USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 35
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 35
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Dr. Lalor married, in 1873, Annie E., daughter of Lalor were Barnt De K. Lalor, Eliza (who married | the late Henry Grambo, of Philadelphia, and had two John Smith), Maria (who became the wife of John children, both deceased. Their mother died in March, 1877. Dr. Lalor's present wife is Emilie V., daughter of the late Charles W. Mixsell, of Easton, Pa., whom he married Oet. 5. 1SS0. Voorhees), Julia ( who married Judge Archibald Ran- dall, of Philadelphia), Anderson, and Jeremiah. Atter the death of her husband, Mrs. Kitty D. Lalor married Gen. John Beatty, a prominent physician and citizen of Trenton, and the first president of the Trenton Bank.
Mercer County Medical Society .- This society was formed under the New Jersey State Medieal So- ciety in the year 1848. It holds monthly meetings, and cannot be otherwise than subservient to the in- terest of the profession, and especially beneficial to the members who attend and bear their part in the exer- cises of the society. It can hardly be expected that all the physicians in the county should attend such frequent meetings, all of which are fixed to be held at Trenton. If the meetings were much less frequent, and in different places, and the whole profession of the county were to take an interest in them, the bene- fits would be too obvious to neglect.
Resident in Trenton .- Drs. John Woolverton, W. W. L. Phillips, R. R. Rogers, Cornelius Shepherd, David Warman, I. L. Bodine, H. W. Coleman, Wil- liam Green, J. I. B. Ribble, William Elmer, Lyman Leavitt, Theodore H. Mckenzie, William S. Lalor, Charles H. Dunham, Charles P. Britton, H. Schafer. Charles L. Pierson, H. D. Brock, William Rice, Wil- liam A. Newell, Jr., William A. Clark, William B. Van Duyn, J. W. Barton, Abner Woodward, H. M. Weeks.
Princeton .- Drs. O. H. Bartine, J. H. Wikof !. Asylum .- Drs. John W. Ward, John Kirby.
Chambersburg .- Drs. Elmer Barwis, Edward Skel- linger.
Lawrenceville .- Dr. Edmund De Witt. Titusville .- Dr. H. A. P. Neel. Hopewell .- Dr. Robert M. Rankin.
Yardrille .- Dr. Robert C. Hutchinson. Pennington .- Drs. Smith Lewis, Edgar Hart.
584
HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
Birmingham .- Dr. Adonis Nelson.
Hightstown .- Drs. George E. Titus, Lloyd Wilbur. Windsor .- Dr. George H. Franklin.
Harlingen .- Dr. L. D. Tompkins.
Officers .- President, Dr. Thomas H. Mckenzie ; Vice-President, Dr. H. A. P. Neel ; Treasurer, Dr. Cornelius Shepherd; Secretary and Reporter, Dr. William A. Clark.
Homeopathic School .- There is no Mercer County Association known to the public of this class of prac- - titioners, though there is one of the State. There are, perhaps, not more than half a dozen of homeopathic practitioners in this county, nearly all residing in Trenton, among them Dr. Boardman, Dr. Worthing- ton, Dr. Cooper, Dr. Williams.
Homeopathy was introduced into Mercer County, N. J., by Joseph C. Boardman, M.D., who settled in Trenton in April, 1845, since which time its advance- ment has been steady throughout the county.
The following is a list of homeopathic physicians with their locations :
Drs. Joseph C. Boardman, C. B. Compton, W. G. Mccullough, Isaac Cooper, C. W. Gerry, A. H. Worthington, Trenton.
Dr. Charles H. Rau practiced in Trenton for a con- siderable time, and is now a professor in a college in Philadelphia.
Dr. William A. Bevin, after practicing in Trencon for a time, removed to Boston, and Dr. P. E. Vastine and Dr. Ross M. Wilkinson practiced and died in Trenton.
Dr. Joseph J. Currie and Dr. Joseph P. Johnson, of Hightstown.
Dr. J. A. Miller, of Hopewell.
Dr. D. W. Sexton, of Princeton.
