USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Montclair > History of Montclair township state of New Jersey; including the history of the families who have been identified with its growth and prosperity > Part 42
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In 1886, Mr. Eshbaugh was transferred from the Des Moines office of the company to the New York office. Preferring a suburban residence to the turmoil and rush incident to a life in the city, he decided to locate in Montclair, where, in his quiet and unobtrusive way, he soon made his influence felt. I'niting immediately with the First Congregational Church he became interested in the various objects and work connected with it, more especially in the Sabbath school, where he was recognized as a devoted and earnest teacher. On the retirement of Mr. Johnson from the Superintendeney, Mr. Eshbaugh was the unanimous choice of the teachers for that position. His work in this connection is fully set forth in the history of the Church and Sunday school, which forms a separate chapter of this work. His efforts have by no means been limited to the Church and its connections. When it was proposed to organize a bank in Montelair in order to meet the wants of a growing population, he helped the project as he could. He was elected one of the Directors, and the history of this institution. with its alnost unprecedented success, show> the wisdom of the stockholders in their choice of the men to direct its affairs. Ile assisted in organ- izing the Savings Bank and was one of its first Managers, but owing to a pressure of other duties was obliged to sever his active connection with it. He was a charter member of the Montelair ('lub and has taken an active interest in its affairs. Ile is also a member of the Advisory Board of The Children's Home.
In other matters connected with the township, Mr. Eshbangh has shown himself an enterprising citizen who has the best welfare of the people at heart. His life has been devoted to the good of his fellow men, and his early struggles taught him to sympathize with those whose environments are of a similar character. His sterling honesty and integrity, his indomitable will and perseverance, and his deep religious nature are the distinguishing characteristics to which his success as a business man, and the high esteem in which he is held by those who know him, are mainly due. He is recognized as an able financier, and a conservative, thorough-going business man. He has done much to promote the cause of education, and has always taken a deep interest in his alma mater. He was the second alumnus of Iowa College to be elected Trustee, a position which he still holds. He has been active in various benevolent and religious societies, is a member of the Congregational Club of New York, The American Institute of Christian Philosophy, and other religious and social organizations.
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HISTORY OF MONTCLAIR TOWNSHIP.
Mr. Eshbangh married, July 16. 1874, Miss Catharine G. Otis, daughter of John M. and S. Georgiana (Eaton) Otis. Mrs. Eshbaugh graduated from the same college two years previous to her husband. She is a descendant of the best New England stock and is one of the finest types of American womanhood. Culture and refinement are united in her with the practical qualities of the efficient wife and mother. Her father's mother was the daughter of Zebular Marey, who was an inmate of Forty Fort-located in the Wyoming Valley-at the time of its capture by the Tories and Indians. Marey was Captain of a company of militia and by some means became a special object of hatred to the Tories and they determined to kill him. After the surrender a number of Tories and Indians entered the Fort and inquired of his wife-a woman of great physical strength and courage-for her husband, and she boklly informed them of his escape. Their threats to " kill and quarter them " had no effect on her. While holding a brass pan of corn bread which she had just taken from the fire, an Indian approached and attempted to take it from her. The savage reckoned without his host, for she held it with a firm grip determined not to part with it, and only yieldled when he attempted to draw his scalping knife. This interesting relic is now in the possession of Mrs. Eshbangh's father, Mr. Otis. The Captain Marey referred to was in the same line of descent as General Randolph B. Marey, Governor W. L. Marey and other distinguished members of that family.
Mrs. Eshbangh, through her father, is a descendant of Col. John Otis, of Barnstable, Cape Cod, who represented that town in the General Court for twenty years. He commanded the county militia, was Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, was the first Judge of Probate of Barnstable County. and Counselor from 1706 until his death. September 26, 1727. He was the father of Judge James Otis, who did more than any other man to sow the seeds of the American Revolution, and was the most eloquent speaker and earnest patriot of his time,
The mother of Mrs. Eshbaugh, whose maiden name was Eaton, was the daughter of Eben and Sarah (Spofford) Eaton. Eben was born September 9, 1789, and died July 13, 1883. Ilis father fought at the battle of Bunker Hill, and his grandfather in the French War. The gun carried by the father is still in possession of a member of the family. Eben was forty three years deacon of the Hollis Evangelical (now Plymouth) Church of Framingham, Mass., "using the office well, purchasing to himself a good degree of, and great boldness in, the faith which is in Christ Jesus." He was a descendant of Jonas Eaton, who came from England and settled first in Watertown, then at Lynn, and finally at Rox- bury about 1640. The line of descent is through John, born September 10, 1645; Jonas, born May 18, 1680 ; Benjamin, born May 6, 1727; and Ebenezer, father of Eben, born May 12, 1750. Hon. Lilley Eaton, the historian of Reading; Gen. Joseph Il. Eaton, U. S. A. ; Col. Elkanah C. Eaton, of Plainfield, Conn. ; and Cyrus Eaton, the Annalist of Warren, Maine, were all descendants of Jonas, of Roxbury.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Eshbaugh are Catharine Clare, born 1875; Mary Genevieve, born 1877; William Hardy, born 1879; Margaret, born 1883; Helen, born 1883; Daniel Otis, born 1889.
