USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 55
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After several years of profitable part- nership relation, Mr. Couslan died and soon afterward John Bishop purchased his former partner's interest in the busi- ness. Among their apprentices in the shop were Thomas and Richard Sparks, broth- ers, the former being an energetic, indus- trious young man, well skilled in his trade, and he became Mr. Bishop's partner. Soon after this, however, difficulty arose be- tween our country and England and France regarding maritime rights of neu-
trals, which culminated in the war of 1812 and also in the ultimate ruin of the plumb- ing business carried on by Bishop & Sparks. In this emergency the firm turned to the manufacture of shot, and for that purpose built a small cupola above the old plumbing shop, put in a furnace for melt- ing lead and began a series of experiments in shotmaking, each of which resulted in failure; but instead of being discouraged by defeat the members of the firm renewed their work with commendable courage and by fortunate chance happened to hear of an English shotmaker up in Kensington who understood the art of shotmaking. They at once secured his services, although with some difficulty and at considerable ex- pense, and then began making shot with most excellent success. From that time, says Mr. Bishop's narrative, "money began to fiow in rapidly and in less than a year the shot tower in Southwark was planned and built under the direction of Jolin Bishop, senior member of the firm in 1808." In speaking of this pioneer indus- try of its kind in this country a compara- tively recent issue of a Philadelphia paper had this to say of the old shot tower and its ultimate removal :
"The river wards between Market street and Washington avenue were never a great manufac- turing centre and the few establishments of this kind they contained have steadily decreased until all the older ones are gone. One of the latest to go was the historic shot tower on Montrose street, west of Front street, built in 1808, and which continued in operation until a few years ago, when it was purchased and closed up per- manently. Its tall tower, standing sentinel like 150 feet high, reminds the passerby of Thomas Moore's 'Round Towers of Other Days,' and calls attention to the fact that beneath its shadow scores of workmen found employment at turning out buck and bird shot. During the Mex- ican war balls for musket cartridges were manu- factured by it by the thousand daily and for- warded to the scene of battle."
The manufacture of shot and bullets con- tinued to be a thriving business with John Bishop for several years and thereby he
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accumulated a comfortable fortune. But eventually he sold out his interests in the city and purchased the Ogston farm near Columbus, New Jersey, being the same property later owned by Anna R. Bishop and on which his grandson, John I. Bishop, now maintains his residence. John Bishop went there to live in 1813 and spent the remainder of his life in that locality. He always possessed in his later years an inter- esting fund of anecdote, and never tired of narrating his experiences with Stephen Girard, with whom he first met while serv- ing as clerk for Harry Moliere, and still later becoming more intimately acquainted with that famous Philadelphia merchant and philanthropist while doing work on his ships in the old yards at Kensington. When about twenty-one years old, John Bishop married (first) Mary, daughter of Joseph and Han- nah Ridgway, who lived near Mullica Hill, Salem county, New Jersey. He married (second) Ann Black.
PARKER, James,
Leader in Public Affairs.
Hon. James Parker, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, second of the name, was the son of James Parker, of the same place, a citizen of high distinction before and after the Revolution of 1776, and was sprung from a family prominent in New Jersey from its earliest settlement. Woodbridge was settled in 1666 by Puritans who came there from New England, some from Mass- achusetts, others from Connecticut. Among those from Massachusetts was Elisha Parker, whose wife was the sister of Gov- ernor Hinckley, of Massachusetts. He mar- ried her at Barnstable in 1657, and had several children there before his removal to New Jersey. One of his sons was also named Elisha. He was possessed of much property and was a prominent citizen. Gov- ernor Hunter made him a member of his Privy Council in 1717. His action in so doing was attacked by a clergyman of the
English Church resident in Pennsylvania upon the ground that Mr. Parker was a Puritan ; and was defended by the assertion of his high standing and because the gov- ernor designed. by new appointments, in- cluding this, to establish the Court of Chan- cery. After some delay the government at home indorsed his plan, and thus that court was established. Perhaps this position led Mr. Parker to the adoption of religious connections more common in the case of public officers. Whatever the cause, this gentleman's children became Episcopalians. and their descendants became earnest and influential in that denomination.
