USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 44
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Mr. Horr continued his lecture work after joining the Tribune staff. He also debated the tariff with many of the ablest advocates of free trade. He had several debates on the question of free silver. One debate with Senator Stewart, of Nevada, was published in the weekly Tribune, and republished in pamphlet form. In the summer of 1895 Mr. Horr held a long debate with "Coin" Harvey, in Chicago. This debate has been published in book form. In 1894 Mr. Horr went to Plainfield, New Jersey, to make his home, and was living there at the
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time of his death, which occurred December 18, 1896. Mrs. Horr is still living; also two sons, Frank H. Horr, of Ithaca, Michigan, and Rollin A., of Saginaw, Michigan. The two daughters are Mrs. F. W. Hebard and Mrs. M. H. Ewart, both of Plainfield, New Jersey.
CHARLES J. BAXTER
was born at Glenwood, Sussex county, New Jersey, on November 8, 1841. He attended the district school there until he was twelve years of age, after which he went to work on his father's farm, continuing his studies by himself and with the help of an uncle who had graduated from Lafayette College and who then lived on the next farm. On his eighteenth birthday he started his educational work as a teacher in the district school at Frankfort Plains, New Jersey. After twelve years of teaching in several district schools, Mr. Baxter was appointed principal of the Franklin Furnace district school. He gradually improved the condition of the school until it was converted into a high school, remaining in that position for thirteen years. After leaving Franklin Furnace, about eight years ago, he moved to Plainfield, where he became connected with the Provident Life and Trust Company, of Philadelphia.
In 1875 Mr. Baxter was nominated as county school superintendent of Sussex county, by the state board of education, but was rejected by the Democratic board of freeholders, because of his party affiliations. This started the agitation which resulted in that power being taken from the board of freeholders and given to the board of education. He was appointed to his present position, superintendent of public instruction, by Governor Griggs, on March 24, 1896, as a successor to Addison B. Poland, who had resigned. Two days later Mr. Baxter was confirmed by the senate for a full term of three years.
WILLIAM MCDOWELL CORIELL.
In the year 1663 David Coriell and his two brothers, Elias and Emanuel, emigrated from the island of Corsica to America. They were of French-Huguenot stock. One branch of the family settled at Lambertville, New Jersey, and the place made famous by Washington crossing the Delaware at that point was called Coryell's Ferry.
David Coriell, a descendant of David, Sr., was born December 19, 1735. He married Elizabeth Whitehead, born June 19, 1737. Their children were Elisha; Rachel; David; Alice, grandmother of Chan- cellor Runyon, of Newark; Samuel; Elizabeth; Susannah, grandmother of Judge Runyon, of Plainfield ; Isaac, father of Dr. Coriell, of New Market ; and Abrahamn. Elisha, son of Elisha, first mentioned, was grandfather of William McDowell Coriell. He first resided at New Market and subsequently moved to his farm of two hundred acres,
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WILLIAM McD. CORIELL
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which is a part of the present site of the village of Dunellen. He was in the Revolutionary war, and received a pension for his faithful services in that contest. For many years, and at the time of his death, he was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church at Bound Brook.
Elisha Coriell was twice married. His first wife, Mary, the daughter of Luke Covert, bore him eight children. They were Ephraim, the father of the subject of our sketch ; Elizabeth, wife of Zachariah Pond, of Dunellen ; Anne, wife of David Laforge, Newton, New Jersey; Sally, unmarried; Harriet, wife of David Van Kirk, Somer- ville, New Jersey ; and David, who inherited the homestead property. Mr. Coriell's second wife was Nancy Dunn. The fruit of this union was three children, namely : Eunice Maria, wife of Isaac Van Nostrand; Caroline, wife of Ralph Conover; and Elisha, now a resident of North Plainfield.
Ephraim Coriell was a representative man in his township. He owned part of the homestead at Dunellen, by purchase and by inheritance, and here he spent his life as a farmer. His church relations were prominent both at Bound Brook and at Plainfield. He was one of the founders of the First Presbyterian church at Plainfield, and was one of its ruling elders until his death. He married Sally, daughter of Levi and Sarah Lenox, of Plainfield, December 26, 1811. She was born August 11, 1797, and died April 2, 1873. Her father was a Revolutionary soldier also. He died December 24, 1828, aged about eighty years. The children of Ephraim and Sally Coriell are Levi L., born April 5, 1812, died October 15, 1813 ; William McDowell, born December 19, 1815 ; Abraliam C., born June 27, 1819, died in the spring of 1895. The latter was a resident of Dunellen, Somerset county, and was a representative in the state legislature at one time.
