Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I, Part 18

Author: Ogden, Mary Depue
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Newark, N.J. : Memorial History Company
Number of Pages: 980


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Valley Forge. In the summer of 1778, at the head of his brigade, he took part in the pursuit of the British across New Jersey, and at the battle of Monmouth distinguish- ed himself under Lafayette. In 1779 he commanded the New Hampshire Brigade under General Sullivan in the expedition against the Six Nations. In August of the following year he had command of a bri- gade of light infantry, but his service was not of long continuance, he being prostrated by a fever which resulted in his death. Gen- eral Washington held him in the highest regard, declaring him to be "an officer of distinguished merit, who as a citizen and a soldier had every claim to the esteem of his country." He was also greatly esteemed by Lafayette, who made him the subject of a toast at a banquet given in his honor in New Hampshire, in 1824, when he revisited this country. General Poor died September 8, 1780.


CALDWELL, Rev. James, "The Fighting Parson."


This name is connected with two of the most thrilling incidents of the Revolutionary War, the one humorous-his exhortation to the patriot soldiers to use hymn books for gun wadding; the other, tragic-the death of his wife, from a British bullet, and his own death at the hand of a murderer.


He was a native of Virginia, born in April, 1734. He studied for the ministry, and was pastor of the Presbyterian church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, during the Revolution. For a time he made his home with his brother-in-law, Stephen Day, at Chatham. His zealous patriotism made him most obnoxious to the tories.


He was chaplain of the New Jersey Brig- ade, and when opportunity offered, on many Sundays he preached in the churches in the neighborhood where the troops might be at the time. It was on such an occasion. at the battle of Springfield, that occurred the incident indissolubly associated with his


name, which has been told in many different forms, none better than that given it by Bret Harte :


They were left in the lurch


For want of more wadding. He ran to the church,


Broke the door, stripped the pews, and dashed out in the road


With his arms full of hymn books, and threw down the load


At their feet. Then, above all the shouting and shots


Rang his voice: "Put Watts into 'em, boys, give 'em Watts !"


And they did; that's all. Grasses spring, flowers blow,


Pretty much as they did ninety-three years ago. You may dig anywhere and you'll turn up a ball, But not always a hero like this, and that's all.


In the fall of 1779, on the advice of friends, Mr. Caldwell rented the vacant par- sonage at Connecticut Farms (now Union), New Jersey, and left Elizabethtown for that place. On the day of the battle there, Mr. Caldwell, when the alarm was given, en- joined it upon his wife to take the children and go to a place of greater security. She refused to leave, saying she would trust in Providence; that her presence would prob- ably secure the home from pillage, and that her person would not be endangered. As to the denouement, Thacher says in his jour- nal: "On the arrival of the royal troops, Mrs. Caldwell entertained the officers with refreshments, and after they had retired, she and a young woman having Mrs. Cald- well's infant child in her arms, seated them- selves on the bed. Upon seeing a British soldier looking at her, Mrs. Caldwell ex- claimed, 'Don't attempt to scare me,' when he fired, shooting her through the breast. Soon after, a British officer came, and throwing his coat over the corpse, carried it to the next house."


The closing tragedy of the war was the murder of Parson Caldwell, on November 24. 1781. He had gone to Elizabeth Point. for a young woman who had come to that place from New York under a flag of truce.


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He was fired upon by an American soldier KINSEY, James, named Morgan, the ball piercing his heart. He did not die immediately, and he was carried to the stoop of the Dayton home, nearly opposite the Boudinot house. There he passed away, and there the funeral ser- vice was held. A brother minister led the nine fatherless and motherless children to the coffin, to take their last look of their parent. They were then taken into the homes of kind people, who gave them careful bring- ing up. The remains of the Caldwells, hus- band and wife, were laid away in the grave- yard of the Presbyterian church at Eliza- bethtown.


