USA > New Jersey > Biographical, genealogical and descriptive history of the first congressional district of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 9
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Thomas Sinnickson was born in Lower Penn's Neck township on Decem- ber 13, 1786, and received a limited education. His first employment was a
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clerkship in the mercantile establishment of his uncle, Thomas Sinnickson. He was one of the most prominent leaders of the Federal party in Salem county, later affiliating with the Whig and Republican forces, and was a stanch supporter of the Union during the civil war. He was the presiding judge of the court of common pleas for several years, judge of the court of errors and appeals of New Jersey, and a member of the legislature and the twentieth national congress. He probably settled more estates of deceased parties than any other man in Salem county and was just and accurate in his accounts. He was a member of St. John's Episcopal church, of Salem, and for many years served as vestryman and warden. He was a man of fine proportions and commanding presence, whose cordial yet dignified bear- ing, coupled with his honorable record, marked him as a man among men and won for him universal respect and admiration. He was married October 18, 1810, to Elizabeth, daughter of John and Mary (Brinton) Jacobs, of Chester county, Pennsylvania. She was born August 3, 1786, and died August 19, 1849. Thomas Sinnickson died February 17, 1873. The fruits of this union were Dr. John Jacobs, who was born in 1811 and graduated in the medical department of Jefferson College, under Dr. George McClellan. He then practiced in Virginia and Mississippi and went to Texas as a brigade surgeon in the Texan army. He was captured at the battle of Mier and im- prisoned in the city of Mexico. After his release he returned east and en- gaged in the coal business with his brother Charles in Philadelphia for a few years, until 1867, when he moved to Salem, where he died in 1889. He was unmarried. Margaret Johnson Sinnickson was born January 26, 1814, and married Thomas Jones Yorke. Charles, the father of our subject, was the next in order of age, and Andrew was the youngest.
Charles Sinnickson was born in Salem, New Jersey, in 1816, and was educated in the academy of that city. Subsequently he learned civil engineer- ing and was government surveyor on the Cherokee reservation. He was at one time connected with the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore and the Tennessee Railroads in the capacity of civil engineer. About 1840 he em- barked in the coal business in Philadelphia, shipping to various points. He was a member of the firm of Rogers, Sinnickson & Company, and owned mines in Schuylkill county, operating the Caska Williams colliery, from which large quantities of coal were shipped. He did an extensive business and later was associated with his two sons in shipping coal from the same point. His death occurred in Philadelphia March 7, 1876, and was strongly felt in commercial circles as well as in the more select circle of friends. He was an old-line Whig, but was afterward identified with the Democratic party. He was a prominent member of the Philadelphia Club, which had its head-
SALEM IN 1800.
This sketch was drawn by Lieu. Trenchard about the year 1800, representing a small picnic of the Sinnickson family on a little hill near Salem, then a town less than 2,000 souls.
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CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY.
quarters at that time on Ninth street. He was interested in all local affairs. He served for several years as director of the old Pennsylvania Bank and was public-spirited to a high degree. He married Catherine Elizabeth Perry, a daughter of Charles and Sarah (Hufty) Perry, and reared two sons,- Charles Perry and Thomas. Charles Perry was born October 1, 1844, and was educated in the Episcopal Academy and the University of Pennsylvania. Finishing his education he engaged in the coal-shipping business in Phila- delphia with his father and found it a most profitable venture. He married Miss Emma Rosengarten and is now retired from active business and resides in Philadelphia. Their children are Caroline, Elizabeth, Charles, George, Clinton, who died in infancy, and Fannie.
Thomas Sinnickson, Jr., was a student in the Episcopal Academy of Phil- adelphia and afterward took private lessons of Major Mordecai, who was sent by our government to Europe with General McClellan to study military tactics. He studied under Major Mordecai for two years and then accepted a clerkship in the firm of Sinnickson & Glover, which he held for two and one-half years. He then entered a partnership with his brother, Charles, and Thomas J. Yorke, under the firm name of Sinnickson & Company and engaged in shipping coal until 1876, when he retired from the firm. He owns considerable property in the vicinity of Salem, the old homestead, in Lower Penn's Neck township, which he has made his home since retiring from commercial life, and which contains two hundred and forty-five acres. while his two farms, immediately adjoining it, contain one hundred and fifty acres each. He is also largely interested in other business enterprises, own- ing stock in the Salem Opera House, the electric-light plant, and is a director in the Salem National Bank.
