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 41

Author: Sackett, William Edgar, 1848- ed; Scannell, John James, 1884- ed
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Patterson, N.J. : J.J. Scannell
Number of Pages: 594


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 41


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Mr. Nixon is the founder and the President of the International Smoke- less Powder Company of Parlin, this state, of the Standard Motor Construc-


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tion Company of Jersey City and of the Nixon Nitration Works in New Brunswick. He holds the degree of Doctor of Science from Villa Nova Uni- versity, is Vice President and a member of the Executive Committee, of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Fellow of the American Geographical Society and is a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and of the Union, Lawyers, Press, New York Yacht and Brook Clubs of New York City ; of the Metropolitan, and Army & Navy Clubs in Washington, D. C., the Union Club of New Brunswick, the Nordix Club of Warrentown, Va., the Richmond County Country Club, the Colon- ia Country Club, Atlantic Yacht Club and the Burgesses Corps of Albany.


Mr. Nixon's New York home is at 22 East 53rd Street.


MARY HARRIOTT NORRIS-Morristown, (3 Altamont Court.) -Author and Lecturer. Born in Boonton, March 16th, 1848; daughter of Charles Bryan and Mary L. Kerr Norris.


Mary Harriott Norris's first literary offering to the public came when she was but twenty-one years of age. Reluctantly, because she had decided to give herself up to literary work, she accepted for a year the position of Dean of Women of the Northwestern University. She was interested in women's work and marched in the first procession in New York with the officials of the Equal Franchise Society of New Jersey.


Miss Norris's ancestors were among the early New Jersey settlers. Richard Stout, one of her forebears, was patentee of the tract extending from Sandy Hook to the Raritan River. James Stout, a captain in Max- well's brigade, was a soldier of the Revolution, and Silas Nor- ris, originally of Hempstead. Long Island, was an early set- tler in Morris county. Her an- cestry is rich, too, with the names of men prominent in the earlier colonial life of the continent. Thomas Hawley, a resident of Rox- bury, Mass., of Captain Crowell's Dragoons, was killed in the Sudbury fight, in 1676. Sergeant John Booth, of Stratford, Conn. (1653-1728), served un- der Captain Seeley in King Philip's War, and was afterwards a Deputy. James Trowbridge (1636-1717), of Newton, Mass., was a Lieutenant in King Philip's War, 1675, and a Deputy from Cambridge, 1700-1703. Major- General Humphrey Atherton (1610-1661), of Dorchester, Mass., was a Deputy in 1638, Speaker in 1653, and the Governor's Assistant, 1654-1661.


Miss Norris was educated at Vassar College, graduating with the A. B.


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degree in 1870. She delivered the annual address at the commencement exercises in 1872, was President of the New York branch of Associate Alumnae, and is a member of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. She has delivered many lectures, three times at Drew Seminary, but chiefly in New York. Her work in this respect began with a series of talks on Italy and Greece, as a substitute for Dr. Theodore Irving, a nephew of Wash- ington Irving, who had gathered a circle of his friends at his house to lis- ten to a course he had expected to deliver. Her later lectures at her home in New York made her library a semi-social and literary center for some of the most representative women of the city.


Miss Norris's "Gray House of the Quarries," had just become a best seller in Boston, and been published in England, when she became Dean of Women at Northwestern University. The first regularly elected Dean, her predecessors having been "Lady Principals," she took deep interest in organizing the office on a large basis and instituted important progressive changes. For a long time Miss Norris was a regular contributor to "The Boston Journal of Education." She established in New York the first class for the study of Current Events, and has seen her methods adopted in Philadelphia and Washington ; and in a private school she founded in New York she was the pioneer in introducing and maintaining the orderly and progressive methods of study now universally employed in private schools of acknowledged standing, and which the increasing popularity of a college education for women was rendering necessary.


Miss Norris's stores of information have been enriched by her travels in Great Britain and on the Continent-in Italy in 1886; to the Scandinavi- an countries in 1907, and to Switzerland and on Lake Lugano and Lake Maggiore in 1912-'13. On her drives through the Netherlands she was im- pressed by the permanent historical exhibit, in the Tivoli Park in Stock- holmn, of ancient homesteads set up in the grounds for the inspection of tourists and students, and by the Parisian elegance of many of the streets and buildings of the city ; and a horse show in Dublin gave her a fine oppor- tunity to see Irish society en masse.


