USA > New Jersey > New Jersey first citizens : biographies and portraits of the notable living men and women of New Jersey with informing glimpses into the state's history and affairs, 1917-1918, Vol. I > Part 15
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At this time the Diocesan authorities decided to appoint a Superintendent of the Pa- rochial School system, and re- membering Father Dillon's work at Seton Hall, selected him for the office. The school system of the Diocese has been organ- ized under his supervision and developed to its present degree of efficiency. His annual reports . as Superintendent are valued by educators for their interest- ing grouping of statistics and for their progressive educational suggestions. There are now un- der Dr. Dillon's care as Super- intendent, one hundred and thir- ty one schools with an enroll- ment of sixty three thousand children.
The Catholic Educational Association has twice selected Supt. Dillon National President of the Parish School Department and member of the General Executive Board of the Association.
As a lecturer Father Dillon is much in demand on religions, education- al and social topics. In recognition of his educational work Seton Hall conferred on him the honorary degree of LL. D. at the commencement, 1917.
WILLIAM FREDERICK DIX-East Orange, (59 Washington Street )-Author, Editor, Financier. Born in Newark, November 18, 1867 ; son of John Edwin and Mary Fisher Joy Dix : married June 2, 1900 to Mary Alice Tennille, daughter of William Alexander Tennille and Clara Tuttle Tennille, of East Orange.
Children : Tennille, Alison Joy and Norman Brooke.
William Frederick Dix is Secretary of the Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany of New York, Governor National Institute of Efficiency, Deputy Governor General Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New Jersey,
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Chairman Board of International Hospitality. Deputy Governor of the New Jersey Order Society of Founders and Patriots, and Major in the Home Defense League New York Police Reserve. He is a member of the Authors Club, N. Y. ; Westhampton Country Club, L. I .; Orange Lawn Tennis Club, Glenwood Tennis Club and Crystal Lake Skating Club.
After graduating from the Berkeley School, New York City, he entered Princeton, graduating with honors in English in 1889. He spent the next three years in travel, visiting almost every country in Europe, Algiers, Tunis, Egypt, Nubia, the Holy Land, Asia Minor, Greece, Bulgaria, Servia, Roumania, India, Burma, Ceylon, Singapore, Cochin China, China, Japan and the western part of the United States.
Later he became Literary Editor of "The Churchman," New York and a contributor of fiction, verse and travel articles to "The Century," "Out- look." "Independent," "McClures," and other magazines. In 1900 with the late William B. Howland he took over the old "Home Journal" and developed it into "Town and Country." After the insurance investigations he went in with the reform administration of the Mutual Life and has been secretary of that company ever since.
He is the author of "The Face in the Girandole," a romance of old furniture : "The Lost Princess," a novel, and "Daplme of the Forest," also a novel.
He was at one time a Trustee of Adelphi College and chairman of the Managing Committee of the National Security League.
Mr. Dix is the eighth generation of Dix in this country. His first American ancestor on his paternal side was Edward Dix who came here from England in 1655. In the same year his first maternal ancestor, Thomas Joy settled in New England. Thomas Joy was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, and the architect of the first public building erected in Massachusetts, which stood on the site of the present Boston State House, and which was destroyed by fire in 1711.
Mr. Dix's brother, Edwin Asa Dix, the author of "Deacon Bradbury" and other novels of New England life, died in 1911.
The summer home of Mr. Dix and his family is "Windward," West- hampton, Long Island.
RALPH W. E. DONGES-Camden .- Lawyer. Born at Donald- son, Penn., May 5, 1875; son of John W. and Rose M. (Renaud) Donges.
Ralph W. E. Donges has long been active in the Democratic politics of the southern part of New Jersey. He is now a member of the State Board of Public Utilities Commissioners which, by an act of 1910, replaced the old State Board of Railroad Commissioners. His father was of German blood ; his mother was born in Audincourt, France. He was educated in the public schools of Camden until 1887 when he was privately tutored by Edward Roth and prepared for the Rugby Academy which he entered in 1889 and from which he graduated in 1892.
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He studied law in the office of John W. Wescott, now Attorney General of the State, was admitted as an attorney in February, 1897 and three years later became a counselor. Since his admission he has devoted him- self to the practice of the law in Camden and interested himself as well in the civil and political life of that part of the state.
