USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Genealogical and personal memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey > Part 11
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Mr. Henry married. September, 1845, Lucy Maxwell Rigg, born in Scotland, daugh- ter of Thomas and Mary (Maxwell) Rigg, both natives of Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Henry have had children: I. Thomas, a lawyer, engaged in the practice of his profession in Washington, District of Columbia. He married Lillie Brown, of Virginia, and they have six children. 2. Car- oline. 3. Francis M., married Louise McNair, and has one child. Louise. 4. Lucy M. 5. Sa- rah, married Professor Casper W. Hodge, of the old Hodge family of Princeton, and has one child, Lucy. 6. William H.
MOSES TAYLOR PYNE, A. M., LL. B., L. H. D., a representative citizen of Princeton, New Jersey, and a prominent leader and advo-
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cate of its leading educational institutions, rep- resents a family which has been closely in touch with financial and commercial matters of im- portance for some generations. They came orig- inally from England, where they were also prom- inent in many directions.
He is a grandson of Thomas Pyne, whose grandfather, John Pyne, of Devonshire, was com- mander in the British navy in 1747. Thomas Pyne was born in England, 1772, and came to the United States in 1828, settling in the city of New York, where he died in 1851. He married Anna Rivington, daughter of John Rivington, of London.
Percy Rivington Pyne, son of Thomas and Anna (Rivington) Pyne, was born in England, March 5. 1820, died in New York in 1895. He remained in England to complete his education and joined his father in America in 1835, hav- ing received an offer to enter the office of Moses Taylor, of New York, then a young and rising merchant. On his twenty-first birthday he be- came a member of the firm of Moses Taylor & Company. He was prominent as a banker and merchant and was an officer or director of many railroad, trust and industrial corporations, and deeply interested in many charitable organiza- tions. He married, 1855, Albertina, daughter of Moses and Catherine (Wilson) Taylor, and among their children was Moses Taylor Pyne.
Moses Taylor Pyne, son of Percy Rivington and Albertina (Taylor) Pyne, was born in the city of New York, December 21, 1855. He re- ceived the degree of Bachelor of Arts from, Princeton University in 1877, that of Master of Arts in 1880, and became a student at the Colum- bia Law School, New York, which conferred up- on him the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1879. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities from Columbia University in 1903. He was general solicitor for the Delaware, Lack- awanna & Western Railroad for eleven years, and has charge of various large trusts. He is serv- ing in the capacity of president of the Warren Railroad Company, the Cavuga and Susquehanna Railroad Company, the Princeton Iron Company, the Lake Camya Association and the Princeton Historical Society ; vice-president of the Univer- sity Power Company; director in a number of banks, trust and manufacturing companies ; pub- lic library commissioner of the state of New Jer- sev: trustee and chairman of the finance com- mittee of Princeton University : trustee of Law-
renceville School in New Jersey, and of Pomfret School, Connecticut. The interest displayed by Mr. Pyne in the affairs of Princeton, where he has resided since 1895, especially along educa- tional lines, together with his many sterling qual- ities and characteristics, have won for him the respect and esteem of all classes.
Mr. Pyne married, June 2, 1880, Margaretta Stockton, daughter of General Robert F. and Margaretta (Potter) Stockton.
REV. DR. GEORGE SHELDON, D. D., whose death was a great loss to Princeton, New Jersey, where he had lived for many years and held a high place in the esteem of the community, was a descendant of an old and well known English family. Gilbert Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, was the founder of the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford University. According to Mr. Roberts in his "Historic Towns of the Con- 'necticut River Valley," the date of the purchase of Northampton and its surrounding territory was September 2, 1653, and on November 15 of the same year the proprictors determined that the first twenty families to settle there in the spring of 1654 should each have a tract of land set apart for them. It was thus that the Shel- don homestead came into the possession of the family, in which it has passed by will through six generations from 1653 to 1907.
(I) Isaac Sheldon, the pioneer ancestor of the family in this country, came from Essex, England, in 1653, soon after the execution of Charles I, and was one of the party who found- ed the town of Northampton, Massachusetts. He married Woodford. and died in 1708, in his eightieth vear. He had fifteen children, and the family founded by him took an active and prominent part in Colonial and Revolutionary history. One of his sons, John, was an ensign, removed to Deerfield, Massachusetts, and was one of the foremost defenders of that town dur- ing the dangers of the Indian wars.
(II) Ensign Ebenezer Sheldon, youngest son of Isaac (I) and (Woodford) Shel- don, was born in 1675, and died in 1755. He married Mary Hunt, daughter of Deacon Jona- than Hunt. of Hartford, Connecticut, and they had a number of children.
