USA > New Jersey > Scannell's New Jersey first citizens : biographies and portraits of the notable living men and women of New Jersey with informing glimpses into the state's history and affairs, 1917-1918, Vol I > Part 11
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Austen Colgate's ancestors came to this country during the Colonial period, the founder of the American branch being William Colgate, who in 1806 established the now famous house of Colgate & Co., the largest manu- facturers of soaps and perfumes in this country. The founder of this great business was the grandfather of Austen Colgate, and the busi- ness has descended through the father to the five grandsons who now compose the company.
Colonel Colgate received his education at the Orange High School, Orange, the Norwich Academy, Norwich, (Conn.), and Yale University, from which he graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1886. Upon leaving col- lege, he entered the house of Colgate & Co. thoroughly fa- miliarized himself with all the details of the manufacturing end of the business, and in 1896 was admitted to partnership, be- coming Vice President of the company upon its incorporation and still retaining that position.
During his entire career Col- onel Colgate evinced a keen interest in the politics of his State, and in 1905 associated himself with the Progressive wing of the Republican party. The next year he accepted the nomination for the Assembly and was elected to represent Essex County in that body. He was re-elected to the Assembly
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in 1908 and 1909, and in 1911 was elected to the State Senate. The Colonel was re-elected to the Senate in 1914, resigning his seat two years later to be- come a candidate at the 1916 primary for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in which he was defeated by a very close margin. He was elected to represent New Jersey in the Presidential Electoral College in 1916.
During his service in the Legislature, Colonel Colgate introduced meas- ures exempting public playgrounds from accident claims ; making it unlaw- ful for any judge to commit a child of sixteen years or under to the county jail ; requiring the licensing of dance halls ; creating a commission to study mental defectives ; creating a minimum wage commission ; creating women police officers ; providing for the better keeping of vital statistics ; investi- gating the causes of blindness ; providing for nurses in each county to care for tubercular patients ; revising the Child Welfare laws ; providing for the establishment of colonies for the care of feeble-minded men; creating a workmen's compensation fund ; increasing compensation under the liability law ; removing disputes in the settlement of labor compensation troubles ; extending workmen's compensation to occupational diseases ; protection of civil service ; protection of fish and game; regulating speed of automobiles and providing punishment for intoxicated drivers, and many other pro- gressive and humanitarian measures. He also promoted legislation for re- form in the jury system ; the creation of mosquito commissions, the limited franchise law, the direct primary law, child labor reform, the creation of the Civil Service Commission and the Public Utility Commission, the widows' pension act, and a long line of other measures, since become laws.
In addition to his law-making duties in the Legislature, Colonel Col- gate has found time to render military service to his State in its National Guard. In 1908, Governor Fort appointed him personal aide and Chief of Staff, which office he held for three years, when he was tendered and ac- cepted the position of Deputy Adjutant-General of the State, ranking as Colonel. Upon the death of Adjutant-General Wilbur F. Sadler, Jr., in 1916, Colonel Colgate was offered the position of Adjutant-General, but de- clined. In 1917, finding it impossible to longer give to the work of the Guard the time required, he asked to be placed on the Unassigned List of New Jersey Officers, and is now subject to call by the President or Gover- nor whenever his services are needed.
Colonel Colgate is a member of the Board of Trustees of Colgate Uni- versity, Hamilton, N. Y., and is a member of the Board of Corporators of Peddie Institute, at Hightstown. He is ex-president of the Essex County Country Club, a member of the Baltusrol Golf Club, the Rumson Country Club, the University Club of New York, the Yale Club of New York, and a charter member of Squadron "A" of New York City. He is a 32nd degree Mason and a member of other fraternal and social organizations.
EDWARD MARTIN COLIE-East Orange, (109 Prospect St.) Lawyer. Born at Milburn, October 27, 1852; son of Daniel F. and Elizabeth S. (Dayton) Colie; married on September 4, 1878, to
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Caroline Matilda Runyon, daughter of Simeon Mundy Runyon and Eliza E. Runyon, of East Orange.
Children : Edward M. Jr., Dayton, Runyon, Margaret and Frederic R.
On his father's side Edward M. Colie is a descendant of Henri Colie, a Huguenot emigrant from Paris at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1873 with the degree of A. B. and has been president of its alumni for two terms.