Dentistry .- Probably no profession in the world has made such rapid strides during the last quar- | ter of a century as that of dentistry. Prior to that period the study and care of the teeth was lim- ited to those who made the study of anatomy and physiology a specialty, and to the members of the medical profession, very much as blood-letting and tooth-drawing were once included among the func- tions of a barber. Many persons are still living who distinctly remember when the scalpel and for- ceps were as necessary instruments in a barber-shop as the shears or razor. The first dental college in the world was established in Baltimore in 1839. Since that time the science of dentistry has developed until it now ranks among the most useful and artistic of the professions, and includes among its representa- tives men of education and culture. The most rapid improvement has been made in operative dentistry, in which there has been almost an entire revolution.
carved out of ivory, involving great labor and ex- pense. The later improvements made in this direc- tion and their introduction into general use have added largely to both the attractions and difficulties of the profession, and drawn to it many possessed of superior mechanical skill. Formerly the plates were made of gold and silver. on which the teeth were set, necessarily making them heavy and costly, whereas plates are now made of not only gold and silver, but of platinum, rubber, and celluloid. Rubber plates were not introduced until about 1854, and celluloid inneh more recently. The filling of artificial teeth is also a leading branch of the science, requiring both skill, judgment, and delicacy when properly done.
The city of Trenton has a number of representative dentists who attend assiduously to their profession, and reflect credit upon it.
DR. JAMES M. DAVIS, dentist, of Trenton, N. J., was born in Shawangunk, now Ulster County, N. Y., Aug. 6, 1818. His paternal ancestors were cotempo- rary settlers there from Holland with the Bruyns, Hasbroucks, Burvees, Du Boiscs, etc., and the prop- erty in Shawangunk upon which the progenitor of the family first settled remained in the family until 1865, a period of over two hundred years. His pa- ternal grandfather, John, with a brother Jacob, served in the Revolutionary war, and were captured by the British at Fort Washington. They, however, made
The early practice advocated smooth-pointed in- struments for use in filling and non-cohesive gold, whereas serrated instruments and cohesive gold are now recognized as the best. Formerly artificial teeth were in nse as carly as Washington's time, and were . their escape, the former returning home, the latter
Charly. Dipoth
555
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
settling at Rhinebeck, N. Y., where he became an in- fluential and wealthy citizen.
The Davises were among the founders of the old Dutch Church at Shawangunk, where several genera- tions since have attended divine worship and been supporters of the church of their forefathers. James, son of John, and father of Dr. Davis, succeeded to the homestead property and there spent his life, a farmer, dying in 1863, at the age of about seventy years. His first wife, Parmelia Smith, died in 1822, aged twenty-two years, leaving three children, -Jo- seph, a resident of Cortland County, N. Y., Dr. James M., subject of this sketch, and Francis, who died young. By a second marriage he reared a large family of children.
Dr. James M. Davis, after his mother's death, re- sided with his grandfather Smith until eighteen years of age, receiving only the ordinary opportunities for an education from books. At that age he embarked on the trading-ship " Nautilus," plying between Bos- ton and the Southern Seas, and during the forty-two months he was absent visited several South American countries and the largest and most important islands in the Southern Seas. Returning to Trenton in 1842, he studied dentistry with Dr. Matthew Foster for one year, and also pursued his surgical studies which he had begun. He began practice in Washington, D. C., where, however, he remained only a few months. In the spring of 1845 he permanently settled in Trenton, where he has practiced dentistry and surgery since, a period of thirty-seven years.
Dr. Davis manufactured gold and silver plates until 1864, when he introduced into his practice the rubber plate. For many years he manufactured his own teeth from porcelain, as at that time there were no manufactories for that purpose in the country. In : 1847 he purchased from Dr. Morton, of Boston, the : right to use Letheon in dental operations, and was the first man to use it in the State, which he has success- fully used throughout his entire practice. For many years he kept several assistants, on account of his large business, over all of which he always had special supervision.
Dr. Davis early in his practice was ingenious and skillful in the manufacture of gold and silver plates and teeth, and his mechanical operations during the rapid progress in the profession have kept pace with . modern developments. Since his residence in Tren- ton he has been a member of the St. Michael's Epis- copal Church, and for a quarter of a century was senior warden of the church. Outside of his pro- fessional duties he has been considerably engaged in CHAPTER LX. real estate operations, and with other property owns a fine residence, where he resides, on Greenwood THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD-BATTLES OF TREN- TON AND PRINCETON. Avenue, in Trenton, which with its well laid out grounds makes one of the most desirable residences in WHEN the dark war-cloud of the Revolution gath. the city. He married, May 11, 1843, Elizabeth H., ; ered over the country, New Jersey was central among daughter of Samuel Kallam and Margaret Miller, of | the original thirteen colonies, and in this colony the Trenton. Their children are Frances, wife of Dr. | four counties-Burlington and Hunterdon, Somerset
J. L. Bodine, of Trenton ; Margaret Kallam, died at the age of seventeen ; Theodosia, died at the age of nineteen ; Ilicia W., is the wife of Rev. John S. Gib- son, au Episcopalian clergyman, of the Shenandoah Valley, West Va. ; and Marvina James, wife of Henry D. Scudder, a civil engineer of Trenton.
