USA > New Jersey > Salem County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 59
USA > New Jersey > Gloucester County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 59
USA > New Jersey > Cumberland County > History of the counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland New Jersey, with biographical sketches of their prominent citizens, vol. 2 > Part 59
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CITY OF BRIDGETON.
most of their lives. Matthew, in 1775. kept the prin- cipal inn of the town in a house still standing, al- though altered, on the north side of Broad Street, next cast of the present City Hotel, then directly op- posite the court-house. He was a blacksmith, and afterwards owned the lot at the southeast corner of Laurel and Washington Streets, extending half-way to Pearl, and had a shop on the upper part of it. lle was a man of very respectable standing.
Ile commeneed business as a merchant, and owned a wharf and store-house on the west side of the Cohansey, about half-way between Commerce aud Broad Streets, at that time opposite the only traveled road down the hill, which commenced near the inter- section of Broad and Franklin Streets, and went down in a slanting direction to the foot of the bridge. For several years he was one of the principal busine -. men of the place, and intiuential in all the concerns of the county. When the people rose up in arms to resist the encroachments of the British government, upon the news of the events in Massachusetts, in the spring of 1776, and volunteer companies of militia were formed, he was elected captain, and when the law was passed by the newly-formed State government, in the fall of 1776, he was appointed colonel, by which title he was afterwards commonly called. It appears by the official register that in February, 1777, he was appointed brigadier-general, which he declined to aerept.
Unfortunately there is no record of Col. Potter's military service, except that in October, 1776, he was present with his battalion at Perth Amboy as a part of the force under the command of Gen. Mercer. It is known that in March, 1777, he was with his regi- ment near Rock Hill. In the fall of that year he was taken prisoner,-thought to have been at the disas- trous battle of Long Island,-and confined, first in Philadelphia, and then aboard the " Jersey" prison- ship, Wallabout Bay, N. Y., and was released on his parole.
In 1782 he was appointed by the joint meeting marshal of the Admiralty Court of the State. In 1787 he was elected one of the delegates to the State Convention which ratified the new Constitution of the United States. In 1790-92 he was elected sheriff' of the county. Ile was one of the charter members of Brearley Lodge, F. A. M., No. 2 (then No. 9). Upon the division of parties he warmly embraced the -ide of the Federalist -.
Col. Potter was twice married His first wife was Mary Mason, horn in 1749, in one of the West India Islands, and died in 1753. They had two sons and five daughters. The second wife was Sarah Boyd, daughter of Mrs. Boyd, of Bridgeton. from Ireland, whose sister married James Ewing, and was the mother of Chief Justice Ewing, of Trenton. She survived him, and died in 1820. They had seven children, one of whom died an infant. Several of the daughters were beautiful and attractive young
ladies, and this family took the leading place in so- ciety, which had been before hell by the Seeleys, Fithians, and Ewings. The children of the second marriage were John (who died in 1810 at the age of twenty-four), Martha E., Nancy, James B., Robert B., and Margaret Kean. Visitors were numerons, and had a hospitable welcome. Until the Presbyterian Church was built at Bridgeton, in 1793, in doing which Col. Potter was active and liberai, and of which he was several years a trustee, the family worshiped at Greenwich, and several of the children were bap- tized there. The family residence (of wood), at the northwest corner of Broad and Franklin Streets, was burned about the year 1790, with much of the furni- ture, including, it has been said, thirteen beds. It was rebuilt of brick, including room for a store, as it is now used. Although Col. Potter had for many years a prosperous business, his large family and liberal hospitality prevented the accumulation of more than a moderate property. A year or two be- fore 1800 his health began to decline, and he gave up his business to his sons. Ile died in 1805.
WILLIAM POTTER .- David, the oldest son of Col. Potter, set up a store at the southwest corner of Com- merce and Laurel Streets, but in December, 1801, he was drowned. It was believed that on his way home, a very dark night, he walked off the wharf just above the bridge. William, the second son, continued the business, and for nearly twenty years was active and successful in it, and influential with the Federalists in the politics of the county. Before engaging in business he was adjutant of the Eleventh Regiment of infantry, commanded by Col. Ogden, in 1799, and when the pro- visional army, raised to resist the hostilities threat- ened by the French Republic, of which that regiment was a part, was disbanded, he was appointed a lieu- tenant in the regular army, which he declined. But he retained a partiality for military service, and at the breaking out of the war with Great Britain, in 1812, was captain of a fine uniformed company of militia in Bridgeton. It being found necessary to station troops at Cape May, opposed as he was to the war, he accepted the appointment of a major of militia, and as such took command there, remaining in that service nearly two years. His brother John, who was a part- her with him in mercantile business, having died, in 1810, he sold out the store to John Buck & Co. Upon the return of peace, while the currency was still in- fated, he engaged extensively in the purchase of real estate, and the consequence was when the revulsion occurred, in 1820, much severer then than it is now, there being much less capital to meet the strain, he with many others was obliged to succumb, with the loss of all and more than all his capital. He was not married, but was several years a housekeeper in the house that stood where the store of Robeson & Whit- aker now is. His home being broken up, he removed to Philadelphia, where he lived several years, going from there to Ohio to direct iron works, where he re-
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
sided until his death, at an advanced age. While , berland after it was established in 1748. He was a residing in Philadelphia he became a member of the First Presbyterian Church, of which Rev. Dr. Wilson was the pastor.
