USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume II > Part 15
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He married, in 1872, Mary Isabella (Ogs- ton) Aulick, a widow, with a son, Rich- mond Aulick. They had one daughter, Ethel Maxwell. Mr. Robeson died in Tren- ton, September 27, 1897.
LUDLOW, George C.,
Lawyer, Legislator, Governor.
George C. Ludlow, twenty-eighth Gov- ernor of New Jersey ( 1881-84), was born in Milford, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, April 6, 1830. He received his early educa- tion in the schools of his vicinity, entered Rutgers College at the age of sixteen, and was graduated in the class of 1850. He then commenced the study of law, was ad- mitted to the bar three years later, and engaged in practice at New Brunswick, New Jersey. He soon established a reputa- tion in his profession, and won the con- fidence and esteem of all who came in con- tact with him by his undoubted integrity and devotion to the interests of his clients. Always an intense Democrat, he was wont to take a conspicuous part in politics, but never held office until 1876, when he was elected to the State Senate. During his term of membership he served on some of the most important committees, and through- out one session occupied the president's chair. He declined a renomination. In 1880 he became the Democratic nominee for the governorship of his native State, was elect- ed the same year, and came into office Janu- ary 18, 1881. His term expired January 21, 1884. He died December 18, 1900.
GREEN, Robert Stockton,
Lawyer, Jurist, Governor.
Robert Stockton Green, who served as Governor of New Jersey from 1886 to 1890, was a representative of a family of prominence, a family conspicuous for its men of sterling probity and integrity, ac- tive and public-spirited, numbering among them the Rev. Jacob Green, the Revolu- tionary patriot, who was his great-grand- father. His grandfather was the Rev. Ash- bel Green, born 1762, died 1848; and his father, James Sproat Green, was United States District Attorney for New Jersey
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and professor of law in the College of New Jersey. James S. Green married Isabella McCulloh.
Robert Stockton Green was born in Princeton, New Jersey, March 25. 1831, and died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, May 7, 1895. After a preliminary training, he be- came a student at Nassau Hall, from which he graduated in 1850. Choosing the profes- sion of the law, he was after the usual course of study admitted to the bar in 1853, and became a counsellor in 1856. While residing in Princeton he took an active in- terest in its affairs, and in 1852 served as a member of its council. He removed to Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1856, and im- mediately became interested in the move- ment for the creation of Union county, and he was largely instrumental in the passage of the act of 1857 by which it was ac- complished, and which designated Elizabeth as the county seat. In 1857 he was ap- pointed prosecutor of the borough courts by Governor Newell, and in the following year became the city attorney of Elizabeth. a position he continued to fill with marked ability for ten years. At the expiration of this period he was elected to the city council, and served therein by successive elections from 1868 to 1873. He had been elected surrogate of Union county in 1862, and appointed presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas and county courts in 1868. During the succeeding year he was appointed by Governor Randolph to the Commercial Convention at Louisville as a representative of New Jersey. In 1873 he was appointed by Governor Parker, and the nomination received the confirmation of the Senate, one of the commissioners to suggest amendments to the constitution of the State. In this commission he served as chairman of the committees on bills of rights, rights of suffrage, limitation of power of govern- ment, and general and special legislation. The amendments suggested were substan- tially adopted by the two succeeding legis- latures and ratified by the people at the
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general election of 1875. He represented the Democratic party as delegate to the National conventions of 1860, 1880 and 1888; was a representative in the Forty- ninth Congress, 1885-87; Governor of New Jersey, 1886-90; Vice-Chancellor of the State, 1890-95 ; and Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, 1894-95.
