USA > New Jersey > New Jersey's first citizens and state guide, Vol. II, 1919-1920 > Part 39
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Robert H. McCarter, his son, born 1793. was also County Clerk of Morris and afterwards in business in Newton. He became Judge of the Common pleas, sat on the Bench of the Court of Errors and Appeals, and, in 1828, was elected one of the Presidential Electors whose votes made Andrew Jackson President of the United States. He married Eliza, daughter of Thomas Nesbitt, who came hither from the North of Ireland. Thomas N. Carter, his son, and father of the subject of this sketch, was a noted member of the New Jersey Bar, with a corporation practice so lucrative that, when Governors Olden and Ward successively offered him a seat on the Bench of the New Jersey Supreme Court, he de- clined it.
It was in his father's office that the present Thomas N. MeCarter be- gan the study of law. In 1891 lie was of the firm of McCarter, Williamson & McCarter. He subsequently practiced alone. In 1896 Gov. Griggs ap- pointed him Judge of the First District Court of Newark, but in 1899 he resigned. In the fall of the same year he was nominated as Republican candidate for the State Senate and was elected. His term in the State Senate expired in 1903. In 1901 he was made Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Republican State Committee; and, first having a large hand in bringing about the nomination of Franklin Murphy for Governor conducted the campaign that resulted in Mr. Murphy's election. Gov. Murphy had scarcely been inaugurated before the Legislature entered up- on the choice of a United States Senator to succeed the late Gen. Sewell ; and Mr. McCarter was a prime factor in the campaign made in behalf of the selection of John F. Dryden, President of the Prudential Insurance Company. for the distinction.
Gov. Murphy in 1902 appointed Mr. McCarter Attorney General of the State. In the following year, the trolley service was undergoing expansion. Mr. McCarter became interested in the enterprise; and through his energy succeeded in bringing nearly all the railway, gas and electric properties of the State under the control of one company. The success of his labors in that direction singled him out for the management of the consolidated corporations ; and in 1903 he resigned the office of Attorney General to become President of the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey. The service has been extended under his management so that it takes in prac- tically all the State. for electric power, lighting and transportation
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purposes. The annual report of the Corporation made in 1917 discloses gross operating revenues of the subsidiary companies of more than $47,- 000,000: 220 municipalities are served by the several companies ..
Mr. MeCarter is a director of the Fidelity Trust Company and the Union National Bank of Newark and the Red Bank Trust Company of Red Bank. He was chairman of the War Board of the American Electric Railway Association and is a member of the Hamilton Club of Paterson, University. Racquet and Tennis Club, and Princeton Clubs of New York, Car- teret of Jersey City. Union League of Hackensack, Nassau of Princeton and the Rumson Country Club.
President McCarter is a brother of Uzal H. MeCarter (q. v.) and of Robert H. MeCarter. (q. v.).
UZAL HAGGERTY MeCARTER-Rumson .- Banker. (Photo- graph published in Vol. 1. 1917). Born at Newton, July 5th. 1861 : son of Thomas Nesbit and Mary L. (Haggerty ) MeCarter ; married at Newark, on Jan. 30th, 1889, to Jane Mecker Lewis, daughter of William G. Lewis. of Newark.
Children : Isabelle Young. born January 11th, 1891.
Thomas N. MeCarter, father of Uzal H. McCarter had made the Mc- Carter name a noted one in the professional history of New Jersey before the achievements of his three sons wou new lustre for it. (vide Thomas N. McCarter and Robert H. McCarter). The elder Mr. McCarter was the contemporary, at. the New Jersey Bar, of John P. Stockton, Frederick T. Frelinghysen, Robert Gilchrist. David A. Depue. Jacob Vanatta and Benjamin Williamson, and till he died, was a recognized leader among them.
