USA > New Jersey > New Jersey's first citizens and state guide, Vol. II, 1919-1920 > Part 71
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establishment of Commission Rule in Jersey City started in 1913. he was influential in effecting the change; and when Frank Hague was made one of the new five Ruling Commissioners of the city he named Norton as his Deputy. He served in that capacity until he entered the primary of 1916 as a candidate for the democratic nomination for Surrogate and won out in a field of a dozen condidates. His election by the majority that attracted state-wide attention followed in November. In the campaign of 1917 for the election of new city Commissioners. Surrogate Norton helped prepare the ticket that won at the polls : and the election has given him an influ- ence in Jersey City politics that makes for supremacy in county poli- tics.
Mr. Norton is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Loval Order of Moose, New York Press Club, Slug Club (a Jersey City Newspaper Association) and the Hudson County Democratic Club.
WILLIAM STRYKER OPDYKE-Alpine .- Lawyer. Born 1836 in the City of New York; son of George Opdyke (Mayor of New York City in 1863-'64), and Elizabeth Hall (Stryker) Opdyke, (both deceased) ; married at New York City on October 20th, 1863, to Margaret Elizabeth Post, daughter of Alfred Charles Post, M. D. of New York City, who died April 3rd, 1911.
Children : Alfred, born 1869.
Mr. Opdyke is a descendant of Dutch ancestors who settled in Hunt- ington County, New Jersey, where both of his parents were born, but who, after their marriage, moved to the City of New York. Mr. Opdyke attended Grant's School in Newark, New Jersey, and upon leaving this school he, in 1853, entered the New York University on Washington Square, New York, and graduated in 1856. He then spent two years in Europe, and upon his return attended the Albany Law School, upon graduation from which he was admitted to the practice of law in 1860, which he still continues in the City of New York. About 1898 he moved his home, first to Creskill, New Jersey, and later to Alpine, New Jersey.
Mr. Opdyke is a member of the New York University Club, and has been a member of its Council since 1883.
His business address is 35 Nassau Street, New York City, N. Y.
WILLIAM G. PECKHAM-Westfield, (Mountainside) .- Law- ver Born at Newport, R. I. Feb. 7th, 1849; son of William G. and Mary Hull (Perry) Peckham ; married at Newport, R. I., to Laura Thurston, daughter of William H. and Laura (Carter) Thurston, 2nd, 1914 to Marion Wheelock, daughter of Francis H. and Clara Brown Wheelock.
William Gibbs Peckham is descended from an old New England family. The Peckhams originated in Rhode Island, having come to this
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country from England, about 1640. IIis grandfather, Judge Perry, and Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry were blood relatives, and both descended from Edward Perry of Sandwich. The elder William Peckham founded the first church of his sect at Green End, near Newport about 1650. Judge William Peckham was one of the later worthies of Narragansett.
William Gibbs Peckham entered Harvard University at the age of fourteen, graduating in 1867. He entered New York University Law School in 1869 at about the same time as Elihu Root. In 1867 he went to Germany, where he studied law at Heidelberg and Munich Universities and art in Italy for two years. On his return from abroad he entered the office of Wm Evarts and Joseph H. Choate and in 1870 was admitted to the bar. In 1884, during the Independent Presidential campaign to elect Grover Cleveland, he was chairman of the New Jersey Independents, and served on the executive committee of the National organization under George William Curtis and Carl Schurz who managed the campaign.
Mr. Peckham is fond of outdoors and travel, and has visited South America, the West Indies, Africa and Europe. For the past nineteen years he has upheld a summer home in the Canadian Rockies. He has made art studies and has written about art and travels in the Harvard's Gradu- ate's magazine, International Studio, Green Bag, and Forest and Stream. He was chairman of the committee of the New York County Lawyers Association to look out for lawyers who are in need of help.
He is a member of a college society of the University of North Caro- lina the "Clio" Society of Princeton and the "Signet" Society of Har- vard. He has served on the visiting committee of International Law at Harvard and was president of the Harvard Club of New Jersey. He has been a member of the Harvard Club, Lawyers Club, Players Club, Railroad Club, Evarts Club, Commonwealth Club. Reform and Salma- gundi Clubs. He has been also a member of the Bar Association, New York Institute and the New York County Lawyers Association.
His business address is 30 Church Street, New York City.
