USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume II > Part 79
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In these various patents John Frederick Speer was a grantee as he was in several pur- chases of hundreds of acres, where Belville and Franklin were subsequently founded. By these various documents we notice that his name appears as Hendrick Jansen Speer, while in the patents as granted by the government it appears as John Hendrick Speer. It is quite evident that the same man is referred to and that the latter arrangement of names is more correct. Among the allottments made to him from the Acquockenock Patent is a farm of a large acreage fronting on the Passaic river and located between Passaic and Delewanna, the land running back from the river to the moun-
tains, and this tract was subsequently divided between Henry, John and Garret Speer.
Children of John Hendrick and Madeline (Hance) Speer were: I. John Hendrick. 2. Barant. 3. Jocobus, who died at sea, born in Amsterdam before 1660. 4. Hans, see forward. 5. Fryntje, baptized March 25, 1667. 6. Cath- yntje, baptized December II, 1667. We find no record of the death of the parents of these children.
(II) Hans, fourth son and fourth child of John Hendrick and Madeline (Hance) Speir, was probably born in New Amsterdam, Man- hattan Island, and baptized in the Dutch church within the fort at New Amsterdam, April 2, 1663. He married Fryntje Pientense, and be- came one of the original settlers of Belleville, Essex county, New Jersey, about 1685. He had children by his marriage with Fryntje Pientense including Johannes or John, see for- ward.
(III) John, son of Hans and Fryntje ( Pien- tense ) Speer, was probably born in New Utrecht or Flatlands, Long Island. He mar- ried Maritje Franse, August 12, 1679, shortly after his arrival on the Acquockenock Patent (Passaic), New Jersey, with his father and other members of the Speer family. He set- tled in the wilderness among the Indians about 1692 and carried on a farm. He had seven children : Henry, Francis, Guimada, Madeline, Femelia, Montie.
(IV) Francis second son of John and Maritje (Franse) Speer, was born in New Jersey. Married and had son Jocobus.
(V) Jocobus (James), son of Francis Speer, married and had children: Henry J., Rynier, John, Garrit J., Frances, Maria.
(VI) Henry J., son of Jocobus Speer, was born January 17, 1760, died June 29, 1846, on his farm on the west bank of the Passaic river, near Passaic, New Jersey. He married Martha Vreeland and their nine children were born at the homestead as follows : I. James H., re- moved to Cincinnati, Ohio; he married and had a number of children and grandchildren, and his descendants settled in Ohio and Indiana. 2. Jacob, see forward. 3. John, settled in Texas. 4. Henry, see forward. 5. Burnett, see forward. 6. Nelson, settled in Cincinnati, Ohio ; he married Mary Ann Pierson and their descendants settled in Ohio, Tennessee and California. 7. Nelly, married Benjamin Kings- land. 8. Gertrude, married John Rollins; set- tled in Cincinnati, Ohio, and their descendants settled in Ohio, Kentucky and Iowa. 9. Maria
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married John De Vaunsney and their descend- ants reside in New Jersey. All of these chil- dren except Henry and Jacob removed to the west.
