USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume III > Part 28
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He married, in Newark, in the year 1893, Lottie A. Ball, daughter of George and Sarah E. Ball, and they were the par- ents of two children : Russell Alvin and Mildred Evelyn, both residing with their mother in the family residence on High street, West Orange, built by the father in 1902.
On the evening of October 28, 1913, while going in his automobile to attend a men's dinner at the Central Presbyterian Church, where several prominent speak- ers were to participate, Mr. Flint's auto- mobile was struck by a trolley car, and his death was the result. His funeral was very largely attended, and he was buried with Masonic honors, and also those of
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the Junior Order of the United American Mechanics. His body was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery. Appropriate reso- lutions expressing the loss sustained by the community were passed by the boards of directors of the Building and Loan As- sociation, the New Jersey Fire Insurance Company, and the First National Bank of West Orange. In the life of Mr. Flint is found ample inspiration for the youth of to-day, who may seek to better their own! condition by their own industry, and to benefit the world by exemplary and use- ful lives.
HOOPER, Robert Lettis,
Active in Revolution, Ironmaster.
The name of Robert Lettis Hooper is unfamiliar nowadays. Yet Hooper was a figure of importance in the Revolutionary War. He came of New Jersey forbears, and died a resident of the State.
The first American Hooper was named Daniel, and he came from Barbados. He was in 1679 a member of Governor Philip Carteret's council. He was also a justice of the peace for the county court at Eliz- abeth Town and Newark. Later he re- turned to Barbados, but came again to New Jersey. He was granted a patent for six hundred and forty-eight acres in Somerset county in 1692.
Robert Lettis Hooper, the great-grand- son of Daniel, was the third in succession to bear that name. His father, Robert Lettis (2nd), died April 20, 1785; he is buried at Trenton. There were two sons, Robert and Jacob. They were partners in the milling business. In 1761 the part- nership was dissolved.
Robert Lettis (3rd) later had a store in Philadelphia, but becoming financially embarrassed he was obliged to close up. He then traveled west, making surveys, and was engaged in projects for colonies
for some years. He visited Sir William Johnson, at Fort Johnson, in the Mohawk Valley, and twice later was on the fron- tier at Fort Pitt.
Hooper wrote from Philadelphia, Au- gust 18, 1775, a letter brimming over with enthusiasm. There were rifle companies forming, and the "servile engines of min- isterial power," namely the British troops, were likely to get a surprise.
Hooper settled later in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, and was made a deputy quartermaster-general. His de- partment covered three counties in Penn- sylvania, and the county of Sussex in New Jersey. In his activities to procure food and other supplies for the army, he made enemies, of course, and was once the subject of investigation. Washing- ton, however, seems to have had confi- dence in him throughout the controversy. Hooper apparently objected for a time to taking the oath of allegiance to the pa- triots' cause, and was said to have dis- couraged such an act on the part of others. It appears that this attitude arose from a kind of pride or principle, and that later, after being under criticism, he subscribed without scruple to a new form prescribed by Congress for officers of the army.
After the war, Hooper became an iron- master, and had much to do with mines. He became deeply interested in the Ring- wood Iron Works, in Bergen county.
He took for his second wife Elizabeth Erskine, widow of Robert Erskine. Er- skine died at Ringwood, December 19, 1780. The second Mrs. Hooper died in 1796, and July 30 of the next year Robert Lettis Hooper died in his home a short distance from Trenton.
In the course of time Peter Cooper and Abram S. Hewitt, Cooper's son-in-law, became owners of the Durham, Iron Works of Pennsylvania, and the Ring- wood Iron Works of New Jersey. On a
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wall in the Hewitt mansion at Ringwood hangs framed a letter written by Robert L. Hooper, in which, to a friend, he an- nounces his engagement to the widow Erskine.
Recently Charles Henry Hart, of Phil- adelphia, has been making investigations about Hooper. An article on Hooper, by Mr. Hart, previously published in the "Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography," now appears in a pamphlet limited to fifty copies. J. F. F.
SCOTT, Rev. Orange, Minister, Hymnist.
When camp meetings came into vogue they brought about in time their own lit- erature. The institution endured long enough to produce books, tracts, tradi- tions and hymns. Viewed in the retro- spect the movement was accompanied by much of the dramatic and the romantic. The traveling preacher was a picturesque figure and the protracted meetings in the woods were crammed with incident.
