History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 32

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830

USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 32
USA > New Jersey > Essex County > History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II > Part 32

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE BRINTON MCCLELLAN.

Tite subject of this brief sketch, who in due time, became the organizer and brave leader of the Federal armies in the internecine war of Isol-65, first saw the light of day, December 3, 1526, in the quiet and peaceful city founded by William Penn.

His father, a physician of eminence, was a native of Connecticut, into which " land of steady habits " and of sterling men, his ancestors had migrated from the mountains of Scotland, bringing with them the ancient Scottish love of liberty and of law, the just, tenacious nature of that hardy and heroic race which has bul- warked freedom and beaten back oppression on many a hard-fought field, from the days of Bruce and Wallace, down to our own

The great-grandfather of the age Brinton, Samuel Mellellan, commanded the first company of cavalry that joined the Continental Army, at Cambridge, and was credited to the State of Connecticut. He subsequently became a Generat in that army, and served with distinction throughout the war. He lived and died at Woodstock, Connecticut.

The father of George, having achieved by his abil- ity and character, a high position as a physician, re- moved to Pennsylvania, and located in the midst of that galaxy of accomplished medical men by whom the name of Philadelphia, as the metropohs of physi- cal science and the healing art in the New World was made illustrious throughout both hemispheres. It was the best reward of the life-long exertion- of Dr. MeCleflan, that he was thereby enabled to bestow upon his children all the advantages of education which the country could afford ; and at the early age of thirteen, George, was entered as a student of the Freshman Class of the University of Pennsylvania.

An inborn vocation, however, led him towards the

life of an engineer and a soldier; and a cadet's war- rant having been obtained for him, George Brinton Met lellan, in 1812, was sent to the Military Academy at West Point.

At the Military Veademy, young Mit kellan soon found himself thoroughly at home, distinguished hit - self in the exart studios to which he was called upon to apply his mind, and won the ateem of his supe- riors by his scholarly and soldierly Inaring. He was graduated with the second honors of his class in 1846; assigned to duty with a company of the Engi- ners, and ordered before the close of the year into active service on the line of the Rio Grande River. Lieutenant Med'lellan reached his post just after the battle of Monterey had been fought and won.

In ISE, he appeared for the first time on the stage of national affairs, as a sohlier in the field, upholling the honor of the national Hag. After a brief period of service, at onee obscure and arduens, on the banks of the Rio Grande, he was ordered to Tampiro in Jau- uary 1517, to take part in the concentration of troops preparatory to the advance on the Capital of the Mon- tezumas. Space will not permit our following Lieu- tenant Metlellan in that arduous campaign, through which he passed, earning for himself that distinction which is ever a star in the crown of glory of a young utlicer- a brevet commission of promotion for gallant aud meritorious services-he having received such, September 14th, 1847.

Ax Captam MeChellan, he remained with the army in Mexico until the signing of the treaty of peace with that republic, and in June 1848, he returned to the United States, and was almost immediately ordered to the post at West Point, where, for three years, he re- mained in command of the Company of Sappers and Miners. In June, 1851, he was removed to Fort Del- aware to superintend the construction of military works, at that post, and early in the next year, joined an expedition for the exploration of the then far off Red River, under Colonel Marcy, whose daughter sul sequently became his wife.

From the Red River, he passed into Texas, upon the stall of General P. F. Smith, nud until March, 1838, was occupied in the survey of the Texas coast. In the Spring of 1853, he was ordered to Washington Territory, where he remained till May, 1554, in charge of the western division of the survey for the northern route to the Pacific Ocean.

In March, 1555, he was promoted to a full Captaincy in the First Cavalry, and with Major Delafield and Major Mordecai, was ordered to proceed to Europe, there to study the operations of the great war then raging between the western allies and the Russian Empire.

The immediate fruit of his sojourn in Europe, was an elaborate and exhaustive report upon the constitu- tion of the greater European armies, which was puh- lished by authority of Congress in the early part of the year 1857. After the publication of this report,

81%

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

in January 1857, Captain Met 'lellan resigned his com- mission in the army, and went into civil life.

He was then appointed Chief Engineer of the Illi- mens Central Railroad, and upon the completion uf that enterprise, was elected vice president of the company, which position he continued to fill, resid- ing at Chicago, until August, 1860, when, having been chosen president of the Eastern Division of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, he removed to ('in- cinnati.