STEPHEN PFEIL-Camden, (431 Linden Street) .- Member of the Board of Conservation and Development. Born at New York City, December 26th, 1854; son of Martin Pfeil and Johanna Kurtz Pfeil ; married at Trenton, N. J., on March 23rd, 1882, to Ida Thoere, daughter of Henry and Sophia Thoene nee Brand. Children : Ida and Julia.
Stephen Pfeil was educated in the schools of New York City. In 1874 he graduated from the New York University Law School receiving the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1875. He practiced the profession in that state for somewhat over ten years, and in 1888 he moved to Camden. There he has since been engaged in literary work. He has contributed many articles on interna- tional law and social political topics to various periodicals and the daily press. In 1892 he was co-author of Walsh's Handy Book of Literary Curiosities. In 1893 he became an editorial writer on the Philadelphia Record, which position he has held ever since.
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Mr. Pfeil. has always been a staunch Democrat, and his first vote cast was for Samuel J. Tilden, for President. He has been active in Demo- cratic policies, and in 1910 was a delegate to the Convention which elected Woodrow Wilson governor of New Jersey. In 1911 he was appointed by Governor Wilson as a member to the Board of Managers of the Geological Survey, and on the consolidation of this department with others in the Department of Conservation and Development, he was appointed by Governor Fielder to this board in 1915. He was re-appointed in 1916, his present term expiring in 1920.
His business address is 431 Linden St.
HELEN McCULLOCH PHYFE, (Mrs. Benjamin Pearsall)- Haworth .- Suffragist. Born at Oil City, Pa., Aug. 9, 1888, daugh- ter of William Thomas and Mary Eva (McCulloch) married at Haworth, N. J., Sept. 29th, 1909, to Benjamin Pearsall Phyfe, son of John D. and Jane (Campbell) Phyfe of New York City.
Children : William Lee, born Feb. 11, 1911.
Helen McCulloch Phyfe comes from Scotch ancestry on her father's side and from Alsatian ancestors on her mother's. It was to escape German rule in Alsace Lorraine that her great grandfather came to this "land of the free" many years ago.
Her father, William Thomas has long been connected with the New York Central Railroad and at present holds the position of Auditor of Revenue.
Mrs. Phyfe attended the public schools of Haworth. After complet- ing the public school course, she entered the Dwight School for Girls at Englewood, which she attended from 1901 to 1905 and thereupon Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., from 1905 to 1909.
Since completing her schooling she has been identified with all public and civic movements in her home town. She is a member of the Haworth Library Association, acting as its vice-president in 1911-'13 and as president the following three years. At present she is again vice- president and on the board of directors. She has also taken an active part in the suffrage affairs. She has served as president of the Haworth Woman's Suffrage Association, 1913/15 as secretary of the Bergen County Woman's Suffrage Association and as president from 1915 to 1917. During the Suffrage campaign of 1915 she played a prominent part. During the last few years she has written many articles in the interest of suffrage, and during the Liberty Loan campaigns she was in charge of the publicity work in her home town.
She is a teacher, and associate superintendent of the Haworth Congregational Sunday School and works with the Girl's Patriotic League. During the war she was active in Y. W. C. A. work among the soldiers at Camp Merritt.
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Among other organizations she is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity of Vassar College.
CHARLES CLARKE PILGRIM-Newark, (1142A Broad St.)- Lawyer. Born at Bridgeton, N. J., Sept. 6, 1874; son of Henry Johnson and Elizabeth (Clarke) Pilgrim ; married at Newark, N. J., June 27th, 1900, to Cora Belle Elston, daughter of William H. and Harriet A. Barringer Elston. The last daughter of Dr. Wm. N. Barringer (deceased) for many years superintendent of Schools in Newark, and in his day one of ablest and best known educators in the country.
Children : Marguerite Adelaide, Feb. 25th, 1902; William Bar- ringer, Nov. 12, 1907 ; Charles Clarke, Jr., Jan. 24, 1912.
Charles Clarke Pilgrim has been a lifelong resident of New Jersey with the exception of two years spent in Brooklyn.
He received his education in the public schools of Bridgeton and Pennington Seminary (Pennington, N. J.). He prepared for the bar by acting as law clerk in the offices of Coult & Howell, at Newark, entering in 1895. James E. Howell, of the firm, was later Vice Chancellor. His fine character and extensive learning greatly influenced and inspired the subject of this sketch.
