USA > New Jersey > Biographical, genealogical and descriptive history of the first congressional district of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 57
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Mr. Righter was married April 21, 1897, to Miss Mary Caroline Burch, a daughter of Charles E. and Eva Anna (Reed) Burch. Her father was born in Pennsylvania and studied law. During the civil war he was made United States consul to Cardiff, Wales, and served through three adminis- trations. For some years he was connected with the state department of Washington, D. C., but is at present a resident of Philadelphia. He mar- ried Miss Reed, who died June 23, 1899. Mr. Burch is still living. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Righter have been born two sons: John Charles, whose birth occurred May 9, 1898; and Carroll Burch, born February 2, 1900.
Mr. Righter is a Republican and is a prominent Mason, belonging to the blue lodge, chapter and commandery and to Lulu Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a prominent Odd Fellow and a valued representative of the Knights of Pythias, Junior Order of United American Mechanics and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He belongs to the Garfield Club and is a member of St. John's Episcopal church. It will thus be seen that he is actively and prominently connected with various social organizations
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as well as with the business interests of Salem, and in all life's relations he commands universal confidence and respect.
JOHN HAMMOND COFFIN.
The subject of this sketch was born in Hammonton, Atlantic county, March 16, 1816, a son of William and Nancy (Bodine) Coffin. Worth's History of Devonshire, England, published in 1886, speaks of the Coffin family as having been seated at Postledge in the parish of Alwington. Dev- onshire, almost from the time of the conquest; and mentions among its many men of note "Sir William Coffin, master of the horse at the coronation of Anne Boleyn and a prominent participator in the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The founder of the family in America, Tristram Coffin, a native of Brixton, Devonshire, England, born about 1605, settled in Salisbury, Massa- chusetts, in 1642. He afterwards moved to Nantucket with one of his sons, purchasing one-seventh of that island, where very many of his posterity still reside. The family became connected by marriage with the Winslow family. descendants of the Mayflower pilgrims, and through them with the Ham- mond family.
Mr. Coffin's grandfather came to New Jersey previous to the Revolu- tionary war. He settled in the vicinity of Green Bank, Burlington county. for the purpose of lumbering in the cedar swamps, and died there at a com- paratively early age.
William Coffin, the father of John Hammond Coffin, was born in Green Bank, became a prominent business man and extensive landed proprietor, was the owner and first settler of the villages of Hammonton and Winslow. Hammonton being named for his son, John Hammond, the subject of this sketch, and Winslow for his youngest son, Edward Winslow. He was largely interested in the manufacture of glass in each of these towns. He resided at Hammonton and died there in 1844, at the age of seventy years. His wife, Nancy Bodine, was born at Swage, Burlington county. Her ancestors were French Huguenots, and were early settlers in New Jersey. Her father, Joel Bodine, was a hotel keeper at Longacoming, now Berlin, and reared a family of five children. Mrs. Coffin died in 1864, at the age of eighty-four years. She was the mother of ten children, three of whom are now living : Bodine. John Hammond, and Edward Winslow.
John Hammond was educated at the Academy at Haddonfield, and at an early age he became interested with his brother, Bodine, and at a later date with his brother, Edward Winslow, in the manufacture of glass at
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Hammonton. In 1847 he purchased the interest of the latter and became sole proprietor of the property and business. Subsequently he sold the real estate to Charlotte Cushman. After disposing of his Hammonton property Mr. Coffin moved to Philadelphia and engaged in the real estate business. Later he moved to Franklinville, Gloucester county, continuing in the same business. He has bought and sold many large tracts of land in South Jersey, and still in his advanced age is much interested in the business.
In 1844 he was married to Elizabeth F. Dean, daughter of John Dean. of Philadelphia, who is said to have been closely connected with a member of the celebrated Boston tea party. Mrs. Coffin died in 1890.
EUGENE Z. HILLEGASS, M.D.
The Hillegass family is of German origin, but many generations have come and gone since it was founded in the New World, and representatives of the family were among the early colonists of Philadelphia and vicinity. During the yellow fever epidemic which prevailed there in 1826, Frederick Hillegass, becoming alarmed for his loved ones, gathered his household effects together and with a team started into the country. Going some dis- tance, he took up a large tract of wooded land, situated in what is now known as Upper Hanover township, Montgomery county. In the pioneer home which was founded in this wilderness, John Hillegass, the great-grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was born. Of necessity his vocation was agri- culture as he grew to manhood, but he was enterprising, erecting a saw- mill upon his farm and building the first frame house in the vicinity, and later he built a hemp mill and a linseed-oil mill. The latter was the first mill of the kind ever put up in this county and it was continuously operated until 1897, having been reconstructed in the meantime.
