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 39
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Senator McCran was in 1916 elected President of the South Side Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Paterson, and is connected with several clubs.
THOMAS McEWAN-West Hoboken, (1127 Summit Avenue.)- Lawyer; Banker. Born in Paterson, on February 26th, 1854; son of Thomas and Hannah (Ledget ) McEwan.
Thomas McEwan is President of the Highland Trust Company in West Hoboken. For a long time he was Secretary of the Hudson County Re- publican Committee, served in 1887-'SS as a tax assessor of Jersey City and as City Comptroller in 1905; was appointed Chief Supervisor of Elections for the district of New Jersey in 1892, and subsequently served as a mem- ber of the New Jersey State Assembly-being leader of the Republican ma- jority, in the State Assembly, a rare distinction for a member serving his first term-and for two terms as a Member of the United States Congress. He served also as a delegate to the National Republican Conventions of 1892 and 1896.
Isaac W. Scudder, Lewis T. Brigham and Mr. McEwan are the only three Republicans who have represented the democratic county of Hudson, in all of its history, in the House of Representatives in Washington. Mr. McEwan's political triumphs were the more notable because, while the county is presumed to be liberal on the liquor question, he has always been known as a steadfast temperance advocate. The nomination for a third term in Congress was at his disposal, but he declined it. William D. Daly, the democrat who succeeded him, carried the county by 12,000 majority, which
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disclosed a difference of 18,000 between the republican vote when Mr. Mc Ewan ran and when Mr. McEwan did not run.
Mr. McEwan was educated in the public schools in Jersey City and was a civil engineer for a few years, then graduated from the law depart- ment of Columbia University with the L. L. B. degree, class of 1SS1. He practiced at the New York and New Jersey bars, and at the bar of the United States Supreme Court, with offices both in the Metropolis and in Jersey City, until he went into the banking business. In his professional work Mr. McEwan has been executor, guardian and trustee of many estates ; and is President of the Hoboken Heights Land Co., and Treasurer of the Vienna Fancy Case Company and of the Wecman Company.
He is a member of the Union League (Hudson Co.), the New Jersey State Bar Association, New York City Bar Association, Hudson County Bar Association, Advisory Committee Young Women's Christian Associa- tion, President of the Hudson County Branch of State Charities Aid So- ciety and a member of the Executive Committee Equal Franchise Society ; also of the Scottish Rite Masons, Knights of Pythias, United Workmen, and the National Arts (New York. )
PETER JAMES MCGINNIS-Paterson .- Lawyer. Born in Pat- erson, September 2, 1875 ; son of Lawrence and Mary E. McGinnis ; married at Paterson, in 1909, to Gertrude C. Nolan, daughter of Michael and Caroline Nolan, of Paterson.
Children : Lawrence and John.
Woodrow Wilson, when Gov- ernor, went into Passaic county the night before the election of 1912. and made two speeches urging the people of the county to send Peter J. McGinnis, whom the democrats had put in nomi- nation. to the State Senate of New Jersey. Mr. MGinnis de- feated Thomas F. McCran, then Speaker of the House of Assem- bly, whom the republicans of the county had put up against him, and shares, with John Hopper. John Mallon, Christian Braun and John Hinchliffe, the distinc- tion of being one of the few democrats who have carried that republican county in a cam- paign for a seat in the State Senate. In 1916 when he ran for re-election, Speaker McCran defeated him.
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At the sessions of 1913 and 1914 Senator McGinnis was majority leader on the Senate floor ; and in 1915 was given the complimentary minority vote for President of the Senate. In 1914 he served as Chairman of the Com- mittee on Judiciary, on Municipal Corporations and Corporations and of the Joint Committee that arranged for the inauguration of James F. Fielder as Governor. He was active in promoting all of the Progressive legisla- tion Governor Wilson and later Governor Fielder put before the Houses ; and had charge, while they were pending in the Senate, of the movement for the passage of three of the "Seven Sisters" bills, regulating the corpora- tions of the state. He was instrumental in promoting labor measures and conspicuous in his opposition to Local Option. In 1914 Governor Fielder appointed him a member of the Special Economy and Efficiency Commis- sion, under acts by which the administrative State departments were re- organized in 1915. In 1916 he was appointed by Governor Fielder, a mem- ber of the Commission to revise and modify the election laws and was, by the Commission, elected its President.