He read law in the office of Stone & Jackson, in Newark, was admitted to practice as an attorney in 1876 and as a counselor in 1879. He prac- ticed alone for a time, and in 1888 became the senior member of the law firm of Colie & Titsworth, in association with Charles G. Titsworth, suc- ceeding to the business of the old firm of C. S. & C. G. Titsworth, which had been dissolved by the death of former Judge Caleb S. Titsworth. Up- on the retirement of Mr. Charles G. Titsworth from the firm of Colie & Titsworth in 1892, the firm of Colie & Swayze was formed, and continued until its dissolution in 1900, upon the appointment of Francis J. Swayze (now Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court) as a Circuit Judge. In the same year the firm of Colie & Duffield was formed and continued until the appointment of Mr. Edward D. Duffield as Assistant Attorney-General. Thereafter, Mr. Colie continued the practice of law alone until the forma- tion recently of the partnership with his son, constituting the firm of Ed- ward M. & Runyon Colie.
Mr. Colie is a member of the American Bar Association, Essex County Bar Association, of which he has been President; of the State Bar Associa- tion, of which he became President in 1917; of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the Essex Club of Newark, Essex Coun- ty Country Club, and the Alpha Delta Phi Club of New York. He is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and the Phi Beta Kappa. In 1904 he was a delegate to the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists.
He has been a frequent contributor to various standard periodicals and is the author of "John Ruskin as an Ethical Teacher" and an "Intro- duction to Maeterlinck's Buried Temple."
DENNIS FRANCIS COLLINS-Elizabeth, (365 S. Broad St.)- Commercial Pursuits. Born in Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland, May 3, 1868 ; son of Dennis F. and Helen (Kirk) Collins ; married February 10, 1890, to Elizabeth Keimig (who died on the birth of her daughter, Elizabeth, now Mrs. Clarence Martin)-2nd, at Eliz- abeth on September 15, 1896, to Louise J. Breidt, daughter of Peter and Louise Breidt, of Elizabethì.
Children : second marriage, Louise Helen, Peter B., Anna Marie, Dennis Francis, Jr., Kathleen.
Dennis F. Collins is Major General of the National Guard of the State of New Jersey and has been active in the military and political life of the
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state for many years. He has been for a long time a member of the Democratie State Committee-for ten years its treasurer. General Col- lins was prominent in the movement that, just before the opening of the national campaign of 1912, deposed James R. Nugent from the Chairman- ship of the State Committee. He was an ardent supporter of Governor Wilson's candidacy for President, and played an active part in the cam- paign which resulted in his election. It was upon Governor Wilson's ap- pointment that he became Major General of the State Militia: and the Governor also appointed him a member of the New Jersey Commission to the Panama Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915. In Union county politics and business, he has been one of the determining factors and is now City Comptroller of Elizabeth.
General Collins came to the United States at an early age with his parents and was educated at St. Patricks Parochial School in Elizabeth. His first experience in the business world was in 1882 as an office boy in the Elizabeth Cordage Works. He clerked afterwards in a re- tail grocery store and was later still a shipping clerk in New York for Townsend & Bare- more and a bookkeeper in Eliz- abeth for J. S. Keimig & Co. In 1896 he became collector for the Peter Breidt City Brewery Company of Elizabeth. He was soon Vice President of the com- pany and upon the retirement of Mr. Breidt in 1904 succeeded to its Presidency.
General Collins began his po- litical career early as a member of the Common Council of Eliz- abeth. He served there for fourteen years-for a large part of the time as its President. In 1908 and again in 1914 he was the party nominee for Mayor, but the political trend both years was so strongly in favor of the opposite party that he was unsuccessful. His ap- pointment as Comptroller of Elizabeth came in 1916.
General Collins enlisted as a private at the age of twenty in Company D. 4th Infantry in May, 1888. He was made First Lieutenant of Company E. in 1894 and Captain later in the same year. In 1899 he became Major of the 2nd. Infantry, Lieutenant Colonel in 1900 and Colonel in 1902. In 1897 he was appointed Brigadier General 2nd Brigade and his appointment as Major General came in 1913. During the Spanish War he was Captain of Company E. 3rd Regiment New Jersey National Guard Volunteer In- fantry, serving until the protocol of Peace was signed, when he resigned and returned home to business.
General Collins is a member of New Jersey Commandery of the Society of Foreign Wars, a member of the Spanish-American War Veterans, of the
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Naval and Military Order of the Spanish-American War, of the American- Irish Historical Society, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, of the Knights of Columbus, of the Board of Trade, the Loyal Order of Moose, Fraternal Order of Eagles, and of almost every other fraternal and social organization of the city of Eliz- abeth.
