USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 36
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Sherrerd Depue was a lawyer of learn- ing and great diligence and ability. who was in partnershin for some years with
Chauncey .G. Parker, and afterwards with Richard V. Lindabury and Frederick J. Faulks. He died October 22, 19II.
ODENHEIMER, William Henry, Clergyman and Author.
This distinguished clergyman and author was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 11, 1817. He was eighteen years of age when he graduated from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. In 1835 he en- tered the General Theological Seminary in New York, from which he was graduated in 1838, and in that year was ordained deacon. In 1840 he was made assistant at St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, and in the same year was made rector and received ordination as priest. He was elected Bishop of New Jer- sey in 1859. He resided in Burlington until November, 1874, when the diocese was di- vided, and he was made bishop of the north- ern part, since 1886 known as the Diocese of Newark. He is said to have confirmed not less than twenty thousand persons. He was profoundly versed in canon law, and was an authority on all matters relating to church order and discipline. He was also a voluminous writer, and published, among many other works, "Origin and Compilation of the Prayer Book," (1841) ; "The True Catholic no Romanist," (1842) ; "Essays on Canon Law," (1847) ; "The Private Pray- er Book," ( 1851) "Jerusalem and its Vicin- ity." (1855). He died in Burlington, New Jersey, August 14, 1879.
NEWELL, William A.,
Father of Life Saving Service.
Of the many names counted worthy to receive honorable mention in a historical work, none could be found more worthy than that of William Augustus Newell. Honored as a statesman and humanitarian, yet his principal distinction rests upon the establishment of the American life saving
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service, and it is conceded that through his earnest and untiring efforts in formulating and carrying his plans to success, more hu- man lives and larger property values have been saved than by any other means ever in- stituted for so important an object.
James H. and Eliza D. ( Hankinson) Newell, parents of William Augustus Newell, were natives of New Jersey, who removed to Franklin, Ohio, where their son was born, September 5, 1817. While he was yet a child, the parents returned to New Jersey, residing for a time in Monmouth county, then removing to New Brunswick; the father was a civil engineer, and his maps of the last named city were adopted by the authorities as authoritative. After attending the district schools, young Newell studied under private tutors, and then en- tered Rutgers College, from which he was graduated at the age of nineteen. Among his classmates were several who became dis- tinguished-Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, who became Secretary of State; J. P. Bradley, afterward a Justice of the Su- preme Court of the United States; and Hon. Cortlandt Parker, of New York. For a time he studied medicine under Dr. Van Dusen, of New Brunswick, whose daughter Johanna he subsequently married; and in 1839 graduated from the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania. He began practice at Manahawken. New Jer- sey, in association with his uncle, Dr. Hank- inson, and it was during this period that for the first time he began the study of ship- wrecks at short range, and began his experi- ments for establishing communication be- tween distressed vessels and the shore. In 1841 he engaged in medical practice by him- self, at Imlaystown, Monmouth county, and here began his public career.
His first public office was that of town- ship collector, and to which he was several times re-elected. In 1844 he removed to Allentown, where he continued in his pro- fession with gratifying success. In 1845 he was urged to accept a congressional nomin-
ation to fill a vacancy, but declined. The next year he was elected for a full term, as a Republican ; reversed an adverse ma- jority of fifteen hundred, and was re-elected by an increased majority. He was a mem- ber of the Thirtieth Congress, of which Abraham Lincoln was also a member, and the two occupied adjoining seats in the house, boarded and roomed together, and became intimate friends. It was in the first session of that Congress that Mr. Newell introduced a resolution which was the ini- tial step in the founding of the United States Life Saving Service, which is to-day a most important feature of our public ser- vice, and has no equal upon the globe. Dur ing the same time he made a record as an earnest opponent of slavery extension, and his whole life was consistent with his views as expressed in that early day.