The murderer, Morgan, was imprisoned at Springfield, then at Burlington, and final- ly at Westfield, where he was brought to trial, January 21, 1782. The court sat in the Presbyterian church, Chief Justice John Cleves Symmes presiding, with Judge Bar- net and another associate justice. Tradition says that Morgan was brought into court with a halter about his neck, a custom in the case of a few most heinous offenders. Colonel William De Hart, of Morrison, de- fended Morgan, but we have no record of what was plead in extenuation of the crime, which, according to the general opinion of the day was done for hire by British gold, on account of Caldwell's patriotic zeal dur- ing the entire course of the war. Morgan was found guilty of wilful murder, and was remanded to the custody of Noah Marsh, sheriff. He was executed at West- field, January 29, 1782, on Gallows Hill. The day was intensely cold, and as Morgan stood in the wagon which was to be drawn from beneath his feet, he said to the sheriff, "Do your duty quickly ; the people are suf- fering from the cold." One account has it that he accompanied the injunction with an emphatic oath. Hatfield narrates that on the day of the execution, the Rev. Jonathan Elmer preached a sermon from Jeremiah xliv, 4: "O, do not this abominable thing that I hate."


Distinguished Jurist.


Hon. James Kinsey, LL.D., lawyer, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, was born in 1733, in Mid- dlesex county, New Jersey, son of the Hon. John Kinsey, who emigrated from England in 1716 and settled in Mid- dlesex county, which he subsequently rep- resented in the Provincial Assembly, and was Speaker of the House for many years, his last tenure of that position being in 1733. He shortly afterwards re- moved to Pennsylvania, where he was like- wise chosen a member of the Assembly of that Province; he was an eminent lawyer ; a consistent member of the Society of Friends ; for the last seven years of his life Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. He died in May, 1750, at Burlington, West Jersey.


Hon. James Kinsey was elected, in 1772, a member of Assembly to represent, in con- nection with a colleague, that city, and soon took a prominent part in the proceedings of that body, being regarded as the leader of the opposition to Governor Franklin. He was appointed one of the delegates to the Continental Congress, and took his seat in that body, at Philadelphia, September 5. 1774: he resigned his position, for reasons deemed satisfactory by the Congress, in November, 1775. Two years later the New Jersey Legislature passed a law requiring attorneys and counsellors-at-law to take the oath or affirmation of allegiance to the new State government, but this he declined tak- ing, and consequently was obliged to re- linquish his practice. It is probable that his being a member of the Society of Friends caused his unwillingness to con- form to the law as enacted. When Judge Brearly resigned the office of Chief Justice, the joint meeting of the Council and Assem- bly in November, 1789, elected James Kin- sey to fill the vacancy, and he was re-elected in 1796, holding the position during life, a


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period of nearly fourteen years. His first election took place during the administra- tion of Governor Livingston, who was not only satisfied that he was amply qualified for the office, but of his being entirely de- voted to the cause of his country. He was thoroughly versed in the doctrines of the law, and of spotless integrity. He died in Burlington, January 4, 1803, in the seven- tieth year of his age.


CUTLER, Rev. Manasseh,


Chaplain in Revolution, Western Pioneer.


The Rev. Manasseh Cutler lived a most eventful and eminently useful life. He aid- ed in the establishment of national inde- pendence, and was subsequently among the most aggressive and forceful spirits that led to the settling up of what is now known as "the Middle West."


He was born May 28, 1742, in Killingly, Connecticut, and was educated at Yale Col- lege, from which he was graduated in his twenty-third year. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and followed his pro- fession for a short time, abandoning it to take up the study of theology. After his ordination he was made pastor of a Con- gregational church in Massachusetts, leaving it to take a chaplaincy in the Revolutionary army, and as such taking part in two cam- paigns. In 1786 he became identified with what came to be known as the Ohio Com- pany, principally made up of men who had served in the war for independence, and who set on foot a plan for acquiring large tracts of land in the then far west. In 1787, as a representative of that company, he visited Congress, then in session in New York, to arrange for the purchase of lands west of Pennsylvania and Virginia. He succeeded in contracting for more than a million and a half acres for two-thirds of a dollar per acre, while at the same time other large tracts were purchased by others, the various grants amounting to upwards Dr. Cutler's journals concerning New of five million acres. In order to make Jersey have an enduring value, and have