Senator McGinnis acquired his education in private schools in Pater- son and New York; and, while attending the New York Law School, made himself acquainted with the practice as a student in the office of Z. M. Ward of Paterson. He graduated from the Law School in 1898 with the LL. B. degree, and was admitted as an attorney in 1898 and as a counselor in 1901. Three years later he associated himself with John M. Ward ; and under the name of Ward & McGinnis they are still engaged in the practice of their profession in Paterson.
WOOD McKEE-Paterson, (Fifteenth Avenue.) -- Lawyer. Born in Paterson, November 10, 1866; son of James W. McKee.
Wood McKee, active in republican circles in Passaic county, has been a member of both Houses of the Legislature. His father, a Paterson business man, had been Sheriff of the county.
Senator McKee was educated in the public schools of Paterson and in Professor McManus's private school. He read law in the office of Judge Francis Scott of Paterson and was admitted to the Bar in 1SSS. He makes a specialty of real estate and Chancery practice.
Senator McKee began his political life in the Republican clubs of the county, in 1897 was elected to the House of Assembly and was re-elected in 189S. During the session of 1899, the republican majority of the House made him floor leader. Before the close of his second term in the Assem- bly-in 1900- the republicans put him in nomination for the State Senate, and he was re-elected in 1903, his service covering the legislative sessions between 1901-1906 both inclusive.
Mr. McKee is a member of the Hamilton Club, the Calumet Republican Association, the Apollo Club of New York City, of Fabiola Lodge, No. 57, Knights of Pythias, of Ivanhoe Lodge, No. SS. F. & A. M .. Paterson Lodge
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of Elks, Silk City Conclave, No. 232, A. O. H. and of Garret Rock Council, No. 785, National Union.
WILLIAM MeNULTY-Paterson .- Clergyman. Born in Bally- shannon, county Donegal, Ireland, in January of 1829; son of Owen and Catharine McNulty.
A conspicuous figure in the religious, moral and civic development of Paterson for more than a half century, the Very Rev. William McNulty, M. R., V. F., LL. D., holds the affection and esteem of citizens of the city, irrespective of denominational affiliations. He pursued his education in Donegal schools; and at the age of twenty-one. imbued with the desire to Jabor for souls in "The States," he came hither and was matriculated at St. John's College, Fordham, N. Y., now known as Fordham Uni- versity. Coming from a family distinguished for generations in the arts and sciences, he was graduated with high honors in 1853. pursued theology at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary, Emmets- burg. Md., and was ordained to the Priesthood on August 6, 1857, at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Newark.
Father McNulty was assigned immediately to the new Seton Hall College at Madison, occu- pying the post of Vice President, Professor and Prefect of Disci- pline. Two years later, when Seton Hall College was trans- ferred to South Orange, the buildings were used as a noviti- ate for the Sisters of Charity and the Academy of St. Eliza- beth, and Father McNulty remained as chaplain. There he sowed the seeds of his future reputation of "Church Builder," in the erection of churches at Baskingridge and Mendham.
It was on October 23. 1863 that he was sent to Paterson as rector of St. John's Church, to labor in the only parish for English speaking people there. And there is scarcely any field of spiritual or humane endeavor that has not profited by his zealous efforts. At the time of his coming, there were but two Catholic edifices, St. John's and St. Boniface's, the latter for the Germans: to-day there are eight churches for English speaking people ; seven for those of other nationalities, and, in the vicinity of Pater- son, fifteen churches or chapels that owe their origin to the local parishes. In several instances, the churches were built by Dean McNulty himself.
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Besides these, he founded a hospital, an orphanage, the Home for the Aged, a Home for Working Girls, club houses for men and women, and the Catholic population has grown from 6,500 to 43.000.
During the excitement that culminated in the popular demonstration at Trenton in 1893 against the excesses of what is known as the "Jockey Legislature" and which eventuated in the Anti-Gambling amendment to the State Constitution, Dean McNulty was a commanding and interesting figure. His address on the floor of the Assembly Chamber, after the populace had taken possession of it, was the feature of the oratory of the hour. He has attained national fame for his consistent fight against intemperance ; he has been feared more than the entire police force by violators of excise laws. Until recently, when his advancing years demanded that he cease his activi- ty, he was identified with every movement calculated to advance the moral and civic welfare of the community.
WILLIAM RALPH MEAKLE-Paterson, (36 Eighteenth Ave.) -Banker. Born in Paterson, 1868; son of George and Sarah A. Meakle; married at Paterson, on June 5, 1892.
Children : Cadance, born February 5th, 1896; Roderic, born January 2, 1902.