(VII) Jacob, second son of Henry J. and Martha ( Vreeland) Speer, was born opposite Belleville, Essex county, New Jersey, Decem- ber I, 1788, died December 28, 1858. He set- tled in Newark, New Jersey, where he was a shoemaker. He married, March 14, 1811, Blendana Hedenburgh. Children, born in Newark: I. Harriet, March 20, 1813 (twin), died January 3, 1876; married, September 15, 1836, William S. Palmer and had two children : i. Henrietta Palmer, born October 8, 1837; married Augustus S. Crane, May 1, 1862, and had four children : a. Frederick P. Crane, born 1863; married Caroline . Mashey, 1888; b. Helen S. Crane, 1865; c. Henrietta L. Crane, 1868; d. Mabel Crane, 1870; ii. Frederick A. Palmer, born September 17, 1839, died May 28, 1885 ; married, April 11, 1866, Anna Spen- cer Utter and had three children: a. Halsey U. Palmer, born 1867, died 1870; b. Herbert S. Palmer, 1869; married, 1895, Ella Louise Osborne, and had two children: Spencer E. Palmer, 1896, and John Osborne Palmer, 1897 ; c. Alfred H. Palmer, 1871, died 1877. 2. Jane H., born March 20, 1813 (twin), died Decem- ber 10, 1894; married, July 1, 1833, Seth H. Woodruff and had six children: i. Joseph Fitz R. Woodruff, born 1834; married Julia Brower and had four children: a. Charles H. Woodruff, 1859, married Charlotte Keene ; b. Frederick W. Woodruff, 1861, married; c. Joseph Fitz R. Woodruff, Jr., 1868; d. Anna Elizabeth Woodruff, 1871 ; Obadiah Woodruff, born 1837, died 1892; married Jane E. Camp- bell and had two children: Edward W. and Clarence C. Woodruff; iii. Elizabeth Ani Woodruff, born 1839, died 1875 ; probably un- married ; iv. Charles H. Woodruff, born 1841, died 1842; v. Charles S. Woodruff, born 1843, died 1848. 3. Eliza B., born August 14, 1815, died unmarried. 4. Charles H., born Septem- ber 30, 1817, died unmarried, May 14, 1862. 5. Edwin, born September 20, 1822, died April 26, 1861 ; married, September 17, 1845, Sarah Young and they had four children: i. Sarah Ada, born 1846, married James L. Marsh ; ii. Clara B., 1851, married Louis Youngblood, 1870; iii. William C., 1854; iv. Louisa, 1859. 6. Louisa B., born October 4, 1824, died un- married.
(VII) Henry, fourth son of Henry J. and Martha (Vreeland) Speer, was born in Belle- ville, Essex county, New Jersey, July 9, 1801,
died in September, 1857. He learned the trade of shoemaker with his brother Jacob in New- ark, New Jersey, at that time a small village. He continued in the business during his entire life and was late in life employed as foreman in a custom shoe store in New York City, mak- ing a specialty of making ladies' shoes. He married Rachel, daughter of Abraham Van Amburgh, a blacksmith and fisherman, who lived on the east branch of the Passaic river below the Belleville bridge. Her sister (twin), Ann Van Amburgh, married a Mr. Betts, a soldier in the war of 1812, and she lived to be one hundred and three years old, and Mrs. Henry Speer lived to be eighty-seven years of age. Children of Henry and Rachel (Van Amburgh) Speer were :. I. Alfred, see for- ward. 2. Joseph T., born May 22, 1825, died in infancy. 3. Joseph Theodore, February 19, 1829 ; married ( first) Mary Fairbanks, Decem- ber 25, 1853, and had two children: i. Theo- dore V., born November 2, 1854; married, February II, 1880, Sallie B. Rankin and their children were Laura ( 1882-1899) and Minnie Kate, born June 7, 1886; ii. Minnie Fairbanks, born June 13, 1861 ; married Warren S. Cole- grove, November 7, 1883, and had five chil- dren: Josephine, 1885; Theodore J., 1887; Hazel, 1889, died 1891 ; Maria F., 1891 ; War- ren Baird, 1898. Joseph Theodore married (second) July 5, 1871, Ellen Fisher, and they had one child, Jesse, born February 10, 1874; married, October 10, 1900, Charles Angell, and their twins, Irving J. and Theodore F., were born July 13, 1901.
It does not appear that the Speers of Ac- quockenock ( Passaic) had any church connec- tions and in this respect stood apart from the other patentees of the tract, who were in com- munion with the Old Dutch Church and held some prominent church office. In matters of the state, however, the Speers were prominent patriots and soldiers, and Abraham Speer was a private in the company of Captain Cornelius Speer in the Second Essex County Regiment in the American revolution. He also served in Captain Craig's company of the state troops in the Essex company as well as in the Conti- nental army. Francis Speer was also a private in the Essex company. Henry Speer was a private in the Second Essex Company and was promoted to captain and also served in Craig's company. William Speer served in the same company under Captain Craig. In the civil war, 1861-65, John R., Edwin A. and John M. Speer or Spear, all of Passaic, served and made honorable record in aiding in putting down the
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southern rebellion, and Irving and Morgan Speer, sons of Alfred, enlisted in the First Colorado Regiment and rendered effective ser- vice in the Philippine Islands in 1898-99.
