USA > New Jersey > New Jersey's first citizens and state guide, Vol. II, 1919-1920 > Part 47
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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. Entering the service of the state of Pennsylvania, he was employed for three years in surveying and locating lines of railway across the Alle- ghany 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
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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- lence. Still, at the time of Jolin A. Roebling's death, his rope shop was 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 grounds. 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 ran 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 establishment and 1.800 more at its branch in Roebling ; and its pay roll ex- ceeds $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, upwards 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.
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 proposed 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. Bockefeller named the terminus Kinkora after the palace of Brian Boru, the Irish king, who was killed in battle at Clontarf 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 acqueduct 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
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1844 the wooden acqueduct 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 Monongehela river, with eight spans of 188 feet each sup- ported by 41% inch cables, followed.
Public attention had for some time before been directed to the problem 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.
ADOLPH ROEDER-Orange .- Clergyman. (Photograph pub- lished in Vol. 1. 1917). Born at Baltimore, Md., on March 1st, 1857; son of Charles and Marie (Hempel) Roeder; married at Philadelphia, Pa., to Marie Bonschur, daughter of Stephen J. Bonschur.
Children : Miriam, Elsa, Arthur.
Adolph Roeder has for a quarter 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 organization 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 Philadelphia, and at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia and took summer 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 member of the Board of Governors
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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.
P. SANFORD ROSS-Newark, (75 Johnson Avenue. )-Engineer and Contractor. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Newark, November 10, 1847 ; son of John J. and Eliza Jane (San- ford) Ross ; married at Newark, February 10, 1870, to Emma Kate Van Court, daughter of William H. and Kate Ostrom Van Court.
Children : Adelina ; Laura Van Court; P. Sanford, Jr .; Roland T .; Leland H.
The name of P. Sanford Ross is chiefly identified in business with rail- road and dock construction, and, officially, in connection with the Essex County Park Commission. Mr. Ross has been a member of the County Park Commission for ten years, and one of the chief factors in providing the state's richest county with one of the most beautiful chain of recre- ation centers in the United States. Branch Brook Park in Newark, which has been largely adorned during his incumbency, is counted by landscape architects as probably the most picturesque and artistic artificial park of its size in the country. The commission has spent about $6,000,000 upon the beautification of the county : and it is no extravagance of phrase to say that the public of Essex county feels that it has got its money's worth.
Mr. Ross's parents were both natives of New Jersey, his father having been born in Springfield and his mother in New Milford. He attended the public schools in Newark. finished at the Newark High School and then took a course in Bryant and Strattons Business College. When ready for work, he continued the contracting business which had been established in 1829 by his uncle, Peter Sanford, and is still engaged in it. The company was incorporated in 1893 as P. Sanford Ross. Inc.
Mr. Ross was a member of the first Board of the Newark City Hospital, is Director of the Crippled Children's Home, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Alleghany Coal Company, Director of the Fidelity Trust Co. of Newark, a member of the South Park Presbyterian Church and President of the Board of Trustees.
He is connected with the Lawyers Club of New York, the Essex County, the Essex County Country, the Rumson and the Elberon Beach Clubs.
VERNON ROYLE-Paterson, (618 East 28th Street) .- Inven- tor, Manufacturer. Born at Paterson, N. J., June 9th, 1846, son of John and Agnes (Houston) Royle; married at Paterson, on Oct. 4, 1872, to Jeannie Malcolm, daughter of Joseph and Agnes (Murray) Malcolm.
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Children : Heber and Vernon E., both at present associated with their father in the machine business.
Vernon Royle is of English and Scotch descent. He was educated in the public and private schools of the city, supplementing such instruc- tion as they afforded with individual study, largely along mechanical lines, for which he had a pronounced bent.
His first actual experience of machine design and construction began with his apprenticeship to the trade of patternmaker, in which line he became expert. Finishing his apprenticeship, about 1860, he entered the employ of Heber Wells, maker of wood type and engravers' blocks, at 90 Fulton Street, New York, continuing his employment with the firm of Vanderburg, Wells & Co., into which the business of Heber Wells was merged, and whose establishment at 18 Dutch Street, New York, was long the headquarters for boxwood blocks for engravers.
