USA > New Jersey > Bergen County > History of Bergen county, New Jersey > Part 15
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Mr. Romeyn has never taken any active part in politics, though his political principles are positive and fixed. He has been called to fill places in local boards and was treasurer of the Hackensack Hospital for seven years.
He married Miss Flora M. Cochran of Lancaster, Pa., in 1884, who died in 1891. From this marriage he has two children, Theodore Bay- ard and Katharine Cochran. He again married, Miss Susie B. Conover of Newark, N. J., in 1894.
MR. JACOB H. FANK.
Mr. Jacob H. Fank, the present postmaster of Hackensack, was born in that city August 17th, 1855, and was educated in the public schools of his native place. When but fifteen years of age he became telegraph operator for the New York and New Jersey Railroad Com- pany. Afterward he filled similar positions with the New York, On- tario and Western, and the New York, Susquehanna and Western Rail- road, returning in 1875, to Hackensack.
In 1879 Mr. Fank began the manufacture of cigars at 71 Main Street, but in 1883 disposed of this business and resumed that of tele-
JAMES A. ROMEYN
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
graphy, accepting a position with the West Shore Railroad Company, subsequently becoming operator for the Long Island Railroad at Brook- lyn, N. Y. In 1885, upon his return to Hackensack, he opened a gro- cery store, in which he did a good business until 1896, when he was appointed postmaster by President Cleveland, a position which he con- tinnes to hold.
In 1887 Mr. Fank was elected chief engineer of the Hackensack Fire Department, and re-elected to the same office in 1888. He served four years as tax collector for New Barbadoes township.
Mr. Fank is a member of many lodges: Pioneer Lodge, No. 70, F., & A. M .; Uhland Lodge, No. 177, I. O. O. F .; and Hope Encampment; Hackingeshacky Tribe, No. 189, I. O. R. M .; Court Hackensack F. of A .; the A. O. U. W. and Exempt Firemen Association. He is also secretary of the Hackensack Firemen Insurance Association; vice pres- ident of the State Exempt Firemen Association of New Jersey; Master Workmen of Hackensack Lodge, No. 64, A. O. U. W. He is a member of the Kalamazoo Band; Alert Hose Association, and is L. A. W. Local Consul.
Mr. Fank was married December 7, 1879, to Miss Thresa Mattjets- check. They have two children living, a son and a daughter. In politics Mr. Fank is a Democrat.
PETER W. STAGG.
Peter W. Stagg, a prominent lawyer of Hackensack, was born in New York city October 24th, 1850. His childhood and early life, how- ever, were spent in Cresskill, N. J., where he attended the public school. In 1875 Mr. Stagg went to Jersey City where he became a student of law in the office of the late Charles Scholfield, and where he remained two years, after which he came to Hackensack, and entered the office of Ackerson & Van Valen, continuing with them until 1879, when he was admitted to the bar, at the June term. Immediately after being admit- ted, he opened an office for the practice of his profession in which he rapidly built up a good business.
At the June term of 1883 he was made a counsellor-at-law. He served as assistant clerk to the House of the State Assembly at the sessions of 1891-2, and in 1895 was appointed by Governor Werts, as Prosecutor of Bergen county, for a term of five years.
Prior to the time at which Mr. Stagg became prosecutor, this coun- ty had been infested with pool room and green-goods gangs. These the new prosecutor drove out, in addition to conducting the ordinary criminal business
Mr. Stagg is a member of the I. O. O. F., Bergen County Lodge. and has been Grand Master of the State of New Jersey, having in 1897 the care and jurisdiction of 249 lodges in different parts of the state. comprising a membership of 25,000 Odd Fellows. He is also a member of the Fire Patrol. He was a member of the Second Regiment New Jersey Volunteers in the late Spanish War.
PETER W. STAGG
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
Mr. Stagg was married on January 14, 1875, to Miss Jennie E. Westervelt, of Bergenfields. The oldest of their five children, Arthur A .. is in his father's office.
HON. WILLIAM D. SNOW.
Hon. William D. Snow, son of Josiah Snow, founder of the Detroit Tribune, was born in Massachusetts February 2d, 1832. He was educated at Romeo, Michigan, afterwards studying law at Dixon, Illinois, under the late Attorney General Edson, of that state. For several years he was associate editor of the Tribune. He was a strong advocate of anti-slavery doctrine, and .was a frequent contributor to the magazines and journals of that day, and also a hymn writer of some note.