John Parker, son of the last named, was born November 11, 1693. He married a daughter of Dr. John Johnstone, a person of note, and was a member of the Gov- ernor's Privy Council from 1719 until his death in 1732. He was a man of education and influence. James Parker, his son, born January 29, 1723, was also a leading citizen. He entered the provincial military service and embarked for the northern frontier in the French and Indian War, as captain of a company raised in Middlesex county. Af- terwards he became a merchant in New York, but resided in New Jersey. He was an active member of Governor Franklin's Privy Council, and was elected to the Pro- vincial Congress, but did not take his seat. For a long period he also was mayor of Amboy. After the Revolution, in 1789, he was a candidate for Congress, nominated by what was known as the Conservative party of that day. He was a man of large landed property and of vigorous intellect. He was one of the founders of the Ameri- can Episcopal church in New Jersey, a lead- ing member of the board of proprietors. then a most important body, from whom all land titles came, and in every walk of life an active and conspicuous citizen. He died in 1797, leaving several children; among them James Parker, who was born March I, 1776, and died April 1, 1868.
James Parker was a man of great ability
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and public note. He was graduated at Co- lumbia College. New York, in 1793, second in his class. Destined for mercantile life, he entered the counting-room of John Mur- ray. The death of his father called him at twenty-one years of age to take his place as the virtual head of his family. The large landed interests he had to manage obliged him to acquire an intimate practical knowl- edge of law. for which his sagacious mind largely fitted him. and this caused him to be regarded generally as a lawyer of emin- ence, though in fact he never practiced the profession. He entered public life in 1806, when thirty years old, by becoming a mem- ber of Assembly. was re-elected eight suc- cessive years, and after one year's interval, four years more. and again in 1827-28. He was a leader in the legislature and in the State.' A Federalist. he was nevertheless not a partisan. and his independence, in- tegrity, and remarkable capacity, made him exceedingly influential. He was a states- man as well as a speaker, and many of the best known statutes of the State were pre- pared by him. He was among the origin- ators, if not himself the author, of the Fund for Free Schools. It is written of him: "When the history of the great movement on behalf of popular education in our State comes to be written. the first and the high- est place in it will be assigned to James Parker." ( Historical address by Hon. R. S. Field). He was a leader in measures for the prohibition of the domestic slave trade, which the gradual abolition of slavery actually encouraged. by leading owners to anticipate the period and export their slaves to other States. Both as a member of the legislature and as foreman of the Middlesex grand jury, in punishing offenders, he did much to protect the negro and to protect the State from disgrace. He was one of the originators of the Delaware and Raritan canal. He entered the legislature in 1827 in order to carry through that enterprise, and succeeded. He was a director of that company until his death. Mr. Parker was
thrice appointed a commissioner to settle the boundary between New Jersey and New York-once as early as 1806, when but thirty years old ; again in 1827, his colleagues being John Rutherford, Richard Stockton, Theodore Frelinghuysen and L. Q. C. Elmer ; and finally in 1829, with Messrs. Frelinghuysen and Elmer, and in all these commissions Mr. Parker was a leading actor. The return of the Federalists to in- fluence, which distinguished the nomination of General Jackson, brought Mr. Parker again into national politics. He was a presi- dential elector in 1824, and gave liis vote for Jackson, but John Quincy Adams was elect- ed by the House of Representatives. In 1829 General Jackson appointed him collec- tor of Perth Amboy. In 1832 and again in 1834 he was elected by general ticket to the House of Representatives, and served with distinction, winning the cognomen of "Honest James Parker," distinguishing him- self as a champion of the right of petition and as a guardian of the finances of the Union. Mr. Parker was a trustee of Prince- ton College from 1825 to 1829, and of Rut- gers College during a much longer period. He was mayor of Perth Amboy many years, and until the very end of his long life was useful and public-spirited. His views were in advance of his day; he was younger in sentiment and opinion than most of his junior contemporaries. After leaving Con- gress and until his death. he was first a Whig, and then a Republican, a stanch supporter of the Union and of emancipa- tion. He died April 1, 1868.
