USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume IV > Part 7
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(I) John Williamson, of Lancashire, Eng- land, was a carpet weaver by trade, a skilled workman in his special line, and was one of the experienced wage-workers who came to America to take his place among the high- class artisans employed in the Paterson fac- tories. The year in which he came to this country is not definitely known, but it is known that he was a guild worker of skill in carpet weaving, hence he was a valuable acqui- sition to the rapidly increasing colony of superior workmen in the city in which he set- tled, for he was not only a carpet weaver but understood the construction and operation of such machines and appliances as then were in use in his special line of work; but machines for making carpets were then quite scarce, and he was more particularly a hand work- man. Outside of the factory his life appears to have been quiet, and he does not seem to have taken any special part in public affairs. He lived in Paterson until his death in 1871, and raised to maturity a good family of chil- dren, five sons and three daughters. He mar- ried Eliza Mellison; children: Joseph, Thomas, Charles, George, Martha, Theodore, Clara, and Dora Williamson.
(Il) Joseph, son of John and Eliza ( Melli- son) Williamson, was born in Paterson, New Jersey, December 3, 1852, and was sent to school until he was between nine and ten years old. Then he was taken out of school and put to work in the silk mill of which Stephen Van Winkle was proprietor, and for the next fif- teen years he worked there, beginning by doing such small tasks as a child less than ten years old could perform, but in the course of a few
years he became a thoroughly practical work- man. In 1874 he went to Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, and for the next about two years was employed by the Whitney Sewing Machine Company, then returned to Paterson, and began business on his own account as a vendor of signs, and soon afterward started a small stationery store in the city. This busi- ness he began in a very limited way and with only thirty-five dollars as his starting capital, and that borrowed money. But the substan- tial results subsequently achieved indicates something of the capacity of Mr. Williamson as a man of business, for from first to last he has been the "architect of his own fortune," and has succeeded in building up a financial fabric of substantial proportions. He is a member of Paterson-Orange Lodge, F. and A. M., and of Lodge No. 60, B. P. O. E., both of Paterson. Mr. Williamson married Kather- ine, daughter of Michael O'Brien, of Paterson, and has three children-Frederick D., May and Jane Williamson.
MOON The Moon family long resident in and about Bristol, England, were among the early converts to the principles of the Society of Friends. John Moone, (as the name is universally spelled on the early English and American records), was married at a Friends' Meeting in Bristol, June 17, 1666, to Sarah Snead, and on the records of that meeting are recorded the births of four of their children-Joseph, Sarah, John and Elizabeth, the last on April 22, 1676. The names of others of the family also appear on the records of Bristol Meeting at these and succeeding dates. John Moon came to Phila- delphia with his wife and children about 1682, and was a member of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, a justice of the peace, judge of the court of quarter sessions, and a member of the provincial assembly. He moved later to Ded- ford township, Gloucester county, New Jer- sey, where he died leaving a will dated Octo- ber 8, 1715, which mentions his home farm on Mantoes creek; children : Joseph (absent out of the province), John, Elizabeth Gibson, Thomas, Edward and Charles.
(I) James Moone, the first American ances- tor of the subject of this sketch, came to Pennsylvania from Bristol, England, at about the same date that John Moone first above mentioned appears in Philadelphia, and located near the falls of the Delaware, in Bucks county. He had married at Bristol, England, about 1663, Joan Burgess, and was accom-
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panied to America by several children of nearly adult age. When he purchased a tract of land in Falls township in 1695, his son, James Moone Jr., was named as one of the grantees, the title to vest in him when he arrived at the age of twenty-one years.
John Moone, of Philadelphia, was a brother of James of Bucks. They were both wit- nesses to the will of Joseph Siddal, of Bucks county, which was probated in Philadelphia, May 5, 1704.
James Moone was actively associated with the affairs of Bucks county, his name fre- quently appearing on the early records of the courts of that county after 1685 as a member of grand and petit juries, and as serving in various capacities by appointment of the court, up to the time of his decease in September, 1713. Joan Burgess, wife of James Moone, received a legacy from her parents or other relatives in England in 1695, and obtained a certificate from the Bucks county court on December II, 1695, to enable her to receive it, the court entry of which is as follows: "A Certificate of Joan, the wife of James Moone being alive Signed in Court shee being then there present." She survived her husband over a quarter of a century, dying December, 1739, in her ninetieth year, at the home of her son Roger, the old home plantation in Falls, the title of which had been transferred from James Jr. to his father and by the latter to Roger in 1706. Children of James and Joan (Burges) Moone: Sarah, Jasper, James, Roger, Jonas and Mary. Jasper, the eldest, located in New Jersey, and died in Burlington county, letters of administration being granted to his widow, Susannah, April 29, 1726; the records of that county show that he was resi- dent there as early as 1704. James, Roger and Jonas Moon remained in Bucks county, and have left descendants. James was deputy sheriff of the county in 1714.
