USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 24
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As illustrating the strong conservative characteristics of Mr. Meeker, it is an in- teresting fact that upon the incorporation by act of the Legislature in 1845 of Newark's first life insurance company, the present Mu- tual Benefit Life Insurance Company, his services and assistance were sought by those engaged in establishing the company, and
through their efforts his name was actually inserted in the charter given by the Legis- lature to the company as one of its first or charter directors. Mr. Meeker appreciated the honor of this selection and would gladly have served as a director of the company had it been established on a financial basis of which he could approve, with a capitai sufficient in his judgment to meet any obli- gations which were likely to confront the company in the early years of its existence, but it was proposed to establish the company and it was established on a purely mutual basis, without any funds or capital, save as policies were issued and premiums thereon paid by the insured, and Mr. Meeker believ- ing that a company founded in this way might perhaps fail and be unable to meet its obligations through the deaths of policy- holders faster than the company could gath- er and retain funds sufficient to pay the amounts which might become due on its pol- icies, refused to accept the position of di- rector in the new company. The enterprise of life insurance was then entirely new to Newark, and indeed had up to that time made but little headway in the United States. A Mr. Patterson, a Scotchman, ed- ucated in the business abroad, brought the idea to Newark, and first sought to famil- iarize the citizens of Newark and of New Jersey with its advantages, and he it was who started the idea of incorporating such a company in Newark, and he became, upon the incorporation of the company, its first president and actual manager in the early stages of its existence. But by many of Newark's citizens of that day he was looked upon as considerable of a theorist and visionary in his ideas. He sought to per- suade them by reference to the experiences of such enterprises abroad and by reference to the tables of mortality and other statistics which were used by such companies, that a failure of such a company for lack of funds through deaths of its policy-holders was not likely to occur, but many of the citizens of that time thought, what was in fact the
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truth, that there was an element of uncer- tainty attending the successful launching of such a company on such a basis, as it all depended upon whether policy-holders who would continue to pay their premiums could be gotten into the company fast enough to more than offset losses by death and the necessary salaries and expenses which must be met. The great success of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company has fully demonstrated that this could be done and that institution today with the beautiful building on Broad and Clinton streets is one of the proudest and strongest institu- tions of Newark and of New Jersey, but it must be acknowledged that to the Newark business man of 1845, at the inception of such an enterprise, there was an element of doubt and uncertainty about its successful outcome, and Mr. Meeker refused to lend his name to or identify himself with a finan- cial institution which in his judgment did not begin its business with sufficient funds to safeguard it against all possible obliga- tions.
Samuel Meeker was a direct descendant of William Meeker, who came to Connecti- cut from England soon after the landing of the "Mayflower," in the early part of the seventeenth century. After remaining a few years in the Connecticut colony, William Meeker came to Newark and settled at the southern end of the then town of Newark, or probably outside of Newark, more in the neighborhood of Elizabethtown. From him all the Meekers of New Jersey and probably all of those scattered throughout the United States are supposed to be descended. Fre- quent references to him and to his acts are to be found in the early histories of New- ark and of Elizabethtown. He appears to have been a man of strong individuality and tenacious in asserting and defending what he claimed to be his rights, for these his- tories show that he long engaged in dis- putes and litigations with the town and in- habitants of Newark in reference princi- pally to his property rights. So bitter and
serious had these disputes become that the inhabitants of Newark at one time de- termined to take serious measures against him and to proceed against him on a charge of alleged treason to the town in some way, but William Mecker, notwithstanding this attitude of the people and government of Newark towards him, successfully main- tained his position, so much so, that the in- habitants of Newark voted later on to make an agreement with him for the final and peaceful settlement of these disputes and contentions, and they actually did conclude what was called a "treaty" with him where- by all these matters were finally and amic- ably settled. This was certainly a compli- ment to his individuality and importance in the community of that date, and he appears after that treaty to have lived in peace with the town and inhabitants of Newark, and one of his sons in after years became high sheriff of Essex county.
