USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 50
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(IV) Laurence, or Lawrence, son of Josiah Ward, was born about 1710, and died April 4, 1793. His home was in Bloomfield, on the property left to him in his father's will. Like his father before him, he was a quiet country farmer, and does not appear to have taken much if any part in the stirring public con- troversies and movements that were going on around him. When the revolution broke out. Lawrence was nearly seventy years old, and though he did not go himself, four out of his five sons enlisted in the Essex county regiments and served in the patriot armies. His will, almost if not the last one written before the Declaration of Independence, is dated May 3, 1776, and in it he leaves to his sons "all my estate both lands and meadows and all my moveable estate both here and elsewhere." By his wife, Eleanor Baldwin, Lawrence Ward had children: Samuel, Jacob, Jonathan (or as he is sometimes called Jonas), Stephen, Cor- nelius (to whom his father left a special legacy of £5), Margaret and Phebe.
(V) Like his father Lawrence, Jacob Ward lived and died in Bloomfield, but unlike him he seems to have been quite actively engaged in the public life of his time and county. His boyhood was spent on his father's farm, where he was born about 1750. When he was be- tween twenty-five and twenty-six, war was de- clared between the colonies and Great Britain, and Jacob answering to the first call for troops enlisted in the Essex county militia, where he served for some time, although unlike his brother Jonas who rose to the rank of captain, he never became more than a private. At the close of the war of independence Jacob Ward returned to his home in Bloomfield and devoted himself to his farm and family and the inter- ests of the town and county in which he dwelt. Whether the stirring times and incidents through which he had passed and in which he had participated led him to establish the old Bloomfield hotel, or whether he obtained pos- session of the property in some other way is uncertain ; but we know that he was for many years its owner if not its proprietor, and that the place became one of the political head- quarters of its day, as the following extracts from the Newark town records testify. Among the resolves passed by the meeting of April II, 1808, the fifth reads, "that the next annual
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election be opened at the house of Jacob Ward in Bloomfield and continued there during the first day, and adjourned to the court house in Newark as usual;" while the sixth resolution passed April 9, 1810, is to the effect "that the annual election shall be opened at the house of Jacob Ward at Bloomfield, and closed at the court house in Newark." Children of Jacob and Mary (Davis) Ward, all born in Bloom- field: Joseph, Isaac, Caleb, Jacob (see for- ward), Mary and Lucy. Mary married.into the Baker family and Lucy into the Jeroloman family.
(VI) Jacob (2), son of Jacob (I) Ward, was born in Bloomfield in 1778, and died in Hanover, Morris county, December 27, 1848. He was brought up on his father's farm, and trained as a Presbyterian by Rev. Jedediah Chapman, the famous revolutionary pastor of the Mountain Society's Church at Orange. In 1794 the residents at Bloomfield began taking measures for procuring and perfecting a new church organization of their own, and a peti- tion was presented to the presbytery asking that the people living in the Bloomfield district be formed into a distinct congregation as the "Third Presbyterian Church in the township of Newark." The presbytery advised the meas- ure as soon as the petitioners should prove their ability to sustain a stated minister, and the constitution of the church in due form took place in June, 1798, and the organization was perfected with eighty-two members, twenty- three being transferred from the Newark church, and fifty-two, among whom were Jacob and his family, from the Mountain Society. Two years after, on January 30, 1800, Mr. WVard was married in the church he had helped to found, by its first pastor, Rev. Abel Jack- son. In 1812 Jacob Ward purchased a large farm in Columbia, now Afton, Morris county, New Jersey, and removed himself and his fam- ily there, where the remainder of his life was spent. Here he soon took up a prominent posi- tion in the community, and in 1813, about a year after his arrival, he was chosen one of the deacons of the Presbyterian church in Han- over, the nearest place of worship to his new home. Shortly after this he became one of that church's ruling elders, and these two offices he held until the day of his death. On January 23, 1849, about a month after his death, the Newark Sentinel of Freedom pub- lished two obituary notices of him, one of them a simple notice of his decease from erysipelas in the seventy-first year of his age, and a sec- ond one in the following words: "At Colum-