In 1856 Mr. Newell was nominated for governor, in a convention about equally di- vided between representatives of the Re- publican party, then just organized, and the so-called American party,-the remains of the disrupted Whig party. His election was one of the political wonders of the day, for while he carried the State by a majority of twenty-six hundred, he had for his op- ponent William C. Alexander, one of the ablest and most popular men of that time, and Buchanan, the Democratic candidate for President, had a plurality of nearly twenty thousand. Among the acts of Gover- nor Newell which distinguished his admin- istration, were his uncompromising conduct in resisting and frustrating the persistent at- tempt of New York to foist its quarantine upon the Jersey shores ; his courteous but firm refusal to allow an opposition senate to dictate to him a nomination for chancel- lor, though it resulted in the closing of the chancery court during the last year of his term.
In 1861, the first year of his incumbency, President Lincoln appointed Mr. Newell superintendent of the Life Saving Service for the very important district of New Jer-
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.y. It was a well deserved recognition of the credit due him as the originator of the -tem, and, coming from President Lin- coin upon his own motion, was . especially complimentary. During his four years in- cumbency of the position, Mr. Newell made quarterly official visits along the shore, so that when he was elected to Congress in 1804, for the third term, he had acquired ·tich additional knowledge that he was en- abled to still further advance the usefulness of the system. During President Lincoln's administration, the old friendship between that great man and Mr. Newell was renew- ed, and the latter had the honor of being the attending physician at the White House.
Mr. Newell was defeated in his candi- dacy for Congress in 1866 and in 1870. For more than twenty years, as the most promi- nent and influential leader of his party in the State, he had controlled and dispensed official honors throughout its bounds, and, as a matter of course, disappointed appli- cants for office had become a numerous and influential body ; while, at the same time, the Democrats had come into the ascend- ancy. At the close of his last congressional term he returned to his profession, in which he continued until President Hayes appointed him Governor of Washington Territory, to which he removed. In 1877, after the creation of the State, he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor. Dur- ing his administration he was eminently suc- cessful in promoting the growth and devel- opment of the territory, and its early admis- sion to the Union was largely due to his ef- forts. During President Arthur's adminis- tration he was appointed an inspector of Indian agencies, and in his frequent visits to the various tribes and bands he minis- tered to the wants of these children of the forest so kindly and usefully as to earn their lasting gratitude.
Although greatly attached to the people of the State of Washington, the death of his wife and his advanced years moved him in 1809 to return to Allentown, New Jersey,
where he again engaged in professional work. In 1900, upon the invitation of the Monmouth County Historical Association, he read a paper upon the Life Saving Ser- vice of the United States which has to this day historic value. He was for many years vice-president of the National Union League of America, and chairman of its ex- ecutive committee, and a trustee of Rutgers College. He was active as a Mason and Odd Fellow. He died August 8, 1901, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. Gov- ernor Voorhees made the day of his funeral a public event, paying all official honors. A fine portrait of Governor Newell, as he ap- peared when forty-eight years of age, in the prime of his powers, occupies a place in the executive chamber of the State House.
PARKER, Cortlandt,
Distinguished Lawyer, Author.
Cortlandt Parker, lawyer and distinguish- ed citizen, sixth child of James and Pene- lope (Butler) Parker, was born in the Park- er mansion in Perth Amboy, June 27, 1818. He received his early education in that town, with private instruction in Latin and Greek, and in 1832 entered Rutgers Col- lege, from which he was graduated with first honors and as valedictorian of his class in 1836, at the age of eighteen. Among his classmates were Joseph P. Bradley, after- ward Justice of the United States Supreme Court; Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, who became Attorney-General of New Jersey, United States Senator, and Secretary of State under President Arthur ; William A. Newell, elected Governor of New Jersey and later appointed Governor of Washing- ton Territory ; Henry Waldron, for many years a member of Congress from Michi- gan ; James C. Van Dyke, who served as United States District Attorney for Penn- sylvania ; George W. Coakley, of New York University, and others who in after life en- joyed prominence in professional, minis- terial, and business pursuits.
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Soon after leaving college, young Parker entered the office of Hon. Theodore Frei- ingliuysen, of Newark, and upon Mr. Frel- ingliuysen's retirement from practice to be- come chancellor of the New York Univer- sity he continued his professional studies under Amzi Armstrong. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney in September. 1839, and as a counsellor three years later, and began his legal career in Newark. in association with two of his classmates --- Joseph P. Bradley and Frederick T. Frel- inghuysen. From that time he continued in Newark without interruption, as a prac- ticing lawyer. At the time of his death in 1907, he was the oldest as well as the most distinguished active representative of the bar of New Jersey.
