USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume II > Part 82
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Mr. Ferguson married (first) June 7, 1813, Mary V. Hammett, of Newport, Rhode Island,
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by whom he had two children. She died June 30, 1818, and he married (second) April 28, 1819, Margaret S. Eddy, of Providence, who died May 6, 1871, by whom he had nine chil- dren. Children: I. John, born January 1, 1815; married Sarah Moore. 2. Margaret, November 11. 1816, died December 19, 1819. 3. Mary H., February 25, 1820; married Charles D. Stockbridge. 4. Peter, December 13, 1821, died October 14, 1822. 5. Peter, July 20, 1823. 6. William E., April 1, 1825. died June 6, 1854 : married Elizabeth Sawtelle. 7. Rev. George R., March 19, 1829; married Susan Pratt, of Andover. 8. Margaret E., December 9, 1830; married H. B. Allen, of New Haven, Connecticut. 9. James A., No- vember 17, 1832; married Claudia Churchill, of New Orleans. 10. Anna B., May 3, 1835, died August 6. 1840. II. Abby Park, April 4, 1837. (II) Peter, fifth son of Rev. John and Margaret S. (Eddy) Ferguson, was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, July 20, 1823. He married Maria J. Bixby, of Keene, New Hampshire. At the age of thirteen years his father removed from Attleboro, Massachu- setts, to Whatley. Massachusetts, and here he grew up and completed the preparatory studies which fitted him for entrance to Amherst Col- lege, which he entered but did not complete the course. His brother William at this time was chief engineer of the Cleveland, Toledo and Norwalk railroad with headquarters in Cleveland, and Peter left Amherst College and went to Cleveland where he held a sub- ordinate position with his brother. Having met with a painful injury to his foot and being unable to travel at the time of his intended wedding, William, who was on a business trip to the east went to Keene, New Hampshire, and escorted Miss Bixby to his home in Cleve- land where the wedding took place. He re- moved to Norwalk Ohio, still connected with the Cleveland, Toledo and Norwalk railroad until the fall of 1853. when he accepted the position of chief engineer of the Tiffin and Fort Wayne railroad and removed to Tiffin, Ohio. His work here was the preliminary survey and road-bed construction of an air line railroad from Tiffin to Fort Wayne and all the work was through an unbroken wilder- ness, part of which was known as the black swamp. Financial depression caused an aban- donment of this project and he turned his attention to bridge construction and built two bridges in Tiffin ; one over the Sandusky river and the other over Rock river. Desiring bet- ter facilities for the education of his children
he removed in 1860 to New Haven, Connecti- cut, where he continued for a time the work of bridge construction and built the Chapel street bridge over the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad and the swing draw bridge over Mill river which were among the pioneer iron bridges of the country. During the civil war he was employed by the government as superintendent in charge of the reconstruction of Fort Hale which guards the eastern en- trance to New Haven harbor. His next work of importance was the construction of the new station of the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad on land reclaimed from the mud-flats of the harbor, and the constant ex- posure to which he was subjected was the be- ginning of rheumatic disease from which he never recovered. He also had charge of the laying out and construction of the junction passenger station at Middletown, Connecticut. He then became connected as superintendent of the then large contracting firm of MacIn- tire Brothers, and removed to Buffalo, New York, where he remained until failing health compelled the abandonment of active work and he and his wife made their home with their only daughter, living with them in Bethel, Connecticut, and later in Zanesville, Ohio, until his death, June 30, 1891. The son of a min- ister, he inherited a deep sense of morality, honesty and integrity, which in the varied ex- perience of his life work formed the founda- tion of a character which developed a strong, self-reliant manhood. He was ever interested in the spiritual and moral welfare of those about him and a constant and faithful at- tendant of the Episcopal church. He gave freely of his time and knowledge in matters furthering the work of the church, and in the early days of his pioneer work in the west and during the latter years of his life was fre- quently called upon to read the church service.
