USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 43
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The Hotel Grenada is the home of the traveling men, and the genial landlords, George and Wallace V. Miller, have made it justly popular. It is situated on North avenue, close by the station, and is the most conveniently located hotel in Plainfield. The Hotel Albion is a comfortable, all-the-year-'round family hotel, and is situated in one of the best residence portions of the city. The City Hotel is conveniently located at the corner of Park avenue and Second street, and, under the management of John E. Beerbower, is very popular. This house not only caters to transient trade but is well patronized as a family hotel.
STREET RAILWAY.
The Plainfield Street Railway Company operate handsome electric cars in Plainfield and North Plainfield, and are constantly extending their lines so as to give full accommodation in the matter of rapid transit. By means of them all points can be easily reached from the stations, even back to the mountains. It is perhaps well to add that this company conducts it business in such a way as not to be a menace to the lives of the citizens.
ELECTRICITY AND GAS.
The Plainfield Gas and Electric Light Company provides abundant light, heat and power. The plant for gas has capacity for furnishing a
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city of fifty thousand people with light and fuel. The use of gas for fuel for domestic purposes is increasing rapidly in Plainfield, and investiga- tions are being made touching its use in much larger fields, where coal has remained supreme hitherto. The electric plant has a capacity for eight thousand incandescent lamps. It furnishes power for the local trolley road, and for many forms of light machinery. It has the capacity to increase the supply for power indefinitely. Plainfield has well demon- strated what Mr. Edison said to the writer, in 1882, "Electricity is the coming light and the coming motor."
RAILROAD FACILITIES.
Plainfield being the third city in size included in the Central Railroad of New Jersey's suburban district, is duly recognized by a passenger-train service adequate to the demands of its citizens. As the city has grown, so also has the number of trains in both directions, one keeping pace with the other.
Plainfield now has four stations, about equal distances apart: Netherwood, the North avenue, the Grant avenue, and the Clinton avenue stations. The cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washing- ton, as well as other points south and west, are reached direct from Plainfield by fast trains, in the Royal Blue Line service, that make stops, thereby adding greatly to the advantages of the city as a place of residence. The week-day service from Plainfield to New York includes thirty-six trains, ten of which are Royal Blue Line expresses. On Sundays there are twenty trains, eight of which are Royal Blue Line expresses. From New York to Plainfield there are thirty-eight week- day trains, five of them Royal Blue Line expresses, and on Sundays sixteen trains, four of them Royal Blue 'Line expresses. The single fare, New York to Plainfield, is sixty cents, excursion, or round-trip fare, one dollar, fifty-trip ticket, eighteen dollars, and commutation rate, eighty-five dollars per year, while school children can ride for less than fifty dollars for the school year.
WATER SUPPLY.
The Plainfield Water Company draws the water which it furnishes from a subterranean river. It is pumped through twenty wells, sunk fifty feet apart, for a distance of one thousand feet along the northerly side of the Central Railroad, just east of the Netherwood station, and varying from forty-five to fifty feet in depth. In boring these wells shale and clay were found for a depth of about twenty-five feet, and then a stratum of gravel was reached, which contained but little sand. Much of this gravel, of the size of walnuts and larger, had been worn round and smooth by currents of water moving through it. Investiga- tions made indicate that the current at this point descends at least nine feet in a mile. Its progress through the coarse gravel must, therefore,
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be quite rapid. This water undoubtedly comes from the mountains, but its exact source still remains a matter of conjecture. The fact is certain, however, that the reservoir left by the glaciers of long ago is now filled with a pratically inexhaustible supply of pure water which is safe from the possibility of pollution from sewerage or refuse, and which is unaffected either by drought or freshet. The water tower is twenty-five feet in diameter, one hundred and forty feet high, and stands on ground twenty-seven feet higher than the business portion of Plainfield. By means of this tower a uniform pressure is maintained throughout the city at all times, no matter how heavy the draft of water may be. The ordinary pressure is sufficient to throw water over any building in the city, and water can be drawn from half a dozen hydrants at a time without materially affecting this pressure. Very severe tests have been used to establish the fact of the practically inex- haustible supply of this water, which is now being used by neighboring towns and may eventually be carried as far as New York city.