Mr. Snow settled at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1860, and aferwards represented Jefferson county in the Constitutional Convention of Arkan- sas. The convention resulted in the establishment of a Free State Constitution, the first in any seceding state.
Mr. Snow was elected in 1865 for the long term to the United States Senate from Arkansas. At the close of his term he declined a re-elec- tion, coming to New York city for the purpose of studying law. In 1871, however, Mr. Snow went to Paris, where he spent two years in the study of civil law. In 1875 he was admitted to the New York Bar, receiving, the same year, the degree of L.L. B. from Columbia College. In 1882 he became secretary and counsel to one of the New York Trust companies, but resigned in 1888 to take up general practice. He acted as volunteer Aide to General Powell Clayton and Major General Steele during the Civil War, and was instrumental in the enlistment and organ- ization of three regiments in the state of Arkansas. Governor Murphy afterward tendered him an appointment as Brigadier General of Volun- teers. This he declined.
Mr. Snow is of retiring and studious habits, and in religion a Uni- tarian, president of the Unitarian Congregational Society of Hacken- sack. He belongs to the Lawyers' Club, the Bullion Club of New York and the Oritani of Hackensack.
Several of his inventines have proved successful, his Thermostat being regarded as the most reliable and sensitive of its class.
Mr. Snow is now a member of the bar in three states, having been admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1894. After residing in the northern part of Bergen county for more than twenty years, while practicing in New York city, he gave up his city practice in 1896 and removed to Hackensack, where he hopes to spend the remainder of his life among his New Jersey friends.
ERNEST HENRY KOESTER.
Ernest Henry Koester, one of the leading lawyers of Bergen county, is a native of Norristown, Pennsylvania, and was born April 28th, 1855. After receiving a preparatory education in the High School of Philadel- phia, he went to Heidelberg, Germany, remaining in that insitution
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
three years, and subsequently took a three years' course of instruction in Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, taking his degree of A. B. in 1879. He now began the study of law in the office of H. L. Richmond & Son, of Meadville, and was admitted to the bar in 1882. He immediately began the practice of his profession in Mckean county, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of his state in 1886, in the meantime filling the office of District Attorney of his county for three years. In 1894 he located in Hackensack. and in June of the same year was admitted to practice in all the courts of New Jersey.
Mr. Koester has a large clientage in Bergen county, and is known in the state as an able criminal lawyer. He defended Ryan in the famous green-goods affair of New York, winning the case after it had been carried against him in both the upper and lower courts.
Mr. Koester is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, having taken the thirty-second degree. He is also a member of the Hackensack Lodge of Odd Fellows, and of other societies.
JOHN J. ANDERSON.
John J. Anderson, a representative of one of the old families of Hackensack, resides at the Anderson homestead, corner of Passaic Avenue and Main Street, where his grandfather, John Anderson. located about the year 1800. The grandfather was of Scotch-Irish de- scent. He came first to New Bridge, Bergen county, and after his marriage to Catharine Zabriskie, located in Hackensack. where he pur- chased the property now owned by the Oritani Field Club. He was ex- tensively engaged in mercantile pursuits, and operated a store at the corner of Passaic and Main Streets for many years, but the business was latterly put into the hands of his sons John C., and David. John died in 1836 at thirty-four years of age, and John, his father, died in 1846. eighty-two years of age. In 1865 Mr. John J. Anderson tore down the old building and erected Anderson Hall, placing in the wall a corner- stone of the old house, on which was subscribed: "W. C. W .. 1711." From this it is supposed the building was erected by W. C. Waldron in 1711. The store on the other corner of the street, now owned by the heirs of John H. T. Banta, was then operated by H. H. T. Banta, and before him by Mr. Doremus, subsequently Judge Doremus. There were a few other houses at intervals along the road, now Main Street, then fenced in with rails.
About the year 1858 the Morton House was built by Mrs. Abram Berry, the daughter of John Anderson. Judge Banta married a daughter of Mrs. Berry. John C. Z. Anderson married Harriet Meyers. of English Neighborhood, and had five children, Garret Meyers, who married Leah Louis Slope in 1849, and then Mary Galloway in 1854: Catherine C. who married Lucas J. Van Buskirk in (848; Jane, who married W. C. Smith in 1852; Maria, who married Leveret Il Sage in 1854, and John J., who was born in (830, and married Jane Aim Dem-
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
arest in 1853. The wife of John J. died in 1883. Their children were Martha, Catharine Z .. Pauline and Cornelius H.
