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 21
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Rabbi Foster's activities have been ceaseless, as well, in other direc- tions. Among others he was for five years President of the Wednesday Club, one of the leading clubs of the State, with a membership of 500, among whom are many prominent literary and professional men. He is also a member of the Board of the Newark Institute of Arts and Sciences. Before that institute he delivered a course of lectures on Hebrew Liter- ature. He was the organizer, and twice President of the New Jersey Rabbinical Association, is Honorary Director of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and United Hebrew Charities, member Beth Israel Hospital Board of Directors, served as President of Ezekiel Lodge of B'nai Brith: was organizer of the Philonians, a Jewish literary society of men and women : and, during 1911-12, President of the Alumni of the Hebrew Union College and Corresponding Secretary of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. His paper on "The Working Men and the Synagogue," read before
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that Conference in 1909 and published in their Year Book attracted wide attention.
Rabbi Foster is a member of many clubs and organizations in Newark.
CHARLES NEWELL FOWLER-Elizabeth, (Salem Avenue)- Banker, Author. Born at Lena, Ill., on Nov. 2nd, 1852; son of Joshua D. and Rachael (Montague) Fowler; married at Beloit, Wis., April 30, 1879 to Hilda S. Heg, daughter of General H. C. and Cornelia Heg, of Beloit, Wis.
Children : Charles N. Fowler, Jr.
Charles N. Fowler is a lawyer by profession but has been in the banking business for many years. He was a member of the Committee on Banking and Currency of the National House of Representatives and from 1900 to 1909, chairman of the Committee. He is a recognized authori- ty on financial questions in their relation to legislation, and the author of "Seventeen Talks on the Banking Question" and of "National Issues of 1916."
Mr. Fowler is of English descent. His ancestors came across the seas in 1634-both sides, in the same year. He was educated in the public schools of Illinois and prepared for College at Beloit, Wis. He graduated at Yale University. 1896, and the University of Chicago Law Department in 1898. Coming to New Jersey thirty-five years ago, he settled in Eliza- beth, where he has a handsome home, and engaged actively in the discus- sion of public questions.
In 1894 Mr. Fowler was nominated for Member of Congress by the republicans of the third district and elected. Re-elections extended the period of his service over the sixteen years between 1895 and 1911. While chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, he engaged in a controversy with Speaker Cannon that attracted nation-wide atten- tion. In 1910 he became a candidate in the preferential primary for United States Senator and received 36,000 votes.
Congressman Fowler has been noted for his opposition to machine rule in politics and for his independence in dealing with political and public questions. He has been frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for Governor but has never actively sought nomination.
CHARLES ASA FRANCIS-Long Branch .- Merchant. Born at Keyport on Oct. 28th, 1855.
Charles Asa Francis was for years an active Republican politician in Monmouth county and at one time was regarded as a considerable factor in state politics, having held very many town offices and served in both branches of the Legislature. He is an active church worker, high up in the fraternities, and a conspicious Jr. O. U. A. M. member.
Educated at the old school in Turkey, a Monmouth county town, and
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at Freehold, he began business life as a clerk for the New Jersey Central Railroad at Sandy Hook. In 1891 he went into the grocery business at North Long Branch as the junior member of the firm of Hoyt & Francis.
Taking to politics he was elected a Commissioner of the town of Long Branch in 1884 and again in '85, '86 and 'S7. In 1893, on both tickets, he received the total vote at the municipal election for Commissioner-at-Large. He was a member of the Board of Education for some years and in '89 was elected its Secretary. He has been Mayor of Long Branch and was Postmaster under Presidents Arthur and Harrison.
In 1894 he was elected to the New Jersey House of Assembly and re-elected in '96. He was promoted to the Senate of 1897, and re-elected to that of 1900, serving until the close of the session of 1902. He has been a delegate to several State Conventions, and served as Alternate or dele- gate at one or two of the National Conventions.
He is a member of the Long Branch Lodge, F. & A. M .; Standard Chapter, R. A. M .; Corson Commandery, Knights Templar; Sea View Lodge, I. O. O. F .; Hollywood Council, Jr. O. U. A. M., Long Branch Coun- cil Royal Arcanum, and Progressive Council, Benefit Association, a branch of the Royal Arcanum.
ALDEN FREEMAN-East Orange .- Author and Political Re- former. Born Cleveland, O., May 25, 1862; son of Joel Francis and Francis Maria (Abbey) Freeman.