GILBERT COLLINS-Jersey City, (312 York St.)-Jurist. Born Stonington Borough, Conn., Aug. 25, 1846; son of Daniel Prentice and Sarah R. Collins; married at Jersey City, 1870; to Harriet Kingsbury Bush, of Jersey City, daughter of John O. Bush. (Mrs. Collins died May 15, 1917).
Children : Walter (died Nov. 11, 1900, age 28 years, a lawyer practicing in Jersey City) ; Blanche and Marjorie, still living (un- married), and three who died in infancy.
The ancestors of the Collins family went from England to Massachu- setts, thence to Connecticut before 1710. In that year the great-great- grandfather of Gilbert Collins was born in New London and afterwards moved to the town of Stonington. His son, Daniel Collins, was a Revo- lutionary soldier, being a First Lieutenant in the First Regiment of the Connecticut Line. His son, Gilbert Collins, was prominent in town af- fairs, being frequently a member of the Legislature. These were all farm- ers ; but Daniel Prentice Collins, son of the last named, became a manu- facturer and had an extensive business in the borough of Stonington. He was the father of the subject of this sketch. He had also business in- terests in Jersey City.
His death in 1862, leaving but a slender estate, led the son to give up a course at Yale College, where he had matriculated. The family moved to Jersey City in 1863. Mr. Collins read law with Jonathan Dixon, then a rising lawyer in Jersey City, and afterwards, till he died in 1906, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the state. Though Mr. Dixon was active in Republican politics, his first appointment to the Bench was given to him by Governor Bedle, a democrat, and he was re-appointed by two suc- ceeding democratic Governors, Ludlow and Abbett; two republican Gover- nors, Griggs and Murphy re-appointed him later.
The partnership between Mr. Dixon and Mr. Collins was dissolved by Mr. Dixon's appointment to the Bench ; and Mr. Collins formed a partner- ship with Chas. L. Corbin, and later with Mr. Corbin's brother, William H., under the firm name of Collins & Corbin. Mr. Chas. L. Corbin had a high reputation among the lawyers, and his brother, William H., became one of the leading public men of the state. The partnership was interrupted by Mr. Collins' appointment to the Bench, but was re-established after his resignation there from and was continued till death removed first Charles L. and then William H. The firm continues in the same name with several junior partners, one of them being a son of William H. Cor- bin. It has long been recognized as one of the busiest law firms in New Jersey.
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In 1892, Mr. Collins was a delegate to the National Republican Conven- tion that re-nominated President Harrison in 1892; in 1912 was a candi- date on the Republican ticket for Presidential Elector-at-Large, and has frequently led forlorn hopes for his party in the democratic county of Hudson as its candidate for Senator and Congressman, but was not elected to either office. He has declined to permit his name to go before some State Conventions as a candidate for Governor. In 1884 he was nominated on the Republican and Citizens Association's tickets for Mayor of Jersey City. The city had seldom elected a republican Mayor ; but Mr. Collins carried the city by a pronounced majority and conducted a very satis- factory administration of city affairs. While Mayor, he re-asserted the city's right to the South Cove basin, a gift from the state, that, invaded by the American Dock & Improvement Co., was supposed to have been lost by non-acceptance ; and participated, as counsel, subsequently in the liti- gation betweeen the city and the American Dock and Improvement Co. that eventuated in the establishment of the city's claim.
The Mayor, in his professional capacity, acted also as special counsel for various municipalities in the litigations between them and the rail- roads that ensued the passage of the Railroad Tax Act of 1884. Mr. Col- lins had previously been engaged in many important cases that grew out of the confusion as to the interpretation of the Constitutional amendments of 1875. Another important legal controversy in which he took part was one that extended over half a century of time, concerning the zinc mines of Sussex County ; and in the suit brought by the Republican State Sena- tors, elected in the Fall of 1893, to establish their right to seats in the Senate of 1894, when the Democratic "hold-overs" of the "Rump Senate" barred the doors of the Chamber against them. Mr. Collins appeared as counsel for some in the contest that resulted in an opinion seating Senator Rogers of Camden, in the presiding officer's chair.
In 1897 Gov. Griggs nominated Mr. Collins to the State Senate for Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and the confirmation came as a matter of course. When serving on the bench he was an associate with his former partner, Justice Dixon, and the old firm of Dixon & Col- lins seemed to have been re-formed on the Supreme Court Bench. Justice Collins in 1903, a year before the expiration of his term, resigned his seat on the Bench, and resumed his law partnership with the brothers Corbin.
While he was upon the bench Justice Collins received the degree of L. L. D. from Rutgers College. Among his important decisions were one establishing that an unconstitutional act of the legislature was not ipso facto void but might be amended so as to make it constitutional. Another sustained classification of municipalities by their form of incorporations ; and in another his ruling that suicide does not vitiate a life insurance policy unless it be specifically stipulated or intent to commit suicide is shown.