This concern, who also owned a factory at Paterson, made extensive nsc of Routing Machines, many of which were built by John Royle. father of the subject of this sketch, and Vernon Royle, who was familiar with their construction and operation, was put in charge of the Routing Depart- ment of the Vanderburg, Wells, concern. his practical experience giving him the groundwork upon which he was later on to build up a repu- tation as one of the most successful designers and builders of routing machines in the world.
A period of ill health terminated his career with Vanderburg, Wells & Co., and after a time of inaction, he accepted the position of Secretary to the Paterson Board of Education, in which capacity he served from 1872 to 1879, afterwards serving a two-year term as Commissioner.
In 1877, he formed a partnership with his father in the machine busi- ness, and began the development of the varied lines of machines which have made the name of Royle known throughout the civilized world. For forty years Vernon Royle has actively pursued the career of inventor and manufacturer, his activities including the development, from crude be- ginnings, of three special lines, namely : Photo-engraving Machinery ; Jacqard Card Machinery, for producing pattern cards for textile weaving, and Tubing Machines, for making seamless rubber tubing, fire and garden hose, inner tubes for pneumatic tires, solid truck tires, etc., and as a pen- dant to this line, Circular Looms for weaving seamless fabric jackets for fire and garden hose; also Insulation Machines for covering electric wires and cables with seamless insulation.
In all, about 100 patents have been granted to Mr. Royle for his inventions in thesc and other lines, and in addition to medals granted to his firm, at various expositions, Mr. Royle was personally awarded a gold mnedal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, for in- ventions and distinguished mechanical achievement. In every line, Mr. Royle's success has been marked, all being recognized as leading machines of their typc and class and commanding recognition both at home and abroad.
Mr. Royle has always taken an interest in civic affairs, and in addition to his service as School Commissioner, acted as an officer of the Taxpayers' Association and on the Passaie River Valley Sewage Commit-
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tee. He is a Director of the Hamilton Trust Company and Cedar Lawn Cemetery, of Paterson, and a member of the American Society of Me- chanical Engineers, the Masonic Fraternity ; the Hamilton Club of Pa- terson and the New Jersey Historical Society. He is President of John Royle & Sons, located at Straight & Essex Street, Paterson.
WALTER PARKER RUNYON-Perth Amboy. (100 Rector Street ), Shipbuilder and Banker, Born at New Brunswick, N. J., December 3, 1861, son of John and Anne ( Beck) Runyon, married at Camden, N. J .. Jan. 10, 1895. to Katherine Engle Hancock, (laughter of Rev. Ezekiel Cooper and Emma Jean (Githens) Han- cock, of Burlington County, N. J.
Children : Cooper Hancock, born Sept. 3, 1896, Walter Parker 2nd, born May 29th, 1905.
Walter Parker Runyon is a descendant of French Hugenots. Vin- cent Rognion, of whom he is a direct descendant, came to America in 1678, settling near New Brunswick. A later Vincent Runyon, grandfather of Walter Parker, started the shipyard at New Brunswick in which enterprise, his son John helped him. It was there that his early boyhood was spent.
He attended the public schools of New Brunswick, entering Rutger's Preparatory School in 1875, and 1879 the New Jersey Business College, graduating in 1880. His first position was with Fairbanks, Martin & Com- pany, woolen commission merchants, then at 46 White Street, New York City.
After four years, he went to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, where he spent two years, and then entered the employ of Vliet & Dalmer, manufacturing clothiers of New Brunswick. Shortly after that. the con- corn was absorbed by Charles D. Snedeker and himself. and in 1894 they together purchased the controlling interest of the elder Runyon's estate in the Perth Amboy Dry Dock Company. A short time later, all the stock was bought, and a close corporation formed, of which he has been the President since. The concern has since extended its holdings so that now it occupies 1050 feet of water frontage on Staten Island Sound and covers more than four blocks of the adjacent upland. It is fitted with four dry docks, machine shops and boiler works, with ample wharves and piers.
