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 32
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Appointed first by President Lincoln in April, 1861, and afterwards by Presidents Johnson, Grant, Hayes and Arthur, Mr. Keasbey served for twenty- five years as United States Attorney for New Jersey. During the Civil War
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the duties of the office increased very much in number and importance, and involved large responsibilities. For many years there were many large cases under the revenue laws, some of them involving wide-spread frauds against the government, extending over several States. The discovery of a conspiracy to defraud the government of one million dollars bequeathed by Joseph L. Lewis, a Hoboken miser, to be applied towards the payment of the national debt, was one of his most important and successful cases, result- ing in the conviction of the guilty persons and the securing of its legacy. Mr. Keasbey was United States Attorney when Judge Greer held the Circuit Court in New Jersey, and he served during the terms of Judges Field, Nixon and Green. His was the longest service of any United States Attorney of his time, and the frequent reappointments testified to the faithfulness and ability with which he discharged his duties both as an advocate and as a representative of the government in matters of legal business of great deli- cacy and importance. Mr. Keasbey was very effective as an advocate in criminal cases, as well as capable in the management of the business of the office, and, while very zealous for the government, he was eminently fair, and never pressed a prosecution unless he was satisfied that it was his duty to do so. His general practice was large during the whole term of his office as district attorney. As counsel for the Mutual Life Insurance Company in New Jersey, he examined applications for loans and titles to land from 1868 to 1876. He was counsel also for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company in its contest over the building of a bridge across the Arthur Kill. He was especially remarkable as a trial lawyer for his skillful handling of a cause in court and keen cross-examination of witnesses. He had a large practice in the United States courts, and was one of the best known of the New Jersey lawyers in the Supreme Court of the United States. Patent cases which attracted him through his interest in new discoveries, as well as his desire to preserve the principles of equity, were brought to him frequently in preference to men whose practice was entirely confined to the law of patents.
The organization of the Republican party, about 1856, engaged his active attention, and to the end of his life he was one of its leaders and earnest supporters by tongue and pen. He was greatly interested in the growth and development of Newark and suggested and took part in many plans for its improvement. He was counsel for and part owner in one of the lines of horse railways and took part in the purchases and consolidation which led to the equipment and operation of all the lines with electricity.
He was an incorporator of the Howard Savings Institution, a founder of the Hospital of St. Barnabas, and, from its organization in 1867 until his death, a member of the board of trustees; a charter member and for many years on the board of governors of the Essex Club; and was connected with the Historical Society, to which he contributed addresses on Judges Field and Nixon, a paper on the bi-centennial of the purchase of East New Jersey, and other important articles. Ilis expressions of political and legal opinions appeared in the public press; and his wide reading familiarized him with literaturo past and present, and every department of modern progress especially in the flelds of science and invention.
Mr. Keasbey built a country house in Morristown in 1891, and in 1894 he gave up his home on Clinton avenue, Newark, and took his extensive library to Morristown. He lived scarcely a year after this, and died suddenly in Rome, while he was traveling in Italy with his daughters. His wife, Edwina L. Keasbey, died August 18, 1888.
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An estimate of his ability expressed in the Newark Daily Advertiser on the occasion of his death was as follows:
"In learning, in culture, in refinement, in the profundity of his legal knowledge, in the sagacity of his business judgment, in the clarity of his intellectual opinions, in his appreciation of the true, the beautiful and the good, and in the warmth of his social life and the intensity of his friendship, he was a remarkable and distinguished man. Few men in our State have the wide range and sweep that marked Mr. Keasbey's intellectual equipment. He could have shone in many fields of endeavor, but he chose the law, in which he achieved so many and brilliant triumphs. In the world of letters, had he chosen to walk in that field, he would have made a high name and fame for himself, so rich was his power of expression, so well stored his mind, and so wide his grasp of essential things. Even in his busy career he found time to write much and in everything he wrote there was a firm- ness of expression, a delicacy of touch, a force, a vigor and a charm which disclosed the true man."
