USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume III > Part 23
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(VI) Otis, son of Sherman Cooper, was a farmer and school teacher in Croydon, Sulli- van county, New Hampshire. He married Hannah (Powers) Barton, widow of Bazeleel Barton, and daughter of Ezekiel Powers, of Croydon, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, who bore him two children: 1. Augusta, died in infancy. 2. Augusta, referred to below. Hannah Powers by her first marriage with Bazeleel Barton had eight children: Lucinda, Adelia, Levi W., Williams, Hiram, Alanson, Ziba and Angeline.
(VII) Augusta, youngest child of Otis and Hannah (Powers-Barton) Cooper, was born in Croydon, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, April 17, 1835, and is now living in Vineland, Cumberland county, New Jersey. She was a precocious child and her poetical abilities show- ed themselves at an early period of her life, her first verses being written when she was only eight years of age, and her first published poems appeared in the newspapers when she was fifteen, and the poems published in book form when thirty years of age. She was a good scholar, forward in mathematics, and showing an aptitude for logical and philosoph- ical reasoning. At the age of thirteen she was studying the same books that her half-brother was studying in Dartmouth College. She at- tended the public schools of Croydon and a
preparatory school at Meriden, New Hamp- shire, and then went to the Canaan Union Academy, and to Kimball Union Academy. She began teaching when she was fifteen, and kept to this employment for seven years, when she married. In 1869 Augusta Cooper publish- ed her first volume of poems and gave her first public lecture, which events appear to have changed the course of her intellectual career, as since that time she has been a prominent platform speaker. For four years she was president of the Ladies' Social Science Class of Vineland, giving lessons from Spencer and Carey every month. In the winter of 1880 she gave a course of lectures before the New York Positivist Society on "The Evolution of Char- acter," and followed it by another under the auspices of the Women's Social Science Club of New York City. In June, 1880, she was sent by friends in New York to study the equitable association of labor and capital at the Familistére in Guise, France, founded by M. Jean Baptiste Godin, the inventor and re- former. She was also commissioned to repre- sent the New York Positivist Society in an international convention of liberal thinkers in Brussels, in September, 1880. She lived at the Familistére, or "Social Palace" for three months, and gave a lecture on the "Scientific Basis of Morality" before the Brussels con- vention. After her return to the United States she taught French for many years in Vine- land, New Jersey, and translated and published "The Rules and Statutes of the Association of Labor and Capital of Guise" from the French. In 1881 she was chosen state lecturer of the Patrons of Husbandry in New Jersey. In 1882 she was employed by the national lec- ture bureau of that society. Since her second husband's death, she has appeared but seldom on the public platform, being wholly occupied with the care of her estate. A short while ago she sold her farm in the township and is now liv- ing in the city of Vineland itself. Some of her philosophic and scientific lectures have been translated and published in foreign countries. In 1870 she published her "Philosophy of Art ;" in 1876 her "Relations of the Maternal Func- tions to the Woman Intellect;" in 1880 her "Science as the Basis of Morality," a French edition of which appeared in 1882; in 1895 her volume of poems entitled "The Web of Life:" and in 1904 the volume "Spray of Cosmos."
In 1857 Augusta Cooper was married to G. H. Kimball. By this marriage she had one child, Annie Loraine, born March 25, 1857.
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a musician and musical composer, who married William A. Sloane, a lawyer and judge in San Diego, California, to whom she bore three chil- dren: Harry, Paul and Hazel, the two boys being now at Pomona College, California. In January, 1866, Augusta ( Cooper) Kimball was married to Louis Bristol, an attorney of New Haven, Connecticut, who died in 1882. He was a nephew of the celebrated Jonathan Ed- wards, president of Yale University, and preacher in Northampton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale University in 1835, at age of seventeen, and after his marriage re- moved to southern Illinois, where he managed a fruit farm. In 1872 he bought a farm in Vineland, Cumberland county, New Jersey, and removed thither. Louis and Augusta (Cooper) Kimball-Bristol had two children : I. Bessie, married, 1905, John Mason, of Vine- land, and has one child, Augusta Loraine, born August 26, 1907. Mrs. Mason conducts a very successful music school in Vineland, and her husband is an inspector of glass in a glass fac- tory in the same place. 2. Otis Cooper, died aged seven.
