USA > New Jersey > New Jersey's first citizens and state guide, Vol. II, 1919-1920 > Part 56
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Morris Canal abandonment. He was also retained by the State as special counsel in a number of matters, one involving the construction of the In- heritance Tax Law. In the suit against the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co., in- volving the title to the "big basin" in Jersey City, he was retained with Joseph H. Choate to represent the State. Later he was appointed by the Legislature, together with Gov. Wilson and Attorney General Wilson, to draft a bill for the abandonment of the Morris Canal; and he has repre- sented the State as special counsel in other important matters.
Justice Van Syckel is one of the directors of the Prudential Insurance Company of America and a member of the New Jersey Historical Society, the Academy of Political Science of New York City, the United States Bar Association, the Trenton Country Club and the Nassau Club of Princeton.
EMMA LOUISA VAN WINKLE (Mrs. Daniel) -Jersey City, (48 Kensington Ave.)-Club Woman. Born at New York City, July 1, 1850; daughter of Thomas and Cornelia (Hasbrouck) Earle : married at Jersey City, N. J., Oct. 12, 1880, to Daniel Van Winkle, son of Jacob and Maria (Si) Van Winkle, of Jersey City, N. J.
Children : : Thomas Earle, born Oct. 22, 1882; Frank Hasbrouck, born Dec. 27, 1889.
Emma Louisa Van Winkle is a descendant from old New York fam- ilies that trace their lineage back to the Colonial days, among whom are the Schenck, De La Montagne, Hasbrouck and Earle families.
She was educated in the private school of the Misses Chadaevne of Jersey City and graduated in 1867.
Mrs. Van Winkle has always been active in the interest of Women's welfare, and from March 1908 to March 1917 was president of the Jersey City Woman's club. She is a member of the Eighth district of the State Federation of Woman's Clubs; since 1913 having filled the office of vice- president, and later chairman of Civics. She is also chairman for Hudson County of the Women's Committee of the Council for National Defense.
She is a member of the Jersey City Woman's Club.
CORNELIUS CLARKSON VERMEULE-East Orange, (63 Har- rison Street.)-Civil Engineer. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, , 1917). Born at New Brunswick, September 5, 1858; son of Adrian and Maria (Veghte) Vermeule; married at New York City, June 7, 18SS, to Carolyn Carpenter Reed, daughter of Colonel Horatio Blake and Alida (Carpenter) Reed, of Newburgh, N. Y.
Children : Cornelius Clarkson, Captain U. S. Army, born Sep- tember 26th, 1895; Warren Carpenter, born October 10th, 1898.
To C. C. Vermeule of old New Jersey stock, belongs the distinction of having executed for his State the first complete topographical survey made
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by any State in the Union. He began this work for the Geological Sur- vey, as topographer in charge, in 1878, when he was under twenty years of age and successfully completed it within ten years. European surveys had been carried on by Army officers, without strict limitations as to time con- sumed or cost. In order to meet the more rigid conditions of his task, he was obliged to devolop original methods through which he brought the work to a successful conclusion. He is an accepted authority concerning the wa- ter power and water supply of this State and has written several works on this subject, which are in constant use. Recently, as engineer of the Board of Conservation & Development, he has designed and constructed a novel system of concrete jetties for the regulation of Shark River Inlet.
Although from 1888 until 1918 he was connected with the State as con- sulting engineer, he simultaneously conducted an extensive private prac- tice, with an office in New York City, serving as engineer of many muni- cipal works and for many private corporations. He was the designing and later the consulting engineer for constructing the Ceinfuegos water works, and is now chief engineer of the railway and hydro-electric plant of the Cienfuegos, Palmira & Cruces Electric Railway & Power Co. in Cuba. As- sisted by his counsel, ex-Attorney General Robert H. McCarter, he conduc- ted a campaign for the re-habilitation of works for the sanitation of Cien- fuegos, which had been interrupted by political disturbances and the result- ing second intervention in Cuba. This campaign produced results after eight months of continuous and arduous work in Washington and Ha- vana.
Mr. Vermeule's first ancestors in America was Adrian Vermeule, born in Vlissingen, Holland, 1665, who settled at Bergen, (Now a part of Jersey City) where he died in 1735. Adrian's son Cornelius, born at Bergen, 1716, died at Plainfield, 1784, was a member of the Provincial Congress of 1775, and of the Committee of Observation. His son. Captain Cornelius, was of the first Somerset Regiment of Militia. The name Cornelius has extended continuously in this branch of the family since 1440. From 1250 to 1576, they were of Antwerp and Brabant, and 340 years ago they were fighting the battles of democracy against the autocratic Philip II, of Spain, on the very ground where the same issue is now being fought. It is worthy of note that Mr. Vermeule's son, Cornelius C. Vermeule, Jr., who was in command of the Machine Gun Co. of the 320th Regiment, and was made Captain in recognition of the manner in which he lead his company in the initial attack in the battle of the Argonne, on his 23rd birthday, Sept. 26, 1918, represents the ninth out of twelve generations of his family who have fought for liberty on the soil of Belgium, France or America.
