USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > Trenton > History of Trenton, New Jersey : the record of its early settlement and corporate progress. > Part 52
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ROBERT MCANDREW was born in Peconic, near Bridgeport, Connecticut, October 14th, 1844, of Scottish parents. He re- moved with them to Glen Spey, Sullivan county, New York, in 1854, and was brought up on a farm.
On July 29th, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Fifty-sixth Regiment, New York State Volunteers. He served during the entire war, being mustered out of service on October 17th, 1865. He participated in the battles of the army of the Potomac and, - upon the dissolution of that army, went further South with Casy's division, Keyes Corp. He was engaged in the attack upon Fort Wagner and at the seige of Newburn and seige of Charleston. Upon his return home he became Superintendent of the large farm of the late George R. Mckenzie, President of the Singer Manufacturing Company, which position he held until his removal to Jersey City in 1882, when he became agent for his large estate in Jersey City. Mr. McAndrew was elected ROBERT MCANDREW. to the New Jersey Assembly of 1895 by a total vote of 25, 190. He served on the Committees on Banks and Insurance, and Claims and Revolutionary Pensions. He was renominated for the Assembly the following year but was forced to resign owing to the confining nature of his business affairs. He was appointed Sinking Fund Commissioner by Mayor Wanser, of Jersey City, April 23d, 1896, a position he still retains.
ROBERT D. URQUHART.
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ROBERT D. URQUHART was born in Tain, Ross-shire, Scotland, February 8th, 1856. He attended the Free Church school until the age of thirteen, when he began his present trade of harnessmaker. A year later he removed to Sunderland, England, following the same calling until 1873 when, with his parents, he came to America and settled in Canada. In 1880 he removed to New York City, and it was not until six years later that he became a resident of Jersey City. Mr. Urquhart soon took an active interest in the political affairs of Hudson county. In 1894 he was the Republican candidate for Alderman in the Second ward, and succeeded in reducing a normal Democratic majority of 1,200 to 32 votes. In 1896 he was elected a member of the Republican County Committee, and is at the present time Secretary of its Committee on Organization. He is owner of the Jersey City Harness Company. He was formerly a member of the old Keystone Club, and is now an active worker in the Americus Club. Mr. Urquhart was elected to the New Jersey Legislature of 1897. His plurality for the Assembly over the highest candidate on the Democratic ticket was 4,322, being the largest given any candidate for the Assembly in Hudson county at the election of 1896. He was renominated for the Assembly of 1898, and notwithstanding the fact that a Democratic tidal wave swept the county, he was defeated only by a small majority.
ELMER WILSON DEMAREST was born at Eastwood, Bergen county, New Jersey, May, 15th, 1870, and is an attorney and counselor-at-law. He removed to Closter, N. J., in 1871, where he lived until 1892, when he came to Bayonne. On the maternal side he is a descendant of Peter Wilson, LL. D., professor of Latin and Greek languages in Columbia College, and who was a member from Bergen county to the New Jersey Legislature from 1787 to 1792. On the paternal side he belongs to the old Demarest family of Bergen county. This family originally settled upon and owned what is known now as Harlem, New York, but subsequently exchanged the property for 3,000 acres in the vicin- ity of Hackensack, New Jersey. Mr. Demarest was educated in the public and private schools of Clos- ter, was prepared for Rutgers College, New Bruns- wick, but was obliged to leave it in 1887, owing to poor health. In January, 1889, he began the study of law, was graduated from Columbia College Law School, receiving the degree of LL. B. in 1892. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an attorney at the February term, 1892, and as a counselor-at- law at the June term of 1895. He now practices law at both Jersey City and Bayonne. He was elected a member of the Bergen County Republican Executive Committee in 1891 and served until 1892, ELMER W. DEMAREST. when he removed to Bayonne. In 1895 he was elected Vice President of the Hudson County Republican Committee, was re elected in 1896 and 1897, and still holds that office, as well as being a member of its Board of Trustees. He was a member of the special legislative committee which was appointed by the County Committee to look after matters affecting Hudson county before the Legislature of 1896.
In the fall of 1896 he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly by a plurality of 3,942 votes over the highest candidate on the Democratic ticket. His legislative career was an enviable one, reflecting not only credit to his already recognized abilities, but fully substantiating the opinions held by his large constituency. Mr. Demarest took a most prominent part in the fight for the passage of the Equal Taxation bill, both in committee and upon the floor of the House. He was the author and introducer of the Railroad Track Elevation bill, and was the introducer of the "Voorhees" Judiciary Amendments in the Assembly, which, under his leadership, were passed by the caucus, but, by parliamentary tactics, side-tracked on the last day of the session. The occasion was one which was aptly called "a battle of brains," and witnessed one of the hardest contests of the entire session.
