USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > Paterson, New Jersey : its advantages for manufacturing and residence: its industries, prominent men, banks, schools, churches, etc. > Part 23
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his Mayoralty he projected and carried out the measure for paving the sidewalks, which before this time had been almost entirely neglected. It was also during his connec- tion with the city government that the first sewer was con- structed. In 1856 he was induced to accept the Republi- can nomination for the Legislature and was elected. Ile served in the Assembly for one year and this closed his official career, as since that time he has invariably declined all offices which have been tendered to him. A recent writer says very properly of Mr. Brown: "He is a gentleman of very active. energetic temperament, syste- matic and practical in everything that he does, courteous and polite in demeanor to all and as a business man and bank director has no superior. Ilis earnest spirit and good sense in executive management make him invaluable as a co-worker in all enterprises. Ile avoids ostentation in every particular, and is as discreet and practical in all his tastes as he is reliable in his character. Socially he is noted for his genial traits, kindness of heart and steadfast- ness in the discharge of all moral and religious duties."
JOHN F. BUCKLEY was born in Paterson on February, 2, 1842, the second son of ex-Mayor Benjamin Buckley.
Ile was educated in the public and private schools of the city, and subsequently was employed in the Cooke loco- motive works. At the breaking out of the war of the re- bellion he enlisted as private of Co. 1. 2d Regiment, N. J. Volunteers ; after serving over a year he was transferred to Co. A, of the 11th Regiment of N. J. Volunteers, of which company he was successively made Second Lieuten- ant, first Lieutenant and Captain, holding the latter posi- tion for three years when he was honorably discharged. lle was wounded at the battle of Gaines' Mill. Returning to Paterson at the close of the war he took an active inter- est in politics and in 1870 was elected a member of the Board of Chosen Freeholders from the Fifth Ward; the ward was strongly Democratic but Mr. Buckley's popular- ity not only overcame this but also gave him a handsome majority ; in 1872 he was again a candidate and was re- elected by an increased majority. At the expiration of his second term in 1874 he was by an almost unanimous vote of the following Board chosen Warden of the County Jail, and he.has held that office ever since, his popularity pre- venting others from aspiring to that position. Mr. Buck- ley has always been a Republican and an active worker for the party's interests ; for ten years he has been a mem- ber of the Republican County Committee and for four years chairman of that organization.
CORNELIUS A. CADMUS was born in Bergen county, N. J., on October 7, 1844, and after a common school educa- tion entered into mercantile business in New York city where for a number of years he was a prominent produce merchant. Ile took up his residence in Paterson when young, and has always been identified with the progress of the city. Unostentatious and of a pleasant disposition he made hosts of friends. He had always been a Democrat but kept aloof from public life. In 1883 he was induced to accept the Democratic nomination for assembly in the third district of Passaic county, a district which had always given a large Republican majority. Such was his pop- ularity that he easily overcame the Republican majority and defeated a popular antagonist. After serving one term in the assembly he declined a renomination which was unanimously tendered him. In ISS7 he was again in- duced to enter the political field and accepted the Demo- cratic nomination for sheriff of Passaic county. The county had elected a Republican sheriff three years before by considerably over two thousand majority and had since that time given large majorities against the Democrats. On the part of any other person the acceptance of the nom- ination would have been foolhardy, especially as the Re- publicans were almost unanimous in the selection of their candidate. But Mr. Cadmus not only overcame the Republican majority but was elected by a majority of 1885. Ile is at present serving the last year of his term and there is no doubt that he will leave the office a more popular man even than he was when he entered it.
