USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume II > Part 57
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of the church at Cranberry, New Jersey. They were the parents of fourteen children.
(IV) William Williamson, eleventh child of James Schureman, was born April 19, 1799, died of an epidemic disease January 30, 1850. He was interested in the freight transportation business across the state of New Jersey from Amboy to Bordentown, and also in the schooner traffic from New Brunswick to New York. His residence was on a farm formerly belonging to his father at One Mile Run. He married Ann Bennet, daughter of John Ben- net and granddaughter of James Bennet, who was mayor of New Brunswick. She was born August 16, 1798, died November 15, 1880.
(V) James (2), only son of William Will- iamson Schureman, was born June 22, 1823, died November, 1902, at Franklin Park, New Jersey. He lived on the old Schureman home- stead at One Mile Run, and was a highly re- spected and influential citizen. He married Hannah Cox, born December 5, 1828, died March, 1902, daughter of Henry Christopher and Mary Mattox (Van Nostrand ) Cox, and granddaughter paternally of John Christopher and Mary Williamson Cox, the latter of whom was the daughter of William Williamson.
(VI) Howard Bishop, only son of James (2) Schureman, was born at One Mile Run, July 17, 1849. At the age of seventeen he went to Philadelphia and entered the house of Lorillard & Company, in the transportation business. Subsequently he was for nineteen years in business in Newark, New Jersey, as a manufacturer of edge tools. Retiring from this occupation, he lived successively near Princeton and at Franklin Park, Middlesex Dr. Gross has been a member of the board of health of Metuchen since 1905, and its sec- retary and treasurer since 1908. He is a mem- ber of the American Medical Association, New Jersey State Medical Society, and Middlesex County Medical Society. county, finally removing to New Brunswick, where he now resides. During his residence in Newark, Mr. Schureman was active in mili- tary affairs, paymaster fourteen years, being an officer in the First Regiment of the Na- tional Guard, in which he rose to the rank of captain. He married, January 26, 1876, Stella A. Hager, born August 31, 1855, daugh- ter of Albert H. and Caroline ( Gulick ) Hager. Their children were: Caroline and James . son, at one time sheriff of Philadelphia, and Percy, see forward.
(VII) Caroline, born January 23, 1878. married Walter H. Olden, a nephew of Gov- ernor Olden, of New Jersey. Children : Alice Olden, Joseph Brewer Olden, James Schure- man Olden.
(VII) James Percy, born in Newark, New Jersey, February 27, 1880, received his general education in the Newark Academy and Prince- ton University, graduating from the latter in-
stitution in 1901. Entering the medical de- partment of the University of Michigan, he completed the prescribed course and obtained his M. D. degree in 1905. After two years in the Newark City Hospital he came to New Brunswick, and was associated with Dr. D. L. Morrison until the latter discontinued his gen- eral practice. Dr. Schureman has since been pursuing his professional business alone. He is a staff physician of the Wells Memorial Hospital and the Parker Memorial Home, and is a member of the New Jersey State Medical Society, the Middlesex County Medical So- ciety, and other organizations.
Herman Gross, M. D., of Me- GROSS tuchen, Middlesex county, was born in the empire of Austria. September 19, 1879, youngest son of Nathan and Rebecca Gross. In 1892 he came to the United States with his mother, having been preceded by his three elder brothers. William, Aaron, and David, all of whom are now resi- dents of Middlesex county.
He received his general education in his native country and at the College of the City of New York, his professional studies being pursued in the College of Physicians and Sur- geons, New York City, where he was gradu- ated as Doctor of Medicine in 1903. After receiving his degree he was engaged in pro- fessional work for a year at the Craig Colony for Epileptics at Sonyea, New York. He then established himself in practice at Metuchen, where he has since successfully pursued his profession.
Henry Chapman Thompson THOMPSON Jr., of Philadelphia, is the grandson of John Thomp- the son of Henry Clark and Jane ( Chapman ) Thompson, of Burlington county, New Jersey. He was born in Philadelphia, October 19, 1862, and is now living at Merion, a suburb of Philadelphia, with offices at 2015 Land Title Building, Broad and Chestnut streets, Phila- delphia.
For his early education he attended the pri- vate schools in Philadelphia, and afterwards was prepared for college in the Episcopal
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Academy in the same city. He then entered the University of Pennsylvania, leaving in his junior year to enter the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he gradu- ated in 1885 with the degree of LL. B. After being admitted to the Philadelphia bar, he en- tered on the general practice of his profes- sion, continuing alone until 1898, at which time he formed a partnership with William F. Harrity and others, the firm name being Har- rity, Lowrey & Thompson, and December I, 1908, it was changed again to the present form of Harrity, Thompson & Haig. In politics Mr. Thompson is a Republican. He is affili- ated with many prominent organizations, among which are the Union League Club of Philadelphia, the University Club of Phila- delphia, the Merion Cricket Club, the Over- brook Golf Club, and the Lawyers Club of Philadelphia, of which he is the director and the secretary.
