History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 75

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 75
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 75

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).

Ilis professional duties have taken him to all parts of the land, and rendered him familiar with the vari- ons coal-fields and mining regions of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky, etc. He spent one season at Cape Breton, examining the coal property of Robert Belloni at Cow Bay.

Mr. Coryell removed to Lambertville, N. J., in 1876, designing to make it the place of his permanent residence. He is a director in the Amwell National | in 1867, to which he gave the very appropriate name Bank of Lambertville. To him is largely due the successful establishment of the city water-works. of which he still owns a controlling interest.

In June, 1842, he married Myra A. Coryell, who was born at Lambertville in 1820.

WILLIAM MUCREADY.

William and Sarah MeCready, grandparents of William MeCready,-the one a native of Scotland, and the other of Ireland,-came to this country im- mediately after their marriage and settled in the city of New York, where they reared a family, consisting of three sons and three daughters. One of the sons, Thomas, married t'atharine Mckinley, of New York, and had three children,-William, John, and Thomas. William, the subject of our sketch, was the ellest of the family, and was born in the city of New York, July 19, 1817. His lot in life was destined to be a checkered one, and to furnish a striking example of perseverance and energy under peculiar difficulties.

When about thirteen years of age he was thrown upon his own resources, and from that time until he was twenty-one he was engaged in Philadelphia and in Montgomery Co., Pa., in learning the trade of a hat- ter, serving an apprenticeship of eight years. At the close of this period, in 1838, he established himself as a hatter at New Hope, and in 1839 bought out an op- position establishment in Lambertville, N. J., and con- ducted both shops. The business proved successful, and he soon added thereto a milling interest, and subst- quently went into the hardware trade, including the handling of coal and iron, continuing in these pur- suits till 1861, when he sold out at the beginning of the Rebellion.

Mr. Met'ready, however, was not long out of busi- ness at this time. He built a flax-mill and a hay- packing establishment, and followed these by the

erection of a paper-mill and then commenced his career as a manufacturer of paper. In all these un- dertakings he encountered a series of disasters truly discouraging to a less resolute and determined nature. Some secret enemy seemed to be bent on the destrue- tion of his business, and employed the "fire fiend" to execute his work of revenge. His hatting estab- lishment was first burned down; then, when he had gotten his hay-presses and his flax-mill in successful operation, these were also destroyed by fire; he then built and equipped his first paper-mill, which was like- wise burned. He was thus obliged to contend against an unscen and unknown enemy. When his hatting and hay business were burned he had no insurance ; in the flax and paper business the insurance was small. But his energy and determination never faltered, though each fire seemed like a crushing blow to his hopes and prospects of success.

He built a new paper-mill on a much larger seale of " Perseverance Mill." This mill is now well known to the paper trade throughout the country. It stands on the bank of the Delaware and Raritan ('anal at Lambertville, and has been for more than a decade gradually growing up to the proportions which Mr. MeC'ready designs it finally to attain, as he has been able to appropriate means for additions and im- provements. Although nominally belonging to the Lambertville Paper-Manufacturing Company, it is as much under the control and management of Mr. Med'ready as if it were absolutely his property, the company having been formed to relieve him from financial embarrassment, and to enable him to pay off his creditors and redeem the property under his own able und skillful management.

In justice to Mr. Mct'ready, a brief history of this arrangement should be given. In consequence of various disasters, involving a loss of business and heavy expense in building, etc., he became embar- rassed in 1869, and offered to turn over to his creditors every dollar of his property as security, so far as it would go. They having the utmost confidence in his integrity as a business man, refused to see him sacrificed, and formed a company under the name of the Lambertville Paper-Manufacturing Company, allowing him to go on, at the same time paying in- terest to the company, till his debts should be paid np. He entered into this arrangement with the company, first for five years ; but at the expiration of that time, although he had made the business profit- able, the property was not redeemed. Feeling con- scious of his ability to carry the matter through successfully. Mr. MeCready offered the company good inducements to extend the time five years longer ; and, while he has put the business upon such a foot- ing as to be able to redeem it at any moment, he has thought it advisable, with the consent of the com- pany, who deem themselves fully secured, to expend a portion of the protits of the business in the enlarge

294

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

ment of the mill and the increase of facilities for manufacturing. This he has been constantly doing, and is at the present time erecting a large stone and brick addition to the main building. The capacity of the mill at the present time is from three to four tons of manilla and flour-sack paper per day, with a ready market in New York and Philadelphia.

