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 9
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THOMAS NESBITT MCCARTER
There is no career that offers greater opportunities for a man of the incisive type of mind than the practice of the law. Here the man whose mental gifts are of the highest order finds scope for their use and oppor- tunity for continual improvement in the contact with others that are pitted against him. At the head of the legal profession are some of the finest characters, and the most undoubted talents produced by the twentieth century civilization. To be an acknowledged leader among such men, and
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a distinguished member of its upper ranks is the honor that may be justly claimed for Thomas Nesbitt McCarter. Recognized for over a generation as one of the chief men in the legal profession in New Jersey, he was one of those who added lustre to the bar for which she has long been justly distinguished.
Thomas N. McCarter was born in Morristown, New Jersey, January 31, 1824, and died in Newark, January 11, 1901. Of Scotch-Irish ancestry, being the grandson of John McCarter, who came to this country in 1775. Mr. MeCarter's parents were Robert Harris and Eliza (Nesbitt) McCarter, he being their second son. Statisticians claim that the Scotch-Irish stock has produced more ability in the United States than any other strain. Though this Is open to question, it is an undisputed fact that those with this ancestry show in liberal measure the sturdy qualities that are wont to produce men of force and initiative in every walk of life. With an inheritance of great capacity and energy, young Thomas N. McCarter combined the tastes and Instincts of the scholar, and that delicate sense of honor that comes of an ancestry of strict and honorable traditions.
His education was a matter of careful consideration on the part of his elders, and his preparation for college was at the same time systematic and thorough. He was put for this purpose in the hand's of the finished scholar, the Rev. Clarkson Dunn, of Newton, New Jersey, who took the utmost pains with this brilliant and promising pupil. He repaid the trouble, and at the age of sixteen was ready for the junior class of Princeton College. Here he carried on his work with an enthusiasm and untiring industry that brought him to the graduation with honors. He achieved his baccalaureate degree in September, 1842, and was further honored by his class on this occasion by being appointed one of the commencement orators. In 1847 he received his master's degree. The trend of his mind was shown while in college by the prominent part he took as a member of the "Whig" Society, and as an active member of the various debating asso- ciations.
The law had attracted him as a profession from his earliest boyhood, and he immediately took up the study after leaving college. For this pur- pose he entered the office of the Hon. Martin Ryerson, of Newton, New Jersey. In October, 1845, he was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney and in January, 1849, as a counsellor. He had been taken into partnership with his distinguished preceptor upon his first admission to the bar, and this association continued until 1853. His talents were so undoubted and his industry and devotion to the work were so great that he speedily won recognition and a large clientele. He became noted for the painstaking labor that he expended upon the smallest detail, a habit that attended him through life, and one to which he attributed, in a large measure, his success. Gaining at an early period of his career the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens, he was elected in 1854 the collector of Sussex County, a position which he filled for three years.
In 1862 by a union of both political parties he was elected without opposition to the New Jersey Assembly, and while in that body served as the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. He took an active and influential part in some important legislation, preparing among other things a new tax law. Chancellor Green appointed him in 1863, reporter of the Court of Chancery, and he published two volumes of its reports .. He served as a director of the Sussex Bank, the Sussex Railroad Company, and the well-known Morris Canal and Banking Company.
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In 1865 Mr. McCarter removed to Newark, New Jersey, becoming asso- ciated with Oscar Keen, who was his partner from 1868 to 1882. Later the law firm was formed known as McCarter, Williamson & McCarter, of which Mr. McCarter was the senior member, and the others were his two sons, Robert H., and Thomas N., and his son-in-law, Edwin B. Williamson. This became one of the most widely known and highly reputed law firms in the state of New Jersey.