The elder McCarter, who had practiced in Newton, moved to New- ark in 1865, when Mr. McCarter was four or five years old, and opened an office there. Mr. McCarter's earlier education was acquired in the Pingry School and at the Newark Academy ; and he graduated from Princeton, of the class of 1882. Soon after graduation he entered the New York banking house of Kidder Peabody & Co., one of the most im- portant financial firms of the day in the country: and continued in that connection for five years. In 1887 he went with the Lombard Investment Co., a New York corporation particularly interested in Western farm mort- gages.
In 1889 he formed, with the Fidelity Trust Company. the connection that has contributed so largely to its rise to first place among the financial institutions of the State. He had not been there long before he was made its Executive Manager, and he advanced through the offices of Secretary and of Treasurer till he became its Trust Officer. He was elected President of the company in 1904.
The Fidelity Trust Company has financed many of the larger indus- trial and commercial and business enterprises of the State for the past twenty years. One of its notable energies was to assist in the establish- ment of the Public Service Corporation, which controls the gas and electric
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light and power plants, and the trolley service, all over the State. Since Mr. McCarter's election as President the resources of the Trust company have amounted to $31,000,000. The sale of its Prudential stock at the time of the mutnalization of that company contributed $7,500,000 to its re- sources.
Amid his labors in the Fidelity Presidency, Mr. McCarter has found time for active participation in the life of the community. He was a dominating force in the Newark City Committee of 100 that arranged the City's recent celebration and its 250th birthday ; and in most of the large functions in which the city and the people of Newark have been engaged Mr. McCarter has been called upon to take leading parts.
Mr. McCarter is a member of the University, Princeton and Bankers ('Inbs (all of New York), the Essex of Newark, Rumson Country Club, Essex Country CImb and Nassan of Princeton.
SAMUEL McCOLLOM-Paterson., (618 East 26th St.)-Silk manufacturer. Born at Paterson, N. J., May 11th, 1857, son of Samuel and Letitia (Morrison ) McCollom ; married at Paterson. N. J .. on September 6th, 1883, to Margaret M. Stewart, daughter of Thomas A. and Margaret (Orr) Stewart, 2nd. of Paterson, N. J., on April 18th, 1901 to Margaret M. Doremus, daughter of Aaron B. and Mary E. (Allee) Doremus.
Children : Mrs. B. L. Wharton, born July 13th, 1884; Vivian C., born March 22nd. 1902.
Samuel McCollom is a descendant of the Scotch-Irish stock.
Most of his education was obtained through personal persistance and struggle. He attended the old Plank Road School (now School No. 3) of Paterson, N. J., from 1862-68, but was forced to leave at the age of eleven on account of death of his father, and begin employment in the silk industry. Not discouraged, however, he later attended evening school, during the winter of '69-'70-'71 at Col. Berry's private school.
He began his industrial career as a boy of all work and learned the silk trade step by step until he mastered the complete branches of the silk industry.
In many silk strikes and labor disputes of Paterson, Mr. McCollom was chosen as a representative of the manufacturers to present their case, notably in the great I. W. W. strike of 1913.
He has also been active as a leader in the church life of Paterson, and especially in that of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Newark Conference of the Methodist Church. At present he is President of the board of trustees, and superintendent of the Bible School of the aforementioned church as well as being chairman of the Layman Mission- ary Movement of Paterson and vicinity.
He is also president of the Y. M. C. A. of that city, member of the Board of Managers of the Silk Association of America. Vice-President of the Broad Silk Manufacturers Association of Paterson, N. J., chairman of the Community Labor Board, and also a member of the Chamber of
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Commerce. He is head of the McCollom and Post Silk Company with Mills at Paterson, N. J., Nazareth, Pa., and at Allentown. Pa.
Mr. Mecollom's business address is 28 Paterson street, Paterson. N. J.
WALTER IRVING McCOY-East Orange .- Jurist. {Photo- graph published in Vol. 1. 1917). Born at Troy, N. Y., on De- cember 8, 1859; son of James and Cornelia ( Beach) McCoy ; mar- ried on October 17, 18SS, to Kate Philbrick Baldwin, daughter of Daniel H. and Kate Philbrick Baldwin, of New York City.
