USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > Paterson, New Jersey : its advantages for manufacturing and residence: its industries, prominent men, banks, schools, churches, etc. > Part 24
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At the time Mr. Hilton was appointed city surveyor, he formed a partnership with Leslie S. Menger, and on his retirement from the city surveyorship he continued the
business of the firm at their present stand, town clock building.
In ISSS the firm made a contract with the borough of Rutherford, Bergen county, to make a new assessment map of that municipality, which necessitated the survey of the whole place. They completed their contract in 1890 in a thorough and satisfactory manner, besides doing all the borough's engineering work during that period, and have lately made a contract to make grade maps for Union township. Bergen county. Mr. Hilton was one of the original Paterson Light Guard, and is the only officer of its successor-the First Battallion-that was an officer of that organization, except Chaplain Shaw. He was elect- ed Second Lieutenant, Company B, in the Light Guard; was re-elected to that position on the organization being mustered into the State service, and resigned in ISS3. Ile was appointed Adjutant of the First Battalion by Major Congdon, on Dec. 5, 1885, by the unanimous desire of all the captains, an honor which Mr. Hilton has always ap- preciated.
GARRET A. HOBART, was born at Long Branch, N. J., on June 3, 1844. After a common school education he was sent to Rutgers College, where he graduated in 1863 ; shortly afterwards he entered the law office of Socrates Tuttle in Paterson and was admitted to the practice of the law in 1866; three years later he was licensed counselor at law. He was appointed City Counsel of Paterson in May, 1871 ; after holding the office for one year he was appointed counsel for the Board of Freeholders; in 1872 he was elected a member of the Assembly and declined a re-election to the office of Counsel to the county board. In 1873 he was again elected to the assembly and was chosen Speaker. In 1875 he declined a re-election to the assen :- bly and in the following year was elected senator from Passaic county. In 1879 he was re-elected to the senate, this time by 1899 majority, the largest majority ever given a candidate in Passaic county up to that time. He was President of the Senate in ISSI and 1882. In 1874 he was appointed receiver of the New Jersey Midland railroad company and managed the affairs of the bankrupt concern so successfully that he paid a dividend to the unsecured creditors. When the company was reorganized he was unanimously elected president but resigned in a few months on account of more pressing engagements. He was also receiver of the Montclair railroad and the Jersey City and Albany railroad. In ISSo he was appointed receiver of the bankrupt First National Bank of Newark, and by the excellent judgment and energy by means of which he has attained to the distinguished position he holds in the nation in six months had its affairs substan- tially closed up and the depositors paid in full. In ISSo . he was elected chairman of the Republican State Com- mittee and has continued in that position ever since. In TSS4 he was chosen member of the Republican National Committee and he has continued in that position ever
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since. He is counsel for a large number of manufacturing and other corporations.
JOHN HOPPER, President Judge of the Orphans' Court and the Courts of General Quarter Sessions, the Special Quarter Sessions and the Common Pleas of Passaic coun- ty, is a descendant of a family who were among the oldest settlers in New Jersey. He was born on March 2, IS14. on the homestead farm of his father in the township of Lo- di, in Bergen county, his parents being John J. and Maria (Terhune) Hopper. His father, who died in 1833, was a successful and enterprising farmer during his lifetime. His farm, comprising about three hundred acres, extended from Pollifly to Saddle River, and was occupied by his second son, Jacob, until his death in ISS9. The subject of this sketch was the sixth of nine children. He was brought up on the homestead farm and received his early education at the old Washington Academy, Hackensack, and at the Lafayette Academy, of the same place. He was prepared for college under the Rev. John Croes. who conducted a classical school in Paterson, and by Thomas McGahagan, at the old academy at Bergen Town, now Hudson City. He entered the sophomore class of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J., in 1830, and three years later was graduated from that institution, dividing the sec- ond honor of his class with Robert H. Pruyn, of Albany, subsequently minister to Japan. Since 1851 he has been one of the Trustees of Rutgers. After his graduation he entered upon the study of the law in the office of Govern- or Peter D. Vroom. in Somerville, N. J., and remained there two years. He completed the study of the law in the office of Elias D. B. Ogden, in Paterson, and on Sep- tember 3, 1836, he was licensed by the Supreme Court at Trenton as an attorney at law and solicitor in Chancery. On February 27, 1840. he was licensed a counsellor at law. He had already. November 10, 1836, formed a partner- ship with his preceptor at Paterson and the firm of Ogden & llopper did a successful business until the senior mem- ber of the firm was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court. Mr. Hopper continued the business of the firm, and in 1869 took his son Robert I. into partnership with him. He has been called repeatedly to fill public posi- tions and has discharged the duties of office with uniform fidelity and success. He was town counsel of Paterson from 1843 to 1847: surrogate of Passaic county for two successive terms, 1845-55 : counsel to the Board of Chosen Freeholders from 1855 to 1864. and prosecutor of the pleas of Passaic County from 1863 to 1868, and again from 1871 to 1874. He served as State Senator from Passaic County from 1868 to 1871. and again from 1874 to 1877. In - March, 1877, Governor Bedle appointed him Judge of the District Court of Paterson and he continued in that office until January S. ISSo, when he resigned that office and was appointed by Governor Abbett to the office he holds at present, which was then vacant. He was re-appointed by Governor Green. March :5, 1887, and on April 1, 1887,
for the full term of five years. He was appointed one of the advisory masters in Chancery in 1879, by Chancellor Runyon, and has held a number of other positions inciden- tal to his profession.
