USA > New Jersey > Biographical, genealogical and descriptive history of the first congressional district of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 10
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On the 21st of November, 1865, Mr. Smith was united in the holy bonds of matrimony with Carrie N. Olden, of Princeton, New Jersey, who died August 12, 1871, leaving one son, George E., who is now in the newspaper business, being connected with the York Daily, of York, Pennsylvania. On the 5th of June, 1879, Mr. Smith married Sarah G. Scudder, a daughter of Dr. J. W. Scudder, of Ewing, New Jersey. She is to him an able assistant in his work and shares with her husband the high regard in which he is uni- versally held.
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Robert Summe
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Rev. Mr. Smith takes a deep interest in civic and governmental affairs, and, believing the Republican party best calculated to advance the interests of the nation, he gives to it his support. He has been a frequent contributor to newspapers and his writings cover a variety of subjects. He has written and published two serial stories, and many of his sermons have appeared in leading journals. For some years he was a member of the board of trustees of the York Collegiate Institute, for a while vice president of the board and for some time the secretary of the executive committee. He is a man of scholarly attainments, of broad general information, of humanitarian prin- ciples and of kindly sympathy. His discourses show deep thought and com- prehensive knowledge, and his relations with his fellow men indicate a true love of the race and a strong desire to uplift humanity to a higher plane of living.
ROBERT GWYNNE.
Some one has remarked that "the artistic and useful career of the late Robert Gwynne was a vindication of the country editor against every charge that has ever been laid at his door." This is true only as it calls attention to the dignity to which an editor may attain after years of conscientious labor in a "country city." All country editors are not men of the ability and ster- ling worth of a Robert Gwynne, and Robert Gwynne was more than a coun- try editor; he was a thorough journalist, of the best metropolitan training of his day, transplanted to the environments of a slow-growing, law-abiding little city, who gave the best there was in him, and there was little that was not good and healthful and progressive, toward the advancement of all of the best interests of a people peculiarly upright and deserving, for the Quaker blood that animates Salem and gives color to its social and commercial character is a precious heritage. Robert Gwynne's success cannot atone for the sins of omission and commission of which the average country editor is guilty, but the contemplation of it should have been and doubtless was a means of placing very many country editors on a higher plane. All who strive to emulate him must remember, too, that Robert Gwynne was in himself more to his town than his paper was, good as it was. He had been a living, animat- ing force in Salem for half a century, and the good that he did will not die.
Robert Gwynne was a native of Ireland, born in 1827, and came to this country at the age of thirteen years. His ancestors were Welsh, and the family is associated with some of the leading families of Great Britain, the Gwynne Company of London and Londonderry having been founded by some of his ancestors. "He first set eyes on the little town of Salem," writes
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J. H. C. Applegate, "in the fall of 1849. During December of the same year Mr. Gwynne and Nathan S. Hale, both young men and Philadelphia printers, purchased the right, interest and title (there was but little else to buy) in the Salem Sunbeam, then owned and published by Israel Wells, Esq. Mr. Wells was not a practical printer and the Sunbeam was far from being an ideal newspaper even for those days of easy-going journalistic ways. Wells had established the paper here in 1844, since which time it had been going from bad to worse, sometimes appearing on the street from three to four days after the date of its issue and sometimes missing an issue altogether. Such was the status of the Sunbeam when purchased by Messrs. Gwynne and Hale, late graduates of the office of the Pennsylvanian, of Philadelphia, a paper presided over in part by that superb letter writer and journalist, John W. Forney. The copartnership was of but a short duration, and in a brief time Mr. Gwynne was left alone to wield the editorial pen, and, as he sometimes said, 'to shoul- der the debts.' The public may gather from this something of the early trials of the Sunbeam published in 1849 and judge of its steady growth since. The Sunbeam has now been so long before the public that there are subscribers all over Salem county who do not remember the time when it was not a weekly visitor to their homes, and the name of Robert Gwynne a familiar household word. It is not my purpose to magnify the work of Mr. Gwynne or the character of the worker, but as the Sunbeam has been so inseparably a part of its publisher for these many years it is impossible to divorce the one from the other. The personality of the editor has shone out in the written Sunbeam every week from the year 1849 until now, and there has been no mistaking it."
