USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 8
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The third chapter of Royal Arch Masons is known and des- ignated as Jerusalem Chapter, No. 24. Officers, 1896,-Charles M. Ulrich, H. P .; William I. Ford, K .; Daniel C. Adams, S.
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR.
The first commandery of Knights Templar in the county of Union was organized under a dispensation issued by John Woolverton, Grand Commander, in the year 1868, to William H. McIlhanney, Eminent Commander ; David D. Buchanan, Generalissimo ; John Whittaker, Captain General. This commandery received its warrant from the Grand Commandery in the year 1869. Officers, 1896,-Noel R. Park, Eminent Commander; George A. Squire, Generalissimo ; Jacob W. Sheppard, Captain General. This commandery is designated as St. John's Commandery, No. 9.
The second commandery of Knights Templar in the county of Union was organized, under dispensation issued by Isaac C. Githens, Grand Commander, in February, 1889, to William H. Sebring, Eminent Commander ; G. L. Cook, Generalissimo ; C. M. Goddard, Captain General. This commandery was duly warranted in May, 1889. Officers, 1896,-Jacob Kirkner, Eminent Commander ; N. Y. Dungan, Generalissimo; William H. Freeman, Captain General.
CHAPTER XIII.
REPRESENTATIVE PHYSICIANS OF UNION COUNTY.
T is signally appropriate that a specific chapter be devoted to a consideration of the lives and deeds of those members of the medical profession who have lived and labored to goodly ends within the confines of Union county ; and also to give due recognition to those who are still pursuing their humane mission here. The matter in the pages immediately following can not fail to be of distinct interest and historical value.
ABRAHAM COLES,
the widely known poet, scholar, philanthropist, and eminent physician and surgeon, was born in the old homestead of his family, at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, December 26, 1813, and died, during a visit to California, at the Hotel del Monte, near Monterey, May 3, 1891. He was of Scotch and Dutch descent, his ancestors being among the earliest settlers of New York and New Jersey. His great-grandfather, William Coles, had, with his wife, established himself, in early colonial days, at Scotch Plains, and there Dr. Coles' grandfather, James Coles, was born in 1744. The latter married Elizabeth Frazee. Their son, Dennis, born at Scotch Plains, in 1778, died there in 1844. The father of Dr. Coles was "a man of great culture, skilled in mathematics, a lover of polite literature, a polished speaker, a member of the state legislature, a charming reader, and an accomplished writer." He acquired the printers' art, and in 1803 established at Newburgh, New York, a newspaper, the Recorder of the Times, which he conducted for three years,-a literary and financial success, which, also, under another name, it continued to be as late as 1876. He married, in 1802, Katrina Van Deurzen, daughter of one of the prominent citizens of Newburgh, and a descendant of the famous Dutch dominie, Everardus Bogardus, and his noted wife, Anneke Jans. At the solicitation of his parents, Dennis Coles sold out his Newburgh business (1806) and returned to Scotch Plains, where his son was born, as stated above.
Dr. Abraham Coles was educated by his parents until the age of twelve, when he entered the dry-goods store of a relative in New York city, with whom he remained five years. Here he acquired a thorough business education, while at the same time devoting his spare time to reading and study. At the age of seventeen he withdrew from this
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business to accept a position as teacher of Latin and mathematics in the academy of the Rev. Lewis Bond, at Plainfield, New Jersey. Subse- quently, for six months, he studied law in the office of Hon. Joseph C. Hornblower, of Newark, and although the law was not to prove his chosen vocation, he, during this time, acquired a taste and solid foundation for legal study, which he never abandoned and which in after years was invaluable to him in his association with eminent jurists. After reading Blackstone's and Kent's Commentaries with care, and in the meantime consulting his natural tastes and inclina- tions, which drew him strongly toward medicine, lie chose the latter, and, first attending a course of lectures at the University and College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city, he entered the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at which he graduated in 1835. The following year he opened an office, as physician and surgeon, in Newark, New Jersey. In 1842 he married Caroline E. Ackerman, daughter of Jonathan C. and Maria S. Ackerman, of New Brunswick, New Jersey. She died in 1845, leaving one son and one daughter.