Mr. Runyon was a member of the Democratic Executive Committee of New Brunswick, a member of the New Brunswick Water Board and of the Democratic Executive Committee of Middlesex County. He was alternate delegate to the National Democratic Convention to St. Louis in 1908. delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Denver in 1912, and a member of the Perth Amboy Water Department Commission. In 1913 he was appointed a member of the New Jersey State Harbor Commission by Gov- ernor Fielder, and when, in the following year, that commission was merged into the Board of Commerce and Navigation, he was appointed again by Governor Fielder for a four years term on the latter board, and again re- appointed by Governor Edge in the present year for a four year term.
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Ile has represented the State at the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Con- ventions, yearly, under both Governors Fielder and Edge. In 1916, during the presidential campaign. he was President of the New Jersey Wilson Business Men's League : and had been a delegate to various State Demo- cratic conventions.
He is a director of the Perth Amboy Trust Company, Vice President of the Raritan Trust Company of Perth Amboy, Vice President of the Perth Amboy Hospital Association, a member of the National Security League. New Jersey Historical Society, United States Chamber of Commerce. Trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association, a member of the Mari- time Association of the Port of New York, the Manufacturers Association, a director of the New Brunswick Fire Insurance Company, and a member of the Royal Arcanum, the Masonic Insurance Company. the Perth Amboy Board of Trade. the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, the Colonia Country Club, the Lake Placid Club of New Lork. the East Jersey Club of Perth Amboy. the Union Club of New Brunswick. and the Raritan Yacht Club of Perth Amboy.
His business address is foot of Broad Street, Perth Amboy, N. J.
HENRY HURD RUSBY-Newark, (776 De Graw Avenue. ) - Botanist. (Photographi published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born in Frank- lin, April 26, 1855 ; son of John and Abigail (Holmes) Rusby ; mar- ried at Franklin, in 1887. to Margaretta Saunier Hanna, daughter of Samuel and Eliza Dees Hanna, of Franklin.
Children : Ruth, born March 9. 1891; Constance, born July 5, 1894; Marguerite, born May 25, 1901.
The most important work of Henry H. Rusby. Professor of Botany Physiology and Materia Medica in the Department of Pharmacy at Colum- bia University and Dean of the Faculty, has been in securing improvements in the conditions of Pharmaceutical education, both legal and professional. From 1897 to 1902 he was Professor of Materia Medica in New York Uni- versity and in Bellevue Hospital Medical College. For a number of years he lectured on the principles of stock feeding in the American Veterinary College. He is a member of the Board of Scientific Directors and of the Board of Managers of the New York Botanical Gardens and Honorary Curator of the Economic Museum.
Dr. Rusby graduated from the Massachusetts State Normal School in 1874. and from the University Medical College ( New York ), with the degree of M. D., in 1884. He was awarded a medal at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia for a herbarium of plants of Essex county. He made botanical explorations in New Mexico and Arizona in 1880, 1881 and 1883, as agent of the Smithsonian Institute. In 1885-'87 he crossed the South American con- tinent in the interest of Medical Botany, by a route part of which was en- tirely new. As the result of this expedition a number of new drugs were in- troduced to use in this country, two of which. Pichi and Cocillana, have be- come standard articles in our materia medica. Although medicinal plants constituted the principal subject of investigation, much attention was given
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to the general botany of the regions traversed, forty-five thousand speci- mens being collected, the publications concerning them constituting the leading contribution to Bolivian botany. A large collection of birds was also made and formed the basis of an important paper by Dr. J. A. Allen of the American Museum of Natural History.
In 1896 Dr. Rusby acted as physician and botanist to a party engaged in exploring the delta region of the Orinoco River. Between 190S and 1910 three journeys of exploration were made into Mexico for the study of the rubber resources of that country, this work having the sanction and sup- port of the Diaz administration.
Dr. Rusby was a member of the Revision Committee (7th. Sth. 9th, revisions) of the United States Pharmacopalia, and of the Revisions Com- mittee of the National Formulary. He was Chairman at the Pan-American Medical Congress, of the Commission for the study of Medicinal Flora and is Corresponding Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Bri- tain and Honorary Member of the Institute Medico Nacional of Mexico. He was president of the Torrey Botanical Club from 1905 to 1912 and of the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1909 and 1910. In 1907 to 1909 he was the expert in drug products for the Bureau of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture, and afterwards till 1917 Pharmacogoist in the same Bureau. While in that relation his defense of Dr. Wiley, head of the United States Health Bureau, attracted wide atten- tion. The summer of 1917 was devoted to botanical exploration in Colum- bia, the chief object being the study of Cinchone trees as a source of qui- nine. Dr. Rusby has contributed several hundred new species and genera, and written much on medical botany.