He was married October 14, 1875, to Miss Francis Forman Sinnickson, and one child, a daughter, Miss Alice Margaret Sinnickson, has blessed their home. The family is one of the most respected and esteemed in the county and their hospitality is unbounded. Mr. Sinnickson has lately purchased the Thompson property, located on Broadway in Salem, and is putting that handsome residence through a process of remodeling that will make it one of the most convenient modern residences in the city. When it is completed it is his intention to make it his home. He is a Democrat in his political views and an attendant at, and liberal contributor to, the Episcopal church. He was formerly a member of the Halaska Cadet Corps, a military school of Philadelphia, while a resident of that city. He is wide-awake and progres- sive and has by travel added largely to an already well stored mind. After retiring from the coal business he went abroad, visiting different parts of Europe. The parents of Mrs. Sinnickson are J. Howard and Sarah Eliza-
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beth (Forman) Sinnickson, and her grandparents are John F. T. and Fran- chinchy (Smock) Forman. They were descendants of Dr. Samuel and Sarah Throckmorton.
B. ARCHER WADDINGTON.
One of the leading members of the medical profession in Salem county and southern New Jersey is B. A. Waddington, M. D., who comes from one of the old county families. He enjoys an immense practice and is considered an authority upon a vast number of the diseases to which flesh is heir.
The Waddingtons are of French-Huguenot origin, and the Doctor's pa- ternal grandfather was Robert Waddington, a farmer and respected citizen of this county. James T. Waddington, the father of our subject, was one of the leading business men of the town of Salem in his day.
The birth of Dr. Waddington occurred February 10, 1841, in Salem, and in the public schools of this place he obtained his elementary education. When he had arrived at a suitable age he commenced the study of medicine, under the preceptorship of Dr. Thomas B. Dickinson, and in 1865 was gradu- ated in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. Since that time he has been established in Salem, where he soon built up an exten- sive practice and won the good will and high regard of his professional brethren. He occupies a finely fitted, modern suite of offices, where all of the necessary medical equipments and conveniences are to be found. His counsel is frequently sought by physicians and surgeons from far and near, and his judgment is considered conclusive, well founded and final. During a period of five years he was the attending physician at the Salem county almshouse. For many years he has also acted an important part in numerous medical organizations. He was the vice-president and then the president of the Salem County Medical Society, and was the censor in the organization. For years he has been a delegate to the New Jersey State Medical Society and has frequently represented that society in the state medical organizations of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Delaware. He has for a number of years been a permanent delegate to the State Society. For fifteen years he has been sent as a delegate to the American Medical Association, and twice has been the secretary of the section on diseases of children. In 1893 he was further honored by being appointed as a member of the auxiliary committee of the Pan-American Medical Congress, and the same year he was appointed the censor of the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia. Many of the papers which he has presented are regarded as valuable contributions to the literature of the medical science.
سرايطب
P. D. Wasington
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CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY.
The Doctor was married October 6, 1869, to Elizabeth W. Acton, a daughter of Benjamin Acton. She died February 8, 1872, and March 20, 1878, Dr. Waddington was united in matrimony with Mrs. Hettie C. Davis, a daughter of Franklin and Elizabeth W. Miller. One of the marked qualities of Dr. Waddington is his kindliness and genuine desire to help others in every possible manner. Under his wise superintendence five young men have studied medicine in his office, and each one of them is now well established in practice. He is identified as a member with the Masons and with the Broadway Methodist Episcopal church. In his daily life he carries out the noble principles of Masonry and Christianity, and loves to aid and uplift, cheer and inspire his fellow men.
LOUIS PANCOAST.
Louis Pancoast is a son of Joseph and Mary Jane (Barnes) Pancoast. He was born in Salem county about forty years ago. He is descended from an- cestry honorable and distinguished who came to New Jersey at an early day, and, through hardships and sufferings such as the present generation have little knowledge of, assisted in laying the foundation for the present pros- perity, progress and advancement of Salem county. The first of the name in America was John Pancoast, who emigrated from London, England, taking passage on the good ship Mary in 1678. He was at one time sheriff of the tenth district of New Jersey, then comprising a territory extending from the middle of Main street in Burlington to the Assinipink creek in Trenton and across to the Atlantic ocean. He had two sons,-John and Joseph. Joseph was married and among his children was a son named Edward, who settled near Clarksboro, New Jersey. He and his wife had a son John, who married Sarah, a daughter of Bradway and Jane (Waddington) Keasby, of Hancock's Bridge, New Jersey. They settled in that locality and afterward removed to Mullica Hill, where they spent their remaining days and were buried in the Friends' cemetery there. Among their children were Hannah, Achsah, John, Israel, David C. and Aaron K.
