks his grave in St. Mary's Churchyard, Burlington, New Jersey (2171 headstone) :
In memory of Joseph Bloomfield, a soldier of the Revolution, late Governor of New Jersey and general in the Army of the United States. He ceased a life of Probity, Benevolence and Public Useful- ness, October 3, 1823, in the 70th year of his age.
In the register of St. Mary's Church is the entry, "October 5, buried General Joseph Bloomfield."
In youth he attended Dr. Enoch Green's School in Deerfield, Cum- berland county, New Jersey, and after finishing his school years, began the study of law under Cortland Skinner, a former attorney-general of New Jersey. He was licensed to practice law in 1775, and in that year located at Bridgeton, New Jersey, and began practice. One of his first cases was as one of counsel retained by the defendants in a suit brought by the owners of a cargo of tea which was taken from a vessel at Greenwich, New Jersey, November 22, 1775, and stored there. On the night of the day named, forty men took possession of that tea and set fire to it. That "Tea Party" antedated the Boston "Tea Party" twenty-four days.
Joseph Bloomfield was commissioned captain of militia by the Pro- vincial Congress of New Jersey in 1775, and in 1776 that commission was confirmed by the Continental Congress and made to apply to the New Jersey Line, Third Battalion, First Establishment. One hundred men were recruited in two weeks by Captain Bloomfield and Lieutenant Elmer, and in the spring, Captain Bloomfield was on duty in the Mohawk Valley, New York. They built Fort Peyton at Herkimer, New York, named after a colonel of their regiment. The following November he was with his troops at Ticonderoga, and there was named judge advo- cate of the army of the North. He was stricken with illness, and on Christmas Day, 1776, started for home. At the organization of General Maxwell's brigade, February 1, 1777, Joseph Bloomfield was made captain of the Seventh Company, Third Battalion. On September II, 1777, the "Jersey Line" opened the battle of Brandywine and there Cap- tain Bloomfield was wounded. Maxwell's brigade wintered at Valley Forge, and when Philadelphia was evacuated by the British, June 18,
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1778, he was detached from the main army and with the militia ordered to harass Clinton's forces. On June 28, 1778, the "Jersey Line" joined the left wing of the army and Maxwell's brigade fought at Monmouth. Captain Bloomfield remained in active field service until 1778, when he became clerk of the New Jersey Assembly. In 1783 he succeeded William Patterson as attorney-general, serving until 1788.
Captain Bloomfield moved to Burlington after resigning from the army, and that town was henceforth his home. In 1791 his name heads the list of principal practitioners before the Supreme Court, asking the Court to vacate the order compelling the wearing of "bands and gowns ;" the Court complied. In 1792 he was presidential elector for George Washington and John Quincy Adams. In 1794, as brigadier-general of militia, he was sent to Pennsylvania to quell the "Whiskey Insurrec- tion." In 1802 he was made chancellor, and at his first Court of Chan- cery he asked that he be not addressed as "Excellency." In 1795-1800 he was mayor of Burlington, and in 1801 was appointed governor of New Jersey. In the fall of 1801 the Legislature for the first time was Democratic, and at a joint meeting, held October 31st, Joseph Bloom- field was elected governor, receiving thirty votes against twenty cast for Richard Stockton. In 1802 there was no choice for governor, but in 1803 Joseph Bloomfield was elected, was again reelected and held the office until 1812, serving the State as governor eleven years, Governor Livingston's term only exceeding that of Governor Bloomfield.
In 1812 Governor Bloomfield was appointed by President Madison a brigadier-general, with the rank of general in the army to invade Canada. He was at Sacket Harbor, New York, with his brigade in the spring of 1813, and later was assigned to the command of the Philadel- phia Military District, there remaining until honorably discharged, June 15, 1815. He served as Congressman from New Jersey, 1817-21, being chairman of the committee on Revolutionary Pensions, and intro- duced and forced to passage bills granting pensions to veteran soldiers of the Revolution and Revolutionary widows.
The historian says of General Bloomfield: "He was undoubtedly a man of considerable ability, of unquestioned probity, and great benevo- lence, and took a very active interest in public affairs not only of those relating to the politics of the country, but in many benevolent associa- tions. He was always a prominent citizen in whatever community he lived, and his influence has ever been lifted for the right."
Governor Bloomfield was president of the Society of the Cincinnati, and for many years president of the New Jersey Society for the Aboli- tion of Slavery, the object of the society being to protect slaves from abuse and to assist them to obtain their liberty by legal proceedings. Bloomfield, New Jersey, was named in his honor, and he was recognized as a man of ability and worth. He was elected a trustee of Princeton College in 1793. Governor Bloomfield's last public service was as Con- gressman. He was elected by the Democrats in 1816, and retired March 4, 1821. He died about two years later. He was deputy grand master of the Masons of New Jersey in 1795-96-97-98, and grand master in 1799-1800.