Justice Collins is a member of the Union League and Carteret Clubs of Hudson County ; New Jersey Society of the Revolution, of which Society he was for several years one of the Managers, and Lodge of the Temple No. 110, F. & A. M. He is also a Director of the Hudson County National Bank, New Jersey Title Guarantee & Trust Co., Prudential Insurance Co.
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of America, and the Chapultapec Land Improvement Co., having property in the city of Mexico.
MARY KENDALL LORING COLVIN-(Mrs. Fred H.)-East Orange .- Woman Suffragist. Born in Sterling, Mass .; daughter of Charles H. and Georgianna Porter (Pratt) Loring; married at Sterling, Mass., March 3, 1890, to Fred H. Colvin, son of Henry F. and Harriet Roper Colvin.
Children : Charles, born March 4, 1893; Henry, born March 28, 1898; Roger, born August 31, 1901 (died July 18, 1904).
Mary Kendall Loring Colvin is First Vice-President of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association and is devoting all the time she can spare from her home duties to the promotion of the "Votes-For-Women" Cause. All of her other activities are secondary to that and dependent upon it. In 1915, when the question of woman suffrage was submitted to popular vote in New Jersey, Mrs. Colvin con- ducted "Schools for Watchers and Workers at the Polls" in every county of the state. She prepared a leaflet bearing in- structions for watchers and workers that was so admirable a digest of the election laws as to win the commendation of the Secretary of State. It covered the topics of registration and details as to the method of ap- pointment of watchers, the board of registry, how the vot- ing is done, how canvassed, dis- position of the ballot boxes and electioneering. Through these "schools", the New Jersey Wom- an Suffrage Association found it possible to marshal woman watchers at the polls in more than 1600 out of the 1900 polling places in New Jersey. It was noted as a wonderful showing, in view of the fact that it was the first campaign the women of New Jersey had under- taken and of the timidity of the women about doing such unusual work.
Mrs. Colvin's Revolutionary and pre-Revolutionary ancestry entitles her to membership in all the societies in which such credentials are ac- cepted. Her great-grandfather was in the battle of Monmouth, in the ranks commanded by Lafayette, where he carried the colors of his regi- ment. He was later made a Lieutenant. Mrs. Colvin was educated in the public schools of Massachusetts, and resided in Philadelphia before she came to make her home in this State twenty-three years ago. She became
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deeply interested in the movement for woman suffrage, and, allying her- self with the New Jersey Association, was made its First Vice-President in 1912 and is still serving in that office. Associated Vice Presidents are : Mrs. Ward D. Kerlin, of Camden; Mrs. Robert S. Huse, of Elizabeth : Mrs. John J. White, wife of Judge White, of the Court of Errors and Ap- peals, in Atlantic City ; Mrs. J. Thompson Baker, wife of Ex-Congressman Baker, of Wildwood and Miss Lulu H. Marvel, of Atlantic City.
SAMUEL PANCOAST COMLY - Woodbury - Rear Admiral. Born Woodbury, July 13, 1849; son of Nathan Folwell and Mary (Wood) Comly ; married at Woodbury on Dec. 17, 1884, to Lawra L. Carpenter ; 2'd on Aug. 14, 1895 to Mrs. Hannah L. Hamill of Woodbury, daughter of James C. and Charlotte Hillman Pancoast.
Children : Mary, born Jan. 7, 1SSS; Samuel P., Jr., born Aug. 28, 1900.
Samuel P. Comly has seen wide service in the United States Navy. His earlier education was acquired in the local schools; and, appointed to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, he graduated from there in 1869. He was made Ensign in the Navy in '70, Master in '74, Lieu- tenant in '7S, Lieutenant Commander in '98, Commander in 1901, Captain in 1905, and Rear Admiral in 1909. He retired from active service July 13, 1911.
Admiral Comly participated on the Juniata in the Polaris Search Expedition to Greenland in '74. During the Spanish-American war he was a navigator on the U. S. S. Indiana, and was in action at San Juan, P. R., in the bombardments of Santiago and in the destruction of Cervera's Spanish fleet. In 1910 he was in command of the Fourth Division of the United States Atlantic fleet, and later in the year of the Third Division ; and was engaged in court martial duty from October, 1910, till the day of his retirement, 1911. He has cruised the South Atlantic and South Pacific on the U. S. S. Adams, the waters of China and Japan on the Alliance. In 1901-'02 was the Commander of the training ship Alliance, and later of the battleship Alabama. From 1SS6-89 he was Inspector of Ordinance and Steel at the Midvale Steel works, and he served also as a member of the Special Torpedo Board. In 1904-'05 he was inspector of the Fourth Light- house District, Philadelphia, and three years later a member of the Light- house Board.
