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 20
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Later, as foreman of a grand jury in Union County, he instituted a rigid inquiry into the saloon business of the country ; and a presentment to the Court pictured the bar-men as masters of Union county politics. At that time, the liquor question was a topic of considerable agitation all over the state; and the presentment attracted wide attention. After the enactment of what is known as the "Bishop (liquor) Law," there were wide rumors that its enforcement was lax in many of the communities ; and with the purpose of devising means for a more rigid observance of its regulations, Governor Fort appointed a special commission to look into the matter. Mayor Fisk was named as one of the Commissioners and made chairman. The Commission sat in very many of the cities and counties, and the testimony it produced and its reports were illuminating as to the conditions that prevailed in some of the localities.
Mr. Fisk is a republican. He was one of the delegates to the Republi- can National Convention of 1896 that nominated ex-Gov. Mckinley of Ohio for President, and Garret A. Hobart of Paterson, for Vice-President, of the United States.
THOMAS F. FITZGERALD-Trenton, (227 Perry St.)-Journ- alist and Publisher. Born in Tullamore, Kings County, Ireland, March 17th, 1844; son of Robert and Mary Fitzgerald; married at Trenton, on Nov. 24, 1885, to Josephine Augusta Lloyd, daugh- ter of Alfred R. and Adelia Lloyd.
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Children : Margaret Fitzgerald Hutchinson, born Dec. 28, 1889 ; Josephine Fitzgerald Stont, born June 26, 1893; Dorothy A., born February 5, 1897; Frances G., born March 27, 1899.
Thomas F. Fitzgerald is descended from the Kildare branch of the Geraldines. His wife is a descendent of American Revolutionary stock on the paternal side, and on the maternal of the sturdy pikemen of the West Ireland. He was educated in the national school of his native town under the tutelage of Hugh McMonagle an educator of note. He was given a good commercial schooling and in his youth acted as clerk for his father who was then what was known as a "corn buyer." But he had taken a liking
in his early youth for news- paper work, and wrote for his home journals.
In 1863 Mr. Fitzgerald emigrated to the United States, landing in New York, where, for a brief period, he served as book- keeper in a mercantile es- tablishment. Ile after- wards made a tour of the South and South-West in search of fame and fortune without finding either. Af- ter a migratory experience lasting seven years he re- turned to New York with the belief that if a young man could not make a live- lihood there he could not well succeed anywhere. He met an old schoolmate, Pat- rick Emmett O'Brien, who obtained for him a position on the "New York Herald," as its representative in Trenton, a position which he continued to fill for over a quarter of a century. In addition thereto he was the correspondent of the "Philadelphia Record" and several New Jersey newspapers.
He relinquished part of this work in 1898, upon becoming one of the proprietors of the "Trenton Sunday Advertiser." one of the leading news- papers of New Jersey. He sold his interest in that newspaper in 1914. In 1877 he began the publication of the Trenton and Mercer County Directory which he has continued ever since. In 1879 he issued the first number of the present New Jersey Legislative Manual which he improved from year to year until it is now the text book on all matters of interest concerning state and county governments.
Mr. Fitzgerald has attended every session of the New Jersey Legisla- ture since 1872 and his newspaper work has brought him the acquaintance of nearly all the public men of New Jersey, during all that period of more
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than 40 years - Governors, Congressmen, Judges, members of the legisla- ture, and leading politicians of all parties. He has been the repository of their confidences and held their friendship, and has himself achieved some favorable notice as a political writer.
Mr. Fitzgerald is a member of Trenton Council. Knights of Columbus, the New Jersey Legislative Correspondents Club (of which he is dean and whose first President he was,) the Trenton Press Club and the Mercer County Democratic League:
Mr. Fitzgerald's summer home is in Belmar.
WILLIAM EDWIN FLORANCE-New Brunswick, (390 George Street.)-Lawyer. Born in Toronto, Canada, April 14, 1865.
William Edwin Florance is Treasurer of the Committee of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America on the Seminary Grounds and Property at New Brunswick and a trustee of Rutgers College. In public life he was Prosecutor of the Pleas for Middlesex County and is now member of the New Jersey State Senate.
Senator Florance studied in the public schools of New Brunswick and graduating from the high school of that city, entered Rutgers College. He graduated from there with the class of 1885; and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and of the Chi Psi Fraternity of the College. He studied law in the offices of the ex-United States District Attorney J. Kearny Rice and of the late Justice of the Supreme Court Willard P. Voorhees, and was admitted as an attorney in November, 1887 and as a counselor in November of 1890.