(VIII) Alfred, eldest child of Henry and Rachel (Van Amburgh) Speer, was born in Passaic, New Jersey, November 2, 1823. He attended the public school, and when fifteen years of age was apprenticed to a cabinet maker in Newark, the terms of his apprenticeship being that he should board in his employer's family and receive twenty-five dollars each year in cash until he was twenty-one years of age. Out of his yearly stipend he was to pay for his washing and purchase his own clothing. The boy's tastes ran in the direction of me- chanics at the time, and his ambition was to study and use his inventive faculties, dormant in his nature. He completed his apprentice- ship with the satisfaction of being master of his trade, but with no money in his pockets to carry out his ambition to get out of the cabinet making business. This condition necessitated his earning money at his trade to support him- self and he started business in Passaic in a small shop, which he built near his grand- father's farm-house, hoping to employ at least half his time in the study of literature and in working out problems in mechanics that prom- ised useful inventions. His early experience as his own master runs as follows: He would take an order for a bureau or a sofa and would make the journey by cars to New York to buy the material, would ship it to Passaic by rail and return home, a distance of twelve miles, on foot, his purchases having exhausted his cash capital. As trade increased he soon had a larger shop and several journeymen to assist him. His industry gave him a few hours each day for study and indulging in his mechanical experiments. His literary ambitions he was obliged to partially abandon, as it promised no immediate return, and he took up horticul- ture and arboriculture, both for profit and recreation. His vineyard, as it became fruited, led him to manufacture some native wine, which proved to be good and promised a means of profit. A window fastener, which he patent- ed, was favorably received and he started out to sell county and state rights, but he met with indifferent success. While in New Orleans he sent home for a basket of his bottled wine and from these samples he took large orders both in New Orleans and Mobile. This changed the current of his efforts and demonstrated that wines were more marketable than window fasteners, and he hastened home to fill orders
already taken and at the same time to enlarge his facilities for filling future orders for wine. This led to his extensive vineyards and large wine presses and the management of the sale of Speer's Native Wines, which gained world- wide celebrity. .
In 1870 he in a degree carried out his literary ambition by establishing The Item, the first newspaper published in Passaic, a weekly de- voted to the news and promulgating the princi- ples of the Republican party. He was a pioneer in other directions as indicated by the history of the village and city of Passaic. He was a school trustee under the old regime; provided the first hall for lectures and public ineetings, by converting the ball room of the old tavern into a hall. He organized the first temperance organization in the town and named the society the Rechabites; placed himself out of touch with his townsmen and neighbors by insisting on having sidewalks at the time he was serving as street commissioner and was prominent in carrying the place out of its village stagnation into the activity and push of a growing city .. His own fortune kept pace with the progress of his native city and he kept ahead of the pro- cession and led his fellow-citizens with quick steps along the path of accomplishment.
Mr. Speer married (first) June 6, 1844, Catherine Eliza, daughter of Abraham Berry, of Acquockenock. Mr. Berry owned a grist mill and home on the shore of Yantacaw pond and was a prosperous and deserving citizen. Children : I. William Henry, born March 17, 1845; married Emma L. Henion, March 17, 1869; they had two children : Maud, born May 10, 1872, and Grace, June 5, 1875. 2. Alfred Wesley, May 6, 1847; married Kate Brown, January 19, 1871, and they had no children. August 5, 1852, Catherine Eliza (Berry) Speer died, and September 22, 1856. Mr. Speer married (second) Polly Ann Mor- gan, of Cape Girardeau, Missouri; children : 3. Ella Morgan, May 29, 1860, died unmarried, April 2, 1891. 4. Sidney Silvester, December 19, 1865; married Johanna Schrittis and had three children: Sydney C., born 1893, died 1899; Alfred W., born 1897; Lillian Myrtle, 1900. 5. Nelson, January 28, 1868, died Au- gust 2, 1869. 6. Althea L., March 7, 1873. 7. Irving, September 22, 1874. 8. Morgan, No- vember 26, 1875.