William R. Meakle is M. W. Grand Master of the Society of Free and Accepted Masons in New Jersey. He went into Haledon Lodge in 1899, served as Master of the lodge in 1907 and was elected to the position of Grand Master of Masons in New Jersey in 1916.
Mr. Meakle began his business career with the Paterson Savings Insti- tution when he was eighteen years of age and is now its Secretary. He was one of the first promoters of the establishment of the Paterson Chamber of Commerce and has been its Treasurer since its inception. He is also Presi- dent of the Paterson Orphan Asylum Association.
Mr. Meakle's daughter Cadance is a musician whose work has been much praised by the "Musical Leader."
SPENCER MILLER-South Orange .- Engineer, Inventor. Born at Waukegen, Ill., on April 25, 1859; son of Samuel Fisher and Charlotte (Howe) Miller ; married on January 1, 1884, to Hattie M. Ruggles, daughter of Willard G. Ruggles.
Children : Mrs. Marguerite Miller Grannis ; Spencer, Jr. ; Helen ; Emerson.
Of Spencer Miller's mechanical inventions, that for which he is most widely known, is of a marine cable way that makes it possible to transport coal from ship to ship under headway at sea. The invention was born of ยท the difficulty the Federal Government experienced in coaling its ships during the Spanish-American War. Originally a machine with a capacity of fifteen tons an hour, it has been improved until its capacity now is eighty
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tons an hour. It is in use in the navies of the United States, Russia, Britain. Japan and Italy. Another device of Mr. Miller's has increased the facilities for the broad-side coaling of ships in harbor from twenty-five tons per hour to one hundred tons per hour.
A second of Mr. Miller's important inventions is the Breeches Buoy cableway, an apparatus which has been adopted by the United States revenue cutter service. The buoy cableway apparatus is equipped with an automatic steam reel which takes in and "pays out" the suspended hawser as the ships approach or separate; and by its use a ship can rescue pas- sengers from any other ship in the heaviest sea. He is now a member of the Federal Naval Consulting Board, being Chairman of its Committee in Life Saving.
Mr. Miller's technical education was acquired at the Polytechnic In- stitute of Worcester, Mass., from which he graduated in 1879. After acting as a special tutor in mathematics in Amherst College for a time he became a draftsman for the Link-Belt Machinery Company ; and there his mind turned towards the mechanical problems that have since interested him. Before long he had designed a number of rope drives as well as a novel arrangement for handling mer- chandise by continuous systems of conveying ; and he soon after- wards found a means of equal- izing the grip upon pulleys of different diameters by varying the angles of the grooves. Con- necting himself, a little over twenty-eight years ago, with the Lidgerwood Manufacturing Co .. of New York, he developed a new overhead cable carrier sys- tem that is now used in various parts of the world in construct- ing United States fortifications, dams, filtration beds, sewers, etc. Thomas A. Edison was the first patron of this device ; and it was installed for use at Panama in the construction of the Gatum locks. A log-skidding cable way he devised for the taking of cypress logs out of the swamps of Louisiana, is now employed in the forests of not only the South but of those as well, in the states of the North and in Canada.
At his home town Mr. Miller is greatly interested in civic work such as establishing public libraries, parks, playgrounds, parkways, etc. He is a member of the Essex Co. Mosquito Extermination Commission and widely known as the "Father" of the Anti-Mosquito Movement in New Jersey ; and his public spirit has led to his call to local public positions.
Mr. Miller is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Min-
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Minch
ing Engineers and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, as well as the Canadian Institute of Mining Engineers. He is a member of the Engineers' Club of New York, Essex County Country Club of Orange, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D. C., and of numerous smaller organizations.
ALFRED ELMER MILLS - Morristown. - Lawyer. Born at Morristown, July 22, 1858; son of Alfred and Katharine Elmer (Coe) Mills. Never married.
Alfred Elmer Mills received his early education at private schools in Morristown and at Trinity School, a military school, at Tivoli-on-the-Hud- son, New York, and graduated with honors from Princeton University, re- ceiving the degree of A. B. in 1882 and of A. M. in 1885. He read law in the office of his father, Alfred Mills, and was admitted to the Bar as an attorney in 1SS6 and as a counselor in 1889, becoming associated with his father in the practice at Morristown. He was counsel for the Town of Morristown from 1892 to 1894, and Prosecutor of the Pleas for Morris county from 1898 to 1903, when he was made President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Morris county, serving until 1913. He has since been engaged in the practice of his profession at Morristown.