David C. Pancoast, the grandfather of our subject, resided in Woodstown but followed farming in Pittsgrove township. He was a member of the So- ciety of Friends and in political belief was a stanch Republican. He married Ann H. Davis, a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Haines) Davis and a native of Burlington county, New Jersey. Her father was born on the 15th of June, 1766, and her mother, November 11, 1770. They had eleven children, seven of whom reached years of maturity. Mrs. Ann H. Pancoast died in
1
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE FIRST
1878, at the age of seventy-two, and David Pancoast passed away November 26, 1881, in his seventy-eighth year. The Davis family is of royal descent, the ancestry being traced back in an unbroken line to Edward I, King of England. A later representative of the family was Sir Thomas Wyatt, of Allington Castle, who married Lady Jane Hawte. They had two children,- George and Lady Jane Wyatt. The latter became the wife of Charles Scott, of Edgerton, Kent, who also was of royal descent. Their son, Thomas Scott, of Edgerton, died in 1635. He was twice married, his second union being with Jane Knatchbull, whom he married in 1604 and who died in 1615. She was a daughter of John Knatchbull, of Mershom Hatch. Among their chil- dren was Dorothea Scott, who came to Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, in 1680, accompanied by the children of her first husband, Major Daniel Gotherson, who died in 1666. She was again married, in 1680, becoming the wife of John Davis, of Oyster Bay. They removed to Piles Grove town- ship, Salem county, in 1705. One of their children was Judge David Davis, of Salem county, who married Dorothy. Cousins, who was born in 1693 and died in 1789.
David Davis was the second child of Judge David Davis and Dorothy (Cousins) Davis. He was born in Salem county, New Jersey, in 1730, and married Martha Cole. He had two children. The elder, David Davis, Jr., re- sided in Salem county and married a Miss Haines, by whom he had three children: Anna, wife of Allen Fennimore; Martha, wife of Tobias Griscom, of Salem, New Jersey, and Joseph, who married a Miss Collins.
Joseph Davis, the second son of David and Martha (Cole) Davis, resided in Salem county and wedded Mary Haines. They had two children, the elder being Martha, who became the wife of William Folwell and the mother of Joseph D. Folwell. They lived in Philadelphia. The younger, Anna Davis, became the wife of David C. Pancoast, of Woodstown, New Jersey, the paternal grandfather of Louis Pancoast, whose name heads this sketch. Their children were Mary D., Joseph D., Martha F., Anna, David, William, Charles F. and Belle.
Of this family Joseph D. Pancoast was the father of our subject. He was born in Woodstown, Salem county, July 9, 1833, and was educated in Woodstown and the Fremont Seminary at Morristown, Pennsylvania. He married Miss Mary Jane Barnes, of Woodstown, a daughter of Joseph Barnes and a lineal descendant of John Sharpless. The maternal ancestry has been traced back to the latter part of the seventeenth century and is a record of which our subject may well be proud. John Sharpless came from England in 1682 with three sons, John, James and Joseph, and settled in the southern part of what is the present state of New Jersey. John Sharpless, Jr., was
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the father of Ann Sharpless, who was born in 1710 and married Samuel Bond, of Maryland. Her remains were placed in the graveyard at Shiloh. Two of her daughters married two brothers, Elkanah and Jonathan Davis, of Shiloh, this state, the latter of whom was pastor of the Shiloh church and died there in 1785, at the age of fifty-two years. His wife, Margaret, lived to the extreme age of ninety years and was laid to rest in 1822. One of their children, Samuel Davis, was also pastor of the same church as his father for- merly had charge of and died in 1834, at the age of seventy-five years. He was married four times, his second wife being the daughter of Joshua Ayars, and died in 1797. She left an only child, called for her mother, Mary Davis, who was born January 1, 1795, and died in 1838. Her husband was Lot High, a son of Anderson Quincy High, who was born in 1789 and died in 1857. They had a large number of children, of whom Phoebe Ann, the eldest, was the grandmother of our subject. She was united in wedlock to Joseph Barnes, of Woodstown, who was a son of Joshua and Rebecca (Haines) Barnes. Joshua was the son of John Barnes, a proprietary resident of Pitts- grove township before Woodstown received its name. He died August II, 1828, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife, Rebecca, was from Burlington county and died in 1826, at the age of seventy years. Joseph Barnes was born in 1796 and died in 1853, and his first wife, Phoebe Ann, died in 1849. when near her thirty-fifth year. They have three children still living, namely: Rebecca, who married Morris Hall and is a resident of Missouri; Arabella, who married Daniel Stratton and resides in the same state; and Mary Jane, who married Joseph D. Pancoast and is the mother of Louis Pancoast.