Upon the breaking out of the slaveholders' rebellion in 1861, Governor Dennison, of Ohio, in response to a call for troops, appointed George Brin- ton MeClellan, Major General, to command the con- tingent of the State, being thirteen regiments of infantry. This commission was offered and accepted, much sooner than it did. April 23, 1861.

May 10, 1861, the general government assigned General Mcclellan to the command of the Depart- ment of Ohio, embracing the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with his headquarters at Cincinnati. Four days after, he was commissioned a Major Gen- eral in the regular army.

The war cloud had now burst forth in all its fury, and the few troops that had been called for, were distributed as best they could be under the then trying circumstances, and various officers were assigned to occupy different points, while the invasion of West- ern Virginia was committed to General Mcclellan, why was left to take care of himself, make his own plans, and pursue his own policy. This lease of liberty granted General Mcclellan at this time, resulted in the first victory for the Union arms, and the surrender of " John Perram, Esquire, styling himself Colonel in the Provisional Army of the Con- federate States," with six hundred men, at Rich Mountain, Va., July 11, 1861.

The reverses that were met with by the Union forces in the latter part of July of that year, were so great in contrast with the brilliant victory already achieved by General MeClellan, that he at once be- came in the eyes of the government, the " Mases" that was to lead the Union armies into the promised land of peace. He was therefore summoned to report at Washington, where, on the 27th day of July, 1861, he assumed command of the troops in and around the l'apital, consisting of ahout 50,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, 650 artillerymen, with ninc imperfect field batteries of thirty pieces.

Although these figures appeared to represent quite a respectally sized army, they only represented a heterogeneous muss of humanity, without organiza- tion or discipline, and to the task of moulding this mass of humanity into an efficient army, was General MeChe llan assigned.

His subsequent career as a cononander in the field is far more likely to fix the public attention, than the story of the months he passed at Washington in the Jater summer and autumn of 1861, in bringing order

out of confusion, system out of chaos, plans and a purpose out of incoherent passion. It was in those months that our Western, as well as our Eastern armies were planned and moulded into form. Fort Donel- son and Vicksburg, Stone River and Chattanooga, as well as Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill and Antietam, were then preparing, and their victories made possible.

In November, 1861, General MeClellan was placed in command of the armies of the Union, and at once addressed letters to his subordinates, Halleck, Buel, Sherman and Butler, commanding respectively the departments of Missouri and Ohio, and the expe- ditions of the South Atlantic and the Gult. Had his instructions been carried out to the full extent of their meaning, no doubt the war would have ended

August 28, 1864, he was unanimously nominated at Chicago, TH., by the National Convention, of the Democratic party, as its candidate for the office of President of the United States, and although unslle- cessful at the election which occurred in the following November, yet was complimented by a very large and flattering vote of the States participating in that election. On the day of that contest he resigned his commission as Major General in the regular Army of the United States.

In 1865, he went to Europe, where he remained until the autumn of 1868, when he returned to the United States. He was then engaged in this country as a Civil Engineer and Railroad manager till the autumn of 1873, when he again visited Europe, where he remained two years, and returned again to the United States.

In 1877, he was elected Governor of the State of New Jersey, which position he filled with honor to himself and great credit to the state, for a term of four years.

In 1881, he was appointed one of the managers of the " National Home for Disabled Volunteer Sol- thiers," which position he still honorably fills.

As a Civil Engineer, General MeClellan has no superior in this or any other country, and in that profession he delights, and is still actively engaged. Ilis home is on the summit of Orange, or First Mountain overlooking the Oranges, Newark, and all other portions of Essex county, and nearly all of Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, and Union Counties, Staten Island, New York City and Bay, Brooklyn ('ity and Bridge, and portions of Long Island.

IRA HARRISON.

Richard Harrison, the earliest representative of the family in America, came from Cheshire, England, and settled in Connecticut about the year 1640, from whenee he and his family removed to Newark, N. J., with the colony which settled there in 1666.

His grandson, Samuel Harrison, who was the great- grandfather of the subject of this biography, located near Newark Mountain (now West Orange). Ilis sons

Iva Harrison

819

EAST ORANGE TOWNSHIP

were Amos, Samuel and Matthew. The children of braced within the limits of East Orange. Prior to Matthew were Abijah, Aaron, Amos, Adonijah, Polly aud Matthew.