MURPHY Robert Murphy, immigrant an- cestor of this branch of the Murphy family, was born in Ireland, and about 1756 emigrated from Eng- land to Connecticut, where he settled. Soon after his arrival he engaged in the occupation of teaching school. He married Ann Knapp, daughter of Joshua Knapp, of Greenwich, Con- necticut, and among his children was Robert, referred to below.
(II) Robert Jr., son of Robert Murphy (I), was born in Connecticut, in 1759. At the out- break of the revolution he enlisted in the Ber- gen county (New Jersey) troops, and did good service during the war, serving in the battle on Long Island under General Nathaniel Greene and in other conflicts. He married Hannah Doane. Among his children was a son Will- iam, referred to below.
(III) William, son of Robert Murphy Jr., was born April 23, 1795. He married Sarah, daughter of Benjamin and Phebe (Crane) Lyon, of Elizabethtown. She was of Scotch descent, and her immigrant ancestor, Henry Lyon, was a soldier under Cromwell. Among their children was William Hayes.
(IV) William Hayes, son of William and Sarah (Lyon) Murphy, was born in Newark. New Jersey, April 15, 1821, and died October 7, 1905. He was educated in the Newark public schools and in the preparatory school at
Wilbraham, Massachusetts, after leaving which he graduated from the Collegiate Preparatory School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He passed the first seventeen years of his business career in Jersey City, and the rest of his life was spent in Newark, the city of his birth. At one time Mr. Murphy was elected an alderman from the third ward in the city of Newark, where he then resided, and after holding this office for two consecutive terms he was elected twice a member of the house of assembly for Essex county. From childhood his religious affiliations were always with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a faithful and consistent member for more than three score years. He was elected a delegate to the General Conference, and in August, 1901, went to London, England, as the accredited delegate from the Methodist Episcopal Church North of the United States to the Ecumenical Council of all the branches of that denomination. He was interested in the furtherance of the plan for raising an endowment fund the interest of which should be devoted to the support of superannuated ministers of the Newark Con- ference. He was a member of the New Jersey Society, Sons of the American Revolution, and for a number of years was one of the managers of the organization. He married (first) Abi- gail Elizabeth Hagar, of Bloomfield; (second) Sarah Richardson Morgan, of Poughkeepsie. Children, five by first marriage: I. William Augustus. 2. Franklin, referred to below. 3. Howard. 4. Theodore. 5. Robert. Children of second marriage: Henry Morgan, now dead, and a daughter Florence.
(V) Franklin, son of William Hayes and Abigail Elizabeth (Hagar) Murphy, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, January 3, 1846, and is now living in Newark. He was ten years old when his parents removed to the latter city. He was educated in the well-known Newark Academy, which he left in July, 1862, in order to enlist in the Thirteenth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers. He was in active service until the close of the war, a part of the time being with the Army of the Potomac, and the remainder of his term in the west under General Sherman. At the close of the war he was mustered out `as first lieutenant, having. been promoted for gallant and meritorious service.
In 1865 Mr. Murphy founded the firm of Murphy & Company, varnish manufacturers in Newark. In 1891 the company was incor- porated as the Murphy Varnish Company, and since that time Mr. Murphy has been its presi-
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dent. From the commencement of his career he has taken a deep interest in all municipal and state matters. He has held various public offices, including membership in the common council of Newark from 1883 to 1886, being at one time president of that body ; and in 1885 was chosen a member of the house of assembly, where he was highly regarded as a conservative and able leader. He has also held the office of park commissioner to lay out and complete the parks of Essex county. As a trustee for the Reform School for Boys during the three years term beginning March 24, 1886, he brought to that institution all the benefits of his business sagacity and wide experience. He was ap- pointed by President Mckinley one of the commissioners to the Paris Universal Exposi- tion of 1900. He has been called upon to assume many responsibilities in connection with public institutions, banks, societies and other organizations, such as fall to the lot of a man of general activities, and which he has dis- charged in a manner as to command the un- qualified approval of the public. Mr. Murphy has been a lifelong Republican. Since 1892 he has been chairman of the Republican state committee of New Jersey, and during his chair- manship the Republican campaigns were uni- formly successful and New Jersey was brought prominently into the list of the Republican states. Since 1900 he has also been a member of the Republican national committee. In No- vember, 1901, Mr. Murphy was elected gov- ernor of New Jersey for a term of three years over James M. Seymour, by a plurality of seven thousand one hundred and thirty-three vote. He entered upon his office at the beginning of 1902, and in his accession to the governor's chair New Jersey was to have her first experience with a business man as her chief executive of state. Governor Murphy came to the chief magistracy with a national reputation as a captain of industry. He had planted extensive trade posts of his business in Newark, throughout the country, and across the seas, and upon his election the people of the state realized that public affairs were to be administered rather upon the newer business lines than upon the conventional technical basis of the barrister's profession. With a business man's instinct Mr. Murphy had devoted him- self in the common council of Newark to the betterment of the city he had been called upon to serve. In the character of his work for his home city and county there was the fore- shadowing that, in his higher station as chief executive of the state, something substantial