During the November court term in 1898 he was admitted to the bar as an attorney, and in 1901 as a counselor. He began his law practice in Newark in 1899 and has continued there since. In 1915 he was elected to the Assembly and the following year was elected speaker of the House. The following year, 1917 he was elected as Republican candidate to the Senate, for a term of three years which expires in 1921. He was, in 1918, chairman of the committee on revision of laws, taxation, and railroads and canals, in 1919 of Bankers and Insurance and Municipal Corporations. He has been active in the councils of the Republican Party, especially during election campaigns, when he frequently took the platform.
He is a member of the following organizations: Henry W. Lawton Council No 284, Jr. O. U. A. M .; he is a past master of Kane Lodge, No. 55, F. and A. M., Union Club of Newark, Republican Indian League of Newark, Ninth and Sixteenth Wards Republican clubs, and Radiant Star Lodge, No. 190, I. O. O. F., of Newark.
His business address is 790 Broad St. Newark.
ยท JAMES EDWARD POPE-Jersey City, (161 Summit Ave.)- Merchant. Born at New York, N. Y., July 5, 1862 ; son of Thomas J. and Katherine (Buxton) Pope; married at Anniston, Ala., in 1897, to Fanny Ford Noble, daughter of the late Stephen H. and Frances (Ford) Noble of Alabama.
Children : James Noble, Oct., 1899.
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James Edward Pope, a native of Greenwich Village, now the 9th Ward of New York City, is of English descent, his paternal ancestor, James Pope, having emigrated to this Country from London, England, in 1830 ; some years later settled in Hoboken, N. J., where he later became Recorder. His maternal ancestors came from England about the middle of the eighteenth century and settled in New York City.
Dr. Charles Buxton, grandfather of James Edward Pope, graduated from Queens College, now Rutgers, later completing his education at Edinboro University. Dr. Buxton was a great admirer of George Wash- ington, whom he served professionally while the General was in New York City. He later presented George Washington with an original painting, copies of which have since become known to collectors of Ameri- cana as "The Washington Bowling Green." Therein the figure of Washing- ton is depicted as standing upon the pedestal of the Statue of George IV in the Bowling Green, New York City, while in the background may be seen the British fleet making a hurried departure from English shores. A copy of this painting may now be seen at the Lenox Library, New York City. Katherine A. Buxton, mother of James Edward Pope, was born in Greenwich Village, now the Ninth Ward of New York City.
From 1873 to 1874 he attended Public School No. 12 in Jersey City and during the following three years, the Hasbrouck Institute at Jersey City. In 1877 he attended the Stevens High School at Hoboken, from whence he graduated in 1878. In 1879 he attended the Collegiate & Com- mercial Institute, a military school at New Haven, Connecticut. Gradu- ating from the Institute in 1879, he entered the class of 1882 Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University.
Since leaving College in 1883 Mr. Pope has always been active in public and civic affairs in Jersey City. During the World War he was United States Government Appeal Agent for District No. 10, Chairman of the Jersey City War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A., served in the Knights of Columbus War Work Drive and was Chairman of the Jersey City United War Work Campaign Committee which raised the largest voluntary contribution ever given by the citizens of Jersey City. Director of the Jersey City Chapter, American Red Cross. He was Chairman of the Hudson County Court House Investigating Committee; is treasurer of the Citizen's Federation of Hudson County; Chairman of the Hudson County Board of Elections; President of the Whittier House Associa- tion of Jersey City, a social settlement director in the New Jersey Y. M. C. A., director in the Hudson County. War Camp Community Ser- vice.
He is a member of the following clubs: Carteret Club of Jersey City ; Meridian Club of New York ; Old Colony Club ; Newark Bait & Fly Catch- ing Club ; International Motor Club; Associated Automobile Club of New Jersey Berzelius Society of Yale University ; Merchants Association of New York; American Manufacturers Export Association; The Rotary Club ; Bergen Lodge, No. 47, F. & A. M .; The Metropolitan Museum, N. Y .; Jersey City Suffrage League; Jersey City Chamber of Commerce ; The Yale Club of New York; The Hudson County Historical Society ; The New York Botanical Society ; National Historical Society.
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Mr. Pope is President of the Pope Metals Co., and of the Pope Trading Corporation of New York; President of the Seabord Metal Co., of Jersey City, Director of the Beneficial Loan Association of Jersey City.
LEWELLYN PRATT-Nutley, (303 Highfield Lane) .- First Vice-President, Associated Advertising Clubs of the World. Born at Oakland, Cal., April 2, 1872; son of Amasa and Louisa M. (Bowen) Pratt; married at New York City, April 2, 1895, to daughter of Joshua G. and Laura (Judd) Dickinson of Hono- lulu H. T.