November 7, 1895, Henry Chapman Thomp- son, Jr., married Julia Margaret, daughter of Jacob H. and Annie R. ( Atterholt ) Castner, of New Lisbon, Ohio, where her grandfather was a judge. They have one child, Alice Chapman, born August 31, 1896.
BLACK The branch of the numerous Black family at present under consideration belongs to the emi- gration of the middle of the nineteenth century and can boast of but two generations in this country as the third generation is only just growing up and has its life and career all be- fore it. The last generation, however, has good reason to be proud of the example which it has inherited for its imitation.
(I) William Black, son of John Black, the founder of the family, was born in Ireland and came to this country in 1832. He married in Philadelphia, Eliza Hollins, born in 1818 in England. Children of William and Eliza ( Hollins ) Black were: I. Jane, born in 1838; married Joseph Thompson, of Philadelphia. 2. Mary Etta, 1840: married Thomas Mont- gomery, of Philadelphia, one of the tipstaves of the court, and has four children : Henry, William, Mabel and Elizabeth. 3. Margaret, married George Lees, of Philadelphia, and has two children: Hollins and George. 4. Will- iam John, referred to below. 5. Annie, mar- ried William King, a wall paper dealer of Philadelphia, and has two children : Mabel and Florence. 6. Adeline, married Robert Watts. a plumber of Philadelphia, and has three chil- dren : Albert. Edna and Florence.
(II) William John, fourth child and only son of William and Eliza ( Hollins ) Black, was born in Philadelphia, April 10, 1850, and is now living at Atlantic City, New Jersey. He attended the public schools of Philadelphia, and then learned the trade of stonecutting at which he worked in that city until 1875. In that year he became connected with the fire department of the city as a hoseman, and after faithful service for twelve years was made in 1887 a captain, in which capacity he served for ten years longer, until 1897, when he was retired with a pension from the city. He then came to Atlantic City, where he soon became a member of the Neptune fire company, a volunteer organization of that city, and when the town organized a paid fire department he was induced to become its chief. This was April 4, 1904, and since that time Mr. Black has been serving the city in that capacity to the eminent satisfaction of every one, having now completed a period of over forty years as a fire fighter. During his service he has had many perilous adventures and narrow escapes from death. His arm has been broken, he has had his ribs stoven in and once he was nearly blinded. This last incident occurred while he was in command of a company of men who had been sent to aid in overcoming the great fire in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Black is a member of Lodge No. 423, Free and Accepted Masons, of Philadelphia; Lodge No. 276, Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Atlantic City, and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon. He is a Republican : a director in the Atlantic City Fire Insurance Company, and a member of the Presbyterian church. His mother was a Quaker.
July 8. 1871, William John Black married Sarah. born 1850, died March, 1902, daughter of William Bucannan, of Philadelphia. They had two children: I. William Albert, born July 14. 1872, died in 1886. 2. Henry; born Cctober, 1874. died in 1878.
The Diament family of New DIAMENT Jersey have been among the large landed proprietors and gentlemen yeomen of Cumberland county' ever since the beginning of middle of the eighteenth century, when the founder of the family came over to this country from England, where as the preamble to his will shows he was one of the staunch adherents of the Church of Eng- land, his theology being of the marked type of the Caroline divines and the non-jurors, and in all probability his emigration was to 1
Charles & Diament
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great extent influenced by his antipathy to the Presbyterian tenets of the Orange succession. (I) Nathaniel Diament, of Fairfield, Cum- berland county, New Jersey, died in April or May, 1767, leaving a widow and ten children surviving. His will written April 3, 1766, was proven May 14, 1767, and the inventory of his estate, made April 28, 1767, by David Westcote and Ephraim Harris, amounted to £256, 15 shillings, 6 pence. November 7, 1769, his widow Lois wrote her will which was proved December 31, 1770, and her estate was inventoried at £96, 9 shillings, 4 pence. Chil- dren of Nathaniel and Lois Diament were : I. Jonathan. 2. James, referred to below. 3. Nathaniel Jr. 4. Hedges. 5. Lois, married a Mr. Bennit. 6. Sarah, married a Mr. Swing. 7. Dorcas. 8. Elizabeth. 9. Ruth, married a Mr. Powell. 10. Rhoda.