bia, Morris county, on the 27th ultimo, after eight days distressing illness occasioned by animal poisoning, has died Jacob Ward, aged 70 years. For nearly 35 years he worthily filled the offices of ruling elder and deacon in the Presbyterian Church at Hanover. His end was peace." Jacob Ward married Abigail, daugh- ter of Moses Dodd, by his wife Lois Crane, whose father, Ezekiel Crane,. was one of the famous "Jersey Blues," commanded by Colo- nel Schuyler, during the revolution; while her grandfather, Azariah Crane Jr., and her great- uncle, Nathaniel Crane, were the two promoters of Cranetown, now Montclair; and her great- grandfather, Deacon Azariah Crane Sr., was son of Jasper Crane, husband of Mary, daugh- ter of Captain Robert Treat, and one of the most important members of the early Newark settlers. Her grandfather, Isaac Dodd, was son of Daniel and Sarah (née Alling) Dod, grandson of Daniel and Phebe Dod, who were among the original Branford-Newark settlers, and great-grandson of Daniel and Mary Dod, the emigrants. Children of Jacob Ward and Abigail (née Dodd) Ward, all of whom reach- ed maturity and married: I. Stephen Dodd, born 1800; died 1858; graduated from Prince- ton University; became a Presbyterian min- ister ; married, 1830, Mary Hovey ; (second), 1836, Laura A. Morse; left no children sur- viving him. 2. Mary Davis Ward, born 1801 ; died 1888; became wife of Ashbel Carter. 3. Elizabeth Dodd, 1803-74; married, 1824, John N. Voorhis. 4. Moses Dodd, see forward. 5. Joseph Grover, 1807-37 ; married, 1831, Sarah Munn. 6. Aaron Condit, 1810-60; married Mary O. Munn, 1832; had issue. 7. Samuel Davis, 1812-83 ; married, 1853, Rebecca Martin Miller ; three children. 8. Harriet Newell, 1814-67; became in 1839, wife of Horace Nor- ton. 9. Amzi Armstrong, born 1818; married Hannah Smith. 10. James Henry, 1824-91 ; married (first) Elizabeth Russell; (second) Louise Burton. II. Jacob H., born March 25, 1827; now (1908) living ; married, 1885, Sarah Elizabeth Bogart. 12. Abigail Sophia, born 1831 ; still living ; since 1853 has been wife of George Jones.
(VII) Moses Dodd, second son and fourth child of Jacob (2) and Abigail (née Dodd) Ward, was born at the old homestead in Bloom- field, in 1806, and died in 1888, aged eighty- two years. When he was six years old his parents moved to Columbia, Morris county, where young Ward was trained in the life of a farmer, which he followed to the end of his life. Like his father he was brought up a Pres-
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byterian, and inheriting his father's strength of religious principle and convictions as well as his sturdiness of character, Mr. Ward not only succeeded his father in the office of elder in the Presbyterian church in Hanover, but also became one of its most active and prominent supporters. One who knew him has remarked that, "having been given a different environ- ment and opportunities, Mr. Dodd would have made a success of almost any undertaking ; but even as it has happened, he has left an inefface- able imprint of the greatness of his character on his neighborhood and church, and he has raised for posterity a family of strong, robust children, every one of whom has made their own mark in the world, and developed remark- able business sagacity and executive ability." Moses Dodd Ward married, February 7, 1838, Justina Louisa Sayre, eldest of the two chil- dren of Elias Sayre and Abigail Hedges, of Afton, Morris county, New Jersey. Her grand- father was Ebenezer Sayre, of Columbia Bridge (now Afton), New Jersey, and her grand- mother, Lois Potter, his first wife; her great- grandfather was Ebenezer Sayre, of Shrews- bury River, Monmouth county, New Jersey, whose father was Daniel Sayre, of Elizabeth- town, husband of Elizabeth Lyon, and son of Joseph Sayre, of the same place, whose father Thomas, son of Francis and Elizabeth (née Atkins) Sayre, was baptized in Leighton Buz- zard, Bedfordshire, England, July 20, 1597, came to Lynn, Massachusetts, some time before 1638, removed with Rev. Abraham Pierson and his congregation to Southampton, Long Island, in 1639, and died there in 1670, his son Joseph Sayre having five years before, in 1665, emigrated to Elizabethtown. Children of Moses Dodd and Justina Louisa (née Sayre) Ward. all of whom reached maturity, and four of whom, three sons and a daughter, are still living: Laura Jane Ward, now living at 1092 Broad street, Newark, New Jersey ; Elias Sayre Ward, Leslie Dodd Ward, M. D., and Edgar Bethune Ward, all of whom will be referred to later ; and Jacob Ewing Ward, whose home is in Madison, New Jersey, and who married Maria E., daughter of Ambrose E. Kitchell, who has borne him one son, Carnot M. Ward.