The children of Peter and Maria J. (Bixby) Ferguson are : I. James Joseph, born Novem- ber 27. 1853, died October 14, 1854. 2. Mary. December 15. 1855. 3. John William, De- cember 19, 1857. 4. George Robert, June 13, 1859. 5. Charles Edward, December 22, 1860. 6. Elizabeth, June 18, 1862, died August 18, 1862. 7. Arthur Bixby, January 13, 1864. 8. Herbert Allen, March 28, 1865, died January 26, 1870.
(III) John William, son of Peter and Maria J. (Bixby) Ferguson, was born in Tiffin, Ohio, December 19, 1857, removed with his father's family to New Haven, Connecticut, where the earlier years of his life were spent,
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and where he received his education in the pub- lic and high schools of that city, taking a course of study preparatory to entering Yale Scien- tific School. He did not enter the college, however, and turned his attention to the study of practical engineering. In 1877 he secured a position as rodman in the engineering service of the old Boston & New York Air Line rail- road, remained there one year and in 1878 was employed in the same capacity in the engin- eering department of the New York, Lake Erie & Western railroad. He continued with the latter company until the early part of the year 1891, and during that period was advanced through several grades of promotion to the
position of assistant chief engineer of the en- tire system. In 1892 Mr. Ferguson began business as civil engineer and building con- tractor in Paterson, in a comparatively limited way at first, and gradually increasing the scope of his operations and the magnitude of his enterprises until he came to be recognized as one of the most extensive building contractors in the east. The business was conducted under his sole personal management until 1905 and then passed to the proprietorship of the John W. Ferguson Company, incorporated under the laws of the state of New Jersey ; but during this later period Mr. Ferguson has continued at the head of the successor corpora- tion as its executive and managing officer. Among the more important of the many struc- tures and edifices erected by the company there may be mentioned the New Jersey State Arm- ory, Hamilton Trust Company, United Bank Building, the Colt Building, the Meyer Broth- ers Department Store building, all in Pater- son; the Kings County Power Building, Brooklyn, New York ; Hackensack Trust Com- pany building, Hackensack, New Jersey; the Babbit Soap Factory Building, Babbit, New Jersey ; the Babcock & Wilcox Plant, Bayonne, New Jersey ; the Newark Warehouse, Newark, New Jersey; the Gera Mills, and the recent large addition to the already vast buildings of the Botany Mills, both of Passaic.
Aside from his business interests and per- sonal concerns Mr. Ferguson during his resi- dence in Paterson has been closely identified with the growth and prosperity of the city in many directions, and has been and still is con- nected with several of the best institutions of the city; but he never has been in any sense a politician or a seeker after political honors. He was one of the principal organizers of the Taxpayers Association of Paterson, in 1903, a guiding spirit of the policy and the excellent
good works accomplished by that association, and now is chairman of its executive commit- tee. He holds membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American So- ciety of Mechanical Engineers, the New Jersey State Commission of Industrial Education, the Society of Sons of the American Revolution, life member General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen, New York, the North Jersey County Club, of Paterson, and the Hamilton Club, of Paterson, the Engineers Club and Hardware Club of New York.
Mr. Ferguson married, May 26, 1893, Jennie Beam, daughter of William Cooke, of Pater- son, and by whom he has three children, John William Jr., Arthur Donald and Jean Fergu- son.
JOHNSON The Johnson family of Mor- ris county, New Jersey, is another example of that stal- wart New England stock, which from the middle of the seventeenth century has been coming in a continual stream into and through the state.
(I) John Johnson, descendant of a long line of Connecticut ancestors, came from New Haven county before 1750 into Morris county, New Jersey. He lived at Parsippany, on what was known as the "Dr. Darby place," and later as the John S. Smith farm. He died September 21, 1724. By his wife Mary he had: John, referred to below ; Abigail, Moses, Alexander.
