USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 62
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The present depot and also the Edgar block were put up in 1870, and new stores were opened in this block for the accommodation of a fast growing village. The turn- table was formerly where the depot now is.
The public school was opened in one of these stores by a young lady, now a well
JONATHAN CRANE BONNEL
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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY
known member of the New Jersey branch of the Daughters of the Revolution, and she was followed by Messrs. Foote, Wheat and Bailey. The present school building was erected in 1878, which, as we know, recently acquired an extensive addition, having ten rooms and ten regular teachers and three special teachers. The principals in the order of ser- vice are as follows: Messrs. Collard, Schuyler, Lyon, Chapman, Bissell and Knapp.
The former Y. M. C. A. building, on Railroad avenue, was built in 1888, and dedi- cated January 4, 1889. The present building on the corner of Highland and Springfield avenues was completed and dedicated October 5, 1893.
The Fresh Air and Convalescent Home was organized the eighth day of November, 1888. Too much cannot be said of this home and of the good work that is being accom- plished for so many poor and sick from hospitals and tenements in the city.
The Arthur's Home for orphans, which has been carried on so long by Mrs. Holmes, has done its good work for many years.
The Casino was built about 1889, the Summit bank in 1891, the Summit town hall in 1892, the Van Cise building, in which are two public halls and a school of music, in 1894, the new post-office building the same year, and the Wulff building in 1895.
Two incidents of the Revolutionary war occurring in the vicinity of Summit are worthy of note in this sketch. The one was that of a cannon stationed near Hobart mountain, called the "Old Sow," which was used to give the signal at the time of the battle of Springfield, but has since been removed to a point near the railroad station in Westfield. Hobart mountain lies on the Morris turnpike, between Short Hills and Chatham, at the end of Hobart avenue, and was named for Dr. Hobart (son of Bishop Hohart), who came here several summers, with his family.
The other was a fort built on the Feltville road, near Mr. Edward Ballantine's place. . Tradition tells us that this fort was called " Fort Nonsense," as the object in putting it up was to keep the soldiers employed while Washington was in Morristown.
JONATHAN CRANE BONNEL.
Among those who in the first half of the century figured prominently in the public life of New Jersey was this gentleman, whose labors materially advanced the interests of the community with which he was connected, and whose works are yet manifest in the improved conditions of the county. He comes of a family whose ancestral history is one of close connection with the development of the state. Early in the sev- · enteenth century the first ancestors, supposed to have been French Huguenots, sought refuge in far lands, owing to the persecution inci- dent to the revocation of the edict of Nantes. They settled on Long Island, and from there Nathaniel Bonnel, the great-grandfather of our subject, removed to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, becoming one of the first company of "Elizabeth Town Associates,"-this, of course, implying very early identification with the state. He bore the military title of captain, and eventually removed to Chatham, Morris county. His son, Nathaniel Bonnel, the grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in 1731, and died in July, 1809. The father, also named Nathaniel, was born in June, 1756, and died April 15, 1814. He married Martha Crane, who also belonged to a prominent old family, and they became the parents of three sons and four daughters.
Jonathan C. Bonnel was born in Chatham, Morris county, on the 29th of September, 1790, and acquired his education in the common
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schools of his native town. His father was engaged in the lumber trade, and, after his death, which occurred when the son was twenty- four years of age, the latter assumed full control of the business, with which he had been previously associated. He did an extensive business in furnishing ship timber during the war of 1812, supplying many of the leading builders. He employed many workmen, and the volume of his trade was very great. He successfully conducted the industry in Chatham township, at a place now known as Stanley, until about 1840. In 1836 he was one of the projectors of the Morris & Essex Railroad, now operated by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Company, and was very active in promoting the important enterprise, negotiating the purchase of the right of way for the line from Newark to Morristown, and successfully overcoming difficulties and obstacles which had prac- tically seemed insuperable to his associates. He also effected, to a great extent, the purchase of the right of way for the extension of the road from Morristown to Easton, Pennsylvania, and thus performed a very important service for the community. It is facilities for transportation and travel which open up a district to improvement and advancement, and one who is active in securing such facilities certainly deserves to be numbered among the benefactors of his district. In other ways he was prominent in developing the section traversed by the railroad, and was a leading and influential figure in public affairs. He always re- tained his residence in Chatham, but became interested in the affairs of Union county in such a way as to demand representation in this connection.
