USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 45
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county courthouse on the evening of Au- gust 31, 1848, and was accompanied by a letter bearing the signatures of over three hundred soldiers.
Upon leaving Reynosa, of which Captain Yard was the military governor for several months. the Mexican officials and leading citizens of the town presented him with a letter, from which the following is an ex- tract : "He has taken care of the tran- quility and security of our families and of the interest of the town ; he has given suc- cor to the poor and attended them in their sickness ; and, without any other recompense than that which those wish who believe that there is another life."
After the recovery of his health, he was reinstated in the position in the Custom House, which he relinquished upon entering the army; but shortly after the accession of Genera! Taylor to the presidency in 1849, he was removed to give place to a meni- ber of the Whig party, notwithstanding the pledges of that party during the canvass that none of the soldiers in the war against Mexico should be removed on partisan grounds. This removal was the occasion of much discussion in Williamsburg, New York, where Captain Yard then resided, and especially among the merchants and business men of New York City who had their homes in Williamsburg, many of them being influential members of the Whig party. To show their disapprobation of the removal, they suggested the nomination of Captain Yard for the New York Assem- bly by the Democrats, promising their sup- port. The suggestion was adopted, and although the district usually had a reliable Whig majority, Captain Yard was elected. He took a prominent part in the Legisla- ture. He was chairman of the committee on State Prisons, and also of the special committee "to inquire into the condition of the New York volunteers in the Mexican war with a view to their relief," many of then: being destitute and suffering great privations. During the session of 1850 a bill
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was passed providing for the erection of a penitentiary at Syracuse, designed to be an intermediate prison between the county jail and the state prison. Upon the recom- mendation of Captain Pillsbury, of the Al- bany penitentiary, Captain Yard was ap- pointed to superintend its erection, and was afterward appointed its warden. He com- pleted the buildings and carried on the oper- ations of the prison successfully for two years, when he was removed to give place to a political favorite of the Board of Super- visors of Onondaga county, in whom the power of appointment was vested.
In 1855, under the administration of President Pierce, he was again appointed to a position in the New York Custom House, which he held until the outbreak of the rebellion in the spring of 1861. He resided at Trenton at this time, and, anticipating the call for troops, in the morning news- papers of April 15, he issued a call for volunteers. The ranks of his company were filled in a few days, and it was the first com- pany raised in the State, and the first in the State to be mustered into the service of the United States. It was named the "Olden Guards," in compliment to the then Govern- or of the State, and was attached to the Third Regiment, New Jersey Militia, in General Runyon's brigade, and designated as Company A of that regiment. He led the company to Virginia, and it was the first company from the north to occupy the soil of Virginia, being on the right of the Third Regiment, commanded by the senior colonel of the brigade, which led the advance. He served with his regiment to the close of its term of enlistment, and received an honor- able discharge. Subsequently he raised and conducted a company to the field to repel Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania.
The hardships which he had endured in his military campaigns, and the struggles which he had made to maintain his family. now began to tell upon his constitution, and obliged him, much against his inclination. to retire from the active life which he had
hitherto led. At the close of the war, his wife having recently died and his children being mostly grown up, he removed from Trenton and took up his residence at Farnı- ingdale, with a son and daughter unmarried. Here he engaged in the cultivation of a few acres of land and in works of charity and religion. He became a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church in Trenton at the age of sixteen years, and always remained in the communion of that church. In his early manhood he was active in the service of the church, but in later years the cares of his family and his multifarious business en- gagements drew him away from its active labors. In his declining years he resumed them and became an active and zealous worker. He was also zealous in the cause of temperance and became prominent throughout Monmouth county in this field of labor.
In 1824 he married Mary Woodward Sterling, daughter of John Wesley Sterling, a farmer then residing near Mount Holly, by whom he had eight sons and three daugh- ters, all of whom grew to maturity except one son, who died at eight years of age.
Captain Yard died at his residence at Farmingdale, on the 17th of October, 1878. where, on the occasion of his funeral, public honors were accorded to his memory. His remains were conveyed to Trenton, where also public exercises were held. The in- terment was in Mercer Cemetery.