The Meekers of the early history of New- ark, like most of the original settlers of Newark, in their religious convictions were strong Protestants and inclined to Presby- terianism or Congregationalism. But little is known of Samuel Meeker's religious proclivities in his early days, except that his first marriage to Martha Harbeck was cele- brated in a church of the Protestant Epis- copal denomination, old Saint Mark's Church, in New York City, and from this it may be surmised that perhaps during his life in his youth with his uncle, Samuel Meeker of Philadelphia, he may have be- come attached to that denomination. His wife, however. Martha Harbeck, and her elder sister, Helen, who lived with her throughout her married life and assisted her in her household duties and the care of her children, ( Martha being a woma : of strong mentality but of delicate physical constitu- tion, as was shown by her subsequent early death before attaining the age of fifty years), were of strong religious convictions. They were the daughters of Catherine Tiers, descended from a Huguenot family of
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France, who in the seventeenth century, in the reign of Louis XIV., were driven out of France by the King because they would not renounce their Calvinist faith. Being forbidden longer to worship according to that faith, the family came to America, where Catherine Tiers met and married John Harbeck in the years preceding the war of the Revolution. After Mr. Meeker's marriage to Martha Harbeck, and upon his entering into the manufacturing business at Rahway and taking up his residence on the farm in the country to the west of that town, Mr. Meeker and his wife and sister- in-law attached themselves to the old First Presbyterian Church of Rahway, under the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Janeway, who died only recently, having lived to a great age, and Mrs. Meeker and her sister Helen became and continued among the most de- voted and fervent members of that church. It was the custom of the family in those days to drive into Rahway on every Sunday morning, remaining for both the morning and evening services, the children in the meantime attending the Sunday school, and during the week which followed, while en- gaged in their household duties it was the chief interest and pleasure of Mrs. Meeker and her sister, aside from the care of the children, to talk over the points of the pas- tor's sermon and other religious events of the preceding Sunday, as with these good souls religion was by far the principle thought and interest of their lives, and their lives were lived only as a preparation for a heavenly home to come.
On the death of Martha, his wife, and Mr. Meeker's removal some years later to Newark, his sister-in-law Helen came with him and continued to assist in the house- keeping and care of the children until her death in 1840, and Mr. Meeker's children always held in the greatest respect and ven- eration the memory of this good woman, second only to the love which they felt for the memory of their saintly mother.
Mr. Meeker's second wife was a woman
of English descent, and attached to the ser- vices and customs of the Church of Eng- land. Through her influence he returned to the Protestant Episcopal denomination. Upon his taking up his residence in New- ark they became members of Trinity Church, and Mr. Meeker long held the of- fices of vestryman, warden and treasurer of that church. He continued in the two last named offices until the building of Grace Episcopal Church, near their home. Hay- ing taken an active part and contributed largely towards the building of that church, he and his wife became members and com- municants of that parish and he was elected vestryman of the church and continued as such to the time of his death.
Although Mr. Meeker always took an ac- tive and intelligent interest in public affairs he never could be persuaded to engage in politics or hold any public office except that of an alderman of the city of Newark for a brief time. In his later years he was sev- eral times requested by influential men in his party to stand as his party's candidate for mayor of the city, but would not give his consent to a nomination for that office.
In August, 1863, Mr. Meeker's second wife died. He was then an old man, but full of energy, and took an active interest in all affairs with which he was connected. After her death he suffered much from lone- liness in his Broad street mansion where he lived with only some relatives of his second wife. His children were all married, and either by reason of living at a distance from him, with interests which they could not leave, or on account of their families and children, they could not conveniently live with him. Under these circumstances he was persuaded into making a third marriage, and having never travelled in Europe. to take a trip abroad, much to the sorrow and regret of his children, who feared that hie would not return alive. But having al- ways been a man of strong will power and accustomed to carry out whatever he un- dertook, he could not be dissuaded from this
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course, and in May, 1864, having already suffered two paralytic strokes, he was mar- ned at St. Peter's Church, Morristown, to Miss Lucretia Parsons, of that place, a niece of a friend of many years, Charles Mí. King. A few days later he started on the trip abroad, and the forebodings of his fam- ily were only too soon realized, for on july 14. 1864, while traveling in Italy and hav- ing spent some time in Rome, and from there having reached Pisa, he was there scized with the Roman fever and other com- plications caused by old age and died. As was the custom of those days, his body was embalmed and reached home some months later on a sailing vessel, and his funeral ser- vices largely attended were held at Grace Church, Newark.