(II) John (2), son of John (I) and Mary Johnson, was born in New Haven county, Connecticut, about 1706, died in Morris county, New Jersey, May 4, 1776. He mar- ried Abagail, daughter of Caleb Ball Sr. She was born about 1708, died June 4, 1793. Chil- dren: Anne, Kezia, Elisha, Gershon, Joseph, Abagail, Jacob, referred to below ; Lydia.
(III) Jacob, son of John (2) and Abagail (Ball) Johnson, was baptized in the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown, April 21, 1751 ; died there April 25, 1780. According to Stryker, he enlisted in the New Jersey militia as a private during the revolutionary war, and rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Third Regiment. December 13, 1772, he married Anne, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Davis) Vail, who was born in 1753 and survived her husband, dying June II, 1784. Children : Noah, Mahlon, referred to below; Jacob Jr. Noah moved to Ohio, and Jacob's descendants are living to-day in Indiana.
(IV) Mahlon, son of Jacob and Anne (Vail)
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Johnson, was born at Littleton, Morris county, New Jersey, November 5, 1775, died there December 20, 1857. He was the only one of his father's children who remained in New Jersey, and being only five years old when his father died, and eight when his mother died, he and his brother were brought up in the family of their uncle, John Vail. He married (first) November 18, 1797, Sally or Sarah Baker, who five years later handed in her letter from Parsippany to the First Presbyte- rian Church of Morristown. She died April 17, 1837, aged fifty-nine years. He married (second) Mary (Robertson) Ludlam, born January 8, 1792, died January 31, 1874, aged eighty-two years, widow of Ezekiel Ludlam. Children, all by first marriage: 1. Jacob, born December 3, 1798, died March 20, 1865 ; mar- ried Hetty (Baker) Vail. 2. Chilion, July 24, 1800, died Crawfordsville, Indiana ; mar- ried Ann Woodruff. 3. Noah, February 17. 1802; drowned at Speedwell, July 20, 1819. 4. Baker, October 23, 1803, died October 18, 1886; graduated from Bloomfield Academy, Union College, and Princeton Seminary ; ordained by the Presbytery of New York; married Electa, daughter of the Rev. Barna- bas King. 5. Alfred, referred to below. 6. Sussanna Day, August 26, 1806, died May 5, 1877 ; married Jonathan E. Huntington, as his second wife. 7. Elizabeth Ann, February 16, 1808, died December 15, 1863; married John- athan E. Huntington as his first wife. 8. Thomas Vail, October 8, 1809, died March 29, 1879; married Sarah Frances Cory. 9. Sarah Vail, March 10, 1811, died April 22, 1882; married Joel Davis. 10. Catharine Wheeler, July 5, 1812, died September 28, 1874 ; married Aaron C. Johnson, of Newark. II. Mary, August 2, 1814, died June, 1878; married Silas B. Condict. 12. James Harvey, March 14, 1816, died September 21, 1852; married Hannah Jilson. 13. Davis Vail, No- vember 1, 1817, died January 22, 1871 ; mar- ried Caroline Mayo. 14. John Henry, Octo- ber 28, 1820; married Maria Allen DeCamp. 15. A child died September 17, 1823.
(V) Alfred, fifth child and son of Mahlon and Sarah (Baker) Johnson, was born at Lit- tleton. Morris county, New Jersey, April 5, 1805, died October 7, 1847. He was a farmer, a blacksmith, carpenter and wheelwright, and lived at Littleton all his life. January 14. 1828, he married Sarah, daughter of Jonathan Baker, born November 7, 1803, died June 27. 1882. Children: 1. Margaret Baker, born November 28, 1828, died May 29, 1857 ; mar-
ried Belknap Gregory. 2. Emma Lucilla, Sep- tember 13, 1830, died April 8, 1898; unmar- ried. 3. Henry Martyn or (Norton), May 30, 1834, died at Portage, Wisconsin. 4. Theo- dore Frelinghuysen, referred to below. 5. Phebe Baker, baptized May 31, 1839, now living at 102 Court street, Newark. 6. Mary Eliza, January 26, 1843, died December 23, 1899; unmarried. 7. Johnathan Baker, died November 26, 1849, aged eight years.