Many of the reforms that resulted from the Progressive movement in New Jersey, and subsequently throughout the country, had their inspi- ration in agitations that Alden Freeman was largely instrumental in arous- ing. Mr. Freeman retired from business in 1889; and traveled throughout the world, which gave him opportunities for the study of social condi- tions and the religious, philosophical and political ideas of other nations at first hand, turned his attention to like problems at home. A subsequent journey across the seas brought him into contact with Count Tolstoi and Prince Kropotkin. The Prince presented him with a copy of his latest book, "The Terror in Russia" inscribed on the fly leaf "To Alden Freeman, the Plucky Pioneer of Free Speech in a 'Free Country'"
Mr. Freeman is descended directly, on his mother's side, from John Alden of the Mayflower. Among her other ancestors were Jean Vassall, a Huguenot refugee to England who equipped and commanded two ships of war against the Spanish Armada, and William Harvey, envoy sent by Queen Mary to declare war against France in 1557. Judge Seth Alden Abbey, his grand-father, enlisted during the Civil War at the age of 63 as first lieutenant in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry; and Captain Thomas Abbey, his great great grand-father, was Adjutant in the Chester (Conn.) Regi- ment during the Revolution. Captain Abbey's statue stands on the Green in Enfield, Conn. The Freeman immigrant ancestor was Judge Henry Freeman of Woodbridge, whose tombstone stands in the Presbyterian Churchyard amidst the graves of seven generations of his descendants,
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Mr. Freeman's early education was acquired in the schools, common and High, of Cleveland, O., and he was graduated at the New York Uni- versity with the B. S. degree in 1882. In 1881 he was chief editor of the University Quarterly which published the first complete and authorized account of the life and works of Richard Grant White. Later he studied architecture with Lorenzo B. Wheeler in New York and served as loan clerk in the Seaboard National Bank of New York. He became afterwards a salesman for Talbot Phillips & Co., wholesale coal dealers, of New York. Retiring from business in 1889 he devoted the next ten years largely to the rearing and training of horses. In his stables at East Orange were .
many horses that won prizes at horse shows in four - in - hands, tandems and single harness.
When Mr. Freeman returned from Europe in 1902 he entered energetic- ally into movements look- ing to the reform of politi- cal and social conditions in the state. He helped to form the Citizens Union of East Orange and became its Secretary. The Union was organized to advocate the management of municipal affairs on economic business princi- ples and without regard to political considerations and to arouse public senti- ment in the conduct of the municipal government It elected eight of its candi- dates, and aided subsequently in the defeat of Major Carl Lentz. In 1903 the Union followed up its success by forcing the retirement, from the local republican leadership, of Edgar Williams ; and it has since been a power- ful influence in East Orange affairs. It has promoted an independent water supply, tree planting, school lecture system, neighborhood parks and play grounds, and election of women to the Board of Education.
When sitting on a grand jury that indicted the directors of the North Jersey Traction Company for the death of nine High School children in the Newark collision of 1903, Mr. Freeman learned of conditions that, dis- closed, were followed by important political results. In 1905 he became an independent candidate for Alderman in East Orange and in 1906 made a canvas as an independent candidate for Mayor.
Mr. Freeman was the owner of the Newark weekly paper "Truth" which championed the rights of "plain people;" and, as an advocate of free speech, opened his barn to Emma Goldman when she was barred by the East Orange police from a public hall. He was identified with the
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defeat of the constitutional judiciary amendments which he regarded as designed to increase the power of the corporations over the courts of the state. He was early in the fight for limited franchises, and a lieutenant of Everett Colby in his fight against special privilege. His book, "A Year in Politics" and a pamphlet on "Corporation Rule in New Jersey" were factors in the discussions over the relations of the corporations to the communities. The source of the reforms in the new primary law, in the new railroad tax law, in that for the taxation of public utility franchises and the state civil service commission, is to be found in the theories which Mr. Freeman has forced into discussion.
