History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 144

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 144
USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 144

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).

" Thore la nol a man of purer character, of moro sober temperament, of more accessible manners, and of more firm, unbending, uncompro- mising Whig principles, than Theodore Frelinghuysen."

Mr. Clay expressed himself as delighted with the association of Frelinghuysen's name on the same ticket with his own. But here again, though unsue-

cessful, the principles which he represented have since triumphed, and have shaped the policy of the country for twenty years.

In 1850 he was elected president of Rutgers Col- lege. He resigned his chancellorship and took the new field offered him. He was happy to be permitted to return so near to the home of his childhood. Here he continued until his death, April 12, 1861. ITis personal traits and habits are admirably presented by Rev. Dr. T. W. Chambers in his memoir, from which the facts given in this article are largely drawn.

FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN was the youngest son of Gen. Frederick. He was born at the family homestead at Millstone, Nov. 8, 1788. About 1798 he was sent to the grammar school at New Bruns- wick, then under the care of Rev. John Lindsley, an Episcopal clergyman. Upon his resignation, in 1800, Frederick returned home. He subsequently attended school at Basking Ridge, and was graduated from Princeton College in 1806. Ile studied law with Richard Stockton, and was admitted to the bar in 1810; he then fixed his residence at Millstone. In 1812 he married Jane Dumont, eldest daughter of Peter B. Dumont, Esq., and in 1814 became a coun- selor. In 1817 he was appointed prosecutor of the pleas for the counties of Somerset, Middlesex, and Hunterdon, which position he held until his death, Nov. 10, 1820 .* He was more of a natural orator than either Theodore or John. His imagination was fervent, his temperament buoyant, and his sensibility very lively. He was powerful and successful as a pleader.

THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, JR., was born March 14, 1814, and admitted as an attorney February, 1835, as a counselor February, 1838. He was a student, first, in the office of Thomas A. Hartwell, Esq., then in that of his uncle, Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen. He practiced several years in Somerville; then re- moved to Newark and settled. About ten years ago he returned to Somerset County, and has had an office at Raritan. He resides with his brother, Frederick J., and is a bachelor.

DUMONT FRELINGHUYSEN, licensed as an attorney September, 1838, as a counselor November, 1843, was born at Millstone, Feb. 16, 1816. He received a se- vere injury soon after obtaining his license, which made the practice of law for a few years impracti- cable. Being then elected county clerk, he served in that capacity from 1840 to 1845, and since that period has pursued strictly an office business. He married a daughter of Judge Van Derveer, and is a highly-re- spected citizen as well as a pillar in the First Reformed Church of Somerville, and useful in all religious mat- ters generally.

FREDERICK T. FRELINGHUYSEN, a lawyer of emi- nenee, formerly attorney-general of New Jersey and a senator of the United States, is the son of the late

· Chambers' Lifo of Theodore Frelinghuysen, p. 250.

588

SOMERSET COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

Frederick Frelinghuysen, and was born at Millstone, Aug. 4, 1817. His father dying when the subject of this sketch was but three years old, he was adopted by his uncle, the Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, then residing at Newark, N. J. He was graduated from Rutgers College in 1836, studied law with his uncle, and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He acquired a good practice, and his unwearied diligence soon bronght its fruits,-success and a good name through- out the State. For some time he was city counsel of Newark, and for many years was the trusted counsel of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey and of the Morris Canal and Banking Com- pany. He was appointed a member of the Peace Con- gress which met at Washington in February, 1861, in the deliberations of which body he took a conspicuous part. Later in that year, when William L. Dayton was appointed United States minister to France, Mr. Frelinghuysen was appointed by Governor Olden, with whom he was associated in the Peace Congress, attorney-general of New Jersey, Mr. Dayton having resigned that position. The war of the Rebellion breaking out shortly after his appointment, he tem- porarily gave up his practice at Newark and spent his time with his friend, Governor Olden, in aid- ing to organize and send forward the New Jersey forces. He was reappointed in 1866 by Governor Ward, but the death of United States Senator William Wright soon after left a vacancy, to which the Gov- ernor appointed Mr. Frelinghuysen. Thereupon he resigned the former position. In 1867 he was elected by the Legislature to the United States Senate to fill the unexpired term.