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JOHN CHEYNE was born in Cooper, County Fife, Scot- land, on February 12, 1841, and at eleven years of age went to work in a flax mill. At fourteen years of age he was employed as hackle machine boy in the mills of Cox Brothers, at Lochee, Dundee. In this establishment, which employed six thousand hands, Mr. Cheyne learned thoroughly the manipulation of the flax fibre ; he devoted himself diligently to a thorough knowledge of flax manu- facture, working himself up from the humble position he had when he entered the employ of Cox Brothers to the position of assistant manager of the whole works. In the fall of 1872, Nevins & Co .. of Boston, Mass., were in want of a skilled superintendent for their extensive works at Bethuen, Mass., and they offered this position to Mr. Cheyne, having become satisfied that he of all others was the proper man for the place. Mr. Cheyne was according- ly induced to come to this country and for seven years he managed the mills at Bethuen. He then formed the acquaintance of Mr. John Sloan. the president of the Dolphin Manufacturing Company of Paterson, and was induced to accept the position as general superintendent of these works. For eleven years he remained in this posi- tion, having only recently severed his connection with the Dolphin company. During the time that he was superin- tendent the mills were repeatedly enlarged under his per- sonal supervision. Mr. Cheyne is well known for his pleasant disposition, energy and liberality. While super- intendent of the Dolphin mills he inaugurated a system by which the hands contributed weekly from their pay towards the maintenance of the two hospitals in Paterson, an honored custom which was subsequently adopted in a large number of the other industrial establishments in the city.
HENRY B. CROSBY, whose portrait and a picture of whose residence are given on other pages, was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in IS15. He came to Paterson in 1837 and began a mercantile life. For nearly half a cen- tury he was engaged in the grocery business, both whole- sale and retail, and was always regarded as one of the foremost business men of the city. In matters pertaining to the progress of the city Mr. Crosby held a similar posi- tion, being actively identified with nearly every movement that had for its object the advancement of the city of Pat- erson. He has been for a number of years president of the Cedar Lawn Cemetery Company, a director of the First National Bank and a prominent and ever active mem- ber of the Board of Trade. In politics Mr. Crosby has always been a Republican, and he was a delegate to the convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for Presi- dent. Ilis own inclinations favored Mr. Seward, but when it become apparent that the party favored Mr. Lincoln Mr. Crosby cast his vote for him. A number of years ago Mr. Crosby retired from active life as a business man, but he has ever continued solicitous of the city's welfare. In 1SS4 he read before the Board of Trade a paper on public parks,
impressions gathered during a recent trip through Europe ; the result was an agitation which resulted in placing Paterson in possession of two fine parks. Mr. Crosby's residence on Broadway is one of the landmarks of the city ; although now situated in the very heart of Pater- son, the spot where it stands was when he purchased it and began the erection of the building, a cornfield. Its architecture was different from that of any of the houses which had been erected in the city and people came many miles to see the structure in which Mr. Crosby proposed to. to live.
ANDREW DERROM .-- The ancestors of Col. Derrom on the male side are the deRomes of French Flanders, who settled near Manchester, England. carly in 1600, and sub- sequently in Montreal and Quebec, Canada. For more than 200 years members of the family were in the military service of Great Britain, notably in the Guards, Artillery, &e. One of his great grandfathers was one of Wolfe's grenadiers at the taking of Quebec. His father's grand- father was a volunteer under Lord Elliott at the great siege of Gibraltar; his father was a volunteer from the Guards to a fighting line regiment, and saw much active service. On the mother's side the stock was pure York- shire, Anglo-Saxon sturdy, industrial yeomanry of the most industrial county in England.
Col. Andrew Derrom was born on Nov. 30, 1817, while his father was in the military service of the British gov- ernment. llis parents were Richard and Mary ( Winders) Derrom. the former of whom was born near Manchester, England, and the latter at Leeds. Richard Derrom passed his life in the service of his country, spending a portion of the time in the army and at other times in the civil branch of the service.
Col. Derrom was the second of the six children who grew to the years of maturity. Ilis earliest recollections extend back to the year 1820 or IS21, when his father was stationed on the isle of Malta, where important fortifica- tions were being constructed. He remembers also having resided on the Isle of Corfu, and on that of Zante, famous for the beauty and splendor of its gardens. When six years of age he resided on the island of Cephalonia. at Ar- gostoli, where he received his earliest instructions at a pri- vate school, and also special lessons in writing at the mili- tary clerk's office of the department. Here also he re- ceived moral and religious instruction from Rev. Dr. Ken- nedy and wife, missionaries of the English church at whose house he was often accustomed to meet Lord Byron, who was on the island training his silver-bespangled Suliots for his descent on Greece. In 1824 he was taken to England and attended a private school at Plymouth for some months, and subsequently received instruction at the gram- mar school of the same place. lle next attended the grammar school attached to St. John's urch, Glasgow, Scotland, and after that resided at different points in Ire- land, and finally at Londonderry, where his father was
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stationed in the civil service, and where he attended Creighton's grammar school, situated on the Wall above Governor Walker's testimonial. For three years thereafter he was instructed by a private tutor in connection with his brothers James and John, the former of whom is an architect and major of the Victoria Rifles in New Zealand, where the family finally located, and where both Richard Derrom and his wife died.