(III) Elias Sheldon, youngest son of Ensign Ebenezer (2) and Mary (Hunt) Sheldon, was born in 1721, and died in 1793. He married Catherine Chapin, daughter of Caleb Chapin, of
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Bernardston, who was killed at the battle of Lake George in 1755.
(IV) Isaac Sheldon, youngest son of Elias and Catherine (Chapin) Sheldon, was born in 1774, and died in 1862. He was noted for his strength of character and wise judgment, and for many years was a distinguished citizen of Northampton. He married Dorcas Frost. of Northampton, wliose father died at West Point in the service of his country at a time when a division of the Revolutionary army was stationed there.
(V) Rev. George Sheldon, D. D., youngest son of Isaac (4) and Dorcas (Frost) Sheldon, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, Octo- ber 2, 1813. and died in Princeton, New Jersey, June 16, 1881. He was graduated from Will- iams College with honor in the class of 1835, and three years later was graduated from Ando- ver Theological Seminary. His first charge was the Huguenot Church near Charlestown, South Carolina, and it was during his ministration in that section of the country that his work on the history of the Huguenots in South Carolina was written. He removed to Princeton in 1860, and at the centennial of the battle of Princeton, in 1877, was one of the orators of the occasion, and at the Wiclif semi-millenial celebration at the state house in Trenton in September, 1880, he delivered an address on "The Bible in New Jer- sey." He became one of the secretaries of the American Bible Society in 1849, an office he held until his death. He was also a member of the New Jersey Historical Society, of the New Eng- land Historic-Genealogical Society, and of the Phi Beta Kappa. He was possessed of great foresight and sound judgment, and his counsel was sought by many, not alone in religious mat- ters, but also in temporal affairs.
He married Martha Lyman, daughter of Syl- vester and Elizabeth (Wright ) Lyman, of North- ampton, Massachusetts, and had children : I. George William, who was gradutaed from Prince- tou University in 1863, and from Union Sem- inary in 1867, and has since been engaged in lit- erary work. He married Sarah Edwards An- nin, and has had children: Edwards, Raymond, Harold, Bayard and Mabel. 2. Henry Isaac, who was graduated from Princeton University in 1864, and from the Albany Law School in 1867; is now a lawyer of distinction in Chicago, Illi- nois. 3. Theodore, was graduated from Prince- ton University in 1875, and from Columbia Law
School, New York, in 1877. He died May 25, 1905. During his professional career in Chica- go, Illinois, he proposed and after many years of earnest effort succeeded in inaugurating in Illinois the Torrens system of land transfer. He married Mary Strong, daughter of Henry Strong, of Chicago, and they had children: Theodore, Edward and Mary. 4. Edward Wright, who was graduated from Princeton University in 1879. and from Columbia Law School, New York, in 1881. He is a distinguished lawyer in the city of New York; is president of the United States Trust Company, and one of the trustees of the Princeton University. 5. Elizabeth, who mar- ried Rev. Henry James Owen, son of Rev. Dr. Joseph Owen, an American missionary at Alla- habad, India, for thirty years. She died in Princeton, January 19, 1906, leaving one daugh- ter, Isabella Sheldon Owen. 6. Martha Waring, . who resides in Princeton, in the old Sheldon homestead, which was removed from its original site in Northampton, Massachusetts, by her fa- ther.
VAN DYKE BERGEN GULICK, deceased, who was a well known and highly esteemed cit- izen of Princeton, Mercer county, New Jersey, was a descendant of an old and honored family of Holland, whose various branches have been identified with the history of this country in many directions.
Ralph Gulick, father of Van Dyke Bergen Gu- lick, was born October 1. 1805. died April 23. 1854. He was one of the leading merchants of Princeton, New Jersey, and was prominent in the political affairs of the community in which he lived, at one time holding the office of sheriff of Mercer county. He married, July 28, 1826. Eliza Bergen, daughter of Aaron and Eliza (King) Bergen, and granddaughter of Thomas and Betsev (Henry) King.
Van Dyke Bergen Gulick, son of Ralph and Eliza (Bergen) Gulick, was born in the old homestead on Harrison street, Princeton, Mercer county. New Jersey. August 17, 1838, died May 9. 1906. He was educated at the Edgehill high school in his native town, and upon the comple- tion of his education engaged in business there during a long and active life, taking his part as a good citizen in the varied activities of the bor- ough. After he attained his majority he served the borough as a councilman for a number of terms, but was never a seeker of political office.
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MI :. Gulick was a valued director of the Prince- ton Bank and the Princeton Water Company, a clear-headed business man, and his advice in bus- iness matters was frequently sought by his friends and always conservatively given. He had a sum- mer home at Long Branch, New Jersey, and was the owner of considerable real estate in Prince- ton.