He married Penelope Butler. Their three sons are all worthy of mention among Jerseymen. James Parker, the eldest, died in 1861, in Cincinnati, where he was dis- tinguishel as a lawyer and a judge ; he had early settled in Ohio, and occupied various useful stations there during his life. Wil- liam Parker, the second son, died in 1868, not long after his father, at Aspinwall, Cen- tral America, where he had lived for several years as superintendent of the Panama rail-
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road; he was a civil engineer of distinction, having a leading part in the construction of the Boston & Worcester railroad, of which he was long the superintendent, and also aiding in the building of the Morris canal, the Juniata canal, the Georgia rail- road, and others, and was president of the Boston & Lowell, and at one time super- intendent of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. The third son, Cortlandt Parker, is the sub- ject of a narrative on another page of this work.
EDGE, Isaac,
Early Miller.
The influence of the French revolution was strongly felt in England, and many had imbibed the most radical notions of liberty and equality. Isaac Edge, a resi- dent of Derbyshire, where he was born, February 26, 1777, was one of the most pronounced of liberty-loving Englishmen. Finding that his ideas were not congenial to his neighbors or the Tory government, then engaged in a desperate struggle with France, Mr. Edge, with his wife, formerly Frances Ogden, and infant son, came to the United States in 1801. His business was that of miller, in which he engaged shortly after his arrival in South Brook- lyn
In the year 1806 he came to reside per- manently in Jersey City, then known as Paulus Hook. At that time there were but three houses in what is now old Jersey City,-the tavern kept by Major Hunt, near the ferry at the foot of Grand street, or terminus of the Newark turnpike ; the house of Richard Lyon, near the corner of York and Greene streets, and the bar- racks. Mr. Edge started a bakery, and soon did a large business. In those days life in Paulus Hook was simple and quiet. The river washed the sand-hill on the top of which the old fort had been built in the Revolution, and the meadow which lay between it and Ahasimus was crossed by
but one road (known as the Causeway) now Newark avenue. Mr. Edge was nat- uralized January 26, 1810. He built a resi- dence for himself near the corner of York and Greene streets, and lived in it till it was destroyed by fire in 1811 and which he rebuilt. He served as a private soldier during the last war with England, and although not continuously away with the army, at various times he performed active duty in the neighborhood of New York.
Always busy and energetic, he received from the Associates a grant of the block of ground where the Pennsylvania railroad depot was afterward built, and commenced the erection of a large wind-mill about one hundred feet east of the present line of Greene street, which he completed about the year 1815. Mr. Edge imported the mill-stones and machinery, and for years the mill maintained its reputation for the superior quality of its flour and meal. The great September gale in 1821 almost de- stroyed the mill, and seriously damaged the bulk-heads, so that Mr. Edge was al- most ruined financially, but he restored and improved the mill with iron fans, and it worked till 1839. To make way for the railroad track, it was removed to South- hold, Long Island, where it remained for many years. A fire finished the work of the mill, and left its reputation to tradition. For years Edge's mill served as a land- mark for those approaching New York by the river or from the sea. and it was long remembered as a distinguishing feature of the landscape at that time. After the loss of his wife who died in 1839 at the age of sixty-two years, Mr. Edge was not engaged in active business. He was a great reader and independent thinker, and having an extraordinary memory as a con- troversialist, he was held in high respect among his neighbors and friends. For years he passed a quiet, retired life sur- rounded by his children. His sons, Isaac and Joseph, only, were married, and each had brought up a large family; and his
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daughter, Alice, had married James Flem- ing : so, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, Mr. Edge passed the clos- ing years of his life, and July 7th, 1851, he died at Jersey City, after a continuous residence there of nearly fifty years. He left surviving him his sons, Isaac, Benja- min, Washington and Joseph, and his daughters, Alice Fleming and Elizabeth Edge. The last named survived the oth- ers, living in Jersey City a quiet life illum- ined by unobtrusive charities.
McDOWELL, John,
Bible Society and Sunday School Pioneer.
John McDowell, clergyman, was born at Bedminister, New Jersey, September 10, 1780. He was graduated at Princeton Col- lege in 1801, and then, having studied theol- ogy, was licensed to preach in 1804.