In his professional capacity he was con- nected with some of the most important movements in the State of New Jersey. Of these the most notable, because of its almost revolutionary and far-reaching char- acter, may be mentioned the enterprise de- signed to deliver the people of the common- wealth from the monopoly long enjoyed by the Camden & Amboy Railroad Company and its successors, the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company. An organization was ef- fected, known as the National Railway Company, having for its object the con- struction of a second railroad between the cities of Philadelphia and New York. At every step the new enterprise was met with opposition and litigation by its established rival. This opposition and litigation cul- minated in 1872 in the celebrated case be- fore the Chancellor's Court in Trenton. In this suit, which was brought by the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company, as lessees of the franchises and road of the Camden & Amboy Railroad, against the National Rail- way Company, to restrain it from operating a through line from New York to Phila- delphia, under several charters which were . to be used as connecting links of the route, Mr. Green acted as attorney for the defend- ants. This litigation led in the succeeding winter, to the fierce contest in the legisla- ture between the railroad companies and the advocates of free railroads. Bill after bill granting the rights sought by the promo- ters of the new enterprise passed the House of Assembly, only to be killed or smothered in the Senate. The Assembly had early in the session passed a bill, introduced by M .. Canfield, of Morris, creating a general rail- road law. This measure had gone to the
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Senate, and been there amended by the striking out of all after the enacting clause, and the insertion of a bill that would have been practically useless. On the return of this amended bill to the House, in the last days of the session, it was referred to a committee, consisting of Messrs. Worthing- ton, Canfield, Lestom, Willets, and Schenck, who, with Messrs. Cortlandt Parker, Green, Attorney-General Gilchrist, and B. W. Throckmorton, prepared and perfected a measure which was the next day reported to the House by the committee as a substitute for the Senate's amendment. The Assem- bly passed it, and, after some small altera- tions made by a committee of conference, it eventually passed both Houses ; was sign- ed by Governor Parker, and became a law. Railroad monopoly privileges which had been enjoyed under the decision in the case of the Camden & Amboy Railroad Com- pany and the Delaware and Raritan Bay Company, even after the companies had relinquished their rights to exclusive privi- leges, were by this law destroyed, and un- der it the Delaware & Bound Brook Rail- road was built on the route and partially finished road-bed of the National Railway Company, and in connection with the New Jersey Central and North Pennsylvania rail- roads formed a continuous and through line from New York to Philadelphia. With the opening of this road was consummated the release of New Jersey from one of the most oppressive monopolies known to the history of this country, and to Mr. Green the com- munity is indebted in no small degree for its deliverance. His great ability and tire- less care in working up the intricate points of the preliminary litigation, and in shap- ing the subsequent legislation, conduced conspicuously to the final triumph of popu- lar rights.
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Mr. Green became a member of the bar of New York in January, 1874, as a partner in the firm of Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel, which afterwards, by changes in its per- sonnel, became that of Vanderpoel, Green
& Cuming. The College of New Jersey gave him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1887. He was a member of the New Jer- sey Society of the Cincinnati; president of the State Society; member of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1888, and a vice- president general of the National Society.
KILPATRICK, Gen. Hugh Judson,
Dashing Cavalry Officer, Diplomat.
General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, un- doubtedly one of the most daring and bril- liant cavalry leaders of the Civil War per- iod, was born near Deckertown, New Jer- sey, January 14, 1836.
He was graduated from the Military Academy at West Point in 1861, and on May 14 of that year was commissioned a lieutenant of artillery. He participated in the battle of Big Bethel, in the following month. In August he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of a New York cavalry regiment which he had assisted in recruiting and organizing. In January, 1862, he set out for Kansas, to serve as chief of artil- lery of General James H. Lane's forces, intended for service in Texas. This expedi- tion, however, was abandoned, and Kilpat- rick rejoined his regiment in Virginia, and was in the action at Thoroughfare Gap, and the second battle of Bull Run. On June 13. 1863, he was promoted to brigadier-gen- eral of volunteers, took part in the battles of Aldie and Gettysburg, and for gallantry in the latter two engagements was brevetted lieutenant-colonel in the regular army. He took an active part in the operations in Virginia from August until November, 1863, and in the affairs at James City, Brandy Station and Gainesville. In May, 1864, he was sent west and assigned to the command of a cavalry division in the Army of the Cumberland, then entering upon the Georgia campaign. He was severely wounded in the battle of Resaca, Georgia, May 13th, and was obliged to retire from service for two months. He returned to the field with
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undiminished zeal and energy, and in the middle of August passed around the ene- my's lines at Atlanta, destroying consider - able railroad, and returning with a number of prisoners, and various trophies of war. He commanded all of General Sherman's cavalry forces during the famous "March to the Sea" and in the campaign of the Carolinas, especially distinguished himself at Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was brevetted colonel in the regular army for gallant conduct at Resaca, brigadier-general for the capture of Fayetteville, North Caro- lina, and major-general for meritorious ser- vices in the Carolina campaign. On June 18, 1865, he was promoted to major-general of volunteers. On January 1. 1866. he resigned his volunteer commission, and in the following year left the regular army.
