Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume II, Part 13

Author: Ogden, Mary Depue
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Newark, N.J. : Memorial History Company
Number of Pages: 940

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lish lineage and honorable traditions, it; descendants figuring conspicuously in vari- ous walks of life, both in this country and abroad.

Jonathan Dixon received his education in Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jer- sey, entering that institution as a student in 1855, and graduating in 1859. The honor- ary degree of Doctor of Laws was confer- red on him in 1878 by Rutgers College, and he was made trustee of that college in 1886, serving as such for many years. Dur- ing his collegiate career he was an inmate of the home of Cornelius L. Hardenburg, a well-known lawyer, who, having been af- flicted by blindness, assumed the education of the lad, who in the meantime acted as his benefactor's amanuensis and personal at- tendant. On the completion of his collegiate course the young man took up the study of law, for which he had a natural taste and marked aptitude, serving as a student-at- law in various offices, and at the same time finding means of livelihood as a school teacher. Admitted as an attorney in 1862, he became a counsellor-at-law three years later. Immediately after his admission as an attorney he removed to Jersey City, New Jersey, where he entered the law office of E. E. Wakeman, forming a copartnership with that gentleman in the spring of 1864. This professional relationship continued for a year, at the end of which time Mr. Dixon established a practice of his own. For five years he followed his profession alone, ac- quiring a high and enviable reputation as a learned and careful practitioner in whose hands the interests of clients were well guarded and intelligently represented. He then formed a partnership with Gilbert Collins, who afterward became a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, an honor that fell to Mr. Dixon in 1875. when he was appointed to that judicial position by Governor Beadle. He acquitted him- self of his new responsibilities with a dig- nity and strength that left nothing to be desired, and in 1882, when his term expired,

wanor.

Jonathan Digan.

மெமரிஸ் பார்டரில் ஸ்ஸஃப்பீஷ் கள்

٠٠

To Viovar

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

he was reappointed by Governor Ludlow. Again, in 1889, he was named by Governor Green for 'the place that he so well and honorably filled, and he was subsequently reappointed by Governor Griggs and Mur- phy in 1896 and 1903 respectively, being still on the bench when he died, his term not expiring until 1910. At the time of his death he filled the circuit comprising Hud- son county. As a jurist he possessed those qualities of mind and that keen intelligence which are essential to the duties of the posi- tion; fair and impartial in his decisions, learned in his legal interpretations, and up- right as a man, he reflected honor upon the bench that he adorned. He was a Republi- can in his political convictions, and in 1883 was his party's nominee for Governor of the State, being defeated by Leon Abbet.

Justice Dixon married Elizabeth M. Price, daughter of Henry M. Price, by whom he had one son, Warren Dixon, who inherited his father's legal talents to a marked de- gree and has attained prominence in tlie same profession, winning recognition and prestige as one of the leading menibers of the Hudson county bar. He was survived also by his widow and eight daughters --- Mary M., wife of Millard F. Ross; Jessie L., wife of Francis J. McCoy; Elsie, wife of Lewis E. Carr Jr .; Bertha, wife of James Crowell; Laura, Helen and Velma Dixon, and Elizabeth, wife of Robert C. Post, at whose home in Englewood, New Jersey, he died, May 21, 1906.

VROOM, Judge Garret D. W.,

Distinguished Jurist, Litterateur.

The late Judge Garret Dorset Wall Vroom, of New Jersey, copied with dis- tinction the virtues and acquirements of his forbears, and proved himself worthy to bear a name already of such prominence. He was a great-grandson of George and Gar- retje (Dumont) Vroom; a grandson of Colonel Peter D. Vroom, of Revolutionary fame, and his wife, Elsie (Bogart) Vroom.