At the time of the projection of the railroad noted, incidental to securing its right of way, he personally purchased two hundred acres of land in Summit township, Union county, and here his interests eventually centralized, although he was not a resident of the county. In 1858 he erected a very large summer hotel in Summit, which was successfully operated, through eligible management which he secured for the place. It was virtually the nucleus of the modern and attrac- tive town of Summit, but the hotel was destroyed by fire in 1868. In other ways Mr. Bonnel was active in the upbuilding of Summit, which is located on a portion of the two-hundred acre tract which he origin- ally purchased, and which was afterward platted. He was very suc- cessful in his business ventures, by reason of his enterprise, sound judgment, keen foresight and unflagging industry.
In 1814 Mr. Bonnel was united in marriage to Miss Phoebe Ward, a daughter of Ichabod Ward and Ester Ward, of Chatham, who were representatives of old families of Morris county. To Mr. and Mrs. Bonnel were born five daughters and two sons: Mehitabel, widow of the late William Littell, of Summit; Julia, widow of Dr. John S. Smith, of New Providence; Harriet, Charity F., and Emmaline, who have made their home in Summit; Jonathan, a prominent resident of Sum-
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mit, who has carried forward the work instituted by his father, having been conspicuous in all that has conserved the advancement and sub- stantial development in the upbuilding of the town, having been prominent in local affairs for the past thirty-five years, and, with others of the family, having greatly added to the progress and prestige of the town; and David Ward Bonnel, who also is a resident of Summit, and who is intimately identified with aiding and co-operating with others in efforts for the promotion of the best interests of Summit and com- inunity.
Jonathan C. Bonnel was never active in politics, but voted with the Whig party in early life, aud afterward gave his support to the Republican party. In his religious belief he was a Presbyterian, and rendered great aid to the church of that denomination in New Provi- dence, serving as a member of the board of trustees for a long term of years. The varied interests of the county of a beneficial nature all bear the impress of his individuality. He looked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities of the future, and labored for the com- ing time as well as the present. He possessed sound judgment and keen foresight, and his endorsement of any movement or enterprise was a guaranty of its worthiness. His purpose was ever clear, and was adhered to until its object was accomplished. He possessed a genial manner, a helpful spirit, high moral principles, and a courage born of a firm belief in all that he supported, and his characteristics, peculiar to himself, won him the confidence and regard of all whom he met.
THE POTTER FAMILY
is an old one in the state and very prominent. John Potter the ancestor of Edward G. Potter, of Summit, was a native of Wales. He came to America and settled eventually at New Haven, where his son Samuel was born, in 1641. Samuel inoved to New Jersey and settled in Newark, where he lived and died. His son Samuel, born in 1672, moved to Connecticut Farms. His son Daniel, born in 1692, became a justice of the peace and an elder in the church at that place. He left no will, but his estate, which consisted of land about a mile square, was divided between three sons, viz. : Daniel Ist, Amos and Samuel. The three brothers built three houses on the main road leading from Springfield to New Providence. Daniel 2d, son of Daniel Ist, died before the Revolutionary war. Samuel, cousin of Daniel Ist, was a colonel in the Revolutionary war. Amos, son Amos Ist, moved to Franklin, Ohio.
Jacob Potter, brother of Amos 2d, son of Daniel 2d, was a brother of the grandfather (Amos 2d) of the Rev. Ludlow D. Potter. Jacob Potter and this grandfather (Amnos 2d) inarried sisters by the name of Clark. Their brother Noadiah moved to Ohio. Isaac, the son of
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Samuel, who was the father of the Rev. Samuel S. Potter, lived and died in the middle one of the farms mentioned above. Major Jotham Potter, father of Benjamin P., and the grandfather of Edward G. Potter, the subject of this sketch, was the grandson of Daniel 2d, whose farm of about two hundred acres covers the principal part of the present site of the town of Summit.
