USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > Jersey City > History of Jersey City, N.J. : a record of its early settlement and corporate progress, sketches of the towns and cities that were absorbed in the growth of the present municipality, its business, finance, manufactures and form of government, with some notice of the men who built the city > Part 51
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J. HULL BROWNING, railroad president, was born at Orange, N. J., in the dwelling now used as the mission-house of St. Mark's Church, West Orange. He comes from an old colonial family, which was founded by Nathaniel Browning, who was born in England and came to this country in 1645. He settled at Warwick, Rhode Island, and the records show that he purchased in that year a dwelling and two lots of eight acres each for three pounds of wampum. His maternal ancestor was Rev. Joseph Hull, of the Established Church, now known as the Congregational, who came from Somersetshire, England, in 1625, and settled at Weymouth, in the Plymouth colony. He was one of the founders of the town of Barnstable, Mass. The descendants of Rev. Mr. Hull were conspicuous in the War of the Revolution and in the War of 1812, both in the army and navy. Col. John Hull, the grandfather of J. Hull Browning, commanded a regi- inent at the battle of Stonington, Conn.
Mr. Browning's family removed to New York when he was two years of age, and J. HULL BROWNING. he was educated in the public schools, and graduated from the Free Academy, now known as the College of the City of New York. He began his mercantile career in the whole- sale clothing business with his brothers, first as an employce and later as a partner. He retained his interest in the firm until 1882. He married Eva B., daughter of Charles G. Sisson, of Jersey City, president of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey. At the death of Mr. Sisson, Mr. Brown- ing was left as an executor of his estate, and a year later he succeeded him as president of the railroad company. He still fills the position. He was left as one of the executors of his father's estate, and succeeded him as director, and later became president, of the Richmond County Gas Light Company. He has been prominently connceted with numerous railroad and commercial enterprises, and always successfully. He has improved the facilities of the Northern road, and built some of the finest railroad depots in the country to accommodate its business. Since 1872 he has lived at Tenafly, Bergen County, and has taken a leading part in cvery movement made to advance the interests of that county. He was for some time president of the County Republican League, and is vice-president of Christ Hospital in Jersey City, a charity which has profited by his business ability and his generous liberality.
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
CORNELIUS C. VAN REVPEN was born in old Bergen, now a part of Jersey City, April 8, 1813. He obtained his education at the old Columbia Public School, at that time located in Bergen Square. His early life was spent on his father's farm. He still resides in the old home- stead, where his great-grandfather lived before him, it being the first plot purchased in the town of Bergen.
On May 5, 1832, Mr. Van Reypen married Miss Cathrine Van Horne, to whom one child, a son, was born. After a marriage of about twelve months, Mr. Van Reypen was deprived of his wife's companionship by death. On August 27, 1835, he married again. His second wife was Miss Christina Cantine Van Alen, of Blooming Grove, Rensselaer County, N. Y. She was a near relative of Judge Knickerbocker, the Van Buren and other prominent families of those days in New York State. Three sons and three daughters were born to his second marriage.
Mr. Van Reypen is a member of the Holland Society of New York City, and of the Hudson County Democratic Society. He is also a member of the Dutch Reformed Church of Bergen, and CORNELIUS C. VAN REYPEN. was its treasurer for twenty-five years. Mr. Van Reypen resides at 201 Academy Street, and in the house in which he was born. He is a large holder of real estate in Jersey City.
The late ISAAC I. VAN DER BEEK was born in Hackensack, N. J., in 1807. He removed from Passaic, N. J., to Jersey City in 1846, where he resided continuously up to the time of his death, which occurred in February, 1893. He was the founder of the extensive box manufactory of Van Der Beek & Sons. Whilst a resident of Passaic County he held the office of sheriff. Mr. Van Der Beek was a prominent member of the Union League Club, the Wayne Street Reformed Church of Jersey City, and of the Holland Society of New York City. He was universally respected in all walks of life.
PETER HENDERSON was born at Pathead, a village twelve miles south of Edinburgh, Scot- land, on June 9, 1822. He was the youngest of three children born to James Henderson and Agnes Gilchrist, his wife. From his father he inherited the love of industry and personal integrity so conspicuous in his career, and from his mother he inherited the intellectual attain- ments which made him a power in his chosen field. He was educated in the parish school, and at fifteen years of age entered the employ of a liquor dealer. He remained there a few months, and that experience made him eschew liquor. At sixteen years of age he was indent- ured in the garden of Melville Castle, under the supervision of George Sterling, whose tram- ISAAC VAN DER BEEK. ing school was considered the best in Southand When his apprenticeship was half completed he competed for and won the medal offered by the Royal Botanical Society of Edinburgh for the best herbarium of native and exotic plants. This competition was open to all Great Brit.m.