Peter, the son of John Hillegass and the grandfather of our subject, was born on a part of the original homestead taken up by his grandfather, and there he spent the major portion of his life. He, however, did not confine his attention to the tilling of the soil but became one of the most extensive deal- ers in live stock in that region. He also continued to operate the linseed-oil factory that had been established by his father, and, as a result of his excellent business enterprise, he accumulated a fortune. Several years prior to his death he retired and thenceforth gave his entire attention to looking after his large investments and business affairs. His children were four in number: Dr. John G .; Jacob, who died when young; Matilda, deceased, formerly the
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wife of Dr. J. G. Mensch, of Pennsburg; and Maria, the wife of Dr. Henry Bobb, a physician and druggist of East Greenville, Pennsylvania.
The birth of Dr. John G. Hillegass took place near Pennsburg, Upper Hanover township, Montgomery county, October 26, 1828. He received his elementary education at Washington Hall boarding school, at Trappe, Pennsylvania, being a student under Professor Rambo, at different times. Having a strong desire to become a physician, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in the medical department in 1849. He then sought the experience which he wisely deemed necessary in his future labors, by practicing under competent physicians, in the city hospitals of Philadelphia. Establishing an office at Pennsburg, he then entered upon his life work in earnest, and for upward of two-score years commanded an ex- tremely large and remunerative practice. When his son, Dr. John P. Hille- gass, took his degree as Doctor of Medicine, the elder practitioner fully ex- pected to turn over the greater part of his practice to the younger, but his old patients refused to release him, and constantly importuned him to treat them, in illness, as he had done for so many years. After the death of his father, he succeeded to the old homestead and the linseed-oil mill, running the latter until 1878. In 1872 he became financially connected with his brother-in- law, Dr. Mensch, in a lumber-yard, flour, feed and coal business. He also built a large, handsome business block in Pennsburg, and was one of the projectors and organizers of the Perkiomen National Bank of East Green- ville, remaining as a director until his death. Politically, a Democrat of no uncertain stripe, he was the nominee of his party for the state senate upon one occasion, but was defeated by thirty-two votes. He was a life member of the New Goshenhoppen Reformed church, and was a charter member and the oldest past grand of Pennsburg Lodge, No. 449, I. O. O. F. He de- parted this life on the 5th of December, 1898, aged seventy-one years, one month and nine days. He was beloved and highly esteemed by all who knew him, and his worthy example has been and will be an influence for good upon the community in which he dwelt, for many years to come.
On the 26th of October, 1852, Dr. J. G. Hillegass married Catherine A. Ziegler, a daughter of Jesse Ziegler, of Salford Station, Pennsylvania. She became the mother of ten children, all of whom she lived to behold occupying honored positions in the busy world. She preceded her husband to the grave, her death taking place April 26, 1896, when she was three months and twenty-four days over sixty-two years of age. The children are named as fol- lows: Dr. Eugene Z .; Ida, the wife of Dr. John G. Hersch, of East Green- ville; Ella M., the wife of E. V. Hendricks, a leading business man of East Greenville, Pennsylvania; Katie O., the wife of Dr. William Hunsberger, of
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Pennsburg; Mary L., the wife of Jacob B. Esser, the editor of the Kutztown Patriot, of Kutztown, Pennsylvania; Dr. John P., who was a very prominent and successful physician of Philadelphia, and whose death took place Feb- ruary 12, 1898, when he lacked but three weeks of celebrating his thirty-sec- ond anniversary; Dr. Jesse Z., a graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College, of Ontario, Canada, and now a practitioner at Red Hill, Pennsylvania; Charles Q., a graduate of the Philadelphia Dental College and now located in Pennsburg; Howard C., who, after being graduated in Franklin & Marshall College became assistant city editor of the New York Journal; and Calvin M., who has had charge of his father's investments for several years and is a promising young man.
