USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume IV > Part 15
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CONKLIN The Conklin family of New Jersey is an off-shoot of the Easthampton, Long Island, family, which has played so prominent a part in the history of the province and state of New York, and the founder of the latter was among the earliest settlers of Salem, Massa- chusetts.
(I) Ananias Conklin, or Conkleyne, and his brother John, are both of them spoken of in the old New England records. Ananias was made a freeman at Salem, Massachusetts, May 18, 1642, and had three children baptized there. In 1650 he removed to Easthampton, Long
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Island, and his brother John to Southold, Long Island, where an old gravestone notes "Here lyeth body of Capt. John Conkelyne, born Not- tinghamshire, England, and died Southold, Long Island, April 6, 1694, aged 64 years." He was apparently unmarried. Ananias Conk- lin had four more children mentioned at East- hampton in November, 1657. His wife's name is unknown. Children : Lewis, baptized Salem, April 30, 1643; Jacob, baptized May 18, 1649; Elizabeth, baptized May 18, 1649; Jeremiah, referred to below; Cornelius; Benjamin, died 1709, married Hannah Mulford ; Hester, mar- ried George Miller.
(II) Jeremiah, son of Ananias Conklin, was born in 1634, and died March 14, 1712. In 1658 he married Mary, daughter of Lion and Mary Gardiner, who sailed from Holland, June 10, 1635, to London, and thence to Saybrook, New England. She was born August 30, 1638, and died June 15, 1727, and her father gave his name to Gardiner's Island. Children : Jeremiah, married Jane Parsons; Cornelius; David, died 1737 or 1738; Lewis, referred to below; Ananias, married Martha Stretton, or Stratton ; Mary, married Thomas Mulford.
(III) Lewis, son of Jeremiah and Mary (Gardiner ) Conklin, married. Children : Lewis, referred to below; Elizabeth, April 21, 1700; Esther, September 3, 1704; Mary, April II, 1708; Mercy, May 1, 1710; Isaac, January 25, 1713; Zerviah, January 8, 1716; Cineus, Oc- tober 19, 1718; Abigail, April 16, 1721, mar- ried Nathaniel Baker.
(IV) Lewis (2), son of Lewis (I) Conklin, was baptized in Easthamton, January 18, 1701 ; and married October 22, 1724, Elizabeth Mul- ford.
(V) Lewis Conklin, of Spring Valley, Ber- gen county, New Jersey, whom so far as we can tell from records at present known, was grandson or great-grandson of Lewis and Eliz- abeth ( Mulford) Conklin. He married Ellen Van Order, and was a farmer. Children : Lewis L., referred to below ; Albert ; Peter.
(VI) Lewis L., son of Lewis and Ellen ( Van Order) Conklin, was born in 1815, and died June II, 1879. He married Susan, dangh- ter of William and Ellen Van Blarcom, who was born August 26, 1819, and died February 5, 1905. She had no brothers, and only one sister, Martha. Children: Edward Lewis, re- ferred to below: Mary, married William D. Van Nostrand; Walter ; John L., referred to below; Emma Grinnell, living in Pasadena, California ; Judson, a clergyman in Trenton, New Jersey, married Elizabeth --: Frank.
postmaster at Paterson, New Jersey, married Susan Close ; children, Frank, Judson, Susan, Anna.
(VII) Edward Lewis, son of Lewis L. and Susan (Van Blarcom) Conklin, was born in Paterson, New Jersey, January 12, 1841. After being educated in the public schools he enter- ed his father's grocery store as a clerk, and after spending some time there he learned the sash and blind trade in the factory of William King, in Newark, where he remained until the outbreak of the civil war. After the war was over he became superintendent and man- ager for Mr. King, and in 1873 entered into partnership with him. In 1889 the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Conklin conducted the business alone until 1889, when he was ap- pointed postmaster. After serving as post- master until 1894, he was elected county audi- tor of Essex county, and has held that position ever since. In politics Mr. Conklin is a Re- publican, and he is one of the staunchest and most prominent men of his party in the county. For eight years, from 1874 to 1882, he was one of the chosen freeholders of Newark, and from 1874 until 1880 he was treasurer of the Republican county committee.