William McDowell, the subject of our sketch, is one of the oldest ruling elders of the Presbyterian church in Plainfield. He received his education at the district school, being permitted those advantages only until seventeen years of age, when the necessities of life required that he should enter upon some business career. He chose the hatters' trade, and engaged with Van Nostrand & Conover, hat manufacturers, at the place now known as Evona, in Plainfield township, and remained with them until he reached his majority. Subsequently he spent a few years at home, but without pecuniary assistance, and then, being moved to do something for himself, he worked for a few years as a journeyman at his trade. In 1844, with but a small capital, he entered into a partnership with five others and began the hat-manufacturing at the factory formerly occupied by Van Nostrand & Conover, but this enter- prise lasted only one year. In 1846 he bought the same factory, and there manufactured hats until 1849, when he built his present manu- factory, near the railroad, where he has carried on a flourishing business to the present time. From a small beginning the business
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has increased annually, until now the product of the factory, in the manufacture of fine soft fur hats amounts daily to as much, or more, than was accomplished weekly in former years. In 1842 Mr. Coriell settled on the homestead formerly owned by his grandfather Lenox. In 1856 he built his present substantial residence near his manufactory.
Mr. Coriell has been prominently connected with the financial and religious interests of Plainfield during his active business life. For- merly he was a director and stockholder in the old Union County Bank, of Plainfield; was one of the founders of the First National Bank, in which he has been a director since its organization; is one of the directors of the Washington Insurance Company, of Plainfield; was a member of the common council for several years after the incorporation of Plainfield as a city; and he was one of the founders of the Crescent Avenue Presbyterian church, succeeding his father as one of its ruling elders, in 1858.
Mr. Coriell was married October 20, 1840, to Eliza C., daughter of Benjamin Runyon, of Plainfield. She was born March 8, 1819, and died January 2, 1881. The children born of this union are William Henry, Ephraim, Benjamin Franklin, Levi and David. Levi and David are dead. Mr. Coriell has been an active and useful man, and his name will long be remembered as an honored one of Plainfield.
LEVI HETFIELD
was born at Westfield, New Jersey, September 19, 1817. He came to Plainfield when a boy, and began to learn the trade of carpenter with his brother-in-law, John Cook, in a shop where the First Presbyterian church now stands. He was energetic and attentive to business, as well as frugal in habits, and was soon able to commence business for himself, as contractor and builder. Mr. Hetfield was from the outset prosperous in all his undertakings. His first work of importance was the erection of a flour and feed mill, on Madison avenue, which in after years was burned down. For a number of years he was the owner of and carried on the lumber and coal business, in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Mr. Hetfield led an industrious life, and was zealous in all his efforts to promote the growth and prosperity of Plainfield. In 1870 he retired from active business, but continued to give his personal attention to the various interests in which his capital was invested. He was a director in the Dime Savings Bank to the time of his death, and chairman of its committee on making loans, being considered an expert in property valuations in Plainfield. He was director of the Plainfield Street Railroad, the Bound Brook Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and the American Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of Plainfield. For three years he served as a member of the common council, and his executive ability was frequently recognized by the court of chancery in appointing
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him as administrator of various estates, among which were the Job Male and the Alfred Berry estates, which were equitably and ably settled.
Mr. Hetfield was married i11 1838 to Miss Sarah A. Hand, who died in 1868, leaving four children, all of whom still survive her. They are Mrs.
LEVI HETFIELD
Harold Serrell, Mrs. Dr. Andrew Manning, Walter L., and John M., who is the present postmaster of Plainfield. Mr. Hetfield married again in 1874, being then united to Miss Maggie Freeman, who died in 1889. His children all reside in Plainfield, where their father, for more than half a century, led a useful life and established a character of which
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they and their fellow townsmen may be justly proud. Mr. Hetfield died February 27, 1895, at the of seventy-seven years.
