USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume II > Part 17
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N. York May 7th 1767 Mn'dy even
I again trouble you my dear Mrs. Burrowes with another epistle, tho' I know not whether you have received my last. I gave it to Ned Hammond last Monday who promised to send it by the first boat.
The Packet is not yet arrived from London tho' it is ten weeks last Wednesday since she sailed (by the accounts in the papers). My anxious heart forbodes a thousand ills for I know not whether Doctor Falck is not on board, so I am alarmed at his tedious passage. No doubt all is ordered for the best as: the Great first Cause rules over all, in all, and thro' all.
I am so impatient to be again in the Inchanted Castle that (whether the packet comes or not) I am determined to come back with Mrs. Brown the next frd'y.
I forgot to write you in my last that Mrs. Har- rison my father's new wife is in town; I just caught a glance of her yesterday in Queen Street,-as she walked past our door Miss Paty bid me look at my new mother-in-law. She was dressed like a girl of fifteen and the sight of her mortified me Prodigious- ly but I soon overcame it.
Present my love to Mr. Burrowes, and my pupils Caty and Hopey; and cease not to rank among the members of your Particular Friends her who is with the greatest esteem
My dr Mrs. Burrowes
Your friend
SARAH FALCK.
Strange as it may seem to twentieth-century ears, reference to handsome houses as enchanted castles seems to have been quite in vogue in Mrs. Bur- rowes' day. Colonel Byrd, of Westover, writing of Governor Spotswood's house at Germanna, dubbed it the "Enchanted Castle," and Charles Pickney and others of lesser renown have used it in their letters.
Sad to relate, Mrs. Falck never took her im- patiently awaited journey to the Burrowes en- chanted castle, but sailed for England a few days after her letter arrived at Middletown-Point. There, in later years, she no doubt visited many castles, enchanted or otherwise, as her husband became pro- tege of Sir Cilfton Wintringham, the Dutchess of Kingston, and other London notables. In Mrs. Falck's letters to Mrs. Burrowes bearing Revolu- tionary dates, there are references te new friends and acquaintances as "people of the first quality."
Life in the Burrowes Mansion in the old days before the fateful year of 1776 was beautiful, and ran gayly, almost as gayly as the little brook which sings to an army of young willow trees in a valley close by the house. It was a household of romping young people, composed of one son and four daugh- ters, two of the latter bearing the Burrowes name and two the Watson name. Fortune smiled on them, and burnished their roof-tree with her gol- den horn. Many a score of slaves filled the cabins at the back of the lane. There were fine horses and coaches, fine jewels and dresses for the female portion of the family, brought by the sailing vessels when returning from New York, fine liquors for the smiling punch-bowls, and, in fact, everything in connection with the family was fine, for they were one of the finest families in New Jersey.
At the outbreak of the Revolution, John Bur- rowes had been dealing largely in corn purchased from Monmouth farmers, and his many granaries were filled to overflowing. When the storm of the war, in its fury, abated, there was a greater de- mand for a supply of corn, and all the Whig families in the vicinity looked to him for their needs, and he earned his title of "Corn King Burrowes."
Tory neighbors, who had formerly been intimate with him, naturally envied his good fortune. Much to his annoyance, they planned raids to his corn- bins, which generally proved futile, owing to the vigilance of friends. As the British gained en- trance into Jersey these attacks became more and more frequent, and on one of them the tragedy oc- curred which gave the house its gruesome interest. Every year it is visited by a few roaming antiquar- ians, and as they mount the stairway, now slightly modernized, they always pause to wonder if the red spots on the boards are the blood-stains of young Mrs. Burrowes, who was stabbed for defying a band of red coats.
Mrs. Burrowes, nee Margaret Forman, one of Monmouth's Revolutionary martyrs, was the wife of Major John Burrowes, the only son of the "Corn King," and a sister of Mrs. Philip Freneau, the wife of the Revolutionary poet. Her marriage
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BIOGRAPHICAL
to Major Burrowes was the fifth marriage in the Burrowes family to be celebrated during the war, his sisters having been united to Dr. Henderson and Captain Forman, and his step-sisters, the Wat- son girls, to Colonel Holmes and General Still- well.
There was always the thought of long separa- tion and the grimmer reflection of death for peo- ple of prominence who married in those troublous days, when foes were ever on the alert, but the old time Jersey girls seem to have delighted in it. The greater the risk the more eager they seemed to join hands with those of their true loves, even though they bade them God-speed to the battle- field after the ceremony.