April 28, 1861, Mr. Conklin enlisted as pri- vate in Company G, Second New Jersey Vol- unteers, and was discharged holding the rank of sergeant, July 12, 1864, his regiment at that time forming part of Kearny's brigade, Army of the Potomac. His service and actions are as follows: Bull Run, July 21, 1861; West Point, May 7, 1862; Golden Farm, June 26, 1862; Gaine's Farm, June 27, 1862; Charles City Cross Roads, June 30, 1862; Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862 ; Manassas, August 27, 1862; Chantilly, September 1, 1862 ; Crampton's Pass, September 14, 1862; Antietam, September 17, 1862; Fredericksburg, December 13-14, 1862; Second Fredericksburg, May 3, 1863; Salem Heights, May 3-4, 1863; Gettysburg, Penn- sylvania, July 2-3, 1863; Fairfield, Pennsyl- vania, July 5, 1863; Williamsport, Maryland, July 6, 1863; Franktown, Maryland, July 12, 1863; Rappahannock Station, Virginia, Octo- ber 12, 1863; Second Rappahannock Station, Virginia, November 7, 1863; Mine Run, Vir- ginia, November 30, 1863 ; battle of the Wilder- ness, May 5-7, 1864; Spottsylvania, Virginia, May 8-10, 1864; Spottsylvania Court House, May 12-16, 1864; North and South Anna River, May 24, 1864; Hanover Court House, May 29, 1864; Tolopotomy Creek, May 30-31, 1864; Cold Harbor, June 1-3, 1864.
In religious conviction Mr. Conklin is a
Cortlandt Marker
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Fresbyterian. He is a member of Eureka Chapter, No. 139, F. and A. M., of Union Chapter, R. A. M., and a member of Friend- ship Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows. His clubs are the Republican Indian League, the Eighth Ward Republican Club of Newark, and Lincoln Post, No. 1I, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is past com- mander. He has been a director in the Frank- lin Savings Institution, since its organization. November 25, 1865, Mr. Conklin married, in East Orange, Leonora K. King, who was born in October, 1845. Children: I. Louis W., born June 4, 1867; married Caroline W. Shepard; child, Joseph W., lives at Loyalton, California. 2. Edward Dodd, referred to below. 3. Leroy, born December 2, 1871; married Margaret Isherwood; one child, Clif- ford; lives in New Jersey. 4. Herbert King, referred to below.
(VII) John L., son of Lewis L. and Susan (Van Blarcom) Conklin, was born in Pater- son, New Jersey, January 6, 1848. After re- ceiving his early education in the public schools he took the course in Bryant & Stratton's Busi- ness College, and entering the post-office at Paterson as a clerk he became assistant post- master and remained in that position until 1876, when he was appointed postmaster, a position which he held for twelve years. For the next three years he served as county assessor, and in 1906 he was appointed col- lector of Passaic county. He has always been a staunch Republican, and a member of the Republican county committee, of which he was treasurer for six years and chairman for twelve years. In June, 1864, he enlisted in Company B, Thirty-seventh Regiment New Jersey Vol- unteers, and received his honorable discharge in the following October. He is a member of Ivanhoe Lodge, No. 88, past chancellor of Fabiola Commandery, No. 57, Knights of Pythias, and a member of Lodge No. 60, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Paterson. He married, in Paterson, Isabella A., daughter of Cornelius and Margaret Post. who was born in Paterson, May 29, 1850, and died November 8, 1901. Children : John W., born February 26, 1872, married Kate Powers ; Joseph M., born June 2, 1878, married July 16, 1904, Emma Abildgoard ; child, Joseph Van Blarcom, born May 16, 1905.
(VIII) Edward Dodd, son of Edward Lewis and Leonora K. (King) Conklin, was born in Newark, New Jersey, September 23, 1869, and after being educated in the public schools grad-
uated from the high school in 1885. He then became a clerk of the William King Company, of which his father was one of the partners, and when his father became postmaster of Newark, Edward Dodd, became assistant post- master, a position which he held from 1891 to 1895. In November, 1895, he entered the em- ploy of the Whitehead & Hoag Company, and at the present time is general superintendent of that corporation. He is a Republican, and secretary of the board of trustees of the Pres- byterian Church in Newark. He is a member of Madison Lodge, No. 92, F. and A. M., and president of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation of Madison, New Jersey, where he has made his home. October 20, 1892, Mr. Conk- lin married Anna Matilda, daughter of Benja- min Franklin and Sarah Matilda (Eagles) Crane, who was born July 4, 1867. Children : Edward Herbert, born December 26, 1895; Leonora Francis, August 18, 1901; Anna Louise, June 27, 1906.