(II) Roger, son of James and Joan ( Bur- ges ) Moon, was born in England, in or about the year 1679. He received, as above stated, a deed from his parents in 1706 for the planta- tion of 125 acres in Falls township, about one and a half miles from the present borough of Morrisville, where he spent his whole adult life, dying there February 16, 1759. He was a consistent member of Falls Monthly Meet- ing of Friends, and took little part in public affairs. His descendants take pride in the fact that he lived for seventy years in one place, and "had never discharged a gun or quarrelled
with any man." Roger Moon married (first), October 23, 1708, Ann Nutt, like himself a native of England, and had by her seven chil- dren-James, John, Elizabeth, Roger, Isaac, William and Ann. John died in 1732, at the age of 15, and Isaac in 1748, at the age of 24. James, the eldest son, located in Middletown, and was the pioneer of the family in the nur- sery business still extensively carried on by his descendants in Fall, Lower Makefield and Middletown townships. Roger Moon mar- ried (second), in April, 1734, Elizabeth, daughter of Reese and Mary Price, and of Welsh ancestry. They had seven children : John, Mary, Sarah, Timothy, Samuel, Jasper and Hannah. Samuel was a chair maker, and resided in Fallsington until his death, July 5, 1813, at the age of 77 years. Jasper was a soldier in the Bucks county batallion com- manded by Colonel John Keller, in the com- pany of Captain Robert Patterson, and saw considerable active service in the revolutionary war.
(III) John, eldest son of Roger Moon, by his second wife, Elizabeth Price, was born on the old homestead in Falls township, February 28, 1734-5, and died in the same township, January 6, 1788. No record appearing of his purchase of real estate, it is presumed that he continued to reside on the homestead in Falls until his death. Letters of administration were granted on his estate to his widow Mar- garet, his brother Samuel being one of her sureties. His wife Margaret was not a mem- ber of the Society of Friends, and at a monthly meeting held at Falls, May 6, 1761, "John Moon having some time since went out in his marriage with a woman that was not of our society notwithstanding he was precautioned," a committee is appointed to prepare a testi- mony against him. This committee produced their "testimony" July 1, 1761, when it was read, approved and signed, and John Nutt was appointed to deliver a copy thereof to the said John Moon and acquaint him with his right of appeal. He appears to have made no effort to retain his membership, and at the meeting on August 5, 1761, it appearing that he had not yet been served with a copy of the "testimony," Friend Nutt is desired to deliver it to him before the next meeting. Nothing more appears on the record in reference to him, and he was probably disowned from membership without any protest on his part. The maiden name of his wife Margaret has not been ascertained. He was probably a
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soldier in the revolution, as well as his brother Jasper, but the incomplete rolls make no men- tion thereof. Neither is there record of distri- bution of his estate or other means of ascer- taining who his children were, other than his son William, whose date of birth appears in his own family Bible. It is thought that Elizabeth, the wife of Joachim Richards, of Falls town- ship, who died in 1845, at the age of 77 years, was a daughter.
(IV) William, son of John and Margaret Moon, was born in Falls township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, October 16, 1776. This date, together with that of the births of his nine children, were entered by himself in a family Bible still in possession of his grand- children. From the same source we learn that his wife's name was Margaret, but her maiden name is unknown to her descendants. By deed dated September 26, 1825, William Moon purchased of William Wharton and Ann his wife, Henry Richards and Jane his wife, Will- iam Richards of Philadelphia and Ann his wife, and John Richards of Northern Liber- ties, a small lot in Falls township, of which Joachim Richards had died seized in 1812, leaving the above-named Ann, Henry, William and John as his only children and heirs. The property had been purchased by Joachim Richards of the estate of Robert Kirkbride in 1806. Here William Moon resided until his death, February 22, 1845, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He died intestate, and letters of administration were granted on his estate to his sons Mahlon and Joachim R. Moon. By deed dated March 31, 1846, Mahlon Moon and Eliza Ann, his wife; John Jones and Catharine his wife; Aaron L. Moon and Maria B. his wife; Paul Troth and Elizabeth his wife; Joachim R. Moon and Sarah Ann his wife; Benjamin C. Tatum, and Mary his wife; James C. Moon and Elizabeth his wife; and John Moon, heirs and representatives of Will- iam Moon deceased, conveyed the above- mentioned lot to William Bowers.