There are eight children of Mr. Keasbey now living. By the first marriage: Edward Quinton, mentioned below, and George Macculloch. By the second marriage: Henry Miller, Rowland Parry, Frances Hitchcock, Louisa Edwina, Lindley Miller and Frederick Winston.
EDWARD QUINTON KEASBEY
Edward Quinton Keasbey, son of Anthony Quinton and Elizabeth ( Miller) Kcasbey, the latter a daughter of the Hon. Jacob Whitton Miller, was born in Salem, New Jersey, July 27, 1849, and is now living in Morris- town, New Jersey.
He early attended the private school of Rev. Julius H. Rose, in Newark, and was prepared for college at the Newark Academy. After taking the freshman year in Columbia College he entered Princeton College, from which he was graduated with first honors in 1869. He received the degree of A. M. in 1872 and delivered the master's oration. He began the study of law in the office of Parker & Keasbey immediately after leaving college in 1869, entered Harvard Law School the following year, and in 1871 received the degree of LL. D. and remained in the school under Professor Langdell until June, 1872. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar as attor- ney at the June term that year and immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Newark. In 1875 he received his license as counsellor. On the dissolution of the firm of Parker & Keasbey, in March, 1876, he joined with the firm of A. Q. Keasbey & Sons, and this firm style was preserved after the death of his father (April 4, 1895), and until 1904, when it was changed to Edward Q. and George M. Keasbey. He is a Supreme Court Commissioner and a Special Master in Chancery, and served as a United States Commissioner for many years.
Mr. Keasbey has had an extensive and varied practice in his office and in the State and Federal courts. A careful student of the law, he is thor- ough in the preparation of his briefs on legal questions and with the faculty of clear statement and logical argument is especially effective in the pre- sentation of legal questions in the appellate courts, and has made some notable arguments in important cases both at law and in equity. He took part in the argument before the Court of Errors in the case involving the constitutionality of the statute providing for assembly districts, in which it was held, as he insisted, that the statute was unconstitutional. He has had experience in patent Htigation, and has argued casos of this character in the
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United States Supreme Court and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. In all his career he has held the highest standards of both personal and professional conduct, and his record is absolutely untainted.
Mr. Keasbey is recognized as a forceful and industrious author along professional lines, and his writings have enjoyed wide and favorable publi- city. It was in the line of his professional studies that he edited and wrote for the New Jersey Law Journal from 1879 to 1898. He has contributed articles on legal topics to the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Yale Law Journal and the Green Bag. He delivered an address before the American Bar Association at Buffalo in 1890 on "New Jersey and the Great Corporations," which was published in the Harvard Law Review and also in pamphlet form. He wrote a sketch of the life and judicial decisions of Chancellor Henry W. Green for a volume of biographies of "Great Judges and Lawyers in the United States." He is the author of a law book entitled "Electric Wires in Streets and Highways," published by Callaghan & Company in 1892, and again in an enlarged edition in 1900; also of "Courts and Lawyers of New Jersey," (1912). He was, from 1888 until 1912, the editor of a monthly paper, The Hospital Review, published for the benefit of the Hospital of St. Barnabas, in Newark, and his writings in this have covered a variety of subjects.
Mr. Keasbey was a member of the State Legislature from Essex County in 1884 and 1885 and took a prominent part in the legislation of his second term, when the Republican party was in control. He is the counsel in New Jersey and a director of the North American Company, the Baltimore & Ohio Railway system and many other important incorporations. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Hospital of St. Barnabas and of the board of trustees of the Episcopal Fund of the Diocese of Newark; a member of the board of managers of the Howard Savings Institution of Newark and a vestryman of St. Peter's Church, Morristown. He is a charter member of the Essex Club, and a member of the Morristown Club, the Morris County Golf Club, the Harvard Club, of New York; the Princeton Club, of Newark; the Harvard Club, of New Jersey; the Lawyers' Club, of Essex County; the American Bar Association, and the New Jersey State Bar Association.
Mr. Keasbey married, in Grace Church, Newark, New Jersey, October 22, 1885, Eliza Gray, daughter of Henry Gray and Anne Mckenzie (Drake) Darcy.
CORTLANDT PARKER, JR.