(VIII) Herbert King, son of Edward Lewis and Leonora K. (King) Conklin, was born June 20, 1875, in Newark, New Jersey. and is now living in that city. After attending the Newark grammar and high schools he gradu- ated from the Newark Academy, and then took the course in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. He then entered the employ of the architects, Howell & Stokes. with whom he remained until 1900, when he started in business for himself. He is a Repub- lican in politics, and a Presbyterian in relig- ious conviction. He is a member of Madison Chapter, No. 93, F. and A. M., of the Amer- ican Institute of Architects, the New Jersey Club, and the Technology clubs of Boston and New York. April 17, 1903, he married Alice Florence Munsick, who was born in Newark, April 17, 1876. Children: Marjorie Lester, born August 11, 1905; Alice Florence, Sep- tember 13, 1908.
Cortlandt Parker, sixth child of PARKER James and Penelope ( Butler) Parker, was born in the old mansion of the Parker family in Perth Amboy, June 27, 1818. He received his early educa- tion in Perth Amboy, with private instruction in the elements of Latin and Greek, and in 1832 entered Rutgers College, where he was graduated with first honors and as valedictor- ian of his class, in 1836, at the age of eighteen. Among his classmates were Joseph P. Brad- ley, afterward justice of the United States Supreme Court ; Frederick T. Frelinghuysen,
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who became attorney-general of New Jersey, United States Senator, and Secretary of State under President Arthur; William A. Newell, elected governor of New Jersey and later ap- pointed governor of Washington Territory ; Henry Waldron, for many years a member of Congress from Michigan ; James C. Van Dyke, who served as United States District Attorney for Pennsylvania; George W. Coakley, emi- nent as professor of mathematics in New York University, and others who in after life en- joyed prominence in professional, ministerial, and business pursuits.
Soon after leaving college, young Parker entered the office of Hon. Theodore Freling- huysen, of Newark, as a law student, and upon Mr. Frelinghuysen's retirement from practice to become chancellor of the New York Uni- versity he continued his professional studies under Amzi Armstrong. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney in September, 1839, and as a counsellor three years later, and began his legal career in Newark in association with two of his classmates, Joseph P. Bradley and Frederick T. Frelinghuysen. From that time throughout his life he continued in Newark without any interruption, as a practicing law- yer. At the time of his death he was the old- est as well as the most distinguished active representative of the bar of New Jersey ; two of his sons, Hon. Richard Wayne Parker and Cortland Parker Jr., being connected with him in professional business.
The son of one of the most notable leaders of political opinion in the state of New Jersey during the first half of the nineteenth century, and thrown from youth into association with many of the foremost characters of the day, as well as in friendly rivalry with other young men of aspiration and ability, he entered upon active life with high personal ideals. The earnest spirit which thus marked the beginning of his career was conspicuous through its en- tire progress, and it is in the character of the high-minded unselfish citizen of pre-eminent attainments, influence and unselfishness, that Mr. Parker is chiefly to be estimated.
In his political affiliations, both from the early influences by which he was surrounded and from his studies and reflections upon the principles of government, he followed the course pursued by his father. The latter had in youth espoused the doctrines of Hamilton and the other great Federalist fathers of the constitution, expressed at that early day in the tenets of the Federalist party and later main- tained by the Whigs, and based upon the funda-
mental ideas of the supremacy of the national government and inviolability of the National Union, encouragement to manufactures, a pro- tective tariff, and the subordination of local or schismatic preferences or tendencies in the interest of a solid Union and a broad develop- ment.
The first presidential vote of Cortlandt Parker was cast in the memorable campaign of 1810, when General William H. Harrison, the candidate of the Whig party, was elected ; and in this contest he took part with enthu- siasm, delivering political speeches and writing communications to the press upon the issues involved. In the next campaign (1844), when Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen were the Whig nominees for president and vice- president, he was also very active. He was the author of the campaign "Life of Freling- huysen," which still remains the best bio- graphical character sketch of that statesman. The commanding question at that time was concerning the proposed admission of Texas as a state, and the consequent enlargement of the slave-holding area. With a deep convic- tion of the error and danger of such a course, and a clear foresight of the future, he opposed it in speeches and articles. Clay and Freling- huysen were, however, defeated, Texas was admitted, and all the national perils which con- servative thinkers had apprehended, came in steady and terrible development. The slave power, supreme and despotic, increased its exactions, repealed the Missouri Compromise, passed the Fugitive Slave Law, and ended by denying the right of freedom to Kansas. The Whig party, weak, disrupted, and no longer existing for any definite policy, met death in the election of 1852.