(VIII) Elias Sayre Ward, second
WARD child and oldest son of Moses Dodd (q. v.) and Justina Louisa (Sayre) Ward, was born in Afton, Morris county, New Jersey, November 25, 1842, and died at his residence, 13 South Ninth street, Roseville, Essex county, New Jersey, Decem-
ber 23, 1896, being the first and so far the only one of his father's children yet to die. He was one of the most prominent of the business men in Newark, and was well known not only throughout the state but beyond its borders, and at the time of his death was president of a great electric traction company, head of a large leather manufacturing firm, a member of the board of directors of one of the most import- ant insurance companies in the country, and an ex-candidate of Essex county for governor of New Jersey.
Mr. Ward's early life was passed on his father's farm, and his education was obtained at boarding school in the Bloomfield Academy. As it has to so many young men, the call of the city proved too strong to be resisted, and when he was about twenty-one years old Mr. Ward left his home on the farm and came to New- ark to begin the business career in which he was to prove his worth. Entering the business world as salesman for a New York house, he became widely known for his efficiency, ability, and the thoroughgoing conscientiousness with which he performed his work. His vitality was exhaustless, his nature genial, and he be- came a familiar figure and welcome friend to all the commercial travellers of his day. It was through his efforts that the Commercial Travellers' Association was brought about, and he was the means of putting a stop to the prac- tice at one time customary in several states of laying a special tax upon salesmen who came in from other states. Mr. Ward being called upon to pay this tax, refused on the ground that it was a discrimination which was unfair, illegal and unconstitutional, and his opposition led to a suit that was carried on in his name, finally decided in his favor by the supreme court of the United States, and caused the abolition of the practice. Mr. Ward's busi- ness was leather, and he made himself a master of every detail of leather manufacturing. For a number of year she was associated with others in the business, being for a few years a mem- ber of the firm of Butler & Ward, and in 1878 forming an alliance with the firm of T. P. Howell & Company. A year later he deter- mined to begin the manufacturing of patent and enameled leather on his own account, and about the beginning of 1880 he organized the firm of E. S. Ward & Company, whose plant, one of the largest in the city, is situated on the corner of Norfolk and Richmond streets. Mr. Ward's great energy, keen discrimination and untiring perseverance soon made this venture a prosperous one, and he accumulated a large
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fortune. At his death the firm passed into the hands of his eldest son, who is now managing it.
When the discussion about and experiments with electricity as a motive power and means of propulsion for street cars began, the subject attracted Mr. Ward's attention and he became not only an interested student but also one of the pioneers in the introduction of electric street railways in the city of Newark. He was one of the projectors of the Rapid Transit Railroad Company which built and operated what at the time of Mr. Ward's death were the West Kinney street and Central avenue line of the Consolidated Traction Company, which later became the North Jersey Street Railway Company, and finally in 1903 the Public Serv- ice Corporation of New Jersey, in which the Rapid Transit Company is represented by the
Kinney and Central avenue lines. The old Newark and South Orange horse car railroad company had been incorporated March 7, 1861, and built at about the same time as the Spring- field avenue line. Like the latter it fell into financial straits, and was at last bought by Mr. John Radel, who tried the experiment of run- ning it with his son Andrew as superintendent. In 1892 Mr. Ward turned his attention to this line, and forming a company, purchased it, placed it upon a sound financial basis, changed the motive power to electricity, and as presi- dent of the new company directed its affairs until his death. He was also very largely interested in other electric railroads outside of Newark, both in and without the state, notably the electric railroad at Plainfield, New Jersey, and the Bridgeport Traction Company, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, which he organized in 1894, and of which he became vice-presi- dent. Soon after the organization of the Pru- dential Insurance Company, Mr. Ward became a heavy stockholder, and for many years was prominent in its board of directors and as chairman of its executive committee. In this. as in all other enterprises with which he be- came connected, Mr. Ward exhibited a broad public spirit, a generous liberality, and a warm regard for the welfare and comfort of his em- ployees. At the time of his death Mr. Ward, in addition to all the other posts of responsibil- ity that he held, was a director of the Fidelity Trust Company. He was a Mason, a member of the Essex Club, of the Essex County Coun- try Club, of the New Jersey Historical Society, and of the Washington Headquarters Asso -. ciation, of Morristown. Following in the foot- steps of his ancestors, Mr. Ward was brought
