USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume II > Part 35
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Charles Henry Dunham was born in the village of Piscataway, Rari- tan township, Middlesex county, New Jersey, April 15, 1874. He attended the public schools of his district and completed the courses so thoroughly that he passed the New York State regents examination most creditably, receiving a certificate to that effect. He became associated with the drug business in New York City, but later decided to devote himself to dental surgery, and in 1896 entered the Philadelphia College of Dentistry, whence he was graduated, class of 1899. He did not locate in New Brunswick until 1902, but since then has continuously practiced there. He has been very successful, gaining a clientele which taxes him to properly care for it. He is modern and skillful, courteous and con- siderate, his pleasing personality winning him a host of friends. His religious faith is that of the Church of Christ (Scientist). His club is the Highland Park Civic, and he is a member of the Middlesex County Dental Society.
Dr. Dunham married, October 29, 1907, Emma Lydall Beekman, born in Highland Park, New Jersey, daughter of John and Emma Beekman, of ancient family. Dr. and Mrs. Dunham are the parents of three chil- dren : Olive Beekman, born August 9, 1908; Mildred Minerva, born Sep- tember 24, 1909; and Charles Henry, born January 19, 1911. The family home is at No. 52 North Sixth avenue, Highland Park, New Jersey, where Dr. Dunham indulges in his favorite recreation-home-gardening and the growing of trees, bushes and shrubs.
WILLIAM T. AMES .- As president of the First National Bank, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, Mr. Ames has also to be given credit for establishing, in his native village, this institution of which, as a "native son," he was glad to be the means of adding to the modern benefits of the village. Woodbridge was his birthplace and boyhood home, and he has for the venerable town a real affection.
William T. Ames, of English ancestry, father of the subject of this review, was born in New York City, where he was a substantial and suc- cessful business man. He married Sarah Ayres, and they were the par- ents of William T. Ames, born in Woodbridge, Middlesex county, New Jersey, February 12, 1869.
The son, William T. Ames, was educated in the public schools, finish- ing with graduation from Woodbridge High School, class of 1887. He
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began business life as messenger with the National Park Bank of New York City, and rose through various promotions to the position of pay- ing teller. In 1906 he organized the First National Bank of Wood- bridge, of which he was elected the first president. The First National Bank has been a successful institution from its beginning, and its found- ing and subsequent success reflect great credit upon Mr. Ames as organ- izer and executive. He has aided in the development of his town in every legitimate way, and has been a strong factor in the advance Woodbridge has made in recent years.
Mr. Ames served for two terms as member of the Board of Educa- tion ; was the first president of Sewaren Public Library ; was trustee of the Presbyterian church ; two years a member of the Township Commit- tee ; is secretary of Boynton Real Estate Company ; is a director of the Masonic Hall Association; is affiliated with Americus Lodge, No. 83, Free and Accepted Masons; is a member of the National Republican Club of New York ; and of the New York section of the Green Mountain Club. His favorite recreations are walking and motoring. Mr. Ames married, November 24, 1892, Helen Boynton, daughter of C. W. and Eunice Adelia (Harriman) Boynton, both born in New England. Mr. and Mrs. Ames are the parents of a son, Oliver B. Ames, an electrical contractor. The family home is in Sewaren.
SAMUEL BARRON BREWSTER, eldest son of George and Eliza Case (Barron) Brewster, was born in Woodbridge, New Jersey, March 28, 1872, and was educated in the public schools of that town. After serving as a mercantile clerk for three years, he entered in June, 1898, the grain business, as a member of the firm Cutter & Brewster. About 1905 he bought his partner's interest and continued alone, under the firm name S. B. Brewster, until 1909. He then admitted his brother, George Frederick Brewster, to a partnership. The business is wholesale and re- tail dealing in grain, feed, poultry supplies, hay, straw, and kindred lines. The original warehouse location, opposite the Pennsylvania Railroad freight station, was sold to the Woodbridge Lumber Company in 1916, when the Brewster Company moved into the new building which they had erected at the intersection of Main street and the Pennsylvania rail- road. This new building, forty feet front and one hundred sixty feet deep, includes warehouse, office and elevator.
Samuel Barron Brewster is a director of the First National Bank of Woodbridge, a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, a trustee of the Barron Library, member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Royal Arcanum, and the Junior Order United American Mechanics.
Mr. Brewster married, November 22, 1899, Ada Louise Wagner, daughter of Jacob Wagner, of Plainfield, New Jersey.