Admiral Comly's club memberships are with the Union League, (Phila- delphia ) Army & Navy (Washington ) and the Woodbury Country.
MELVILLE THURSTON COOK-New Brunswick, (212 Law- rence Ave.)-Plant Pathalogist. Born at Coffeen, Ill .. September
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20th, 1869; son of William Harvey and Elizabeth Frances (Robin- son) Cook; married at Flat Rock, Ill., on September Sth, 1897, to Dora Reavill Cook, daughter of Andrew J. and Martha A. (Seany ) Reavill.
Children : Harvey Reavill, born Aug. 20, 1901; Harold Thurs- ton, born Nov. 15, 1903 ; Elizabeth, born July 20, 1906.
Melville T. Cook has been since 1911, Professor of Plant Pathology in Rutgers College and Plant Pathalogist at the New Jersey Agricultural Ex- periment Station at New Brunswick. His father is a physician in Illinois and he studied in the public schools of Illinois and in the preparatory school at Greencastle, Ind. He was for three years in DePauw University, Greencastle, and one year in Leland Stanford Jr. University, graduating with the A. B. degree in 1894. He did graduate work in the Marine Biolog- ical Laboratory at Woods Hall, Mass., Ohio Lake Laboratory at Sandusky, Ohio, the University of Chicago and the Ohio State University. He received the A. M. degree from DePauw University in 1902 and Ph. D. degree from Ohio State University in 1904.
Dr. Cook was Principal of the High School at Vandalia, Ill., 1894-5; Professor of Biology at De Pauw University 1895-1904; Special Lecturer on Compara- tive Anatomy in the Central Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons, Indianapolis, 1902-3; Special Lecturer in Human Embryology in the Medical College of Indi- ana, Indianapolis, 1903-4; Chief of the Department of Plant Pathology and Economic Ento- mology, in the Estacion Central Agronomica, Santiago de las Ve- gas, Cuba, 1904-1906; and was Plant Pathologist, in the Dela- ware Agricultural Experiment Station, at Newark, Del., from 1907 till in 1911 he became Professor of Plant Pathology in Rutgers College and Plant Pathologist in the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.
Dr. Cook is a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Indiana Academy of Science, Botanical Society of America, member of the American Phytopathological Society (Vice President and President ), National Institute of Social Sciences, American Association of Economic Entomologists, Entomological Society of America, American So- ciety of Naturalists, Ecological Society of America, New Brunswick Scien- tific Society (President ), Delta Upsilon Fraternity, Sigma XI, Phi Beta Kappa and a 32nd degree Mason.
He is also the author of "Diseases of Tropical Plants" and a large
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number of contributions to technical botanical journals and agricultural experiment station bulletins.
HOWARD M. COOPER-Camden, (106 Market St.)-Lawyer. Born in Camden, June 24, 1844; son of John and Mary M. (Kaighm) Cooper; married at Philadelphia, Pa., April 22, 1884, to Lucy Smyth, daughter of William C. and Emily B. Smyth, of Philadelphia, Pa.
Children : Emily Cooper Johnson, wife of Edwin J. Johnson, of Philadelphia.
Howard M. Cooper is a graduate of Harverford College, Pennsylvania. He came out with the class of 1864 and the college has since conferred the A. M. degree upon him. He studied law in the office of Peter L. Voorhees and was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1867 and as a counselor in 1870. He has been President of the Camden County Bar Asso- ciation since 1905, was a mem- ber of the New Jersey State Board of Bar Examiners from 1902 to 1912 and is a member of the American Bar Associa- tion and of the New Jersey State Bar Association. In 1885, when The Camden National Bank was incorporated he was made a Director, and its solici- tor, and has held both positions to the present time. He was a member of the State Library Commission from 1906 to 1913 and has been a Trustee of the Camden Free Library since its organization in 1898.
Besides being a practicing lawyer in Camden, Mr. Cooper has local repute as the author of a "Historical Sketch of Cam- den", published in 1909. He is also deeply interested in movements for the amelioration of the condition of the unfortunates in his part of the state. He has been President of the West Jersey Orphanage for Destitute Colored Children from 1883 to date and is President of the Camden County Anti- Tuberculosis Association and of the Camden City Dispensary.
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