USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume III > Part 38
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(V) John (2), son of John (1) and Hannah (Hope) Carpenter, was born in Connecticut, about 1658. His will was proved July 30, 1732. His residence was Jamaica, Long Island. After November 22, 1703, he took the oath as captain of troops at Jamaica. He was assessed in 1683 at f78. His wife's name was Mary.
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Children : 1. Nehemiah, born about 1685, died April 25, 1821; married Elizabeth ---. 2. John, is referred to below. 3. Solomon, born about 1686, died 1772. 4. Joseph, born about 1687; married prob- ably Phebe, daughter of Wait Smith. 5. Increase, born about 1688, died about 1776; married a Bergin. 6. Mary. 7. Hannah. 8. Susanna. 9. Phebe.
(VI) John (3), son of John (2) and Mary Carpenter, was born about 1685. He was called "John the Sheriff," to dis- tinguish him from other Carpenters bear- ing his own name. The title was given him because he served as sheriff of Orange county, New York. At one time he de- clined. Shortly after his marriage he re- moved from Long Island to Goshen, New York, where he died. His wife married for her econd husband, Mr. Thurston. By his wife Ruth Coe he had nine children : I. Ruth, born about 1720; married (first) Ephraim Marston; (second) Peter Stagg. . 2. Daniel, born about 1720, died March 10, 1790; married Susan Thompson. 3. Increase. 4. Isaac, married (first) Susan- na (Horton) Little; (second) Susanna (McKinney) Thompson. 5. Temperance, married Jeremiah Curtis. 6. John, re- ferred to below. 7. Benjamin, born about 1750, died 1811 ; married Eunice, sister to J. Stewart. 8. Moses. 9. Susanna, died March 17, 1790; married a Howell.
(VII) John (4), son of John (3) and Ruth (Coe) Carpenter, born June 3, 1730 (or February, 1745, according to another account), died February, 1800. He is said to have represented Orange county in the Colonial Assembly in 1778, also at one time to have been a judge of the same county. He is sometimes called "John the Distiller." He moved to Washington town, north of Albany, New York, and went into the distillery business, which in those days was considered highly honor- able, and accumulated much property. He
was a man of knowledge, held many im- portant offices, and was at one time a member of the Assembly of New York. He was a successful and prominent busi- ness man. January 31, 1779, he married Abigail, born August 29, 1758, died April 21, 1841, daughter of Benjamin and Louise (Cory) Moore, who survived her husband and after his death married Hezekiah N. Woodruff. This was his second marriage. His first wife, name supposed to have been Frances, bore him three children. The remaining nine were the issue of the second marriage. These children were: I. Margaret, born April 30, 1773. 2. Eli- nor, born October 27, 1775. 3. James, baptized September 21, 1777. 4. Cynthia, born May 23, 1782; married Philip C. Schuyler. 5. John Coe, referred to below. 6. Abigail, born August 21, 1787; mar- ried John Sherwood. 7. Susan, born 1795, married Truman Hart. 8. Benjamin, born April 4, 1783, married Charlotte B. Alden. 9. Mary, born July 28, 1789, married John C. Wynans. 10. Temperance, born June 25, 1791; died August 2, 1831 ; married Sands Higinbothan. II. Isaac born Sep- tember 19, 1793; married (first) Cynthia Samantha Goodwin; (second) Emeline Woodward. 12. Elizabeth, born July 19, 1798; married a Leonard.
(VIII) John Coe, son of John and Abi- gail (Moore) Carpenter, was born May 4, 1784. He lived at first at Windham, Greene county, New York, and later in Fayettesville or Manlius, Onondaga coun- ty, New York. By his first wife
Mead, he had three children. In 1807 he married (second) Hannah Babcock, of Coventry, Connecticut, who bore him one more child. Children: 1. John, referred to below. 2. Eliza, born January 1, 1801, married Asahel Peck. 3. Cynthia, born September 21, 1803, married a Ken- ney. 4. Sands Coe, born about 1815, mar- ried Mary Clark.