(VI) Theodore Frelinghuysen, fourth child and second son of Alfred and Sarah (Baker) Johnson, was born in Littleton, Morris county, New Jersey, July 11, 1835, and was baptized in the First Presbyterian Church in Morris- town, May 31, 1839. He is now living in Newark, New Jersey. For his early educa- tion he was sent to Littleton, New Jersey, and later to the Newark private schools, and after- wards to private schools, first of Dr. Nathan Hedges and then of his uncle, John Henry Johnson. Coming to Newark when he was only eight years of age, he lived with his uncle Jacob, and after finishing his school days went to work in a carriage factory in Newark. After this he took a position in Columbus, Georgia, which he left in order to accept a position as bookkeeper in New York City. Coming back to his Uncle Jacob, he finally bought the business in which he is at present engaged, that of wholesale tea, coffee and spices. This was in 1856, and Mr. John- son's business which was first started by Andrew Johnson in 1830, has now grown to be one of the largest firms of its kind in New- ark, shipping merchandise all over the coun- try. The firm name at first was Jacob John- son & Company, Theodore Johnson being the latter. It then became Theo. F. Johnson and finally when Mr. Johnson admitted two of his sons into partnership, Theo. F. Johnson & Company, 77 Mechanic street. Mr. John- son is a Republican, and a member of the Park Presbyterian Church. He is president of the Mahlon Johnson Union, a director in the Young Men's Christian Association of New- ark, and a member of the New Jersey Histor- ical Society.
May 25, 1865, Mr. Johnson married Anna Elizabeth, third child and eldest daughter of William Pann and Sarah (Locke) Vail, born December 9, 1837, died April 7, 1901. Chil- dren : I. Alfred Baker, born March 3, 1866, now living in South Orange, New Jersey ; married Ella Wharton, September 28, 1898; they have Anna Wharton and Wharton Vail. 2. Elizabeth Blair, June 20, 1869. 3. William
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Theo. F. Johnson
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Vail, June 28, 1871; married, October 14, 1902, Katharyn Dorrance, daughter of Will- iam K. and Helen (Pierson) Laverty. 4. Helen More, December 15, 1873. 5. Charles Henry, May 14, 1878, died September 12, 1879.
WOOLMAN George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, born in Drayton, Lancastershire, England, in 1624, was the founder of the sect of Christians better known as Quakers. He was a shoemaker by trade and occupation up to the time he devoted himself to the propaga- tion of what he regarded as a more spiritual form of Christianity than prevailed at that day. Among the eminent followers of Fox were Barclay, Fenwick, Penn, Stakes, Haines, Lip- pincott and Woolman, and the work begun in England was carried on in America by these immigrants who appeared in New Jersey and Pennsylvania during the last half of the eight- eenth century. They founded Salem and Burlington in West New Jersey, and Penn- sylvania was the proprietor of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. For purity of life they stand pre-eminent in the religious sects, and in that virtue they exercised a salu- tary influence on the whole community in which their example could be observed and patterned after. They were the originators of the practice of universal freedom and univer- sal peace, and to them the world owes the in- ception of these great questions that brought about the abolition of Negro slavery in the United States and the formation of the great peace societies made up from all sects, creeds and forms of christian worship and through whose grand work the era of universal peace was made apparent at the opening of the twentieth century. Their opposition to war was at first like all great reforms, looked upon as chimerical, but the civil war in the United States was accepted by the society as an out- come of their teaching, and they broke their cast-iron rule and sent their young men to fight for the abolition of slavery and the per- petuation of the government that had given their teachings the utmost freedom. They acknowledged not till then that good could come from war, and the witness of the great- est naval fleet of the world visiting and being welcomed as a dove of peace by every nation of the globe was accepted as the consummation of the teachings of Fox and his faithful fol- lowers.