Dr. Coles soon won a high position in his profession, becoming especially distinguished in surgical cases, to which he was frequently called in consultation. In 1848 he went abroad, visiting England and France and making a special study of their hospitals and schools of inedicine. He was in Paris during the stormy days-May and June, 1848-of the dictatorship of General Cavignac and the so-called French republic that followed, and, as correspondent of the Newark Daily Advertiser, described the bloody scenes of which he was an eye-witness. Returning to Newark he at once resumed practice. At, this time he was regarded as the most accomplished practitioner in Newark, eminent alike for his professional and literary acquirements. In 1853 and 1854 he was again abroad, traveling extensively, studying the continental lauguages and adding largely to his store of medical knowledge by contact with the most eminent physicians and surgeons of Europe. He also wrote charming letters from Italy, as corres- pondent again of the Daily Advertiser. At Florence he made the acquaintance of the Brownings, Hiram Powers and others then and subsequently distinguished for their attainments in literature and art. In September, 1854, he took passage for home, on the Arctic, but after leaving Liverpool, he had his ticket made good for the following steamer, and then disembarked at Queenstown. The Arctic proceeded on her voyage, was run into by a small French steamer, called the Vesta, off Cape Race, in a dense fog, and sunk, with a loss of three hundred and twenty-two lives.
But the life, character, and celebrity of Dr. Coles, eminent as he was as physician and surgeon, are chiefly connected with his literary and scholarly attainments, his published writings, and particularly his
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religious hymns and translations, which have given him a world-wide reputation. He had early in his professional career been a contributor to various periodicals, and short isolated poems had appeared from his pen, but it was not until 1847 that he brought out the first of his eighteen translations of "Dies Ira," and made a pronounced impression upon the literary world. This hymn, the composition of a monk, was written originally in the Latin of the thirteenth century. It is a ter- rible picture of a soul that in vision seeing death, the righteous Judge, the doom of the lost, pleads for mercy and rescue, and in the terseness, vigor, power, and yet rhythmic beauty of the original Latin is peerlessly presented. It has not only commanded the admiration of critics generally, but exercised a powerful influence upon many eminent
DEERHURST
characters. Dr. Johnson could not read the original without bursting into tears. Sir Walter Scott repeated portions of it in his dying moments. It was also upon the lips of the Earl of Roscommon the moment he expired. Goethe introduced portions of it in his "Faust." It has been set to the sublimest music and forms the subject of Mozart's immortal Requiem. It had been translated into various languages, but an English version had hitherto signally failed. The translation of Dr. Coles attracted immediate and wide attention, both in this country and in Europe. It was set to music in Henry Ward Beecher's " Plymouth Collection of Hymns ; " a portion of it was introduced into "Uncle Tom's Cabin ; " and James Russell Lowell gave it a most favorable criticism in the Atlantic Monthly.
In 1859 he published, with some slight changes, his first translation
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of the "Dies Ira," together with twelve other versions which he had made since 1847. This volume, entitled "Dies Irae in Thirteen Original Versions" (sixth edition, 1892), appeared in the Appletons' best style of binding, and contained an introduction, history of the hymn, music, and photographic illustrations of the Last Judgment, by Michael Angelo, Rubens, Cornelius, and Ary Scheffer. The book mnet with immediate success.
Richard Grant White, in a critical review, spoke of the work as "one of great interest, and an admirable tribute from American scholar- ship and poetic taste to the supreme nobility of the original poem. Dr. Coles," he says, "has shown a fine appreciation of the spirit and rhythmic movement of the hymn, as well as unusual command of language and rhyme ; and we much doubt whether any translation of the 'Dies Irae,' better than the first of the thirteen, will ever be pro- duced in English, except perhaps by himself. *
* As to the translation of the hymn, it is perhaps the most difficult task that could be undertaken. To render 'Faust' or the 'Songs of Egmont ' into fitting English numbers would be easy in comparison."
James W. Alexander, D. D., and William R. Williams, D. D., scholars whose critical acumen and literary ability were universally recognized, pronounced the first two "the best of English versions in double rhyme," while the Rev. Samuel Irenæus Prime, D. D., in the New York Observer, said, "We are not sure but that the last version, which is in the same measure as Crashaw's, but in our judg- ment far superior, will please the general taste most of all." The Christian (Quarterly) Review said, -" Dr. Coles' first translation stands, we believe, not only unsurpassed, but unequaled in the English language." The Rt. Rev. John Williams, D. D., LL. D., bishop of the diocese of Connecticut, wrote,-"Your first version is decidedly the best one with which I am acquainted."
William Cullen Bryant, in the Evening Post, wrote,-" There are few versions that will bear to be compared with these ; we are surprised that they are all so well done." Rev. Dr. James McCosh, D. D., LL. D., president of the College of New Jersey, Princeton, wrote to Dr. Coles -"I wonder how you could have drawn out thirteen translations of the 'Dies Irae,' all in the spirit and manner of the original, and yet so different. I thought each the best as I read it."
