USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume IV > Part 69
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(V) Peter, son of Roelof and Deborah (Cortelyou) Voorhees, was born in Flatlands, about 1730. He settled in the vicinity of New Brunswick, and married Sophia Van de Boogard. Children: I. Jacobus or James, referred to below. 2. Margareta, baptized April 1, 1753. 3. Neeltje, baptized June 26, 1756. 4. Abraham. 5. Christina. 6. Jannetje. 7. Helena.
(VI) Jacobus or James, son of Peter and Sophia (Van de Boogard) Voorhees, was bap- tized in New Brunswick, March 17, 1751. He married Maria Doty. Children: I. John, referred to below. 2. Maria, baptized Decem- ber 7, 1776.
(VII) John, son of Jacobus or James and Maria (Doty) Voorhees, married Aletta Wort- man. Children: I. James, born March II, 1796; married, May 3, 1817, Rachel (Hixon) Hall; five children. 2. Maria, married Ben- jamin Auten; two children. 3. John Wort- man, baptized August 3, 1800; married Mar- garet Deforrest ; nine children. 4. Sarah, mar- ried, June 6, 1821, David Lewis ; five children. 5. Jane Chivis, baptized November 17, 1805 ; married Nathan Auten ; ten children. 6. Dan- iel Spader, referred to below. 7. Elizabeth, baptized May 12, 1811, died in infancy. 8. William, baptized October 6, 1815, died in infancy. 9. Alletta, baptized October 6, 1815, twin with William; married Runyon Harris ; six children.
(VIII) Daniel Spader, son of John and Alletta (Wortman) Voorhees, was born at
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Somerville, Somerset county, New Jersey, November 18, 1807, baptized December 27, 1808, and died in Westfield, New Jersey, Feb- ruary 7, 1876. At first he lived on a farm in Somerset county, but later removed to Somer- ville, where he remained until 1852, when he went to Elizabeth, where he remained until 1869, when he finally removed to Morristown. He married, in Somerville, Mary Louise Compton, born December 8, 1818, died Janu- ary 5, 1892, daughter of Hall Doty, a prom- inent man of Somerset county. . Children: I. William H. P., baptized July 8, 1840; married Cornelia Casterline. 2. Mary J. Kerr, born July 13, 1842; married Seaman. Williams, of Plainfield. 3. Tobias D., of Newark, New Jersey. 4. Sarah Aletta Wortman, born Jan- uary II, 1745; married -
Vroom. 5. Anna L., married William H. Williams, of Elizabeth. 6. Daniel Spader, referred to below.
(IX) Daniel Spader (2), son of Daniel Spader (I) and Mary Louise Compton (Doty) Voorhees, was born in Somerville, Somerset county, New Jersey, August 15, 1852, and is now living in Morristown, New Jersey. When a small boy Daniel S. Voorhees was taken with his parents' family to Elizabeth, Union county, New Jersey, where he received his education, and for some time sold newspapers at the rail- way station in Elizabeth, and also worked in a hardware store. In 1869 he removed to Morristown, and June 1, 1870, being then eighteen years of age, became a clerk in the office of Richard Spear, county clerk of Morris county. Although a Republican, in 1876 he was made deputy clerk by William McCarty, the incumbent of the office, and who himself was a Democrat. Mr. Voorhees occupied that position and discharged his duties with such ability and scrupulous fidelity that in 1898 he received the Republican nomination for county clerk and was elected by a majority of twelve hundred. During his term he filled the office with so much satisfaction and added so much to his personal popularity that he was renom- inated, and at the election was re-elected by the surprising majority of thirty-five hundred. He had spent altogether the remarkable period of thirty-seven years in the office of the county clerk as employee and as clerk, and during all that time took up the study of law with John M. Betts, George Forsythe, and the firm of Quayle & Vreeland, and was admitted to the New Jersey bar in March, 1896. On February 14, 1907, in a joint meeting of the legislature he was chosen state treasurer for a full term
of three years to succeed Frank O. Briggs, who had resigned the office to accept election of United States senator, and he entered upon the duties of his office March 1, 1907, and was re-elected in 1910. When a young man he also served for five years as town clerk of Morristown. Mr. Voorhees enjoys the distinc- tion of having nearly as many Democratic as Republican friends in Morris county. A loyal member of his party and active in his support, he is of such broadmindedness and liberality that his personal popularity is in no way im- paired by his political views and action. He is a great favorite in social circles, a member of many clubs, and an ardent devotee of the art of Isaac Walton. Since 1903 he has been a member of the State Republican committee.