This meagre outline exhibits somewhat the energy, integrity, and business capacity of Mr. McCready. It shows, at least, the drift of his life and some of the obstacles he has overcome by that earnest, practical, and persistent genius peculiar to the Scotch-Irish. He is energetic, persevering, honest, and truthful, exact in all matters, and an excellent business man.

In politics he has generally acted with the Demo- cratic party, and has taken a deep interest in local affairs. He was elected mayor of the city of Lam- bertville in 1853, and was afterwards re-elected with- ont opposition for four consecutive terms.

He has been twice married, and has raised a large family of children, eight of whom are living. He first married Elizabeth Thompson, Dec. 3, 1840 ; his second wife, whom he married Sept. 8, 1863, was Olivia, daughter of Pierson A. Reading. His two oldest sons are in extensive and successful business as paper merchants in Philadelphia.

ALEXANDER HENRY HOLCOMBE.

Alexander Henry Holcombe is of English descent by his paternal ancestors, and on the maternal side of Holland extraction. His first American ancestor, John Holcombe, came from England to Philadelphia soon after the arrival of William Penn, and, after spending a short time at Abington, Pa., came and located a large tract of land, a portion of which is now covered by the upper part of the city of Lam- bertville. Mr. Holcombe was a Quaker or Friend. He married, in 1707, Miss Elizabeth Woolrich, who was also a member of the Society of Friends. They had sons-Samuel and Richard-and several daugh- ters. Samuel was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Of his nine children, Richard, the grand- father of our subject, was the sixth in the order of birth ; he married Hannah Emley in 1776, by whom he had six children, three sons and three daughters.

Emley Holcombe, the eldest son of Richard and Hannah (Emley) Holcombe, was born in Amwell township, near Lambertville, Sept. 21, 1777. He was brought up to the mercantile business, beginning his career as clerk in a store at Mount Airy, whence, after he had attained his majority, he came to Lambert- ville, where he was clerk for several years, until he married and purchased his home. He pursued the mercantile business till near the close of his life, and was also commissioner of deeds for a number of years. He was brigade inspector, with the rank of major, in 1812; took an active part in the formation of the First Presbyterian Church of Lambertville, was president

of the building committee and of the board of trus- tees, and was senior elder at the organization, Sept. 24, 1822, having previously been an elder in the Solebury Church, Bucks Co., Pa.

Major Emley Holcombe married, May 12, 1803, Mary, eldest daughter of John and Mary (Veghte) Skillman ; the latter was the widow of Garret Stryker, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mary Skillman was born Dec. 20, 1779. The children of Emley and Mary (Skillman) Holcombe were William, Ellen Ann, John Emley, Theodore, Charles Ogden, Isaac Skillman, Mary, and the subject of this sketch. Maj. Emley Holcombe died July 11, 1846, at the age of nearly sixty-nine years.

A. H. Holcombe, the youngest of the family, was born in Lambertville, June 1, 1821. He was brought up to the mercantile business, part of the time as junior partner in the firm of E. Holcombe & Son, and after- wards that of Titus & Holcombe, until he commenced studying law with John H. Wakefield, Esq., a promi- nent member of the Hunterdon County bar, who re- moved to Boston. Mr. Holcombe finished his legal studies with Col. Peter I. Clark, of Flemington, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1853. His education, besides that received at the common schools, has been of a practical business character, self-acquired, and, in the main, the result of his great love of books and his fondness for reading and study. After being admitted to the bar, he commenced practice immediately at Lambertville, where he has continued in the profes- sion ever since. He was duly admitted to the degree - of counselor after the first three years of practice, and in the progress of his profession has endeavored to keep abreast of the times,

Previous to the war of 1861, he was commissioned by Governor Newell judge-advocate of the Hunterdon brigade, and held that position after the war broke out, when, as a member of the brigade board, he as- sisted in enrolling the militia of the county. During the war he was commissioned by Adjt .- Gen. Stockton to raise a company of volunteers. Under an act of the Legislature passed in 1876 he was appointed by Governor Bedle one of his aides, ranking as colonel.

Mr. Holcombe has been since early life a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Lambertville, and has been active in all its interests, especially in the choir and Sunday-school.

