USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 70
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Elizabeth. 5. Thomas. 6. George. 7. Will- iam.
(V) Laban, son of Aaron and Mary (Dil- dine) Howell, was born near Hope, Warren county, New Jersey, March 6, 1820, died May 19, 1868. He was given a good common school education in his home township, and after- ward became a successful farmer in or near Vincentown, where his business life was chief- ly spent. In politics he originally was a Whig, and later became a Republican. In 1842 he married Clarissa Lawrence, of New Egypt, New Jersey, and had five children: I. John Richard, see forward. 2. Dr. Aaron, now of Camden, New Jersey. 3. Mary, now living in Mt. Holly. 4. Adda, married J. Sexton Fol- well. 5. Ella, now dead, married Jeremiah Colkitt.
(VI) John Richards, son of Laban and Cla- rissa (Lawrence) Howell, was born near Vin- centown, New Jersey, January 1, 1844, gained his early education in a private school, and in 1866 began his business career as proprietor of a general store in Vincentown. Still later he purchased his father's farm, which he carried on for a short time, and then exchanged it for a store and business in Medford. This was in 1871, and for the succeeding five years he en- gaged in mercantile pursuits in that town. In 1876 he was elected surrogate of Burlington county, and discharged the duties of that office for ten years. He also during a part of the period last mentioned served as secretary of the Mt. Holly Insurance Company, and after leaving office he engaged in a general fire, life, accident and bond insurance business, continu- ing to the present time, and in which he repre- sented twenty-four different insurance com- panies. He holds membership in Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Central Lodge, No. 44, Vincentown; and in the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. Mr. Howell married (first ), January 1, 1867, Ann Eliza, daughter of Clayton and Maria (Eayre) Prickett; she died in 1879. By this marriage he had one daughter, Laura Clarissa Howell, born July 23, 1868. He married (second), April 28, 1886, Susan Deacon Langstaff, of Mt. Holly.
The Langstaffs and the LANGSTAFF Hulls both came to New Jersey from the district of Piscataway, in New Hampshire, whither they had come originally with the colony sent out by Mason, the patentee of New Hampshire, in 1630. From here, attracted by the promises
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offered to settlers by Governor Carteret and the proprietors of East Jersey, they formed a party of the original settlers of Piscataway, New Jersey, named after their New Hamp- shire district, and from that time to this, both families have been prominent among the in- telligent and outspoken freemen of the new world.
(I) Henry Langstaff Jr., who emigrated with his father to New Hampshire, was the first of the line to come to New Jersey in 1668, and it is through his son John, referred to below, that the name has been handed down to posterity in New Jersey.
(II) John, son of Henry Langstaff Jr., was born in New England in 1647, lived and died in Piscataway ; among his children were James, through whom the line of the Middlesex coun- ty Langstaffs has descended, and John, re- ferred to below.
(III) John (2), son of John (I) Langstaff, of Piscataway, removed from Piscataway to Springfield, Burlington county, New Jersey, where he died, leaving a will dated November 27, 1703, and proved April 1, 1704, in which he mentions sons, Moses; James, referred to below ; and David.
(IV) James, son of John (2) and Eliza- beth Langstaff, was a minor of fifteen years of age when he chose his mother, Elizabeth Lang- staff, April 25, 1704, as his guardian. Very little is known about him except the fact that among his children was a son Henry, referred to below.
(V) Henry (2), son of James Langstaff, became one of the largest and wealthiest land- owners of his day in Burlington county. He died leaving a son Henry, referred to below.
(VI) Henry (3), son of Henry (2) Lang- staff, succeeded to his father's large fortune and property, and died when his only son James was an infant. His widow married (second) Joshua Willets.
(VII) James, son of Henry (3) Langstaff, was born in Burlington county about 1796, and was educated in the district schools there. Growing up to manhood on the old homestead, which with the rest of his father's large prop- erty he had inherited, he came as a young man to Mt. Holly and engaged in a mercantile career. and like many of the other larger merchants, who owned their own transportation facilities, did a large common-carrier business between Philadelphia and Mt. Holly and Burlington. He took an active interest in the prosperity of the town, and assisted morally and financially in every good work. He was prominent in
the founding of the Mt. Holly Bank, and was on the building committee and a vestryman of the Mt. Holly Protestant Episcopal Church. Being attracted by the great opportunities offered by the west, in 1844 he disposed of his New Jersey interests and removed to Paducah, Kentucky, whither he went by stage. Settling in that part of Paducah known as Jersey, he at once became a leading factor in the develop- ing of that new country, where he engaged in the milling business and in the operation of steam boats plying the Tennessee river. He established a large and prosperous business which was afterward carried on by his sons, but after spending a number of years in Ken- tucky his health failed, and he retired from active business and returned to Mt. Holly, where he died.