Mr. McCarter was a notable figure at the bar with a presence of com- manding dignity, and an unvarying old-world courtesy. As a pleader he had few equals, his arguments being at once clear, logical and convincing. The combination of physical, mental and moral attributes of the highest order made a personality that all recognized as nobie and just. Ilis keen and powerful mind could handle and make clear the most intricate points of the law, an ability paralleled by few of his generation. He was deeply versed in jurisprudence and a brilliant scholar not only along legal lines but in literary fields. His nature was, notwithstanding its dignity and simplicity, one of great sympathy and humor. His brilliant retorts furnished the theme of many a story and his wit was quoted far and wide. In his dealings with other men he was universally recognized as a man of an incorruptible integrity and one whose whole conduct was upon the highest plane of life. He was a Presbyterian in his religious beliefs, and the whole support of his nature was given to the maintenance of the most exalted ideals of truth and justice. One of the most eminent members of the New Jersey bar, he was looked up to by all as the rarest type of the Christian gentleman.
Mr. McCarter was nominated a Presidential elector for New Jersey on the Douglass ticket in 1860, but withdrew from the Democratic party on the issue made in 1864 of the prosecution of the war, and ever after that he was a staunch Republican. Governor Olden tendered him the post of Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey and again the same honor was given him by Governor Ward in 1866. He declined, however, each time preferring to continue in a private station and to devote himself to the practice of his profession. He was appointed in company with Professor Cooper, of Rutgers College, and the Hon. Abram Browning, of Camden, by Governor Bedle a member of the commission whose duty it was to decide upon the boundary of the States of New York and New Jersey, Mr. Depew, Chancellor Pierson and Elias Leavenworth being the representatives of New York.
Among his professional connections was that of counsel for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, the Morris Canal & Banking Company, the East Jersey Water Company, the New Jersey Zinc & Iron Company, and a number of others. He was selected in 1868 to deliver the annual commencement address before the Whig and Clio societies at Princeton College. The trustees of this institution made a public recognition of the honor her dis- tinguished son had conferred upon her by granting him, in 1875, the degree of LL. D. He served for many years upon the board of trustees of the college and always, throughout his whole life, showed himself a zealous and loyal son, taking the keenest interest in all her affairs. He was also for a time a trustee of Evelyn College.
Another educational institution in which he took a deep interest was the Dickinson Law School of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, allowing his name to be used as honorary incorporator. He was one of the organizers and the only president of the old Citizens' Law and Order League of Newark. He was a fellow of the American Geographical Society, and was vice-president of the Scotch-Irish Society of America, and a member of the Washington' Association of Mor- ristown, New Jersey, and of the Princeton Club of New York. His interest
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and concern were always for those things that helped the higher life of the human brotherhood, and no man of his generation in the State probably did more to forward the best influences at work in the community.
Mr. MeCarter married, in December, 1849, Mary Louise, daughter of Uzal C. Haggerty, a prominent resident of Newton, New Jersey. Mrs. MeCarter died June 28, 1896, leaving six children: Robert H., mentioned previously as a member of the law firm of which his father was the chief; Uzal H., president of the Fidelity Title & Deposit Company of Newark; Thomas N., Jr., also a member of his father's law firm; Fannie A .; Jane Haggerty, the wife of Edwin B. Williamson, a member of the firm of Mc- Carter, Williamson & McCarter; and Eliza Nesbitt, all of them residents of Newark, New Jersey.
EDWARD S. RANKIN
There is no name more intimately associated with the growth and development of the City of Newark than that of the Rankins, who, for three generations, have made it their home and taken active part in the commercial, social and political life of the place, with a degree of public spirit which might well serve as a model for good citizenship. Edward S. Rankin, the subject of this sketch, is to-day one of the foremost engineers of Newark, and is employed by the city in the capacity of engineer of the municipal system of sewerage and drainage.
