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 19
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Dr. Farrand holds the degree of Master of Arts from Princeton Uni- versity and Columbia. He is a member of the National Conference on Uniform Entrance Requirements in English, 1894 (now Secretary ), College Entrance Examination Board, 1900 -, National Conference Committee on Standards of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Schoolmasters' Associa- tion of New York (President 1895-6), Middle States Association Colleges and Preparatory Schools ( President 1902), Head Masters' Association of U. S. (President 1911), New England Society of Orange (President 1906-S). President Princeton Alumni Federation of New Jersey, 1909-11, Alumni Trustee Princeton University and Director State Charities Aid Associa- tion of New Jersey. He is a Presbyterian. His clubs are the University, Century, Princeton (New York), Essex (Newark), and Nassau (Prince- ton ).
His address is Newark Academy, Newark.
LILLIAN FORD FEICKERT (Mrs. Edward F.) - Plain- field. - Woman Suffragist. Born in New York City, on July
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20, 1878: married at New York, to Edward Foster Feic- kert.
Lillian Ford Feickert is President of the New Jer- sey Women Suffrage Asso- ciation and is now serving her fifth term in that po- sition. She is of English, Scotch and Irish ancestry, her direct ancestors hav- ing come to Massachusetts in 1624, in the ship "For- tune." She has lived in New Jersey for fourteen years, and has been active in local and State woman suffrage work for the greater part of that time.
Mrs. Feickert is a member of Continental Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and of several women's clubs.
CHRISTIAN W. FEIGENSPAN-Newark, (53 Lincoln Park. ) -Banker and Brewer. Born in Newark December 7, 1876; son of Christian and Rachel Laible Feigenspan ; married December 1910, to Alis Rule, of Cincinnati, O.
Christian W. Feigenspan is the son of the late Christian Feigenspan who came to this country from Germany when a young man and estab- lished himself in business here, founding the brewery which bears his name, about forty years ago. He died in 1899, leaving a large fortune.
Mr. Feigenspan was educated in the public schools of Newark, the Barnard School for Boys in New York City, and Cornell University. After completing his studies at the University he spent several years in travel.
Upon the death, in December, 1907, of Christian W. Stengel, President of the Christian Feigenspan Corporation. Mr. Feigenspan was elected Presi- dent and began his business career. During the eight years since he be- came the head of the corporation, it has become one of the leading breweries of the country.
About six years ago Mr. Feigenspan became one of the founders and President of the Commercial Casualty Insurance Company, with a home office in Newark. The Commercial Casualty Insurance Company is now one of the largest financial and insurance institutions of the state.
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Mr. Feigenspan was elected President of the Federal Trust Company about a year ago. His experience as Director of the Federal Trust Com- pany, the Union National Bank and the German Savings Bank gave him an insight into the banking business. He had acted as a member of the Auditing Committees of the two first-named banks.
Mr. Feigenspan has been a member of the City Plan Commission since its organization ; and he was a member of the Committee of One Hundred for the celebration of Newark's 250th Anniversary, being vice- chairman and a member of the Executive and Finance Commit- tees. He is also a member of the Memorial Building Committee.
During the recent anniversary celebration in Newark, Mr. Fei- genspan donated to the City a reproduction of what has been called the finest equestrian statue of the world-that of Bartholomeo Colleoni, by Ver- rochio, which has been one of the artistic landmarks of Venice since about 1490. This magnifi- cent reproduction, executed by J. Massey Rhind, the well known Scottish-American sculptor, stands 45 feet high and is an exact copy of the original. The statue is of bronze and the ped- estal of Cherokee marble sur- rounded by a bronze frieze. The statue is erected in Clinton Park, Newark, and its unveiling on July 26th, 1916, with appropriate ceremonies, was one of the features of the city's 250th birthday celebration.
In connection with the alterations and additions to the German Hos- pital of Newark, Mr. Feigenspan and Mr. William F. Hoffman (also of Newark) have recently given a new building to the hospital to be used for the exclusive treatment of children. This new building when com- pleted will have accommodations for twenty-four beds with full hospital equipment.
Mr. Feigenspan is very much interested in photography and has a fine collection of photographs which he has taken. He is much interested, too, in horticulture, and, very fond of outdoor life and sports, has been rated as one of the best shots in the country.
Mr. Feigenspan is a member of the Essex County Country Club, the Down Town Club and many other organizations.