Children of William and Margaret, as shown by the above-mentioned Bible record : Mahlon, born March 25, 1802; Catharine, Feb- ruary 27, 1804 ; William, June 15, 1806; Aaron L., February 10, 1809; Elizabeth, August 30, Iⅈ Joachim R., October 17, 1813; Mary, March 12, 1816; James Kimmons, July 30, 1818; and John Moon, July 4, 1821. All of these except William lived to mature age, as shown by the above deed.
(V) Aaron Lippincott, second surviving
son and fourth child of William and Margaret Moon, was born in Falls township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, February 10, 1809. He received a good education, and adopting the profession of teacher in early life he became an eminent instructor of youth. The greater part of his life was spent in Burlington county, New Jersey. He married, in 1842, Maria Braddock Osborne, daughter of Abra- ham and Catharine (Snyder ) Osborne of Bur- lington county, New Jersey, and had five chil- dren, two of whom died in infancy, those who `survived being William, who died in 1879; Reuben O. Moon.
(VI) Hon. Reuben O. Moon, second son and third child of Aaron Lippincott and Maria (Osborne) Moon, was born in Burlington county, New Jersey, July 22, 1847. He was educated under the supervision of his father, one of the leading teachers in the state of New Jersey, and afterwards graduated at a well known Philadelphia college in the year 1875. After his graduation he filled the chair of liter- ature and expression in his alma mater for a few years, during which time he was widely known in the literary and educational world as a lecturer and instructor on educational topics. At the death of the President of the college in 1880, he succeeded to the chair previously filled by him, which he held until- he was admitted to the bar in 1884, when he began the practice of the law in the city of Philadelphia. His rise in this profession was rapid. His previous scholastic training, his untiring industry and his recognized oratorical abilities, contributed materially to his speedy advancement at the bar. He was associated with many notable cases, both in the civil and criminal courts. He became counsel for many large interests, and soon took his place as one of the leaders of the Philadelphia bar. He was admitted to the supreme court in 1886, and to the United States courts in 1889.
In 1903 he was elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress from the Fourth District of Pennsyl- vania, comprising an important section of Phil- adelphia, and was subsequently elected to the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth and Sixty-first Con- gresses and is at the present writing a candi- date for re-election.
Soon after Mr. Moon's entrance into Con- gress, his legal and forensic abilities were recognized by conspicuous committee appoint- ments. One of the acute subjects of legisla- tion, which had been before Congress for a number of years, was the codification and
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revision of the laws of the United States. No revision had been made for nearly forty years, and the condition of the Federal statutes was deplorable. Much legislation had been enacted to meet the rapidly increasing expansion of the Federal jurisdiction, much of which had been experimental. Many important statutes thus enacted had been declared unconstitu- tional, and the overlapping and confusion of multifarious laws which were contained in ponderous volumes of Congressional enact- ments, commingled with general and tempor- ary laws, had resulted in such complexity and confusion as to make it almost impossible for the Federal judges and practitioners at the bar to know definitely what the exact condition of the law was.
Mr. Moon was made chairman of the com- mittee on the revision of the laws, of the House of Representatives, charged with the responsibility of revising and codifying the Federal statutes and of reconciling the con- tradictions, supplying the omissions and amending the imperfections of the original text and with power to propose and embody in his revision changes in the existing law. This monumental work involved a high degree of legal learning, technical skill and patient effort. A conspicuous portion of this important work has already been accomplished by the enactment of the revision of the criminal laws of the United States, known as the new penal code, which was passed at the Sixtieth Con- gress and went into operation January Ist, 1910.
Mr. Moon's masterly achievement in secur- ing the enactment of this law, his lucid and scholarly exposition of the history and develop- ment of the Federal criminal law of the coun- try, won him great renown, and he at once took his place as one of the leading legal authorities in the American Congress. This work has received the commendation of the bar of the country, and Mr. Moon was tendered a notable reception and banquet by the bench and bar of his own city in recognition of his distinguished services in this work. This com- mittee, of which Mr. Moon is house chairman, has reported and has upon the calendar in Congress another part of this great task, involving the re-organization of the Federal judiciary, in which many important reforms are recommended. His report upon this sec- ond department of the revision has attracted great attention from the jurists and lawyers of the country, and has been received with uni- versal appreciation, and is recognized as a
scholarly contribution to the legal literature of the land.
