History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 74

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840

USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 74
USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I > Part 74

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FREDERICK T. FRELINGHUYSEN was born at Mill- stone, Somerset Co., N. J., August 4, 1817. His father, the late Frederick Frelinghuysen, youngest son of tien. Frederick Frelinghuysen, was a lawyer of more than ordinary abilities, and at the time of his death prosecutor of the pleas for the counties of Somerset, Middlesex and Hunterdon. At the age of thirty-two, and at the commencement of what prom- ised to be a brilliant carcer, he died, leaving the sub- ject of this sketch fatherless at scarcely three years of age. The Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, brother of the deceased, adopted him and took him to Newark, N. J., the residence of that distinguished gentleman. removed to Newark, where he established himself in | Here young Frederick received from his unele all the

attention that could have been given to him by the most tender father, and having obtained a preliminary education, entered Rutgers College, and was grad- uated therefrom in 1836. Soon after he began the study of law, and on being admitted to the bar, in 1839, commenced the practice of his profession. Ilis eagerness to be foremost in everything could not fail to bring to hun the patronage which every begin- ner in life so covets. The business of his office in- creased day by day, and, nowise loth to see it grow, he accepted the office of city counsel to which he was appointed in 1849, and which he held until 1854. In time he became counsel, to the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, as well as to the Morris Canal and Banking Company. For more than twenty years Mr. Frelinghuysen devoted himself indus- triously to the business of his profession, accepting no post of honor merely, except in 1846, when, for a single year, he succeeded his distinguished unele as a member of the Common Council of the city of Newark. In 1861, after being twenty-two years a practitioner, he was appointed a member of the Peace Congress which assembled at Washington in February of that year, and in the deliberations of which he took a very conspicuous part. Here he was associated with Mr. Olden, Governor of New

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Jersey. In the latter part of the same year Wil- liam 1. Dayton, Attorney-General of New Jersey, was appointed I'nited States minister to France, and Governor Olden, who had been favorably impressed by Mr. Frelinghuysen during the session of the l'eace Congress, immediately appointed him Attorney-Gen- oral in place of Mr. Dayton, resigned. At the expir- ation of his term, in 1866, he was reappointed by Governor Ward, but the death of United States Senator William Wright, soon after, caused a vacancy, to which Mr. Frelinghuysen was appointed by the Governor, and on the assembling of the Legislature in 1867, he was elected to fill the unexpired term of the Senator deceased.

This unexpired term had scarcely closed when President Grant nominated Mr. Frelinghuysen as minister to England, and the nomination was im- mediately confirmed by the Senate. But although strongly urged to accept this important mission, so great was his aversion to exchanging his home for a long residence in a foreign country that he respect- fully declined it. In the following winter he was re- elected to the I'nited States Senate for a full term of six years, and to the end of this term he served. As a member of the judiciary committee during his nihe years in the Senate he gave the strictest attention to the duties of that position, and the same thing may be said of him as a member of the committees on finance, on foreign relations, on railroads, on naval affairs, on claims, and as chairman of the committee on agriculture. In the debates of the Senate he always took a prominent part, and particularly in regard to the reconstruction measures, and to the restoration of the currency redeemable in gold. A bill was introduced by him to this effect, and 80 well sustained by argument that a measure similar to his was subsequently adopted. A tariff for protec- tion always received his support, and he left noth- ing undone to promote the industries of his own State.

His speeches as a member of the committee on for- eign relations, in favor of the Washington Treaty, were listened to with the closest attention. The Civil Rights Bill, introduced by Mr. Sumner, came into his hands, and was advocated by him until it passed the Senate. Hle introduced the bill against polygamy, and secured its passage in the Senate, also a bill to return to Japan what is known as the Japanese In- demnity Fund, which also passed. His speech vindi- cating the administration in the so-called French Arms t'ontroversy is well known, and so are his opinions on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and Belknap, and so, too, are his report in the Pome- roy case and his argument in the Caldwell case. The soundness of his argument in the Sue Murphy case was at first doubted, but it was afterwards conceded that he was right in denying the claims of even loyal persons at the South for damages resulting from the war, insisting that they must suffer as did loyal per-

sons at the North, and that the results of the war must rest where they fall.