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WILLIAM BLOOMFIELD, father of Charles A. Bloomfield, of Metuchen, New Jersey, is a son of Smith Bloomfield, and a collateral relative of Governor Joseph Bloomfield. William Bloomfield was born in New York City, February 8, 1808, and there died at his residence, No. 28 Dominick street, January 23, 1879, in his seventy-first year. His father, Smith Bloomfield, was a builder of New York City, and gave his son the best school advantages. William Bloomfield graduated with distinction from Rutgers College, and soon after began the study of law with Judge John L. Mason, a former judge of the Superior Court. In 1832 he was admitted to the New York bar, and in 1838 entered into a partnership with Thomas McElrath and Charles P. Daly, he the youngest member of the firm of McElrath, Bloomfield & Daly. That firm engaged in lucrative practice until 1841, when Thomas McElrath withdrew, and with Horace Greeley he published the daily New York "Tribune," under the firm name of Greeley & McElrath. It was Mr. McElrath's judicious management, and his business sagacity, upholding Mr. Greeley's editorial genius, that placed that journal on its foundation of prosperity. Charles P. Daly was the junior member of the firm, although but twenty-eight years of age and in law practice but five years ; in 1844 he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Judge Daly held that office by appointment, then by election, until compelled to retire under the age limit of the law. Such were the two law partners of William Bloomfield, and to neither was he inferior. After Judge Daly's retirement from the firm in 1844 to go on the bench, Mr. Bloom- field assumed the entire burden of practice, and for thirty-five years conducted a very large law business in the city of New York. His great reputation was made as chamber counsel, he rarely appearing in the public courts. He was learned in the law, skilled in its application, wise in counsel, but far too modest and unassuming for a public advocate. Yet he was a powerful pleader and debater, his arguments in chambers carrying great weight. His well-stored, logical mind went quickly to the kernel of a question, and his opinions on any question of law, par- ticularly the law of real estate, was confidently relied upon. His high reputation brought him many difficult and intricate cases, and his judg- ments were so clear and convincing, and so in accord with the highest law, that they were almost always confirmed by the courts when any litigant rashly appeared.
Judge Bloomfield's clients relied upon him absolutely ; he was a most valuable citizen, and a lawyer who combined the highest integrity and the most delicate sense of honor with the greatest sagacity in all legal matters.
William Bloomfield married, May 24, 1834, Catherine Van Mater Croes, daughter of the Rev. John Croes, of Christ Church, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, and granddaughter of the Rt. Rev. John Croes, first Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the State of New Jersey. To William and Catherine Van M. (Croes) Bloomfield seven children were born: I. Smith, deceased, a well known lawyer and a member of the Board of Education of New York City. 2. John Croes, who fought in
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the Civil War and became a lieutenant-colonel through promotion in the different grades from that of a private: he died in Akron, Ohio, in his seventy-first year. 3. Eleanor Van Mater, died unmarried. 4. William (2), died young. 5. Thomas Blanch, an eminent physician at the time of his death, who lived at Saybrook, Connecticut. 6. Jessie, unmarried, died at the age of seventy years. 7. Charles A., of further mention in the following sketch. Judge Bloomfield was buried from old St. John's Church in Varick street, of which he was an active member and long- time vestryman.
CHARLES A. BLOOMFIELD, like his eminent father, William Bloomfield (q. v.), the well known New York attorney, was also destined for the law, and was in practice for a time, but he had little liking for his profession and he abandoned practice, organized The Bloomfield Clay Company, and has been a leading figure in the clay and ceramic business for many years. He is now a resident of the town of Metuchen. in Middlesex county, New Jersey. his home a historic homestead that has been in the family since his first ancestor came from Massachusetts in 1639 and bought it from the Indians.
Charles A. Bloomfield is a collateral relative of General Joseph Bloom- field, who was governor of New Jersey for eleven years, and the grand master of New Jersey Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, in 1799 and 1800. Another monument to the family name is found in Bloom- field, formerly a suburb of Newark, New Jersey, named after Governor Bloomfield, a deeply religious man, who assisted in the building of the old Bloomfield church. The home in which Mr. Bloomfield resides at Metuchen is a rare old building; his library is trimmed and decorated with the finest black walnut. hewn from a tree that grew on the old farm a hundred and eighty-seven years ago. During the World War, 1917-18, he kept "open house" for the officers on duty at the Raritan arsenal, only a short distance away, standing on land taken over by the govern- ment. a part of which was formerly owned by Mr. Bloomfield.
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