The titles of his books are "Essentials of Pharmacognosy" (1895), "Morphology and Histology of Plants" (1899) ; "Material Medica" of Buck's Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences (S vols. 1899) and of two subsequent revisions ; "National Standard Dispensary" (1905), and of two subsequent revisions ; "Wild Vegetable Foods of United States" (1906), "Fifty Years of Materia Medica" (1907) and "Manual of Botany" (1911), etc.
JAMES FOWLER RUSLING-Trenton, (226 E. State Street. ) -Lawyer, Soldier. (Deceased April 1, 1918-see Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Washington, Warren Co., April 14, 1834; son of Gershom and Eliza Budd (Hankinson) Rusling; married at Pennington. January 1, 1858, to Mary F., daughter of Rev. Isaac Winner, D. D .. and Mary Winner-died April 19, 1858: 2nd. June 30, 1870. to Emily Elizabeth, daughter of Issac Wood. of Trenton, born Decem- ber 29, 1847.
Children : 2nd marriage, James Wood, born May 31, 1874; Emily Wells, born October 18, 1884, married Arthur L. Bates. at Mead-
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ville, Pa., October 20, 1909; their children, Josephine Rusling, born September 1, 1913.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE SAUNDERS-Plainfield,-Inventor, Born at Columbus, Ga., on November 1, 1856; son of William Trebell Saunders, D. D., and Eliza (Morton) Saunders; mar- ried at Narragansett Pier, R. I., 1886, to Bertha Louise Gaston. of Narragansett Pier, died, 1906).
Children : Louise (Mrs. Maxwell Evarts Perkins) ; Jean (Mrs. Marsom I. Buttfield).
Mr. Saunders, twice Mayor of North Plainfield, is Chairman of the Naval Consulting Board of the United States and a Director of the Feder- al Reserve Bank at New York. He holds a Commission also from Gov. Fielder as a member of the N. J. Board of Commerce and Navigation.
Mr. Saunders is a descendant of Sir Edward Saunders, one of the Knights of the Horseshoe who discovered the Alleghanies. His earliest an- cestors were of the original Jamestown expedition; and he is a grand- nephew of Robert Saunders the 14th President of William and Mary Col- lege, Williamsburg, Va. The University of Pennsylvania conferred the Bachelor of Science degree upon him in 1876 and the degree of Doctor of Science in 1911.
Before graduation from the University. Mr. Saunders was editor-in- chief of the "University Magazine" and class poet. After his graduation he engaged in newspaper work in Philadelphia, acted as special correspon- dent for southern newspapers at the Centennial Exposition and made two all-night baloon ascensions, reaching a height of three and one-half miles. Engaging subsequently in building enterprises, he was, from 1878 to 1881, the engineer in charge of the construction of docks, ware-houses and ship channel in New York harbor at Black Tom Island, and incidentially de- signed and patented the apparatus now in general use for sub-aqueous drilling, using the tube and water jet system.
In 1881, he became engineer for the Ingersol Rock Drill Co., and in- vented and patented rock drilling and quarrying devices, track channelers, and gadder and bar channelers, also a system of pumping liquids by com- pressed air now generally used in the Baku oil fields in Russia and radial- axe system of coal mining.
Meanwhile, Mr. Saunders' political activities have been very wide. He was for sometime a member of the New Jersey State Democratic Commit- tee ; and Gov. Wilson made him a member of the New Jersey Harbor Com- mission. He became a member of the New Jersey Board of Commerce and navigation when the administrative departments of the state were re-or- ganized in 1916. It was upon the nomination of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, that the Secretary of the Navy appointed him a member of the Naval Consulting Board of the United States and he is a chairman of the Board. He is also one of the Executive Committee of the League to Enforce Peace.
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