Genealogical and personal memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, Part 52

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

USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Genealogical and personal memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey > Part 52

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William G. Bergen, eldest son and third child of George G. and Elizabeth (Scudder) Bergen, was born in West Windsor township, September 3, 1815. He acquired his education in the public schools of the district and when he had arrived at a suitable age took up the more practical du- ties of life. He was chiefly engaged in agricul- tural pursuits, but was also connected with the commercial business of the section and took an active and beneficial interest in the public affairs of the community. He was a man of sterling

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integrity and high principles, and filled a num- ber of offices of public trust and responsibility, as well as being frequently called upon to settle up estates, etc. He was lay judge of Mercer county during the terms of office of the late Hon. Judge McIlvain and the Hon. Judge Campbell. He died at his home near Dutch Neck, West Windsor township, July 14, 1900. He married Susan Reid, who died at the family homestead, a woman of most excellent qualities of mind and heart, and daughter of James and Elizabeth (Corbett) Reid, the latter a native of Mary- land. The children of this marriage were: I. James R., born February 27, 1838; married Mary Embley. 2. Spafford Woodhull, see for- ward. 3. Stephen, born December 14. 1840; married Annie Pullen, and had children : Harvey R., Elizabeth and Clarence. 4. Sarah R., born February 4, 1842; married David D. Grover. 5. Johnson R., born May 14, 1843 ; un- married. 6. Eliza S., born November 22, 1844; married John V. D. Connover, and had chil- dren : Harry, Burtis, Susan, Johnson and George. 7. Charles Henry, born January 7, 1847; died August 29. 1852. 8. Mary S., born December 23, 1848; died August 21, 1852. 9. John Wesley, born December 22, 1850: died September 13, 1853. IO. Isaac H., born Au- gust 3, 1853: married Rachel Stults, has one child. II. Martha Isabella, born August 30, 1855; died February 22, 1876. 12. George T., born August 17, 1858; died March 17, 1884; married Elizabeth Rogers. 13. Emma Frances, born November 2, 1860; married Eli Rogers, has one child. James Bergen Rogers.

Spafford Woodhull Bergen, second son and child of William G. and Susan (Reid) Bergen. was born in Lawrence township. Mercer county. New Jersey, August 19, 1839. He attended the public schools of the township, and remained under the parental roof until he had reached the age of twenty years, when he took up the prac- tical work of life on his own account. His first step in this direction was taking charge of the farm of Peter Rue in West Windsor township, and this was a serious and responsible under- taking for so young a man, the farm consisting of two hundred acres. But the indomitable en- ergy and courage of Mr. Bergen made light of all difficulties and he cultivated this property suc- cessfully for a period of nine years. He next took charge of a farm of one hundred acres and a stone quarry, owned by Mrs. Mary Moore,

and superintended these for three years, at the expiration of which time he removed to the property now owned by the Country Club near the city of Trenton, remaining in full charge of this for three years. He then had the manage- ment of the farm of Judge Campbell for some time, and from that removed to Ewing town- ship, where he was engaged in farming for a period of six years, when he abandoned agricul- tural pursuits. He formed a business associa- tion with Senator John Taylor, who was en- gaged in the manufacture of fertilizers, and was a salesman in this enterprise, in which they met withi decided success. Mr. Bergen was, with others, instrumental in organizing the Trenton Bone Fertilizer Company in 1889, associating himself at the time with the following gentle- men : John I. Smith, Senator John D. Rue, Senator E. C. Hutchinson, James R. Bergen, William G. Howell, John Wykoff and Joseph S. Mount. Mr. Bergen was the general salesman of this company for some time and mnade a great success of the undertaking. As a result of his efforts and that of others in this direction, there is now (1907) a yearly output of six thousand tons of fertilizing material. He resides on a finely located and well cultivated farm on the trolley road from Trenton to Hopewell, near Ewingville, and has always taken an active in- terest in the political situation of the township, having given his earnest support to the Demo- cratic party. He served on the Ewing township committee for a period of four years, was a free- holder for one term, and a judge of elections for four years. He was a candidate for the office of sheriff in 1889, his opponent being Dr. R. R. Rogers, and was the ninth Democrat to be elected to that office, having received the election by a substantial majority, and having been the last Democrat to hold that office up to the present time. His election was mainly owing to his winning personality, and his power of making friends, even those of the opposing party enter- taining feelings of the highest respect for him personally. Since the expiration of his term of office he has always served on the sheriff's jury when occasion required. He has always exemplified a high standard of good and use- ful citizenship, and may be said to have attained his present enviable position in the community almost solely by his unaided efforts. He has been mindful of the social and moral welfare of the community in which he resides, and is a

Refined B. Baker

Levis 6. Baken

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consistent member of the Ewing Presbyterian church, and one of the trustees of that institu- tion. He is a member of the Patrons of Hus- bandry.