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(IX) John, eldest child of John Coe Carpenter by his first wife, was born at Windham, Greene county, New York, De- cember 13, 1805, died in Woodbury, New Jersey, July 21, 1891. He took to the printing trade while yet a boy, securing an apprenticeship in the office of the "Herkimer Herald." He became its act- ing editor during his apprenticeship, and at the age of nineteen, differing with the opinion of the editor as to the presidential candidates, he bought the balance of his apprenticeship and the paper with it, and transferred his support from Adams to Jackson. The people of Herkimer coun- ty in the election of 1824 sustained the cause of the new editor. In 1826 Mr. Carpenter was induced to remove to Os- wego, New York, where he helped to establish the Oswego "Palladium," which is yet prosperous and influential and one of the oldest Democratic papers in New York State. The greater part of John Carpenter's younger life was spent in Oswego, which he saw grow from a little village and become a city of considerable commercial importance to the country. It is interesting to note that Mr. Carpen- ter took the first iron printing press used in Oswego from Albany, New York, on a sleigh. After about twenty years labor on the "Palladium" (during which time it did good service for his party being the paper which in the 1840 campaign got from General Harrison and published a famous letter in which he confessed that he had a political committee of three to keep his political conscience and tell what his opinions were on public issue), Mr. Carpenter sold the printing office in order to accept the clerkship of the county, to which he had been elected, but he after- wards for many years contributed to the political columns of the paper.
Throughout his life he was a strict ad- herent to the old party of Jefferson. His
first vote for President was for Andrew Jackson, and his last for Grover Cleve- land, and in his old age he expressed him- self glad to know that for more than half a century he had never failed to discharge his duty as a citizen in voting at every election. He removed to New Jersey a few years before his death, as he was warned by a second attack of pneumonia that he could no longer stand the Lake Ontario winters, but he so timed his removal as to cast his vote in New York State and become a resident of New Jersey the same day. In 1876, when he had voted for the one-hundredth time, he was elect- ed by acclamation to represent the Os- wego district in the Democratic State convention of New York, with a very complimentary resolution by the county convention. He was as unselfish as he was devoted to the party of his prefer- ence. When he did not like its candidates he supported them for their cause. When his own views failed to prevail he prompt- ly accepted those of the majority as dis- tinct from the regular council of the party. In no other way he believed could a party and its principles be sustained and its policy carried to tri- umph for the good and glory of the coun- try. From 1852 to 1856 he was a mem- ber of the New York Democratic com- mittee. He was a staunch friend and ad- herent of President Van Buren. When in 1848 Mr. Van Buren started his own personal party, Mr. Carpenter stood al- most alone in his section in support of the regular ticket of the New York con- vention. In fact, Mr. Nathan Robbins, then collector of the port of Oswego, was the only other person at the time in the Democratic county who with Mr. Car- penter supported the regular electoral ticket. Oswego after this used to be a Democratic county, and Mr. Carpenter was several times elected a member of its
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board of supervisors and took a promi- nent and noble part in the county man- agement.
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He was as devoted to domestic duties and to his private affairs as he was to his duties as a citizen. He won warm and universal esteem as a neighbor. He was unselfishly and untiringly active as long as his eye and hand had strength to labor. Only a few weeks before his death he had helped effectively in the office of the "Gloucester County Democrat," the paper of his son James. The last eight years of his life were spent in comfort at his son's home in Woodbury, New Jersey.
John Carpenter married (first) August 20, 1828, Sarah L., daughter of Andrew Ferrill. M. D., of Herkimer, New York, who died September 14, 1844, having borne him eight children. January 3, 1848. he married (second) Mary, daugh- ter of Judge Edmund Hawkes, of Oswego, New York, born December 16, 1821, who "bore him seven children.
BEEKMAN, George C., Lawyer, Antiquarian, Historian.