The birth of Dr. Eugene Z. Hillegass occurred on the old family estate in Upper Hanover township, Montgomery county, January 15, 1854, and, like his father, he received his preliminary education at Washington Hall Board- ing School, at Trappe, Pennsylvania. He engaged in teaching for a short time after completing his studies, and then, going to the Quaker city, he entered the College of Pharmacy, being graduated there February II, 1874. His next step was to engage in the drug business at Seventh and Oxford streets, Philadelphia, in which he was successful. Subsequently he matricu- lated in Jefferson Medical College, and was graduated there in 1880, at once commencing to practice medicine, in connection with managing his drug store. In 1884 he sold out and removed to Aiken, South Carolina, where he conducted a drug business for one year. In 1885 he returned to the north, and since that time he has been the proprietor of a first-class pharmacy in Mantua, also engaged in the practice of medicine. As he justly deserves, he enjoys a large and remunerative business, and ranks among the leading physicians of this county.
Fraternally, the Doctor is a member of the Legion Red Cross, Knights of Pythias, Order of Sparta and the Junior Order of United American Me- chanics. Politically he adheres to the doctrines of the Democratic party, while he is in no sense a seeker after public honors. He attends the Re- formed church, and endeavors to do all within his power to advance the cause of righteousness.
The marriage of Dr. Hillegass and Amanda L. Reifsneider, a daughter of John P. Reifsneider, was solemnized in Philadelphia, in 1881. Their union is blessed with two sons and two daughters, namely: Harry S., Frank L., Florence and Helen. The family reside in a very pleasant, attractive home, where their numerous friends are frequently entertained in a most hospitable manner.
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JOHN C. WARD.
John C. Ward, state factory inspector and a highly respected citizen of Salem county, New Jersey, is justly entitled to more than a passing notice in a volume of this character. He is a native of Camden county, born Septem- ber 9, 1853. His father, William H. Ward, was born in Woodbury, New Jersey, which was the birthplace of his father, William T. Ward, whose father was Isaiah, born in the same county, and the son of James Ward, who came from England at an early date and bought a large tract of land. This tract is situated at and around what is now the present city of Woodbury, extending thence to what was then known as Red Bank, a historic place of Revolutionary times. It was held by the Ward family for a number of years, and was decreed by will to James Ward for life, at his death to go to his oldest male descendant. He (James), being of a patriotic spirit, sold his life-time right and gave the proceeds to congress during the trying times of the Revo- lution, and through the legal inactivity of his descendants the family became disseized of the property. He also contributed to the success of the Revolu- tion by purchasing a cannon and planting it on the shore of the Delaware river, and firing on a British vessel as it came up the river caused its maga- zine to explode. The hulk of the vessel is at present lying on the marsh on the Jersey side of the Delaware river just south of Gloucester.
Our subject's father moved to Salem county about 1856. Previous to this time he had farmed in Camden county. He is spoken of as a man of up- right character, noted for his honor and honesty. The "Golden Rule" was his motto. He was one of the leading business men of Pittsgrove township, being engaged extensively in the shipping and produce business. Among various pieces of real estate owned by him may be mentioned a two-hundred- and-fifty-acre farm, in a high state of cultivation, situated at Palatine, on which he resided, and which is still held by the family. He died April 28, 1881. His wife was Mary Ann Cook, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Cook, of Monmouth county, New Jersey, and is still living. They were the parents of seven children. William T. is deceased, and six are still living, viz .: Joseph T., of Palatine; John C., our subject; James C., now the post- master of Palatine; Mary E., the wife of R. R. Miller, of Bridgeton; C. Howard, residing on the old homestead at Palatine; and Frank G., the junior member of the firm of J. C. Ward and Brother, now doing a general store business at Palatine, the firm being comprised of himself and the James C. Ward above mentioned.
Our subject, John C. Ward, attended the public schools of Salem county, after which he attended a private school at Elmer, New Jersey. He assisted
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John C. ward
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his father in business until the year 1876, when he went to Philadelphia and served on the police force at the Centennial Exposition. He was the sergeant of the force and remained throughout the great fair. The following year he returned to the employ of his father and purchased a farm. Among other property interests held by our subject may be mentioned a one hundred-and- eighty-five-acre tract of land, upon which he resides and carries on a general farming business at Centreton, New Jersey. Mr. Ward is a stanch supporter of the Republican party and has been elected to important offices by this organization. He is now a member of the Republican state committee. In 1889 and 1890 he served in the state legislature, and in 1894-5-6 served in the state senate. At the end of the last term of his senatorship he was ap- pointed by the governor as the factory inspector for a term of five years.
