History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 156

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 156
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 156

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).

REV. WILLIAM JACKSON was one of the early preachers of the Reformed Church in Somerset County. He was born in 1732, studied under J. Fre- linghuysen and J. H. Goetschius, and was licensed in 1757. He was one of the original trustees of Queens College. Tradition speaks of him as a learned man and a devoted minister. He had a commanding voice, and was, in the Dutch language, a powerful orator. As a field-preacher he was esteemed second only to Whitefield. On one occasion, while preaching at Raritan, the assemblage was so large that to be heard by all, outside and within the church, he took his station at the door and preached. In 1759 he was called as a colleague to Dominie IIardenbergh at Rar- itan, bnt declined. He died in 1813.

THEODORE STRONG, LL.D., was son of Rev. Joseph Strong and Sophia Woodbridge, and was born July 26, 1790, at South Hadley, Mass. He was graduated at Yale College in 1812, and was professor of mathe- matics and natural philosophy in his Alma Mater, 1816-27. He was then chosen to the professorship of ' the same branches in Rutgers College, and so con- tinued for thirty-five years (1827-62). He was one of the original members of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. From the first the whole strength of his distinguished and cultivated powers of mind was given to mathematical studics. The hardest

* N. Y. Herald, Dec. 23, 1876.

+ James Linn seems to have been the owner of the large farm which came into the hands of Judge Voorhees' father (Clinton). James Linn's only child married the Rev. D. V. McLean, of Morus multicuulis memory.

problems which had long baffled the efforts of others he liked best to attack and conquer. His range of mathematical investigation and attainment spread through the highest sphere of inquiries, wherein New- tou and La Place had gone before him. He early solved some difficult questions pertaining to the circle, propounded as a challenge in Rees' " Encyclo- pædia" by some distinguished Scotch mathematicians. He completed the solution of cubic equations in a truly scientific way, which European mathematicians had failed to accomplish. By a most ingenious mode of factoring he devised a method of extracting any root of any integral number by a direct process. In 1859 he published a "Treatise on Algebra," in which he presented the whole science in original forms of his own,-a thorough piece of solid intellectual ma- son-work.

In the summer of 1867 he wrote out largely, if not wholly, a volume on the " Differential and Integral Calculus," full of new processes and results of his own origination. He was industrious, thoughtful, simple-minded, humble, cheerful, and happy. He was a man of remarkable gentleness of spirit, and at the same time of great ardor in his moral convictions. He was a patriot, and took a great interest in the po- litical and social questions of the times, and occupied always the advanced positions of the hour in all mat- ters of social reform. He was of full height and breadth in his physique, of dark complexion and dark eyes, and had a very intellectual face. He was very regular in his hahits and enjoyed robust health. He possessed a competency, and his life abounded in good works. He believed unwaveringly the Word of God, though he did not make a profession of his faith until near the close of life. He died at his home, in Franklin township, near New Brunswick, Feb. 1, 1869. He married Lucy Dix, of Littleton, Mass., Sept. 23, 1818. She died in 1875.

REV. JOHN CORNELL was born at Northampton, Pa., in 1775. He studied theology with Dr. Living- ston, and was licensed to preach by the Classis of New York in 1798. He was pastor of the Presbyterian Churches of Allentown and Nottingham, N. J., for twenty-one years, 1800-21. He then taught a classi- cal school in Somerville for seven years, when he re- moved to Millstone, where he died in 1835. He mar- ried Maria, daughter of Maj .- Gen. Frederick Freling- huysen. His son Theodore F., M.D., died quite re- cently at New Baltimore, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. (For an account of his sons, Rev. Fred- eric Cornell and Rev. James A. H. Cornell, see Cor- win's "Manual.")

REV. ISAAC V. BROWN, D.D., LL.D., was born at Pluckamin in 1784, and died in Trenton in 1861. He was the father of Judge Brown, of Somerville. Hc graduated at Princeton College and Seminary, and es- tablished the famous school for boys at Lawrenceville, Mercer Co. In 1830 he was employing four teachers -two English, one Spanish, and one French-and

€39

MEN OF PROMINENCE.

had eighty scholars, many of them from the Southern States, and sixty of whom boarded at his own house and table. His "Memoir of Dr. Finley" was widely circulated, and his "Old-School Presbyterianism De- fended"-six able letters published in book form in 1855 by Martien, Philadelphia-created great enthu- siasm at the time over the Southern States, for which section they were specially adapted. He lived at Trenton the last ten years of his life .*