George Crawford Beekman was a de- scendant of Maarten Beeckman, who died at Albany, in 1676. His father, Jacob T. B. Beekman, graduated at Union College, Schenectady; entered Theological Semi- nary at New Brunswick, New Jersey, and was licensed as a minister of Reformed Dutch church in 1826. He was called the same year as pastor of the Dutch church then located in what was the old town- ship of Middletown, Monmouth county, but afterwards taken off to form what is now Holmdel township. Here he served ten years, content, as he once remarked to his friend, Rev. Garret C. Schenck, with "stipends sufficient to pay the board of myself and my horse." He also did con- siderable missionary service through
Monmouth county, which then included the county of Ocean. He rode about on horseback, preaching in school houses and sometimes in barns. In 1836 he sev- ered his connections with the Holmdel Dutch church and took up his permanent residence in the village of Middletown, where he resided the rest of his life. The first Baptist church in what is now the State of New Jersey had been organized in this place. The population of English descent were strong believers in baptism by immersion. Even in the coldest win- ters they would cut holes through the ice of the nearest mill pond to baptize their converts. The Dutch church at Holm- del, then called the Middletown Dutch Church, was five miles distant by the pub- lic road from Middletown village. With the good will of four or five farmers of Dutch descent, named Hendrickson, Luy- ster and Couwenhoven, residing on farms over a mile west from Middletown vil- lage, it was resolved to purchase a lot and erect a church in this village. Many people ridiculed the idea of building a church when there was no congregation to fill it or support a minister ; others said, "the people here are all Baptists and they will not attend a church where people are sprinkled with a few drops of water." Undisturbed by the clamors, Mr. Beek- man went on. A lot was bought and a church was built. He gave freely of his time, labor and means. He even bor- rowed $500 on his individual note, to pay some of the final indebtedness. When the edifice was completed, Mr. Beekman gave public notice that he would preach every Sunday, and invited the people to attend, assuring all of a welcome. At- tracted more by curiosity than piety, a large number of people attended, for there was nothing to pay. Not only on that Sunday but for nearly three years following, he preached without any salary
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or other perquisites. In that time he had gathered a congregation able and willing to support an unmarried man as pastor. Mr. Beekman secured a young and single man named Crawford to serve as their first regularly installed pastor at a stated salary. During the three years Mr. Beek- man preached, he had the care of conduct- ing a farm and other business, In the year 1837 he lost an infant daughter. Three years before, his first born, a son, named Edwin, died. The graves of those two children, with headstones giving their names and dates of death, may be seen to-day in the yard behind this church. They were among the first in- terments in this burying-ground. Mr. Beekman's funeral was held in this church, and was the only thing he ever received for his sacrifices and services. It was, however, now too small to seat the crowd of people who turned out to pay their last respects to the memory of "Dominie Beekman," as he was generally ". called. Mr. Beekman, later in life, preached many years at Port Washing- ton, as Oceanic was then called. He also preached at one time for a church in New York City and elsewhere. He never re- fused to preach the funerals of the col- ored people when requested.
He married, February 12, 1833, Ann (born February 22, 1801, died May 18, 1876), daughter of George Crawford and Eleanor Schanck, his second wife.
George Crawford Beekman was born July 2, 1839, in the same dwelling where his mother was born and had always re- sided, at west end of Middletown village ; this house was accidentally burned down in 1892. At age of fifteen he entered the freshman class of Princeton College, and graduated in 1859, receiving the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in course. He entered as a student of law in the office of Joel Parker, of Freehold.
His first vote was cast the same year for the Douglas electors on the presidential ticket, erasing four electors who repre- sented the ultra-southern pro-slavery Democracy and the "Know Nothing" party. He did this without knowing that a majority of the New Jersey Democrats would vote the same way, and was there- fore surprised that these three electors were the only ones chosen. When South Carolina passed her act of secession, he wrote an article for the Republican paper at Freehold, now known as the "Mon- mouth Inquirer," signed "A Jackson Democrat," and expressing his views as to the result if they were permitted to dis- solve the Union peaceably. This article attracted considerable attention, and evoked a savage criticism from James S. Yard in the "Monmouth Democrat."
Mr. Beekman was licensed by the Su- preme Court of New Jersey in 1863 as an attorney at law, and three years later as a counsellor. Joel Parker, elected Governor of New Jersey in 1863, permitted Mr. Beekman to use his law office and library at Freehold during his term. In the win- ter of 1869 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the appointment of a "law judge" for Monmouth county, with an annual salary of $1,800 ; the act prohibited the incumbent from, practice of law dur- ing his term. Mr. Beekman was the first judge to occupy this position in Mon- mouth county. The first two years he was fully occupied in the trials of the accumulated cases and such new busi- ness as came in, the third year he had only the new business, and this did not occupy the courts over two months of continuous time during the year. As he was debarred from practice of law and had no other business, he spent consider- able time searching the records of Mon- mouth county and gained considerable information, showing where the first set-
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tlers in Monmouth came from, how the early courts were constituted and who were the judges, etc .; also the disputes between the Scotch and English settlers, and other facts of interest. Some of these researches he gave to James S. Yard, who published them from week to week in his newspaper. This was purely a labor of love as Mr. Beekman received no com- pensation and expected none. At a later date Mr. Yard had these articles, with others written by Hon. Edwin Salter, and some compiled by himself, bound to- gether in books, entitled "Old Times in Old Monmouth," and put on the market at five dollars per copy.