DR. CHARLES DIPPOLT, dentist in Trenton, N. J., son of Charles and Sarah S. Dippolt, was born in Trenton, June 3, 1833. His ancestors were of Holland origin, and among the early settlers here from that country. He obtained his early education in the private and public schools of his native city, and in 1851 began the study of dentistry, which he faithfully prosecuted in Trenton for two years. He completed his studies with Dr. William R. Hall, one of the most emiueut dentists in his day, then of Philadelphia, and at once began the practice of his profession in Trenton, where he has continued since, a period of twenty-eight years.
Dr. Dippolt is thoroughly educated in all branches of his profession. For several years he manufactured all the mineral teeth in his practice from the material in its crude state. He also prepared his metallic plates, refining and alloying his gold and silver in his own laboratory. During the past few years he in- serts many teeth on vulcanite base. He is recognized as one of the most skillful and successful practitioners in the State, and docs a large business. He has con- fined himself closely to his profession, keeping pace with the changes and improvements made in it, and constantly adding to his knowledge and acquiring skill by his extended practice. For twenty years past he has been assisted by Dr. Harry D. Guion, a gen- tleman of good mechanical skill. Recognizing the rapid progress in operative dentistry, he has not only kept well read in all that pertains to the profession, but became one of the founders and an active mem- ber of the New Jersey State Dental Society, was a member of its examining board for two years, for two years one of its executive committee, and for one year vice-president of the society. With two other dentists Dr. Dippolt was made a committee by the State Society and obtained an effective law from the State Legislature to regulate the study and practice of dentistry in the State. His first wife was Henri- etta Post, who died about one year after her marriage. His present wife is Mary B., youngest daughter of the late Benjamin M. Clark, of Cranbury, N. J., by whom lic has an only child, Mary Florence Dippolt.
586
HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
and Middlesex-out of which Merecer has since been formed constituted a prominent and central portion of that old-settled and well-cultivated territory through which hostile armies in time of war would be most likely to march and supply themselves by pillage and plunder. The great thoroughfare through this central portion of New Jersey passes through Prince- ton and Trenton. The College of New Jersey, which then had been established for about a quarter of a cen- tury, with some reputation at home and abroad, and whose alumni constituted the leading public men of this and other colonies, with a president recently from Scotland and well known to the British crown as a " patriot" and a "Son of Liberty," was at Princeton, directly on this route. Knowledge is power always and everywhere. The scat of a college is a centre of influence, and in times of publie distress and agita- tion it naturally draws to it the prominent men who reside within the circle of its more direct home in- fluenee.
This college town was situated not only on the king's highway across the colony, but between the two disputed province lines of East and West Jersey, and on the line which divides the counties from Somerset and Middlesex, and only distant a thirty minutes' walk from where the counties of Burlington and Hunterdon join, thus bringing these four counties to- gether at Princeton as a focal point for mutual con- fercnee and co-operation, and hence the inhabitants of Hunterdon, at their public patriotic meeting held at Ringoes on the 8th of July, 1774, having appointed a committee to meet a committee of the several coun- ties for the appointment of delegates to the General Congress, adopted this minute following their resolu- tion, viz. :
" As we apprehend New Brunswick is not so convenient to the men- bers of the lower counties, and that all the counties will hardly have sufficient time to appoint their committees by the 21st of July, with submission, we would propose Princeton, as most central, to be the place, and Thursday, the 11th of August, the time of meeting of the several committees."
Princeton was not only a central and convenient place for conference, but there was resident there a cluster of eminent men, whose influence was felt all through the war in the councils of the patriots, they having espoused the eause of liberty and independ- enee. The names of these men soon became blazoned before the country.
