USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 16
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The Doctor is an enthusiastic devotee of "the wheel," and was president of a large bicycle club for six years, being also vice-president of the Associated Bicycle Clubs of New Jersey. As a member of the state board he has done much to bring about wise legislation for the benefit of wheelmen. He is secretary of the Rahway Business Men's Club, and secretary of the New Jersey Medical Club.
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NORTON L. WILSON, M. D.,
is a leading representative of the medical profession of Union county, New Jersey, and is a widely known medical man. The family is one that on the paternal side is of English origin. On the inaternal side, Woodward was the family name, and the Doctor is connected with those celebrated physicians, Drs. Woodward and Pepper, of Philadelphia. Dr. Wilson was born in 1861, in the city of Elizabeth, and was educated in that noted school taught for many years by Dr. Pingry, at Elizabeth. He was prepared for Princeton College, but owing to business reverses in his family was compelled to relinquish his classical studies and to engage for several years in mercantile business. Subsequently he became
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a medical student with Dr. Mack, at Elizabeth, and was graduated in 1884 from the Bellevue Medical College, in New York city. For a year he was in practice at Roselle and then opened an office at Elizabeth. He has been very active in all matters pertaining to medical advancement. He is vice-president of the Clinical Society, is vice-president and ex-president of the County Medical Society and belongs to the Academy of Medicine, of New York city, as well as the New Jersey State Medical Society. He served as house physician and surgeon at the Elizabeth General Hospital ; he was one of the staff of the Eye and Ear Infirmary, of the city of Newark, and has done a great deal of work in this particular field,-in fact he devotes nearly all his time to the diseases of the eye, ear and throat. He also does special work in this line as a member of the staff of the Elizabeth General Hospital, and was also connected with the staff of the Alexian Brothers' Hospital. He is a member of the board of health of the city of Elizabeth, and at one time was city physician. He is a trustee of the Elizabeth Public Library and is a member of the Elizabeth Athletic Club. He is married, has two children, and belongs to the Westminster Presbyterian church. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of Pythias. Dr. Wilson has rapidly risen in his profession, and is recognized as an authority in his special line of work, and also as a very able general practitioner.
JOSIAH QUINCY STEARNS, M. D.,
identified with the early history of Elizabeth, as borough, town and city, came of Revolutionary ancestry, and was born in Starksborough, Vermont, January 10, 1813. After leaving Middlebury College, he married, May 1, 1839, Louise C. Judd, of Litchfield, Connecticut. He then came to New York to pursue the study and practice of medicine, and, after graduation from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, removed to Elizabethport, in 1839.
In 1854 Dr. Stearns was elected high sheriff of the borough of Elizabeth, and held the office of coroner many terms, both before and after Union county was set off from Essex, his first election to said office being in 1853. He was connected with the inception of numer- ous industries now well established, like the Elizabeth and Newark horse-car line, Elizabethtown Water Company, and Evergreen Ceme- tery, of which latter he was the first secretary. He was a charter member of the Third Presbyterian church, and a trustee therein at the time of his death, which occurred February 2, 1881.
OLIN L. JENKINS, M. D.,
was born in Plainfield, April 23, 1852. He is the son of Joseph B. and Sarah Ann Jenkins, both natives of Columbia county, New York.
1 1
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His father was a carpenter by trade, and moved to Plainfield about 1843. He died in 1890. William Jenkins, a brother of the Doctor, lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Jenkins was educated in the public schools of Plainfield and in a seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania, graduating at the latter institu-
OLIN L. JENKINS, M. D.
tion in 1871. He then began the study of medicine, completing his course four years later in the Homoeopathic Medical College, New York. His professional career was begun in Danielsonville, Connect- icut, where he practiced twelve years. In 1888 he came to Plainfield and succeeded to the practice of Dr. South, in which he has since con- tinued. Dr. Jenkins has always taken an active part in everything
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that promoted tlie welfare of the city in which he makes his home. He is a member of the State Medical Society and of the Plainfield Medical Society; is now serving a term of five years as a member of the school board, and was formerly a member of the common council. He is a member of the ancient order of Free and Accepted Masons, and has risen to the degree of Knight Templar and is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the Junior Order of American Mechanics, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of the Royal Arcanum, the Knights of Honor, and the Knights of Pythias.