Samuel Barron Brewster is descended both on his father's and mother's side from old settlers in Woodbridge township. He is the sev- enth in descent from Nathaniel Brewster, born at Plymouth about 1620. This ancestor was graduated from the first class of Harvard in 1642. For over thirty years he was pastor of a church at Brookhaven, Long Island.
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From here, his descendants moved to New Windsor, New York. His great-grandson, Timothy Brewster, came to Woodbridge in 1779, and bought a farm consisting of a large tract of land bordering on Staten Island Sound. This land he bequeathed to his son, George Young Brewster.
George Young Brewster had four sons and two daughters. His son, Ezra Mundy Brewster, born in 1823, occupied this property until his death in 1896, when his son, Henry D. Brewster, inherited the prop- erty. In 1847 he married Letitia V. Brokaw, to whom were born three children : Elizabeth, Henry D., and William. Other children of George Young Brewster were: Catherine, born in 1821; Walter, born in 1824, married Rachel Coddington; Sarah Elizabeth, born in 1826, married Henry N. Demarest in 1845, and their children were: William, David, Charles, and Walter ; Albert, born in 1830; and George.
George Brewster, son of George Young Brewster, married Eliza Case Barron in 1863, and their children are: Sadie Barron; Amy Stewart, who married Benjamin Lander McNulty, April 28, 1896, and to whom have been born two children: Barron Lander, and Carrell Stewart; Louise; Samuel Barron; and George Frederick, who married Lillian Schatz, of Newark, September 24, 1914.
Eliza Case (Barron) Brewster is descended from Ellis Barron, who came to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1640, from the county of Water- ford, Ireland, where the family were known as the Barons of Burn- church. A grandson of this first Ellis Barron, also named Ellis Barron, came to Woodbridge about 1690. Samuel Barron, father of Eliza Case Barron, was a great-grandson of this Ellis Barron.
Samuel Barron was born in 1801 in the Episcopal Rectory in Wood- bridge. This old brick house was built by his grandfather, the first Samuel Barron, about 1750. It is said to be the first house built of brick in New Jersey. Though in business in Mobile for some twenty years, Samuel Barron spent most of his life in the old town, Woodbridge, where he purchased a farm, and where he died in 1870. The old homestead has recently been torn down. Tisdale Terrace and Grove avenue are streets which were originally a part of the old farm. He married, in 1839, Eliza Ann, daughter of Isaac S. Jaques, of Woodbridge. This lady, born in 1817, is the oldest resident of the township. The children of this union were: Eliza Case, who became the wife of George Brewster, and Sarah Romaine, who married, in 1871, William Henry Cutter, son of Hampton Cutter, who owned valuable clay mines ; the children of this union were : Hampton, and Laura Lucas. Sarah Romaine (Barron) Cutter died No- vember 1, 1911. William Henry Cutter died September 27, 1918.
Other descendants of Ellis Barron :
Deacon Joseph Barron, a grandson of Ellis Barron, was a deacon and pillar of the old Presbyterian church when the present church edifice was erected in 1803. In 1800 he erected the old Barron homestead on Rah- way avenue, Woodbridge, now occupied by Ernest Boynton.
Thomas Barron, son of Deacon Joseph Barron, was born in Wood- bridge in 1790, and died in New York in 1875, unmarried. He was the
ABLIC LILL AR 1
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G. Al. Thorn
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founder of the Barron Library, completed in 1877. This is a fine memo- rial building of Belleville brownstone, which very appropriately stands upon a corner of the property which was long known as the Barron home- stead.
John Barron, another son of Deacon Joseph Barron, was born in Woodbridge in 1792. He married Mary Conner, of Staten Island. Chil- dren of this union were: I. Frances M., born in 1833, married John Henry Campbell. 2. John C., born in 1837, married, in 1869, Harriot Williams; their children were: Thomas, Mary, Carlisle Norris, and John Conner. 3. Maria Louise, born in 1839, married, in 1857, Charles D. Fred- ericks ; their children are: Alfred DeForest; Louise Barron, who mar- ried Price Warick ; Gertrude Virginia, married William Stewart ; parents of two children : Katherine, and Gertrude ; and Barron.
Johanna Barron, born in Woodbridge, in 1802, was a great-grand- daughter of the first Ellis Barron. She married Samuel Warner and had three children : Joseph ; John ; and Johanna, who married Captain Slad- den.
