History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 52

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148

USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth county, New Jersey > Part 52

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" It is rarely, even in the highest positions man is called upon to fill, that one passes away who is so sincerely and highly esteemed in life and so deeply mourned in death. He was ! truly a good man, kind and generous in his nature, with no austere or repelling demeanor even to the humblest. We never met him but we received such a greeting as made us feel glad that we knew him."

" No man in this country," said the Democrat, " was more generally beloved and respected than Judge Vredenburgh, and his death will be sincerely deplored by the entire community. In this town, where he has resided during the whole period of his active life, no member of the community will be more missed. During the last few years he was fond of promenading Main Street during the day, and always had a pleasant word for old and young alike. He always noticed children, and not a boy, perhaps, in the town, but has many kindly reminis- the settling of rules of law and in the decision cences of pleasant chats with Judge Vreden- burgh. His genial flow of spirits, and his

" Resolved, That the general simplicity of his man- ner, the ready sympathies of his heart, the noble frank- ness, candor and plainness which characterized his intercourse with the Bar, and his bearing upon the Bench, endeared his person to all of us; and though dead, he lives in our memories as one by whose life and example we have been instructed, improved and served; and whose virtues deserve to be recorded, that they may be emulated and perpetuated."

Judge Vredenburgh was, as a lawyer, re- markable for his powers of minnte analysis,- a trait especially referred to in the foregoing resolutions by the Supreme Court. This power he brought to bear in the important questions of fact tried before him at the circuits, and which led him so unerringly to the truth. In the ex- citing murder trials of Donnelly, Slocum, Fox, Bridget Durgan and others, the smallest threads of evidence, sometimes overlooked by counsel, were woven by him into nets from which the guilty could not escape. It was remarked by an astute lawyer at the meeting of the bench and bar that "Law as administered by Judge Vredenburgh was no 'spider's web to catch flies, while hornets escaped."" His concern in of questions and cases before him was not so much what the action of the appellate courts

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

might ultimately be, as what was right and ustice in the matters he was called on to decide.

In 1836, Mr. Vredenburgh was married to Eleanor Brinkerhoff. They had three children, all sons and all of whom became lawyers, viz. : Peter Vredenburgh, Jr., born February 12, 1837, admitted as an attorney in February, 1859, and

United States military service in the War of the Rebellion as major of the Fourteenth New Jersey Volunteers, and was killed September 19, 1864, in the battle of Opequan, Va. ; Wil- liam HI. Vredenburgh, now a member of the Monmouth bar, as more fully mentioned below, and James B. Vredenburgh, born October 1, 1844, studied law with Honorable Aaron R.

William H. Vredenburgh, second son of Judge

In the exciting general election of 1884, Mr. Vredenburgh was nominated by the Republi- cans of Monmouth County for State Senator Peter Vredenburgh, was born August 19, 1840; against Honorable Henry S. Little, the Demo- was graduated at Rutgers College in 1859; cratie candidate, and Dr. T. G. Chattle, Pro- studied law in the office of Honorable Joseph | hibitionist. About one week before the election D. Bedle; was admitted to practice as an at- terney in June, 1862, and as counsellor in June, 1865. On his first admission he commenced the business of his profession at Freehold,

the unexpected withdrawal of Mr. Little, and the concentration of the Democratic vote on Dr. Chattle, snatched the anticipated victory from the Republicans. In the election, Mr. where he has remained in practice until the "Vredenburgh received nearly seven thousand votes, running far ahead of the regular Repub- lican tieket, which in itself was very much larger than had ever been polled by that party at any previous election in the county.

present time, with the exception of between one and two years, when he was located at Eaton- town, to continue the business of his brother, Major Peter Vredenburgh, Jr., who was ab- sent in the military service.

During the period of his practice, extending through more than twenty years, he has been engaged in most of the important cases tried in the counties of Monmouth and Ocean. The investigation and trial of real estate contro- versies has been the subject of his especial at- tention in the law courts, and the various forms of equitable relief and jurisdiction in compli-

from Monmouth County, are fair instances of his practice in the law courts, while in the Chancery and appellate courts, the reported cases of Romaine rs. Hendrickson, Morris, Tasker & Co. es. Sprague & Stokes, Havens rs. Thompson, Rue and Emison rs. Monmouth County Agricultural Railroad Company, Gol-

as counsellor February, 1862, entered the den vs. Knapp, Meirs es. Waln, and Williams

r's. Vreeland, settled questions of moment in themselves, and principles of interest to the profession. The last-mentioned case was the first instance in the New Jersey courts of en- grafting on a will a legacy not mentioned in it, on the strength of a parol declaration of a trust by the testator, coupled with the verbal acceptance of the trust by the defendant, and Throckmorton, at Frecholl, was admitted as the result is a noteworthy example of the an attorney in June, 1866, as counsellor in June, 1869, and is now a prominent lawyer of Jersey City.

effects of hard work and discriminating study.

