USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume I > Part 21
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General Washington during the Revolutionary War was frequently in Middlesex county. On his journey to New York to be inaugurated the first President of the United States, accompanied by Charles Thomson, Colonel Humphreys, and his favorite body servant, he was a guest on the night of April 22, 1789, at the Cross and Key Tavern in Woodbridge, now Rahway. He was escorted to the hotel by the Woodbridge cav- alry, under command of Captain Ichabod Potter.
The visit of the illustrious Lafayette, "the hero of two worlds," to the United States, was a memorable event in the summer of 1824. He was received with honor and distinction throughout the whole country, and, during the course of his travels, celebrations, processions, dinners, illuminations, bonfires, parties, balls, serenades and rejoicings, attended. his way from the moment he set foot on American soil until his embark- ation to return to his native France. He visited New Brunswick, and was there entertained by his companion in arms, General John Neilson. At Woodbridge, on September 24, 1824, one of the special features of his reception was the presence of sixteen little girls dressed in white, each bearing on her bosom a letter made of marigolds which together formed the words "Welcome Lafayette."
Amongst those who attained distinction in the national and State annals of the country, who were natives of Middlesex county, none deserve a more prominent place in its history than James Schureman. Born in New Brunswick in pre-revolutionary times, his youth fell upon those days that were inflamed with great waves of indignation which wrought momentous changes in the history of the world. On the eve of the hostilities with the mother country, while a private in a militia company, the captain of which was urging his command to volunteer in the colonial army, not one responding, Schureman, stepping from the ranks, addressed his fellow soldiers in such moving and impassioned terms that a sudden reaction took place, the majority of his associates immediately pledging themselves for the war. The company thus formed gave effective services at the battle of Long Island.
Schureman was taken prisoner during the war, near Lawrence
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Brook, three miles south of his birthplace. After being confined in a guardhouse in that locality he was removed to a sugar house in New York City. By bribing the guard, he obtained the privilege of the prison yard. One night liquor was given the sentinels, and our youthful adventurer dug through the walls of the prison, making his escape and joining the American army at Morristown. Schureman was a man of parts, and his qualities included statesmanship as well as those of a soldier. He was a member of the Continental Congress, represented his con- gressional district in the lower house of Congress, and was for two years a member of the Senate. He was at one time mayor of New Brunswick, and a member of the New Jersey Assembly. He died in New Brunswick, January 24, 1824.
The lawyer, soldier and governor, Joseph Bloomfield, was born at Woodbridge, in 1755, the son of Dr. Moses Bloomfield, and a descendant of Thomas Bloomfield, the American pioneer ancestor who settled at Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1638. After receiving a classical educa- tion at Deerfield, Cumberland county, New Jersey, he studied law at Perth Amboy under Cortlandt Skinner, and entered upon practice at Bridgton. His legal activities were speedily interrupted by the war, and in February, 1776, he was commissioned captain of the Third New Jersey Regiment, destined to be ordered to take part in the expedition against Canada. The regiment having reached Albany, New York, learned of the Continental repulse at Quebec, and was dispatched to the Mohawk Valley to overawe the Indians. The following November it was marched to Ticonderoga, and there Captain Bloomfield was appointed judge advocate, ranking as major, but resigned his commis- sion in 1778.
His political and official life dates from his resignation from the army. In the fall of 1778 he was chosen clerk of the Assembly, and was for several years register of the Court of Admiralty. In 1783 he became attorney-general of the State, resigning from that office in 1792. As presidential elector in 1792, he voted for Washington and Adams, but, contracting a friendly acquaintance with Thomas Jefferson, he became a prominent leader of the Democratic party. At this period, in point of ability he has been compared with Alexander Hamilton, the great leader of the Federalists. As a general of militia he was called into service to take part in quelling the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsyl- vania. He was the first governor of the State elected on the Demo- cratic (then called the Republican) ticket. In the fall of 1801 the State Legislature was for the first time Democratic, and General Bloomfield received thirty votes for governor against twenty cast for Richard Stockton. The following year the parties were equally divided, and though there were attempts to compromise, all propositions were refused by the Democrats, therefore there was no choice for governor and the
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vice-president of the Council, John Lambert, performed the duties of the executive office. The next year Governor Bloomfield received thirty- three votes and Richard Stockton seventeen, and in 1804 he had thirty- seven to his opponent's sixteen votes. Afterwards until 1812 he was reëlected without opposition.