The birth of A: ron, son of Matthew, occurrel in 1753, in West Orange, where he followed the employ- ment of a farmer. He married Phebe trane, whose mother was a consin of the Rev. Aaron Burr, and had the following children : Samuel, Jemima, Charles, Matilda, Phebe, Abigail, Ira and Aaron Burr, of whom Fra is the only survivor. He was born on the 4th of January, 1795, on the ancestral land in West Orange, where his early years were passed. A thorough education not having been regarded as prerequisite to successful farming, he was, at the age of eleven years, instructed in the skillful use of the plow, and mean- while attended the neighboring country school. . At the age of twemy six he married Mary, daughter of Ichabod Jones, of East Orange, and had the following children : Aaron (deceased, Rhoda A., Samuel (de- renard), Matilda, John, Phobe C. (Mrs. Josiah B. Williams), Alfred J., William L., Mary E. (Mrs. Am- brose M. Matthews), Frederic 1. (deceased). Mr. Harrison, at the age of twenty-six, acquired the farm upon which he still resides and where, during his long and active life, he has pursued the healthful avocations of a farmer. As a Whig, and later as a Republican, he has been more or less active in local political issues, and served as trecholder and in minor township offices. He was largely instrumental in introducing the excellent system of roads which is now the pride of Orange and its suburbs. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Orange, where he fills the office of elder, and has been for years a truster. Mr. Harrison, in his ninetieth year, still enjoys exceptional vigor of body and mind.

CHAPTER LAV.

EAST ORANGE TOWNSHIP.

Titis township, which during recent years has he- come the seat of a population inversely proportionate to its small area, had no separate or individual exist- chee until 1-3. Prior to that time it was a portion of Orange township after its creation, in 1806, and anterior to that date a fraction of the great original township of Newark.

East Orange contains only about two thousand four hundred acres, or less than four square miles of land, and yet its population is undoubtedly upwards of ten thousand, and through nearly the whole of its extent it presents the appearance of a village or suburban city, which, in fact, it is.

Few regions of our country have within half or a quarter of a century exhibited such complete changes in social and material aspects as the territory em-

the building of the railroad the beautiful, undulating country, now traversed in all directions by quely macadamized roads, so thickly settled as to almost possess the character of a city, and de-playing every- where tasteful and even palatial homes, with all the adformments of art ; was a pastoral spot, sparsely set- tled,-an expanse of field and orcha Fand woodland, Adotted here and there by the quiet and quaint homes of the early settlers.

During the past fifteen years the influx of popula- tion has been particularly swift and strong. Meu of business in the large cities near, and persons seeking heath or quiet, have here found the most favorable combination of conditions that they could desire for rural homes. C'hmate, sanitary advantages, beauty, well-ordered society, churches, schools, easy accessi- bility from the great towns are all realized here, and recognized each year by an increased diumber of those who, at least during a portion of their time, would be " far from the madding crowd."

The Region in the Past .- Of the carly history of this township, the greater part which is ascertain- able has already been given in the general chapters upon the Oranges, but we may allude to a few matters and people of the past before considering the institutions of the present. In this connection it is interesting to note that the territory which forms our subject was a portion, and a comparatively small one, of a purchase made March 13, 1677, from the Winacksop and Shenacktes Indians, the reputed owners of the great mountain Watchung, for "two guns, three costs and thirteen cans of rum. ' Surely the red man's title was en ily extinguished.

Prior to the middle of the last century the settle- ment on the river began to spread itself in this direc- tion. The Inviting plain between the Passsie and the mountain could not long remain an uncultivated wilderness with a race of hardy yeomanry growing up on its horder. Titles to " wood lot- " which had been set off to residents of Newark began to be trans- ferred, clearings made and homes established. At this late day it is impossible to give facts concerning all of the original owners of land, but we shall presently produce items of interest about some of them. First, however, we shall endeavor to give an idea of the region as it appeared sixty years ago to the then young eyes of one who is now old.