JOHN RAYMOND HOWARD.
JOHN RAYMOND HOWARD, the subject of this sketch came to Montclair with his family in October, 1881, from Brooklyn, N. Y.
His father. John Tasker Howard, was a prominent citizen of Brooklyn from 1826, when he settled there, until his death in 1SSS. He had come with his father, Joseph Howard, from Salem, Mass. ; their earliest ancestor in this country being Abraham Howard, an Englishman from London, who, with his son Joseph, a physician, settled in Marblehead in 1720, and afterward went to Salem.
The firm of J. Howard & Son were long known as successful shipping and commission merchants in New York, and Mr. J. T. Howard, the son, developed into an intelligent and far-seeing man of affairs. ITe was actively connected with the beginnings of many important enterprises : The first steamship line to New Orleans, the first passenger-steamer (and subsequent line) to California, explorations of the Isthmus and the Panama Railroad, the American Telegraph Company, the Republican Party (whose first Presidential campaign was largely condneted from Mr. Howard's office, owing to his then intimate
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business association with Colonel Fremont, the nominee), and many other undertakings that required prophetie faith, in their inception. In Brooklyn, Mr. Howard was a promoter of the best things : an original member of the Hamilton Literary Association and of the Hamilton Club that grew out of it, a member of the Brooklyn Club and the Long Island Historical Society, and for many years a director and first vice-president of the Philharmonic Society; one of the founders of the Third Presbyterian Church, of the Church of the Pilgrims, and finally of Plymouth Church, in all the early years of which he was a foremost worker, and with whose pastor. Henry Ward Beecher, he at once formed a firm and elose friendship, never broken or marred during forty years.
The mother of John R. Howard was also of a family well known and esteemed in Brooklyn, that of Eliakim Raymond, who moved to that in 1822, a man remem- of the First Baptist trustee and director in tions of his time. Of Raymond was first izer of the Brooklyn technic Institute, and president and organ- Robert R. Raymond eloquent " Free-Soiler" later Professor of Literature in the and finally Principal of Oratory ; and Susan the wife of John T. noble character, un- quickness of intellect, The Raymond Salem, Mass., where Englishman, settled man of the Massachu- Hle was a member of eled in that town, and the early settlers of Nathaniel Raymond, served through the tionary War as a Sergeant in the Battle of Long Island. Mary Ray- married Charles Sherman, with serve (the "Connectient Fire town from New York bered as the founder Church, and as a various publie institu- his children. John II. president and organ- Collegiate and Poly- after that also first izer of Vassar College : was a elergyman and in Central New York, English Language and Brooklyn Polytechnic. of the Boston School T. Raymond beeame Howard -- a woman of usual breadth and and generous culture. family, too, came from Richard Raymond, an when he became a free- setts Colony. in 1634. the first jury impan- became in 1655 one of Norwalk, Conn. the father of Eliakim, weary seven years of the Revolu- Coast Guard, and took part in the mond. a first cousin of Eliakim. him moved to the Western Re- Lands") in Ohio, and there became the mother of John and William Tecumseh Sherman.
John R. Howard was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., on May 25, 1837. In 1553 he was sent to the Uni- versity of Rochester (N. Y.). where his unele, John HI. Raymond, was Professor of the English Language and Belles Letters. Ile was graduated there as A B. in 1857, receiving the degree of A.M. in 1860. In the fall of 1557 he became teacher in the Morristown (N. J.) Academy. In February, 1858, he went to California for a six months' ramble, returning to take, in September of that year, position as Instructor in English grammar, composition and elocution in the Brooklyn Polytechnic. In the fall of 1859 he went to Europe for a year of travel, and returned thither again in the winter of 1861 to study mine engineering at the School of Mines in Freiberg, Saxony, after a few months in the mining regions of Cornwall, England.