Mr. Meeker while residing on the farnı near Rahway, purchased a plot in the old cemetery there situate on St. George's ave- nue in the westerly section of that town, and belonging to the First Presbyterian Church, to which he belonged. In this beautiful country cemetery, which stretches back to steep and heavily wooded banks of the Rahway river, and which is one of the most picturesque and well kept of our coun- try cemeteries, on one of the finest plots on the main drive of the cemetery, is situate the burial plot which he purchased and which has since been added to by other members of the family. In this plot, under a slab of Italian marble, lie Samuel Meeker and Martha Harbeck Meeker, the wife of his youth. Old Aunt Helen also lies near by. His father and mother, William and Sarah. his sons Samuel and John Harbeck, with several children who died in childhood, and other members of his family, are also buried there. A striking feature of the plot is the slab of Italian marble with beautiful in- scriptions and design, which Mr. Meeker caused to be placed over the grave of his eldest son, John Harbeck Meeker, who when a lad of nine years, on April 29, 1822, when traveling on a sloop which carried passen- gers in those days to and from the "Point"
at Elizabethport and New York City, was .wept overboard and drowned, through an accident which occurred. A young German residing in this county, a native of Jena, in Saxony, named Anton Moritz Ulrich, who was at that time engaged in business at what is now known as Bloodgood's Mills, near Rahway, sprang overboard after him, and both were drowned and buried in the grave together. The history of this inci- dent with a beautiful quotation of verses in poetry, is inscribed on the slab. While one strolls in this quiet country cemetery and hears at times the deep notes of the bell of the oid Presbyterian Church not far away ringing out the hours or a call to prayer, the words of "Gray's Elegy" instinctively come to one's mind, and the spot seems ideal.
Mr. Meeker was survived by four chil- dren: Samuel A. Meeker, of Woodbridge and Perth Amboy; Mrs. Martha Adela Halsted, who married Oliver Spencer Hal- sted, the son of the Chancellor of New Jer- sey of that name; John Harbeck Meeker, of Newark and South Orange, a former judge of the Essex county courts; and Dr. Charles Henry Meeker, of Rahway. All these are dead, and the wives also of the sons have passed away. A number of grand- children and great-grandchildren of Mr. Meeker are living. Among the grand- daughters living are Mrs. Katherine G. Forbes of Noroton, Connecticut, and Miss Martha Meeker of Greenwich, Connecti- . cut, daughters of his son Samuel. John Harbeck Meeker (2nd), a lawyer of Essex county, residing at East Orange, and Charles Henry Meeker (2nd), of Newton, New Jer- sey, are grandsons. George Bruce Halsted, one of the most celebrated mathematicians in the United States, a graduate of Prince- ton University, and for many years Profes- sor of Mathematics at the University of Texas, and now residing in the State of Colorado, is a grandson. Professor Hal- sted is the author of many works on higher mathematics which are in use as text books in the colleges and universities throughout
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the world, and as a mathematician has re- ceived distinguished honors abroad. Of the younger generation, Charles Henry Meek- er (3d), a great-grandson, is a graduate of Columbia University, in New York City, and is now taking a post-graduate course there. He has also developed a considerable talent for mathematics, and for illustrating in text books difficult mathematical prob- lems, which he does by very accurately made drawings, and John Harbeck Meeker (3d), a graduate of Williams College, of the class of 1913, and a teacher in Carteret School in Orange, New Jersey.
Mr. Meeker had but one child by his sec- ond wife, Sarah, who died in his Broad street mansion, when a pretty child of about two years. Little Sarah's favorite pastime was to pick the leaves from the geraniums and other potted plants in the house, and there is in the family, at East Orange, a life- sized oil painting of her taken shortly be- fore her death, representing the child en- gaged in this pastime.