Judge Mills is a member of the Board of Managers of the Morris County Savings Bank, a Director of the National Iron Bank of Morris- town, President of The Washington Association of New Jersey and by Governor Fort's appointment was a member of The Washington Crossing Commission in 1910.
He is also a Director of the Morristown Library and Lyceum, a Trustee of the Morristown Library, one of the Trustees holding the title to the Morristown Green, a Vestryman of St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Mor- ristown and for many years Treasurer of its Building Committee. He is a member of the American Bar Association, of the New Jersey State Bar As- sociation, and of the Bar Association of Morris County, at one time its President.
Among his Clubs are the Morristown, the Morris County Golf, the Mor- ristown Field, the Princeton Club of the Oranges and the Princeton Club of New York.
BLOOMFIELD HOLMES MINCH-Bridgeton .- Banker. Born at Bridgeton, on October 10, 1864; son of Francis B. and Elizabeth H. (Tice) Minch ; married on December 30th, 1886, to Nellie Rabeau, daughter of Andrew and Mary Rabeau, of Camden. (died January 5, 1896) ;- 2nd. on December 15, 1906, to Marion Kenney, daughter of Michael Kenney, of Somerville.
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Children : Robert F., born September 16, 18SS; Oeleta E., born September 26th, 1891.
Bloomfield H. Minch has served Cumberland county in both the House of Assembly and State Senate, and in 1907 was President of the Senate. For five years later, he was a member of the State Board for the Equaliza- tion of Taxes. He is now devoting his attention entirely to his business engagements.
Senator Minch was educated at the South Jersey Institute which he attended from 1879 to 1883. His first nomination to the Assembly was given to him by the Republicans of Cumberland county in 1893, and, re- elected three times afterwards, he served in the Houses of '94-'95-'96-97. In 1901 he accepted the republican nomination for the State Senate; and, re-elected in 1904 and 1907, was one of the efficient men of the Senates that sat in Trenton be- tween 1902 and 1910. His ap- pointment as a member of the State Board for Equalization of Taxes came from Gov. Fort in 1910. Mr. Minch's connection with the Senates of previons years assured the confirmation of his nomination as soon as Gov. Fort submitted his name, and he served until 1915.
Interested in the great work of conservation of the natural resources of the state. Senator Minch was the pioneer in cham- pioning and presenting legisla- tion in 1902 which laid the foun- dation for the legislation that has followed. creating the vari- ons conservation boards that have since taken up the work of conserving the timber lands and the water sheds of the state. He was also anthor of the legislation which provided the fire lines for the protec- tion of the timber lands along all railroad tracks, and which has had the effect of preventing the vast waste that had previously been created by the fires cansed by locomotive sparks. He also shaped much of the present corporation legislation, being for years Chairman of the Committee on Cor- porations, and also provided the unique charter acts for second class cities with populations of under 20,000, which were the foundation for the Com- mission form of government that came with the Walsh Act. State control of the oyster industry of the state is also the pioneer work of Mr. Minch. In politics, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated William Mckinley at Philadelphia in 1900, and was also an alternate delegate-at-large to the Republican National Conventions of 190S and 1916.
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Senator Minch is President of the Bridgeton Gas Light Company, of the Parker Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, of the North Bridgeton Land Company, and of the Cumberland Building and Loan Association and Vice President of the Bridgeton National Bank. He is connected with the Union League Club of Philadelphia, the Cohansie Country Club of Bridge- ton and Welcome Council Jr. O. U. A. M. and is a member of Elks Lodge 733, of Brearley Lodge of Masons and of Cohanzie Lodge I. O. O. F.
JAMES F. MINTURN-Hoboken, (630 Hudson Street.)-Jurist. Born at Hoboken, on July 16, 1860; son of John and Amma Min- turn ; married at Hoboken, on November 15, 1890, to Annie C. Foley, (died January 10, 1893) ;- 2nd, Minnie T. Foley, both daughters of Timothy T. and Margaret A. Foley, of Hoboken.
Children : Franklin and Geraldine.
James F. Minturn has been Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey since 1907, and had been previously a Circuit Court Judge. He had represented Hudson county in the State Senate, was one of the organizers of the State Charities' Aid Association, the Hudson County Bar Association, the Free Public Library of Hoboken and of the Red Cross Society, of which he is President. He also assisted in the organization of the So- ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and was its counsel for several years.