There is no knowing whether the Forman and Burrowes wedding was interrupted, but most likely not, as it was celebrated very quietly. The Taylors and other Tory families of prominence in the neighborhood soon learned of it. Though spies were set upon the movements of the bridegroom with a view of capturing him, he successfully baffled them until some months afterwards, when
they received the intelligence that he would visit his home. On that afternoon the Tories succeed- ed in getting word to the leader of "The Greens," an organized band of refugees on Staten Island, the terror of every Whig family for miles inland. They, immediately crossed to the Jersey shore, and arrived on the road to the Burrowes Mansion short- ly after midnight. We can picture the scene if we are at all familiar with the region. A June-time night, with a great full moon shining over the silent habitation lying by the road like some human thing with the breath of life gone out. The verdant foliage, so green at noonday, has a grayish tinge. The night's multitudinous voices have almost ceas- ed, and even the yellow road seems white and merged into the landscape.
Up the hilly road to the sleeping house the men from Staten Island come, but a friendly courier has been there a few minutes before them, and Major Burrowes had escaped from a back window.
Thinking the rebel safe in their net at last, the mob broke in the great front door and entered the house, led, so tradition says, by Broomfield, after- wards notorious at Fort Griswold.
The family had been awakened by the courier's warning, and Mrs. Burrowes, clad only in her night- robe, with a shawl thrown about her shoulders, started to descend the stairway when the door fell in.
A British officer was accidentally shot in the me- lee outside, and when the men entered the house, one of them, spying Mrs. Burrowes' shawl, de- manded it to stanch his superior's wounds. "Never for such a purpose," she replied; and the soldier, infuriated, thrust his sabre into her breast, giving a wound which caused her death. Chagrined at the escape of Major Burrowes, and not content at his wife's suffering, the cry was raised to seize the "Corn King." He was bound and carried off to a prison ship, and incarcerated for several months,
but was eventually released through Dr. Hender- son's efforts.
The house was pillaged and the granaries and storehouses burned, but by a miracle the mansion itself escaped. The house is in a good state of preservation, and is owned and occupied by the family of the late Benjamin F. S. Brown, news- paper publisher. Except for increasing the porch, little change has been made since the days Mra. Falck longed to come back to her "enchanted castle," and John Burrowes sailed his line of ves- sels in and out of Kearney-Port, and wrote to his "dear wife" from New York,-Every time I sail away from you-even for a short time-I find my thoughts directed to my Jersey home and loved ones."
ARTHUR MARMONT BROWN-At the time of his passing, Arthur M. Brown was cashier of the Keyport Banking Company, but that was only one phase of his busy life, for he was actively interested and identified with every movement that contributed to the development of the community in which his years, fifty-seven, had been passed. He was & son of Thomas Stephen Rezeau Brown, and a grand- son of Benjamin L. Brown, who was born in Brown- town, Middlesex county, New Jersey. Benjamin L. Brown married Susannah Rezeau, and they were the parents of ten children: Thomas S. R., of further mention; Richard, Charles M., Cornelius H., Amos, Adelia, Margaret, Jane, Sophia, and Elix- abeth.
Thomas S. R. Brown was born in South Amboy township, (then Madison) Middlesex county, New Jersey, September 8, 1823, died in Keyport, New Jersey, June 4, 1892. In 1846 he established in business in Keyport, New Jersey, as a contractor and builder, and for twenty years conducted that business very successfully. He erected many dwell- ings and buildings in and around Keyport and made it a profitable business. About 1866 he turned his attention to the growing of oysters and engaged heavily in that business, planting large areas in the lower bay and selling to the New York market. H. also at about the same time (1866) engaged in hardware, lumber and coal dealing, building up an important mercantile house, of which he was the capable head until his death. He had a part in founding all the important corporations of the town, and at the time of his death was president of the First National Bank of Keyport, now the Keyport Banking Company, and president of the Matawan and Keyport Gas Company.
In politics Mr. Brown was an ardent Democrat, serving in many political positions, representing his townships as committeeman, school trustee and freeholder, sitting in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature, and at the time of his death was repre- senting Monmouth county in the State Senate. H. was a member of the House in 1866 and 1867, serv- ing as a member and as chairman of several im- portant committees.
Thomas S. R. Brown married, May 5, 1858, in
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BIOGRAPHICAL
Keyport, Mary Beers, daughter of John M. and Huldah (Morrell) Beers, and they were the parents of a son, Arthur M., to whose memory this review is offered.