In 1830, James Langstaff married Harriet, daughter of Samuel and Anna (Deacon) Haines, a descendant of two of the most prom- inent of the old Quaker families of South Jer- sey. Children: I. George, referred to below. 2. Anna Haines, married Lieutenant Wesley Hunt Stock, U. S. N., who was afterwards engaged in the milling business at Paducah, Kentucky. 3. Samuel Haines, educated in select schools of Burlington, went to Kentucky with his father, where he succeeded to his busi- ness, died in 1891 ; married Augusta Smith. 4. Susan Deacon, married (first) George Tucker Stock, Esquire, of Mt. Holly, and ( sec- ond) John R. Howell (see Howell) ; she re- sided in the home her father built more than three-quarters of a century ago, which is now one of the most substantial and attractive resi- dences in Mt. Holly; she is a graduate of Bucknell College; a member of St. Andrew's Church, Mt. Holly; of many benevolent and charitable societies, and is manager of the Children's Home.
(VIII) George, son of James and Harriet (Haines) Langstaff, was born in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, in 1831, and died there in 1899. He was educated in the select schools of Bur- lington, and at eighteen years of age graduated from the law department of Princeton Uni- versity with honors and valedictorian of his class. Removing with his father to Kentucky, he engaged with his father and brother Sam- uel in the milling business, and after the re- tirement of his father he established the Lang- staff Orm Manufacturing Company, which be- came one of the largest of the lumber indus- tries in the south. Mr. Langstaff is a man of scrupulous honor, and the highest business integrity, and was one of the leading spirits
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in the building up of the now thriving city of Paducah.
In 1849 George Langstaff married Frances Smith, of Louisville, Kentucky, who was of New England descent, and a few months prior to his death they celebrated their golden wed- ding. Their two sons were: I. George Jr., now president of the Langstaff Orm Manufac- turing Company, and one of the leading citi- zens of Paducah, Kentucky. 2. James, who was drowned while out sailing in 1891.
PROBASCO Among the immigrants from Holland to the New Nether- lands the name of Probasco appears to have had but one representative, but by intermarriages with the Stryckers, Rem- sens, Lumbertsons, Schencks, Wyckoffs and Van Arsdales, of New Amsterdam, the pure Holland blood was intermingled and a thrifty and rugged race of men and women resulted. They found in the third and fourth generations congenial companions and neighbors in Hunt- erdon and Burlington counties, New Jersey, where the Society of Friends predominated, and the German and Dutch commingled and the gentle and refining influence of the Quaker blood added a new element to the building up of peaceloving virtues in obedient citizens and useful and progressive designers and con- structors of great engineering undertakings.
(I) Christoffel Jurianse Probasco, the com- mon ancestor of the Probasco family of New Lotts, Long Island, New Netherlands, first ap- peared in New Amsterdam, to which place he immigrated from Holland, arriving in 1652 and locating at New Lotts on Long Island. He married Ida, daughter of Jacob Garritse and Ida Huybrecht Strycker, of Flatbush, Long Island, in 1654. On August 8, 1671, he purchased nineteen margins of land at Flat- bush, adjoining the lands of Jan Scrycker and Dirck Janse Van der Vliet, and abutting Cor- laer's flats. The land was deeded to him by the owners. Tomas Lammerse and Tunis Jans Crevers, and the deed was the first on record in Brooklyn. In the conveyance he is designated Stoffel Jurianse Probaske. His name is on the assessment rolls of Flatbush under dates of 1675 and 1683. He became a member of the church in Flatbush in 1677, and was an elder from 1678 to 1690. He served as magistrate of the town in 1678 and 1686; was justice of the peace in 1693, and on the census board, 1698. He took the oath of fidel- ity and allegiance to the English crown in 1687. In 1690 he opposed the political ambition
of Governor Leisler. His own written signa- ture made his name Stoffel Probasco, he omit- ting the name Christoffel. The children of Stoffel and Ida (Strycker) Probasco were probably born in order as follows: I. Jan. 2. Jacob, baptized July 9, 1682. 3. Abraham, baptized February 22, 1685; married Gertje Lubertse, and lived in New Lotts. 4. Aaltje, baptized June 26, 1687. 5. Lammertje. 6. Jurrgen, baptized October 30, 1695. 7. Chris- toffel, q. v. 8. Heyltje, married Jeremias Rim- sen. Stoffel Probasco and Ida Probasco made a joint will dated October 3, 1724, but which does not appear on record.