CHARLES READ, cashier of the Cumberland Bank from its institution in 1816 until his death in 1844, was born in Mount Holly, in the year 1788. He re-, ceived a good English education in Mount Holly, was for some time a clerk in the Farmers Bank of New Jersey at that place, and was selected by the directors of the new bank at Bridgeton as the most suitable person they could find to organize an insti- tution then considered very difficult to carry on suc- ces-fully. He was its governing power for a quarter of a century, and his fitness for the responsible station was shown by the unimpaired credit the bank main- tained during all the monetary vicissitudes of this period, and by its high standing for nearly sixty years.
Ile died at the comparatively early age of fifty-six. He was highly esteemed in all the relations of life, and left no children.
ROBERT SHEPPARD, son of Capt. Furman Shep- pard, was born on the farm occupied by his father, just beyond Rowentown, April 22, 1788. His mother was a daughter of Daniel Maskell by his second wife, Elizabeth, and died in Bridgeton at a very advanced age, April 6, 1833. Hle removed to Philadelphia about the year 1828, remaining there until 1839, re- turned to Bridgeton, and remained some years, and then went back to Philadelphia, which he made his final residence. Mr. Sheppard died Nov. 21, 1875, in ' his eighty-eighth year, and was buried by the side of his parents in the family plot in the old Presbyterian Cemetery at Bridgeton.
EPHRAIM SEELEY was a grandson of Joseph Seeley, one of the original settlers of Fairfield, who arrived there as early as 1009 from New England, and was an elder in the old Cohansey Church. Ilis father was named Ephraim, and he purchased a part of the In- dian Fields tract, and built the mill on what is now called East Lake. By his will, dated March 9, 1722 (1723), he leaves his house, lands, and mills to his wife, Mary, during her widowhood ; at her death or marriage to go to his son Ephraim, he paying certain legacies to his daughters of twenty pounds each. IJe also leaves to the congregation, inhabitants in and about the town of Fairfield, forty shillings per year, for and toward the procuring and support of a Prot- estant. Dissenting minister for ten years.
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The subject of this notice was born in the year 1700, and in 1736 married Hannah Fithian, daughter of Josiah Fithian, of Greenwich, whose brother Sam- uel married his sister, Pher be Seeley. After his mar- riage he resided at the house built by his father, which stood on the high ground about opposite Eumer Street and faced the south.
Mr. Seeley was for many years one of the leading citizens of Salem County and of the county of Cum-
judge and justice, colonel of the militia, and member of the Assembly, and accumulated a large amount of real estate. His wife survived him, dying in 1797. a! the age of eighty-three.
Col. Seeley, as he was usually called, a few years before his death removed to the brick house next cast of Charles E. Elmer's residence, which he had pur- chased, where he died June 22, 1774.
There were nine children born to Col. Seeley and his wife, Hannah, two sons and seven daughters.
Sarah, born in 1758, married Rev. William Ramsey and left descendants; in 1779 she married Rev. Rob- ert Smith, of Pequea, Pa., father of Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, president of Princeton College. She died in 1801.
Esther, married, first, John Gibbon, who was taken prisoner by the British and perished aboard the hor- rible "Jersey" prison-ship. They left numerous de- seendants. Her second husband was Benjamin Ilohne, of Salem County. They left descendants.
Ephraim, born in 1744, married his cousin, Eliz- abeth Fithian. He was one of the judges of the court. He was commonly known as Judge Seeley, and built the house at the northeast corner of Commerce and Bink Streets, late the residence of his nephew. Judge L. Q. C. Elmer, in which he died in 1799. None of the large property he owned remains in the posses- sion of his descendants, of whom none now reside in the county.