REV. SPENCER H. CONE, D.D., one of the distin- guished divines of the Baptist Church, was born in Somerset County, at Princeton, April 30, 1785, and died in New York, Aug. 28, 1855. Entering the Col- lege of New Jersey at the early age of twelve, he subsequently taught in the Princeton academy, and afterwards in Burlington and Philadelphia. An Epis- copal bishop advised him to go upon the stage, and he did so, making his debut in 1805, in the told Chestnut Street Theatre,t Philadelphia. He achieved great success in the profession, and it is, now interesting to note that his talents in this direction, dormant in his later years and not noticeable in his children, have been redeveloped and intensified in the person of his granddaughter, the famous Kate Claxton, one of the most promising present lights of the American stage. It proves that heredity is not a figment of the imagina- tion. In 1812 he left the theatre in order to marry a lady who would not join hands with him save on con- dition that he did so. He became editor of the Bal- timore .American, joined a regiment in the war of 1812, was converteil, and entered the ministry. He was chaplain to Congress in 1815-16, pastor at Alexandria, Va., 1816-23, then removed to New York, and was settled over the Oliver Street Baptist Church until 1821, when he became pastor of the First Baptist Church of New York City until his death. He was the leading controversialist and director of measures in the Baptist t'hureh in the United States for a quarter of a century before his decease.

REV. JOHN F. MESICK, D.D., pastor of the Second Reformed Church of Somerville, although mentioned in connection with the history of that church, deserves further notice because of his great usefulness in all the religious and moral reforms which have aroused the feelings of the Christian people in the county. In temperance matters he has always been promi- nently active; also in Sunday-school conventions and Bible-society work, etc. Born at Catskill, N. Y., in June, 1813, he is now sixty-seven years of age, but the vigor of his mind and body is yet unabated. He married Jane L. F., daughter of Dr. Perrine, of Blawenburg, and has one son, a lawyer in Phila- delphia, and one married daughter. He graduated at Rutgers College and Seminary, and was pastor of the German Reformed Church of Harrisburg from

1840-55; was called to Somerville in 1855, where he still resides. He is a man of singular purity of char- acter and uprightness in all his dealings, and his ministrations have been fruitful and blessed. A list of his writings will be found in the chapter on "Au- thors of Somerset County."

REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D., is so well known as an American clergyman that little need be recorded in this place save the fact that he has never forgotten that his birth, early education, boyhood memories, and nearest relatives were in that eirele of territory described by the are of which Somerville, Millstone, Bound Brook, and the First Mountain were on the outer lines. He was born Jan. 7, 1832, on the Tal- mage farm, two miles cast of Somerville, on the old turnpike from Easton to New Brunswick. In his sermons and addresses he has frequently described his youth as full of mischief, romp, and frolie, and his father and mother as of the salt of the earth. IIe went to the common schools, and graduated at New York University in 1853, and at the New Bruns- wick Seminary three years later. His first pastorate was at Belleville, this State, for three years; then at Syracuse, N. Y., three years; then he spent seven years in Philadelphia as pastor of the Second Re- formed Church, and in 1869 was called to his present charge over the Brooklyn Tabernacle. He married Mary Avery in June, 1856; she was drowned by the capsizing of a boat on the Schuylkill (about 1862), and subsequently (May, 1863) he married Susan Whittemore.

Perhaps there is no man in the world-certainly there is none in America-who would draw such large audiences to-day in any city in the Union as Dr. Talmage. He is an odd man, a most cecentrie personage ; nevertheless, he has true genius, coupled with an energy which never tires, and a success in the winning of souls which is remarkable. He frequently visits Somerset t'ounty to lecture, although he usually makes no charge for it to the church engaging him .;

REV. ELBERTS. PORTER, D.D., well known through- out the Reformed Dutch Church as the editor of The Christian Intelligencer for many years, was born in the township of Hillsborough, Somerset Co., Oct. 23, 1820. When six years of age he removed to Sen- era Co., N. Y., where for a time he attended school ; afterwards he was placed in a grammar school in New York City. When eleven years of age he was entered as a clerk in a general country store in the village of Millstone, where he remained scarcely a year, having shown more fondness for study than for the details of business. He was fitted for college in the academy in Somerville, then under the care of Rev. William J. Thompson, and entered Nassan Hall, Princeton, 1836, as a sophomore, being grad- uated there in 1839. His intention had been to study law, and he was accordingly taken for a short time

: See chapter on " Authors of Somerecl Couuly."