Of Mr. Ward's domestic relations let it be said that in 1877 he was mar- ried to Lizzie Allen, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Allen, of this section of the state. Two children bless their union: Roscoe Conkling, a law stu- dent at Bridgeton; and C. Harry, at home.
He of whom we write is a man possessing a fine physique and is admired by a large company of followers who prize him for his many manly deeds and his genial deportment as a citizen and office-holder. To be favored by an appointment by Governor Griggs to so important a place in the common- wealth, indeed, speaks enough for his public standing in New Jersey. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, being one of the trustees of this great order, and he also belongs to the order of American Red Men, in which he is prominent.
THE OGDEN FAMILY.
The first American ancestor of this family, David Ogden, was born in England February 1, 1655, came to America with Penn in 1682, located in Philadelphia, and later settled in Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He mar- ried Martha, a daughter of John Houlston, by whom he had children named Jonathan, Matthias, Sarah, Nehemiah, Samuel, John, Aaron, Hannah and Stephen. The fifth child, Samuel, born October 30, 1695, died November II, 1747, married Ester Lownes and died, leaving the following named chil- dren: David, Jane, Mary, Groworth, Jonathan, Howard, Sarah, James, John and Samuel. Of these Samuel, born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, May 8, 1745, and died April 21, 1821, came to New Jersey as a journeyman tan- ner and about 1767 ran a tannery where the Ogden farm now is. He mar- ried Mary Ann, a daughter of John Hoffman, by whom he had ten children: Mary, Esther, Joseph, Martha, Hannah, Ann, Sarah, Samuel, John and
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David. Joseph Ogden, the third child and first son, born on the farm August 4, 1775, and died December 20, 1863, married Sybyl Tatum and had as chil- dren David, Samuel, Elizabeth, John, Mary and Ann. The oldest child, David. born February 3, 1802, received a good education, learned mining and fol- lowed it until 1841, and then settled upon a farm, was a successful man of affairs, a Whig in politics, commanded a wide influence and represented his county in the legislature for two years. He married Beulah P., a daughter of Samuel Hancock, and their children were Anna, Clarkson and Beulah.
Clarkson Ogden, the son of David Ogden and Beulah Hancock, was born June 14, 1825, educated in the public schools, the Friends' schools, at West Town Boarding School, and at a private school.in Wilmington. At twenty- two years of age he was for a brief time in the sash-and-blind business, later he dealt in coal and wood, up to 1857, then settled upon the home farm and has since taken an active interest in politics.
In February, 1851, he was married to Lydia, a daughter of Charles Rich- ards, of Wilmington, Delaware. Mrs. Ogden, by whom he had no children, died January 8, 1884. Mr. Ogden was married a second time November 3, 1898, to Ella F., a daughter of Edward Webb, of New Castle county, Dela- ware.
CAMDEN.
In preparing the history of Camden the writer has copied freely from a pamphlet called "Some Account of Camden's Rise and Growth," by How- ard M. Cooper, and herewith gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. Cooper for the information gleaned from his work. In the article men- tioned Mr. Cooper says :
"Sailing up this broad river [the Delaware] in 1631, noting the creeks and estuaries emptying into it, the Dutch commander, De Vries, discovered, about one hundred miles from its mouth, on the eastern shore, a large, thickly wooded island, which he called Jacques Eylandt. The Swedes, com- ing some seven or eight years after, observing the same isle, with much better taste called it by its Indian name, Aquikanasra. Though they ex- plored, neither the Dutch nor the Swedes settled here, where the Maeroah- kong tribe of the Delaware Indians lived. Until the persecution in England drove the Friends to West Jersey for asylum, these Indians, under Arasapha, their king; with their village at Cooper's Point, were the only inhabitants within our limits.
"Who first of the English emigrants made the future Camden his home is uncertain, but it was probably Richard Arnold or William Cooper. Few
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City Hall, Camden.
County Jail, Camden.
Post Office and Custom House, Camden.