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He walked ten miles twice a week during this period to attend a mathematical school in Edin- burgh, in order to supplement his education. He removed to New York in the spring of 1843, arriving with a total capital of three sovereigns. His first application for employment was at a down-town seed store in New York, and the surly response created an impression he never forgot. All his life he treated applicants for employment in the most pleasant manner on account of it. After various employments he accumulated S500 capital, and went into partnership with his brother James. They located in Jersey City in 1847, combining vegetable and ornamental gardening. The partnership was continued a few years, when they separated, Peter continuing the ornamental branch. His first office was opened at 9 John Street, N. Y., in 1853. In 1862 he re- moved to 67 Nassau Street, and in 1871, on his forty-ninth birthday, he opened the present establishment on Cortlandt Street.
The partners in the original firm were Peter Henderson, Wm. H. Car- son and Alfred Henderson. In 1876 Mr. Carson withdrew, and James Reid was admitted to the firm. In 1887, on the death of Mr. Reid, Charles Hen- derson was admitted, and the firm became Peter Henderson & Sons. Besides conducting the details of his business, personally answering every letter, he was a hard worker in the field of literature. His first book, "Gardening for Profit," was written in 1866, twice revised, and ran through forty-one editions. His other books, "Practical Horticulture," " Hender- son's Hand-Book of Plants," and "How the Farm Pays," were also very popular. He was a frequent contrib- utor to the American Agriculturalist, and at the time of his death had just completed a revision of "Henderson's Hand-Book of Plants." His writings were translated into various lan- guages, and read by millions. He died at his home in Jersey City, Jan- mary 17, 1890. His sons, Charles and PETER HENDERSON. Alfred, conduct the great business he founded, but the anthor, the gardener, the merchant, has passed away.
CHARLES A. Wooisty was born at Milton, on the Hudson, in 1833. His parents died dur- ing his boyhood, and he worked on a farm until 1853, when her emoved to New York, and se- cured employment in the ship chandlery of Wookey & Clark. He remained with that firm five years. He married Miss Caroline Van Name, a daughter of Captain Moses Van Name, of Staten Island. In 1858 he formed the firm of Woodin & Woolsey, and opened a grocery store at 45 Montgomery Street, Jersey City. In 1859 they removed to 103 and 105 Hudson Street, and added ship chandlery to their business. In 1863 he bought out Mr. Woodin's interest, and carried on the business alone until is63, when he took D. M. Terry into partnership, and the firm became Woolsey & Terry. In isto he bought out his partner again, and continued the business alone until iSo, when his business had grown to large proportions, and he incorporated it as the C. A. Wookey Paint and Color Company. He began the manufacture of paint in a small way in 18;5, and gradually increased his facilities. As this department of the business
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grew, he gradually dropped the ship chand- lery branch. In 1881 he gave up the chandlery entirely, and devoted all his time and energy to the paint and varnish business. The factory now in use by the company is the largest and most thoroughly equipped in the State. It is situated on Grand Street near Pacitic Avenue, and covers twenty city lots, an area of 50,000 square feet. A force of fifty men is con- stantly employed in the manufacturing department, and the shipping department is a building 50 by 100 feet. The sample card department is 25 by 100 feet, and a dozen girls are employed in preparing the cards. The products of the factory are shipped to all sections of the country, and the export department is quite extensive, covering every eountry in the world. The business has grown steadily from the beginning, and the manufacturing plant has been many times enlarged. Mr. Wool- sey is a member of the Palma and Union League clubs. His wife died in March, 1894. They had one son, Herbert W., who died at the age of thirty-two, on March 28, 1891. He was married, and was a universal favorite.
ROBERT ALEXANDER SIMPSON.
CHARLES A, WOOLSEY.
