USA > New Jersey > Cyclopedia of New Jersey Biography > Part 13
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BRUMLEY, Horace T.,
Financier, Model Citizen.
In any compilation concerning the life histories of those who have lived in Morris county, New Jersey, there is signal pro- priety in recording a memoir to the late Horace T. Brumley, of Hanover township. Upon his record in the business world and as a man among men, there has never been cast the slightest shadow of wrong. His father, Joseph Brumley, was a farmer in Montville, Connecticut.
Horace T. Brumley was born in Mont- ville, New London county, Connecticut, and died in Hanover township, Morris county, New Jersey, April 23, 1910. He was edu- cated in the schools of New London, Con- necticut, and at the age of sixteen years ob- tained a clerkship in the Howard Savings Bank of Newark, New Jersey, with which
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institution his entire business career was identified most closely. He was advanced consecutively and steadily, until at the time of his death he had been for a number of years at the head of this institution as its president. Throughout his entire business career he was looked upon as a model of integrity and honor, never making an en- gagement or promise whose provisions he did not fulfill, and standing as an exempli- fication of what may be accomplished by determination and resolute force in a man of intrinsic ability and strength of char- acter-a character dominated by the highest principles. He was a director of the Na- tional Newark Bank Company, treasurer of the Fairmount Cemetery, vice-president of the Newark Provident Loan Association, and director in the American Insurance Company. Politically he was a Republician, and he was a member of the Masonic fra- ternity.
Mr. Brumley married, in 1878, Irene, born in Newark, daughter of Robert J. and Anna Dow Joralemon Baldwin, and they had children : Mary C., married Arthur Bates Paulmier, of Madison, and has chil- dren : Horace Brumley and Arthur Bates Jr .; Joan D., married William O. Cooper, now of Maplewood; Helen, married War- ren H. Baldwin, of Boonton, and has twins : Edward Estle and Irene.
DIXON, Jonathan,
Prominent Lawyer and Jurist.
Jonathan Dixon, who in the course of thirty-one years' service as a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey attained wide and enviable distinction as a jurist of exceptional capacity and high honor, was a native of Liverpool, England, in which city he was born July 6, 1839. He was the son of Jonathan and Ann (Morrison) Dix- on. The father came to this country in 1848 and was followed by his family two years later, settling in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The family was of ancient Eng-
lish lineage and honorable traditions, its descendants figuring conspicuously in vari- ous walks of life, both in this country and abroad.
Jonathan Dixon received his education in Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jer- sey, entering that institution as a student in 1855, and graduating in 1859. The honor- ary degree of Doctor of Laws was confer- red on him in 1878 by Rutgers College, and he was made trustee of that college in 1886, serving as such for many years. Dur- ing his collegiate career he was an inmate of the home of Cornelius L. Hardenburg, a well-known lawyer, who, having been af- flicted by blindness, assumed the education of the lad, who in the meantime acted as his benefactor's amanuensis and personal at- tendant. On the completion of his collegiate course the young man took up the study .. -- of law, for which he had a natural taste and marked aptitude, serving as a student-at- law in various offices, and at the same time finding means of livelihood as a school teacher. Admitted as an attorney in 1862, he became a counsellor-at-law three years later. Immediately after his admission as an attorney he removed to Jersey City, New Jersey, where he entered the law office of E. E. Wakeman, forming a copartnership with that gentleman in the spring of 1864. This professional relationship continued for a year, at the end of which time Mr. Dixon established a practice of his own. For five years he followed his profession alone, ac- quiring a high and enviable reputation as a learned and careful practitioner in whose hands the interests of clients were well guarded and intelligently represented. He then formed a partnership with Gilbert Collins, who afterward became a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, an honor that fell to Mr. Dixon in 1875, when he was appointed to that judicial position by Governor Beadle. He acquitted him- self of his new responsibilities with a dig- nity and strength that left nothing to be desired, and in 1882, when his term expired,
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he was reappointed by Governor Ludlow. Again, in 1889, he was named by Governor Green for the place that he so well and honorably filled, and he was subsequently reappointed by Governor Griggs and Mur- phy in 1896 and 1903 respectively, being still on the bench when he died, his term not expiring until 1910. At the time of his death he filled the circuit comprising Hud- son county. As a jurist he possessed those qualities of mind and that keen intelligence which are essential to the duties of the posi- tion; fair and impartial in his decisions, learned in his legal interpretations, and up- right as a man, he reflected honor upon the bench that he adorned. He was a Republi- can in his political convictions, and in 1883 was his party's nominee for Governor of the State, being defeated by Leon Abbet.
