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 2
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In 1907, he and his brother took up actively their interest in the warehouse business - the Manhattan Refrigerating Company, New York City, Union Terminal Cold Storage Company. Jersey City, and Kings County Refrigerating Company, Brooklyn. N. Y. These companies have increased in size and importance very rapidly since that time.
Mr. Adams is a director of several corporations. He is a member of many clubs and has always had time for charitable and philanthropic
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work. His brother and himself built the Adams Memorial Church at Westfield, Penn., in memory of their mother. He has been a resident of Montclair for fifteen years.
WASHINGTON IRVING LINCOLN ADAMS-Montclair, (32 Llewellyn Road. )-Banker, Publisher and Printer ; Major, Officers Reserve Corp. U. S. A. Born in New York City, February 22nd, 1865; son of Washington Irving and Marian Lydia (Briggs) Adams; married in Montclair, November 21st, 1887, to Grace Wil- son, daughter of James Wilson, of Georgetown, Ohio.
Children : Wilson Irving, born 1890, married June 5. 1915, to Helen Elizabeth Morrison ; Marian Elizabeth, born 1891, married October 11th, 1913. to David Oswald Pfaelzer, of Boston; Briggs Kilburn, born 1893, Harvard, 1917: Carolyn Styles, born 1896, died 1910; Washington Irving Lincoln, Jr., bo.n 1898.
W. I. Lincoln Adams is of New England origin : he traces his line back, on his father's side, to Henry Adams, who settled in Baintree, Mass., in 1641, and was the ancestor of Samuel Adams, the Revolution- ary patriot, and of the Adamses father and son, who were among the early Presidents of the Unit- ed States. One of his mother's ancestors, John Briggs, died in North Kingston, R. I., in 1671. Mr. Adams' wife, is a descendant of James Wilson, of Pennsyl- vania, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Adams is a member of the Hu- guenot Society of America, and of the Society of the War of - 1812; he was President of the New Jersey State Society of the Sons of The American Revolu- tion from 1915 to 1917; is a for- mer Governor of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America ; he was Treasurer, and is now Deputy Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New Jersey ; he is also a member of the New England Society and of the St. Nicholas Society.
Mr. Adams parents came to New Jersey when he was three years old, and settled in Montelair. He was educated in the schools of that mountain city, graduating from the High School in 1883. Upon leaving school he engaged in the publishing business, with his father, editing "The Photographic Times", which was for many years the leading
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photographic magazine, and writing a number of books on photographic subjects, which are still considered as authorities. He succeeded his father as President of the Scovill & Adams Company, manufacturers of photographic goods, in 1894. This business he later merged with the Anthony Company, forming the Ansco Company, which, after a long litiga- tion with the Eastman Kodak Company, succeeded in establishing the Goodwin Film Patent in 1914, and was awarded a substantial sum in the Courts. The Goodwin Film was invented by the late Rev. Hannibal Good- win, of Newark.
Mr. Adams became Treasurer of Styles & Cash, well known printing house, in 1900, and succeeded Samuel D. Styles, as President, a few years later, a position which he has held ever since. He was one of the organ- izers, and the first Vice-President of the Montclair Trust Company, be- coming its President in 1905. He is Treasurer of the Montclair Holding Company, a real estate corporation; he was President of the Cloverside School Corporation, which he organized in 1906. In 1910 he entered the Board of the Bloomfield Trust Company, and became a member of its Executive and Finance Committee.
He is one of the charter members of the Outlook Club of Montclair, and was its Secretary and Treasurer for two years, becoming its President in 1908. He was a Director of the Y. M. C. A., of Montclair, for a number of years, and is Senior Trustee of the First Congregational Church. He is a charter member of the Montclair Club. He is President of the West Side Bank and director of the West Side Savings Bank, of New York; a member of the Union League and Republican Clubs of that City, and a Thirty-second Degree Mason. He is also a Trustee of the New Jersey His- torical Society.
In politics Mr. Adams is a Republican, and has been much sought by his party as a candidate for office. He was delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1908; and, in 1916, was one of the Presidential Electors to cast the vote of New Jersey in the Electoral College for Hughes and Fairbanks. In 1912 he was his party's candidate for Congress, but the split in the Republican Party that year divided his support, and the Demo- cratic nominee was elected by a plurality vote. He was appointed by Governor Wilson as one of the three delegates to represent New Jersey at the Interstate Pure Food Convention.