The Rankin family was originally Scotch, but, since their arrival in this country, there has been a plentiful admixture of strains no less desirable, so that the present generation can trace its descent back to Holland, English and French Huguenot ancestries. The first of the name to come from abroad was our subject's great-grandfather, who, leaving his home in the historic town of Stirling, traveled to the New World and settled in Nova Scotia about the year 1780 and here, seven years later, was born the William Rankin, to whose initiative and business ability the mercantile interests of Newark owe so much. While still a child his parents removed from Nova Scotia to the United States, and lived for a time in Albany, where their children were educated. William, however, in early manhood, came farther south to Elizabeth, New Jersey, to learn the trade of hatter, in which business he proposed to establish himself. Here he married Miss Abigail Ogden, whose family, even at that early date, were old residents of Elizabeth. It was through this union that the Rankin family became related to the Ogden and Collard families of the old Dutch stock of New Amsterdam. A very interesting bit of history may be mentioned here in connection with one of the Ogdens, an ancestor of Mrs. Rankin, five generations back. He, it appears, with a brother, contracted for and built the "Old Church in the Fort," New Amsterdam, the first church erected on Manhattan Island. In 1811 William Rankin and his family went to Newark, and, in the following year, he started a small hat factory on Beaver street, which was at once successful. From this small beginning was built up the business which became so well known in the manufacturing world of Newark. In 1831 he took his son-in-law, Peter S. Duryea, into partnership with him, who, after Mr. Rankin's retirement in 1845, carried on the business successfully until 1871. When, in 1836, Newark was proclaimed a city, William Rankin was elected to serve as alderman on the first City Council. He died in his home in 1869.
William Rankin, the younger, one of ten children, was born September 15, 1810, while his parents still resided in Elizabeth, and died in 1912 at the
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age of one hundred and two, full of years and honor. He early chose the law as a profession and, after his graduation from Williams College in 1831, he read law in the office of Gov. William Pennington. He later went to Cin- cinnati and began practice in the office of William Henry Harrison, afterward President of the United States, afterwards becoming a partner of Salmon P. Chase. On June 1, 1841, he married Miss Ellen H. Stevens, of Connecticut, and the two lived together for more than sixty-two years in a beautiful relation which only the death of Mrs. Rankin, in 1903, terminated. Mr. Rankin's activities were very varied, and for a long time he played an important part in the intellectual life of the community. He was a great philanthropist and a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church. He was elected sixteen times commissioner to the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church to represent the Presbytery of Newark, and served as treasurer on the Presbyterian Board of Missions for thirty-seven years, during which time he handled above $13,000,000. Like his father before him, he was a Republican in politics, but, like his father also, he was a man who placed principle above party, a man of large intellect and independent views. Hle was survived by three sons, Dr. Walter M. Rankin, Professor of Biology at Princeton University; Rev. John Joseph Rankin, of Scranton, Pennsyl- vania, and Edward S. Rankin, the subject of this sketch.
Edward S. Rankin was born in Newark in 1861, and received his early education at the Newark Academy, where he remained until 1878. He then entered Princeton, graduating in the class of 1882 with the degree of C. E. After four years of railroad and miscellaneous engineering work he received an appointment on the engineering staff of the City of Newark. Through natural aptitude and by dint of hard work, Mr. Rankin steadily rose in his department until, in 1903, he was given his present office of engineer for Newark's sewerage and drainage system. The distinction of this post cannot be fully realized without a knowledge of the monumental character of the work in which the department is at present engaged. For the City of Newark is occupied with the installation of the most important addition to its drain- age system as yet undertaken, and one of the greatest engineering feats of the kind ever attempted. It consists of a great tunnel, twenty-six miles long, for the conveyance of the city drainage to the sea, to avoid the present pollution of the Passaic River. It is a work requiring the highest degree of scientific knowledge and engineering skill, and is being done by a State Commission with their own engineers, he being only indirectly interested.
Mr. Rankin was married to . Miss Julie Russell, of Columbia, South Carolina, in 1886, and their union has been blessed with four children, Russell B., Edith J., William, who is at present a student in Amherst College, and Edward S. Rankin, Jr.
Mr. Rankin is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and treasurer of the American Society of Municipal Improvements.