Arthur M. Brown, son of Senator Thomas S. R. and Mary (Beers) Brown, was born in Keyport, New Jersey, July 12, 1859, and there died July 14, 1916. He was educated in Keyport public schools, and Glenwood Institute, Matawan, New Jersey, fin- ishing his studies at the latter institution. In 1878, at the age of nineteen, he entered the employ of his father in his mercantile business, continuing with him until 1884, when he became a bookkeeper in the First National Bank, of Keyport, an institution that was succeeded in 1889 by the Keyport Banking Company.
For sixteen years Arthur M. Brown continued in the service of the bank under both its titles, then was appointed cashier of the Keyport Banking Company, a position he ably filled for another six- teen years, and until his death. Like his honored father, Mr. Brown had a hand in every movement that promised to inure to the benefit of Keyport, and was ready with his means to further any enter- prise for the development of the community. For seven years he was treasurer of the Keyport and Matawan Street Railway Company, and for twenty- four years was treasurer of the Second Keyport Loan Association. He served the Keyport Bank- ing Company as director as well as cashier, and was regarded as a safe, sound and conservative banker. While a Democrat in politics, Mr. Brown was not partisan and was rated as an independent voter. He never sought nor held a political office, although in 1887 he consented to accept appoint- ment to fill out an unexpired term as township col -. lector of taxes. He was a man of high personal character, just and fair in his dealings, and was highly regarded as citizen and neighbor.
Arthur M. Brown married, in Keyport, Decem- ber 12, 1883, Minnie Adelaide Pearce, who survives him, daughter of Benjamin Brown and Martha Alice (Clark) Pearce. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Brown: Mary Gladys, married Arthur S. Van Buskirk, an attorney of Keyport; Valda, born December 28, 1886, died aged four months. Mrs. Brown is a member of the Baptist church, of Keyport, her daughter a member of the Reformed church.
JOHN H. COOK-The Red Bank "Register" and the life of its editor, John H. Cook, are so blended together in the general public mind of Monmouth county that they are inseparable. The paper was started in 1878 by Mr. Cook in connection with his brother-in-law, Henry Clay, but the latter retired after a few months, and since that time Mr. Cook has been in sole charge of the editorial policy of the paper. The "Register" has grown from a paper of four pages to one five or six times that size. There has been no change in the subscription price of the paper, which remains at $1.50 per year, the same as when the paper was started in 1878.
The "Register" has prospered in every way. A disastrous fire in the early history of the paper en- tirely destroyed the plant, but this loss was soon overcome. Since that time each year has seen an advance in all departments over the previous year. The paper has always been absolutely independent, both politically and in every other way. In fact the "Register" has been so thoroughly indepen- dent along all lines and reflects the views of Mr. Cook so consistently that it is commonly said of it that it is not a Republican paper nor a Democratic paper, but a John H. Cook paper.
In 1910 Mr. Cook incorporated a company to carry on the business, giving to six young men in his employ stock in the newspaper company with- out cost to them. This virtually made the "Regis- ter" a co-operative enterprise, and the paper has since been conducted on that plan. The present six stockholders, in addition to Mr. Cook, are: Thomas Irving Brown, George C. Hance, William P. Hugg, Charles K. Humrichouse, James J. Hogan and William Henry Pennington, each of whom is in charge of one of the departments of the newspaper.
Mr. Cook enjoys foreign travel and for many years past he has spent several months each year in this recreation, except when interrupted by the war. He has visited almost every country on the globe, but his greatest delight was found in visiting primitive peoples and uncivilized countries.
Mr. Cook is descended from the early colonists of this country. His mother's ancestors came to this country from Holland in 1680, and his father's ancestors came to this country from England in 1690. Mr. Cook was born in Jersey City, New Jer- sey, but his life from early boyhood has been spent in Red Bank and its immediate vicinity.
In 1881 Mr. Cook married Elizabeth Hope Clay, daughter of Henry Clay, of Red Bank. Mrs. Cook died in 1910. In 1914 Mr. Cook married Alice Appleget, daughter of John S. Appleget, of Red Bank, and she has accompanied Mr. Cook on all his travels since their marriage.
Mr. Cook is fond of books and has a library of 5,000 to 6,000 volumes, consisting principally of works of philosophy, poetry, travels, natural his- tory and nature books. At one time Mr. Cook was a collector of first editions of his favorite authors. His collection of the first editions of the works of Philip Freneau, the "poet of the Revolution," whose home was in Monmouth county, is said to be one of the finest and most complete in existence.