Enlisting in the Third Regiment N. G. N. J., he was made Second Lieutenant of Company C in 1900, First Lieutenant in 1902, Battalion Adjutant in 1903 and was Quartermaster of the Third regiment with rank of Captain from 1905 to 1913.
For some years Mr. Donges was Vice Chairman of the Auxilliary State Committee, and he was a delegate to all of the latest Democratic state conventions. At the Baltimore National Convention of 1912 he labored for the nomination of President Wilson and spoke in a number of States during the campaign. He was a delegate to the Democratic Convention at St. Louis in 1916 that re- nominated the President. Gov- ernor Wilson named him to serve on the Board of Public Utility Commissioners. When he took his seat on the Board May 1st. 1913, his colleagues made him its President.
Mr. Donges service on the Public Utility Commission has covered a period when its work has been largely pioneer. New Jersey utilities present every phase of problem that regula- tion is likely to encounter ; and Mr. Donges has participated in proceedings involving the fixing of rates and establishment of standards of service of many companies, notably the Hackensack Water Co., the Tinton Manor Water Co., the Clayton-Glassboro Water Co., Wildwood Water Works Co., the Trenton and Mercer County Traction Co., the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Traction Co., Newton Gas and Electric Co .. Penn- sylvania Railroad Co., Philadelphia and Reading Railway Co., Atlantic City Railroad Co., West Jersey and Seashore Railroad Co .. New York Telephone Co., Delaware and Atlantic Telephone Co., Public Service Elec- tric Co., and many others. In these varied activities he has aided in establishing a body of effective constructive precedents. Uniform systems of accounting for all classes of utilities, uniform standards for service by all, and careful and systematic inspections of utility properties, including bridges, locomotives and railroad equipments. have been inaugurated : and the grade crossing problem has been advanced towards solution by a systematic and progressive plan.
Among the organizations of which Mr. Donges is a member are various
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Masonic bodies, the Red Men, Elks, Loyal Order of Moose, of which he is a Past Supreme Dictator and now Mooseheart Governor, and the Hepta- sophs ; and he is a member also of the Army and Navy Club and the Na- tional Democratic Club of New York City, the Rose Tree Fox Hunting Club, Manufacturers Club of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Society of Fine Arts, American Society of Political and Social Science, National Geograph- ical Society, and Camden Board of Trade, and is President of Camden Council of Boy Scouts and Commander of 3rd Regiment Veteran Officers Corps.
FREDERICK W. DONNELLY-Trenton .- Merchant, Mayor. Born in Trenton, on October 14. 1866; son of Richard A. and Susan (Davisson ) Donnelly ; married at Trenton, on January 25, 1895, to Eliza Woolman Lukens, daughter of Mary Stockham Lukens, of Bucks County, Pa.
Children : Frederick S .; Katherine E .; Helen E.
Frederick W. Donnelly is Mayor of Trenton, under the new Commis- sion system of rule the city adopted in the summer of 1911. Mr. Donnelly was one of the early advocates of the Commission plan for New Jersey. A leader in the campaign for its adoption in Trenton and elected as high man in the first Commission Government elec- tion held in the city, he was named as Mayor when the Com- mission organized in August, 1911. In the canvass for new Commissioners in 1915 he was high man again and made Mayor for another term. His election as Mayor brings to the Donnelly family, the unique distinction of establishing the only prece- ยท dent in Trenton where the father and son have served the city as its Chief Executive. His father, Quartermaster General Richard A. Donnelly was Mayor from 1884 to 1886.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was planning to build a bridge across the Delaware river at the southern extremity of Trenton, at the time of Mayor Don- nelley's first election. The Mayor made opposition on the ground that the construction of the large railroad span at that point would effectually "bottle up" the Trenton harbor and practically vitiate all the improve- ments that had been made in the river channel and in the city's water- front. After he had carried the controversy even into the halls of Con-
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gress, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company not only changed the proposed location of the structure to a point nearly two miles farther down the river but in addition granted to the City of Trenton more than a million dollars worth of concessions, such as new canal bridges, dedicated lands for park purposes and improved crossing and water terminal facilities.
Mayor Donnelly received his early education in the Trenton Public Schools and the State Model School. Later he attended the Episcopal School at Burlington, and prepared for a business career at A. J. Rider's Business College in Trenton. At the age of seventeen he obtained a posi- tion with a New York wholesale clothing concern, following the vocation of a traveling salesman for several years. On his return to Trenton, he assumed the management of the store of his father, and a few years later established the business of which he is now the head.