After the marriage of Joseph D. and Mary Jane (Barnes) Pancoast, they took up their residence on the old homestead farm in Pittsgrove township, where they remained two years. In 1859 they removed to Salem, where Mr. Pancoast engaged in the milling business. He operated the old white stone mill four years and then became identified in the manufacture of glass in the firm of Hall, Pancoast & Craven. He was a practical glass-maker and con- ducted his share in the enterprise in a highly creditable manner, contributing in no small degree to the successful operation of the business. He remained in this firm until his death, December 7, 1879, and his death was a blow to the company, taking from it, as it did, one of their most able and efficient officers. He was a Republican in his political affiliations and a member of the Hicksite Society of Friends. He was also a prominent Mason and dur- ing the war was a member of the home-guard militia. His marriage to Mary Jane Barnes was solemnized February 26, 1857, and resulted in the birth of the following children, namely: Louis, born May 11, 1859; David Archer, born May 8, 1868, and married Helen, a daughter of Delwin Francis Smith.
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by whom he has one child, Francis Joseph; Mary Davis, born May 24, 1871, married Biddle Hiles June 3, 1899; Charles Fithian, born September 19, 1875, is a resident of Philadelphia, where he is engaged in clerking, and Morris Hall, born April 27, 1877, is employed in the banking department of the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
Louis Pancoast attended the high school of Salem, but left school at an early age to accept a clerkship in his father's glass-works. He has risen from that position to the office of secretary and director of the company, and gives to the business his undivided attention. The company afterward took the name of the Salem Glass Works, and is one of the largest glass plants in this part of the state and does a large business. He is a member of the board of health, the Fenwick Club and the Country Club, and is a prime favorite in social circles. In politics he is a warm sympathizer with Republicanism and keeps well up on all problems of the day.
On the 12th of February, 1896, Mr. Pancoast was united in marriage to Miss Laura Casper, a lady of charming personality and many accomplish- ments. She is a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Gillingham) Casper.
Joseph Casper, son of Thomas Jefferson Casper and Mary Ann, nee And- erson, was born July 20, 1832, in Salem county. His occupation was farming until he was about twenty-three years of age, when he removed to Philadel- phia with his father and engaged in keeping the Davis Hotel. He married Elizabeth Rich Gillingham, of that city, January 1, 1862, and died February 14, 1879, by a railroad accident at Torresdale, Pennsylvania. His father, Thomas Jefferson Casper, was the son of John and Hannah (Wentzell) Cas- per, and was born July 12, 1802. His father, John Casper, was the son of Lawrence Casper, born 1775. Lawrence Casper's father, also named Law- rence, emigrated to this country from Germany when a young man, and died March 2, 1810, aged ninety years. Hannah Wentzell Casper, grand- mother of Joseph Casper, was the daughter of Charles Wentzell, a Revolu- tionary soldier, who died in 1835, aged ninety-two years.