Besides editing "Silas Warner" in 1890, "Marmion" in 1891, "Evange- line" in 1897, "Kenilworth" in 1898, and "Quentin Duward" in 1899, Miss Norris is the author of these works of fiction: "Fraulein Mina" (1872), "Ben and Bentie Series" four volumes (1873-1876), "Dorothy Delafield (1885), "A Damsel of the Eighteenth Century" 1SS9), "Phebe" (1890), "Afterward" (1893), "The Nine Blessings" (1894), "John Applegate, Sur- geon" (1894), "Lakewood" (1895), "The Gray House of the Quarries" (1898), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1901), "The Golden Age of Vassar" (1915), "The Story of Christina" (1907), and "The Veil" (1908).


Miss Norris is a Trustee of the Equal Franchise Society of New Jersey. She is also a member of the Authors' League of America, and one of the Authors' League Committee of One Hundred on National Health, and of the National Geographic Society.


JAMES F. NORTON-Jersey City .- Newspaper man. Born in Jersey City ; son of James F. and Anna Norton ; married to Maria Franey.


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Children : Daniel and Helen.


Though James F. Norton has spent all of his life in newspaper work, he is now the Surrogate of Hudson county. The election returns of the fall campaign of 1916 disclosed that, in his canvass for the Surrogacy, he re- ceived 15,000 more votes in the county than were cast for President Wilson's re-election, 10,000 more than were received by H. Otto Wittpenn, Naval Offi- cer of the Port of New York who was the democratic candidate for Gover- nor, and 9,980 more votes than McGlennon, the democratic candidate for State Senator polled. This demonstration of personal popularity has been followed by events that point Surrogate Norton out as one of the new leaders of the Hudson county democracy.


Surrogate Norton began work, with a common school educa- tion, as an errand boy in "The Argus" printing office in Jersey City. Association with newspa- per men bred an ambition for newspaper work ; it was not long before he was writing items for print and eventually he rose to be a reporter. Twenty-six years ago he became the Hudson coun- ty correspondent of the "New York World," and is regarded in "The World" office as an authority on New Jersey poli- tics and the political statistics of the state. Upon his election to the Surrogacy he resigned his "World" position ; and the edi- torial department of "The World" presented him with a testimonial book, bearing letters of felicitation from every man in it, from Mr. Pulitzer, the publisher of "The World," down through the entire editorial staff to the copy carriers in the department.


Young Norton took to politics as readily as he did to newspaper work ; and he was regarded by Robert Davis, long the democratic leader of the county, as one of his most valuable lieutenants. When Davis was ready to make known his willingness to join hands with ex-United States Senator James Smith, Jr., of Newark, (with whom he had not been on agreeable terms for some years before) for the support of the candidacy of Dr. Wood- row Wilson, of Princeton University, for Governor of New Jersey, it was Norton who was chosen to make the announcement for him; and the publi- cation, in a paper in Jersey City which Norton controlled, of an elaborate notice of Dr. Wilson was accepted everywhere as the token of an alliance between the two potential democratic leaders of. the state that assured Dr. Wilson's nomination. Dr. Wilson's nomination and election to the Gover- norship was his stepping stone to the Presidency of the United States.


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Mr. Norton served as a member of the Hudson County Board of Free- holders in '83 and 'S4; and in 'S7 and 'SS was elected to the House of As- sembly in the legislatures of 1SSS and 'S9. When the movement for the establishment of Commission Rule in Jersey City started in 1913, he was influential in effecting the change ; and when Frank Hague was made one of the new five Ruling Commissioners of the city he named Norton as his Deputy. He served in that capacity until he entered the primary of 1916 as a candidate for the democratic nomination for Surrogate and won out in a field of a dozen candidates. His election by the majority that attracted state-wide attention followed in November. In the campaign of 1917 for the election of new city Commissioners, Surrogate Norton helped prepare the ticket that won at the polls ; and the election has given him an influence in Jersey City politics that makes for supremacy in county politics.


Mr. Norton is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Loval Order of Moose, New York Press Club, Slug Club (a Jersey City Newspaper Association ) and the Hudson County Democratic Club.


JAMES R. NUGENT-Newark, (756 Broad Street.)-Lawyer. Born in Newark, July 26, 1864; son of James and Jane (Heary) Nugent ; married at New York City, April 24, 1906, to Helena McMahon Field.


