USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 30
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THE HOME FOR AGED WOMEN.
This is certainly a deserving and prominent charity, and owes its foundation to Mrs. Jane J. Ogilvie, a resident of this city, who died in 1870, leaving the residuum of her estate, after the payment of certain legacies, in trust to her executors for the aid of indigent old women of Elizabeth. Through the fund thus started ready responses and assist- ance were at once given to an appeal sent out setting forth the desirability of such an institution. A home was immediately opened, on Elizabeth avenue, but since that time it has been moved to several different loca- tions, until now it occupies the Boxwood Hall, in East Jersey street, which was bought for fifteen thousand dollars, of which ten thousand dollars was contributed by the Ogilive fund. Admission is obtained on approval of board of managers and the payment of one hundred dollars, or a guarantee of its payment within six months. The pastors of the various churches of the city administer to their spiritual wants, and they are supplied with books to read and have every comfort it is possible to furnish.
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CHAPTER XX.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL RECORDS.
HE history of a state as well as that of a nation is chiefly a chronicle of the lives and deeds of those who have conferred honor and dignity upon society. The world judges the character of a community by that of its representive citizens, and a compilation of this nature exercises its legitimate function in incorporating a brief record of those whose works and actions have been such as to entitle them to the recognition and representation.
JAMES MADISON WATSON,
educationist and author, is of English and Dutch descent. His Ameri- can ancestors migrated to New England and New York in the early colonial days. His grandfather, John Watson, was a soldier in the Con- tinental army during the Revolutionary war, and at its close settled in Washington county, New York, a few miles north of Albany. The father, Rev. Simeon Watson, a Baptist clergyman, removed to western New York in 1818.
The subject of this memoir, the fifth in a family of seven children, was born in Onondaga Hill, the original shiretown of Onondaga county, February 8, 1827. Though Syracuse had become the county seat, his native village afforded the helpful and refining influences incident to a residential town of clergymen, judges, lawyers, and other cultured citi- zens of the county. It also possessed many peculiarities of a provincial and frontier town which, during the plastic period of childhood, tend permanently to affect the character. The Onondaga Indians, from the neighboring reservation, were frequenters of its streets and homes. It was on the state highway and United States mail route between Albany and Buffalo, and the daily arrivals of the stage coaches from the east and the west were regularly heralded by the ever welcome blasts of the bugle horn. The Watson homestead, formerly the chief hotel of the village, was situated on the public square, opposite the court house, which was then used in part as a Baptist church. The county clerk's office, at the head of the square, had become the principal public school, and here the boy received the rudiments of an education, the open campus or ample village green serving as an admirable playground. Here, also, from the village library, containing a few select books of wholesoine and stimula- ting literature, he first acquired his passionate love of reading and his admiration of classical style.
JAMES MADISON WATSON, IN 1892
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In his twelfth year the family removed to a sparsely settled and heavily timbered section of Oswego county, adjacent to Onondaga, in- volving the obstacles, limitations and unremitting labor incident to clearing lands and establishing a new home in the wilderness. The novel conditions of life and strange environment struck his boyish fancy, awakened his dormant faculties, and constantly called forth his best efforts. He worked in the woods and fields by days and spent his even- ings and the odds and ends of time in reading and study. At sixteen he stood high in the teachers' examination and conducted successfully, dur- ing the winter months, his first district school.
Thenceforth he continued his studies in the academies of the county, with the view of a college course, alternated with teaching, as the ne- cessities of self-support demanded. He was principal of an Oswego city public school for three years, and later an academic instructor and stu- dent of law. In August of 1852 he entered, as clerk and law student, the office of General James R. Lawrence, of Syracuse, then a noted law- yer and the United States attorney for the northern district of New York, remaining only eight months ; but it was a period of closest study, faith- ful service and rapid progress. He arrived in Albany March 31, 1853, secured a position as clerk and student with the law firm of Hammond, King & Barnes, and also as copyist in the United States branch pension office. He worked well-nigh incessantly in offices, courts, and libraries, studying books, things and men, and was admitted to the bar Septem- ber 6th, the same year. Two days later he left Albany for New York city, to attend the Crystal Palace Exposition, but with no expectation of taking up his residence there. Before the close of the week, however, he accepted a business and literary connection with the publishing house of A. S. Barnes & Company, which was continued many years.