Cortlandt Parker, Jr., for more than three decades an attorney actively engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Newark, was born August 17, 1857, son of Hon. Cortlandt and Elzabeth W. (Stites) Parker.
He obtained an excellent education in the Newark Academy, St. Mark's School at Southboro, Massachusetts; Pingry's School at Elizabeth, New Jer- sey, and Rutgers College, receiving from the later institution the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1878 and that of Master of Arts in 1881. He was a student in the office of his father and brother, Cortlandt and Richard Wayne Parker, under whose excellent teaching he was prepared for entering the Columbian Law School, from which he was graduated in 1881. He was admitted as an attorney at the New Jersey bar in June, 1881, and as a counsellor in November, 1885. Locating in Newark, he soon was entrusted with the legal business of a large and influential clientele, and is now recognized as one of the leading lawyers of the Essex County Bar.
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CORTLANDT PARKER, SR.
It is certainly within the province of true history to commemorate and perpetuate the lives of those men whose careers have been of signal useful- ness and honor to the city and State in which they resided, and in this con- nection it is not only compatible but absolutely imperative that mention be made of Cortlandt Parker, Sr., who was born in the old mansion of the Parker family in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, June 27, 1818, son of James and Penelope (Butler) Parker.
In early life he attended the schools of Perth Amboy, receiving private instruction in the elements of Latin and Greek, and in 1832 became a student in Rutgers College, graduating with first honors and as valedictorian of his class in 1836. Shortly after he entered the office of Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, of Newark, as a law student, and later studied under the direction of Amzi Armstrong. He was admitted to the bar of his native state as an attorney in September, 1839, and as a counsellor in 1842. He engaged in active practice in the city of Newark in association with Joseph P. Bradley and Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, two of his classmates, and throughout the active years of his life was a practicing lawyer of that city, his two sons, Hon. Richard Wayne and Cortlandt, Jr., being actively con- nected with him. He possessed the attributes of a successful lawyer, integrity of character, the judicial instinct and a rare appreciation of the two sides of every question, and at the time of his death was the oldest as well as the most distinguished active representative of the bar of New Jersey.
He was equally prominent in political affairs. Being the son of one of the most notable leaders of political opinion in the State of New Jersey, he came in personal contact with many of the prominent men of the day, this being of great advantage to him in his subsequent career. He cast his first presidential vote for General William H. Harrison, in 1840, and during the contest he delivered several political speeches and also wrote for the press. He also took an active part in the campaign of 1844, and later was one of the founders of the Republican party in New Jersey. Ile was chairman of the ratification meeting held in Newark upon the nomination of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and from then until the close of the Civil War.he was one of the most pronounced and steadfast supporters of the policy of preservation of the Union and suppression of the rebellion. With the single exception of a local office in his county, which, moreover, was strictly in the line of his profession as a lawyer, he was never a political office holder, having repeatedly declined offers of high and honorable positions, both State and National. In 1857 he was appointed by Governor Newell prosecutor of the pleas of Essex county, in which capacity he served for ten years. In the same year his name was brought before the State Legislature for the position of chancellor; later he was nominated for Congress; President Grant requested him to accept a judgeship in the court for settling the Alabama claims; President Hayes offered him the ministry to Russia; President Arthur tendered him the ministry to Vienna, but all these honors he declined. He served in several honorary positions, notably as a commissioner to settle the disputed boundary line between New Jersey and Delaware, and as a reviser of the laws of New Jersey in conjunction with Chief Justice Beasley and Justice Depue. In the disputed presidential election of 1876 he was sent by President Grant to witness the counting of the ballots in Louisiana, and was complimented for his fairness by opponents.
Mr. Parker was equally prominent as an orator and writer. He held at one time tho honorable position of president of the American Bar Asso-
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ciation. He received the degree of LL.D. from Rutgers College and Prince- ton University, both in the same year. He was actively identified with the Protestant Episcopal church, was a lay delegate to many diocesan conven- tions, which in their deliberations were largely guided by his parliamentary knowledge.