(II) Christoffel, fourth son and seventh child of Christoffel Probasco, was born in Flatbush, Long Island, probably in 1697. He married Catalina Schenck, and they settled in the Raritan river valley in Hunterdon county, New Jersey. Catalina Schenck was youngest daughter of William Schenck, who came from Monmouth county and settled near Ringoes, in Hunterdon county. Her mother was Mary Winters, and the children of William and Mary (Winters) Schenck included: Ralph, John, Josiah, William, Abraham, Ann, Polly and Cat- alina. Josiah Schenck married Alabe Wyckoff, and had fourteen children. He served for three years in the army during the revolutionary war, and he crossed the Delaware with Gen- eral Washington, and when the Hessians were captured he nearly lost his life in the army wagon that accompanied the dash made upon the British camp. He was deacon in the Re- formed Dutch Church at West Millstone, and died about 1824-5. The children of Christoffel and Catalina (Schenck) Probasco included : Lammatje, married Jan Simonse Van Ars- dalen, and Garret (q. v.).
(III) Garret, son of Christoffel and Cata- lina (Schenck) Probasco, was born near Rin- goes, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, and re- moved after his marriage to Buckingham, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where he suc- cessfully carried on a large farm, but after his children were born he sold it and removed to Hunterdon county, New Jersey, his birthplace, and the home of his parents, where he died. He married Isabella Ray.
(IV) Samuel, son of Garret and Isabella (Ray) Probasco, was born in Bockingham, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1799, and was carried with other members of the family to the paternal homestead near Ringoes, Hunter- don county, New Jersey, where he was brought up on the homestead farm and learned the trade of cooper and carpenter. In 1823 he
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went to New York City, which became his home. He worked in the Brooklyn navy yard as a carpenter, and for the Camden & Amboy railroad, the first railroad in New Jersey. He married, about 1830, Sarah, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Taylor) Risley, granddaughter of Hontial and Catherine Risley, and of Edward and Catherine Taylor. The Risleys were of German origin, and Jacob Risley was a well- to-do farmer of Hunterdon county, his farm being situated between the settlements of Frenchtown and Baptisttown, near the Dela- ware river. The Taylors were royalists, and when the fortunes of the revolutionary war turned in favor of the rebels they went to New Brunswick, Dominion of Canada. Sarah Ris- ley was born on her father's farm in 1801, and died in New York City in 1878, the same year in which her husband, Samuel Probasco, met death from an accident while on a visit to his boyhood home in Burlington, New Jersey. Children of Samuel and Sarah (Risley ) Pro- basco, born in New York City: Samuel Ris- ley (q. v.) ; Mary Jane, born 1835.
(V) Samuel Risley, eldest child of Samuel and Sarah (Risley) Probasco, was born in New York City, September 13, 1833, and died January 19, 1910. He was a pupil in the pub- lic schools of New York City up to the time he was fifteen years of age, when he left home and shipped in a vessel bound for China by way of Cape Horn. When the vessel landed at San Francisco, California, he went ashore and never returned to the ship, but went to the mining camps, and after a year's experi- ence in the life in the "diggings" started on foot across the continent home. On reaching New York he took up the study of civil engi- neering, being his own instructor, and was em- ployed by the Brooklyn Waterworks Company from 1850 to 1867. He then established him- self as a professional civil engineer, and was located in Mt. Holly and Lumberton, Burling- ton county, New Jersey, as inspector of pipe at Lumberton Foundry, 1857-65. After his marriage he made his home in Lumberton, and his first three children were born in that town. He removed to Burlington in 1866, and after- ward made that city his home, making the journey to and from New York City daily. In 1869 he became assistant engineer in the construction of the Brooklyn suspension bridge, of which Washington A. Roebling was engineer-in-chief, and on the completion of this successful undertaking, May 24, 1883, he continued as a professional engineer. On
the consolidation of the cities of New York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Yonkers, and ad- jacent territory, and the election of Robert A. Van Wyck as mayor of Greater New York, Mayor Van Wyck appointed Mr. Probasco chief engineer of the Commission of Bridges, Board of Public Inprovements of the City of New York, and he held the office for four years, during which time the New East River Bridge from the foot of Delancey street, Man- hattan borough, to a point between South Fifth and South Sixth streets in the borough of Brooklyn, familiarly known as the Williams- burg Bridge, was planned and construction commenced, and the bridge across East River over Blackwell's Island was also planned, to be a cantilever bridge supported by four towers, one on the Manhattan side, two on Blackwell's Island, and one on the Queens- boro side, and this bridge was opened for traffic in May, 1909, and is known as the Queenstown Bridge. Mr. Probasco laid out the plans for both these gigantic examples of engineering skill. He also laid out the plans for the Manhattan Bridge from Catherine street, Manhattan, to Sands street, Brooklyn, with its approaches in each borough. The entire bridge system in New York City came under his supervision, and he had charge of the enlargements of terminal accommodations and of the repairs and changes necessary from time to time in the economy of the bridge management.