CHAPTER XXV.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL RECORDS.
HE pages immediately following are devoted to a consider- ation of the lives of those who have been or are identified in a specific and representative way with the material and social interests of the township and city of Plainfield. The data is assuredly a consistent supplement to the general historical sketch preceding.
GEORGE HERMAN BABCOCK,
the distinguished inventor, engineer, and philanthropist, was born at Unadilla Forks, a hamlet near Otsego, New York, June 17, 1832. He was the second child of Asher M. and Mary E. (Stillman) Babcock, of the old Puritanic stock of Rhode Island. The father was a well known inventor and mechanic of his time, the pin-wheel motion in plaid looms being among the number of his many ingenious and successful mechan- isms. The mother also was descended from a family of mechanics, her father, Ethan Stillman, having been distinguished as constructor of ordnance for the government in the war of 1812, and his brother, William Stillman, as a lock-maker and clock-manufacturer, and the inventor of a pioneer unpickable bank-lock, long before the days of Chubb and Hobbs.
George H. Babcock spent most of his boyhood in the villages of Homer and Scott, both in Cortland county, New York. When he was twelve years old the family moved to Westerly, Rhode Island, where George received a fair education, subsequently spending a year in the Institute at Deruyter, New York. In Westerly he met Stephen Wilcox, afterward a famous inventor, but at that time a capable mechanic of the village. About this time young Babcock, being in feeble health and threatened with consumption, took up the new art of daguerreotyping. Through the healing influence of the fumes of iodine, used in developing the plates, he recovered his health, as he believed, and enjoyed a remarkable amount of physical vigor during the remainder of his long and active career. Photography never lost its fascination with him, and he continued to practice the art as an amateur, and was a successful and distinguished amateur photographer to the time of his death.
In 1851, when but nineteen years of age, he established the first printing office in that section of the country, and began the publication of the Literary Echo. The paper continued its existence as the Westerly Weekly, but, in 1854, he sold his interest in it to resume the art of
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daguerreotyping. In that year he, in conjunction with his father, invented the polychromatic printing-press. By this invention a sheet could be printed in three colors at once. This machine was placed in the hands of C. Potter, Jr., of Westerly, Rhode Island, to manufacture and sell, and after all expenses were paid the profits were to be divided equally. This contract, which was entered into on the Ist day of January, 1855, was what started Mr. Potter in the printing-press business. He exhibited this press at the fair of the American Institute, in October, 1855, and obtained a silver medal for it. After about one year's trial with this machine Mr. Potter found that the press, while it did mechanically all that was promised of it, was so far ahead of the times that it did not prove a financial success, and Mr. Potter, by mutual agreement, gave the invention back into the hands of the inventors, who pursued the business for several years longer, losing heavily in the end.
A year or two later Mr. Babcock invented and patented a very unique and useful foot-power job press, which he placed in the hands of Mr. Potter, on the same terms as the former. This press in his hands became a success from the start, and many of them were sold, but after several years its success was arrested by a competing builder, who claimed that in some of its features it was an infringement of his, and threatened Mr. Potter and all his customers with suits for infringement. As Mr. Potter had not the money to carry on expensive patent suits, and the other man had, the business became badly embarrassed, and, finally, sales nearly ceased. The contract was therefore terminated. This ended the printing-press business with Mr. Babcock.