Immediately afterward, in the interest of their publications, he commenced extended lecture tours, visiting Albany, Troy, Washington, District of Columbia ; Baltimore, Wilmington, Delaware; Philadelphia, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Reading, Easton, Trenton, Newark, Jersey City, Brooklyn, New Haven, Hartford, Worcester, Boston and many other important cities and towns, returning at intervals to New York. His services during this period were especially valuable in the revision and popularization of their text-books. A practical elocutionist and well versed in English and American literature, he had also noticed the in- adequacy of the material, the illogical arrangements, and the mistaken methods of the school and family readers and spellers then in use, and had elaborated a scheme for a new series suited to all scholastic grades. The appearance, in 1855, of his "Word Builder, or National First Reader," inaugurated a new order of schoolbooks, practically presenting for the first time a systematic use of the synthetic and analytical ineth- ods of teaching reading and spelling by combining the word and sent- ence systems with the alphabetic and phonetic ones. Encouraged by
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the prompt and widespread welcome given this little book, and aided by Richard Green Parker, the then popular author of "Aids to English Composition," within three years he completed the " National Series of Readers," six books, the "National Elementary Speller," and the " National Pronouncing Speller "-works whose merits were of univer- sal recognition, and whose revised editions, after thirty-nine years [1897], are still in use.
JAMES MADISON WATSON, IN 1871
For several years subsequent to 1858, much of his time was devoted to, teaching elocution and athletics in New York city; to training professionals, teachers, and classes in schools; and to lectures, public readings, and instruction in teachers' institutes in many states of the Union. At the close of the civil war, in conjunction with Dr. Charles Davies, the mathematician, and other experienced educators, lie, aided State Superintendent Parker in the establishment of a common free- school system in all the congressional districts of Missouri. Meanwhile he prepared his two works on physical training, profusely illustrated and
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complete to an extent not theretofore attempted. His "Hand Book of Gymnastics," and his "Manual of Calisthenics," published in 1864, which met an enthusiastic reception worthy of war times, were widely used by individuals, families, schools, and gymnasiums, and contributed not a little toward the creation of a national sentiment for physical culture. In 1868 he commenced the preparation of "Watson's Indepen- dent Readers," a new series of six books which was issued during the succeeding four years, accompanied by his "Independent Spelling Book." His "Independent Child's Speller," and "Independent Youth's Speller," both printed in script, appeared respectively in 1872 and 1874 ; his "Independent Primary Reader," in 1875 ; his " Complete Speller," in 1878; and his "Graphic Speller," in 1884. These works are widely distinguished from the usual compilations of schoolbook makers. Original in design and largely so in matter, logical in arrangement, perfectly graded, and rich in annotations and illustrations, they are fully suited for permanent use by classes and individual learners.
