USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume II > Part 28
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Mr. Richardson married, August 18, 1920, Helen M. Taylor, of Hoboken, New Jersey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Winant Taylor. They reside at No. 116 South Third avenue, Highland Park, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
WILLIAM PERRY BRADLEY .- In the executive office of the Raritan Copper Works, William Perry Bradley fills a position of broad responsibility. The Bradley family is an old and honored one in North- umberlandshire, England. As long ago as 1740 the founder of this branch of the family in America came, with a company of sturdy pio- neers, and settled in Maryland, at Mardela Springs.
Perry Weatherly Bradley, father, of William P. Bradley, was born in Mardela Springs, Maryland. He was for many years engaged in
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the retail shoe business. He died in Salisbury, Maryland, at the age of seventy-six years. He married Mary Deshiell, of Salisbury, and took up his residence there. Of their seven children, William Perry is the only one now living.
William Perry Bradley was born in Salisbury, Maryland, March 20, 1856. He received his early education in the public schools of that quiet old town, then took a course at the Salisbury Academy, an institu- tion well known for the excellence of its curriculum, from which he was graduated at the age of nineteen years. After his graduation he accepted a position on the printing force of the local paper, where he remained until 1880, when he went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he was associated with the Times Printing House. He was with William Mann for a time, but later returned to the Times Company. Upon his return he acted as manager and filled that position success- fully until 1890, when he went to the Ketterlinus Printing House as manager. Here he remained for two years. His next change led him into a different line of work, as he became interested in the copper business in Rhode Island. There he remained until 1899, when he came to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Here he entered the offices of the Raritan Copper Works, first as foreman of the shipping department, and later was promoted to the position of chief clerk and cashier. He has held this position ever since, his fine executive ability and capacity for thor- oughness making him particularly fitted for work of this nature.
Mr. Bradley, while never a politician, has always accepted his share of public responsibility when sought to that end. He has served as trustee of the Public Library here for five years; was president of the Board of Education for two years ; and served on the Harbor Board for three years.
Mr. Bradley holds high offices in several fraternal organizations. He is past councilor of the Junior Order of American Mechanics; is a member of the Knights of the Golden Eagle; has been past grand chief of the local Eagles, and is at present district grand chief of that order ; and is also a member of the Woodmen of the World, in which order he is past consul commander ; and is now clerk of Perth Amboy Camp, No. 19.
Mr. Bradley married, in Salisbury, Maryland, December 18, 1876, Julia Belle Bedell, daughter of James H. and Sarah (Wilson) Bedell. Mrs. Bradley was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents both died in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. William Perry and Julia Belle (Bedell) Bradley are the parents of five children, of whom all are living : Bertha Marian, the wife of M. J. Hurley, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey ; Marie Frances ; William Perry, Jr., a resident of Perth Amboy, employed as a clerk with the Raritan Copper Works; Sadie Bedell, the wife of John C. Bergen, of New Brunswick, New Jersey ; and Genevieve, the wife of E. A. Frost, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and are prominent in the social life of the city.
T ] PUALL _ MEY
TITFF
Alfred & March
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ALFRED S. MARCH .- For two decades, 1900-1920, Alfred S. March has been a member of the New Jersey bar, practicing in New Brunswick, Middlesex county. He is a son of Joseph H. March, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 25, 1844, and was a merchant of New Brunswick, New Jersey, dying in 1916. In 1861, at the age of sixteen, Joseph H. March volunteered for service in the Union army in Connecticut, where he was living, and later enlisted with Battery B, Ist Regiment, United States Artillery. He was in numerous battles, wounded at Olustee, Florida, captured by the enemy at Reams Station, Virginia, and for several months confined as a prisoner at Anderson- ville. He married Josephine E. Stanley.
Alfred S. March was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 4, 1876. He graduated from the New Brunswick High School in 1894, and in 1896 began the study of law in the office of Van Cleef, Daly & Woodbridge, of the Middlesex bar. After the dissolution of that firm, Mr. March continued under the preceptorship of James H. Van Cleef, and was admitted to the bar as an attorney in the February term, 1900, and later as a counsellor. He began practice in New Brunswick in the office of Hon. Robert Adrian, and subsequently in 1907 associated with Freeman Woodbridge under the firm name of Woodbridge & March. In 1911 the firm was dissolved, and since that time Mr. March has practiced individually. He is a Special Master in Chancery, Supreme Court commissioner, a member of the New Jersey State Bar Associa- tion, and the Middlesex County Bar Association.