The father and son next resumed temporary control of the Echo, issuing it as the Narragansett Weekly, but about one year afterward they sold their interests in the paper, and in 1860 Mr. Babcock removed to Brooklyn, New York, and spent three years in the office of Thomas D. Stetson, who was a prominent patent solicitor, with a large practice. He was so proficient in mechanical matters that the authorities of Cooper Union engaged him to instruct a class in mechanical drawing, and his evenings were accordingly devoted to Cooper Union, greatly to the advantage of himself as well as of his pupils. In 1860 his reputation as a draughtsman and inventor led to his employment by the Mystic Iron Works, at Mystic, Connecticut, whose shops were taking part in the construction of war vessels for the United States government. Soon afterward his services as chief draughtsman were secured by the Hope Iron Works, of Providence, Rhode Island. For these two establishments he designed the machinery for a number of steam vessels belonging to the merchant marine and the federal navy. During this period he improved the Shrapnel shell, employed during the war in engagements at close quarters. In this field of work Mr. Babcock gradually drew near the inventions which were destined to bring him fame and fortune. In 1867 he and his friend Wilcox formed the firm of Babcock & Wilcox,
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and took out a patent for a steam boiler. Their boiler was so designed that nothing like a real explosion could occur. They also produced a steam engine, and, in1 1868, moved to New York city to push this branch of their business to better advantage. Arrangements were made by them for the building of their engines by the Hope Iron Works, of Providence ; Morton, Poole & Company, of Wilmington, Delaware ; Poole & Hunt, of Baltimore ; and the C. & G. Cooper & Company, of Mount Vernon, Olio. This engine possessed some singulary interesting and ingenious elements of novelty and utility.
Babcock & Wilcox incorporated the New York Safety Steam Power Company in 1868, to build their engines and boilers, and the industry was conducted successfully until the expiration of the Corliss patents, when their engine was withdrawn from the market.
Their most famous invention was the Babcock & Wilcox safety or sectional tubular steam-boiler, based on an earlier invention of Mr. Wilcox, in 1856, and so constructed that explosion would not be dangerous. Mr. Babcock so designed the boiler, however, that anything like a real explosion would not occur at all. Establishments of great magnitude were erected at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and at Glasgow, Scotland, for the extensive introduction of this boiler. For over a quarter of a century the firm successfully extended its market in the face of competition, and the introduction of this boiler and others of its class have thus saved to the world lives and property of inestimable value. Through the operations of this commercial and business arrangement the parties acquired both wealth and fame.
Of his wealth Mr. Babcock made a worthy use; for many years he gave time and thought and money to the promotion of the interest of the Seventh-day Baptists, the religious body with which he identified himself, and the advancement of the cause of education, especially on its practical and technical side. He made magnificent gifts for educational, missionary and religious purposes, and was the correspond- ing secretary for the American Sabbath Tract Society, which position he held for nearly twelve years. During the years of 1874-85, he was a superintendent of a Sabbath school in Plainfield, and made his work famous. His love of Bible study, his blackboard illustrations, and the growth and prosperity of the school in consequence during the time of his incumbency, were often and favorably commented upon by the keen observers of the press. He was president of the board of trustees of Alfred University, to which he gave large sums, both during his life- time and by bequests, and was a non-resident lecturer of Cornell University from 1885 to 1893, in the Sibley college courses in mechanical engineering. His most important papers-mainly on the scientific principles involved in the generation and use of steam power, and on the best methods of boiler construction-were prepared for the last named courses. His last engagement, abrogated by his death, was
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JOSEPH W. YATES
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for a lecture in the spring of 1894. His papers were always well planned, thorough, full of facts and useful knowledge, and polished in expression. His delivery was quiet but impressive, and he held an audience, whether of college students or business men, interested to the end, however long the address. Mr. Babcock was a charter member, and at one time president, of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and was made a life member early in the history of the society.
In 1870 Mr. Babcock located in Plainfield, New Jersey. He was president of the board of education of Plainfield, and was also president of the public library of that city and of the trustees of Alfred University, and by persistent efforts promoted the growth of both. He did much to improve the city by the erection of fine buildings and through other enterprises. One block of buildings constructed by him is considered the finest architecturally between New York and Philadelphia. His activity and influence in the church in which he was a lifelong member were equally marked and effective, and it owes much to his energy, his ever lively interest and his personal liberality. Mr. Babcock was a man of culture, and of broad and varied reading. He was devout and honor- able, kindly, affectionate and thoughtful for others, was a loving husband and a kind father. In every relation in life he manifested admirable qualities.