Mrs. Vermeule's father was Colonel of the 22nd N. Y. Cavalry and later of the 5th U. S. Artillery during the Civil War, and won distinction at the battle of Winchester. Her grandfather, Benjamin Carpenter, was one of the early steamboat owners on the Hudson.
Mr. Vermeule was prepared at Rutgers Preparatory School and gradu- ated from Rutgers College in 1878. Immediately upon his graduation, he became connected with the Newark Acqueduct Board, and a few weeks later began the State survey. He is the author of many papers on hydraulics, drainage of wet lands, forest influences, etc. In 1894, he completed a volume entitled "Water Supply, Water Power. The Flow of Streams and
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Attendant Phenomenae" and in 18SS was published his "Physical Descrip- tion of New Jersey." He also prepared papers on "Forests and Water- supply." "Forests and Climate," and many kindred subjects. He prepared for the New York State Museum at Albany, a map of Manhattan as it was in 1776.
Mr. Vermeule is a member of the Century Association and the Holland Society of New York, the Sons of the American Revolution, the New Jersey Historical Society and the American Water Works Association.
GEORGE A. VIEHMANN-New Brunswick. (358 George Street. )-Lawyer. Born in New Brunswick, on November 29, 1868 ; (deceased Oct. 12, 1918-see Vol. 1, 1917), son of Anthony and Sophia Louisa (Litterest) Vielimann ; married at Concorn, N. H., on November 29th, 1897, to Mary Abbott, daughter of Franklin Ab- bott and Asenath Dow, of Concorn. N. H.
Children : George A., Jr .. and Mary A. Viehmann.
GEORGE GODHART VOGEL-Newark, (285 Parker Street.) - Clergyman. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at West Saugerties, N. Y., on April 25, 1866 ; son of George M. and Barbara (Heitzler) Vogel ; married on June S, 1898, to Salome Allee, daugh- ter of John B. and Elizabeth Allee, of Paterson (died July 30, 1911.)-2nd, at Newark, on October 12, 1914, to Lillian Kieran, daugliter of Charles Jackson and Nettie Kieran, of New York.
George G. Vogel is the District Superintendent of the Newark Method- ist Episcopal Conference and an Executive Member of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the General Conference.
Dr. Vogel's parents came from Germany. His father belonged to the farmer citizenship, serving in the army there, and after reaching these shores becoming a soldier for the Union in the Civil War. His mother was of the governing class and as a girl enjoyed the educational and social ad- vantages of her position.
Dr. Vogel received his education in Lafayette College, New York Uni- versity and Drew Theological Seminary. From New York University he has received the degrees of A. B., A. M. and D. D. Dickinson College, (Carlisle, Pa.) also conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Dr. Vogel's pastorates have been at Wesley M. E. Church in Paterson, which he served while he was still a student, at the Arlington M. E. Church, at Emory Church on Jersey City Heights and Centenary in Newark. From the beginning of his service to the church his work has been signalized by growth and larger importance of the parishes in his charge. While he served in the pulpit of the Wesley Church in Paterson, land was purchased by the congregation and its first church building was put up. The Arling- ton Church was greatly advanced during a two years pastorate. He spent
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ten years, between 1900-1910, at Emory Church to which he was appointed by Bishop Vincent. Emory was an unpromising field at the time, the weakest and poorest of all the churches in the Bergen Hill section. But Dr. Vogel's energy in building it up was seconded by a movement of the church population from the lower or older part of Jersey City to the Hill top and during his pastorate its membership was increased to 1,000 and a large gothic gray stone church was built at the Belmont Avenue inter- section of Bergen Avenue. More than $90,000 was raised for building pur- poses. His four years pastorate at Centenary were successful years in the life of the church. Its membership of 1,400 which it reached during his pastorate is high water mark in its history. A new Mission Chapel, Berkely, erected in the Siler Lake section and a handsome stucco par- sonage on Mt. Prospect Avenue are other monuments of this aggressive pastorate.
