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 46
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The new plan of elections embodied in the Geran law was devised and put into legislative shape by Mr. Record, and through the influence of the Governor pushed through the legislature. Its chief feature was the sub- stitution of party nominating primaries for local and state conventions and the application of civil service rules to the selection of election officers.
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It was this law that enabled Gov. Wilson to win the support of New Jersey in his reach for President of the United States without asking the aid of any of the democratic leaders of the state. When Theodore Roose- velt threw down the glove to President Taft in the national campaign of 1908, Mr. Record became a supporter of the Oyster Bay statesman and a figure in national politics for the zeal with which he espoused the cause of the Progressive Party. His opposition to what were known as the "Bosses" pleased Governor Wilson, and, because of his acquaintance with the railroad problem the Governor made him a member of the State Rail- road Tax Board. In 1916 Mr. Record made a canvass for the republican nomination for Governor on the Single Tax, Home Rule and Local Option platform.
Mr. Record was educated at the local schools in Auburn, Me., and in Bates College in Lewiston. Gravitating to the nation's metropolitan center, he became a stenographer in the law office of Strong & Cadwalader in New York and studied law meantime. He was making his home in New Jersey at the time, and his application for admission was to the New Jersey bar. He was made an attorney in 1877 and three years later a counselor. He is still engaged in the practice of the law in Jersey City.
Mr. Record is a member of the Republican Club in New York, the Carteret Club of Jersey City, and the Arcola Country Club in Bergen County.
ALFRED REED-Trenton. Jurist. Born in Ewing Township (Mercer County), December 23, 1839, son of George B. and Mary (Hepburn) Reed ; married at Trenton on August 1, 187S to Rose- alba. daughter of George Souder, of Philadelphia.
Alfred Reed, who was for twenty-seven years a Justice of the Supreme Court of the state of New Jersey, was educated in the Ewing Township schools, at the Lawrenceville High School and at the Model School in Tren- ton. He entered Rutgers College at New Brunswick but left Rutgers before graduation and took a course in law in the Law School at Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
He was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1864 and engaged ardently in the professional and public life of Trenton. In 1867 the Demo- cratic City Convention of Trenton named him as the party candidate for Mayor: though the city was normally republican at the time, he was elected. He sat on the bench of the Mercer County Court of Common Pleas as its presiding Judge from 1869 to 1874, the appointment having been made by Gov. Joel Parker during Gov. Parker's first term.
In 1875 Gov. Bedle sent Judge Reed's name to the Senate for Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey and he served until 1895, with re- appointments by Gov. Ludlow in 1882 and Gov. Green in 1889. In 1906 Chancellor McGill appointed him a Vice Chancellor and he sat on the Chancery Bench until June 16, 1904, when Gov. Murphy named him for another term as a Supreme Court Justice. His seven year term expired
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in 1911 and Justice Reed of his own motion retired from further judicial service. Since that time he has been practising law in Trenton.
In politics Justice Reed is a democrat and in the church a Presby- terian.
JOHN RELLSTAB Trenton .- Jurist. Born in Trenton, Sep- tember 19, 1858 ; son of John and Therese (Schaidnagel) Rellstab ; married in 1880, to Mary L. Francis, who died in 1899 and 2nd to Mary J. Whittaker, in 1905.
John Rellstab is a Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. His father was a native of Switzerland and his mother of Bavaria. He began his education in the parish school connected with Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church and went afterwards to the public schools of Trenton. He was apprenticed to learn the pottery trade, but, with ambitions in other directions, he entered his name as a law
student with the late Levi T. Hannum and devoted his nights to the law books.
In the pottery trade, after be- coming a journeyman he was appointed to a clerical position in the office of the New Jersey Pottery Company, was put in charge of the Company's sales rooms in New York and after- wards went on the road on the firm's Western and Southern routes. Later he was engaged in the same capacity for the East Trenton Pottery. Mean- while, he continued his legal studies and was admitted to the Bar as an attorney in 1SS2 and counselor in 18S9. For a time he was in partnership with the late Judge James Buchanan in Trenton.
His first public function was as Solicitor for the borough of Chambersburg (1SS4-'SS) and later, for two periods, he served as City Solicitor of Trenton (1889-'92, 1894-'96). He was appointed Judge of the District Court of Trenton in 1896 and served there until Gov. Voorhees appointed him Judge of the Mercer County Courts in 1900. He was still on that Bench when President Taft nominated him to the United States Senate for Judge of the United States District Court for the district of New Jersey. The nomination was made May 6, 1909, and the confirmation came on May 18.