(VII) Burnett, fifth son of Henry J. and Martha (Vreeland) Speer, was born in Belle- ville, New Jersey, October 17, 1806. He mar- ried Betsey Snyder and they had six children : I. John S., died unmarried. 2. David H., born
alfrão per
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May 2, 1840; married, March 4, 1866, Mary E. Hall and had three children: i. Willie B., 1867 ; married Anna Hyath and had children ; ii. Helen L., 1872; school teacher; iii. Angie, 1879. 3. Edmund E., February 13, 1844; married Martha Beney, June 6, 1867, and had three children: i. Carrie, 1867; ii. Nelson A., 1871 ; iii. Percy, 1876. 4. Burnett, November, 1847, died April 7, 1908; married, January 14, 1847, Jane Ann Carew and they had seven chil- dren: i. Lester William, 1877; married May E. Chatfield, and had Grace C., born 1907; ii. Della, 1876; iii. Isabella, 1879; married Albert C. Child and had Stanley Child, 1906, Clayton Child, 1907; iv. Eugene Garfield, 1880; v. Vinne Vandenburgh, 1884; married Cecil Farrell and had Marion, 1906; vi. Roy Burnett, 1886; married Lillian Paulin ; vii. Clara Louise, 1887. 5. Eliza, November 9, 1850; married Charles Lovelace, May 24, 1870, and had six children: i. Cora Lovelace, May 24, 1871 ; married Edmund Hassell, 1891, and had four children: Helen C., 1892, died young ; Jennie I., 1895; Mildred, 1897; Edwin C., 1900; ii. Charles Lovelace, 1874, died unmarried; iii. Mary Elizabeth, 1876, died unmarried; iv. John (1878-1880); v. Clarence, 1881; vi. Bessie, 1884. 6. Clara, June 12, 1854.
GUMMERE The Gummere family of Pennsylvania and New Jer- sey is of German origin. The name originally was Gömere or Gumerie, and the first of these two latter forms is the one which is used by the emigrant ancestor of the family in signing his will which is on file in the office of the surrogate in Philadelphia. The family is one that has always stood exception- ally high in the educational and professional world, and some of the greatest advantages which we now enjoy in those walks of life have had their inception and beginnings in the fertile brains of members of this family. The name is deeply rooted in the history of more than one American college, and at least one college owes its foundation, and its present high standing among institutions of learning to two descendants of the sturdy Teutonic emigrant.
(I) Johann Gömere came to Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1719, from Crefeldt, Ger- many ; and there is a tradition in the family that he came originally from French Flanders. He and his wife, Anna, both died within twenty-four hours of each other, and were buried at the same time, May, 1738, in the "Upper Burying Ground," Germantown, but as their graves are unmarked it is impossible
now to locate them. Among their children was a son Johannes, referred to below.
(II) Johannes, son of Johann and Anna Gömere, lived in Moreland township, Pennsyl- vania, and in 1740 he received a certificate of removal for himself and his wife, Sarah, who is believed to have been a member of the Davis family of Bucks county, from the Abington Monthly Meeting to the Monthly Meeting at Concord, Pennsylvania. Among his children was a son Samuel, referred to below.
(III) Samuel, son of John (Johannes) and Sarah (Davis) Gummere, was born in More- land township in 1750, and was probably the youngest son. July 6, 1814, he and his wife, Rachel, who had previously removed from Pennsylvania to Upper Springfield, New Jer- sey, asked for a certificate of removal from the latter place to the Burlington Monthly Meeting. October 23, 1783, he married Rachel, daughter of John and Anna James, of Willis- town, Pennsylvania, and among their children were John and Samuel R., referred to below. Samuel Gummere was a minister among Friends.