* See chapter on " Authors of Somerset County."

+ For years it was published and belleved that he was playing in the Richmond Theatre when It was burned, but he has denied It over his own sigunturo.

640

SOMERSET COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

into the office of the late Thomas A. Hartwell, Esq. Three months afterwards he resolved to study the- ology, and went to New Brunswick, where he availed himself of the instructions of the professors. Not having yet made a profession of religion, but being rather an inquirer, he did not become a regular mem- ber of the seminary until the following year, 1840.

Having received a license to preach, he was at once placed as a missionary in the village of Chatham, Co- lumbia Co., N. Y. In 1852, under direction or by authority of the General Synod of the Reformed Church, he was elected editor of The Christian In- telligencer, and continued such for sixteen years. In 1870 he was employed by its proprietor to write editorials,-a service which, under different owners, he has continued until this time. When the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.D., was made editor-in-chief of the Christian at Work, Dr. Porter became literary editor,-a position which he held during four years. He was previous to that time and sinee a large con- tributor to the press of the county.

Dr. Porter has been pastor of the Reformed Church in Williamsburg since 1849, spending his summers at his country-seat at Claverack, Columbia Co., N. Y., and is always full of work, religious and literary. He is a marvel of industry, and will be while his life and health last.

REV. MORRIS CRATER SUTPHIN, D.D., one of the most promising clergymen of Somerset nativity, was born Dec. 1, 1836, in Bedminster township. His early classical training was given by Rev. Dr. Blauvelt, of Lamington, whom he revered and loved, and for whom he always endeavored to preach when in the neighborhood of his early home. He graduated from the College of New Jersey in June, 1856, with the second honor, and entered Princeton Seminary in September. In April, 1859, he was elected tutor of mathematics in the college, and in August was trans- ferred to the chair of Greek. The same year he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Rahway, and in March, 1860, was called to be the colleague of the Rev. Dr. John McDowell, of the Spring Garden Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. When the latter died, Feb. 13, 1863, Mr. Sutphin beeame sole pastor. In March, 1866, lie accepted a call to the Seotch Pres- byterian Church, N. Y .; in 1869 his congregation sent him to Europe. The college from which he graduated gave him the degree of D.D. in 1871. In October, 1872, ill health compelled him to resign his charge. He had now the seeds of consumption, and a trip South was taken in the winter of 1872-73, and another in 1873-74; the latter period he supplied the Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Fla. He spent the following winter in Morristown, and died June 18, 1875. His wife was Eleanor, daughter of Rev. William Brush, of Bedminster, whom he married June 28, 1860.

Dr. Sutphin was one of nature's noblemen. Whole- hearted, frank, happy, full of good humor, handsome

in appearance, courteous to all, highly cultured, a ripe student, he had also a dignified presence in the pulpit, and all those gifts in preaching which attract attention and awaken thought and conviction. He never wearied his congregation ; he never "wore ont his welcome." All who came in contact with him felt the magnetism of his soul and loved him with a love that will live beyond the grave .*

JUDGE J. MACPHERSON BERRIEN .- The name of Judge Berrien will long confer honor upon the county and State of his birth, as well as upon the State of his adoption. He was the grandson of Judge John Ber- rien, of Rocky Hill, colonial justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and was born near Rock Mills, + Somerset Co., Aug. 23, 1781. When young he went to Georgia to reside, which place was his life-long abode thereafter. He graduated at Princeton College, however, and subsequently attained to high honors at home and at the capital of the nation. From 1810 to 1822 he was judge of the Eastern District of Georgia, then entered the State Senate, in 1824 was sent to the United States Senate, and there established a high reputation as both an orator and a statesman. He was for two years United States Attorney-General, resigning in 1831, when Gen. Jackson's Cabinet was not harmonious. He was again in the United States Senate from 1840 to 1852. He died at Savannah Jan. 1,1856.