ROBERT ALEXANDER SIMPSON Was born at Belleville, N. J., August 15, 1854. He graduated from Public School No. 11 in New York City, and was too young to secure admittance to Columbia College, for which he had been preparing. He sought employment at once, and beeame an assist- ant bookkeeper with the firm of Nourse & Co., in New York. He remained there two years, when he accepted an offer from D. Cowan, a Jersey City merehant, to become his bookkeeper and cashier. He continued in that position until April, 1879, when he became bookkeeper for C. A. Woolsey. When the business was ineor- porated in 1890 as the C. A. Woolsey Paint and Color Company, he became manager. He still retains the position. He married Miss Annie McDonald, of Jersey City. They have had three chil- dren, two of whom survive, Harry Lincoln and Robert A., Jr. Mr. Simpson is a member of the Palma, Carteret and Jer- sey City clubs, and the New York Athletic and New Manhattan. lle is a member of Enterprise Lodge, F. and A. M., and has been Master of the lodge six years. He is a member of Enterprise Chapter, R. A\ M .
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Warren Council, R. and S. M .; Hugh de Payens Commandery, K. T .; of all the Scottish Rite bodies of the Northern Jurisdiction, A. and A. S. A., and of Mecca Temple, Mystic Shrine, of New York. He is Past Grand High Priest of the State of New Jersey, and for two years was District Deputy Grand Master of New Jersey. He was a charter member of Jersey City Lodge, I. O. O. F., and is a member of Excelsior Council, Royal Arcanum, Advance Council, National Union, and Superior Council, American Legion of Honor. He was appointed a member of the Jersey City board of education in 1894, but resigned after one year's service. He is an advocate of temperance, and, though connected with many orders and societies, is never absent from his business. He is an active member of the Jersey City Board of Trade.
AUGUSTUS A. HARDENBERGH was born at New Brunswick on May 18, 1830. His father, Cornelius L. Hardenbergh, LL. D., was one of the most eminent members of the bar in the State, and was for many years prominently connected with Rutgers College, of which Rev. Jacob R. Hardenbergh, D. D., his grandfather, was the founder in 1770, and the first president. Mr. Hardenbergh entered Rutgers College in 1844, but was called home Iwfore the end of his course to act as amanuensis for his father, who, in middle life and at the lugh tide of his pros- perity, had become blind. In 1851 the college conferred the honorary degree of Bachelor of
Arts upon Mr. Hardenbergh in recognition of the good work he had accomplished during his college career.
In 1846 he entered a banking house in New York, and for convenience berate a resident of Jersey City. In 1852 he accepted a position in the Hudson County Bank, and he temawird with that institution until his death. In 18444 hr was elected a member of the legislature, and served during the session of 1854. His service in securing the passage of the general banking act, and his opposi- tion to the Camden & Amboy Kailroad monopoly. were so marked that hebecame known all over the State. In 1857 he was elected a member of the Jersey City common council and we elected until 1863. He was president part of the time, and was chairman of the war committee. In NON he was appointed State director of railroads. In 1874, he having removed his home to Bergen County, he was elected as a delegate from the fourth con- AUGUSTUS A. HARDENBERGH. gressional district to the democratic national convention at Baltimore. The same year he was chosen president of the Northern Railroad Company of New Jersey. In the fall of the same year he removed to Jersey City, and was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress :. He was re-elected in 1876. In 1878 he had been chosen as president of the Hudson County National Bank, and declined a renomination. In 1880 he consented to accept a renomination to save his party from threatened defeat, and was again elected by over 5,000 majority. His services, m Congress were conspicuous, and form part of the history of the nation. In 1883 he was appwanted a member of the Jersey City board of finance and taxation, and his services were marked uns.wing the credit of the city during the financial depression of that year. In 1884 he was appwanted by Gov. Abbett as a trustee of the State Reform School. He served the city as a member of the board of finance until 1889, when a change in the city charter terminated the board of finance and taxation. He died on October 5, 1889, after an illness of three weeks. Mr Hundenbergh was an eloquent, forcible speaker, a man of incorruptible integrity, and everyone in the State was his friend, regardless of politics. He was a conspicuous figure in city, State and national politics for more than forty years
JOHN J. TOFFEY is a son of the late George A. and Mary D. Toffey. He was born at Paw- ling, Dutchess County, N. Y., June 1, 1844. His parents removed to Huden Cuy in 1854, and his family has been prominent in business, social and political cireles ever stice He was gradu-
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ated at the New York City College, and at the age of eighteen he enlisted in Company C, Twenty-first New Jersey Volunteers. He served in this regiment during the nine months for which it was enlisted, and participated in all the engagements in which it took part. After being mustered out of the service he was commissioned as first-lieutenant of Company G, Thirty- third Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, and while serving in this regiment was severely wounded at the battle of Mission Ridge, Tenn., November 23, 1863. The wound disabled him from further service in the field. He was afterwards commissioned by President Lincoln as a lieutenant in the Veteran Reserve Corps, and performed duty in and around Washington until June, 1866, when he was honorably discharged from the service. On his return to civil life he engaged in the live stock and beef business with his father and brothers, and took charge of exporting dressed beef to Europe, his firm being the first to engage in that business.