For several months he was engaged in missionary work in the then sparsely settled regions of northern New Jersey and north- western Pennsylvania, and was ordained and settled as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, December 4, 1804, and where he remained for more than twenty-eight years. In 1833 he became pastor of the Central Church, Philadelphia, then a small and struggling congregation. With this as a nucleus he gathered ·a large congregation and superin- tended the building of a handsome struc- ture. Through his efforts the church was placed upon a prosperous and permanent basis, and he continued to be its pastor for thirteen years. In 1846 he established the Spring Garden Church, which was greatly needed in a poor part of the city, and him- self collected from Presbyterians and other denominations as well, much of the money necessary for the erection of the building. Hardly was it finished when an accident laid it in ruins. But Dr. McDowell, though over sixty-five years of age, resumed the work with all the energy and courage of a younger man and finally succeeded in re-
building his church. There he continued his ministration with a success similar to that attending his previous pastorates, until 1861, when he finally retired from active life, at the age of eighty-one years. Dr. McDowell was a trustee of Princeton Col- lege for more than fifty years, was a mem- ber of the General Assembly, which founded the Princeton Theological Semi- nary, and was a director and secretary of the board of directors of that institution from its inception. He was also a delegate to the convention which established the American Bible Society, and was always an active member of that body. He inaugu- rated the Sunday school in New Jersey by opening one at his church at Elizabethtown in 1814, and for the use of the scholars he prepared a book of Bible questions, the first volume of the kind ever published. At the time of his death he was president and treasurer of the Board of Domestic Mis- sions, and was connected with numerous religious and educational societies. In 1818 the University of South Carolina and Union College conferred upon him the de- gree of D. D.
He published : "Bible Questions" (1814) ; "A Bible Class Manual" (2 vols., 1816) ; and "A System of Theology" (1826). He also wrote much for the religious periodical press. He died at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, February 13, 1863.
TUTTLE, William,
Journalist of Great Ability.
William Tuttle, whose life, although sim- ple and uneventful, had much to do with the lives of those who grew up with him, and with the lives of those who came up after him, was a man of marked charac- teristics, and the effect of his writings and teachings upon the community in which he lived, as well as the results of his labors of love, made him a man whose name should never be forgotten.
William Tuttle was born near New Ver-
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non, Morris county, New Jersey, August 22, 1781, his ancestors being among the earliest settlers of that county. His grand- father, as well as his father and four broth- ers of his father, were not only brave soldiers during the Revolutionary War, but they were men of sterling worth and intelligence, who exerted upon their com- munity a religious and moral influence which continues to be felt at the present day. Joseph Tuttle, father of William' Tuttle, was a man of remarkable qualities. An enterprising and industrious black- smith, he soon became the possessor not only of a snug home, but of the respect and esteem of his neighbors, who honored him with a public office, which interfered, however, so much with his private busi- ness that in the end he became a bankrupt, and, with a growing family about him, was obliged to struggle wearily for a living. But he was a devoted Christian and a ten- der-hearted parent, who would not suffer his children to grow up ignorant or irre- ligious. His godly example and precepts, as well as those of his wife, were lessons which were daily and profitably placed be- fore their offspring. William lost his good mother before he was eight years old, but he never lost the gentle spirit, with which she had endowed him nor the effect of the sweet influence which she had exerted upon his tender mind; and to say this is. perhaps, to sum up the life of this lad. who, from the cradle to the grave, was a living witness of the force of virtuous precepts and examples.