In 1914 Mr. Adams was invited by the banking and other financial interests back of the large printing and lithographing establishment of the Sackett & Wilhelms Company, to undertake the re-organization of that business. He successfully effected the re-organization, and was elected President of the corporation, which position he held until February, 1916. Then, the credit of the company having been restored, and the standing of the business re-established in the trade, he requested the Directors to re- lieve him of further responsibility for the management, and resigned as President and Director.
In the spring of 1916 he was active in organizing the Montclair Bat- talion of citizen soldiers, and was elected Treasurer of its Executive Com- mittee. He attended the Third Senior Military Training Camp at Platts- burg, N. Y., during the summer of the same year, and completed the course of training there as a member of Company "F", Seventh Regiment. In the
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fall of the same year he successfully passed the War Department examina- tions for a commission as Major in the Officers' Reserve Corps of the United States Army.
Mr. Adams has done considerable writing, all his works having been published by the Baker & Taylor Co., New York. Among his books are "Amateur Photographer". "Sunlight and Shadow", "In Nature's Image", "Woodland and Meadow" and "Photographing In Old England". He edited "The History of Montclair", compiled by Henry Whittemore, and, with other public-spirited citizens, published it, at their own expense, in 1884.
Mr. Adams's home in Montclair is at 32 Llewellyn Road, and his country place, Hilltop Farm, is near Littleton, N. H., in the foothills of the White Mountains.
HENRY MILLS ALDEN-Metuchen .- Editor and Author. Born in Mount Tabor, Rutland County, Vermont, November 11, 1836; son of Ira and Elizabeth Moore Alden: married July 3, 1861 to Susan Frye ( Foster) of North Andover. Mass .- 2nd on February 22, 1900. to Mrs. Ida Foster Murray, of Virginia.
Children : Charles, born 1862. (Died in infancy. ) Annie Fields, born 1864. (Died 1912). Harriet, born in 1868. Carolyn Wynd- ham, born 1871. (Died 1916.)
Henry M. Alden, editor of Harpers Magazine, traces his ancestry back to John Alden, the only unmarried man among the Pilgrims on the May- flower and the hero of Longfellow's poem. "The Courtship of Miles Standish." John Alden was reputed to be a scholar. was chosen Governor of the colony and served several terms. Mr. Allen's mother was a niece of Zephaniah Moore, Presi- dent of Williams College, and af- terwards the first President of Amherst.
Mr. Alden's parents left Mount Tabor with himself and two younger brothers when he was eight years old and went to Hoo- sic Falls. Rensselaer County, New York. He was educated in the common schools in the inter- vals of factory employment. At fourteen he entered Ball Semina- ry, in that town. where he pre- pared for college. He entered Williams College in his sixteenth year, working his way and grad- uating in the class of 1857. In the autumn of 1857 he entered the Andover Theological Semi- nary, in Andover, Mass. He selected this institution because of its having
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the best library of Greek literature in this country. In college he had sacrificed the place of "honor man" by giving up the higher mathematics in order to give more attention to psychology and the classics-especially Greek; and he continued these special studies in the Seminary. In 1860 three years after graduating he was chosen by the faculty of Williams College one of the two members of his class to deliver the "Master's Ora- tion", receiving at the same time the degree of A. M. His graduation at the Andover Seminary occurred on the same day as the William Commence- ment of 1860. In order to attend the latter he obtained leave of absence from the Andover exercises ; but he was represented in these by the Class Hymn, written by him, and was attributed an oration on "The Theology of Homer."
Returning to his home in Hoosic Falls, Mr. Alden was detained there by the illness of his father who had been stricken by palsy, and contributed to the maintenance of his parents during the autumn and winter by "sup- plying" pulpits in the neighborhood. He had been licensed to preach, but he never took orders.
While thus "marooned" he continued a series of essays he had begun at Andover. Two of these, "The Eleusinia" and "The Saviors of Greece" had been accepted by James Russell Lowell for "The Atlantic Monthly", where they were published in 1859-60, before Mr. Alden had left Andover. The first had been read by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, at whose home in Andover Mr. Alden was a welcome visitor, and by her had been sent to Mr. Lowell, the young writer's first knowledge of the fact being an acknowledgment of it's acceptance. The notes for other essays, made at Andover, enabled him to go on writing. Before the spring of 1861 he had written six more, sending them, as completed, to the editor of "The Atlan- tic". But in the meantime, owing to the failure of its publishers, Phillips, Sampson & Co., the magazine had come into new hands and Mr. Alden did not hear anything of his offerings for a long time.