A Republican in politics, Mr. March is one of the leaders of his party in Middlesex county, having been State Committeeman for four years. and in 1903 and 1904 he was a member of the New Brunswick Board of Aldermen. He was township counsel for Woodbridge; a member and secretary of the Advisory Water Commission of New Brunswick, and in 1909 declined his election as city attorney. In 1917 he was appointed a member of the Board of Public Utility Commis- sioners by Governor Edge, a position he resigned in March, 1920, after having served about three years. He is a trustee of the New Bruns- wick Free Library, director of St. Peter's Hospital, and a member of the Board of Trade, Public Schools Alumni Association, Union Club, Rotary Club, Craftsmen's Club, Young Men's Christian Association, First Presbyterian Church and Men's League of that church; Lodge No. 324, B. P. O. E .; Palestine Lodge, No. III, F. and A. M .; Scott Chapter, No. 4. R. A. M .; Scott Council, No. 1, R. and S. M .; Temple Commandery, No. 18, K. T .; Salaam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S .; New Brunswick Lodge, I. O. O. F .; and New Brunswick Lodge, W. O. W.
Mr. March married, November 9, 1905, Anna Elizabeth Parsell, daughter of George K. and Imogene B. Parsell. Mrs. March is a member of the Jersey Blue Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. March are the parents of two children : Robert Parsell, born September 3, 1907; and Jean Stanley, born Febru- ary 10, 1910.
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WILLIAM E. RAMSAY, prominent physician and surgeon of Perth Amboy, and one of the most widely known citizens in the State of New Jersey, is a native of Prince Edward Island, born November 11, 1866. His parents, Hugh and Sarah Longworth (Lawson) Ramsay, were also natives of that island, where his grandparents were among the early settlers, coming from Scotland. His father was engaged in shipbuilding on Prince Edward Island, and later in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where he died in 1900.
After preparing for college in the Boston High School, Dr. Ramsay engaged in the study of pharmacy and was the youngest registered phar- macist in the State of New Jersey, having passed his examination when only fifteen years old. Dr. Ramsay matriculated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical department of Columbia College in New York, and was graduated in 1888 with the degree of M. D. Later, upon the recommendation of Columbia College to Johns Hopkins University, he was appointed physician-in-charge of the Baltimore City Insane Hospital, during which time the State Lunacy Commission reported to the governor of Maryland that never before had the insti- tution been found in such a good condition or the patients more hu- manely treated. Soon after, Dr. Ramsay came to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where he at once obtained a select and large patronage, along the lines of medical legal work, besides an extensive private practice. He is the author of a number of valuable scientific works.
Dr. Ramsay was health officer of the port of Perth Amboy from 1894 to 1898. During the cholera scare in 1893 he was a special inspector of the United States Marine Hospital Service. In 1906 he was visiting surgeon of the Perth Amboy City Hospital. Dr. Ramsay served three terms in the State Assembly and while a member of that body was instrumental in having passed a number of laws tending to better sanitation in the State, among which may be cited the law prohibiting the common drinking cup. In 1912 he was elected to the State Senate, in which he served with distinction for the ensuing three years, holding membership on many of the most important committees of the Senate and initiating many legislative enactments of profound worth to the Commonwealth of New Jersey.
In 1915 he resigned from the Senate to accept the position of State Water Supply Commissioner. In the same year he was appointed sur- geon of the Perth Amboy division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad. He is also plant physician for a number of large industries in Perth Amboy and vicinity.
Dr. Ramsay is an enthusiastic supporter of Federal aid for State roads, as well as for agricultural protection, and is interested in deeper waterways and for the proposed Cross State Ship Canal as a means to reduce the cost of living by additional and cheaper transportation. He has always been a contender for individual liberty, respect for the law and the protection of the home. In 1920 Dr. Ramsay ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket, but went down with others on the ticket to defeat in the Republican landslide of that year.
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Dr. Ramsay is a member of the Middlesex County District Medical Society, of which he was president in 1904; the New Jersey State Medi- cal Society, the American Medical Association, the American Medico- Psychological Association, the Medico-Surgical Society of New York, being elected president of this society in 1913; the Conference Board of Physicians in Industry ; Raritan Lodge, No. 61, Free and Accepted Masons; and Perth Amboy Lodge, No. 784, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
In 1899, Dr. Ramsay married Marie E. Scott Hall, daughter of William Scott Hall, of Perth Amboy.