Aspect of the Region in its Pastoral Days .- The streets of the present village and thickly populated region environing it, were only country roads sixty years ago. They were roads broken usually only to the width of a pair of wheels, with green grass and bushes and logs along the sides, and often were unfenced. What is now North Grove Street was then Whiskey Lane, the present South Munn Avenue was simply Munn Lane, and North Arlington Avenue bore the less aristocratic appellation of Pluck Street, later Cherry Street. Prospect Street in those days

820

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

was ealed Doddtown road, Washington Street was designated as the Tory Corner road, and South Harrison Street was Harrison Lane. These were the only means of communication running north and south. Main Street was the Orange road. and was the only one ruuning east and west between the south Orange Road and the Bloomfield turnpike.

The original settlers on the Orange road or Main Street between the present east and west limits of the the township were, upon the south side, commencing at the cast line, the ancestral acres of the Pecks, first owned by Joseph Peck, who owned land up to a point opposite the present Thompson Street ; Benja- min Munn, who owned the a ljoining tract, extending to Burnett Street; \bijah Hedden, who owned from the Munn lands to Halsted Street ; and the Harrisons, Daniel and Jonathan, who were the proprietors of all the rich acres from Heddens to the township line.

On the north side, commencing at the east line, there was a large wood tract owned by the Wards, of Newark. This property, which extended np to Grove Street, afterwards came into possession of the Peek> and Heddens. Cyrus Jones owned from this tract up to Mulford Street. A man by the name of Camfield owned the property between the limits now marked by Jones and Prospect Streets, and kept a taver i upon it. Henry Baldwin lived about where the corner of Washington and William Streets now is.

In those days -- sixty years ago-there were a few hatters and shoemakers in the community, and several persons who followed other occupations, as, for in- I stance, the tavern-keeper, already mentioned; but the sparse population was made up principally of farmers.

Old Families .- The tract of land which has been mentioned as belonging to the Perks was in the pos- session of Joseph Peck in 1694. He built a stone house near what is now the southeast corner of Maple Avenue and Main Street, and lived there until his death, in 1746. Ilis son married Jemima Lindsley, and lived upon the homestead until his death, in 1772. Ile was the father of David and grandfather of James, from whom descended directly the Orange Pecks of to-day. James' children were William, a farmer, born in 1790. died 1849; Aaron, father of Cyrus, who lives at Roseville ; and Phebe, who mar- ried Samuel Condit.

William's children were Phebe, wite of John M1. Crowell, of Newark ; Margaret, wife of AAlfred Jones, a resident of this township ; Fra, a farmer in the town- ship; James, who lives upon a part of the homestead farm, luz a prominent man in the community, now president of the County Road Board; and Harriet, wife of E. O. Doremus, another influential citizen.

Just before the Revolution, Matthias Dodd, a mill- wright by trade and born on C'entre Street, Orange, bought about tifty acres of woodland cast of what is now Grove Street, between the lines of William Street and Prospect Street, and built thereon a carpenter- shop, where the house of his grandson. Matthias MI.,

now stands. Here he worked as a carpenter, and made wooden plows. He presently, however, gave up this peaceful avocation, and, exchanging the plow- share tor the sword, became a soldier in the war of the Revolution. Ile was drowned in New York Bay in the prime of life. His son Lewis, born in 1784 in the trove Street house, learned the trade of a shoc- maker, and when twenty-four years of age, with five or six apprentices, began making shoes in the same shop where his father had fashioned wooden mould boards. In 1838 he went into partnership with his son Matthias in the dairy business, and also carried on general farming. Of the children of Lewis Dodd, Rachael is the wife of John Dunham, of Newark ; Jane is the wife of F. Crans, of Grove Street ; Mat- thias M., occupying a part of the old homestead, is a wealthy and prominent citizen of the township; Lydia is the wife of David C. Runyon, of Newark ; Sarah is the wife of ('. S. Osborne, of Newark ; Beth- uel is a physician ; and Julia is the wife of Ed. . A. Wallace, of Grove Street.

Abigail lledden was another of the early set- thers, and his son, Samuel S., was long prominent in the affairs of the community. Viner J., George W., and Albert E., sons of the latter, and Mrs. James Peck and Mrs. Nelson J. Baldwin, daughters, are residents of the township.

