USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 50
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cessor to Mr. Lewis, secretary for Domestic Correspondence. In the same year he visit- ed the Indians in the western part of New York and in Ohio, returning thence ulti- mately with his health seriously impaired. The society being now about to be merged with another. he was chosen assistant sec- retary of the American Bible Society. While stricken down with mortal sickness, his mind was still occupied incessantly in musing over the great work to which he had devoted his life and energies, and his thoughts were all for those yet uncon- verted. He died January 12th, 1826, aged thirty years.
KEARNY, Stephen Watts,
Officer in Two Wars.
General Stephen Watts Kearny was born in Newark, New Jersey, August 30, 1794, son of Philip Kearny, grandson of Philip and Lady Barney Dexter (Ravaud) Kearny, and great-grandson of Michael Kearny, who emigrated from Ireland and settled in Monmouth county, New Jersey, previous to 1716.
He matriculated at Columbia College, but on the outbreak of the war of 1812 left his studies to enter the army. He was com- missioned first lieutenant in the 13th United States Infantry, March 12, 1812, and took part in the assault on Queenstown Heights, Canada, October 13, 1812, where he so dis- tinguished himself by bravery and his cool and determined manner of executing orders, that his commanding officer, on being wounded, passed his sword to him. In this battle he was made prisoner and taken to Quebec, where he was held for several months. After the war, he retained his commission in the army, and by successive promotions became lieutenant-colonel of the First Dragoons, March 4, 1833, and colonel, July 4, 1836, being then stationed at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. He was made brigadier-general, June 30, 1846, and at the beginning of the Mexican War was
given command of the Army of the West, which set out from Bent's fort, on the Ar- kansas river, and, crossing the country. took possession of New Mexico. He entered Santa Fe on August 18, 1846, established there a provisional civil government. and declared the inhabitants of the province cit- izens of the United States, thus annexing a territory whose capital is believed to be the oldest city in the country, it having been founded by Juan de Onate previous to 1617. Kearny then continued his march to Cali- fornia. For his conduct at the battle of San Pasqual, December 6, 1846, in which he was twice wounded, he was brevetted major-general. Subsequently he command- ed the combined force of dragoons, sailors and marines at the passage of San Gabriel river and the skirmish on the Plains of Mesa, January 8-9, 1847, and proclaimed himself governor of California, which of- fice he filled from March till June, 1847. Being then ordered to Mexico, he acted as military and civil governor of Vera Cruz in March, 1848, and of the City of Mexico in May, 1848. While there he contracted a fever which caused his death.
He was the author of a "Manual of the Exercise and Manoeuvring of United States Dragoons" (1837), and "Laws for the Gov- ernment of New Mexico" (1846), known as the "Kearny Code." He was married. in St. Louis, Missouri, to Mary Radford, and had nine children. He died at St. Louis, October 31, 1848.
AARON, Rev. Samuel,
Clergyman, Educator, Author.
Rev. Samuel Aaron, a distinguished Bap- tist clergyman, teacher and author, was a native of New Britain, Pennsylvania, and of Welsh-Irish extraction. Left an orphan at the early age of six years, he was placed under the care of an uncle, upon whose farm he worked for several years, passing a portion of the winter months in a district school. Inheriting a small patrimony from
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his father, he entered the academy at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, when about six- teen years of age, and there pursued a course of studies in the higher branches.