Mr. Gulick was twice married. He married, November 27, 1860, Julia Downing, a daughter of George and Elizabeth (Nash) Downing, and a direct descendant of Sir George Downing, of England. She died June 26, 1898. He married (second) Emily D. Reed, of Princeton, New Jer- sey, July I, 1901. He left surviving him his widow, Emily Reed Gulick, and six children by his first wife, three sons, as follows: William Henry, who was graduated from Princeton Uni- versity in the class of 1884, and is a bridge con- tractor and builder, residing in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Dismant, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, February 8, 1893, and has one child, Helen. Charles Van Dyke, who was in the class of 1892, Princeton Univer- sity. is a well known merchant in Princeton. He married Emma Frances Duryea, of Blawenburg, New Jersey, August 19, 1899. Archibald Alex- ander, who was graduated from Princeton Uni- versity in the class of 1897. He studied law in New York city, was admitted to the bar in 1901, and has been engaged in the practice of his pro- fession since that time at No. 120 Broadway, New York city. Also three daughters: Eliza- beth Downing Gulick. Isabella Drevet Gulick, and Jean Churchill Gulick, of Princeton, New Jersey.
JOSEPH OLDEN CLARKE, who until the time of his death had been closely identified with the mercantile and financial interests of the coun- ty in which he resided, was a representative of one of the oldest families of settlers in the state of New Jersey, the earliest members having come from Scotland originally.
(I) Benjamin Clarke, the pioneer settler of the Clarke family in this country, and the ances- tor in a direct line of Joseph Olden Clarke, was a native of Scotland, and was driven by religious persecution to seek a refuge in England. There he lived for a time in London, England, and was a book publisher in the Strand. Subsequently he emigrated to America and settled at Perth Am- boy, New Jersey, where he continued his busi-
ness of publishing books. A notice recently printed in a daily paper states that this Benjamin Clarke was the first book publisher in America, and a set of books compiled and published by him brought several thousand dollars at a recent auction sale.
(II) Benjamin Clarke, son of Benjamin Clarke, was an only child ; was born in England; came to this country with his father, and resided for many years at Perth Amboy. He subsequent- lv removed from Perth Amboy and settled on the Raritan river, where he had purchased a large tract of land, and resided there for some time. He then came to Stony Brook, near where Prince- ton is now located, and here purchased a tract of one thousand two hundred acres of land and erected thereon a house, which became the home- stead. They were among the first settlers in this section of the state. This property is located on the Quaker Road, and all the members of the Clark family have been adherents to the Quaker faith. Mr. Clark married Ann
(III) Benjamin Clarke, son of Benjamin and Ann Clarke, inherited the homestead and four hundred acres of land, and spent the remaining years of his life there. He married Mollie Jones, and had one child, Benjamin.
(IV) Benjamin Clarke, son of Benjamin and Mollie (Jones) Clarke, married Hannah Laurie. He built a new house near the homestead, hav- ing completed it about the beginning of the rev- olution. This house is still standing and in a well preserved condition. Children of Benjamin and Hannah (Laurie) Clarke are as follows: I. Benjamin, died in childhood; Elisha. David, Enos, Phoebe, all attained to mature years.
(V) Elisha Clarke, son of Benjamin and Han- nah (Laurie) Clarke, inherited the homestead and two hundred acres of land, and rebuilt the old dwelling on the Clarke homestead which had been erected by his direct ancestor. He followed the occupation of farming, and was a man of influence in his community. He married (first) Anne Olden, daughter of Joseph and
(Gardner) Olden, and among his children was Joseph Olden. see forward. He married (sec- ond) Sarah Hewes, daughter of Josiah Hewes, of Virginia.
(VI) Joseph Olden Clarke, son of Elisha and Anne (Olden) Clarke, was born on the old Clarke estate, on the Quaker Road, in Princeton township, Mercer county, New Jersey. He was educated in the Princeton Boarding School of
S
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SCHENCK VAN NYDICK
William Smith Schenck.
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Friends, and was still quite a youth when he went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he engaged in business, ultimately becoming a ship- ping merchant, and was connected with the firm of Samuel Archer & Company, Chinese commis- sion merchants, and was very successful in his ventures. Ill health, however, compelled him to seek his native air, and he returned to the old Clarke home. He accepted the position of cashier of the Trenton Bank of Trenton, and filled this very acceptably for a number of years.
