USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume III > Part 37
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Deeply religious, the sanctity and quiet of the Sabbath was strictly observed. He attended church in the morning regularly, irrespective of the weather; permitted no work or labor to be done at any time during the day, except what was absolutely necessary. The reading of the Sunday newspapers were an abomination; a Sunday excur- sion, a calamity; and a base-ball game on the Lord's Day, about one of the worst things that could happen. He was for over half a century a communicant of the old "Brick Church" and many years an elder and member of its consistory, and active and liberal in all things that pertained to the interest of the church and its welfare. A constant reader of the Bible, temperate, never known to utter an oath, kind to the poor and needy as he was to all honest in his dealings with his fellow-men, he was held in high esteem by his neighbors, and was a man of much local influence. Possessed of a fine tenor voice, for up- wards of forty years he was the choir leader, long before the day of musical instruments, when the tunes and hymns were started with a tuning-fork, which was used to detect the pitch in music. He lived to see the advent of bass viol, and violin, melodeon, parlor organ, piano, and finally the pipe organ, and he was actively helpful in securing all these in their day, as an aid to worship in the church.
His long life covered a period of great events, in the history of the country, in all of which he was more or less interested. Being somewhat of a reader, and fond of travel, his conversation upon the changes that he had witnessed, and the im- provement, advancement and growth of the coun- try during his life time, was a treat to the listen- er. Mr. Smock was among the first passengers on the Camden and Amboy railroad, the oldest steam road in the United States; and before the days of railroads, he had traveled as far west as Illi- nois, and through the New England and New York states, by canal, stage coach and horseback. At the time of the death of his father, who died suddenly of heart disease, he was on a journey in New York State, and received the sad and unexpected news at Poughkeepsie. He reached home by these primitive means of travel, the day the funeral cortege was on its way to the cemetery. His chil- dren by the first marriage were: 1. Milton, born September 21, 1839; married Elizabeth DuBois,
March 5, 1862; died June 6, 1891. 2. DeWit born September 27, 1841; died in infancy, April 2 1842, a few days after the death of his mothe
Milton Smock was a successful farmer az breeder of high grade Jersey cattle; in this fea ure, the breeding of registered Jerseys, he wi conspicuously successful. Prominent as a Grange he was worthy master of Liberty Grange, No. 9 Monmouth county, for three successive terms, d clining re-election. He also represented his Gran as a delegate to State conventions, four consec tive years, and at the time of his death, was director of the Farmers' Reliance Insurance Cor pany, of West Jersey. Of a genial, kindly, quie but arnest life, he, for many years, was a memb and officer in the Reformed church, at Bradeve' the church of his fathers; and was always fou true to duty and right.
The children of Daniel Polhemus Smock ar his second wife, Sarah Jane DuBois were: Dani DuBois, of whom further; Aaron, of further me tion; Ann P., born December 13, 1851; Elizabeth I born September 25, 1853, married Willie Wilst Ketcham, of Newark, August 28, 1907; Jane \ born October 15, 1861, married Richard H. Bro head, of Flemington, New Jersey, March 6, 1890.
Daniel DuBois Smock, named after h mother's father, was born, May 29, 1849, on h father's farm in Atlantic township, near the villa; of Marlboro, where he spent the most of his ear life. Doing his share of the work and duties a pertaining to farm life, he became familiar wi farming in all its branches. He was educated the district schools in the vicinity of his hom and by private tutors, with his brother and sister in their home; in Weedhulls Institute, Freehol New Jersey; Grammar School, New Brunswic New Jersey; and Rutgers College, New Brun wick, class of 1872, scientific section, but wi forced by illness to give up his college course t] year before graduating. He read law during tl winters of 1874 and '75, in the law firm of Ro bins and Hartshorne, at Freehold, and with Ho William H. H. Russell, New York City, in 1876. F taught school in 1877 and '78, in the Bradeve' New Jersey, District School. The practice of la not appealing to him, he entered into business New York City, 1881 to 1887, during this peri living in Brooklyn, New York. He was appoint assistant dredging inspector, in 1888 and '89, at Je sey City Terminal, Lehigh Valley railroad, al lived in Jersey City. He resigned to take char of the homestead farm on account of the conti ued ill-health of his father, managing it until h death. The year after his father's death, the far was sold in the settlement of the estate, and with his mother and sisters, Ann and Elizabet moved to Matawan, New Jersey, where they I sided about two years, removing from there to R Bank where he has lived practically ever since.