At the breaking out of the War of 1812, President Madison commis- sioned Governor Bloomfield a brigadier-general in the army. His bri- gade reached Sacketts Harbor in 1813, but its commanding officer was soon transferred to the command of a military district with headquarters at Philadelphia, where he remained until peace was declared. The Democrats of his district elected him to Congress in 1816, and he was reelected in 1818. He was very appropriately placed at the head of the committee on Revolutionary pensions, and owing to his energy and perseverance introduced and caused to be enacted bills granting pen- sions to Revolutionary War soldiers and their widows. Governor Bloom- field died at Burlington, New Jersey, October 3, 1825.
Alexander Henry was a man of no common abilities. He was by no means a mere adventurer, but possessed great intellectual curiosity and had a talent for observation. In all his wanderings in the wild Northwest he faithfully kept a journal which even in condensed form aggregated nearly one thousand pages. This journal, which was in manuscript, was utilized by Dr. Eliot Coues as the basis of his "New Lights on the Early History of the Greater Northwest," published in three volumes in 1897. This noted fur trapper and trader was born in New Brunswick in 1739. Arriving at manhood, he joined the army of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, and in 1760 he took part in the expedition against Montreal. The surrender of that important post opened a new market, and our young adventurer was induced to engage in the fur trade. The following year he went to Fort Mackinaw, at that time one of the prin- cipal trading posts. Securing the friendship of a Chippewa Indian, he was adopted as his brother, thus his life was saved in the massacre that took place at that post June 4, 1763. Henry thereafter lived with the Indians, wearing their dress and speaking their language. In 1764 he went to Fort Niagara, where he commanded an Indian battalion, and after the defeat of Pontiac he reengaged in the fur trade, extending his travels to the Rocky Mountains. He organized with David Thomp- son the Northwest Company, for which he acted as fur trader and busi- ness manager, Thompson serving as official geographer and explorer. They extended their journeys to the Pacific ocean, including the Red River of the North, the heart of the Rocky Mountains and the Columbia river. Henry resided at Astoria, or Fort George, and from that post traded in all directions. He was drowned near there, May 22, 1814.
A son of Piscataway, James Manning, was born October 22, 1738. His great-grandfather, Jeffrey Manning, was one of the earliest settlers
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in Piscataway township, and on his maternal side he was descended from the Fitz Randolphs, another pioneer family of his native town. He graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1762, and the following year was ordained as an evangelist and traveled throughout the colonies. While at Newport, Rhode Island, in July, 1763, he suggested the estab- lishment of a college to be conducted by the Baptists. He was solicited to draw up a plan, and a rough charter was laid before the General Assembly and was passed by that body after a warm debate, largely through the personal influence of Mr. Manning. Having received a call to Warren, Rhode Island, he organized a church of fifty-eight members and became its pastor. At the second meeting of the corporation for founding and endowing a college or university, held in September, 1765, Mr. Manning was chosen president, and the institution became known as the Rhode Island College. Its name was changed, however, in 1804 to Brown University, in honor of Nicholas Brown, one of its munificent benefactors. In May, 1770, the college was removed to Providence, Rhode Island, and President Manning, resigning his pastorate, devoted his time to the college, filling the chair of professor of languages. Dur- ing the Revolutionary War the college doors were closed, the students prosecuting their studies at home. The college exercises were resumed May 27, 1782. President Manning was a delegate to the Continental Congress, 1785-86, and it was largely through his endeavors that Rhode Island adopted the Federal Constitution. While at family prayers he died of apoplexy, in Providence, Rhode Island, July 29, 1791.