JAMES CHAMPLIN FERNALD- Upper Montclair. - Clergy- man, Author, Editor. Born at Portland, Me., August 18, 1883 ; son
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Fernald
of Henry B. and Mabel C. Fernald: married April 29, 1869, to Mary Beulah Griggs, of Rutland, Vt., one of the early graduates of Vassar College, and a member of the church where he held his first pastorate : after a brief union she died June 7, 1870; June 18, 1873, married to Nettie S. Barker, daughter of Charles Luther and Rachel Maxwell Barker, of McConnelsville, O., graduate of Shep- ardson College, Granville, O.
Children : (living) Charles Barker. Lawyer, Equitable Building, New York ; Henry Barker, of the firm of Loomis, Suffern & Fer- nald, certified public accountants. Singer Building, New York ; Luther Dana, Manager of Leslie's Weekly, Fifth Avenue. New York ; James Gordon, member of the Senior Class (1917) of Brown University ; Grace Maxwell (Ph. D.), teacher of Psychology, State Normal School, Los Angeles, Cal. ; Mabel Ruth, (Ph. D.), director of the Laboratory of Social Hygiene, Bedford Hills, New York.
James C. Fernald's father and grandfather, like himself. were also born in Portland, Me .; his great-grandfather, at Kitterey, Me .- the American family tracing its descent from members of the party who came from Eng- land to found the first settlement at Portsmouth, N. H., in 1640.
Dr. Fernald graduated from Harvard University in 1860, with the degree of A. B., taking in his senior year the first Bow- doin Prize for English Compo- sition. He graduated in 1863 from the Newton Theological In- stitution. In 1862 and 1863 he spent some time with the army before Fredericksburg and at Gettysburg in the work of the Massachusetts Soldiers' Relief Association. He was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1864 at Rutland. Vt .. and from that time until 1889, officiated as pas- tor of churches at Rutland, Vt., Waterville, Me., and, in Ohio, at Granville, McConnelsville, Clyde, Galion, Springfield and Garretts- ville, also laboring extensively by voice and pen in the temperance work throughout the state. He had meanwhile spent a year in European travel and several years in govern- ment service in Washington, D. C.
From 1889, Dr. Fernald was editor of Synonyms, Antonyms, and Pre- positions of the "Standard Dictionary," and afterwards prepared all the abridgments of that work,-the entire series, from the "Students' Standard Dictionary" to the "Vest-Pocket Dictionary." He was for a time editor of the "Homiletic Review" and also associate editor of the "Columbian En-
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Ferris
cyclopedia." From 1905 to 1909, he was Dean of the Department of Eng- lish in the Intercontinental University, and Lecturer on English Prose Style at the Washington, D. C., Y. M. C. A. and L. H. D., Dickinson Univ., 1904.
As an author, Dr. Fernald has published "The Economics of Prohibi- tion," (1890) ; "English Synonyms, Antonyms, and Prepositions," (1896) ; "The New Womanhood," (1894) ; "The Spaniard in History," (1898) ; "The Imperial Republic," (1898) ; "The Home Training of Children," (1898) ; "True Motherhood," (1900) ; "Connectives of English Speech," (1904) ; "A Working Grammar of the English Language," (1907) ; and "English Gram- mar Simplified," (1915).
ISAAC FERRIS-Merchantville .-- Manufacturer. Born in Phil- adelphia, Pa., October 4, 1854; son of Isaac and Dorothea (Lare) Ferris ; married at Camden, 1SS0, to Sarah Yeager, daughter of Henry and Sarah Yeager, of Camden.
Isaac Ferris has been for many years an active factor in the shoe manufacturing industry in the south section of New Jersey. His father was a type of the old time shoe maker, employing a few journeymen to assist him at the bench and making his sales to the shoe dealers. Mr. Fer- ris, while attending the schools of the town. became acquainted with the business of the shop; and by the time he was sixteen years old was as able to fashion a shoe as his father was. He was employed afterwards for a short time in a shoe factory, and soon learned the art of manufactur- ing by the methods of the later days. He started a little fac- tory of his own in 1876 when he was twenty-two years of age with limited capital, but suc- ceeded well enough to, in 1884, build a larger factory in South Camden. He continued there until 1900 in the management and control of a constantly growing business.
It's magnitude eventually com- pelled him to provide himself with more ample quarters ; and the factory at Second and Mar- ket Streets in Camden was the result. It is still in operation there. The business grew, and in April. 1916, it passed into the hands of a corporation, known as the Ferris Shoe Com- pany, and employing a capital of $2,000,000, which Mr. Ferris helped to organize. While Mr. Ferris is not now active in carrying on the business
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Fewsmith
he is a Director of the company and largely interested in it financially. The company has, besides its factory in Camden, another in Cleveland, O., and has recently put up a third factory in Philadelphia.