Relieved of the care of the home by his older brother, Mr. Alden in the spring of 1861 went to New York. It was an adventure. He had a scant purse and no outlook for support-nothing more definitely in view than enlistment in the new army for the Union, which finally proved im- practicable because he could not meet the physical requirements. He had never seen any great city before. except Boston, and this was his first visit to New York. Apart from Horace E. Scudder, an old college friend, he had no personal acquaintance there. Scudder had encouraged his coming. Mr. Alden found profitable employment as teacher of history and literature in private schools, and his prospects in this field were so bright that he married in July, Susan Frye Foster, whose acquaintance he had made in Andover. But returning to the city in September with his wife, he found the prospect darkened and almost closed by the prostration due to the growing magnitude of the war. For two years he struggled on, ekeing out his meagre income as teacher by contributing editorial articles at space rates to the New York "Evening Post" and "New York Times".
In the spring of 1863, Mr. James T. Fields, into whose hands had come the papers Mr. Allen had sent to "The Atlantic" more than two years be- fore, came to New York and looked him up. He had taken the essays abroad and he and his wife read them there. On his return he had shown
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them to Emerson, Lowell and others, and had succeeded in securing for the writer an invitation to deliver before the Lowell Institute of Boston a course of twelve lectures on the general theme treated in the essays- "The Structure of Paganism." Mr. Fields said that he found the essays rather recondite for. magazine use. Nevertheless he advanced $300 as payment on account for them. While preparing these lectures in the sum- mer of 1863, Mr. Alden became associate editor, with Alfred H. Guernsey, of "Harper's Magazine", and collaborator with him in writing "Harper's Pictorial History of the Rebellion". After a six weeks' vacation, taken for the delivery of his course of Lowell lectures, he undertook in addition the duties of managing editor of "Harper's Weekly".
In 1869 Mr. Alden succeeded Dr. Guernsey as the editor of "Harper's Magazine", a position which he still holds. He was so much engrossed with the writings of others, that it was not until 1890 that he became the author of a book of his own, published anonymously, under the title of "God in His World, An Interpretation", which has had an extensive sale. This was followed in 1895, in the year of his wife's death by "A Study of Death."
When the house of Harper & Brothers was reorganized, 1900, The Editor's Easy Chair, which had been discontinued since George William Curtis's death in 1892, was revived, with William Dean Howells as occu- pant; at the same time the Editor's Study, which also had been discon- tinued for several years, was restored, and Mr. Alden has been its monthly contributor since then.
In the spring of 1906 he went to Europe with his wife, being granted a liberal leave of absence and a generous letter of credit by the house he had been so long associated with; and in November of that year the same house gave a dinner in honor of his seventieth birthday, on which occasion the counting-house of the Franklin Square building was turned into a bril- liantly decorated banquet room for the reception of two hundred and fifty guests, comprising the most eminent artists and writers associated with the Magazine during Mr. Alden's editorship. In 190S another book of Mr. Alden's was published, entitled "Magazine Writing and the New Litera- ture."
Mr. Alden from 1868 to 1912 was a resident of Metuchen, New Jersey, where his only surviving daughter still resides.
JOHN BERRY ALDEN-Neshanic .- Publisher ; Farmer. Born in Henry County, Iowa, March 2, 1847: son of Zephenia and Damaris (Thompson) Alden ; married at Sherwood, N. Y. in 1874 to Ellen Tracy (died 1880) - second, Ada Tracy, daughter of Cal- vin and Luella Tracy, of Sherwood, N. Y.
Children : Seven, - six living.
John B. Alden's birth was in a one room log cabin about seven miles west of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. His father, one of that state's earliest
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pioneers, was a stone cutter and farmer, who died when Mr. Alden was two years old. Mr. Alden's early opportunities for education were meager and he left Mt. Pleasant in the early days of the Civil War, becoming a train boy on the C. B. & Q. Railway ; then a clerk, soon in charge, of a book store in Galesburg, Ill., and later in Chicago. Soon going into busi- ness for himself, he was known as the "boy publisher" of "The Bright Side" and "What Next?", young folks' periodicals. The Chicago fire took all of his possessions. Coming East, he became in New York City, the business head of "Hearth and Home", first edited by Harriet Beecher Stowe and "Ik Marvel" and later by Edward Eggleston. In that work he was associated with "Orpheus C. Kerr," (R. H. New- ell) the Civil War humorist, and poet, as editor.
