USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume II > Part 73
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(I) Ignatius Eaton, father of Edward Charles Eaton, was born in 1833, died in 1868. He received a common school education, and learning the trade of a machinist entered the employ of Hughes & Phillips, with whom he remained for the greater part of his life. He married Elizabeth Sentz. Children: I. Louisa, married George H. Bath, for thirty-two years i11 the employ of Isbell Porter & Company ; two children: Florence, and George Edward, de- ceased. 2. Edward Charles, referred to below. 3. Anna, married John Roschwald, of 833 Broad street, Newark.
(II) Edward Charles, son of Ignatius and Elizabeth (Sentz) Eaton, was born in Newark, New Jersey, December 14, 1860. He attended the public schools and the Newark high school and then went into the seed business which his father had established in 1859, nine years be- fore his death, and when that event occurred he continued the business with the backing of his mother until 1907 when he assumed the sole control and has since then managed it for himself. In politics Mr. Eaton is a Demo- crat and he has long been one of the prominent members of his party. From 1906 to 1908 he was member of the board of chosen freeholders of Essex county, New Jersey, was a member of important committees, and was chairman and speaker of the house, and the leading mem- ber of the board. He was chairman of the building committee when the new court house was built, and took great pride in the work. He was also chairman of the board when the county insane asylum was built at Overbrook, costing two and a-half million dollars, and enabling the county to house twenty-one hun- dred people, and again when the county house of detention was built. He is also one of the most influential men in the Essex County Democratic Club, and is the treasurer of the Joel Parker Association. He is also a mem- ber of the Jeffersonian Club, the Gottfried Krueger Association, the President Lincoln Mutual Aid Association and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, No. 21. In religious convictions he is a Methodist.
Mr. Eaton married in East Orange, New Jersey, August 15, 1888, Alida, born August 7, 1864, daughter of Theodore and Sarah M. (Bedford) Schenck, who were the parents of five other children, namely: Theodore Clif- ford, a druggist of East Orange; married Elizabeth Chandler and has one child Ethel. Harry E., president of the American Hame and Bit Company, No. 59 New Jersey Rail- road avenue, Newark; married Mary Besher
and has two children: Ellwood and Harvey. Frederick, married Mary Smith and has one child Edna. Anna, married George Kelly and has one child George Leroy. Grace, married George Spaith and has one child Hortense.
BENNETT The Bennett family of New Jersey which has for two gen- erations been represented in Newark and the Oranges by Dr. Frederick Norman Bennett, and Dr. Charles Day Ben- nett, owes its origin to the New England family of that name, Dr. Frederick Norman Bennett, being a descendant of the Bennetts of Fair- field county, Connecticut.
(I) Frederick Norman, son of Ezra and Esther (Gordon) Bennett, was born in Weston, Fairfield county, Connecticut, September 14, 1820, died in 1885, in Newtown, Connecticut. After receiving his education in the public schools he entered the office of his brother, Dr. Ezra P. Bennett, a distinguished surgeon in Danbury, Connecticut, with whom he remained until he matriculated from the Yale Medical School, from which he received his diploma in 1841. In 1842 he came to Orange, New Jersey, and entered upon the practice of his profession, soon securing the confidence of the people in him as a physician, and acquiring the very successful practice. After his second marriage he left Orange for a time but soon returned and remained until 1871 when he removed to Newtown, Connecticut, where he remained until his death. While a resident of Orange he enjoyed the friendship and confidence of its best citizens, by whom his virtues and the memories of his exemplary christian life are sincerely cherished. He was one of the organ- izers in 1863 of the Orange Memorial Hos- pital and Training School for Nurses, and one of the group of physicians who pledged their services to the institution.
August 29, 1843, Dr. Bennett married (first ) Abigail Louisa, daughter of William Munn, cashier of the Orange Bank, who died in Sep- tember, 1849. In 1852 he married Catharine, daughter of Jonathan and Mary Parkhurst, and granddaughter of Abram J. and Mary ( White- head) Parkhurst, who was born in 1818. Chil- dren, one by first wife: I. William Munn, now living in New York City. 2. Mary, born July 31, 1855, died aged fifteen years. 3.
Charles Day, referred to below.