REV. LEWIS BOND.
The subject of this memoir was born at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, October 9, 1795. He was a lineal descendant of Robert Bond, who came from England and settled at Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1639, removing to Long Island in 1643, and thence to Elizabethtown in 1664. While yet young, his father, Elihu Bond, removed to the homestead farm, midway between Elizabeth and Newark, which was in the possession of the family for more than two hundred years, and there the son remained until he became of age.
In June, 1817, he was received into the First Presbyterian church of Elizabethtown, and in the same year commenced his preparatory studies in the local Academy, of which Moses Sinith was principal. In 1820 he entered the junior class of Union College, at Schenectady, New York, graduating in 1822. The same year he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, took the three-years course, and was licensed to preach, by the presbytery of Elizabethtown, October 7, 1825.
On June 8, 1826, Mr. Bond was married to Catherine, third daugliter of Cornelius Van Derveer, of Rocky Hill, New Jersey, a direct descendant of Cornelis Jansse Van Derveer, who emigrated from Holland, in 1659, and settled in Flatbush, Long Island. Upon her mother's side Mrs. Bond traced her ancestry through the Van Dyke and Bergen families to Hans Hansen Bergen, who came to this country in 1633 and married Sara Rapalie, the first white female child born in the New Netherlands.
Mr. Bond was ordained on June 6, 1826, and preached for the newly organized Presbyterian church at Plainfield, New Jersey, by appointment of presbytery, until April, '1829, when he was installed as pastor, and continued as such until 1857. Then, a new church edifice having been completed and paid for, largely through his efforts, and believing that a younger man could better perform the increasing duties of the pastorate, at his earnest request the pastoral relation was dissolved. During his later years he was frequently called upon to preach, and to performn marriage and funeral services, but the love for outdoor life that he had acquired in boyhood was still strong within him, and much of his time was devoted to the cultivation of the soil. What was his farm is now one of the fine residential districts of the city.
Mr. Bond's father was a soldier of the Revolution, and was an ardent patriot. His house was used as a guardhouse, and his recital of the anxieties, alarms and dangers of that trying period served to imbue the son with a like spirit. While yet a youth he was connected with a company of mounted militia, and May 29, 1829, was appointed " Chaplain to the First Regiment, in the Brigade of the Cavalry of New Jersey,"
JOHN M. HETFIELD
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receiving his commission from Governor Williamson. Until past middle life Mr. Bond rode with Colonel William Brown and staff upon public occasions. He wore no military insignia, except the sash, yet his fine mount and superb horsemanship rendered him a most conspicuous figure.
Mr. Bond was an enterprising and public-spirited citizen, ever ready to do what he could to advance the interests of the town. He was active in the promotion of education, an ardent friend of temperance, and, while taking no leading part in politics, did not fail to use his influence and cast his vote for that which he believed to be right. During the early years of his ministry he conducted a school, teaching therein, in addition to his pastoral work, and being ably assisted for a time by the late Dr. Abraham Coles, the eminent classical scholar and poet, who, although himself a student and but seventeen years of age, gave instruction to the class in Latin and mathematics.
Mr. Bond died January 23, 1885, having survived his wife for nearly thirteen years. They left four children : Theophilus, who married Emma A. Price, of Newark ; Isaac Van Derveer, who married Dezier A. Ayers, of Plainfield ; Catherine Louisa ; and Lewis, who married Fanny Russell, of New York, and who has been, for nearly thirty years, a missionary of the American Board in European Turkey.
His portrait hangs above the altar in the chapel, and a beautiful memorial tablet has been erected in the church of which he was the first pastor, and which was his first and only charge.
JOHN M. HETFIELD.
John M. Hetfield, son of the late Levi Hetfield, of Plainfield, New Jersey, was born January 21, 1859, in the old homestead, where his father lived until his death, in 1895.
