USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 48
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Hugh M. Estil was born in 1842, in Plainfield, in whose public schools he was educated. After leaving school he learned the harness- making and saddlery trade, which he followed for a few years. In 1876 he established, in Plainfield, a book and stationery business, which he has conducted very successfully. Mr. Estil has traveled extensively both in Europe and America, and has been a careful observer of everything worthy of attention in the various countries which he has visited. In the community he is an active and enterprising inan. He has been a director of the First National Bank for the past seven years, and was elected vice-president in September, 1896. He is one of the managers of the Dime Savings Bank.
Since 1889 he has been a resident of North Plainfield, New Jersey, where he has an elegant home, in which he is surrounded with books, paintings, and other indications of taste and refinement. He lias been a inember of the First Baptist church for many years. Mr. Estil is a Son of the American Revolution, and in politics he is a Republican.
JOHN WESLEY JOHNSON.
Among the citizens of Plainfield most prominent in its business and social life is John W. Johnson, president of the First National Bank. There are probably none more deserving of mention than he. Mr. Johnson was born in Middlesex county in 1844, and is a son of John S. and Eliza (Clarkson) Johnson. His father was born on Staten Island, where his ancestors had resided for several generations.
John S. Johnson was a farmer by occupation, and followed the business of farming in Middlesex county for many years. He subse- quently came with his family to Plainfield, where he resided until his death, in 1896. His wife died in 1892. Three children born of this union are now living. Alfred C. and Peter C. Johnson reside in Middlesex county, New Jersey.
Jolin W. Johnson attended, at first, the public schools of his native county, and was subsequently sent to Staten Island, wliere he attended a private school. He then began his business career, as a clerk in the silverware store of J. A. Babcock, with whom he remained
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nine years. In 1869, having thoroughly mastered the details of the business, he established a trading house for himself, and therein has achieved a marked success. His business is the sale of all kinds of household plate-ware, and his trade has been extended not only throughout America, but into inany foreign countries, and is one of the most prominent in the line. His office is at 22 John street, New York city.
Mr. Johnson has resided in Plainfield since 1866. He has been a director in the First National Bank for a number of years, and upon the death of Mr. E. R. Pope, in 1896, he was elected president. He is also president of the Plainfield board of trade, and is in other ways recognized as a successful business man of the city.
Mr. Johnson has always been a lover of fine stock. He owns, near Plainfield, a model farin of two hundred acres, where he is now raising thorough-bred trotting horses. He is president of the New Jersey Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and is treasurer of the Driving Park Association.
Mr. Johnson was married June 2, 1869, to Miss Saralı Coriell, a daughter of Richard and Margaret (Elliott) Coriell. The Coriell family is of the French Huguenot extraction and is also connected with the colonial and Revolutionary history of our own country. Richard Coriell was a hatter and an honored citizen of this section. He died in Novem- ber, 1893. His wife was of Englishi descent.
Mr. Johnson is the father of two sons, both of whoin are associated with him in business. The family are members of the Park Avenue Baptist church, of whose board of trustees Mr. Johnson is president.
Mr. Johnson and family generally spend their summers in their beautiful homes on Lake Champlain, New York, and Alexandria bay, on the St. Lawrence river. They have hosts of friends, and are prominent in all the affairs of Plainfield.
WILLIAM PALMER SMITH
was born in New York city, August 19, 1852, being the son of James Wood Smith, also born in New York city, and a descendant of the Smiths, of Smithtown, Long Island. His mother, whose maiden naine was Anu Palmer, descended from an old English family of that name, and her mother was a Paulding, a grandniece of John Paulding, of Revolutionary fame, and a direct descendant of one Joost Paulding, a Hollander, who settled in New Amsterdam (New York) in 1688, and was a freeholder and voter of that period.
The subject of this sketch became a resident of Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1861, and has since resided there almost continuously. His early years were spent in New York city, Long Island, and Westchester county, New York. He was educated at military and private schools
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in White Plains, New York, and at private and public schools in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Mr. Smith is a banker and stock broker, a member of the firm of Breese & Smith, in New York city, where he began business in Feb-
WILLIAM P. SMITH
ruary, 1868, becoming a member of the New York Stock Exchange in April, 1875, and a governor in May, 1897.
Mr. Smith is a member of the Union Club, Players' Club, and the St. Nicholas Society, of New York city, and the Baltus rol Golf Club, of New Jersey.