"If not all of equal excellence," said George Ripley, in the New York Tribune, "it is hard to decide as to their respective merits, so admirably do they embody the tone and sentiments of the original, in vigorous and expressive verse. The essays which precede and follow the hymn, exhibit the learning and the taste of the translator in a most favorable light, and show that an antiquary and a poet have not been lost in the study of science and the practice of a laborious profession."
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Lady Jane Franklin, wife of Sir John Franklin, while on her visit to this country, met Dr. Coles at the home of a mutual friend. Conge- niality of tastes, as well as the interest taken by Dr. Coles in the search for her husband, ripened the acquaintanceship into that of mutual regard and friendship. Among the Doctor's letters we find the following, in Lady Franklin's handwriting :
"NEW YORK, October 22, 1860.
" DR. ABRAHAM COLES :
"Dear Sir :-- I cannot deny myself the pleasure of thanking you once more for your most beautiful little book, the ‘Dies Irae in Thirteen Original Versions,' which I value, not only for its intrinsic merit, but as an expression of your very kind feelings toward ine. Believe me, "Gratefully and truly yours, JANE FRANKLIN."
While visiting, in 1855, on his second European tour, the lake district, Westmoreland, England (associated with the memory of Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and De Quincey), Dr. Coles wrote his much admired poein, entitled "Windemere."
Following is Dr. Coles' first translation of the "Dies Ira," (1847) : DIES IRA.
Day of wrath, that day of burning, Seer and Sibyl speak concerning, All the world to ashes turning.
Oh, what fear shall it engender, When the Judge shall come in splendor, Strict to mark and just to render !
Righteous Judge of retribution ! Make me gift of absolution Ere that day of execution !
Culprit-like, I plead, heart-broken, On my cheek shane's crimson token : Let the pardoning word he spoken !
Thou who Mary gav'st remission, Heard'st the dying Thief's petition, Cheer'st with hope my lost condition.
Though my prayers he void of merit, What is needful, Thou confer it, Lest I endless fire inherit !
Be there, Lord, my place decided With Thy sheep, from goats divided, Kindly to Thy right hand guided !
What shall I say, that time pending ? Ask what advocate 's befriending, When the just man needs defending?
Dreadful King, all power possessing, Saving freely those confessing, Save thou me, O Fount of Blessing !
Think, O Jesus, for what reason Thou didst hear earth's spite and treason, Nor me lose iu that dread season.
Seeking me Thy worn feet hasted, On the cross Thy soul death tasted ; Let such travail not be wasted !
Trumpet, scattering sounds of wonder, Rending sepulchres asunder, Shall resistless summons thunder.
All aghast then Death shall shiver, And great Nature's frame shall quiver, When the graves their dead deliver.
Volume, from which nothing 's blotted, Evil doue nor evil plotted, Shall be brought and dooms allotted.
When shall sit the Judge unerring, He'll unfold all liere occurring, Vengeance then no more deferring.
When th' accursed away are driven, To eternal burnings given, Call me with the blessed to heaven !
I beseech Thee, prostrate lying, Heart as ashes, contrite, sighing, Care for me when I am dying !
Day of tears and late repentance, Man shall rise to hear his sentence ; Him, the child of guilt and error, Spare, Lord, in that hour of terror !
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In 1865 he published his first translation of the passion hymn, "Stabat Mater Dolorosa," which, like "Dies Ira," has been made the theme of some of the most celebrated musical compositions. It was set to music in the sixteenth century by Palestrina, and has inspired the compositions of Haydn, Bellini, Rossini, and others. The prima donna, Clara Louise Kellogg, in Rossini's "Stabat Mater," used Dr. Coles' translation. Dr. Philip Schaff, alluding to some eighty German and several English translations that had been made up to that time said : "Dr. Coles has best succeeded in a faithful rendering of the Mater Dolorosa. His admirable English version carefully preserves the measure of the original." In 1866 appeared his "Old Gems in New Settings" (third edition, 1891), in which many treasured old Latin hymns, including "De Contemptu Mundi" and "Veni Sancti Spiritus," are skillfully and gracefully translated. In the following year he published his translation of "Stabat Mater Speciosa " (second edition, 1891).