Mr. Voorhees married, January 28, 1874, Frances L., daughter of W. W. White, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, who was born January 18, 1856.
MORRELL Thomas Morrel, supposed to have been of English descent, and who may have come to America by way of Holland, was allotted a plantation-lot at Gravesend, New York, in 1648, which he sold in 1653 to Am- brose London. On March 29, 1659, he leased of William Teller plantation-lot Number two at Gravesend, as recorded in the town records of that place. A Thomas Morrell located at Mespat Kills, Newton, Queens county, New York, as early as 1663 and died in or about 1704 leaving four sons, Thomas, Samuel, Joseph and Jonathan. In 1686 a Thomas Morrell Jr. was among the patentees of New- ton. He made his mark instead of signing his name to various documents in the early rec- ords of the town, and was the ancestor of the Newtown family of Morrells. He may have been a nephew of John of Gravesend.
(I) John Morrell was one of the first set- tlers of Gravesend, Long Island, under the Dutch government at New Amsterdam in 1646, where he was allotted a plantation-lot. He married, October, 1650, Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Cornwell. An inventory of his estate was made January 15, 1656, and entered on the Gravesend records, summing up to the value of nineteen hundred and twenty-eight guilders. He also made his mark to town documents, as was the custom of that time.
(II) John (2), eldest son of John (1) and Elizabeth (Cornwell) Morrell, was born in Gravesend, Long Island, probably in 1651. After his father's death he evidently sold his
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property in Gravesend and removed to Hemp- stead, Long Island, where we find him rec- orded as owning a fifty-acre lot in 1694.
(III) John (3), son of John (2) Morrell, was assessor of the town of Hempstead for many successive years from 1778. He is said to have been a warden of St. George's Church, Hempstead, 1776-83, and an important citizen of the town.
(IV) John (4), son of John (3) Morrell, married (first) Phoebe, daughter of Richard Thorne, of North Hempstead; (second), April 20, 1785, Ann White, by whom he had chil- dren : I. Susan, died unmarried. 2. James. 3. Phoebe, married Mr. Allen. 4. Elizabeth, mar- ried Benjamin Hicks. 5. William. 6. Sarah, married Dr. Chapman of Flushing, Long Island. 7. Henry. 8. Richard (q. v.) .
(V) Richard, youngest child of John (4) and Ann (White) Morrell, was born in Hemp- stead, Long Island, New York, December 19, 1799. He married, in Hempstead, Long Island, March 3, 1825, Mary Elizabeth Poole; they had two children, both of whom died young. The mother died April 2, 1828, and Richard Morrell married (second) at Little Neck, Long Island, but we find no record of her maiden name. By this marriage three children were born, two died in infancy; the third, Robert Morrell, born in Passaic, New Jersey, Feb- ruary 21, 1836, married Sarah Latham, daughter of Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill (2) (1832-1881) of Great Neck, North Hemp- stead, Long Island, and granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill (1746-1831), the celebrated physician, statesman, educator and diplomatist. Robert and Sarah Latham (Mitchill) Morrell had children : Robert L., Julia, Edwin, Monroe and Albert. Richard Morrell married (third) Emily Louise, daugh- ter of Alanson and Mary (Butterworth) Ran- dal, of Newburgh, New York, and sister of Colonel A. M. Randal, U. S. A. She was born in Newburgh, New York, August 11, 1830, and by this marriage she had one child, Rich- ard (2) (q. v.) After his marriage he lived in Passaic, and later in Jersey City, New Jersey, where his son was born. Richard Morrell (I) died at Manhasset, Little Neck, Long Island, June 7, 1858, and his widow married (second) Dr. Richard A., son of Dr. Garrit and Eliza- beth Anderson (Zabriskie) Terhune, of Pas- saic, New Jersey, and a descendant in the seventh generation from Albert Albertsen, the French Huguenot immigrant to New Amster- dam before 1640, the line of descent being Albert (2) ; Richard; Nicholas; Richard N .;
Dr. Garrit and Dr. Richard A. Terhune, the husband of Louise (Randal) Morrell Ter- hune.