Mr. Probasco was a charter member of the Old Manhattan Lodge, F. and A. M., and was elected its first secretary. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and of the Municipal Engineers of the City of New York. He married, September 12, 1858, Anne M., daughter of Theodore B. and Harriet (Lorman) Phillips, of Vincentown, Burling- ton county, New Jersey, and granddaughter of Anthony and Clarissa Edmunds Phillips, of Vincentown. The first three children of Sam- uel Risley and Anna M. ( Phillips) Probasco were born in Lumberton, New Jersey: I. Helen, July 24, 1859, died November 8, 1864. 2. Joseph, January 26, 1863, died November 6, 1864. 3. Selden Risley, q. v. 4. Beatrice, born in Burlington, New Jersey, August 18, 1867, died February 5, 1872. 5. Samuel Kingsley, born 1869; educated in the public school of Burlington, at Beverly Academy, the Brown Preparatory School at Philadelphia, where he was fitted for college, and was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, S. B., 1893,
John SApplegate
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and at the New York Law School, LL. B., 1895. He practiced law in Brooklyn borough, in the city of New York.
(VI) Selden Risley, second son and third child of Samuel Risley and Anna M. ( Phil- lip) Probasco, was born in Lumberton, New Jersey, July 24, 1865. He gained grammar school training in Burlington, New Jersey, to which city his parents removed before he was one year old. His preparatory scientific train- ing was acquired in Spring Garden Institute, Philadelphia, where he was graduated in 1885. He was employed by the Southern Railway Company as a rodman from 1885, and gained by promotion in the engineering service a thorough knowledge of civil engineering as applied to railroad building. In 1893 he left the service of the company to take a position as municipal engineer in charge of laying out waterworks and sewerage systems in various cities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as an expert employed by various construction com- panies engaged in municipal contracts, and his services in this line of engineering gave him continuous employment for ten years. He then accepted the position of city engineer for the city of Burlington, New Jersey, having previously served in the drainage commission. His political views are those of the Democratic party, and his fraternal affiliations is with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 996, of Burlington, New Jersey. He married, 1889, Anna Lippincott, daughter of Joseph and Mary ( Allen) Budd, of Burling- ton City, New Jersey. Children of Selden R. and Anna Lippincott ( Budd) Probasco, born in Eatontown and Burlington, New Jersey : I. Joseph Budd, in Eatontown, November 19, 1890. 2. Samuel Risley, in Burlington, July 7, 1895. 3. Christopher Allen, August 6, 1902. (See Budd).
John Stilwell Applegate APPLEGATE LL. D., of Red Bank, one of the most prominent
lawyers in the state, is a representative of one of the oldest families of New Jersey. Aside from his parental line, he numbers as ancestors those who were among the most conspicuous founders of the colony-Sergeant John Gib- bons ; Richard Stout and James Grover, all of whom were patentees of the Nicolls or Mon- mouth Patent ; and Richard Hartshorne, Will- iam Lawrence, John Throckmorton, Nicholas Stilwell, James Bowne, and John Bray, pioneer settlers of Monmouth county, and who bore a leading part in Colonial history.
The Applegate family is of English origin. The immigrant ancestor was Thomas Apple- gate, who was in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1635, and at Gravesend, Long Island, in 1647. He was one of the patentees of Flush- ing, Long Island, in the patent given by Gov- ernor Kieft, and dated October 19, 1647.
Thomas (2), son of Thomas ( I) Applegate, moved from Gravesend, Long Island, in 1674, to Monmouth county, New Jersey, settling upon land which he purchased from the In- dians, and for which he also received a war- rant from the proprietors. He married a daughter of Sergeant Richard Gibbons, one of the most prominent men of his day, and who was a leading member of the first Gen- eral Assembly held at Shrewsbury, December 14, 1677. John Stilwell, grandfather of the immediate suject of this narrative, was quar- termaster of the First Regiment of Monmouth County Militia in the revolutionary war.