The trouble which arose in 1877 in regard to count- ing the electoral votes seems to have been anticipated by Mr. Frelinghuysen in the summer of the previous year, and, to avoid it, be introduced a bill referring the decision of any such controversy to the President of the Senate, Speaker of the House and the chief justice. The Senate a ljourned before the bill could be acted upon. When, in 1877, his anticipations were realized, he was one of the joint committee of the Senate and the House that reported a bill creating the Electoral Commission, which substituted five Senators, five Representatives and five justices for the three officers named in his own bill, and he was ap- pointed a member of the Commission.

On the expiration of his term as United States Senator, Mr. Frelinghuysen returned to Newark, where he remained quietly attending to his private affairs until his appointment as Secretary of State, which was made by President Arthur, December 12, 1881, and promptly confirmed by the Senate. Three years have now elapsed since that appointment was made, and in the discharge of the duties of his high office Mr. Frelinghuysen has given entire satisfaction to his countrymen.

CORTLANDT PARKER, son of Hon. James Parker. was born at Perth Amboy, June, 1818. At the age of fourteen he had made all the progress in his studies that was requisite in order to enter the freshmen class in Rutgers College, New Jersey, where the examina- tions in those days were proverbially rigid. In this institution he remained four years, and at their ex- piration in 1836, was graduated with the first honor, and delivered the valedictory address. Among his class- mates were Joseph P. Bradley, now a justice of the United States Supreme Court ; Frederick T. Freling- huysen, Secretary of State of the United States ; and William A. Newell, formerly Governor of New Jersey. Soon after leaving college he entered, as a student-at- law, the office of Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, then a practitioner in Newark, N. J., and, on the retire ment of Mr. Frelinghuysen from the profession, con- tinned his studies, under the direction of the distin- guished Amzi Armstrong, until September, 1839, when he was admitted to the bar. Newark at that time, as at present, seemed to offer the greatest inducements to beginners in the legal profession, and here Mr. Parker established himself in practice, and here he still re- mains. With a dignified earnestness, he entered at once upon the life which he had chosen, and for which he had prepared himself with so much care from very boyhood. Distinction, apart from his pro- fession, seems never to have entered his mind. Thor- ough knowledge of the law and familiarity with everything that could not only adorn, but strengthen him as a lawyer, seem to have been foremost in his thoughts, and thus his qualities as an orator and a jurist are the legitimate issue of well-trained and well-

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

nurtured powers, directed by a single purpose. That he loves the work of his profession more than any other kind of work is easy to believe, for the strongest temptations have not been able, apparently, to seduce him from it. Prominent publie positions have been held out to him to no purpose, and the natural in- clination to ease und idleness which follows hard upon prosperity and gratified ambitions finds in him an unfrequent exception.

Mr. Parker has never sought office, and has held but one publie position, that of prosecutor of the pleas of Essex County, upon which he entered in 1857, and from which he retired in 1867. If he ever possessed any ambition of this kind, there have been opportunities to gratify it, and he has possessed not only the substantial qualifications so generally need- ful to acquire, but the far rarer qualifications so need- ful to hold and do honor even to the highest position in the republic. Although he may have been nomi- nated in vain chancellor of the State, and although he may have declined a seat upon the bench of its Supreme Court, he has not withheld his professional services from the State on more than one important occasion. The ditlienlt task of revising the laws was assigne'l to him by the Legislature, and performed to the satisfaction of the courts and the people. As a commissioner to settle the disputed boundary line between New Jersey and Delaware his services were invaluable. To him is the State mainly indebted for the passage of the General Railroad Law, which has been the means of ridding it of its most abundant source of corruption. In such and many such ways has Mr. Parker rendered services to the State which are not commonly known, and to the knowledge of which in his peculiar mode he is perfectly indifferent. Conscious that his legal learning is valuable to the church with which he is connected, he never with- holds his presence from the Diocesan Conventions to which, year after year, he is a chosen delegate, and there is no object for which he might have a genuine regard that would fail to receive, if desired, the benefit of his experience and his counsel. No man dispenses more generously than himself the intellectual wealth which he has inherited and to which he has largely added by his industry. No one could love more than he to make it serviceable to his fellow-men, and espe- cially to those of his own country ; but no one disdains more thoroughly than he to stoop in order to accom- plish anything affecting his own interests more than those of others. Every man has his faults, and Mr. Parker's is his remorseless truthfulness. It may be added, although somewhat out of place, and nearly forgotten, that Mr. Parker received, years ago, the degree of LL. D., from his Alma Mater, Rutgers Col- lege, as well as from the College of New Jersey, at Princeton.