(IV) John, son of Samuel and Rachel (James) Gummere, was born at Rancocas, New Jersey, 1784, died in 1845. For many years he lived at Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, and for more than forty years was an esteemed and successful teacher of youth at Horsham, Rancocas, West Town, Burlington and Haver- ford, Pennsylvania. In this last named place he has left an enduring monument of his great- ness in the Friends' College. This was opened in 1833 with Mr. Gummere for its head master as a school designed to afford literary instruc- tion and religious training to the children of Friends, under whose control the present col- lege continues. Systematic physical training and athletic sport were made prominent in the original plan, and are still insisted upon. In 1845 the school was temporarily suspended in order to give opportunity for collecting an endowment, and was reorganized as a college in 1856. Upon his retirement from the Friends' College at Haverford, Mr. Gummere resumed his boarding school at Burlington, which he had previously conducted at first alone and afterwards with the aid of his son, Samuel J. Gummere, from 1814 to 1833, and in this occu- pation spent the remainder of his quiet and useful life. He was the author of many ex- cellent text-books, and his work elicited the warmest commendation from Dr. Bowditch, Professor Bache and other competent judges. Among these publications were his celebrated
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"Treatise on Surveying," which was first pub- lished in 1814, and ran through fourteen edi- tions ; and his "Elementary Treatise on Theo- retical and Practical Astronomy," the first edi- tion of which was published in 1822, and the last, the sixth, in 1854. A very interesting biographical sketch of Mr. Gummere was pri- vately printed by William J. Allinson, of Bur- lington, and it is a well-merited tribute to the learning and virtues of a ripe scholar and a most excellent man. One of his old scholars has said of him "that former disciples of John Gummere never in after life approached their old master without sentiments of affection and esteem." In 1808 Mr. Gummere married Elizabeth, daughter of William and Susanna (Deacon) Buzby, a member of two of the old- est and most distinguished families of Bur- lington county. Children: 1. Susan, married William Dennis. 2. Samuel J., referred to be- low. 3. William, referred to below. 4. John G. 5. Mary. 6. Frances. 7. Elizabeth. 8. Rachel. 9. George. 10. Martha. 11. Henry Deacon.
(IV) Samuel R., son of Samuel and Rachel (James) Gummere, was born at Willow Grove, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, in 1789, and from 1821 to 1837 was the head of a popu- lar boarding school for girls at Burlington, New Jersey. He was the author of a number of celebrated text-books, among them being a "Treatise on Geography," which was first published in 1817, and which passed through six or eight editions ; and also a "Compendium of Elocution," published in 1857. In 1831 he revised the "Progressive Spelling-Book."
(V) Samuel J., son of John and Elizabeth (Buzby) Gummere, was born April 28, 1811, died October 23, 1874. For a number of years after his father's retirement from the presi- dency of Haverford College, he was associated with him in conducting the boarding school at Burlington, and there he proved himself to be his father's "worthy successor both in scientific attainments and in the happy art of imparting instruction." He married (first) Abigail, daughter of John and - - (Hoskins) Gris- com ; (second) January 9, 1845, Elizabeth H. Barton. Children, two by first wife: I. Caro- line Elizabeth, born 1836, died March 6, 1869. 2. John, July 23, 1838. 3. Francis Barton, re- ferred to below.