He also prepared, some years since, two distinct and entire series of schoolbooks which, though published anonymously, were extensively introduced, and their annual sales are still large. Beside revised editions, his separate works probably number not less than forty volumes. His principal publishers are the American Book Company, Washington Square, New York. -
Mr. Watson was married at Newark, New Jersey, in 1871, to Emma Hopper, a daughter of Rev. Andrew Hopper, a Baptist clergyman. The same year he purchased a tract of land at Elizabeth, where he established a delightful home. He has one child, Mabel Madison Watson. Converted at an early age, he has since been closely identified with religious, ethical and reformatory measures. He is a member of the Baptist State Board of New Jersey, a deacon of the Central Baptist church of Elizabeth, and a ready Christian worker. A Republican in politics, though not a partisan, he is ever responsive to his civic duties. At the earnest and unanimous solicitation of its membership, January 5, 1885, he accepted the presidency of the Elizabeth Red Ribbon Club, a temperance and law and order organization, established by the churches of the city. A lifelong total abstainer, and believing alcoholics the greatest curse of mankind-the seat and source of lawlessness, violence, crime, disease and death-for five years he continued president, main- tained educational and religious temperance Sunday meetings, union services with similar societies, and occasional protracted reformative meetings. He was editor and publisher of the "Red Ribbon Record," the organ of the club. He also labored to lessen the number of drinking saloons, and waged incessant war before the city boards and the courts of the state with the violators of the excise laws, especially Sunday sellers. He has been an active worker in the Elizabeth Board of Trade, a member of the board of education and its president. He became an
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active member of the New Jersey Sanitary Association in 1879, its president in 1882, and thenceforth, for fifteen years, its corresponding secretary. He was elected a member of the American Public Health Association in 1882, read a paper on " Physical Training," at its annual meeting, in Detroit, the following year, and subsequently he has continued an active member. He has also been an efficient and enthu- siastic member of the American Forestry Association for some years past.
FRANCIS ENGEL.
Francis Engel, of Elizabeth, superintendent of the gas company of that city, is a prominent member of the city council and a faithful and conservative man in that body. He was elected in April, 1897, to represent the ninth ward for the fourth successive time, and has made an enviable reputation as a public servant. He is chairman of the finance and the police committees, and a member of the committees on drainage and on law, and was the chairman of the special committee to devise a plan for the improvement of the Elizabeth river. He has served on the fire committee, and while there was active in securing new apparatus for five of the eight companies of the city.
Mr. Engel was born in Elizabeth forty-four years ago and is a son of the late John Engel, who represented the old first ward in the city council in 1865-8 and afterward served as receiver of taxes, with whoin his son, Francis, served in his youth as deputy. Upon leaving his father's office, twenty-five years ago, he came to his present position, to which has since been added the duties of chief engineer.
Mr. Engel was first married, in 1876, to Jennie McCall, who died, leaving a daughter, Josephine. His second marriage was to Mary, the daughter of ex-Freeholder Joseph Nolte, and by this marriage he is the father of five children.
In politics Mr. Engle is a Democrat, and was re-elected to the council in April, 1897, by the largest majority yet received by him.
GEORGE H. HORNING,
ex-member of the common council of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was born in that city August 19, 1859. He is a son of George Horning, whose father, Andrew, a native German, was an oil-cloth manufacturer of Elizabeth. George Horning and his wife, Mary née Weber, are resi- dents of Elizabeth and the parents of three children : L. P., George H. and Emma.
George H. Horning received his education in a private German and English school, and in the public schools of his native city. He entered first the drug store of Bucholtz & Driver, and later that of Whitehead & Hooker. In 1877 he became a student in the College of Pharmacy in
MRS. EMILY E. WILLIAMSON
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the city of New York. Having been graduated therefrom in 1879, he returned to Elizabeth and re-engaged with Mr. Hooker, with whom he remained till 1884, when he engaged in business for himself, in a building erected by him for that purpose in Elizabeth.
Mr. Horning was married in October, 1883, to Ellen Shipman, and has two children,-Mabel and Lillian.
He was elected to the city council, from the seventh ward, in November, 1891, and was re-elected in 1893, serving till July, 1895. He was a member of the committees on health, markets, laws, printing, sewers and drainage, public buildings and grounds, as well as poor and alms, and during the last term of his service was chairman of the health and poor and alms committees. He took an active part in the elevation of the railroad tracks and in the repavement of Elizabeth avenue.
Mr. Horning was elected county coroner in November, 1892, for three years, and filled that office with credit. He is a member of the New Jersey State Pharmaceutical Association, of the Alumni Association of the College of Pharmacy of the city of New York ; is a director of the Elizabeth Telephone Company, and also a director and one of the organizers of the Union County Mutual Insurance Company, and of the Citizens' Bank of Elizabeth.
EMILY E. WILLIAMSON.