In politics he is a Democrat, and has ber secretary of the Red Bank Democratic Club, f several years. He was elected by his party,
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justice of the peace, November, 1916, by a large majority, in a Republican borough, and re-elected without opposition, November, 1920. He was ap- pointed by Governor Edward I. Edwards, of New Jersey, a notary public, January 1921.
He is a member of the New Jersey Sons of the American Revolution; Monmouth Chapter, No. 5, Sons of the American Revolution; and Monmouth County Historical Association, serving first, for sev- eral years, on the publication committee, afterwards on the auditing committee, and, at present, on the genealogy committee.
A zealous member and supporter of the Dutch Reformed church, he became a communicant in his youth, of the "Brick Church," at Bradevelt, the mother church of this denomination in the county, and he with his brother, Aaron, after their removal to Red Bank, and with William W. Letson, now of Somerville, New Jersey, were prac- tically the founders of the First Reformed Church of Red Bank.
Mr. Smock, while not posing as a litterateur, is an interesting writer, and the author of numer- ous articles on agriculture, and on social, religious and political subjects, that have received much favorable notice. He is well read, and has ad- vanced ideas of affairs, and a considerable know- ledge of local history-of men, and his country, and current events. A loyal friend, he does not stand for anything like injustice, and his kind- liness of heart and sense of humor, and devotion to the ideals of life, are prominent traits of his character. About 1881 he began to contribute to the Monmouth "Democrat" published at Freehold, articles on various topics, principally news from his home town, and some letters of travel. "From 1886-88 the Atlantic Highlands "Independent" had a weekly interesting half-column, 'Our Marlboro Letter' by D. DuBois Smock," says the New York "Tribune," of that time.
Among the most prominent articles, which provoked more or less criticism and comment, published in various journals, were: "What Harm in the Modern Dance?," "Need Wars Be?," "Span- ish Cruelty," "Death of President Mckinley," pub- lished in the Matawan "Journal," in 1898. From 1906 to 1910, a series of articles on farming, for the New Jersey "Standard," published at Red Bank, on the following topics: "The Lot of the Farmer," "The Influence of the Farmer," "Farm- ers Should Enter Politics," "Farming," "An Analysis of the soil," "Basic Principles of the Soil," "The Value of Marl as a Fertilizer," Plowing and Cultivation," "The Potato and its Culture," "The Tomato and its Culture and Uses," 'Corn and its Cultivation," "Farm Animals," "Good Management on the Farm is Essential," "The Tiller of the Soil is the Backbone of the Nation," "Wheat and Rye," "Winter on the Farm," "The Value of Manure,' "The Care of Lawns," "Agriculture in the Schools," "The Farmer's Gain," all considered as valuable con- tributions to the literature of agriculture, and "Mer- ry Christmas."
In 1912, a series of five political articles were published for the Long Branch, New Jersey, "Record:" "Why Protection?"; advocating the elec- tion of Woodrow Wilson for the presidency of the United States; and endorsing the principals of the Democratic party, in "Tariff for Revenue Only;" also two articles in favor of women's suf- frage.
In 1917, was written "The Travelling Evan- gelist," condemning that mode of religious work, published in the Monmouth "Democrat"; and "Success" in the New Jersey "Standard."
In 1918, a series of four articles appeared on "How Plants Grow," published in the New Jersey "Standard;" and articles pricipally in the nature of news items, with remarks, for the local news- papers, and short stories on local history.
Aaron Smock was born August 16, 1850; mar- ried Arabella Wilson, daughter of Hon. Arthur Wilson, a well-known and influential citizen of the county; died, February 8, 1921. He received his early education, with his brothers and sisters, by pri- vate tutors, finishing in his case at the Freehold, New Jersey, Institute, and began his life's work upon his father's farm. He became, like him, an active, progressive, and successful farmer, and a well-informed horticulturist, understanding and practicing the budding and grafting of fruit trees and the fertilization and cross-fertilization of plants, keeping honey bees as much for this latter purpose as for the honey they made.