GRELLET, Stephen,
Quaker Preacher and Missionary.
Stephen Grellet, of Burlington, New Jer- sey, was born in France in 1773. His par- ents being of the household of Louis XVI .. he was nurtured in the bosom of the Ro- man Catholic church, and educated at the Military College of Lyons. While in his seventeenth year he became one of the bodyguard of the king. After the execu- tion of that monarch he evaded the search- es of those evilly disposed to everyone and
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everything savoring of royalty, and escap- ed to Demerara. In 1795 he proceeded to New York, where, chancing to attend a Quaker meeting, he was so attracted by the primitive, simple demeanor and doctrines of the Friends that he determined to join their society. In the following winter he removed to Philadelphia, and during the prevalence of the yellow fever in that city, in 1798, ministered with efficient zeal and rare magnanimity to the sick, the dying and the afflicted. "He was an angel of mercy to the plague-stricken ; unfearingly braved the most virulent types of diseases, contagious and infectious ; and spent free- ly of his substance, time and exertion to rescue those whom, in several cases, their very friends, relations and physician had abandoned." During this terrible and try- ing season he became impressed with the idea that it was his duty to go abroad, and preach and publish the Gospel, as he held it, to all his fellow creatures, but did not at once act upon the conviction that had tak- en firm hold of him.
In 1799 he settled in New York and en- gaged in mercantile pursuits for a brief period, not yet resolved to accept the role of itinerant preacher, but still uneasy in his mind and unsettled in his deliberations. Eventually he set himself to the pious and self-appointed task, and in 1800 made an extensive tour through the Southern States as far as Georgia, and in 1801 through the various States of New England, and the towns and villages of East and West Can- ada. In 1807, continuing his ministrations with unflagging ardor, he went to the south of France, and in that historic country, where religion and its adjuncts have for centuries exercised a prime and ruling in- fluence, stirred and thrilled the people by his pleadings, his denunciations, and his eloquent exhortations. In 1812 he travel- ed in England on his philanthropic mission, and also in Germany. In 1816 he found a fresh field of labors in Hayti : and in 1818. 1819 and 1820 made an extended tour
through Norway, Sweden, Russia, Greece and Italy, ever holding the same great end steadfastly it: view --- the awakening of all to the sacredness and importance of a Christian life, and the peril of worldly pleasure and immorality. At Rome he en- tered the papal mansion, and standing be- fore the head of Roman Catholicism, with his companion, William Allen, addressed him with the warmth and enthusiasm of an carly apostle. On this notable occasion His Holiness, Pope Pius VII., received him with kindness, and even listened to his ex- hortations "with the greatest respect and courtesy." While in Russia he was grant- ed an audience with the Czar, and in the palace of that powerful monarch "spoke out valiantly and beseechingly for the cause of pure religion." In August, 1820, he re- turned to his home in the country, to which he was deeply attached. In 1831-1834 he made another extended missionary excur- sion through Europe; and in the course of the latter year retired to Burlington, New Jersey, where he resided permanently until the time of his decease. He married the eldest daughter of Isaac Collins, also a member of the Society of Friends, and an eminent citizen of Trenton, New Jersey, where ne established and edited the famous pioneer newspaper of the State, "The New Jersey Gazette," published in opposition to the royalist organs of New York City. His singular career as a convert from the faith of Rome, and his change from the posi- tion of bodyguard of Louis XVI. to a de- voted Quaker minister and an itinerant missionary, have been commemorated in a printed discourse by Dr. Van Rensselaer ; while his "Memoirs" by Benjamin See- bohn, were published (two volumes, 8vo.) in 1860, and are a storehouse of marvel- lous experiences, facts and fancies of a highly suggestive nature, and revelations of the inner life and meditations of one whose nature, standing out in bold relief from among the listless and incredulous of his kind, was full of the fire of piety, and de-
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sirous of the salvation of all mankind. He died at Burlington, New Jersey, November 16, 1855.
HUNTER, Rev. Andrew,
Chaplain in Revolution.