Dr. Vogel was chosen at the Newark Annual Conference of 1914 to be the District Superintendent of the Newark District. The District com- prises fifty-five churches, has nearly 20,000 members and is one of the most important of the Conference Districts in the country. At the annual New- ark Conference of 1916 he was elected a Delegate to the General Confer- ence, where the laws governing world wide Methodism are made. The Gen- eral Conference was held at Saratoga, and was in session for four weeks. The General Conference elected him a member of the Board of Home Mos- sions and Church Extensions, and at the annual meeting of the Board in November, he was elected a member of its Executive Committee. This or- ganization has the supervision of all Home Missionary work in the United States and possession.
Dr. Vogel is a member of the Delta Phi College fraternity, the Kappa Chi, of Newark, the Masonic order, the Essex Country Club and the Mount Tabor Field Club.
FOSTER M. VOORHEES-Elizabeth, (286 N. Broad Street. )- Born in Clinton, Hunterdon county, November 5, 1856; son of Na- thaniel W. and Naomi (Lee) Voorlees.
Foster M. Voorhees has served the state as a member of the House of Assembly, of the State Senate and as Governor. While in the House of Assembly he was largely instrumental in fashioning what is known as the Werts High-License law that largely increased the fees for liquor licenses and otherwise curbed the traffic. In some of the cities the license fee had been as low as $25 per year ; in Newark and Jersey City, in either of which there were a thousand saloons, it was only $50. The higher license fee brought more than $250,000 a year to each local treasury. Mr. Voorhees had a large hand in the revision of the state's railroad tax system; and later he was the leader of the Republican Senators-elect who were locked out by the hold over democrats of the "Rump Senate" when they demanded admission to the Chamber in 1894.
Governor Voorhees is of Holland ancestry. His father was a member of the New Jersey Bar, admitted in 1854, but never practised. Governor
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Voorhees having completed his preparatory studies at the age of fifteen, entered Rutgers College. He graduated there, second honor man in his class, with the prizes for Moral Philosophy and in the Greek languages. While studying the law he served as Professor of Languages at Rutgers Grammar School in New Brunswick, acting as first assistant to the rector. He prepared for his profession in the office of Magie & Cross in Elizabeth. While he was Governor he made Magie Chancellor of the state; and Cross at his death was a United States District Court Judge. Admitted to the Bar in June, 1SSO, he at once opened an office in Elizabeth and began tlie practice.
Mr. Voorhees had rare qualities as a platform orator and was soon drawn into the politics of the locality and state. As a School Commissioner in Elizabeth he had a hand in the establishment of the High School and Training School there. His first election to the House of Assembly was in 1SSS and was followed by his re-election in 'S9 and '90. In 1893 he was sent to the State Senate and re-elected in 1896. He had been the majority leader on the Assembly floor ; he now became leader in the Senate, and in 1892 was made President of the body.
Senator Voorhees was serving in that capacity when Gov. Griggs re- signed to become the Attorney General of the United States, the duties of the Governorship devolved upon his shoulders. His official position was anomalous at the time. The office seemed to be without title. He was merely President of the Senate with the duties of Governor thrown in; the complications led the Legislature to create the office of Acting Governor.
The movement had been towards the nomination of Senator Voorhees for Governor to secceed Mr. Griggs ; but the constitutional clause forbidding a Governor to succeed himself presented embarrassments to Senator Voor- hees's campaign. He therefore resigned his seat in the state Senate-which automatically took him out of the Governor's chair and sent Speaker Wat- kins there. Thus the state had three Governors within a year. Mr. Voor- hees was nominated at the fall Convention and elected for the full term of three years. His administration was marked by much interesting and im- portant legislation.
Gov. Voorhees was afterwards for seven years President of a New York Insurance Company, but has lately devoted himself to the practice of his profession in Elizabeth.
WILLIAM H. VREDENBURGH-Freehold .- Jurist. (Photo- graph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Freehold, August 19th, 1840; son of Peter and Eleanor (Brinckerhoff) Vrendenburgh ; married at New York City, on February 25th, 1868, to Bessie H. Williams, daughter of Esek Hartshorne Williams and Amelia L. Williams.
Children : (oldest) Peter, who served as Captain in Spanish War, in Phillipines and Cuba ; Amelia L., Bessie L. and William.