Mr. Bergen married (first), June 23, 1859, Sarah Moore, born February 22, 1835; died January 24, 1864. She was of an amiable dis- position and sterling character, and beloved by all who knew her; a daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Biles) Moore. Mr. and Mrs. Bergen had children: 1. Charles W., born September 18, 1860; married Ida Chase, born May II, 1865; died March 10, 1897, and had children : Edward C., born November 17, 1885, died January 5, 1894; Sarah R., born October 7, 1887; Raymond C., born February 13, 1890, and Charles W., Jr., born July 26, 1892. 2. William G., born June 12, 1862; married Mary Silvers; they have no children. 3. Cornelius, born October 4, 1863; married Amanda M. Doll, and has had children: Dorothy L., born February 14, 1887, and Cornelius M., born Au- gust 31, 1891. Mr. Bergen married (second), March 22, 1893, Ella Heston, born March 14, 1861, daughter of Isaiah and Margaret (Reeder) Heston, the latter a descendant of the distin- guished Reeder family of Pennsylvania, of which General Reeder was a member. There are no children by this second marriage.

BAKER FAMILY. Of this family two rep- resentatives reside in Princeton-the Rev. Lewis Carter Baker, living on Library Place, and the Rev. Alfred Brittin Baker, D.D., for more than forty years rector of Trinity parish, and occu- pant of the rectory adjoining the church.

The first of the family in this country was Thomas Baker, born 1618, in Kent county, Eng- land. He was one of the New Haven colony, and first settled at Milford, Connecticut, in 1639. There were two families of distinction in Kent- shire in which the name Thomas Baker fre- quently occurs. The best information gives the line of descent of the settler at Milford from a Thomas who was prior of Christ church, Canter- bury, in 1370, whose grandson was Sir John Baker, of Sissinghurst. One of his descendants became chancellor of England and a member of privy council under Henry VIII. Another de- scendant was Sir Richard, author of a book entitled "The Chronicles of the Kings of Eng- land." Through his becoming security for the payment of the debts of his wife's family, his

estate was much reduced. Two of his grandsons, John and Joseph, joined the Society of Friends and emigrated to America. Another grandson was Thomas, whom we are warranted in believ- ing to be the settler at Milford, where he mar- ried Alice Dayton, of the same colony, in 1643. In 1650 they joined the colonists from Connecti- cut, who took possession of the eastern part of Long Island under a grant from the crown, es- tablishing themselves at Easthampton as the cen- tre. Among these colonists Thomas Baker soon became prominent, becoming a sort of magis- trate and judge among them, and highly influ- ential in settling controversies about boundaries which arose between them and an adjacent col- ony. * Thomas died April 30, 1700, and was buried at Easthampton. His wife dying in 1708, was buried at Amagansett. The line of descent from him to the Princeton family is as follows :

Nathaniel Baker (son of Thomas), born De- cember 22, 1655.

Catherine Schellinger (his wife) born. April 9, 1656.

Daniel Baker,

Abigail Osborn (his wife), born August I, 1692.

Henry Baker, born 1727.

Phoebe Hedges, (his wife), born 1729.

Daniel Baker. born june 30, 1753.

Margaret Osborn, (his wife), born July I, 1760.

Elihu Baker, father of Lewis and Alfred, born May 3, 1802.

Joanna Butler Carter, (his wife), born 1807.

. Henry Baker, the fourth in this line, moved from Long Island to New Jersey and settled near Westfield in Essex county. His son Daniel the grandfather of Lewis and Alfred, before his mar- riage accompanied, in the capacity of adjutant, the expedition in 1775 which marched through the New York wilderness and made the assault 011 Quebec in which General Montgomery was slain. Later he aided in forming a company, of which he was ensign, for service in the war of the Revolution. After removing his family to Springfield Mountain from Westfield-which, as lying in that portion of the state subject to raids from the British, was unsafe for them-he served with distinction through most of the war, re-

*A full account of this period and of Thomas Baker's connection with it, is given in Hedges History of the early settlement of Long Island.