(VI) Francis Barton, son of Samuel J. and Elizabeth H. (Barton) Gummere, was born March 6, 1855, in Burlington, New Jersey, and is now professor of English Language and Literature in the Friends' College at Haver-
ford, Pennsylvania. In 1872 he graduated from Haverford College, and in 1875 from Harvard University. He then studied in Ger- many at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, Strasburg and Freiburg, from the last named university receiving his degree of Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis on "The Anglo-Saxon1 Metaphor," published at Halle in 1881. Since then he has been elected a member of the Modern Language Association of America, and in addition to contributions to the Nation, the American Journal of Philology, and other periodicals, he has published a valuable and widely used "Hand-Book of Poetics," in 1885; "Germanic Origins," in 1892; "Old English Ballads," in 1894; and "The Beginnings of Poetry" in 1901. His most valuable addition, however, to literary criticism is perhaps his complete refutation of the theories of Heinzel. His wife, Mrs. Amelia Mott Gummere, is a local historian of much note, whose best known work is probably "Friends in Burlington," a history of the Society of Friends from their earliest organization in Burlington to the pres- ent day.
(V) William, son of John and Elizabeth (Buzby) Gummere, was born in West Town, Pennsylvania, in 1814, died in Burlington, New Jersey, 1897. He was a banker by occupation, and one of the leading business men in Phila- delphia, being for many years president of the Northern Liberties National Bank of Philadel- phia. For a time he lived in the city of Phila- delphia, but for about twenty-five or thirty years before his death he made his home in Burlington, New Jersey. He married Martha Moore, daughter of William Henry and Mar- garet (Edwards) Morris, who was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Her father be- longed to the distinguished Philadelphia family of Morrises, and her mother was a member of the Edwards family of Buck county. On her father's side she has a lineal descent from Mereeydd, King of Powys, Wales. Children : 1. Richard Morris, referred to below. 2. Mar- garet Morris, now living in Burlington, New Jersey. 3. Frances Marsh, widow of James Craig Perrine, now living in Burlington, New Jersey. 4. William Henry.
(VI) Richard Morris, son of William and Martha Moore (Morris) Gummere, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is now liv- ing at South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. After graduating with honors and the degree of civil engineer from the Friends' College at Haver- ford, Pennsylvania, he went out west in the interests of his profession and remained there
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for a number of years. He has always been deeply interested in the cause of higher edu- cation and for many years has been the treas- urer of Lehigh University. In politics Mr. Gummere is a Republican, and in religious faith an Episcopalian, being a vestryman of the Pro-Cathedral of the Nativity, of the dio- cese of Central Pennsylvania, at South Beth- lehem. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Caleb and Rebecca (Abbott) Hunt, of Phila- delphia. Children: I. Rebecca, born and now living in South Bethlehem. 2. William, referred to below.
(VII) William, son of Richard Morris and Elizabeth (Hunt) Gummere, was born in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1876, and is now living at Roebling, New Jer- sey. After graduating from Lehigh Univer- sity in 1899, he spent two years as one of the instructors of that institution, and in 1901 was appointed head chemist of the Roebling office at Trenton, New Jersey. Here he remained until 1908, when he was made head chemist and superintendent of the company's steel mill at Roebling, New Jersey. He is an active and influential member of the Republican party of Burlington county, a communicant of the Prot- estant Episcopal church, and unmarried.
REEVE From the earliest period of its early occupation, West New Jer- sey had had living side by side two distinct families of the name of Reeve or Reeves, which apparently have no connection one with the other. One of these families, considered elsewhere, is the posterity of Wal- ter Reeve, of Burlington county, the other, at present under consideration, owes its origin to Mark Reeve, one of the early colonists, who came out to Fenwick's colony in Salem county.
(I) Mark Reeve appears first in 1675, when he came over in the ship "Griffin" with John Fenwick, and the Salem monthly meeting rec- ords tells us that he married Ann Hunt, of Philadelphia, in 1686. The following year John Fenwick's executors had laid off for him sixteen acres of land in the town of Cohansey, and a few years later Mark Reeve bought a large tract on the south side of the Cohansey creek, now known as the site of Greenwich. For more than a century, and a half the Reeve family held large tracts of land in that section, but hardly any of it now remains in the hands of Mark's descendants. Mark Reeve and James Duncan in 1696 with the assistance of Friends of Salem, built a meeting house on the banks of the Cohansey, on the site of the present ii-27
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