Mr. John J. Anderson was one of the prominent merchants of Hack- ensack until his retirement in 1878. He was Collector, and held other offices in the town of New Barbadoes, and was the first Republican elected to the State Legislature for fifty-four years.
MATTHEW E. CLARENDON.
Matthew E. Clarendon, a leading leather merchant of New York city, was born in 1835, and formerly lived in Brooklyn, N. Y.
Upon his removal to Hackensack, in 1876, he immediately began to devise means of improving the roads. Hackensack had been slow to see its own needs in this regard, or the advantages to arise from a better condition of things. In 1890 he was elected a member of the Hacken- sack Improvement Commission. He soon found those who were willing to aid in the matter of macadamizing the streets, and during the seven years he has served on this board, much has been done in the way of advancement.
Mr. Clarendon has been governor and also vice president of the Oritani Field Club, and has also been vice president of both the Hack- ensack Bank and the Hackensack Hospital Association since their organ- ization.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, M. D.
Occasionally we find an American born with royal lineage, but very seldom do we find that lineage traceable through both the English and French royalties to the earliest rulers of the Norman-French dynasties.
The subject of this sketch furnishes such an instance. From Charles Martel to Charlemagne, touching the English line in Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror, and again in the Welsh line, in the marriage of Sir John Ap. Adam to Elizabeth De Gournai and from there to Sir William Adams, Lord Mayor of London in 1630, whose brother Henry, the immediate ancestor of John and Samuel Adams, the line continues in unbroken links to the present Dr. Adams. Still fur- ther, Ruth Wadsworth, a descendant of John Alden and daughter of the first president of Harvard College, was the great-grandmother of the doctor. Thus allied with royal blood on the other side of the water, this family of such honored distinction in American statesmanship and literature, gains for itself a greater renown where there are no thrones to mount or titles to augment the name.
Rev. John Quincy Adams, the father of Dr. Adams, was a distin- guished clergyman of the Baptist church in the city of New York. It was here Charles Francis Adams was born March 18. 1857. A course in the public schools of New York was followed by a three years' course in Mount Washington Institute.
He then engaged in business, in which he continued three years.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
In 1874 he entered the Hudson River Institute at Claverack, N. Y., and in 1877 was graduated from the school with honors. Entering Brown University immediately after this, he was graduated cum laude in the class of 1881.
His medical studies were begun in the New York Homopathic Col- lege, from which he was graduated with high honors in the class of 1884. Upon the completion of his medical studies Dr. Adams settled in Hackensack, where he has not only attained to eminence in his profes- sion, but, during the fourteen years' residence here, has also maintained the honor and dignity of the family name.
Upon the declaration of war with Spain, Dr. Adams, who was one of the assistant surgeons of the Second Regiment, N. G. N. J., at once went out with his regiment. He was soon promoted to be regi- mental surgeon, with the rank of major, and served with distinction until the close of the war.
JOHN RATHBONE RAMSEY.
John Rathbone Ramsey, clerk of Bergen county, was born in Wyck- off, Bergen county, New Jersey, April 25th, 1862, and is a son of John P. and Martha (Rathbone) Ramsey. He was educated at the private school of Professor John C. Nash, in Parkersburg, West Virginia, after which he read law in Hackensack with the late George H. Coffey and Abraham D. Campbell, being admitted to the bar in 1883 as an attorney and in 1887 as counsellor, after which he began the practice of his pro- fession in Hackensack. Being a successful lawyer and a popular Re- publican, he was put in nomination for the office of County Clerk of Bergen county in 1890, but was defeated by a small majority. In 1895. however, he was again nominated for the same office and was elected. He has successfully filled the office ever since.
HENRY D. WINTON.
Henry D. Winton, editor and proprietor of The Bergen county Democrat, the oldest newspaper published in Bergen county, is the son of Eben Winton, the first publisher of this paper.
Mr. Winton was born February 14, 1848, and has been a resident of Hackensack since 1861. He entered his father's office at the age of fifteen years, and after six years close application to business, was made a partner in the concern, the firm being known as E. Winton & Son. In 1870 Mr. Winton, Sr., retired, the son becoming sole proprietor. Under his management the paper has grown in popularity and value both financially and as an exponent of the party which it represents.