LEWIS C. GROVER is a native of New Jersey, and the grandson of the late Rev. Stephen Grover, who, for forty -eight years, was the pastor of the First Pres-

byterian Church of that plaec, and who, too, prior to entering the ministry, had served his country in the army of the Revolution. "Ile was a man," says his biographer, "of great urbanity, sociability and kind- ness, a fluent speaker, shrewd, wise, and a keen judge of human nature." His death occasioned uni- versal mourning; the whole region flocked to his funeral, and in the ground, as near as possible to his pulpit, his body found its final resting-place. He left a son, Stephen R. Grover, who possessed many of the noble traits of his venerable father, and who, in 1827, removing to Newark, became a lawyer of considerable distinction, and in 1845 the Representa- tive of Essex County in the State Sonate. This was the father of Lewis C. Grover, who was born in Cald- well, N. J .. October 20, 1815. Showing a strong in- clination for a business life, young Lewis was, at an early age, first given a elerkship in the State Bank at Newark, and subsequently a position in the extensive manufacturing establishment of Shipman, Robinson & Co., of the same city. His advantages in the latter place were especially good in preparing him for the career which he had marked out for himself; but his love of reading and study led him to the perusal of treatises on law and works of a kindred nature, which he always found conveniently at hand. Becoming greatly interested in works of this character, he began to think that his tastes would be more thoroughly gratified in one of the learned professions than in a counting-house, and he finally applied himself dili- gently to the study of the law, with his worthy father as a preceptor. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar, in company with Edward W. Whelpley, Cortlandt Parker, Joseph P. Bradley, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen and others who afterwards became so eminent in the profession. Ile entered at once upon the practice of law in Newark, N. J., and with that energy which has always characterized him, soon acquired friends and clients. For several years he attended strictly to the business of his office, but the sharp political contests of those days drew him at length from the desk at which he was quietly working, and threw him into the company of politi- cians who soon found in him a man capable of advis- ing and leading even those possessed of greater ex- perience than himself. From that time every hour that was not absolutely required by his professional duties was devoted to the service of the Whig party, of which he became a fearless and uncompromising champion. The Presidential struggles of 1840, 1844 and 1848 were so many battle-fields, on which he seemed to take peculiar delight in showing his gen- eralship and prowess. On those occasions he appeared to be everywhere, and just around him the struggle always seemed the fiercest. In 1848 he was chosen, by a large majority, ns a Representative of Essex County in the General Assembly, and here, as every- where, he took a leading role, holding the chairman- ship of the judiciary committee.

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THE BAR OF ESSEX COUNTY.

Some years before, in 1845, Mr. Grover had ob- tained from the Legislature the charter of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark, N. J., an institution which now stands among the foremost of its kind. Mr. Crover was among its directors, and, quite naturally, was selected as its counsel, an oflice which did not draw heavily upon his time in the days when that now magnificent institution transacted all its business at a single desk, with a single pen, in a small room, on the corner of Broad and Market Streets. Through the activity of its then young vigilant secretary, Mr. Benjamin C. Miller, as well as the able management of its judicious board of directors, it grew so rapidly from year to year that in time its business matters required the unremitting attention of its counsel, and Mr. Grover was induced to give up all other engagements and all political aspirations in order to attend more closely to its interests. From this time the institution, whose success was already well assured, began to ac- quire greater and greater strength, and to extend its influence and its operations in all directions far and near. Mr. Grover was now called to the important office of vice-president, a position which devolved upon him increased labors and greater responsibilities. Hle proved himself fully equal to the task, and on the death of the president was elected to that office, and continued to hold it until January, 1882, when, on account of ill health, he resigned, and was ap- pointed executive counsel, in which capacity he still holds his connection with the institution. In 1846 he procured from the Legislature the charter of the American Insurance Company of Newark, N. J., of which, upon its organization, he was made counsel, and in this position still remains.