CLIFFORD IRVING VOORHEES .- Among those members of the New Jersey bar who during the last decade have come notably to the front, Mr. Voorhees, who is a representative of the legal fraternity of New Brunswick, must be numbered as one of the leaders. He is also actively interested in civic affairs, and is well known in the club circles and social life of his home community, New York City, and Princeton, New Jersey.
The Voorhees family, one of the oldest in New Jersey, has been prominent in its annals during the Colonial, Revolutionary and Na- tional periods of our history. The name, with the prefix Van, is the Anglicized form of three Hollandish words, van voor Hees, meaning from before the town of Hees, a small community in the Province of Drenthe, which was the native home of the family.
(I) Albert van voor Hees, the first ancestor of record, was of the neighborhood of Hees, and was the father of nine children.
(II) Coerte Alberts van voor Hees, son of Albert von voor Hees, lived in Holland, and had a family of seven children.
(III) Steven Coerte van voor Hees, son of Coerte Alberts van voor Hees, was born in or near Hees, and in April, 1660, sailed in the ship "Bontekoe" (Spotted Cow), Captain Pieter Lucassen, master, with his wife and eight children. Arriving in the Province of New Netherland, he settled on Long Island, purchasing land in the town of Amersfoort en Bergen, now Flatlands. In 1664 he was one of the magistrates of that place, and his name appears in 1667 on a patent, and in 1675 and 1683 on the assessment rolls. By his first wife, whose name is lost, he had five sons and five daughters, all born in Holland. The two who did not accompany him to America emigrated subsequently. In 1677 he and his second wife were members of the Dutch Reformed church of Flatlands. He died in Flatlands, February 16, 1684.
(IV) Lucas Stevense van voor Hees, son of Steven Coerte van voor Hees, was born about 1650, in Holland, and in 1675 his name appears on the assessment rolls of Flatlands. In 1680 he was a magistrate. His membership in the Dutch Reformed church of Flatlands is recorded in 1677, and in 1711 he was one of its elders. He married (first) in Hol- land, Catharine Hansen Van Noorstrand, and (second) January 26, 1689, Jannetje Minnes, daughter of Minne Johannis and Rensie Faddens. In 1703, he married (third) Catharine Van Dyck. He had issue by his
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first and second marriages and probably by the third, his children numbering sixteen, eight sons and as many daughters. His death occurred in 1713.
(V) Abraham Lucasse van voor Hees, son of Lucas Stevense and Jannetje Minnes (Faddens) van voor Hees, was born in Flatlands, and removed, soon after his marriage, to South Middlebush, Somerset county, New Jersey, where he purchased, in 1726, of Jacques Cortelyou, a farm of three hundred acres on which the remainder of his life was spent. He married Neeltje, daughter of Jacques Cortelyou, of New Utrecht, Long Island, and they were the parents of three sons and four daughters.
(VI) Abraham Voorhees, son of Abraham Lucasse and Neeltje (Cortelyou) van voor Hees, lived and died near Six Mile Run, Somerset county, New Jersey. He was twice married, the name of his first wife being Geertie and that of the second Marie. He was the father of six sons and three daughters.
(VII) Lucas Voorhees, son of Abraham and Geertie Voorhees, was born May 2, 1753, near Six Mile Run, New Jersey, and lived at Rocky Hill, in the same county. He married, November 16, 1775, Johanna Dumont, and they became the parents of four sons and three daughters. Lucas Voorhees died August 24, 1812, at his home at Rocky Hill.
(VIII) Isaac Lucas Voorhees, son of Lucas and Johanna (Dumont) Voorhees, was born March 22, 1793, at Rocky Hill, New Jersey, and for the greater part of his life resided near Six Mile Run. He married, June 5, 1813, Abigail, daughter of Isaac Isaacse Voorhees, and six sons and seven daughters were born to him. The death of Mr. Voorhees occurred October 26, 1867, near Six Mile Run.