After leaving Londonderry in 1834, Col. Derrom went to Deal, England, where he studied higher mathematics with a friend-a branch of science in which he took great delight-it being his intention to fit himself for the profes- sion of a civil and military engineer. He left Deal for the United States in August, 1836, and arriving in New York entered George Hayward's lithographic office in Nassau street, being an adept in drawing and coloring. In No- vember, 1836, he was sent to Paterson to assist C. S. Van Wagoner, the civil engineer, to lay out and prepare maps of the city and vicinity. He made the first map of Pas- saic City also, for John Lloyd, an old resident of that place. In March, 1837, for the purpose of obtaining a practical knowledge of architecture. he apprenticed him- self to a carpenter and builder in Paterson, and after three years was placed in charge of the business. In 1844 he began business on his own account in Paterson, and car- ried on one of the largest building enterprises in the State until the breaking out of the war in 1861, when, owing to his early military education and his admitted executive ability, he was chosen chairman of the war committee to raise troops, and succeeded in filling the several quotas of soldiers without the necessity of a draft. in one instance within three weeks. In 1862 when President Lincoln called for "300,000 men and 300,000 more," making 600 .- ooo in all, a draft was ordered if the quota was not filled by volunteers. Col. Derrom by energetic appeals to the patriotism of the people, seconded by his active personal exertions, succeeded in raising the quota for Paterson with- in three days. Failing in his efforts to have Passaic Coun- ty soldiers commanded by Passaic men, it was arranged to have a regiment formed composed of five companies from Paterson and five from the Southern section of New Jer- sey, of which he was unanimously elected colonel. He was mustered into the service of the United States on Sept. 29, 1862. In a few days he had the regiment-the Twenty-fifth New Jersey Infantry-in perfect order and discipline, and proceeded to the seat of war in October following. On arriving at Washington he was appointed to command a brigade of Vermont, Massachusetts and New Jersey troops; but expressing a desire to do duty with his own regiment, many of whom had been induced to enlist by him, he resumed his duty as colonel. The regiment performed valuable service in the field, and par- ticipated in a number of important engagements. At the battle of Fredericksburg, after the day was really lost, the regiment, with Col. Derrom at its head, was the only one to advance to the enemy's works at the time, and the night being dark was controlled by the whistle-calls of its leader
alone. Throughout the entire service in the field Col. Derrom earned the warm approval and indorsement of his superior officers, and performed his duties in a soldierly and successful manner. His engineering talents came into active play upon the occasion of the attack of Longstreet upon Suffolk, Va., in 1863, when within eight hours roads were built and bridges constructed over Broer's Creek un- der his supervision and direction, preventing a detour of five miles and bringing the troops on the Nansemond river into close and rapid communication with each other and with Suffolk, contributing essentially to the successful ter- mination of the siege.
After the expiration of the regular term of service, Col. Derrom returned to Paterson, expecting to rejoin the army with his regiment reorganized as veterans; but he found his private business affairs in such a disastrous condition that it was necessary for him to remain at home and look after the interests of his family. Within three years he restored his business, paid all indebtedness, and employed from four to five hundred men. For years he had one of the largest building enterprises in the country, and many of the manufacturing, public and private buildings in Pat- erson were erected by him, including such structures as the Dale, Arkwright, Empire, Waverly and Franklin mills. In many of the factories of the city, after the adop- tion of the tariff provisions of 1842, he designed and built the machinery with the assistance of expert mechanics. He was the first in the United States to make complete sec- tional buildings that could be built in one place and trans- ported to another and put up, and received a bronze medal from the American Institute Fair in 1862 for his mechanic- al genius, and in 1872 both a silver and special gold medal from the New Jersey State Fair at Waverly. In 1870, having acquired a handsome competency, he retired from active business and established the Derrom Building Com- pany, putting in seventy-five thousand dollars of his capi- tal and adding more from time to time. The corporate enterprise was at first very successful, but owing to the approaching business depression, signs of which had al- ready begun to appear, it met with subsequent disasters, and finally collapsed. Even at this critical time Col. Der- rom did not hesitate to take of his private means to liqui- date the indebtedness of the concern. He was subsequent- ly invited to go to Caracas, Venezuela, where he estab- lished large construction shops on the American system, and filled the position of supervisor and architect for near- ly four years. He returned in 1879, and is now with his son, Andrew Derrom, Jr., in business as supervising arch- itects in Paterson.