Judge Hopper was married on June 16, 1840, to Mary A , daughter of the late Robert Imlay, a former merchant of Philadelphia. Fifty years afterwards he celebrated his golden wedding in the same house in which he had been married, and which had been his residence for half a cen- tury ; the occasion was one which brought together a large number of the most prominent men of the State Six of his children are living, viz. : John H., surviving partner of the silk manufacturing firm of Hopper & Scott ; Rob- ert Imlay, a partner of his father ; Mary A., widow of Frank W. Potter, late United States Consul to Marseilles ; James Burling, residing in Paterson, Miss Caroline Im- lay, and Margaret Imlay, wife of John J. Boyd, now re- siding in Erie, Pa.
As might have been expected from his Dutch ancestry, he was one of the earliest members of the Holland Socie- ty of New York, having been chosen in 1SS6, and since ISS9 has been one of the vice presidents of that society.
Before he was entitled to a vote, and ever since, he has been an active member of the Democratic party, serving on the State Committee many years, and has repeatedly represented New Jersey in the National Conventions of his party.
During the entire time that Judge Ilopper was engaged in the practice of his profession he was recognized as a lawyer of ability, not only well read, but possessed of those mental faculties that conduce to the attainment of success. He was engaged in a large number of the most important cases tried in the state courts, and he brought to the discharge of his professional duties a certain urbanity of manner, combined with an incisiveness of thought and
a clearness of exposition that almost uniformly led to de- cisions in favor of his clients. He has always been recog- nized as one of the foremost lawyers of the State. As a legislator he earned laurels which might well excite the envy of his fellows, and would undoubtedly have done so towards a person less popular than Senator Hopper. His elevation to the bench was hailed by all not only as a rec- ognition of the eminent services he had rendered his party but as a just tribute to the man who had done so much to- wards maintaining the dignity of his profession by an ever straightforward course. As a judge of the county courts he has gained the respect of all and the gratitude especially of the younger members of the bar. whom he is ever ready by means of kind words and advice to direct into the prop- er paths so familiar to himself.
ROBERT J. HOPPER, son of Judge John Hopper, was born in Paterson in 1845, graduated at Rutgers college in 1866, was admitted to the bar as an attorney at law in 1869 and licensed as a counsellor at law in 1872. He has prac- tised law in Paterson since 1869 and has never held any
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public office except that of Counsel to the Board of Free- holders of Passaic County to which office he was appoint- ed in 1885, and which office he still holds.
MARINUS IJOUMAN, a prominent architect of Paterson, was born in Goedereede, Holland, on December 22, IS4S, and arrived in this country on October 7, 1854. At nine years of age he went to work in the Lodi print works and for eighteen years he worked as a carpenter in various parts of the country. In 1876 he went to South America, where he was employed for some time by Colonel Andrew Derrom and subsequently by the Ledgerwood Manufac- turing Company of New York ; he then started into busi- ness for himself and was very successful. He returned to Paterson in iSSo, and having acquired a thorough knowl- edge of the trades of carpenter, millwright and steam fit- ter by practical application, he studied drawing in the evening schools of Paterson under Professor J. G. A. My- er. He then opened an office for himself as an architect and has been eminently successful. Among the more promi- nent buildings he has designed and the erection of which he superintended are the following: The residences of Messrs. J. A. Van Winkle, E. Fifield, F. T. May, Fred- erick Harding and Joseph Savary : the Market street M. E. church parsonage, the O'Shea building on the corner of Market and Straight streets, the factory of the Paterson Ribbon Company, the hard rubber factory at Butler, N. J. llis practical knowledge of every detail necessary in the erection of a building, has assisted him materially in his profession, and his business has increased to such an ex- tent that he is compelled to employ several assistants al- though he personally looks after every part of all work entrusted to him.