William H. Vredenburgh comes of a family that has long been dis- tinguished in the jurisprudence of the State. The old time records show
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that the family springs from William I. Vredenburgh who came from the Hague in the "Gilded Beaver" to the New Netherlands in 1658. Mr. Vreden- burgh's father was for two terms an Associate Justice of the State Supreme Court and regarded as a jurist of unusual soundness, and Mr. Vredenburgh himself sat on the Bench of the Court of Errors and Appeals for twenty years. After graduating from Rutgers College in 1859, Mr. Vredenburgh studied law in the office of Joseph D. Bedle, afterwards a Justice of the State Supreme Court and later still Governor of the State. His admis- sion to the Bar was in 1862 and at the January term of 1865 he became a counselor. Except for one year, he has practised his profession at Free- hold. The exceptional year was spent at Eatontown where he located in '64 to look after the affairs of his brother, Major Peter Vredenburgh, Jr., who had just fallen, while at the head of his regiment in the Union Army, at the battle of Winchester, Va.
In the campaign of 1884 the republicans of Monmouth Co. named Mr. Vredenburgh for the State Senate. That was the year in which Leon Abbett made his first canvass for the Governorship, and the cam- paign was one of the most exciting and bitterly contested in the history of the state. The democratic autocracy at the State House had set its face against Mr. Abbett's election ; and the factional disturbance in the party gave the republicans hope of carrying the state. Mr. Vredenburgh would probably have been elected but for the fact that on the very eve of the poll the democrats made with the Prohibition element of the country a coalition that proved successful.
In 1897 Mr. Vredenburgh was one of the special Commission to revise the railroad taxation laws. When Judge Dayton died in November of that year, leaving a vacaney on the Bench of the State Court of Errors and Ap- peals, Gov. Griggs appointed Mr. Vredenburgh to fill it. The nomination was confirmed in January of 1898 and Judge Vredenburgh set on the Bench of that Court by appointment of succeeding Governors until 1916.
Judge Vredenburgh holds the degree of LL. D. from Rutgers College, is President of the Monmouth County Bar Association and a member among others of the Zeta Psi Fraternity and the Holland Society of New York.
JOHN BEAM VREELAND-Morristown, (21 South Street. )- Lawyer. Born in Newark, December 30, 1852; son of George W. and Sarah M. Vreeland ; married on December 18th, 1878, to Ida Piotrowski .-- 2nd, on June 2, 1897, to Ida King Smith.
John B. Vreeland is an ex-Judge of the Morris County Courts and from 1903 to 1913 was United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. He has previously been active in local and state politics.
Judge Vreeland's line came from Holland whence some of his ances- tors settled in New Jersey in the seventeenth century. He can trace his family line back on his mother's side to English settlers here before the Revolutionary days. He was educated in the common schools of Newark and Morristown to which he removed with his parents in 186S. While in Newark he served a newspaper route for a year and attended the Newark
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High School. He read in the office of F. G. Burnham and later in the office of Colonel F. A. De Mott, was admitted to the Bar in 1875 and became a counselor in 1879, a Supreme Court Commissioner in June, 1882, and by Chancellor McGill's appointment, a special Master in Chancery in 1892.
Judge Vreeland's political career began when he was made Clerk of Morris township and promoted lated to be Deputy County Clerk. He was appointed acting Prosecutor by Frederick A. De Mott and served as Town Counsel of Morristown. In 1895 the Morris county republicans put him in nomination for State Senator, and he took his seat at the State House in the following January. While serving there he was one of the commission to revise the laws concerning bank and trust companies and later acted as chairman of the Commission to revise the corporation laws.
At the close of his Senate term Gov. Voorhees appointed him Law Judge of Morris County. In 1903 President Roosevelt appointed him United States Attorney for New Jersey to succeed D. O. Watkins and later in 1903 President Roosevelt named him for the full term and again in 1907. In 1911 President Taft sent his name to the Senate for the fourth time. Since his retirement from the office Judge Vreeland has been practicing law at Morristown.
EDMUND WARING WAKELEE-Demarest .- Lawyer. (Photo- graph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born in Kingston, N. Y., on No- vember 21st, 1869; son of Nicholas and Eliza C. ( Ingersoll) Wake- lee.
Edmund W. Wakelee has been prominent as a lawyer and active in the politics and legislation of the State for many years. He has been State Senator, President of the Senate, Acting Governor and Chairman of the Republican State Committee, and is now Vice-President of the Public Ser- vice Corporation of New Jersey.
Senator Wakelee was educated at the Kingston Academy and Universi- ty of the City of New York (class of '91) ; was admitted to the New York Bar in 1891, to the New Jersey Bar as attorney in 1896, and as counselor in 1900. He organized and is the head of the firm of Wakelee, Thornall & Wright, with law offices in New York City and in Englewood and Hacken- sack, and has taken part in many noted trials. While retaining his interest in the law firm, the active work is now turned over to his partners.