Besides his success as a mechanical engineer and as a commanding officer of brave soldiers in the field, Col. Derrom has been since his first residence in Paterson, one of its most active and useful public men. and has been closely identified with many of the improvements and in- stitutions of the city. He was instrumental in establish- ing People's Park on Madison avenue, and in developing other sections of the city. Upon the first organization of
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the municipal government of Paterson, he was elected al- derman from the West ward, and took a prominent part in perfecting the city government. He drew most of the ordinances, and his services were especially valuable in the arranging and correcting of street grades and lines. He was elected to serve a second term in the Board from the same ward. In 1853 he was chosen President of the City Council of Paterson as an independent candidate, a position that was equivalent to Mayor, and in which only two others had preceded him, viz. : Judge Philemon Dick- erson and Charles Danforth. During his administration of municipal affairs, taxes were light, expenses small, and the debt of the city not only reduced, but a balance left in the treasury. In the spring he was appointed the first President of the Board of Education and Superintendent of Public Schools. Ile was the founder, organizer and developer of the present Free Public School System in Paterson, giving it the highest tone and perfecting the sys- tem. Hle remained with the Board of Education for five years. (1854-5-6-7-8.) and so thorough were the public schools that private schools could not be sustained against them. Col. Derrom has also been actively connected with other local institutions of Paterson; was the first vice president of the savings bank and of the Passaic water company. He was married in 1842 to Elizabeth Vreeland, a representative of some of the first settlers of Paterson. The children have been four in number, viz. : Andrew, James A., Mary L., wife of Casiano Santana. a banker of Caracas, Venezuela, and Elizabeth M. N. Derrom. Miss Jennie L. Derrom, is an adopted daughter, and occupies a cherished place in the household of which she forms a part.
GEORGE G. HALSTEAD, Director of the Board of Cho- sen Freeholders, was the son of William E. Halstead, one of the veterans of the war of the rebellion who died in 1863 in consequence of wounds received at the battle of Chancellorsville, Va. His mother came from Poughkeep- sie, N. Y., and died in 1879. Mr. Ilalstead was born in Fair street, in this city, on the 12th of July, 1846, and first went to school to Miss Halstead in the old Congregational church in Market street. From there he went to the pub- lic school in Division street until the public school in Van Houten street was completed ; here he attended until he had passed through the highest class. He was then only thirteen years of age and went to work in Grant's locomo- tive works, where he was employed four successive years. Then he took up the study of surveying and has devoted himself to that work ever since. Mr. Halstead was always a student, and few persons in Paterson know more of the details of the early history of their native home than does ยท Mr. Halstead. For seven years he was judge of election in the first district of the Fourth Ward, and for five years a justice of the peace, his court being always given the preference by litigants who desired to have their cases set- tled without appeal to a higher tribunal. In IS83 he was
elected a member of the Board of Freeholders from the Fourth Ward and he has since served that ward in the Board. In iSSS he was the unanimous choice of the members of the Board for Director, a position to which he has since been re-elected and which he still holds.