Rev. Andrew Hunter, D. D., of Burling- ton, New Jersey, was born in New Jersey, circe 1750, and studied at Princeton Col- lege, graduating from that institution in 1772. During the conflict between the col- onies and Great Britain he labored with fearless zeal as an encouraging counsellor and spiritual exhorter among the men of '76, and at a later date engaged in teaching in a classical school at Woodbury. He was then occupied for a time in agricultural pur- suits, and the cultivation of a farm on the Delaware river, near Trenton. From 1804 to 1808 he presided as professor of mathe- matics and astronomy in his alma mater ; and in the course of the following year be- came the head of an academy in Borden- town, New Jersey. He afterwards accepted a chaplaincy in the Washington navy yard. In a Trenton newspaper of Monday, De- cember 30, 1799, is the following notice : "The Rev. Mr. Hunter, who officiated yes- terday for Mr. Armstrong, after reading the President's proclamation respecting the general mourning for the death of General Washington, gave the intimation in sub- stance as follows: 'Your pastor desires me to say on the present mournful occasion, that while one sentiment-to mourn the death and honor the memory of General Washington-penetrates every breast. the proclamation which you have just heard read, he doubts not, will be duly attended to; yet believing, as he does, that he but anticipates the wishes of those for whom the intimation is given. Mr. Armstrong requests the female part of his audience in the city of Trenton and Maidenhead, as a testimony of respect for, and condolence with Mrs. Washington, to wear for three months, dur- ing their attendance on divine service, such
badges of mourning as their discretion may direct.' "
His second wife was Mary Stockton, a daughter of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. He had an uncle, also Rev. Andrew Hunter, who was a pastor in Cumberland county, New Jersey, 1746-1760. He married Ann Stock- ton, a cousin of Richard Stockton, and died in 1775. His widow was buried in the Trenton churchyard, in October, 1800, and the funeral sermon on that occasion was delivered by President Smith. He was a loyal and learned divine, a man of excellent parts, scrupulous in the performance of every duty, and tireless in his efforts to im- prove the moral condition of those around him, and to promote the welfare of his State and country. He died in Burlington, New Jersey, February 24, 1823.
COLGATE, Samuel,
Prominent Manufacturer.
Samuel Colgate, late of Orange New Jersey, was descended from an ancient Eng- lish family, and was of the third genera- tion in this country, an active and influen- tial contributor to the religions life of this country, known throughout the United States from this connection, as well as for business reasons. The record of the fam- ily begins with Stephen Colgate. born about 1700. who lived in Horsham, Sussex county, England, and died there January 31. 1768. His second son, John Colgate, born De- cember 18, 1727, died January 13. 1801. and was buried at Bessels Green, near Cheapstead. Kent, England. Elizabeth, his first wife, who died January 26. 1771, was the mother of his eight children. The second of these. and eldest son, Robert Colgate, was born September 16. 1758, and resided in Kent, England, until 1795, when he re- moved to this country. He was a school mate and warm personal friend of William Pitt, "the great commoner." through whose influence and friendship he was en-
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abled to escape from England. He was in Samuel Colgate, and his nephew, Charles deep sympathy with the democracy of France, and his name headed a list of those scheduled for arrest on account of activity in its behalf. Pitt sent a messenger from London to warn him of this, and advised him to emigrate to a land where his ideas were more acceptable. Pitt pledged a delay of ten days in the arrest of Colgate, if the latter would agree to leave England with- in that time. His homestead in Kent was known as Filston Farm. This he left March 10, 1795, and sailed from London six days later.
Arriving at Baltimore on May 28, 1795, he soon proceeded to New York, and settled in the town of Andes, Delaware county, New York, where he purchased a large farm, and there continued to dwell until his death, July 26, 1826, near the close of his sixty-eighth year. He married, March 26, 1780, at Staplehurst, Kent, England, Sarah Bowles, born December II, 1759, died October 16, 1847, in her eighty-eighth year. His family included eleven children.