The homestead of the Jones family occupied the spot on which stands the residence of Dr. Duffiekl, corner of Main Street and Munn Avenue. Samuel C. Jones, secretary of the Newark Lime and Cement Company, a man who has long ranked among the most publie-spirited citizens of the community, as well as his father, Viner Van Zant Jones, and his grandfather Cyrus Jones, were born at this place.

Adonijalı Osmun and Peter Campbell, both shoe- makers and elders in the Brick Church at the time of its inception, will be pleasantly remembered by the older residents. The latter died in Is52, aged fifty-six years. The names of both appear in the list of elders of the First Presbyterian Church, Mr. Osmun's in 1814 and Mr. Campbell's in 1820.

Other early residents were Abram R. Marsh and Levi Lathrop and Edward Ball, whose daughter Lydia married into the Peck family.

In 1829, Peter (. Doremus, a native of Morris County, located near the present corner of Main and Harrison Streets, and the following year selling that property, bought ten acres of ground near Prospect and Carlton Streets. He lived there until 1850, when he purchased what is now known as the Caudler property, on Harrison Street, from which he moved to William Street, where he built the house in which he died in 1869, and in which his widow still lives. Ilis son, Elias O. Doremus, is well known through his connection with the American Insurance Company of Newark, his long connection with the Board of Frecholders, his membership of the Legislature and Ins many public-spirited acts.

EAST ORANGE TOWNSHIP.

Lewis Mitchell, now deceased, was for many years a respected citizen of East Orange. Two sons, Aaron I. and George, are now among its must worthy and enterprising people.

Among gentlemen who have more recently identi- fied themselves with East Orange, but who have been prominent in the promotion of its best interests, there should be named John M. Randall, Frederick M. Shepard, George W_ Blackwell, George D. Woodruff, David Bingham, James W. Towne. Charles M. Docker, Edward Mecker and Gardiner R. Polhy.

Municipal Organization and List of Civil Officers .- East Orange was organized as a separate township by an act of the Legislature passed March 4. 1863, the first section of which prescribed the boundaries, as follows, viz. :

"Beginning at a joint n & fine le wees the town of Orange und the townalup of south trange, when the rentre of Centre Street, in wald town of trange, would internet said line, thener in a tortheels or mirthensterly il recti, a to n point on the north and of Main Street, in the said town of Orange, where the line between the hands of Cahh ii. Har- rison and Nathan W theron, near the corner of Baldwin att pand Main Street, would interact the north sid of said Main Street ; theter in a the otherly or northeasterly direct on to a large oak tree on the land of and near the residence of William Pattern thence in a northerly or north westerly direction to a point on the east side of Park street in mid town of Orange, where the angle in said at et, near the residence of Aaron Williams would intervent mand peut. the new on in the direction of the last-nontioned line to the west side of said Park street , thener in a northerly or northeasterly dire thu to a point in the centre of the bridge over the Nishayne Hook, where the south side uf Ihrid Street for the tret running from David Biker's at a. to the Orange l'enetery would intersert maid point , thenre in a natherly or northeasterly di- reti on to a peint in the centre of the north s le of the bridge trar the re idence of Henry Stuckey, and thence in the hur of the last-mentioned time to the line between the town of Orange and the townelig of How- field ; there along the line between the and town of Orange and the sand township of Ill machi to the line between the town of trang . and the city of Sowark thema along the line between the sand town of Urner and the sand ity of Newark ! the Hne betw ens the town of Orange und the township of south orange , thenes alon. the line between the mail town of orange and the mid towndrop of south Doing? to the place of le - Kinning."

The first election was hell on the second Monday of April, 1863, at the house of Stephen W. Tichenor, Aaron B. Harrison serving as judge and Charles Crane as "lerk.

Following is a list of the principal officers of the township from the time of the first election to the present :

Is63. - Township Committee William King, John M. Randall, Aaron R. Harrison, Chath- frane, Khar O. Dorrinns , Clerk, Jimeph L., Munir, A sponsor, Miners 11. Williams , Voller or brorge Condit, Justi - of Prace, William King and Thompson 1. Munn Julge of Elections, Jotham Hed den . Superintendent of & homjs, Samuel ( J. Ifw.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Essex and Hudson counties, New Jersey, Vol. II, Part 32

Author: Shaw, William H Publication date: 1884 Publisher: [United States :] Number of Pages: 830

Author: Shaw, William H
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: [United States :]
Number of Pages: 830