Colonel Vroom was one of the first to raise a company with which he joined the Con- tinental army, and he served throughout the war, rising to the rank of lieutenant- colonel. For a long time he served as a member of the New Jersey Assembly and Council, and died in 1831. His son, Gov- ernor Peter Dumont Vroom, was born in Hillsborough township, New Jersey, De- cember 12, 1791, and died in Trenton, New Jersey, November 18, 1873. He is written of at length on another page of this work. He married (first) 1820, Anna, daughter of Peter B. Dumont; (second) Matilda M., daughter of General Garret D. Wall. Chil- dreu: Peter Dumont, served with distinc- tion in the Civil War, and was retired as brigadier-general in 1903; and

Judge Garret Dorset Wall Vroom, who was born December 17, 1843, in Trenton, New Jersey, and died in the same city, at his home, No. 159 West State street, March 4, 1914. When he was about ten years of age, his father was appointed Minister to Prussia, and during the time the family lived in Berlin young Vroom attended the French Gymnasia there. Upon returning to Trenton he became a student at the Tren- ton Academy, and after a preparatory edu- cation there, entered Rutgers College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1862. He commenced the study of law in the office of his father, was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1865, as a counsellor in 1868, and later became a special master in chan- cery. He established himself in the prac- tice of his profession in Trenton, and was identified with the interests of that city until his death. His ability was of so high an order that it immediately won him recog- nition. He was elected city solicitor in 1866, held the office until 1870, was re-elected in 1873, and served until 1876. In May, 1870, he was appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas of Mercer county, to succeed General C. K. Hall, deceased, held this office until Decem- ber, 1873, when he resigned in order to as- sume the duties of Law Reporter of the Su ..

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

preme Court of New Jersey, his father hav- ing held the office before him, and was an incumbent of this until his death.

His work in the field of literature was in some directions of inestimable value. In as- sociation with John H. Stewart he prepared for publication "The Revision of the Stat- utes of New Jersey." This was done in 1877, under the direction of commissioners, and included, with the statutes revised, the entire body of the statute laws of the State. In 1887 a "Supplement" to the "Revision" was issued, in collaboration with Hon. Wil- liam L. Lanning. In 1894, both were au- thorized to prepare a new revision in three volumes, entitled "The General Statutes of New Jersey," and includes all laws up to January 1, 1896. Many other publications were also issued under his supervision.

Judge Vroom served as mayor of the city of Trenton from 1881 to 1884, and when the city created a Board of Public Works he served as president of that body during its existence. In 1900 he was appointed to a seat on the Supreme Bench by Governor Voorhees, but this he declined. When Judge Hendrickson was advanced to a seat in the Supreme Court, a vacancy was caused in the Court of Errors and Appeals, and Governor Voorhees appointed Judge Vroom to fill this office. He was appointed for a full term of six years, February 5, 1901, the nomination being confirmed by the Senate seven days later. In 1907 he was reappointed to this office by Governor Stokes, and continued in it until he resigned early in 1914. Wherever and whenever there was good and important work to be done. Judge Vroom was in de- mand. He was for years a member from New Jersey of the National Commission to Promote the Uniformity of Laws Through- out the United States : president of the Com- mission for the Revision of the Statutes for many years ; member of the Board of Par- dons : member of the New Jersey Historical Society ; president and manager of the Tren- ton Savings Fund Society ; president of the board of the Trenton School of Industrial

Arts; member of the Holland Society of New York; American Bar Association. State Bar Association, Mercer County Har Association ; president of the board of man- agers of the New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane; vice-president of the General Society of the Sons of the Revolution, wa. president for some years and was active in organizing the New Jersey branch ; an hon- orary member of the Society of the Cincin- nati, member of the Delta Phi fraternity. and of other organizations. He was the senior of the law firm of Vroom, Dickinson & Bodine. He was one of the foremost lawyers of the State, and while he was ac- tively identified with trial cases in the earli- er portion of his career, in later years he acted mainly as counsel in important cases. He was considered an authority in many di- rections, especially in precedent, corpora- tion and commercial law. Many men who later achieved prominence in the legal pro- fession studied under Judge Vroom, among them being Chancellor Edwin Robert Walk- er ; William S. Gummere, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Prosecutor Martin E. Devlin ; William M. Johnson, former State Senator and Assistant Postmaster General at Washington ; Wallace M. Scudder, editor of the "Newark Evening News"; Nelson L. Petty, trust officer with the Trenton Trust and Safe Deposit Company ; John M. Zis- gen, assemblyman, and solicitor of Bergen county ; Edward W. Maxwell, at one time assistant corporation counsel of New York City; Frederick W. Stelle, formerly assist- ant corporation counsel of New York City : Gouverneur V. Packer ; Counselor Francis B. Lee ; the late William R. Piper, who was assistant prosecutor ; Anthony S. Brennen : and many others, equally noteworthy. Only a short time prior to his death, Judge Vroom issued the fifty-fifth volume of his law reports.