Mr. Alden's most important venture was undertaken when in 1875 he started the "American Book Exchange", designed to serve readers by the exchange of books not wanted longer, for others they did want; and as a means of advertising the busi- ness, he published Chamber's Cy- clopedia of English Literature in handy volumes. By that exper- ience he quickly discovered that he could make new books cheaper than anyone could "steal old ones". Inside of two years he was making books "by the mil- lion", one bindery alone having a daily output of 7,000 volumes. He was the first to use the type setting machine on a large scale, and the first to make books by a photo engraving process. He startled the book world when he offered for 50c "Geikies Life of Christ" which had been selling at $8; and for $6 the set of "Chamber's Encyclopedia" that in fifteen volumes had been selling for $45, and a great number of classical and standard works at similar prices, his enterprise becoming popularly known as "The Literary Revolution."
He retired from publishing some years ago and has been living on a poultry farm near Neshanic, New Jersey. Always a student of economics, and whatever tends to human "uplift" and betterment, he has of late been specially interested in promoting the passage by Congress of "The Industrial Savings Act" introduced by Senator Morris Sheppard, of Texas, that un- shackles the Postal Savings Bank. The act, drawn by Mr. Alden, pro- vides for the payment to all depositors in the postal bank of all the in- terest the money can be made to earn when loaned to highest bidders on unquestioned security, for any legitimate use. According to many accepted precedents this method would mobilize an army of over 50,000,000 depositors and over $40,000,000,000 deposits, ample to finance farmers and oil all the
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wheels of industry and commerce. It makes "free trade" in money and credits, as we now have free trade in wheat, cotton, or U. S. Bonds.
LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN-Newark, (881 Sonth 17th St.)- Clergyman ; Author, Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 19th, 1854; son of George Otis and Julia Olds (Whitney) Allen.
Lyman Whitney Allen's father was a native of Boston and his mother a native of Kentucky. The historic Whitney and Thornton families are in his line. His grandfather, on his mother's side, was the Rev. Dewey Whitney, of Vermont, and his maternal grandmother was a descendant of Col. Anthony Thornton, of Virginia, an officer in the Revolutionary War and in command of a regiment at Yorktown, and of Col. William Thorn- ton, an officer in the war of 1812. Dr. Allen is a graduate of Wash- ington University and holds the degrees of B. A. and M. A. from that institution. The Universi- ty of Wooster later conferred the degree of D.D. He pursued a two year's' post-graduate course in philosophy at Princeton Uni- versity and studied for the min- istry at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Ordained by the Presbytery of St. Louis in 1882, he began work in the suburbs of his native city and was for several years after- wards pastor of the Carondelet Presbyterian Church. In 1889 he accepted a call to the South Park Presbyterian Church in Newark and ministered there for twenty- seven years. In October of 1916 he resigned to give his time wholly to literature, yet preaching as oppor- tunity might offer. Since then he has been constantly in literary work. When the city of Newark celebrated its 250th Anniversary, the Committee of 100 requested Dr. Allen to write the Celebration Ode for the opening exer- cises. Dr. Allen's latest publication was his poem "Barnard's Lincoln", read at the dedication, in Cincinnati, March 31st, 1917, of George Grey Barnard's statue of Lincoln. the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft to that city. He is the author of several books, and miscellaneous poems and prose articles, which have been published in various magazines and newspapers.
Some of the works of Dr. Allen are: "Lincoln's Pew", "The House of Mary", "Shakespeare", "The New America", "Our Sister of Letters", "A Parable of the Rose", "Abraham Lincoln" and "The Triumph of Love".
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To the poem, "Abraham Lincoln", was awarded the prize of $1,000 offered in 1896 by the "New York Herald" for the best poem on "American History." It was published simultaneously in the Christmas issues of the New York Herald, the Boston Herald and the St. Louis Republic. The poem, "Lin- coln's Pew" has been tableted in the pew in "The Church of the Presi- dents" (the New York Avenue Presbyterian) in Washington City, where Lincoln worshipped during his term as President.
Dr. Allen is a director in the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions in New York, and is a member of several clubs and societies of New York City-the Authors' Club, the McDowell Club, the National Arts Club, the Dickens Fellowship, the Shakespeare Club, the Browning Society and the Authors' League of America. He is one of the Vice Presidents of the Na- tional Shakespeare Federation, First Vice President of the New Jersey State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Historian of the Newark Chapter S. A. R. and a life member of the New Jersey Historical Society.