(II) James, son of Nathaniel and Lois Diament, was left by his father "one third of my land and marsh on Joneses Island except the piece of marsh before excepted," and by his mother five shillings, the same legacy that she left to all her sons, the remainder of her property being divided among her daughters. The piece of marsh referred to had been given to James's brother Hedges. James died in April, 1776, leaving a widow, mentioned but not named in his will and eight children: I. James, referred to below. 2. Sarah, married John Westcott. 3. Abigail, married Charles Howell. 4. Nathaniel. 5. Hannah, married Parsons Lummis. 6. Mary. 7. Ruth, 8.
Lois.
(III) James (2), the son of James (1) Dia- ment, of Jones Island, was born on Jones Island, Cumberland county, in 1755, died there in 1845. In his will he mentions his wife and ten children, one of whom is deceased. The name of his wife was Bathsheba, and his chil- dren were: 1. James. 2. Elmer, referred to below. 3. Nathaniel. 4. Sarah, married a Mr. Alderman. 5. Theodosia, married John Henderson. 6. Ruth, married a Mr. Fithian. 7. Rosiana, married Preston Foster. 8. Jane Eliza, married a Mr. Bateman. 9. Hannah, married Isaac Newcomb. He was a revolu- tionary soldier.
(IV) Elmer, second child and son of James (2) and Bathsheba Diament, died intestate in 1832 leaving a widow and several children mentioned but with the exception of Theophi- lus Elmer, referred to below, not named in their grandfather's will.
(V) Theophilus Elmer, son of Elmer Dia- ment, named in his grandfather's will, was
born on Jones Island, Cumberland county, August 4, 1810, died in 1891. Besides leaving him a tract of marsh his grandfather left him for himself, " the farm on which I now reside, together with one half of my right to land and marsh between the Big Gate and the Eagle Island, except the piece given to Elmer's heirs. and in addition about thirty-two acres of woodland." To the "children of my deceased son Elmer Diament," their grandfather left "the land I bought of Jeremiah Harris called the Piney Branch Tract also the land on Jones Island I bought of John Elmer junior joining on the Island dam creek, late of Moses Husted and others, also the house and lot near Cedar- ville purchased of Theophilus E. Bateman, also the marsh between Cedar Creek and the mill gut, also the store' house and wharf at Cedarville Landing purchased of Norton Law- rence, also the bond made to me by Benjamin Thompson February 1832 for $1500. My ex- ecutors are to be the trustees of the children who are under age, and the widow of my son Elmer is to retain in her possession all the household goods provided by me."
Theophilus Elmer Diament married Mary Lummis Garrison, born at Bridgeton, Salem county, New Jersey, April 24. 1812, died in 1889. Their children were: 1. Charles Garri- son, referred to below. 2. John Elmer, born October 24, 1846, died in 1904: married Cora Cleaver, from near Delaware City, and had two children: George and John Cleaver. He was at one time in the canning business with his brother, Charles Garrison. 3. George, born April 24. 1848, died in 1878 unmarried. He was a graduate from the West Jersey Academy.
(VI) Charles Garrison, son of Theophilus Elmer and Mary Lummis ( Garrison ) Dia- ment, was born on Jones Island, Cumberland county, October 11, 1841, and is now living at Cedarville. Cumberland county, New Jer- sey. After attending the public schools of Jones Island and of Cedarville, Mr. Diament went on his father's farm where he learned to be a successful farmer. For a time he was connected with his brother, John Elmer Dia- ment, in the canning business. He was hon- ored by the people of Cumberland county by being elected high sheriff of that county and keeper of the county jail in 1902, and served three years with his residence at the county house in Bridgeton. He was for many years treasurer of Lawrence township and also of Fairfield township, and was also on the school board and was district clerk of Jones Island.
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He is a Republican, a member of the Grange; and is interested in every thing that goes to make successful farming, which he illustrated and demonstrated in his own successful farm- ing career. He now owns six farms, com- prising in all about fourteen hundred acres, and a beautiful home in the town of Cedar- ville, where he is now enjoying a well earned leisure and retirement. He attends the Pres- byterian church.
Charles Garrison Diament married (first) Priscilla, daughter of Charles Wheaton, of Jones Island, December 20, 1862, on Jones Island, who died in Bridgeton, March 14, 1881. Their children were: I. Hettie Gar- rison, born July 3, 1866, unmarried. 2. Harry Grant, July 31, 1869, a farmer at Jones Island ; married Mattie Lore but has no chil- dren. 3. Edward Lummis, November 25, 1872, married Elinor Maul and has two chil- dren : Helen and Mary. He was educated at the West Jersey Academy, the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Balti- more Medical College with the degree of M. D. He is now practicing medicine in Bridge- ton, and for nine years has been county physi- cian of Cumberland county.
