Genealogical and personal memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, Part 2

Author: Lee, Francis Bazley, 1869-1914
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 698

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Mr. Cleveland is of striking personality, con- manding respect and confidence under all cir- cumstances and before all manner of assem- blages. Physically of large and powerful frame, in motion he is deliberate and firm, yet without slowness. In manner and voice he is genial and agreeable. Broad minded and liberal in thought, he is tolerant and charitable. In religion he is a man of conscience rather than of set creed. All his personal habits are marked by Democratic simplicity, and totally devoid of ostentation. Since his retirement from the loftiest place open to an American, he was steadily grown in the regard and affection of the people, while pub- licists and political students are only beginning to adequately measure the wisdom and benefi- cence which were the characteristics of his pub- lic career.

In the second year of his first presidential term. June 2, 1886, President Cleveland was mar- ried to Miss Frances Folsom, the ceremony be- ing performed by Rev. Byron Sunderland, D. D., in the Blue Room in the White House. Of this marriage were born: Ruth, in the city of New York, October 3, 1891: Esther C., in Washing- ton City (the first child ever born in the White House ). September 9, 1893 : Maria C., at "Gray Gables," Buzzards' Bay, Barnstable county, Mas- sachusetts, July 7, 1895; Richard Folsom, at Westland, Princeton, New Jersey, October 28, 1897.

Mrs. Cleveland was born in Buffalo, New York, July 21, 1864, only daughter of Oscar and Emma Cornelia (Harmon) Folsom, her father

being a distinguished lawyer. Her family, Fol- som, is descended from the same family with John Foulsham, D. D., of Folsham, England, died 1348. The family seat name appears in Domesday Book, and in the various forms of Foulshame, or Foulsham (signifying fowl's home, or mart), twenty miles north of Hingham, Nor- folk county, where Dr. John Foulsham was prior of the Carmelite Monastery. The family line runs as follows: I. Roger Foulsham, of Nec- ton, Norfolk county, England, will dated 1534. 2. William (2), married Agnes Smith, alias Foulsham, of Besthorpe. 3. Adam, of Besthorpe, married Emma 4. Adam, baptized 1560, died 1630; had home in Hingham, and lands in Besthorpe; married Grace

5. Adam, of Hingham, died 1627; married Agnes 6. John, born 1614; baptized at Hingham, 1615; came to America in ship "Dili- gience," of Ipswich, John Martin, master, sailing from mouth of the Thames on April 26, 1638, with wife and two servants; landed in Boston. 7. Jolın, born 1638; frequently member of general assembly married Abigail Perkins, daughter of Abraham Perkins, of Hampton, New Hampshire. 8. Abraham, died about 1740. 9. Daniel, of Exeter, New Hampshire. 10. Abraham. II. Asa. 12. Colonel John Folsom, of Folsomdale, Wyoming county, New York; died 1886. 13. Oscar Folsom, of Buffalo, died 1875; married Cornelia Harmon, daughter of Deacon Elisha Harmon, descended in the seventh generation from John Harmon, of Sprinfield, Massachusetts, 1644. Florence, daughter of Oscar and Emma Cornelia (Harmon) Folsom, became the wife of Grover Cleveland.

DAVID MAGIE, M. D., for many years an eminent physician in the city of New York, and since 1901 residing retired from the practice of his profession in Princeton, Mercer county, New Jersey, is a representative of a family which has been closely identified with various professions for some generations and in which the various members have attained positions of distinction.

David Magie, grandfather of Dr. David Magie. was born in 1765, at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and died in 1854. He was a gentleman farmer by occupation, and for forty years was elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth. He mar- ried Phoebe Townley, and among his children was a son, David.

David Magie, son of David and Phoebe (Town-

Lamerlcom

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ley) Magie, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, August 27, 1795. He was a merchant of note in the city of New York, being a member of the well-known firm of Magie, Sanderson & Griggs, of that city. He was a director of the Merchants' Insurance Company of New York, and deacon of the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church of New York until his death, which occurred Octo- ber 31, 1864. He was buried in his native town. He married, in 1838, Maria Delano, who died April 18, 1875. She was the daughter of Jesse and Rachael Beach (Sickles) Delano, the latter the daughter of Garrit Sickles. Jesse Delano was descended from Philippe De La Noye, boril Leyden, 1602, died Bridgewater, Massachusetts, about 1681, a Huguenot brought up under the teaching and influence of the Separatists from the Established Church of England who fled to Hol- land. It is believed that Philippe De La Noye came over to America in the "Speedwell." Jesse Delano was a private in the company of Captain W. S. Hicks, First Regiment of Dodge's New York Militia, during the Revolution. He died in New York, May 27, 1867. Among the children of David and Maria (Delano) Magie was a son, David, the particular subject of this sketch.