(Il) Charles Day, son of Frederick Norman, M. D., and Catharine ( Parkhurst) Bennett, was born in Millburn, New Jersey, January 25, 1857. After attending the public and high
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schools of Newark, he entered Princeton Uni- versity, from which he graduated with the de- gree of Bachelor of Science, in 1878, being a member of the third class graduated with that degree from the university. In 1881 he grad- uated from the College of Physicians and Sur- geons in New York City, and since then has been engaged in the private practice of his pro- fession in Newark, New Jersey, giving special attention to the fields of medicine and surgery. For eight years, from 1882 to 1890, he was physician to the Newark City Almshouse ; was attending physician and surgeon from 1890 to 1905 of St. Michael's Hospital; from 1891 to 1906 on the attending staff of Newark City Hospital ; from 1905 to present time attending surgeon of St. Barnabas Hospital; in 1905 was appointed on the medical staff of the Mutual Benefit Insurance Company. For eighteen years he was treasurer of the Essex County Medical Society and in 1909 its presi- dent. He is a member of the Medical and Sur- gical Society of Newark, of the various county, state, and national medical societies, and secre- tary of the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of New Jersey. He is a member of the University Club, of Newark, and was elected trustee of the Newark Museum Asso- ciation. Dr. Bennett is a member and presi- dent of the board of trustees of Calvary Pres- byterian Church, and in politics is a Repub- lican.
Dr. Bennett married, March 28, 1882, Fannie E., daughter of James H. and Maria (Booth) Marley ; she died February 22, 1890. Married (second) October 17, 1896, Sara Leeper, born January 27, 1867, daughter of Robert and Mary (Lowden) Gordon, of One Hundred and Seventh street and West End avenue, New York City. Children, three by first wife : I. Iris B., born January 5, 1883 ; married Will- iam F. Law ; one child, Virginia, born Decem- ber 15, 1907. 2. Louise, born April 15, 1884. 3. Dorothy, born April 26, 1886. 4. Katharine Parkhurst, born November 30, 1898. 5. Elea- nor Gordon, born March 31, 1905.
Thomas Crocker, first mem- CROCKER ber of the family of whom we have definite information, was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1824 or 1825, and died in East Orange, New Jersey, in 1904. He married Adelia J. Reed, and among his children was Charles Irwin, referred to below.
(II) Charles Irwin, son of Thomas and Adelia J. (Reed) Crocker, lived in New York
City and at Hudson, Wisconsin. He married Emma Estelle, daughter of Philip Morehouse and Elizabeth ( Bartlett) Pierce, the former a real estate broker of Beloit, Wisconsin. Chil- dren: I. Roland Douglas, referred to below. 2. Charles Philip, died as a baby. 3. Anna Estelle, married Soren P. Rees, of Minne- apolis, Minnesota, and has one child, Douglas.
(III) Roland Douglas, son of Charles Irwin and Emma Estelle (Pierce) Crocker, was born in Massena Springs, New York, May 27, 1871, and is now living in Newark, New Jersey. After receiving his early education at the public schools, he took his degree from the University of Minnesota, and made a spe- cialty of civil engineering. In 1896 he entered the office of the Hon. James M. Morrow, with whom he read law until he was admitted to the bar as attorney in 1900. Since this time he has been engaged in the general practice of his profession in Newark. He is a Repub- lican. The only secret societies to which he belongs are the college fraternity of Psi Upsilon, and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. His clubs are the Law- yers Club of Newark, and the Union Club of Newark, and he is one of the directors of and the counsel for the Newark Trust Company. Mr. Crocker has been a member of the Na- tional Guard of New Jersey since October, 1901, and is now major of the First Regiment Infantry, having risen to that rank by succes- sive promotion, from second to first lieutenant and captain.
The name Miller, belonging as MILLER it does to one of the many numerous so called trade names, has become the cognomen of a number of en- tirely unrelated families in this country, and apparently the ancestor of the branch at pres- ent under consideration, seems to have no con- nection, with the exception of one family of the same name, in Philadelphia, with the vari- ous Millers who emigrated to and remained in New England, whither the founder of this branch directed his first steps.
(I) Joseph Miller, founder of the family at present under consideration, came from the state of Connecticut, in 1698, and settled at Cohansey, Salem county, New Jersey. Whether he was the original emigrant himself or the son of the emigrant, there seems to be no way of determining, in as much as the Connecticut records are silent in regard to him. It is most probable that he emigrated from England in order to find religious liberty, and like so many
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others who came to New England for the same reason found that unless they worshipped God according to the New England method, there was no freedom there for them. As Joseph Miller was a Quaker, the only place in New England where he could find peace and freedom was Rhode Island, under the more liberal government which had been created there by Roger Williams. Thither, such men as Richard Lippincott had gone for refuge, when driven out of England and New England. and many of these men found their way sooner or later down to the Quaker colonies upon the Delaware. Joseph Miller was a land surveyor, and at the death of Richard Tindall he was chosen deputy surveyor for the lower section of Fenwick's tenth. The last mention of him in the records as a surveyor is 9th month 13, 1729, when he re-surveyed a tract of land for John Brick, lying on the west branch of Gravelly run or Stoe creek. He probably died about 1730, and his son was appointed his successor as deputy surveyor to the Salem tenth. Joseph Miller had but one child, Eben- ezer, referred to below.