Charles Garrison Diament married (sec- ond) in 1883, Rachel, daughter of John Dill Newcomb, of Berlin, New Jersey. They have no children.
MILLER Richard Ross Miller, of Cam- den, New Jersey, is the grand- son of Matthew Miller and son of Colonel Matthew and Rebecca Boon ( Ross) Miller. Colonel Miller was born in Salem, New Jersey, in 1821, died in March, 1908. He was the first colonel of the Fourth Regiment of New Jersey.
Richard Ross Miller was born in Salem, New Jersey, April 14, 1839, and is at pres- ent engaged in the insurance business in Cam- den, New Jersey, where he has his offices at 128 Federal street. He has always been an active and a prominent member of the Repub- lican party. For three years he was president of the Camden Republican Club of New Jer- sey, and for ten years served as city treasurer of Camden. In 1867 he was elected a member of the Union League Club of Philadelphia. In religion he is a Presbyterian. He has always been an enthusiastic secret society man and he is a distinguished Free Mason, having taken all of the Scottish rite up to and including the thirty-second degree. He is a member of Camden Lodge, No. 15, Free and Accepted
Masons, Royal Arch Chapter, No. 19, Com- mandery, No. 7, Knights Templar, also Be- nevolent Protective Order of Elks, and Cape May Yacht Club.
Richard Ross Miller married (first) Jennie Halsey, of New York. Children: I. Anna Halsey, born in 1859; married the Hon. Charles C. Garrison, a New Jersey judge, and has three children: Carlyle, an attorney of New York, Geraldine, married a Mr. Curr, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Josephine. 2. William, born 1861, died in 1880. 3. Albert Ross, born March 19, 1863, at Camden. Mr. Miller married (second) August 29, 1879, Mary M. Wolff, of New York. Children : 4. Mabel, died in infancy. 5. Richard Ross Jr., born in February, 1892.
PIERSON Truman Tertius Pierson, son of John Noble and Lucy (Kempson) Pierson, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 12, 1884. He is the grandson of Captain William Pier- son, who was born in Scotland, was a mariner, and came in early life to this country, estab- lishing his residence in Rahway, New Jersey. In the Civil War he entered the United States naval service, was captain of a gunboat under Farragut in the battle of Mobile Bay, and was killed some time afterward while in the performance of duty in command of a gun- boat on the Mississippi river. William Pier- son's son, John Noble Pierson, removed to Indianapolis, Indiana, was identified there with terra cotta manufacturing interests, afterward lived for a time in Chicago, and then returned to the east, making his home in Metuchen, where he still resides. He is an architect in Perth Amboy and Metuchen, of the firm of J. N. Pierson & Son (in which Aylin Pierson is associated with him). He married Lucy Kempson, (now deceased) daughter of Dr. Peter Kempson, of English birth, who came to Canada and then to Metuchen, where he died.
When Truman T. Pierson was two years old his parents removed to Metuchen, New Jersey, which has since been his place of residence. His career has been marked by great energy, and at the early age of twenty-five he has at- tained a conspicuous degree of success. Dur- ing the Spanish war, he was then fourteen, he conceived the idea that it would be profit- able to deliver the newspapers to the citizens at their homes in the early morning, and this was the beginning of his business activities. He was afterward employed as water-boy by the Pennsylvania railroad, carrying water to
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Italian laborers, and as a messenger-boy. These occupations he left to engage as local correspondent for New York newspapers, also being for some time a reporter on the Perth Amboy Daily Chronicle. He next en- tered the Middlesex Water Company in a clerical capacity, from which he was soon ad- vanced to the position of assistant-superintend- ent, meantime (and indeed until recently ) con- tinuing to serve as out-of-town correspondent for several of the leading New York dailies.
Actively interested in politics from early youth, Mr. Pierson devoted himself with en- thusiasm to the cause of the Republican party, and was known for effectiveness as a campaign worker. In January, 1907, he was appointed by President Roosevelt postmaster of Me- tuchen, practically the whole town signing his. petition in that connection, and at the time was the youngest postmaster in service in New Jersey. His conduct of the position (in which he still continues ) has been characterized by efficiency and especially by attention to the improvement of the postal facilities and serv- ice. He has also been active and prominent in promoting and developing organizations of the postmasters. As a delegate to the national convention of postmasters at Washington, D. C., in October, 1907, he called a meeting of the New Jersey postmasters in attendance there, which resulted in forming the New Jersey State Postmasters' Association, of which he was chosen vice-president. He is now vice- president of both the state and national asso- ciations. His business enterprises in Me- tuchen include successful real estate and in- surance interests, conducted under his personal name; and he is also superintendent of the -Metuchen Gas Light Company. He is a mem- ber of the principal fraternal societies and of various local organizations. He married, Feb- ruary 2, 1905, Edna M. Bennett, daughter of Smith W. Bennett, of Asbury Park, New Jer- sey. They have one child, Muriel Virginia Pierson.