James R. Nugent is a graduate of St. Benedict's College, Newark, and Seton Hall College, South Orange. Mr. Nugent was admitted to the Bar as an attorney in 1893, and counselor in 1896. He was appointed City Counsel of the City of Newark in 1907, and served continuously in this office for eight years. This was the period of Newark's greatest growth. The City was almost en- tirely repaved, newly sew- ered, its water supply com- pleted and a great dock system inaugurated. The legal requirements of these great works were looked - after by Mr. Nugent.


Mr. Nugent has been a member of the Essex Coun- ty Democratic Committee ยท


since 1890, was elected as Chairman in 1897, and held this office for several years. He was elected Chairman of the Democratic State Committee in 1908,


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which office he held for four years. During his term the democratic party was successful in New Jersey for the first time in a generation and suc- ceeded in electing Woodrow Wilson, Governor in 1910. Mr. Nugent has been a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1916, and has always been prominent in party councils.


JOHN JOSEPH O'CONNOR, D. D., Rt. Rev .- Bishop Catholic Diocese of Newark. Born in Newark, June 11, 1855; son of Thomas and Catherine (Farrell) O'Connor.


The Rt. Rev. John Joseph O'Connor, fourth incumbent of the See of Newark, received his primary education in St. James' School, Newark, and later attended the private school conducted by Mr. Bernard Kearny, in the same city. His college studies were made at Seton Hall from which institution he was graduated, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in the Class of 1873. He spent four years in the study of theology at the American College, Rome, Italy, and one year in like studies at the American College, Louvain, Belgium, and was ordained to the priesthood on De- cember 22, 1877.


On his return from Eur- ope, Bishop O'Connor was appointed to the chair of Philosophy in Seton Hall 1 College, and later was made Professor of Dog- matic Theology in the Seminary. He became Di- rector of the Seminary and later Vicar General of the Diocese. In the year 1895 he was placed in charge of St. Joseph's Church, New- ark, which position he held until his election to the See of Newark. He was consecrated Bishop of the Diocese July 25th, 1901, and chosen by Pope Pius X Assistant at the Pontifical Throne May 23rd, 1910.


The Diocese of Newark has advanced, during Bishop O'Connor's administration, along three definite lines-parish organization, parochial school development and institutional work. The number of churches with resident pastors has increased from 114 in 1901, to 197 in 1917. During the same period 45 Mission-churches and Chapels have been erected. The number of priests engaged in the work of the diocese has almost doubled- the present clergy-list contains the names of 474 priests; in 1901 the


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number of priests was 265. The future needs of the diocese have been provided for by an increase in the number of candidates for the priest- hood.


The plan for an improved parochial school system has been carefully worked out during the present administration. The Bishop reorganized the Diocesan School Board, appointed a Superintendent of parish schools and prescribed a uniform course of study. Thirty-four new schools, mak- ing in all 131, with an enrollment of 60,331 pupils, an increase of more than 25,000, shows the school progress in the last decade and a half. Higher education has been provided for by the erection of one new college for young women, St. Elizabeth's at Convent Station.


The needs of the orphan, the sick, poor and the aged have been met by increasing the number of the diocesan institutions devoted to chari- table work. There are now 14 om phanages, 12 hospitals and 3 homes for the aged, the number of these institutions having doubled since 1901. The population of the diocese in 1901 was 290,000; the Catholic population now numbers 512,000.


WILLIAM P. O'ROURKE-Newark. (362 Clinton Ave. )-Archi- tect. Born in Newark, June 22nd, 1871; son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth C. (Dunn) O'Rourke; married at Newark, in Nov., 1915. to Helen N. Werrlein, daughter of Joseph A. and Mary Werrlein.


Apart from his devotion to his profession as an architect. William P. O'Rourke is active in the life of the north section communities of New Jersey, in a variety of directions. He is prominent in the Catholic community of Newark, was a member of the noted Committee of 100 that planned Newark City's observance of her 250th birthday, figures in the politics of the community and is an enthusiast in military and naval affairs.


Mr. O'Rourke is of American and Irish extraction. His education was acquired at the school of the Christian Brothers, in Newark. at St. Benedicts College, also of Newark, and at the Newark Academy. He had prepared himself for the profession of the architect; and, part of the time as a member of the firm of J. O'Rourke & Sons, had been in active practice for about ten years when in 1907 he was appointed Superintendent of the Building Department of Newark.


Three years previously the Democratic City Convention had named him as its candidate for member of the Street and Water Board; but the trend of politics at the time was toward the other party, and, with his tieket throughout the country, he suffered defeat at the polls. His in- terest in the New Jersey Naval Reserve from its inception to 1910-a period of about eighteen years-was very deep. He was Seaman, Coxs- wain. Ensign, Lieutenant. (Junior Grade ) and Lieutenant : and served in the United States Navy during the Spanish War as an Ensign on the U. S. S. Badger.