Senator Florance has been successively City Collector and City Treas- urer of New Brunswick and Mayor of the City. In 1914 Ex-Senator George S. Silzer resigned the office of Prosecutor of Middlesex County to accept a Circuit Court Judgeship; and Ex-Mayor Florance was made his succes- sor. In 1915 he was elected Senator from Middlesex County over Wm. A. Spencer, republican.
Senator Florance was a member of the State Board of Education by appointment of Governor Stokes from 1905 to 1911. He is President of the New Brunswick Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Vice-President of the National Bank of New Jersey, one of the managers of and counsel for the New Brunswick Savings Institution, a director and counsel for the Security Building and Loan Association, a member of Union Lodge F. and A. M. and a Past Regent of Adelphic Council No. 1.015, Royal Arcanum.
CHARLES H. FOLWELL-Mt. Holly .- Editor and Publisher. Born in Washington, D. C. on October 30, 1871 son of Charles H. and Mary A. (Applegate) Folwell : married on April 25, 1894, to
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Mary Nelson Neill, daughter of Alexander and Ellen L. Neill, of Hagerstown, Md.
Children : Charles H., Jr., born 1895: Elinor Neill, born 1902.
Charles H. Folwell is editor and publisher of "The New Jersey Mirror," of Mount Holly. His father, a well known journalist, was connected, at the time of the birth of the son, with the Agricultural Department in Washington. Soon afterwards the elder Folwell returned with his family to Mount Holly, his native town, and purchased "The Mirror," which he pub- lished until his death, in 1884. The property was conducted by his estate until the son attained his majority, when he came into possession.
The present editor of "The Mirror" obtained his education at local private schools, the Lawrenceville School and at Greylock Institute, of South Wiliamstown, Mass. He later took practical courses in printing and newspaper reporting. Under his direction "The Mirror" has been greatly improved and the field of its influence considerably widened. Next year it will celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary. During the century of its existence, it has been owned by but two families, the Palmers, by whom it was founded, and the Folwells.
Mr. Folwell is President of the New Jersey Press Association, of which his father was President more than three decades ago. He is a director of the Camden and Burlington County Railway Company, a subsidiary line of the Pennsyl- vania system, Chairman of the Public Safety Committee of Sev- enty, of Mount Holly, and is in- terested in various other public and business activities. In pol- ities he is a staunch republican and takes an active part in State and county political af- fairs. He was the first Super- visor of Bills of the House of Assembly and organized the of- fice under the new system when the practice of engrossing all legislative bills was superseded by the modern one of printing the bills. For seven years he was Secretary of the State Wa- ter-Supply Commission.
Mr. Folwell's mother was a graduate of Bordentown Female College. His wife is of a prominent Maryland family. Her father was President of the Hagerstown Bank and one of the best known of Maryland lawyers and bankers. Upon her maternal side. Mrs. Folwell is the grand- daughter of William Loughridge, the inventor of the air-brake. Mr. Fol- well's son, Charles H., Jr., graduated with the class of '17 as a Civil Engineer at Princeton University.
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Mr. Folwell is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, and of Mount Holly Lodge, No. 848, B. P. O. E. and connected with other organiza- tions. He attends St. Andrew's P. E. Church, of Mount Holly.
ROBERT DUMONT FOOTE-Morristown, (James Street.)- Farmer. Born in Cincinnati, O., July 19, 1862; son of John Tain- tor and Mary (Dumont) Foote; married at Madi- son, on July 7, 1886, to Marie Gilmour Hopkins.
Robert D. Foote has long been known in the civic and social and financial life of Middle Jer- sey. He has sometimes been mentioned in connection with the democratic nomination for governor and in one campaign his name appeared in the prints in connection with the United States Senatorship.
Mr. Foote is a farmer along the larger scientific agricultural lines ; and his estate in Morris- town is one of the show places of that exclusive region. He came to New Jersey with his parents when he was two years old, was educated at the Charlier Institute in New York City, and, after leaving there, spent five years abroad. Upon his return, he entered actively into the business and social life of Morris County and he is now President of the National Iron Bank of Morristown.
MINNIE J. FORCE (Mrs. William H.)-Newark, (16 Marshall Street.)-Civic Worker. Born at Jersey City, July 31st, 1868 daugh- ter of Lorenzo and Jennie E. (Edwards) Bixby; married at Waterbury, Conn., August 1st, 1889, to Williaim H. Force, son of John and Adelaide Force.
