USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume IV > Part 55
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BERRY John Berry, the first member of the family of whom we have defi- nite information, was a native of Northampton county, Virginia. Among his children was William Benjamin, referred to below.
(II) William, son of John Berry, came to New Jersey in the employ of the Merritt Wrecking Company, as captain of one of the branches of the firm. He married Margaret, daughter of Joseph and Elma Adams, of Bur- lington county, New Jersey.
(III) William Alpheus, only child of Will- iam Benjamin and Margaret (Adams) Berry, was born at New Gretna, Burlington county, New Jersey, December II, 1868, and is now living at Asbury Park, New Jersey. For his early education he was sent to the public schools, after which he attended and graduated from a business college in Trenton. In 1888 he came to Asbury Park in the interests of Henry Steinbach, and in the following year became a clerk in the Asbury Park National Bank, and afterwards entered the employ of Hon. F. F. Appleby. He then formed a con- nection with the Asbury Park and Ocean Grove Bank, where he remained until June I, 1900, when he assisted in organizing the First National Bank of Belmar, and accepted the
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position of cashier of that institution, which he held until September 1I, 1907, when he became cashier of the Seacoast National Bank, a position which he now holds. Mr. Berry is a member of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, of the Asbury Park Wheelmen, and attends the First Presbyterian Church of Asbury Park. He married, in Asbury Park, November 5, 1906, Elizabeth, daughter of William S. and Amanda (Dan- ser) Gravatt, who was born August 28, 1867, and whose brothers and sisters are Thomas T., Aaron D., Martin D., Jennie, and Emma Gravatt.
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CLOSE Charles Mollison Close, of Orange, is the descendant on his father's side of an old New York family, and on his mother's side of a New Jersey family which traces back its ancestry through John Campbell, cousin to the Duke of Argyle and to Lord Neill Campbell, who emigrated to this country as the representative and spe- cial agent of one of the proprietors of East Jersey in 1684, and whose lineage runs back without a break to Diarmid O'Dubin, A. D. 404.
(I) Monmouth Henry, father of Charles Mollison Close, died in Bound Brook, New Jersey, in 1905. In religious conviction he was an earnest Protestant, and in politics a Republican. He was essentially a student and scholar, and for many years he was a school principal in New York state, where he was regarded as one of the ablest of that state's many able educators. He married Margaret, daughter of Archibald Campbell Mollison, of Bound Brook, who was born in 1841, and died in 1909. Children, all living in Bound Brook : Henry Campbell; Edwin C. Leathes, married Catherine S. Nevius; Charles Mollison, re- ferred to below : Albert, married Beulah Shock ; Jeannette, married J. Frank Suydam.
(II) Charles Mollison, son of Monmouth Henry and Margaret (Mollison) Close, was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, June 6, 1874, and is now living in Orange, New Jersey, where he is cashier of the Second National Bank. After receiving his education in the public school, Mr. Close went to New York City, where he obtained a position with the Atlantic Trust Company, and by his diligence and ability won for himself in 1895 promotion to the post of teller in that institution. Some time after this he resigned this position in order to become loan clerk and trust officer in the Windsor Trust Company, and still later
gave this up and accepted his election as assist- ant cashier of the Union Exchange Bank. In August, 1908, he came to Orange and began his work as cashier of the Second National Bank. In politics Mr. Close is a Republican, and in religious convictions a Methodist.
August 3, 1900, Mr. Close married, in Jer- sey City, Carrie Blackledge, daughter of George Edward and Helen (Tyler) Scott, who was born February 8, 1876, and is the sister of William L. and Charles C. Scott. Children : Charles Mollison, born November 5, 1904; Douglas Campbell, March 2, 1906.
LEWIS That branch of the Lewis family which is now under consideration is of French extraction, and the original form of the patronymic was Louis. The appearance of the family in America is coincident with one of the most awful chap- ters of history. Under the liberal rule of Henri IV., king of France, the adherents of the Reformed religion (known as Protestants, or Huguenots) had enjoyed freedom of wor- ship for more than three-fourths of a century, and numbered upwards of seven hundred con- gregations when Louis XIV. gave his signa- ture to the infamous revocation of the Edict of Nantes, their charter of religious liberty. As a result of this inhuman and despotic meas- ure, four hundred thousand Frenchmen fled from their homes, many of choice and more under compulsion, rather than abandon their religion and conform to the established church. In larger part they were among the most in- dustrious, the most intelligent, and most relig- ious people of the land. They took refuge in Great Britain, Holland, Switzerland and Prus- sia, and to all these countries brought the best qualities of manhood, and became leaders in science, art mechanics and commerce. Of these, the first of his name to appear on Amer- ican soil was Jean Louis, who was knighted on the field of battle by Henry of Navarre, of glorious memory as a stout upholder of the Reformed religion. In what relationship he stood to the line herein traced is not to be as- certained, but it is entirely presumable that the family stock was the same.