(II) Ebenezer, only child of Joseph Miller, was born at Cohansey, 1702, died at Green- wich, New Jersey, at the age of seventy-two years "with a comfortable hope that all would be well with him in a future state." He was for many years the deputy surveyor for the proprietors of West Jersey, and no name is of so frequent occurrence in their records as is his. In 1724 Ebenezer Miller married Sarah, probably daughter of John Collier. Their chil- dren were: I. Ebenezer, Jr., born 9th month 15, 1725; married, 1751, Ruth, daughter of Richard Wood, of Stoe creek. 2. Hannah, born 1728; married, 1740, Charles, son of Daniel Fogg, of Alloways creek. 3. Josiah, referred to below. 4. Andrew, born 1732; married Rachael, daughter of Elisha and Abi- gail Bassett, of Piles Grove. His son, Daniel L. Miller, was the famous merchant of Phila- delphia. 5. William, born 1735 ; married Mary Magere, of Wilmington, Delaware. 6. John Collier, born 1737; married, 1767, Margaret, daughter of Joseph and Mary Bacon, of Green- wich. 7. Mark, born 1740. 8. Sarah. 9. Re- becca, born 5th month 17, 1747.
(III) Josiah, third child and second son of Ebenezer and Sarah (Collier) Miller, was born in Cohansey, in 1731. About 1774 he purchased a large tract of land in Lower Mannington, which formerly belonged to the Sherron family, it being the southern part of James Sharron allotment of one thousand acres, that he bought
of John Fenwick in 1676. It was considered one of the finest tracts of table land within Fenwick's tenth. Soon after this purchase Josiah Miller removed with his family to this land, on which he built the brick house which descended in his family to his great-grandson, Samuel L. J. Miller. He divided it in his will between his two sons, Josiah and Richard. In 1760 Josiah Miller married Letitia, daughter of Richard Wood, Sr., of Stoe Creek township, Cumberland county, who was the sister of his brother Ebenezer's wife. Children: I. Josiah, Jr., born 12th month 12, 1761 ; he never mar- ried, and after the death of his mother, who survived his father, he lived with his brother Richard, and after his death continued living with his widow. In his will he devised his farm to her during her natural life, and after- ward to her son Josiah. To his nephew, Josiah Miller Reeve, he devised $2,500.00, and left other legacy to several relatives. 2. Richard, referred to below. 3. John, born in 1767, died young. 4. Letitia, born 1769; married Will- iam Reeve and left one son, Josiah Miller Reeve. 5. Mark, born 1774; died young, leav- ing a widow, Letitia, who survived him sev- eral years.
(IV) Richard, second child and son of Josiah and Letitia (Wood) Miller, was born 4th month 15, 1764. He married Elizabeth Wyatt, daughter of Richard Wistar, of Phila- delphia, by whom he had three children : Sarah, Letitia, Josiah, referred to below.
(V) Josiah (2), youngest child and only son of Richard and Elizabeth Wyatt ( Wistar ) Miller, was born in August, 1800, died August, 1834. He was a farmer at Mannington, New Jersey. He married Hetty Hall James. Chil- dren: I. Richard, of Salem, who enlisted in the civil war from that county, and died in the Soldiers' National Home in Ohio; during the war he was detailed to purchase supplies for the army; he married (first) Elizabeth Blackwood and (second) Susan Wilde. 2. Samuel L. J., a farmer of Mannington, New Jersey ; married Hannah Ann Rumsey. 3. Wyatt Wistar, referred to below.
(VI) Wyatt Wistar, youngest child of Jo- siah (2) and Hetty Hall (James) Miller, was born at Mannington, Salem county, New Jer -. sey, November 1, 1828, died at Salem, Salem county, 1904. He was a farmer and an iron master, and was superintendent of the iron works at Safe Harbor, Lancaster county, Pen11- sylvania. He was the discoverer of the method which made what was later known as Besse- mer steel. He married Mary Leggett, daugh-
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ter of Jolin and Esther (Leggett) Griffen, of New York City, born in June, 1838. Children : I. Josiah, referred to below. 2. Samuel Law- rence, born October 16, 1861 ; a farmer, now living in Salem, New Jersey. 3. Robert Grif- fen, born April 22, 1863 ; married Lily Speak- man, of Chester county, Pennsylvania. 4. Mary Griffen, born March 14, 1867; married John Forman Sinnickson, of Salem county, New Jersey, the prosecutor of the pleas at Salem. 5. Hetty Hall, deceased ; married Col- lins Bassett Allen, a farmer and ex-sheriff of Salem county, New Jersey, and now living on the old homestead at Mannington, New Jersey. 6. John Griffen, born in 1869; married Caro- line Bowen. 7. Wyatt Wistar, Jr., died un- married at Denver, Colorado, in January, 1899. 8. George Henry, born in 1871. 9. Elizabeth Wyatt, born in 1874.