Mr. Meeker's third wife returned to this country and to her home at Morristown, af- ter his death, where she continued to reside, and was known as Mrs. Samuel Meeker un- til her death in 1889.
DAYTON, Elias,
Revolutionary Soldier, Legislator.
Elias Dayton, Revolutionary soldier, was born at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in July, 1737, a descendant of Ralph Dayton, an Englishman, who emigrated from Bedford- shire to Boston, and settled in New Haven in 1638. He removed thence to Southamp- ton, Long Island, and was the founder of East Hampton. As a young man he joined the British forces, fought with the "Jersey Blues," inder Wolfe, at Quebec, and sub- sequently became captain of a company of militiamen, with which he marched against the northern Indians. At the outbreak of the Revolution he became a member of the Committee of Safety, and with William
Alexander, Lord Stirling, commanded a party which in July, 1775, captured a Brit- ish transport off Elizabethtown. In Febru- ary, 1778, he was appointed by Congre., colonel of the Third New Jersey Regiment : in 1781 aided in the suppression of the New Jersey mutiny, and in 1783 was advanced to the rank of brigadier-general. Throughout the entire war he was in active service, be- ing prominently engaged in the battles of Springfield, Monmouth, Brandywine and Yorktown, and was three times unhorsed-at Germantown, at Springfield, and again at Crosswick's Bridge. When the enemy un- det General Knyphausen, penetrated into New Jersey, he directed the execution of the measures adopted for their annoyance. At the close of the war he was appointed major-general of militia. He was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1770, but declined the honor ; on being again elected, however, he served during 1787-88. He served several terms in the New Jersey Legislature, and at the organization of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati was elected its first president, holding the office until his death, which occurred at Eliza- bethtown, New Jersey, July 17, 1807.
NEILSON, John,
Revolutionary Officer, Public Official.
Colonel John Neilson, Revolutionary of- ficer, and member of the Continental Con- gress, late of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was born in that place, or near it, March II, 1745. He was educated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and afterward, from 1769 to 1775, was engaged in mercantile pursuits in his native town. In 1775 he raised and organized a company of patriot volunteers : August 3Ist of the same year, he was ap- pointed colonel of a regiment of minute- men ; and until September 18, 1780, con- tinued actively engaged in repelling British inroads, and in furthering the cause to which he was ardently attached. He was then appointed deputy quartermaster gen-
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eral for New Jersey. Early in 1777 he planned and successfully executed the sur- prise of a British post at Bennett's Island. In 1778 and 1779 he was a zealous and in- fluential member of the Continental Con- gress ; and in the New Jersey Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution, he dis- tinguished himself as an energetic and effi- cient supporter of the important measures then held under discussion. He died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 3. 1833.
LAMBERT, John,
Acting Governor, Statesman.
Hon. John Lambert, one of the most dis- tinguished citizens of New Jersey during the latter part of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century, was born in 1746, in the township of Amwell, New Jersey. His father's name was Ger- shom, and his mother's Sarah Merriam. His grandfather was John Lambert, who mar- ried Abigail Bumstead in 1713.
The Hon. John Lambert cultivated a large tract of land in his native town, where he lived a long and useful life. For many years he was a member of the New Jersey Council, the higher branch of the State Legislature, in which body he ably served the interests of his section and con- stituents. From 1795 to 1800 he was vice- president of that body, and during the years 1802 and 1803 he performed with vigorous efficiency the duties of acting Governor of the State. He was a representative in Con- gress from New Jersey from 1805 to 1809, and from 1809 to 1815 was an influential member of the United States Senate. John Lambert was a devoted lover of litera- ture, and was especially familiar with the English classics. He owned the best library in Hunterdon county, which at that time included within its limits the city of Tren- ton. He was a man of great decision of character, and thoroughly honest and out-
spoken, even in those days of extreme party bitterness.
He was married in 1765 to Susannah Barber, by whom he had seven children. His second wife was Hannah Dennis (nee Little), by whom he had six children, the oldest of whom was Jerusha, married Abraham Holmes, and the next in age, Mer- riam, who married James Seabrook. Mer- riam and James were the parents of Mary Hannah Seabrook, the wife of Ashbel Welch, Esq., of Lambertville. Hon. John Lambert died on the 4th of February, 1823, aged seventy-seven years.