Children : Percy Beach 2nd, George Baldwin, Philbrick, Cath- erine Baldwin, Eleanor Holman.
Walter I. McCoy is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (Washington) by appointment of President Wil- son. He had previously been a part of the political life of the State and of his locality. He was a member and Vice President of the Essex County Democratic Committee, and a delegate to the Democratic National Con- ventions of 1904-1908. and represented the Eighth New Jersey District in the 62nd Congress of the United States (1911-1913) and the Ninth Dis- trict in the 63rd Congress (1913-1915.)
Justice McCoy's father was born in Sussex county and his mother in Morris county, where their respective families had lived for several genera- tions. Justice McCoy attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Princeton University for two years. He graduated from Harvard in 1882, receiving the A. B. degree, and from the Harvard Law School with the degrees of LL. B. and A. M. He was admitted in 1886 to practice at the Bar of the State of New York and followed his profession in the City of New York until his appointment to the Bench of the District of Columbia Court.
Besides his congressional and judicial activities Justice McCoy has acted as a delegate to many state and county conventions ; and, while he lived in South Orange, was one of the Village Trustees. He has been Director of the Orange Bureau of Associated Charities and of the South Orange Free Library. He is a member of the Harvard Club of New Jersey and was its President in 1910 and 1911. He is also a member of the Har- vary Club of New York and the Bar Association of New York, and the Cosmos and Washington Golf and Country Clubs of Washington.
While Justice McCoy's New Jersey legal residence is in East Orange, his official duties make it necessary for him to live in Washington.
THOMAS FRANCIS McCRAN-Paterson, (305 East 37th Street) .- Lawyer, Banker (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born in Newark, November 2, 1857 ; son of Thomas McCran; mar- ried at Passaic, June. 1916, to Frances C. Martin.
Children : Frances Abby, born Dec. 15, 1918.
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Thomas F. McCran has been Speaker of the House of Assembly and a member of the State Senate from Passaic county. His father served in the Passaic County Board of Freeholders for several years, was County Inspector of Roads, in 1900 member of the House of Assembly and is at present Superintendent of Weights and Measures in Paterson. Senator McCrau therefore came to the life of the Community with an inbred apti- tude for public affairs.
Mr. McCran began his education in the public schools of Paterson and completed it at Seton Hall College, South Orange, where he graduated in June of 1896 with the degree of Bachelor of Science and was given the degree of L. L. D. on June 13, 1917, by the same college. He read law in the office of ex-Senator William B. Gourley in Paterson and was admitted as an attorney at the November term of 1899, becoming a counselor at the February term in 1911. He spent eleven years in Senator Gourley's office ; but. just before he was elected City Attorney of Paterson in November, 1907, he opened an office of his own. He held the city office until 1912 when he resigned.
The republicans of Passaic county in the campaign of 1909 named Mr. McCran as one of their candidates for the House of Assembly, and he was elected, and again in 1911 and 1912. In 1911 the republican minority of the House named him for floor leader ; and in 1912, when his party was in control of the House, he was made Speaker, the democrats naming no can- didate against him. As Speaker he made many important changes in House procedure, that made for its efficiency and which have since been followed. Before the expiration of his term, the republicans of the county put him in nomination for the State Senate. The Progressives split the republican vote of the county by putting in the field a candidate who took 7,000 republican votes away from him, and he was defeated by Peter J. McGinnis, the democratic candidate, by 167 votes. In 1915 he accepted a nomination again against Senator McGinnis and defeated him by a plural- ity exceeding 8,000. The republican majority in the Senate of 1917 made him leader on the floor. He was President of the Senate in 1918, and acted as Governor of the State at various periods during that year. He was appointed Attorney General of New Jersey by Gov. Edge. on Jan. 14, 1919, for a full term of five years.