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In April the war of the Rebellion broke out, and in June, like many other young American students abroad, Howard broke up his studies and came home, with the idea of enlisting in one of the new volunteer regiments. Colonel John C. Fremont, about that time appointed Major General, and put in command of the " Western Department," had seen much of young Howard in California, and had had some experience of him during a critical armed seizure of the Mariposa mines by a rival company, and he offered the would-be private a captain's commission, and the position of secretary and aide. Captain Howard, under commission from President Lincoln in the special staff corps of Additional Aides-de-camp, served with Fremont during the arduous and tumultuous organizing months in Missouri. During this time he had the satisfaction of preparing, under instructions of the General commanding the Department, the first two deeds of mannmission freeing slaves of Missouri rebels, under Fremont's famous Proclama- tion. The Proclamation was shortly after countermanded by the President ; but the two slaves had become free men-the first beneficent fruit of "the war power, in Emancipation." Howard further served with Fremont in the " Mountain Department " in Western Virginia, and in the exciting chase after Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. Later, when Fremont was unjustly "shelved" by the War Depart- ment, Captain Howard was ordered to Washington, where he was assigned to duty as a member of Courts Martial during several months, and then sent as Division Judge Advocate to General Gustavus A. De Russy, commanding the heavy artillery division in the forts south of the Potomac. After a year of this interesting and necessary, but not inspiriting duty, in charge of four brigade-courts for trying enlisted men, and one division court for trying officers, having vainly songht more active field-work, Captain Howard resigned February 1, 1865, and returned to New York.
There, a year and more of engagement in a mining engineer's office, and nearly two years of editorial newspaper work, brought him to an opportunity of helping found the firm of J. B. Ford & Co., established in December, 1867, with the chief intent of publishing Henry Ward Beecher's " Life of Jesus the Christ." How the house prospered, started " Plymouth Pulpit" and "The Christian Union," became known as the " Beecher Publishing House," issued works by Horace Greeley, William Cullen Bryant, IJarriet Beecher Stowe, and other notables, went down under the weight of the Beecher trouble and the general depression of trade, reorganized in 1878 as Fords, Howard & Hulbert, and continues to this day, is matter well known to those who take interest in such things. From the foundation of the house in 1867 to the present time, Mr. Howard has been steadily engaged in its labors, almost without vacations, except three brief trips to Europe, in 1871, 1873, and 1886, two of these being on business.
In Montelair, Mr. Howard, having come from Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, with his family be- came identified with the Montelair Congregational Church. After a brief residence in the town, he built a home on Mountain Avenue, where he has since lived. Although engaged in an exacting business, he has interested himself in many things condueive to the good of Montelair. For eight or nine years he con- dueted an adult Bible class in the Congregational Church, and was chairman of the Executive Committee of a literary association there, that held fortnightly public meetings during several years. He was among the organizers of the Montelair Club, and has for years been on its Board of Directors, having been also vice-president and president. When the Outlook Club, for monthly publie discussions, was begun, he was made its president, and worked in that place for three years, retaining his place on the Executive Committee after resigning the presidency. He has been for years on the Public School Board, during recent years as its president ; president of the Tariff Reform Club; member of the executive com- mittee of the Citizens' Committee of One Hundred (Law and Order Society) ; one of the trustees of the Free Public Library begun in 1893; and generally, like most busy men, has found time to take part and lot with his neighbors in whatever seemed to be for the common benefit.
Mr. Howard has a family of nine chikiren-a daughter and eight sons. Ilis wife, Susan Merriam, is a daughter of the late George Merriam, of Springfield, Mass., of the publishing firm that made Web- ster's Dictionary a national force ; and a sister of Mr. George S. Merriam, who formerly lived in Mont- clair, and who will long be remembered here as an accomplished and delightful man. Mrs. Howard's maternal grandfather was the Rev. Jolin Fiske, who was minister for sixty years in New Braintree, Mass .;
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his ancestor, John Fiske, having been on that same first jury impaneled in Salem, with Richard Raymond, about two hundred and fifty years ago. Mrs. Howard's great grandfather, Col. James Mellen, was an aide on the staff of General Washington during the Revolutionary War.