(VII) Josiah (3), eldest child of Wyatt Wistar and Mary Leggett (Griffen) Miller, was born at Safe Harbor, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1859, and is now liv- ing in Salem, New Jersey. His great-grand- father on his grandmother's side was Samuel L. James, who married Mary, daughter of Edward Hall, of Mannington, Salem county, New Jer- sey. For his early education Josiah Miller was sent to the public schools of Safe, Harbor, Penn- sylvania, and to the private school of Miss Hawley, at Phoenixville, then to the public school at Salem, New Jersey, and then pur- sued the course at Rensselaer Polytechnic In- stitute at Troy, New York, intending to be- come a civil engineer, entering in the year 1876. He did not, however, graduate but re- turned to his father's farm on which he work- ed for a time, later managing another farm for himself. After this he engaged in the business of manufacturing enameled brick at Oaks, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, the firm name being Griffen Brothers & Miller, Limited. Subsequently the partners incor- porated the business and it was known as the Griffen Enameled Brick Company. In this corporation Mr. Miller held the position of secretary and superintendent. In 1894 he was for a short time connected with the Trenton Terra Cotta Company. He then came back to Salem,
ยท New Jersey, and opened a general store on Broadway, which he continued to conduct for about three years, when he sold out and began the practice of his profession as a civil engi- neer and surveyor for which he was specially qualified. To this profession Mr. Miller added a general insurance business. In politics Mr. Miller was a Republican, active and influential
in the affairs of his party, and as a reward for his services he was elected to the office of mayor of Salem in 1905, continuing until 1907, being the first Republican to serve in that capacity for twenty years. He is also a justice of the peace, a member of the board of educa- tion of Salem, and in 1887-88 was the township clerk of Mannington. Mr. Miller is a member of the Hicksite Quakers. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Mr. Miller married, October 28, 1885, Mariana Elkinton, born January 27, 1862, daughter of. Clark H. and Ann L. (Test) Thompson. Her father is a native of Man- nington township, Salem county, and her mother of Salem. Children: I, Alice Thomp- son, born April 21, 1887. 2. Wyatt Acton, June 17, 1892. 3. Esther Griffen, January 19, 1894.
The Edgars, of Metuchen, New EDGAR Jersey, with the various branches of the same family resident else- where in the state, are descended from a Scot- tish family of great antiquity and marked distinction, whose records may be consulttd in the very noteworthy English work, "Gene- alogical Collections Concerning the Scottish House of Edgar, with a Memoir of James Edgar, Private Secretary of the Chevalier St. George, edited by a committee of the Grampian Club. London : printed for the Grampian Club, 1873."
The New Jersey line springs from the Edgars, of Keithock, Forfarshire, Scotland, an estate which originally belonged to the noble house of Lindsay, coming into the possession of the Edgar family early in the seventeenth century. The patronymic is found in that locality from an ancient period. At the be- ginning of the thirteenth century the names of Robert and Thomas Edgar were attached to charters granted by the bishop of Brechin in favor of the abbey of Arbroath. In the seven- teenth century two separate branches of the family of Edgar were successively lairds of Keithock, the ultimate proprietorship being that of David Edgar, ancestor of the present Edgars, of New Jersey. His manor house is still standing, and is a structure of elegant architectural style and admirable proportions. Affixed to the mantel is a representation, carved in stone and bearing date 1680, of the Edgar arms (a lion rampant), impaled with those of the allied family of Forrester.
David Edgar, laird of Keithock, was married
WT. Bather N.Y.
Lowis Historical Pub. Co
Charles & Edgar -
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(according to his family Bible, which is pre- served) to Katherine Forrester at Dundee, Scotland, by the Rev. William Rait, June II, 1674. They had a numerous family, the fifth child being Thomas Edgar, the American emi- grant, of whom presently. The succession to the estate of Keithock passed, by the law of primogeniture, to the eldest son, Alexander Edgar (born May 21, 1676), who married the eldest daughter of Peter Turnbull, of Smiddy- hill, Forfarshire. The property continued in the possession of the Edgar family until 1790, when it was sold. Another son of David Ed- gar, and younger brother of Thomas Edgar, the emigrant, was the very noted James Edgar, born at Keithock, July 13, 1688. With another brother, John Edgar, he participated actively in the Stuart rising of 1715. John was taken prisoner and died in captivity in Stirling Castle. James made his way to Keithock, borrowed from a tenant farmer a suit of laborer's clothes, and, thus disguised, escaped to the continent. Becoming secretary to the Chevalier St. George, the famous pretender to the British throne, he served him with the greatest fidelity and distinguished ability. Secretary Edgar died September 24, 1764.