John Ellis Barron, born in Woodbridge, in 1806, was another great- grandson of the first Ellis Barron to settle in Woodbridge. He married Mary Potter and their children were: Sarah Ann, who married William Finley ; and Julia Potter, now living in Brooklyn.
CHARLES H. THORN .- The history of the city of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, would be incomplete without the name of Charles H. Thorn. The Thorn family is a prominent one in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. George W. Thorn, Mr. Thorn's father, was born in that city. He was a well known and highly skilled physician, a man deeply devoted to duty, feeling the greatest sense of responsibility toward his fellowmen. He served his country through the entire period of the Civil War, then returned to his practice in Philadelphia, and died there at the age of seventy years. He married Eliza Dorsey, who was also born in Phila- delphia, and now resides in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She was born in September, 1844. They were the parents of three children, all of whom are now living: George, who is a resident of Scranton, and engaged in railroad interests; Charles H., whose name appears at the head of this review ; and Amanda, now the wife of Louis Worrick, of Scranton, Penn- sylvania.
Charles H. Thorn was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, June 18, 1870. He attended school in that city until he was eighteen years of age, then went to work in the coal mines to learn the coal industry, but remained there only three years. He then learned the machinist's trade, and also, while still living in Scranton, the trade of mason and bricklayer. Realiz- ing that the work nearest at hand is not always the work in which a man succeeds best, and feeling confidence in the practical foundation upon which he could fall back, Mr. Thorn struck out along the line of sales- manship. He traveled for a time, but found the work so much to his lik- ing, and his success so gratifying that he came to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and established a real estate business. This was in 1905, and Mr.
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Thorn soon made himself felt in the real estate circles of the rapidly grow- ing city, handling some very interesting deals. For four years, and dur- ing the period of the World War, Mr. Thorn gave up his business en- tirely, and placed his time at the disposal of the United States Govern- ment, putting all his energies into the arduous activities on this side which so vitally affected the progress of the war. He was all through the Morgan explosion, serving with the State militia. Mr. Thorn's place of business and residence are at No. 103 Gordon street, Perth Amboy. While deeply interested in public affairs, Mr. Thorn is not a party poli- tician, and always votes for the best man. He is a member of the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a very busy man, but spends his leisure, whenever possible, in the open air. He is fond of all outdoor sports, particularly camping and fishing.
Mr. Thorn married Ada Randolph, daughter of Edgar and Mary E. (Cole) Randolph. The Randolph family settled in Perth Amboy in the sixteenth century, and have lived in the vicinity ever since. Mr. and Mrs. Thorn's only child, Ada Randolph, was born April 14, 1908. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, although Mr. Thorn was born a Quaker, and his family had been Quakers since old Colonial times.
ELDON LEON LOBLEIN .- Following in the footsteps of his hon- ored father, Dr. Loblein is a successful veterinarian of New Brunswick, and prominent in its public life. A native son of Middlesex county, he has served a term in the county's legislative body, and has represented his city in the New Jersey House of Assembly. His father, Eldon Leon Loblein, Sr., was born in the Bermudas, West Indies, February 23, 1861, and in 1881 came to the United States, locating at New Brunswick, New Jersey, which was his home until his passing away, March 24, 1910. He was a graduate of the New York Veterinary College (now a department of New York University), receiving his degree in June, 1884. He took an active part in the public activities of the city, and for twelve years was a member of the Board of Education. For two years he was president of the Veterinary Medical Association of New Jersey, a member of the New Brunswick Club, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He married Emma Hend- ricks, born in New Brunswick, March 10, 1861, where she died, Novem- ber 26, 1901, leaving an only child, Eldon Leon (2).
Eldon Leon Loblein, Jr., was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, January 13, 1888. He was there educated in the public schools, and com- pleted high school courses with the graduating class of 1905, then spent two years in Rutgers College. In 1910 he was graduated V. M. D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and the same year began the practice of veterinary medicine and surgery in New Brunswick, his office and resi- dence at No. 177 Livingston avenue, and since his entrance into practice has been associated with Rutgers College, teaching veterinary science in both Rutgers College and Rutgers short courses in agriculture. He has been a member of the New Jersey Veterinary Association for the past ten
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years, and during that entire period has been its efficient secretary. Dr. Loblein has built up a good practice and is held in high esteem, both professionally and as a citizen.
Dr. Loblein has been active in civic affairs for many years, and was chosen in 1914 and 1915 to represent the New Brunswick district in the State Legislature. He served his term with credit, and in 1917 was elected a member of the Middlesex County Board of Freeholders for a term which expired in 1920. In this, the county lawmaking body, all local questions are considered, and the records show that Mr. Loblein has been faithful and efficient in his services. He is a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the K. O. K. A. Club, the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, the New Brunswick Boat Club, and the Protestant Episcopal church.
