USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 51
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Mr. Hart was succeeded by Rev. Edward E. Rankin, who was installed April 23, 1844, and dismissed in 1850. He is spoken of as a man of fine personal appearance, having a clear, pleasant voice, which, while it was not loud, was always easily heard. His ministry here was largely blessed. During his pastorate he took a trip to Europe, and Rev. Mr. Starkweather supplied the pulpit in his absence. Rev. William E. Locke, formerly a preacher in the Baptist denomination, succeeded him. He was installed May 28, 1851, and dismissed in 1852. Of his successor, the Rev. O. L. Kirtland, who was in- stalled May 3, 1853, and dismissed, at his own request, on account of failing health, April 17, 1872, it is not necessary that I should speak even to the children of this con- gregation. It is not to be expected that the words of one who was a stranger to him can make any more dear or fragrant that name of blessed memory to you all. How many hallowed associations are clustered around it in your hearts and homes? He is the man who for twenty years was your sympathizing friend and spiritual adviser. In the very nature of the case no other can ever take his place to many of you. He married you ; he baptized your children ; be stood with you at the grave of your loved ones; he sought to soften the sorrow by words of holy comfort ; he has been in your homes a frequent and honored guest; his memory is associated with days that were bright and days that were cloudy; he has been to you father aud brother and friend, -and such friendships are formed but once in a lifetime. There were one hundred and fifty-eight added to the church during Mr. Kirtland's pastorate here. In the early part of his ministry the lecture room was built, and near the close of it the church was remodeled to its present appearance, and the organ put in its place. Two years after his resignation he fell asleep in Jesus. Ou the 24th of October, 1872, Rev. Mr. Bowen was installed
ISRAEL D. CONDIT
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pastor of the church, and dismissed in April, 1874, to enter upon the Turkish mission, where he now is. The present pastor was called and began the supply of the pulpit in May, 1874, and was installed October 28th of the same year.
During the past year (1875) an infant-class room has been built upon the lecture room, and the lecture room repainted, at an expense of about eight hundred dollars. The church has had, since its beginning, fifteen pastors. Of the men who have served you in the gospel ministry several took this as their first charge, and were ordained here. One was married here ; two died and were buried here. From the membership of the church three young men, Alfred Briant, William Townley, and William D. Reeve have entered the ministry. One young lady has gone out as a foreign missionary, Miss Rebekah Smith, who went, as the wife of Rev. Mr. Forbes, to one of the Sandwich Islands. Thus have we endeavored to give as concisely as possible, but faithfully as to facts and dates, the history of this church. Rev. William Hoppaugh, the present pastor of the church, succeeded the Rev. George H. Stephens, October 31, 1886. The present membership is one hundred and sixty. Mr. Hoppaugh was born at Junction, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, August 29, 1857 ; is a graduate of Lafayette College, Easton, Penn- sylvania, of the class of 1884, and of Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1887.
ISRAEL DODD CONDIT,
a lineal descendant of John Condit, who came from England and settled at Newark in the year 1678 A. D., fourteen years after the first settlement of the state of New Jersey, at Elizabethtown, was born at Orange, New Jersey, on the 9th day of July, 1802, of Mary Dodd, daughter of Captain Amos Dodd, of Bloomfield, New Jersey, and John Condit (third of the name) who, at the time of the son's birth, was absent on a business trip, from which he never returned, dying at Savannah, Georgia, a victim of yellow fever. Deprived of the counsel and experience of a father, Israel D. entered upon the toilsome pathway of life under the guiding hand of a mother whose sterling qualities had been developed and confirmed amid the severe trials sustained by the people of New Jersey during the days of the Revolution.