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THEODORE F. FRENCH
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His wife's maiden name was Georgianna Hoadley, she being a daughter of George E. Hoadley, of the New Haven family of that naine; her mother's name was Anna B. Howell. He has four children,- Georgianna Hoadley, William Palmer, Jr., Lawrence Breese, and Alice Hoadley; also Bradford Hoadley Smalley and Edith Hoadley Smalley, adult children of his wife by a former marriage.
His residence is " Fridhem", on Belvidere avenue, Netherwood, New Jersey, a suburb of Plainfield.
THEODORE FRANKLIN FRENCH
was born in North Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1840. He is the son of Phineas M. and Mary E. (Oswald) French, the father being a native of New Jersey, the mother of New York. The grandfather of Mr. French was a native of Somerset county, where he carried on the business of a farmer. His son, Phineas M. French, became a mill-owner, and is now living, hale and hearty, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. This property is in the city of Plainfield, the mill still being in the possession of the French family. The mother died at the age of forty- two. Her ancestors were of English descent, and were prominent in the cities of New York and Brooklyn. Six children, now living, were the fruit of their marriage, and of these Theodore F. is is the eldest.
Mr. Theodore F. French received his education in the public schools of Plainfield, and in the Newark Methodist Seminary, after which he entered into business with his father, under the firm name of P. M. French & Sons. He continued with his father until 1886, when he had to abandon business on account of his health. He then went south for a time. In 1891 he entered the water office as the general manager of the Plainfield Water Supply Company, in which connection he is still engaged.
Mr. French is a Republican, but has never sought office or prefer- ment, though he has been foremost in promoting the public interests. He has been many years in an active business life, and, being enterpris- ing, affable and genial, has become a well known citizen of Plainfield, officiating in various public capacities from time to time. He was a member of the school board of North Plainfield for a number of years, was secretary of the old board of fire commissioners for a term of years, and was connected with the volunteer fire department for the period of thirteen years. Mr. French has been twice married. In 1864 he was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary C. Burnett, of Chatham, New Jersey, and two children were born of this union,-Nettie L., wife of Edward Howell, of Morristown, New Jersey, and Charles G., who is connected with Rogers, Peet & Company, New York. His wife died in 1884. In 1886 he was married to Miss Melisse Colthar, of Somerset county, New Jersey.
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J. AUGUSTUS SMITH,
an enterprising purveyor of pure food products to the citizens of Plain- field, was born at Weston, Somerset county, New Jersey, on September 21, 1860.
At fifteen years of age he entered the employ of the late James E. Gillem, the leading grocer of Bound Brook, New Jersey, where he remained a few years and then accepted a position as a traveling salesman for a wholesale provision house in New York. In 1882 Mr. Smith came to Plainfield as a clerk for one of the leading grocers. December 1, 1886, Mr. Smith and George S. Rockwell formed a partnership under the firm name of Smith & Rockwell, and purchased the interests of T. J. Pruden, whose business as a grocer had been in the family for nearly a century,
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at 125 West Front street. After a three-years successful venture in this enterprise. Mr. Smith bought out his partner and branched out into the wholesale trade, as well as continuing the retail business. The large and increasing trade compelled more room, and additions were made to the store. Finally Mr. Smith leased the entire building and then two upper stories, besides thie basements of 123-125 West Front street, now exclusively used by the wholesale department. In 1895 Mr. Smithi took his brother, Frederick E. Smith, into partnership, under the firm name of J. A. Smith & Brother.
Mr. Smith has been president of the Plainfield Grocers' Protective Association, is now vice-president of the same, and also one of the vice- presidents of the Retail Merchants' Association of New Jersey. Mr. Smith is an active and enterprising citizen of Plainfield, and his public- spirited life adds much to the welfare of his adopted city.
GEORGE HENRY FROST,
one of the proprietors of the Engraving News, New York, and associate member of American Society of Civil Engineers, was born July 9, 1838, in Canada. Both of his parents were natives of Vermont, but in early life they removed to New York, and in 1836 settled in Canada, where both died, leaving five sons and two daughters, of whom all but one are now living. Francis T. Frost, the youngest son, is a member of the dominion parliament, the first liberal candidate elected from his district in his own lifetime. He and his brother Charles comprise the firm which ranks second of the two principal firms manufacturing agricult- ural machinery in Canada. They succeeded their father in the business.