Dr. Jenkins was married, in 1881, to Miss Rhoda Hollock, of Plain- field. She is a member of the Methodist church, and active in all its works of love and charity. Dr. and Mrs. Jenkins travel much during the summer months, especially throughout the United States and Canada.
ABRAHAM MORRELL CORY, M. D.,
a regular practicing physician of New Providence, is a descendant of Sir Thomas, of England, and of John Cory, one of the Memorialists of Elizabeth Town. He is the son of William Cory, a farmer of New Providence, and (Harriet Laforge) Cory, a daughter of Captain Abraham Laforge, of French Huguenot descent, Four children were born of this union. One son, A. E. Cory is proprietor of a large vinegar establish- ment (one of the largest works of the kind in the world), at Albany, New York. William R. died, aged fifty-one years; Mary E. married Charles Ulrick, who holds the homestead.
The subject of this sketch was born August 1, 1828, in New Providence, New Jersey. He was graduated at Pennington Seminary, New Jersey, in 1852, and began work as a teacher, a profession in which he labored for several years. Upon the advice of Dr. George F. Fort, ex-governor of the state, he pursued a regular course of instruction in medicine under his tuition, beginning his studies in 1854 and taking his degree of M. D. from the Philadelphia College of Medicine, in 1857.
Dr. Cory was also a local preacher at this time, in the Methodist Episcopal church, but after some years of incessant work, he found it necessary to give up his ministerial labors, both because of a throat affection and because it was impracticable to preach the gospel and to practice medicine at one and the same time.
Dr. Cory began the practice of his profession as a regular physician in 1857, in Windsor, Mercer county, New Jersey. At the call for volunteer surgeons, in 1862, he was commissioned as acting assistant surgeon, with the rank of lieutenant, and went into the service of the government on the general medical staff, subject to orders in any part of the United States, in the field or hospital. Having been ordered to Point Lookout, Maryland, he assisted in the formation of the Hammond General Hospital, and at one time had four hundred soldiers under his
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own supervision. Relieved from duty, he returned to his home, and in 1863 located at Hightstown, New Jersey. In 1867 he removed to New Providence, New Jersey, where he was elected a member of the Union County Medical Society, and where he has continued the practice of his profession to the present time.
ABRAHAM M. CORY, M. D.
July 18, 1855, Dr. Cory was married to Miss Emily J. Petherbridge. daughter of Rev. Richard W. Petherbridge, presiding elder, New Jersey conference. They had one son, Cornelius Leveridge Cory, born July, 28, 1856. He died at the age of nineteen years, in the bloom of his youth, it is true, but in the strength of Christian manhood. At the close of
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life he said, "Salvation is only in Jesus," "Morality is a social duty," and this significant couplet is the epitaph on his tombstone.
Dr. Cory is a Republican, and has been active in temperance work. He has been connected in an official way with the board of stewards of his church for a number of years, and is president of the board of trustees at this time.
He is a writer of much ability. His collection of historical matter relating to the town of New Providence bears the marks of patient research, and is worthy the attention of the students of American history. He has shown himself possessed of poetic talent. At the request of his alma mater, he wrote a poem on the occasion of his graduation, another on the jubilee of his seminary and also an ode, in 1896, both of which latter are of historic value, the last mentioned being in the interest of the State Historical Society of New Jersey.
Dr. Cory is also an inventor of a number of useful patented articles. His astronomical clock, indicating universal solar and siderial time, the lunar and solar cycles, eclipses and the precession of the equinoxes, is adapted to use in every school room in the world. His elucidations, illustrations and discoveries in astronomical science, respecting the motions and laws of the solar system, the solutions of residual phenomena, as in the glacial epoch and the zodiacal light and preces- sion of the equinoxes, are highly important, have the endorsement of the best authorities, and are being prepared as a text book for the press, for use in the schools.