WILLIAM GEORGE NELSON.
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WILLIAM GEORGE NELSON was born in New York City, January 2d, 1856. He removed to Jersey City at an early age and finished his education in the German-French-American school which, at that time, was a prominent institution in that city. In 1868 he began an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade, and was employed in the old Marion Watch Factory for a period of seven years. In politics he is a staunch Republican and a prominent figure in the political affairs of Hudson county. He was a member of the Board of Freeholders from 1887 to 1893. In 1896 he received the Republican nomination for the New Jersey Assembly and carried Hudson county by a plurality of 4,058 votes over Mr. Ruempler, the highest candidate on the Democratic ticket. He served on the Committees on Banks and Insurance and State Hospitals. Mr. Nelson is ex-Vice President of the State Building and Loan Association League at Trenton, and ex-Secretary of the Hudson County Anti-Monopoly League and Improvement Association. He assisted in the organization of the Excelsior Mutual Building and Loan Association, in 1883, of which he has ever since been its Secretary. He was formerly Vice President and Treasurer of the Hudson County League of Building and Loan Associations, and also served as Secretary of the Bergen Land Association and Vice President of the Old Guard of the Heights, Jersey City. He is prominent in many social and benevolent orders. He is Past Grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Past Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, Past Regent of the Royal Arcanum, and a Mason of the thirty-second degree. He is a member of the Union League Club of Jersey City, the foremost Republican organi- zation in the State of New Jersey. In 1876 Mr. Nelson embarked in the business of fire insurance, with Mr. Callo and Mr. Ward as partners. The firm is now well known as Nelson & Ward. Their place of business is at 21 Montgomery street, Jersey City, and they are general agents for Hudson and Bergen counties of several large American and English fire insurance companies.
ISAAC FAERBER GOLDENHORN was born in New York City, October 19th, 1872. He removed with his parents to Greenville, New Jersey, at the age of two years, and has ever since resided there. He was educated in Public School No. 20, Jersey City ; graduated from Jersey City High School in June, 1890 ; entered the New York Law School in Octo- ber, 1891, from which he graduated in June of 1893, taking the degree of LL. B. In the following year he was admitted to the bar of New Jersey, and his natural abilities and force of character soon brought him promi- nently forward. He was associated with the late John A. McGrath in the celebrated boulevard cases, and has been also associated with Senator William D. Daly in a number of noted criminal trials. He is counsel for the Charles Cohen Association, the leading Hebrew organ- ization of Hudson county. Mr. Goldenhorn is a fluent talker ; possessing a ready utterance and a quick and analytical mind, he makes a forcible and powerful polit- ical speaker. He has been upon the stump in three political campaigns, and during the active canvass for Governor Griggs he was indefatigable in his labors towards his election. On Memorial day (1897), at the request of Van Houten Post, G. A. R., he was orator of the day at their services at Bay View Cemetery, Green- ville, where he delivered a talented and effecting address. ISAAC F. GOLDENHORN. He was elected to the New Jersey Assembly in the fall of 1896 by a plurality of 2,909. Although the youngest member of the House, his legislative record was one that amply bore out the opinion held by his constituents. On every important measure his voice was heard, and Hudson county had no more faithful representative than he. He is a member of Jersey City Board of Trade ; Enterprise Lodge, No. 43, F. and A. M., Jersey City ; Justinia Lodge, No. 359, K. of P., New York ; the Union League Club, Jersey City ; Minkakwa Club, of Green- ville ; the Greenville Gun Club, and a number of other organizations of Hudson county, as well as an honorary member of the Forensic Society, of Jersey City. Mr. Goldenhorn is an amateur violinist of considerable ability, and has taken part in a number of entertainments for charity in Hudson county and elsewhere. His legal practice is an extensive one, and none of the members of Hudson county's brilliant bar has brighter future prospects.
JOB H. LIPPINCOTT.