In 1870, President Grant nominated Mr. Freling- huysen as minister to England, which nomination was immediately confirmed by the Senate and the appointment pressed, but Mr. Frelinghuysen declined, having little desire to live abroad and make courtesies to a queen and her cabinet. He preferred the sub- stantial honors accruing to solid work in his own country, and the following winter he was again elected to the United States Senate, serving until 1877. Dur- ing his entire term of nine years in the Senate he was a member of the judiciary committee, to the duties of which he gave close attention. He was also a member of the committees on finance, on foreign relations, on railroads, chairman of the committee on agriculture, and at different times was on the committee on naval affairs and on claims. He always took an active part in the debates of the Senate, especially in relation to the reconstruction measures and to the restoration of a currency redeemable in gold. He introduced a bill to accomplish the latter result, and, having sustained it by an claborate argument, it received much favor ; it differs little from the measure subsequently adopted, which he also supported. He was always a strong ad- vocate of a tariff for protection, and during his whole term exerted all his influence to maintain for the peculiar industries of his own State ample protection.

As one of the committee on foreign relations he is reported to have taken an active part in the debate in favor of the Washington Treaty. He had charge of, and advocated until it passsed the Senate, the Civil Rights bill, originally introduced by Mr. Sum- ner; introduced and advocated until it passed the Senate a bill against polygamy, and also a bill to re- turn to Japan what is known as the Japanese In- demnity Fund, and vindicated the administration in an extended speech in what is known as the French Arms Controversy ; gave elaborate opinions on the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Belknap. His report in the Pomeroy case and his argument in the Caldwell case, in both of which charges of bribery were made, were able and judicial; in what is known as the Sue Murphy case he made the first argument against claims of even loyal persons at the South for damages resulting from the war, insisting that they must suffer as did loyal persons at the North, and that the results of war must rest where they fall. This view, though at first much doubted, was adopted by the party to which he belonged.

Late in the summer of 1876, anticipating trouble in the electoral count, which was the next year realized, he introduced a bill referring the decision of such controversy when it should arise to the President of the Senate, Speaker of the House, and the chief jus- tice. The bill failed to pass for want of time. In 1877, when the anticipated evil resulted, he was one of the joint committee of the Senate and 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 bill. He was appointed a member of the Commis- sion, his published opinion in which covers all the questions there raised.

While in Washington, Mr. Frclinghuysen's house was one of the centres of hospitality. He was a strong personal friend of Gen. Grant, which friend- ship still continues. Although not officially an- nounced, it is well understood that President Hayes tendered to him positions not inferior to those de- clined by him during Gen. Grant's administration. At present he resides every summer at his country- seat, which has been in his family for several genera- tions, along the Raritan River, about three miles southwest of Somerville, and in the winter at Newark, where his law-office has always been located. His practice is now mostly before the Court of Errors and Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.

The senator is a most eloquent and polished orator. His voice is melodious, his words carefully weighed, his manner in many respects captivating. He is always listened to with pleasure, whether on the floor of the Senate, in the court-room, or on the platform as a political speaker. Few equal, and if dignity and grace are considered none excel him.

FREDERICK J. FRELINGHUYSEN, born Oct. 12, 1818, licensed as an attorney in May, 1841, prac-

الجمال

Juan J. Julinaturismo

589

THE BENCH AND BAR OF SOMERSET COUNTY.

ticed law a few years in Somerville, then in Rari- tan, until his election as surrogate of the county, in 1872, when he removed to Somerville. He had previously served two terms of three years cach as county superintendent of public schools. After his term of office as surrogate expired, he continued the practice of law in Somerville. He has been for many years the secretary of the County Bible So- ciety and superintendent of the Sabbath-school of the Third Reformed Church, Raritan. He is a man who has not only been honored in, but has honored all these several vocations.

JAMES S. NEVIUS was born in Somerset County, in 1786. Ile was graduated from Princeton in 1816, and at once entered the law-office of Frederick Freling- huysen as a student at law. He was admitted to practice as an attorney in 1819, as a counselor in 1823, and as a sergeant-at-law in 1837. He was a justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey from 1838 to 1852, residing at New Brunswick, but after the last- named year removed to Jersey City, where he died in 1859 .* "Although possessed of very considerable talents as a judge, he was not, however, generally considered as having a very accurate knowledge of the law, nor are his opinions, although generally well and forcibly expressed, always safe to be followed."t Ile was generous, sympathetic, full of humor, and the life of the social circle at home or abroad.