ISAAC C. KENNEDY-A half a century is not far to travel back into the past, but he who stood on the site of Ocean Grove, New Jersey, a half cen- tury ago would have found little there except a beautiful beach, a thick scrub pine thicket and the stakes driven by Isaac C. Kennedy, and his father, Frederick H. Kennedy, to locate the corners, metes and bounds of a place called by some enthusiastic Methodists Ocean Grove, F. H. Kennedy & Son be- ing the engineers employed to plot and map the tract. A little later another enthusiast, one James
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Joan A. Cook.
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ISAAC 5. KENNEDY.
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BIOGRAPHICAL
A. Bradley, a brainy New York City business man, had a vision that materialized in another place that was called Asbury Park. Isaac C. Kennedy was the engineer who plotted that second wonder community that was to grow up at this point, then seven miles from the nearest railroad, and prac- tically uninhabited. These two men, Kennedy & Son, had a great deal to do with the development of the Jersey coast from Long Branch south, they as engineers planning and laying out Ocean Grove in 1870, Elberon in 1871, and Asbury Park in 1872-74, these resorts being the forerunners of that wonder- ful chain of resorts from Long Branch southward to Barnegat Bay.
Frederick H. Kennedy came from Peapack, Som- erset county, New Jersey, to Monmouth county, in 1853, locating in Long Branch, where with his father-in-law, Isaac Crater, he built and owned the United States Hotel, at that time the most notice- able hotel at that most famous of all American summer resorts. In 1856 he sold his interest in the United States Hotel to his brother-in-law, John A. S. Crater, and in the spring of 1857 moved to a large farm he had bought at Deal, New Jersey. There he engaged in farming, and in the pursuit of his profession, for he was a skilled civil engineer and surveyor, and did a great deal of surveying and other engineering in Monmouth county. He lived to see these settlements grow to be prosper- ous communities, although the great development came after his death at Deal, New Jersey, Sep- tember 9, 1881.
Frederick H. Kennedy married Mary Ann Crater, daughter of Isaac and Ann (Arrowsmith) Crater, who survived her husband and died at Asbury Park, New Jersey, April 7, 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy were the parents of four children: Anna; Isaac C., of further mention; Julia E., married John T. Lov- ett; and Alida C., who died August 18, 1888.
Isaac C. Kennedy, only son of Frederick H. and Mary Ann (Crater) Kennedy, is a grandson of Henry (3) and Julia Ann (Honnel) Kennedy, of Peapack (now Gladstone), Somerset county, New Jersey; great-grandson of Henry (2) and Mary (Quick) Kennedy, of Kennedy's Mills (later Vliet's Mills), Somerset county; great-great-grandson of Henry (1) Kennedy, a Scotch Presbyterian, who came to the American Colonies prior to 1735, set- tling at Amwell, Hunterdon county, New Jersey.
Isaac C. Kennedy, the subject of this sketch, was born at Peapack, Somerset county, New Jersey, November 27, 1850, but since 1853 has lived in Mon- mouth county, Long Branch becoming the family home in that year, and Deal, in the same county, in 1857. He attended the district schools, and after completing his school years began the study of civil engineering and surveying under his capable father. He was twenty years of age when they plotted and surveyed the tract which was bought by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, and named Ocean Grove, and twenty-one when he accepted a commis- sion to plot, survey, lay out and provide a system
of drainage for a place opposite Ocean Grove, to be known as Asbury Park. The drainage system was a problem, but Mr. Bradley would listen to no compromise, and Asbury Park was the first seaside resort in the United States to have a perfect system of drainage.
With his work completed and Asbury Park a cer- tainty, Mr. Kennedy retired from engineering in 1877 and began the study of law under the precep- torship of the late John E. Lanning, then prosecu- tor of the pleas for Monmouth county. He was ad- mitted to the bar at the November term, 1881, of the New Jersey Supreme Court, and at once began the practice of law in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and has there been engaged in the practice of his chosen profession until the present time, specializing in the law of real estate, chancery, probate and cor- poration practice. He is an authority on land titles and has always ranked with the strong men of the Monmouth county bar. His corporation practice included the public corporations, Atlantic Coast Electric Railroad Company, The Seashore Electric Railway Company and West End and Long Branch Railroad Company, successfully piloting those cor- porations through much litigation. He was solicitor for the Atlantic Coast Realty Company, a million dollar corporation, from its inception in 1897 to its successful winding up in 1912-20. At the present time he is counsel for the estate of James A. Brad- ley, founder of Asbury Park. He possessed Mr. Bradley's confidence, and hand in hand with him founded the principles upon which a successful en- terprise can be built. It is to such a man as Isaac C. Kennedy that Asbury Park owes its very being, and it is right that the new Asbury Park should know these facts.