The son of one of the most notable lead- ers of political opinion in New Jersey dur- ing the first half of the nineteenth century. and thrown from youth into association with many of the foremost characters of the day, as well as in friendly rivalry with other young men of aspiration and ability, he entered upon active life with high per- sonal ideas. In his political affiliations, both from the early influences by which he was surrounded and from his own studies and reflections, he followed the course pursued by his father. The latter had in youth es- poured the doctrines of Hamilton and the other great Federalist fathers of the con- stitution, expressed in the tenets of the Federalist party and later maintained by the Whigs, and based upon the fundamental ideas of the supremacy of the national gov- ernment and inviolability of the national union, encouragement to manufactures, a protective tariff, and the subordination of local or schismatic preferences or tendencies in the interest of a solid union and a broad development.
writing to the press upon the issues in- volved. In 1844, when Clay and Freling- huysen were the Whig nominees for presi- dent and vice-president, he was also active. He was author of the campaign "Life of Frelinghuysen," which still remains the best character sketch of that statesman. The commanding question was concerning the admission of Texas as a State, and conse- quent enlargement of the slave-holding area. With a deep conviction of the error and danger of such a course, and a clear fore- sight of the future, he opposed it in speeches and articles.
In all the succession of political events, Mr. Parker was an advocate of the princi- ples which became the basis of the new Republican party, and he was one of its founders in New Jersey. He was chairman of the ratification meeting held in Newark upon the nomination of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and from that day until the sur- render of Lee at Appomattox he was one of the most pronounced and steadfast sup- porters of the whole policy of preservation of the Union and suppression of the rebel- lion. After the Emancipation Proclama- tion, he took the advanced ground that the only logical end of that measure was the concession of the ballot to the freedmen. He presided at the State convention which first proposed that doctrine in New Jersey, delivering an address that was circulated as a campaign document in the ensuing elec- tion. Upon the submission to the New Jer- sey Legislature of the proposed Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitu- tion, it was voted down by the Democrats in that body, an action which, in the opinion of the leaders on both sides, settled the ma :- ter so far as New Jersey was concerned. But Mr. Parker took a different view of the legal aspects of the subject, maintain- ing that the amendment might be submitted again and again until adopted. This legal view of the question carried such weight that Mr. Parker's party confidently enterel
His first presidential vote was cast in the memorable campaign of 1840, when General William H. Harrison was elected, and in this contest he took part with en- thusiasm, delivering political speeches and upon the next electoral contest on the issue
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thus defined, secured the necessary major- ity in the legislature, and duly ratified the amendment.
In his subsequent career, throughout all the changing political conditions, Mr. Park- er maintained the same active and patriotic interest, frequently addressing his fellow citizens on questions of the day, exercis- ing a valuable influence by his counsels when sought by those in responsible posi- tion, and contributing to the press many papers distinguished for dignity and solidity of treatment and argument. Continuously and intimately identified for sixty-five years with politics, and sustaining a reputation of the first order for ability, accomplishments, and character, Mr. Parker occupied a unique personal position. With the single exception of a local office in his county. which, moreover, was strictly in the line of his profession as a lawyer, he was never an office-holder ; but on the other hand he uni- formly declined repeated tenders of high and honorable stations, both State and Na- tional. In 1857 he was appointed Prosecu- tor of the Pleas of Essex county by Gov- ernor Newell, and for ten years continued to serve in that capacity. In the same year his name was brought before the legislature for the position of chancellor : later a Re- publican convention nominated him for Con- gress after he had announced that even if nominated he would decline; President Grant requested him to accept a judgeship in the court for settling the Alabama Claims ; President Hayes offered him the ministry to Russia: President Arthur tend- ered him that to Vienna, but all these dig- nities were declined. In his earlier career he was on two occasions proposed for At- torney-General of New Jersey, when that honor was one not uninviting from his pro- fessional point of view, but owing probably as much to his reputation for independence of political influences and considerations as to any other circumstances he was not appointed. He was many times voted for
in the legislature as a candidate for the United States Senate.