Attorney General McCran is President of the Franklin 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-'88 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-
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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. Bringham 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 disclosed a difference of 18,000 between the republican vote when Mr. McEwan 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 1881. He practiced at the New York and New Jersey bars and at the bar of the United State 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 Weeman 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. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born in Paterson, 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 Governor, 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 nomination, to the State Senate of New Jersey. Mr. McGinnis defeated Thomas F. McCran, then Speaker of the House of Assembly, whom the republicans of the county had put up against him, and shares, with John Hopper, John Mallon, Christian Braun and John Hinchliffe, the distinction of being one of the few democrats who have carried that re- publican county in a campaign 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 Committee 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 legis- lation 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 asquired 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 & McGinmis they are still engaged in the practice of their profession in Paterson. In 1914, he was appointed Supreme Court Commissioner, by the Supreme Court.
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 busi- ness 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 18SS. IIe 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 1898. 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 services covering the legislative sessions between 1901-1906 both inclusive. On March 12, 1918, he was appointed a member of the North Jersey Water Survey Commission. Term expires March 1, 1921.
Mr. McKee is a member of the Hamilton Club, North Jersey Country Club, of Fabiola Lodge, No. 57, Knights of Pythias, of Ivanhoe Lodge, No. 88, F & A. M .. Paterson Lodge of Elks, Silk City Conclave, No. 232, A.
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O. H. and of Garret Rock Conneil, No. 785. National Union. Falls City I. O. O. F.
WILLIAM MeNULTY-Paterson .- Clergyman. ( Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born in Ballyshannon. county Done- gal. Ireland. in January of 1829; son of Owen and Catherine Mc- Nulty.
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 labor for souls in "The States," he came hither and was matriculated in St. John's College, Fordham, N. Y., now known as Fordham University. Com- ing 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 Sminary, Emmetsburg, Md., and was ordained to the Priest- hood on August 6, 1857, at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Newark.
Father MeNulty was assigned immediately to the new Seton Hall College at Madison, occupying the post of Vice President, Professor and Prefect of Discipline. Two years later, when Seton Hall College was transferred to South Orange, the buildings were used as a novitiate for the Sisters of Charity and the Academy of St. Elizabeth, and Father Mc- Nulty remained as chaplain. There he sowed the seeds of his future reputation of "Church Builder," in the erection of churches at Basking- ridge 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 speak- ing people; seven for those of other nationalities, and, in the vicinity of Paterson, fifteen churches or chapels that owe their origin to the local par- ishes. In several instances, the churches were built by Dean MeNulty him- self.
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 MeNulty was a commanding and interesting fig- ure. Ilis 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
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laws. Until recently, when his advancing years demanded that he cease liis activity. 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 Cham- ber of Commerce and has been its Treasurer since its inception. He is also President of the Paterson Orphan Asylum Association.
Mr. Meakle's daughter Cadance is a musician whose work has been much praised by the "Musical Leader."
CLARENCE GARDINER MEEKS-Woodcliff, (3 32nd St.)- Merchant. Born at Town of Union, N. J., July 14th, 1880, son of Hamilton V. and Euretta E. (Gardner) Meeks, married Oct. 5. 1902, to Lillie Bennett, daughter of William R. Bennett of Brook- lyn, N. Y.
Children : Clarence Gardner, Jr., Jan. 1st, 190S, Elizabeth Evelyn. Dec., 23. 1905. Hamilton, July 10, 1902.
Clarence Gardner Meeks is a descendant of Joseph Meeks who was a prominent citizen of New York City prior to the American Revolution. his name appearing on the poll list of the electors in 1761. This all- cestor's three sons. John, Joseph and Edward all fought in the Revolution. The first mentioned held the rank of Captain and married Susana Helena Maria de Molinars, of an old French Huguenot family, owning only a country place at Morristown, N. J., adjoining Washington's headquarters, his wife acted as interpreter for Washington and Lafayette during their stay there. As a reward for his services, Captain Meeks was granted land near Syracuse, N. Y., which his descendants have never claimed.
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