Judge Rellstab is a republican in politics and active in the Presby-
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terian Church, one of its ruling elders and a teacher of the Men's Bible Class. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Y. M C. A. and the Florence Crittenden Mission and a Trustee of Princeton Theological Sem- inary.
ERMAN JESSE RIDGWAY-Montclair, (14 Undercliff Road) Publisher. Born near Ostego, Muskingum Co., O., on Aug. 6, 1867 ; sou of Nathan B. and Catherine (Erman) Ridgway; married on June 28, 1899 to Anna Eleanora Robinson, of West Union, Iowa.
E. J. Ridgway is the President of the Ridgway Company which pub- lishes "Everybody's Magazine," and a Director in the Butterick Com- pany which publishes "The Delineator," "The Designer," and "The Woman's Magazine" of New York.
Mr. Ridgway graduated from Yale, class of 1892 with the A. B. de- gree; and, connecting himself with the Frank A. Munsey Company in 1894, was its Vice President and General Manager until 1903. Then he organized the Ridgway Company and has since been its President.
Mr. Ridgway is a member of the American Golf Association and Advertising Interests, the Periodical Publishers Association of America and the Ohio Society of New York and is connected with the Yale, Lotos, Sphinx and Aldine Clubs, the Delta Upsilon Fraternity of New York, the Country Club of Lakewood, and the Outlook and Commercial Clubs of Montclair.
SAMUEL KIRKBRIDE ROBBINS - Moorestown. -- Lawyer.
! Born at Mt. Holly, May 9, 1853; son of Barzillai W. and Anna (Wilson) Robbins ; married at Pemberton, on October 4, 1882, to Edith E. Shreve, daughter of Barzillai R. and Agnes E. Shreve, of Pemberton.
Children : Agnes M. and Edith C.
Samuel K. Robbins' participation in public affairs has made him a notable figure in the State and a force in its affairs, particularly in the South section.
He began his public service in 1897 as a member of the Board of Education of Chester Township, Burlington Co., on which he served until 1903. From March 1899 to March 1903 he was President of the Board. Meanwhile he served on the County Board of Election from 1900 to 1903. In the Fall of the latter year he was nominated by the republicans of the county as a member of the House of Assembly and elected by a large ma- jority. Re-elected in 1904 and 1905, he served as a member during the legislative sessions of 1904, 1905 and 1906. In the memorable session of 1906 he was elected Speaker of the House and took an active and con- spicuous part in shaping the important legislation of that year.
In the Fall of 1906 he was given the republican nomination for the State Senate and, elected after a spirited campaign, he served in the
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Senate during the Legislative sessions of 1907 and 190S and 1909, being the majority floor leader in 190S and President of the Senate in 1909. He was the first citizen of New Jersey to be chosen as both Speaker of the House and President of the Senate within a period of three years.
While in the Senate he was appointed by Gov. Fort one of the four members-at-large of the Republican State Committee on which he served until 1911. He was also appointed one of the Receivers of the defunct State Mutual Building and Loan Association of New Jersey, by Chancellor Pitney in 190S, and rendered valuable service in winding up the complicated af- fairs of this institution, whose membership was State wide- realizing 81% of their invest- ments for the stockholders. He also represented the Second Congressional District as a dele- gate to the National Republican Convention of 190S, where he was chosen the New Jersey mem- ber of the Committee on Creden- tials.
On the last day of the legisla- tive session of 1909, he was ap- pointed by Gov. Fort to be Clerk of the Court of Chancery of New Jersey, to succeed Vivian M. Lewis, resigned. His resigna- tion as President of the Senate was accepted and his nomination confirmed. He completed his term of service as Clerk of the Court of Chancery on April 14th, 1914, since which time he has held no public office but has kept in close touch with public affairs.
Senator Robbins was prepared for college at Fort Edward Institute, Fort Edward. N. Y., and at Andalusia College, Andalusia, Pa. He entered Princeton College (now Princeton University) in 1870, and was graduated in June, 1874, with the degree of A. B. He read law with Charles E. Hendrickson at Mount Holly, and was admitted to the Bar at the June term, 1SS0. In September of that year he located at Moorestown and opened offices there and also in the City of Camden, where he has con- tinned to practice his profession ever since.