Children : Helen Louise (Schaaf), born 1896 ; Llewellyn Neville, born 1897; Hastings Bower, born 1904; Julia Mather, born 1910 : Wilson Judd, born 1916.
Lewellyn Pratt spent his early childhood in Honolulu, Hawaii, where his father was president of Cahu College. His father, Amasa Pratt, is a direct descendant of Lieutenant William Pratt, of Connecticut. The family originally came over from Baldock, Hertfordshire, England. His mother, Louise M. (Bowen) Pratt, comes from an old Massachusetts family.
He attended the public schools of Columbus, Ohio, graduating and thereupon entering the Columbus High School, He entered Williams College, at Williamstown, Mass., graduating in 1894 with a degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Upon graduation from college, he was correspondent for the Central Press Association in Mexico, and he taught civics and U. S. history in the Central High School of Columbus. In 1898 he entered the advertising business. For eleven years, from 1901 to 1912, he was salesman and general sales manager for the American Art works at Cohocton, Ohio, and from 1912 to 1915 he was general sales manager for the Passaic Metalware Company. Since 1915 he has been in business for him- self.
Although the only public office he has held has been that of presi- dent of the city council of Cohocton, he has always taken an active part in elections. He has been an active worker at the polls, and has served on the Essex County Democratic Committee.
For the past ten years, he has been active in councils of the Asso- ciated Advertising Clubs of the World, having served as a member of the National Executive Committee, as well as chairman of the National Education and Program Committee. He is now first vice-president of the organization. Other organizations of which he is a member are the Nutley Lodge, of Masons ; Nutley Lodge, B. P. O. E .: Williams club ; Advertis- ing Club, N. Y., and the Chi Phi Society.
His business address is 110 West Fortieth Street, New York City.
REV. SAMUEL D. PRICE, D. D .- Montclair, (5 Vincent Place ) Clergyman. Born at Newark, N. J., July 27th, 1869; son of Wil-
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liam and Mary Louise (Dobbins) Price; married at Newark, N. J. on April 29th, 1897, to Elinor De Vausney, daughter of Jacob and Mary Sherman Stoddard De Vausney.
Children : Adelaide Elizabeth, born June 20th, 1898 and Elinor Gertrude, born October 12th, 1899.
Rev. Samuel D. Price is a product of New Jersey. In his early life he attended the public schools of Caldwell, Montclair and Newark and in 1889 graduated from the Newark Academy. Thereupon he entered New York University, graduating in 1893 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1896 with a degree of Bachelor of Divinity. The following year he completed a post-graduate course at Princeton, and the degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him.
Before leaving college he began preaching in the Bruce Street Pres- byterian Chapel at Newark, and continued work there throughout his seminary course at Princeton. He was ordained in 1896 and entered the active pastorate in 1898 when he accepted the call of the Shrewsbury Presbyterian Church, where he remained until 1906 when he became pastor of the Calvary Presbyterian Church at Camden. He was in charge of the pulpit there until 1917 when he became assistant secretary of the World's Sunday School Association.
For more than twenty years Dr. Price has been actively engaged in Sunday School work in the state. He was secretary of the Monmouth County Sunday School Association, when chosen secretary of the New Jersey Sunday School Association in 1901. He has also been treasurer of the Lord's Day Alliance of New Jersey since the organization of that body in 1908. He is also organizer and supenintendent of an activity of the World's Sunday School Association, called Department for Utilizing Surplus Material which co-operates with missionaries in all parts of the world. Not alone in his home city but throughout the state, he has been active in the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor.
Dr. Price is well known as a lecturer, and has traveled to many parts of the world, including Europe and Asia. During his travels he has gathered a valuable collection of lantern slides, which he uses to good advantage in his lectures. In 1917, while he was pastor of the Calvary Presbyterian Church of Camden, the University of New York conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
He is a member of the Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity of New York University having been honor man in his class. He is also a member of the Shrewsbury Lodge, Knights of Pythias.
His business address is 216 Metropolitan Tower, New York.
GEORGE LAWRENCE RECORD-Jersey City, (15 Exchange Place.)-Lawyer. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Auburn, Me., March 13th, 1859; son of Calvin and Melancy Beals) Record; married at Auburn, Me., February 22, 1888, to Eliza Hanscom.