One of the most prominent women in the state to-day is Mrs. Emily E. Williamson, wife of Mr. Benjamin Williamson, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Mrs. Williamson was, before her marriage, Emily Hornblower. She is a direct descendant of Jonathan Hornblower, the well known English engineer, and on her mother's side is descended from Sir Christopher Newport, of Newport News fame; her mother was also a cousin of Charles Reade, the novelist. Her husband is the eldest son of the late Chancellor Benjamin Williamson, and grandson of the late Governor Williamson of New Jersey.
Mrs. Williamson has been for a number of years the general secretary of the State Charities, Aid and Prison Reformn Association of New Jersey, and the success of this association, along its unique lines of work, is largely due to the persistent, determined efforts put forth by her. Her chief aim is bettering the condition of inmates in the penal and charitable institutions throughout the state, and to this end she has frequently drawn, and had introduced into the legislature, bills which have remedied long-standing evils; rarely has she been defeated in the carrying out of any project undertaken by her.
The Intermediary Prison, now in course of erection at Rahway, is but one of the many needed reforms in the state which have been brought about by the influence, interest and hard work of Mrs. Williamson. She has visited and inspected every penitentiary, jail, alms house and station house in the state, and is thereby enabled to judge from personal observa-
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tion just what is needed in these institutions. Mrs. Williamson is particularly interested in all that pertains to her own county, and has been connected with all of the charities therein, both public and private, for many years.
Mrs. Williamson is a prominent member of the National Board of Charities and Corrections, and chairman of the committee on county and municipal charities. She is a member of the woman's advisory committee of the University of New York, and takes a very active inter- est in the work of the School of Pedagogy and in all other lines of edu- cational advancement. She is a member of " Sorosis " and is also well known through her magazine work.
Mrs. Williamson is a fluent and inspiring speaker. That rarity among American women, a beautiful voice, the use of elegant, simple language, and a graceful, easy manner, make an address by her an in- tellectual treat. Jerome Allen, Ph. D., late dean of the School of Peda- gogy, said that he considered Mrs. Williamson an orator, and that never, unless it was unavoidable, did he miss an opportunity of hearing her speak. She is an extempore speaker, never using notes.
· Her lines of work are broad and liberal, and so are her sympathies ; any plan that is for the uplifting and aiding of humanity, providing it is practical in its suggestions, has her hearty co-operation, and if she can not always give her personal attention to it she can and does help by her kindly, encouraging words.
Contrary to the old adage that prophets have no honor in their own country, Mrs. Williamson is most beloved in her own town and state; persons in trouble seek her aid and she is always willing to help bear others' burdens, giving to one encouragement, to another sympathy, to still another employment,-helping each according to his or her peculiar needs.
Mrs. Williamson is not theoretical or a sentimentalist. She is a philanthropist in the broadest sense of the word. It is an axiom with her that " Practical charity means the requiring from each man and woman enough labor for self-support at least."
COLONEL JAMES MOORE,
of Elizabeth, a distinguished civil engineer, and late general superin- tendent and, until his death, consulting engineer of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on February 9, 1813. He was the son of Robert Moore, whose property,-Moore's Mills, together with a valuable farm on the Octorara river,-he had inherited, the family being among the oldest in the state of Pennsyl- vania. The mills consisted of flour and grist mill, carding mill, (for preparing wool for spinning) a saw mill, a cider mill, and a plaster mill, for pulverizing plaster of Paris for fertilizing purposes. The mills and
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farm were located about sixteen miles from the city of Lancaster. James had a natural inclination for mechanics, being a grand-nephew of Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat, and became interested in the old-fashioned machinery of the mills, while farming tools and agri- culture in general liad little attraction for him. After the death of his father, he, with his mother and two young sisters, removed to a home prepared for them by his mother's brother, two miles west of the home- stead, near the Mine Hill Gap, so called, the summit on the Pennsylvania Railroad, between the Schuylkill and Susquehanna rivers. The boy was now about twelve years of age, and, being naturally industrious, obtained employment with a neighboring farmer, a friend of the family, to whom he engaged for three dollars a mouth. This relieved his mother, as he became self-supporting, and at the end of the year he received his accumulated earnings in seventy-two silver half dollars,-quite a little fortune to the boy's mind, and one over which he was justly proud. The mother left the homestead, it may be stated, because the heirs of her husband's father (James' grandfather) were compelled to resort to the courts for a settlement of the estate, which was brought about largely by the great change in the value of property after the war of 1812; but it should be added that James never received a cent from the estate, having assigned his share, whatever it might be, to his two sisters.