Mr. Clarke married Martha Austin, of Phil- adelphia, daughter of Nicholas and Susanna (Tompkins) Austin, the former a gentleman farmer. The only living representative of Jo- seph Olden Clarke at the present time is Miss Elizabeth B. Clarke, a member of the First Pres- byterian Church of Princeton. She has recently disposed of the old Clarke estate to George F. Updike, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
SCHENCK FAMILY. This ancient family and name takes its origin and beginning from the Anglo-Saxon term Shenk or Shenck, the name having its derivation from the office of cup- bearer. As cups were anciently formed of shells, bones, etc., the shank of a beast may have been the occasion of naming the bearer of the King's Cup "Shenk." "Shank," or, as the family name is now known, Schenck.
The first Holland ancestor of the Schenck family of whom there is definite knowledge was the common ancestor, Clove de Witte, Baron Van Toutenburg, who was killed in the battle of Clodius against the Dane in 878 A. D. His son was Hermanus Schenck, Baron Van Toutenburg, and one of his descendants was Christianes Schenck Van Nydick, 1234, whose descendants early responded to the revolution, suffering many persecutions therefore.
The emigrant ancestor of the Schenck family was Roelof Martense Schenck, who was born at Amersfoort, Holland, 1619. He arrived at New Amsterdam about June 28, 1650, and set- tled first at Breuklyn (Brooklyn), Long Island. and in 1660 at Flatlands (formerly Amersfoort), Long Island, where he continued to reside until his death in 1704 and where he is buried in the Dutch churchyard. In the Civil list of the Pro- vince of New York for 1693 the name of Roelof Martense Schenck appears as a justice for Kings county ; his name appears as a justice in the rec-
ord of one of the sessions hicld October 1I, 1693. His will is recorded in the New York surrogate's office, liber 7, page 209.
Roelof Martense Schenck married (first), at Flatlands, 1660, Neeltje Garetsen Van Couwen- hoven. Married (second), in 1675, Annetje Pie- ters Wyckoff. Married ( third), in 1688, Katrina Couijer, widow of Stoffle Hoogland. Besides four children by his second wife, he had by his first wife the following: Martin, born 1661, died 1758. Annetje, born 1663. Jonica, born 1665. Marike, born 1667. Jan, born at Flat- lands, March 1, 1670, died at Pleasant Valley, New Jersey, January, 1753. Gerret Roelofse, born at Flatlands, Long Island, about October 27, 1671.
Gerret Roelofse Schenck married at Flatlands, Long Island, about 1693. In 1695, in connection with his brother Jan and his brother-in-law, Cor- nclius Willimse Van Couwenhoven, the husband of his half-sister Margaretta, the eldest daugh- ter of Roelofse by his second marriage, purchased of John Bown (Bowne), of Middletown, New Jersey, a tract of five hundred acres of land in Pleasant Valley near Holindel, Monmouth coun- ty. New Jersey. Gerret Roelofse Schenck re- moved from Flatlands, Long Island, and settled on this land in the spring of 1696. Gerret Roe- lofse Schenck, according to his will, was pros- perous and possessed considerable worldly estate.
In 1737 Gerret Roelofse Schenck and his cou- sin. John Van Couwenhoven, purchased of John Penn's sons, Richard, Thomas and John Penn, a tract of sixty-five hundred acres of land at Penn's Neck, now West Windsor township, not far from Princeton, and the original parchment deed made for this land is still in existence and in the possession of James S. Schenck ; it is dated May 14. 1737. for the sum of two thousand one hundred and seventy-three pounds and fifteen shillings. On this land several of the children of Gerret Roelofse Schenck settled. Gerret Roe- lofse Schenck was an elder in the church at Free- hold, New Jersey, as was his father, Roelof Mar- tense Schenck, while he lived in' Brueklyn (Brooklyn), Long Island, and in 1660 at Flat- bush, Long Island. Gerret Roelofse Schenck was from 1721 to 1726 a member of the Pro- vincial assembly of New Jersey. He had paint- ed upon a panel in one of the doors in his dwell- ing a family coat of arms, copies of which are in existence and will appear in connection with this review. Gerret Roelofse Schenck had born
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of his marriage to Neeltje Coerten Van Vorhees, born at Flatland, Long Island, and baptized De- cember 5. 1680, a family of eleven children. Ger- ret Roelofse Schenck died September 5, 1745. at Pleasant Valley, near Holmdel, Monmouth county, New Jersey.