Mr. Gwynne died at his residence in Salem, March 20, 1899. His last appearance in the town was at the polls, at the municipal election of Salem six days before. "Mr. Applegate, who was with him on that day, states that he did not hear him refer to the election once until about half past three, when he entered the office with his overcoat tightly buttoned about him. ‘I am going to vote,' he said, and then in his sententious way continued, 'Get on your coat and hat and go with me.' But I interposed, 'Mr. Gwynne, let me order a carriage and'- but he stopped me by saying, 'We can walk it all right.' So arm in arm we walked to the polls (perhaps three-quarters of a mile distant), where he deposited his last vote. At the polls he was greeted in hearty recognition by all present, some, perhaps, reading in the blanched face and tottering steps the sad sequence so soon to follow. On leaving the polls a friend among the bystanders, noting the enfeebled condition of Mr. Gwynne, volunteered his service to help conduct him home, and so, escorted between us, the suffering editor wearily took up his homeward way. That
Robert guyane. fr
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CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY.
was the last time he ever paced our streets and the last time I ever saw him alive."
Mr. Gwynne was a Democrat of Democrats, and all his life a devoted disciple of the Jeffersonian idea of politics; but he was never obtrusively of- fensive in their assertion, and, while he rendered valuable service to his party, he was not a seeker after public office. He was, however, at one time the city treasurer of Salem, and a member of the school board and a justice of the peace. He was also a director of the East View cemetery, and for many years a prominent member of the Broadway Methodist Episcopal church of Salem. For many years after the retirement of Mr. Hale, Mr. Gwynne was in full charge of the Sunbeam, until his son, Robert Gwynne, Jr., now the mayor of Salem, was made an associate editor. Mr. Gwynne also published a paper, the Franklin Herald, at Woodstown, in 1852, but this was discon- tinued after a few months. Mr. Gwynne held the theory that every man is the peer of his fellow if he wants to be. Once a gentleman in conversation with him used the phrase "best people" in a sense that implied aristocracy. "Don't mention that again," said the blunt old editor; "there is no 'best peo- ple,' save as they make themselves such. Fine houses, fine clothes, plenty of money and all the accessories make no persons best people; and as a Demo- crat from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I recognize no such dis- tinction; the men who improve their opportunity are the best people: no others are."
Other incidents of like import might be mentioned; but Mr. Gwynne's character is sufficiently indicated by the words of one who knew him well and long: "His ambition was to publish a great newspaper, and the Sun- beam is the best proof of his success in that direction. Although mingling in politics all these years, he never stooped to what is known as corrupt politics, maintaining even in this an honesty that was impregnable. He was pure in all his habits of life, and the writer, who has been a close associate all these years, never knew him to use a profane word or utter a deliberate falsehood: he abhorred both. In all his life he was a model of uprightness and temperate habits."
Mr. Gwynne's wife was Mary J. Camp before marriage. She died in 1865, having borne him four children: Jennie, Robert, Jr., Isabella and Helen. One of the sad incidents of his death was the absence of his son, Robert Gwynne, Jr., the junior editor of the Sunbeam and mayor of the city of Salem. in Cuba. Robert Gwynne, Jr., who has for some years carried the office re- sponsibilities of the newspaper enterprise, with many others, on his shoulders, was born at Salem, New Jersey, November 27, 1857, and was graduated at the high school of his native city in 1876. November 9, 1887, he married Miss
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Carrie Rulon, a daughter of John C. Rulon, the cashier of the National Bank of Swedesboro, New Jersey, who has borne him a daughter, named Dorothy. Immediately upon leaving school he identified himself with his father's pub- lishing business. In 1885 he became a partner in the enterprise. For the past fifteen years, though his father did much regular work on the paper until a few days before his death, the son has been the nominal and responsible business editor. His influence in the community may be estimated when it is stated that he was, for four years, a member of the board of education of the city of Salem, was superintendent of the schools of Salem from 1888 to the fall of 1893, when he resigned, and was for three successive terms (1888-97) the county superintendent of the schools of Salem county, was the Demo- cratic nominee for state senator from Salem county and was defeated by only ninety-five votes in a total of six thousand, in a year when there was no Demo- crat elected in the state and when he came nearer election than any other; and was elected mayor of Salem in 1897, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of his predecessor in the office and was re-elected for a full term a year later by a majority of two hundred and fifteen out of a total vote of one thousand, three hundred and fifty, over two opposing candidates. Mr. Gwynne made the fight for the mayoralty chiefly on his advocacy of good roads. It is his contention that the city of Salem has been backward in matters of public improvement, and, with hard, persistent, tireless work, he is trying to put it in advance of other enterprising and up-to-date cities. He is making headway surely, but slowly and gradually, and believes that a majority of his fellow townsmen will endorse every aggressive step he may take toward modernizing the town and imparting to it that air of prosperous enterprises which characterize nearly all American cities at this time. A forceful writer with an influential newspaper at his command, our able speaker, who never lacks for an audience when it is known that he has a message to deliver to the people, a planner on a broad scale and for substan- tial building and a worker who never rests or falters, he is surely making headway against the apathy of some of his richer townsmen; and under his guidance Salem has entered upon a period of development which it is confi- dently believed will witness many important changes that will be influential toward the future prosperity.