In 1874 he was elected a member of the Jersey City board of aldermen and served two years. In 1875 he was elected a member of assembly from the fifth Hudson district, and was re-elected in 1876. In 1878 he was elected sheriff of Hudson County by a majority of 4,000, although the normal democratic majority was 5,000. In 1885 he was elected State treasurer of New Jersey and served six years, having been re-elected in 1888. In 1891 he was succeeded by Hon. George R. Gray, the legislature of that year being democratic in both houses. On March 9, 1891, the following resolution was unani- mously adopted in both houses :
" Whereas, The retiring State treasurer, Hon. John J. Toffey, has discharged the duties of his office in a manner honorable to himself and greatly to the benefit and advantage of the State,
" Resolved (the house of assembly con- curring), That we hereby express our recognition and appreciation of the services of our retiring treasurer, and congratulate him upon the excellent record he has made for himself and the State."
In 1893 he was elected sheriff of Hud- son County by a majority of over 6,000, and is now in office. In 1867 he organized Company D, Fourth Regiment, New Jersey Rifle Corps, which subsequently became part of the Fourth Regiment, National Guard. He was elected major of the new regiment and promoted to lieutenant- colonel. He resigned in 1876.
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JOHN J. TOFFEV.
In 1870 he was married to Miss Mary E. Sip, granddaughter of Col. Garret Sip, and great- granddaughter of Peter Sip, one of Hudson County's first judges. They have had four sons, three of whom survive. He is a member of Van Houten Post, G. A. R., and Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. He is Past Master of Bergen Lodge, F. and A. M .; a member of Mount Vernon Chapter, R. A. M .; Hugh de Payens Commandery, K. T., and the New Jersey Consistory of Scottish Rite. He is also a member of the Union League, Palma, Carteret and Jersey City clubs.
DELOS BLISS, manager of the Dodge & Bliss Co., has been a prominent citizen in Jersey City . for many years. He comes from an old New England family that has lived in Massachusetts for three centuries. His father had extensive farming and lumbering interests in New York State, and removed to Truxton, Cortland County, where Delos was born on January 26, 1841. He was educated in the local schools, and began his business career when only sixteen years of
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age, as a elerk in the office of John MeGraw, of Ithaca, who owned extensive lumber and milling interests in Jersey City. After he had been employed in the Jersey City office three years, the manufacture of boxes became a part of the business, and he was chosen to manage it. Mr. MeGraw disposed of his business to Dodge & Co., and Mr. Bliss was retained as manager. Two years later the factory was destroyed by fire, and Mr. Bliss began business on his own account as a box manufacturer in New York. There he, too, was the victim of a disastrous fire. Subsequently he returned to Jersey City and formed a partnership with Arthur M. Dodge. The firm first practised printing on wood, and were the first to use ma- ehines for nailing boxes. Mr. Bliss was married on September 5, 1864, to Miss Emily Fielder, daughter of Hon. James F. Fielder. Six children were the result of the union. -
DELOS BLISS.
ANDREW J. Post was born in Montpelier, Vt., November 1, 1834. He is the son of Simeon S. Post and Parthenia Peek, who were natives of Lebanon, N. H., and descendants of well known and highly esteemed families of that State.
Early in"life Mr. Post served an apprenticeship at the machinist trade, and afterward studied the profession of civil engineering, under the tuition of his father, who was one of the most eminent in the country. In 1859 he began work
at his chosen profession, designing and building iron bridges, and continued in that branch of the profession until 1877, at which time he engaged in designing and constructing the iron-work for modern fire-proof buildings. Among some of the more important contracts Mr. Post has ex- eeuted is the roof of the Madison Square Garden Amphitheatre in New York City, which he also designed, and it is coneeded to be one of the handsomest of its kind in the world. He also designed the iron-work of the new building of the New Jersey State Capitol, Trenton, N. J., and its dome ; the terminal station of the New Jersey Central Railway at Communipaw, and a number of others. He has lately been awarded the contracts to construct the iron- work for the new Corn Exchange Bank, the Bleecker Street Savings Bank, the new building of the Bowery Savings Bank, and the Continental Fire Insurance building, all of New York City.