(I) John Woolman, an English gentleman
and member of the Society of Friends, hearing from reports sent out from Fenwick's Colony, in West New Jersey, of the goodly land and promises of comfort, quiet and peacefulness, as well as the evidence of future records in the direction of increase in value of lands in the new colony decided to join his fortunes with his brethren in America. To this end he took ship in 1681, and on arriving at Burl- ington selected eight thousand acres of land extending from the Burlington river south- ward to the north branch of the Rancocas river, a distance of five miles, and including the present site of Mount Holly, where he fixed his home. Having thus secured a foothold and a position of prominence in the Friends Meeting, he looked across the Meeting House and among the comely. Quakeresses he found Elizabeth, daughter of John and Ann Borton, a family of Friends who had come from Ayn- hoe Parish in Northamptonshire, England, and they were soon announcing in Meeting their intention of marrying, which announcement, once repeated, ended in their marriage on the Ioth month, 8th day, 1684. They had children including: Samuel, married Elizabeth, and they had daughter, Patience, born Ioth month, 27th day. 1718, and she in turn selected as a husband Joseph Moore, of another prominent family of the meeting. Another child was Asher, see forward.
(II) Asher, younger son of John and Eliz- abeth ( Borton) Woolman, was born at Mount Holly, New Jersey, 6th month, 27th day, 1722. He was married 12th month, 13th day, 1769, when he attained his forty-seventh year, to Rachel Norcross, born 8th month, 15th day, 1750. We thus see a man of forty-seven years announce in Meeting two successive times his intention of marrying a girl eighteen. Asher and Rachel had at least three children. possibly more, of which Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, was married in 1798 to John, born 4th month, IIth day, 1777, son of Jarvis and Elizabeth (Rogers) Stokes, of an equally prominent family of Friends, in Burlington township. Their children were: Herbert N. Stokes; Maria Stokes; Asher W. Stokes ; Martine W. Stokes; John W. Stokes; Nathan H. Stokes: Woolman Stokes and Edward Stokes. Another daughter, Abigail, married, in 1780. Jarvis, born 11th month, 5th day, 1740, son of Jarvis and Elizabeth (Rogers) Stokes. Besides these two daughters, they had a son Granville, see forward.
(III) Granville, son of Asher and Rachel ( Norcross) Woolman, was born in Mount
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Holly, Burlington county, New Jersey, Ist month, Ist day, 1774. He was married Ist month, IIth day, 1795, to Hannah, daughter of Jarvis and Elizabeth (Rogers) Stokes, and granddaughter of John and Hannah (Stog- delle) Stokes. Hannah (Stokes) Woolman was born 8th month, IIth day, 1775, and by her marriage to Granville Woolman she had five children : 1. Eliza, born in 1795; married David Lukens. 2. Ann, 10th month, 3rd day, 1797, married Walton; died 10th month, 7th day, 1821. 3. Rachel, 7th month, 20th day, 1799 ; married Chambless Middleton. 4. John, 8th month, 20th day, 1803; married Maria Stokes; died 5th month, 20th day. 1868. 5. Granville, see forward.