Richard Morrell was a resident of New Jer- sey after about 1834, when he became clerk in the retail grocery house of Richard Will- iams in New York City. The confinement and long hours incident to this business proved disastrous to his health, brought up as he had been in the freedom of country life on the farm, and he located in the lumber business at Passaic, New Jersey, which was at the time the shipping port of Paterson and Northern New Jersey. The business was formed under the partnership name of Morrell & Post, Major Post being junior partner. This change in business and environment not only greatly improved the health of Mr. Morrell, but at the same time proved financially successful, and the amount of business handled increased year by year, and in the meridian of its prosperity Mr. Morrell sold out his interest to William S. Anderson, and on the death of Mr. Ander- son was organized as the Anderson Lumber Company, which is still in a flourishing busi- ness condition in 1909. Mr. Morrell then be- came associated in the lumber business in Jer- sey City, New Jersey, with Isaac Vanderbeck, as Morrell & Vanderbeck, who carried on the business, occupying the most extensive yards and docks on the water front of New York harbor. He became associated with Cornelius Vanderbilt in numerous enterprises, and the friendship between the two men was of the closest relations.
(VI) Richard (2), only son of Richard (I) and Emily Louise (Randal) Morrell, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, January 27, 1859. He inherited the business talent of his father, who died before he was born, and was edu- cated to that end by his stepfather, Dr. Rich- ard A. Terhune, at the Military Academy at Mount Pleasant, Sing Sing, New York, and at the Passaic Classical Institute. He was impa- tient to engage in business, and while yet a mere youth became a clerk in a banking house in Wall street, New York. He displayed prac- tical application and shrewdness in business uncommon for one so young, and preferred actual business to romance and literature, and was marked as a stirring business man rather than a student and scholar, long before he reached his majority.
In 1881 he left the excitement and infatu- ation of Wall street to engage in the more prosaic business of produce merchant. He formed a partnership with David Campbell, of
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Passaic, at the time carrying on a small flour and feed store on Passaic street. The firm of Campbell & Morrell gradually expanded this business into an extensive wholesale coal, hay, grain, feed, flour and building materials con- cern, within the short time between 1881 and 1886. In 1886 the business was formed into a corporation entitled Campbell & Morrell Com- pany, and soon after Mr. Morrell and his young friends purchased the stock held by Mr. Campbell and still further expanded the busi- ness. In 1884 Mr. Morrell had secured the eastern agency for the sale of anthracite coal mined by the Erie Railway Company, and held this profitable and responsible position for a number of years, which resulted in an acquain- tanceship with coal operators and an insight into the business that made him one of the most reliable and expert men in the trade. Campbell, Morrell & Company soon supplied all the large mills in Paterson, Passaic and other manufacturing centers of eastern New Jersey with coal, and, in fact, controlled the coal trade of the neighborhood of their exten- sive docks and coal pockets. Their trade in brick, cement and other building materials ex- tended over the state, and their grain elevators, coal pockets and dock facilities on the Passaic river are not surpassed by any other corpor- ation.