Mr. O'Rourke is prominently associated with the church work of St.


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Patrick's Cathedral; and his club and society attachments exhibit the variety of his activities. He is a member of New Jersey Chapter American Institute of Architects, of the Newark Museum Association, of the United Spanish War Veterans and of New Jersey Commandery Military Order of Foreign War. His club memberships are with the Down Town, New Jersey Automobile & Motor, Columbus, Knights of Columbus, Joel Parker Association, the Gottfried Krueger Association, and Newark Lodge No. 21 B. P. O. E.


CHARLES LATHROP PACK-Lakewood .- Forest Economist. Born at Lexington, Mich., on May 7, 1857; son of George Willis and Frances (Farman) Pack; married, April 28, 1886 to Alice Gertrude Hatch, daughter of Henry Reynolds and Lydia Baldwin Hatch of Cleveland, Ohio.


Children : Randolph Greene, Arthur Newton, Beulah Frances.


Charles Lathrop Pack was one of the first Americans to study forestry abroad, has been intimately associated with the forestry and conservation movement in this country and has attended every important conference on forestry and conservation since 1900. He was President of the National Conservation Congress of 1913, is a member of the New Jersey Conservation and Development Commission ; and, elected in 1916, is still President of the American Forestry Association, Washington, D. C. of which for many years he was a director. With Gifford Pinchot he pro- posed to Colonel Roosevelt the Conference of Governors at the White House in 1907, was in- vited by President Roosevelt to attend the conference as an ex- pert, and President Roosevelt afterward made him a member of the National Conservation Commission. He is a member of the New Jersey Department of Conservation and Develop- ment, also.


The Packs settled near Eliza- betli in colonial times but left the colony before the Revolution. Lathrop was the first Pack to return to the State and made his home in Lakewood in 1900. He was educated in the public schools and at Brooks school in Cleveland. He later studied forestry in the Black Forests, Germany, and explored the forests of Canada and the Northwest and of Louisiana and


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Mississippi. He is himself the owner of considerable tracts of fine timber lands.


Mr. Pack is President of the World Court League, an organization formed to do its part in the world reconstruction after the close of the great war now raging across the seas. He is also President of the National Emergency Food Garden Commission, which organized early in 1917 and which has increased the planting of food gardens for 1917 over 100 per cent .. adding thereby some half a billion dollars to the value of the food production of the United States. He is a Republican, and during the Bryan Campaign excitement over the money standard. attended the Sound Money Convention held in Indianapolis. He was a member also of the Monetary Commission and has relations besides with several financial institutions.


Mr. Pack was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee which organized the present Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and was after- wards President of the Chamber. He is one of the founders of the Cleve- land Trust Company, a Trustee of the Western Reserve University of Ohio, a veteran of the First City Troop of Cleveland. O., a Fellow of the National Institute of Social Sciences, and a member of the Society of Colonial Wars and of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. His club memberships are with the Union League, National Arts and Ohio Society of New York, with the Country Club of Lakewood. (its President from 1913 to 1917), and the Union, Country and Chagrin Valley Hunt of Cleveland.


Of Mr. Pack's children, Randolph Greene is a manufacturer in Cleve- land. O .. and Arthur Newton holds an office in the Munitions Department in Washington, D. C.


CHARLES WOLCOTT PARKER-Jersey City, (SS Gifford Avenue)-Jurist. Born Newark, October 22, 1862: son of Cort- landt and Elizabeth W. (Stites) Parker: married in Boonton, in 1893. to Emily Fuller, daughter of George and Elinor Vincent Fuller.


Children : Charles W .. Jr., born Dec. 26, 1894, died July 18, 1913 ; Dudley F., born May 24, 1897; Philip M., born Aug. 25, 1898; Elinor M., born March 20, 1906; Robert M., born July 21, 1909.


Charles Wolcott Parker has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey since 1907. When Governor Stokes sent his name to the Senate for confirmation there were two vacancies on the Supreme Court Bench. Associate Justice Garrettson had just died, and Associate Justice Fort had just resigned. Gov. Stokes's nominees for the two vacan- cies were Judge Charles Wolcott Parker and Judge Thomas W. Trenchard. The confirmation of both followed. Justice Parker's first term on the Bench ended in 1914, and Gov. Fielder reappointed him for the term to expire in 1912. Mr. Parker had previously held other judicial positions in Jersey ('ity and the state.