Dr. John Witherspoon was outspoken in favor of independence, and his name was known and re- spected in Europe as well as in America. He was looked up to as a leader, and was sent to the Provin- : cial and to the Continental Congress to earry out the views he had expressed when a member of the Com- mittee of Correspondence for Somerset County. The sermon he preached at Princeton on fast-day in May, 1776, "On the Dominion of Providence over the Pas- sions of Men," in which he discussed with boldness the political questions of the country, printed and dedicated to John Hancock of Massachusetts, drew
the attention of the American colonies to the author as an eloquent and courageous leader of the patriots in council. As a member of Congress he signed the Declaration of Independence.
Richard Stockton, a distinguished lawyer, a man of wealth and education, an associate justice of the Su- preme Court of the colony, a graduate of the college, a warm personal friend of Dr. Witherspoon, was known in England, where he had visited a few years previously, and had discussed American politics with some of the honorable members of Parliament. MIr. Stockton, as a member of his Majesty's Council, was on a committee to prepare a draught of an address in reply to the opening speech of Governor Franklin. He too signed the Declaration of Independence as a member of Congress.
Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, a young lawyer, a graduate of the college, and a son of its treasurer, was in full sympathy with the cause of independence, and devoted himself to it, acting as secretary to the first public convention of delegates at New Brunswick, in 1774, and as secretary and treasurer of the Provincial Congress at its first session. He served as member of the Continental Congress at different times, and also as a member of the Provincial Congress which framed the Constitution of the State, and of the Committee of Safety.
The three distinguished citizens of Princeton took their lives in their hands when they thus took up the cause of independence, and in doing so they subjected themselves and the community in which they lived to the special hatred of the enemy, and they suffered the consequences by having their homes pillaged or burned by the Hessian soldiers when quartered upon the town.
But there were others, viz. : William Churchill Houston, professor in the college; Enos Kelsey, a merchant and a graduate of Nassau Hall; Jonathan Baldwin, also a graduate of the college, and residing at Prospect ; Jonathan Sergeant, the treasurer of the college ; and Jonathan Dcarc, an English gentleman, a lawyer by profession, who came to Princeton, all of whom were .members of the Provincial Congress, and some of them members of the Committee and Council of Safety.
There were still others who became afterwards dis- tinguished for their services in the cause of the Revo- lution, such as Gen. John Beatty and Col. Erkuries Beatty, Maj. Robert Stockton, Capt. John Johnson, Col. William Seudder, Maj. Stephen Morford, Drs. Benjamin and Ebenezer Stockton, and the young Witherspoons, Capt. James Moore, Capt. Longstreet, Capt. Andrew MeMakin, Capt. James Hamilton, and others.
With such men as these all living in Princeton, it was not strange that prominent citizens of the nearer townships in the adjoining counties should confer with the patriots of Princeton on the war question, i and we find such men as Frederick Frelinghuysen
.
.
587
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
and William Paterson, graduates of Nassau Hall, and Hendrick Fisher, all of Somerset County, and John Hart, of Hopewell, who was a member of the early conventions and Congresses, a signer of the Deelara- tion, a member of the Committee of Safety, and Speaker of the first Legislative Assembly under the State Constitution, and Samuel Tucker, of Trenton, who became president of the first Provineial Con-
The original Committee of Safety comprised at least four members from what is now Mercer County, namely, Samuel Tucker, John Hart, Jonathan D. Sergeant, and Enos Kelsey.
The students of the college at and for several years before the commencement of the war were alive with patriotism. From 1770 to 1774, when James Madison, ; Frederick Frelinghuysen, Dr. Charles C. Beatty, Dr. McKnight, Hugh Brackenridge, Philip Frenau were students, there were several patriotie demonstrations among the college boys against foreign importation and against the use of tea, in which they appeared in American cloth, and burned tea in the campus, amid the ringing of the college-bell.
There was a large Quaker population in and around Princeton and Trenton, which were opposed to all war, but which nevertheless sympathized with the liberty party ; and although this class of citizens did not join with those who pledged their lives and for- tunes to the cause of independence, they found when the enemy quartered upon them that their property was no more exempt from pillage and seizure by the Hessians than that of the fighting patriots.
This county is proud to know that among her sons in the Revolution there were three who signed the Declaration of Independence, namely, Rev. Dr. Jolin Witherspoon and Richard Stockton, of Princeton, and Jolm Hart, of Hopewell, three out of the five mem- bers.
The Committee of Safety held their first meeting in Princeton, where their sessions were continued during' August and September, 1775, and after that thine their meetings were held in Trenton, Princeton, and other places in the State; and the Council of Safety held
frequent meetings in Princeton and Trenton, more frequently in Princeton than any other place in the State.