In 1866, before the centennial meeting of the New Jersey State Medical Society, held in Rutgers College, New Brunswick, and of which he was president, Dr. Coles read his poem entitled "The Microcosm," which was published with the proceedings of the society. This poem was subsequently (in 1881) published in a volume containing "The Microcosm (fifth edition, 1891), National Lyrics, and Mis- cellaneous Poems," together with three additional versions of "Dies Iræ." The volume was favorably criticised both in this country and Europe. The Hon. Justin Mccarthy, of England, wrote: "I am surprised to see, in looking through your volume, 'The Microcosm, and other Poems,' that you have been able to add three more versions to those you have already made of that wonderful Latin hymnn, 'Dies Iræ.' Certainly it is the most difficult to translate. I like your last version especially." "The idea of 'The Microcosm,'" said John G. Whittier, "is novel and daring, but it is worked out with great skill and delicacy." In lines of easy and flowing verse the author sets forth with a completeness certainly remarkable, and with great power and beauty, the incomparable marvels of structure and functions of the human body.
As an example, we quote a few lines from the section on "Muscular Dynamics."
Bundles of fleshy fibres without end, Along the bony Skeleton extend
In thousand-fold directions from fixed points
To act their several parts upon the Joints ; Adjustments nice of means to ends we trace, With each dynamic filament in place ;
But where's the Hand that grasps the million reins,
Directs and guides them, quickens or re- strains ?
See the musician, at his fingers' call,
All sweet sounds scatter, fast as rain drops fall ;
With flying touch, he weaves the web of song,
Rhythmic as rapid, intricate as long.
Wheuce this precision, delicacy and ease ?
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And where's the Master that defines the keys?
The many-jointed Spine, with link and lock To make it flexile while secure from shock, Is pierced throughout, in order to contain The downward prolongation of the brain ; From which, by double roots, the Nerves arise-
One Feeling gives, one Motive Power sup- plies ;
In opposite directions, side by side,
With mighty swiftness there two currents glide-
Winged, head and heel, the Mercuries of Sense
Mount to the regions of Intelligence ;
Instant as light, the nuncios of the throne Command the Muscles that command the Bone.
In Europe one of the most enthusiastic admirers of "The Micro- cosm," was the late Dr. Theodor Billroth, professor of surgery in Vienna.
The New York Herald says : "The poems that follow "The Microcosm,' are mainly religious, and, for simplicity, feeling and, withal great scholarship, have been equaled by no hymn writers of this country."
"The flavor of "The Microcosm,' said the New York Times, "is most quaint, suggesting on the religious side George Herbert, and on the materialistic side the elder Darwin. Some of the hymns for children are beautiful in their simplicity and truth."
EVEN ME.
Out the mouths of bahes and sucklings, Thou canst perfect praise to Thee !
Wilt thou not accept the worship, Humbly rendered, Lord, by me? Even me. Things that to the wise are hidden, Children's eyes are made to see ;
Thee to know is life eternal, O reveal Thyself to me !
Thou hast given me power of loving, Give me power of serving Thee, Is there not some humble service Which can now be done by me? Even me.
Even me.
Hands and feet should ne'er grow weary When employed, dear Lord, for Thee ; Tongue should never cease the telling Of Thy grace who diedst for me. Even me.
Infant mouths need not be silent, Stammering lips can publish Thee, Sound Thy name o'er land and ocean, Be it sounded, Lord, by me ! Even me.
THE CHILDREN'S TE DEUM.
We praise, we magnify, O Lord, As little children can,
That wondrous love which brought Thee To die for sinful man. [down
While here on earth Thou didst not frown And bid them to depart,
When mothers brought their children near, But took them to Thy heart.
Encouraged by Thy voice and smile, We toward Thy bosom press; O, lay Thy hands upon our heads, And mercifully bless !
Help us to sing, dear Lord ! we feel That silence would be wrong ; Now every bird, with rapture stirred, Is praising Thee in song.
The Critic (New York), after referring to "many beautiful and stately passages " in "The Microcosm," says, "following it is to be
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found some of the best devotional and patriotic poetry that has been written in this country."
The following is from his poem "A Sabbath at Niagara."
Forevermore, from thee, Niagara !
Religious cataract ! Most Holy Fane ! A service and a symphony go up
Into the ear of God. 'Tis Sabbath morn. My soul, refreshed and full of comfort, hears
Thy welcome call to worship. All night long
A murmur, like the memory of a sound,
Has filled my sleep and made my dreams devout.