Mr. Ferris is a Director in the Camden National Bank and the Securi- ty Trust Co. in Camden and of several companies. His only club member- ship is with the Manufacturers of Philadelphia.
JOSEPH FEWSMITH-Newark, (72 Washington Street.)- Physician and Surgeon. Born at Auburn, N. Y., on Jan. 31, 1851; son of Joseph and Emma C. (Livingston) Fewsmith ; married at Newark on April, 1880, to Jean A. Hendry, daughter of Hugh Hendry of Scotland.
Children : Jean, born in 1897.
Joseph Fewsmith, widely known among the physicians and surgeons of the state, is of English lineage on his father's side; his paternal ancestors were of Quaker stock and figured during the Revolutionary period. On his mother's side he is of Dutch and Scotch origin. His father, a D. D., was for thirty-seven years Pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Newark, of which Dr. Fewsmith is now one of the trustees.
Dr. Fewsmith's earlier education was acquired at the Newark Academy and at Philips Academy in Andover, Mass. He graduated from Yale College in 1871, from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1874 and pursued his medical and surgical studies at Roosevelt Hospital in 1875, at Vienna (Austria) in 1877 and at Woolwich Military hospital in London. He established himself as a practitioner in Newark, and has since been engaged there.
Dr. Fewsmith is connected professionally with a large number of hos- pitals. He has been President of the Medical Board of St. Michael's Hos- pital in Newark for a number of years, is surgeon for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company and examiner for the Mutual Benefit Insurance Company of Newark and for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. He is attending physician at the Protestant Foster Home, consulting physician to the Home for Crippled Children and for eight years was a Trustee of the Newark City Home at Verona.
Dr. Fewsmith is a member of the Essex County Country Club, of Newark, the New Jersey Automobile Club, and many medical societies.
WILLIAM H. F. FIEDLER-Newark. (171 Littleton Avenue.) Real Estate .- Born in New York, August 25th, 1847 son of Chris- tian F. and Elizabeth J. (Roemer) Fiedler; married Jan. 2nd, 1871, to Catherine Petronella Moeller.
Children : W. C., born June 18, 1875; Ernest J., born May 2nd, 1878: Bertha (Mrs. Frank W. Sandford) born August 2, 1880.
Mr. Fiedler's father was born in Germany. He came to this side in 1841; and in 1842 he met the lady who afterwards became his wife.
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Fiedler
She, like himself, was of German parentage. The parents came to Newark to live when Wm. H. Fiedler was two years old. Educated at the Morton Street public school, Mr. Fiedler was apprenticed as hat finisher, and sub- sequently became a clerk in a hat store. His experiences and observa- tions of the possibilities of that line of business led him to establish a store for himself four years later, and he was engaged for many years in the hat business. He is now associated with his two sons in he Fiedler Corporation, which is engaged in a real-estate and insurance business in Newark.
Mr. Fiedler's interest in public affairs was aroused in his early man- hood ; and in 1876 the Democrats of the sixth ward elected him to a seat in the Board of Aldermen of the city. A year later he was elect- ed to the legislature as a Mem- ber of Assembly. At that time the Assemblymen were elected by districts ; he represented the eighth. He was the first to agi- tate the question of convict la- bor and he pushed through an act for-bidding the manufacture of hats in the prisons of the state; a second-against the manufacture of boots and shoes in prisons - struggled through the Assembly, but fell by the way-side in the Senate.
In the second year of his ser- vice he was a member of the committee that investigated a charge of attempted bribery, made on the floor of the Assem- bly, against a railroad lobbyist, by Assemblymen Shinn of Atlan- tic. One of the railroad companies had projected into the House an act closing most of the water front streets in Jersey City for its use; and Shinn, fluttering five $100 bills in the face of the House members one morn- ing, declared that a railroad lobbyist had put the money under his pillow in the hope of buying his vote for the measure. The Assembly ordered an investigation by a special committee, of which Assemblyman Fiedler was made a member.
In the Fall of 1879, Mr. Fiedler was picked by the Democratic City Convention as the candidate of that party for Mayor of Newark. There was strong agitation in Newark at the time for a strict observance of the liquor-saloon Sunday closing law ; and the republicans nominated Thomas Macknet, President of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark on that platform. Though no pledges were exacted of him, Mr. Fiedler was understood to be for the more liberal policy. He overcame the normal republican majority of the city and was elected by the largest majority that had been given to any candidate for Mayor up to that time.