Ile was married April 11, 1867, to Malvina Kay, daughter of the late William G. Mentz, Esq., of Phil- adelphia. They have had six children, of whom five are living ; their first-born died in infancy.

The fine residence of Mr. Holcombe-a cut of which appears on another page-was built by him in 1870, and first occupied by his family in the fall of 1871.

In politics he has never taken a very active part, though he has been identified with the Democratic party. He was clerk of the Common Council at the breaking out of the war, and has held other civil offices.

GroHLarison

REV. GEORGE II, LARISON, M.D., is of Danish descent, His ancestor John Larison, in the war between the king and nobles of 1665, had his property confiscated, and, leaving the country, went to the senshore disguised as a pensant, whence he escaped to Scotland, and soon after came to Amerien, landing on Long Island, where he purchased a large tract of land upon which he settled. He had six sons; two were killed by the Indians, and four survived, whose names were Roger, James, William, and John. Roger went to Pennsylvania, and nothing was afterwards heard of him ; James settled on Stony Brook, Hope- well township, now in Mercer Co., N. J., where he bought an estate of two hundred and fifty acres of land, now owned by Ralph Ege, and reared a family of six sons; he died there in J792, and was buried on his farm. His six sons were John. Andrew, Roger, William, Elijah, and David: and his daughters. Achsn, Rnche!, and Catharine, William, who owned an original tract of land in Mercer County, died there about the eluse of the last century. John lived in the same neighborhood in Mercer County, where he died at an advanced age, leaving seven sons.

Andrew, the second son of Inmes Larison, was the great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He married a Severns, and had sons,-George, Andrew. James, und Benjamin, An- drew being the grandfather of Dr. G. H. Lurison. lle was born May 17, 1776, and married Mary, daughter of John Wil- son, born Oct. 15, 1778; they had sons-John, Nodrew, and Benjamin-and daughters,-Sarah and Lavino. Andrew Lari- son, Sr., died July 26, 1861 ; his wife, Mary, died Sept. 24, 1856. Benjamin, the father of Dr. Lorison, married Hannah Ann Hol- combe, daughter of Capt. George Holcombe, and had nine chil- dren, of whom the doctor is the oldest. His brothers were for- nelins W., M. D., of Ringos; the Inte Rev. Andrew B. Larison. M.D., of Ringos; ond John D. Larison, present proprietor of the original homestead.

George Holcombe Larison was born in Delaware township, Hunterdon C'o,, Jan. 4, 1831, and was brought up on his father's farm, attending in boyhood the common schools of his district. He subsequently engoged for a time in teaching. In 18,3 he entered the University of Lewisburg, Pa., from which he sub- sequently received the honorary degree of Master of Arts. llaving resolved to adopt the profession of medicine, he com- meneed his studies with Hon. Samuel Lilly, M.D., os preceptor. and atteoded lectures at the Medical Department of the U'ui- versity of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated, in Isas, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Dolington, Bucks Co., Pa., and the following yeur removed to Lambertville, N. J., where he has since resided, and has attained an extensive and profitable practice.

He is a member of the District Medical Society of Hunterdon County, and was for seven years its secretary. He is also a member of the State Medieal Society, und was elected its third

vice-president in 1872 ; and presided over the one hundred and ninth annual meeting, held nt Atlantic City, May 25, 1875, when be delivered the annual address. Previous to his being elected president of this body he had held the positivas of first, second, and third vice-president, While holding the latter office he wrote an essay on " Diseases Prevalent in the Valley of the Delaware," which was well received, and published with the transactions of the society. During the prevalence of the small- pox in Lambertville, in 1863-64, he attended ninety-nine cases and only lost four. He subsequently prepared a paper on " Small-pox and its Treatment," for the medical society in 1864, which was well received by the profession, ond filed among the important papers of the society. His practice is a general one, but he makes a specialty of obstetrics, and bas so fnr attended over one thousand enses successfully; he has also achieved great success in surgical enses.