While in his twentieth year, he connect- ed himself with the classical and mathemat- ical school at Burlington, New Jersey, as a student and assistant teacher. He subse- quently opened a day school at Bridge Point, and later became principal of an academy at Doylestown, Pennsylvania. In 1829 he was ordained as a minister, and became pas- tor of the Baptist church at New Britain, Pennsylvania. In 1833 he took charge of the Burlington (New Jersey) high school, holding at the same time the pastorate of the church in that place. In 1841, accept- ing a call to the church at Norristown, Penn- sylvania, he removed thither, and after preaching there about three years, resigned the pastorate, and, removing to the suburbs, founded the Treemount Seminary, which under his management became widely and favorably known throughout eastern Penn- sylvania and New Jersey, not only for the number of its students. but for the thor- oughness of the instruction afforded them. Finding himself involved in the financial crisis of 1857, through indorsements of the notes of a friend, he gave up Treemount to his creditors, and, removing to Mount Holly, New Jersey, accepted a call to the pastorate of the Baptist Church, a position he retained till the time of his decease. In September of the same year, in co-operation with his son, Charles Aaron, he became the principal of the Mount Holly Institute, and contiued engaged in the charge of his re- sponsible duties as educator up to the time of the brief illness which terminated an honorable and useful life. He was twice tendered the presidency of the New York Central College, but on each occasion de- clined the proffered honor. He was the author of many valuable improvements in text books, and was admirably qualified to preside as spiritual guide, and also as tutor in the higher departments of learning.
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He died at Mount Holly, New Jersey, April 11, 1865, aged sixty-five years.
BAILEY, Gamaliel,
Slave Abolition Agitator.
Gamaliel Bailey, an early advocate of slave abolition doctrines, was born at Mount Holly, New Jersey, December 3d, 1807. His parents removed to Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, when he was nine years old. He was educated in that city, then taking up medical studies, and in 1828 re- ceived his degree of M. D. He then made a voyage to China, as a ship physician. For a brief time after his return, he was an edi- tor on the "Methodist Protestant," in Bal- timore, Maryland. In 1831 he removed to Cincinnati, and in that city acted as phy- sician to the Cholera Hospital during the prevalence of the epidemic. In 1836, in connection with J. G. Birney, he conducted the first anti-slavery newspaper in the west, the "Cincinnati Philanthropist." Upon two occasions their printing office was attacked by a mob, the press thrown into the Ohio river, and the books and papers burned. In 1837 he became sole editor of the "Phil- anthropist," at that time the organ of the Liberal party, and was a principal leader in the presidential canvass in 1840, in which his former partner, Mr. Birney, was the Liberal presidential candidate. In the fol- lowing year his press was again destroyed by a mob, which, after doing much wilful harm, was dispersed by the military. On January Ist, 1847, he began to edit, at Wash- ington City, the "National Era," a news- paper of decided anti-slavery principles. In 1848, for three consecutive days, a mob be- sieged his office. A contemporary says : "Addressing the multitude in a speech re- markable for its coolness and its indepen- dent spirit, the mob, that had proposed to tar and feather him, was disarmed by his eloquence." In "The Era" was originally published Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's fa- mous novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
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Mr. Bailey died June 5th, 1859, on board the outgoing steamer "Arago."
COOPER, William,
Friends Minister, Public Official.
William Cooper, one of the first English occupants of a great part of the lands on the Delaware river, opposite Philadelphia, was born in 1632, in Coleshill, Hertford- shire, England. He became a convinced member of the Society of Friends, and with his family, incurring a share of the persecu- tions to which that sect was cruelly sub- jected, sought with others relief and rest in the "new world," where in 1678, they land- ed and located at Burlingon, West Jersey, then a few years in existence. In a short time he purchased and removed to a large survey of land at Pyne Point (now Cooper's Point and Camden), opposite the Indian village of Shakamaxon, where two years later the famous treaty was made. It was at William Cooper's house at this place, and at Thomas Fairman's at Shaka- maxon, that the first Friends' meetings in the locality of the future Quaker City were alternately held, until the arrival of Wil- liam Penn in 1682, when "the ancient ineet- ing of Shakamaxon" was removed to the newly founded city of Philadelphia. The meeting at Pyne Point remained for some time longer, and a quaint old letter of the time, in mentioning this fact, says: "We SCOTT, Joseph Warren, had then zeal and fervency of spirit, al- though we had some dread of the Indians as a savage people, nevertheless ye Lord turned them to be serviceable to us, and to be very loving and kinde."
William Cooper was an active member of the Assembly of West Jersey in the first meeting after its organization in 1681, and in subsequent sessions ; and also one of the West Jersey Council of Proprietors at the first meeting of that body in 1687, and there- after. An accepted minister of the society, he was found amongst those who, on be- half of the Yearly Meeting of Friends, tes- at the battles of Princeton and Brandywine.
tified against George Keith, in the celebra :- ed controversy which for a time threatened schism in the then infant church.