Mary, born in 1746, died 1819, married Jonathan Elmer. They had eight children, four of who died in infancy, -- Sarah, born in 1775, died 1814, manicd Dr. Samuel Moore Shote, and left no descendant -; Dr. William (1st), born in 1788, diedl in 1836, married Nancy B. Potter, and had three children, -- Jonathan, Dr. William (20), David ; he then married Margaret K. Potter, and had three children,-Mary, wife of Charles E. Elmer, E-q., Nancy, wife of Hon. William G. Whiteley, of Delaware, and Benjamin F. The children of Dr. William Elmer are all living, and his descendants are quite numerous.
Rachel, born in 1748, married Col. Abijal Hohnes. They had children. Sarah married Jeremiah Buck. had children,-Robert S., Francis, Sarah, and Jerc- miah ; Jonathan left descendants; Mary married! Enoch H. More, left no issue ; John left descendant- Epluraim loft descendants.
None of the many descendants of Col. Ephraim Seeley bear the family name except the grandchildren of Mason G. Mrs. S. Ward Seeley is a daughter of Mason G. Seeley, but her husband is descended from a remote ancestor in another line.
Josiah, born 1755, died 1832. fle married Rebecca Gibbon, and they had children, -- Mary, married Dr. Francis G. Brewster, and died in: 1858, leaving de-com.1- , ants; Richard, left two daughters. Mary, who married Ker. Benjamin Tyler, and Harriet, who married Maskell Ware; Mason G., married Henrietta Potter.
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619
CITY OF BRIDGETON.
and left descendants : Harriet, married Dr. William Belford Ewing, and left one son, James Josiah.
Hannah, born 1757, died 1832, married Dr. Eben- ezer Elmer, and had children,-Lucius Quintus Cin- cinnatus and Sarah Smith, who married Rev. Dr. William Neill,
EBENEZER SEELEY was born in the year 1700, probably in the township of Fairfield, where his father, Enos Seeley, resided until his removal to Co- hansey Bridge, some time previous to 1770, in which year he bought the old Hancock saw-mill, situated on the dam now erossed by Pine Street, and built there about 1683, together with a large surrounding tract, containing at least one hundred and twenty acres, comprising the southern part of East Bridge- ton.
Enos Seeley was a descendant of Joseph Seeley, one of the original settlers of Fairfield, and an elder iu the old Cohan-ey Presbyterian Church, and thus re- lated to Col. Ephraim Seeley, but the precise line of descent is not known. Ile married Naomi Petty, and after he removed to Bridgeton owned and resided for a time in the house next below Broad Street bridge, towards the close of his life living in a hou-e which stood on what is now the northwest side of Pine Street, a few rods from his mill. Ile was one of the prominent residents of the town. He was an earnest Whig, and at the commencement of the Rev- olutionary war he entered into active service as a lieutenant-colonel of the militia, but was soon disa- bled by disease and obliged to resign. For several years before his death, which occurred in 1801, he was confined to his house and unable to attend to business.
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Ile had three children. His daughter Ruth mar- ried Joseph Buck. David, the oldest >on, took charge of his father's business. He resided several years in the old house, renewed by John Buck : was captain of a company of artillery, and generally known as Capt. Seeley, He married a sister of Hugh Marseilles, of Hunterdon County, and entered into mercantile busi- ness with him, under the firm of Seeley & Merseilles, for some years a well-known and prosperous firm. They owned a sloop called the " Betsey," built of live- oak and red cedar, the best probably that ever sailed out of the port, which was for a time commanded by Jeremiah Buek. Their store-house was at first situated near the wharf at the southeast corner of the bridge, from which they removed to the southeast corner of Commerce and Laurel Streets, into a store-house they built. They both indulged rather freely in good living. Seeley died in 1802, and Merveilles in 180G. David Seeley had several children, one of whom (MIrs. Nagley, of Philadelphia) died at an advanced age. After the death of his first wife he married Nancy Seeley, one of the daughters of Judge Ephraim, who survived him many years.
Fairfield, situate on the west side of Cedar Creek, not far from the landing. On this he lived for a time, and in 1783 married Mary Clark, a daughter of Daniel Clark, of Hopewell, and his first wife, Anna, daughter of Jonathan Holmes, About the year 1795 he pur- chased of his brother-in-law, Joseph Buck, the house (now the hotel) on Irving Avenue, and was the owner of a large adjoining traet, extending west to Laurel Street (Pearl Street, north of Irving, did not exist), north near half a mile, and east to the Riley line, near where the Port Norris Railroad now is. HJe en- tered into mercantile business, and built a store-house on the northeast corner of Laurel and Irving Streets, where he transacted a large business as a country store, sending wood and lumber to Philadelphia, then the principal business of the town. In 1802 he sold his residence, with fifty acres of adjoining ground, to Jeremiah Buck, and purchased the stone house on the west side of Laurel, then ealled Front Street, originally built by Zachariah Lawrence, an elder in the l're-byterian Church, where he resided until 1825. Previous to this time, in common with many other business men, he was so injured by the contraction of the currency that followed the war of 1812-15, that he entirely failed and lost all his property.
