USA > New Jersey > New Jersey's first citizens and state guide, Vol. II, 1919-1920 > Part 42
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Mr. Nixon's family is of English and Irish descent. It can be traced from Warwickshire in England over to Ireland, in unbroken line to 1390.
Mr. Nixon attended the Academy at Leesburg, Va., studied subsequent- ly at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and completed his educational training at the Royal Naval Academy in England where he was King George's college mate. He was a naval officer from 1879 to 1891, and for four years afterward Manager of the Cramp shipyards at Phila --
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delphia. Then he became the proprietor of the Crescent shipyards at Elizabeth.
Mr. Nixon is the founder and the President of the International Smokeless Powder Company of Parlin. this state, of the Standard Motor Construction Company of Jersey City and of the Nixon Nitration Work, Nixon. N. J. He holds the degree of Doctor of Science from Villa Nova University, 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 ('lub of New Brunswick. the Nordix Club of Warrentown, Va., the Richmond County Country Club, the Colonia Country Club, Atlantic Yacht Club and the Burgesses Corps of Albany.
Mr. Nixon's New York home is at 22 East 53rd Street. The post office address of his works is Nixon, N. J.
MARY HARRIOTT NORRIS-Morristown, (3 Altamont Court. ) -Author and Lecturer. Born, in Boonton, March 16th, 1848: (deceased Sept. 14, 1918-See Vol. 1, 1917 ) ; daughter of Charles Bryan and Mary L. Kerr Nerris.
JAMES R. NUGENT-Newark, (756 Board Street. )-Lawyer. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). 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 entirely repaved, newly sewered, its water supply completed 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 County Democratic Committee 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 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 succeeded in electing Woodrow Wilson, Governor in 1910. Mr. Nugent has been a delegate to the Democratic National Conven-
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tions of 1904. 1908, 1912 and 1916, and has always been prominent in party councils.
JOHN JOSEPH O'CONNOR, D. D., Rt. Rev .- South Orange- Bishop Catholic Diocese of Newark. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). 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 December 22, 1877.
On his return from Europe, Bishop O'Connor was appointed to the chair of Philosophy in Seton Hall College, and later was made Professor of Dogmatic Theology in the Seminary. He became Director of the Semi- mary and later Vicar General of the Diocese. In the year 1895 he was placed in charge of St. Joseph's Church, Newark, 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 Pontificial 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 200 in 1918. 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 484 priests ; in 1901 the num- ber of priests was 265. The future needs of the diocese have been pro- vided 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-61,394 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 15 orphanages, 12 hospitals and 4 homes for the aged, the number of these institutions having doubled since 1901. The
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population of the diocese in 1901 was 290,000; the Catholic population now numbers about 542,000.
IRENE RUTHERFORD O'CROWLEY-Newark, (12 Lombardy St., )-Law student. Born at Newark, N. J., daugter of Richard Joseph and Sara Jane ( Rutherford) O'Crowley .
Irene Rutherford O'Crowley on her maternal side, traces her ancer- try back to John Rutheford one of the first settlers of South Jersey, and to her great-grandmother, Margaret MacDougall, after whose family MacDougall street and Alley in New York City were named.
Miss O'Crowley attended Barringer High School and upon gradu- ation entered Trinity College at Washington, D. C., where she studied for a period of four years, and obtained a degree of A. B. She later attended the New York School of Expression, from which she was gradu- ated.
At present she is taking up studies in law at the New Jersey Law School, and holds the office of vice-president in the 1919 class.
During the World's war, Miss O'Crowley was the only woman speaker of the Four Minute Men of New Jersey, In 1918 she was appointed State Statistician of this organization, and still maintains that honor in the Minute Men of New Jersey.
Her club memberships are, the Orange College Woman's Club, Essex County College Woman's Club, and the New York Chapter of the Trinity College Alumnae Association.
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.
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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 ticket 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 Seamon, 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. 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 .- (Photograph pub- lished in Vol. 1, 1917). 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, Arthus 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 in 1913 and was re-elected at the annual meet- ing, against his active protest-the only president to be chosen for a second term ; he has been 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 proposed to Colonel Roosevelt the Conference of Governors at the White House in 1907, was invited by President Roosevelt to attend the conference as an expert, and President Roosevelt afterward made him a member of the National Con- servation Commission.
The Packs settled near Elizabeth 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 Mississippi. He is himself the owner of considerable tracts of fine timber lands.
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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 War Garden Commission, which organized early in 1917 and which in- creased the planting of food gardens for 1917 over 100 per cent. In 1918 a further increase of 51 per cent. was made, adding thereby $525,000,000 to the value of the food production of the United States. He is a Repub- lican, and during the Bryan Campaign excitement over the money stand- ard, attended the County Money Convention held in Indianapolis. He is 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), the Union, Country and Chagrin Valley Hunt of Cleveland and the Uni- versity Club of Washington, D. C. He is a fellow of the Royal Argicultural Society of England. In June 1919 Trinity College of Hartford, Conn., conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in recognition of his war work in food production and conservation.
Of Mr. Pack's children, Randolph Greene is a manufacturer in Cleve- land O., and Lieut. Arthur Newton has been in overseas service with the American Expeditionary Forces.
CHARLES WOLCOTT PARKER-Jersey City, (SS Gifford Avenue) -Jurist. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born Newark, October 22, 1862; son of Cortlandt 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 Garretson 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 Vice Chancellor James J. Ber- gen. 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 1921. Mr. Parker had previously held other judicial positions in Jersey City and the state.