There is a little book of hymns, pub- lished in 1831, which has especial interest. It is entitled "A New and Improved Camp Meeting Hymn Book." It was compiled by Orange Scott, and printed by the Mer- riams at Brookfield, Massachusetts. One of the most curious hymns in this collec- tion is an Indian dialect hymn. Imagine a congregation of the present day, soberly .. singing the following really tender and pathetic verses :
In de dark wood, no Indian nigh, Den me look heaven, and send up cry Upon my knee so low. Den God on high in shining place, See me in night wid teary face, De priest he tell me so.
He sends he angel take me care, He come heself to hear me prayer, If Indian heart do pray.
N J-3-13
He see me now, he know me here, He say, poor Indian neber fear, Me wid you night and day.
So me lub God wid inside heart, He fight for me, he take um part, He save um life before;
God lub poor Indian in de wood, Den me lub God, and dat be good ; Me pray him two times more.
Orange Scott, the compiler of this camp meeting hymnal, once lived in Newark, New Jersey, and there he died, July 31, 1847. He purchased a home at 50 Dark Lane in that city in the summer of 1846, and took possession in September. About a year after his going there he died of consumption, aged forty-eight years. He was buried at Springfield, Massachusetts, where an oration over him was pro- nounced by Rev. Lucius Matlack.
Orange Scott was born February 13, 1801, at Brookfield, Vermont. The fam- ily was so poor that the boy's schooling totaled but thirteen months, and his re- ligious opportunities were the scantier be- cause of lack of proper clothing to wear to church. While living at Barre, Ver- mont, in 1820 he was converted at a camp meeting. He was licensed as a local preacher in 1822. In 1834 he was the presiding elder of the Providence (Rhode Island) district.
Scott was strong in his attitude against slavery. In 1837 he engaged "in a some- what extensive Anti-slavery Agency." His health failed in 1840, and he removed to Newbury, Vermont, to engage in manual labor and to write occasionally for the press. With two others he founded in 1842 the "Wesleyan Methodist Church," the object of which was the elimination of the episcopal features of the Methodist body. He edited "The True Wesleyan" for some years.
Orange Scott is said to have been one of the most popular preachers of New
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England. He was noted for his contro- versial abilities and had a voice of great compass and power.
Many a Newarker, it is safe to say, would find it difficult to give, offhand, the location of Dark Lane, the street in which Rev. Orange Scott made his home. Perhaps some citizens will be surprised to learn that, in this day of light, a Dark Lane exists in Newark. Dark Lane for- merly ran from South Orange avenue, at the intersection of Jones street, in a south- westerly direction, as far as Spruce, then called Harbour street. When Springfield avenue came into existence Dark Lane ended at that avenue. We are not able to state how Dark Lane got its name. We imagine it was so far out of town that at night it was a gloomy road, and gained thus its title. This old-time street still survives in part. It can be seen at the junction of Jones street and South Orange avenue, cutting its crooked path through the apex formed by those two thorough- fares. After crossing Hayes street it twists in toward Fourteenth avenue, and there gets lost behind some buildings.
Though all the sketches of Scott state that he died July 31, 1847, there is found in the local papers of Newark of that time . no reference to the death of this noted man, who once set the New England cir- cuits afire with his eloquence. J. F. F.
BASSETT, Allan Lee, Soldier, Editor, Underwriter.
Allan Lee Bassett was born on the family farm in New Haven county, near Derby, Connecticut, on February 28, 1827. His ancestors were of old Puritan stock. John Bassett, the first of his pa- ternal line in this country, came to New Haven from England in 1642, and many of his descendants were prominent in the colonial life of New England, being land-
owners, farmers, educators, legislators and soldiers. His maternal ancestors were no less distinguished. His mother, Nancy Lee, was a descendant in the sixth generation of john Eliot, the Apostle, who emigrated in 1631 from England to Massachusetts, where he made himself famous not only for his learning but for his labors and sufferings as a missionary among the Indians.