The character of his work may be indicated by an interview with President Thomas Hunter, of the Women's Normal College, New York. After a careful examination of his clock and astronomical delineations, which he commended amply, and the biographical record, he pronounced it (the record) to be the finest collection and arrangement of meta- physical terms ever produced; being far above Gall and Spurzheim. Rising to his feet, he exclaimed with fervor, "Doctor, I admire you ! I honor you ! You are one of the men who live to benefit mankind ! In a spirit of self-sacrifice, to complete these productions, you have labored hard, endured privations and almost self-abnegation ; and this is not for money." The reply was made, "Mr. President, there are those who say that money is the incentive to all achievement." He replied, "They do not understand human nature; men who labor for money are incapable of producing works of this character."
JOSEPH K. MAC CONNELL, M. D.,
was born November 24, 1836, near Tarentum, Allegheny county, Penn- sylvania. His parents were George and Janet (Stark) MacConnell. The former was born in Richmond, Virginia, January 1, 1795; the latter in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, November 24, 1800. Thomas Mac
JOSEPH K. MACCONNELL, M. D.
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Connell and Eliza Watt, cousin of James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, were his paternal ancestors. They were of Scotch origin but born in the north of Ireland. The maternal grandparents were John Stark and Janet Morton, both of Glasgow, Scotland.
The Doctor and the two other brothers, John Stark and Alexander A., after a classical course at college, each entered upon a professional life, the latter two entering the ministry and serving faithfully in the churches to which they were called. The Doctor graduated at Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in February, 1868. Before graduation he held the position of superintendent of the State Prison Hospital, of which he afterward became house surgeon. On June 19, 1869, he located at Cranford, New Jersey, his present home.
Doctor MacConnell was married to Mary E. Mintier, a graduate of Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio. Her parents were Joseph and Eliza (McGrew) Mintier.
Dr. MacConnell has two sons and one daughter living, and one daughter recently deceased, Francis Edith, late wife of H. R. Van Saun. His elder son, Dr. C. W. MacConnell, is located at Cranford, New Jersey, where for six years he has been practicing with his father. His younger son, J. Herbert, is at Auburn Theological Seminary, preparing to enter the ministry. His daughter, Miss Gertrude Janet, was graduated at Houghton Seminary, in June, 1896.
THOMAS S. DAVIS, M. D.,
a physician of Plainfield and prominent among the people of his adopted city, socially and professionally, was born in Philadelphia, in 1852. He is of Welsh extraction and is the son of John and Ann (Roberts) Davis, of Philadelphla, his father being an iron-manufacturer of that city.
Young Davis received his education in the Friends' school, at Wilmington, Delaware. He then entered the office of Dr. Kittenger, of Wilmington, and was under his able instruction for a period of three years. He also attended a three-years course of lectures at the well known Hahnemann College, Philadelphia, and took his degree with the class graduating in 1884.
Upon leaving college Dr. Davis came to Plainfield, where he immediately began the practice of his profession and where he has continued the same, with an ever increasing patronage, to the present time. Dr. Davis is a member of the Homoeopathic State Medical Association, and of the Masonic Order, in which he has advanced to the degrees of Royal Arch and Knight Templar, being also a Noble of Mecca Temple of the Mystic Shrine, of New York city. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Park Club, of Philadelphia.
Dr. Davis was married, in 1877, to Miss Annie M. Griffith, of Wil- mington, Delaware. Three children are the fruit of this union, viz.,
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Charles, Helen, and Annie. Dr. and Mrs. Davis are members of the Crescent Avenue Presbyterian church, and are prominent in all the religious movements and workings of that society.
JOHN J. DALY, M. D.
A life full of usefulness has been brought to an end, in the very plenitude of its power, and with a future bright with promise. He was progressive, full of public spirit, and the first to lead in any move- ment to advance and promote the welfare of the city. The people's confidence in him was never shaken. His greatest pleasure was the approval of the people he served. His friendship was as true as steel ; he was tender-hearted as a child, and his sympathy for the oppressed and unfortunate was always prompt and practical. Nothing could daunt or discourage him, once satisfied he was right.