Mr. Grover is a man not only of most affable man- ners and genial disposition, but of great kindness of heart and generosity. To him Newark, and, indeed, the whole country, are largely indebted for an insti- tution that is every day distributing aid to the be- rvaved and receiving the blessings of the fatherless and the widow.

DANIEL DODD, JR., a descendant of Daniel Dod, who settled at Branford, Conn., in 1646, was born in Orange, Essex Co., N. J., January 15, 1817. He was educated at the University of New York, from which institution he was graduated, in 1835, with the high- est honors. Hle afterwards studied law, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1839. For fifteen years he continued to practice his profession in Newark, and then on the election of Dr. William Pierson as sheriff'of Essex County, became his deputy and served as such to the end of Dr. Pierson's term of other. Mr. Dodd was subsequently made secretary of the New Jersey Insurance Company, in which position he remained until 1866, when he was elected treasurer of the Newark Savings Institution. lu 1871 he was chosen president of this corporation, and in the same year was made president of the

Newark Gas-Light Company. For a very long period he was an active member of the Newark Aqueduct Board. From 1856 to 1859, inclusive, he was a member of the Common Council. In 1859 he was the "opposition" candidate for mayor against Mr. More Bigclow, but was defeated.

JOHN WHITEHEAD was born in Jersey, Licking Co., O., September 6, 1819. Ile removed to Newark, N. J., at an carly age, and after receiving a good academie education, entered as a student-at-law, the office of his uncle, Asa Whitehead, E'sq., and was admitted to the bar in September, 1840. Ile began at once the practice of law, remaining in the office in which he had studied his profession until 1845, when he opened an office of his own at No. 145 Market Street, as it was then kuown, where he remained nearly twenty-five years. Subsequently he removed his residence to Morristown, N. J., but continued, and still continues, to practice in Newark. Mr. Whitehead's name now stands, or should stand, third upon the court list, his living seniors at the bar, with the exceptions of A. S. Hubbell and Cortlandt Parker, Esqs., having retired from active practice. He is at present associate I in business with Joseph D. Gallagher, Esq., but has not in the least abated his activity either as an advocate or as a counsel- or. During his forty-four years of practice, Mr. White- head has attended assiduously to the duties of his profession, not allowing himself to be drawn aside by any public offices or positions which could occupy anything more than his leisure hours; and the offices which he has held have been exclusively in connec- tion with the cause of learning. As early as 1845, when the public schools of Newark were managed by a school committee, he was one of its members, and the meetings of that body were generally held in the private room attached to his law office, and in 1851. after the school committee had been, by an act of the Legislature, invested with considerable powers, and dignified by the title of Board of Education, it continued to hold its sessions in his private office for about two years, and he was its secretary until 1855. The following year, having removed his residence outside of the city line, he became ineligible to any city office, but the people of Clinton township, within whose limits he had made his home, immedi- ately chose him as their school superintendent, and for four years he gave them the benefit of his ex- perience and of his devotion to the cause of ednea- tion. Of the State Society of Teachers and Friends of Education, he was for a long time secretary, and in this capacity employed all the leisure at his command in visiting different parts of the State, and addressing the people upon the importance of giving their children greater advantages for instruction. He was a prominent and active member of the American Association for the Advancement of Learning which was composed of some of the most distinguished educators and men of learning in the

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

country, and which, during its existence. exerted a great and good influence throughout the land. When, by an act of the Legislature, school examiners were appointed in the various counties of the State, Mr. Whitehead received the appointment for Essex County, and hold the office until the act was re- pealed. But what he regards as the best work of his life is the establishment upon a permanent foun- dation of the Morristown Library. After many years of devoted labor he had the satisfaction of seeing this promising institution opened on the 14th of Au- gust, 1878, with the prospect of a long and flourishing existenee. And now, like a father, he watches over it, delighting in its growth and prosperity. All its books are purchased upon his recommendation, and nearly all his evening hours are spent within its walls, in adding to its usefulness. In former years Mr. Whitehead gave much of his leisure time to philo- logical studies, and gained considerable reputation as a writer and lecturer in this department of litera- ture.