Mr. Freeman in 1900 founded the New Jersey Society of Mayflower Descendants and was its historian for several years. He is a trustee of the Revolutionary Memorial Society of New Jersey, was for ten years a mem- ber of the Council of the Society of Colonial Wars and of the Council of the Founders and Patriots of America. He was Treasurer of the Council of the Huguenot Society of America, and of the Old Dominion Pilgrimage Committee which did preliminary work for the Jamestown Exposition. He is a member of the Metropolitan, University, Players, National Arts, Re- form, City and New York Yacht Clubs of New York City, the Washington Association of New Jersey, the New Jersey Historical Society, the Descend- ants of Colonial Governors, the Sons of the Revolution, the St. Nicholas Society of New York, the New England Society of Orange, the Essex Coun- ty Country Club, the Psi Upsilon and Phi Beta Kappa fraternities, the Veteran Corps of Artillery (Military Society of the War of 1912) and the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati.
ELOISE WOOL TELFAIR FREEMAN (Mrs. Charles Dan- forth) -Iselin .- Social Worker. Born in New York City, in 1865, daughter of Jacob R. and Anna Augusta (Comstock) Telfair ; married at Richmond Borough, N. Y., in 1890, to Charles Danforth Freeman.
Mrs. Freeman is President of the Mercy Committee of New Jersey which was organized for emergency relief in 1915. It was incorporated under the New Jersey State laws in 1916 and is doing work that attracts international attention in the relief of distress in France, Belgium and Serbia. Before the declaration of War against Germany by the United States the Mercy Committee was growing rapidly ; early in 1917 it had up- wards of 300 members. This Government's participation has enormously increased its labors and given to its work a more tragic interest at home than was anticipated when the Committee held its first meeting in Plain- field in 1915. The exigencies of the World War and the demands for succor have made the Committee a constantly growing beneficence, and it is strong in members all over the State.
Among Mrs. Freeman's ancestors were Captain Isaiah Wool and the Telfairs of Savannah. Georgia. Edward Telfair was a signer on behalf of the State of Georgia in 1777 of the Articles of Confederation under which
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the United States were governed before the adoption of the Federal Con- stitution in 1789.
Mrs. Freeman was educated at Mme. Valencias and Mlle. Tardivale's schools in America and at Mlle. Borck's school abroad. She studied law at the New York University and is an alumnae of the University. She is a member of the National Institute of Social Science, the Colony Club and the Women's City Club. Through Captain Wool she is eligible to nearly all patriotic societies and is a Colonial Dame of New York. She is a member also of many leagues of the National Civic Federation and of the suffrage societies of New York.
Mrs. Freeman's New York City home is at 64 East 77th Street.
MARY ELEANOR WILKINS FREEMAN-Metuchen .- Author. Born in Massachusetts, daughter of Warren E. and Eleanor (Lothrop) Wilkins ; married at Metuchen, on January 1, 1902, to Charles Manning Freeman, son of Manning M. Freeman.
The short story tries the skill of the writer as never does the more elaborate novel. The power of framing a picture in a line is a rarer gift then the ability to frame it in a page. The short story is made by the in- cisive analysis that flashes the character to the mind of the reader in a single phrase ; and authors agree that skill in producing it is the higher demonstration of literary genius. Mary E. Wilkins Free- man has for many years enjoyed the distinction of being the lea- der among the short story writ- ers of this country. Mrs. Free- man had achieved fame before she came to New Jersey to marry Dr. Freeman. Dr. Free- man is himself the son of a man who was for many years a large factor in the politics of Middlesex County.
Mrs. Freeman has no very ac- curate knowledge of her ances- try, though it was presumably Puritan. A fore-bear on the ma- ternal side led a company at Concord in "King Philips War," and she has some grounds for thinking that she may be, if not a direct, at any rate a collateral descendent of Bishop John Wilkins of London, who flourished about the 16th century and who besides being notable ecclesiastically was a theoretical inventor. He is said to have anticipated the present age by designing automobiles and flying machines, which, manifestly, however, were not shining successes, and
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if he had lived long enough he would have been Lord High Treasurer of London. After the death, at 17, of her sister, who had much musical genius, and of her mother and father, she went to live with friends in Ran- dolph, Mass., and was educated at a Vermont high school, at Mt. Holyoke and in a Vermont boarding school.
Miss Wilkins first offerings were chiefly at poems for children ; a little later, prose for St. Nicholas and Youth's Companion ; eventually, her work attracting attention, she found easy access to Harper's Bazar and Harper's Magazine. In her short story writings she has ventured into widely dif- ferent fields but as a rule has taken the characters of her home localities for the settings for her work. Her first book "A Humble Romance and Other Stories," published in 1SS9, took immediate rank for its delineation of New England character, and won the congratulations of Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell. It was the first revelation of her skill in drawing homely sketches, always accurate, in the simplest homeliest words and giving an air of vivid reality to the settings. There was more beauty and pathos,-and abundant humor too,-in her collection, "A New England Nun and Other Stories," published in 1891. This has been fol- lowed by a long series of other short stories that have appeared in the. magazines in all parts of the country.