From old Middlesex county came Luther Martin, born in New Brunswick, February 9, 1748. He graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1766, and studied law at Queenstown, Maryland, supporting himself by teaching. He was admitted to the bar in 1771, and the following year located in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he commenced the practice of his profession. However, he finally settled in Somerset county, Maryland, and in 1778 was appointed attorney-general of his adopted State, and vigorously, almost rigorously, prosecuted the Tories. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1784-85, also of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and in the latter body took an active part in opposition to the proposed constitution, finally leaving the hall rather than sign the document. Jefferson a few years later chris- tened him with the sobriquet "the federal bulldog." He also opposed the ratification of the constitution by the State of Maryland, bitterly denouncing the license allowed by that instrument to the African slave trade, and declared that God viewed with an equal eye the poor African slave and his American master. True, however, to the instincts of a lawyer, his next public appearance was as a staunch supporter of the constitution, when he acted as counsel for Judge Samuel Chase, impeached before the United States Senate. This trial is memorable on account of
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the excitement it produced, the ability with which it was defended, and the nature of the defendant's acquital. Mr. Martin resigned his attor- ney-generalship in 1805, after twenty-seven years of service, and even then had the largest practice of any lawyer in Maryland. Two years later he was one of the counsel for Aaron Burr, on trial for high treason at Richmond, Virginia. He was appointed in 1814 Chief Justice of the Court of Oyer and Terminer for the city and county of Baltimore, but the court was abolished in 1816. In February, 1818, he was again appointed attorney-general of Maryland, but two years later suffered a stroke of paralysis and was thrown entirely upon the charity of his friends. The Maryland Legislature in 1822 passed an act wholly unparalleled in American history, requiring every lawyer in that State to pay annually a license fee of five dollars, the money to be paid over to trustees "for the use of Luther Martin." His abilities as a lawyer were of the very highest order, some authorities regarding him among the best which the country ever produced. He died at the home of Aaron Burr, in New York City, July 10, 1826.
The first limner of whom the American annals of art makes mention, was John Watson, who came to this country from Scotland about the year 1715. After his first visit to America he returned to Europe and brought thence many pictures which, with those of his own composition, formed the first collection of paintings of which there is any l:nowledge in this country. When he became a resident of Amboy he was in great poverty, but his circumstances improved from the exercise of his artistic talents. What became of his collection of paintings is unknown ; only a few of his miniature sketches in India ink are extant, which are toler- ably well executed, among them a series of drawings of himself at different ages, original sketches of Governor Burnet, of New Jersey, Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, Governor Spotswood of Virginia, Judge Bunnel and other distinguished men, showing that some notoriety was enjoyed by the painter. He was unmarried. His penurious habits and love for unlawful interest gained for him the titles of miser and usurer. He died August 22, 1768, aged 83 years ; his remains are interred in the rear of St. Peter's Church at Perth Amboy.
In Perth Amboy, February 19, 1766, was born William Dunlap, an American painter and author. He was the only child of Samuel Dunlap, a son of a merchant of Londonderry, Ireland. The elder Dunlap was a soldier in "Wolfe's Own," and was wounded on the "Plains of Abra- nam." After the French War, then a lieutenant in the 47th Regiment, he was stationed at Perth Amboy, where he married, and retired from military life and became engaged in keeping a general store. The boy- hood of the future painter and author was passeri amongst the stirring events of the Revolution. His education was limited to a nursery school under an Irish schoolmaster whom he stigmatizes from his own memoirs
Mid-12
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as being in the usual acceptance of the word "bad." The martial spirit of his father was evinced in his offspring by the latter becom- ing in the early part of 1776 a member of a corps of boys, whose caps were adorned with the motto "Liberty or Death !" and were called "The Governor's Guards." These boys proved serviceable auxiliaries to the American officers, by watching the sentinels and guards and reporting any observed failing in duty or discipline. He vividly portrays in his memoirs the pillage of the British soldiers of the houses of Piscataway, and the distress of the men, women and children of that village.
Dunlap in his seventeenth year began to paint portraits, and in the summer of 1783 executed one of Washington. The next spring he went to London, and for several years was a pupil of Benjamin West. After his return to America he tried various pursuits, including painting, lit- erary work, theatrical management, etc., but at the age of fifty-one, after repeated failures, he became permanently a painter. He executed a series of pictures on subjects selected by West and somewhat after his style, which were exhibited in various parts of the United States. He was one of the founders of the New York Academy of Design. His "History of the American Theatre," published in 1832, and "Arts of Design in the United States," are standard works. He also wrote a number of plays, a biography of Charles Brockden Brown, and a posthumous publication, the "History of New Netherlands," in two volumes, in 1840. His death occurred September 28, 1839.