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JOHN T. IIILTON was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England. though he is a thorough American in all his in- stincts. He came here when a mere child, in 1851, when Paterson had started out as a baby city, and he has been identified with the city, with a brief interval ever since. At the age of ten he left school to go to work for the late John Ryle in the old Gun mill, afterwards working in the Murray mill. After two or three years at silk, he tried stripping tobacco for Allen & Reynolds, but not liking that branch of industry, he tried steel wire making for the old style of hoop skirts, with Robert Crossland in Mulberry street. le drifted into the Paterson Intelligencer office in Van Houten street as a printer's "devil," but the proprie- tor, Joseph Warren, dying soon afterwards, the son, Will- iam Warren, and A. B. Woodruff formed a partnership and removed the paper to the Woodruff building in Main street and named the new issue the Independent Demo- crat. But the young "devil" made it too warm for the other occupants of the office, and after a narrow escape from firing the building they concluded they could publish the paper without his assistance. A winter at school fol- lowed the escapade, and in the spring following he conclu- ded to try an apprenticeship as tinsmith, coppersmith and brass-smith with Nathaniel Lane of Van Houten street. But neither that nor storekeeping for Mr. Lane seemed to satisfy the taste of young Hilton. Another winter at school, where he wished to stay but his parents were too poor to keep him, and then he tried a cotton mill, carrying filling and bobbins in the old Duck mill in Boudinot, now Van Houten street. In the spring of 1860 he became a bound apprentice to Danforth & Cooke to learn the ma- chine business, where he remained until he enlisted in September, 1862, in the company that was incorporated with the 25th N. J. Volunteers. After the battle of Fred- ericksburg, Mr. Hilton was promoted to mounted orderly and was detached at Brigade Headquarters where he re- mained until just before the regiment came home in 1863. On his return home he worked in New York and Jersey City at machine work, finishing his trade in the latter city in the Atlantic and Great Western Locomotive Works as a locomotive builder. For three winters while working in Jersey City, he attended the drawing and mathematical classes in Cooper Union, and laid the foundation for his present profession which he kept in view. He came back to Paterson in 1866, where his parents resided, and where he had retained a legal residence, to make silk spooling frames for Thomas Wrigley. Work becoming slack there, he drifted to Grant's Locomotive Works, but the pay not being equal to the work he considered he could do, he started to canvass for Greeley's "American Conflict," and
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attended public school No. I all winter under the special instruction of principal Hosford. This ended his career with Paterson's industries. Ile had tried about all of them. In February, 1867, he engaged as an assistant with John H. Goetschius, civil engineer and surveyor, thus reaching the profession he had been drifting to. He was with Mr. Goetschius until the fall of 1869, when he engaged with Col. Derrom to map the east side of Paterson. In 1870 he engaged with the late A. A. Fonda, in whose service he continued until the summer of IS71. when he was of- fered a good position in Greenville, Iludson county, with H. E. Betts. In less than two months Col. Derrom in- duced Mr. Hilton to return to Paterson as surveyor of the Derrom Lumber, Land and Building Company. On Mr. Fonda's election as city surveyor in 1872, he engaged Mr. Hilton as first assistant, and to take charge of the city sur- veyor's office. He retained that position until IS78. when he was appointed engineer of the new sewer districts, and on Mr. Fonda's death a few months afterwards, he was appointed city surveyor. Ile held that office until the spring of 1884, when his unflinching opposition to "jobs" in his department, and city affairs, caused his defeat. The following extract from the Paterson Daily Press of April 30, ISS4, sums up the cause and effect in this case :
"A great many people will regret to see Mr. Hilton no longer city surveyor. Mr. Hilton has been one of the fin- est city officers the city ever had. Ile is intelligent and understands his business in every particular. Under his administration the most important improvements in the city were carried through successfully, and the fact that Mr. Ililton had charge of a piece of work was a guaran- tee that it would be done in a thorough manner. He has displayed more backbone than any man who ever entered the City Hall, and it is just this supply of backbone that has lost him his position. He always insisted on contract- ors living up to the very letter of their contracts, and every- thing had to be done as Mr. Hilton thought the best inter- ests of the city demanded it should be done. On this ac- count he made a great many enemies, especially among the contractors and the furnishers of supplies to contract- ors, for it was very seldom that an important piece of work was undertaken but Mr. Hilton stopped the contractor on account of some violation of the provisions of the contract. Generally he was supported by the Committee on Streets and Sewers, but of late the committee has sided somewhat with the contractors, and in the construction of improve- ments materials have been used which Mr. Hilton did not approve of. The contractors made a combination against Mr. Hilton, and the result is that a most efficient public servant is ousted from an important office. Many persons regard this action on the part of the Aldermen as a very serious mistake, and some are very loud in their express- ions of indignation."
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