Dr. John J. Daly was born in Rahway, May 26, 1852, and passed his whole life in this city. His early education was received in the public school, and at the age of thirteen he began the study of medi- cine under Dr. Abernethy, one of the most popular and noted physi- cians of New Jersey. While with the Doctor young Daly first devel- oped the talent for surgery which so distinguished him throughout his life. He remained with Dr. Abernethy nine years, and in 1870 became a student in the University of New York and was graduated from that institution in the year 1873, when he returned to Dr. Abernethy's office, and remained as his assistant till the latter's death, in February, 1874. Dr. Daly then took up the late Doctor's work and ably filled the place of his old preceptor. He thereafter continued his practice here, and his skill as an operating surgeon and his genial manner made his career an exceptional one, as to prosperity. He reached a popularity in a pro- fessional and social way attained by few. He was first elected to the office of mayor of Rahway in 1885, and was four times re-elected. His last election, in 1895, was by the largest majority ever given any candi- date for that office in Rahway. He discharged his duties with independ- ence and conscientiousness. He introduced the "ball and chain " as the proper punishment for tramps, and he carried this out so vigorously that the vagrants gave Rahway a wide berth. He was surgeon for the Pennsylvania Railway for years.
Dr. Daly was originally a Democrat, and as such was elected mayor i11 1885. In 1886 he was elected on the "Citizens'" ticket, endorsed by the Republicans, because of his dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Democratic party was managing the city finances. In 1887 he was the Republican candidate, endorsed by the Prohibitionists, and was elected. In 1888 he was defeated, but in 1893 he defeated the man who previously defeated him.
HENRY R. CANNON M. D.
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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY
Dr. Daly was a director in the Union County Bank, a member of the board of the Union County Roadsters, a member of the Reforma- tory Commission, a member of the Union County Medical Society, of the Business Men's Club, the Rahway Gun Club and other societies.
As an official the Doctor was unusually active. He seemed to be about at all times and in all places, enforcing the law and attending to the best interests of the city. He often combined police duty with the office of mayor, arresting tramps, compelling his own townsmen to a rigid observance of the city's laws, and forcing companies and corpo- rations to comply with their contracts with the city. The redeeming of the fair name of Rahway from the cloud that hung over it because of the long-standing indebtedness was one of his crowning acts, and only by his supreme efforts was it accomplished. Every channel of the city's supplies or expenses came under his eye, and no jobbery of any kind was possible. He hated everything that savored of trickery and deception. Dr. Daly was appointed, by President Harrison, a member of the board of pension examiners at Newark.
The most feeling resolutions were passed by the various societies of Rahway on the death of Mayor Daly, whose demise occurred April 14, 1896. Dr. Daly's father was the late John Daly, born in Kings county, Ireland. His mother was Catherine Royston. The children were : Mrs. John Farrell, of Rahway ; Mrs. Jacob Moeser, of New York ; Dr. John J. Daly, and Miss Mary Daly, of Rahway.
HENRY R. CANNON, M. D.,
was born in Franklin township, Somerset county, New Jersey, May 20, 1821. He was the youngest child of the Rev. Dr. James S. Cannon, D. D., and Catharine Brevoort, his wife. His father was born in the island of Curacoa, near the coast of South America. He was a clergyman of the Reformed Dutch church and was pastor of the church at Six Mile Run, in Franklin township, for thirty years, - until he was chosen to a professorship in the college and seminary at New Brunswick, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Rev. Dr. Woodhull. The Doc- tor's mother was a daughter of Elias Brevoort, Esq., of Hackensack, who was a soldier of the Revolution.
The subject of this sketch received his preparatory education in the grammar school connected with Rutgers College, and entered the college in the year 1836, graduating with honor, in July, 1840. He then engaged in the study of medicine in the office of Dr. William Van Deursen, of New Brunswick, with whom he remained three years, meanwhile attending the courses of lectures delivered in the medical department of the University of New York. He received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from that institution in March, 1843, and was
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licensed to practice by the Medical Society of New Jersey in the fall of the year 1843. He settled in practice, in October, 1843, at Bedminster in his native county, and continued to discharge his professional duties for nine years, and until the month of September, 1852, at which time he retired from the active duties of his calling and engaged in the drug business at Plainfield, New Jersey. He continued in this business until he was appointed clerk of the new county of Union, in the month of April, 1857. The citizens of the county continued him in that office, by election, until November 13, 1877. Since that time he held the position of tax commissioner for the city of Elizabeth for a num- ber of years, by appointment from Governors Abbett and Green.