Justice Dixon married Elizabeth M. Price, daughter of Henry M. Price, by whom he had one son, Warren Dixon, who inherited his father's legal talents to a marked de- gree and has attained prominence in the same profession, winning recognition and prestige as one of the leading members of the Hudson county bar. He was survived also by his widow and eight daughters -- Mary M., wife of Millard F. Ross ; Jessie L., wife of Francis J. McCoy; Elsie, wife of Lewis E. Carr Jr .; Bertha, wife of James Crowell; Laura, Helen and Velma Dixon, and Elizabeth, wife of Robert C. Post, at whose home in Englewood, New Jersey, he died, May 21, 1906.
WHITE, Henry Simmons,
Prominent Lawyer, Federal Official.
Henry Simmons White left an indelible impression on the public life of Jersey City and of his section of the State. No citizen of the community was ever more respected, and no man ever more fully enjoyed the confidence of the people or more richly de- served the esteem in which he was held. In his lifetime the people of his State rec- ognizing his merit, rejoiced in his advance-
ment and in the honors to which he attained, and since his death they have cherished his memory, which remains as a blessed benediction to all who knew him. Honor- able in business, loyal in citizenship, charit- able in thought, kindly in action, true to every trust confided to his care, his life was the highest type of Christian manhood. He was one of the distinguished lawyers of the New Jersey bar and lives in the mem- ories of his contemporaries, encircled with the halo of a gracious presence, charming personality, profound legal wisdom, and in the quiet dignity of an ideal follower of his calling. He was for many years in active practice at the bar of Jersey City, and com- paratively few men endeared themselves to so great an extent to their professional as- sociates and to those with whom they came in contact in the discharge of public duties. While practicing at Jersey City, Mr. White maintained his residence at Red Bank, which was the place of his nativity.
Mr. White was of English ancestry, and his family was for many generations as- sociated with the history of New Jersey. His great-great-great-grandfather Thomas White, great-great-grandfather Peter White and great-grandfather Thomas White were well-known and prosperous farmers in Shrewsbury township, Monmouth county. His grandfather, Esek White, was liberally educated in New York City, and was there engaged in business, also managing his homestead farm. In religious faith he was a Friend, and in politics a Whig. He mar- ried Ann Besonèt, of a prominent French family. Children: Henry B., Esek T., Isaac P. and Caroline.
Isaac P. White, son of Esek and Ann (Besonèt) White, was born in Shrewsbury township, Monmouth county, April 7, 1804, and died at Jersey City, January 27, 1876. In early life he was employed for some time as a clerk in the store of Corlies & Allen at Shrewsbury, and subsequently removed to Brooklyn, where he became one of the or- ganizers of the firm of Lippincott & White,
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carrying on a wholesale grocery business. On withdrawing from that enterprise he became a member of the firm of Wooley & White, lumber dealers of Red Bank, es- tablishing the first lumber yard in this por- tion of New Jersey. The enterprise proved profitable from the beginning, and they built up a large trade. In 1873 Mr. White re- moved to Jersey City, where he lived in re- tirement until his death, which occurred in 1876, when he was in his seventy-second year. His political support in early life was given the Whig party, and later he joined the Republican party, of which he was a staunch advocate, taking an active interest in politics and other public matters. He was reared in the faith of the Society of Friends, but as his wife was a Presbyterian he attended that church and aided to estab- lish the church of that denomination at Red Bank. He was an ensign or third lieu- tenant in the New York militia many years, and his commission is still in the possession of the family of his son. Fraternally he was connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as one of its valued mem- bers. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Adaline Simmons, was a daughter of Abraham Simmons, and was born at Phelps, Ontario county, New York, August 26, 1817, her death occurring at Red Bank, May 7, 1884. They had three children : Henry S .; Theodore S., who died July 28, 1865; and James S., who died April 14, 1860.