Benjamin P. Potter, son of Major Jothain, was born on land known as the Beechwood Land Company's property. He afterward moved to New Providence, where all his children were born. Edward G. Potter was his second child. He came to Summit in 1880, where he has successfully carried on the real-estate and fire-insurance business ever since. He owns a portion of the old homestead property in the easterly part of Summit, and also a handsome residence on New England avenue, where he maintains his home.
JOHN W. CLIFT. 1
John William Clift, editor and proprietor of the Summit Herald, was born at Nyack, New York, December 5, 1856. He is the son of John A. Clift, Esq., and Margaret Clift, both of Morristown, New Jersey.
1
Mr. Clift removed with his parents to Morristown, in 1865. He attended the public schools until fifteen years of age, and then, in 1872, went into the office of the True Democratic Banner, with the late L. C. Vogt. After a service of twelve years as boy, man and foreman, Mr. Clift retired to associate himself with Mr. Fred B. Bardon, at Madison, New Jersey, in publishing the Madison Eagle, and this partner- ship was continued from 1883 to JOHN W. CLIFT 1894, when he became publisher of the Morristown Chronicle. In July, 1896, he purchased the Summit Herald. In 1878 he was married to Miss Mary H. Class, daughter of Jacob Class, of Troy Hills, Morris county, New Jersey.
GEORGE SHEPARD PAGE
was born in Readfield, Kennebec county, Maine, July 29, 1838. His father, Samuel Page, removed with his family, in 1845, to Chelsea,
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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY
Massachusetts, where young Page was educated in the public schools, graduating from the high school when he was eighteen years of age.
In 1857 he made a trip to Minnesota for a business venture in real estate, which probably owed its failure to the great financial disturbances of that year. He returned to Chelsea and engaged with his father in the business of the distillation of paraffine oil and coal tar. Soon after his connection with the establishment the business increased greatly, and
GEORGE S. PAGE
enlargements were inade. In 1862 lie removed his business to New York city, where he could inore easily obtain crude tar in large quanti- ties for the manufacture of the American pitch, which he was then making. Soon after this he formed the firm of Page, Kidder & Fletcher, which was afterward changed into a stock company, under the title of the New York Coal Tar Chemical Company, with which he remained about twenty years, and then started in business alone, giving his attention to the various products arising from distillation of coal gas. [In
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all coal-tar and ammoniacal products he dealt largely. At the time of his death he was president of the B. P. Clapp Ammonia Company and vice-president of the United States Aminonia Company, both of which were organized by himself. He was a member of the British Institute, of the American, Ohio and Western Gas Liglit Associations. Mr. Page was in one sense a sportsinan. He was not, however, merely a fisher- man and a shooter and hunter of large gamme, but found most satisfaction in fostering and replenishing depleted waters with new species of fish and in introducing song birds into the fields where they had never before been found. He made his first visit to the Rangeley lakes, of Maine, in 1860, by invitation of his cousin Hon. Henry O. Stanley, fish commis- sioner of the state. In was in these lakes he took his first trout, and observed the spawning habits of the fish. Forest and Stream in an article on this subject says : "A pair of trout liad a nest which he watclied for several days, and even approached and stroked them gently without alarming them, so intent were they upon their business." In 1867 Mr. Page organized the Oquossoc Angling Association, in Maine, and was its president ten years. In that year he took thirty thousand eggs of the Rangeley trout, packed them in moss and transported them to New Jersey. He also took the great ten-pound trout, which was for ten years the largest Salino fontinalis on record, and which was mounted and exhibited at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and is still in the possession of his family. In 1869 he introduced black bass into Maine, and also carried brook-trout eggs to England and France. Those in England were hatchied at South Kensington, by Frank Buckland, and those in France at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris ; under the Société d' Acclimation.