Justice Minturn was educated in the public schools of Hoboken and at the Martha Institute. While at college, his health failed, and he completed his studies under the tuition of Pro- fessor Louis Barton, of Rutgers College. He graduated from Columbia College Law School with the degree of LL. B., and read law in the offices of Ogden & Niven, in Hoboken. He was admitted to the New York Bar as an attorney and counsel and also to the New Jersey Bar and the Bar of the United States Supreme Court.
From 1884 until his appointment on the Circuit Court Bench, Justice Minturn was Corporation Counsel of Hoboken. Among the important liti- gations in which he represented the city was that over the ownership of the river front, in the United States Supreme Court, to which the Hoboken Land and Improvement Co., the German steamship companies and the Lackawanna and Pennsylvania railroad companies were parties. In his private practice, among other prominent cases, he appeared as counsel for
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Mooney
the late Henry George in the contest for the bequest in John Hutchin's will to promote the circulation of Mr. George's work. That case went to the Court of Errors and Appeals before Mr. George's claim was finally sustained.
Justice Minturn's appointment to the Circuit Court in 1907, came from Gov. Stokes ; and it was upon Gov. Fort's appointment that he became Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court. Upon the expiration of his term in 1914, Gov. Fielder re-appointed him. His new term will expire in 1921.
When the proposed judiciary amendments to the State Constitution were pending, Justice Minturn contributed an article to the "New Jersey Law Journal" designed to enforce his contention that they were not suffi- cient for the relief of the courts. He also contributed an article on "The Iniquities of the Tariff" to Belford Magazine ; and he has contributed poli- tical articles to magazines and newspapers. In recognition of his scholarship, Seton Hall College in June of 1908, conferred the LL. D. degree upon him. Justice Minturn was, from 1884 until its amalgamation with the Fourth, Judge-Advocate of the Second Regiment of the National Guard ; and, hon- orary member of the De Long Guards of Hoboken, has always taken an active interest in military affairs, qualified as an expert marksman and won several medals on the Sea Girt ranges. He has been President of the First National Bank of Guttenburg and Vice President of the Ocean County Trust Company.
Justice Minturn is a member of the Nassau Club of Princeton and the Catholic Club of New York.
JAMES FRANCIS MOONEY-South Orange .- College President.
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Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., on September 19, 1864; son of Bernard and Anna Mooney.
James Francis Mooney is Pres- ident of Seton Hall College; and under his administration the College has attained a success unprecedented in its history. The number of students has been doubled ; many endowments have been received ; and new dormitories, of the value of two hundred thousand dollars, have been added to the buildings.
Dr. Mooney studied at St. Francis' College, Brooklyn, un- til 1SS1, entered the Sophomore class of Seton Hall College in the latter year and was grad- uated from Seton Hall with the class of 1884. He took a course of Theology at Genoa, Italy, and was ordained to the Priesthood in that city in 1889. There also he re-
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ceived from the College of St. Thomas Aquinas the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Occupied with parish work from 1889 to 1901, he became a Professor at Seton Hall College in the latter year, and was appointed its President in 1907. In 190S, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from St. Mary's College, Emmetsburg, Md., and again in 1914, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from St. John's College, Brooklyn.
Dr. Mooney enjoys a reputation for scholarship of a high order. His writings include addresses, articles on ecclesiastical jurisprudence, and a commentary on the pontifical decree, "Ne Temera."
V
DANIEL McFARLAN MOORE-East Orange, (510 Park Ave.)- Electrical Engineer and Inventor. Born at Northumberland, Pa., on February 27, 1869; son of the Rev. Alexander Davis and Maria Louisa (Douglas) Moore ; married on June 5, 1895, to Mary Alice Elliott, of New York City.
Children : Dorothy Mae, born 1900; Elliott McFarlan, born 1902; Beatrice Jean, born 1912.
D. McFarlan Moore's earliest paternal ancestors settled on the eastern shore of Maryland, before the Revolutionary War. His grandfather was a "powder monkey" at the storming of Fort McHenry, where the Star Spall- gled Banner was written, and his great-grandfather was captain of one of the guns. Every male member of the family was enlisted in the army. "The powder monkey" became the editor of the old "National Intelligencer," o f Washington, D. C., and was closely associated with the early history of the United States. He was Grand Sire of the Odd Fel- lows. His son, the Rev. Alexan- der D. Moore, the inventor's father, was a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and an uncle. Col. William G. Moore. was the Private Secretary of President Andrew Johnson. A- mong his maternal ancestors were Sir Arthur Jolmis and the Earl of Gray. His great great grandfather was Col. Archibald Orme, a member of Gen. Wash- ington's staff.
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