Mr. Hetfield attended the public schools until fifteen years of age, when he began to learn the trade of carpenter, under his father. After working three years, he helped his father build what is known as the "Hetfield Model Coal Yard," at the corner of Madison avenue and West Third street. This was the first and only coal yard having pockets to hold coal, from which a wagon could be loaded by being drawn under a screen. Mr. Hetfield's father secured a patent on this device, which is now used extensively throughout the country. He continued in the coal trade with his father until 1885, when they sold the business to Don A. Gaylord. In 1887 the firm of Hetfield Brothers was established in Plainfield, with John as manager, a new yard having been opened in the western part of the city. This firm carried on the coal business for three years, after which John, who had bought out his brother's interest, continued at the old stand for four years, event- ually selling his business, to accept the appointment of postmaster of Plainfield, New Jersey. This appointment was made June 1, 1894,
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and, under his personal supervision, this post office has become one of the best second-class post offices in the state. Since taking charge of it Mr. Hetfield, having lost his father, has had his entire estate to manage, and has been appointed by the Middlesex county courts as guardian of an imbecile, who is possessed of much real estate in Plain- field. Mr. Hetfield is president and one of the appraisers of the Plainfield branch of the New Home Building Loan and Savings Association of New Jersey. He is regarded as a man of excellent judgment in manag- ing estates, and has met with success in every business enterprise.
Mr. Hetfield was married January 25, 1888, to Miss Isabella Muir, of Morristown, New Jersey, daughter of Josiah Muir. They have one child, Clarence.
THADDEUS OSBORN DOANE,
who is a representative of the building interests of Plainfield, was born in Nova Scotia, May 3, 1844, and is a son of Samuel Osborn and Sarah (Bagot) Doane. His parents were married on Long Island in 1836, and the father was a builder by occupation. In 1846 he removed with his family to Brooklyn, and ten years later took up his residence in Union county, New Jersey. He was a descendant of Deacon John Doane, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, who came to New England in the " Relief."
Thaddeus O. Doane was a child of only two years when he accompanied his parents to Brooklyn. He obtained his education in the schools of that place and in Union county, whither he came with the family in 1856. A location was made two miles east of Plainfield, and he lived on the farm, assisting in its cultivation and development, until after the inauguration of the civil war, when, prompted by a spirit of patriotism, he responded to his country's call for troops and joined the Union army. The date of his enlistment was August 16, 1862. He became a private in the Eleventh New Jersey Infantry, and went to the front, where he at once entered into active service. He was wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville and again at the hotly contested engagement at Gettysburg. He was afterward transferred to the Twentieth Veteran Reserve Corps, with which he served until the close of the war, when he was discharged, as sergeant, in July, 1865.
On returning to the north Mr. Doane found that his family had taken up their residence in the city of Plainfield, and there he has since made his home. For twenty years past he has been identified with the building interests and his efficient workmanship, his straightforward business methods and his determination have brought to him signal success.
In October, 1868, in the old Scotch Plains church, was celebrated the marriage which made Mr. Doane and Miss Abby E. C. F. Randolph man and wife. They now have two sons, Thaddeus J. F. and Hervey
CHARLES POTTER
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Kincl. Mrs. Doane and her sons are members of the Park Avennie Baptist church, and with them Mr. Doane attends the services and contributes to the support of the church. He holds a membership in Jerusalem Lodge, F. & A. M., and in Post No. 73, G. A. R. His political support is given the Republican party, and he stanchly advocates its principles.
Mr. Doane has never held public office, save in connection with the fire department. From his earliest boyhood, fires have had a great attraction for him. In his youth he would run away from home to every fire in the locality, although he knew full well that punishment awaited him on his return. After attaining his majority he became connected with the fire department, in November, 1865, finding an interesting excitement battling with the destructive element. In 1870 he became second assistant engineer, the following year was made first assistant engineer, and in 1876, 1877 and 1879 was chief engineer. He was appointed chief engineer by Mayor Male in 1888 and has held the office continuously since. In February, 1896, he was appointed inspector of buildings, and has since occupied that position. He is deeply inter- ested in the welfare of the city which has so long been his home, and lends an active co-operation in all movements tending to its growth and advancement.
CHARLES POTTER,
the founder of the Potter Printing Press Company, and the originator of the printing presses that bear his name, was born in Brookfield, Madison county, New York, in 1824, and was the eldest child of Charles and Eliza (Burdick) Potter. His father, Charles Potter, was the youngest child of George and Mary (Stillman) Potter, of Potter Hill, Rhode Island. His mother, a daughter of Samuel P. and Mary (Stillman) Burdick, was born in Brookfield, Madison county, New York. The ancestors on both sides were from Rhode Island, and among those who fought for American independence.