In the history of the family during suc- ceeding generations, several served their State in official capacities, amongst whom may be mentioned Joseph Cooper, chosen to represent Gloucester county in the Is- sembly for nineteen successive years; and many were prominent in the less public, bu: no less important stations of ministers and elders in their religious society.
A descendant of William Cooper, Rich- ard Mattack Cooper, was of high personal character, and was a successful candidate in several elections for the Legislative Coun- cii of New Jersey. In 1813 he became pres- ident of the State Bank at Camden, then recently chartered, and held that position by continuous annual elections, until a reelec- tion was declined in 1842, the institution meanwhile proving itself one of the most prosperous in the State. In 1829 he was chosen as representative to the National Congress, and again in 1831. For several years he served as presiding judge of the Gloucester county courts, and at various times filled other minor local positions of trust and honor, securing in every station the confidence and respect of all classes by his judgment, integrity, and amiable deport- ment. He died March 10, 1844.
Lawyer, Man of High Ability.
Joseph Warren Scott was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, November 28. 1778, son of Dr. Moses Scott, and grand- son of John Scott, a native of Scotland. who emigrated to America at an early date. settling in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Prior to the Revolutionary War, Dr. Scott removed to New Brunswick, where he re- sided until his death, engaged in medical practice. During the war for independence he was an army surgeon, and was present
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By special act of Congress, he was made Senior Physician and Surgeon of the Gen- eral Army Hospital of the Middle District. He was a warm and intimate friend of Gen- erals Washington and Warren, the latter also a physician, and who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill. Dr. Scott had given his eldest son the name of the patriot physician, but the child died in its infancy, and he con- tinued the name to his second son.
Joseph Warren Scott attended the schools of his native town, and also at Elizabeth- town, preparatory to entering college, and was graduated from Princeton College in 1795, before he had attained the age of seventeen years. He first appears to have selected the medical profession for his fu- ture calling, and became a student in his father's office. However, he soon began to dislike his professional studies, and was tak- en with the idea of becoming a clergyman. After a short course in theology he again changed his mind, and resolved to embrace the legal profession. With this view he en- tered the office of General Frederic Fre- linghuysen, in New Brunswick, and was licensed as an attorney in 1801, becoming a counsellor three years later, and was fi- nally made a sergeant-at-law in 1816. After his admission to the bar in 1801, he began practice in his native city, in which he con- tinued to reside until the end of his life. He was a profound lawyer and able barris- ter and counsellor, and his practice was large and lucrative. He was appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas for the county of Middlesex, but beyond this never held any official position. He retired in a measure from practice about 1840, but as late as 1857, when nearly eighty years of age, he defended a criminal charged with murder, and made a powerful argument against the validity of the indictment. He was a sup- porter of General Jackson for the presi- dency, and was one of the Electoral College of New Jersey who cast their ballots for that candidate in 1824. He was a promi- nent member of the Order of the Cincin-
nati, entering the New Jersey Society in 1825, as the eldest surviving son of his fath- er, Dr. Moses Scott. In 1832 he was elect- ed assistant treasurer of the general society, and in 1838 became the treasurer-general. In 1840 he was elected vice-president of the State Society, and in 1844 became its pres- ident. In 1868, when he had reached the age of four score years and ten, he attended the inauguration of Rev. Dr. James Mc- Cosh as president of the College of New Jersey, and he and his associate, Judge Her- ring, were the two oldest living graduates of Princeton College then present. While he was a student in that institution the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon was still its president, and as such conferred on him the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and on this occasion, one of the first acts of the new incumbent was to make him the recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was a most accomplished gentleman, well versed in the Latin tongue, and corresponded with his friends in that language up to his latest year ; he was likewise an excellent English scholar, and thoroughly acquainted with the old poets. In early life he had been honor- ed by one of the governors of the State as a member of his staff, with the rank of Colonel and by this appellation he was more familiarly known.