Judge Vroom was interested in the devel- opment of the pottery industry in Trenton. and with the late A. M. Maddock was one of the pioneers in the establishment of the

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

School of Industrial Arts there. At his home he had a fine collection of rare pottery and china. His collection of books made his library the finest private one in the city of Trenton, and probably in the east. It con- tained many volumes of rare merit, not alone for their literary contents, but as spec- imens of the bookbinder's art. Dickens was his especial favorite in the world of fiction, and Napoleonic literature also had an espe- cial fascination for him. One of his favorite forms of recreation was the extra-illustra- tion of books, and this held his attention al- most to his last hours. Another fine collec- tion was his valuable one of manuscript let- ters, including autographic letters of each signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of each President of the United States. He was regarded as an expert in handwrit- ing, his knowledge in this direction proving of great value in legal cases. A great lover of nature, he spent considerable time in the garden of his Trenton residence, overlook- ing the Delaware river, where his fine coi- lection of roses attracted visitors from far and near. He was charitable to a degree, but his charities were bestowed in a quiet and unostentatious manner.

Judge Vroom married, in June, 1871, a daughter of Philemon Dickinson, of Tren- ton, and great-granddaughter of General Philemon Dickinson, a member of the Con- tinental Congress of New Jersey, and ma- jor-general commanding the militia of New Jersey during the Revolutionary War.

WRIGHT, Edwin R. V.,

Lawyer, Congressman.

It is seldom that one with a great diversi- ty of gifts is capable of winning distinction in all. An exception is found in the late Ed- win R. V. Wright-soldier, journalist and legislator,-whose talents were usefully em- ployed in all these various callings.

Edwin R. V. Wright was born January 2, 1812, in Hoboken, New Jersey, and re- ceived an academic education. After leav-

ing school he took up the trade of printer, and in 1835, when he was twenty-three years old, he edited and published "The Jer- sey Blue." But Mr. Wright's attention was called to the law, and he engaged in the study of this profession and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He took an energetic part in the affairs of the community, and four years later was elected to the New Jer- sey State Senate, an office which he used to further his campaign in the cause of edu- cation. He was a strong advocate of the present systent of New Jersey schools, which was then under consideration, and he brought the full strength of his influence to bear for its introduction. In 1851 he was appointed District Attorney for Hudson county, and held this office for five years.

Mr. Wright, not content with his liter- ary, legal and legislative labors, a sufficient task, one would think, for most men, had entered the National Guard of New Jer- sey, in which service he rose until he became and was for several years major-general of militia, commanding the Second Division of the State Guard. During these active years in the service of his fellow citizens, General Wright's popularity had been stead- ily on the increase, and in 1859 the Demo- cratic party chose him as their logical can- didate for Governor of the State. General Wright accepted the nomination and made a vigorous campaign, but was defeated by a small majority in the election by Charles S. Olden, his Republican opponent. He was elected to the United States House of Rep- resentatives in the Thirty-ninth Congress, serving during his term on the House com- mittee on appropriations, and on the special committee appointed on the death of Pres- ident Lincoln. Mr. Wright's death occur- red in Jersey City, on January 19, 1876.

WARD, Leslie Dodd, M. D.,

Prominent in Life Insurance Affairs.

Leslie Dodd Ward, son of Moses Dodd and Justina Louisa (Sayre) Ward, was

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

born in Afton, Morris county, New Jer- sey, July 1, 1845. He received his early education'in the village school at home, and then, with the intention of afterwards going to Princeton University, entered the Newark Academy. In 1863, when General Robert E. Lee made his magnificent march into Pennsylvania which formed the climax of the Confederate success, and created such intense and widespread alarm through the northern States, the Governor of New Jer- sey, in answer to the appeal of the invaded State, called for volunteers to go to the aid of Pennsylvania. The answer to this call was eleven companies of seven hundred men and officers. One of the corporals of Company F of this regiment, Captain Wil- liam J. Roberts commanding, was Leslie D. Ward. In the fall of the same year, the campaign being ended, young Ward re- turned for the completion of his academic course. On his graduation in the following year he enlisted as one of the hundred-day men, being enrolled June 13, 1864, mustered in on the 23d of the same month, and being mustered out the ensuing October.