Like the lads of the neighborhood, Wil- liam Tuttle, attended the country school, but, unlike many of them, as his invalid father's cash-book shows, he spent the hours for play in "covering corn," "driving oxen," "threshing grain," "chopping wood," "plowing," and other work which he found to do in a farming settlement, and which he gladly performed in order to help a now crippled father, who, in a chair by the side of his anvil, slowly and
painfully toiled for his daily bread. This poor father could illy spare the service of this gallant boy, but he had the wisdom and fortitude to defy any sort of suffering rather than to impede the career of a child of so much promise. Consequently at the age of fifteen, William Tuttle, was sent to Newark, New Jersey, to learn to become a printer. "A boy in age, he was a man in action," says his biographer, Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, D. D., from whose "Life of William Tuttle" the facts of this narrative are mainly drawn. In truth, the lad established a reputation for industry, integrity and sobriety, within six months after he had entered the printing office in which he passed his probation, prior to be- coming indentured. At the end of that time his employer sold out his establish- ment, and William, being then on a visit at home and under no obligation to return, went once more to school, aiding and cheering at leisure hours his invalid fath- er. But he had left a good name in New- ark. A letter was received ere long by his father, making inquiries as to his engage- ments, and expressing a desire to secure his services, if he felt disposed to enter another printing office. The result was that he became regularly indentured as an apprentice to the printing business. In latter life Mr. Tuttle wrote a history of his apprenticeship, from which it may be seen that he lost no opportunity to im- prove his mind by reading and study. He began at length to exercise himself in writing, and in order to test his abilities in this direction, he sometimes copied his essays in a disguised hand and sent them through the post-office to the editor of the newspaper upon which he was at work as a printer. His efforts were successful. His articles were printed, with an occa- sional remark of approbation from the editor, who little dreamcd that it was his own apprentice who was thus contributing to his columns. It is evident that during his youth and, indeed, throughout all his
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life, he was an industrious student and a deep thinker. Many of his letters which appeared in the biography above men- tioned are models of excellency both as to style and thought.
On August 22nd, 1802, Mr. Tuttle's ap- prenticeship came to a close, and soon afterwards he was made foreman of the printing establishment. On November 22nd, 1803, in connection with Mr. John Pike, a fellow-journeyman, he purchased of the proprietor, Mr. Samuel Penning- ton, the establishment, including the news- paper, "Centinel of Freedom;" and Mr. Pennington, in announcing to the public the transfer of the paper, says : "In making this transfer I have taken a scrupulous care that the press has not gone into hands that will prostitute it to venal purposes." The copartnership between Mr. Tuttle and Mr. Pike continued only until August 14, 1804, when Mr. Pike withdrew, resigning his interest in the concern to Mr. Penning- ton, the recent proprietor, and thus Mr. Tuttle became the partner of his former master. Mr. Pennington was, however, engaged in a business which would not al- low him to give any attention to the print- ing establishment, but Mr. Tuttle managed its affairs so well that on July Ist, 1808, he purchased all Mr. Pennington's interest therein, and now became the sole proprie- tor and editor of the leading and most popular journal of the State. In his hands the "Centinel" lost none of the vigor or popularity which it had enjoyed since its commencement in 1796; and, in speaking of Mr. Tuttle in connection with it, a con- temporary, opposed to him in politics, said: "I never saw him angry, nor ever saw another person angry with him. As the editor of a political paper, he was always firm and conscientiously sincere in the principles which he advocated, but never offensive in his language or opprobrious in his epithets." This is a high encomium to be bestowed by a political opponent up- on an editor, especially in times when po-
litical discussions will often ruffle the tem- pers of the wisest and best of men.
It is needless to say that Mr. Tuttle was a successful man. It could not well be otherwise with one possessing his habits as a business man together with his wonder- ful industry. That he ever became wealthy, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, cannot be said; but that he possessed riches which the world cannot give nor take away, is beyond all doubt. Although not a professor of religion until he had reached the age of twenty-six, he displayed from boyhood to the grave the spirit and the conduct of a veritable son of God. In the journey of life it is rare to meet with a man so utterly unselfish, so entirely de- voted to the welfare of his fellow-men. But, in a sketch so limited as this must necessarily be, it is impossible to convey a proper idea of this man's quiet and beau- tiful career. If, as an unregenerate man, he was the essence of gentleness and love, the very soul of honor, what was there not in him of exalted virtue and profound- est piety as a professed servant of the Lord? Such was the homage paid to his sincerity and truly Christian spirit that at the early age of thirty-one he was chosen an elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Newark, an office which he held up to the time of his death-a period of more than thirty years-and the duties of which he performed with unexampled fidelity. From the time that he was called to this office he appears to have lived more for the welfare of others than for himself. His diary gives evidence of this, and though in it he makes no note of his own charities, it became well known that he was the daily visitor of the poor, the sick and the suffer- ing. and that wherever he went he carried cheer and comfort. Indeed. during the last six years of his life he attended to no business, except that of his notaryship in his old bank, in order that he might have more time to perform his deeds of love; and during those six years he gave in chari-
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