He died in New Brunswick in May. 1871, having nearly reached the great age of nine- ty-three years.
STRONG, Theodore,
Educator, Distinguished Mathematician.
Professor Theodore Strong, LL.D., was born at South Hadley, Massachusetts, July 26, 1790. He graduated from Yale Col- lege in 1812, taking the prize in mathemat- ics and with high standing in all his studies, and at once became a tutor in Hamilton College. He became Professor of Mathie- matics and Natural Philosophy in the same institution in 1816, serving as such until 1827, when he accepted the same position at
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Petgers College, which he held for thirty- five years, from 1827 to 1862.
From his student days, his whole strength of mind was given to mathematics. The most difficult problems, which had long baf- fed the efforts of others for their solution, attracted his enthusiastic and most persis- tent attention. His range of mathematical investigation and attainment extended to the highest spheres of inquiries wherein New- ton and La Place had gone before him. He early resolved some difficult questions per- taining to the geometry of a circle, pro- pounded as a challenge to all mankind in "Rees' Encyclopedia," by some distinguish- ed Scotch mathematicians; and he com- pleted the solution of cubic equations after a manner which none of the European mathematicians had ever been able to ac- complish. By a most ingenious mode of factoring he devised also a method of ex- tracting any root of any integral number by a direct process. In 1859 he published a "Treatise on Algebra," in which he pre- sented the whole science in original forms of his own, a thorough piece of solid intel- lectual masonwork. In the summer of 1867 he wrote a volume on the "Differential and Integral Calculus," full of new processes and results of his own origination. In this very comprehensive treatise he exhibited the highest style of analytic powers of mind.
For fifty years a teacher of the higher mathematics, he bore with him throughout all his long life the characteristics of a man devoted to the highest and best ends of human pursuit. He was industrious, thoughtful, simple minded, humble, cheer- ful and happy. He was a man of remark- able gentleness of spirit, and at the same time of great ardor in his moral convictions. He abhorred shams of all kinds, and every- thing like intrigue and mean insinuations and intentions. In conversation, disquisition and debate, of all of which he was fond, his eyes and features were always on the move with life. He was a positive patriot, and took a great interest in the social ques-
tions of the times, and always occupied thie advanced positions of the hour in all mat- ters of social reform. He was a man of full height and breadth, of dark complex- ion and dark eyes, and of a very intellec- tual face. He was always very regular in all bodily habits, and enjoyed generally ro- bust health. He possessed a competency, and while his life was not free from many trials, it abounded in many and great bless- ings to the very end. He held to a decided and unwavering faith in the Word of God; the great -facts of revealed religion stood out as clear to his eyes as those of mathe- matical truth. Because of his great dis- trust in his own heart, he was not a member of any church until a short time before his death ; but he everywhere openly confessed Christ among men his life through, held an almost childlike faith in God and prayer, and was an ardent lover of the Bible and of good men. He remarked to his biograph- er, when almost eighty years of age, when speaking of the beauties of this world and of the grandly appointed life of man in it : "We ought to go through life shouting."
He was an original member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died at New Brunswick, New Jersey, Feb- ruary Ist, 1869. He married, September. 23d, 1818, Lucy Dix, of Littleton, Massa- chusetts, who survived him until Novem- ber, 1875.
MAGIE, Rev. David,
Revered Clergyman.
The Rev. David Magie, D. D., was born near Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 13. 1795, son of Michael and Mary (Meeker) Magie. His life from his infancy to three score years and ten was spent near the same locality and among the same people. He was the descendant of a line of Scotch Pres- byterians, a class of men distinguished for their strong, good sense ; their love of peace and order ; their untiring industry and their deep, practical piety. Pride of birth would
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have been inconsistent with the humility which was a prominent trait of Dr. Magie's character, and yet he felt, as he expressed himself, that he was happier having such an ancestry than if he had descended from the "loins enthroned and rulers of the earth." His parents were for a long time members of the First Presbyterian Church in Eliz- abeth. He inherited from his father his activity and industry, and from his mother her sympathetic and deeply religious nature. As early as eight or ten years of age, a time when most boys think of their sports only, his mind was exercised with the idea of God, and thoughts of the world to come. His father was regular in his observance of that time-honored custom of Scotch Pres- byterians, the calling around him on the Sabbath day every member of his house- hold and teaching them the Westminster Catechism. It is impossible to overestimate the value of such instruction in childhood and early youth, when the heart and mind are wax to receive impressions and marble to retain them.