Mr. Donnelly has long been an enthusiastic supporter of waterway projects and is often referred to as the "Father of New Jersey Water- ways." He is President of the Trenton-Philadelphia-New York Deeper Waterways Association, which he organized ; President of the New Jersey Rivers and Harbors Congress ; Vice President of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress ; and Vice President and one of the charter members of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association. He was President of the New Jersey Ship Canal Commission, which formulated the original plans for the trans-state canal. When the Trenton Harbor Board was in ex- istence, Mayor Donnelly was its president also. He is likewise President of New Jersey League of Municipalities.
He has written and lectured extensively on governmental reforms and his two treatises on "Securing Efficient Administration under the Commis- sion Plan" have gained wide circulation. He has also written many arti- cles on the subjects of improved inland waterways and transportation.
Mayor Donnelly is a member of the Masonic Order, Scottish Rites, Crescent Temple; Sons of Veterans; Patriotic Sons of America : Wood- men of America ; B. P. O. E .; I. O. O. M .; National Union ; Forresters ; Eagles ; American Academy of Political and Social Science; the National Municipal League and the American Civic Association. Trenton Country, Engineers, Canoe, Yacht and Rotary Clubs. He worships at Trinity Episco- pal Church.
HENRY M. DOREMUS-Newark. (294 Mt. Prospect Avenue)- Builder and Contractor. Born at Jacksonville, (N. J.), May 23, 1851 ; son of Peter G. Doremus and Susanah Doremus ; married at Newark, September 22. 1875 to Phoebe Baldwin, daughter of Nelson M. and Mary Stacy Baldwin.
Children : Nelson B., born June 13, 1876. died Sept. 6. 1899 ; Mary S., born Oct. 6. 1880, (Mrs. Hugh M. Hart : ) Munson G., born Sept. 14, 1882, married Bessie, daughter of Joseph Ward, Jr. ; Julia, born December 12th, 1887, (Mrs. Chester W. Fairlie) ; Gertrude. born Nov. 4. 1892, (Mrs. Edward H. Eisele).
The city of Paterson rests largely on the farm of Cornelius Doremus, a lineal descendant of Henry M. Doremus, acquired from the old East
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Jersey Proprietors. At that time Paterson was a part of Bergen County ; and the Doremuses were widely scattered through that and Passaic coun- ties, and throughout Morris county into which the family overflowed.
Henry M. Doremus was born in an old homestead in Jacksonville, in Morris county, built two centuries ago and still standing-a fine old his- toric land mark, on a handsome estate covering 700 acres. He was obliged to walk many miles every day to the school he attended ; the exercise de- veloped the robust physique that fitted him to endure the activities of his later life. When he was seventeen he was apprenticed to a carpenter in Newark, and fourteen years later went into business for himself.
Mr. Doremus is a republican and for forty years has been a member of the Republican County Committee. He was sent to the House of Assem- bly in 1885 from the district embracing the Sth and 11th wards. He in- terested himself especially in the veterans of the Civil War; and it was chiefly through his efforts that the act for the establishment of the Sol- diers Home at Kearny became a law. At his home on Mt. Prospect Ave- nne, Newark, hangs the resolution of thanks the grateful men of the Grand Army presented to him for his efforts in their behalf.
Back in his early days Mr. Doremus was persuaded to offer himself as a sacrifice for his party by accepting the republican nomination for Sheriff at a time when it was known the candidate faced sure defeat, and he was not disappointed when he found he had failed of election. Later, however-in 1896 when the party prospects were better-he was given a nomination that was equivalent to an election and served as the Sheriff of the county until 1899. In 1902 his party drafted him as its candidate for Mayor and at the expiration of his term he was put in the field for a second term and was again successful. He was a member of the State Committee and also the County Committee in the campaign of 1SSS, in which Benjamin Harrison defeated the re-election of Governor Cleveland to the Presidency of the United States.
Besides having served in company D, of the Second Regiment N. G. S. N. J., Mr. Doremus is treasurer and director in the Franklin Savings Institution and the Fidelity Trust Company, both of Newark. He is a member of the Newark Board of Trade, and was one of the members of the Board's Committee that made an exhaustive investigation into the question of the abandonment of its water-way function, by the Morris Canal Company. The Committee researches and report had a visible effect upon the discussions on the subject that were stirring the state at the time. He is connected too with Northern Lodge 23 F. and A. M .; is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of Damaseus Commandery, Knights Templar, and of the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
JOHN THOMPSON DORRANCE-Camden. (32 N. Front St.) Manufacturer. Born at Bristol, Pa., November 11th, 1873; son of John and Eleanor (Thompson) Dorrance; married at Baltimore, Md .. August 18th. 1906, to Ethel Mallinckrodt. daughter of Louis W. and Florence Kelsey Mallinckrodt.