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turning to his home near Westfield, where he died July 10, 1814. He married, October 26, 1778, and became the father of seven sons and seven daughters, all of whom lived to grow up and were married, except one son who died in in- fancy.

Elihu Baker, the youngest son, was born at Westfield, July 3, 1802. In 1828 he married Joanna Butler Carter, daughter of Lewis Carter and Nancy Butler, who was the daughter of Wil- liam Butler, who came from Virginia as a com- missary officer under Washington, and was with the army in its winter quarters at Morristown. Her mother was Joanna Bruen, who was a de- scendant of the old Puritan, Sir John Bruen, of Stapleford, England. The five children of Elihu Baker by this marriage were:

I. Nancy Carter, born November 28, 1829, at Madison. She became the wife, in 1857, of Dr. James Christie May, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Their only living child is Mary Carter May, born in 1859, now the head of the Normal Kindergar- ten School at the Stark University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

2. Lewis Carter, born at Middletown Point, (now Matawan) December 15, 1831. A sketch of his career will be given later.

3. William Morris, born as above, Septem- ber 21, 1834, is now a resident of Chicago. In 1877 he married Agnes Kingman, daughter of Frederick Kingman, a leading member of the Trenton bar. Their children are Maurice, now manager of the Boston office of R. Keybotte & Company, dealer in honds; and Agnes, residing at home.

4. Alfred Brittin, born August 11, 1836, will be spoken of later.

5. Margaret Osborn, born September 21, 1838, married, about 1863, Henry Wood, former- ly of Chicago, and now of Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, a leading author of what is known as the school of "New Thought." Having been greatly helped some years ago through Chris- tian Science, it has been his effort to give its lead- ing principles a more scientific statement and wider application. He has published ten volumes and numerous articles in magazines. Some of his books-"Studies in the Thought World." "Ideal Suggestion," "God's Image in Man," "The New Thought Simplified," "Edward Burton: a Nov- el"-have attracted much attention and been widely circulated.

Elihu Baker, after the death of his first wife

in 1841, married, two years later, a sister of hers, Charlotte Butler Carter. There were three children of this second marriage, one dying in infancy. Joanna Butler, the eldest, born July 8, 1844, became the wife of the Rev. George R. Carroll, a Presbyterian minister who lived in Cedar Rapids. Iowa, and has charge of the mis- sionary operations of the church in that state. He also at various times was a settled pastor and highly esteemed. Asher Carter Baker, born December 18, 1850, was graduated at Annapo- lis, and served as an officer of the navy from 1871 to 1906, when he was retired with the rank of captain. His last cruise was in com- mand, first of the monitor "Monadrock," and afterwards of the cruiser "Raleigh," of the Asia- tic squadron, during the closing period of the Russo-Japanese war. He was detached from sea- service for special duty at each of the three re- cent great World Expositions held first at Chica- go, then at Paris, and more recently at St. Louis. Since his retirement he has been on duty as pre- siding judge in a continuous court-martial at League Island. In 1879 Asher married Mary Elizabeth Reese, daughter of Major Reese, of Lancaster, Ohio, a paymaster of the army. He was a nephew of John Sherman and General William T. Sherman, of national fame. Asher was on his first cruise as an ensign attached to one of the ships of the Mediterranean squadron, when he first met his future wife. Seven chil- dren were born to them: Cecil Sherman, born in 1880, now an assistant paymaster in the navy. Charlotte, born in 1882. Marie Elizabeth, born August 22, 1884, now the wife of Captain Charles Lloyd, of the Artillery. United States America. Helen Wood, born 1889. Asher Car- ter, Jr .. born 1891. Hoyt Sherman and Gerald Pomeroy, twins, horn 1894.

Elihu Baker, shortly after marriage, moved to Middletown Point and began business there, which he soon relinquished to accept the post of cashier of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Middletown Point, just organized, and the only bank in all that part of the state covered by Mon- mouth and Ocean counties. The Monmouth Bank had been started at Freehold, but was soon swamped in the financial trouble that arose dur- ing President Jackson's administration. The new bank, therefore, afforded banking facilities for that wide region from Tom's river on the south to Raritan bay on the north. Middletown Point with Keyport, two miles away, was then the nat-

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ural outlet for the rich products of Monmouth county to the New York market. The route of travel from Freehold to the city was by stages to Middletown Point and Keyport, from each of which a steamboat ran daily to New York. All the banking business from Freehold and from the smaller towns along the coast gravitated to the new bank. William Little, father of Hon. Henry Stafford Little, was its first president, and Elihu Baker as its active manager, as well as its cashier, was widely known and trusted through all that region.