Mr. Babcock was married September 28, 1852, to Lucy Adelia Stillman, of Westerly, Rhode Island, who died May 20, 1861 ; September 25, 1862, he was married to Harriet Mandane Clark, of Plainfield, New Jersey. She died March 5, 1881. His third marriage took place February 14, 1883, when he was united to Eliza Lua Clark, of Scott, New York, who died. March 21, 1893, he was married to Eugenia Louise Lewis, of Ashaway, Rhode Island. His children were George Luason Babcock, born January 7, 1885, and Herman Edgar Babcock, who was born July 9, 1886, and who died August 6, 1886. His wife and the one son survive him.
HON. JOSEPH WASHBURN YATES.
Early in the eighteenth century three brothers bearing the name of Yates came to America from Yorkshire, England, Thomas settling in Rhode Island, George in North or South Carolina, and James in Bristol, Maine. The last mentioned served during the siege and cap- ture of Louisburg by the British colonial troops in 1745, and in the war of the American Revolution.
Samuel Yates, a grandson of this James, was born in Bristol, Maine, August 4, 1788. He carried on a mercantile business in that locality, and held the position of justice of the peace. After service in the war of 1812, under a lieutenant's commission conferred upon liin
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by President Madison, he returned to Bristol, in 1816, and married Catherine Young, by whom he had seven children, -Gideon M., Henry, Lorenzo D., Joseph W., Alfred C., James and Clementine.
Joseph Washburn was born in Bristol, Maine, January 30, 1826. He received, with the other children, such an education as could be obtained in the public and private schools in that vicinity. When he reached the age of ten years he lost his mother, and four years later his father. Thus left alone, he came under the care of an aunt, the wife of Dr. Joseph Washburn, a prominent physician of his day, and after whom Joseph had been named. The doctor purposed that his name- sake should follow his own profession, and commenced to educate him with that end in view.
Joseph, however, became restless, and finally, with the consent of his benefactors, was allowed to carry out a desire to try and earn his own livelihood. The favorite employment in that locality at that time was "to follow the sea," and this he undertook.
He soon developed considerable ability in this work, and was early placed in command of a vessel, which position he continued to fill until about 1854. His last voyages were around Cape Horn to San Francisco, thence to China with Chinese passengers, returning to San Francisco. Soon afterward he went to Panama for passengers, at the time when the rush to the gold fields of California was at its height. The closing of this enterprise ended Mr. Yates' sea life.
In 1854 he settled in New York city, and formed a partnership with Mr. Robert Porterfield, thereby establishing the house of Yates & Porterfield,-a company which has ever since carried on an exporting and importing business with the west coast of Africa, and a general freighting business to most parts of the world. The founders of the house retired from active business in 1884, the business still being continued by their successors under the same firm name.
In 1855 Mr. Yates married Susan Gray Jackson, a daughter of Samuel R. and Jane F. Jackson, natives of New Hampshire and Maine. Her mother was a Winchell, of the family of that name distinguished in colonial history. The fruit of this marriage was five children,- Clementine R., Sam J., Frederick W., Katharyn Y., and Margaret G. Sam J., a graduate of Amherst College, is now engaged in the lumber business on the Pacific coast ; and Frederick W., a graduate of Yale College, is practicing law in New York city.
In 1865 Mr. Yates moved to Plainfield, Union county, New Jersey, and has since resided in that city. He at once took an active part in public affairs, serving the city as councilman, and the state as legislator. He was among the first to help organize the city government, and secured for it much favorable legislation. He was one of the original trustees of the Plainfield Public Library, and still acts in that capacity. For many years he was a trustee in the New York State Colonization
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Society. In 1876 Governor Mcclellan appointed him a visitor of the State Agricultural College of New Jersey (an annex to Rutgers). He has been consul for the Liberian Republic in this country since 1881, and still holds that position.
Mr. Yates has always been, and is to-day, a conservative and consis- tent Democrat,-not one who believes in voting "regular " at all costs. He cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln, in 1860. He was a delegate to the national convention which nominated Samuel J. Tilden for president, in 1876; and again in, 1892, to the national convention, at Chicago, which nominated Grover Cleveland for the same office. In 1884 he was one of the presidential electors from his state (filling vacancy), casting a vote for Grover Cleveland.
He has served on the Democratic state and county committees, and as president of the Democratic Association in the city in which he lives. Although urged by his party several times to accept the nomination for mayor of his city, congressman from his district and for other offices in the state, he never felt that the time had come when he would be able, if elected, to do full justice to the public and, at the same time, to those dependent upon him in private life.