Mr. Gwynne's Democracy is of the same sterling stamp as was his father's. He has almost from his youth been active in political work and has been a delegate to many state and county conventions of his party and chairman of the Democratic county committee and member of important state commit- tees, and has always had much to do with shaping party policy and measures. He early became a member of the volunteer fire department of Salem. He
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is a member of the Pen and Pencil Club, of Philadelphia, and he is a communi- cant and has served as clerk of the Memorial Baptist church, of Salem. He is one of the most prominent citizens of Salem county, and the large number of men who like his aggressive, progressive ideas and administration believe that if he wants to carry his work into future administration he can be re- elected mayor of the city of Salem on the strength of what he has accom- plished and is accomplishing.
BENJAMIN F. LADD.
Benjamin F. Ladd, the editor and proprietor of the Vineland Evening Journal, and also a member of the well-known firm of Ladd & Steele, dealers in real estate and insurance, was born May 4, 1855, in Appleton, Wisconsin, a son of Harvey Hammond and Lucinda B. (Perry) Ladd. The preceding generations of the family were successively represented by Samuel Ladd, John, David, Jeremiah, Cyrus, Chester and Harvey. Samuel, the founder, came from England in 1649, and settled in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He was a soldier in King Charles's army and fought against Cromwell. Chester Ladd, the grandfather of Benjamin F., was born in Burlington. New York, in 1795, subsequently moved to Pennsylvania, and then to Rockford, Illinois, where he spent the rest of his life. He was a pioneer farmer of Rockford, and served the community in the capacity of preacher. His wife's maiden name was Harriet Hammond.
Harvey Hammond Ladd, the father of the subject of this narrative, was born May 22, 1825, in Burlington, New York. After spending his early life there, in the neighborhood of Burlington Green, he removed to the oil dis- trict of Pennsylvania prior to 1840, before the discovery of oil entitled it to that name. There he lived on Oil creek, where Oil City now stands, and taught school. At a later date he went to Belvidere, Illinois, where he learned the carpenter's trade. From that place he moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, then a mere village, and became interested in lumber dealing and saw-mills. A man of very temperate habits, he was one of the early members of the Sons of Temperance. In 1865 he came to Vineland, when it was a new town, and lived there for many years, in the course of which he was able to render effi- cient service to the community as a school trustee. He went to Chicago or a suburb of that city in 1879, and died there in the year following. He had retired from the activities of life some time previously. His intellectual and moral qualities obtained him respect wherever he went. Besides the filling of the office of school trustee, he also served in the public capacities of alderman,
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justice of the peace and commissioner of deeds. In 1850 he was united in marriage to Miss Lucinda D. Perry, a daughter of Benjamin F. and Abigail (Newland) Perry. Mr. Perry's father was a Revolutionary soldier and a cousin of Commodore Perry of Lake Erie fame. Mrs. Harvey H. Ladd, who was born in 1830, still lives in Vineland.