these transactions effective, it was necessary for Congress to enact a law, and the draft thereof was submitted to Dr. Cutler. He made two suggestions which were embodied in the act, and which reflect lasting credit upon their author, as laying the very foun- dations for the vast greatness of the region thus taken into possession-a provision for the exclusion. for all time, of slavery from this northwest territory, and the setting apart of certain proportions of land for educational purposes; two entire townships of land for the endowment of a university, and a section of land in every township for the use of public schools. During his nego- tiations with Congress, he visited practically all of New Jersey, and the voluminous jour- nal which he kept is invaluable for its in- formation concerning that State, in relation to all that enters into the life of the people. He accompanied the first emigration to the west, under General Rufus Putnam, and which made its way across the mountains, largely through an unbroken wilderness, landing on the Muskingum river, at its junction with the Ohio. He subsequently repeated the journey, and left a remarkably minute journal of his experiences and ob- servations. In 1787 he published a descrip- tive pamphlet, which had a marked effect in further populating the western region, and in which he predicted that many then liv- ing would see the western rivers navigated by steam, and that "within fifty years the Northwestern Territory would contain more inhabitants than all New England.' This great enterprise of settling the west is in large degree a history of New Jersey people, many of whom were among the foremost of the emigrants, and who founded counties and towns, and whose descend- ants there are now numbered by the thou- sands. A county in Illinois (Jersey), and its county seat (Jerseyville), settled by the Penningtons and others, is a significant il- lustration.


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been preserved by the New Jersey Historical Society. Many of his notes have an amus- ing interest; "Newark is a small village, situated on a plain; it has no considerable building. Elizabethtown is a very pretty village. New Brunswick is a large town, with considerable trade, though the shipping consists of very small craft. Trenton is spread over a considerable space of ground. There is only one small meeting house and one church. I therefore conclude that the people are not much disposed to attend public worship, for the two houses, I presume, are not sufficient to hold one-third of the inhabitants."


Dr. Cutler was a talented man, and re- garded as one of the most learned botanists of his day. He received the honorary de- gree of LL.D. from Yale College in 1789. He died July 23, 1823. His son, Judge Ephraim Cutler, of Washington county, Ohio, inherited the paternal traits of char- acter, and in the Ohio Constitutional Con- vention was the successful leader of the opposers of a proposition to introduce slav- ery into that State, "an attempt which then seemed sure of triumph."


CRANE, General William,


Patriot Soldier, Useful Citizen.


General William Crane was born in 1748, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, son of Ste- phen Crane, a man of standing in his day, and descended from Stephen Crane "the Planter."


At the beginning of the Revolutionary War he was made lieutenant of artillery, and participated in the Canada expedition. In the operations before Quebec, a frag- ment of shell struck his ankle, causing in- juries from which he suffered his life long, and which finally necessitated amputation forty years afterward, and less than two years before his death. However, he re- mained in service and performed efficient service. He had been advanced to the rank


of major, and in 1783 led an enterprise of which he left the following report :


I have the pleasure to inform you of the cap- ture of the sloop "Katy," of twelve double-ior- tified twelve-pounders, containing one hundred and seventeen puncheons of Jamaica spirits, lying at the time of capture within pistol shot of the grand battery at New York and alongside of the ship "Eagle" of twenty-four guns, which we also took but were obliged to leave, as she lay aground. The captains and crews of both the vessels were brought up by us in the sloop to this place, where we have them secure. This was performed on the night of the third of March by six townsmen under the command of Captain Quigley and my- self, without the firing of a musket by any of our party.


He was subsequently made brigadier-gen- eral of militia, served as deputy mayor of his borough, and was a trustee of the Pres- byterian church. He died in July, 1814.