George Henry Frost received his early education in the public schools, until seventeen years of age, when he attended a private academy in northern Vermont. He afterward pursued a special course of study at the McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and was graduated with the class of civil engineers in 1860. Subsequently he became a student in an engineer's office in Port Hope, Canada, and in January, 1863, passed a government examination and was given a diploma as "Provincial Land-surveyor." Mr. Frost went in the same year to Chicago, Illinois,- then a city of one hundred and fifty thousand population,-and was engaged at once in railroad surveying in Wisconsin, in the service of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, then a comparatively small corporation, with a single line, to Green Bay, Wisconsin. He spent the summer of 1864 in an architect's office in St. Louis, Missouri, returning to the service of his company in Chicago as first assistant in the office of the land commissioner. He remained with the railway company until 1867, and was then made first assistant engineer in the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, locating north from Fort Wayne, Indiana. For ten
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years, beginning in 1867, Mr. Frost was engaged in private practice as a civil engineer in Chicago.
In April, 1874, he published the first number of the engineering journal now called Engraving News. In 1876 it was changed from a monthly to a weekly journal, under the present name, and moved to New York, January 1, 1878. From the smallest beginning this journal has become the leading civil-engineering publication in the world, a state- ment made advisedly and with knowledge. Mr. Frost was at first its sole proprietor, editor and business manager. There are now five stock- holding proprietors, two business managers, two editors and five associate editors, with such additional assistants in the office force as to make a total of twenty persons ; with offices in New York, Chicago, and London, England. This does not include the men in the mechanical department.
Mr. Frost was married December 3, 1868, in Chicago, to Miss Louisa Hunt, daughter of a hardware merchant of that city. He has four sons grown to manhood, and all are in business. The eldest son is a graduate of Yale College, of the class of 1892; the second is a graduate in mechanical engineering of the class of 1893 of Lehigh University, Pennsylvania ; the other sons received their education at the Leal School, Plainfield, New Jersey, to which city the family removed, from New York, in June, 1886.
Mr. Frost is a Republican. He is much interested in good munici- pal government, and has willingly given of his time and means in promoting such, having now served five years in the city council. He is principally occupied with the sewer and sewage-disposal systems of Plainfield, of which he has had the planning, construction and supervision from the very inception of the undertaking, and is at present chairman of the committee on this subject. He is also identified with street improvements, and in the council is a member of the alins committee.
Mr. Frost is a Presbyterian and a member of the Crescent Avenue church. He is interested in Bethel chapel (colored) and in other respects is active in the social and religious matters of his adopted city.
CHAPTER XXVI.
SPRINGFIELD.
PPLICATION was made to the legislature in the year 1793, and an act was passed May 27thi of that year, providing that all the part of the township of Elizabethtown and the township of Newark, lying within the following lines: Beginning on the bank of the Rahway river, on the line which divides the wards of Springfield and Westfield ; thence running in the said line to the top of the mountain, and from thence to New Providence meeting house, and thence to Passaic river ; thence down the said river to the bridge commonly known by the name of Cook's bridge ; thence down the old road to the top of the mountain ; thence on a direct line to Kean's Mills ; thence on a direct line to a bridge which crosses the east branch of Rahway river, commonly known by the name of Pierson's Bridge, by his mill-dam; and from thence down the said river to the place of beginning, shall be and is hereby set off from the townships of Elizabeth and Newark, and made a separate township to be called by the name of Springfield township.
This act remained in force until November 8, 1809, when New Providence township was taken from the township of Springfield, and on the 17th day of March, 1869, part of Summit township was formed froin the westerly portion of the township of Springfield.
The township is now bounded as follows: On the south by Westfield, on the easterly by Union, northeasterly by Millburn, in Essex county, and north and westerly by Summit and part of Westfield township, Union county. It is about five miles long and two miles wide.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION.