Besides being the leading spirit in this exten- sive trade, Mr. Morrell is a director in the People's Bank and Trust Company, in the Na- tional Brick and Terra Cotta Company of Passaic, and in the Passaic & New York Rail- road. He is treasurer of the General Hospital Association ; founded by his stepfather, and a director of the Passaic Board of Trade. He was elected school commissioner from the sec- ond ward of Passaic in 1881, when he only twenty-two years of age, and when running on an independent ticket. This gave him the honor of being the youngest man ever elected a member of the board of education in the city. His services during his first term were appreciated by re-election without opposition from either of the dominant parties. He served the city of Passaic as police justice 1887-90, by appointment of Mayor Charles M. Howe. His interest in military affairs was manifested in 1879, when he was twenty years of age, by being a leading spirit in the organi- zation of Company B, Fourth Regiment Na- tional Guard, State of New Jersey. The com- pany is known as the Passaic Guards, and is the first company of the state militia organized in the city of Passaic. He resigned his com-
mission as first lieutenant, which he earned through successive promotions, by reason of pressing demands made upon his time by his business interests, and it was reluctantly accepted by the governor in 1885.
He married, July 29, 1885, Josephine A., daughter of John A. and Jane Ann (Torrey) Willetts, of Passaic. Mr. Willetts was for a time mayor of Passaic, and a prominent citizen of the place. Children of Richard and Jose- phine A. (Willetts) Morrell: Louise Willetts and Richard Willetts. Richard Willetts Mor- rell, born in Passaic, New Jersey, December 26, 1895, is of the seventh generation from John Morrell, the immigrant of New Amster- dam and Gravesend, Long Island, 1646.
Charles M. Decker, one of the DECKER most progressive business men and public-spirited citizens of the Oranges, was born in Wellesburg, Che- mung county, New York, in November, 1850. He is descended from both old Holland and old New England stock, which accounts for many of those traits of character which have made him conspicuous as an organizer of large interests and a financier of keen judgment. A foreword of his ancestry is found in the "His- tory of Chemung County," which thus refers to his grandfather and grandmother: "The first white child born in the town of Ashland, of which there is any record, was Eunice Kel- sey, her birthday having been March 16, 1789, her father being Abner Kelsey. Eunice grew to womanhood and married Jacob Decker." This Jacob Decker was a native of Orange county, New York, whence he removed to Chemung county. Among the settlers of the town of Montgomery, Orange county, between 1768 and 1778, was Johannes Decker, who is authoritatively believed to have been a grand- son of Abraham Decker, who is known to have come from Holland and settled at Copake, New York, in 1757. Among the six sons and two daughters of Jacob Decker and Eunice Kelsey was Harrison Decker, born in Wellesburg, about 1821. He married Harriet, daughter of Charles Tubbs, a descendant of William Tubbs, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, who was admitted a freeman of the Plymouth Colony in 1637, volunteered against the Pequot Indians in June of same year, and was a member of Captain Miles Standish's famous military company.
Charles M. Decker was born of this mar- riage. As a boy he was ambitious and self- reliant to a noticeable degree. He acquired
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his early education in the public school of his native town, and at the age of fourteen threw aside his books and started out to see some- thing of the larger world beyond his native environment. He went direct to New York in search of employment, and through the influence of Stephen D. Herman, of Orange, an old friend of his father's, he secured a situation in the grocery house of Benjamin F. Cairnes. In the following year he entered the employ of Mr. Herman, and remained with him and his successors till 1869. After a brief engagement in the butter business in New York he celebrated his majority by returning to Orange, buying the business of his former employer, Mr. Cairnes, and inaugurating an entirely new policy of management. He stocked his store with the best goods the mar- ket offered, established a delivery system, then a decided innovation in the Oranges, sold on short credit, and gradually diverted local trade from the New York to a home market. In this venture he was eminently successful from the start, and was soon enabled to estab- lish business connections with all the Oranges and their neighboring communities. In 1890 he erected in Orange one of the handsomest blocks in Essex county, and since that time has increased his business properties by the erec- tion of several handsome buildings in Essex and Union counties. From 1893 to 1903 he was president of the Orange National Bank, one of the soundest financial institutions in eastern New Jersey, and on resigning that office became vice-president. He also became a director of the Savings Investment and Trust Company of East Orange. To both these institutions he gave his ability, enterprise and judgment that had characterized the up-build- ing of his large personal business.