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During the three years Mr. Beekman served as judge he tried many civil and criminal cases; few were carried to the higher courts for review; none was re- versed or modified, but were all affirmed. Becoming weary of the idleness of this office, Mr. Beekman resigned in the win- ter of 1873. He at once resumed the 'practice of law at Freehold. During his forty years of practice at Freehold, he tried many civil and criminal cases, some of which attracted great public in- terest and involved important interests. The New Jersey Law and Equity Re- ports show some of these cases, but the great majority were never carried out of the county courts of Monmouth. In 1876 Mr. Beekman was a delegate to the presi- dential convention of the National Demo- cratic party held at St. Louis. He con- sidered the convention as characterized by want of deliberation, stifling of dis- cussion, and unfair management, which changed Mr. Beekman's opinions on the subject of "Democracy." Then and there he resolved never to take part in another Democratic convention in the county or State under party call. All his former ideas of Democracy were revolutionized and upset. In 1878 he took part in a
county convention in Freehold, and by which he was nominated for State Sena- tor, and he was also nominated by the Republican convention, which was in ses- sion at the same time. After organiza- tion, on motion of Edward Hartshorne, a committee of seven were appointed to draft resolutions expressing the views of the conventions. Mr. Beekman was named as chairman of this committee, and drew the resolutions, which were re- ported and unanimously adopted. Mr. Beekman was elected by a majority of over five hundred. For the first time since 1850, the regular nominee of the Democratic party in Monmouth county was defeated. The senate journal of New Jersey and other legislative documents for years 1879-80-81 show that he faith- fully carried out to the best of his ability the platform of the convention. He was invited by representatives of both parties to take part in their caucus, but he re- fused to enter either. Mr. Garret Hobart, who served as Senator from Passaic coun- ty and was afterwards elected Vice-Presi- dent of the United States, wrote to some of his Republican friends in Monmouth county some years after Senator Beek- man's term had expired, that no one dur- ing his term could have determined by his votes what party he belonged to.
In 1879 bills were introduced in the Legislature to give the justices of the Supreme Court and Secretary of State a fixed yearly salary instead of fees. This was the beginning of that legislation which finally did away with the fee sys- tem in New Jersey. It was opposed bit- terly, and nearly twenty years passed be- fore it could be extended to all the State and county offices. The fight was hard and bitter. Mr. Beekman was obliged to draw himself all the reform bills he intro- duced. The first year he got through an amendment to the bribery act, allowing
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one of the parties to the crime to testify against the other, and if he told the truth granting him immunity. He also intro- duced a bill to repeal the act requiring the session laws to be published in the news- papers of the State, at an annual expense of some $70,000 to the taxpayers. An- other bill Senator Beekman introduced, to repeal act requiring sheriff's sales of land to be published in two newspapers, and expense of the printing paid out of the property of the debtor, who is sold out. Mr. Beekman also introduced sev- eral bills, concerning his own county, which became laws, such as the act creat- ing the "Township of Neptune ;" and the act to appropriate $10,000 toward erect- ing a monument on the battlefield of Mon- mouth, which also passed. It was the first monument erected in New Jersey to Honor the memory of our Revolutionary fathers. Ile also voted for the law, giv- ing justices jurisdiction of civil suits to amount of $200: also the law forbidding suits on bonds in law suits, when mort- gage given to secure the same, was being foreclosed in the Court of Chancery. He also drew and introduced a bill cutting down costs of the foreclosure of mort- gages one-half, when the amount due did not exceed five hundred dollars.
In 1880 Mr. Hobart, president of the Senate, appointed Mr. Beekman chairman of the joint committee of the two houses on State library. He carefully examined the books and found it was almost wholly a law library and used principally by the Trenton lawyers and judges. He drew a report recommending the purchase of standard works useful to other profes- sions and occupations, also the collection of all local histories, pamphlets, etc., re- lating to any part of New Jersey. This report was agreed to and signed by the other members. (See "Report of Joint
Committee on State Library for year 1880," among the legislative documents).