Mr. Moon is also a prominent member of the committee on the judiciary of the House of Representatives, and is the author of the Moon Injunction Bill, which has been adopted by President Taft as an administration meas- ure and made one of the dominant features of the President's new policy of reform.
He has, in addition to this, introduced a great number of bills seeking to perfect the imperfect Federal legal machinery that is everywhere recognized as necessary to meet the rapidly growing requirements of the Fed- eral Courts. It has been said of Mr. Moon by eminent authority that he has initiated more constructive legal legislation than any man in Congress for half a century.
Mr. Moon is a prominent and popular club man, a leading member of the Lawyer's Club ; a former president of the prominent up-town Columbia Club ; member of the Union League and Penn Clubs; of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and of a number of other patriotic, social, professional and philanthropic organizations.
He married, February 25, 1876, Mary A., daughter of Captain Wright Predmore, of Barnegat, New Jersey, and his wife, Elizabeth Bodine. Mr. and Mrs. Moon have two chil- dren : Harold Predmore Moon and Mabel M. Moon.
Harold Predmore Moon was born June 14, 1877. He received his elementary education at the Eastburn Academy, Philadelphia, and entering the University of Pennsylvania grad- uated in 1898. He studied law in the office of his father, Hon. R. O. Moon, and attended the law school of the University, and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar March 18, 1901. He has since been in active practice of his profession in Philadelphia. He was assistant city solicitor of Philadelphia from 1902 to 1906. He is a member of the Union League, and of the Yacht and other social and athletic organizations of the city. He married, December 2, 1908, Attaresta Barclay de Silver, daughter of Robert P. and Fannie (King) de Silver, and they have one son, Harold Pred- more Moon, born September 23, 1909.
Mabel M. Moon, daughter of Hon. and Mrs. Reuben O. Moon, was married, in 1903, to Mr. Clarence A. Musselman, of Philadelphia, a prominent and well known publisher, and a business man of eminent standing in the com- munity. They have one daughter, May Moon Musselman, born December 18, 1906.
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(II) Pieter, son of Jan
STRYCKER Strycker (q. v.) and Lam- bertje Seubering, was born in Flatbush, Long Island, November 1, 1653, and died June II, 1741. He was one of the patentees of the town of Flatbush named in the Dongan patent of November 12, 1685. November 2, 1683, he was commissioned as high sheriff of King's county. He took the oath of allegiance as a "native" in Flatbush in 1687, and December 27, 1689, we find him a captain of foot militia. His Flatbush resi- dence, torn down about forty years ago, was a stately building of Holland brick in the quaint Dutch style, with the letters "P. S. 1696" over the doorway. The property on which his house stood has never passed out of the family, and is to-day occupied by one of his descendants, Garret Stryker. June I, 1710, Pieter Strycker bought of the three brothers-Aert, Matthew and David Aertson, of Brookland, Kings county, New York-the four thousand acres on the Millstone river, Somerset county, New Jersey, which they had received by patent, January 9, 1702, from the proprietors of East Jersey. He does not seem ever to have lived on this property, but his two sons, Jacob and Barent, and his four grandsons, the sons of his son Jan, removed from Flatbush and settled there. The deed for this property is still in existence, and in the possession of one of his descendants. May 29, 1681, Pieter Strycker married Annetje Barends, who died June 17, 1717. Children : I. Lammetje, born March 20, 1682, died young. 2. Lammetje (2d), born February 16, 1683, died young. 3. Jan, referred to below. 4. Barent, born September 3, 1686, died young. 5. Jacob, of the Raritan, born August 24, 1688; married Annetje Vanderbeeck. 6. Barent, of the Raritan, born September 14, 1690, died June, 1758, married Libertje Hage- man. 7. Hendrik, born December 3, 1692, died young. 8. Pieter, of Flatbush, born Feb- ruary 12, 1698, died December 24, 1766; mar- ried Jannetje Martense Arrianse. 9. Hen- drick, of Flatbush and Brooklyn, born Febru- ary 18, 1699. 10. Lammetje (3d), born De- cember 21, 1700; married (first) Johannes Lott, (second) Christiaens Lupardus.