Upon the completion of his studies he received an appointment in the Law Department of the New York Custom House and took up his residence in New York City. In a short time, however, he decided to make his home at Demarest (Bergen Co.), where his father and mother joined him and lived until their death and where he still resides.
He soon interested himself in public affairs, and was elected a member of the New Jersey House of Assembly in 1899. He was re-elected the next year, when he was Republican Leader on the floor of the House. It was expected that he would again be elected the following year, and be selected Speaker of the House of Assembly, but a vacancy unexpectedly occurred in the office of State Senator for Bergen County, and he was nominated.
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and elected to fill the unexpired term of one year. He was re-elected for the three succeeding terms making an uninterrupted service of twelve years in the Legislature-two in the House of Assembly and ten in the Senate. This record of election six successive times has hardly, if ever been equalled in this State.
During his term in the Senate he was Floor Leader, President of the Senate, and on several occasions, Acting Governor. To enumerate the principal events of Senator Wakelee's career at Trenton would nessitate a recital of practically all the important legislative proceedings during the terms of Governors, Voorhees, Murphy, Stokes and Fort. He drafted many important laws, and because of his long experience he was and still is con- sulted upon important matters of legislation. He led the fight for the pre- servation of the Palisades, securing the enactment of legislation which re- . sulted in the establishment of the Palisades Interstate Park, and was a strong supporter of the plan to bridge or tunnel the Hudson River. The great number of laws for which he was primarily responsible, or instru- mental in having passed, renders it impossible to mention more. Senator Wakelee was early made a member of the Republican State Committee. served for a long time as its Vice Chairman, and for several years as Chairmain. He is still active in state republican party affairs.
When Mr. Wakelee came to Bergen county its population was less than 50.000 and it had few improvements. He took a keen interest in all phases of its growth and progress and through his efforts the country secured its first state roads. He was active in the organization of the New Jersey and Hudson River Railway and Ferry Company, which operates street railway lines from Edgewater to Newark, Paterson and Englewood, and of the Riverside and Fort Lee Ferry Company, which operates a ferry from New York City to Edgewater. He was General Counsel for these companies until they were taken over by the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey. The Palisades Trust & Guaranty Company, of which he is counsel and Trust Officer, was organized by Mr. Wakelee, as were the Rockland Electric Company of Bergen County, and the Registrar and Transfer Company of New Jersey and New York, in which he is still ac- tively interested.
In 1911 Mr. Wakelee was made Attorney for the Public Service Corpo- ration of New Jersey ; in 1914 he was appointed Associate General Solici- tor, and in 1917 was elected Vice President and Director and a member of the Executive Committee of the Corporation and all of its affiliated com- panies.
Senator Wakelee is a member of the New York Athletic, the Railroad and the Republican Clubs of New York, the Union League Club of Hacken- sack, the Knickerbocker Country Club, the Englewood, and Englewood Field Clubs, Hackensack Lodge No. 658 B. P. O. Elks, Junior Order of United American Mechanics, Delta Upsilon and Phi Delta Phi fraternities, Alpine Lodge No. 77 F. & A. M., and of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite N. M. J. U. S. A. Valley of Jersey City.
HARRY MILLS WALCOTT-Rutherford .- Artist and Painter. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917.) Born in Torringford, Conn.,
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July 16, 1870; son of Dana Mills and Elizabeth Billings Walcott; married June 1, 1905, to Anabel Havens of Newark, Ohio.
Mr. Walcott is of English and Dutch descent. An English coat-of-arms traces the lineage of the Billings and Walcott families. His father was a clergyman, descendant of a branch of the noted Walcott family that settled in and around Boston, Mass. His mother was from Providence, R. I.
Mr. Walcott came to Rutherford in his infancy with his father, At as early an age as ten, he won a prize in the public school for the best draw- ing. After graduation from the Rutherford High School, he entered a law office ; but his longing to become an artist overcame him and for the recompense that provided means for his art studies, he accepted a position in a wholesale house in New York City. The reward for his labors there was summary discharge for devoting more time to his drawings than to his work. This was the needed impetus to a stronger determination to abandon all thoughts of a business life and to devote himself wholly to art and he attached himself to the school of the National Academy of De- sign on 23rd Street, New York City. After four years there, he won the Henry O. Havemeyer scholarship that carried with it a travel to Europe for the pursuit of his studies. Before sailing, he had some products of his pencil accepted by among others "Harpers," "Century," "Scribners" and "McClure's" magazines. He spent six years from September, 1895, in Paris studying painting in the art schools, making incidental trips through France, England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy and Spain to study masterpieces. During this time Mr. Walcott was honored at the Paris Salon.
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