Mr. Winton keeps pace with all political questions and party move- ments. He was made a delegate from the Fifth Congressional District to the National Democratic Convention which met at Cincinnati in 1880. and nominated General Hancock and again acted in the same capacity in 1896, at the National Convention which nominated Mr. Bryan. He was a member of the committee of five, of which ex-Governor Russel of
HENRY D. WINTON
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
Massachusetts was the chairman, representing the "gold states", in opposition to the " silverites" of the party. Mr. Winton acted as chair- man of the state committee of the sound Democracy during the cam- paign, the Bergen County Democrat espousing the cause of Palmer & Buckner.
In 1880, Mr. Winton was elected to the Legislature of New Jersey, and re-elected in 1884, for a term of three years, being the only case of a re-election of a senator from this county. In 1884 he was clerk of the House of Assembly, and at the same time was one of the members of the board of managers of the New Jersey Lunatic Asylum, at Morris Plains. It was through him, in connection with the late Theodore Varick of Jersey City, that the medical and business departments of this institution were separated. This has thus far proved a successful change. Other institutions of the kind have followed the example of this one, to the entire satisfaction of all.
JACOB L. VAN BUSKIRK.
Jacob L. Van Buskirk, Sheriff of Bergen county, is probably one of the most popular officials to be found in the state. He was born in Saddle River, N. J., in 1851, and worked at his trade of blacksmithing for nine years. In 1852 his father came to Hackensack, where he resided for forty-seven years. In 1890 he was elected a member of the Board of Freeholders, and re-elected in 1893. In 1892 he was elected director of the board and held that position three years, and in November 1898, was elected sheriff by a majority of 709 votes, he being the only suc- cessful Democrat on his ticket, which is proof sufficient that the people. not the party, elected him to the office.
Mr. Van Buskirk has always taken a lively interest in everything of a public nature, and is also prominent in social and fraternal organ- izations.
ABRAM DE BAUN.
The parents of Abram De Baun were Rev. John Y. and Margaret (Iserman) De Baun, and his grandparents Isaac De Baun and Abram Iserman. His father was for twenty-six years pastor of the True Re- formed Church at Hackensack. During his pastorate here he was editor of the Banner of Truth, a monthly magazine of the True Reformed Church. The De Bauns are of French Huguenot descent.
Mr. De Baun studied law under A. D. Campbell, and was admitted to the bar as attorney-at-law in 1877, and as counsellor in 1880. He was a partner of Mr. Campbell for a period of seventeen years, but is now of the firm of Demarest & De Baun. He was clerk of the Board of Freeholders from 1878 to 1895, and member of the Hackensack Improve- ment Commission three years, during two of which he was its treasurer. For twelve years he has been counsel for the Building and Loan Asso- ciation of Hackensack. He is a director of the Old Ladies' Home.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
THOMAS H. CUMMING.
Thomas H. Cumming, Justice of the Peace, and a well-known busi- ness man of Hackensack, was born in New York city November 6th, 1839. He received his education in his native city, and, after leaving school, became an employe in a large dry goods store, where he re- inained three years. A partnership was now entered into with his father in the business of contracting, which was carried on chiefly in New York and New Jersey. Among other large contracts secured was that for the construction of the Lodi branch of the New Jersey and
JUSTICE THOMAS H. CUMMING
New York Railroad, and also for the line running from Essex street to Woodridge. In New York their business was mostly in the line of building large sewers. Beginning in 1861, Mr. Cumming conducted a business for two years in the oil trade in Greenwich street, following which, he was in the leather business for a period of six years. At the expiration of this time he removed to Hackensack, again engaging in contracting. In connection with his present business of insurance and real estate, he is Commissioner of Deeds and a Notary Public, holding the office of Justice of the Peace since 1885.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
He has always been interested in the Fire Department, and was an active member of Hook and Ladder Company, No. 2, for twenty-six years, part of this time its Foreman, and is at present an honorary member of that organization. For a number of years he has been President of the Hackensack Relief Association, and has also been Col- lector of License for the Hackensack Commission for the past twelve years.
Mr. Cumming is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and a charter member of the National Union. He is an active Republican, and his father, Thomas Cumming, Sr., was for years a lay judge of Bergen county.
Mr. Cumming's wife was the only daughter of the late John H. Banta, of Hackensack. They have three sons.
CLAYTON DEMAREST.
One of the fullest and most interesting of the numerous records of the Demarest family, is that of the branch descending from David des Marie, whose date of landing in America is taken from an "entry in Emigrants Account Book," reading as follows:
"David des Marie from Picardie, for passage and board when he came here on board the Bontekoe, the 16th of Apr. 1663. £39 for his wife 39
& 4 children of 18, 11, 6 & 1 yr .. 97.10
fl. 175.10
David des Marie (son of Jean) was born at Beauchamp, in Picardie about the year 1620, and married Marie, daughter of Francois Sohier, July 24, 1643. Of their six children, three married and reared families, Jean, born April 1645, David, Jr., born 1652, and Samuel, born 1656. Clayton Demarest, the subject of this sketch, is a lineal descendant of David, Jr., second son of the first David des Marest.