General Kilpatrick was Minister to Chili from 1865 to 1868. In the presidential campaign of 1872 he supported Greeley. He returned to the Republican party in 1876. and in 1880 was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress from New Jersey. In 1881 he was appointed by President Garfield to the post of Minister to Chili, and his death occurred at Valparaiso on December 4th of the same year.
DRYDEN, John Fairfield,
Founder of Prudential Insurance Company.
One of the foremost men the insurance world has ever produced was John Fair- field Dryden, founder of The Prudential, and pioneer of industrial insurance in America. Mr. Dryden also accomplished much for the material advancement of New Jersey. It has been said of him, "He help- ed the masses to help themselves." His career was an illustration of greatness aris- ing out of a long and determined struggle for achievement in a new and venture- some field of human endeavor. His mon- ument is the magnificent institution of which he was the creator and head, and
which links his name with the lives of mil- lions of people,
For nearly forty years Mr. Dryden wa; a resident of Newark, New Jersey, and one its most highly honored citizens. He wa, born August 7, 1839, on a farm at Temple Mills, near Farmington, Maine, and his life is an illustration of what a young man of ordinary means and honest birth can ac- complish. and the kind of heritage he can leave for the benefit of humanity. His par- ents were John and Elizabeth B. Dryden, of old New England ancestry.
Removing with his parents from Maine to Massachusetts when seven years of age, be received his early education in the schools of the latter State. As a youth he was distinguished by his studious nature and intellectual pursuits; and though hi- health was never robust, he fitted himself for college, entering Yale in 1861. His over-zealousness in study broke down hi- heaith and compelled him to leave before the completion of his course. In later years, in recognition of his after achieve- ments, the university conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts; and his name was enrolled as one of the graduates of the class of 1865.
Perhaps Mr. Dryden's glimpse of the frailty of health set him to thinking about life insurance, pointing him in the direction of what proved so conclusively to be his work in life; for immediately after leaving college he became interested in the subject, particularly in its application to the practical solution of the economic prob- lems of the poor. His attention had been attracted to the methods of The Pruden- tial Assurance Company of London, which some years previously had commenced the writing of industrial insurance, or life ill- surance for wage earners, on the weekly payment plan ; and he was greatly impress- ed with the success which had attended its methods. The matter had been discussed in Parliament and elsewhere and had gain-
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ed a wide publicity ; and in the annual re- ports of the Massachusetts Insurance De- partment had received the notice of Pro- fessor Elizur Wright, the State Insurance Commissioner. Procuring the reports of the London company and all available informa- tion, Mr. Dryden studied and analyzed the matter, acquainting himself with the founda- tion principles, the practical details, and the results both from the standpoint of the company and that of the policyholder. He became convinced of the practicability of Americanizing the methods of the English company and establishing industrial insur- ance in this country. Fascinated by tlie idea of putting an insurance policy into every tenement house and poor man's cab- in, he determined to achieve this great bless- ing for the poor. He began at the founda- tion, was full of ambitious enterprise, with an unbounded confidence in himself and the ultimate success of his idea, and it is owing to him that the poor man gets his policy of life insurance.