Henry Simmons White, son of Isaac P. and Adaline (Simmons) White, was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, July 13, 1844. He acquired his preliminary education in the public schools, and under private tutors at home prepared for college. Subsequently he pursued a course in the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons of New York City, and was graduated in 1864, but did not im- mediately receive his diploma, as he had not reached the required age of twenty-one years. After his graduation he was ap- pointed assistant surgeon in the United
States army during the last year of the Civil War, and retained that position until honor- ably discharged in July, 1865, hostilities having ceased. Returning to the north, he spent some time in the Woman's Hospital and in the old New York Hospital of New York City, and in the spring of 1866 ob- tained his degree of Doctor of Medicine. In his native city he immediately entered upon the practice of his profession and remained for about two years there, but in 1868 returned to New York and entered the law department of Columbia College, for he had decided that the field of juris- prudence would offer him broader oppor- tunities, and that the profession would be more congenial than that of medicine. He had previously read law in the office of William Allen Lewis, of Jersey City, and in 1870 he was graduated from Columbia
ge and the same year was admitted to the New : York bar. In 1872 he was admitted to the bar of New Jersey and as counsellor at law in November, 1875. On the Ist of February, 1873, in partnership with John! A. Blair, he opened an office in Jersey City, and the firm continued practice until Febru- ary, 1878, when the partnership was dis- solved, owing to Mr. Blair's appointment as! VỀ a member of the judiciary. Mr. White then engaged in practice alone and soon gained a large clientele. Between 1884 and 1890 he also had an office in New York City. He was retained as counsel or advocate in connection with many important litigated interests. One of the most notable of these was the suit between the Delaware, Lacka- wanna & Western Railroad and the Hudson River Tunnel Railway Company. Mr. White represented the latter company, which had organized for the purpose of constructing a tunnel under the Hudson river between New York and Jersey City. The former company held that according to the provisions of the general railroad law ro company could be legally organized for the construction of such a tunnel, and fur- ther that they could exercise no right of
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eminent domain. After a hard fight and long and tedious litigation lasting several years and passing through the Court of Appeals and lastly the United States Court, Mr. White's clients receiving the decision of each, the work of constructing the tun- nel was allowed to proceed, but after two thousand feet had been constructed, finan- cial difficulties forced a suspension of the work, and the project, though a bold and novel one, yet entirely practicable, was nev- er completed. Subsequently the property was sold to a syndicate of English capital- ists, Mr. White being continued by them as counsel for the company.
While he gained a position as an eminent jurist, it was probably in his home life that the strongest characteristics of Mr. White showed forth. He was companionable, genial, and thoroughly devoted to his fami- ly, and held friendship inviolable. In 1878 he married Miss Annie Hull McLean, daughter of ex-Judge A. C. McLean, of Freehold, and they had one daughter, Mar- garetta. Socially Mr. White was connected with the Masonic Lodge of Red Bank, and was a prominent representative of Arrow- smith Post, No. 61, G. A. R., which he served as commander, and was commander of the department of New Jersey in 1895- 96. He was deeply interested in the order, and was widely known among the wearers of the blue in the State. In 1884 he took up his abode in Red Bank, where he had previously built a fine residence, and from that time forward was an active factor in promoting those interests which were for the benefit and upbuilding of the city. The private school on Leroy place, known as the Shrewsbury Academy, was owned by him. It was intended that a stock company should build this, and it was begun with this un- derstanding, but the project fell through and the work was then carried forward to completion through the unaided efforts of Mr. White, who was ever a firm friend of the cause of education. The only club to which he ever belonged was the Union
League Club of New Jersey, but he and his wife were prominently connected with the Presbyterian church of Red Bank. For many years he served as a member and president of its board of trustees.
In politics he was a stalwart Republican from the time of his majority. He labored for the interests of Lincoln in the cam- paigns of 1860 and 1864, even though he had not attained the right of franchise, and from that time until his death never failed to give his support to the leading candidates of the party in whose principles he so firmly believed. In 1878 he was appointed assist- ant collector of the port of New York, which position he occupied for many years, and later was appointed United States dis- trict attorney, and administrated the affairs of that office with vigor and ability, until August, 1894, when he was succeeded by a Democrat. In addition to his manifold public and private interests already men- tioned, he was a director of the Hudson County National Bank, vice-president of the Navesink National Bank, and president of the Red Bank Board of Trade during the period of its existence.