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JUSTICE JOB H. LIPPINCOTT was born near Mount Holly, New Jersey, November 12th, 1842. His early life was passed upon his father's farm at Vincentown, New Jersey. He received a common school education and, at the age of eighteen years, entered a private academy at Vincentown, where he remained one year. He subsequently attended the Mount Holly Institute under the tuition of the Rev. Samuel Aaron. He entered, as a law student, with Ewan Merritt, at Mount Holly, January 1st, 1863. In July of 1865 he graduated from the Dane Law School of Harvard University, Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. At the February term, 1867, of the Supreme Court, he was admitted to the bar of New Jersey. In May of that year, he located in Hudson county, opening an office opposite the Court House, in what was then the city of Hudson. From 1868 to 1871 he was a member and President of the Board of Education of that city. In the latter year the three cities of Bergen, Jersey City and the city of Hudson were consolidated into one city. He was elected counsel of the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Hudson county in 1874, and for thirteen successive years he held that office by annual election. In 1886 he was appointed by President Cleveland, United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, which office he held one year, resigning to accept the position of Law Judge of the county of Hudson, to which he was appointed by Governor Green to fill the unexpired term of Chancellor McGill, who held that office at the time of his appointment as Chancellor. He was reappointed by Governor Green, in 1888, as Law Judge for the full term of five years. In January, 1893, he resigned this position and was appointed by Governor Werts one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court for the full term of seven years, to succeed Justice Werts, who had resigned previous to his election as Governor of New Jersey. Justice Lippincott's circuit consists of Hudson county, the population of which is 328,080, and his term of office will expire in 1900.
EDWARD Hoos was born at Neuwied, on the Rhine, Germany, August 31st, 1850. He received a good education and was a practical business man upon his arrival in this country in 1869. His father died shortly after his arrival, and the support of the family devolved upon young Hoos. In 1871 he removed to Jersey City and established a furniture business which has since become known throughout the State under the firm name of Hoos & Schultz. Mr. Hoos took a keen interest in his adopted country from the start, and the regard and esteem in which he was held led to his election as Freeholder of Hudson county in 1885. Declin- ing a renomination, he ran for the Assembly in 1886 and was de- feated by the Republican candidate by a bare majority. In the same district, in 1889, he was elected to the Board of Aldermen by a majority of 605, declining renomination the year follow- ing. He was appointed by Mayor Cleveland (Jersey City) a Commissioner of Appeals, but resigned that office upon change of administration. Mr. Hoos has long been an efficient mem- ber of Jersey City's Board of Education. In the spring of 1895 he was defeated by a narrow margin for the Presidency of the Board of Aldermen, but in the following fall he was the Demo- cratic nominee for Assembly, and was elected by a plurality of over 5,000 votes, receiving a total of 26,362 votes. His record in the House showed the same painstaking care in the interest of the public weal. He introduced and had passed many import- EDWARD HOOS. ant bills. Among them, Bill 287, appropriating $250,000 for a site and erection of a building to be known as Jersey City Normal School. He spoke forcibly against the "Trolley bill," and delivered a long and powerful argument in favor of " Equal Tax- ation," and attended every hearing before the Committee on Railroads and Canals. Mr. Hoos was elected Mayor of Jersey City in the spring of 1897 by the largest majority ever given to a candi- date for that office. He is a Free Mason, and as such holds the thirty-second degree. He is con- nected with many social and political organizations, and is liked by all who become acquainted with his frank nature.
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EMIL GROTH, member of the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders, was born in Union Hill, March 4th, 1855, his parents having settled in that town in 1852 upon their arrival from Germany. He was educated at the public schools and began his business career, at the age of fourteen years, as an apprentice to a firm of lithographers and followed that trade until he was thirty-two years of age. In 1887 he entered into partnership with Otto Haas in the man- agement of Ruth's Hall. The partnership lasted until June of 1890, when it was dissolved, Mr. Groth purchasing the hotel at the corner of Bergenlinc avenue and Hackensack plank-road, and of which he is still the proprietor. In politics Mr. Groth is a staunch Democrat and considered one of the representative men of his section of Hudson county. He was elected to the Board of Chosen Freeholders in the fall of 1894 by a majority of 155, running ahead of his ticket. In 1896 he was re- nominated for the same office, and notwithstanding the fact that his town went Republican, he was re-elected by a majority of 419. His conduct in the Board has justified the esteem in which he is held by both Democrats and Republicans. Mr. Groth is the standard-bearer EMIL GROTH. of the Emil Groth Associa- tion, one of the largest and most influential in Hudson county, and numbers among its membership the names of most of the public officials and many of the leading professional and business men of Jersey City, Hoboken and North Hudson. He is a member of the Union Hill Liedertafel, and has twice been its President. He is a member, also, of the Union Hill Turn Verein, the Union Hill Schuetzen Corps, Palisade Lodge, F. and A. M., and a valued member of the Democratic Central Organization of Union Hill. Mr. Groth was married October 26th, 1881, to Minnie Haas, a sister of his former partner, now the proprietor of Ruth's Hall.