Children : Wallace W., born December 13th, 1901.
Mrs. Minnie J. Force is President of the New Jersey Division, Inter- national Sunshine Society, the largest philanthropic newspaper club in the world. It was incorporated to incite its members to kind and helpful deeds, and is planned to do the things, in unoccupied fields of philanthropy, that will bring the sunshine of happiness to neglected hearts and homes. The state organization has thirty-seven chartered branches all working along different lines for "Sunshine." It gives its attention to city civics, crippled children, the "shut-ins," mending for the blind babies, the preven- tion of blindness, child hygiene, assisting the Visiting Nurses Association,
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while the local work is differentiated in town or city according to the needs of the place.
Mrs. Force has been a member of the Society since 1900 when she or- ganized a branch in New Britain, Conn .; coming back to New Jersey in 1906, she was appointed State Recording Secretary of the New Jersey divi- sion. She held that position until October 10, 1916, when she was elected President of the Society. In its effort to find a community that no philan- thropy was helping, the Society discovered the neglect of the blind babies and the Sunshine work of aid there began. There is now at Summit the largest blind babies home, nursery and kindergarten in the United States. It is known as the Arthur Home for Blind Babies.
In 1911 the state included blind babies among its dependents ; the so- ciety's certificate of endorsement was granted ; an appropriation of $365. a year was made for the care of each of the afflicted youngsters, and in 1916 through the Society's efforts the state allowance was increased to $450 per year for each.
Mrs. Force has been Secretary of the International Society's Depart- ment for the Blind for four years and a member of the International Board of Directors for three. The other officers of the New Jersey division are: - Vice President, Mrs. A. O. Buch, Elizabeth; Vice President, Mrs. A. F. Beckett, Salem; State Rec. Sec'y., Mrs. George F. Fox, Elizabeth ; State Cor. Sec'y., Mrs. William Hedden, Irvington ; State Treasurer, Mrs. Cath- erine Simpson, Orange.
NIXOLA GREELEY SMITH-FORD (Mrs. Andrew W.) - Orange, (535 Scotland Road.) - Literary work. Born at Chappaqua, N. Y., in 1880, daughter of Col. Nicholas and Ida Greeley Smith ; married to Andrew Watres Ford, editor.
Mrs. Ford's mother was the oldest daughter of Horace Gree- ley, founder of the "New York Tribune" and one of the famous journalists of the world. Mrs. Ford is on the editorial staff of the "New York Evening World" and contributes essays and po- ems to leading magazines. Her newspaper articles are syndi- cated throughout the country, appearing in newspapers in ev- ery state. They deal with topics of general, social and political interest and are dedicated to the advancement of feminism. Mrs. Ford regards woman suffrage merely as the first milepost on the road
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of woman's freedom and not in any sense as a goal. She has addressed many women's clubs in New York City and State on suffrage and has spoken in several churches in New York City on the same subject.
Mrs. Ford was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Manhat- tanville, New York City, and by private tutors in Liege, Belgium, where her father was United States Consul.
ALEXANDER ROBERT FORDYCE, Jr .- West Orange, (364 Gregory Avenue.)-Lawyer. Born in New York City, Feb. 13th, 1875 ; son of Alexander Robert and Margaret Livingston Hall For- dyce; married at East Orange, on Nov. 22, 1905; to Ida McCoy, daughter of Josiah and Mary Elizabeth McCoy of East Orange.
Children : Hugh, born on Jan. 7, 1907, (died in infancy) ; Alex- ander Dingwall, born Dec. 13, 190S.
Col. Fordyce has long been prominent in the public and military af- fairs of the State. He was twice elected a member of the House of As- sembly, in 1904 and 1905; was a candidate for Republican nomination to the State Senate in 1906, and in 1916 he declined to become a candidate for congressional honors. In the meantime, 1912, he was appoint- ed by Governor Wilson to the State Civil Service Commission, continuing as a member and President to 1916.
In 1900 he enlisted in the Es- sex Troop and served as private and non-commissioned officer un- til honorably discharged in Jan- uary, 1905. Shortly thereafter he was commissioned Lient. Colonel and Deputy Quartermaster Gen- eral of the State, which position he held until 1911, when he was commissioned Colonel and Assis- tant Commissary General, and in 1913 he was commissioned Colonel Quartermaster Corps, mustered in the Federal service as Major. 1917.
Col. Fordyce received his ear- ly education with private tutors ; afterwards attending Stevens and Penn Schools. He then entered Princeton College, graduating in 1896 (A. B.), and subsequently studied law at the New York Law School from which he graduated in 1898 (LL. B.) He was admitted to the Bar the same year. Besides law he has other important interests.