ELLIS Alfred Lauder Ellis, M. D., physician and formerly mayor of that municipality, is descended on the paternal side from an old New England family and on the maternal side from Scotch ancestry. In the Ellis line he is a direct de- scendant of Governor William Bradford, of the "Mayflower." He is the grandson of Benjamin F. Ellis, of Hartford, Connecticut, and son of George Ellis, also of that place (born September 21. 1844, died June 21,
1898), who was secretary and actuary of the Traveller's Insurance Company of Hartford. The mother of Dr. Ellis, Janet McEwen, was born in Scotland, came to America with her parents, John and Agnes McEwen (who re- sided in Albany, New York), and died De- cember 6, 1896. An elder brother of Dr Ellis is George W. Ellis, of the Travellers' In- surance Company in Hartford, and a younger brother is John M. Ellis, identified with the Bethlehem Steel Company in New York City.
Alfred Lauder Ellis was born April 21, 1877, in Hartford, Connecticut. He was graduated as bachelor of science from Trinity College in 1898 (the degree of master of science being confirmed upon him by that in- stitution in 1900). After pursuing a post- graduate course in medicine for two years at Yale University, he entered the Long Island College Hospital (Brooklyn, New York), where he received his doctor's degree in 1902. He was then, successively, a member of the staff of the Manhattan State Hospital on Ward's Island and medical director of the Travellers' Insurance Company in New York City.
In 1904 Dr. Ellis removed to Metuchen, New Jersey, and embarked in the practice of his profession, which he has since continued with reputation and success. Active in the local affairs of the community, he has occu- pied several of the principal offices; he was for some time secretary of the board of health, was elected to the council in 1907, and was chosen mayor to fill an unexpired term in January, 1908, continuing until January, 1909. He is secretary of the Middlesex County Medi- cal Society, treasurer of the Metuchen Build- ing Company, and treasurer of the Middlesex Automobile Club.
Dr. Ellis married. June 28, 1905, Gladys Antisdel, daughter of James and Jessie ( Baker) Antisdel, of New York City. They have two children, William M. and James L. Ellis.
CONRAD It is written in the "History of Berks and Lebanon Coun- ties," by Rupp, 1844, that "In March, 1756, the Indians laid the house and barn of Barnabas Seitle in ashes, and the mill of Peter Conrad, and killed Mrs. Neytong, the wife of Baltser Neytong, and took his son, a lad of eight years, captive." This appears to be the first record account of any Conrad who may be assumed to be of the same family as that of which it is our purpose to treat in
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these annals. It is taken from this that Peter Conrad was an early immigrant settler in the German colonies in Berks county, Pennsylva- nia, in the vicinity of Penn township and the little settlement therein which is called Bern- ville. Yet history furnished us with only meagre information concerning this Peter, and it is probable that he was a man of mature years when he was proprietor of the mill which the Indians burned in 1756, during the French and Indian wars of the eighteenth cen- tury.
The Brights and Conrads were among the early settlers in Penn township and lived neighbors. John Conrad and his family are particularly mentioned in Berks county history as among the pioneers of that locality and it is probable that John may have been a son of Peter. John Conrad's house and farm were on the road between Mt. Pleasant and Bernville. He was a devout member of the Moravian church and a man of considerable prominence in the early history of the town- ship. Many years ago the Conrads carried on milling enterprises in Berks county, and in 1838 one or more of them operated a powder mill in Penn township which was accidentally blown up with disastrous results.
(I) Joseph B. Conrad, with whom our pres- ent narrative begins, was one of the foremost men of Bernville in his time, but whether he was a grandson of Peter Conrad, the miller, whose buildings were destroyed by Indians is not known. Joseph B. Conrad was a pros- perous farmer, a man of considerable influ- ence, and at one time was elected to the leg- islature of the state. Besides his farming in- terests he was for many years engaged in deal- ing in lumber and grain. He retired from ac- tive pursuits several years before his death, 1905. He married Marian Whitman and of their several children three grew to maturity, viz: 1. James H., see forward. 2. Irving W., married Mary Wilson and had three children : Arthur ( now dead ), Joseph and Edward. 3. Howard W., married Mary Obold, lives in Reading, Pennsylvania, and has three children. Bertha, Stella and Ray.
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