In 1873 he came to Newark. The long continued business depression of that per- iod, with its attendant panic and its bank failures, made his task a doubly hard one : but he succeeded eventually in interesting Horace Alling ; William H. Murphy, father of former Governor Murphy; Noah F. Blanchard, a leading leather manufacturer of the city ; Dr. Leslie. D. Ward, a practic- ing physician; and others. Obtaining a charter from the State Legislature, he or- ganized "The Widows' and Orphans . Friendly Society," Mr. Dryden becoming the secretary. An office was secured in the basement of the bank at 810 Broad street, Newark; and here in The Prudential's of- fice he helped to lay the cornerstone of the present financial importance of the city of Newark, whose largest institution to-day is The Prudential.
He started the company in an inexpen- sive way and without any salary for him- self, the economy practiced enabling it to weather the early days. It was not many
years, however, before the institution was self-supporting. Shortly after its organi- zation the name of the society was changed to "The Prudential Friendly Society," the intention being at that time to found a workingman's benefit institution which would cover all of the more important con- tingencies affecting the lives of wage earn- ers; that is, giving them financial relief in the event of accident, sickness or death, and granting an annuity in old age. The time had not yet come to cover so ambitious a field as this, however, and the plan was changed to provide for the payment of sums at death. Thinking it best to learn if possible more about the methods of the English Pruden- tial, Mr. Dryden crossed the ocean and made the acquaintance of Sir Henry Har- ben, founder of industrial insurance in the United Kingdom, and for many years pres- ident of the English Prudential. The court- esy with which he was received by the Lon- don institution and its officers, their will- ingness to impart information about the work, and the opportunities which they gave him of studying their ways of doing business, stranger that he was, were a trib- ute to Mr. Dryden's personality.
After Mr. Dryden's return the name of The Prudential Friendly Society was changed to "The Prudential Insurance Company of America." From the earliest beginnings the undertaking was strictly limited to wage earners' insurance or in- dustrial insurance on the weekly payment plan, with the premiums collected from the houses of the insured. A better plan than this could scarcely have been devised, for reasons inherent to the lives and conditions of the earners of weekly wages. The workingman was taught the value of sav- ing. To the high standards maintained by Mr. Dryden's management is due the re- spect in which industrial insurance is held in this country to-day. In ISSI Mr. Dry- den became president of The Prudential, in which office he continued for thirty years, and until his death.
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He had a genius for organization, and excelled in, the management of men. From the beginning he led the forces of The Pru- dential by kind and gentle ways, creating in their minds a trust in him personally and a complete confidence in his word, the result being a force of well-disciplined em- ployees who were loyal to their leader. Mr. Dryden was an excellent judge of char- acter ; his own early experience taught bim to be sympathetic with the trials of his agents, and he was constantly endeavoring to better their condition, finding ways of making their work easier and more suc- cessful. A man of diligence and integrity, cool and courageous, he inspired those about him with like qualities. Mr. Dryden's conception of the social service that ac- companied and underlaid every view of his business was ever uppermost in his mind. So strong and loyal is the memory held for Mr. Dryden by employees of The Pruden- tial that a beautiful bronze statue has been erected by them in the corridor of The Prudential building, Newark, as a tribute of esteem and affection from the field and home office force of the company.
In 1886, The Prudential commenced the issue of ordinary policies in amounts of $1,000 and over. with premiums payable quarterly, and at longer intervals ; the re- sult being a very large and rapidly growing ordinary business whose development was such that on January 1, 1913, the company had over eight hundred and sixty million dollars of ordinary business on its books. . A large amount of this insurance is secur- ed by industrial agents, and thus the bene- fits of every form of safe life insurance are brought home to the mass of the people. The Prudential has at present over 11.000,- 000 industrial and ordinary policies in force, for over $2,211,000,000 industrial and ordinary life insurance, and is indeed a veritable rock of Gibraltar for the pro- tection of the workingman and his family. By issuing the two forms of insurance through one institution, Mr. Dryden secur-
ed for The Prudential a foremost position among the life insurance companies of the world.