MARTIN, Luther,
Lawyer, Jurist, Statesman.
Luther Martin was born in New Bruns- wick, New Jersey, February 9, 1748. He was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1766. He studied law at Queens- town, Maryland, supporting himself mean- while by teaching : was admitted to the bar in 1771, and in 1772 went to Williamsburg, Virginia, where he began the practice of his profession. He finally settled in Som- erset county, Maryland, and attained prom- inence as a lawyer. It is said that at an early term of the Wiliamsburg (Virginia) court he defended thirty-eight persons, and that twenty-nine of them were acquitted. He was one of the commissioners of Som- erset county, New Jersey, in 1778 to oppose the measures of Great Britain, and a mem- ber also of the Annapolis (Maryland) con- vention. He published an answer to the ad- dress of the British brothers Howe from their ships in Chesapeake Bay ; also an ad- dress "To the Inhabitants of the Peninsula between the Delaware river and the Chesa- peake," and it was distributed to the in- habitants on printed hand bills. In 1778 he was appointed Attorney-General of his adopted State, and vigorously, almost rigor- ously, prosecuted the Tories. In 1784-85 he was in the Continental Congress from
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Maryland. In 1787 he was a member of a lawyer were of the very highest order. some authorities regarding him among the best which the country has produced He died at the house of Aaron Burr in New York City, July 10, 1826. the convention which framed the constitu- tion of the United States, and took an ac- tive part in the debates in opposition to it, finally leaving the convention rather than sign the constitution. A few years later, however, he was to be christened "the fed- BURR, Aaron, eral bulldog" by Jefferson. He also oppos- ed the ratification of the constitution by the Soldier, Vice-President. State of Maryland, and made such able Colonel Aaron Burr, lawyer and Vice- President of the United States, was born February 6, 1756, in the city of Newark, and was a son of President Burr, and a grandson of President Edwards, of Prince- ton College. His father died when he was a year old, and his mother's decease follow- ed in less than a twelvemonth after her husband's. He was thus left an orphan in his very infancy, and the moulding of his character thus left to stranger hands doubt- less influenced his whole life. arguments against it that John C. Calhoun afterward drew from them in his nullifica- tion speeches. He bitterly denounced the license allowed by the constitution to the African slave trade, and declared that God viewed with equal eye the poor African slave and his American master. But his next public appearance was as a staunch supporter of the constitution, when he act- ed as counsel for Judge Samuel Chase, im- peached before the United States Senate in 1804, Judge Chase, by the way, having once He received an excellent education, and graduated from Princeton College in 1773. He subsequently commenced the study of law, but before being admitted to the bar the conflict with Great Britain commenced, and when nineteen years of age he joined the Continental army at Cambridge, and accompanied Arnold in his expedition against Quebec. In the year 1776 he was invited to join the military family of Gen- eral Washington, and accepted the offer, but the commander-in-chief soon dispensed with him. He retired from military duties been no less bitter in his opposition to it than his eccentric counsel. This impeach- ment failed. In 1805 Mr. Martin resigned his attorney-generalship, after twenty-seven years' service, and even then had the largest practice of any lawyer in Maryland. In 1807 he was counsel for Aaron Burr, when the latter was tried for high treason at Richmond, Virginia, and was once more on the winning side. When this trial was over, he entertained both Burr and Harman Blen- nerhassett at his own house in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1814 he was appointed Chief" 'in 1779, having reaclied the rank of lieu- Justice of the Court of Oyer and Terminer for the city and county of Baltimore, but this court was abolished in 1816. In Februr ary, 1818, he was appointed Attorney-Gen- eral of Maryland, but by a stroke of paraly- sis Judge Martin was thrown entirely upon the charity of his friends in 1820. Two years later the Maryland Legislature pass- ed an act wholly unparalleled in American history, requiring every lawyer in Maryland to pay annually a license fee of five dollars, the money to be paid over to trustees "for the use of Luther Martin." His abilities as
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