(I) Of these Huguenots was L'Mander Louis, who was born in the city of Paris, or its immediate vicinity, about the year 1663. At the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he was about twenty-two years of age. With many of his compatriots he made his way to Switzerland, and from thence to America about the close of the seventeenth century,
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probably in the year 1695. At the age of thirty- one years he is found in Connecticut, where he married and reared a family. That region was then a wilderness, and the making of a home called out the sturdiest qualities of man.
(II) L'Mander (2), youngest son of L'Man- der (1) Louis, was born in Connecticut. He passed his life in Connecticut, in the vicinity of New Haven. He married, and brought up a large family, nearly all boys. He appears to have anglicized the family name, giving it the form of Lewis.
(III) Isaac, son of L'Mander (2) Lewis, was born in the year 1755, on the family home- stead near New Haven, Connecticut. There he passed his earlier years, obtaining such edu- cation as was afforded by the short-term coun- try school of that day. At the age of seven- teen he removed to Ashfield, Massachusetts, and lived there until the breaking out of the revolutionary war. His ancestral qualities and hatred of oppression there asserted themselves, and in April, 1775, at the age of twenty years, he enlisted as a private in Captain Webster's company, Colonel Bailey's Massachusetts regi- ment, and served therein until after the battle of Bunker Hill, in which memorable engage- ment he displayed conspicuous courage and gallantry. He then re-enlisted in the company of Captain Hubbard, and under command of General Benedict Arnold marched into Canada and bore himself bravely in the memorable as- sault upon Quebec, December 31, 1775. Sub- sequently he served for one month under Cap- tain Jennings, and participated in the battle of Bennington, Vermont. He served in the com- pany of Captain Benjamin Phillips, Colonel Well's regiment, in the battle of Saratoga, afterward under Captain Watson, in Colonel Bailey's regiment, and was present at the exe- cution of Major Andre. After the close of the war, Isaac Lewis removed to western New York, settling in Genessee county. He later removed to Hamilton county, Ohio, where he died in 1831, at the advanced age of seventy- six years, honored for his worth as a man, and for his patriotic service in the war of the revo- lution.
(IV) L'Mander Lewis, youngest son of Isaac Lewis, was born in Genessee county. New York, in the year 1803. He was named for his grandfather and great-grandfather, out of a desire of his parents to preserve a name made honorable by the Huguenot founder of the family in America .* He was
but a few years old when his parents removed to Ohio. In 1823 he there married Mary Dodge, who was born in Castine, Maine, in 1803, daughter of Rev. Hezekiah Dodge, a noted itinerant Baptist minister. Soon after his marriage, L'Mander Lewis settled on a tract of land in the wilderness of southern Ohio, at North Bend, sixteen miles below Cin- cinnati, on the Ohio river. Here he made a farm and lived for many years, and enjoyed the intimate friendship of General William Henry Harrison, his near neighbor, and to whom had been made the large land grant including the tract purchased by Lewis. While residing here Mr. Lewis devoted much of his attention to the study of medicine, for which he had long had a natural predilection and a desire for the acquisition of practical knowl- edge. He supplemented his own well directed investigations and personal study by a thor- ough course of technical study at Cincinnati, and became well informed in his profession. He later removed to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and thence to Union county, in the same state, where he engaged actively in the practice of his profession. He was a man of distinct individuality, strong intellectual grasp, and intense sympathy, in every way well qualified to minister to suffering humanity, and he en- joyed the respect and confidence of the com- munity and achieved large professional suc- cess. Later, Dr. Lewis, with a large family of children, removed to western Missouri. Here he found himself confronted by human slav- ery-an evil to which he was inflexibly opposed, and after remaining only about a year he returned to Indiana, in order to rear his children in an atmosphere of freedom. Set- tling in Kosciusko county, he purchased a farm, and also continued in the practice of his profession. After three years, in 1849, he removed to Porter county, purchasing a farm near Valparaiso. Here he built up a large medical practice, which he continued with suc- cess until the infirmities of age necessitated his retirement. His influence upon the com- munity was most useful, and he was uni- versally esteemed. In material ways he pros- pered, and acquired, in addition to his original farm property, six hundred and forty acres of fine agricultural land in one body, lying on Morgan Prairie, in close proximity to his orig- inal purchase, and also two hundred acres con- tiguous to the former. This enabled him to consummate a long cherished purpose of giv- ing to each of his eleven children a substantial farm. On his retirement from professional
*In an early day, in some branches of the family, the name L'Mander was anglicized to Lyman.