Mr. Dryden was identified with the best business interests and prosperity of the city of Newark ; he entered into the affairs of various large organizations with a keen foresight and a sound judgment that won the regard of his associates wherever he moved. He created for the city an im- mense amount of taxable wealth, and gave large additional values to existing property by the improvements he projected. He contributed to the beautifying of the city by the erection of stately buildings, setting the example for others to follow. Trans- forming the old-fashioned and slow-going banking system, he helped to give new life and a new growth to Newark, making it a great financial centre. Suffice it to say that The Prudential now has over three hundred million dollars assets. He estab- lished a network of thrift from the lowest to the highest, showing the working people how to make the best use of their money in life insurance, and advising financial and other organizations how to conduct their enterprises to the best public advantage.
The important part enacted by The Pru- dential in the city of Newark and the State of New Jersey is shown by the fact that that company since its organization has contributed to the city and the State in the form of taxes over eight million dollars, much of which has gone toward the main- tenance of schools, hospitals and other State and local interests.
In appreciation of Mr. Dryden's inval- uable public services New Jersey chose him in 1896 and in 1900 as presidential elector. On January 29, 1902, he was elect- ed to the United States Senate. An active Republican all his life and keenly interest- ed in public affairs, he entered at once into public work, receiving a number of promi- nent Senate committee appointments and making his first speech on the subject of the Chinese exclusion bill. As a member
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of the Inter-Oceanic Canal Committee of the Senate, he was brought into close per- sonal cooperation and friendship with ex- President Taft, then Secretary of War, and rendered distinguished service in bring- ing about the legislation which made pos- sible the completion of the great water- way between the two oceans. As a mem- ber of the Senate library committee and the committee on public buildings and grounds, he secured action upon a number of important measures ; and as a member of the committee on immigration he gave material aid in effecting desirable legisla- tion. His amendment to the railroad rate bill, fixing the time for divorcing the con- trol of mining properties from the rail- roads, proved a wise and most important enactment.
The dignity of his character and the marked abilities which he displayed gave him a strong influence with legislators and officials, and served to smooth the way for important State and local benefits; he was thus enabled to obtain for New Jersey ap- propriations aggregating five million dollars He secured for the State the construction of some of the government's largest war vessels, and enriched the State treasury by over six hundred thousand dollars due from the Federal Government on unpaid Civil War claims. Not the least of his ac- tivities as Senator was his bringing to a successful issue a large number of the spe- cial bills and claims before the pension of- fice for the relief of old soldiers and their widows ; and to every case showing extreme want his personal attention was given. He also presented while in the United States Senate a valuable trophy, known as the Dryden Trophy, with the purpose of in- creasing the efficiency in marksmanship among the National Guard, the Army and the Navy. Indeed. his interest and his ser- vices covered almost every subject of State or National importance; and in the dis- charge of the duties of his high office he displayed the same breadth of view and the
same keenness of intellect that character- ized his administration of The Prudential Insurance Company.
Mr. Dryden's term as United States Sen- ator expired on March 4, 1907, and his health not being good he withdrew from the contest for reelection, leaving the field clear to his successor. Upon recuperating his energies, however, he again became ac- tive in business life and in public affairs ; and during the panic year of 1907 assisted materially in warding off a financial crisis, doing much in the two following years to extend The Prudential's field of operations. Additional structures were planned and completed, so that the four large office buildings in Newark now owned and occu- pied by the company, are considered one of the finest groups of office buildings in the world, and a model in point of archi- tectural beauty and utility for business pur- poses, the home office employees of the company working under the very best pos- sible office conditions.
Senator Dryden was one of the com- mittee that erected the Mckinley Memor- ial at Canton, Ohio; and was appointed chairman of the committee which had in charge the raising of the Cleveland monu- ment at Princeton, having started the movement and organized the Cleveland Monument Association. He personally conducted the movement to successful ac- complishment, the fund of one hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars, which was raised through popular subscription, actually exceeding the amount originally suggested for the project.
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