The parents of Allan desired to edu- cate him for a professional career, as in the case of his brothers, Eliot and Benja- min, who were graduates of Yale Col- lege ; one becoming a clergyman and the other a physician. Accordingly young Allan was sent to Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, where he received scund preparation for college. His en- terprising spirit and eager desire to take part in the busy scenes of life could not, however, brook the delay incident to a college course, and at the age of eighteen he went to New York City to enter the commercial house of his uncle, Benjamin Franklin Lee, as a clerk. During the succeeding twenty years he was actively engaged in commercial affairs, organized and successfully conducted the firm of Bassett & Mace, manufacturers and wholesale dealers in twine and hardware.
When the Civil War broke out he or- ganized a military company known as the Brooklyn Greys, of which he was made captain. It was attached under the name of Company D to the Twenty-third Regi- ment, National Guard of the State of New York, and took part in quelling the New York riots and in the battle of Gettys- burg. He remained at the head of the company until the close of the war, when he returned to his home in Brooklyn, dis- posed of his business, resigned his com- mission in the regiment, and with his family removed to Irvington, New Jer- sey. In May, 1866, he established the
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"Northern Monthly and New Jersey Magazine," of which he was editor and sole proprietor. Its editorial department furnishes evidence of Captain Bassett's good judgment and literary taste as a writer. Two years of close application in this editorial work induced him to sell "The Magazine" to the Putnams of New York, and it was thereafter published as "Putnam's Magazine and Northern Monthly."
Soon after abandoning the editorial chair in 1870, he engaged in the real estate business. The financial panic which took place during the following two years drove all land speculators from the market and with them went his occu- pation as well as a large share of his earnings. On the return of better times in 1875, he organized the Prudential In- surance Company, now one of the most important institutions of its kind in the country. He became its first president, and largely through his efforts the com- pany was placed upon the basis which made possible the wonderful success which has followed. But differences of opinion arising in the conduct of its affairs, he withdrew in 1879 and associ- ated himself with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York, and continued throughout the remainder of his life to occupy a position as superin- tendent in New Jersey, making Newark his residence.
Captain Bassett was a staunch Repub- lican, and for several years chairman of the Essex County Republican Committee. He was always among the foremost in enterprises whose aim was the welfare of the community in which he lived. He was a prominent and influential member of the Board of Trade of the city of New- ark, and was elected as its president for four terms, an honor without precedent in that organization. He was also a mem-
ber of the Washington Association, which was established for the purpose of pur- chasing and preserving Washington's Headquarters at Morristown, New Jer- sey. In the New Jersey Historical Soci- ety he also manifested much interest, and labored zealously to secure a fireproof building for its valuable collections. From early life he was an earnest, con- sistent Christian, active in every good work. His genial nature endeared him to every one who knew him, and his won- derful energy and executive abilities gave him prominence in every movement, pub- lic or private, in which he took part.
In December, 1853, Captain Bassett married Caroline, daughter of John Phil- lips, M. D., of Bristol, Pennsylvania. Six children were born to them, four of whom and their mother died during his resi- dence in Brooklyn.
Captain Bassett died at his home in Newark, New Jersey, on December 14, 1892. He is survived by a daughter, Al- lena, wife of Rev. John Balcom Shaw, D. D., LL. D., president of Elmira College, New York ; and a son, Carroll P. Bassett. of Summit, New Jersey.
GIFFORD, Archer and Charles L. C., Attorneys-at-Law.
The name of Gifford is of French or Huguenot extraction. According to fam- ily tradition, Baron Walter, son of Os- borne Bolle, was given the sobriquet of Gifford, Giffard or Gyffard, signifying liberality or generosity, which was ac- corded him. According to the best infor- mation concerning the early ancestors of the family, Archer Gifford, Giffard or Gyffard, of Normandy, married Katherine de Blois or Le Blon, a descendant of a noted family of Normandy, who were of the nobility of that country. Archer came from Wales to America in 1756, settling
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in Canada. He joined the English army and fought against the French. He died in Canada.
The Giffords of Essex county, New Jersey, are a Welsh family. John Gifford, born in Wales, appears for the first time . upon New Jersey records as a private in Captain Craig's company of State troops during the Revolutionary War. The next record of him is a marriage license in the office of the Secretary of State at Tren- ton, stating that April 7, 1770, he obtained permission to marry Hannah Crane, their marriage occurring a little later in the same month. After his marriage he made permanent residence in Newark, where he built for himself a house on what is now the southwest corner of Broad and Acade- my streets, having on his right William Rodger's house and saddlery, on his left the old Newark Academy, while facing him on the opposite side of Broad street was the mansion of Dr. Uzal Johnson. This house later passed into the posses- sion of William Tuttle, but not until after Captain John Gifford (so called from his Revolutionary service) had passed away.