At the age of sixteen, David Magie was left fatherless, and at once became the main reliance of his widowed mother. From his childhood he had always felt an ardent de- sire to be a minister of the gospel, and when at the age of eighteen he united with the church, the desire became too strong to re- sist. His way seemed, however, to be hedged in by many difficulties ; his age was an objection ; and upon him devolved the conduct of the farm from which the father- luss family derived their support. But He who had called him to the high destiny of the ministry, made his way clear before him. In 1813 he began to study Latin under Rev. Dr. John McDowell, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and in 1815 he enter- ed the junior class of the College of New Jersey. After graduating with honor, he lxcame a student in the Theological Semi- nary. in the same place, in the fall of 1817, being then in his twenty-second year. After spending one year in the seminary, he was
solicited by the faculty of the college to fill the position of tutor. He accepted the of- fer, and for two years performed the two- iold duty of teacher and student at the same time. Immediately after graduating, he placed himself under the care of the Pres- bytery of New Jersey as a candidate for the gospel ministry, and after the usual course of study, he was licensed to preach. He delivered his first sermon in the lecture room of Dr. McDowell's church, and his second on the following Sabbath in the church proper. The First Church had long been full to overflowing, and just at this time the subject of forming a new society was agitated. The enterprise was success- fully carried out, and Dr. Magie was install- ed pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth, April 24th, 1821. Dur- ing the period of his pastorate, of nearly forty-five years, he received many calls from other churches and from many religious boards, but declined them all, some with- out even mentioning the matter to his people. The relations between him and his congre- gation were always most happy, and he had no wish to change for a more prominent position.
Until the time of his decease, he filled several positions of honor and trust as trustee of the College of New Jersey ; a di- rector in the American Board of Commis- sioner for Foreign Missions; a director in the American Tract Society, and chairman of its committee of publications ; adirector in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, etc., and the duties of all these various positions he performed with conscientious careful- ness. A man who conquered circumstances, he made himself, under Providence, what he was, a power in the community. Con- tending in youth with the hardships of a farmer's life. and then grappling with the intellectual difficulties of the student, his powers and capacities developed themselves to a degree far exceeding that of a man nursed in the lap of luxury. Having lived in daily contact with nature, he learned to
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estimate things according to their true value, and he esteemed men not in proportion to the mere accident of birth or surroundings but according to their integrity and worth. He possessed in a great degree the charac- teristics of the race from which he sprung, prudence, excellent judgment and a wide knowledge of the affairs of everyday life. Benevolence beamed from every feature of his face, and so wise was he in counsel that many who were not his own people sought his advice upon subjects not spiritual or ecclesiastical. His patriotism during the dark and trying hours of the Rebellion was only second to his religion. He was a man of great simplicity and earnestness of man- ner, which in preaching carried the hearer beyond the speaker to the message he was delivering, a fact which accounts for his successful ministrations through so long a term of years.
Dr. Magie died on May 10th, 1865. His funeral was largely attended, not only by his brethren in the ministry from other parts of the State, but also by persons of all classes in the community. The bells of the city were tolled : the flags were display- ed at half-mast. and everything betokened that his fellow citizen mourned deeply the great loss they had sustained.
LEMPKE, Rev. Henry,
Clergyman, Missionary.
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The Rev. Henry Lempke was born July 27, 1796, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklen- burg, Germany, and was a descendant of an old Lutheran family. He received his education in the University of Mecklen- burg-Rostock, and was intended by his fam- ily for a medical career. When a student, he volunteered to serve in the army against Napoleon, and was attached to the corps commanded by Blucher, which participated in the battle of Waterloo, and where he took part in the overthrow of the usurp- er. After the war was over, he resolved to become a Lutheran clergyman, having been
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