David Magie, M. D., son of David and Maria (Delano) Magie, was born in the city of New York, January 15, 1841. He enjoyed the ad- vantages of an excellent education in his native city, and then became a student at Princeton University, from which he was graduated in 1859. He then attended the College of Physicians of New York, was graduated from this institu- tion in 1863. He served two years as resident physician at the New York Hospital, and then as contract medical cadet during the Civil war at Frederick, Maryland. He established himself in the city of New York for the practice of his profession, and was thus engaged for the long period of thirty years. During this time he be- came one of the foremost physicians of the city. He removed to Princeton, Mercer county, New Jersey, in 1901, and has since that time lived re- tired from professional duties. He is a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of Princeton, and a member of the following associations ; Uni- versity Club, New York; Century Club, New York; Princeton Club, New York ; Nassau Club, Princeton, New Jersey ; Sons of the Revolution of New Jersey. One of his second cousins is Chancellor William J. Magie, of New Jersey.

Dr. Magie married, February 23, 1876, Mar-

garet McCosh, daughter of Rev. James McCosh, D. D., and Isabella Guthrie, his wife, the latter the daughter of Dr. Alexander and Mary Guthrie, of Scotland. The children of Dr. David and Mar- garet (McCosh) Magie are: I. David Magie, Jr., born January 20, 1877, was graduated from Princeton University in 1897, and from the Uni- versity of Halle, Germany, with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in 1904. He is now pre- ceptor in classics at Princeton University. 2. James McCosh, born May 22, 1882, was grad- uated from Princeton University in 1904, and now holds a position as clerk with the Metropolitan Trust Company at No. 49 Wall street, New York city.

JAMES McCOSH, D. D., LL. D., LITT. D., the eleventh president of the College of New Jer- sey, now Princeton University, belonged to an old and highly respected family in Ayrshire, Scot- land, whose earliest recorded ancestor, Jasper McCosh, died at Straiton in Ayrshire, in 1727, and is buried there. A descendant in the third generation from Jasper McCosh was Andrew, who married Jean, daughter of James Carson, a large farmer on Loch Doon, and died on his estate at Carskeoch, July 9, 1820. This property is situated on the Doon in Ayrshire, about twelve miles from Ayr. Andrew and Jean (Carson) McCosh had six daughters and one son, James, born April 1, 18II.

James McCosh studied at the University of Glasgow, continued his theological education at Edinburghı, was licensed to preach in 1834, and in the following year accepted his first charge at Arbroath, removing to Brechin in 1838, where until 1843 he was minister of the established church. On the Disruption, he resigned his charge, formed a Free Church congregation and labored thus until 1851, when he was appointed professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Queen's College, Belfast. It was from this chair that he was called to the presidency of Princeton in 1868. For twenty years he occupied the latter position, galvanizing and remodeling the entire institu- tion until in 1888, when he resigned, he had placed the college on a University basis. He died at Princeton, November 16, 1894.

At the age of thirteen he had been sent to Glasgow, where after a year in a preparatory class he entered the University in 1825. Four years later, attracted by the reputation of Thomas Chalmers and David Welsh in theology and of

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Sir William Hamilton in philosophy, he left Glas- gow and entered Edinburgh University, joining the crowd of eager students under these pro- fessors. He completed his academic education at Edinburgh, and in 1834 presented a disserta- tion on "Stoic Philosophy" for which he was granted the Master of Arts degree. Licensed that spring he preached wherever opportunity of- fered. Then for a while he acted as tutor in the family of a Mr. Graham, of Meiklewood, near Stirling. At the end of 1835 he was called to his first regular pastorate at the Abbey Chapel of Arbroath in Forfarshire. Two years later he declined a call to the pulpit of the historic Old Greyfriars at Edinburgh, and had the pleasure of urging for the place a close friend, the Rev. Thomas' Guthrie, who accepted the call and won for himself a fine reputation in that church. In 1838 young McCosh accepted an appointment to Brechin, an old cathedral town near Arbroath, and here he labored until the Disruption took place. In this movement McCosh and Guthrie had leading parts, forming as it were a nucleus of ministers who discussed the dangers that threatened the Scottish church through appoint- ment of ministers by the Crown, regardless of the preferences of congregations, an unavoidable development of the patronage system. A little pamphlet published by Dr. McCosh at Brechin late in 1843 or early in 1844 entitled "Recollec- tions of the Disruption in Brechin," and printed for private circulation, shows the successive steps of the movement and clearly outlines his attitude. In 1843, when Disruption from the Established Church became inevitable, he surrendered his living at Brechin : but his work had won for him so large a following that he was able to form a Free congregation without delay and here he continued therefore in pastoral work. His labors, however, were not confined to his own parish, for he spent much time organizing Free churches elsewhere, raising funds for their support, and securing pastors for their pulpits. For five years longer he remained at Brechin, by which time the Free Church seemed to be on a firm basis and he was able to turn his attention to authorship.