Dr. Loblein married, in New Brunswick, September 1, 1910, Helen Mae Oram, born in New Brunswick, daughter of Elmer E. and Mar- garet (Kibbe) Oram, her father a merchant at the corner of New and Schuyler streets. Dr. and Mrs. Loblein are the parents of three children : Eldon Oram, born May 25, 1911 ; Margaret Catherine, born February 24, 1913 ; and Janet, born August 21, 1916.
FRANK R. VALENTINE .- About the middle of the nineteenth century, James Valentine, a Washington market butcher, left his native New York and made a home in Woodbridge, New Jersey. In addition to founding a home and giving to Woodbridge a new family name he founded a business, for he was one of the pioneers in that great Middle- sex county industry, the mining of clay and the manufacture of clay products. In the fullness of time, James Valentine passed away, but his able sons, Mulford D. and James R. Valentine, continued the business until they too passed away. But a representative of the third generation was trained for the work, and Frank R. Valentine, son of James R. Val- entine, and grandson of James Valentine, is the able executive head of the business conducted under the corporate name, The M. D. Valentine & Brother Company, a name known wherever fire brick are used. The great development of the business came after 1870, under Mulford D. and James R. Valentine, they trading as M. D. Valentine & Brother, and under his honored uncle and father, Frank R. Valentine received the training which so well fits him for the important place he fills in the manufacturing world. He descends from ancient family, tracing to the early Dutch settlement of the valley of the Hudson, and to Revolutionary ancestors.
James Valentine was born in New York City, January 31, 1808, and in Woodbridge, New Jersey, died August 4, 1891. For many years he was engaged in business in Washington market, New York, a butcher. A considerable part of his life was spent in New York, but in 1843 he closed his interests and moved to Woodbridge, Middlesex county, New Jersey, where he died at the age of eighty-two. In Woodbridge he was a partner with William H. Berry and Alexander Brown in the mining and manu- facture of clay, and aided his sons to establish in business for themselves.
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His chief business in Woodbridge, however, outside of his clay interest, was caring for his own investments in real estate, for he prospered both in New York and in Woodbridge, his clay interests developing until the firm of William H. Berry & Company became the leading company in the business, a position they long maintained.
James Valentine married, April 2, 1829, Catherine Ackerman, born in New York, August 8, 1809, died in Woodbridge, New Jersey, April 10, 1898. Mrs. Valentine was a daughter of James Ackerman, and a grand- daughter of Nathan Wilkinson, who enlisted in the Continental army, February 13, 1776, and continued in the service until November 8, 1782, without asking or receiving any compensation. He was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and faithfully served liberty's cause. Lieutenant Nathan Wilkinson's daughter, Esther, married James Ackerman, of New York, and their daughter, Catherine, married James Valentine, whose ancestry is traced in New York to the year 1632, when two of the Valen- tine name came from Holland and settled, one on Long Island, the other in Westchester county, New York, James Valentine tracing from the Westchester county settler. James and Catherine (Ackerman) Valentine were the parents of fourteen children, nine of whom grew to years of maturity : 1. Maria E., married Josiah Drake. 2. William, married Mar- tha Coddington. 3. Benjamin, married Mary Eldridge. 4. Robert M., married (first) Deborah Dally, (second) Mary D. Mercer, who still sur- vives him. 5. Mulford D., now deceased, a veteran of the Civil War, and long identified with his brother, James R., in the firm, M. D. Valentine & Brother, manufacturers of fire brick and drain pipe ; he married Rachel D. Camp, who yet survives him. 6. James R., of further mention. 7. Howard, married Augusta Warner, who yet survives him. 8. Edwin W., married Emma Harned, both living in 1921. 9. Oscar G., married Marie D. Coley, both living. This was a remarkable family, eight sons, the only daughter, the first born. All of these sons resided in Woodbridge, New Jersey, and the daughter married there. In this review the career of the fifth son, James R., is traced, Mulford D., the fourth son, being also of extended mention in this work.