THOMAS D. HONSEY, who died in the spring of ISSI, was for nearly half a century one of Paterson's most pic- turesque landmarks. At the time of his death there were few citizens who did not know, and none who had not heard of his striking personality. Tall and erect, strong morally and physically, energetic and quick. there are few lives about which more of local reminiscence clings or which were longer and more closely identified with the prosperity of the city.
The "General," as he was afterwards familiarly called from an office he held in the old State Militia, was the son of a Massachusetts farmer and first came to Paterson in the year 1833. lle obtained employment as clerk in a dry goods store and, being simple and economical in his habits, he saved enough from his salary in a few years to start a business of his own. In this he made a comfortable for- tune and about 1847 he left the dry goods business and engaged in cotton manufacturing. In this, however, he was not successful and in 1859 he failed. Meanwhile he had been preparing himself for the profession in which he was afterward to make a name and he devoted himself
exclusively to the practice of the law, politics and real estate speculation. His old friends still tell many stories of his pertinacity and pugnacity in legal contests. He had a penchant for taking up cases which others had aban- doned and was never more in his element than when fight- ing some monopolistic corporation.
From the beginning of his career General Hoxsey always took a warm interest in politics and his outspoken expressions of his opinions on all occasions made him many friends as well as some enemies. First a Whig, he be- eame disgusted with that party's attitude on the slavery question and in 1848 allied himself with the Free Soilers. and was a prominent member of the Buffalo convention. That was the commencement of the Republican party and. the General predicted at the time that a party had been born which would rule the country for years. In 1849 he was elected to the Assembly on a Temperance platform with Democratic support and in 1850 he was re-elected. In 1852 he was elected to the State Senate by the Democrats, and, carrying the issue of the campaign to a successful con- clusion he became the father of the ten hour law in New Jersey. During the Fremont campaign he came out as a Republican and was an active and influential member of that party up till 1876 when he joined the Greenbackers and became their candidate for Governor of the State, receiving over 5,000 votes. In ISSo he ran again but the improvement in the times had affected the Greenback show- ing and he received a smaller vote.
For a number of years in the 60's he was County Clerk of Passaic County and after that he was U. S. Register in Bankruptcy.
Socially the General diffused about him the very essence of good fellowship, while his home was the center of a genial constant hospitality that knew no bounds. In all that he undertook he made and maintained a reputation for probity, intrepidity, manliness and magnaminity not always parts of so positive and forceful a nature. Throughout his life he was the friend of laboring men and of his fellow citizens, regarding them not as mere factors in a political contest but as brothers with opinions to be regarded and rights to be enforced ; and second only to his patriotic love of his country was his pride in the town of his residence and his interest in all its public improvements.
Rugged and erratic, gentle and tender, fierce and aggres sive, genial and courteous; the very contradictions of his character combined to make "a man" in whose death the public sustained a loss.
THOMAS FRANKLIN HOXSEY was born at Paterson, March 5th, 1841, and is the eldest son of the late Thomas D. Hoxsey.
After securing a good education he took up the study of civil engineering, a profession which has stood him in good stead ever since. His health failing him as he was about to start in his chosen profession, he started in 1860, for a trip across the plains to the then newly discovered mining.
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regions of Colorado and returned home in the fall of 1861 not much benefited by his trip. In 1862 he married and removed to a farm in Preakness where he lived till 1866, when he began business as a contractor by building the upper reservoir of the Passaic Water Company and laying the pipes under the bed of the Passaic River. Here his strong characteristics which have made a success of his life showed themselves. Ilis courage, perseverance and his fertility of resource soon showed themselves. and enabled him to carry a work which would have daunted a less courageous man. His next work of any large character was the building of the Midland Railway from Hawthorne to Hackensack in 1870-71-72 Mr. Hoxsey like many others took large amounts of the stock of the railway in payment for the work done, and during the panic of 1872 and i873 saw the earnings of his lifetime swept away ; the stock having become valueless, and carried with it all his other accumulations.