EDWIN CADMUS, member of the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Hudson county, has lived in Bayonne all his life. He is a son of Jasper Cadmus, and was born on February 23d, EDWIN CADMUS. 1850, in the central section of that city. He attended the public schools for several years and graduated from the Hasbrouck Institute, Jersey City. His first business experience was gained in a grocery store. For the past fifteen years Mr. Cadmus has been in the employ of the Standard Oil Company, at their works in that city, in the supply department, at present having charge of the store-room. Mr. Cadmus was elected a member of the Board of Education from the Second ward nearly three years ago, and fills this office at present. Ile is a member of the Republican Association of Bay- onne, and also a prominent member of Bayonne City Lodge, No. 9, A. O. U. W., being one of the Grand Trustees of the State Lodge of New Jersey. Mr. Cadmus resides at 538 Avenue D, in a home made happy by his wife and several children. Hc is of a domes- JAMES TREMBLE, tic nature, genial temperment and popular among his associates.
JAMES TREMBLE, member of the Hudson County Board of Freeholders, was born in New York City in the year 1861. He received a common school education, and at the age of sixteen he began his business career by engaging in the mineral water business. The venture proved eminently successful, and in 1882 he moved to Jersey City and still continued in the mineral water business. Six years later he retired from the mineral water business and started a livery stable, which he still successfully conducts. Mr. Tremble has amassed considerable property
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and is a heavy taxpayer to Jersey City. He was induced to accept the nomination for Freeholder in 1896 from the Fourth ward. Notwithstanding the fact that this ward is largely Republican, he was successfully elected, defeating his opponent by a majority of 221 votes.
CLEMENT DE R. LEONARD, of the Ninth Assembly District, is a popular member of the Bar Association of Hudson county. He was born at Red Bank, New Jersey. February 18th, 1846. His ancestors came to America about the time of the Huguenot war, and figured prominently in the early history of the country. His great-grandfather, Joseph Leonard, was the High Sheriff of the Colony of New Jersey in 1771. He died in 1779. His grandfather, John Leonard, was a warm personal friend of Thomas Jefferson, and was by him appointed Min- ister to the Court of Spain, a position he held for thirty years. Mr. Leonard's father, Francis De P. Leonard, is an old and well-known citizen of old Holland stock, and was among the early settlers of Monmouth county. Mr. Leonard received his early education at St. Charles College, near Ellicott City, Maryland, after which he entered Seton Hall College, at Orange, from which he graduated in 1869. He then began the study of law in the office of Charles H. Trafford, where he remained three years, entering the office of Prosecuting Attor- ney Robert Allen, Jr., as an assistant. He was ad- mitted to the bar in June, 1873, and was made coun- selor in June, 1876. He removed from Red Bank to Hoboken the following year. Mr. Leonard has always taken an active interest in the welfare of his party, and in 1888, 1892 and 1896 was a delegate to the State Convention, and a delegate to all Congressional and county conventions in his district from 1888 to 1896, CLEMENT DE R. LEONARD, inclusive. In 1894 Mr. Leonard was Chairman of the City Republican Executive Committee of Hoboken, and did excellent work. In 1895 he was Presi- dent of the Ninth Assembly District Committee, and is at present Chairman of the First Ward Association of Hoboken. He is President of the Governor Griggs Battalion, an active and aggres- sive Republican association. He was elected to the New Jersey Assembly in 1896 by a plurality of 2,429, and made an enviable record in that House. In the spring of 1897 he received the Repub- lican nomination for Mayor of Hoboken, but was defeated by Mayor Fagan, the most popular Democratic candidate ever before the people of that city, the Gibraltar of Democracy in Democratic Hudson county.
Among the beneficial measures affecting Hoboken which were pushed to passage by the earnest efforts of Mr. Leonard were the Meadow Park bill, the Boulevard Loop Extension bill and the Public School bill. The Park bill, introduced by Mr. Leonard, is calculated not only to increase the value of property formerly of little value, but also to afford relief to the poor as a breathing- spot, and to afford work to the hundreds of laborers of the city in its construction ; and the Boule- vard Loop Extension bill, also introduced by Mr. Leonard, will serve the like purpose of the employment of hundreds of resident laborers, besides the additional benefit it will be to the city in the way of establishing an excellent system of good roads and highways for driving and for vehicles of all descriptions. The School bill, introduced by Mr. Dod, of Hoboken, and so earnestly advo- cated both by that gentleman and Mr. Leonard, and which is now a law, most beneficially affects the interests of the city of Hoboken by providing a safeguard against abuses or neglect of the school or educational interests of the community. Besides the above measures, Mr. Leonard ardently advocated and pushed, despite much opposition in the House of Assembly, two important local measures, previously passed by the Senate, viz., the Alley bill, enabling the city of Hoboken to vacate a useless alley in behalf of the Hoboken Land Improvement Company, in return for which she obtains both a school-house and fire-house sites from said company ; and the Senate bill giving to Hoboken's citizens relief as holders of declarations of sales for non-payment of taxes, assess- ments, &c., under the Martin act.