Mr. Parker married, September 15, 1857, Elizabeth Wolcott, daughter of Richard Wayne and Elizabeth (Cooke) Stites, of Morristown, New Jersey.
ALFRED HENRY KRICK
One of the well-known officers of the Board of Education, Alfred IIenry Krick, is a native of Newark, having been born there December 19, 1879, son of Adam Charles and Mary (Peal) Krick. He is of German ancestry, his grandfather having come from Alsace-Lorraine, and settled in Newark and bought there a peach farm in a region of the city that is now known as West street. During the Civil War he engaged extensively in the manu- facture of uniforms for the government. Adam Charles Krick, the father of Alfred Henry Krick, was foreman of the factory of T. B. Peddie & Com- pany, manufacturers of trunks and bags, and in this capacity he worked for forty years. In 1898 he resigned and went into the leather goods business on his own account, and in this he continued until his death in 1906. In his politics he was a Republican, and he was a member of the High Street Presbyterian Church. He was a past master of Eureka Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He was a prominent member of several German fraternities.
Alfred Henry Krick received his school training in the public schools of his native city, graduating from the Newark High School in 1895, and supplemented his academic work by a course at Wood's Business College of Newark. Upon leaving school he was fortunate in obtaining a position with the Board of Education of the city of Newark, and in its service he remained from 1896 to 1905. At that time he left to enter the leather goods business with which his father was connected, and here he remained for five years or until 1910. He then was offered the post of assistant secretary of the Board of Education, and has continued to hold it since that time. In his religious affiliations, Mr. Krick is a Methodist, being a member of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Krick married, in Philadelphia, July 2, 1908, Edith Martell, daugh- ter of Sabin Van Deusen and Josephine (Martell) Ten Broeck. Sabin V. Ten Broeck was distributing agent for Smith, Craig & Company, of Albany, New York, who shipped lumber through Mackinac Straits, the Great Lakes, and Erie Canal.
GAETANO M. BELFATTO
This country has reason to be proud of her adopted citizens in many instances, and Gaetano M. Belfatto, is a prominent example of this fact. A native of Italy, he was born March 20, 1870, in the town of Montella, centrally situated in that romantic country.
His father, Vincenzo Belfatto, was a receiver of taxes under the Italian government for nearly thirty years. He died in 1888, and his wife, Con- cetta, died in 1906. Gaetano received his elementary and high school educa- tion in Italy, graduating in 1887. In 1888 he came to the United States, and two years afterward entered the office of James M. Trimble, following this
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with a four years' course in the New York University, graduating therefrom in 1896. That same year he was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney, and six years later was admitted as counsellor-at-law. In June, 1910, he was admitted as attorney and counsellor at the bar of the state of New York. He and his brother, Ernest Belfatto, now deceased, are the first Italians admitted to the bar of the state of New Jersey.
In political belief Mr. Belfatto's preference is for the Republican party, and has taken a prominent position in the public life of Newark. He was appointed a member of the Board of Education of Newark in January, 1911, and twice re-appointed by Mayor Jacob Haussling. Owing to his force of character and his position as a leader among his countrymen, he has become a well-known figure in the campaigns of Essex county, where he has been on the executive committee of the Progressive Republican League.
Mr. Belfatto's career, which has been one of remarkable and well- merited success, has served as an excellent incentive to the ambitions not only of his own countrymen, but those of any nationality with whom he has been associated, for natural gifts have been developed through indefatigable perseverance, and this effort has been fully appreciated and rewarded by both material success, and the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. Ile is a member of the Lawyers' Club and a thirty-second degree Mason. His office is at 191 Market street, Newark, New Jersey. In 1901 Mr. Belfatto married Hattie Baer, and they have two children: Gladys and Vincent.
PATRICK H. CORISH
In every community there appears to be a certain limited number of men who take more than the ordinary interest of a good citizen in the welfare of the public, and prominent among this small class in the city of Newark, New Jersey, is the name of Patrick H. Corish, who has served ably and efficiently in a number of public offices. He is the son of Patrick and Mary Corish, his father having been a mason during the active years of life.