HON. PETER A. VOORHEES, although possessed of but a common-school education, has occupied many positions of trust and honor, and is still sought ont by his neighbors for counsel and help in most of the public business of his township. He was born Nov. 6, 1802, and has always been a farmer. In 1838 he was elected sheriff of the county, in 1857-62 was collector, and served two years as a member of the Assembly in 1867-68. At Sunday-school, Bible- society, and temperance gatherings he is always present, being one of the wheel-horses of all eauses which are for the good of society and the Church. He has occasionally contributed to the press .; In politics he is an ardent Republican, and has done much towards giving that party the success it has recently had in the county. Though in the after- noon of his life, Sheriff Voorhees is still mentally vigorous.

JUDGE RALPH VOORHEES, of Middlebush, was not only a simple-hearted but eminently a pure-minded man. He never seemed to have any purpose of his own to answer, but he did good because he loved the "good." He was an earnest friend of education, whether it was that of the home, the Sabbath-school, or the publie school. He loved children, and they loved him. In the matter of publie education he was an enthusiast; he spoke for it, wrote for it, la-

* Seo chapter on "Books and Authors of Somerset Connty," in this work.

+ So it has been stated in a published sketch of him.

# See Chapter IX., ante.

641

MEN OF PROMINENCE.

bored for it, in every possible way. He was a noble, warm-hearted man, and, best of all, a true t'hristian. His series of papers on local historical subjects are marvelous for their fullness of details. The last twelve years of his life were spent largely in gather-

Camden and Amboy Railroad, in Philadelphia. In 1840 he was appointed general agent of the joint con- panics. In 1867 he was elected president of the Cam- den and Amboy Railroad Company, and so continued until it was leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- ing and collating old documents. He also put on ; pany. He became interested in the Lehigh Valley record many traditions relating to the southern half Railroad in 1853, was one of its first directors, and continued as such until January, 1880. Ile became consulting manager in 1872, which position he filled until 1880. When twenty-two years of age (1829) he married Eliza Campbell, of New York City. of Somerset County. He was a perfect store-house of local facts. His collection of original papers is now in the hands of his son, Ralph Voorhees, of Middlebush. Without his painstaking diligence, much of the fam- ily history in this volume would not have been gath- cred. He was a welcome visitor at almost every house. He often delivered familiar lectures on old | times and old customs, and was sure to interest his audience. He was a capital story-teller. He had been a county judge. He died at the ripe of eighty- two, July 26, 1878, being born June 20, 1796 .*

HON. RYNIER H. VEGHTE was born on the south side of the Raritan, near Somerville, April 22, 1811. He received a substantial business education, and when fourteen years old went to New York and took a situation in a jobbing and importing crockery- house. In 1834 he organized the firm of Veghte & Lippincott in the same business, but was burned out in 1835. He subsequently became a partner in the firm of Wright, Skiller & Co. He was eminently successful in business, and retired in 1857 to his early home. In 1860 he became a State senator, and served for three years. Although acting with the Demo- cratie party, he was never a mere political partisan. During the Rebellion he was an carnest and practical friend of the Union. In 1876 he accepted an inde- pendent nomination to Congress, in opposition to the regular Democratic nominee, and received a large vote, but was defeated ; he carried his own county. Hle has held various offices,-as trustee of the State normal school, member of the State board of educa- tion, president of the Home for Disabled Soldiers, leading director of the Somerset County Bank, and president of the Somerset County Agricultural So- cicty. He married, in 1835, Maria Theresa Freder- icks, of New York.

WILLIAM H. GATZMER, the prominent railroad promoter and manager, was born near Somerville, July 22, 1807. He is of German descent on the pa- ternal side, his father having emigrated from Coburg, Germany, and settled near Philadelphia in 1794, and later in Somerset Co., N. J. William resided in Som- erville until 1829, meanwhile acting as a merchant's clerk and serving an apprenticeship to the printing business. In 1830 he obtained a situation with the steamboat firm of Stevens Brothers, of New York City, as clerk on the " North America," then plying on the North River. In 1833 he was clerk on the steamboat between New York and South Amboy, and in 1835 was transferred to the general business office of the

ANDREW HAGEMAN, of Raritan, III., was born on the homestead of Andrew Hageman, Sr., in Branch- burg township,-the farm now owned by G. L. Ker- shaw,-June 27, 1824. He entered Rutgers in Sep- tember, 1848, but, owing to sickness, left college, and in 1856 went to Raritan, III., to farm. In March, 1868, he founded the Bushnell Record, and published it for three years. He has written a great deal for the press, including not only literary but horticultural topics. He is at present engaged in the furniture and undertaking business, also in painting and ornamenta- tion (including landscapes and portraits). He is a genius in his way, and " Prairieside Farm," half a mile from Raritan, is the scene of labor and thought sufficient to carry on a small town in New Jersey.