Col. Fordyce is of Scotch ancestry, both parents having been born in Scotland-his father in Abardeenshire, not far distant from the ancient.
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Parish and Town of Fordyce. The Fordyces, as well as ancestors on his mother's side have been distinguished for generations in the public, mili- tary and professional life of Scotland.
Col. Fordyce is a member of the Princeton and Essex County Country Clubs.
ROBERT HAYES FORDYCE-Paterson, (73 Twelfth Avenue.) -Banker. Born in Paterson, in 1855.
Robert H. Fordyce, Ex-Mayor of Paterson, has resided in that city all of his life and was educated in its public schools. After graduating from High School, he finished in a private school. His first position was with the firm of Harrell & Hayes, coppersmiths, both members of which firm were his uncles. In 1872 he became shipping clerk for the New York Steam Engine Works in Passaic, and a year later attached himself to the Architectural Department of the Watson Machine Company. He was con- neeted with the Paterson post office for eight years, officiating for the last four of the eight as Deputy Post Master. From 1883 to 1890 he was in the employ of the First National Bank of Paterson. With the idea of starting in business there, he went to Seattle but was not favorably impressed with the opportunities and returned to Paterson after a few months absence. In 1891 he became Teller of the Second National Bank, but resigned, after twelve years, to become Secretary and Treasurer of the German American Trust Company, which was then being organized and held that position un- til President of the Company.
Mr. Fordyce has been active in political and military circles. He served as Mayor for one term. He was a charter member of the Paterson Light Guards which was organized in 1870, and became the First Battalion of the State National Guard. He had been Captain of Company B. for five years when he resigned in 1890.
JOHN FRANKLIN FORT-Newark .- Lawyer. Born at Pem- berton, March 20th, 1852; son of Andrew Heisler and Hannah A. (Brown ) Fort ; married at Newark, April 20th, 1876, to Charlotte Stainsby, daughter of William and Margaret Stainsby, both of Newark.
Children : Margretta, Franklin William and Leslie Runyon.
John Franklin Fort comes of a family that has long been prominent in New Jersey affairs. George F. Fort, the Democratic Governor of the state, from 1851 to 1854, was his unele; and he has himself been active in the political and civic affairs of the state for many years. He gained his preparatory education at private schools in Pemberton and Aaron's Acad- emy in Mt. Holly. He graduated from Pennington Seminary, Pennington, in 1869, and at the Albany Law school, in 1872.
Admitted to the bar in November, 1873, he entered upon the practice
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of the law in Newark; and almost immediately plunged into the public life of the state. Mrs. Fort's father was the dominating force in the repub- lican party of Essex at that time and was afterwards State Senator from Essex ; and Mr. Fort was allied with that party. He was Assistant Journal Clerk of the Assembly at Trenton in 1873 and 1874. In 1878 he was ap- pointed Judge of the First District Court of Newark, serving there till 1886 when he resigned to devote all his time to his growing practice. He was a member of the Constitutional Commission of 1894 that framed amend- ments to the State's Constitution. In 1896 Governor Griggs appointed him President. Judge of the Common Pleas of Essex County and in 1900 Gov- ernor Voorhees named him an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the state.
Governor Fort was a delegate to the National Republican Conventions of 1SS4, 1896, 190S and 1912. In the Convention of 1896, he made the speech that put the name of Garret A. Hobart, of Paterson, before the delegates for Vice President of the United States. The oration attracted wide atten- tion and brought Mr. Fort into prominence. In 190S while he was still on the Supreme Court Bench, the Republican State Convention named him as the candidate for Governor. He appeared before the delegates to accept the nomination, before they dispersed for their homes ; and gave a dramatic climax to the day's proceedings by handing his resignation to the Governor, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He was elected in the No- vember following, and served for the three year term, January 1908-1911. Governor Fort pioneered much progressive legislation during his term and had many hard contests with political machine of his party. He secured primary reform, Public Utilities legislation, and the present effective Civil Service law. His fight paved the way for much of the advanced reform legislation that came under Governor Wilson.
The Progressive movement, that later stormed both parties, had been gathering force all during the period of Governor Fort's administration ; and Woodrow Wilson, to whom he handed the Great Seal of State in 1911, came to the State House to succeed him, as impersonating the Progressive sentiment of the Democratic party. The exchange of courtesies between the outgoing republican and the incoming democratic Governor were very marked ; and, indeed, the friendship between them has extended into Gov- ernor Wilson's term as President of the United States. It was President Wilson who sent him to Santo Domingo, in 1914, as the Special Envoy of the United States to the Dominion Republic; and later, in 1915, the Presi- dent commissioned him as a Special Envoy from the United States, to Haiti.