With indomitable courage he started again and was soon on the way to success. His first wife having died in 1874, he married again in 1879. In 1886 and 1887 he became manager for what was known as the "Water Syndicate." and here again his force of character combined with a keen judgment of human nature enabled him to buy up immense tracts of land in Northern New Jersey, from whence the water supply of Newark will soon be drawn. Mr Hox- sey still continues to aid in the management of the work in building reservoirs and all other work of the East Jer- sey Water Company, as well as carrying on a large and successful contract business.
Personally Mr. Hoxsey is a genial, whole-souled and pleasant man of kindly nature ; he does many acts of un- ostentatious character in aiding the poor. In politics he is a staunch Republican, and one whose advice is often sought for by the leaders of his party.
JAMES JACKSON, the president of the Second National Bank of Paterson, was born here in IS41, and is the only one of the four bank presidents of this city who can prop- erly lay claim to the distinction of being "to the manor born." His early education was received here, and he attended the State Law School at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., for two years, but abandoned further study in that direc- tion. preferring a commercial career as suited to his tastes, and was for a number of years with the New Jersey Loco- motive and Machine Co., of which his father was the founder and for years the president He then went to the Idaho Iron Company, of Paterson, as treasurer, and two years later sold out his stock to the purchasers of the con- cern, the Passaic Rolling Mill Company. In 1864 when the Jackson family disposed of their interests in the New Jersey Locomotive & Machine Company to the Grants. his father purchased the stock of the old Passaic County Na- tional Bank, and Mr. Jackson, the subject of this sketch, joined his father in the management of that institution, and was successively bookkeeper. teller and cashier. After the
death of his father it was decided to increase the capital of the bank, and with this end in view a number of the best known. reliable and successful business men of the city were elected to the direction of the newly organized insti- tution, the name being changed by a special act of Con- gress to "Second National Bank." Mr. Benjamin Buck- ley was the first President under the reorganization. and Mr. Jackson the first cashier. Mr. Buckley resigned in ISSI, and Mr. Jackson was elected to succeed him, and through successive years has been re-elected to the posi- tion. which he still holds. Mr. Jackson has in a great measure directed the policy of this institution, which has been steadily and rapidly growing in public favor, the liberal, and at the same time conservative course, earning the confidence of the community. The recent improve- ments in its already commodious quarters by the addition of a handsome and well appointed directors' room, and a new and ornamental front, betokens the success which the bank has achieved under its efficient management. Mr. Jackson has on several occasions been selected by the courts to take charge of estates, these delicate and responsible duties, involving great care and discriminating judgment, having in every instance been faithfully and successfully administered. He is president of the Gould Company of New York city, one of the leading upholstery hardware houses of the country, and is prominently identified with manufacturing and other enterprises in this city. Many friends of Mr. Jackson have frequently importuned him to become a candidate for office, but he has invariably de- clined, preferring the modest retirement of private life. The wide and varied experience of Mr. Jackson in com- mercial affairs eminently fits him for the responsible posi- tion which he so ably fills, and the citizens of Paterson, especially the business public are to be congratulated that their banking interests are directed by such able, conser- vative and reliable men.
JOHN FRANCIS KERR. - Mr. Kerr, a son of Mr. Hugh Kerr, of Paterson, N. J., was born at Scranton, Pa., April 30th, 1857, and is a lawyer by profession. He has lived in Paterson since he was abont two years old. While Mr. Kerr does a general law business he makes a specialty of patent law and has his offices in the l'aterson National Bank on Market street. He was educated at Seton Hall College. N. J, from which he graduated in June. 1876. On July 5th. 1876, he entered the law office of the late HI. A. Williams (ex-Senator of Passaic County) as a law stu- dent. He was admitted to the bar of New Jersey at the November term, 1879, as an attorney, and three years later as a counselor. His services as a political speaker have always been sought for. and in every campaign since 1876 he has advocated the cause of Democracy. In November, 1SS9, he was elected a member of the Legislature of New Jersey from the Second District of Fassaic County The district, composed of the Second and Seventh Wards of the City of Paterson and the Township of Little Falls.