Benjamin F. Ladd received the foundation of his education in a little vil- lage named Stevensville, where the family lived two or three years before going to Appleton. He also attended the Appleton schools, but completed his course of study at the Vineland high school. His business career began in the office of the Vineland Weekly, where he learned the mechanical part of newspaper work. Afterward he and Obert Spencer, who was in the same office, purchased the Vineland Journal, which had been started in the spring of 1875, but had not been successfully managed. One year later Mr. Ladd bought out his partner, and has since conducted it alone. At its inception the paper had a very limited circulation, but by dint of hard work and perse- verance, it now has a fine circulation for a town of this size. It is not only the oldest daily now published in the state south of Trenton, but it is also the only one left out of the dozen that have been started in Vineland. The publication is a six-column folio, except on Saturday, when the amount of reading matter is doubled. It is recognized as one of the leading newspapers in southern New Jersey, and owing to its large urban and suburban circula- tion it is deemed an excellent advertising medium.
In 1886 Mr. Ladd added a real-estate and insurance business to his other interests. The firm name was Ladd & Spencer until the death of the latter. Then Thomas B. Steele was received into partnership, since which the firm has been known as Ladd & Steele. One of the oldest agencies of the kind, it represents seven prominent insurance companies. Mr. Ladd was one of the organizers of the Tradesman's Bank of Vineland, and has been one of its directors from the beginning. He erected the buildings used for the printing and insurance business, and has been actively interested in other real-estate business. He formed one subdivision, dividing twenty-five acres and opening up Columbia avenue. In politics he has always been a stanch Democrat, and the Journal has reflected his sentiments in regard to party issues. He is not an aspirant to political honors. For quite a while he was a member of the National Guards of New Jersey and for several years the president of the Vineland Board of Trade.
On November 23, 1878, Mr. Ladd was united in marriage to Miss Julia M. Gifford, who was a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Her father, Chester C. Gifford, a contractor and builder, moved to Vineland in early manhood. Mr. Ladd has now four children,-Charles Franklin, George
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY. 95
Chester, Mary Belle and Edward Harvey. Although not members, Mr. and Mrs. Ladd most frequently attend the Presbyterian church. Their pleasant home, at the corner of Landis and Columbia avenues, was erected by Mr. Ladd.
ANDREW SMITH REEVES.
The Reeves family of Salem county, New Jersey, trace their ancestry back to three brothers who emigrated from England about 1700 and located first near New York, but soon removed to New Jersey and settled in what is now Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland counties. The first record of descent is that of Thomas Reeves, born in Cumberland county, February 28, 1728. His son, Joshua, born September 5, 1757, was an officer in the Revolutionary war, dying June 27, 1838. From the marriage of Joshua to Catherine Whit- aker were born Samuel, Elizabeth, Benjamin Stratton, Thomas, Joshua and Catherine, twins, Charles, and Harriet and Maria, twins. By a second wife, Rachel Parim, he had two children,-William Garrison and Abigail Mills. The former, born June 12, 1798, died in Bridgeton, New Jersey, in the autumn of 1885, being one of the last surviving sons of a Revolutionary sol- dier.
Thomas Reeves, fourth child of Joshua, who married Eunice Bishop in 1810, removed from Cumberland county to Salem shortly after his marriage, and in the spring of 1834 removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and there resided permanently. His children were Daniel B., Charles B., George J., Caroline, Mary, Joseph T., John B., Horace B. and Thomas B. It is recorded in an old family Bible that Eunice, the wife of Thomas Reeves, began to read her Bible through January 1, 1872, and finished it May 24, 1873, ten days after completing her eighty-first year. In the fall of 1835 Charles B., the second son of Thomas, returned to New Jersey and in October of the same year married Mary S. Smith and engaged in farming in lower Alloway Creek, Salem county. In 1836 he removed to Lower Penn's Neck, Salem county, and in 1846 to Elsinboro, where he occupied one of his father's farms adjoin- ing that which his son now occupies and where his wife died. He died on a farm on the Quinton road near Salem. By his first wife his children were: Eunice, who died at the age of three years; Andrew Smith; Elizabeth, who married William H. H. Carll, of Canton, New Jersey; and Thomas, born in 1847 and died in his twentieth year. By a second wife, Joanna, nee Stretch, his children were J. Morris and C. Hildreth. He was married the third time, wedding Amanda Sayers, and by this union one child was born, who was named Anna S., and is living.