Aside from the strict sphere of politics, he served in several honorary positions- notably as a commissioner to settle the dis- puted boundary lines between New Jersey and Delaware, and as a reviser of the laws of New Jersey, in conjunction with Chief- Justice Beasley and Justice Depue. In the disputed presidential election of 1876 he was sent by President Grant to witness the counting of the ballots in Louisiana, and was complimented by his opponents for his fairness.
As an orator, Mr. Parker enjoyed a repu- tation for force, scholarship, and the parti- cular type of eloquence appealing to the intelligence of men which well accords with the dignity and strength manifested in his public career, his writings, and his well- known individual characteristics. In his personality he was remarkable for a physi- cal constitution of great vitality, nurtured throughout life by a vigorous but orderly regime possessed of a commanding figure, and to the end of his life as erect as in youth ; with a distinction of manners and address and a nature of warm sensibilities and strong attachments and sympathies.
Mr. Parker's published writings on topics of current or general interest include the following, among many other papers and addresses : "The Moral Guilt of the Re- bellion," "Philip Kearny, Soldier and Pa- triot." "Our Triumphs and Our Duties." "New Jersey: Her Present and Future." "Abraham Lincoln." "The Open Bible or Tolerant Christianity," "Alexander Hamil- ton and William Paterson," "The Three Successful Generals of the Army of the Potomac : Mcclellan, Mead and Grant." "Justice Joseph P. Bradley :" and "Sir Mat- thew Hale : The Lawyer's Best Exemplar."
He held at one time the honorable posi- tion of president of the American Bar As- sociation. Like his father and grandfather he was actively identified with the Protes-
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tant Episcopal church, and was a lay dele- gate to many diocesan conventions, which, in their deliberations, were largely guided by his parliamentary knowledge. He re- ceived the degree of LL. D. from Rutgers · College and Princeton University, both in the same year. He lived in Newark, with a summer residence in Perth Amboy, his boyhood home. He married Elizabeth Wol- cott Stites, daughter of Richard Wayne and Elizabeth (Cooke', Stites, of Morristown, New Jersey. He died in 1907.
DOUGHTY, General Enoch,
Distinguished Early Day Character.
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In this modern day of brief tenure of property and changing of residence it is difficult to understand the conditions under which vast estates in New Jersey were owned in one family, passing from father to son, generation after generation, without diminution or encumbrance. These estates, some of them in South Jersey, contained many thousands of acres, principally timber lands, yielded rich revenues, and on them were employed a great many families un- der a system almost patriarchal in charac- ter. The owner was a magnate, and in his mansion lived in a style and comfort now little understood. Such a family was the Doughty, of near Absecon, Atlantic county, best represented by General Enoch Dough- ty. 1792-1871, the family dignity and hon- or now maintained by Miss Sarah Nathalie Doughty, the youngest of his children and the last of his line to bear the Doughty name. His residence for over half a cen- tury was the mansion at Locust Grove, near Absecon, originally built by Richard Price, his father's partner. There in the midst of his twenty thousand acres of valuable tim- ber land, General Doughty lived in a man- ner befitting his wealth and attainment. the sails of his vessels, built in his own ship- yards from his own timber, whitening all coastwise waters, bearing to distant points the products of his forest and mills, even
to the West Indies, returning with the pro- ducts of southern lands to be distributed to the merchants of New York, Philadelphia, and South Jersey. The family mansion was graced with a charming host and hostess, manly sons, and fair daughters, who dis- pensed a bounteous hospitality that attracted guests from far and near. It is a matter of regret that no portrait exists of this fine type of the old school gentleman, but a pen picture describes him as resembling Henry Clay in feature, of a tall, military figure, lacking but a fractional inch of six feet, broad shoulders, deep blue eyes, fair com- plexion, regular features, with shapeiy, beautiful hands betraying his aristocratic blood and breeding. He was most digni- fied in manner, and always wore the con- ventional gentleman's dress of his day, in- cluding blue swallow-tail coat with brass buttons, and high hat, always dressing with particular neatness and care, and noted for his great strength. His manners were most perfect, his courtesy and consideration in- nate and unfailing. Though most affable, he could hardly be termed an approachable man, yet