for the civic and communal betterment of New Jersey as a whole was to be obtained. During the three years of his administration Governor Murphy gave his own characteristic touches to the progress of the state, with many excellent results. As an instance, New Jersey is now earning $80,000 a year in interest upon balances in banks that before his time had had free use of her great deposits. The conservation of the Passaic river for the benefit of the communities through which it flows was promoted by his commission to devise means of purifying its waters. The state departments, which had hitherto been unscrutinized, were obliged to submit their books to the inspection of a state auditor ; an assistant attorney general was for a reasonable compensation set to doing what had previously taken a long line of special counsel and a vast expense to accomplish. An efficient system of factory inspection was estab- lished which did more than anything else to put an end to child labor in New Jersey; a tenement house commission was created to see that light and air were let into the homes of the poor ; and then, applying the business man's principle of having safety checks to the nomi- nating methods of the different political parties, he provided the people with an open primary system, surrounded by all the safeguards of a regular election.
In private life Governor Murphy is an ami- able, social and cultured gentleman, and has not allowed his business and political affairs to engross all of his time. He has given special attention to the development of the patriotic societies of the nation, and his interest in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic is shown in membership on the board of man- agers of the National Home for Disabled Vol- unteer Soldiers. In spite of his large affairs and the many responsibilities upon his shoul- ders, Mr. Murphy has still found time to culti- vate art and literature, and his business suc- cesses have not diverted him from higher pur- suits. A uniform courtesy and grace of man- ner and geniality of disposition inherent to the man have made him friendships which his qualities of heart and mind have never failed to hold and endear. As a public speaker he has a persuasiveness and grace that lend charm to his practical business views. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him in 1902 by both Lafayette College and Princeton Univer- sity. He is a member of the more important Newark and New York clubs, also of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion; of the Sons of the American Revolution, of which he
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was the president general in 1899; of the Soci- ety of Colonial Wars, and of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Governor Murphy married, June 24, 1868, Janet, born December 30, 1842, died February 10, 1904, daughter of Israel Day and Cath- erine Cox Gale (Hoghland) Colwell. Two children are now living: I. Franklin, born No- vember 29, 1873 ; married, October 17, 1908, Harriet Alexander Long, of Chicago; he is now vice-president of the Murphy Varnish Company. 2. Helen, born September 19, 1877 ; married, June 8, 1901, William Burnet, son of Thomas Talmage and Estelle (Condit) Kinney (see Kinney family ).
BIGELOW This family originated in Eng- land, and was of a distinctive stock of blended German and Scandinavian blood. The founder of the Amer- ican branch was actively identified with the be- ginnings of the Massachusetts Bay colony, and his descendants were prominent figures in the development of the other colonies and states among which they became dispersed.
(I) John Bigelow, the American ancestor, born in Wrentham, England, in 1617, was one of the early settlers in Watertown, Massachu- setts, which was founded in 1630. He served in the Pequod and other Indian wars, and was of such prominence that he was called to vari- ous civil offices in the colony. Soon after his coming to Watertown he married Mary, daugh- ter of John Warren, of the "Mayflower" com- pany. This was the first marriage of public record in Watertown, and from it came lines of descendants in all the New England and adjacent states. Among his children were: John, died childless ; and Jonathan, of whom further. John Bigelow died July 14, 1703.
(II) Jonathan, son of John Bigelow, was born in Watertown, December 1I, 1646. He married Rebecca Shepherd, and settled in Hart- ford, Connecticut. Among his children were Jonathan and John, of whom further.
(III) Jonathan (2), son of Jonathan (I) Bigelow, married Mabel, daughter of Rev. Timothy Edwards. Their son Timothy was adjutant in the Canada expedition, and was father of Lieutenant Timothy Bigelow, who died at Fort Stanwix in 1746, and from them came the name given to Colonel Timothy Bige- low, the imtimate associate of Otis Warren and other patriots, and commandant at West Point at the close of the revolutionary war. The name also descended to others of the fam -. ily of later distinction.