(IV) Granville (2), son of Granville (1) and Hannah (Stokes) Woolman, was born in Rancocas, Burlington county, New Jersey, June 1, 1807, died March 13, 1870. He was educated in his native town, and was a noted physician. He married Phebe W., daughter of Isaac and Margaret Lippincott, of Burlington county. Children : I. Margaret W., married, 1853, Jacob Leeds, who kept a store at Ran- cocas; children: i. Granville, married Nancy M. Haines and their children are : a. Gertrude, married Hudson Haines; b. Mary, married George Holmes and their children are: Mar- garet, Sarah and Nancy Holmes; ii. Henry, married Elizabeth Bryan and their children are: Caroline and Eugenia; Caroline married George Warwick and their child is Elizabeth Warrick ; iii. Mary, married Lewis Brown and their children are: Jacob L. Brown, married Isabella Yates, and Ethel Brown, unmarried ; iv. Elizabeth Leeds, married Thomas Buzby, and their children are: Elgar, Helen and Har- vey Buzby : v. Phebe, married William Jones and their children are: Margaret W., Alice and Grace Jones. 2. Hannah Ann, born 1834; married Michael E. Haines and their children are : i. Horace E., married Susan Clement and they have one child, Ethel, married Harvey Lippincott ; ii. Jervis W., married Minnie Clog- ston ; child, Hazel ; iii. Hannah H., unmarried ; iv. Alice W., unmarried ; v. Alfred M., married Florence Hilliard; vi. Granville Woolman, married Abbie Rogers; children: Sylvan, Ernest and Blanche; vii. Remington, married Fannie McGowen ; children : Clair and Lillian ; viii. Clara, married E. S. Perkins; child, Earl. 3. Martha L., born 1836. 4. Isaac L., born 1838; married Mary Shotwell; children : Jane and Elgar. 5. Jervis S., born 1840; mar- ried Julia Shotwell; children: i. Henry M., married Ella McCray ; children : Raymond and
Henry ; ii. Rebecca, married George Bullock, children: Helen, Emily and Alton; iii. Mar- garet, married Maurice Stokes; child, Mau- rice ; iv. Helen, married William Stafford. 6. Daniel L., see forward. 7. Alice W., born 1846; married Hudson B. Taylor. 8. Phebe, born 1848; married Evan Buzby.
(V) Daniel L., son of Dr. Granville (2) and Phebe W. (Lippincott) Woolman, was born in Rancocas, Burlington county, New Jersey, November 7, 1843. He was a pupil in the public schools of Rancocas and in the Mary Lippincott school at Moorestown, and remained on the homestead farm as a farmer for some years, and later in life engaged in merchan- dising at Vincentown, where he conducted a general country store for thirty-five years, his business career being terminated by his death in 1907. He was a Republican in party poli- tics, and served his town as a member of the township committee for several years. He was a member of the Society of Friends by inheritance, as well as choice, and he was ac- tive in the business and religious interests of the society. He married, December 12, 1867, Martha B., daughter of Samuel Wills, of Ran- cocas. She died November 30, 1889. Chil- dren, born on the old homestead at Rancocas : I. Samuel Jarrett, see forward. 2. Granville S., born September 28, 1870, died July 13, 1905. 3. Daniel Howard, born April 12, 1872 ; he conducts a carpet factory in Philadelphia ; married Harriet Kreamer ; one child, Marion. 4. Caroline B., born October 2, 1873; married William Lippincott; children: Florence and Samuel. 5. Anna L., born December 8, 1874; married Henry Jones. 6. Martha W., born April 14, 1879, unmarried ; lives at home. 7. Phebe W., born January 5, 1883; married Henry Whitacre; one child, Evan B.
( VI) Samuel Jarret, eldest child of Daniel L. and Martha B. (Wills) Woolman, was born on the old homestead farm at Rancocas, Burl- ington county, New Jersey, April 20, 1869. He was a pupil in the public schools of his native town and at the academy in Mount Holly, and on leaving school was employed by the Penn- sylvania railroad as baggage master, and con- ductor on the Amboy division, and held this position twelve years. He had worked in his father's store at Vincentown as a boy, and on leaving the railroad service engaged in the coal business in Vincentown, in 1899. He added to the coal business that of lumber in co-part- nership with Eugene Antrim, the business be- ing conducted under the firm name of Wool- man, Antrim & Company, their place of busi-
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ness being Red Lion. Mr. Woolman is a stockholder in the Vincentown Water Com- pany, and a member of the board of directors of the Telegraph and Telephone Company. He has held various offices in the town govern- ment, and is by inheritance a birthright mem- ber of the Society of Friends. He married, June 18, 1893, Sallie J., daughter of James Colkitt, of Vincentown, New Jersey.
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