USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 56
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ties all his income, reserving only what was necessary for his daily wants. Truly like Abou Ben Adhem, he could say to the angel, "Write me as one that loves his fellow-men." His death occurred Febru- ary 22, 1847.
BERRIEN, John M.,
Lawyer, Jurist, Legislator.
John Mac Pherson Berrien was born near Princeton, New Jersey, August 23, 1781, son of Major John Berrien, an officer in the Continental army, and of his wife, who was a sister of John MacPherson, who was an aide-de-camp to General Lafayette, and subsequently served on the staff of General Lachlan McIntosh. Major John Berrien settled in Georgia, in 1782, but his son, John Mac Pherson, passed his school days in New York and New Jersey, and was graduated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, in the class of 1796.
After his graduation, deciding upon the law as a profession, John M. Berrien pur- sued a course of study along that line, and was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1799, after a successful competitive examination, and located for active practice in Chatham county. In 1809 he was appointed solicitor- general of the eastern district of the State, and two years later was elected judge of his circuit, holding the judgeship until 1821. Shortly after the beginning of the war of 1812, he entered the army as major of cav- alry, his service being noted for bravery and ability. The legislature of Georgia in 1812, to relieve the debtor class among the citizens of that State, passed laws which practically closed the doors of the courts to creditors. At a convention of the judges of the State, four cases were presented and a unanimous opinion, prepared by Judge Ber- rien, was rendered, that the laws impaired the obligation of contracts, and were there- fore unconstitutional. This is held as the ablest exposition made on that question. On the expiration of his term as judge, in which
capacity he displayed ability of a high order, he was elected a member of the State Sen- ate, and in 1824 he was elected to the Senate of the United States, filling both offices effi- ciently and capably. He resigned his seat as Senator in 1829, and was appointed Attorney-General in the cabinet of Presi- dent Jackson. In June, 1831, he resigned, with the other members of the cabinet, receiving a letter from the President expressing his approval of his zeal and effi- ciency, and tendering him the mission to Great Britain, which honor he declined. He returned to his home at Savannah and resumed the practice of law, his chosen pro- fession. In 1841 he was returned to the United States Senate, taking his seat March 4, and serving for a time as chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1845 he was made judge of the Supreme Court of Georgia, and in 1847 was once more elected to the United States Senate, resigning his seat in May, 1852, being then in his seventy- first year, and retired to private life. In 1844 he was a delegate from Georgia to the National Whig Convention at Baltimore that nominated Henry Clay for President. His speech in the Senate, on the constitu- tionality of the bankrupt law won general commendation, and drew from Mr. Clay a graceful compliment in open session of the senate. His argument on "the right of in- struction" was complimented by Mr. Justice Story, who proposed to insert it in a new edition of his work on the Constitution,
He was one of the board of regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. The College of New Jersey con- ferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1829. The county of Berrien, in the State of Georgia, is named in his honor. . He died in Savannah, Georgia, January 1, 1856.
NEILSON, James,
Pioneer in Steamboat Transportation.
James Neilson, son of Colonel John and Catharine (Voorhees) Neilson, was born in
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New Brunswick, December 3, 1784, and died there February 21, 1862. He inherited the enterprise of his north of Ireland an- cestry, with the persistence of the Holland blood of his mother, Catharine Voorhees, and of his father's mother, Joanna Coeje- man, of the great Dutch manor of that name on the Hudson, one of whose ancestors was the celebrated fourteenth century vice-ad- miral, Joachim Ghyse, who was knighted and received the name Staats, with a coat- of-arms, denoting courage, distinction and watchfulness, from the Dutch government, for his services in the capture of four out of seven vessels of a Spanish fleet, which he persisted in waiting for and engaging when his admiral retreated.