He retired about twenty-five years before his death, and lived the remainder of his life in Red Bank, New Jersey. He always kept up his inter- est in agriculture and horticulture, and the beauty and abundance of the vegetables and fruits and flowers, in his well-kept garden and lawns, made his home the show place of the neighborhood; and his willingness to share these things which he grew with his neighbors and friends, won for him the cordial good will of all. Modest and un- assuming, he lived a quiet and uneventful life, enjoying the comforts and fellowship of his home and family, for whose happiness he considered no sacrifice too great. He never frittered away life in interests that were small and mean, and his fam- ily and all who knew him will treasure the sterling integrity of his character. One of the founders, and a member of the First Reformed Church of Red Bank, of which he was treasurer for several years, and a member of its first consistory, he was a "kind- ly soldier of the Cross." In politics he was a Democrat, but not in any way an aggresive party man.
Identified, as this family has been, with the Reformed (Dutch) church, since their settlement in this country, this last addition of this denomin- ation, the First Reformed Church of Red Bank, New Jersey, to the Classis of Monmouth, is a part of he history of the family.
The mission from which this church has grown was started in the woods, where the pres- ent Union Hose Company house now stands on
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Shrewsbury avenue, in 1888. Meetings were held every afternoon, conducted by the different de- nominations of the town, until cold weather. In October a vacant store building, on Herbert street, was rented, and services were continued there over a year. The next move was in the Millward building, on the corner of Shrewsbury avenue and Herbert street. These premises were rented, and occupied, and used for religious services dur- ing the years 1890 and '91, when the two lots on the corner of Shrewsbury avenue and Leonard street, on which the present church now stands, were purchased, June 2, 1892. From Grace Meth- odist Episcopal Church, a chapel building, which stood on Broad street, and which had been their first church building, was bought soon afterwards, and moved on one of these lots. A Sunday school was started in 1890, while occupying the Millward building, which has always been well attended and very successful. The organization was also incor- porated in 1890, under the name of the "Christian Association of Red Bank, New Jersey."
Harmony and activity have always been char- acteristic of the association from the beginning, representing as it did among its members and workers, nearly all creeds and religious beliefs- Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Reformed, Episcopalians and Adventists.
It became apparent to those interested, that the time and opportunity had come, when a reg- ularly organized church and stated preaching ser- vices were needed in the fast-growing section of West Red Bank. The field was offered, first, to the different denominations which had been minis- tering to this people, but they could not see their way clear to accept it. Finally the matter was placed before the Classis of Monmouth, of the
Reformed church, and, October 8, 1901, at the earnest solicitations of D. DuBois Smock and William W. Letson, Rev. James T. Schock, chair- man of the committee of the Classis on church ex- tension, called the attention of the Classis to the mission chapel, on the west side of the railroad, at Red Bank, "as an inviting and promising field for the formation of a Reformed Church." He was empowered to further investigate the situation, and to offer the services of the Classis towards establishing a Reformed church there, if such a procedure should prove acceptable to the worship- ers and friends of the mission. Rev. Schock vis- ited the mission, and ascertained the views of that body, and then visited the corresponding sec- retary and field secretary of the Board of Domes- tic Missions, of the Reformed Church in America, and interested them in the prospective enterprise. and secured, from them, their co-operation.
In March, 1902, a missionary, the Rev. T. A. Beekman, was placed in the field, working accept- ably until fall, when the subject came up again for consideration before the Classis at their meeting, October 14, 1902, at Keyport, New Jersey, D. DuBois Smock and William W. Letson being pres- ent on behalf of a church, and John W. Mount
and M. L. Conklin representing the Christian As- sociation. At that meeting, the Classis decided to es- tablish a church, to be known as the "First Re- formed Church of Red Bank, New Jersey," and appointed,as a committee for its organization, the Rev. James T. Schock of Keyport, and the Rev. Bergan B. Staats, of Long Branch. On the even- ing of October 29, 1902, this committee met with those interested, and a church organization was af- fected, with a starting membership of twelve, five of whom were of the Smock family. William W. Letson was installed as elder, and Aaron Smock as deacon, each to serve until March 1, 1903, when .elders and deacons would be elected for the full constitutional limit. This provision was made, in order that the ecclesiastical year might begin with. March. Their first official act was to make out a call in regular form to Rev. T. A. Beekman, to be the pastor, who through his work during the previous summer had become acquainted with the field and its needs. Regular stated services com- menced the following Sunday, which have contin- ued without interruption and with growing inter- est ever since. At a subsequent meeting of the consistory, Aaron Smock was elected treasurer, and served as such for two years.