In 1850 he published his first important work "The Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral." It met with the instant approval of Sir William Hamilton and Hugh Miller, at that time two leading thinkers of Scotland, and it was everywhere favorably received. The German "Zeitschrift für Philosophie," for instance, was

outspoken in its praise, remarking that it was distinguished from other works of similar nature by being based on a thorough study of Physical Science and an accurate knowledge of its present condition, together with a deeper and more un- fettered discussion of the psychological, ethical and theological questions involved, than any work up to that time published. The first edition was exhausted in six months, and during the next forty years the book passed through twenty edi- tions, and is still sought after.

To this book it is said Dr. McCosh in a measure owed his call to the chair of Logic and Metaphy- sics in Queen's College, Belfast, a branch of the newly founded Queen's University of Ireland, the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Regent of the University, becoming so ab- sorbed in its perusal one Sunday morning that he forgot to go to church. The call to Belfast fol- lowed shortly after, and there in January, 1852, Dr. McCosh began his lectures.

He instantly won popularity with his students as a stimulating lecturer and a keen judge of human nature. His introductory lecture "On the Method in which Metaphysics should be pro- secuted" showed that he was neither content with Scottish philosophical methods nor intended to lead his classes along quite the traditional lines. In the main he followed experimental methods in his lectures on Psychology and Metaphysics, while in Logic he recast the elements. He laid special emphasis on the written work of his students, and took great delight in examining their aptitudes and characters. Several of his pupils fulfilled his prophecy of eminence.

Side by side with his professorial duties he was active in evangelical work. He not only or- ganized a school in the slum district of Belfast, which grew to have six hundred pupils, but in another neglected portion of the city he formed a congregation from the people whom he found to be without a pastor, and when the time was ripe he secured a minister and contrived the erection of a church. He organized a club house for temperate working men to offset the social at- tractiveness of the saloon. He aided to found the Ministerial Support Fund of the Irish Presby- terian Church. His arguments against estab- lishment and state endowment largely influenced Mr. Gladstone in disestablishing the Irish Church. He advocated the abolition of the Regum Donum, or government addition to clerical stipends, and in his essay on the "Duty of Irish Presbyterians

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to their church at the present crisis in the susten- tation of the Gospel Ministry" (Belfast, 1868) afforded much needed guidance to troubled Irish Presbyterians. Meanwhile he was reading widely and observing keenly, as is shown by his address "The present Tendency of Religious Thought throughout the three Kingdoms" read before the British Organization of the Evangelical Alliance in July, 1864. He served also as examiner for Queen's University, Ireland, for the Indian Civil service, and for the Fergusson scholarships. He strongly advocated a system of intermediate schools for Ireland, and supported the cause of national elementary schools as one method to break down the narrow class exclusiveness so prevalent in Ireland. In 1854 he published a series of letters to the Lord Lieutenant on "The Necessity for an Intermediate System of Edu- cation between the National Schools and the Col- leges of Ireland." In 1867 he brought the ques- tion up again when, at the Belfast meeting of the National Association for the promotion of Social Science, he read a paper on "The Present State of the Intermediate Education Question in Ireland." It is clear that he touched on many of the great causes of the day, and it has been remarked, not without truth, that he earned dis- tinction in winning the friendship and praise, or in calling on himself the antagonistic criticism, of men like Chalmers, Guthrie, Hugh Miller, Sir William Hamilton, Gladstonc, Huxley, Thack- eray, Ruskin, and John Stuart Mill.