Between Dr. Johnson's and Captain Gif- ford's on the roadside was one of the town pumps, which as late as 1812 was used for one of the official public bulletin boards, as at the Newark town meeting of April 12th, in that year, passed a resolution that all hogs running at large were to be subjected to a poundage of fifty "cents which if not paid in four days was to be collected by selling the hogs and that notices of such sales were to be posted "at three different places viz. at Moses Roff's, at the pump opposite Captain Gif- ford's in Broad Way and at Jacob Plum's store in the north part of the town." Captain Gifford died intestate in 1821, leaving his widow and seven children : Katherine, married Dr. Enion Skelton, of Virginia; Mary, died unmarried; Pa-
tience, married Robert Johnson; Sarah, married (first) Benjamin Whittaker, (second) Robert Johnson, whose first wife was her deceased sister Patience; Anna, married William Miller, of Morris- town, New Jersey ; Susan, married Thom- as Chapman, an attorney of Camden, New Jersey ; Archer, of further mention. Han- nah (Crane) Gifford, wife of Captain John Gifford, was the second daughter of Jo- seph Crane, great-grandson of Jasper Crane, one of the original settlers of Newark, who came from Branford, Con- necticut. Joseph Crane was town con- stable in 1778, the year before his daugh- ter's marriage to Captain John Gifford.
Archer Gifford, only son of Captain John and Hannah (Crane) Gifford, was born in Newark, in 1790, and died there, May 12, 1859. After preparation at New- ark Academy, he entered the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) whence he was graduated, class of 1814, later receiving from that institution the degree of Master of Arts. After gradu- ation he began the study of law in the office of Elias Van Arsdale, continuing until his admission to the bar in 1818. He at once began practice in Newark, con- tinuing for about twelve years, winning high reputation as one of the rising young constitutional lawyers. During that period he collected much of the material for his valuable contribution to the legal literature of the State, published later under the title, "Digest of the Statutory and Constitutional Constructions, etc., With an Index to the Statutes at Large." In 1832, when the town became so popu- lous that the lecture room of the Third Presbyterian Church, the largest hall in Newark and in use as a town hall since 1830, would no longer accommodate the meeting, he was appointed with Isaac Andruss, Joseph C. Hornblower, Stephen Dod and William H. Earle, a committee
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"to digest a plan for the division of the township into two or more wards, with a system for the transaction of the town- ship business upon equitable principles." When the report of the committee had been discussed and a revised plan finally adopted, James Vanderpool and Archer Gifford were appointed to represent the ·north ward of the town on the committee that prepared the bill for presentation to the Legislature. That bill became a law and the ward system so organized was carried into effect in April, 1833, and oper- ated successfully for three years when the town received its charter as a city, in April, 1836. In the same year Archer Gif- ford was appointed by President Andrew Jackson, collector of customs for the port , of Newark, an office he held for twelve years, and for several years was also a member of Newark common council, an office to which he was elected in 1843. He was also for many years an active and enthusiastic member of the New Jersey Historical Society and many valuable 1 contributions to its collections were the results of his efforts.
As a devoted churchman and a com- municant of Trinity Episcopal Church. Mr. Gifford labored long and earnestly. For twenty-four years he was senior warden of the parish and took an active part in the rising Tractarian discussion of his day, writing and publishing a strong controversial pamphlet on the "Unison of the Liturgy." During the greater part of his life he was a man of robust health and it is said that he en- joyed nothing better than a walk from Trenton to Newark, a distance of fifty miles, which he often accomplished in going to and from the sessions of the Su- preme Court. He married Louisa C. Cammann, of New York, who bore him six children : 1. Charles Louis Cammann, of further mention. 2. Ellen M. 3. John
Archer, now president of the Security Savings Bank of Newark, married Mary Jane Alling. 4. Louisa Cammann. 5. George Ernest Cammann, once manager of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York; married Jane Elizabeth Smith. 6. Philip Augustus, once manager of the "Newark Evening Journal."