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was a close one, and against a strong and popular oppo- nent it was a hot though friendly contest, and Mr. Kerr received a plurality of 65 votes over the Republican can- didate. During the session of the Legislature of IS90 he served on some of the most important committees, viz. : Judiciary, Bill Revision. Elections and the Joint Commit- tee on Ballot Reform. On the floor he earned for himself the reputation of a good debater. He had never before that held any political office.
CHARLES M. KING, Surrogate of Passaic County, was born in this city on August 30, 1849 He attended Public School No. 5. and subsequently the Adelphic Military In- stitute at New Milford, Conn. He then learned the trade of machinist, but in 1871 he became a clerk in the Surro- gate's office and served during the two terms of Surrogate Isaac Van Wagoner. In iSS3, when Mr. Henry MeDan- olds was Surrogate, Mr. King was appointed Deputy Sur- rogate, being the first to hold that position in this county. In ISS5 he was the Republican nominee for Surrogate and was elected by a large majority. his popularity being so great that the Democrats made no nomination against him.
JAMES W. McKEE was born in Hoboken, N. J., on October 24, 1840, and his parents removed to Paterson when he was but a little over two weeks old. Here he passed his childhood and received his education. At an early age he evinced a musical talent which when subsequently de- veloped gave him a widespread reputation as a tenor and resulted in his connection with a number of the foremost musical organizations which have traveled through this country. His first professional appearance was made in Brooklyn, N. Y., where he scored an instantaneous suc- cess which resulted in his engagement with Hooley & Hawkshurst's combination. Then he became a member of Josh Hart's company, in which Harrigan and Hart first made their reputation. Subsequently he joined the Ber- ger Sisters and Sol Smith Russell org mization and his sweet and powerful tenor won unstinted applause from audiences and the press all over the country, and it is also pleasing to note that his pecuniary reward was liberal. Among the most celebrated of his songs was "Over the Hills to the Poor House," written for him by Mr. George L. Catlin, at present United States consul to Zurich. Having grown tired of the stage Mr. McKee went into business in Paterson where his genialty and many sterling qualities made him deservedly popular. In ISS2 he en- tered the polital arena and was elected a member of the Board of Chosen Freeholders; in the following year he was chosen Director In the fall of ISS4 he was nomin- ated for sheriff on the Republican ticket and elected by 2309 majority, the largest majority Passaic county ever gave any candidate. He has been frequently spoken of since in connection with other offices but has persistently
declined, preferring to follow his business as funeral direc- tor in which he engaged at the expiration of his term of office as sheriff. lle has two sons. one a rising young lawyer and the other associated in business with himself. That Mr. McKee is one of the most popular men in the county need not be told ; the people declared that em- phatically when he ran for office. He enjoys the esteem of everybody and his position and reputation have been earned by his own efforts.
LESLIE S. MENGER, a civil engineer and surveyor, was born in the city of New York on January 4, 1848. He obtained his early education in the public schools of the metropolis, graduating with the highest honors from school No. 35 in West Thirteenth street After a course in the Free Academy, now the Free College of New York, he evinced a liking for engineering and entered the employ of John Roach & Son. of the Etna Iron Works, and remained there two years under the instruction of the late Erastus W. Smith, the consulting engineer of the firm. For some time after this he was employed by the Quintard Iron Works, but he soon found that indoor employment did not agree with him. After a severe illness he removed from New York to Newfoundland, Morris county, N. J., and there became a member of the engineering corps of the New Jersey Midland railroad company. He was subsequently transferred from that division of the road to Paterson, to which place he removed in 1869. He continued in the em- ploy of the railroad company until the fall of 1871 when he entered the office of the late A. A. Fonda City Surveyor of Paterson. He remained with Mr. Fonda until the latter's death in 1877 when he associated himself with Mr. John T. Hilton and formed the firm of Hilton & Menger. While in Mr. Fonda's employ he was entrusted with a good deal of difficult work ; his natural talents and the experience he had gained were made use of by the city of Paterson which employed him for nine years as engineer of the sewer dis- tricts HIe mapped out a large portion of the present sewer system of the city, and his work has been of inestimable value to both the city and the property owners. Among the more prominent works he had charge of as civil engin- eer and surveyor are the new reservoir of the Passaic Water Company. the spur of the New York, Susquehanna & Western railroad company, proposed water basins for the East Jersey Water Company and the grounds of the Northern New Jersey Fair Association.
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