USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 33
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Chief Tenney is a son of the late Judge William J. Tenney, who was with D. Appleton & Company for forty years. He was the editor of the American Encyclopedia, and was with Charles A. Dana in cyclo- pedic work. He died in 1883, while engaged on this work. He was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and was a grandson of Captain William Tenney, a soldier of the American Revolution, and a son of the Rev. Caleb Tenney, of Wethersfield. The family came originally from England, settled at Hollis, New Hampshire, about 1638. Elizabeth Benton, of New York, became the wife of Judge William Tenney, and Chief Tenney and his sister, Miss Jessaline, are the only survivors of that union.
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George C. Tenney was married September 16, 1874, to Elizabeth, daughter of Christian Hensler, of Easton, Pennsylvania. Their children are: Walter C., Grace E., and George C. Chief Tenney belongs to the Foresters, and is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
HARRIS L. JOHNSON.
Harris L. Johnson, sexton of the First Presbyterian church, of Elizabeth, is a descendant of very early families of New Jersey. He is the son of David and Abbie (Lyon) Johnson, is the great-grandson of John Alexander Johnson, and the grandson of Uzal Johnson, who was a cloth manufacturer and farmer, in Essex county, all his life. In that county Mr. Johnson, the subject of our sketch, was born. On his mother's side Mr. Johnson is the grandson of Obadiah Lyon, whose wife was Sarah Meeker, both representatives of old New Jersey families.
Early in life Mr. Johnson moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he attended the public schools, after which he clerked in a grocery store for about fifteen years, after which he was in the grocery and milk business until 1884, when he became sexton of the First Presbyterian church. In politics he is a Republican. He is a Free Mason and also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Mr. Johnson married Cornelia D. Townley, by whom he has four children, -three daughters and one son. Mr. Johnson and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church.
AARON DENMAN MULFORD.
Among the residents of Union county whose American ancestors were of the Revolutionary and colonial epoch, is the well known Aaron Denman Mulford, the large real-estate dealer of Elizabeth. His earliest American ancestor was William Mulford, who, with his brother, Judge John Mulford, in 1643, became one of the pioneer settlers of East Hampton, Long Island. William Mulford's eldest son, Thomas Mulford, married Mary Gardiner, the daughter of Lieutenant Lion Gardiner, an engineer of the English army, who was the constructor and first commandant of Saybrook Fort, Connecticut. He was the first English- man seated in New York, being lord of the Isle of Wight, now known as Gardiner's Island, in New York harbor.
The youngest son of Thomas Mulford and Mary Gardiner was Jeremiah, whose son was Lewis Mulford. Lewis Mulford, born about the year 1718, settled in Union county, and was the head of the Mulford family of this part of New Jersey. Among his descendants are the subject of this sketch and Judge David Mulford, of Roselle, a member of the New Jersey state legislature during the years 1860-61. The direct descendants of Lewis Mulford are as follows: Captain Thomas, son of Lewis, born 1750; Jonathan, grandson, born 1772 ; Benjamin W., great-
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grandson, born 1798; A. D., great-great-grandson, born 1840; E. D., great-great-great-grandson, born 1875.
Lewis Mulford settled in Elizabeth Town, now Roselle, on lands known as the Jouett farm. This farm was the original homestead of the
AARON D. MULFORD
Mulford family and remained in their possession, going from father to son, until 1859, when it was sold by the estate of Benjamin W. Mulford, father of the subject of our sketch. On this farm was one of the most noted tan-yards of Revolutionary times. It was started by Lewis Mulford, and in the times of Jonathan, his grandson, there were hundreds of vats, remains of which can be seen to this day. The family and descendants
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of Lewis Mulford settled around and about this old homestead. To Captain Thomas Mulford was given the home farm and the tan-yard. This property next descended to his son, Jonathan Mulford, who married Catherine Watkins. They had thirteen children, seven of whom died in infancy. The oldest was Thomas. Benjamin Watkins Mulford, the second son, was the father of Aaron D. He first married Miss March, who died, leaving one son. His second wife was Miss Jane Baker, of Union. By this marriage he had seven children,-five sons and two daughters.