James R. Valentine, better known as Ross Valentine, was born in New York City, October 11, 1845, and died in Woodbridge, New Jersey, June 24, 1919. He was but a child when his parents moved to Wood- bridge, New Jersey, the family home at the corner of Perth Amboy ave- nue and Main street still standing. He was educated in the public schools and Elm Tree Institute, and after school days were over he became asso- ciated with his brother, Mulford D. Valentine, they forming the firm, M. D. Valentine & Brother. In 1865 they began the manufacture of bath brick, in 1867 they added drain pipe, and in 1868 fire brick were first made by them. That business they developed to a high degree, the company owning their own clay fields, and operating two plants, one at Valentine Station and one at Woodbridge. Fire brick became the company's chief product and that product M. D. Valentine & Brother shipped to all parts of the United States. Year by year the business increased, the firm attaining leading rank among the fire brick manufacturers of the coun- try. The firm established an unassailable reputation for business integ-
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rity and reliability, and the partnership between the brothers begun in 1865 continued until 1911, when it was dissolved by the death of Mulford D. Valentine.
The business was incorporated as The M. D. Valentine & Brother Company, and at the time of his death, in 1919, James R. Valentine was its honored president. He was a man of public spirit, a friend of every forward movement and a good citizen, but averse to holding public office He was a member of the Masonic order, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Royal Arcanum, and the Methodist Episcopal church. He married Sarah A. Anness, who is also deceased, and they were the parents of two children; Frank R., of further mention; and Mary A., wife of C. R. Brown, of Woodbridge ; they have three children: Victoria A. Brown, J. R. Valentine Brown, and Florence May Brown.
Frank R. Valentine, only son of James R. and Sarah A. (Anness) Valentine, was born in Woodbridge, New Jersey, June 8, 1872. He was educated in private and public schools, Military Academy and the Pingry School of Elizabeth, New Jersey. In September, 1891, he entered the office employ of the M. D. Valentine & Brother Company, and later be- came secretary, and still later treasurer. Upon the death of James R. Valentine, in 1919, he was succeeded by Frank R. Valentine as president and general manager. The business has kept steadily on the increase, the company one of the oldest in the business and one of the most impor- tant. The company gave employment to three hundred men at their Woodbridge and Valentine Station plants, but the recent sale of the last named plant reduces the number somewhat.
In addition to the executive management of the M. D. Valentine & Brother Company, Frank R. Valentine is a director of the Perth Amboy Trust Company, Middlesex Title Guarantee and Trust Company, Perth Amboy & Woodbridge Railroad Company, the Seaboard Refractory, New Jersey Manufacturers' Casualty Insurance Company ; vice-president and director of the Didier-March Company, under the Alien Property Custodian ; the New Jersey Clay Miners' Manufacturing Association, of which he is vice-president; also member of the Refractory Manufac- turers' Association, and of the National Association of Manufacturers.
His fraternal affiliations are with Americus Lodge, No. 83, Free and Accepted Masons; New Jersey Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite; Salaam Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Woodbridge Council, Royal Arcanum; and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, Raritan Yacht Club, Men's Club, and in religious preference is an Episcopalian. He is intensely public-spirited, a man of action, deeply interested in all that concerns the welfare of his town and highly esteemed. Genial, courteous, friendly and considerate, he has a host of friends, and most worthily bears a name that has long been an honored one in Woodbridge and in the business world.
Mr. Valentine married, November 19, 1901, Grace E. Ellis, daughter of Hampton C. and Caroline (Van Name) Ellis. Mr. and Mrs. Valentine are the parents of three children: Carolyn, Mildred and Frank R., Jr. The family home in is Woodbridge.
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JOHN AUGUSTINE COAN, a native son, has given to South Amboy the strength of manhood, and in her avenues of professional and business opportunity, he has sought and found success. From the date of his admission to the Middlesex county bar, he has practiced law within her borders, and with her business institutions he is intimately connected both professionally and officially. He is a son of Patrick Joseph Coan, born in County Roscommon, Ireland, in October, 1839, and some years after his marriage came to the United States with his wife and two chil- dren. That was in 1870, and in Bordentown, New Jersey, on the banks of the Delaware he found a home. Soon afterward, however, he located in South Amboy, where, until his death, April 22, 1915, he was in the em- ploy of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He married Mary Shanagher, born in County Roscommon, in November, 1839, who still survives him in her eighty-second year. They were the parents of six children: Monsignor James J. Coan, rector of Queen of All Saints Roman Catholic Church, Brooklyn, New York; Mary C., widow of William Birmingham, of South Amboy ; Elizabeth A., wife of James F. McGuire, of Perth Amboy ; Pat- rick J., of South Amboy ; John A., of further mention ; Francis P., a law- yer, now city attorney for the city of South Amboy.
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