Colonel John Neilson's distinguished mil- itary services during the Revolution, and his pre-eminence, as denoted by his election to the Continental Congress and to the con- vention of 1787 which formed the Constitu- tion of the United States, did not tend to enrich him, and the large property inherited by him from his uncle James, who had died in the preceding year (1783) had no doubt been largely destroyed, and the shipping business with Belfast, the West India Is- lands, Madeira and Lisbon, in which they had been engaged, was rendered unprofit- able by the action of Great Britain after the war. So the large family was poor, and James was hard at work in his father's ship- ping business while yet a boy of seventeen. Already, between 1810 and 1816, he saw the importance of steam, and was a director and treasurer in the New Brunswick Team Boat and Steam Boat Company, which built the steamboat "John Fitch," the latter to convey the passengers and freight of the former in New York waters, monopolized by Fulton and ex-Chancellor Livingston. This enterprise, however, was giver. up when the New Jersey retaliating legislation was repealed, allowing Livingston again to run his steamboat to New Brunswick. James Neilson was the most active of the orig- inators of the canal connecting the water
of the Delaware with those of the Raritan, and with Garret D. Wall he procured a charter from the New Jersey legislature, December 30, 1824, for such a canal. A company was formed and the stock was subscribed for thirteen times over. There were forty-eight subscribers and twelve of them each subscribed for all of it. The board of directors, elected June 26, 1826, contained such well-known names as John N. Simpson, president : James Neilson, treasurer ; Floyd S. Bailey. Richard Stock- ton, Thomas Cadwalader, Garret D. Wall, George Griswold, Elisha Tibbits, Peter Remsen, Chancellor James Kent, and John Potter. Much time was spent at Harris- burg during the winter of 1825-26 by Messrs. Neilson and Wall, but the act they were able to procure from the Pennsylvania legislature so hampered the company in its use of the waters of the Delaware, the neces- sary feeder, that it was the unanimous opinion of the very able legal advisers of the company, Daniel Webster, Chancellor Kent, Richard Stockton and Horace Binney, that it was not safe to go on with the en- terprise, so $40,000 expended for prelimin- ary work was lost, and $20,000 was repaid to the subscribers, together with $100,000 required by the State of New Jersey as a bonus and now returned by the State. Messrs. Neilson and Wall, however, con- tinued their efforts and succeeded in getting a more liberal charter, dated February 4, 1830, from New Jersey. Now, however, there was a prospect of vigorous competi- tion from the Camden & Amboy railroad, incorporated the same day, and it was with difficulty that the capital stock could be dis- posed of. Finally Commodore (then cap- tain) Robert Field Stockton took 4,800 shares for himself and his father-in-law, John Potter, thus closing the subscription to the capital stock of $1,000,000. Captain Stockton was elected president of the com- pany, James Neilson. treasurer, John R. Thompson, secretary, the engineer, Mr. White, being the same as that of the first
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canal. The canal company at once took measures for laying rails on the canal bank, and the Trenton & New Brunswick Turn- pike Company, having later passed into pos- session of the Philadelphia & Newton Rail- road Company, contemplated using their right of way for a railroad. These gentle- men, however, were wise in their genera- tion, and anticipated the business methods of the next century. John C., Edwin A., and Robert L. Stevens, of the Camden & Amboy Railroad Company, and Messrs. Stockton and Neilson, of the Delaware & Raritan Canal Company, met one evening at Burton's Theatre, in New York, and agreed to pool their issues. An act was passed by the New Jersey legislature, February 15, 1831, uniting the two companies under the title of the Delaware & Raritan Canal and Camden & Amboy Railroad Company, which, admirably managed from the first, by these able men. has been profitable to the stockholders and to the state from that day to this. For twenty-five years there was no death in the boards, the members of which became warm personal friends and devoted to the development of these works and of their state. In 1871, the members of the boards being dead, the properties were leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany for 999 years.
James Neilson continued his interests in transportation with the New Brunswick Steamboat Company, later John Dennis & Company, and in 1831 the New Brunswick Steamboat and Canal Transportation Com- pany, Edwin A. Stevens, president and man- ager, James Neilson, treasurer. This com- pany did a very large and prosperous busi- ness through the canal and on the railroad, accommodating for those days a large fleet of boats and large assets. The company in 1851 disposed of its business to the Raritan Steamboat Company, which in 1852 sold to the Camden & Amboy Railroad Company. In 1835, seeing that the shipping business of New Brunswick must be cut off by the canals and railroads, Mr. Neilson, witlı
Commodore Richard Field and Major James C. Van Dyck, incorporated the New Bruns- wick Manufacturing Company, leasing the surplus water at New Brunswick from the canal company. In 1837 they built a mill there for the manufacture of printing cloths. A saw mill was also built. These mills were disposed of after Mr. Neilson's death to the Norfolk and New Brunswick Hosiery Company, the whole property having passed into Mr. Neilson's possession.