Justice Parker's family, on his father's side, had been prominent in the public affairs of New Jersey for over two centuries; and that of his


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mother was distinguished in the Colonial history of New England for scholars, lawyers and soldiers. He is himself one of six sons, all of whom have made their mark in life. His eldest brother, Richard Wayne (q. v.), has been for many years a member of the House of Representatives; the next brother, James, is a Brigadier-General in the United States Army ; two other brothers, Cortlandt and Chauncey Goodrich, are lawyers, prom- inent in Newark, and the last brother, Robert Meade, named for a member of the family of General George G. Meade, first cousin of his father, is a vice-president of the American Sugar Refining Company. His grandfather, James Parker, a member of Congress, was a leading delegate to the Con- stitutional Convention of 1844, and responsible for much of the important legislation in New Jersey about the middle of the last century. The name of Mr. Parker's father, Cortlandt Parker, for two-thirds of a century a mem- ber of the New Jersey Bar and for many years a leader, is still a household word in the state. His ances- tors further back occupied im- portant public offices among them that of membership in the Governor's Council.


Justice Parker attended the Pingry School in Elizabeth for six years, graduating in 1878. For the freshman year in Prince- ton College he spent a year at Phillips Academy. Exeter, N. H. He entered Princeton College in 1879 and graduated from there- in 1882. He took up the study of the law in his father's office at Newark, continuing in the Col- umbia College Law School, from which he graduated in 1885 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and was admitted as attorney to the New Jersey Bar in June, 1885, and as a counselor in February, 1890.


In that year he entered into partnership with DeWitt Van Buskirk in Bayonne, and the next year the firm established an office in Jersey City. In 1898 Mr. Parker was appointed by Gov. Griggs as Judge of the Second District Court of Jersey City, and served until 1903, when he was appointed. by Gov. Franklin Murphy as a Circuit Court Judge and assigned to Hud -- son county. In September, 1907, came his promotion by Gov. Stokes to a' seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court of New Jersey as an Associate. Justice.


In 1890 there was a movement among the more prominent men of Newark for the formation of a cavalry troop, which was accordingly organ- ized under the command of Colonel James E. Fleming, a veteran of the Civil War, and named the Essex Troop. There being no recognition of cavalry in the National Guard as it then stood, the troop was necessarily an independent organization. Justice Parker was one of the original organizers;


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and warmly interested in the welfare and success of the troop, as were his brothers, all of whom were charter members with the exception of the one serving in the regular army. R. Wayne Parker later became Captain, Cort- landt Parker First Lieutenant, and Judge Parker rose to the rank of Sergeant in 1899, when he accepted a commission in the Fourth Regiment as a First Lieutenant, was afterwards promoted to be Captain in the same regiment, and in 1902 appointed Assistant Adjutant General of New Jersey, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, resigning in 1907, upon his appoint- ment to the Supreme Court. During all of this time he was devoted to National Guard affairs and an enthusiast in the department of rifle prac- tice, becoming a member of the rifle team of his troop, his company, his regiment, and later of the State team, on which he served for two years, and participated in the victories of the team in the Hilton trophy match of 1900 and the Interstate Military match of 1901.


Justice Parker is a member of the Century Association and Princeton Club of New York, the Baltusrol Golf Club of New Jersey and other similar organizations ; also of the Society of Colonial Wars of New Jersey, of which he was for two years Governor, and the Sons of the Revolution.


RICHARD WAYNE PARKER-Newark, (29 Saybrook Place.)- Lawyer and M. C. Born at Morristown, August 6th, 1848; son of Cortlandt Parker (son of James Parker of Perth Amboy) and Elizabeth Wolcott Stites, daughter of Richard W. Stites, of Morris- town (for whom Mr. Parker was named) ; married in Savannah, Ga., on January 2nd, 1884, to Eleanor Kinzie Gordon, daughter of William W. Gordon, of Savannah.


Children : Alice Gordon, born January 27th, 1885, now the wife of Henry A. Hoyt, son of the late Solicitor General; Eleanor Wayne, born March 21, 1887, now the wife of Captain Robert Iain Macpherson, of the English Army ; Elizabeth Wolcott, born Novem- ber 19th, 18SS, unmarried ; Wayne, born September 29th, 1892, who died from a fall when six years of age; Cortland 3rd, born Feb- ruary 6th, 1896, now in Princeton University.




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