During the first year of its existence as a church, there was an average attendance of fifty- two families, seventeen new members, and a Sun- day school attendance of one hundred and fifty. The church had been incorporated, and the prop- erty deeded to it, by the Christian Association. On March 3, 1906, D. DuBois Smock became identified with the official board by his election as deacon, and on December 5, of the same year, was elected clerk of the consistory, and February 26, 1908, was elected elder, and has filled these positions continuously and acceptably ever since. From 1905 to 1911, his sister, Miss Ann P. Smock, was the organist, and on her resignation in favor of Miss Rachel Osborn, she entered the choir, and by her rich contralto voice, during all the years up to the present time, has enhanced the worship of the church. Since its organization, a Christian Endeavor Society, a Junior Christian Endeavor Society, a Missionary Society, Ladies' Aid, Young People's Social, and Willing Workers' societies have been instituted, and all are, with the mid-week prayer meetings, well attended, enthusiastic and active in Christian work. During the year 1915, the chapel was moved to meet the growing wants of the congregation, and an addition built thereto, and the church enlarged to its present dimensions, at a cost of nearly $8,000, making a modernly equipped building with a seating capacity of 500, containing, besides the main auditorium, a dining room in the basement, fully furnished, seating about 150, an up-to-date kitchen, social rooms and pastor's study; a building well lighted, steam heated, and properly ventilated; and a present membership, 1916, of 267, and a Sunday school enrollment of 203. This was the beginning, briefly told, of what has become one of the most active
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and influential church organizations in Red Bank. The reputation which its members have of being a plain, kind-hearted, hospitable people, has done much to augment the influence and usefulness of the church. Rev. James Dykema is the present pastor, installed as such, October 21, 1919.
PHILIP FRENEAU was born January 2, 1752, on Frankfort street, New York City. He married, 1789, Eleanor Forman, daughter of Samuel For- man. She died September 1, 1850, and is buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, which is located about two miles south of Matawan, while the grave of her husband, Philip Freneau, is on what was the Freneau plantation, about half a mile south of the cemetery. Philip and Eleanor Freneau had four daughters, only two of whom married: Agnes, November 25, 1816, to Edward Leadbeater; and Helen, December 16, 1816, to John Hamel.
Philip Freneau's father, Pierre Freneau, bought an estate of 1,000 acres in Monmouth county, about the middle of the eighteenth century, which he nam- ed Mount Pleasant, after the estate of his ancestors in La Rochelle, France.
The "poet of the Revolution," as Philip Freneau has been named, was brought to Mount Pleasant when in his second year, and there he spent his childhood and early boyhood. He was prepared for college by the Rev. William Tennent, of "Tennent Church" fame, and entered Princeton and graduated from there in 1771. His poems were numerous, chiefly of Revolutionary times, and he published a volume of them, 1795, and a small journal at Mount Pleasant.
For a number of years he was active as a jour- nalist, and was the editor of various prominent and influential newspapers. As the editor of the "Na- tional Gazette," which with "Fenne's Gazette of the United States," were two rival newspapers existing in Philadelphia, the seat of government at that time, he aroused much indignation against the party in power by his virulent attacks on the Feder- alists. He had been editor of the "New York Daily Advertiser," but had come to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1791 to occupy the post of trans- lating clerk in Thomas Jefferson's office, who was the Secretary of State under President Washing- ton until the end of 1793. Notwithstanding his situation in the office of the Secretary of State, on October 31, 1791, Philip Freneau published the first number of his "Gazette" and assailed most of the measures of the Government, excepting such as originated with, or were approved by Mr. Jeffer- son.