In all this succession of events Mr. Parker was an advocate of the programme which presently became the basis of the new Repub- lican party, and he was one of the founders of that organization in New Jersey. He was chairman of the ratification meeting held in Newark upon the nomination of Abraham Lin- coln in 1860, and from that day until the sur- render of Lee at Appomattox he was one of the most pronounced and steadfast supporters of the whole policy of preservation of the Union and suppression of the rebellion. After the Emancipation Proclamation he took the advanced ground that the only logical end of that measure was the concession of the ballot to the freemen, as otherwise state law in the south would inaugurate a contract system which a few years would lead to the practical
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re-establishment of slavery. He presided at the state convention which first proposed that doctrine in New Jersey, delivering an address that was circulated as a campaign document in the ensuing election. Upon the original sub- mission to the New Jersey legislature of the proposed fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution, it was voted down by the Democrats in that body, an action which, in the opinion of the leaders on both sides, settled the matter so far as New Jersey was concern- ed. But Mr. Parker took a different view of the legal aspects of the subject, maintaining that the amendment might be submitted again and again until adopted. This legal view of the question carried such weight that Mr. Parker's party confidently entered upon the next electoral contest on the issue thus defined, secured the necessary majority in the legisla- ture, and duly ratified the amendment.
In his subsequent career, throughout all the changing conditions of political discussion and public events, Mr. Parker maintained the same active and patriotic interest, frequently ad- dressing his fellow-citizens on questions of the day, exercising a valuable influence by his counsels when sought by those in responsible position, and contributing to the press many papers distinguished for dignity and solidity of treatment and argument.
As a man continuously and intimately identi- fied for sixty-five years with the politics and policies of his state and the nation considered in their more elevated aspects, and sustaining a reputation of the first order for ability, ac- complishments, and character, Mr. Parker oc- cupied a unique personal position, probably seldom paralleled in the history of the country. With the single exception of a local office in his county, which, moreover, was strictly in the line of his profession as a lawyer, he was never a political office holder ; but on the other hand he uniformly declined repeated tenders of high and honorable stations, both state and national. In 1857 he was appointed by Governor Newell prosecutor of the pleas of Essex county, and for a period of ten years continued to serve in that capacity. In the same year as that of his appointment as prosecutor, his name was brought before the state legislature for the position of chancellor ; later a Republican con- vention nominated him for congress, after he had announced that even if nominated he would decline; President Grant requested him to ac- cept a judgeship in the court for settling the Alabama claims ; President Hayes offered him the ministry to Russia; President Arthur ten-
dered him that to Vienna-but all these digni- ties were declined. In his earlier career he was on two occasions proposed for attorney- general of New Jersey, when that honor was one not uninviting from his professional point of view, but, owing probably as much to his reputation for independence of political influ- ences and considerations as to any other cir- cumstances, he was not appointed. He was many times voted for in the legislature as a candidate for the United States Senate.
Aside from the strict sphere of politics, he served in several honorary positions, notably as a commissioner to settle the disputed bound- ary lines between New Jersey and Delaware, and as a reviser of the laws of New Jersey in conjunction with Chief-Justice Beasley and Justice Depue. In the disputed presidential election of 1876 he was sent by President Grant to witness the counting of the ballots in Louisiana, and was complimented for his fairness by opponents.
"It was largely due to Parker's opinion, pitted against that of other eminent lawyers, that the state riparian rights were safeguarded and dedicated to the school fund at the time railroad interests were seeking to gobble the barbor frontage without payment. He was a leading author of the general railroad law. He was responsible for bringing into the supreme court the question of the constitutionality of electing assemblymen by districts, in which the court sustained his view, stopped gerrymander- ing, and reinstated the system of electing by counties. He was senior counsel and manager of the cause of the Republican senators who were upheld by the supreme court in the famous deadlock case, resulting from the 'rump senate' fight in 1894."
As an orator, Mr. Parker enjoyed a reputa- tion for force, scholarship, and the particular type of eloquence appealing to the intelligence of men, which well accords with the dignity and strength manifested in his public career, his writings, and his well-known individual characteristics. In his personality he is remark- able for a physical constitution of great vital- ity, nurtured throughout life by a vigorous but orderly regimen ; possessed of a command- ing figure, and even to the end of his life as erect as in youth ; with a distinction of manners and address and a nature of warm sensibilities and strong attachments and sympathies.