In 1865, Mr. Vredenburgh formed a law partnership with Philip J. Ryall, which con- tinued for about five years, until Mr. Ryall's failing health compelled his retirement from practice. In 1882 he formed a partnership with Frederick Parker, which is now existing, under the name and style of Vredenburgh & Parker.

JOEL PARKER, ex-Governor of New Jersey, cated cases have taken a large proportion of (to which office he was twice eleeted), and now a justice of the Supreme Court of the State, has been for forty-three years a member of the bar of his native county, Monmouth. He was born on the 24th of November, 1816, in what was then Freehold township, now Millstone,

hi- labor and practice in the Courts of Equity. The Cox Cabin cases of Emson vs. Campbell, Oliphant rs. Hazleton and Hill es. Stetson from Ocean County, and the cases of Allaire rs. Allaire ; the sureties of Patterson rs. Inhab- itants of Freehold, and Hughes rs. Prior, about four miles from the town of Freehold,

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of parents both of whom were natives of the Demoeratie party, of which he has always been a member and a steadfast supporter. He first entered the political arena in 1844, when he distinguished himself by public speeches in support of James K. Polk, in the Presidential campaign of that year. In 1847 he was elected county. His father, Charles Parker (of whom a biographieal sketch is given in another part of this work), was a self-taught man, but the possessor of a natural financial and excentive ability which placed him in many publie posi- tions of trust and emolument, among them to the Assembly from Monmouth, which then being that of State treasurer, which office he held for thirteen years, under different party administrations. On his election as treasurer, in 1821, he removed to Trenton, where his son, Joel, received his primary education in the best i schools of the city, at the same time gaining much practical experience in his father's office, and storing his mind with valuable knowledge from the volumes of the State Library, which at that time was under charge of his father. It had been the intention of Mr. Charles Parker, on retiring from his office, to return to Mon- mouth County and spend his remaining years on a farm which he had purchased in the vicinity of Colt's Neck ; but this plan failed of accomplishment, for the reason that in 1833 he was re-elected treasurer, and was soon afterwards induced to accept the office of cashier of the Mechanies' and Manufacturers' Bank of Tren- ton, which obliged him to continue his residenee in that eity. Under these cirenmstanecs, Joel Parker (then about eighteen years of age) was sent to manage the farm in Monmouth County, where he remained until it was sold, two or three years later. He then attended the Law- renceville High School, and after a course of preparatory study at that institution entered Princeton College, where he was graduated in 1839, and immediately commenced the study of law in Trenton with the Hon. Henry W. Green (afterwards chief justice, and also chancellor of New Jersey). In 1842 he was admitted to the bar, and in the same year located in practice at Freehold, which has been his home from that time to the present. In the year following his commencement of practice at Freehold he was married to Maria M., eldest daughter of Samnel R. Gummere, who had been principal of a Friends' School at Burlington, N. J., but then the clerk in Chancery of New Jersey.

In 1840, Mr. Parker east his first Presidential vote for Martin Van Buren, the nominee of the

also included all that is now embraced in the county of Ocean,-a territory which has since been divided into five distriets. He was then the youngest member of the House, but being the only lawyer on the Democratic side, he became the party leader, especially on all qnes- tions of legal bearing. Among the first bills offered by him was one to equalize taxation, by taxing personal as well as real property. The Whigs had a majority in the House, but many of the members on that side, while really desir- ing the defeat of the bill, wished to avoid placing themselves on record as opposing it. The farmer members of both parties generally favored the measure. This resulted in the bill being laid over and ordered to be published in all the papers of the State, together with the speech of Mr. Parker, whose connection with it gave him a State-wide reputation. In the fol- lowing year he declined becoming a candidate for the State Senate, for the reason that his large and inereasing practice required all his time and attention. Soon afterwards he received the appointment of prosecutor of the pleas for Monmouth County, and served five years in that office. In 1860 he was elected a Presi- dential elector by more than five thousand majority, and was one of the three electors in the Northern States who voted for Stephen A. Douglas in the Electoral College. At that time he was the brigadier-general commanding the Monmouth and Ocean County brigade of militia, taking great interest in military affairs. In 1861 he was nominated by Governor Olden, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, as major-general of the militia division in the counties of Monmouth, Ocean, Mercer, Union and Middlesex. The appointment was made with a view to promote volunteering, and the organization of forces for the suppression of the Rebellion in the South ; and it was largely due to his influenee aud energy that several regi-

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

ments of good fighting men were promptly formed and sent forward to the field.