Mr. Kennedy married, January 9, 1884, Rebecca Jennette Metz, of Wilmington, Delaware, who died November 5, 1890, leaving a son, Frederick Lau- rence Kennedy, born November 17, 1884, who died August 9 1904.
JOHN ENRIGHT - He who would write a. history of education in Monmouth county would find in John Enright a prolific source of informa- tion, and if he would give his own part in building up the great system that prevails in the county, valuable material would be secured, for John Enright was one of the men whom Dr. Lock- wood, county superintendent, leaned on and who worked with him to place Monmouth county schools on a higher plane, and who organized, selected the course of study, and was principal of the first graded school in Monmouth county. As a teacher he was always deeply in earnest concerning his work, and every school he ever taught was crowded to ca- pacity, his very earnestness contributing to his popu- larity with his scholars. As county superintendent for twenty-one years he went to the extreme limit in securing for the schools every advantage accord- ed by law, and out of the confusion and opposition of a new township school act in 1894 brought order
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MONMOUTH COUNTY
and beseft. The teachers of the two decades, 1873- 1804, wil remember Jobs Enright as the member of the examining bards they had to face and whose dictum made and sacara them according as their Japeri decidet. Probably more teachers have pass- ed their quest'se paran rp for John Enright's ex- amination than bare tank as to any other man, and no teacher ever greens the future of his mark- ings. His messed a water and oficial is thus summarized: Tracker of a one room school for three years; ovency superintendent for twenty-one years; teacher and. principal in high school for twenty years; atrast commissioner of education for the State of New Jersey six years, and present State commissioner .! +turation. From the time that he began teaching be was the intimate friend of Dr. Samuel Lockwood, who for many years was superintendent of Monmouth county schools, and with whom he collaborated for seven years in scien- tine research.
To the teachers of Monmouth county and to those interested in educational work John Enright was al- ways regarded as a friend, his official visits having more the character of a friendly visit than of an inspection. That feeling of friendliness always ex- isted, and while his duties an assistant commissioner and State commissioner of education have taken him away from Monmouth county most of the times, that spirit of friendliness continues and his wel- come home is always warm and genuine.
John Enright was born at Colts Neck, Monmouth county, New Jersey, April 2%, 1952. He was a farmer boy, who after reaching nine years of age could only attend school during the winter months. He was carefully taught, both by example and pre- cept, the importance of industry, and right well he improved the lessons and advantages of his boy- hood. At the age of seventeen, in 1869, he entered New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton, whence he was graduated in 1871, a qualified teacher with the authority, the inclination and ability to teach.
With authority from the State of New Jersey to teach, he accepted an office from the Orchard School in Freehold, the county seat of Monmouth county. Fresh from the normal instruction, he in- troduced the methods there taught and the Orchard School became so popular with the scholars that a private house was used as an annex and an assistant teacher engaged. John Enright was never allowed to leave Freehold until he passed from the teaching ranks. The stimulus of his teaching led to the erec- tion of a new central building in Freehold, and upon its completion in 1875, John Enright was the unani- mous choice of the board of trustees for the office of principal. This was the first graded school in Monmouth county, starting with two hundred and twenty-five scholars and five teachers in 1875. In 1885 the school had an enrollment of six hundred pupils and fourteen teachers, Mr. Enright continuing its head even after becoming county superintendent in 1894. The school attracted a very large number
of non-resident pupils, and maintained a standard of study unexcelled by any school in the State.
In 1891 Mr. Enright was elected president of the New Jersey State Teachers' Association, and i 1894 was elected superintendent of public instrie- tion for Monmouth county, an office he held unti 1915. Following that election he was obliged to give up much of his active teaching, but his interest never lessened. He took the office of county super- intendent under favorable conditions, for he had for twenty-one years, 1873-1894, served on the County Board of Examiners of Teachers, which board was charged with the licensing of all thon who applied for positions in the county school This had given him county-wide acquaintance, while his intimacy with his predecessor in office, Dr. Lock- wood, had still further qualified him for the posi- tion.
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