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Andrew Smith Reeves, a son of Charles B. Reeves and Mary, nee Smith, was born in lower Penn's Neck, Salem county, April 3, 1839, was educated in the public schools of this county, and has always followed agricultural pur- suits. When about three years old he went to live with his grandparents. His grandfather dying in 1860, the farm was bequeathed to his three grand- children, and in 1862 Mr. Reeves became the sole owner.
This farm, upon which Mr. Reeves still resides, one of the finest in Salem county, was originally a part of the Fenwick tract and was first obtained by Samuel Nicholson, about 1675, who sold it to George Abbott in 1696. It remained in the possession of the Abbott family until 1843, when it passed into the hands of David Stretch, later to Andrew Smith, and then to its present occupant. The original brick house was built in 1704, an addition was built in 1724, and it was remodeled by Mr. Reeves in 1876. It stands on a rise of ground embowered in trees, placed there by Mr. Reeves and his grandfather .. In the lawn is a giant buttonwood tree, a relic of the original forest, said by the old settlers to have been a big tree in 18II. It now measures twenty-one feet in circumference at its base.
Mr. Reeves is not only one of the most successful farmers in Salem county, but is a prominent factor in public affairs and takes an active interest in all that concerns the general welfare of the community. He has held nearly all of the public offices of Elsinboro township, was elected to the New Jersey legislature in 1867, serving two terms, and was treasurer of Salem county from 1878 to 1883. In every official position which he has held he has shown marked ability and given entire satisfaction to his con- stituents.
On February 16, 1859, Mr. Reeves was married to Mary S. Mulford, of Lower Alloway Creek, this county. They have had seven children: Charles B., Anna L., Richard M., Abner S., Thomas B., C. Loren and Archie Blaine. Charles B. died December 8, 1870, at the age of ten years.
HON. A. H. SLAPE.
New Jersey has always been distinguished for the high rank of her bench and bar. Perhaps no state can justly boast of abler jurists and attorneys. Many of them have been men of national fame, and among those whose lives have been passed on a quieter plane there is scarcely. a town or city in the state but can boast of one or more lawyers capable of crossing swords in forensic combat with any of the distinguished legal lights of the United States. While the growth and development of the state in the last half cen-
LASlake
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tury has been most marvelous, viewed from any standpoint, yet of no one class of her citizenship has she greater reason for just pride than her judges and attorneys. The gentleman whose name introduces this review held precedence among the prominent legal practitioners of his section of the state. He possessed perhaps few of those brilliant, dazzling, meteoric quali- ties which have sometimes flashed along the legal horizon, riveting the gaze and blinding the vision for a moment, then disappearing, leaving little or no trace behind, but rather had those solid and more substantial qualities which shine with a constant luster, shedding light in the dark places with steadiness and continuity. His mind was analytical, logical and inductive. With a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the fundamental principles of law, he combined a familiarity with statutory law and a sober, clear judg- ment which rendered him a power in the court-room.
Mr. Slape was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1836, a son of Wil- liam and Susan (Mangin) Slape. His father was an agriculturist and oper- ated a farm in the vicinity of Salem, where his last days were passed. He was one of the leading citizens of Mannington township and was a man of recog- nized business ability. In religious belief he was a Methodist and took an active part in the work of the church in which he held membership. In his family were six children, namely: Albert H .; William, who was a farmer; Harry, who was a lawyer of note and at one time served as mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey ; Newton; Harriet, wife of Rev. William Marks, of Washing- ton, D. C .; and Susan, who is the only survivor of the family, and married William H. Thompson, of Salem.
Albert H. Slape acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of Salem, later pursued his studies in the Pennington Seminary and was grad- uated with honors in Dickinson College in the class of 1858. Entering the office of Theodore Cuyler, of Philadelphia, he studied law under the direction of that eminent attorney until his admission to the bar of Philadelphia in 1859. He was admitted to practice at the New Jersey bar in 1861, and, open- ing an office in Salem, he entered upon a practice which grew to extensive proportions and assumed a very important character. For a period of twenty- five years he was the prosecuting attorney for Salem, and five years for At- lantic county, discharging his duties in a highly creditable manner. He was very careful and painstaking in the preparation of cases, thorough and exact in his legal research and before court and jury was a most logical and con- vincing speaker. He gained a large clientele and his practice embraced a connection with some of the most important litigation tried in the courts of his district.
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