Henry Simmons White passed away Sep- tember 30, 1901, after a three weeks' illness of typhoid fever, and thus ended a most up- right and useful career. Politically and professionally his name was a synonym for uncompromising integrity. In his private and social life he manifested the same en- gaging qualities which made him popular in public circles. Charitable and kindly, he gave liberally of his time and means, yet al- ways unostentatiously, to those whom he could aid in period of distress or need. He is held in grateful remembrance by many, while his friends and family cherish his spotless record as a priceless heritage.
WARD, Leslie Dodd, M. D.,
Prominent in Life Insurance Affairs.
Leslie Dodd Ward, son of Moses Dodd and Justina Louisa (Sayre) Ward, was
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born in Afton, Morris county, New Jer- sey, July I, 1845. He received his early education in the village school at home, and then, with the intention of afterwards going to Princeton University, entered the Newark Academy. In 1863, when General Robert E. Lee made his magnificent march into Pennsylvania which formed the climax of the Confederate success, and created such intense and widespread alarm through the northern States, the Governor of New Jer- sey, in answer to the appeal of the invaded State, called for volunteers to go to the aid of Pennsylvania. The answer to this call was eleven companies of seven hundred men and officers. One of the corporals of Company F of this regiment, Captain Wil- liam J. Roberts commanding, was Leslie D. Ward. In the fall of the same year, the campaign being ended, young Ward re- turned for the completion of his academic course. On his graduation in the following year he enlisted as one of the hundred-day men, being enrolled June 13, 1864, mustered in on the 23d of the same month, and being mustered out the ensuing October.
Whether his thoughts had already been directed towards a medical career or not previously to his military service, it was his experience in the camp and field with the sick and wounded that finally determin- ed him to adopt the life of a physician. Consequently, shortly after his return from the war, he entered the office of Dr. Fisher, of Morristown, where he prepared himself to enter the College of Physicians and Sur- geons in New York. From this institution he graduated in 1868, and immediately be- gan practicing in Newark, associating him- self with Dr. Lott Southard, of that city, with whom he continued to practice for two years, at the end of which time he opened an office for himself. By this time Dr. Ward had become well and favorably known, and his practice steadily increased not only among the rich and well-to-do, but also among the less wealthy and poorer classes of society. From his experiences
with these latter classes especially, Dr. Ward gained his large insight into the lives of people and became familiar with their most urgent needs and necessities. The allevia- tion of these wants and distresses, and the best means of aiding people in sickness and times of death, now became one of the cherished aims and great problems of his life, and he found their realization and solution in the idea of the Prudential In- surance Company of America, or, as it was at first known, the Prudential Friendly So- ciety. The object and methods of this company were at that time (1873) entirely new to the insurance world. It proposed to offer insurance to the industrial classes on healthy lives, both male and female, from one to seventy-five years of age. Policies are issued from ten dollars to five hundred dollars, and the premiums collected weekly at the homes of the insured. A special feature of the business and one in which Dr. Ward was particularly interested, is that all policies are payable at death or within twenty-four hours after satisfactory proofs of death are furnished to the com- pany, in order that the money may be im- mediately available for funeral expenses and those incurred for medical attendance. In ten years the success of the new method was phenomenal. It had issued nearly nine hundred thousand policies, paid fifteen thou- sand claims, amounting to over $875,000, and had accumulated a large amount of as- sets and a handsome surplus. The original- ly subscribed capital of the company, $30,- 000, had also been increased to $106,000, all paid up. In this work, Dr. Ward was one of the most active laborers, and the present president of the company, John F. Dryden, says that it is "largely in conse- quence of Dr. Ward's untiring efforts that a strong board of directors was secured and the necessary financial support obtained from men whose standing in the commercial world was second to none." From the outset, Dr. Ward was the medical director of the company and Mr. Dryden's associate
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n putting it upon a firm foundation. In 1884 he was elected first vice-president, in place of Hon. Henry J. Yates, ex-mayor of Newark, who had been elected treasurer. As the company's medical director, Dr. Ward had from the beginning shown ex- ceptional skill and ability in managing the field operations of the company, and while still occupying his former position he de- voted himself as vice-president with nuch energy to the outside devel-
opment of the company's interests. During late years Dr. Ward has been the executive manager of the com- pany's field force, and Hoffman's "His- tory of the Prudential" says that "it is not too much to say that much of the success which the company has achieved has been the result of his exceptional ability and devotion to the interests of the company and to the promotion of its welfare." In 1876 Dr. Ward became a member of the medical board of St. Michael's Hospital, the oldest institution of its kind in Newark, Ty and for seven years he was its secretary. He was at this time also visiting surgeon n-of St. Barnabas Hospital. Before 1876 the duties now performed by the county phy- sician of Essex county had for the most part been done by coroners and magistrates ; but in 1877, by the appointment of Dr. Ward to the office of county physician, the present state of things was inaugurated. Dr. Ward's residence is 1058 Broad street, Newark, and his country home is "Brook- ake Park," Madison, New Jersey.