As the educational facilities of that period were extremely limited, he was dependent upon home instruction for the acquirement of the rudiments of erudition, and at the early age of ten years he entered the school of active life as a factotum in a country store, where he was employed carrying the United States mail on horseback between Orange and Newark twice a week and executing sundry commissions intrusted to him by the neighbors, at the same time gathering unto himself priceless gems of practical knowledge, powerful enough to cre- ate an eventful and prosperous career of more than seventy years. A few years later he removed to Bloomfield, and continued the same line of business at that place until after the death of Captain Dodd. In 1822 his brother Wickliffe, having previously established a general store at Springfield (now Millburn, New Jersey), was taken ill, and requested his brother Israel to go to Springfield and conduct his business for one week, while he enjoyed the recuperative climate of Virginia. He accepted the trust, and often spoke of this period as the most weari- some of his life, and how eagerly he longed for its termination. The
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week finally reached its end, but with it came an earnest appeal from Wickliffe for its prolongation. An ardent desire for home urged a refusal, but the "crimson tie of kinship," agent of the Father's con- trolling hand, prevailed, and consenting to remain, a business agree- ment between them was consummated, and Springfield became his permanent abode. Two or three years later he became associated with Captain Wooldrige Eaglesfield in the manufacture of paper by the hand process, producing some of the largest sheets used by the press of New York; also the paper upon which the American edition of the Edin- burglı Encyclopædia was printed.
On October 1, 1826, he became united in marriage to Captain Eaglesfield's daugliter, Caroline, -a union existing sixty years, during which eight children were born, three of whom survived him. About this time he began the manufacture of wool and fur hat-bodies, and soon acquired the reputation of an expert assorter of wool, and 11pon his judgment large cargoes of foreign wool were purchased for the American market. Possessing an active and progressive mind, far beyond the wisdom of his generation, he was constantly on the lookout for improvements, and when the Wells' patent for the formation of fur hat-bodies by machinery was issued, he succeeded in obtaining an absolute right to the use of three machines. The successful introduc- tion of this invention, eventually revolutionizing and controlling the liat trade of the United States, and adding largely to the growth and prosperity of the county of Essex, was due in a great measure to his persistent efforts in withstanding mob violence in the city of Boston, and sneers at home; and this was the source of the wealth he accumulated and dispersed in the development of other enterprises, more or less successful in their results. He was one of the original promoters and the last of the charter members of the Morris & Essex Railroad Company, connecting Newark and Morristown, and continued in its board of direction many years after its extension to Dover. He was also prominently identified with the Dundee Water Power Company, at Passaic, and was its president at the time of its transfer to John H. Cheever.
In 1863 he entered the iron business by purchasing the old Colonel Jackson rolling-mill property, at Rockaway, Morris county, where he endeavored to produce malleable iron direct from the ore by cementation. In 1864, in connection with the Messrs. Coggills, of New York, he organized the Musconetcong Iron Company, at Stanhope, New Jersey, and erected the then highest blast-furnace existing. In 1865 he again entered the paper business, and in company with others erected a large mill at Shawangunk, Ulster county, New York, for the manufacture of printing paper from rye straw. The Newark Daily Advertiser and Journal both obtained their paper from this mill, until its destruction by fire, in September, 1872. Being at this time sole owner of the Shawan-
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gunk property, he began to rebuild the mill on a larger scale, notwithstanding the heavy loss sustained through defective insurance policies, and had it almost completed when the financial panic of 1873 overtook him. This being followed with the destruction of his forming mill, at Millburn, by floods, obliged him, after a few years of unsuccessful efforts to retrieve his fortune, to retire from active life.
Politically affiliating with the old Whig party in early life, he took an active part in national and state affairs, especially in all matters appertaining to the county of Essex, which then included a large portion of Union county, serving several terms on its board of chosen freeholders. He was instrumental in the removal of the court house from lower Broad street to its present location ; also in the adjustment of the county line between Essex and Union, whereby Springfield was divided. The place of his abode remained in Essex, under the title of the township of Millburn, while the southern part was apportioned to Union county. Althoughi his large business and political interest brought him in connection with all the prominent men of the day, he never sought political preferment, but, choosing the substance rather than the shadow, he, by a judicious use of a reserved power and influence, added lustre to the ornate columns of the state, and only once, in a case of emergency, in 1867, did he consent to serve for a single term in the halls of legislation.
He was nominally a Presbyterian the first half of his life, when, in 1850, an interest in ecclesiastical affairs was aroused by the Rev. Dr. E. H. Hoffman, who desired to establish a mission of the Episcopal church, at Millburn. Displaying the same energy as in secular affairs, he gathered together a sufficient number of persons to constitute a legal. organization, under the name of St. Stephen's Episcopal church, of Millburn, and held the first services in the public school building. In 1853 he erected, and presented to the congregation, the present church building and property. Later he added a cemetery, containing about twelve acres of land.