It was not until 1892 that Mrs. Freeman ventured to put her first novel, "Jane Field," before the public. Her "Giles Corey, Yeoman" was the basis for a play, founded on witch-craft incidents, that was presented in Boston by the Theatre of Arts and Letters. Her "Penbroke" was a novel but characterized as a book of short stories, each one with its own situation and dramatic interest, strung together in a skein of family ties and village community-the record of the heart tragedies of a dozen men and women portrayed with exceptional beauty of style and delicacy in delineation. The English press said of it that George Elliot had never done anything finer. In her novel, "Madelon," she emerged from her Puritan atmosphere and offered the public the first thoroughly constructed novel her pen had yet produced. Some others of Mrs. Freeman's works are: "Jerome" (1897) ; "Silence" (1898) ; "The Love of Parson Lord,, (1900) ; "The Hearts Highway,, (1900) ; "The Debtor," "By the Light of the Soul." "The Portion of Labor," "Understudies" (1901) ; "Six Trees" (1903) ; "The Wind in the Rose Bush" (1903) ; "The Givers" (1904) ; "Doc. Gordon" (1906) : "By the Light of the Soul" (1907) ; "Shoulders of Atlas" (1908) ; "Winning Lady" (1909) ; "Green Door" (1910) ; "Butterfly House" (1912) ; "Copy-Cat and Other Stories" (1914) ; "Also the Jamesons," and "People of our Neighbor- hood," (serially in Ladies Home Journal. )
Mrs. Freeman is a member of the Council of the Authors League of America and a non-resident member of other clubs.
FREDERICK FRELINGHYSEN-Newark. (750 Broad Street.) -President Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. Born in Newark, September 30ch, 1848; son of Frederick T. and Matilda (Griswold) Frelinghysen; married July 23rd, 1902, to Estelle B., daughter of Thomas T. Kinney.
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Children : Frederick, August 12, 1903 ; Thomas Kinney, February 7, 1905; Theodore, 1907; George Griswold, December 20, 1908; Estelle Condit, May 7, 1911.
The family of President Frelinghysen has long been famous in the annals of New Jersey's civic, political and military life. No family in the state has given to History so many distinguished names. It was founded in this country by the Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghysen, who was called in 1718 from Hanover, by the Congregation of Raritan, to serve as its pastor. His father had been a minister in the land across the seas be- fore him. Parson Frelinghysen was deep in the controversies that rent the Dutch Church at the opening of the 18th century, and largely instru- mental in securing the independence of the Church in this country. He was a man of great power; George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards declared him to be "one of the greatest Divines in the American Church."
With the family predilection for the pulpit, the parson's wife marked out her son, Frederick, (born 1753) for the ministry also. But he turned to the law, and became a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey that in 1776 declared the colony free from the domination of the mother country. He served afterwards in the Continental Congress, joined the "Minute Men," and figured during the Revolutionary struggle in the battles of Monmouth and Trenton, rising in rank until, when independence was de- clared, he had become a Colonel. He rendered active service afterwards in the "Whisky Insurrection," in Pennsylvania, and was made a Major General.
One of the sons, Theodore, (born 1787) was a distinguished lawyer, who served as Mayor of Newark for two years and a term in the United States Senate, was candidate for Vice President of the United States with Henry Clay in 1828; and, at the time of his death, was Chancellor of the Universi- ty of New York.