Dr. Larison has on three or four occasions heen a delegate to the Pennsylvania Medienl Society, and at one of its sessions in Carlisle delivered an address before that body. He was one of the first vice-presidents of the American Academy of Medicine, founded in 1876, and was elected to the sume office in 1878 and 1879.

lle was for seven years a member of the city council of Lum- bertville, and has bell all the grades in the New Jersey State militin from second lieutenant to brigadier-general, excepting that of lieutenant-colonel. fle is surgeon on the staff of Col, Angel's well-known regiment-the Seventh Regiment New Jersey National Guard.

le educational matters Dr. Larison has taken a prominent part. lle was elected towa superintendent of schools in 1862, and has filled that position both under the town and city or- ganization to the present time, being continuously re-elected on the Democratic tieket, although parties have had a variety of changes during these years : the schools have been prosper- ous under his management. He has also at times devoted his leisure hours to the preparation of pupils for collego and for the medieal profession.

During his attendance at the University of Lewisburg he became a member of the Baptist Church, and he is now a rogu- larly ordained minister of that denomination, Until quite re- cently he was pastor of a church, chiefly of his own gathering. at Solebury, on the opposite side of the Delaware, in Bucks t'o., Pa., to whom he ministered every Sunday morning and evening for seven years. Under his ministry this church received all- litions numbering about one hundred members. Dr. Larisun has been connected with the Reading Association of Baptist Churches. At the organization of that body, at Remling, Pa., he preachedl the opening sermon, and was chosen moderator of the meeting.

He married, in 1859, Sarah Q., daughter of Caleb F. Fisher, of Ringos, N. J.

295

CITY OF LAMBERTVILLE.

RICHARD MCDOWELL.

Richard Mc Dowell was born near Dublin, Ireland, Jan. 8, 1824. He is a son of Robert and Mary (Toft) McDowell,-the former died in Ireland when the sub- ject of this sketch was about five years old ; the latter came with him to this country in 1832, and died in Lambertville, N. J., April 14, 1879. Richard was brought up at Crescentville, near Philadelphia, till seventeen years of age, at which time he went to Bridesburg, Pa., to learn the trade of a machinist. Ile spent an apprenticeship there of four years, and one year as a journeyman, and was married there, June 24, 1845, to Elizabeth B., daughter of John and Mary Jones, of Bridesburg, Pa., formerly of Wales. Hle next spent two years as a machinist in Hazelton, l'a., when he removed to Trenton, N. J., and re- mained about four years in the employ of Van Cleve & MeKain, in the machine business. On Jan. 1, 1856, he moved to Lambertville and took a place in the shops of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad Com- pany, under N. S. Congdon, master-mechanic. At the death of Mr. Congdon, Sept. 25, 1862, Mr. MeDowell was appointed master-mechanie in his place. This appointment was made at the instigation of Ashhel Welch, then president of the Belvidere Delaware Rail- road Company, and has been held by Mr. McDowell ever sinee.

Besides the regular business of his occupation, he has been active and very successful in outside en- terprises,-as, for instance, in the purchase of a con- trolling interest in the Lambertville Gas Works, in 1868, and in the Cottage Hill addition to Lambertville, in 1871,-out of which he has realized handsome returns. In 1873 he built a fine residence on Cottage Hill, at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, which is considered one of the finest in Hunterdon County. In 1867 he built and fitted up the Centennial Paper- Mill at Lambertville, in charge of which he placed his son, who has carried on the business successfully ever since. He assisted in organizing the Amwell National Bank of Lambertville, of which he is at present one of the directors.

He has five children living, -three sons and two daughters. John W., the eldest son, is a member of the firm of MeDowell & Son, paper manufacturers of Lambertville; the other two sons are attending school, and the daughters reside at home.

Mr. MeDowell has been till within a few years a Whig and a Republican in politics; but in the cam- paign for Mr. Tilden, in 1876, he became a Democrat, and has since acted with that party. He has been elected a number of times to the City Council, and was chosen the first mayor of Lambertville upon the adoption of the city charter, in 1872.

CORNELIUS ARNETT.

Cornelius Arnett, one of Lambertville's best-known citizens, was born in Smithtown, Bucks Co., Pa., July

20, 1820. The house in which he first saw the light stood on a spot now occupied by the bed of the Penn- sylvania Canal. The town of his birth, like the house, has disappeared, so that, unlike most people, Mr. Arnett would find it difficult to point out its exact location. His father, Jacob, died while Cor- nelius was yet an infant. The only other child-a brother-died in his youth. Jacob Arnett's widow survived her husband about twenty years, dying in 1842, in Bucks County, not far from Smithtown.