His son, William M. Crane, had a distin- guished naval career. He was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, February I. 1776. In his twenty-third year he was made midshipman in the navy. Four years later, as lieutenant, he was engaged in the operations before Tripoli, under Commodore Preble. He was on duty on the "Chesapeake," in her encounter with the "Leopard." At the beginning of the war with Great Britain in 1812, he was made commander of the fourteen-gun brig "Nautilus," and was cap- tured by an enemy's squadron a few days after leaving New York. After his ex- change, he served during the remainder of the war as commander of the "Madison" and "Pike," on the lakes, under Commodore Chauncey. His service thence forward was incessant and eminently creditable. During a cruise in the Mediterranean of more than four years, he commanded successively sev- eral of the principal vessels of the Ameri- can navy-the battleship "Independence," the sloop "Erie," and the frigates "Con- stellation" and "United States." In 1827 he was given command of the Mediter- ranean Squadron, flying his flag from the


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battle ship "Delaware." With this he com- bined diplomatic duties, serving as joint commissioner with the American consul at Smyrna in opening and conducting to a conclusion negotiations with the Ottoman government for a commercial treaty. In 1841 he was made Navy Commissioner, and the following year, upon the reorganiza- tion of the Navy Department he was ap- pointed chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, and in which he render- ed most efficient service almost to his death, making his department a model of efficiency and economy. He died in Washington, D. C., March 18, 1846.


McKNIGHT, Charles,


Surgeon in Revolution.


Dr. Charles McKnight, physician, and Surgeon-General of the American army dur- ing the Revolutionary War, was born Octo- ber 10, 1750, at Cranberry, New Jersey, eld- est son of the Rev. Charles McKnight. His family was originally from Scotland and settled in Ireland at the time of the "Ulster Plantation," at the beginning of the seven- teenth century. Dr. McKnight's father was for nearly forty years a much esteemed and highly respected clergyman of the Pres- byterian church, and one of the early trus- tees of Princeton College. In 1777, he then being in advanced life, having rendered him- self obnoxious to the Tory party, was im- prisoned by the British, who treated him with great cruelty. He died shortly after his release, New Year's day, 1778. In this connection it may be stated that a younger brother of Dr. McKnight, who was an ardent patriot and an officer of the New Jersey line. was also seized by the British and confined in one of the prison ships in Wallabout Bay, Long Island, now the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he finally perished with the great army of martyrs to the cause of independence.


Dr. McKnight received an excellent educa- tion, and graduated candidatum primum at


Princeton College, in the class of 1771. He studied medicine under the celebrated Dr. Shippen, of Philadelphia. At the commence- ment of the Revolutionary War his abilities were so marked as to procure him the ap- pointment, April II, 1777, of "Senior Sur- geon of the Flying Hospital, Middle De- partment." In 1780, although only thirty years of age, he was made Surgeon General, and from October 1, 1780, until January I, 1782, he served as Chief Physician. The late Dr. John W. Francis, of New York, in an article printed in the "American Medi- cal and Philosophical Register," thus speaks of him in that connection: "In the dis- charge of the important and arduous duties of his station, his talents and indefatigable zeal were equally conspicuous. He was pre- eminently faithful in the performance of all these duties, which the perilous situa- tion of his country required and his humane disposition led him to undertake." After the termination of the war he removed to New York City and was very soon after- wards appointed Professor of Surgery and Anatomy in Columbia College, New York. Dr. Francis speaks of him in this respect : "He delivered lectures on these two branches of medical science to a numerous and attentive class of students, while the profundity of his research and the acuteness of his genius gained for him the approba- tion of the most fastidious. In a life of constant activity, both as a practitioner and teacher, he continued until he arrived at his forty-first year, when a pulmonary affection (the result of an injury received during the war) put an end to his labors and useful- ness." He was distinguished, not only in this country, but also in Europe, for the successful performance of certain most dif- ficult and dangerous surgical operations. President Duer, in his "Reminiscences" thus speaks of him: "Although he was eminent as a physician, he was particularly distinguished as a practical surgeon, and at the time of his death was without a rival in this branch of his profession. Gifted by


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nature with talents peculiarly calculated for the exercise of the important duties of a surgeon, his education in an especial man- ner enabled him to attain the highest reputa- tion." He published a paper in the "Mem- oirs of the London Medical Society," vol. iv., which attracted considerable attention abroad. He was a member of the New York State Society of the Cincinnati.


Dr. McKnight married Mrs. Litchfield, only daughter of General John Morin Scott, of New York, one of the most zealous pa- triots of the Revolution, a prominent law- yer and politician of those times, Secretary of the State and a delegate to the Conti- nental Congress of 1782-83. The late John M. Scott McKnight, M. D., of New York City, was his only son. Dr. Charles Mc- Knight died in 1790.