One of the other sons was named Frederick, after the General himself. Frederick T., son of the second Frederick, rose to even greater distinction in his day, as a lawyer, orator and statesman, than others of the family had achieved. He studied law in the office of his uncle, Theodore; entered on the practice of his profession in Newark, became Attorney General of the State of New Jersey and was chosen by the Legislature of 1867 to succeed William Wright in the United States Senate. The Legislature of 1869, that elected a new Senator at the expiration of his term, was not of his party, and he was displaced ; but two years later he was re-chosen Senator for the full term until 1877. Those days were the troublous ones of the "Reconstruction Period," climaxing in the dispute, in 1876, over the results of the Presidential election of that year. Senator Frelinghysen was one of the Committee that devised the plan for the peaceful settlement of a controversy that for months threatened the nation with the horrors of an- other Civil War. President Arthur, who went into the White House after the death of President Garfield, selected Senator Frelinghysen for the first place in his Cabinet and, as Secretary of State, he exhibited as a diplomat as fine qualities as he had exhibited in statesmanship. Prior to that Presi- dent Grant had tendered to him the Ambassadorship to Great Britain and that to Berlin, but he declined both. He was deeply interested, too, in the
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Church, and at the time of his death was President of the American Bible Society.
Frederick Frelinghysen, now President of the Mutual Benefit Insur- ance Company, was one of his sons. Mr. Frelinghysen was educated at the Newark Academy and Rutger's College; and, like his father, chose the law for his profession. He studied in his father's office, was admitted to the Bar in 1871 and made a Counselor at law in 1874. He devoted himself largely to Chancery cases, and had a large practice of that class. When Newark was startled by the failure of the Mechanics National Bank, the United States Treasury Department selected Mr. Frelinghysen to act as re- ceiver. Thus drawn into the banking life of the city, he was, in 1877, made President of the Howard Savings Institution, (Newark), and re- mained at the head of that bank until 1902, when he resigned to accept the Presidency of the Mutual Benefit Insurance Company, (Newark), as suc- cessor to the late Vice Chancellor Amzi Dodd.
Besides his legal, financial and insurance activities, Mr. Frelinghysen has taken a deep interest in the state militia, and in political and church . work. He was Captain of the famous Essex Troop of Cavalry, and served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1916.
Mr. Frelinghysen resides in the Frelinghysen homestead, facing Mili- tary Park in Newark. In front of it, in the park, stands a bronze figure of his father, the late Secretary of State.
JOSEPH S. FRELINGHUYSEN-Raritan .- Insurance. Born in Raritan, on March 12, 1869; son of Frederick John and Victoria Frelinghuysen.
Joseph S. Frelinghuysen is United States Senator from New Jersey, having been nominated in the Republican primary of 1916 and elected at the polls in November. He was sworn in at Washington as a member of the War Senate, March 4, 1917, and began the active discharge of his Senatorial functions in April at a special session called by President Wilson to prepare for the war exigencies. In business the Senator is in control of a large in- surance agency in New York City.
Senator Frelinghuysen bears a name that has long been distinguished in the military and political life and in the scholarship and statesmanship of the nation. He is of a family that traces its aucestry back to the Rev. Theodorus Frelinghuysen, a noted divine who came from Holland in 1720 and who was the pioneer in establishing the Reformed Dutch Church in New Jersey. In collateral branches of the family were Major General Frelinghuysen of Revolutionary fame, General John Frelinghuysen, an officer in the War of 1812, and Theodore Frelinghuysen, United States Senator, Chancellor of the University of New York and candidate for Vice President with Clay on the Whig ticket in 182S. Senator Frelinghuysen's father, Frederick John, was a lawyer closely identified with the religious and political life of Somerset County.
With a family atmosphere of this character, Joseph S. Frelinghuysen took, almost by instinct, to public affairs. He was preparing for college
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when the stress of circumstances forced him to seek employment and be- came a clerk in a fire insurance office.
At the outbreak of the Spanish American War, Mr. Frelinghuysen went to the front as Second Lieutenant of Troop 3, Squadron "A" New York Cav- alry and won his spurs as Brevet First Lieutenant for services at Porto Rico. Made a member of the Somerset County Republican Committee, he became its Chairman; and in 1902 was given the Republican nomination for State Senator from the county. His democratic opponent was Senator Childs who was seeking re-election. The county is a close one and Mr. Frelinghuysen won by a narrow majority. In 1905 he met Senator Childs as an antagonist for a second time, and defeated him by about 1,000 votes. When he stood for re-election in 1908, Nelson Y. Dungan was his democratic op- ponent, and the republican trend of the day carried him through the poll for the third time. In the Senate he became known as the "Father of the Automobile Law," and devoted himself, be- sides to legislation helpful to the agriculturalists.
. Senator Frelinghuysen was af- terwards Chairman of a special senate committee that made a scrutiny of school conditions all over the state; and some sur- prising revelations as to the methods of the local school boards resulted in legislation for the re-organization of the school
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