The ancestry of the Gillingham family can be traced back to Yeamans Gillingham, who was the first of the name in this country. He came to America from the south of England about 1682 or 1683 and wedded Mary Taylor, who crossed the Atlantic about the same time. They had seven chil- dren. Yeamans purchased one hundred acres of land in Oxford township, now Frankford, from William Penn in 1696, and afterward sold that property to Thomas Bristol, who, on the IIth of November, 1786, sold it to Henry Paul, and the last named sold it to Yeamans Gillingham, the grandson of Yeamans Gillingham, first. The latter transaction occurred Maich 9. 1793. His property included all the land enclosed by the road lead-
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ing from the United States arsenal around to the Friends' meeting-house, thence northwest to the Black Run, thence by nearly a straight line from Sacony creek to the river and the arsenal road again. Yeamans Gillingham either died there or moved with his son James to the edge of Salisbury town- ship, near the Buckingham meeting-house. General Henry Knox offered James Gillingham the command of the First Marine Corps. He was ser- geant major of the McPherson Blues. The same James Gillingham was in the battle which is known in history in connection with the. whisky insurrec- tion. The children of Yeamans and Mary (Taylor) Gillingham were: Ann, who was born May 8, 1694, and married Henry Paul, in honor of whose family Paul street in Frankford is named; Mary, who was born October 21, 1698, and became the wife of James Wilson; Sarah, who was born September 27, 1699, and married Abraham Spicer; Elizabeth, who was born February 22, 1705, and married Samuel Eastburn; James, who was born August 2, 1708, married Martha Canby and died November 4, 1745; John, who was born May 12, 1710, and located in Philadelphia, and Susanna, who was born November 29, 1712. The children of James and Martha (Canby) Gilling- ham were: John, who had twelve children; Yeamans, who was born August 15, 1734, married Ruth Preston December 21, 1763, and after her death wedded Bridget Moon, in 1768, and died February 26, 1825; James, who lived in Philadelphia, was born July 26, 1738, and married Phoebe Hallowell; Joseph, who was born May 14, 1743, married Elizabeth Haney and lived at Falsington until his death, May 17, 1794; Thomas, who lived in Philadelphia; Martha, who was married to Jonathan Kinsey June 9, 1763, in Bucks county; Lavina and Benjamin. The Canby family, of which Mrs. Pancoast is a de- scendant, was founded in America by Thomas Canby, who came to this coun- try July 17, 1688. He was a justice of the peace from 1719 to 1738 and was a member of the legislature from 1731 to 1738.
GEORGE L. SMITH.
Rev. George L. Smith is now the pastor of the Presbyterian church at Elmer, and through his devotion to his holy calling has exerted a strong in- fluence for good throughout the community. He was born at Pound Ridge, Westchester county, New York, June 15, 1837, and is of English lineage. His father. Samuel D. Smith, was a son of Job Smith, and was born, it is confidently believed, in Monticello, New York. His paternal uncles held office under the king before the Revolutionary war, and his maternal grand- father was Judge Miller, of Revolutionary fame. Samuel D. Smith followed
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the dual occupation of merchandising and school-teaching. He married Sallie A. Delavan, who was of French descent, and they became the parents of three children: Roswell D., who is a minister and physician, of New York; George L., and Elbert M., who is in the employ of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in Bergen county, New Jersey. The father of these chil- dren died June 29, 1869, but the mother is still living and has attained the advanced age of eighty-three years.
Rev. G. L. Smith acquired his preliminary education in the public schools and afterward pursued his studies under the direction of Rev. A. L. Linds- ley, D. D., who was later a professor in the Presbyterian Theological Semi- nary of San Francisco. He was also a student of Union College, of Schenec- tady, New York, is a graduate of the New York University, of the class of 1862, and was graduated at the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1865, being a classmate of Rev. Francis L. Patton, LL. D., S. Stanhope Orris, Ph. D., and Professor Raymond, D. D., all of Princeton University, and Rev. E. T. Jeffers, D. D., president of the York Collegiate Institute. Mr. Smith was licensed to preach by the Second presbytery of New York and was ordained by the presbytery of Passaic, New Jersey. He served as the pastor of Ruther- ford until 1871, when he received a call from the church in Ewing, New Jer- sey, where he remained for eight years. He then went to Cedarville, this state, and in 1883 removed to York, Pennsylvania. He found but one Pres- byterian church there. He organized a new church, the Calvary Presby- terian, of which he was given charge on the 17th of October, 1883. There was rapid growth, especially in the Sabbath-school, and a number of addi- tions were made to the chapel. There was also a new house of worship erected, and a manse, altogether making a group of buildings which stands as a monument to the devoted labors of Rev. Mr. Smith. During his pas- torate the membership was increased from twenty-seven to about three hun- dred, and while actively laboring in York, was at the same time instrumental in suggesting and instituting a number of auxiliary organizations. On the Ist of May, 1898, he became pastor of a Presbyterian church in Elmer, where he has since done effective work.
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