While at Belfast he continued his literary work by publishing, in 1855, his "Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation" (with Professor George Dickie) which went into several editions; in 1860 his "Intuitions of the Mind," also several times republished : in 1862 his "Supernatural in Relation to the Natural," published simultaneous- ly in Cambridge, Belfast and New York: and in 1866 his "Examination of J. S. Mill's Philoso- phy." The first of this group of works is direct- ly traceable to his genius for observation, which led to the discovery that the venation in the leaves of a tree corresponds in general with the branches, a theory which is practically endorsed by all botanists today. In "Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation," the authors expound the gen- eral order and design running through creation and illustrate the great principles of analogy in divine plans and works. This work, while ably presenting the results of profound scientific re- search in their higher relations, was overshadowed

by the appearance of Darwin's "Origin of Species." Dr. McCosh, however, was great enough to be able later to accept evolution pro- visionally, as will be shown when his philosophy is examined. On the appearance of his "Intui- tions of the Mind" the "Jahrbücher für Deutschen Theologic" gave an approving notice, and later especially recommended its moderation and clear- ness. The "London Quarterly Review" praised the same qualities, while the "Princeton Reviewe," representing orthodox American Presbyterian- ism, pointed out that on all the great issues be- tween Mill and Hamilton and their respective schools, as on nearly ever issue between phil- osophical scepticism and Christian philosophy, Dr. McCosh had taken the right attitude.

In May. 1858. having already learned the Ger- man language, he sailed for Germany to spend five months examining Prussian schools and uni- versities, and familiarizing himself with their methods and organization. He also attended the philosophical lectures of Trendelenburg and Michelet and met other leaders in German thought. He returned to his Belfast lecture room in September, 1858. In 1866. to rest from his ardous duties and his literary labors (he had just published his important "Examination of J. S. Mill's Philosophy), he sailed for America. During the Civil war he had staunchly upheld the Union in the face of strong opposition. In America he visited the principal cities and lead- ing institutions and was received with distinc- tion. His habit of keen observation stood him in such good stead that, when in 1868 the trustees of Princeton extended to him a call to the presi- dency, he was well informed as to the condition of the country and the outlook for higher edu- cation.

He came to Princeton at an opportune time. The Civil war had just ended and the country at large was beginning to turn its attention to the development not only of its natural, but also of its educational resources. Harvard, Yale and Columbia had just entered on new eras of growth and Johns Hopkins University was soon to be founded. Dr. McCosh was soon called to Prince- ton to bring it abreast of the times and to lay the university foundations it now enjoys and on which it is still building. The foretaste of future material growth hinted at in his Inaugural Address was not merely rhetorical. It was evident from the beginning that he had grasped the situation and would live up to the promise

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of his address. During the twenty years of his presidency the campus was enlarged and beauti- fied ; to the six buildings on that campus in 1868 fourteen were added by 1888; the faculty was increased from sixteen to forty-three, and the number of students from two hundred and sixty- four to six hundred and four ; the Princeton re- stricted elective system was introduced and courses leading to the degrees of B. S. and C. E., were added, together with graduate courses leading to the higher degrees ; the library was in- creased from 30,000 to 70,000 and a library building, in its day one of the handsomest in the country, was erected; fellowships were en- dowed and several special annual prizes were founded ; alumni associations were organized to keep the graduates in touch with the institutions and with each other. Nearly $3,000,000 came into the college treasury during the two decades ; faculty espionage, Greek letter fraternities, class- room disorder, and most of the vicious hazing of earlier days, were done away with or suppressed.

Dr. McCosh advocated the restricted elective system in the college curriculum as opposed to the free elective method introduced by President Eliot at Harvard. The latter advocated his views before the Nineteenth Century Club of New York in February, 1885, and Dr. McCosh was invited to criticize them. His comments were published in pamphlet form under the title "The New Departure in College Education." He favored freedom of elective studies under limita- tions, holding that certain fundamental studies should be compulsory in any curriculum leading to the historic academic degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts. Moreover he believed firm- ly that all education should have Christian found- ation and he never let this point of view be lost. He constantly endeavored to develop the Christ- ian element in college life, but as earnestly avoided anything like denominationalism in the college chapel. As a teacher he stands pre-eminent in American academic history with Woolsey, Mark Hopkins, and Wayland, as one who contrived by his earnestness, his enthusiasm and his knowl- edge, to spur the interest of his classes. He was prominent in all educational gatherings and his last public appearance was as presiding officer at the Internal Congress of Education held at Chicago, in July, 1893, when his eminence as a teacher and philosopher made him the recipient of every mark of honor and distinction.