On the 29th day of January, 1897, in the ninety-fifth year of his age, and the full possession of all his faculties, he passed from earth, leaving a record inscribed upon the pages of the state's history in such characters of living light that the effacing fingers of time cannot obliterate them until that history itself shall have been destroyed.
SYLVANUS LYON.
The subject of this sketch has been a resident of Springfield for a period of thirty years, and is recognized as a representative citizen. His efforts in a philanthropic line have been indefatigable and far reaching, and there is unmistakable consistency in according him recognition in this volume. Mr. Lyon is a native of Mamaroneck, Westchester county,
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New York, where he was born on the 7th of May, 1826. He was chairman of the town committee of Springfield for nine years, and it was within the time of liis administration of this office that the town was bonded in the sum of six thousand dollars for the purpose of carrying forward certain municipal improvements. He has been a zealous worker in behalf of public interests of a local nature, and has shown a lively and active interest in all good works. He lent effective aid in clearing the indebtedness of the Methodist and Episcopal churches, and was one of . the leading spirits in the great centennial celebrations of Springfield. Mr. Lyon's name is widely known in connection with works of charity. He organized the Prisoners' Aid Society, raised seventy-five thousand dollars to build the Christian Home for Intemperate Men and has carried on the great work of the Moderation Society for eighteen years, being vice-president of the same. The noble work of this society includes the providing of free ice-water fountains for the poor, flower distributions in the slums and the extending of timely aid to those in need. Mr. Lyon was married, in 1861, to Miss Adele C. Peshine, of Newark, New Jersey.
PETER COURTELON MCCHESNEY,
son of John and Mary M. (Edwards) McChesney, was born at Short Hills, New Jersey, December 26, 1846. The first American ancestors of John McChesney came from Scotland, about the year 1740; Samuel and Mary (Meeker) McChesney were the parents of John. Nine stalwart sons and two daughters were born to them. John and his wife, Mary (Edwards) McChesney, were the parents of nine children,-seven daughters and two sons,-all of whom are dead except one son and one daughter.
The ancestors of the Edwards family came from England as early as 1730, and settled at Short Hills, where they purchased a large tract of land, which remained in the family for many years. Mary M. Edwards was a great-granddaughter of Jacob Edwards and Affie Spear, his wife. Jacob and five of his sons were all soldiers in the war of the Revolution, as were also the father and brother of Affie Spear. On her mother's side Mary M. Edwards was the granddaughter of John Clairage, who came from England, in 1802, and settled at Short Hills.
Peter C. McChesney's early life was spent upon his father's farm, and his education was obtained in the public schools of the township. When eighteen years of age he went to Newark, New Jersey, and learned the trade of watchmaker, jeweler, and optician, and followed that occupation there until August, 1872, when he was obliged to give it up, on account of his health, until the summer of 1876. In March, 1882, he was elected a member of the township committee, and was appointed treasurer. In 1884 he was elected a justice of the peace for five years. In May, 1885, he was appointed collector of taxes and appointed treasurer. In July, 1885, he was appointed postmaster, which office he held until
EDWARD T. WHITTINGHAM
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October 1, 1889. In March, 1886, he was elected collector of taxes. In 1887 he refused to accept the office, but in 1890 he was again elected and held the office continuously to May, 1894. In 1889 he was elected justice of the peace for five years, and resigned in 1892. In 1891 he was appointed notary public and commissioner of deeds, and in 1897 was again appointed commissioner of deeds. He has been chosen as executor and administrator for nine different estates. Mr. McChesney has never been an office-seeker, but has always been put forward by his friends without his asking.
Mr. McChesney is now a resident of Millburn, New Jersey, and still holds a title to a portion of the original Edwards lands at old Short Hills.
EDWARD THOMAS WHITTINGHAM, M. D.,
was the oldest child of William Rollinson Whittingham, fourth bishop of Maryland, and Hannah Harrison, his wife. He was born April 22, 1831, in New York city. After graduating from the College of St. James, at Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1849, where he was sent at the age of eleven years, he entered the medical department of the Univer- sity of Maryland, where he pursued his studies until he received his diploma, in 1852.