Mr. Seeley became a member of the Presbyterian Church in early life. In ISIS, during the pastorate of Rev. Jonathan Freeman, he was elected a ruling elder.
Few men in the county were more popular. He was firm in his adherence to his political and Christian principles, but always mild and charitable towards others, no matter how much he differed from them. Hle was elected a member of the Assembly in 1795, before party polities became very prominent. In 1800 he was elected one of the Legislative Council as a Democrat, and again in different years nine times, his last service in that capneity being in 1825, and then he was succeeded by one of his sons. In 1814 he was chosen by the joint meeting clerk of the county, and being chosen three times afterwards, held the office twenty years, longer than any other person. But little of the business of the office was condneted by himself, his sons being the real workers. For several of the last years of his life, and especially after the death of his wife, in 1829, his mind and memory seemed deranged, but he found a comfortable home in the family of his son. He died in 1840.
There were twelve children of Ebenezer Seeley and his wife Mary, of whom five died in infancy or at an carly age. Enos, born in 1789, was, for a long time and until his death, employed as the actual clerk of the county. He was poisoned by a young colored servant-girl in 1843, who alleged no grievance. She was tried, convietel, and executed. Elias Pettit Seeley studied law, which he practiced in Bridgeton, and lived in the house which used to stand where member of the Council, and several times afterwards,
Ebenezer Seeley became the owner, through the , the insurance office is. In 1829 he was elected a gift of a brother of his mother, of a good farm in
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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
as a Whig, and in 1832 was chosen vice-president. Mr. Southard. the Governor, having been elected senator of the United States, Mr. Seeley was chosen Governor, and filled the office during the remainder of the year. He was afterwards elected to the Legis- lature several times, and almost equaled his father in popularity. He married Jane, daughter of Dr. Champneys, and had two children, Elias (deceased ), and a daughter who married Henry T. CHett, a lawyer, who removed to Mississippi, and was quite distin- guished there, being at one time a member of Con- gress and then a judge of the highest Court of .1|- peal-, and now a lawyer in Memphis of high character. They had several children. Mrs. Ellett died a few years since. Mary married Dr. Parker, of Pittsgrove, and died in 1821. Ebenezer died in 1840. Naomi married Jonathan Ayres, and died in 1850.
Samnel W., born in 1807, is the only one living. He married Henrietta Seeley, daughter of Mason G. and his wife, Henrietta Potter. They have two sons, Robert and Henry.
Anna Maria married Joseph Gibson, and died in 1SS9, and has left de-cendants.
DANIEL P. STRATTON was born in Fairfield in De- cember, 1784. The family of Strattons were among the carly emigrants from England, and are still quite numerous in this county and other parts of the State. Benjamin Stratton came from East Hampton, L. I., to Fairfield about the year 1700, and died in 1717. Ile had a son Benjamin, born in 1701, who married Abigail Preston, of Salem Town, in 1725. They had eleven children, of whom three died in infancy, and five died in 1750 of a pestilential disease, described in a journal of Ephraim Harris as "that fatal and never-to-be-forgotten year (1759) when the Lord sent the destroying angel to pass through this place, and removed many of our friends into eternity in a short space of time,-not a house exempt, not a family spared from the calamity. So dreadful was it that it made every car tingle and every heart bleed ; in which time I and my family was exercised with that dread- ful disorder, the measles, but, blessed be God, our lives were spared." Four of his sous married and left descendants,-Jonathan, Benjamin (father of Dr. James Stratton, of Swedesboro, and grandfather of Governor Charles C. Stratton ), Levi (father of Daniel P.), and John (father of Nathan L).
Very little is known of the early life of Daniel P. Stratton, who appears to have been an only child of his parents, his mother dying in 1785, and his father in 1792, at the age of forty-ninc. He inherited some property from his father, and was one of the next of kin of James Harris, who died in 1803, leaving a widow but no children, and personal property appraised at forty-five thousand dollars, esteemed at that time and for that place a large estate, so that he had a very fair start in life. Not long after he became of age he married, and commenced a country store at l'airton in company with his cousin, Nathan L. Stratton, but .
does not appear to have continued there very long. In J814 he removed to Bridgeton, and entered into partnership with John Buck and Nathan L. Stratton. at the corner of Commerce and Laurel Streets, under the firm of Buck & Stratton.