Charles Louis Cammann Gifford, eldest son of Archer and Louisa C. (Cammann) Gifford, was born in Newark, New Jersey. in November, 1825, and died there, March 29, 1877. He was a graduate in 1845, a inember of the third class of Yale Law School, Yale University, continued study in the office of his father, and in January, 1847, was admitted to the bar as an at- torney. For the next four years, while still engaged in legal work and study, he was deputy collector of the port of New- ark, serving under his father's successor James Hewson, in the office of collector. In January, 1850, Mr. Gifford was ad- mitted to the New Jersey bar as a coun- sellor and practiced in Newark. He was elected a member of the House of As- sembly in 1857, serving in 1858-59-60 as State Senator, and during the last year as president of the Senate. He was all his life a Democrat, and with the single ex- ception of the year 1861 was prominently identified with that party. In that year he was the anti-Democratic candidate for mayor of Newark against Moses Bigelow, but was defeated. On June 29, 1872, he was sworn in as presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Essex county to fill the unexpired term of Judge Fred- erick H. Teese who had resigned on his removal to another county. He was suc- ceeded as judge two years later by Judge Caleb S. Titsworth, owing to his own failing health.
In 1875 Judge Gifford and his wife went to Europe in the hope that the sea voyage and rest would restore his former
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health and vigor. He returned apparently much improved, but he gradually failed and after many months of suffering died at his home, No. 55 Fulton street, New- ark, at two o'clock in the morning of March 29, 1877. He was a lifetime member of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, and there his funeral services were held, Rev. John H. Eccleston, D. D., officiating.
He married Helen Matoaka Murray, of Virginia, who bore him six children: I. William Murray, born in 1852. 2. Charles, died in infancy. 3. Oswald Cammann, born in 1856, died in 1892; married Frances Kingsland and left three children: Edmund, Virginia and Helen Murray. 4. Susan V. 5. Frank W. 6. Archer, born July 8, 1859; married, April 24. 1889, Evelyn A., daughter of Henry W. and Mary G. (Abeel) Duryee, and has two children: Gertrude M. and Helen J.
CAMPBELL, Wallace Sherwood, Manufacturer.
The late Wallace Sherwood Campbell was one of Newark's enterprising and honored citizens, occupying a leading position in the industrial world where his activities resulted in bringing to him splendid success, and at the same time were of value to the community by fur- nishing employment to a large force of workmen. Mr. Campbell was born in Newark, New Jersey, March 20, 1868, son of Charles Whittaker and Emma Frances (Simonson) Campbell, old residents of Newark.
Wallace S. Campbell acquired a good education by attendance at the public schools of Newark, completing his studies at the age of sixteen years, when he ac- cepted a minor position in the firm of Day & Clark, with which he was con-
nected throughout the active years of his life. His enterprise and ability soon gained for him promotion, and in due course of time he became the commercial representative of the firm, later being ad- mitted to partnership therein, becoming a junior member. The firm of Day & Clark was later incorporated and resumed its business under the name of Day-Clark Company, manufacturers of jewelry, for which the city of Newark is noted, and Mr. Campbell was chosen to fill the offices of secretary and director, in which ca- pacities he was serving at the time of his death. The splendid success of the enter- prise was due in large measure to the good judgment and straightforward methods of Mr. Campbell, who throughout his connection with the business manifested untiring energy and unflagging applica- tion to the duties which fell to his share. Mr. Campbell was a staunch adherent of Republican principles, but aside from casting his vote for the man whom he considered the best for the office, he took no part in public life, preferring to devote his leisure time to his family, to whom he was devotedly attached, and to inter- course with his friends, of which he had many. He was a member of St. Barna- bas Church of Newark (Episcopal), the Jewelers Club of Philadelphia, and the Roseville Athletic Club.
Mr. Campbell married at Grace Epis- copal Church, Newark, April 22, 1891, Mary Florence Sullivan, daughter of Fla- vel Woodruff and Emilie (Thomas) Sul- livan, well known residents of the south side of Newark. Mr. Sullivan was active in public life, serving as street commis- sioner, member of the road board, and secretary of the fire commission. Chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Campbell : Gertrude, born July 31, 1892, became the wife of George E. Brixner, of Newark, and they are the parents of one child, George E.,
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