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traces remain of Richard Arnold, who seems to have left no descendants in these parts. William Cooper, the ancestor of many families that still cluster about his choice of a home, came from England in 1679 and stopped for about a year at Burlington before he chose his permanent residence. Pass- ing up and down the Delaware, the bold bluff, heavily wooded with pine tim- ber at the point where the river, sharply curving, receives the stream called by the Swedes the Hiorte-Kilen, or Deer Creek, from the many deer seen along its banks, and along which grew peach trees and the sweet-smelling sassafras tree, striking his fancy, he fixed upon it as his future abode and called it 'Pyne Poynte.' His name, however, soon attached itself perma- nently to both point and creek. He located at Cooper's Point in the spring of 1681, building his house well out on the river's edge, just below the mouth of the creek, a site long years ago washed away by the encroaching tide.
"Recognizing the brotherhood of the Indians and their right to the soil that they and their fathers hunted over and possessed undisputed, the com- missioners sent over by the proprietors of West Jersey bought of them their right from Oldham's creek to Assunpink, securing their title by three deeds, the earliest of which. dated September 10, 1677, covered Camden's territory and extended from Timber to Rancocas creek. William Cooper, further to satisfy the tribe at Cooper's Point, paid them for the right they still claimed and received from them a deed executed by Tallacca, their chief, and witnessed by several of their tribe. Returning the red man's trust and friendliness with honesty and fair dealing, Camden's early settlers found them always friends, and no tale of Indian massacre blots our history.
"The Friends had no sooner effected a settlement than they met for worship. The following appears in 'this minute of the monthly meeting held at Thomas Gardiner's house, Burlington, seventh month (September) 5. 1681: Ordered, that Friends of Pyne Poynte have a meeting on every fourth-day, and to begin at the second hour, at Richard Arnold's house.' It was the only 'meeting' between Salem and Burlington, and the third in priority in West Jersey, and has been kept up by Friends without a lapse from that time to the present. Shortly afterward the meeting was held at Pyne Poynte, at the house of William Cooper, a minister, and continued there until the arrival of the 'Irish Friends,' who settled at Newton in the spring of 1682. But as the Newton Friends were much more numerous than the few scattered families about the Poynte it was more convenient to most of the members for the place of worship to be located at their settle- ment; and in 1684 the first building devoted to religious meetings in Gloucester county was built on the middle branch of Newton creek, at what
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is now West Collingswood Station. on the Reading Railroad to Atlantic City.
"By 1686 quite a number of emigrants had arrived in this part of West Jersey and settled about Red Bank, Woodbury, Arwames or Gloucester, Newton and the Poynte, and felt strongly the inconvenience of having to go all the way to Salem or Burlington to transact their public business. Accordingly, on the 26th of May, 1686, the proprietors, freeholders and in- habitants of the Third and Fourth Tenths, that is, the territory between Pensauken and Oldman's creek, acting in the spirit of pure democracy, met at Arwanes and formed that quaintly curious form of county government, having only ten short paragraphs. that is still preserved in the original book of minutes, in the clerk's office of Gloucester county, at Woodbury. This was the origin of old Gloucester, the only county in New Jersey that can deduce its existence from a direct and positive compact between her in- habitants.
"The action of the people in thus forming their county organization, without any authority of the legislature, was, after having been indirectly recognized in one or two other laws directly sanctioned in 1694, by an act of the legislature, establishing the boundaries that they had themselves chosen, and adopting their title of the county of Gloucester.
"The necessity of a regular ferry to Philadelphia being very soon felt by the new settlers, they applied to their new court at Gloucester to license one, which, on the first day of third month (March), 1687, it did, as appears by this minute: 'It is proposed to ye Bench y-t a fferry is very needfull and much wanted from Jersey to Philadelphia, and y-t William Roydon's house is look-t upon as a place convenient, and the said William Roydon, a person suitable for that imploy, and therefore an order desired from ye Bench that a fferry may by there fixed, etc., to which ye Bench assents and refer to ye grand jury to methodize ve same and fix ye rates thereof.' This they pro- ceeded to do in a very leisurely manner, for not until one year afterward, on the first day of the first month, 1688, did they issue their license to William Roydon and his assigns. It was located near the foot of Cooper street, its boats being only open flat-boats propelled by oars or sails. A few years afterward it was purchased by William Cooper, and for more than one hundred years thereafter Camden was everywhere known as Cooper's Ferries.
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