GEORGE HI. BROWN, late of Somerville, " who took a distinguished stand at the bar," was born in 1810, and died Aug. 1, 1865. Graduating in 1828 at Nas- san Hall, he entered the Law Department of Yale Col- lege, and later the law-office of Thomas A. Hartwell, of Somerville. He was licensed as an attorney in February, 1835, and as a counselor in November, 1838. He at once opened an office in Somerville, which place eontinned his residence throughout his life. His success was pronounced from the first, and he enjoyed the reputation of a thoroughly able lawyer. He was a member of the convention to frame the State constitution, in 1844, after which he was elected by the Whig party as senator from Somerset County. In 1850 he was elected to Congress, but in 1852 was defeated by the Democratic party. In 1861 he was nominated and confirmed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. " The selection was an excellent one, and his course as a judge eminently satisfactory ; but he was not long destined to continue in the high posi- tion he was so well qualified to fill : a disease which baffled the skill of able physicians terminated his life in 1865."# Ile married Joanna B. Gaston, daughter of Sheriff John 1. Gaston, of Somerville; two daughters and three sons survive, one son being deceased. He was the son of Rev. Isaac V. Brown, long at the head

of the classical academy of Lawrenceville. He was unpretending, a perfect native gentleman, and one of the ablest men of the bar in the State. Ile was an honest man and an honest lawyer, and had always the confidence of court and jury, of brilliant genius, and generally respected by all.

ANDREW MILLER, a native of Somerville, born in 1799, was admitted to the bar in 1822, and practiced in his native place for two or three years, when he removed to Flemington, where he followed his pro- fession for some fifteen years. He then removed to Philadelphia, afterwards to North Carolina, cte., and finally, after considerable roving (which included Enrope), returned a few years since to Somerville, where he now resides, but retired from practice.

JAMES S. GREEN, of Princeton, son of Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, was born in Philadelphia, July 22, 1792; graduated at Dickinson College, 1811 ; studied law with Hon. George Wood; licensed in 1817; ad- mitted as a counselor in 1821, and received rank of a sergeant in 1834. He soon acquired a large practice, and was the Supreme Court reporter from 1831-36. Hle represented Somerset County for several terms in the Council, being first elected in 1829. He was United States attorney for many years, and also a member of Congress. He was one of the first direc- tors of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and held the same position at the time of his death. He was a trustee of Princeton College, professor of the Law Department in Rutgers, and an official in many other public corporations. He died Nov. 8, 1862. He was a friend to common-school education and the internal improvements of the State, and was prominent as a lawyer, legislator, philanthropist, and as a Christian.

ROBERT S. GREEN, A native of Princeton, son of James S. Green ( March 25, 1831), graduated from Nassau Hall in 1850, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. In 1856 he removed to Elizabeth, N. J. He subsequently held important civil positions in Union County. He married in 1857. In 1868 he was judge of Court of Common Pleas. In politics, a Democrat.

FERDINAND S. SCHENCK was a native and a prom- inent citizen of the county, and for two terms was a judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals. He was also a member of the Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth Congresses, from 1833-37. He filled both po- sitions with honor and credit. "His opinions as judge were much confided in by the members of the bar. He was the candidate of the Republican party for State senator in 1856. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1844, and for many years, and until his death, of the board of trustees of Rutgers College. He was born at Six-Mile Run, in this county, and died suddenly, at the residence of his son, Dr. J. V. Schenck, of Camden (whom he was visiting), May 17, 1860, aged seventy-two."¿

* By an unfortunate blunder, tho sketch of this gentleman In the " Nio- graphical Encyclopedia of New Jersey" appears throughout spelled Nerins.

t Judge Elmer.

# Now Jersey Blog. Encyclop., p. 73.

¿ Obituary In Somerset County News, May 24, ISGO.

590

SOMERSET COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

JOHN POTTER STOCKTON, also a native of Somerset, was born at Princeton, Aug. 2, 1826. He is a brother of Gen. R. F. and a son of Commodore Stockton. A graduate of Princeton College in 1843, he studied law with the late Judge Field, and commenced its practice in 1846. He was called to the bar as coun- selor in 1849, and followed his profession in New Jer- sey until 1857, when he was appointed United States minister to Rome by President Buchanan. In 1861 he returned to his native land, and resumed the prac- tice of law in Trenton. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1865 for six years, but was unseated after serving one year, being, however, re-elected to the same position for the term commencing March 4, 1869, and serving the full term. At its expiration he resumed his law practice at Trenton. He was ap- pointed attorney-general of the State, and sworn into office for the term of five years on April 8, 1877. Senator Stockton was appointed, with Judges Ryer- son and Randolph, to revise and simplify the pro- ceedings and practice in the courts of law, and made a report to the Legislature which was adopted."