Jan (John) Schenck, the tenth child of this family, was born near Holmdel, New Jersey, De- cember 7, 1717. He married (first ), November 22, 1737, Ann Couwenhoven (Conover). Mar- ried (second), February 5, 1741, Mary Johnson, born August 25, 1721, died November 7. 1767. The issue of this marriage was three sons and six daughters. Gerret Roelofse Schenck was the great-grandfather of Rev. Dr. William E. Schenck, who was at one time pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Princeton, New Jersey, and later was the secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Publication at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania. Another descendant was General Rob- ert Cummings Schenck, of Franklin, Warren county, Ohio : he was a member of congress from 1843 to 1850 inclusive, and in 1851 was appointed by President Fillmore minister to Brazil, and in 1870 was appointed by General Grant ( then pres- ident) United States minister to England.
Gerret (Garret) Schenck, son of John and Mary ( Johnson) Schenck, was born April 5, 1742. He settled on part of the John Penn tract of land at Penn's Neck. West Windsor township, and upon a nearby tract is located the Schenck family burying ground, which was established by the early members of the family and is at present enclosed by a permanent stone wall, and here many members of the older generations of this family are buried. Garret Schenck married Mary Smith, and among his children was a son, John Garret.
John Garret Schenck, son of Garret Schenck, was born at the paternal homestead at Penn's Neck. October 22, 1779. He followed in the foot- steps of his forefathers and became a tiller of the soil. He married Mary Smith, August, 1801, a daughter of Captain William and Elizabeth (Tilton) Smith. Captain William Smith was a commissioned officer and served during the war of the revolution. He died February 14. 1.791, aged forty-eight years, six months and seven dlavs ; he was a graduate of Dublin College, Fre- land. John Garret Schenck died June 22, 1842. and his wife, Mary (Smith) Schenck, died Aug- ust 9, 1872, at the age of ninety-two years. They were the parents of nine children, one of whom,
Eliza Tilton Schenck, resided for a number of years at the corner of Mercer and Alexander streets. Princeton, and died July 30, 1895, in her ninetieth year.
Alexander Schenck, the fourth child of John Garret and Mary (Smith) Schenck, was born January 29, 1808, at Penn's Neck, West Windsor township, Mercer county, New Jersey, died Jan- uary 22, 1864. He was cducated in the nearby schools, and upon attaining manhood years emu- lated the traditions of his forefathers and spent a number of years of his life at Penn's Neck. He became known as a gentleman farmer, and was highly respected by all who came in contact with him. He married, October 26, 1848, Sarah Elizabeth Johnson, born May 15, 1819, died Jan- uary, 1886, daughter of Justice Enoch and Susan ( Phillips) Johnson. The Johnson family were of Holland extraction, and their ancestors were among the early settlers of Mercer county. An ancestor of this family, Captain William Johnson, was an officer in the Continental army during the revolution and from him the aforementioned Jus- tice Enoch Johnson is descended. The later gen- erations of the Johnson family for some time re- sided at Stony Brook, the property of A. Rus- sell. Alexander Schenck resided on this prop- erty, which is now owned by Moses Taylor Pyne, Esq.
Alexander and Sarah Elizabeth (Johnson) Schenck were the parents of four children: I. John Green, born July 27. 1849, was a graduate of Princeton, class of 1869, and also a graduate from medical department of Pennsylvania Uni- versity : for some years he was a practicing physi- cian at the New Jersey State Hospital. He died September 25, 1875. 2. James Smith, born June 17, 1854. was educated in the public schools, rcared to manhood under the parental roof, and upon taking up the practical duties of life fol- lowed in the footsteps of his forefathers, direct- ing his attention to the tilling of the soil. In 1879 he purchased the farm whereon he now re- sides in West Windsor township from the estate of Mary Hallett, deceased, and has since been successfully engaged in the management and con- duct of his various interests. He married, Feb- ruary 15. 1877. Laura B. Lake, born 1859, died February 9, 1886, daughter of Bergen and Vir- ginia Lake, of Kingston, Somerset county, New Jersey, and they have one son. John G., born April 21, 1879. 4. Alexander, born October 18, 1860.
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William Smith Schenck, son of Alexander and Sarah Elizabeth (Johnson) Schenck, named aft- er his patriotic ancestor, Captain William Smith, of revolutionary fame, was born May 6, 1859. He received his preparatory educational train- ing at Norristown, Pennsylvania, and then en- tered Princeton College, graduating from that institution in 1880. Upon leaving college he took up his residence in the country, preferring the quiet and picturesque features of rural life to that of a city. in this following in the footsteps of his ancestors for many generations, and at present is successfully engaged in farming, his operations being conducted on a fine farm which he owns and which is located on the New Jer- sey Trenton Turnpike Road, about three miles west of Princeton. Mr. Schenck is a progress- ive and useful citizen, and is deeply interested in all that tends to promote the welfare of the neigh- borhood. He is an active member of and is one of the deacons of the First Presbyterian Church of Princeton.
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