William Colgate, the eldest son and sec- ond child in the last mentioned family, was born January 25, 1783, at Hollingborn, Kent, and was twelve years of age when the family removed to the United States. In 1806 he began business as a manufac- turer of soap in New York City, in a two- story brick building at No. 6 Dutch street, founding the great industry which to-day employs a multitude of people and turns out a great variety of products in the way of soaps and perfumes. When he established this business, the mayor of New York lived on the opposite side of the street, and in the immediate vicinity were the residences of many leading men of the town. In that day the metropolis did not extend far above the present city hall. For half a century, William Colgate conducted a most success- ful business here, and for more than one hundred years the building on Dutch street continued to be the business headquarters in New York. In 1845 he admitted his son,
C. Colgate, into partnership, the firm name being William Colgate & Company. Later another son, William Colgate, was admit- ted, and on the death of the senior Wil- liam Colgate, in 1857, the firm name was changed to its present form, Colgate & Company. William Colgate was very ac- tive in religious work, and was for many years a member of the Oliver Street Bap- tist Church of New York. Subsequently he was instrumental in the construction of the Baptist Tabernacle on Mulberry street, and he inaugurated the movement which re- sulted in the Young Men's Bible Society of New York, organized for the purpose of aiding in translation of the Bible, being the first society organized under the auspices of the Baptist church in New York. When the American Bible Society was organized in 1816, William Colgate became a direc- tor, and to the end of his life he was active- ly interested in educational work, especially in connection with Hamilton University. He secured large collections in aid of this institution from his own and other churches, and was instrumental in placing it upon a secure foundation. He married, April 23, 1811. Mary, daughter of Edward Gilbert, born December 25, 1788, in London, arriv- ed in this country 1796, died March 5, 1855. Her body reposes in Greenwood Ceme- tery. They were the parents of eleven cliil- dren.
Samuel Colgate, of the last mentioned family, was born March 22, 1822, at the family residence on John street, in New York, and was among the most useful and influential citizens of that city. He received the best education which the private schools of the town provided, and it was planned that he should pursue a college course. He decided, however, to engage in business with his father, and in 1845 became a partner in the firm, which, in 1857, assumed the pres- ent form of Colgate & Company. At this time he became the head of the firm, and the business which had been so successful-
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ly conducted for fifty years, was steadily increased under his skillful management, and became the largest of its kind in the country. During the time of William Col- gate, the largest soap pan erected had a capacity of forty-three thousand pounds. In 1910 twelve giant kettles were employ- ed, each with a capacity of nearly one mil- lion pounds, besides twenty-five others, each carrying more than half a million pounds of soap at a boiling. Soon after 1870 a perfumery department was added, and this has steadily grown until it exceeds any other in the United States. An interesting item in this connection is the fact that during the year 1910 more than fourteen hundred pounds of rose petals were gathered in Europe for use in the manufacture of the celebrated Colgate perfumes and toilet articles. While the business has been con- ducted by one family for the phenomenal period of one hundred and ten years, and for more than one hundred years at one lo- cation in New York City, it is also notable that many of the employees of the establish- ment have continued their connection there- with for an ordinary business lifetime. One of these continued for a period of fifty- five years, eleven others more than forty years, twenty-seven over thirty years, and more than two hundred continuously served the house for a period exceeding ten years. The New York salesroom is now located on Fulton street, immediately across the river from the factory and general offices, and by means of the Hudson Tubes one nay travel between these points in the space of five minutes. The products of this es- tablishment are known and sold throughout the civilized world. and the name Colgate & Company on a package of soap, powder or perfume is equivalent to the brand "ster- ling" on silverware.