Some five acres of land, comprising most of the land of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church, Mr. Neilson gave to the trustees for the buildings and grounds of that institution, and much of the remainder of the land has been given to Rut- gers College for its uses. James Neilson was lieutenant and afterwards captain of the artillery company, Second Battalion, Third Regiment, Middlesex Brigade, and was on duty with his company at Sandy Hook dur- ing the War of 1812. He succeeded his father and was for many years and until his death a trustee of Rutgers College. The Colonel became a trustee in 1782 and served until his death in 1833, James, his son, suc- ceeding him and serving till 1862. His son James (2) in turn has served from 1886, making in all a service of 108 years. Mr. Neilson was also a trustee of Princeton Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), of the Presbyterian Church at New Brunswick from his father's death in 1833, and presi- dent of the board from 1845 until his own death. To all of these he was a liberal con- tributor. It is interesting to note that the three members of the family named James, whose three lives touch each other, reach from the sixteen to the nineteen hundreds. A correspondence between James Neilson and his wife, Rivine Forman, and his father. during a business trip of 1,500 miles to Natchez, on horseback, largely through the wilderness, and only from Pittsburgh down by boat, from December 4, 1811, to May 8, 1812, is interesting, as are his notes of a trip to Niagara shortly after the comple-
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tion of the Erie canal. An interesting let- ter from Mr. White, managing director of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. urging the early completion of the Delaware & Raritan Canal, says that in 1820 the first boatload of anthracite coal from that region was sent to Philadelphia and "stocked the market." By 1828 he estimated that 100,. 000 tons could be shipped. In 1830 James Neilson built the house still occupied by his son James and his wife on land bought by him from his father, and being part of the land bought by Cornelius Longfeldt from the Indians in 1681, and sold to his great- grandfather, Johannis Voorhees, in 1720, inherited by his son John Voorhees, who gave it to his daughter Catharine, Colonel John Neilson's wife and Mr. Neilson's mother. Consequently that part of "Wood- lawn" on which the house stands has been in the family 190 years and five generations, and has been added to by father and son until the whole covers some three hundred acres.
Mr. Neilson married (first ) March 26, 1811, Rivine, daughter of General David Forman, who was born December 30, 1791, and died December 11, 1816. He married (second) January 25, 1820, Jane, daughter of James and Jean (Moncrieff ) Dunlap, who was born in 1793, and died April 29, 1823. He married (third) December II, 1833, Harriette, born January 10, 1811, died June 16, 1840, daughter of Robert and Clarissa (Dow) Benedict. He married (fourth) January 16, 1844, Catharine, born June 9, 1809, died December 23, 1893, daughter of John R. and Esther Vailey (Linn) Bleecker.
WHITE, Joseph,
Early in River Transportation.
Joseph White, son of John and Re- becca (Haines) White, was born in Mt. Holly, New Jersey, December 28, 1785, and died May 25, 1827. He inherited from his ancestors that great energy of charac-
ter and cast of mind which made them pioneers in new and important improve- ments for the benefit of mankind. Had his life been extended to the allotted three score years and ten, he had the ability and energy, as is abundantly proven. to have risen as high or ever. higher on the pinna- cle of fame in the history of his country as his elder brother.