Two noted members of the New Jersey bar, though of different eras, natives of Middlesex county, were Joseph Warren Scott and Cortlandt Parker. The former was born in New Brunswick, November 28, 1778, the son of Dr. Moses Scott, already mentioned in this work. His ances- tors were of Scotch extraction, the original American settler, John Scott, grandfather of Joseph Warren Scott, emigrated to America at an early date, settling in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Prior to the Revolution, Dr. Scott removed to New Brunswick.
Joseph Warren Scott, named for the American patriot, attended the schools of his native town, and graduated at the age of seventeen years from Princeton College. He at first selected the medical profession for his future calling, but disliking his professional studies he decided to become a clergyman ; finally, after a short course in theology, he resolved to embrace the legal profession. He therefore became a student in the office of General Frederick Frelinghuysen, in New Brunswick, and was licensed as an attorney in 1801. After his admission to the bar he began practice, from which he retired about 1840, resigning a large and lucra- tive clientage. A profound lawyer, an able barrister and counsellor, the only official position he held was prosecutor of the pleas for the county of Middlesex. An accomplished gentleman, well versed in the Latin tongue, he corresponded with his friends in that language. He was like-
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wise an excellent English scholar and thoroughly acquainted with the old poets. He died in New Brunswick, in May, 1871, having nearly reached the great age of ninety-three years.
Cortlandt Parker was born in the Parker Mansion in Perth Amboy, June 27, 1818. The Parker family was early identified with Perth Amboy. Elisha Parker, under date of April 19, 1675, was granted 182 acres in Woodbridge, on the highway leading to Piscataway. In Novem- ber, 1694, he was appointed high sheriff of Middlesex county. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly, also of Governor Hunter's council. His notable characteristics were a good father, a kind master, and a sincere Christian. He died June 30, 1717, and by the records he seems to have been married three times, and had several children. John, a son by Hannah Rolph, was born November 11, 1693, and married Janet, a daughter of Dr. John Johnstone. He was engaged in business in New York but always resided at Perth Amboy. He held several minor offices, but was appointed by Governor Burnet in October, 1719, one of his council, and continued a councillor from that time until his death in 1732. James, second son, born in 1725, was the only one that left issue. On his becoming of age he entered the provincial military service and embarked for the northern frontier with the rank of captain. Returning from this campaign, he engaged in mercantile business in New York, his transactions being principally confined to the West Indies. Captain Parker in 1751 took up his abode permanently at Perth Amboy, engrossed in attending to large landed interests possessed by the family. He became a member of Governor Franklin's council, also mayor of Perth Amboy, and a delegate to the Provincial Congress, but did not attend its sessions.
At the time of the Revolution, Captain Parker maintained a strict neutrality, owing to his large landed interests. He removed his family to a farm in Bethlehem, Hunterdon county, where they resided until peace was declared, when they removed to New Brunswick, but later to Perth Amboy. As he took no part in the war, his property escaped confiscation. Captain Parker was a man of tall stature and large frame, possessing a mind of more than ordinary strength and vigor. He died October 4, 1797. Of his children, James, the youngest child, mentioned elsewhere in this work, was the father of Cortlandt Parker. The latter graduated from Rutgers College in 1836 with first honors and as valedic- torian of his class. He studied law in the offices of Theodore Freling- huysen and Amzi Armstrong, both of Newark, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1839. In his political affiliations imbued with the doctrines of Hamilton. derived from his ancestors, he advocated the principles which became the basis of the Republican party, of which he was one of the founders in New Jersey. In his career throughout the changing political conditions, Mr. Parker maintained an active and
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patriotic interest, frequently addressing his fellow-citizens on questions of the day, exercising a potent influence by his counsels, and contribut- ing to the press many papers distinguished for dignity and solidity of treatment and argument. Though continuously and intimately identi- fied with politics for sixty-five years, he occupied a unique personal position ; with a single exception of a local office, though at various times offered National and State appointments, he repeatedly declined the honors.