In 1862 the Monmouth County delegates in the Democratic Convention presented the name of Joel Parker for Governor of New Jersey. He finally received the nomination, and was elected by a majority of fourteen thousand six hundred over the opposing candidate, the Hon. Marcus L. Ward,-a majority three times as great as had ever before that time been received by any candidate for Governor of the State. He was inaugurated in January, 1863, for three years. His administration was a successful one, distinguished for its efficieney in promoting en- listments to aid the general government in the suppression of the Rebellion, and in keeping up volunteering for one year after all other States had commenced drafting to fill their regiments. Through his executive and financial ability, the debt of the State on civil account was paid and its war bonds maintained at a large premium.

The promptness of Governor Parker in rais- ing and sending forward troops for the Union armies was well known throughout the country; it elicited the acknowledgment and commenda- tion of President Lincoln, and won for him the proud title of " War Governor of New Jersey."

During the first year of Governor Parker's administration the Confederate army, under General Lee, crossed the Potomac and made the campaign which resulted in the great Union victory at Gettysburg. In the mean time they had invaded Pennsylvania with the evident in- tention of capturing Harrisburg, if not the city of Philadelphia. Governor Curtin, of that State, had but few troops at his command to repel the Confederate invasion, and in that time of immi- nent peril he called on Governor Parker for as- sistance. The alacrity and promptness with which New Jersey's War Governor responded to the appeal, and the gratitude which his cuer- getic aetion elicited from the people of Pennsyl- vania, as expressed by their Governor, is shown by the following brief extracts from the corre- spondence which then passed between them :

(Telegram.) " HARRISBURG, June 15, 1863.

" GOVERNOR JOEL PARKER-This State is threat- ened with invasion by a large force, and we are raising troops as rapidly as possible to resist them. I nnder-

stand there are three regiments of your troops at Bev- erly, waiting to be mustered out. Could an arrange- ment be made with you and the authorities at Wash- ington, by which the service of those regiments could be had for the present emergency ? Please advise immediately.

"A. G. CURTIN, Gov. Pa."

(Telegram.) "EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, " TRENTON N. J., " June 15, 1863. " Ilis Excellency A. G. CURTIN, Governor of " Pennsylvania, Harrisburg.

" Your dispatch is received. One regiment has al- ready volunteered, and no doubt others can be sent. Where shall they report, and to whom? To whom shall they apply for transportation from Philadelphia ? Answer.

"JOEL PARKER."

(Telegram.) " HARRISBURG, June 16, 1863. " HON. JOEL PARKER, Governor of New Jersey.

"Please instruct colonel of regiment to procure transportation by Pennsylvania Railroad, Phila- delphia to Harrisburg. The colonel's requisition and receipt to railroad company will be sufficient. Send all you can, immediately, to this point, and telegraph Superintendent Pennsylvania Railroad, Philadelphia, to provide transportation at the time you designate. Permit me to thank you for your prompt attention.

"A. G. CURTIN, Governor of Pennsylvania."

(Telegram.) "TRENTON, N. J., June 16, 1863. "His Excellency GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa. " The nine months' regiments now in the State awaiting discharge will be forwarded as fast as possi- ble. I issue proclamation to-morrow for the citizens to organize for the assistance of Pennsylvania, and I will send them to you for the present emergency as State troops. . I hope to be able to send some twelve thousand men.

" JOEL PARKER."

This last dispatch, received by the Governor of Pennsylvania within thirty-six hours from the time when he first sent to Governor Parker for assistance, called forth his thanks, as ex- pressed in the following telegram :

" HARRISBURG, June 10, 1863. "Ilis Excelleney, GOVERNOR PARKER.

"The people of this State are under obligations to you for your promptness and energy in organizing and forwarding men to this place. General Couch will have the best possible care taken of them. The question of details of which you inquire will have to be determined by the War Department." .

" A. G. CURTIN, Governor of Pennsylvania."