After twenty-two years of service there the strain of the business and impaired health in- duced him to accept an offer from his brother-in- law, Thomas B. Carter, of Chicago, to join in a well established business there. Accordingly, in 1854, he resigned his position in the bank and removed to Chicago, where he resided for three years, afterwards going still farther west to Ced- ar Rapids, where he began a private banking bus- iness. Soon after this the legislature of Iowa passed an act, largely under his influence, provid- ing for the organization of a Central State Bank with branches throughout the state. A central office for the reception of reports from the branches and the control and issue to them of cur- rency was established in Iowa City. Mr. Baker, as secretary and treasurer of the state board of managers, was placed in charge, in which post he remained until after the civil war, when the state system was merged into the present national system ; whereupon Mr. Baker was appointed national bank examiner for the state of Iowa, in which office he continued until his death at Ce- dar Rapids in 1873.

The history of that portion of the Baker fam- ily resident in Mercer county still remains.

Lewis Carter Baker was graduated in 1854 from the College of New Jersey at Princeton, as the Latin salutatorian of his class. He spent one year as tutor of Latin and Greek at Beloit College, Wisconsin. In 1855 he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating in 1858. On June 9 of that year he was married at South Amboy, New Jersey, to Mary Rachel Conover, eldest daughter of Commodore Thomas Anderson Conover, United States Navy, and Juliana Stevens, his wife, who was the eldest daughter of Colonel John Stevens, the original proprietor of Castle Point, Hoboken. For gal- lant conduct in the naval action on Lake Cham- plain during the War of 1812, Commodore Con-

over, then a midshipman, received with others the thanks of congress and was presented with a sword. His last cruise was in the flagship "Cum- berland," in command of the African squadron. He died September, 1863. The children of Lewis Carter and Mary Rachel Baker are:

I. Lewis Carter, Jr., born May 7, 1859. He graduated at Princeton in 1880. He married, January 29, 1891, Sarah Andrew Hoopes, of Westchester, Pennsylvania. Their children are: Rachel Conover, born October 23, 1891 : Malin- da Worthington, July 24, 1893; Sarah Andrews, born May 25, 1895; Sophia Stevens Conover, March 16, 1897; Martha Dodgson, December 13, 1898; Juliana Stevens, September 19, 1900. Lewis Carter, Jr., studied and practiced archi- tecture with the firm of Furness Evans, in Phil- adelphia, and afterwards became a member of the firm of Baker & Dallett, whose offices are at No. 1420 Chestnut street.

2. Thomas Anderson Conover, born June 3, 1861, graduated at Princeton, 1883. Married Emily Elizabeth Curtis, of Plymouth, England, August 5, 1895.

3. Alfred Thornton Baker, born October 30, 1863. Graduated at Princeton, 1885. Married, April 22, 1889, Mary Augusta Pemberton, daughter of J. Clifford Pemberton, of Philadel- phia. Their sons are Alfred Thornton, Jr., born June 12, 1890; and Hobart Amory Hare, born January 15, 1892. Thomas and Alfred, second and third sons of Lewis, have for several years been associated under the firm name of A. T. Baker & Co., in the manufacture of mohair and cotton plushes, at Manayunk, Philadelphia.

4. Juliana Stevens, only daughter of Lewis and Rachel, was born September 17, 1866. Married, October 25; 1898, John Potter Cuyler, of Prince- ton, son of Lieutenant Richard M. Cuyler, United States Navy, and of Emily Potter, grand- daughter of John Potter, owner of the "Pros- pect" estate, on the grounds of which a large number of the present buildings of Princeton University now stand. Their children are four : Richard Matthew, born September 18, 1900; Lewis Baker, born April 11, 1902; Juliana Stev- ens, born October 11, 1903; John Potter, born November 4, 1905.