Senator Robbins is a member of the Princeton Club of Philadelphia, of the New Jersey Society of Pennsylvania, and of the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. He is also Past Master of Moorestown Lodge No. 158, F. & A. M. and a charter member of Mt. Holly Lodge No. 848, B. P. O. E.
CORINNE ROOSEVELT ROBINSON (Mrs. Douglas) -Orange. -Author. Daughter of Theodore and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt ;
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married at 6 West 57th St., N. Y., April 29th, 1882, to Douglas Robinson, son of Douglas and Fanny Monroe Robinson.
Children : Theodore Douglas, born 1883; Corinne Douglas, born 1SS6; Monroe Douglas, born 1887; Stewart Douglas, born 1889.
The father of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson was one of New York's foremost business men and philanthropists, and her brother, Theodore Roosevelt, was President of the United States from the fall of 1901 to March 4, 1909. While Mrs. Robinson has a New York home at 9 East 63rd Street, she has been much identified with the social and civic life of the Oranges. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson spend their summers at their country home in the Mohawk Valley, New York and a part of the fall season on their estate "Overlook" in the Oranges.
In 1912 Scribner & Son published the first volume of Mrs. Robinson's poems under the title of "The Call of Brotherhood," and in 1914 the same publisher brought out her second volume of poems called "One Woman to Another."
Mr. Douglas Robinson is a large figure in the financial life of the country. Among his other connections, he is President and Director of the Douglas Robinson, Charles S. Brown Co., and of the Douglas Land Company in Virginia, a Director of the Astor Trust Company and a Trustee of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company.
ADOLPH ROEDER-Orange .- Clergyman. Born at Baltimore, Md., on March 1st, 1857; son of Charles and Marie (Hempel) Roeder ; married at Phila- delphia, Pa., to Marie Bonschur, daughter of Ste- phen J. Bonschur.
Children : Miriam, Elsa, Arthur.
Adolph Roeder has for a quar- ter century been the clergyman of the New-Church in Orange, which inclines to the Sweden- borgian doctrine, and President of the New Jersey State Civic Federation since its organiza- tion in 1900. Master of several languages, ancient and modern, he has been editor of English, German and French papers and has attracted attention as a poet and musician. He has specialized particularly in the study of Symbolism.
Dr. Roeder was educated in the public schools of Philadel- phia, and at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia and took summer
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courses in various colleges. Before the outbreak of the World War in 1914, he was connected with several foreign literary and other societies, has written much for papers and magazines, and is the author of several books, several of which have been published under the auspices of the New- Church Press, New York.
Dr. Roeder is President of "The Civics" of Orange, Secretary of the New-Church Press, a member of the New-Church Board of Publications ; and, in the Clergy Club of New York, is on the Committees on Membership and House and Rules. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the New England Society of Orange and connected with other organiza- tions.
The titles of Dr. Roeder's books published by the New-Church Press are, "Light in the Clouds," "Cities of the Word," "Dualism in Scripture," "Sea Pictures," with beautiful illustrations by the author's gifted daughter, Elsa Roeder, and "Symbol Stories." The Harper's published his chief work : "Symbol Psychology" and the Blanchard Press his "Practical Citizenship," which has been largely used by civic organizations as a textbook.
CHARLES GUSTAVUS ROEBLING-Trenton .- Manufacturer. Born in Trenton, on December 9th, 1849; son of John A. and Johanna (Herting) Roebling.
Charles Gustavus Roebling is the President of the John A. Roebling's Sons Company, of Trenton and Roebling (N. J.) and of the New Jersey Wire Cloth Company, of Tren- ton, and Vice President of the John A. Roebling's Sons Com- pany, of New York.
Mr. Roebling graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with the degree of C. E. in 1871. He has been mechanical engineer for John A. Roebling's Sons Com- pany ; was engineer and builder of the Oil City Suspension Bridge at Oil City, Pa .; in 1881 was engineer and contractor of machinery for the removal of the Cleopatra Needle from Alex- andria, Egypt, to the Central Park, New York, and in 1902 was the contractor and builder of cables for the Williamsburg Suspension Bridge in New York.
The industrial history of the John A. Roebling's Sons Compa- ny, of Trenton, the largest estab- lishment of its kind in the state, is replete with the achievements of Mr.