David, Jr .. married Rachel, daughter of Pierre Cresson, April 4. 1665. They had twelve children, Jacobus being the fifth, and through him the line descends. He married Leah, daughter of Peter DeGroot, March 8, 1707, and after her death married Margrietie Cozine Herring September 26, 1719. In all, his family numbered seventeen, the line coming down through Daniel the sixteenth child, who was born Sep- tember 11, 1738. Daniel Demarest had two sons, James D., and Ralph, the lines coming through James D., the eldest, who was born March 20, 1763, and married Rachel Demarest. Of their five children Abram J .. born October 4, 1793, was the grandfather of Clayton. He married Rachel Blauvelt, April 8, 1815, and the youngest of their seven children, David Demarest, was born February 1, 1832, and married Christina De Baun September 8, 1853. They had six children the youngest, and only son, being Clayton who was born December 15, 1865.
David Demarest now resides on the farm at Schraalenburgh where the Demarests have lived for over two hundred years. The old house
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
has passed through so many changes and has so often been remodelled that but little remains of its original construction. The barn has two large overhead beams hewn from red gum trees, and are marked 1721.
Abram J. Demarest was a Captain in the National Guard until he was thirty-five years of age. His commission papers from the Governor of New Jersey, are now in the hands of the family. David Demarest enlisted as a volunteer in the Civil War, September 1, 1862, and was honorably discharged June 25, 1863.
Clayton, his son, was educated in the public school in Schraalen- burgh, afterwards taking a course of instruction in Thompson's Busi- ness College in New York city. Having accepted a position with the
CLAYTON DEMAREST
Chemical National Bank, December 1, 1882, Mr. Demarest has continued with that institution to the present time, the past ten years in the ca- pacity of Assistant Paying Teller.
In Hackensack, the home of Mr. Demarest, he has taken an active interest in the Fire Department, having become a member of Relief Hook & Ladder Company No. 2, in December 1891, in which he has served two years as secretary and four years as foreman, being now assistant engineer, and is justly prond of his work in the department.
Socially Mr. Demarest is a member of the Royal Arcanum, Fire- inan's Relief Association, Exempt Firemen and Hackensack Debating Society. He is an active member and teacher in the Sunday School of the Second Reformed Church, of which he has been a member the past twelve years.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
Mr. Demarest married Miss Marie Kipp, daughter of Nicholas R. Voorhis (and granddaughter of Ralph Voorhis of River Edge) on Sep- tember 18, 1889. They have three sons.
A. S. D. DEMAREST.
A. S. D. Demarest, the well-known undertaker, of Hackensack, is a son of David S. and Margaret (Durie) Demarest, and was born at Ber- genfields in 1834. His father was born at Schraalenburgh in 1795, and spent his life there, dying in 1877. He was a farmer, and was a de- scendant of David Demarest, who settled at River Edge over 200 years ago. . Mr. Demarest's mother was a daughter of David Durie, of Tenafly-
He spent his early years amid the scenes of his childhood, subse- quently removing to Newburgh, N. Y., where he engaged in business, but in 1876 returned to New Jersey, and located in Hackensack, where he has since resided.
Upon coming to Hackensack he was interested in the book and stationery business for a time, but in 1886 established his present busi- ness of undertaking. He is strictly a business man, has been Treasurer of the First Reformed Church for nine years and chorister of the same church for ten years, and treasurer of Hackensack Mutual Building and Loan Association for over seven years.
Mr. Demarest was married in 1861 to Miss Lavinia Blauvelt, daugh- ter of John D. M. Blauvelt, of Bergen county. They have two daugh- ters, both married.
CHARLES CONKLIN.
Charles Conklin, the well known real estate man and President of the Board of Health is a native of Hackensack and was born thirty-four years ago. His father Robert Conklin was a dry goods merchant and held the agency of the county for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. for which he sold over 1000 machines in Bergen county alone. He died in 1877. Mr. Charles Conklin was in the dry goods business during the earlier years of his life, and later was Secretary of The Conklin Bros. Company. In 1894 he established himself in the real estate business. which with that of insurance, yielded him in the aggregate hand- some results.
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