ROBERT FIELD STOCKTON is a son of the late Com- modore R. F. Stockton, and was born in Somerset County (at Princeton) in 1832. He entered Princeton College, and was graduated with the class of 1851. He then commenced the study of law with the late Judge Richard S. Field, and was admitted to practice as an attorney in 1854. He filled the position of secretary and treasurer of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad Company, general manager of the Plymouth Coal Company, and president of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, succeeding his father and holding the office until the company was merged into the United Railroads and Canal Companies of New Jer- sey. (There were only two presidents of that com- pany,-Gen. Robert F. Stockton and his father, Com. Stockton.) He was also a director of the United Railroads. He was appointed adjutant-general of New Jersey, Jan. 30, 1858, serving with distinction in that position during the late war, resigning the same April 12, 1867. March 9, 1859, he was brevetted ma- jor-general for meritorious services as adjutant-gen- eral. Gen. Stockton was elected State comptroller in 1877.+

JOSEPH THOMPSON, son of Judge John Thompson, was born Sept. 30, 1808, in the old homestead near Readington, and close to the line dividing Somerset and Hunterdon Counties. He is of Scotch descent. His youth was spent, as have been his later years, upon a farm. During his boyhood he studied land-survey- ing, and mastered it; he also taught district school at most of the neighboring villages and hamlets. At the age of twenty-one he married Ann Post, and has had eight children, of whom the Rev. John B. Thompson, now of Catskill, N. Y., is the oldest. When but twenty-

eight years of age he was associated with his father as judge of the Hunterdon County Orphans' Court, -a position he held for fifteen years. Since then he has held the same position in the Somerset County

M.G

JOSEPH THOMPSON.

Court for thirteen years, and, though his legal knowl- edge is only such as he could acquire by desultory reading in the intervals of so busy a life, no decision of his as judge of either of these courts has ever been reversed.

ALVAH A. CLARK was born in Lebanon, Hunter- don Co., N. J., Sept. 13, 1840. He is the son of Sam- uel Clark, a merchant of Lebanon. When Alvah was seven years of age his father removed to New Ger- mantown, where the subject of this notice passed his early years and received his preliminary educa- tion, studying a portion of the time with Rev. Dr. William Blauvelt, of Lamington. Having decided upon the legal profession, he commenced the study of the law in 1860 in the office of Hon. J. C. Rafferty, and later under the tutelage of I. N. Dilts, Esq. He was admitted to practice as an attorney in 1864, and as a counselor in 1867. Immediately after his admis- sion to the bar he opened an office at New German- town, and there continued until September, 1867, when he removed to Somerville, which place has since been his residence. He was the attorney of the Bound Brook Railroad Company until it passed into the hands of the Philadelphia and Reading. Mr. Clark has been, and still is, the attorney of the Ham- ilton Land Association, etc., and is a trustee of the

* Legislative Mannal, 1880, p. 175.

+ Illd., p. 174.

# For a more complete sketch of Judge Thompson, see the account of the Thompson family, in the history of the township of Readington, ante, p. 491.

Ano, Schop

591

THE BENCH AND BAR OF SOMERSET COUNTY.

Somerville Dime Savings-Bank ; besides these special interests, he has been extensively engaged in legal practice in the County and Superior Courts.

annak acreare

Democratic in politics, as the candidate of that party he was elected, in 1876, a member of the Forty- fifth Congress from the Fourth Congressional Dis- trict, and re-elected in 1878 to the Forty-sixth Con- gress. His congressional record is well known, and needs no embellishment or laudation. He is a self- made man, and by his energy and undeniable ability has built up a large legal business. He takes great pride in his profession, and devotes much care to the preparation and management of every case which he undertakes. Two of the more important of the many cases in which he has figured were the Van Derveer will case and the Cary case. In 1864 he was married to Miss Anna Van Derbeek, of Somerville.