Engraved by Com gall Brothers New York
Sincerely yours M. L. Lewis
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labors he took up his abode in the then village of Valparaiso, where he died September 3, 1880, rounding out a life of seventy-seven years, crowned with signal usefulness and honor. His widow survived him ten years, dying in November, 1890, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years.
(V) Sylvester A., son of Dr. L'Mander Lewis, was born in Butler county, Ohio, in February, 1833. He there received his early education, and finished his school studies in Porter county, Indiana, whither his parents had removed when he was in his sixteenth year. For several years he conducted his farm, and later removed to Valparaiso, In- diana. He is a Republican in politics, served as township trustee for two terms while living on his farm, and for many years past has occupied the position of town- ship assessor, one for which he is eminently well qualified by reason of his intimate knowl- edge of property values. He married Maria Hansford, daughter of John Hansford, a pros- perous farmer and stock dealer. Children : Marion L., of whom further ; Sarah, married Martin Duggan, a farmer; Estella, married Murray Ray, a boot and shoe dealer, residing in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada; Dotha, married E. G. Osborne, a lawyer, of Valparaiso, In- diana.
(VI) Marion L'Mander Lewis, eldest child of Sylvester A. and Maria (Hansford) Lewis, was born in Valparaiso, Indiana, July 25, 1863. He received a practical education in the Valparaiso Normal School (now Val- paraiso University), including a thorough commercial course. He taught for some time in neighborhood schools, and subsequently removed to Topeka, Kansas, where he held a responsible position in the general offices of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway. Re- turning to Valparaiso, Indiana, he served for some time as deputy county treasurer. In 1892 he entered the employ of the Lewis Pub- lishing Company of Chicago, of which his uncles, Samuel T. and Benjamin F. Lewis, were and are proprietors ; both are grandsons of Isaac Lewis, the revolutionary patriot. In 1897 he came to Essex county, New Jersey, as representative of the firm, and conducted the organization for and completion of the publication of a genealogical history of that county. Later he opened a branch company office in New York city, and published various valuable genealogical editions relating to Long Island, the New Jersey Coast, the State of Vermont, and others of important counties in
Pennsylvania and other states. In January, 1907, he organized the Lewis Historical Pub- lishing Company of New York, of which he is president and general manager, and has since been actively engaged in genealogical and his- torical publications covering the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and various prominent educational institutions.
Mr. Lewis married, December 23, 1905, Mabel Edna Mosher, daughter of Eugene Henry and Alice (Dean) Mosher, of Michi- gan. Children: Bruce Mosher, born October 9, 1906, and Koradine, born April 24, 1909. Shortly after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis took up their permanent residence in West Nutley, New Jersey. They are members of the Methodist Church there. Mr. Lewis is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the New York Press Club.
REED David Reed, the first of the line herein traced of whom we have definite information, was a member of a well known South Jersey family. He was a tailor by trade and a hotel keeper by occupation, and was prominent and active in all that concerned the welfare of the com- munity in which he resided. He died before he attained the age of fifty. His widow, Lodemia Reed, married (second) a Mr. Barnes. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Reed: Lewis, David, Samuel, George, Charles, Will- iam, Joseph, James, Thomas S., Henry, Eliza Miller, and two who died young. .