It was the deep, unintermittent roll
Of thy eternal anthem, pealing still
Upon the slumbering and muffled sense,
Thence echoing in the soul's mysterious depths
With soft reverberations. How the earth Trembles with hallelujahs, loud as break
From banded Seraphim and Cherubim Singing before the Throne, while God vouchsafes
Vision and audience to prostrate Heaven ! My soul, that else were mute, transported finds
In you, O inarticulate Harmonies ! Expression for unutterable thoughts, Surpassing the impertinence of words. For that the petty artifice of speech Cannot pronounce th' Unpronounceable, Nor meet the infinite demands of praise Before descending Godhead, lo ! she makes Of this immense significance of souud, Sublime appropriation, chanting it anew, As her "Te Deum," and sweet Hymn of Laud.
THE LAND OF THE FREE. (Air, Star Spangled Banner. )
We hail the return of the day of thy birth, Fair Columbia, washed by the waves of two oceans !
Where men, from the farthest dominions of Earth,
Rear altars to Freedom, and pay their devotions ;
Where our fathers in fight, nobly strove for the Right,
Struck down their fierce foemen or put them to flight ;
Through the long lapse of ages, that so there might be
An asylum for all in the Land of the Free. Behold, from each zone under Heaven, they come !
And haughtiest nations, that once far outshone thee,
Now paled by thy lustre, lie prostrate and dumb,
And render due homage, and no more disown thee.
All the isles for thee wait, while that early and late,
Not a wind ever blows but wafts hither rich freight,
And the swift sailing ships, that bring over the sea
Th' oppressed of all lands to the Land of the Free.
As entranced I look down the long vista of years,
And behold thine existence to ages ex- tended,
What a scene, O my Country, of wonder appears !
How kindling the prospect, surpassing and splendid !
Each lone mountain and glen, and waste wilderness then,
I see covered with cities, and swarming with men,
And miraculous Art working marvels for thee
To lift higher thy greatness, thou Land of the Free !
From our borders expel all oppression and wrong,
Oh ! Thou, who didst plant us and make us a Nation !
In the strength of Thine arm make us ever- more strong ;
On our gates inscribe Praise, on our walls write Salvation !
May Thyself be our light, from Thy heavenly height
Ever flashing new splendors and chasing our night,
That united and happy we ever may be
To the end of all time, still the Land of the Free !
July 4, 1853.
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MY NATIVE LAND. (Air, America. )
O beautiful and grand
My own, my Native Land ! Of thee I boast : Great Empire of the West, The dearest and the best,
I honor thee, because Of just and equal laws,
These make thee dear :
Not for thy mines of gold,
Not for thy wealth untold,
Made up of all the rest, I love thee most.
Not that thy sons are bold, Do I revere. God of our fathers ! bless, Exalt in righteousness,
Thou crown of all the Past, Time's noblest and the last, Supremely fair ! Brought up at Freedom's knee, Sweet Child of Liberty !
This Land of ours !
Be Right our lofty aim, Our title and our claim,
Of all, from sea to sea, Th' undoubted heir.
To high and higher fame, Among the Powers.
In 1874 he published "The Evangel " (pages 400, second edition, 1891). "The purpose of this volume," said George Ripley, in the New York Tribune, "would be usually regarded as beyond the scope of poetic composition. It aims to reproduce the scenes of the Gospel history in verse, with a strict adherence to the sacred narrative, and no greater degree of imaginative coloring than would serve to present the facts in the most brilliant aud impressive light. But the subject is one with which the author cherishes so profound a sympathy, as in some sense to justify the boldness of the attempt. The Oriental cast of his mind allures him to the haunts of sacred song, and produces a vital com- munion with the spirit of Hebrew poetry. Had he lived in the days of Isaiah or Jeremiah, he might have been one of the bards who sought inspiration at Siloa's brook, that flowed fast by the oracle of God."
The Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D., LL. D., of Princeton, referring to the work, said, -"I admire the skill which 'The Evangel' displays in investing with rainbow hues the simple narrations of the Gospels. All, however, who have read Dr. Coles' versions of the 'Dies Irae ' and other Latin hymns must be prepared to receive any new productions from his pen with high expectations. In these days, when even the clerical office seems in many cases insufficient to protect from the present fashionable form of skepticism, it is a great satisfaction to see a man of science and a scholar adhering so faithfully to the simple Gospel."
Henry W. Longfellow, in a cordial note to Dr. Coles, remarks,- "As your work is narrative and mine dramatic, he must be a very captious critic who should venture to suggest any imitation."
"Dr. Coles," says John G. Whittier, "is a born hymn writer. No man living or dead has so rendered the text and the spirit of the old and wonderful Latin hymns. He has also written some of the sweetest of Christian hymns. His 'All the Days' and 'Ever with Thee' are immortal songs. It is better to have written thein than the stateliest of epics."
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