FRANK HERBERT HANSON
Frank Herbert Hanson, widely and favorably known among the teachers of Newark, was born in Portland, Maine, September 11, 1861. He inherited his love for teaching from both his parents. James Hobbs Hanson, the father of Frank Herbert Hanson, was a well-known educator of his day and a graduate of Waterville College (now Colby College) in the class of 1842. In September, 1843, he became preceptor of Waterville Academy at a time when the school had only five scholars. In March, 1854, when he resigned by reason of ill health, 150 students were enrolled in the institution. From
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1854 to 1857 he was the principal of the High School in Eastport, Maine. Hle then became principal of the Boys' High School in Portland, Maine, and held this position for seven years. In 1865 he returned to Waterville and took charge of Waterville Academy (now Coburn Classical Institute) making it a preparatory school to the University. Here he remained principal, after forty years of service in the one school, till his death in 1894.' As a Greek and Latin scholar he stood preeminent. Among the many fruits of his unceasing service was the gift of $50,000 from ex-Governor Coburn to the Institute, in consequence of which the name was changed to the Coburn Classical Institute. Besides teaching, Mr. Hanson found time to write many text books, all of which were published by Ginn & Company of New York. Frank Herbert Hanson's mother, Mary Ellen (Field) Hanson, daughter of Captain Benjamin Field, of Sydney, Maine, was also a teacher at the Waterville Institute. She was at the head of the primary department of the school for the greater part of her life.
With such a heredity, it is not at all strange that Frank Herbert Hanson early evinced an aptitude for study. After a good preparation he entered Waterville Classical Institute, from which he graduated in 1877. In 1879 he entered Colby University, now Colby College, and graduated in 1883 with the degree of A. B. In 1886 he obtained his degree of A. M. In the mean- time he spent a year in business, but quickly deciding that he was far better qualified for teaching than for business he gave up his position with Chase Brothers, Rochester, New York, and went to Atlantic City to fill there the post of principal of a grammar school. In 1888 he removed to Newark and was appointed the principal of the Washington Street School. Ten years later he was placed at the head of the Lawrence Street School. There he remained but a year, going in 1901 to the South Market Street School as its principal. There he remained until September, 1912, when he was appointed principal of the Burnet Street Grammar School.
All of Mr. Hanson's energies have not been absorbed by his duties as teacher. Ile has delivered public lectures on Travel in the New York City Lecture Course, in the Newark Lecture Course, the Irvington Lecture Course and others. He is also one of the directors of the Teachers' and Improvers' Building and Loan Association, a member of the Essex Camera Club, of the Maine Society of New York, and was secretary of the Newark Public School Athletic Association for ten years. He is also a member of the New Jersey State Council of Education, of the Schoolmasters' Club of New York, and of the Newark Schoolmen's Club.
Mr. Hanson is also affiliated with several fraternal societies, being a member of Hope Lodge No. 124, East Orange, Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Royal Arcanum, Woodside Council.
Mr. Hanson married, June 20, 1885, Mary Alice, daughter of William K. and Mary (Thompson) Wyman.
REV. THOMAS ALOYSIUS WALSH
In every community where the stress of the business life is laid upon getting and gaining, there must be counteracting influences if the life of the town is not to become narrow, selfish and sordid. Such centers are the churches with the high-minded priests and ministers whose constant effort is to keep this stress of the daily struggle from narrowing and hardening the character. Like beacon lights these men stand out to show men what they must avoid, and to mark out the road for the uncertain. Of this class of men whose lives are given for the uplifting, the ennobling and the inspirit-
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ing of his fellows, is Rev. Thomas Aloysius Walsh, rector of the Church of St. Charles Borromeo. Courageous as a priest in rebuking evil, he is doing a work of the highest kind and exerting an influence for good that would be hard to compute.
Rev. Thomas A. Walsh was born at Franklin Furnace, Sussex county, New Jersey, November 7, 1873, the son of Thomas and Mary (Murray) Walsh, the former a farmer of that county. One of a family of twelve children, the young Thomas A. Walsh early learned the lessons of self- abnegation together with the wholesome give-and-take which is part of the life of such large families. Brought up on a farm he gained that open air robustness of constitution and that knowledge of nature and her doings at first hand that is so valuable an asset to the man that has had a country up-bringing. His first academic work was in the parochial school of St. John Baptist, Paterson, New Jersey, whither the family moved when he was at the age of eight, where he showed himself a studious, earnest, and ambitious boy. High hopes were awakened for the promising lad and at the college of St. Charles, Ellicott City, Maryland, he gave still further indications of unusual mental ability and high character. After a three years' course at Ellicott City he went to Seton Hall College. Here he threw himself into his studies with great ardor and after another three year course was graduated in June, 1895, with the degree of A. B. On May 27, 1899, he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Newark, by the Right Rev. W. N. Wiggir.