Mr. Decker married a daughter of Alfred and Margaret E. (Peck) Jones, representing two of the oldest families of the locality formerly known as Pecktown, now East Orange. Nine children have been born of this marriage, viz .: Margaret, Harrison, Charles M. Jr., (deceased), Harriet L., Arthur, May, Richard F., Katharyn, and Laraus (deceased).
Mr. Decker is a member of the Essex County and Orange clubs. Personally, he has strong domestic tastes and impresses all who meet him with his claims upon their confidence. To his friends he is ever accessible, cordial and generous ; to strangers he is dignified, cour- teous, affable and winning. He is a man of deliberate, yet positive character, and of
marked executive ability, and his life has been both busy and useful.
The stamp of near royalty KELCHNER is on this name, signifying as it does, "cup bearer," a title only conferred on those of gentle blood, and thus entitled to perform that function which necessitates a near approach to the per- son of royalty. The name first appears in America on the passenger list of the ship "Pennsylvania Merchant," of London, Captain John Stedman, master, which ship sailed from Rotterdam, Holland, having on board passen- gers from the Lower Palatinate, including fifty-seven males, of or above the age of six- teen years and twenty-five males under that age, together with fifty-seven females of or over the age of sixteen years, and thirty-three under that age, making up a list of one hun- dred and seventy-two passengers. The ship touched at Dover, England, and then set her prow westward and landed in Philadelphia on September II, 1731. One of the names on the original shipping list on this voyage is written "Hans George Keylechner." With him were his brothers-Michael, Henry and Matthias. He settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, as did most of the passengers.
(I) Hans George Kelchner (or Keylechner, as he spelled his name), on his arrival in Phil- adelphia in the ship "Pennsylvania Merchant," settled with the other colonists who came on the same voyage, in Berks county, and estab- lished a home for the remainder of his family, whom he expected on the return trip of the same vessel.
(II) Matthias, son of Hans George Kelch- ner, died July 2, 1785, in Berks county, Penn- sylvania.
(III) Michael, son of Matthias Kelchner, arrived in Philadelphia in the ship "Pennsyl- vania Merchant," September 18, 1733. He settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, and was a taxpayer in Richmond township, in 1759. He married, in 1752, Maria Eve Frey, born June 24, 1730, died March 14, 1807; she married (second), 1761, Peter Stetzler. Children of Michael Kelchner: Henry, Matthias, John Michael, Jacob and Maria.
(IV) John Michael, son of Michael and Maria Eve (Frey) Kelchner, died February 26, 1761, and his will was filed March 24, fol- lowing. He married -; had four sons : Henry, Michael, Matthias and Jacob. Three of these brothers were revolutionary soldiers.
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Henry Kelchner is recorded as from Maxat- away; he enlisted May II, 1777, and served six years; his name is on the muster roll of Captain Jacob Moser's company, and his ser- vice was performed in the Continental line, Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, January I, 1778, to January 1, 1783. Michael Kelchner enlisted in Captain Henry Shade's company, Colonel Miles's regiment, April 23, 1776; he fought with the Pennsylvania troops in the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776. Mathias Kelchner was a non-commissioned officer of the third Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental line, January 1, 1777, to May 3, 1785.
(V) Jacob, son of John Michael Kelchner, married (first) Magdelena Warner ; children : Catherine, Maria, Elizabeth and Daniel. He married (second) Maria Warner ; children : Jacob, Samuel, Mary, Hannah, Daniel.