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Fielder
Before the expiration of his term, he had discovered frauds of a sensational character in the Auditors office and irregularities in other departments, that were afterwards made the subject of grand jury inquiry. He was renomi- nated by the democrats for the Mayoralty two years later by acclamation ; but the over-confidence of his friends defeated him. The majority against him however was only 200.
The election of 1881 left the House of Assembly a tie-the democrats with thirty votes, the republicans with thirty. Captain Bruemmer, one of the thirty republicans, elected from the Sth district of Essex, died. That reduced the Republican thirty to twenty-nine and left the democrats in the majority but still short one of the thirty-one votes needed to organize the House. Governor Abbett ordered a special election to fill the vacancy ; and Mr. Fiedler was put up by the democrats for the office. The district was normally republican ; but on the special election day in January, 1882, Mr. Fiedler surprised the state by carrying it. His triumph gave the demo- crats the needed thirty-first vote, and the organization of the House. It brought him into such prominence, that he was urged to become a candidate for Speaker but he declined to participate actively in the canvass and in the end helped to put John T. Dunn, of Elizabeth, in the Chair.
In the fall of 1SS2 Mayor Fiedler was elected to the House of Repre- sentatives in Congress. When he ran for the second term in 1SS4, the swing of the republicans in the Presidential election defeated him. While serving in Congress he was made a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia which supervises the local affairs of the city of Washington; and because of his consequent acquaintance with District affairs, his friends were moved to urge his appointment as a District Commissioner, but he declined to be a candidate. President Cleveland however appointed him Post Master of Newark, a position which he held until the republicans, with Harrison, regained control of the White House.
Mr. Fiedler is a member of the Newark Charter Commission ; Trustee of the Newark Institution of Arts and Sciences; Director German Savings Bank. Newark, (since 1SS4) ; Director Board of Trade for years, and of the Newark German Hospital - a Member of Schiller Lodge, 66, F. & A. M. (Past Master) ; Salaam Temple Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Howard Lodge I. O. O. F. (Past Noble Grand) ; Knights of Honor and several German-American Singing and Turn Verein Societies. Mr. Fiedler was also a member of the Committee of 100 on Newark's 250th Anniversary celebration in 1916, taking an active part in the work, and serving on its important sub-committees.
JAMES FAIRMAN FIELDER-Jersey City, (139 Gifford Ave.) -Lawyer. Born February 26th, 1867; son of George B. and Eleanor A. (Brinkerhoff) Fielder ; married June 4th, 1895, to Ma- bel Cholwell Miller, daughter of Mary E. and Charles B. Miller, of Norwalk, Conn.
James Fairman Fielder, Governor of the State 1913-1917, was reared in the atmosphere of a family that, on the side of both father and mother,
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Fielder
has long been active in the public affairs. The Brinkerhoff family, from which his mother comes. were among the early settlers of the "Old Bergen" section of Jersey City, and owned in the early days large farming tracts in- cluded within the corporate limits of Bergen. They had a prominent part in all the movements of their times ; and the old Bergen Dutch Reformed Church, which they aided to establish, still stands, on Bergen Avenue, one of the oldest shrines in the state. John Brinkerhoff, Mr. Fielder's grand- father. on his mother's side, was for many years Director of the County Board of Freeholders, and a Common Pleas Judge, and William Brinker- hoff, who represented Hudson County in the State Senate in 1SS4-'S5-'S6, is the Governor's uncle. His paternal grandfather was a Republican leader in the days of the old Commis- sion Government in Jersey City, and was a member of the As- sembly from Hudson County in 1871. George B. Fielder, his father, was for years the Regis- ter of Hudson County, and in 1893-4 represented the Hudson County district in Congress.
Mr. Fielder was educated at the public and high schools of Jersey City, and finished in the Selleck school at Norwalk, Conn. He took a course at Columbia University Law School, gradu- ating in 1887 with the degree of L. L. B. After a period of study in the law office of his uncle, ex-Senator Brinkerhoff, he was admitted to the Bar in 1SSS. The degree of L. L. D. was con- ferred on him by Rutgers Col- lege in 1914.
Public affairs were an every-day topic in the house of his parents. He naturally acquired a deep interest in the subject, and was early drawn into the swim of politics. He was elected to the Assembly in 1903 and again in 1904; and in 1907 chosen by its voters to represent the county in the State Senate. When, in 1910, he stood for re-election, he was given an overwhelming majority. In both the Senate and the House he was called to serve upon the most important committees. At the organization of the Legislature in January of 1913 he became President of the Senate. Wood- row Wilson, then Governor of the state, had, in the previous November, been elected President of the United States, and was about to lay down his state office for the greater one at Washington. Mr. Fielder's elevation to the Presidency of the Senate was made with the knowledge that, under the constitution, the President of the Senate was to serve as Acting Gov- eror until a new Governor could be elected by the people.