(III) Jan, son of Pieter and Annetje (Barends) Strycker, was born in Flatbush, August 6, 1684, and died August 17, 1770. He was one of the sachems of the Tammany Society. In 1715 he was a member of Captain Dominicus Vander Veer's company of Kings county militia. He resided in Flatbush, and
apparently had considerable landed property there. Jan Pieterse Strycker married (first), 1705, Margrietje, daughter of Johannes Schenck, of Bushwick, Long Island, who died in 1721. Children: 1. Pieter, of the Raritan, born September 14, 1705; married Antje Deremer. 2. Johannes, of the Raritan, born February 12, 1707; married Cornelia Duryea. 3. Annetje, born December 20, 1708; married Roelof Cowenhoven, of New Jersey. 4. Mad- alena, born December 19, 1710; married Aert Middagh, of Brooklyn. 5. Magreta, born May 24, 1713, died young. 6. Abraham, referred to below. 7. Lammetje, born February II, 1716 ; married Gerret Stoothoff, and Jan Am- erman. 8. Jacobus, of the Raritan, born Sep- tember 29, 1718; married Geestje Duryee and Jannetje 9. Margrita, born December, 1719; married Jacobus Cornell. February 17, 1723, Jan Pieterse Strycker married (second) Sarah, baptized June 2, 1678, died August 17, 1770, daughter of Michael Hansen Ber- gen Femmetje, daughter of Teunis Nyssen (Denyse). Children: 10. Mighiel, of Flat- bush, born March 4, 1723; married Hannah Stryker. II. Femmetje, born June 19, 1725; married Jacobus Vander Veer. 12. Barent, born November 15, 1728. 13. Sara, June 15, 1731.
(IV) Abraham, son of Jan Pieterse and Margrietje (Schenck) Strycker, of Flatbush, was born there, August 4, 1715, and died in Hillsborough township, Somerset county, New Jersey, April 4, 1777. His will mentions one son, John, referred to below.
(V) John, or Johannes, son of Abraham Strycker, was born in Somerset county, New Jersey, October 18, 1747, and died November 29, 1776. He served as a captain during the revolutionary war, and was killed in battle. Both he and his wife were members of the Reformed Church at Harlingen, New Jersey. He married Maria Veghte, who after his death married Thomas Skilliman, and lived at Ring- old. Children: Peter; Garret, referred to below; John; Abraham.
(VI) Garret, son of Johannes and Maria (Veghte) Stryker, was born at Millstone, New Jersey, and baptized there, August 27, 1769. He died in May, 1825. After he reached man- hood he removed from Phillipsburg, New Jer- sey, and lived one-half mile above the old Easton toll bridge over the Delaware river, on the old Geassearr homestead. He was drowned while fishing in the Delaware river, and was buried in the old St. John's (Lutheran) grave- yard at Easton. He married Jane, daughter
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of George and Jane Geassearr. Children : John, born November 10, 1792, died May 23, 1840, married (first) Mary Sickman, (second) Eliz- abeth Seager; Maria, referred to below.
(VII) Maria, only daughter of John and Jane (Geassearr) Stryker, was born August II, 1813, in the old Geassearr homestead, and died January 21, 1882. She married Hugh Ferguson, born 1810, died January, 1849. They had a large family.
(VIII) Hugh Anna, daughter of Hugh and Maria (Stryker) Ferguson, was born in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, October 4, 1849, and married George S. Andrews, of Asbury, New Jersey, born August 27, 1848. He was a drummer boy in a New Jersey regiment throughout the civil war. Children: Isadora Andrews, referred to below, and two who died in infancy.
(IX) Isadora Andrews, daughter of George S. and Hugh Anna ( Ferguson) Andrews, was born in Asbury, New Jersey, March 22, 1868, and married George E. Barker; child, Ray- mond, born January 29, 1890.
KESTER The Kester family is of Dutch origin. The first forms of the surname appears to have been Koester and Coester, which appear in records during the early part of the eighteenth century. Previous to that, owing to the common prac- tice among the early Dutch settlers of using patronymics instead of surnames, the history of the family is involved in some obscurity. According to records at present obtainable, the line of the family at present under considera- tion appears to be as follows :
(I) Peter Kester, first member of the fam- ily of whom we have definite information, died intestate in Hunterdon county, New Jersey, before June 22, 1759, when letters of admin- istration on his estate were granted to his widow. He lived at Amwell, and was prob- ably a brother of Hermanus Kester, who was born in 1703, and lived in Kingwood. Peter Kester married (license issued December 24, 1733) Ann Coar.
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