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Roebling. Among the many are the construction and operation of seven large wire mills, with their attendant annealing houses, cleaning houses, galvanizing trains and other adjuncts; the largest rod mill in the country and a smaller one for copper; an open hearth and steel plant of twelve furnaces, a billet mill, many tempering and tinning furnaces, a large wire cloth factory, one of the largest rubber mills and copper wire insulating plants in the country, including lead covered cables; two large wire rope factories, twice destroyed by fire and rebuilt greater than ever; tinning shops, machine shops, great mills for making flat steel wire and corset wire; and, last but not least he is the father of the model town of "Roeb- ling" on the Delaware, which presents a successful solution of the difficult problem of housing a great number of working men.
In the control and management of 8,000 operatives Mr. Roebling has shown a notable type of industrial efficiency. All his work is stamped with the mark of originality ; and it is due to the energy of men like him that New Jersey occupies a commanding position among its sister states. While no longer young he has barely reached the height of his business activities.
Mr. Roebling was a member of the Legislature of New Jersey in 1903, Presidential Elector for New Jersey in 1904 and has been Commissioner of Water Works at Trenton and Commissioner of Water Works in Atlantic City.
He is a member of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain and of America, of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of the Engi- neers' Club, New York, and the Lotus Club, Trenton, and a Director of the Mercer Automobile Company.
Mr. Roebling's business address as well as his home address is Trenton.
WASHINGTON AUGUSTUS ROEBLING-Trenton, (191-West State Street.)-Engineer. Born at Saxonburg, Pa., on May 26th, 1837; son of John Augustus Roebling and Johanna (Herting) Roebling; married, January 18th, 1865, to Emily, daughter of Sylvanus Warren; 2nd, to Cornelia W. Farrow.
Children : John A., born 1867.
Col. Washington A. Roebling is the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, the first span thrown over the East River from New York City to Brooklyn. Col. Roebling's father, John A., who had already achieved national fame in the erection of suspension bridges, had just completed the plans for the East River structure when he suffered injury of fatal character. While he was making a survey, the abrupt entry of a ferry boat caused the crushing of one of his feet between the piling and the rack of one of the slips. Lockjaw set in and his death occured sixteen days later.
Col. Roebling had been his father's chief aid from its inception and was equipped to complete the great enterprise upon which John A. Roebling had just entered. He had aided in the construction of the suspension bridge across the Alleghany river at Pittsburg and in building the Cincinnati and Covington suspension bridge ; and the New York and Brooklyn authorities
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had no hesitation in entrusting him with the carrying out of the stupendous plans his father had set under way. The reports, plans and estimates for the Brooklyn bridge were first under consideration in 1867. Col. W. A. Roebling found it necessary, as the work progressed, to make some changes in the plans; and fourteen years were required for the completion of the work. In his devotion to the work, Col. Roebling contracted a caisson fever that has since forced him to retire from active business; and, while he is still Vice President of the John A. Roebling's Sons Company, which operates at Trenton the greatest wire making plant in the world, his relations with the company owing to his advanced age are mostly in an advisory capacity.
The Roebling family was founded in this country by John A. Roebling after he had become 30 years of age. Born in Mulhausen, Germany, he was educated at the Royal University of Berlin and in the Pedagogium at Erfurt. Locating in Pennsylvania on reaching these shores, he obtained his first situation in America as assistant engineer on the slackwater navigation of the Beaver river, a tributary of the Ohio. This was followed by an engagement on the Sandy and Beaver Canal, a work that was never completed.
His last employment on works of this kind was on the upper Alleghany river, where John A. Roebling located a feeder of the Pennsylvania state canal. En- tering the service of the state of Pennsylvania, he was employed for three years in surveying and locating lines of railway across the Alleghany mountains, from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.
In 1840 he opened a wire rope factory at Saxonburg in that state. The mill was the first one in the United States in which stranded wire rope was made. Its production had originated in Germany only six years earlier and was then still confined to that nation. Mr. Roebling found it hard work to convince industrial and commercial circles of the value of wire for supporting purposes. But he made his impression eventually, and the busi- ness at the mill grew apace. In seven years it had outgrown the Saxon- burg facilities and he moved to Trenton where he founded the great plant that has won, for New Jersey's capital city, the distinction of being one of the great industrial centers of the world. At the start, a one story plant and the labor of about twenty-five hands sufficed. Mr. Roebling built a handsome home for himself in the city, and had the satisfaction of seeing his business branch out. until hundreds were employed ; and the progressive policy of his company made "Roebling Wire" a thing of national promi- nence. Still, at the time of John A. Roebling's death, his rope shop was
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but a small affair making 500 tons of wire rope a year and employing 150 hands.