Lewis Carter Baker was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Elizabeth in April, 1857. After minor engagements for supply at the Third Church of Trenton, at Freehold, and at Camden, he was ordained on March 1, 1860, by the Pres-

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bytery of Burlington, as the pastor of the Sec- ond Church of Camden, just organized, its chapel and present church building being both built during his ministry. He remained in that pastorate over twenty-two years, resigning it in November, 1883. Shortly after he moved to Philadelphia and began the publication of a mag- azine, called Words of Reconciliation. Un- der a profound impression that the discord in the "One Church of the One Lord" could never be healed until there was a clearer view of the plan of God in Creation and Redemption, and of the goal toward which the human race was be- ing conducted under it, he had for some time made a special study of that branch of theology known as "Eschatology," or the doctrine of the "Last Things." The new magazine was de- voted to the correction of certain errors into which he believed the church had fallen, and the unfolding of certain great truths which she had failed to apprehend.

The misconceptions referred to are due to the long-prevalent view that the world judgment committed to Jesus Christ as the Risen Son of Man is an event of the distant future, subsequent to a simultaneous resurrection of all mankind at one great assize; whereas His judgment of both the living and the dead has been continu- ous since His exaltation; and, secondly, to the consequent divorce in Christian thought between His work of salvation and of judgment, where- as in His office the two are blended. He is Sa- vior-Judge. This error leads to the denial of any beneficient intent in the provision for an ulti- mate resurrection of the unjust. So far as they are concerned, the provision in Christ for the re- covery from death of all who died in Adam be- comes an unspeakable calamity, whereas, since death is the wages of sin, all Scripture teaching concerning sin's penalty must be put under the category of death, where it belongs. Even the eter- nal fire must be explained as the operating energy of an eternal law of the cosmos, by which all forms of creature-life, up to man, that fall short of the divine ideal of manhood as the destined heir and lord of this created system, must, in the pro- gress toward this highest form of life, fall back unto the womb of fire out of which they sprang. But the office of fire is one of disintegration in order to purgation and renovation. All this makes room for the essential truth of the gospel, that resurrection lies at the other pole of the di- vine dealing from death, and that it is essentially

a redemptive act, carrying with it a blessing to even the unjust ; subject, however, to the harvest law which prevails in all the realms of life-"To every seed its own body," and "every man in his own order." This principle makes room for all further corrective judgment and discipline re- quired by the eternal law that the "fire must try every man's work," and that "whatever any man hath sown, that must he also reap."

The whole subject of human destiny needs further to be restudied in the light of another principle : namely, that the human race is an or- ganism from which the dead are not sundered when they pass out of this life. The Bible plainly reveals a salvation which is not merely nor mainly one of individuals, but of generations and finally of the race. But it is a salvation which is eclec- tic and progressive. Only a limited class are first fitted to rise out of the earthly conditions of manhood into the higher rank of the heavenly. But a "Church of the First born," in the very terms of it, implies that there are to be later born. Still further this truth of the organic con- stitution of the race implies that the ultimate sal- vation of the masses who go down to death fail- ing to win "the crown of life" in this present earthly trail must be achieved through the min- istry under Christ, the Head, of their human brethren who have conquered in life's battle. The race is so bound together by ties of kindred and generation that no man liveth to himself or dieth to himself. Every soul born into this earthly arena is on trial not merely for himself, but, as inheriting the vices and faults of char- acter of those who have gone before them, he represents them again in a renewed conflict. The victors before him become his helpers, and those behind him who failed are interested in his success and share in the fruits of his spiritual triumphs. The future probation of the race is therefore accounted for and harmonized with the law of its evolution ; and it is seen to be going on around us and within us. And so the curse which the second commandment declares goes down to the third and fourth generation is more than balanced by the blessings that may be transmitted backward by those who win in this life-battle, to the generations behind them.

The effort of Mr. Baker's publications was to show that these principles are deeply grounded in the Old Testament and supply the only basis for a rational interpretation of its promises and prophecies. They are therefore vital to the right

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understanding of the New Testament, and of the gospel it proclaims, the central fact of which is the resurrection of the Son of Man as the dawn of what St. Paul defines as "hope toward God that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and the unjust." It was sought also to show how impossible it is for us to achieve the con- version of such nations as China and Japan, un- til we can preach to them a risen Christ who is the centre and pledge of these world-wide hopes, and the Author of a salvation which covers the realms of the dead as of the living, and summons them to embrace it, not merely for themselves, but that they may thereby become the channels of its grace and power to their dead ancestors and kindred who died without the light.

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Genealogical and personal memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, Part 52

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