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Children : Elinor, born November 12th, 190S; Ethel Mallinck- rodt, born July 17th, 1909; Charlotte Kelsey, born November 10th, 1911, and Margaret Winifred, born October 1Sth. 1915.
Napoleon said "An army marches on its stomach." And one of our own wise men declares that "The men who feed the nation make the nation." In fact, ever since the time when Joseph mastered the Egyptians by feeding them, the able food conservators of any country have been counted among its national figures.
Dr. John T. Dorrance, President of the Joseph Campbell Company, makers of Campbell's Soups, is head of one of the leading food industries of the world, an industry largely of his own creation.
As a youth he attended Rugby Academy, Philadelphia ; then entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the famous "Boston Tech," where he took his B. S. in 1895. Going abroad, he studied at the University
of Gottingen, Germany, and graduated with the degree of Ph.D. in 1897.
Returning to America. he joined the Joseph Campbell Company, of Camden. at that time a small concern packing preserves, jams, jellies, canned vegetables, etc. - not a very promising foundation, it would seem on which to build a work famous industry. Having mas- tered the business, step by step. along its original lines, Dr. Dor- rance, in 1897, conceived the idea of packing soup in con- densed form by an improved method which retains all the original nutriment and flavor while greatly reducing the bulk and the consequent cost of pack- ages and transportation. Its effect on household economies throughout the United States has proven a happy one, and beyond question it has exerted a potent and salutary influence on our national dietary and health. As a result of Dr. Dorrance's methods applied both to production and commercial development. Campbell's Soups today are known wherever people speak English and eat soup.
Like all men efficient in commercial affairs, Dr. Dorrance has the mathe- matical mind. He knows the illimitable power of the vulgar fraction and . doesn't overlook the trifles. In observing the systematic precision which governs every detail of the vast organization, one is reminded that Napo- leon, who financed an empire, could also figure the budget of the humblest soldier to a centime, and enjoyed doing it. This analytical bent is carried into every source of prodnetion on which the business depends.
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Dr. Dorrance is an expert in scientific agriculture and husbandry, and devotes much attention to developing improved varieties of fruits and vege- tables, as evidenced in the conservatories and gardens of his home at Pomona Farm, Cinnaminson.
Dr. Dorrance is a Director of the National State Bank of Camden, and of the Atlantic City Railroad Company. He is a life member of the Manu- facturers' Club, the University Club and the Philadelphia Racket Club ; also a member of the Country, the Pen and Pencil and the Down Town Club, all of Philadelphia, and of the Baltimore Country Club, the New York Yacht Club, and the Midday and Technology Clubs of New York.
FORREST FAIRCHILD DRYDEN-Newark .- Insurance Presi- dent. Born in Bedford, O., December 26th, 1864; son of John Fair- field and Cynthia J. ( Fairchild ) Dryden ; married in 1890 to Grace Carleton, daughter of Isaac N. Carleton, of Bradford, Mass.
Children : John F. (2nd) ; Dorothy : Elizabeth Butterfield.
Forrest F. Dryden is President of the Prudential Insurance Company of America which was founded by his father, John F. Dryden, United States Senator from New Jersey, from February 4th, 1902 to March 3, 1907. At the time he reached the Presidency. Mr. Dryden was the youngest man at the head of any company approaching the rank and importance of the Prudential.
President Dryden's first schooling was at the Newark Academy; and at Phillips Academy at Andover. Upon graduation he attached himself to the staff of the Prudential Insurance Company (in 1SSS), beginning at the foundation and working his way upwards, so as to acquaint himself with all the lines and details of its work and methods. In 1889 he was made Superintendent of the Prudential office at Elizabeth. The enterprise was then in its earlier stages of development, and President Dryden has been a part of its evolution to the magnitude its business has now attained. In 1890 he became a member of the Board of Directors and Assistant Secre- tary and later in the same year Secretary of the Company. His father's chief lieutenant, he discharged the functions of the Presidency during the Senator's absence in Washington. In 1903 he was made Third Vice Presi- dent of the Company, in 1906 Second Vice President and in 1911 Vice . President. Upon his father's death he succeeded to the Presidency.