A State Constitution was adopted by the Provincial Assembly held at Burlington, July 2, 1876, which con- tinued in force till 1844. The first Legislature under the Constitution assembled at Prineeton on the 27th day of August, 1776, and organized a State govern- gress, both of Hunterdon County, besides other gen- | ment in the college library, and then proceeded to tlemen from Trenton, and from Burlington and Mid- dlesex Counties, cherishing intimate relations, and holding frequent consultations with the men of Princeton, both before and after hostilities had aetu- ally commenced. elect a Governor. Two distinguished citizens were ! nominated, Richard Stockton and Gen. William Liv- ingston, both eminent lawyers and Christian- states- men. There was a tie on the first ballot, but Gen. Livingston was finally clected. He delivered his first gubernatorial message to the Legislature at Princeton, Sept. 30, 1776. Among the early acts of the new Leg- islature was the adoption of the "Great Seal" of the
Bancroft says that "Prineeton and Perth Amboy advised a Provincial Congress, to which Morris County promptly appointed delegates." And when such Congress was ealled, in May, 1775, at Trenton, : State. That seal, which was adopted Oet. 3. 1776, it contained about eighty-seven members, five of whom were residents of Princeton, with Frelinghuy- sen, Paterson, and Fisher from other townships of Somerset, and John Hart and Samuel Tucker from Hopewell and Trenton, and six of these being gradu- ates of Princeton College. There were at least seven members from what is now Mercer County.
more than a century ago, is still used without change. None of the seals of the several States antedates this one, nor, of course, does the seal of the United States. The Governor had his rooms at what is now the Nas- sau Hotel, and the large room up-stairs in that hotel was where his Court of Chancery was held. Thus was Princeton, the seat of the State government at the be- ginning of the war, a political centre which had much i to do with shaping the political status of the State under the Constitution, and was prominent in the incipient stages of the Revolution.
But the Legislature and the Governor were com- pelled by the invasion of the State to flee from Prineeton to Trenton, and thence to several other places in the State, until after the battle of Prince- ton, when they returned and resumed their sessions there.
The Provincial Congress had taken measures to organize the militia, and regiments were raised to increase the army of Gen. Washington, the eomman- der-in-chief of the American forces. In the enroll- ment of volunteers from the several counties of Bur- lington, Hunterdon, Somerset, and Middlesex will be found the names of those who entered the service from the parts of those counties which have since been formed into Mercer County. The several bar- racks in the State were ordered to be put in good condition, and Alexander Chambers and William Tucker, of Trenton, were appointed barrack-masters for the barracks in Trenton.
While New Jersey, the first organized State in the Union, was developing and rejoieing in the spirit of independence, having actually sct herself up as an independent State with a free Constitution, Gen. Washington, by the 18th of November, 1776. with his inadequate and untrained troops, had been defeated in all his conflicts with the enemy at Brooklyn Heights, New York City, White Plains, and Fort Washington, in New York, and at Fort Lee, in New Jersey, and was compelled to retreat across the Hackensack, the Passaie, and the Raritan Rivers, and the town- of
588
HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
Newark, Elizabethtown, and New Brunswick fell into the hands of the victorious army. Gen. Washington, with his dismayed and shattered army, now reduced to about three thousand men, hurried on to Princetou, reaching there on Sunday night, Dec. 1, 1776.
Gen. Washington and his army remained in Prince- ton for about a weck. The British forces under Corn- wallis halted at New Brunswick by direction of Geu. Howe, very fortunately for Washington. Dr. With- erspoon had disbanded the college students in a patriotic but solemn speech two days before Wash- ington arrived at Princeton, but many of the students for want of conveyances to carry their trunks and things away had to abandon them to the soldiers of the enemy when they came suddenly upon the town. Cornwallis afterwards had orders to advance from New Brunswick upon Princeton, and he reached the place just as Washington had left it. The gloom now thickens over Princeton and all along the route. The publie pulse began to beat fecbly for the cause of lib- erty. Many of the people, in anticipation of the approach of the conquering army, were panic-stricken, and accepted the terms of pardon offered by Lord Howe, and gladly would have remained subjects of the British crown. It was said that two thousand seven hundred and three Jerseymen had availed themselves of the proclamation of the Howe brothers, and subscribed a declaration of fidelity to the king of Great Britain. Among these was Samuel Tucker, of Trenton, who had beeu president of the Provincial Congress of the colony.
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