President Washington, in a conversation with Mr. Jefferson, spoke with much bitterness about articles in the "Gazette," the object of which were plainly to excite opposition to the Government. For, said Washington, "these articles tend to produce a separation of the Union, the most dreadful calami- ties; and whatever tends to produce anarchy, tends, of course, to produce a resort to monarchial gov- ernment." Alexander Hamilton, also aggrieved by
these attacks made in the "National Gazette," and considering them as originating in the hostility of Freneau's patron, Mr. Jefferson, wrote articles for the "Gazette of the United States" in reply, in which, among other things, he asked the significant query, after observing that the editor of the "Na- tional Gazette" received a salary from the Govern- ment, "whether this salary was paid for transla- tions or for publications, the design of which were to vilify those to whom the voice of the people had committed the administration of our public affairs, to oppose the measures of government, and by false insinuations to disturb the public peace?" In another article Mr. Hamilton gave some par- ticulars about the negotiations which brought about the establishment of the "National Gazette" and told of its being devoted to the interests of a cer- tain political party of which Mr. Jefferson was the head.
Mr. Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State in consequence, partly of these dissensions with Hamil- ton, and became the acknowledged leader in the Democratic-Republican party, as then called, the present Democratic party. He bitterly opposed the monarchical tendencies of the Federal party, and after his election as vice-president, from 1797 to 1801, he boldly asserted and advocated the theory of State sovereignty as set forth in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799. These resolutions, and the Virginia Resolutions of 1789-99, framed by James Madison after a copy of the Kentucky resolutions sent him by Jefferson, made the platform of the rising Democratic-Republican party, which elected Jefferson as the third president of the United States in 1801, he serving two terms, until 1809. It was he who drew the draft of the Declaration of Independence, which was signed July 4, 1776, and he championed with all his might and main the signing of the Constitution of the United States, the document which laid the foundations of Free Government, not only for our own country but, as we now know, for all the world. Jefferson was the most ardent advocate of Universal Freedom of his time.
Mr. Hamilton's communications in the "Gazette of the United States" brought forth an affidavit from Mr. Freneau, in which he said, "that his coming to Philadelphia was his own voluntary act, that as an editor of a newspaper, he had never been urged, advised or influenced by Mr. Jefferson; and that not a single line of his "Gazette" was directly or indirectly written, dictated, or com- posed for it by the Secretary of State."
These two papers, the "National Gazette" and the "Gazette of the United States," were rivals for public favor; the one courted by censure, and the other by flattery, and what they had to say on the issues of the day were eagerly read, and excited the public mind and caused much conflict of feeling and opinion, and were practically the beginnings of the drawing of strict party lines in the United States. Another paper, the "Freemans Journal," of which Freneau was the editor, was an influential
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factor in the political affairs in the early history of the Nation, a copy of which is now the property of the New Jersey Historical Society. Its first number is dated Wednesday, February 9, 1785. It was also published at Philadelphia, by Francis Bai- ley, and its pages are full of historical material pertaining to the closing period of the Revolution, and afterwards.
Mr. Freneau retired from the editorship of this paper after three years to take command of a ship sailing for the West Indies. He loved the sea, and divided his career between land and sea. At times he was a sea captain, and at others, poet, publicist, journalist and editor. In 1780 he was captured by a British cruiser, whereupon he wrote the "British Prison Ship." His periodical, publish- ed at Mount Pleasant for fifty-two months, was the "Jersey Chronical," beginning May 2, 1795.
Mr. Freneau was an enthusiastic patriot, and well-equipped mentally to edit a paper in the stir- ring times during his lifetime, and he wrote much about the plight of the Tories after the surrender of Cornwallis, and his ode on the departure of the traitor, Arnold, from New York appeared July 10, 1782, and was extensively read, and recited by ambitious school boys.
The fine old town of Keyport, located on Rari- tan bay, derived its name from the Freneau family. Mrs. Pierre Freneau, the poet's mother, a few years after the death of her husband, married Major James Kearny, a member of the family of General Phil. Kearny, the one-armed hero of the Civil War, and it was for Major Kearny that the town was named, first K-port, later changed to Kearnyport and still later to Keyport.
Middletown Point-"the Point"-as it was called by the natives, until changed to the present name of Matawan, when the post office was established there, is about a mile and a half north of Mount Pleasant, where the Freneau estate was located, and where his poems were published, as is stated in the volumn "Printed at the press of the author, at Mount Pleasant, near Middletown Point." Most of his best poems were composed beneath the shade of a big locust tree on the Mount Pleasant estate.
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