justice, integrity and honor dis- tinguished all his dealings, while his well- stored mind and rich experience with men and affairs rendered him a charming com- panion, a delightful entertainer and host. He was staunch in his friendships, loyal to his country, his State, and his family, scru- pulously upright in his business affairs, and managed the varied interests of his large estate with consummate skill and success. Nor did his private affairs engross his en- tire attention, but with a keen appreciation of his responsibilities as a citizen he rose to every occasion, serving in military and official positions as befitted a man of his ability and wealth. He sustained severe financial blows with smiling equanimity, met every obligation like the thoroughbred gentleman he was, and when the pressing demands of Atlantic City for a water shed and supply caused his daughter, Sarah, to dispose of the property it was found that
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from the time of Edward Doughty there had been no change in the Doughty owner- ship and that no encumbrance had ever rest- « on the estate, a truly remarkable and unusual record. His family relations were perfect, the love and respect of wife, sons, and daughters attending him to his dying day, and, although long passed from scenes of earth, his memory has been kept ever green. In the old mansion at Locust Grove all the mystery, tragedy, and joy of human life was experienced. There the mysteries of birth and death were enacted, there the marriage feast was spread. there the chil- dren of the sixth New Jersey generation held childish carnival, and there the stately general held loving though unyielding sway.
While the Doughty ancestry extends to Edward Doty, of "Mayflower" fame, and includes prior residence in New England and Philadelphia, this record deals only with the New Jersey branch, founded in Atlantic county (then Gloucester), by Ed- ward Doughty. Through a maternal line General Doughty descended from Richard Risley, the Puritan of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and from Pieter Van Coen- hooven, of the early Dutch family, and from the early Adams family of Massachusetts. This line of descent, carefully traced, has admitted Miss Sarah N. Doughty to the pa- triotic orders, to the Colonial Dames of America, and to the right of membership in the Society of Holland Dames ( applica- tion pending).
Edward Doughty on moving to Atlantic county acquired considerable land, cov- ered with timber, and erected grist and saw mills, Doughty's Mill becoming the neigh- borhood center and source of supply. He prospered in his new surroundings, and by will dated February 5, 1766, probated March 28, 1770, (preserved by his great-great- granddaughter, Sarah N. Doughty), dis- posed of "plantation, land and marsh, mills, stock, pewter and household goods" of large value. He left to "my beloved wife Mar- garet one third of my plantation" and other
possessions "for her use during her lifetime or widowhood," also generously remember- ing his children.
Jonathan, son of Edward and Margaret Doughty, inherited from his father "the plantation on which he dwells," and there resided all his life, engaged in converting his timber into manufactured lumber and in milling operations. He married (first) Hannah Ingersoll, probably a daughter of an adjoining landowner, she the mother of his children. His second wife was also an Ingersoll, who had been twice widowed, her second husband a Dole. A chest of drawers belonging to Hannah Ingersoll Doughty is yet preserved by her great- granddaughter, Sarah N., daughter of Gen- eral Enoch Doughty.
Abner, son of Jonathan and Hannah ( In- gersoll) Doughty, was born at Absecon, New Jersey, in October, 1755, died July 4, 1821. He inherited land from his father but greatly increased his holdings in 1789 by purchase, his estate extending on both sides of the creek between Buttonwood Hill and Locust Grove, in Egg Harbor town- ship. This tract was settled on in 1740 by Henry Paxson and Burnett Richards, who in 1789 sold to Abner Doughty and Richard Price. On first settling on their tract Pax- son and Richards built a large log house by the side of the mill pond, a structure that was used by Abner Doughty as a store- house and that stood until 1913, when the Atlantic City water commissioners removed it in clearing up the water shed. They also built a mill about 1740, and near there Ab- ner Doughty built his mansion that stood until destroyed by fire in 1884. Richard Price erected his home on the opposite side of Absecon creek, at Locust Grove, and there resided until his death. After the dis- solution of partnership by death, Abner Doughty purchased the Price interest and took possession of the Locust Grove mansion that was the home of his son, General Enoch Doughty from 1816 until death, and the home of his children until 1910, when Miss
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