It is proper, in this connection, to note the manner in which Governor Parker so promptly

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accomplished this and the subsequent enlist- thanks of the loyal people of the United States. His proclamation, published yesterday, is con- ceived in the genuine spirit of patriotism, and has a ring that will gladden every loyal heart. He expected a call from the Governor of Mary- land. Not having received it, he assumes that ments in New Jersey for the defense of Penn- sylvania. The time of the troops then at Beverly had already expired, and they had come back from the army to be mustered out and return to their homes. On hearing of the emergency in Pennsylvania, Governor Parker those officers believe they have troops enough to took a horse and wagon (the railway train hav- ing already left), and drove to the camp at Beverly, where he addressed the sokliers, telling

meet the emergency. But he thinks the rebel expedition more than an ordinary raid. IIe sees that the national forces were driven back them of the exigency and appealing to them to . near Baltimore, and that railway communica- enlist. By this means, and by the stirring pro- tion has been destroyed between that city and clamation which he issued on the following day, the North. He does not wait, in the cold- he was enabled to send forward troops which . blooded, red-tape style, for official notice of marched through Philadelphia while the people these grave events, but acts upon them at onee. He finds that, whatever the government believes on the subject, more men may be wanted, and he therefore calls on the citizens of New Jersey to organize immediately in companies, and to report to the adjutant-general for service,-for service, not in New Jersey, mark, but 'for ser- vice in l'ennsylvania, Maryland and the Dis- trict of Columbia.'" of that city were yet in confusion, and before they had raised a single company for the defense of their own State. In a letter addressed by Governor Curtin to Governor Parker, dated June 24, 1863 (nine days after his first appeal for aid) the writer said : "I cannot close this com- munieation without expressing to you the thanks of the people of Pennsylvania for your prompt- ness in responding to their calls, and to the peo- ple of New Jersey for the patriotic disposition they so truly manifest, and their willingness to take up arms for our defense." And on the 30th of the same month, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, said, in a letter to Governor Parker: "Please accept my sincere thanks for what you have done and are doing | to get troops forward."

Governor Parker's administration continued until after the close of the War of the Rebellion. During that time he made hundreds of appoint- ments and promotions in the New Jersey regi- ments in the field, but not one of them was ever made by him for political reasons only. And in his last message to the Legislature in that administration he was able to say with truth : " Not a single right of the State of New Jersey has been yielded, and not one of her citi- zens, during my administration, has been de- prived of his liberty without due process of law." In the same time not a single bond of the State of New Jersey was sold below par. The premiums on State bonds sold during his administration amounted to more than one hun- dred thousand dollars, and at its close the State

In the summer of the following year another heavy body of the Confederate army crossed the Potomac to the invasion of Maryland. In the campaign which followed, the battle of Monocacy was fought, and from that field the invaders marched upon Washington, and cut the railroad and telegraph communications be- tween the national capital and the North. In the absence of any definite information, and ; did not owe a dollar on civil account, and had anticipating the necessity that appeared to be in its treasury an actual cash balance of nearly two hundred thousand dollars. imminent, Governor Parker, without hearing from the military authorities at Washington, At the close of his first gubernatorial term Governor Parker at once actively resumed his professional practice, refusing to re-enter the political arena. In 1868, in the National Democratic Convention at New York, he re- ceived the unanimous vote of his State delega- immediately issued his proclamation calling for troops to be ready at a moment's notice. Of this proclamation the Philadelphia Inquirer, a newspaper of opposite politics, said: "Joel Parker, Governor of New Jersey, deserves the

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HISTORY OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

tion for the Democratic nomination for Pres- ident of the United States on every ballot. In 1876, at St. Louis, he again received the eigh- teen votes of the New Jersey delegation. In that year he was placed at the head of the electoral ticket, and voted for Samuel J. Tilden in the Electoral College. In 1884 he was again strongly urged as the Democratic Pres- idential candidate.

In 1871 prior to the assembling of the Democratic State Convention at Trenton, he positively declined to be a candidate for nomi- nation for Governor, but the enthusiasm of that convention compelled him to yield, and he was nominated by acclamation, all the other candi- dates for nomination having been withdrawn by their friends. At the election which followed, he was successful by about six thousand majority, which, although less than his majority in 1862, was yet a more decisive victory for him, in consideration of all the circumstances. At no time had the Republican party been so powerful in the country as in that year, carrying every other Northern Stateby strong majorities. In that year, for the first time, colored men voted in New Jersey, and that vote (about seven thousand strong) was east solidly against Governor Parker, who ran some nine thousand votes ahead of his ticket, the other Democratic candidates being beaten by about three thousand votes.