Mr. Yates, while always actively interested in the public affairs of his city, state and nation, has, at the same time, been a close student, keeping fully abreast of the times, and is considered one of the conserva- tive, deep thinking, well read men of his time.
ROSWELL G. HORR.
Roswell G. Horr was born in Waitsfield, Vermont, November 26, 1830. He was a son of Roswell and Caroline (Turner) Horr. His grandfather, John Horr, changed his name from Hoar to Horr. His great-grandfather, Elijah Hoar, retained the old spelling. This branch of the family settled in and about Waitsfield, and Pomfort, Vermont, and can be traced directly to the Mayflower pilgrims.
On the mother's side Mr. Horr was directly descended from a sister of Ethan Allen. Senator Matt Carpenter was a second cousin. The father of Mr. Horr was a blacksmith by trade. He was a man of influence in the community, and, having served as captain of militia, he came to be generally known as Captain Horr. Roswell G. and Rollin A., twins, were the eldest of eight boys. In their fourth year the family removed to Avon, Ohio, where the father had previously purchased a farm, and whither he traveled all the way by team, there being no railroads at that time. When Roswell was ten years old the father died, leaving the mother to support her family with the products of the farm. Roswell worked on the farm, also for the farmers near his home, attending the country schools and ultimately fitting himself as a teacher. He managed to save enough money to enable him to
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enter Oberlin College, in 1851, supporting himself by manual labor and teaching school, while pursuing a course of study in that institu- tion. Just at this time Horace Mann (who was prevented from being inaugurated as president of Girard College, although he had been elected) went to Antioch College, in Ohio. Many students left
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ROSWELL G. HORR
Oberlin, to study under him. Among them was Mr. Horr, who was graduated in 1857, in the first class of that institution to receive the diplomas from the hands of Horace Mann. Of Mr. Horr, Mr. Mann always said he was destined to prove an "early man."
During the canvass for Fremont, in 1856, Salmon P. Chase, afterwards chief justice, visited Yellow Springs, as the guest of President
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Mann, and so impressed Mr. Horr that the young college student threw himself zealously into the close contest against Judge Paine. With the help of the comic vocalist, Ossian E. Dodge, he drew such crowds to his meetings in northern Ohio that he may fairly be said to have turned the scale in favor of his friend, Mr. Chase, for governor, and to have started that illustrious statesman and jurist on his upward career. Mr. Chase remained his steady friend ever afterwards. Before Mr. Horr had been out of college three years he had paid his college debts and had bought himself a home.
In 1858 he was elected clerk of the district court ini Lorain county, Ohio. In 1859 Mr. Horr married Miss Carrie M. Pinney, of Elyria, Ohio. In 1864 he was admitted to the bar. One year later he moved to Missouri, near St. Louis, where he engaged in the mining business.
In 1871 Mr. Horr moved to East Saginaw, Michigan. Here he became cashier, and afterwards president, of the Second National Bank, of that city. He also engaged in the lumber business. He was elected to congress in 1878, and served three terms, but was defeated for a fourth term. The work in congress which gave him his great reputation was his speeches on the river and harbor bill, on the Fitz-John Porter case, and his encounter with S. S. Cox. He was an untiring worker for his district and for his party.
After leaving congress Mr. Horr, at the request of many of the business men of Michigan, wrote his "Labor Lecture " and delivered it before the working men all over the state. This lecture won for him an easy entrance into the lecture bureaus of the country. He delivered it between four hundred and five hundred times. He wrote and delivered several other lectures, but the "Labor Problem " was always the most popular.
Mr. Horr spoke in every presidential campaign from Fremont's time down to Mckinley's. He campaigned in twenty-six states of the Union,- from Maine to Oregon.
In November of 1890 Mr. Horr joined the staff of the New York Tribune. His articles were written for the weekly and semi-weekly Tribune, although many of them were published in the daily. He always wrote over his signature, and much of his work was in reply to letters asking for explanations of the different political problems. His articles were mainly on questions of the tariff and currency.
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