(VI) Jacob, eldest child of Jacob and Maria (Warner) Kelchner, was born in 1763, and died February II, 1814, and his will was proved July 18 following. He married Cath- erine Spiers. Children: Elizabeth, married Jacob Wirth; Philepena, deceased; Philip; Susanna ; John; Maria; Esther, Julia ; Jacob; David ; Catherine.
(VII) Jacob, second son of Jacob and Catherine (Spiers) Kelchner, was born in Fleetwood, Berks county, Pennsylvania, July II, 1801, and died April 23, 1861. He passed the greater part of his life in farming, about a half mile from Fleetwood. He married, in 1834, Anna Sheirer, born 1810, in Maxatawny township, and died at Fleetwood, Pennsyl- vania, January 21, 1897. They had thirteen children, born in Richmond township, Berks county, Pennsylvania, as follows: I. Samuel, May 16, 1835, married Louvina Schaeffer; lived in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania; children: Jacob J., Hettie, Sarah, Monroe, Alvin, Edwin, Maurice and Philip. 2. Mary, March 30, 1837. 3. Joel, October 1, 1838; married, and had three children. 4. Edwin, January 16, 1840. 5. Martin, April II, 1841; married Maria Schaeffer ; three children. 6. Jacob Scheirer (q. v.) 7. Hannah, March 6, 1844, died Sep- tember 27, 1854. 8. Esther, November 8, 1845; married Lewis A. Warner; five chil- dren. 9. Caroline, January 6, 1848; married Joel M. Schaeffer, of Fleetwood; two chil- dren. 10. Isaac, June 28, 1849, died September 7, 1871. II. Augustus, March 24, 1851, died September 16, 1851. 12. Daniel Franklin, October 6, 1852; married Emily Peters, of Fleetwood; children : Raymond, Daniel and a
daughter. 13. Wilson R., October 20, 1854. died April 11, 1865.
(VIII) Jacob Sheirer, fifth son and sixth child of Jacob and Anna (Sherier) Kelchner, was born in Richmond township, Berks county, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1842. He was brought up on his father's farm at Brow- ers Station, near Fleetwood, Berks county, Pennsylvania, received his school training in the Reading high school and at the Keystone State normal school. When twenty-one years of age engaged in the milling business, which he followed 1863-66, after which he engaged in general merchandising 1866-91, in which he achieved great success. He was engaged in the cold storage business at Fleetwood from 1891. He married, in 1868, Louisa Ellen, daughter of William Sheridan, of Bowers Station, Pennsylvania, a retired farmer, and one of the most prominent citizens of Berks county, living with his wife and three children in Maxatawny township. The children of Jacob Sheirer and Louisa Ellen (Sheridan) Kelchner, were born on the farm at Bowers Station near Fleetwood, Berks county, Penn- sylvania, as follows: I. William Irvin (q. v.) 2. Harvey Lorenzo, died in infancy. 3. Fred- erick Victor; engaged in dental business in Philadelphia. 4. Norman Edgar. 5. Eliza- beth K., died in infancy.
( IX) William Irvin, eldest child of Jacob Sheirer and Louisa Ellen (Sheridan) Kelch- ner, was born on his grandfather's farm near Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, in the vicinity of Reading, Berks county. December 27, 1869. He was a pupil in the Fleetwood grammar and high schools, later entered the Keystone State Normal School at Kurtztown, Pennsylvania, and then the Schuylkill Seminary at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, working during the summer va- cations on a farm to pay his tuition and college fees. He also earned money for this purpose by selling newspapers. After completing his English course at the seminary he took up the study of Latin and science preparatory to passing an examination that would admit him to the sophomore class of Princeton Univers- ity. He also took up the study of medicine with Dr. A. N. Fretz, of Fleetwood, and in 1888 entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. His health fail- ing him, he suspended his studies temporarily and took a private course in surgery under the direction of Dr. Benjamin, of Camden, New Jersey. He subsequently resumed his course in medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, and made a specialty of the study of the dis-
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