Since 1869, when his sons succeeded him, the business had poured in upon it in such continually increasing volume as to necessitate constant ad- ditions to its facilities and constant enlargement of its office force. Its buildings and yards now cover more than 135 acres of ground. Fifty thousand horse power steam pressure is needed to keep its wheels awhirl, and 15,000 electric bulbs illuminate its colony of buildings. For the supply of its material and the carrying of its product, railroad companies run spurs from main lines into the company's yards. Exclusive of its large clerical force, the company employs 5.000 men, boys and girls in its Trenton estab- lishment and 1,800 more at its branch in Roebling ; and its pay roll exceeds $175,000 a week.
Improvements in the machinery and in the product have supplemented the coarser wires of the early mill with refinements that permit the produc- tion of the longest skeins. In the dies for the drawing of the finer wires, up- wards of $40,000 worth of black diamonds are used .. The business eventu- ally outgrew even the facilities at Trenton, and the establishment of the branch mill at Roebling resulted. The company found it possible to give employment to 1,800 hands there and took it upon itself to build a new town for them and to put it in order for the accommodation of their families. The old country village Kinkora-of one house and originally named after the palace of an Irish king-has been transformed into a modern city near by with nearly 1,000 tasteful homes, supplied with all the newest convenien- ces-even to their lighting with electricity.
This town has been the pet project of Mr. Charles G. Roebling (q. v. ). Kinkora is on the Delaware River five miles below Bordentown. It was started in 1830, by a Mr. Rockefeller who made it the terminus of his pro- posed air line railroad to Atlantic City. A mile or two of the railroad had been built when the project was abandoned. Having an affection for the Emerald Isle, Mr. Rockefeller named the terminus Kinkora after the palace of Brian Boru, the Irish king, who was killed in battle at Clantorf in 1014. Later the Knickerbocker Ice Company acquired the premises and erected an ice house. The new town of Roebling, one mile from Kinkora, was known by that name until the Pennsylvania Railroad changed its name to Roebling.
John A. Roebling had been widely known for his skill as a bridge engi- neer before he planned the great span between New York and Brooklyn. Among the more notable of his achievements was the planning and con- struction of the first suspension aqueduct in the United States. The use of wire rope in its building gave Mr. Roebling an insight into the value of wire rope for suspension purposes. The general idea of suspension bridges had been a favored one with him since his college days. His first oppor- tunity to employ wire ropes and steel cables for their up-bear came when in 1844 the wooden aqueduct of the Pennsylvania canal across the Alleghany river became unsafe. The contract for a span over stream was awarded to him and within nine months it was ready for use. The suspension bridge over the Monongahela river, with eight spans of 1SS feet each sup- ported by 41% inch cables, followed.
Public attention had for sometime before been directed to the problem
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of linking the New York Central and the Great Western Railway of Cana- da, separated by the Niagara River chasm. From the nature of the locality, the problem admitted of no other solution than with a railway suspension bridge. Mr. Roebling was invited to make plans and estimates for the bridge and at the same time appointed the engineer. For four years, be- ginning with 1851, the work was continued without interruption until, in March, 1855, the first locomotive and train rolled over it, the best example of its kind and magnitude in the world. The bridge has two floors-one for vehicles, the other for railway traffic-in a clear span of 825 feet.
Colonel Washington A. Roebling was educated at the Rensselaer Poly- technic Institute, graduating in 1857 with the C. E. degree. He was assist- ing his father in the construction of the suspension bridge across the Alle- ghany River when the Civil War broke out and he enlisted as a private in the Union Army in 1861. His service covered the whole period of the struggle and when he resigned at its close to become again his father's chief aid he had been brevetted a Colonel.
JESSIE NAUDAIN ALEXANDER ROPES (Mrs. William T.)- Montclair, (19 Gates Avenue.)-Singer: Home maker. Born in Chicago, Ill., on July 8th, 1872; daughter of Hugh Alexander and Ann Campbell (Magill) Ropes ; married at Montclair, on June 10, 1899, to William Townsend Ropes, son of Elihu Harrison and Jose- phine Townsend Ropes, of Elizabeth.
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