Mr. Parker's published writings on topics of current or general interest include the fol- lowing, among many other papers and ad- dresses : "The Moral Guilt of the Rebellion,"
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"Philip Kearny, Soldier and Patriot," "Our Triumphs and Our Duties," "New Jersey ; Her Present and Future," "Abraham Lincoln," "The Open Bible, or Tolerant Christianity," "Alexander Hamilton and William Paterson," "The Three Successful Generals of the Army of the Potomac : Mcclellan, Meade and Grant," "Justice Joseph P. Bradley," and "Sir Mat- thew Hale: The Lawyer's Best Exemplar."
He held at one time the honorable position of president of the American Bar Association. Like his father and grandfather, he was active- ly identified with the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was a lay delegate to many dio- cesan conventions, which in their deliberations were largely guided by his parliamentary knowledge. He received the degree of LL. D. from Rutgers College and Princeton Univer- sity, both in the same year.
In December, 1905, a complimentary banquet and reception was tendered to him at the Wal- dorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City by the bench and bar of New Jersey, in testimony of the honor and affection in which he was held as the oldest, most distinguished, and most esteemed member of the legal profession in his state, addresses being delivered by eminent judges, lawyers, and public men of New Jer- sey and other states. Upon this occasion a testimonial signed by many former students in his law office, was presented to him. He lived in Newark, with a summer residence in Perth Amboy, his boyhood home. He married, September 15, 1857, Elizabeth Wolcott Stites, daughter of Richard Wayne and Elizabeth (Cooke) Stites, of Morristown, New Jersey.
The Bodines of New York, New BODINE Jersey, and indeed of America, have their origin in the family of le Boudin or de Baudain, and the antiquity of the surname is attested by the French char- ters of the twelfth century, the family having settled in Cambray, France, originally a dis- trict in the Low Countries, as early as 1126. In France the family has borne an honorable part in war and peace, and has given to the world many noted characters, among them Jean Bodin, the famous political thinker and philosophical reasoner, and, if Machiavelli be excepted, the father of political science. Others of the name who acquired distinction were Gaspard de Bodin de Boisrenarce, captain of the Grena- diers of Guienne, Chevalier de st Louis and brevet-major of France ; and also Jean Francis Bodin, the historian, his son Felix Bodin, the author, and Dr. Pierre Joseph Francois Bodin,
the famous deputy for the Department Loire, who voted for the deportation of Louis XVI.
(I) Jean Bodine, of the Cambray family, is said to have removed to Medis, in the province of Saintonge, France, where his son was born. He was doubtless a Huguenot, and left the country of his nativity to find an asylum in other lands, making it is thought a short stay in Holland as well as in England before com- ing to New York, where he arrived before November 3, 1677. He settled on Staten Island before 1686, and died there during the latter part of 1694. Of his wife or children nothing more is known than that he had a son Jean, referred to below.
(II) Jean (2), son of Jean (I) Bodine, was, according to a tradition universal in the family, born in France, May 9, 1645, and died in New Jersey some time after March, 1736. With liis second wife, Esther, her parents and her brother, he was naturalized in London, Eng- land, March 21, 1682, and for a short period he resided at Rye in Sussex, where at least two of his children were born. Emigrating to the new world, we find him living on Staten Island when his father died; but his attention being attracted to the undulating fertile land of Middlesex county, New Jersey, he pur- chased, May 12, 1701, eighty acres of land in East Jersey, opposite Staten Island, at Charles Neck. He married (first) January 1I, 1680, Maria, daughter of Jean Crocheron, one of the emigrés to Staten Island; (second) Esther, daughter of Francois and Jeanne Susanne Bri- don. Children, five by each wife : Isaac, Jacob, Peter, Abraham, Vincent, Marianna, John, Eleazer, Esther, Francis (referred to below).
(III) Francis, son of Jean and Esther ( Bri- don) Bodine, was born probably in England, and died some time after March, 1736. Until 1726 he was a resident of Staten Island, in which year, being charged with some offence against the king, he "came into Court, and. rather than contend with the King, confessed judgment and submitted to a fine." He mar- ried Maria, daughter of James and Mary (Mulliner) Dey, of Staten Island, and had probably other children than those given. Chil- dren : Francis, referred to below ; John, and Vincent.
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