Mr. Beekman's term as Senator ended in 1882. Mr. Murphy served in the lower house one term. In 1882 the partnership of Beekman & Murphy was amicably dis- solved, after an existence of eight years. From this time until he removed from Freehold to Red Bank, in 1903, Mr. Beek- man conducted the law business alone. For forty years he practiced law at the county seat of Monmouth and during this time, as the court records will show, he never sued any one on his own account. If his clients failed to pay, he let the claim go. During those years he contributed to the "Monmouth Democrat" and "Mon- mouth Inquirer," then the only news- papers published in Freehold, many ar- ticles on political questions, some tales founded on local tradition, and also facts relating to the early history of Monmouth county. These last he gathered from the old records in the county clerk's office and from old documents and papers which had been treasured up in some of the old families of the county. James S: Yard, owner and editor of the "Monmouth Dem- ocrat," included part of these contribu- tions in the book compiled and published by him entitled "Old Times in Old Mon- mouth." This work was purely a "labour of love," Mr. Beekman never asked or ex- pected any compensation. At a later date the "Freehold Transcript," a third news- paper, was established at Freehold. A series of articles on some of the "Early Hollanders" who settled in Monmouth county was published in the weekly issues of this paper, and extending through some two years. The owner and editor of the "Transcript" also issued one hun- dred and twenty-five copies in book form, for which he charged five dollars per copy ; he generously turned over one-lialf of these receipts to the compiler. This
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was the only pecuniary reward Mr. Beek- man ever received for his literary efforts.
ยท Mr. Beekman married, at Freehold, No- vember 6, 1877, Laura B. Alston, a de- scendant of the Alstons who resided at or near Woodbridge, Middlesex county, New Jersey, prior to the Revolutionary War. During the war or after one of this fam- ily resided on Staten Island. His son. David Alston, with his wife and two sons, removed from Staten Island, by way of Tottenville, over to New Jersey, in 1815. He took up his residence at Spotswood. Here he remained several years, having two more sons and three daughters born at this last place. From here he removed to Juliustown, Burlington county. New Jersey, where he lived the remainder of his life. One of his sons. Abraham D. Alston, married, in 1839, Caroline Bare- ford, and had ten children-five sons and .ve daughters. His fourth daughter. Laura B., was born March 2. 1852. and married Mr. Beekman, as above stated. Three sons-Alston, Jacob Ten Broeck and Edwin Laurens,-and one daughter. named Anne Crawford. were born. The last died December 16, 1902, at Free- hold, was buried in Beekman plot, at Fairview cemetery. The eldest son mar- ried Matilda, daughter of John Craig, and engaged in practice of law at Red Bank. The second son, Jacob Ten Broeck, re- sided with his parents. The third and youngest son, Edwin Laurens, resided on Beekman's farm, at Middletown. This farm has been in the family over a cen- tury, and is generally considered one of the most productive in that vicinity. The railroads from New York to Red Bank pass over the north end of it.
Mr. Beekman was a member of Olive Branch Lodge, No. 16, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Freehold, New Jer- sey. He served four years as worshipful master, and at his death was the oldest
past master of this lodge. Mr. Beekman removed from Freehold to Red Bank in 1903, taking up his permanent residence at No. 54 Shrewsbury avenue, on the banks of the Shrewsbury river.
HOPE, Washington L., Man of Enterprise.
Reuben Hope emigrated with his two brothers, Cornelius and Thomas, from England to America, early in 1800. The family was formerly French, where the name was L'Esperance, and they were banished from France with other Hugue- nots. Reuben Hope was born in 1774, and after his arrival in New York he be- came one of the prominent old time mer- chants of that city, his business being shipper and importer. He died in 1854.
When the Marquis de Lafayette came on his official visit to this country in Au- gust, 1824, at the invitation of the United States government, Mr. Hope was one of the officials appointed to welcome him to New York City, and his youngest child being born at this time, he commemorated the event by naming him Washington Lafayette. Reuben married Catherine, daughter of Abner Taylor, a member of the New York family of the name, and closely allied to many of the old and prominent colonial Dutch and other fam- ilies. Her father himself was a Revolu- tionary soldier, and had been especially commanded for his efficient services to his country in the blockading of the Hud- son river near West Point, and also in the counties of Rockland, Orange and Ulster, New York. Children of Reuben and Catherine (Taylor) Hope: 1. Wil- liam, a farmer and large real estate oper- ator. 2. George Taylor, for many years president of the Continental Fire Insur- ance Company of New York City. 3. Samuel Waller, of Trenton, New Jersey ;
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