In 18ri he left Philadelphia, intending to travel on horseback to St. Louis and other places in the west and south to ex- tend the business of his firm and collect the debts due it. This firm, long known as White & Lippincott, of III Market street, Philadelphia, had been founded in 1808, when he and Samuel Lippincott had pur- chased the hardware stock of the former's brother, Josiah White. Stopping at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, Joseph White met. by accident, Elisha Hunt, who with his brother, Caleb, were merchants of the place. The Hunts made Mr. White a proposition that if he would give up his journey and assist them in building and freighting a keelboat, Caleb Hunt would join him on his St. Louis trip. Joseph White agreed, and in 1812 he and Caleb, with a crew of French Canadian boatmen. started from Brownsville for St. Louis. The trip was successful and they brought the boat back as far as Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland river, where a few friends left it and journeyed on horse- back to Shepardsville, Kentucky, where they separated, Joseph White going on to Louisville, Frankfort, Lexington, and then to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he formed the acquaintance of the governor. After this he travelled through Virginia and Maryland, and returned to Philadelphia about the end of 1812. On his return he and Elisha Hunt organized a stock com- pany to construct steamboats for carrying passengers and freight between Pittsburg and New Orleans. They engaged the ser- vices of Daniel French, who owned a steamboat patent, and was operating one
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of his vessels on the Delaware between Camden and Philadelphia. Shops were erected at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, the steamboat "Enterprise" was constructed at a cost of about $15,000, and in 1813 went on her initial voyage to New Orleans, under the command of Captain Henry Shreve. Reaching the latter place, the ves- sel was seized by the state marshal at the instance of Fulton and ex-Chancellor Liv- ingston, for coming within the limits of Louisiana, as they had a charter from the legislature of that state granting them the exclusive privilege of running steamboats on all the state's waters. Captain Shreve gave security for trial, and the vessel re- turned home with a full cargo of freight and passengers. On her next voyage Gen- eral Jackson impressed her into the service of the United States, and she only made three round trips between Pittsburg and New Orleans before the end of the war of 1812. On her fourth voyage the crew abandoned her at Shippen's port, below the falls of the Ohio, and she there sank. Fulton and Livingston obtained judgment against the company in the state courts, but on appeal the Federal courts reversed the decision and declared the navigation of the Mississippi open to all. The steam- boat company, having had ill fortune with their second boat "Despatch," became dis- couraged and dissolved, and Hunt and White then turned their Brownsville shops into a manufactory for tools needed in constructing steam machinery. The im- portance of their venture lies in the fact that they initiated the movement which ended in turning over the control of all interstate navigable waters to the Federal government.
December 18, 1807, Joseph White mar- ried Rebecca, daughter of Daniel Doughty and Elizabeth (Schooley) Smith.
DARCY, John Stevens,
Physician, Legislator, California Argo- nant.
No member of the medical fraternity of New Jersey ever enjoyed a higher or more deserved reputation for skill and daring in his profession, which, notwithstanding his multifarious occupations, he continued to exercise until nearly the time of his death, than Dr. John Stevens Darcy, who was as well known by the title of General as by that of Doctor, and yet the latter title was by no means lost under the former.
He was born in Hanover township, Mor- ris county, New Jersey, February 24, 1788. He grew to manliood in his native place. and there became fitted for his profession under the direction of his father, Dr. John Darcy, an eminent and leading physician of that vicinity, and to whose practice he ulti- mately succeeded. He remained in his native place until 1832, when he removed to Newark, New Jersey, where at that time, as in many other large towns, the Asiatic cholera was committing fearful ravages. With his characteristic bravery and great- ness of heart he went among the sick and dying and especially among the poor, by his promptness of decision, his skillful treatment and generous charities, winning the esteem and confidence of the entire com- munity. It is said of him that while he never neglected the most disagreeable and profitless call, he seldom exacted his legal fees, but oftener contributed from his own pocket the means of securing for his needy patients the necessaries and even the lux- uries which their condition demanded. The peculiar circumstances under which he began the work of his profession in Newark brought to him almost immediately an ex- tensive practice. and year by year it became so large that had he collected all he earned
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he would, it is believed, have become one of the wealthiest men in his profession.
His arduous labors, notwithstanding his powerful frame and vigorous constitution, began finally to make their impression upon him, and this, together with his natural love of adventure, led him in 1849 to project an overland journey to California. He was the leader of the party, which was com- posed chiefly of acquaintances, and the journey was performed on foot, while wagons, drawn by oxen, transported the provisions, clothing, and whatever was need- ed on so long a march over a country in- habited only by wild beasts and Indians. The travelers reached their destination, but the fatigue and continual hardships to which they had been for months subjected had not the desired effect upon the health of Dr. Darcy. He returned by the Isthmus route to his friends and patients, who received him with open arms and prolonged expres- sions of joy and gratitude.
Although an earnest politician of the Jackson school of Democracy, Dr. Darcy was by no means a seeker after office. It is true that in early life he was a member of the State Legislature, and under Pres- idents Jackson and Van Buren, was United States Marshal for the District of New Jer- sey, but he had a strong dislike to entering the political arena as a contestant for hon- ors. He was the first president of the New Jersey Railroad Company, and held that position until the time of his death, a period of more than thirty years. In the interests of this corporation he was very active, and to it he rendered many valuable services. For many years he was a prominent mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, holding for a long time the office of grand master of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. Distinguished for his geniality, his benignity and his munificence, he died October 22, 1863, lamented by the entire community.