In 1870 Mr. Page was made honorary member of the Société d' Acclimation, Paris, and corresponding ineinber of the Deutsche Fischerei Verein. In 1874 Mr. Page was elected vice-president of the American Fishcultural Association, and built a hatchery on Bemis stream, Frank- lin county, Maine. In 1881 he suggested to Professor Thomas H. Huxley, inspector of salmon fisheries of England, the introduction of the American shad into England. April 1, 1882, he was elected president of the American Fishcultural Association. Mr. Page was also well known in Christian, philanthropical, reforin and temperance associations. He was vice-president of the Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers, and was one of the four original founders of the New Jersey State Temperance Society, of which he was president seven years. He represented the Smithsonian Institution when abroad, by appointment of Professor Baird, its secretary. In 1870 he delivered addresses at Manchester, England, at the invitation of the National Education League, in Free Trade hall, and elsewhere, in which he described the free-school system of the United States, for which he received the thanks of the league for assistance in securing the enactment of the present free,
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unsectarian and compulsory-education law. His home was in the Orange hills, at Stanley, New Jersey, which was named by him in honor of his mother, whose maiden name was Stanley.
Mr. Page was married, at the age of twenty-one years, to Miss Emily De Bacon. He died March 26, 1892.
At a meeting of the board of trustees of the Chatham Fish and Game Protective Association, held on the evening after Mr. Page's death, resolutions were adopted, as a tribute to his memory, which bear high testimony to his character and abilities. From these minutes we abstract the following: "He was peculiarly a public inan, taking a profound interest in all that concerned his neighbors and neighborhood, which to him ineant a wide locality. He was always on the moral side of every public question. In his personal relations Mr. Page was as faithful to his friends as he was to his convictions of duty. He took a warm personal interest in his associates and won their confidence and esteein by his gentle bearing and kindly acts. A inan of strong convictions, which he advocated with emphasis; of sturdy principles, to which he constantly adhered, he nevertheless yielded with grace to the will of the majority. He loved nature and all her works, and his inherent sympa- thy for mankind was constantly deepened and broadened by this influence. The recollection and influence of his faithful, conscientious and earnest life constituted his most suitable and lasting monminent."
WILLIAM E. BADEAU.
The subject of this review is a representative of an old and honored family of the state of New York, while, as the name implies, his lineage traces to pure French origin on the agnatic side. He is a direct descend- ant of Elias Badeau, the Huguenot, who fled from France immediately after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, seeking refuge in the New World, and settling in New Rochelle, New York, where his was the distinction of having been the first deacon in the Huguenot church of that place. William Badeau, the great-grandfather of William E., was born in New Rochelle, in the year 1767, and located in New York city in the initial year of the nineteenth century. He was the first superin- tendent of the old Willett street Sunday school, located at Nos. 7 and 9 Willett street, New York, between Grand and Broome streets. This school was organized in Brown's old ship house, on what was called Manhattan Island, and the only method of reaching the place at that time (1817) was by walking over the logs which forined both obstruction and means of access. Those interested in the organization of the school were David Hoyt, William Badeau (Presbyterian), Father Hoyt and Father Egleston (Episcopalian). It is a matter of historical record that the old Broome Street Presbyterian church in New York was organized at the lionse of the said William Badeau, in Broome street.
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William E. Badeau is a native of the national metropolis,-as were also his father and grandfather,-the date of his birth having been July 26, 1853, being the son of Charles Raymond Badeau. The latter's maternal grandfather, Napthali Raymond, became a volunteer in the continental army, at the age of sixteen, and, in addition to participating in thewar of the Revolution, also did valiant service in the war of 1812. He also served under Jackson in the Creek war in Alabama and Florida, being in active engagement in the battle of New Orleans. He was likewise present at the massacre of San Domingo, and was held a prisoner
WILLIAM E. BADEAU
by the Haytians for a period of nearly two years. He was finally released from captivity, was loaded with presents and given a ship to replace the one which had been taken from him, and on this he set sail for his home. He put in at Philadelphia, where the Quakers, discovering that the boat had been formerly employed in the slave trade, peremptorily seized and burned the vessel.
Nathaniel Raymond, a brother of Napthali, was a commissioned officer under the famous Paul Jones. He went from Norwalk, Connect- icut, as a corporal of the guard in the Revolutionary war, and was with the Connecticut troops when the British landed at Flatbush and
CARROL P. BASSETT
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precipitated the memorable engagement at that place. Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution speaks as follows concerning him : "The venerable Nathaniel Raymond, still living, when I was there (1848), near the old mill wharf, or West Norwalk wharf, where he had dwelt from his birth,-ninety-five years,-remembers the hill being red with the British. He was corporal of the guard at the time, and, after securing his most valuable effects and carrying his aged parents to a place of safety, three miles distant, shouldered his musket and was with the few soldiers whom Tyron boasted of having driven from the hills north of the town. He says it was Saturday night when Tyron landed, and, like Danbury, the town was burned on Saturday." Elias Badean, a brother of the great-grandfather of the immediate subject of this review, fought with the New Jersey troops in the war of the Revolution.