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No man in New Jersey has led a more variegated political career than that which George L. Record has led. Beginning as a democrat swung to the republican side by the frec silver agitation of 1896, and, by his anti- pathy to the bosses to the national Progressive Party, he is chiefly noted for his radicalism in politics and statesmanship. It was he who inspired. and in some cases formulated, the reforms in election and corporation methods that distinguished the administration of Woodrow Wilson as Governor. He admired Gov. Wilson's progressive spirit; and the same admiration made him an advocate of the nomination of Theodore Roose- velt for President of the United States by the convention that eventually gave a second nomination to President Taft. In that sensational cam- paign Mr. Record was called in some prints the "Field Marshal" of the National Progressive Party.
Mr. Record had practised law in Jersey City for some time, been an unsuccessful aspirant for a democratic nomination for Congress in op- position to the democratic chieftains of Hudson County, and had served as counsel to the State Riparian Board, when the nomination of Mark M. Fagan for Mayor of Jersey City brought him into prominence, Mr. Fagan had succeeded in capturing the support of the republicans of the city without asking the leave of the party leaders; and upon being elected evinced a disposition to fight them that pleased Mr. Record's militant humor. Mayor Fagan made him Corporation Counsel; and from his desk in that office Mr. Record practically dominated the policy . of Mr. Fagan's eight year administration. Its chief feature was an at- tack upon the railroad valuations, which Mr. Record claimed were un- fairly low, and upon the efforts of the trolley companies, that were just then coming into existence, to secure perpetual street franchises. When Dr. Wilson stepped from Princeton University into the Governorship, Mr. Record was called into conference for the formulation of the reform plans the new Governor had in mind.
The new plan of elections embodied in the Geran law was devised and put into legislative shape by Mr. Record, and through the influence of the Governor pushed through the legislature. Its chief feature was the sub- stitution of party nominating primaries for local and state conventions and the application of civil service rules to the selection of election officers. It was this law that enabled Gov. Wilson to win the support of New Jersey in his reach for President of the United States without asking the aid of any of the democratic leaders of the state. When Theodore Roose- velt threw down the glove to President Taft in the national campaign of 1908. Mr. Record became a supporter of the Oyster Bay statesman and a figure in national politics for the zeal with which he espoused the cause of the Progressive Party. His opposition to what were known as the "Bosses" pleased Governor Wilson, and, because of his acquaintance with the railroad problem the Governor made him a member of the State Rail- road Tax Board. In 1916 Mr. Record made a canvass for the republican nomination for Governor on the Single Tax, Home Rule and Local Option platform.
Mr. Record was educated at the local schools in Auburn, Me., and in Bates College in Lewiston. Gravitating to the nation's metropolitan center he became a stenographer in the law office of Strong & Cadwalader in New
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York and studied law meantime. He was making his home in New Jersey at the time, and his application for admission was to the New Jersey bar. He was made an attorney in 1877 and three years later a counselor. He is still engaged in the practice of the law in Jersey City.
Mr. Record is a member of the Republican Club in New York, the Carteret Club of Jersey City, and the Arcola Country Club in Bergen County.
FIRMAN M. REEVES-Millville .- Assemblyman. Born at Millville, N. J., September 26th, 1877.
Firman M. Reeves graduated from the public schools of Millville. That same year he entered the Bridgeton Business College, where he completed his course.
Although Assemblyman Reeves has always taken a prominent part in the civic affairs of his home town, he has never held public office before being elected to the Legislature. He is now serving his second term in the Assembly, having been re-elected at the fall 1918 elections with a plurality of 2,916 votes over Dillworth, high Democrat.
He is a member of the following clubs; Millville Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Loyal Order of Moose and of Tuscola Tribe, Red Men.
He is a director of the Mechanics National Bank of Millville; of the Hope Building and Loan Association, and is treasurer of the Millville Firemen's Relief Association.
ERMAN JESSE RIDGWAY-Montclair, (14 Undercliffe Road) -Publisher. Born near Ostego, Muskingum Co., O., on Aug. 6, 1867 ; son of Nathan B. and Catherine ( Erman) Ridgway ; mar- ried on June 28, 1899 to Anna Eleanora Robinson, of West Union. Iowa.
E. J. Ridgway is the President of the Ridgway Company which pub- lishes "Everybody's Magazine," and a Director in the Butterick Com- pany which publishes "The Delineator." "The Designer," and "The Woman's Magazine," of New York.
Mr. Ridgway graduated from Yale, class of 1892 with the A. B. de- gree; and, connecting himself with the Frank A. Munsey Company in 1894, was its Vice President and General Manager until 1903. Then he organized the Ridgway Company and has since been its President.
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