As an orator, Mr. Parker enjoyed a reputation for force, scholarship, and the particular type of eloquence appealing to the intelligence of men, which harmonized with the dignity and strength manifested in his public career, his writings, and his well known individual characteristics. In his personality he was remarkable for a physical constitution of great vitality, nurtured throughout life by a vigorous but orderly regime, possessed of a commanding figure and to the end of his life as erect as in youth ; with a distinction of manners and address and a nature of warm sensibilities and strong attachments and sympathies. He lived at Newark, with a summer residence at Perth Amboy. His death took place in 1907.
The American capitalist and railroad king, Cornelius Vanderbilt, in 1817 became captain of a steamboat plying between New York and New Brunswick, at a salary of $1,000 a year. The following year he com- manded a larger and much better boat on the same line, and removed his family to New Brunswick. Here his wife managed a hotel, and on May 8, 1821, his eldest son, William H. Vanderbilt, was born, first see- ing the light of day amongst the pans and beds of a country hostelry. Thus was New Brunswick introduced into the "Four Hundred" of New York.
A pioneer in the steamboat and railroad history of Middlesex county was James Neilson, a son of General John Neilson. His birth took place in New Brunswick, December 3, 1784. He inherited the enterprise of his north of Ireland ancestry with the persistence of the Holland blood of his mother. His father being engaged in ship building, young Neilson while only a youth of seventeen realized the importance of steam for transportation. We find him as early as 1810 treasurer of the New Brunswick Team Boat and Steam Boat Company. He became amongst the active originators of a canal to connect the waters of the Delaware river with the Raritan river. This enterprise was so hampered by the Legislature of Pennsylvania that it was abandoned. Another charter for a canal was obtained from the New Jersey Legislature, but a con- solidation was effected with the parties interested in building a railroad under the title of the Delaware & Raritan Canal and Camden & Amboy Railroad Company. This property was afterwards leased in 1871 to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for 999 years.
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James Neilson continued his interests in transportation, being in 1831 treasurer of the New Brunswick Steamboat and Canal Transporta- tion Company, which was in 1852 absorbed by the Camden & Amboy Railroad Company. In 1835, realizing the shipping business of New Brunswick must be eventually cut off by the canals and railroads, Mr. Neilson, with others, incorporated the New Brunswick Manufacturing Company. A mill was built for the manufacture of printing cloths, which were sold after his death to the Norfolk & New Brunswick Hosiery Company, the whole property having passed into his hands. Mr. Neilson died at New Brunswick, February 21, 1862.
Middlesex county contributed to the gubernatorial chair of New Jersey, Theodore Frelinghuysen Randolph, born in New Brunswick, June 24, 1816. He attended Rutgers Grammar School, but in 1840 removed to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. Returning to New Jersey in 1852, he located in Jersey City and became interested in mining and transportation of coal and iron, and was president of the Morris & Essex railroad for many years. He was a representative in the Legislature, a State senator, and elected governor in 1869. He was United States senator from New Jersey, 1875-81, and a member of the Democratic National Committee. He died at Morristown, New Jersey, November 7, 1883.
Amongst those who spent their boyhood days in Middlesex county was Zebulon Montgomery Pike. His parents were natives of Wood- bridge, where their son spent his youth. His father was an officer in the army of the United States, and the son having received a common school education, acquiring also some knowledge of advanced mathe- matics and of the French and Spanish languages, entered as a cadet in a company under his father's command serving on the western frontiers. He was subsequently commissioned ensign and then lieutenant in the First United States Infantry Regiment. His life was uneventful, merely a routine of military duties, until 1805, when the government having acquired the Louisiana Purchase, he was ordered to trace the sources of the Mississippi river. This expedition consumed eight months, marked with much exposure and frequent perils, but was successful. The young commander was then ordered to undertake a second perilous journey of hardship and exposure in exploring the interior of the Territory of Louisiana. It was during this expedition that Captain Pike discovered the great mountain that bears his name. When war was declared between the United States and Great Britain, in 1812, Colonel Pike was commanding his regiment on the northern frontier. The following year he was made a brigadier-general and given the command of the forces dispatched against York (now Toronto) in Canada. The American forces landed near York April 27, 1813, and were led by General Pike in person against the British works. It was expected at any moment
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