PAUL AMBROSE-Trenton, (34 North Clinton Ave.) - Com- poser ; Organist. Born at Hamilton, Ontario, Can., October 11, 1868; son of R. S. and Elizabeth Boyle Ambrose; married at Orange, in 1905, to Naomi Lambe, daughter of Harold and Alice Lambe.
Children : Gwyneth, Robert and Paul.
The father of Paul Ambrose was himself a distinguished Canadian composer and musi- cian, Mr. Ambrose acquired his education in the Ontario schools, and studied piano and theory under his father, Kate S. Chit- tenden and Albert Ross Parsons, counterpoint under Bruno Oscar Klein and orchestration with Dudley Buck.
In 1886 he came to New York and was at once on his arrival appointed organist of the Madi- son Ave. Methodist Episcopal Church in that city. Four years later he was selected as organist and choir master of St. James Methodist Episcopal Church, al- so in New York City. He was still in that position when on January 1, 1917, he became or- ganist and choir master of the Old First Presbyterian Church in Trenton. He had meanwhile in 1903, re- moved from New York City to Trenton to accept the position of Director
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of the Musical Theory and Piano Department of the State Normal School there. He is still in that position. Mr. Ambrose has been Professor of piano at Westminister School, Simsbury, Conn., and is a widely known lecturer on musical topics. In 1906-1907 he was lecturer on Musical His- tory at the America Institute of Applied Music, New York City, and since that time has been lecturer on Musical Theory, Harmony, etc. at the New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton. He is also Director of the Mon- day Musical Club in Trenton.
Professor Ambrose was President for New Jersey of the National Asso- ciation of Organists for three years (1913-1915). As a composer he has written much in the line of songs and instrumental works, church music etc., and some of the products of his pen have been republished in Europe. The most widely used and best known of his secular songs is "The Shoogy Shoo"; of his sacred songs "Jesus, Meek and Gentle", and "Just For To- day", while his most popular anthem is, "Come to my Heart, Lord Jesus."
He is a member of the International Association of Rotary Clubs, and the American Guild of Organists, a former Director of the American In- stitute of Applied Music, also of the Manuscript Society, and Vice-President of The Synthetic Guild of New York.
W. HOLT APGAR -Trenton, (375 W. State St.) - Lawyer. Born in Annandale, Hunterdon County, May 18. 1861 ; son of Henry F. and Hannah M. (Farley) Apgar ; married at Three Bridges, September 10, 1SS4, to Margaretta R. Higgins, daughter of Asher and Anna C. Higgins of Three Bridges.
Children : Mildred H. Apgar, born December 18, 1SS7; Anna M. Murray, born October 16, 1889; Henry Holt Apgar, born Novem- ber 26, 1896.
Mr. Apgar came to Trenton, Mercer County, in 1SS1, entering the law office of Captain Woodbury D. Holt as a law student, after having been educated in the Public Schools of Hunterdon County, followed by two years at the State Normal School in Trenton. He was admitted to the Bar, as an attorney, at the June Term, 18S4, and as a counsellor at the February Term, 1890. From the first he has practiced his profession in Trenton, and been actively engaged as well in Fraternal work and in politics, having been a member of the Mercer County Democratic Commit- tee for a long period of time.
For seven years he was the Assistant Prosecutor of Mercer County, serving as such under Bayard Stockton during nearly the whole of the latter's eleven years of service, retiring in 1894 when a Republican Legis- lature legislated out of office all of the Assistant Prosecutors.
Although Mercer County has a normal Republican majority of three thousand, Mr. Apgar, when the democratic nominee for Senator in 1892 refused to accept the nomination of the convention, was asked to lead the forlorn hope, and, though barely eligible to that position had he been elected, cut down the normal majority to twelve hundred.
At the Democratic Gubernatorial Convention of 1892 which nominated
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then Supreme Court Justice George T. Werts, as the Democratic candidate for Governor, Mercer County presented the name of General Richard A. Donnelly as its candidate. The struggle between Edward F. C. Young's and George T. Werts's friends, for the nomination, was fierce; and when Mr. Apgar had, as a compromise, presented General Donnelly's name, the enthusiasm for the "boy in blue" was so strong that it took the per- sonal efforts of the leaders of the other two factions to stay the rush for the "dark horse" and it was only by strenuous efforts that his nomination was prevented. Both of the forces that had been fighting each other, were forced to unite to prevent General Donnelly's nomination.
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