(IX) Abraham (2) Voorhees, son of Isaac Lucas and Abigail (Voor- hees) Voorhees, was born September 18, 1817, near Six Mile Run, New Jersey, and in early life went to New Brunswick, where he engaged in the jewelry business, which he subsequently abandoned for banking and finance. For this sphere of action he was especially fitted and in it he soon rose to prominence. He was president of the old State Bank of New Brunswick, and his connection with the banking and financial interests of the city was productive of lasting results of great benefit to the community. Mr. Voorhees was a public-spirited and highly esteemed citizen, and was a member of the First Presbyterian church, in which he held the office of life elder and for twenty-nine years served as suprintendent of the Sunday school. He married (first) September 19, 1842, Jane, daughter of Jesse and Margaret P. (Russell) Jarvis, and two children were born to them: 1. Willard Penfield. 2. Laura Vir- ginia. died in infancy. Mrs. Voorhees died April 8, 1875, and Mr. Voorhees married (second) Martha J., daughter of John and Martha (Bell) Van Nostrand. The children of this marriage were: I. Howard Crosby, whose biography may be found on another page of this work. 2. Florence Eliot, died July 16, 1910; married John J. Voorhees, Jr., of the Voorhees Rubber Manufacturing Company; they have one child, Florence Eliot, born October 17, 1908. 3. Marion R., wife of Edgar J. Buttenheim, of Yonkers, New York; they have five children: Martha,
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Barbara, Donald, Curtis, and Constance. 4. Clifford Irving, mentioned below. Mr. Voorhees died in New Brunswick, June 9, 1892, and his widow passed away in that city, February 9, 1909.
(X) Clifford Irving Voorhees, son of Abraham (2) and Martha J. (Van Nostrand) Voorhees, was born August 4, 1884, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1902 he graduated from the Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey. In June, 1906, he received from Princeton University the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was fitted for his pro- fession at the New York Law School, New York City, graduating in 1909 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He also studied in the office of his brother, the late Justice Willard P. Voorhees, of the New Jersey Supreme Court, and in June, 1909, was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an attorney, and, three years later, as a counsellor. Since that time Mr. Voorhees has been engaged in the practice of his profession in his native city, specializing in corporation law and the settlement of estates. He is at the present time counsel for a number of estates in New Jersey and for several of the largest industrial plants in Mid- dlesex county.
During the World War, in 1918, he served as associate director of and counsel to the Department of Personnel, of the American Red Cross, at Washington, D. C.
In politics Mr. Voorhees is a Republican, and, despite the exacting demands of his profession has found time to testify to his public spirit by serving on the Board of Education. He is a member of the University Club of New York; the Ivy Club of Princeton University ; the Nassau Club of Princeton ; the Princeton Club of New York; the Union Club of New Brunswick; and the New Brunswick Country Club, of which he is a governor. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of New Brunswick; a director of the New Brunswick Trust Company ; a trustee of the Francis E. Parker Memorial Home; and a member of the Alumni Council of Lawrenceville School.
On April 5. 1915, Mr. Voorhees married Adelaide Bailey Parker, daughter of Francis Eyre and Henrietta Macaulay Parker (Stromberg), of New York and New Brunswick, the former deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Voorhees have three children : Frances Macaulay, born January 30, 1916; Willard Penfield, born January 21, 1918; and Clifford Irving, Jr., born February 20, 1921. The family home, "Rose Bank," is at Landing Lane, New Brunswick.
Both as a lawyer and a citizen Mr. Voorhees has been true to the honorable traditions of his ancestry, and his record is worthily incor- porated in the history of the family.
BENJAMIN WILLIAM ERICKSON .- The Erickson family has been a part of the social and business life of Middlesex county, New Jersey, for so many years that the associations and interests of the various members of it are all centered in this, their home section of the State.
Born in Stelton, New Jersey, December 9, 1882, Benjamin William Erickson was the son of Charles and Sabina Erickson, the former having
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been a farmer in this locality for many years. Both of his parents are now deceased. After finishing the course of study at the Stelton public school, young Erickson entered the Highland Park school, graduating in June, 1896. He then became a pupil in the Livingston Avenue High School of New Brunswick, where he took a course in commercial branches, from which he graduated in June, 1897. In September, 1897, Benjamin William Erickson started upon his business career by obtain- ing a position as office boy in the Consolidated Fruit Jar Company of Brunswick. For twenty-three years Mr. Erickson has been connected with this company, having been advanced step by step, being elected a director of it, and in May, 1918, was made secretary and treasurer of this widely known corporation on Water street.