up in the Presbyterian faith, but after his mar- riage became a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Barnabas in Roseville, where he made his home, and where his charit- able benefactions though not widely known were very widely felt. Mr. Ward was always an ardent Republican, and from the early days of his youth took an active interest in politics. He made liberal . contributions to the party campaign funds, and willingly gave his time and labor to advance its interests. He was not an office-seeker, and the only public posi- tion ever held by him was in the board of chosen freeholders, of which for several years he was a member. In 1895, at the earnest solicitation of many of his friends, he became a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey, and at the nominat- ing convention at Trenton he received the solid support of Essex county, besides a number of votes from other counties, until it became evi- dent that John W. Griggs was the choice of the convention. In October, 1896, Mr. Ward started on a trip to Europe, but while he was in London he was taken ill with an attack of kidney trouble, and although he apparently re- covered, he decided to return home again, where, a short while after his arrival, kidney disease developed again and reached a fatal termination on December 23, 1896. This was Thursday, and the funeral was held at his resi- dence on the following Saturday afternoon, by Rev. Stephen H. Granberry, of St. Barnabas, and his body interred in Mount Pleasant ceme- tery, the pallbearers being Vice-President elect Garret A. Hobart, Senator William J. Sewell. Governor John W. Griggs, John Kean, John F. Dryden, William Scheerer, Uzal H. Mc- Carter, Henry M. Doremus, Judge Gottfried Krueger and William T. Hunt. On the day of his death the Republican county convention, of which he was a member, drafted a minute on his death and resolved to attend the funeral in a body. The Republican state committee, of which Mr. Ward was also for a long time a member, took similar action on the day of his burial, and the Eleventh Ward Republican Club, by a rising vote, testified to its sympathy with the family and to the great loss caused by his decease. As a public character Mr. Ward devoted much time and thought to the improve- ment of the city and the advancement of its commercial and manufacturing interests. He was an active member of the Board of Trade and of many other organizations of a semi- public character, all having the betterment of the community as their object. In private life
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he was noted for his genial disposition, his un- ostentatious charity and his never failing gen- erosity. Few men in the state had a wider circle of personal friends, and a common opin- ion was voiced by the town council at his death, "Newark is poorer today in every way for this untimely loss." Elias Sayre Ward married, March 4, 1872, Anna Dickerson, only daugh- ter of Joel M. Bonnell, of Newark, who died March 19, 1903. Children: I. Jessie Bonnell Ward, born June 20, 1873; wife of Henry R. Angelo, now of Copenhagen, Denmark. 2. Robertson Sayre Ward, who will be referred to later. 3. Charles Bonnell Ward, see forward. 4. Allen Bonnell Ward, died in infancy. 5. Laurence Colin Ward, referred to later.
(IX) Robertson Sayre, second child and eldest son of Elias Sayre and Anna Dickerson (née Bonnell) Ward, was born in Newark, New Jersey, October 27, 1875, and is now living at 172 Harrison street, East Orange. His early education was obtained in the New- ark public schools and in the famous Newark Academy, from which latter institution he entered Princeton University, where he grad- uated in 1898. On leaving college Mr. Ward at once returned to his mother's home in South Ninth street, Roseville, and in the ensuing fall assumed control of the business which his father had organized and so successfully built up. Under his management the firm of E. S. Ward & Company, which now ( 1909) consists of Mr. Ward and Mr. John F. Conroy, has steadily enlarged and prospered until the work of their one hundred hands in the manufacture of patent and enameled leather for furniture, carriages and automobiles, has become known and finds a ready market all over the country. Like his father, Mr. Ward is a staunch Re- publican, although he has not and does not wish to hold any office. He is a member of many clubs, among them being the Essex Club and the Essex County Country Club, of which his father had been a member. He is also a member of the Union Club of Newark, of the Automobile Club of New Jersey, of the Prince- ton Club of New York, and of the College Club of Princeton. On April 23, 1906, Robertson Sayre Ward married Marie Baillieux, daugh- ter of Jacques Baillieux, of Aix les Bains, France, who has borne him one child, who died in infancy.