His father was apprenticed, at the age of fourteen years, to the carpenter's trade, for the term of seven years, on the expiration of which he went to Brookfield, Madison county, New York, where he worked at his trade until 1826. At that time he moved to the adjoining town of West Edmeston, Ostego county, and engaged in the business of carriage- building, in which business he continued until 1837, when, on account of ill health, his physician advised him to go on a farm, which he did, in Adams, Jefferson county, New York, a few miles from the city of Watertown.
Up to this time the subject of this sketch, who was then in his thirteenth year, had attended district school, summer and winter, but from this time until 1846 his summers were spent upon the farmn, and his winters, with the exception of two, in which he taught school, were
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spent at school, including two years under a private tutor and two years of academic instruction in an academy in that county. He taught three terms with excellent success. In the autumn of 1846 he visited Rhode Island, where most of his relatives lived, both on his father's and mother's side, and whom he had never seen. This visit resulted in his engaging in business in Westerly in that state, whence he never returned to his old home in Jefferson county, except as a visitor.
It had been his intention, and also the desire of his father, to take a course in agricultural chemistry at Yale and fit himself for scientific farming, but circumstances compelled him to do otherwise. From the spring of 1847 to September of 1849, he was engaged as a clerk in a lumber and building business in Westerly, Rhode Island. Here he displayed so much business ability that when a stock company was formed to take up a defunct iron-foundry business Mr. Potter was engaged to have entire charge of the financial, as well as the mechanical part of it. In this he was engaged until January, 1855. During this time he made all the drawings for patterns that the company had occasion to use, which were many, as well as quite a large number of the patterns; and brought the business up from nothing to a financial success. He then left the foundry business, greatly to the regret of the company, who offered to double his salary if he would remain. His reasons for leaving were as follows : In 1854 the late George H. Babcock, of the firm of Babcock & Wilcox Company, the most famous boiler-makers in the world, had, with his father, invented a printing press for printing in three colors at once. This was of small size, only 8 x 12 inches, and run by foot power. Mr. Potter believed he saw a fortune in that press, and made an arrangement with the Babcocks, father and son, to take this invention, have the presses built at his own expense, and put them on the market, or sell the patent and, after all expenses were paid, divide the profits equally. He therefore left the foundry business, with a cash capital in his pocket of two hundred and fifty dollars, and early in the year 1855 took the press to New York, and opened an office at 29 Beek- inan street, second floor, over Connor's type foundry. While endeavoring to sell these presses, another of decidedly original character, invented by Merwin Davis, of Brooklyn, was offered him on the same conditions as that of Mr. Babcock's, and as it was for another purpose and did not conflict with the Babcock invention, he took that also to manufacture and sell. He exhibited one of each at the fair of the American Institute, the following October, and obtained a silver medal on the Babcock and a gold medal on the Davis.
In 1856 the Davis press was exhibited at the Mechanics' Fair, in Boston, and obtained a silver medal, and was sold to William H. Rand, now of the firm of Rand & McNally, Chicago, who in that same autumn opened a job-printing office in that city. In 1857, at the fair of the Maryland Institute, it took another silver medal. Mr.
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Babcock obtained a patent for a very unique and excellent job press in 1857, and Mr. Potter took hold of that on the same plan as the former, to make and sell, and, after deducting all expenses, to divide the net profits equally. This became a popular press, and many were sold, but after it had been in the market about two years, and had gained great favor, a competing builder obtained a patent and threatened infringement proceedings in the courts. In view of these conditions, Mr. Potter sold out the presses he had in stock, and retired from that part of the business, rather than risk his capital in patent litigation. In the meantime it was found that the color press, which first engaged Mr. Potter's attention in 1855, was about forty years ahead of the times, those then built printing sheets 12x19 inches, and selling for about one thousand dollars, and printing in three colors; and yet, in 1895, forty years from that time, he built and sold a press of his own invention, that would print a seven-column newspaper of from four to sixteen pages, in four colors, at the rate of twenty-four thousand copies per hour, folded and delivered in packages of fifty.
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