(III) John (2), son of Jonathan (I) and Rebecca (Shepherd) Bigelow, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1679. His father gave him a farm of two hundred and seventy acres in Glastonbury, Connecticut, November 13, 1709, a part of which he sold December 23, 1716, and the remainder December 8, 1729. He removed to Hanover, New Jersey, about 1715, with others from Connecticut, who sought gold and silver ores, and settled Whippany, the oldest town in Morris county, and gave its name to the Pequannoc river. While the pre- cious metals were not found, iron was un- covered, and the Bigelows were among the founders of the iron industry in New Jersey. So late as 1769 John and Aaron, grandsons of John Bigelow, owned and operated the White Meadow Forge, near Rockaway. A contract preserved in the New Jersey Historical Soci- ety's archives, of date June 15, 1718, between John Bigelow and others, locates him in New- ark. In 1723 he was the first collector of Han- over, then comprising the present Morris coun- ty. He married, January II, 1710, in Con- necticut, Abigail Richards. He died July 25, 1733, and his wife September 5, 1749; both are buried in the old Whippany burying-ground the oldest burying-ground in the oldest town in Morris county, by the side of John Rich- ards, who donated the ground for burial pur- poses. Children, born in Whippany: John, Daniel, Samuel, Jonathan, Joshua, and daugh- ters.
(IV) John (3), son of John (2) and Abi- gail (Richards) Bigelow, was a mine owner and farmer, and died in Whippany, in 1773. He married Elizabeth Dickerson, and was sur- vived by sons John, Aaron, Moses and Timo- thy, and by daughters. A memorial in the library of the New Jersey Historical Society, the "Pequannoc Remonstrance," dated May, 1776, signed by one hundred and eighty free- holders of Pequannoc township, Morris coun- ty, expresses in forceful terms hostility to the British crown, and affords evidence of the dis- loyalty of the influential men of that neighbor- hood. This has the signatures of all the adults in the Bigelow family in Morris county- Daniel, Josiah, Aaron, Jonathan and Jabez. Of the others, John was in Canada; Timothy and Moses-were not of age; and Samuel and Joshua were living elsewhere. Samuel, who was in Monmouth county, signed a similar document, and became a captain in the naval service, and was renowned for courage and enterprise. John and Aaron were captains in the military service and took part in various
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battles, narratives of which were told by David Gordon, a revolutionary soldier of Morris coun- ty, and are contained in the unpublished manu- scripts of Rev. J. F. Tuttle, D. D., president of Wabash University, in possession of the His- torical Society.
(V) Timothy, son of John (3) and Eliza- beth (Dickerson) Bigelow, was born in Whip- pany, New Jersey, November 23, 1763. At the age of sixteen he volunteered in the patriot army, took part in various engagements, and was present at the Yorktown surrender. After the war he married Hannah Ogden Meeker, and established his home at Lyon's Farms, now Newark. As a girl his wife witnessed warlike scenes, and often fled from her father's house to escape from British and Hessian marauders. Mr. Bigelow was of reserved and quiet disposi- tion and devoted to his family. He was inter- ested in educational affairs, and for some years served on the board of trustees of the "Old Stone School House," a neighborhood land- mark. He died April 8, 1847, aged eighty- four years, and his wife May 23, 1852, aged eighty-six years.