Young Cornelius began life, therefore, under aus- piees that promised to develop his vigorous energies. His mother was poor, and he was early taught to exercise the spirit of self-reliance. At the age of seven he was a strong, rugged lad, and, as a beginning of a career marked since that period by industrious perseverance and self-help, he was "put out" to one Mr. Delp, a Bucks County farmer, for whom he labored diligently during the space of five years. After that he worked two years for a farmer named Daniel Bevighouse, and then for four years drove a tow-horse on the Pennsylvania Canal. At the age of eighteen-that is to say, in 1838-he made his home in Lambertville, for the purpose of learning the trade of shoemaking with his uncle, Thomas Ent, with whom he remained one year.

In 1839 he engaged in the shoemaking business at Lambertville on his own account. Sept. 2, 1840, he married Rebecca, daughter of Joseph Reasoner, of Hunterdon County, and in a little while gave up his

296

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

shoemaking business to take control of the brick- making enterprise previously conducted at Lambert- ville by his wife's father. Shortly after, however, he resumed shoe-manufacturing, and carried that on, as well as the brick business, until 1864, when he aban- doned the shoe trade permanently. Still his time was fully occupied, as, in 1855, he added to his interests that of building contractor, and was largely engaged in the construction of bridges, buildings, etc. In 1863 he erected the capacious saw-mill which he still carries on in connection with his building and brick- manufacturing industries. In these various enter- prises he employs upwards of sixty people, and contributes largely to the manufacturing prosperity of Lambertville.

Mr. Arnett has thus, since his seventh year, been the architect of his own fortune, and that his history is the record of a busy life is apparent at a glance. He has been too busy to give any time to politics, even had his inclinations pointed that way. During three terms he has acted as a valued member of the Lambertville Common Council, but for public office he has no taste. He is quite content to be an humble citizen, faithful in the performance of his manifold business duties. To use his own language, "he was born and cradled a Democrat," but the issues of the war set him firmly upon the rock of Republicanism, and there he has ever since unfalteringly stood. For upwards of thirty years he has been a leading mem- ber of I. O. O. F .; for more than forty years a staunch and unflinching advocate and worker for the cause of temperance, and nearly that length of time a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His children have numbered nine,-Charles W., who was born July 26, 1841, entered the war of the Rebellion, was wounded . at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862, and, being conveyed home, died there Nov. 11, 1862; Anna E. was born Sept. 6, 1843, and died June 8, 1870; Vic- toria was born March 9, 1846, and is now Mrs. J. J. Lair, of Lambertville; Emeline, born Aug. 12, 1848, is Mrs. P. K. Ilazen, of Lambertville; George W., born Feb. 19, 1851, lives in Lambertville; Franklin P., born Oct. 7, 1853, died June 11, 1856; Mary II., born July 1, 1856, is now Mrs. C. II. Wilmot, of Lam- bertville ; Clara V. and Edward B. Mcclellan, born, respectively, Oct. 11, 1858, and Oct. 18, 1862, are living with their parents.

JAMES C. WEEDEN.

James C. Weeden was born in Kent, England, on the 15th of September, 1815; he died at Lambertville, N. J., March 25, 1866, aged fifty years six months and ten days. While in England Mr. Weeden had followed various occupations : he was first a mason, and then engaged in butchering, which he carried on till he removed to Manchester and established himself in the wholesale stationery and paper-stock trade, which he conducted up to the time of his emi-

gration to America. He married, in Brighton, Eng- land, Ann Bage, who was born in Surrey, about fifty miles from London, and who still survives and resides at Lambertville.

In 1851, Mr. Weeden came with his wife to this country, landing in Philadelphia. He came from there to New Hope, opposite Lambertville, where, in May following, he took charge of the Ingham or Great Spring Paper-Mill. He had full control of the mill from that time forward, and made the enterprise of manufacturing paper there very profitable. In 1860 he commenced building a much larger mill at Lambertville, called the Mountain Spring Mill, the first ground for which was broken on the 4th of December.

The difficulties in carrying out such an enterprise at the beginning of the war, when everything was in a state of uncertainty, were very great. But Mr. Weeden persevered in the face of all these discour- agements, and his efforts were finally crowned with success. The price of paper advanced during the war, and he made money. He continued in successful business till the time of his death, and left a com- petence to his widow during her lifetime.

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 75

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