THE GRAHAM FAMILY.
LINE OF DESCENT OF BENJAMIN GRAHAM-FROM THE ENGLISH ANCESTOR.
All the Grahams of America were originally of English descent, and the family is one of great antiquity. In Burke's " Landed Gentry," it is stated that: "In the year 435 Gramme was made Governor of Scotland and guardian to the young King Eugene II. He broke down and leveled with the ground the famous wall of Antonius, extending across the island from east to west, from Abercorn to Dumbarton, which is called from him to this day . Grame's Dyke.' From him descended William de Graham, who flourished in the reign of King David I. He obtained from that monarch a grant of the lands of Abereorn and Dalkeith, and witnessed the charter to the monks of Holyrood House in 1128. Directly descended from him was Sir William Graham, of Kineardine, styled in the charters . Wilhelmus Dominus de Graeme de Kineardine.' He was commissioner to treat with the English, 11 December, 1406 : had a safe-condnet to England, 15 May, 1412, and another from thence to Scotland about the release of James 1., 16 April, 1413."
BENJAMIN GRAHAM, for some years a resident of Montelair, was born in England in 1849, of Seoteh ancestry, being a collateral descendant of the house of Graham of Claverhouse. His father was a merchant in London and his immediate ancestors were prominent landed proprietors. His mother was Eliza Helen Chapman, and her mother, who was a Langford, was a descendant of the Langfords of Shropshire, England. Burke says : " From authentic records it appears that this family were seated in the County of Wilts at an carly period. In the Roll of Edward III. we find. . Le Sire de Langford port d'argent et gules pales de vj en chef d'azure une leopard passant d'or.' Several manors and estates formerly their property in that country still bear the name appended, viz., Stephen Langford, Little Langford, ete. Edward Langford, a descendant of this family, in 1715 joined the forces raised by the English insurgents in support of Charles Edward, and was at the battle of Preston Pans. After the ruin of the Stuart cause he was compelled to seek safety in flight, and retired to Penzance in Cornwall."
Benjamin Graham, a descendant of these two families mentioned. was educated at private school and had a mercantile experience of a few years in England. He came to this country soon after reaching his majority, and engaged in the export business. continuing until 1879, when he entered the banking house of Jesup, Paton & Co. : he remained as the confidential elerk of this firm until 1884, when Morris K. Jesup retired, and under the new firm of John Paton & Co., Mr. Graham became a partner. The business was eontinned under this name until 1892. when Mr. Paton retired, and the firm was reorganized as Cuyler, Morgan & Co., Mr. Graham becoming second partner, Mr. Cuyler, the head of the firm, being a nephew of Morris K. Jesup, with Morris K. Jesup and John Paton as specials. This is now one of the leading banking houses in the city. Mr. Graham is also interested in various other business and railroad enterprises. He is Vice-President of the Rochester Railway Co., of Rochester, N. Y., a Director of the Rochester and Irondequoit Railway Co., Director of the Keokuk and Western Railway Co., Vice- President of the Western Securities Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, and other corporations.
Mr. Graham has been conspicuons in the social affairs of Montelair. Ile assisted in organizing the Montelair Club, and was subsequently appointed to serve an unexpired term of one of the directors. and at the expiration was elected to the full term of three years. He was one of the original members of the Outlook Club, also of the Athletic Club. He was one of the projectors of the Montelair Bank, and several of the preliminary meetings were held at his residence. Being a banker of long experience his advice and counsel were of great advantage to his associates. lle subscribed liberally to the stock, was made one of the Directors of the Bank, and has been Chairman of the Executive Committee since
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its organization. Its unprecedented success as a suburban bank is due in no small measure to the wise management of its directors.
Mr. Graham and his family are connected with the Congregational Society.