GEORGE B. HALSTED was born in Elizabeth, N. J., in 1820, and was graduated from the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, in 1839. His law studies were pursued in the office of his father, the late Chancellor Oliver S. Halsted, who is elsewhere noticed in this volume. In 1842 he was admitted to the bar, and entered soon after upon the practice of his profession in Newark, N. J. During the incumbency of his father as chancellor of New Jersey, Mr. George B. Halsted was reporter for the Court of Chancery, and his work while occupying this position may be found in the two volumes of Reports which bear his name.

In 1849, accompanied by three of his brothers, he went in a sailing-vessel, the bark "Griffin," to Cali- fornia, where he remained about a year, and then returned by the same conveyance.

During the civil war Mr. Halsted was active and prominent, and was one of the first volunteers from civil life who received a commission. As early as April 16, 1861, he was made secretary to Commo- dore Stringham, commanding the home squadron, and subsequently to Commodore Goldsborough, his successor. On the eleventh of November follow- ing he became attached as aide-de-eamp, to the staff of Gen. Kearney, with the title of first lieutenant. Subsequently, with the consent of Gen. Kearney, he accepted the position of assistant adjutant-Gene- ral on the staff of Gen. C. C. Augur, with rank as captain of cavalry. In this position Capt. Halsted remained until tien. Augur was relieved on ae- count of sickness, July 9, 1863, and during this period he took part in a number of severe engage- ments. In the battle of Cedar Mountain, while carrying a message to a distant part of the field, he was taken prisoner and thrown into Libby Prison, Richmond, whence, after two months' confinement, he was paroled, and then regularly exchanged in

time to rejoin his command and to participate in the Banks expedition to Louisiana. In July, 1863, he was assigned to duty as assistant adjutant-gen- eral of the Corps d'Afrique, Brig .- Gen. George L. Andrews commanding, with headquarters at Port Hudson, where he remained until the spring of 1864, when he was ordered North, and assigned to duty in Tennessee, with Brig .- Gen. Augustus L. Chetlain, with headquarters at Memphis. Here he remained, engaged in organizing colored troops, until late in the summer, when he was ordered to Washing- ton. and subsequently to his home, to await instrue- tions. Afterwards he was assigned to duty with Maj .- Gen. G. K. Warren, commanding the Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac, then besieging Peters- burg. In this position he remained until the close of the war, participating in the battles of Quaker Road, White Oak Road (where he was wounded, but remained on the field), Five Forks, and Appomattox Court-llouse. The armies having been disbanded, he was ordered to duty with Brig .- Gen. Ely, at Trenton, where he remained until he was honorably discharged, March 12, 1865, having served faithfully and effectually for a period of five years, lacking one month and four days. On the 9th of April following he receivedl a brevet-majority for gallant and meri- torious services. In 1866, Maj. Halsted made a second visit to Panama, where he suffered an attack of yellow fever, but fortunately recovered and returned to Newark. In 1876 he removed to Minnesota, and settled in the town of Minnetonka, where he at pres- ent resides.

ARAM G. SAYRE was admitted as an attorney-at- law in May, 1843, and as a counselor in January 1847. He practiced his profession for a long time iu Newark, N. J., but removed elsewhere a few years since.

THOMAS T. KINNEY was graduated from the Col- lege of New Jersey in 1841. He studied law in the office of Hon. Joseph P. Bradley, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. Further mention is made of him in the chapter on "The Press " of Essex County.

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History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. I, Part 74

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 840

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 840