He was quite a large purchaser of real estate, and in 1818 sold out his interest in the partnership, and pur- chased of Dr. Francis G. Brewster the house now owned by Dr. Smith, at the corner of Commerce and Atlantic Streets, including the store- house standing at the op- posite corner, and the adjoining property to the river. Hle theu set up a store of his own, and resided in the dwelling the remainder of his life. About the same time he purchased the lot and erected the grist-mill now owned by Richard Lott.
Mi. Stratton became a member of the Presbyterian Church early in life, and in 1818 was elected a ruling eller. He was an excellent man, earnest in pro- moting the cause of religion, but was not a little tenacious of his own opinions. From differences which arose in the old congregation, he became prin- cipally instrumental in organizing the congregation and in creeting the stone building, now the Second Presbyterian Church, on the east side of North l'earl Street.
This church continued for several years in connec- tion with the New School Presbytery of Philadelphia, but in 1850, under the pastorship of Rev. Henry J. Vandyke, it united with the West Jersey Presbytery.
Mr. Stratton was twice married,-first, in 180s, to Jane, one of the daughters of Joseph Buck, deceased. They had two children who died in infancy. Two survived,-James, born in 1810, who graduated at Princeton, beeune a Presbyterian minister, and is now pastor of a church in Mississippi; Daniel, born in 1814, graduated at Princeton, became a minister, and was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Salem fourteen years, and died in 1866 much lamented; they were both married and bad children. The mother of James and Daniel died in ISIG, at the early age of twenty-six years and four months. Wallace, son of Rev. James, a young man of bright talents and of fine education, became a Presbyterian minister, and died in Mississippi a few years ago. Morris Stratton, of Salem, and Daniel, of Missouri, both prominent lawyers, are sons of Rev. Daniel. Nearly two years after her death Mr. Stratton married Maria daughter of Dr. James Stratton, and widow of Erkuries Fitbian, who survived him, and died in April, 1857. They had three daughters,-Harriet, Maria, and Fanny, -- who are all deceased. Harriet, the last survivor, who was much beloved by her associates and friends, con- tinued to occupy the house left by her father unti! her death, in 1873.
ATHAN L. STRATTON was born at Deerfield, Jan. 31, 1786, and was the son of John Stratton, of Fair- field, born in 1774, and who, in 1775, married Eleanor Leake, daughter of Nathan Leake.
Benjamin Stratton came to Fairfield about 1700,
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CITY OF BRIDGETON.
and from him it is believed most of the Strattous have descended. John was a grandson. He lived during the early part of his life in Fairfield, and, like most of the Presbyterians, was a zealous Whig. He removed to Deerfield in 1783, was a ju-tice of the peace and a ruling elder. The Presbyterians there were much disturbed by the marriage of some of their members to sisters of a deceased wife, believed to be contrary to the discipline of the church and to the teachings of the Bible. Justice Stratton celebrated such a marriage, and thereby incurred the censure of the Church Sessions, and although urged to acknowl- edge his crror, declined to do so. The consequence of this disagreement was that he severed his con- nection with that church and joined the Pittsgrove Church, with which he was connected and much esteemed until his death, in 1814.
Nathan Leake Stratton had the advantage of a good school in Deerfield, but went in his early youth to Mount Holly, where he was employed in a store. Before he was of age he returned to Cumberland and entered into business with his cousin, Daniel P. Strat- ton, at Fairton, but with so little prospect of success that he soon left it and commenced a store at Laurel Hill, Bridgetou, in partnership with Thomas Wood- ruff. In 1810, upon the death of John l'otter, one of the sons of Col. David Potter, they, in connection with John Buck, whose si-ter Mr. Stratton afterward married, bought the store he and his brother William had carried on at the southwest corner of Commerce and Laurel Streets, and entered into business under the firm of John Buck & Co. In 1814, Daniel P. Stratton took the place of Mr. Woodruff, and the new firm of Buck & Stratton purchased of William Potter the store-house and property. The price paid was fourteen thousand dollars, including a house that stood where Whitaker's store is, long owned . by James D. Potter, and which Potter ropurchased for three thousand dollars. The new firm purchased also large tracts of woodland and commenced a very prosperous business. Daniel P. Stratton left the cou- cern in about four years, but the business was con- tinued with other persons and under different names until the death of Mr. Buck, in 1812. For a quarter of a century Nathan L. Stratton was the active man in the general merchandise department, and the busi- ness became the large-t transacted in the county, sell- ing goods not only by retail. but in considerable quan- tities by wholesale, to other dealers in the smaller
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