WALLACE, Joshua Maddox,


Man of Enterprise.


Joshua Maddox Wallace, a man of large ability and great enterprise during the for- mative days of the State, was born in Phila- delphia, October 4, 1752, son of John and Mary (Maddox) Wallace. The father was a native of Scotland, who came to this country in 1742; the mother was daughter of Joshua Maddox, an honored citizen of Philadelphia, a justice and councilman, a trustee of the college and a warden of Christ Church.


Joshua Maddox Wallace began his edu- cation under private tutors, and entered the College of Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in his fifteenth year. After serv- ing for a time as a college tutor, he entered the counting room of a leading merchant of Philadelphia, Mr. Archibald McCall, and here developed those habits of unflinching integrity, phenomenal industry and scrupu- lous punctuality, which were his distinguish- ing traits throughout his career. He had acquired a broad knowledge of mercantile affairs, but does not seem to have held such an occupation in high regard, possibly in


some degree on account of having inherited an ample property, and preferring to de- vote his talents to the public service and also enjoy the advantages of literature andi science, for which his position in society afforded him ample opportunity. In 1773 he married a daughter of Colonel William Bradford, who is described as a woman of more than ordinary intelligence and refine- ment, and shortly afterward took up his resi- dence on his beautiful estate, "Ellerslie," in Somerset county, on the banks of the Raritan river. A few years later he remov- ed to Burlington, near the ancestral home of his wife's family. Here he endeared himself to the entire community for his zealous service in its behalf, along all lines of improvement, many of them his own innovations. In a public capacity he long served as Judge of the Pleas of Burlington county, and contemporary authority says that "he was very highly useful in adminis- tering justice, maintaining the police, and relieving the distresses and improving the morals of the common people." In a pri- vate capacity, he was the town's most dis- interested, energetic and useful citizen. Greatly interested in agriculture, and par- ticularly in ornamental gardening and fruit culture, he not only beautified his own grounds, but by example and assistance drew a large part of the people to follow after him in these pursuits. He constantly gave his influence and means to the advance- ment of the interests of the library; and also was a foremost spirit in the establish- ment of an excellent academy and in bringing to its service as teachers, various of the most efficient educators of the day. He labored earnestly and successfully in the procure- ment of a pure water supply for the town; and also fire engines, with a properly organ- ized force for its employment on occasion of necessity. Without political ambition, he rendered excellent service in the State As- sembly during a most critical period, where his steadiness of judgment and the great confidence reposed in his probity, contribut-


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ed greatly to hold the State to an anchorage of sound political morality, and in marked contrast to the visionary and loose ideas which were exhibited by some of the States as a result of the tempest of thought created by the French revolution. He was also a member of the State Convention which ratified the constitution of the United States. He belonged to the Federalistic school- that of Washington and Hamilton, of Jay and Marshall, to whose tenets he steadfastly adhered under the conviction that theirs were the only principles upon which the government could be administered with dig- nity and success, and with fair promise of permanence.


As already indicated, Mr. Wallace's tastes were to moral rather than to political pur- poses. He was for more than twenty years a trustee of Princeton College, and he also served for a long period as president of the board of trustees of the Burlington Acad- emy, and as president of the New Jersey Society for the Suppression of Vice and Immorality. He was an active and devout churchman, and his name appears repeated- ly in the journals of the General Conven- tions of the Episcopal church as a represen- tative from New Jersey: and also in the journals of the New Jersey Conventions as a representative from the ancient parish of St. Mary's, at Burlington. In association with his intimate personal friend Mr. Croes (afterwards bishop), he was entrusted with the arduous work of framing a constitution and canons for the ecclesiastical polity of the church in New Jersey, rules for the conduct of business in its conventions, rules for the government of congregations, and to make such recommendations from the convention to the church at large as were deemed best to advance its prosperity. De- voted as he was to his church, his principles were extremely Catholic. With his friend and kinsman, the venerable Elias Boudinot, he aided largely in the formation of the American Bible Society, and was chosen president of the convocation which formed




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