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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 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 State Army ; two other brothers, Cortlandt and Chauncey Goodrich, became lawyers, prominent in Newark, (the former died in 1917), 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 Constitutional Convention of 1844, and re- sponsible 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 member of the New Jersey Bar and for many years a leader, is still a household word in the state. His ancestors further back occupied inportant 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 Princeton 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 Columbia 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 organ- izers 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 Cap- tain. Cortlandt Parker First Lieutenant. and Judge Parker rose to the rank of Sergeant in 1899, when he accepted a commission in the Fourth Regi- ment 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 ap- pointment to the Supreme Court. During all of this time he was devoted
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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 University and Princeton Clubs 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. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). 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 Morristown (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, 1888, unmarried ; Wayne, born September 29th, 1892, who died from a fall when six year of age; Cortland 3rd, born Feb- ruary 6th, 1896, now in Princeton University.
Richard Wayne Parker began attending the Pingry School, Roseville when he was eight years old, walking there in all weathers till in 1859 he entered the Newark Academy under S. A. Farrand. He spent a year in the senior class at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., under Dr. S. H. Taylor ("Uncle Sam"), and then entered as Sophomore in Princeton, graduating in 1867. He then entered the office of Parker & Keasby as a law student at- tending Columbia College Law School, and was admitted to the Bar June 1870, as an attorney, becoming a counselor in 1873. For some years he took care of the docket of Parker & Keasbey, and on their dissolution in 1876, was associated with his father in the firm of Cortlandt & Wayne Parker. In 1885 and 1886 Mr. Parker was a member of the New Jersey Assembly, ran for Congress in 1892 unsuccessfully, but was elected in 1894 and re- elected successively till 1908. He ran unsuccessfully in 1910 and '12, but was elected in 1914 for a vacancy and also for the new term and again in 1916.
In the Legislature Mr. Parker took a decided stand against county local option on the liquor question, though in favor of strict regulation. His at- titude in Congress on the temperance problem has been along the same line. Especially has he been in favor of the freedom of the soldier's "club" to use beer in moderation ; and when prohibition states desired full control over liquor transportation into the State, he favored making such liquor, when
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shipped "collect on delivery," subject to state law, but insisted that the states should not interfere with interstate commerce so as to prevent the delivery of liquors bona fide bought in another State. His reports from the Judiciary and Military Committees and speeches on the floor of Congress embodied these views during a term of years.
Mr. Parker has been as active in law as in politics. He was counsel in many cases which appear in the reports. He took a firm stand against bonding our cities and insisted that they ought to pay as they go. He was in charge of the impeachment of Patrick H. Laverty in 1886. He originated and carried on a mandamus against the gerrymander of the State, which resulted in the present election of Members of the Assembly by county instead of district vote. He was assistant counsel in the fight against the democratic "Rump Senate", gathering and taking most of the evidence on which the case was decided.
In Congress Mr. Parker was the first to recognize the advantages of the Panama route and to move an amendment that would make that route possible. In the Committee on Military Affairs he was for years in charge of questions of restoration and relief. He was the first to propose an elas- tic army which could be expanded in time of war by increasing each com- pany. He was also active in defending the Army against interfering legisla- tion and person favoritism as well as in the defense of the Post Ex- change, where the soldiers would be able to get light beer and wines and kept from outside dives. In the Judiciary Committee he favored immediate appeal from injunctions restraining labor strikes, secured an additional Judge for the New Jersey Circuit and more recently an additional District Judge. He was active in legislation as to the Spanish War and from that time on was insistent that we should have a store of arms and munitions and plenty of educated officers. In 1915 he went to Europe to study the present war and has been active in measures of preparation for this war. He was long a member of the Committee on the Judiciary and was its Chairman 1909 to 1911, during which time lie urged the change of Inaugu- ration Day to April 30th, and carried through measures for prison reform and parole and for the Commission on Workmen's Compensation, as well as other important statutes. Since his return to Congress in 1914 he has been a member of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, but in the minority.
Between 1890 and 1902 Mr. Parker was Lieutenant and Captain of the Essex Troop and has been ardently devoted to its prosperity. Among his published addresses those upon taxes and money in New Jersey before the Revolution. and upon Lafayette are perhaps the best known.
AUGUSTA B. PARSONNET-Newark, (134 West Kinney ) - Suffragist. Born at Bielostok, Russia, Sept. 24, 1870, daughter of Thomas and Katherin ( Brodsky ) Levin, married at Newark, N. J., Feb. 5th, 1893, to Victor Parsonnet, son of Ephim and Rachael (Rykoff ) Parsonnet.
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Children : Eugene Victor, May 4th, 1900, Thomas L. Aug. 31, 1901, Marion R. Feb. 21, 1905.
Augusta B. Parsonnet, was born in Russia, where her ancestry may be traced back for three hundred years. At the time of the "Blood Ac- cusations," two brothers, of which she is a direct descendant were bur- ried alive, martyrs of the oppressed Jewish race.
She was privately educated in Russia in her early life, and in 1886 came to the United States. She made a livelihood by working during the day, but at night, she attended evening schools, preparing herself for the study of medicine. From 1894-95 she attended the Indiana Normal School, and from 1895-96 Tufts Medical College at Boston, Mass. The following year she entered the Women's Medical School of the New York Infirmity for Women and Children, while her husband was attending the Bellevue Medical School. Finding that financial conditions would not per- mit them to continue to study together however, she gave up her cherished hopes and made it possible thereby for her husband to continue his studies.
Since then she has been taking an active part in Newark, her home city, as well as Essex County. She was President of the Ladies Guild of the Newark Beth Israel Hospital, having filled that office from 1905/12. From 1916-'17 she was president of the Woman's Political Union of Newark, and is a member of the Auxiliary Board of the Girl's Vocational School, having been appointed by Mayor Raymond.
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