In the following year Dr. Whittingham began the practice of medicine in Baltimore, the home of his parents, remaining there, however, but two years; and from Baltimore he removed to Millburn, Essex county, New Jersey, where he lived until his death.
At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, in 1861, Dr. Whittingham immediately relinquished his practice in Millburn and received from Abraham Lincoln an appointment as assistant surgeon in the regular army. This office he fulfilled with valor, fidelity, and honor, until 1863, when he resigned, and returned to his home in Millburn. Dr. Whittingham was thoroughly patriotic, had great per- sonal magnetism, served both church and state with enthusiastic devotion, and was a man among men.
In 1859 he married Martha Gilley Condit, the younger daughter of Israel Dodd Condit. They had five children,-three sons and two daughters. Mrs. Whittingham, two sons and two daughters survive him. Dr. Whittingliam was a member of Lincoln Post, No. II, G. A. R., of Newark, and was a Mason. He died at his home in Millburn, on October 26, 1886.
CHAPTER XXVII.
BRIEF HISTORY OF WESTFIELD. [BY REV. NEWTON W. CADWELL.]
" Truthi comes to us from the past, as gold is washed down from the mountains of Sierra Nevada, in minute but precious particles, and intermixed with infinite alloy,-the debris of centuries."-Bovee.
W ESTERN towns often begin with a saloon, but it is an historical fact that Westfield began with a church ; and her entire history has been closely allied with that of her churches. Webster, in his History of the Presbyterian Church, claims that as early as 1709 we were a part of the parish of Elizabetlı Town, with the famous Jonathan Dickinson as pastor. Bellamy speaks of him as "the great Mr. Dickinson." Dr. Erskine said the British Isles had produced no such writers on divinity in the eighteenth century as Dickinson and Edwards. Brainerd spent part of the closing year of his life under Dickinson's roof. Hence any parish might consider itself fortunate with so strong a man as pastor, although that parish "embraced Rahway, Westfield, Connecticut Farms, Spring- field and a part of Chathain."
WESTFIELD PRIOR TO 1720.
It appears from a deed, dated 1651, that "Augustus Harman, probably of Dutch descent, purchased this tract from the Indians." Other Dutch proprietors are named in ancient deeds, but it does not appear that they became residents of the place, as some of their deeds, given to the early English settlers, mention that they resided in New Utrecht, on Long Island, and in New York city. In 1664 James, the duke of York, obtained from his brother, Charles II, king of England, a grant for an extensive tract of land in this country,-reaching from the western banks of the Connecticut river to the eastern shore of the river Delaware; including, of course, this state. He soon conveyed what is now the state of New Jersey to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, of English descent. After this conveyance Colonel Richard Nicholls, who was acting as governor for the duke of York, over his territority in "America, at one time, while ignorant of this grant to Berkeley and Cartaret, formed the design of colonizing the district which they had acquired, and for this purpose granted licenses to various persons to make purchases of lands from the original inhabitants. The effect was that three sinall town-
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ships were speedily formed, in the eastern part of the territory, chiefly by emigrants from Long Island, who laid the foundations of Elizabeth Town, Woodbridge and Piscataway. Thus it seems that this place and the others also were at that time claimed by three parties as owners, viz .: Mr. Harman, Messrs. Berkeley and Cartaret and Colonel Nicholl's emigrants from Long Island. Colonel Nicholls, however, on learning of the Duke's grant, resigned up the territory as its governor, in 1665, to Sir Philip Cartaret, who arrived in August of that year, with thirty settlers from England, who established them- selves in Elizabeth Town. The name of Eliza- beth Town was given to this city in honor of Lady Elizabeth Cartaret, and this state was called New Jersey as a tribute of respect to Sir George Car- taret for defending the island of Jersey, near England, against the Long Parliament in the civil war. It does not appear that the emigrants who came fromn Long Island and laid the foun- dations of the three town- ships just mentioned, were ever disturbed by the newly arrived pro- prietor. Others set up claims, however, the OLD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH-1803 settlement of which caused no small difficulty. But he seems to have cared less for a small sum of money and the few farms they occupied, than to fill the colony with inhabitants. Hence he sent to New England invitations for settlers to come and occupy the territory; and many came,-among whom were the founders of Newark (then New Ark.)