In 1862 Mr. Post married Miss Margaret Combe, of Jersey City. Six children have been born to the marriage, three sons and three daughters.
ANDREW J. POST.
Mr. Post is a member of the Hudson County Democratie Society, the Palma, Carteret and the New Jersey Athletic clubs, of Jersey City. He is also president of the Fifth Ward Savings Bank, and is a member of the Amer- ican Society of Civil Engineers. He resides at 136 Magnolia Avenue.
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
GEORGE BRAGG FIELDER was born in Jersey City, July 24, 1842, and is the son of the late James F. Fielder, who was one of the most prominent citizens of Hudson County.
He attended school in Jersey, City and afterwards Sellick's Institute at Norwalk, Conn., from which he graduated in 1859.
He then came to New York and entered the New York National Bank, where he soon rose to the position of teller. He was afterwards employed in the Irving Bank of the same city as receiving teller.
Mr. Fielder, who was then scarcely twenty years old, enlisted in the Twenty-first New Jersey Volunteers during the late war, and fought in all the battles his regiment was engaged in up to May 4, 1863, and by that time he had risen to the position of sergeant-major.
He fought in the battle of Mary's Heights, which was part of the Chancellorsville fight, when his regiment was in the thickest of the carnage, and during a brilliant charge both he and Col. Van Houten, the commander of the regiment, were severely wounded. They were captured by the Confederates and taken to an old barn, where Col. Van Houten died from his wounds the next day, and was tenderly buried by Sergt. Fielder. For months Mr. Fielder languished in the rebel prison, and then he was exchanged on general orders from the War Department. He was so ill and emaciated by his confine- ment that he was obliged to return home. For his conduct in that fight, Joel Parker, then governor of New Jersey, commis- sioned him a lieutenant of his regiment, and he was assigned to special service. He served as assistant chief mustering officer of New Jersey until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged in 1864. He then returned to civil life, when he engaged in the contracting business with his father. In 1876 he was made clerk of the board of chosen free- holders of Hudson County, which position 1 he held for nine years, when he was elected register of the county. He was elected for a second term, which he was serving when he was chosen for Congress.
Mr. Fielder is a prominent Grand Army man, and was commander of the New Jersey department, and at the same time the late Congressman Edward F. McDon- ald was his chief of staff. He was captain GEORGE BRAGG FIELDER. of Company D, Fourth Regiment, for seven years. He is a member of Court Little John, the mother Court of Foresters of Hudson County, and is a member of Bergen Lodge, F. and A. M. He is president of the Sixth Army Corps Association, and a member of the Loyal Legion, an organization which is composed of honorably discharged officers of the Union Army of the Rebellion.
He was nominated for Congress on the Saturday before election day, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Congressman Edward F. MeDonald. Despite the very short time be- tween his nomination and the day of election, he was elected by a plurality of 2,831 votes over Frank O. Cole, of Jersey City.
He married Eleanor A. Brinkerhoff, only daughter of Judge Brinkerhoff, and has two sons, James F. and George B.
He has lived in his present residence, which he owns, for twenty-five years, and is the possessor of a valuable library that contains a choice collection of books of art and literaturc.
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HISTORY OF JERSEY CITY.
HENRY LEMBECK was born in Osterwick, Munster, Germany, April 8, 1826, where he remained until he was eighteen years of age. He received a rudimentary education, and afterwards became an apprentice to the cabinet-makers' trade, serving three years in that capacity. For two and a half years he was employed as a journeyman, and afterwards served two and a half years in the German army. During the revolutionary period in his native country, he emigrated to America, locating in New York, where he resumed his trade, that of a cabinet-maker. Later on he engaged as a grocer's clerk, and remained three years in that capacity, 2 after which he purchased and conducted the store successfully for a period of three years. Jersey City then became his place of residence, where the business of grocer was continned and greatly enlarged. Cir- cumstances influenced a change, and led him to engage for six years in market gardening, after which he became the agent for the sale of the ale made at the brewery of John F. Betz, of New York. This was continued until 1870, when, in connection with John Betz, he established the firm of Lembeck & Betz and erected their present brewery. 1
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