Joseph Stilwell Applegate, son of Richard Applegate and Mary Stilwell, daughter of said John Stilwell, was born in 1789, and was a prominent and successful farmer of Middle- town township, Monmouth county. In 1857 he built a residence in Red Bank, which he occupied until his death in 1881, at the ad- vanced age of ninety-two years. He married Ann Bray, a descendant of Rev. John Bray, a Baptist minister from England, who founded the first Baptist church at Holmdel, and do- nated to it the lot and building long known as Bray's meetinghouse. She died in 1878, aged eighty-two years.
John Stilwell Applegate, son of Joseph Stil- well and Ann ( Bray) Applegate, was born in Middletown township, Monmouth county, New Jersey, August 6, 1837. In 1858, the year in which he attained his majority, he grad- uated from Colgate University, Hamilton, New York. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1861, and at once entered upon professional practice at Red Bank, where he has resided to the present time. His practice extends to the state and federal courts, and he is recognized as one of the most prominent lawyers in the state, connected with many re- ported cases of public interest, and represent- ing as counsel some of the most important private and corporate interests in New Jersey. From 1875 to 1880 he was associated in part- nership with Henry M. Nevius, subsequently a circuit court judge, and a distinguished sol- dier of the civil war, who in 1908 served as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic of the United States. In 1884
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Mr. Applegate and Frederick W. Hope be- came partners, and this relation continued until 1901. He subsequently received as law part- ner his son, John Stilwell Applegate Jr., under the firm name of John S. Applegate & Son, and which relationship still continues.
Mr. Applegate during the civil war was com- missioned as special deputy of the Union League of America, and organized a number of chapters of that patriotic organization. In 1862 he was nominated and elected by the Republican party as school superintendent of Shrewsbury township and was three times re- elected to the same office. He served as mem- ber of the state Republican committee in the successful gubernatorial campaign of Marcus L. Ward in 1865. He was president of the first building and loan association of the shore section of Monmouth county for several years, and in 1875, additional banking facilities being a plain necessity of Red Bank, he initiated a movement which resulted in the organization of the Second National Bank of Red Bank, and was selected as the first president of the new institution, holding the position until his resignation in 1887. He was a strong factor in the events which led to the incorporation of his town in 1871, and was elected as one of the members of its first governing body, and chosen as its chief the following year. I 1881 he was elected state senator, being the first Republican to represent Monmouth coun- ty in that position, and receiving a majority of nearly one thousand votes in a county at that time regarded as the Gibralter of New Jersey Democracy. Upon the organization in 1882 of the New York & Atlantic Highlands Railroad Company, he was elected as its president, serv- ing in that capacity until its consolidation with the Central Railroad system.
In the New Jersey senate he introduced and passed under the pressure of his influence many measures ; among others a bill requiring the public printing of the state to be put out by contract to the lowest bidder, instead of farming it out to favorites as a reward to partisan service-a system which had then been in vogue for many years. This bill in- curred the bitter hospitality of many news- papers in the state, but, notwithstanding, its inherent justice commanded the unanimous support of both houses, and it became a law, effecting a public saving of $50,000 annually. He also drafted and introduced a bill of great public convenience and utility, authorizing the smaller towns and villages of this state to con- struct and maintain waterworks. This bill
became a law, whereby many of these munici- palities have organized and now operate effi- cient systems of public water supply. Under this act he was appointed in 1884 a member of the first board of water commissioners of Red Bank, which office he has held continu- ously until his resignation in 1905.
Among other positions of honor and trust which Mr. Applegate now holds are those of president of the Monmouth County Bar Asso- ciation ; director of the Red Bank Gas Light Company ; president of the board of trustees of the First Baptist Church of Shrewsbury, at Red Bank ; trustee of the Monmouth Battle Monument Association. He is a member of the American Bar Association; one of the board of managers of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution; a charter member and trustee of the Monmouth County Historical Association; a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society ; a life member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Club of New York City ; a life member of the New York Gene- alogical and Biographical Society, and an hon- orary member of the Regimental Association of the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York State Volunteers. In 1880 he delivered the annual alumni address at Colgate Univer- sity; and in 1893 he published a memorial volume of George Arrowsmith, lieutenant- colonel of the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York State Volunteers, killed at the battle of Gettysburg, and whose name is com- memorated in the Grand Army Post at Red Bank. In 1904 was conferred upon him by Colgate University the degree of Doctor of Laws.
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