JOSEPH B. HARRISON, M. D.,
of Westfield, was born at Clinton, Greene county, Alabama, July 29, 1852. He is the son of Dempsey and Lethe Ann (Brock) Harrison. His father was a native of North Carolina, his mother of Virginia. About 1865 the family moved to Mobile, Alabama, and he was edu- cated in the public and private schools of that city and state. In 1870 he began the study of medicine at the University of Virginia, and grad- uated from the Medical College of Alabama, in Mobile, with the degree of M. D., in 1875, and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York city, in 1876. He began the practice of medicine in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in the summer of 1876, but in 1877 located at West- field, New Jersey, and is still engaged in active practice at that place.
Dr. Harrison was married to Miss Adaline Amanda Stitt, daughter of William Stitt, formerly of Meadville, Pennsylvania, latterly of Westfield, New Jersey.
SAMUEL HENRY BASSINGER, M. D.,
a retired physician and prominent citizen of New Providence township, was born in Plainfield township, Otsego county, New York, on the 25th of November, 1817, and is a son of Henry Bassinger, a native of Albany, New York, where his birth occurred ou the 4th of July, 1782. The latter died on the 21st of May, 1823, at the age of forty-one years. He was a son of Seffrenes Bassinger, who was born on the 26th of August, 1737, and who died May 20th, 1830.
The father of Seffrenes Bassinger emigrated from Holland about the year 1733, and is supposed to have come from Rotterdam and set- tled at or near Albany, New York. The mother of Samuel H. Bas- singer, Martha Beach, was born October 20, 1787, and married Henry Bassinger on the 3Ist of December, 1804. The wife of Seffrenes Bas- singer was Mary Young, who was born February 18, 1754, and lived in
SAMUEL H. BASSINGER, M. D.
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the town of Troy, New York. Ephraim Beach was the son of Josiah Beach, who was the son of Zopher Beach, one of the early settlers of Newark, New Jersey, having been born January 30, 1728. His son, Jedediah Beach, was the father of Martha Beach and was born October 21, 1755. He married Mary Post, on the 31st of December, 1781, at Bottle Hill, now Madison, New Jersey. Seffrenes Bassinger and Jede- diah Beach both served in the Continental army during the war of independence, the latter participating in the battle of Springfield, New Jersey, and a number of others in the state, and he was the sole sur- vivor of three brothers.
Samuel H. Bassinger was about five years old at the time of his father's death, and he was reared under the tender administrations of his mother, attending the neighborhood schools and later the academy at Canajoharie, New York, where he finished his literary education. Responding to the predilection of his youth, Dr. Bassinger decided to adopt the medical profession, and with this object in view he studied in Oneida county, subsequently attending the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Western District, and the medical department of Geneva College, graduating from the latter institution with the class of 1842, and receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Later he took a post- graduate course at the university in New York city, and then began the active practice of his calling in Rome, New York, but shortly aft- erward moved to La Grange county, Indiana. At both of these places he attained to a high degree of success, but impaired health caused his removal to Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, and while a resident of that town he was honored with official preferment, being elected to the legislature in 1858. Upon the expiration of his term in that body he retired from active professional life, and in 1861 took up his residence in New Jersey, where he became identified with the construction of the Passaic & Delaware Railroad, in conjunction with his brother, the late J. B. Bassinger. Since 1869 he has resided at Murray Hill, New Prov- idence township, utilizing his time in directing the management of his property, a large amount of which he had accumulated earlier in life. He is public-spirited and has always taken a warm interest in state and township affairs.
Appreciating the fact that Murray Hill was in dire need of a house of worship, Dr. Bassinger had erected at his own expense, in 1891, a suitable building which he deeded to the Reformed Episcopal church, and a few years later he presented the same church with some very val- uable property to be used as a home for aged and infirm clergymen, and this is known as the Bassinger Home.
On the 21st of May, 1850, Dr. Bassinger was married, at Lima, Indiana, to Miss Orrelle M. Hobbs, a daughter of Hon. Joshua T. Hobbs, M. D., and she departed this life on the 20th of August, 1893. The second marriage of our subject took place on October 23, 1894,
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