While Samuel Colgate was developing and extending this enormous business, whose products are known for their sterling quality, he was equally diligent and zealous in promoting movements for the moral wel-
fare of the community and the world at large. He began his religious activities in connection with the Oliver Street Baptist Church of New York, and immediately af- ter the removal of his residence to Orange, New Jersey, he began, with others, a move- ment for the establishment of a Baptist church and Sunday school in that thriving suburb. The first organization was that of a Sunday school, May 10, 1857, of which Mr. Colgate was made superintendent. The fiftieth anniversary of this school was fit- tingly celebrated, November 10, 1907, at the North Orange Baptist Church, in which the Emmanuel Chapel Sunday School and the Cone Street Chapel Sunday School joined. In 1858 the organization of a church was perfected, and Mr. Colgate became a deacon of that body. His connection with these organizations continued for more than forty years, and Mr. Colgate was also identified with many movements of a wider scope. He was a member of the board of managers of the Baptist Missionary Union, and for twenty-five years a member of the finance committee of the American Tract Society. He was long a member and for three years president of the Baptist Home Mission, and was one of the founders of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, in New York City, of which he continued for twenty-one years to be president. He was a member of the New York Baptist Educational Society, which was devoted chiefly to the assistance of young men in preparing for the ministry. For many years he was one of the support- ers and a member of the board of managers of Madison University, whose name was changed to Colgate University because of a munificent gift to it made by his brother, James B. Colgate. One of the principal achievements of Mr. Colgate's life, which occupied many years, was the collection of data pertaining to the history of the Baptist church from all parts of the world. This included more than forty thousand pamph- lets in the French, English and German language, and reports from every state in
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the Union. This vast amount of material was carefully arranged and indexed at the expense of much labor, and a large outlay of money, and was with Mr. Colgate a labor of love. While he was intimately known by all connected with the Baptist church in his native state, he was also known and esteem- ed by church workers everywhere, and es- pecially those of his own faith. In 1858 he · purchased nine acres of land on Centre street, near Harrison, in Orange, and to this estate he subsequently added twenty acres from the farm of Zenas Baldwin. Here he built his residence, and here his home con- tinued until his death, which occurred April 23, 1897. The estate was known as "Seven Oaks," from a country seat bearing the same name, owned by the family, in Kent, England. For some ten years preceding his death, Mr. Colgate suffered from heart trou- ble, and during the last year of his life he was compelled to give up business entirely. He was never active in politics, but was ever ready to perform the duty of a good citizen in promoting any movement calculat- ed to promote the development of the com- munity or the country at large. He mar- ried, March 30, 1853, Elizabeth Ann Morse, daughter of Richard C. Morse, of New York. She was born August 5, 1829, at Claverack, Columbia county, New York, and died October 8, 1891, at her cottage at Narrangansett Pier, Rhode Island. She was a most active coadjutor of her husband in all good works, very charitable and phil- anthropic. She was among the organizers of the Orange Orphans' Home, of which she was vice-president from 1865 to 1871, and president from 1871 until her death. She assisted in the organization of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Orange, which was perfected June 5, 1877. at which time she became its president. They left six sons: Richard M., Gilbert, Sidney M., Austin, Samuel and Russell. All are graduates of Yale University, and five of them now control and continue the business established by their grandfather.
WHITAKER, John Adams,
Financier, Model Citizen.
When the life of such a man as the late John Adams Whitaker, of Sussex, New Jersey, closes, its influence does not cease, for it sets in motion forces that will con- tinue to make for the good of the locality honored by his residence for generations to come. He was a man who, while he labored for his own advancenient, never neglected his general duties as a citizen and as a neigh- bor. He was public-spirited, assisting in every good movement for his city and coun- ty, for it was a source of pride to him to aid in their growth. He was a man of de- cided humanitarian impulses and many were the charitable acts performed by him, for the greater part unknown save to the re- cipients of his bounty, for he never sought the plaudits of his fellow men, but allow. ed himself to be guided by a strict sense of what was right and fitting. He was socially inclined and friendly, genial and uniformly courteous, and was a favorite in all classes wherever he was known.
The progenitors of the Whitaker family in America were three brothers, who came from England and settled on the Hudson river, near where the city of Newburgh now stands. Each one of the brothers married, and they all reared families. Through long years the Whitakers have figured prominent- ly in the affairs of the State of New Jersey. According to old records, Richard Whitaker purchased a lot in Salem, New Jersey, April 25, 1676. Another record shows that at a session of the New Jersey Provincial Coun- cil, held December 7, 1748, the speaker laid before the house the deposition of Jonathan Whitaker, who, it thereby appeared, was a justice of the peace in the county of Somer- set, and lived on lands belonging to the heirs of William Penn. On October 30, of the previous year, a petition was laid be- fore the Council which had been sworn to before Jolin Whitaker. but whether the first name was an abbreviation of Jonathan, or
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