Aaron D. Mulford was the fourth son of Benjamin Watkins and Jane Baker, his wife, who was the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Dickinson, the daughter of Jonathan Dickinson, and the wife of Jonathan Miller. Jonathan Dickinson, the well known divine, was the founder and first president of Princeton College, and at one time was pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Elizabeth. Aaron D. Mulford is also, by his maternal relationship, seventh in generation from Peter Nue, who was a. son of Elias Nue, a French Huguenot, who came to America in the sixteenth century and became one of the founders of the first French church in New York. He was a lay reader of the catechism for this society. His daughter was wife of the original owner of Tremley's Point.
Mr. Mulford was born in Elizabeth, January 10, 1840, and was married, February 17, 1869, to Clari E. Morandi, of Boston. Of this union were born three children, two of whom died in infancy. Ernest Denman, now the only living son, is at the present time a member of the senior class in the Harvard University.
His father, the subject of this sketch, attended the private schools of Elizabeth until fifteen years of age, when he secured a clerkship in a dry-goods store, and there remained one year and a half. At the age of seventeen years he entered the real-estate and insurance office of his brother-in-law, Gilbert B. Wlittlesey, in Elizabeth, and remained with him two years. He then became a partner in the same business with his uncle, under the firin name of J. C. & A. D. Mulford.
In 1865 Mr. J. C. Mulford died. In 1866 Mr. A. D. Mulford took into partnership Mr. J. Williams Crane, and the business was conducted under the firm name of Mulford & Crane until October 1, 1871, when, on account of his impaired health, Mr. Mulford left home for Minne- apolis, Minnesota, where he remained twenty-four years, returning to Elizabeth in 1895.
Mr. Mulford has always been a valuable and a public-spirited citizen wherever he has resided. He was one of the founders and directors of the First National Bank of Elizabeth, one of the original inembers of the National Fire & Marine Insurance Company, also one of the projectors, stockholders and trustees of the Dime Savings Bank in Elizabeth, and, on his return from the west, assisted in rebuilding Library Hall, now known as the Lyceum Theatre.
Before leaving for the west Mr. Mulford erected some of the finest
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residences in Elizabeth. While a resident of Minneapolis he was active in the promotion of several public enterprises, one of which was the establishment of the Farmers' & Mechanics' Savings Bank of that city, of which he was for a time president ; he was the founder of the great Western Elevator Company, and one of the thirteen organizers of the Chamber of Commerce, in which he still holds membership. Mr. Mulford is also connected with other enterprises, and in various ways is identified with the growth and prosperity of Elizabeth, but he is in no way a politician or seeker after office. He is a member of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and one of the active members of the Elizabeth Chapter. He is also a member of several social clubs. He is now a member, and has been for several years, of the Board of Trade of Duluth, Minnesota. Mr. Mulford has been an extensive traveler, not only in this country, throughout its length and breadth, but over Europe as well, having visited the continent a number of times within the last thirty years.
SAMUEL J. BERRY,
of Elizabeth, is a member of the city council from the eleventh ward. He was born in New York city in 1840, began his career as a business man in that city, and is now a member of the firm of Berry, Wisner, Lohman & Company. His work as a merchant has been uninterrupted, save for a period of a few months, when his regiment, the famous New York Seventh, was in the field, in Maryland, during the war of the Rebellion.
In 1894 Mr. Berry was elected to the council, as a Republican, to fill the unexpired term of the Hon. William H. Corbin, and was re-elected in 1895 and again in 1897. While the Republicans were in control of that body he was at the head of the committees on finance, streets and schools.
Mr. Berry is a son of Samuel J. Berry and Catherine (Gillelan) Berry. The former is descended from Peter Willemse Roome, of Holland, who migrated to America in 1684.
Our subject married, in 1866, Charlotte L. Hall, and is the father of Samuel, Jr., Clarence, A. Hall, Charlotte (wife of R. T. Greene), Louis P. and Katharine G.
JOHN GREGORY,
who is engaged in the dairy business in Elizabeth, was born on the 7th of February, 1859, in Elizabeth Town, near Roselle borough, and is a son of George and Margaret (Armstrong) Gregory. His father was born January 15, 1811, and died on the 15th of April, 1860. His wife was born in 1833. They were the parents of five children, namely : George,
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who was born March 21, 1852 ; Rebecca, who was born September 24, 1853, and died December 29, 1858 ; Sarah Jane, born January 20, 1857 ; John, of this review, and Robert James, who was born October 30, 1860, and died May 27, 1884.