Governor Wilson did not lay down his state office until the very eve of his departure for Washington to take the oath as President. Senator
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Fisk
Fielder assumed the office of Acting Governor March 1, 1913, and served until October 28, when he resigned his seat in the Senate. His resignation vacated not only the Senate chair but also the Acting Governorship ; and Leon R. Taylor, of Monmouth County, the Speaker of the House of Assem- bly, became the state's second ad interim Governor. At the primary in September Mr. Fielder was nominated by the Democrats as their candi- date for Governor for the full term of three years, and in November he was elected over ex-Governor Edward C. Stokes, the Republican candidate, by a majority exceeding 32,000.
In giving the Great Seal of the State into Mr. Fielder's hands, in the presence of the Senate and of the Assembly on the 1st of March, 1913, Gov- ernor Wilson felicitated the state upon having provided itself with so fitting a chief. Both during his services as Acting Governor, and after his inauguration in January, 1914, for the full term, Governor Fielder devoted himself to the completion of the work Governor Wilson had been obliged to leave behind him, undone; and a mass of constructive legislation which Governor Wilson had initiated, was perfected under his supervision.
Among the achievements of his administration may be noted the in- heritance tax law, which has increased the revenue of the state by a fairly graduated tax upon the estates of deceased persons; the bank stock tax act, which brings revenue to the localities from this class of personal prop- erty ; reform in the care and employment of inmates of the state's penal institutions ; the strengthening of the pure food laws; a system of traffic regulations, uniform throughout the state ; statutes safeguarding the health and safety of women and other operators in workshops and factories, and the grade crossing elimination law.
CHARLES JOEL FISK-Plainfield-Financier. Born in Jersey City in 1858; son of Harvey Fisk; married in Trenton in 1879 to Lily R. Richey, daughter of August G. Richey, of Trenton.
Children : Louisa G .; August R .; Charles W .; Harvey ; Annie.
Charles J. Fisk is a large factor in Wall Street financial circles. It was through the New York banking firm of Fisk & Hatch, which his father founded, that the United States Government operated in the money markets of the country during the Civil War. The family is of English extraction, tracing its ancestry back to 1399. William J. Fisk, the original American ancestor settled in Wenham. Mass., in 1837. With his brother, John, he rose into prominence there: and both were factors in the life of the community. On his mother's side, Mr. Fisk is of the Green family of Princeton, that has long been noted for its social and financial standing. Its records in the Revolutionary times is a matter of history. The mother's father was one of those who constructed the Old Camden & Amboy Rail- road and a member of the legislature for two terms during the Civil War; and Mrs. Fisk until her death, lived in the Old Homestead at Trenton.
Harvey Fisk, the famous banker of his day, was a native of Vermont. In 1848, he was engaged as a dry goods dealer in Trenton ; but four years later he became Assistant Teller of the Mechanic Bank of New York.
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Associated with Rufus Hatch in 1862, he established the banking firm of Fisk & Hatch. The firmi soon became one of the best known among Wall Street operators ; and the United States Government designated it as one of its agents in its transactions with the money interests of the country.
The firm was dissolved in 1885; and Mr. Fisk, associating his sons with him, continued the business under the firm style of Harvey Fisk and Sons. Since Harvey Fisk died in 1899, it has been conducted under the established name by Harvey E. Fisk, Charles J. Fisk, Pliny Fisk, Alex- ander S. Fisk, Theodore H. Banks and Herbert W. Denney; and is still one of the largest in "The Street" in the handling of government bonds and general securities. It was through Harvey Fisk & Sons that, now, Secre- tary of the Treasury McAdoo, financed the railroad tunnels under the Hudson River that connect New Jerey with New York.
Charles Joel Fisk was reared in New York and on the old homestead. He was only seventeen years of age when he went into his father's office, and soon came to be known as one of the best posted men on finances in Wall Street. Making his home in Plainfield, he was quite as active in the affairs of the city and of the county as he was in the financial world. In 1891, he was made a member of the Plainfield City Council; and the City's first sewer system was one of the results of his labors. He was, also, deeply interested in the relations of the liquor traffic to the com- munity ; and when he was elected to the Mayorality of the city, he forced the license fee to the maximum limit of $1,000, with a view to limiting the number of saloons as well as bettering their class.
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