Governor Fort had become in sympathy with the Progressive movement in the Republican party ; and the approach of a new Presidential election in 1912 just after the close of his gubernatorial term, found him favoring the nomination, for the first place in the nation, of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, who was making an aggressive fight, as a Progressive, against the renomination of President William H. Taft. The Republican Conven- tion, assembled at Chicago in 1912, named Taft; and the Roosevelt forces held an independent Convention-in Chicago too-and put Mr. Roosevelt in nomination against the President. The split in the party opened the path to the election of Governor Wilson as President. Ex-Governor Fort
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was a delegate to both of these Republican Conventions-the "Regular" and the "Progressive"-and played an important part in both.
Governor Fort was appointed by the President to be a member of the Federal Trade Commission, created under the Act of Congress, approved September 26, 1914, was confirmed by the Senate and entered upon his duties March 20, 1917 and is now a member of that important arm of the government. The duties of this Commission relate to the business interests of the country and the question of fair methods of competition. Under the Act creating this Commission it has to do largely with violations of the Clayton Act as well as the Federal Trade Commission Act. .
Governor Fort has received the degree of Dr. of Laws from Dickinson, Rutgers, Lafayette, Middlebury, and Seton Hall Colleges, Union and New York Universities and Bloomfield Theological Seminary. He is a member of the Essex, Down Town, New York Republican, and Lakewood Country Clubs.
His office is in the Essex Building, Newark.
JOHN E. FOSTER-Atlantic Highlands .- Jurist. Born in New York City, Sept. 22nd, 1814.
John E. Foster has been long distinguished in the professional life of the middle section of New Jersey. He has been Prosecutor, County Judge of Monmouth and is now Vice Chancellor.
Vice Chancellor Foster was educated at the schools in New York City and graduated from the Law School of Columbia College in 1SS6. He had resided for seven years in Monmouth county when he was admitted to the Bar at the November term of 1886, becoming a counselor in 1889. Gover- nor Voorhees appointed him Prosecutor of the Pleas in 1900. He served until, in 1904, he was made Presiding Judge of the county courts. Suc- ceeding Governors re-appointed him and he had served for eleven years on that bench when Chancellor Walker, in January, 1916 named him for Vice Chancellor.
SOLOMON FOSTER-Newark, (90 Treacy Avenue) -Rabbi. Born at Americus, Ga., 1878; son of Meyer Foster; married on June 22, 1904 to Sadie Levy.
Rabbi Foster is the minister of the Congregation B'nai Jeshurun. Newark. As a boy his parents moved to Scranton, Pa., where he attended grammar school and the Preparatory School of the Lackawanna, Lackawan- na County, Scranton, and in 1894 he went to the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, O. and the University of Cincinnati to prepare for the Rab- binate. In 1901 he graduated from the University of Cincinnati. During the years 1898 to 1902 he was Associate Librarian of the Hebrew Union
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College, and in 1901-1902 editor of the Hebrew Union College Monthly. He graduated from the Hebrew Union College, class of 1902, with the vale- dictorian honors. The same year he was elected Associate Rabbi of the Congregation B'nai Jeshurun ; and in 1905, after the retirement of the aged Rabbi Joseph Leucht, he was given charge.
About seven years ago he began to agitate in his congregation for a larger place of worship. This resulted in the erection of the imposing edifice at High St. and Waverley Ave. The dedication of the New Temple took place December 1915, and was attended by Governor Fielder, Mayor Raymond, and the most prominent Rabbis of the country. In connection with the religious school at the Temple, which is under the per- sonal supervision of the Rabbi, he has organized a Normal Class for the training of re- ligious school teachers.
Dr. Foster has interested himself ardently in all works, civic and religious, that make for the uplift of the community around him and of the people generally. In 1903 he was ap- pointed by the Common Council of Newark as the Decoration Day Orator ; and in 1916 Mayor Haussling of Newark appointed him a member of the Newark City Celebration Committee of 100. There he was made chair- man of the sub-committee on Schools and Philanthropy. He was selected also to serve on the committee charged with the erection of the Memorial Building the city is to put up in South Newark in commemoration of the anniversary. The people by a special vote author- ized the expenditure of $1,500,000 upon the building.
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