William E. Badeau received his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools of New York city, graduating at the age of fifteen years. He soon became identified with the practical affairs of life, becoming concerned in mercantile enterprises, and manifested such executive and financial acumen as to secure him distinct recognition and insure his rapid and consecutive rise in positions of marked trust and responsibility.
Upon his removal, in 1884, to Summit, Union county, New Jesrey, Mr. Badeau became thoroughly identified with its interests and has been conspicuously identified with the development and substantial upbuild- ing of the attractive town. His investments in local realty give evidence of keen foresight and rare judgment as to intrinsic values. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Huguenot Society of America, the New York Cotton Exchange, the Consolidated Stock Exchange, etc., and enjoys a distinctive personal popularity in business circles.
In the year 1879 Mr. Badeau was united in marriage to Miss Annie Marie Bishop, a great-grandniece of Colonial Governor Bloom- field, of New Jersey.
CARROL PHILLIPS BASSETT,
son of Caroline Phillips and Allan Lee Bassett, was born February 27, 1863, at Brooklyn, New York. He was graduated from the Newark Academy, and in 1879 entered Lafayette College, from which institu- tion he was graduated, as valedictorian, in 1883, with the degree of C. E. He pursued post-graduate study, receiving the degree of E. M. in 1884, and, after study in Europe, his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in 1888. He is a member of the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity, and has been active in its exec- utive work, having filled various offices of its general council, including the presidency in 1887-9. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa; a life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a member of the
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Philadelphia Engineers' Club, and of the New England Water Works Association.
In social life he is a member of the Essex County Country Club, Essex Club, Highland Club, Blooming Grove Park Association, and the Baltus Roll Golf Club.
In the exercise of his profession as civil engineer lie has designed and constructed water-works, sewerage systems and sewage-purifica- tion plants in many towns in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. He was president of the New Jersey Sanitary Association, 1892-3, and is the author of "The Conservation of Streams," "Inland Sewage Disposal," and other technical papers. He is a regular lecturer on hydraulics and sanitation at the University of New York and at Lafayette College, and is retained as consulting engineer by several water companies.
He is largely interested in and director of the following corpora- tions: The Mountain Water Company, the Commonwealth Water Company, the West Orange Water Company, the Mountain Electric . Company; also the Mutual Building & Loan Association and the First National Bank, of Summit. Mr. Bassett resides at "Norcote," Sum- init, New Jersey.
FREDERICK C. CLARK,
of Summit, New Jersey, was born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1829. His parents were Austin Griswold and Saralı Ann Clark. His ancestry in America dates back to the year 1632, when the first representative, John Clark, from Essex county, England, came to this country,-one of the company that followed the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the Clemsford lecturer, when the latter was forced to flee from England because of liis refusal to conform to the ritual of the established church.
This company settled at Newtown, now Cambridge, near Boston, in 1632. In 1636 many of the members of Mr. Hooker's church at New- town removed with him to Connecticut and founded the town of Hartford. Among them was John Clark, and upon an old monument in the cemetery in the rear of the Centre Congregational church, in Hartford, are inscribed the names of ninety-eight of the original settlers, at the head of which is John Haynes, the first governor, next Thomas Hooker, with John Clark's name following. He was chosen one of a committee to apportion the land in Hartford, Connecticut, and in 1637 was a soldier in the battle against the Pequot Indians. Subsequently he removed to Saybrook, and on September 9, 1647, John Clark and Captain Mason were appointed by the general court to build a fort at Saybrook and to use the last rate (taxes) paid by Saybrook therefor. He and Robert Birchwood were appointed by the court to view the lands given to Captain Mason's soldiers, which same had been taken by thie Pequot
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