(II) Dr. Lewis Reed, eldest son of David and Lodemia Reed, was born November 10, 1806, in Millville, New Jersey, died at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, March 22, 1898, being then the oldest living graduate of Jefferson Medical College. He followed the trade of tailor for a number of years, but later studied medicine, graduating at Jefferson Medical Col- lege, and followed that profession throughout the active years of his life. By the merest incident of his gunning in the woods about Weymouth and connecting with a train to Atlantic City, he made his first visit to the latter city when the population was too small to support a physician, but arrangements were made by people whom he met whereby five hundred dollars a year was guaranteed, and accordingly he came to live there permanently in 1857, removing from Millville, New Jersey, and became the first physician of that now famous watering place. He was elected mayor of Atlantic City in 1861, and also served as postmaster for eleven years, living under the
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administration of all but the first two presi- dents of the United States. Dr. Reed married Susanna Stanger, born in 1810, of German parentage, who died in 1893. Her grandfather established the first glass works in New Jer- sey. Children, all born in Millville, New Jer- sey : I. Caroline Duffy, born 1828; married Dr. Charles Souder ; children : i. Charles, born 1858, married Fanny Tompkins; children : Caroline, Charles, Mary, Elizabeth, Ethel and Lewis ; ii. Lewis, married Louise Hutchinson, M. D .; iii. George, married Mary Norris. 2. Francis L., born 1830; married (second) Rebecca Cornelia; children : Frank and Laura, both deceased. 3. Edward Stone, see forward. 4. Lewis Jr., born 1836; married Phoebe Hamilton ; children : i. Susie, married (first) Frank Barber; (second) William Bell ; ii. Rena, married Thomas Murphy. 5. Dr. Thomas Kemble, born 1839; married Annie Hutton; children : i. Ralph, died in infancy ; ii. Ella, married Walter Norris, of Philadel- phia. 6. George, born 1842; married Alice Parker ; five children living : Hattie Applegate, Carrie Lake, Alice, George and Laura; George Reed is a Methodist minister. 7. Joseph Gaskill, born 1846; married Sarah Lee ; children : Irving, Susie A., Charlotte. 8. Mary H., born 1848; married Charles K. McPher- son. 9. Ella, born 1853.
(III) Edward Stone Reed, son of Dr. Lewis and Susanna (Stanger) Reed, was born in Millville, New Jersey, 1833, died December 12, 1895, at Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was a successful business man of Atlantic City, opening the first drug store there, and was chosen to fill offices of trust and responsi- bility, serving in the capacity of city clerk from 1861 to 1867, school superintendent nine years, and school trustee several years, his incumbency of office being noted for efficiency and thoroughness. He married, in 1858, Eliz- abeth C. Gilkey, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, born in Millville, New Jersey, 1838. Children : I. Eugene Lewis, see forward. 2. Charles Sumner, married Ray Aldrich ; children : Eliz- abeth and Lilias. 3. Oras, unmarried. 4. Delfeo R., deceased ; was unmarried. 5. Hor- tense, unmarried. 6. Alga R., married Dr. Arthur Wescott, dentist, of Atlantic City; child, Eugene Reed Wescott. 7. Talbot R., married Mrs. Susie Hipple, widow. 8. Edward Stone Jr., unmarried. 9. Thoesda, married Lewis B. Scull.
(IV) Dr. Eugene Lewis Reed, son of Edward Stone and Elizabeth C. (Gilkey) Reed, was born at Atlantic City, New Jersey,
March 20, 1859. He attended the public schools of Atlantic City, Pennington Semin- ary, New Jersey, and then matriculated in the College of Pharmacy, Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, graduating therefrom in 1879, and after some service as a druggist, entered Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1882, grad- uating as. Doctor of Medicine in 1884, and since then has been engaged in the successful practice of his profession at Atlantic City. He is a member of the American Medical Association, New Jersey Medical Society, Atlantic County Medical Society, and Phila- delphia Medical Club. He served as vice- president and secretary of the Atlantic County and New Jersey Medical associations, and was a member of the Atlantic City Board of Health for four years. He is a member of the Methodist church of Atlantic City, and a Republican in politics. He is a member of the City Troop of Atlantic City, an independent military organization, and a charter member of the Morris Guards of Atlantic City, of which he was elected surgeon for life, ranking as lieutenant. Dr. Reed derives pleasure and recreation from the rod and gun, being an enthusiastic sportsman. He married, October 4, 1892, Lilias May, daughter of J. A. and Elizabeth Sweigard, the former of whom was general superintendent of the Reading rail- road.
Tunis Denise, ancestor of the DENISE branch of the Denise family here under consideration, emigrated from Binnick, province of Utrecht, Holland, in 1638. He married Phebe F. Searles, of English parentage. They settled in Kings county, New York.
(II) Denise, son of Tunis and Phebe F. (Searles) Denise, was born in 1664. He mar- ried Helena Cortlejon. They located in Mon- mouth county, New Jersey, near Marlboro.