Mr. Graham married, in 1879, Mary R., danghter of J. D. Stout, one of the old and highly esteemed merchants of New York City, who established, in 1848, in connection with his brother, the wholesale grocery house of J. S. & J. D. Stont. They did a large shipping business with the South, up to the beginning of the Civil War, at which time the firm went into the shipping commission business, under the title of J. D. Stont & Co. Abont June, 1880, Mr. Stout retired from business and was sueceeded by his two sons. He died in 1891. Hle was a charter member of the Mercantile Exchange, and an earnest and enthusiastic republican. Mr. Stout was a direct descendant of Richard Stout, the first of the name in America, born in Nottinghamshire, England, in 1648, married Penelope Van Princess, and lived in Monmouth County, N. J. J. D. Stout's line of descent was through Jonathan, third son of above, who married Miss Bullen, and moved to Hopewell, Hunterdon County. David, fifth son of Jonathan, born 1706, married Elizabeth Larrison, and had nine children. Their third son, James, married Catharine Stout, daughter of John Stont. They had three sons and four daughters. Charles, the third son, married Achsa Saxton, daughter of Jared Saxton. James D. Stont, the father of Mrs. Graham, was their youngest son. James Stout, the great grandfather of Mrs. Graham, served with honor in the War of the Revolution, both in the " New Jersey Line," Continental Army and with the State Militia. He was Lientenant in Captain Maxwell's Company, Second Regiment. Hunterdon, and afterward Captain in Third Regiment of Hunterdon. Captain Joseph Stout (probably brother of Captain James) was wounded Sept. 15, 1777. The record of this family is remarkable, no less than twenty-six of this name having served with the New Jersey troops in the Continental Army during the war. Mr. and Mrs. Graham have three sons: Geoffrey, Ralph and Benj., Jr. Ralph died in 1885.
FREDERICK MERRIAM WHEELER.
The Wheeler family were found in various shires among the Landed Gentry, Knighthood, Members of Parliament and Baronets in the seventeenth century, and one was a Governor of the Leeward Islands. Members of the family were closely connected with King Charles I.
Sir William Wheeler, Knight, Member of Parliament for Queensborongh, was created a baronet August 11, 1660. He was married to a lady of the Royal Household, of whom, in Melville's Memoirs and C'arte's History of England, the following circumstance is related :
" King Charles I., at the beginning of his troubles, delivered to Lady Wheeler a casket, which she was to take care of. and return to His Majesty on the delivery of a ring. The evening before the king was beheaded, the ring was sent to Lady Wheeler, and the casket delivered to the messenger."
Wheeler, of Martin Hussingtree, in Worcestershire, Eng., was created a baronet in the reign of Charles II., 1660. The family bore Arms-three leopard faces. Crest-out of a ducal coronet a double- headed eagle displayed. Motto-" Faeie tenus."
Frederiek Merriam Wheeler, the subject of this sketch, is a direct descendant of this branch of the Wheeler family. Ilis great grandfather, Allen Wheeler, resided at Hartlebury, in Worcestershire, Eng. His great-uncle, William Wheeler, possessed the manor and estate of Waresly, near Hartlebury, which had been in this family for many generations; he resided at " Winterfold llonse," near Kidderminster. A part of the Winterfold estate belonged to this branch of the Wheeler family since the reign of Henry IV., 1399.
Mr. Wheeler's grandmother, on his father's side, was Mary Ann Corbet. a direet descendant of Sir Peter Corbet, of Cans Castle, in Shropshire, a noble Norman who came over with William the Conqueror, 1066. Her mother, Mary, was the daughter of John Yate, of the Marsh House, near Wenloek, a most ancient and respectable family. Samuel Yate, her cousin, was a man of unbounded hospitality and benevolence. He was High Sheriff for the County of Montgomery, and possessed large estates in the counties of Salop, Hereford, Montgomery, Stafford and Somerset.
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The Corbet family exemplified the teachings of their ancestors in perpetuating the motto borne on their Arms, viz. : " Deus paseil corvis" (God feeds the ravens).
Angust 6. 1$49.
FREDERICK MERRIAM WHEELER, of the above described lineage was born in Brooklyn, N. Y .. llis father, John Wheeler, a native of England, married Martha Jane, eldest daughter of Francis W. Merriam, of Brooklyn, a direct descendant of Joseph Merriam. born in England about 1605, and came to America in the ship " Castle " 1638, and settled in Concord. Mass. llis grandson, John Merriam, of Concord. married Mary Wheeler.
Frederick Merriam Wheeler was graduated at Summit Academy, N. J., and subsequently attended the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He studied mechanical engineering four years under Henry J. Davison of New York City-one of the most noted mechanical engineers in this country. He afterward took up hydraulic and marine engineering as a specialty, and since 1869 has been associated with The Blake and Knowles Steam Pump Works, and The Geo. F. Blake Manufacturing Company. He has been for some years a Director and Secretary of the latter company.
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