The Dryden family found its origin in Maine ; but the parents of Sena- tor Dryden, the Prudential's Founder, moved to Massachusetts when he was seven years of age. The Senator planned a college career, but his health compelled the abandonment of his studies at Yale University before the completion of his course there. In later years, however, the University, in recognition of his achievements, conferred the A. M. degree upon him, and he was enrolled as one of the Class of '65.
The health frailty that forced him to leave College turned his atten- tion to the advisability of life insurance, and it became the study of his life. He was particularly impressed by the policy of insurance for wage earners adopted by the Prudential Assurance Company of London, and
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his study of its methods gave him a thorough acquaintance with them. Convinced of the feasability of introducing the same system here, he in- terested Horace Alling, Noah F. Blanchard, Dr. Leslie D. Ward and Gover- nor Franklin Murphy's father. The chartering of the Widows and Orphans Friendly Society by the legislature followed, and Mr. Dryden became its Secretary, with offices in the basement of the Bank building at 810 Broad Street, Newark. Later, in order to study the methods of the English com- pany at first hand Mr. Dryden went to Europe, and Sir Henry Harben, the founder of Industrial Insurance in the United Kingdom, accorded the amplest facilities for his investigation. Upon his return, the name of his own company was changed to the Prudential. Insurance Company of America. Through the management of father and son, it has taken front rank among the great insurance companies of the world, numbering its policy holders in the tens of millions.
Before Founder Dryden became United States Senator, in 1902, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Gen. William J. Sewell, he had been chosen Presidential Elector in the National campaigns of 1896 and 1900. In the Senate he procured appropriations aggregating $5,000.000 for federal improvements in New Jersey, and the payment by the Federal government to the state of $600,000 due on unpaid Civil War claims. He was the ef- ficient advocate of plans for the construction of large war vessels; and, as a member of the Inter-Oceanic Canal Committees, he had a marked influence in the discussion concerning the plans to be followed in the construction of the Panama Canal. Upon the expiration of his term in 1907, his health fore-bade the endurement of the excitements of the campaign for re-election to the Senate.
President Forrest F. Dryden finds time, amid the engrossing duties of his position, to engage in other affairs-business, civic, military and church. He is a member of the Essex Troop and was for sometime Chief Commis- sary on the staff of the Major General. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the National Guard of the State and is a member of the New Jersey State Rifle Association. He is a member of the Newark Board of Trade, the National Citizens League, the New Jersey Society for the Pro- motion of Agriculture, a Director in the National body of the Boy Scouts of America, belongs to the Civic Forum of New York and is a life mem- ber of the Newark Museum Association and of the Academy of Political Science of the City of New York.
President Dryden is also a Director of the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, the Union National Bank of Newark, the South Jersey Gas, Electric and Traction Company, the United States Casualty Company of New York, the American Insurance Company of Newark, the Peoples Gas. Improvement Company of Trenton, and of the Fidelity Trust Company of Newark. His club memberships are with the Down Town and Essex (Newark), the Essex County Country (West Orange), the Baltusrol Golf, the Morris County Golf, and the Economic of New York.
EDWARD DICKINSON DUFFIELD-Newark .- Lawyer. Born March 3, 1871 ; son of John T. and Sarah Elizabeth (Green) Duf- field ; married on April 21, 1897 to Josephine Read Curtis, daughter
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of Aberdeen Graham and Mary Morrison Curtis, of Troy, N. Y., who died March 19th, 1914-2nd. on Oct. 12, 1916, to Barbara Free- man, daughter of Henry W. Freeman, of South Orange.
Children : Elizabeth and Dickinson Curtis.
Edward Dickinson Duffield is Vice President and General Solicitor of The Prudential Insurance Company of America. He had previously been Assistant Attorney-General of New Jersey ; served in the New Jersey House of Assembly in 1904-1905'and has been an attorney-at-law since February, 1895, and a counselor-at-law since 1898.
Mr. Duffield's father was for more than a half a century a professor in Princeton University. His maternal grandfather was George S. Green, of Trenton, a brother of former Chancellor Henry W. Green and the late Caleb S. Green, at one time a judge of the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals. Mr. Duffield is also a nephew of the late Federal District Judge Edward S. Green for whom he is named.
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