(III) Tunis (2), son of Denise and Helena (Cortlejon) Denise, was born June 15, 1704. He married (first) Catharine Van Dyke, 1726. They had one daughter who married, 1759, Samuel Forman. He married (second) Fran- cinche, daughter of Daniel Hendrickson, 1791. They had nine children, two sons and seven daughters, among whom were: I. Catharine, married John Forman, judge of county courts. 2. Anna, married David Forman, brigadier- general of Monmouth militia in the revolution. 3. Jane, married Cornelius R. Conover, De- cember 5, 1758, and their daughter Catharine married John Van Derveer, and was maternal
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grandmother of Vice-President Hobart. 4. Phebe, married, October 19, 1765, Rev. Ben- jamin Du Bois, pastor for fifty-eight years of the Dutch Reformed Church of Marlboro; they were the parents of ten children, and all were communicants of the church. 5. Mary, married, July 31, 1767, John Schenck, a fam- ous leader of the militia during the revolution ; the British offered a large reward for his cap- ture; upon one occasion, when they were searching for him, he was hidden under a hay stack and heard them talking of firing the same. 6. Denise, married, 1771, Catherine, daughter of Garrett and Jane (Conover) Schenck; Denise Denise was a major of militia, also a judge of county courts during and subsequent to the revolution. 7. Daniel, see forward.
(IV) Daniel, son of Tunis (2) and Fran- cinche (Hendrickson) Denise, was born in 1748. He was a farmer by occupation. He was honored by the people of his town, hav- ing held the office of county collector for forty . years, keeping the money and disbursing the same from the old Denise homestead, there being no banks at that period. The homestead was located about two miles out of Freehold, on the road to Long Branch, this having been in the family for about two hundred years. Mr. Denise was a member of the Dutch Re- formed church, and an old line Whig in poli- tics. He married (first) April 18, 1771, Jane Schenck, born 1754, buried beside her husband in the old burying-yard near East Freehold. Their children : Garret, Catharine, Tunis, Will- iam, Jane, Sarah, Daniel, John Schenck, see forward, Denise. He married (second) Mary Stilwell. Daniel Denise died in 1823, aged seventy-five years.
(V) John Schenck, son of Daniel and Jane (Schenck) Denise, was born at Freehold, New Jersey, September 30, 1796. He followed the occupation of farming, having extensive land interests. He was prominent in the affairs of his native town, serving as president of several business organizations, director in a bank, and president of public road improvements. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed church, and was a Republican in politics. He held a lieutenancy in the militia, those being the times when all able-bodied men were obliged to drill. He married, February 3, 1819, Cath- arine, born April 1, 1800, daughter of W. I. and Margaret (Denise) Thompson, and grand- daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Conover) Thompson. Margaret (Denise) Thompson was born March 25, 1775, of Dutch descent.
Children : I. Tunis, born May 21, 1821 ; mar- ried (first) Mary Cook, (second) Alice Hen- drickson, (third) Matilda Tunis; children : William and Frank. 2. William, July 12, 1824; married Jane Campbell ; children : Will- iam, John and Fred. 3. Daniel, December 14, 1827 ; married Jane Post ; child, Ada. 4. Sarah Jane, October 20, 1831 ; married Peter Jack- son ; children : William, Kate and Florence. 5. John Henry, December, 1833, see forward. 6. Sidney C., January 8, 1839; married Lydia Conover; children: Edwin and Mary. 7. David D., September 23, 1840; see forward. 8. Rasha, November 5, 1842; married Louisa Miers ; child, Charles. All the children of Mr. and Mrs. Denise were born at the Denise homestead at Freehold, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Denise celebrated their fifty-fifth anni- versary, and enjoyed a married life of sixty years duration.
(VI) John Henry, son of John Schenck and Catharine (Thompson) Denise, was born on the homestead farm at Freehold, New Jer- sey, December, 1833, the property being in the possession of the Denise family for six gener- ations. He was educated in the local district school and the Freehold Institute, graduating from the latter institution. After conducting farming operations for thirty years, Mr. De- nise added the manufacture of commercial fertilizers, connecting this with novel experi- mental work with different formulas for special crops, and the outcome of this experi- mental work has been a great uplift to the agricultural interests of that section of the state. Since attaining his majority he has affiliated with the Republican party, and has held a few minor public positions, not being so greatly interested in politics as in religious work. He is a member of the Baptist church of Freehold, in which he has served as deacon for forty-six years, Sunday school superinten- dent and teacher for fifty-one years, and treas- urer for twenty-eight years, these offices clearly showing the interest he has taken in the same. He has also served as president of the Monmouth County Sunday School Associa- tion, member of the executive committee of the state work, president of the Monmouth County Baptist Association, and member of the executive committee of the state work. He is also serving in the capacity of president of the Monmouth County Board of Agriculture ; vice-president of Monmouth County Agricul- tural Society; president of public improve- ment organizations, such as road building, and master of Monmouth Grange, Patrons of
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