His first parish was that of St. Michael's Church, Newark, where he labored for eleven years and met with a gratifying success. His ability and his fidelity to his duty attracted to him the attention of his superiors, and it was with the deepest regret of his congregation that he was appointed in April, 1910, the first Rector of St. Charles Borromeo, Newark, the parish of which he still has the charge. During his term of service in this parish he has been instrumental in erecting a fine church building, a rectory, and a parish school.
The large and constantly increasing number of Catholics in the neigh- borhood of Weequahic Park had, about the year 1909, impressed the head of the diocese with the necessity for the establishment there of a new church. After due consideration of a suitable location, Frank Bock, the real estate agent for those tracts of land, agreed to sell a site for a church at the corner of Custer and Peshine Avenues. A deposit of $500 was paid on the lot and July 20, 1909, the deed of transfer was executed. It was a matter of great and natural rejoicing for the Catholic people of the locality. A census being taken it was found that there were 150 adherents of the faith to form the nucleus of a congregation. On November 5, 1909, the first mass was said for the congregation assembled at 61 Watson avenue, but this building was found to be entirely inadequate to accommodate the number of worshippers. It was therefore decided that a church should be built at once.
The first sod was turned by Mr. John J. Quinn, the pioneer Catholic of the parish, November 24, 1909. The architects to whom was given the planning of the edifice were the firm of Hughes & Backhoff, of Newark. The corner-stone of the church was laid amidst an impressive gathering of notable churchmen and citizens of Newark, by Bishop O'Connor. Among the priests present were Rt. Rev. Mgr. Whelan, Rev. James F. Sheehan, and Fathers Bohl, Farley, Martin, Monohan, O'Donnell, and Reynolds. Father Walsh, then assisting at St. Michael's, preached, the sermon whose eloquonce and timolinoss produced much favorable commont. The now
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church was given the name of St. Charles Borromeo, in honor of St. Charles College, Maryland, and to commemorate the virtues of the great Cardinal of Milan, Borromeo.
February 27, 1910, at 8:30 A. M., the first mass was said in the new church. A temporary altar was used and the people sat on wooden benches. Two masses were said during the day, the first at 8:30, and another at 10:00 A. M., to enable all to be present. At these services there were present two hundred and thirty persons. March 30, 1910, the Rev. Thomas A. Walsh was officially appointed the first rector of the parish. April 4, 1910, the church was legally incorporated, John J. Quinn and William Lawrence being the two trustees of the church. May 10, 1910, the formal dedication of the church was celebrated by Monsignor Whelan in the absence or the bishop of the diocese, who was in Rome upon a visit to the Pope. Solemn high mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father Farley, rector of the Holy Name Society of Orange, who had been a classmate of Father Walsh, assisted by the Rev. Father McEneny, of Caldwell, New Jersey, and by Rev. Father Degan, of St. Columba's Church, Newark. The sermon on this occasion was preached by the Rev. Father O'Neill, of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament. These were the successive steps in the establishment of a church which has since that time exerted a widespread influence in the quickening of the higher life of the community.
Other organizations and buildings have grown up around the church since its founding. The first meeting of the trustees was held at 167 Renner avenue, the temporary rectory, and at this Bishop O'Connor was elected president and Rev. Thomas A. Walsh the secretary and treasurer of the new corporation. The rectory was begun October 27, 1910, the contract for its erection having been given to the firm of Macphee Brothers, builders, of Newark. April 4, 1911, marked the occupation of the new home of the parish priest by Father Walsh, and shortly after this, June 25, 1911, he had the gratification of administering to the first class of children their first holy communion in the new church.
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