(I) Thomas Edgar, fifth child of David Edgar, laird of Keithock, by his wife, Kath- erine Forrester, was born, as exactly related in the family Bible, on "Wednesday, 19th of October, 1681, and baptized at the College Kirk by Mr. Irving, the 30th of said month." He came to America about 1715, purchased lands in New Jersey, lived near Rahway, and died there in 1759. He married Janet Knox, who was born in Woodbridge, March 16, 1689. Of their seven children were David (ancestor of the Short Hill branch). Alexander (an- cestor of the Woodbridge branch). William (ancestor of the Rahway branch).
(II) Alexander, son of Thomas and Janet (Knox) Edgar, was born in 1722, and died in 1763.
(III) James, son of Alexander Edgar.
(IV) Thomas (2), son of James Edgar. married Mary Freeman and had twelve chil- dren.
(V) Albert, son of Thomas (2) Edgar, was born in Woodbridge, New Jersey, November 27, 1813. He was a farmer, residing near Metuchen, Middlesex county, and was one of the founders, and until his death an elder of the Dutch Reformed church of that community. He died in Woodbridge, New Jersey, October 14, 1877. Mr. Edgar was three times married. His second wife was Susan Tappen (born Feb-
ruary 19, 1813, died September 12, 1855), daughter of William Tappen. Children : I. William Tappen, resides in Raritan township, Middlesex county, New Jersey. 2. Charles Smith, see below. 3. Milton Albert, resides in Georgia. 4. Mary Amelia, died at the age of twelve.
(VI) Charles Smith, son of Albert Edgar, was born on the old Tappen homestead at Bon- hamtown, Raritan township, Middlesex county, New Jersey, September 22, 1848. Reared on his father's farm, he became at an early age attracted by the superior quality of the clay on that property and vicinity, and as the result- ing tests demonstrated its availability for terra cotta and other purposes, he entered into co- partnership with his brothers for putting it on the market. This association continued until 1884, since which time Mr. Edgar has con- tinued his clay interests in the vicinity of Me- tuchen, under his personal name. From early life, during his travels throughout the country, he devoted a portion of his time to prospect- ing. Hearing on one occasion, while on a busi- ness visit to Boston, a somewhat circumstantial account of the existence of fine clay deposits in Florida, which had never been developed, and of which, indeed, all exact traces had been lost by negligence, he made several prospecting tours through that state, finally, in 1890, dis- covering the beds in Putnam county, at a place now called Edgar in his honor. This led to the production on a large scale by Mr. Edgar, and afterward by others, of the remarkably fine grade of potter's clay known as "Florida clay," which in the past fifteen years has been universally used, entering largely into the manufacture of vitrified tiles and sanitary Rockwood-Deldare-fine china, and other deli- cate wares. The Edgar Plastic Kaolin Com- pany, organized by Mr. Edgar in his connection, of which he is the head, owns some two thous- and acres of Florida clay lands, and has an annual producing capacity of eighteen thousand tons. Recently he has been instrumental in organizing and establishing the new firm of Edgar Brothers, now engaged in mining clay at Milltown, New Jersey, and in putting up kaolin works at McIntyre, Georgia. In this firm his associates are M. A. Edgar, I. R. Edgar and David R. Edgar. The improved machinery used in the various mines and works represents to a large extent the personal inven- tions or ideas of Mr. Edgar. He resides in Metuchen, with a winter home in Edgar, Florida.
He married, December 20, 1882, his first
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cousin, Frances Emily Edgar, granddaughter of Thomas and Mary ( Freeman) Edgar, and daughter of Freeman and Sarah Elizabeth ( Martin) Edgar. Children of Freeman Edgar (born May 24, 1820, died October 4, 1895) and Sarah Elizabeth ( Martin) Edgar: I. I. Reynolds, resides in Metuchen. 2. Frances Emily, wife of Charles Smith Edgar. 3. Laura Antoinette, married Charles Wesley Price (de- ceased), of New Brunswick. 4. Freeman Mar- tin, resides in Newark, New Jersey. Charles Smith and Frances Emily ( Edgar) Edgar have one child, Albert Charles Edgar, born May 27, 1898.
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