Whether his thoughts had already been directed towards a medical career or not previously to his military service, it was his experience in the camp and field with the sick and wounded that finally determin- ed him to adopt the life of a physican. Consequently, shortly after his return from the war, he entered the office of Dr. Fisher, of Morristown, where he prepared himself to enter the College of Physicians and Sur- geons in New York. From this institution - he graduated in 1868, and immediately be- gan practicing in Newark, associating him- self with Dr. Lott Southard, of that city, with whom he continued to practice for two years, at the end of which time he opened an office for himself. By this time Dr. Ward had become well and favorably known, and his practice steadily increased not only among the rich and well-to-do, but also among the less wealthy and poorer classes of society. From his experiences

with these latter classes especially, Dr. Ward gained his large insight into the lives of people and became familiar with their niost urgent needs and necessities. The allevia- tion of these wants and distresses, and the best means of aiding people in sickness and times of death, now became one of the cherished aims and great problems of his life, and he found their realization and solution in the idea of the Prudential In- surance Company of America, or, as it was at first known, the Prudential Friendly So- ciety. The object and methods of this company were at that time ( 1873) entirely new to the insurance world. It proposed to offer insurance to the industrial classes on healthy lives, both male and female, from one to seventy-five years of age. Policies are issued from ten dollars to five hundred dollars, and the premiums collected weekly at the homes of the insured. A special feature of the business and one in which Dr. Ward was particularly interested, is that all policies are payable at death or within twenty-four hours after satisfactory proofs of death are furnished to the com- pany, in order that the money may be im- mediately available for funeral expenses and those incurred for medical attendance. In ten years the success of the new method was phenomenal. It had issued nearly nine hundred thousand policies, paid fifteen thou- sand claims, amounting to over $875,000, and had accumulated a large amount of as- sets and a handsome surplus. The original- ly subscribed capital of the company, $30,- 000, had also been increased to $106,000. all paid up. In this work. Dr. Ward was one of the most active laborers, and the present president of the company, John F. Dryden, says that it is "largely in conse- quence of Dr. Ward's untiring efforts that a strong board of directors was secured and the necessary financial support obtained from men whose standing in the commercial world was second to none." From the outset, Dr. Ward was the medical director of the company and Mr. Dryden's associate

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

in putting it upon a firm foundation. In 1884 he was elected first vice-president, in place of Hon. Henry J. Yates, ex-mayor of Newark, who had been elected treasurer. As the company's medical director, Dr. Ward had from the beginning shown ex- ceptional skill and ability in managing the field operations of the company, and while still occupying his former position he de- voted himself as vice-president with much energy to the outside devel - opment of the company's interests. During late years Dr. Ward has been the executive manager of the com- pany's field force, and Hoffman's "His- tory of the Prudential" says that "it is not too much to say that much of the success which the company has achieved has been the result of his exceptional ability and devotion to the interests of the company and to the promotion of its welfare." In 1876 Dr. Ward became a member of the medical board of St. Michael's Hospital, the oldest institution of its kind in Newark, and for seven years he was its secretary. He was at this time also visiting surgeon of St. Barnabas Hospital. Before 1876 the duties now performed by the county phy- sician of Essex county had for the most part been done by coroners and magistrates ; but in 1877, by the appointment of Dr. Ward to the office of county physician, the present state of things was inaugurated. Dr. Ward's residence is 1058 Broad street, Newark, and his country home is "Brook- lake Park," Madison, New Jersey.

He was a delegate from New Jersey to the Republican National Convention in Phil- adelphia, June, 1900, and a member of the committee notifying Mr. Mckinley of his nomination for his second term. He was also a member of the Chicago convention nominating and the committee notifying Mr. Roosevelt of his nomination for second term, and again delegate to Chicago in 1908, and one of the vice-presidents of the Republican national committee. His clubs are the Union League of New York, Essex

of Newark, Essex County Country Club, Tuxedo Club of Tuxedo, Automobile Club of America, Whippany River Club of Mor- ristown, Morris County Country Golf Club, Morristown Club and the Flatbrook Valley Club. March 5. 1874, he married Minnie, daughter of James Perry, of Newark, and has had two children: Leslie Perry Ward, and Herbert E. Ward, married Nancy Currier.

BEASLEY, Mercer,

Jurist of Commanding Ability.