John Gregory spent his early years upon the home farm, assisting in its cultivation through the summer months, while in the winter seasons he attended the public schools, acquiring thereby a good practical English education. His life work has been a kindred occupation to that which claimed his attention in his early years, he being now engaged in the dairy business. He has built up a good trade in this line, and his honorable dealings secure him a continuance of the liberal patronage.
Mr. Gregory is recognized as an important factor in the public life of Elizabeth, and is now serving his second term as a member of the Roselle borough council, discharging his duties in a manner most creditable to himself and satisfactory to its constitutents. He takes much delight in athletics, and is an enthusiastic wheelman, belonging to the Wheel Club of Union County Roadsters, and to the League of American Wheelmen. He is also a valued member of the Order of Chosen Friends.
HENRY PFARRER
was a representative citizen of Elizabeth, and was born in the village of Weckesheim, Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, September 10, 1834. He was the son of Henry and Henrietta Pfarrer. In his sixteenth year, with a good rudimentary education, he left home and embarked for America, to seek his fortune. On arriving in New Vork he became apprenticed to a machinist, with whom he remained until he was twenty-one. He then obtained an engagement with the Singer Sewing Machine Company, in whose employ he continued until his death; and for many years held the responsible and important position of master mechanic.
Mr. Pfarrer became a citizen of Elizabeth when the Singer Manufacturing Company located here, and was frequently elected to fill positions of honor and trust. For many years he was a member of the board of managers of the Elizabeth General Hospital. He was one of the founders of the First German Presbyterian church, its leading elder, and for more than twenty years superintendent of the Sabbath school. He was also one of the founders of the board of trade, and a director of the Union County Savings Bank. He also served a term as school commissioner, representing the old first ward prior to the formation of wards as they now exist. Politically Mr. Pfarrer was a life-long Republican, and a stanch adherent to the principles of the party.
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In 1858 Mr. Pfarrer married Miss Johanna E. Halberstadt, a native of Baltimore, but a resident of New Rochelle, Westchester county, New York, at the time of her marriage. With her he lived very happily for upwards of thirty-nine years. His widow and an adopted daughter survive him.
Mr. Pfarrer died suddenly and unexpectedly, from heart trouble. His untimely death was greatly mourned, and resolutions of con- dolence and respect were passed by the hospital board, the church of which was a founder, and several societies, as well as his employes,- all testifying to his excellence as a man, a friend and a citizen.
JAMES J. BRENNAN.
The subject of this review is one of the enterprising and well known citizens of Elizabeth, of which city he is a native. Here he was born September 13, 1857. He is a son of Patrick J. and Bessie (Carroll) Brennan, who were born in Ireland. They came to America in early life, and married in Elizabeth. The father died when his son was an infant. The mother is living. The subject of this brief mention is their only surviving child. He was reared in Elizabeth, in the public schools of which city he gained a common-school education.
His first important business engagement was with the Singer Manufacturing Company, with which concern he remained fifteen years, as establisher and manager of branch offices. Leaving this field of usefulness, he engaged in business as a contractor, and for four years remained in this business, with satisfactory results.
From early life Mr. Brennan has been active in politics. In 1892 he became the nominee of the Democratic party for the general assembly and made an excellent race, though defeated by a small majority. Mr. Brennan received appointment, April 15, 1895, to the position of deputy United States internal-revenue collector for the tenth division, fifth district, comprised of Union and Middlesex counties. This position he has filled with ability, and now holds the same with the assured confidence of the internal-revente department.
He is genial, affable and unassuming, and a most pleasant gentle- man. In 1886 Miss Margaret Lyons, born in New York, became his wife. His home has been blessed by the birth of three sons and two daughters.
LEBBEUS BALDWIN MILLER
was born in Union township, Union county, New Jersey, August 2, 1833. He is a descendant of Andrew Miller, who with his son, Josiah, was among the first settlers of Bottle Hill, now the borough of Madison, in Morris county, New Jersey. Mr. Miller's father was the
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late Josiah Miller, also a native of Bottle Hill, and his mother was Hannah Ward, daughter of Silas Ward, of Union county.