JOHN SCHOMP .- George Schomp, grandfather of John, was a farmer and resided in the township of Rendington, Hunterdon Co., N. J. He first married Elizabeth, daughter of George Anderson, a lady of Scotch descent, who bore him the following children : Ann, wife of Cornelius M. Wyckoff, of Bedminster, Peter Q. Jacob G., George Anderson, John G., David G. (died), and Cornelius Wyckoff (died). For his second wife he married Mary Vos-eller. Of this union were born two sons,-Tunis C., who died at Harlingen, and Henry P., of White House.

trade of a carpenter in early life, but, receiving an in- jury, gave his attention to study, and was a teacher for some time. He was also a merchant at Readington for several years. During the latter part of his life he has been a builder and farmer, and resides near the line between the townships of Readington and Branchburg. Ile is a member of the Dutch Re- formed Church at Readington, and has been officially connected with that church as deacon and elder. Politically he is identified with the Democratic party, and has filled the offices of freeholder, justice of tbe peace, and other minor places.

John Schomp, one of the leading members of the bar of Somerset County, was born at Readington, June 2, 1843. He received his preparatory education in the common school at Claverack, on the Hudson, and under the private instruction of J. Newton Voor- hees, of Somerset, and spent one year with Rev. Wil- liam I. Thompson, of Rutgers College grammar school. He entered Rutgers College in 1859, from which he was graduated with the usual honors in the class of '62, having for classmates Judge Covenhoven, of New Brunswick, Rev. A. N. Wyckoff, of New Orleans Presbyterian Church, Judge Garretson, of Hudson Co., N. J., and Judge G. D. W. Vroom, of Trenton, N. J. In the following fall Mr. Schomp entered the law-office of Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel, of New York City, where he remained for a few months, and was compelled to relinquish his studies for a while on account of ill health. After six months' respite he became a law-student with Judge Van Syckel, Flemington, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. Hle practiced law for a short time in Newark, N. J., but the same year, 1867, opened an office in Somerville, where he has since prosecuted his chosen profession. Following the political line of his ances- tors, Mr. Schomp is a Democrat. He married. April 12, 1868, Wilhelmina, daughter of John V. Schomp, of Readington.

JOHN FRELINGHUYSEN HAGEMAN, counselor-at- law, was born Feb. 4, 1816, in the village of Har- lingen, in Montgomery township, Somerset Co., N. J., a few miles north of Princeton, where his father, Abraham P. Hageman, a practicing physician, lived and died. He was graduated at Rutgers College with the class of 1836, read law with Judge Field and Governor Vroom, and was admitted to the bar in November, 1839. He opened a law-otlice in Prince- ton, where he has pursued his profession until the present time. He married a daughter of the Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D., professor in the theological seminary. In 1850 he was elected on the general ticket a member of the Legislature from Mercer County. Since 1851 he has been a member of the board of trustees of the theological seminary at Princeton, and a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Princeton. In 1862 he was nominated by Governor Olden, and confirmed by the Senate, as

Jacob G., father of John, born Oct. In, 1807, mar- ried Eliza, daughter of Abram and Rebecca (Voor- hees) Van Fleet, of Rendington. He learned the "prosecutor of the pleas for Mercer County, which

592

SOMERSET COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

office he held for five years, and declined a reappoint- ment.

Mr. Hageman has been accustomed to write fre- quently for newspapers, both secular and religious, From 1859 to 1867 he was the proprietor and imper- sonal editor of the Princeton Standard. In 1879 he published, in two octavo volumes, his "History of Princeton and Its Institutions,"-a work of great in- terest and permanent value. His son, Rev. Samuel Miller Hageman, a Presbyterian clergyman, is the author of "Silence," "St. Paul," and other poetical books of genuine merit .*

JOHN V. VOORHEES, lawyer, and formerly prose- cutor of the pleas, was born at Somerville, Aug. 5, 1819. His family is an old one, of Dutch extraction, of which see full accounts elsewhere. John V. pre- pared for college at the Somerville academy, and was graduated from Rutgers in 1840 with high standing. He studied law with Judge Brown, of Somerville, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1844. He at once entered upon a lucrative practice, and was licensed as a counselor in April, 1848. In 1862 he joined the Union army, and served as first lieutenant and quarter- master of the Thirtieth Regiment of New Jersey Vol- unteers until failing health compelled him to resign. After some time spent in recruiting his energies he reopened his office in Somerville, where it has since remained. In 1872 he was appointed prosecutor of the pleas for Somerset County, which office he held for five years. He is also attorney for the Somerset County Bank.

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 Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 144

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170