He believed in the parental theory of college

government and did not confine his theory to his undergraduates. He ruled and moulded his facul- ty. He won the affection of his students by his strong personality, his dry humor, his shrewd- ness, his perfect understanding of them, and his favor of gymnastics and athletics. And in his personal relations with them he was wonder- fully aided by his wife whose gentle solicitude for, and motherly interest in, any that were sick or in need of care made her the sharer in the affection that he enjoyed. It was to perpetuate the memory of her goodness especially to under- graduates that the Isabella McCosh Infirmary was erected on the Princeton campus.

Dr. McCoshi was as prolific a writer after his advent to America as he had been in Belfast. Beginning with his striking Inaugural Address on "Academic Teaching in Europe," published in New York in 1869, he continued publication until the very year of his death. In 1870 he brought out a text book of formal logic. "The Laws of Discursive Thought," which was re- issued in revised and enlarged editions at least three times during the next twenty years. In 1871 he delivered a series of lectures at Union Theological Seminary, New York, on natural the- ology and apologetics, which was published in New York and London in 1871, and again in 1875, under the title of "Christianity and Posi- tivism." In 1874 he issued his well known "Scot- tish Philosophy, biographical, expository, crit- ical; from Hutcheson to Hamilton" being a his- tory and critique of the school of thought of which he was the most brilliant living pupil. Of more ephemeral character were his essays: "Ideas in Nature overlooked by Dr. Tyndall," being a searching examination of Tyndall's Belfast ad- dress (New York, 1875) ; his "Development Hypothesis : is it Sufficient ?" (New York, 1876), and his "Conflicts of the Age" (New York, 1881). In 1882 he began to issue a valuable "Phil- osophical Series" of eight small volumes dis- cussing the leading philosophical questions of the day and setting forth his contention that while the old truths may have to be put in new form and their defense taken up on new lines yet they are as deeply founded as ever. This series was republished in two volumes in 1887. In 1886 he published his "Psycholgy: the Cognit- ive Powers" and in the following years its second part, "Psychology : the Motive Powers." In 1887 he delivered the Bedell Lectures, publishing them in 1888 under the title "The Religious

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Aspect of Evolution," enlarging them in a new edition which was called for in 1890. In 1889 he issued his treatise on metaphysics "First and Fundamental Truths" and in the same year he delivered a series of lectures before the Ohio Wesleyan University on "The Tests of various Kinds of Truth," being a treatise on applied logic, published in New York and Cincinnati in 1889. The following year he issued a small work "The Prevailing Types of Thought: can they reach Reality logically?" and in 1892 his brief volume on ethics "Our Moral Nature." In 1894 he published his last work, "Philosophy of Reality : should it be favored by Americans ?" His belief contributions to purely American edu- cational discussions were, not including his reply to President Eliot on the Elective System and several addresses at educational conventions, his papers "Discipline in American Colleges" (North American Review, vol. 126, pp. 428-441 ), "Course of Study in the Academical Depart- ment of Princeton College" (Princeton Book 1879). "What an American University should be" (1885), "Religion in College" (1886).

As a philosophical writer Dr. McCosh belongs to the great school of traditional Scottish thought whose history he wrote. Here he stands next to his great teacher, Sir William Hamilton. During his lifetime his position, as has been pointed out, suffered because of the reaction against that school led by John Stuart Mill, and because of the evolution movement begun by Darwin and led philosophically by Herbert Spencer. His emphatic and positive tone more- over, says Professor A. T. Ormond, his fore- most pupil and his successor in the Princeton school of philosophy, had something to do with the mistaken tendency to undervalue his work. Much of this work was necessarily transitional, as for instance his attitude toward evolution it- self. He may be said to have accepted evolution provisionally, that is, rejecting its atheistic and irreligious forms while adopting its scientfic truth. His attitude is thus summed up: He maintained the possibility of conceiving evolu- tion from the theistic basis as a feature of Di- vine government and this led him to take a hospitable view attitude toward the evolution idea at the same time that it enabled him to become its most formidable critic. It is believed, how- ever, that he has contributed elements of value to the thought of the time as for instance his treatment of intuition by a more discriminating,

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Genealogical and personal memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, Part 2

Author: Lee, Francis Bazley, 1869-1914 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 698

Author: Lee, Francis Bazley, 1869-1914
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 698