Of this eminent man, Mr. Cortlandt Park- er said: "He was always in fact, I think, Chief Justice. He recognized the duties of that position and filled them. He guarded sedulously pleading and practice. He was not disposed to technicality, but he was nevertheless mindful of its importance to exact justice, and justice in the particular case was his great end and aim. He had a natural and implacable sense of right, but there has never been a judge on our bench, perhaps, who was so cold and steel- like in his logic and who followed so un- swervingly where it led. In my own judg- ment, this was the point of danger with him. His decisions are models of perspicu- ity and terseness and they are always to the point."

Mercer Beasley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1815, and died February 19. 1897. His birth occurred while his father, tlie Rev. Frederick Beasley, was provost of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1830 his father received and accepted a call to be rector of St. Michael's Church, in Trenton. New Jersey. Mercer Beasley had been prepared for college by his father, and went to Princeton for a year or two and then continued liis studies under him in Trenton until 1834. In that year he began to serve his clerkship in the office of Samuel L. Sonthard, who was then in the United States Senate and was engaged also in prac- tice in New Jersey. Chancellor Isaac H.

---

CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

Williamson had then returned to the bar, and Mr. Beasley completed his studies in his office. Mr. Beasley received his license as attorney at the September term, 1838, and was admitted as counselor at the Febru- ary term, 1842.

It is said that for ten years after this he did not give much of his time to the study or practice of the law except in the trial of cases in justices' courts, where, in fact, many sharp legal contests were carried on in those days. He was fond of shooting, and was an excellent marksman on the wing, and never lost his skill nor his love for the sport. He was a capital billiard player, and greatly enjoyed the game. He enjoyed, too, the contests in the justices' courts, and they were no bad training school for an advocate, but it was not until about 1849 that Mr. Beasley showed much taste for books or inclination for the study of law, and then, having made up his mind to excel in his profession, he became an in- quiring and industrious student, looking thoroughly into the legal questions that came up in his practice, and devoting all his energies to the work of a lawyer. He gathered books of his own and had the use of the State Library. He did not cultivate an office practice, but saw his clients on the street, where they waited for him. He was occupied in the daytime with trials in the justices' courts and study in the library, spending the evenings in his office. His office in 1850 was on West State street, near Warren, and subsequently he built a house in East State street, where he lived for the remainder of his days, and his office adjoined his house.

Mr. Beasley ran for mayor, and for the Assembly as a Whig, and was defeated. He served as city solicitor and president of the Common Council. On the death of Edward W. Whepley, Mr. Beasley was ap- · pointed Chief Justice, March 8, 1864, was reappointed again and again, and held the office until his death. He was forty-nine years of age when he went upon the bench,

and presided there until he was nearly eighty-three. The record of his judicial decisions is contained in twenty-nine vol- umes of the law reports and thirty-seven of the cases in equity. He was a man .i commanding ability, and was easily chief among his equals in both the high courts. To use the words of Mr. Justice Collin -. in the Supreme Court, on the day of hi- death: "Presiding over our highest legal tribunal with courtly dignity and matchiles- skill, he added lustre to the bright record of his distinguished predecessors."

In his administrations of the business of the Supreme Court he promoted prompt- ness and efficiency on the bench and at the bar, insisting upon the observance of the rules of practice, having always in mind the doing of justice in the particular case. He was courteous to counsel, and patient even with the dullest and the most exasper- ating. maintaining the dignity of the pro- ceedings and deference to the court. In hearing arguments he was quick to grasp the essentials of the case, and by penetrat- ing questions brought counsel to the point to which the argument should be directed. In presiding over trials on the Circuit and in the Oyer and Terminer, the Chief Justice was strong and patient, dignified and courte- ous. His charges to the jury were simple and clear and directly to the point, and these were free from the unusual words and the subtlety of reasoning which are found in some of his written opinions. He retained his powers and kept on with his work to the end of his long life, and his last opinion in the Supreme Court was an- nounced by his associates on the day before his death. There is in the Supreme Court room in Trenton a very fine portrait of Chief Justice Beasley, by J. W. Alexander.

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Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume II, Part 13

Author: Ogden, Mary Depue Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Newark, N.J. : Memorial History Company Number of Pages: 940

Author: Ogden, Mary Depue
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Newark, N.J. : Memorial History Company
Number of Pages: 940