(IX) Charles Bonnell, son of Elias Sayre and Anna Dickerson (Bonnell) Ward, was born in Newark, April 27, 1879. He was edu- cated in the public schools, Newark Academy and Penn Military Academy, graduating as
B. S. He went to Europe with his brother and later to Arizona, where he lived on a ranch for three years, then returned to Newark. He married, in Newark, Anna Heller ; they have two children ; address, Livingston Manor, New York.
(IX) Laurence Colin, fourth son and young- est child of Elias Sayre and Anna Dickerson (née Bonnell) Ward, was born in Newark, New Jersey, July 24, 1882, and is now living with his family at 257 Mount Prospect avenue, in that city. For his early education Mr. Ward, like his brother, went to the public schools and to the Newark Academy. In 1898 he entered the Lawrenceville school in Law- renceville, Mercer county, New Jersey, where he made his preparation for entering college. In 1901, when he graduated from this academy, he determined to go abroad in order that he might perfect himself in some of the foreign languages, especially French and German, be- fore he began studying for his university de- gree. Accordingly he went to Germany, where he lived in a private family and made himself a master of their tongue. Returning to this country in 1902, Mr. Ward entered Cornell University in the class of 1906, but after re- maining there through the freshman year of that course he decided to begin at once upon a business career, and consequently in 1903 he took a position in the Prudential Insurance Company, with whom he remained for the following two years. Mr. Ward's gifts, how- ever, lay in another direction, and when the opportunity presented itself in 1905 of pur- chasing the machine factory and business of Seymour & Whitlock, he promptly seized it and entered upon his present work. This busi- ness, which is large, already employing fifty hands, and supplying general machinery all over the country, bids fair under Mr. Ward's able management to be as great a success as is his father's and brother's leather business. On July 1, 1908, the firm was incorporated under the name of the L. C. Ward Machine Com- pany. Like his father and brother, Mr. Ward is a Republican. He is also a member of the Zeta Psi college fraternity and of several clubs, among them the Union Club of Newark, the Automobile Club of New Jersey, and the Cor- nell Club of New York. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, and a member of Trinity parish, Newark. Mr. Ward married, September 6, 1904, in Evanston, Illi- nois, Marion Roby, daughter of Walter T. Dwight, by his wife Julia Terry, who was born in Evanston, January 31, 1883. Besides Mrs.
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Ward, he has had three other children-Paul- ine, Dorothy and one died in childhood. Lau- rence Colin and Marion Roby (née Dwight) Ward have two children: Robertson Dwight Ward, born June 18, 1905, and Laurence Colin Ward Jr., December 8, 1908.
(VIII) Leslie Dodd Ward, third WARD child and second son of Moses Dodd (q. v.) and Justina Louisa (Sayre) Ward, was born in Afton, Morris county, New Jersey, July 1, 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 Jersey, 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 William 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 mus- tered out the ensuing October.
Whether his thoughts had already been di- rected towards a medical career or not previ- ously to his military service, it was his experi- ence in the camp and field with the sick and wounded that finally determined 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 Physi- cians and Surgeons in New York. From this institution he graduated in 1868, and imme- diately began practicing in Newark, associating himself 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 espe- cially, Dr. Ward gained his large insight into
the lives of people and became familiar with their most urgent needs and necessities. The alleviation of these wants and distresses, and the best means of aiding people in sickness and times of death, now became one of the cherish- ed aims and great problems of his life, and he found their realization and solution in the idea of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, or, as it was at first known, the Pru- dential Friendly Society. 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 fur .. nished to the company, in order that the money may be immediately available for funeral ex- penses and those incurred for medical attend- ance. In ten years the success of the new method was phenomenal. It had issued nearly nine hundred thousand policies, paid fifteen thousand claims, amounting to over $875,000, and had accumulated a large amount of assets and a handsome surplus. The originally sub- scribed 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 consequence of Dr. Ward's untir- ing efforts that a strong board of directors was secured and the necessary financial support obtained from men whose standing in the com- mercial world was second to none." From the outset, Dr. Ward was the medical director of the company and Mr. Dryden's associate in 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 com- pany's medical director, Dr. Ward had from the beginning shown exceptional skill and abil- ity in managing the field operations of the company, and while still occupying his former position he devoted himself as vice-president with much energy to the outside development of the company's interests. During late years Dr. Ward has been the executive manager of the company's field force, and Hoffman's "His- tory of the Prudential" says that "it is not too
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