Mr. Corish was born December 25, 1854, in Newark, in what is known as the "Iron Bound District." He was a pupil in St. James' Parochial School until his fifteenth year, when he was obliged to leave in order to assist in the support of the family. Being of an observant and receptive nature, he supplemented his comparatively limited education by careful reading, and is able to hold his own in any circle. Until he had attained the age of seventeen years he accepted any position which happened to offer and which paid a reasonable salary. He then learned the hatter's trade, being first in the employ of Crosely, later in that of More & Green, and was thus occupied until he was twenty-three years old. His careful workman- ship and faithful attention to all the duties assigned him had earned him advancement, both in position and in a pecuniary manner, and he had been enabled to accumulate a sufficient fortune to enable him to start in business independently. Hle accordingly opened a cafe which he conducted success- fully for a period of four years, and then abandoned it in favor of the bottling business. In July, 1888, he also abandoned this venture, this time in favor of the mineral water business, buying out the firm of J. H. Mahon, and has been identified with this line of industry since that time. He has introduced all the most up-to-date methods and inventions in his business, and has greatly increased its scope.
' Mr. Corish has numerous other business Interests, and is considered an important factor in business circles. He is a highly valued member of the
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Newark Board of Trade, and is one of the directors in the Mutual Iron Bound Building and Loan Association. He has always taken an active and beneficial interest in the public affairs of the city, and his popularity is attested by the fact that when he was elected as alderman to represent the Twelfth ward of the city, as a representative of the Democratic party, he received one thousand one hundred and forty-six votes, while his nearest opponent received only eight hundred and thirty-seven votes, giving Mr. Corish a plurality of three hundred and nine votes. In 1887 he served as assistant sergeant-at-arms of the assembly; in 1889-90 he was sergeant-at- arms of the assembly; in 1903 he was elected as alderman, serving for a period of four years; in 1907, while still in office as alderman, he was also in the assembly, and in the same year was in office as trustee of the City Home. When the charter of the city was to be revised, Mr. Corish was appointed as one of the charter commissioners to undertake this responsible work, which has not yet been completed at the present time (1913). While holding office Mr. Corish served on the following committees: Licenses, Weights and Measures, Elections and Children's Free Excursions. He is a member of the following fraternal and other organizations: The Catholic Legion, Improved Order of Heptasophs, Joseph Hensler Association, Gott- fried Krueger Association, Joel Parker Association, Huron Democratic Club, Iron Bound Democratic Club, Knights of Columbus and Order of the Eagles.
Mr. Corish married in Newark, Ellen Hartland, also of that city. While Mr. Corish has reached the prime of life, he has the vigor and unabated energy and ambition of a much younger man. This, combined with his practical experience and riper and more mature judgment, render his coun- sels of great value, and this fact is fully valued in the numerous circles in which he is dominant.
ANTON STEINES
The German-American element of the city of Newark is ably and prominently represented by Mr. Anton Steines, whose advancement in busi- ness life has been strong and consistent, and who has earned for himself by his own exertions a high place in the business circles of his city and state. His advice and counsel are frequently sought by managers of other organ- Izations, and ho has become recognized as a far-seeing, progressive man.
Mr. Steines was born in Koblenz, Rheinprovinz, Germany, in 1851, and came to America the following year with his parents, so that in everything, except the actual fact of birth, he is a true American, but he has never lost his innate love for the land of his birth in spite of the intensely patriotic feeling he bears for the land of his adoption. The parents of Mr. Steines lived in the city of New York for a period of two years, then decided to make their home in Newark. Having purchased the old homestead on Barbara street, which is still in the possession of Mr. Steines, they lived there very contentedly and comfortably. Mr. Steines received his school education in the parochial schools of St. Mary's and St. Benedict's, and at the early age of fourteen years commenced his business career, by working in a brass foun- dry where he was employed until 1871. At that time his father bought MacFarland's Iron Foundry, and he became connected in business with him. So successful was their conduct of the operations of this plant that, at the expiration of one year, the space and accommodations were found entirely inadequate to manufacture an output such as the Increase in the business warranted and made imperative. They accordingly removed to Barbara
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