Springfield was formed from Newark and Elizabethtown (then Essex county) in 1793. The first record of this township made in the town books is as follows :
At a town meeting held at the house of Mr. Abraham Woolley, innkeeper in Springfield, the 14th day of April, in the year of our Lord 1794, pursuant to an act of the legislature of New Jersey, passed at Trenton the 27th day of May, 1793, the following officers were duly elected : Samuel Potter, Esq., moderator, and Elias Van Arsdale, town clerk ; freeholders, Walter Smith and Elijah Squier ; commissioners of appeal, Nathaniel Little, Samuel Tyler and Jeremiah Mulford ; assessor, Matthias Meeker ; collector, Abraham Woolley; surveyors of highways, William Steel and Matthias Denman ; overseers of the poor, Ezra Baldwin, Samuel Potter and Joseph Pierson ; pound-keeper, John Woodruff ; constables, Nathaniel Budd, Stephen Morehouse and
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Isaac Sampson ; overseers of highways, Amos Potter, David Pierson, Joseph Doty, Caleb Potter, Obadiah Wade, Benjamin Pettit, Ephraim Little, John Wilcocks, Stephen Denman, Jacob Brookfield, Uriah Smith, Simeon Squier, Enos Baldwin, Aaron Carter, Stephen Lyon, Jonathan Meeker, Isaac Halsey, Philip Denman, Isaac Sayre, Jr., Cornelius Williams and Samuel Tyler.
The village of Springfield is situated on a level plain, having parts of the Orange range and parts of the First Mountain range in full view. It is one mile from Millburn depot, in Essex county, about six miles from Elizabeth and seven from Newark. A branch of the Rahway river passes through the village. In 1738 it is believed that there were in the village of Springfield only three houses, and these were occupied by Thomas Denman and the Van Wrinckle and Whitehead families. The first Presbyterian church was erected about the year 1747, and tradition says it was built of logs. The second meeting house was built in 1761, upon the spot where the present one is standing, and stood until destroyed by the hands of the British soldiers, on the 23d day of June, 1780. The present edifice was erected in 1791. The present Methodist Episcopal church was erected in 1833. The Union Academy was built in 1857, the upper part being used as a town hall. The village contains two houses of entertainment, one of which has stood for many years, called the Washington Hotel, and the other, to the west of the village, facing the Westfield road, called the Springfield Tavern.
There were no postal facilities in this village until in the year 1810. Prior to this a stage passed through the place once or twice a week, going to or from Elizabethtown or Newark. Better facilities for transmitting communications were finally established, however, and Caleb Woodruff was the first regular appointed postmaster. He held the office for a number of years. Abner Stites was the next post- inaster. He was the store-keeper and was appointed postmaster about 1837. The first school house in this township was built of logs and stood in the village. It was erected about 1778. The following is found in the records:
In pursuance of a notification given at the meeting house, the 27th of July, 1800, a meeting of a number of the inhabitants of Springfield was held on Monday, the 28th, at the old school house, when, Abraham Woolley, Esquire, being chosen moderator and William Steele clerk, a vote was taken whether the lot of ground and materials of said house should be disposed of, which passed in the affirmation, without a dissenting voice .*
The premises were accordingly exposed to public sale by Elijah Woodruff, auctioneer. The building was sold for forty-two dollars, and the lot, to Elijah Woodruff, for forty-six dollars, and a committee was appointed to purchase a new lot, and also to build a school house, employ teachers, and discharge them at their discretion. Abraham Woolley, Esq., Matthias Denman, Halsted Coe, Daniel Sutfin and
* The oldest deed of school property in this township is as follows: " Abraham Woolley and wife and others, William Steele and others, trustees of the Union Academy, Springfield." Book F. 6 of Deeds, p. 168, etc., Newark, New Jersey ; deed dated April 25, 1803; recorded March 6, 1845.
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William Steele were appointed said committee, and at their next meeting, in September, 1800, " they decided to build a school house, two stories high, twenty foot post, twenty wide, and forty feet long; to contain four windows of fifteen panes, 8x10 each side and in the lower story, five ditto on each side and two windows in one end and four in the other. So we perceive that they had decided to build before they had secured a lot, as Rev. Mr. Van Arsdale had a lot for fifty, which he was to give answer to-morrow." At their next meeting they decided to divide the " Academy " into one hundred and seventy-five shares of eight dollars each, and at their next meeting, which took place December 14, 1802, Messrs. William Steele, Halsted Coe and Grover Coe were appointed to draft a constitution. At the next ineeting, December 27th, a board of trustees was elected, consisting of William Steele, Samuel Tyler, Halsted Coe, Gershom Williams, and Uzal Wade, " who constituted the number by ballot." The constitution was adopted, and the institution took the name of "the Springfield Union Academy." It is further stated in the records that the "Academy lately erected is established upon such a footing as will afford the easy and regular means of education to the youth in this vicinity, and add respectability to the place." The first mention made of a teacher in the old record book is as follows:
SPRINGFIELD, March 4, 1805.