Making his home in the Highland Park section, Mr. Erickson has been very active in the public work of the borough. In politics he is a Republican, and having been elected to the office of councilman on that ticket he took his seat, January 1, 1917, holding the position until his term ended, January 1, 1921. Mr. Erickson has been a member of the Board of Education of Highland Park since 1913, and has served as president of the board from 1916 to 1920. The work of the Young Men's Christian Association has greatly interested Mr. Erickson, and in addition to being a member of it, he is also on the board of directors. He is very enthusiastic upon the subject of fishing and hunting, out-of-doors sports appealing particularly to him. He is also affiliated with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
At Middlebush, New Jersey, October 30, 1907, Benjamin William Erickson was married to Charlotte E. Wilson, daughter of C. Asher and Cornelia J. Wilson. Three children have been born of this union: 1. Cornelia S., born April 28, 1909. 2. Helen G., born November 7, 191I. 3. Margaret, born May 13, 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Erickson with their children reside at No. 27 North Seventh avenue, Highland Park.
FRANK DORSEY, former mayor of Perth Amboy, and for many years one of the most conspicuous figures in the public and business life of the community over which he presided as chief magistrate, is a native of the city, born August 24, 1879. He is a member of a family that is prominent in the general life of the place. His grandfather, Thomas Dorsey, came from Ireland and settled in Pennsylvania many years ago. One of the sons of Thomas Dorsey was Edward Joseph Dorsey, who was born in the town of Gordon, Pennsylvania, and came as a young man to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and resided here for forty years, up to the time of his death, January 24, 1917. For thirty- seven years he was supervisor of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at this point and had charge of one hundred and eighty-seven miles of the main line of the railroad. He married Isabella Dunham, a member of an old Perth Amboy family, where her birth occurred, and who sur- vives him. Edward Joseph and Isabella (Dunham) Dorsey. were the parents of five children, as follows: Thomas Edward, who resides in Perth Amboy and is associated with Mayor Dorsey in the large coal
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and ice interests of the place; Frank, with whose career we are here especially concerned; Charles H., general agent of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Perth Amboy; John Walter, who is now engaged in the plumbing business in Perth Amboy, married Bessie Bain; and Isabella, a teacher in the Perth Amboy public schools.
The childhood of Frank Dorsey was passed in his native city, where as a boy he attended the local public schools for a time. He was ex- tremely ambitions to become established in business, however, and at the age of twelve left his studies and became a delivery boy for one of the local butchers. His father was connected with the Lehigh Valley Railroad at that time, and he next secured a position as messenger boy for that corporation and continued to serve in that capacity for abont three years. At the close of the three years he went to Newark, New Jersey, and attended the Newark Business College, where he took a four-year commercial course, upon the completion of which he became associated with his father and brother in a coal business established by the former in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This concern prospered highly and is now known as the Dorsey-Knowles Coal Company, Mr. Dorsey being its president. Mr. Dorsey has also become associated with a number of large commercial concerns in Perth Amboy and elsewhere, and is a member of the firm of E. J. Dorsey & Sons, dealers in coal and ice in Perth Amboy, and president of the Dorsey-Decker Ice Com- pany of Staten Island. He is also president of the E. J. Dorsey & Sons Investment Company, prominent dealers in real state; vice-president of the Perth Amboy Trust Company, and a director and one of the organ- izers of the City National Bank of Perth Amboy.
Mr. Dorsey has always been keenly interested in public affairs, and for a number of years has been prominent in the ranks of the Democratic party in this section of the State. He was elected mayor of Perth Amboy in 1918 on his party's ticket, and gave the city an efficient and business- like administration which won the approval of all classes of citizens. He is prominent in social, fraternal and club circles in Perth Amboy, and is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, serv- ing for a number of years as trustee of the order, and for the past nine years has been past master in Townley, New Jersey, and a member of the East Jersey Club. He has always been strongly attracted to athletic sports and finds particular pleasure in good boxing.
Frank Dorsey was united in marriage, April 20, 1907, with Ethel Gillis, a native of Bryan, Williams county, Ohio, and a daughter of Simeon and Myra (Ball) Gillis, old and highly respected residents of that place and now both deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey are the parents of one child. Frank Gillis, born December 20, 1908.
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