J. NEWTON VOORHEES was born in Hillsborough, Somerset Co., N. J., Jan. 19, 1836. He is by profes- sion a teacher, and was until his election to the As- sembly in 1877 almost an entire stranger to politics. In that year, following the wishes of many friends, he accepted the Republican nomination in the Second District of Somerset County. He received three hun- dred and seventy-four majority in 1877. In the Leg- islature of 1878 he served on the committee on rail- roads and eanals, and on the joint committee on public grounds and buildings. He was re-elected by an in- creased majority (four hundred and six) to the Legis- lature of 1879, as a representative of the same district of Somerset County. He was chairman of the com- mittee on education, and served on other important committees.

HON. MILES Ross, of New Brunswick, member of Congress from the Third District of New Jersey (Monmouth, Middlesex, and Union Counties) from 1874 to 1882, is a native of Somerset. County, being born at Raritan in 1828. He removed to New Bruns- wick with his father at an early age, with which place he has since been prominently identified.

Hox. JOHN G. SCHENCK, of Neshanic, State sen- ator, was born in the county which he represents (at Neshanic), Jan. 2, 1823, and is a farmer by occupa- tion. Ile was a member of the Assembly in 1861-63 and 1872-74. Ile is a director of the First National Bank of Somerville, and of the South Branch Rail- road Company. He is a Republican in politics. In the Legislature (session of 1879) he was chairman of the committee on railroads and canals, and a member of the committees on education and claims and pen-

* Sou " Books and Authors of Somerset County," Chap. IX., in preceling pages.

642

SOMERSET COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

sions; also of the joint committees on treasurer's accounts, sinking fund, and Reform School for Boys. His term expires in 1881.

HON. JOHN RINGELMANN was born in Bavaria, Germany, April 14, 1833, and is a merchant tailor by occupation. He has held numerous local offices, having been commissioner of appeals for several years, In 1878 he was elected a member of the One Hundred and Second Legislature, and re-elected in 1879, representing the First District of Somerset County, which comprises the townships of Bernard, Bedminster, Bridgewater, North Plainfield, and War- ren. In 1879 he served on the committees on corpo- rations, riparian rights, etc.

ELLIS A. APGAR, the present officiating State su- perintendent of public instruction, is a native of Som- erset County, born at Peapack, March 20, 1836. He received his preparatory education in the public school of his native village, and graduated from the New Jersey State Normal School in 1857. He fol- lowed the trade of cabinet-making previous to such graduation. He then engaged in teaching, and in 1862 entered Rutgers College, from which he was graduated in 1866. A few months previous to his graduation he was appointed professor of mathematics in the State Normal School. On the creation of the State board of education, in 1866, he was appointed State superintendent. By his efforts the supervision of the schools was transferred from the town superin- tendents to the county superintendents, and he was in- strumental in securing the vote of the Legislature which made the schools free by the levy of an annual State tax. He has done much towards the improve- ment of the school-buildings, furniture, apparatus, etc., and during his administration the value of school property has risen from one million six hundred and forty thousand dollars to six million three hundred thousand three hundred and ninety-eight dollars. Dec. 25, 1867, he married Camilla, daughter of Israel Swayze, Esq., of Hope, Warren Co., N. J .*

Of the women of Somerset County who have made for themselves a reputation extending outside of its limits, the names of Mrs. Antoinette Blackwell and. Mrs. J. E. McConaughy will be found in Chapter IX., with biographical data and a list of their publications.

CHAPTER XII. CIVIL LIST, SOMERSET COUNTY.

National Officers: Delegates to Continental Congress, Senators and Rop- resentatives, Presidential Electors, etc .- State Officers: Members of Council, Senate, and Assembly, Governors, State Treasurers, Secreta- ries, Chancellors, Justices und Associate Justices, etc .- County Officors : Judges, Justices, Clerks, Surrogates, Sheriffs, Coronors, Collectors, Commissioners of Deods, etc.

NATIONAL OFFICERS. DELEGATES TO CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

1778-79, Frederick Frelinghuysen; 1780-81, William l'aterson; 1782-83, Frederick Frelinghuysen.

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 156

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