His second term as Governor was conspicu- ously successful. The exciting questions which presented themselves during his first term did not exist, but there were many topics of legisla- tion which were important and excited much interest. The statute books show that more laws were passed in 1872, 1873 and 1874 than ever before or since, in the same length of time. It was under his administration that the General Railroad Law (of which he was an advocate) was passed and the constitutional amendments which brought about important reforms were adopted. The National Guard of the State was brought to a high degree of efficiency under this administration.

Governor Parker, while a consistent Demo- crat, was not an extreme partisan. In the various boards to which were committed the

educational and other business interests of the State, he appointed members of cach political party. Believing in a non-partisan judiciary, he appointed during his last term three Re- publican justices of the Supreme Court, and two Republican judges of the Court of Errors and Appeals, still leaving a majority of cach court Democratic. His course in regard to these non-partisan appointments gave universal satisfaction, and secured for him a popularity second only to that which he gained as " War Governor " during his first administration. The present chancellor and chief justice of New Jersey were among the appointments of Gover- nor Parker's second gubernatorial term. When he retired from office, in 1875 the Court of Errors and Appeals consisted of fourteen mem- bers, of whom ten had received their appoint- ments from him.

After the expiration of his second term as Governor he resumed his professional business at Freehold, and soon acquired a large practice. In the same year (1875) his successor, Governor Joseph D. Bedle, nominated him as Attorney- General of the State, which nomination was confirmed by the Senate without reference. In 1880, he was nominated by Governor McClel- lan, and confirmed by the Senate, as a justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, which office he now holds.

JOSEPH DORSETT BEDLE was born at Mid- dletown Point (now Matawan), in the county of Monmouth, N. J., January 5, 1831. He is the older of two sons of Thomas I. Bedle and Hannah Dorsett, both of whom are still living at Matawan. The ancestors of his par- ents were of old Monmouth County families, those on the maternal side extending back for a century and a half. Four or five generations of the Dorsetts lie buried in the Dorsett burying- ground, on the Dorsett farm (lately owned by .John Stilwell, deceased), about three miles from Matawan. From this family came the Hon. Garret Dorsett Wall, the well-known statesman and United States Senator from New Jersey. The father of Joseph D. Bedle carly became identified with the prosperity and growth of Middletown Point, whither he moved imme- diately after his marriage, and where he has

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ever since resided. The son was prepared for Randolph, the eldest daughter of Hon. Ben- nington F. Randolph, who then resided at Frechold, doing a very extensive law business. Their children are Bennington Randolph, Jo- seph Dorsett, Thomas Francis, Althea Ran- dolph and Mary (deceased). college at the academy in Middletown Point, then kept by Philetus Phillips, a distinguished instructor of that day ; but by reason of a de- sire on the part of his father that he should eventually engage in business and also from an apparent delicaey of health, he was induced to At the age of thirty-four years, Governor Joel Parker, who knew his qualities well (both having practiced in Freehold), appointed him a justice of the Supreme Court in the place of Hon. E. B. D. Ogden, he having died, and who held the circuit in the counties of Hudson, Passaie and Bergen, those counties forming one judicial district and being the largest in the State. The commission of Judge Bedle bears date March 23, 1865. The labors of that dis- triet were very heavy, and he moved soon after this appointment to Jersey City, where he could be convenient to each of the county-seats. Al- though young, his untiring energy and abil- ity, and the knowledge of the law made him at once equal to the full discharge of his duties, forego the college course and to enter the store of Garret P. Conover, in his native town, where he spent two years. That was a general conn- try store, and the experience there obtained, as well as in his father's store (who was also a merchant), did much to shape his practical business habits, which were always character- istic of him. The desire to study law was, however, always uppermost in his mind, and at the age of seventeen years he entered as a student in the law-office of Hon. William L. Dayton, at Trenton, then United States Senator from New Jersey, where he remained abont three and a half years, having in the mean time spent one winter at the law school at Ballston Spa. He afterwards passed one winter in the and he served the public so faithfully and satis- office of Thompson & Weeks, large practition- factorily that in March, 1872, he was re-ap- ers at Poughkeepsie, and was admitted in New pointed by Governor Parker, who had been a York State as an attorney and counselor, Jan- second time elected. Judge Bedle remained nary 5, 1852,-on the very day that he reached twenty-one years of age.

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History of Monmouth county, New Jersey, Part 52

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co. Number of Pages: 1148

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Swan, Norma Lippincott. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & co.
Number of Pages: 1148