The price of Westfield land was at that time ten acres for a penny. Sir Philip would not have obtained much money, as lands then sold, if he had exacted from the emigrants as much as they paid the Indians; for the sum paid for the Elizabeth Town tract was thirty-six pounds, fourteen shillings, sterling, which, as subsequent surveys proved, was about one inill an acre, or ten acres for a penny, -and this
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was not paid in money. The articles given were "twenty fathoms of trading cloth, two made coats, two guns, two kettles, ten bars of lead, twenty handfuls of powder, and four hundred fathoms of white, or two hundred of black, wampum,-to be paid in one year from the date of entry by the grantees upon the lands."
THE NAME AND SETTLEMENT OF WESTFIELD.
History says that Westfield took its name from the rich "fields west of Elizabeth Town, and hence for over one hundred years went by the name of West Fields." Town records say that "the settlement of Westfield dates back to the last year (1699) of the seventeenth century. It was the result of the 'Clinker Lot Division.' Almost immediately after the division emigration from the older parts of the town of Eliza- beth began to set towards the interior, -especially to the territory lying between the Rahway river, on the east, and the mountains, on the west. It was not, however, until 1720 that the settlers became numerous enough to constitute a distinct community."
These hardy pioneers ventured out by means of blazed trees, crossed Crane's Ford (Cranford), settling at West Fields and Scotch Plains. The present city of Plainfield was as yet unborn. "West- field," says Dr. Hatfield, "was the extreme border of civilization. Neither church nor minister was yet to be found in the regions beyond, toward the setting siın."
WESTFIELD IN REVOLUTIONARY DAYS .*
The Stamp Act was one of the causes of the bitter struggle with England. The attitude of this county toward that act may be learned from the following clipping from a New York paper of February 27, 1766:
A large gallows was erected in Elizabeth Town last week, with a rope ready fixed thereto, and the inhabitants there vow and declare that the first person that either distributes or takes out stamped paper shall be hung thereon, without judge or jury.
At the same date the editor says: "We have certain intelligence from Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, that the magistrates and lawyers carry on their business in the law without stamps as usual."
THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, APRIL, 1775.
Nothing ever so stirred this section as the news of the above engagement with the British, where the first blood of the war was shed. "It roused the sleepers; it fired the populace; it united the people as one man to resist unto blood the tyranny of the lords and commons of Britain. Loyalty was at a discount. The Tory faction, till then defiant and exultant, were palsied with dismay. The die
* References : Spark's Washington ( Pennsylvania ) Ledger, New York Gazette, Remembrancer, Moore's Diary, Graham's Life of Morgan, Hall's Civil War in America, Irving's Washington, Hatfield's Elizabeth, etc.
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was cast. Nothing remained now but the sword, and he who would not gird it on in his country's need was a traitor worse than Judas." In the provincial congress of New Jersey, which met at Trenton, May 23d, was Abraham Clark, one of the immortal signers of the Declar- ation of Independence, and of the same family as Mr. Addison S. Clark, present freeholder at Westfield (1897.) Freeholder Clark is now in possession not only of a small section of land, on the suburbs of this town, once owned by Abraham Clark, but also of a fine old chair said to have been made by his revered ancestor. (Vide Westfield Curios.)
A BRUSH WITH THE ENEMY AND PURSUIT TO WESTFIELD.
December 17, 1776, Colonel Symmes, in his account of the "brush " near Springfield, says: "Captain Seely, who commanded the flanking party on the right, made a warm attack upon the left of the enemy, spread along the Westfield road. The colonel-commandant of the militia, supported by Colonel Lindsly on the left and Major Spencer, who now commanded the Essex regiment, on the right, brought up the centre of the brigade, retaining their fire until within pistol-shot of the enemy. The conflict continued about an hour, when the darkness for- bade a longer contest at the time, and the firing seemed mutually to cease on both sides. * * * The brigade fell back that evening only one mile, to Briant's tavern, struck up fires, and lay all night on their arms, intending to make a second attack in the morning. But in the morning the enemy was not to be found; he had withdrawn in the night, with all possible silence, taking off his dead and wounded in wagons. The militia pursued him to Westfield, but could not come up with him. This was the first instance in the state of New Jersey when the British troops turned their backs and fled from those they called 'rebels'; and this success, small as the affair was, taught the Jersey militia that the foe was not invincible."*
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