(VI) Moses, only son of Timothy and Han- nah Ogden (Meeker) Bigelow, was born on the family homestead at Lyons Farms ( New- ark ), January 12, 1800. He attended the schools there and at Elizabethtown. Studious and thoughtful, in his youth he read all avail- able standard works and excelled in various branches of knowledge, especially mathematics. He read law in a desultory way in the office of Governor William Pennington, and derived much pleasure from this pursuit. On arriving at age he engaged in manufacturing, with which he was prominently identified for more than a half century. His activity also led him into various important enterprises. In 1835, with John P. Jackson and J. M. Meeker, he pro- cured the incorporation of the Morris & Essex railroad. He also draughted the charter of the Mechanics' Fire and Marine Insurance Company, long a prosperous institution, and was an incorporator and director of the Bank of New Jersey, the Howard Savings Institu- tion, the Firemen's Insurance Company, the Republic Trust Company, the Citizens' Gas Light Company, and other local corporations. He was for many years an efficient trustee of the Trenton Asylum for the Insane, under ap- pointment by the supreme court, and was the first president of the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
He was elected in 1856 first Democratic mayor of Newark, and conducted municipal
affairs with so great wisdom and discretion that he was re-elected four times. He was unusually well equipped for such a position. Cautious, reticent, independent and firm, his conduct was uniformly even and correct yet his success never led him to unseemly self-asser- tion or personal ambition. As mayor he in- augurated a system of block maps to facilitate taxation and numbering of houses; procured the establishment of sinking funds to extinguish the city debt; brought about the purchase of private water rights and the formation of the Newark Aqueduct Board; organized a police department, a dispensary of medicines for the poor, and a board of health; and directed the codification of the city ordinances, and the modification or repeal of various obnoxious ordinances. During the civil war he made the financial affairs of the city his especial care and negotiated all public loans, and it is high tribute to him to record that all his plans were approved and adopted by the common council. In person he had an impressive presence ; he was of superior intelligence and entire sincerity, and, withal, liberal in benevolence. He was intensely fond of literature, and his evenings were devoted to his books and his library. He died in Newark, January 10, 1874.
Hon. Moses Bigelow married, February 4, 1836, Julia Ann Breckinridge Fowler, who had the advantages of the best associations and schools of her time, in Elizabethtown, Morris- town and New York, and the social benefits of several seasons in Washington City with her father, a member of congress. She was a daughter of the accomplished mineralogist, Dr. Samuel Fowler, of Franklin, Sussex county, and granddaughter of Colonel Mark Thomp- son, officer in the revolution, deputy in the provincial congress, and member of congress in Washington's time. The family home of Mr. and Mrs. Bigelow was at 1020 Broad street, New- ark. Children, born in Newark: 1. Samuel Fowler, see forward. 2. Moses, died March 26, 1897. He inherited many of the parental traits of character, and was a leading citizen of Newark during his entire active career. He was a promoter, trustee and treasurer of the Newark Technical School; trustee and treas- urer of the New Jersey Reform School for Boys ; and a governor of the Essex Club, and member of the Essex Country Club. He held several official positions without emoluments, and was several times a delegate to Democratic national and state conventions. He married Eliza Rebecca, daughter of Colonel Samuel Fowler, of Franklin, Sussex county, grand-
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daughter of General John Mifflin Brodhead, of Pennsylvania, and great-granddaughter of Colonel Robert Ogden, of New Jersey. Chil- dren : Moses, Frederic, John Ogden and Henri- etta. 3. Frederick, was a prominent citizen of Newark, much interested in religion, and for a time treasurer and vestryman of Grace Prot- estant Episcopal Church. After traveling ex- tensively for his health he died at his home, "Montrose," near Newark, July 13, 1871. He married Harriet Van Rensselaer Bleecker, of New York. Children: Julia, wife of Francis H. Gellatly, of South Orange; Harriet Van Rensselaer, and Frederica. 4. Josephine, mar- ried John C. Kirtland, of East Orange; chil- dren: Josephine, wife of Russell Colgate, of Llewellyn Park; May, and Katherine Camp- bell.
(VII) Samuel Fowler Bigelow, eldest child of Hon. Moses and Julia Ann ( Breckenridge) Bigelow, was prepared for college at Newark Academy, Ashland Hall and Freehold Insti- tute. He matriculated at Princeton College in 1853, and graduated in 1857. After the pre- scribed course of law studies under Amzi Dodd, of Newark, and Jehiel G. Shipman, of Belvi- dere, he was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an attorney at law in 1860, and as a counsellor in 1866. He was subsequently admitted to the bar of New York and California, and of vari- ous Federal courts. He has occupied various positions of importance in the line of his pro- fession. He was elected city attorney of New- ark in 1863, and judge of the Newark city court in 1868. He also received appointments as follows: From President Cleveland, as United States attorney for New Jersey; from the supreme court of New Jersey, as supreme court cominissioner ; from Chancellor William T. McGill, as special master in chancery ; from Judge Andrew Kirkpatrick, of the United States district court, United States commissioner for New Jersey. The district courts were estab- lished chiefly through his instrumentality, but he declined the position of judge of the New- ark district court tendered him by Governor Robert S. Green. He also declined the posi- tion of aide, with rank of colonel, tendered him by Governor Joseph D. Bedle. Mr. Bige- low is now actively engaged in the practice of his profession in his native city of Newark. He is unmarried.
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