After the end of his year with the neighbor, James assisted his uncle upon his farm uutil the spring of 1828, when an event occurred that changed the whole trend of his life and opened before him a successful and brilliant career. About this time the attention of American capitalists and engineers was called to John Stephenson's invention of the locomotive, which had become somewhat progressed in England, and railroads were beginning to be projected in this country, especially in the eastern section of the Union. Wonderful prophecies as to the new method of transportation had engaged the minds of the American people, and surveying parties began to organize for building prospective roads in all sections of the country east of the Mississippi river. In the year above named one of these surveying parties, under charge of Major John Wilson, of Philadelphia, came through Lancaster county and proposed running their line through the uncle's farm. Major Wilson, the chief engineer, represented the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, projected and owned by the state of Pennsylvania. As the engineers began operations, young James gave them his undivided attention and was glad to accompany them on all occasions, being especially delighted when allowed to carry the rear end of the surveyor's chain. He showed that natural aptitude which marks the handy assistant to a surveying party, and was soon engaged as chainman, being well adapted by nature for roughing it through the unbroken country, "running the line" of the new road. Thus began the future engineer in that school of self-education and self-effort which
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constituted his only training and development, and through which he became one of the foremost men in huis profession. The business of surveying attracted young Moore, and he made it his life ambition. To his duties in the field he added the study of his leisure hours, and soon gained rapid progress up the professional ladder of civil and mechanical engineering.
At the advanced age of eighty-four years Colonel Moore had experienced every stage of American railroad building and had seen nearly every trunk line in the country gradually develop into the vast system and series of systems intersecting the continent. In the words of another, "He is one of those fortunate men who have seen the origin and growth of the American railroad; whose personal experience goes back to a period when the locomotive was looked upon as a doubtful substitute for the horse, and the iron track as inferior to the canal for mnost purposes of commercial intercourse." In praise of the profession of which he was such an ennobling representative, it can be said that Colonel Moore was blessed with perfect health and had the appearance of seventy years at the most, so erect and well preserved was he physically, in his stature of six feet one and one-half inches. His mind was as clear as ever and gave expression to one of the most intelligent and kindly gentlemen in the city of Elizabeth, where he resided con- tinuously, in the house which lie built in the year 1846, at Number 125 Madison avenue, up to the date of his decease, August 14, 1897.
It would be beyond the limits of these pages to give even a full outline of Colonel Moore's railroad history since he carried the chain as a boy, fully seventy-two years ago! His first experience as chainman with Major Wilson's party consisted in locating a road eighty-four miles long, until forty miles-twenty on the east and twenty on the west-were under contract for construction. He was then promoted to rodman-to carry the target-and continued in that capacity until the graduation, masonry and bridging were finished on the western end. The legislature failed of appropriation at the next session, and the enterprise was discontinued for a time.
In June, 1829, Mr. John P. Bailey, one of the corps of engineers above mentioned, was appointed chief engineer of the Mine Hill & Schuylkill Haven Railroad, of which Dr. Kughler, of Philadelphia, was then president. Mr. Moore was appointed his chief assistant and re- mained until the line was opened for traffic, in the latter part of June, 1830,-the line being ten and a half miles long, and now forming a branch of the Philadelphia & Reading road. The state legislature of 1829-30 inade a further appropriation for the completion of the Philadel- phia and Columbia line, and Mr. Moore returned to its employ, this time as assistant engineer of a subdivision of the road, ten miles long, between the Little Brandywine river, at Coatsville, and the Octorara river, near the present village of Christiana, on the Moore homestead farin. He re-
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