Mr. Miller, Sr., was by occupation a wagon-maker, but after moving to Union township became interested in agricultural pursuits and followed farming during the later years of his life. Mr. Miller, the subject of this sketch, spent his earlier years on the farm, and received his education in Mr. James G. Nuttman's private school, at Elizabeth. When sixteen years of age lie began to learn his trade as a machinist, under E. & S. D. Gould, of Newark, with whom he remained five years. In 1861 he became connected with the Manhattan Fire Arms
LEBBEUS B. MILLER
Company, of Newark, remaining with this company until Jannary, 1863, when his connection with I. M. Singer & Company began.
This firm at that time conducted its operations on Mott street, New York, and, in order to be near his place of business, Mr. Miller moved to Jersey City, where he resided until 1870, when he moved to Elizabeth, to which place the works of the Singer Manufacturing Company (successors to I. M. Singer & Company), were transferred in 1873.
Mr. Miller's engagement with this firm was especially to design and supervise the construction and use of special automatic tools for the production of parts which should be interchangeable, in the manufacture of Singer sewing machines.
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The successful inauguration of this system resulted in his appoint- ment by the Singer Manufacturing Company (which was incorporated in June, 1863), first as assistant superintendent; and later, in the beginning of 1869, as general superintendent of these factories, and this position he still holds.
In the beginning of 1863 I. M. Singer & Company manufactured about four hundred sewing machines per week. Now the Singer Manufacturing Company manufactures at its Elizabeth works alone, about seven thousand five hundred machines per week, and employs about four thousand hands.
In 1857 Mr. Miller was married to Miss Martha Frances Cowlishaw, who died in 1884. Three sons and two daughters were born of this union. Of the eldest son, David M. Miller, M. D., specific mention is made on another page of this volume. The second son, Henry J. Miller, a mechanical engineer and patent solicitor, is in the employ of the Singer Manufacturing Company, in the line of his profession; and Herbert S. Miller, an electrical engineer, is secretary of the Diehl Manufacturing Company, whose works are located at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and is one of its electricians.
Mr. Miller is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; has been president of the Elizabeth General Hospital and Dispensary since its organization, in 1879, with the exception of the years 1890-91-92; is one of the directors of the First National Bank of Elizabeth; a manager of the Union County Savings Bank; one of the trustees of Evergreen cemetery; an elder in the First Presbyterian church; and is in various ways identified with the growth and prosperity of the city of Elizabeth, in which he still resides.
FREDERICK FOOTE GLASBY,
of Elizabeth, ex-sheriff of Union county, was born in that city Novem- ber 9, 1835. He was educated in the private school conducted by the well remembered F. W. Foote. On reaching his majority he entered into business with M. W. Halsey, under the firm name of Halsey & Glasby, and continued in Elizabeth till the outbreak of the war. Mr. Glasby then retired, and, after spending a year in the service of the Central Railroad, entered the Corn Exchange Bank, of New York. He resigned this position on account of ill health, and engaged in the masons' supply business in Elizabeth. He subsequently formed a partnership with J. Williams Crane, the firm being Crane & Glasby, real-estate dealers. Upon retiring from this firm he became general bookkeeper for the Mercantile National Bank of New York. Later he joined Earl & Dayton, bankers, in the Drexel building, New York, and remained with them till they dissolved. He then accepted a position with Sheriff Stiles, of Elizabeth, whom he succeeded as sheriff in 1887.
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During his administration as sheriff the race-track people were indicted for the first time, and it was a grand jury drawn by him that found the true bills.
Mr. Glasby's father, James Glasby, was born in Newark, of Scotch- Irish parents. He married, at Lyons Farms, Susan Brown, and began housekeeping in the building now used as the Evergreen cemetery office. The father died at the age of eighty, and the mother, in 1896, at the age of ninety-six years. Of their six children only three are living : William B., of Newark, Edward J. and Frederick F. The only daughter, Mrs. Mary E. Williams, died in 1896.
November 1, 1859, Frederick F. Glasby married Phoebe L., daughter of Joseph A. Davis, a representative of an old Westfield family. There are two children of this union : Joseph F. Glasby, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Julia D., the wife of Frank H. Miller, of Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Glasby's maternal grandfather inarried Phoebe Bond. He was a patriot soldier in the Revolution, and descended from Connecticut stock. The Price family, of Lyons Farms, was also among the earliest settlers in Essex county, being closely related to the Glasby family by marriage. The wife of ex-Senator Daniel Price, of Essex county, was a cousin of our subject's mother. This family is also from Con- necticut.