GEORGE B. FIELDER.
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GEORGE BRAGG FIELDER was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, July 24th, 1842, and is the only son of the late James Fairman Fielder, who was a prominent citizen of Hudson county. He graduated from Dickinson's Lyceum, Jersey City, and Selleck's Academy, Norwalk, Connecticut. Soon after leaving school Mr. Fielder engaged in the banking business, and subsequently with his father built the New Jersey Southern and New York, New Haven and Williamantic railroads. He enlisted in the Twenty-first New Jersey Volunteers during the late war as a private, and fought in all the battles his regiment was engaged in up to May 4th, 1863, and by that time had risen to the position of Sergeant Major. At the battle of Mary's Heights, both he and Col. Van Houten, the com- mander of the regiment, were severely wounded and taken prisoners, the latter dying the next day, and was tenderly buried by Sergeant Fielder. For months Fielder languished in rebel prisons, and was too ill to resume active duty upon his release by exchange. For his conduct in that fight, Joel Parker, the War Governor of New Jersey, commissioned him a Lieutenant of his regiment and assigned him to special service as Assistant Chief Mustering Officer. In 1865 he married Eleanor A. Brinkerhoff, only daughter of Judge John Brinkerhoff, and has two sons-James Fairman and George Brinkerhoff. He was made clerk of the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Hudson county, which position he held for nine years, when he was elected Register of the county. He was elected for a second term, which he was serving when he was nominated for Congress as a Democrat to take the place of Hon. Edward F. McDonald, who died during the canvass, receiving a majority of 2,831 votes over Frank O. Cole, Republican. He now holds the office of Register, to which office he was again elected in the fall of 1895. He was a Captain in the Fourth Regiment, National Guard of New Jersey, for seven years ; a member of Court Little, John Mother Court of Forresters of Hudson county ; also a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of Bergen Lodge, No. 47, F. and A. M., and of Jersey City Lodge of Elks ; was president of the old Sixth Army Corps Society for years ; a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States ; a member of Van Houten Post, No. 3, Grand Army of the Republic, serving as commander, and in 1883 elected Department Commander of the State, serving one term ; a member also of the Prisoners of War Association of the United States, and first President of the Twenty-first Regiment Veteran Associa- tion of the late war.
WILLIAM O. ARMBRUSTER was born in New York City, October 17th, 1856, removing with his parents at an early age to Brooklyn, where he was educated in the public schools. At the age of twenty he removed to Jersey City, locating in the old Fourth District. Here he secured the position of shipping clerk in Lewis Pattberg Bros. Novelty Manufactory, remaining with that house for a period of seventeen years. For the past twelve years he has been a resident of Union Hill. Mr. Armbruster is the pro- prietor of the "Excelsior Mantle Works," conducting a profitable business, and rated as one of the most suc- cessful business men in North Hudson. In politics he is a Republican, earnest in his convictions and fearless in espousing the principles of his party. Elected to the New Jersey Legislature in 1896, he carefully watched over the interests of his section of Hudson county ; introducing measures that were thought to be for its best welfare, and strenuously opposing bills that, in his opinion, the passage of which would have a contrary effect. In the public affairs of his town he has taken a prominent part. He was Overseer of the Poor in the Town of Union in 1885 and 1886, and a Councilman during the years 1894, 1895 and 1896, serving as Chair- man of the Streets and Sewers Committee during his full term. He is an active member of the following WILLIAM O. ARMBRUSTER. organizations : Cyrus Chapter, No. 32, R. A. M .; Mystic Tie Lodge, No. 123, F. and A. M .; Summit Lodge, No. 182, I. O. O. F., of Jersey City ; Palisade Lodge, No. 129, K. of P .; Garfield Council, No. 56, Jr. O. U. A. M .; West Shore Council, No. 1097, R. A .; Wahwequa Tribe, No. 188, I. O. R. M .; Columbia Hose Co., No. 2, Town of Union ; Hoboken, No. 74, Lodge of Elks ; Hamilton Wheelmen and L. A. W.
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