The trustees of Springfield Union Academy met at the house of Rev. C. Williams, in order to have some conversation with Mr. Joseph Stewart, who offers his services as a tutor in the lower room. The trustees having satisfied themselves as to his capacity to teach, have agreed to employ him. The number of scholars shall be forty, no more, and the price of tuition shall be twelve shillings for those who read and write only, and fourteen shillings for cyphering and English grammar.
In the month of November, 1858, Union Academy was burned. Subsequently a new academy was erected. At this time J. F. Holt was principal, and he remained until Mr. Alford became the incumbent. Alfred Hand came in 1860, and at this time a public school was established in the basement of the Methodist Episcopal church.
SPRINGFIELD'S BIG DAY ; ELABORATE CEREMONIES IN TWO PLACES.
On June 23, 1896, the old town of Springfield, with its historic houses and Revolutionary memories, its battleground, and graves of patriotic dead, was the scene of a patriotic demonstration in commemor- ation of the deeds of Jerseymen, who, more than a century ago, laid down their lives in the cause of human liberty.
On June 23, 1780, the battle of Springfield was fought. In the afternoon of the day noted a monument was dedicated by the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, in the old "Revolutionary burying ground," which is in the centre of the village, and in which rest the bones of inany of the heroes who fought for
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country and liberty. The society also dedicated a huge bowlder, which was placed on the highest point of Hobart Hill, in the rear of Spring- field, near Summit, where, during the Revolution, stood, it is claimed, the minute gun, the "Old Sow," which sounded warnings to the
FLAVEL MCGEE
farmers, and where was also placed a signal beacon for the country lying between Summit mountains and Morristown.
A thousand special invitations were sent out by the committee in charge, and before noon the guests began to arrive. At noon school was dismissed for the remainder of the day, and stores and business places
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closed their doors. Special arrangements had been made to have the twelve o'clock train from New York stop at Millburn, where carriages were in waiting to convey the people to Springfield. Among them were members from the different state chapters of the Sons of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Revolution, Society of Colonial Wars, and of the New Jersey Historical Society.
Upon their arrival at Springfield the people assembled in the old cemetery, which is a short distance back from Morris avenue. This cemetery consisted originally of three acres, but now only twenty-two stones are standing, and these are gathered together in the limits of a half acre. A granite monument, standing six feet high, had been placed in the inclosure. On the face of the monument is the society's seal in bronze, and below this is carved the following inscription : "To the memory of the patriots who fell at Springfield, June 23, 1780." Among those buried there are Captain Isaac Reeve, Captain Joseph Horton, Captain Jacob Brookfield, who was also a member of the state legislature ; Richard Stites, who was an alderinan in the borough of Elizabeth and an ardent worker in the cause of independence ; William Stites, who was one of the early settlers of Springfield, and the first owner of the cemetery ; Watts Reeve, son of Captain Reeve, who was town clerk of Springfield from 1789 to 1803 ; Dr. Jonathan J. Dayton, who acted as surgeon during the Revolution ; Peter Dickinson, who was one of the purchasers of the property on which was erected the first Presbyterian church in the township, in 1751 ; Mrs. Dayton and many others.
At 2 o'clock the ceremonies were begun by the unveiling of the monument and the presentation of the deed of the plot to the society by William Flemmer, of the firm of Flemmer & Felmley, the owners of the ground. The gift was accepted by John Whitehead, president of the society, in a short speech, and he in turn presented to Messrs. Flemmer & Felmley a set of handsomely engrossed resolutions, acknowledging the gift. From the cemetery the assemblage went to the old Presbyterian church, at the corner of Morris avenue and Main street, where the exercises were continued. This old church, with its shingled sides and front, was erected in 1791, on the site of the first church, which was burned by the British eleven years earlier. The interior of the church had been handsomely decorated with palms, potted plants, flags and shields. Back of the pulpit two large flags were draped against the wall and in the centre of these was suspended a large portrait of Washington. On each side of the pulpit were stacked muskets with bayonets attached, while in front were palms and vases of cut flowers. Upon the balustrade of the gallery, which extends around three sides of the building, were festooned American flags with crossed swords placed at intervals.
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