CHARLES MARTIN ROOT,
of Elizabeth, manager of the New York & New Jersey Telephone Company, and superintendent of the Fire Aların Telegraph of that city, is a native of Philadelphia, where he was born June 10, 1847. His father, Marcus A. Root, was from the state of Ohio, and a native of Granville, Licking county, being the first white male child born in that county, in 1802; consequently the grandparents of Charles M. Root were among the first settlers in Ohio, going thither from Massachusetts, and making the journey with ox teams.
Mr. Root's mother was Lauretta Esther Kenedy, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Kenedy, a Scotchman, whose ancestors were English. Mr. Kenedy was a Presbyterian minister, also a teacher of the classics, and had the reputation of being the best Hebrew and Greek scholar of his day.
The father began life as a farmer in Ohio, where he remained until about the year 1830, when he came to Philadelphia and began teaching penmanship. Later he undertook the study of daguerreotyping, which had become a subject of much public interest, following Daguerre's invention for taking pictures. He made the first daguerreotype in this country. It was taken from a window of the United States mint, and he presented it to the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Mr. Root continued in the profession until improved photography superceded the Daguerre process, and he becaine the leading artist in Philadelphia.
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Mr. Root died in the year 1888, and his wife in 1895. They left a family of seven children, namely : William N., Marcus A., Charles M., Howard C., Helen L., Albert P. and Henry G.
After his school days Charles M. Root began life as a telegraph operator, subsequently learning the trade of machinist and working in Philadelphia. When the telephone was invented and brought into use he engaged in that industry and became a manager of the business in the Quaker City,-from 1877 till 1885, when he removed to Elizabeth to take the management of the New York & New Jersey Telephone Company, including Rahway, Perth Amboy, South Amboy, Staten Island and New Brunswick, with headquarters in Elizabeth. In the saine year he was appointed the superintendent of the Fire Alarm in Elizabeth, which position he still retains.
The telephone business of the company, under Mr. Root's manage- ment, has continued to increase in .all directions throughout the territory under his control, and has become a valuable and extensive system. In fact, he has built up the business so that there are more telephones used in Elizabeth, in proportion to its population, than in any other city in the state of New Jersey. In a word, Mr. Root belongs distinctively to the genus " hustler."
In the year 1867 Mr. Root was united in marriage to Miss Selinda Spickler, a Pennsylvania Dutch maiden, of Mount Joy, Lancaster county. They have three children, all living, named as follows : Lauretta Esther, Gertrude L. and Charles H.
Mr. Root's record for energy and enterprise in his chosen calling is of far more than local celebrity, and he is well known among the leading telephone managers and projectors throughout the United States.
WICKLIFFE BROADWELL SAYRE
was born February 22, 1854, in the old Sayre homestead, on West Jersey street, Elizabeth, New Jersey, near the Elizabeth river. His parents were the late Francis Sayre and Susan (Price) Sayre, both of whom were of Revolutionary stock, their ancestors having taken an active part in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Sayre has always made Elizabeth his home. He received his education in its public schools, and was a graduate of School, No. 2, on Morrell street.
His first occupation was with the late firm of Wade & Halsey, expressmen, for whom he worked many years, when he entered the employ of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, at the old union depot, where he remained for about eight years. On the appointment of Chancellor McGill, Mr. Sayre was appointed as sergeant-at-arms of the court of chancery, and served for many years with the late Vice-Chancel- lor Van Fleet, who held him in high esteem. After the death of Vice- Chancellor Van Fleet he was appointed to the same position by the
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present Vice-Chancellor Emery, with whom he is still associated. Mr. Sayre is well known by members of the bar from all parts of the state, by reason of his long connection with the chancery court.
He is a Democrat, and very early in life took an active interest in public affairs. His first public office was that of constable in the old fourth ward of Elizabeth, which was strongly Republican. Mr. Sayre served many terms, being elected by large majorities. When the new ninth ward was set apart, in 1891, Mr. Sayre received the Democratic nomination for member of the board of education, and was elected. He has regularly represented the ward in that important body until the present time, and has been three times honored with the presidency. Mr. Sayre is also a member of the fire deprrtment, having joined Lafayette Hook and Ladder Company in January, 1877. He has repre- sented that company in the Elizabeth Fireman's Relief Association for the past seventeen years, and is vice-president of that association.
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