He was a delegate from New Jersey to the Republican National Convention in Phil- adelphia, June, 1900, and a member of the committee notifying Mr. McKinley of his nomination for his second term. He was also a member of the Chicago convention nominating and the committee notifying Mr. Roosevelt of his nomination for second term, and again delegate to Chicago in 1908, and one of the vice-presidents of the Republican national committee. His clubs are the Union League of New York, Essex
of Newark, Essex County Country Club, Tuxedo Club of Tuxedo, Automobile Club of America, Whippany River Club of Mor- ristown, Morris County Country Golf Club, Morristown Club and the Flatbrook Valley Club. March 5, 1874, he married Minnie, daughter of James Perry, of Newark, and has had two children: Leslie Perry Ward, and Herbert E. Ward, married Nancy Currier.
BEASLEY, Mercer,
Jurist of Commanding Ability.
Of this eminent man, Mr. Cortlandt Park- er said: "He was always in fact, I think, Chief Justice. He recognized the duties of that position and filled them. He guarded sedulously pleading and practice. He was not disposed to technicality, but he was nevertheless mindful of its importance to exact justice, and justice in the particular case was his great end and aim. He had a natural and implacable sense of right, but there has never been a judge on our bench, perhaps, who was so cold and steel- like in his logic and who followed so un- swervingly where it led. In my own judg- ment, this was the point of danger with him. His decisions are models of perspicu- ity and terseness and they are always to the point."
Mercer Beasley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1815, and died February 19, 1897. His birth occurred while his father, the Rev. Frederick Beasley, was provost of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1830 his father received and accepted a call to be rector of St. Michael's Church, in Trenton, New Jersey. Mercer Beasley had been prepared for college by his father, and went to Princeton for a year or two and then continued his studies under him in Trenton until 1834. In that year he began to serve his clerkship in the office of Samuel L. Southard, who was then in the United States Senate and was engaged also in prac- tice in New Jersey. Chancellor Isaac H.
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Williamson had then returned to the bar, and Mr. Beasley completed his studies in his office. Mr. Beasley received his license as attorney at the September term, 1838, and was admitted as counselor at the Febru- ary term, 1842.
It is said that for ten years after this he did not give much of his time to the study or practice of the law except in the trial of cases in justices' courts, where, in fact, many sharp legal contests were carried on in those days. He was fond of shooting, and was an excellent marksman on the wing, and never lost his skill nor his love for the sport. He was a capital billiard player, and greatly enjoyed the game. He enjoyed, too, the contests in the justices' courts, and they were no bad training school for an advocate, but it was not until about 1849 that Mr. Beasley showed much taste for books or inclination for the study of law, and then, having made up his mind to excel in his profession, he became an in- quiring and industrious student, looking thoroughly into the legal questions that came up in his practice, and devoting all his energies to the work of a lawyer. He gathered books of his own and had the use of the State Library. He did not cultivate an office practice, but saw his clients on the street, where they waited for him. He was occupied in the daytime with trials in the justices' courts and study in the library, spending the evenings in his office. His office in 1850 was on West State street, near Warren, and subsequently he built a house in East State street, where he lived for the remainder of his days, and his office adjoined his house.
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