BURTT, John,
Clergyman, Religious Journalist.
The Rev. John Burtt was born in Knock- marloch, Ayrshire, Scotland, May 26, 1789. After receiving a classical educa- tion and serving an apprenticeship to a weaver, he was pressed into the navy, and for five years was a sailor before the mast. He then effected his escape, and for a time thereafter served in the capacity of teacher in schools at Kilmarnock and Paisley, per- forming his duties in such a manner as to win approbation and approval. In 1816 he attended medical lectures at the Glasgow University, and in the following year, 1817, becoming involved in political disturbances he fled to the United States as a means of refuge. He then became a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he continued his studies for one year, and then served as a missionary at Trenton and at Philadelphia until the year 1824, when he was ordained to the ministry by the Presbytery of Philadelphia and was made pastor in succession over churches at Salem, New Jersey, at Cincinnati, Ohio, and at Blackwoodtown, New Jersey.
In addition to his pastoral labors he de- voted considerable time and attention to journalistic work, and edited the "Philadel- phia Presbyterian" from 1830 to 1833, and the "Cincinnati Standard" from 1833 to 1835. A collection of his verses was pub- lished in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1817, and republished, with additions, in Bridgeton, New Jersey, two years later, under the ti- tle "Horae Poeticae." In 1859 he resigned his pastorate, and spent his remaining years at Salem, New Jersey, where he en- joyed to the full the well earned rest that should be the sequel of an active and well spent life, years spent in the service of others and in promoting the general wel- fare of the communities in which he re-
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sided. His death occurred in Salem, New Jersey, March 24, 1866, well past the scrip- tural age of three score years and ten.
LUNDY, Benjamin,
Abolition Leader.
Benjamin Lundy, was born at Hard- wick, New Jersey, January 4, 1789, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Shotwell) Lundy, grandson of Thomas and Joanna (Doan) Lundy, and of Benjamin and Anne (Hal- lett) Shotwell, and a descendant of Rich- ard Lundy, a Quaker, who came from De- vonshire, England, and settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1685.
Benjamin Lundy was a saddler at Wheel- ing, Virginia, from 1808 to 1812; remov- ing in the latter year to St. Clairsville, Ohio. In 1815 he organized the first anti- slavery association in the United States, called the Union Humane Society. He contributed articles on slavery to the "Philanthropist," and joined Charles Os- borne at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, in the pub- lication of that paper. At that time he decided to sell his property, dispose of his trade, and devote his energies to the cause of anti-slavery. He went to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1819, and while there agitated the slave question in the Missouri and Il- linois newspapers. On his return to Mt. Pleasant in 1821, he established "The Gen- ius of Universal Emancipation," and in 1822 removed the journal to Jonesboro, Tennessee, traveling the five hundred miles thither on foot. There he issued a weekly newspaper and an agricultural monthly, besides his own paper, and he transferred the journal to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1824. He had agents in the slave States, and between 1820 and 1830 visited nine- teen States of the Union and held more than two hundred public anti-slavery meet- ings. He visited Hayti in 1826 and 1829, Canada in 1830, and Texas in 1830 and 1833, for the purpose of forming settle- ments for emancipated and fugitive slaves,
but the events preceding the annexation of Texas interfered with his plans for the establishment of colonies under the anti- slavery laws of Mexico. In September, 1829, he invited William Lloyd Garrison to Baltimore, where together they printed "The Genius of Emancipation" until March, 1830, when the partnership was dissolved. During Garrison's imprisonment, Lundy was fined repeatedly and heavily, and was also imprisoned. Being obliged to leave Maryland by order of the court at Balti- more, he removed his paper to Washing- ton City in October, 1830, and printed it there until 1834, when he removed it to Philadelphia and changed its name to the "National Inquirer." It was subsequently merged into the "Pennsylvanian Freeman," and his office was destroyed in the burning of Pennsylvania Hall, which was fired by the mob in May, 1838. He then removed to Lowell, La Salle county, Illinois, and printed his paper under its old name. "The Genius of Emancipation," for a few months.
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