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 23
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Mr. Gavit served five years in the Signal Corps of the Connecticut Na- tional Guard. He is a member of Temple Lodge, No. 14, F. and A. M., of Albany, of the National Institute of Social Sciences, of the Gridiron and National Press Clubs of Washington, the Lotos Club of New York, and the Knickerbocker Country Club of Tenafly.
WILLIAM C. GEBHARDT-Clinton .- Lawyer. Born at Cro- ton (Hunterdon County), March 28, 1859; son of G. W. and Jane Cavanagh Gebhardt ; married at Frenchtown, on June 24th, 1886, to Evelina F. Reading, daughter of Philip G. and Evelina Evans Reading, of Frenchtown.
Children : Elinor Reading, wife of Herbert Clark Gilson : Clara Allen ; Evelina Evans; William Reading, lawyer; Philip Read- ing.
William C. Gebhardt is Clerk of the Supreme Court of the State, and in the State Senate where he served for nine years was regarded as a forceful member on the democratic side.
Senator Gebhardt whose family coat of arms traces its ancestry back to 1330, graduated from the Clinton Institute, read law in the office of
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Theodore Hoffman and was admitted to the bar at the June term of 1884 as an Attorney and three years later as a counselor. He has since
done business in Clinton, and, besides, maintained an office in Jersey City.
His public work began when he was made Corporation Coun- sel of the town of Clinton. He filled that position for ten years and was also President of the local Board of Education. He had held position as a school principal before he studied law. In 1900 he was elected by a plurality of 1281 to represent Hunterdon County in the State Senate and re-elected in 1906 and 1909. The majority of 2237 by which he won in the third campaign was the largest ever cast for a senatorial candidate in Hunterdon. Senator Geb- hardt's senatorial work was featured particularly by his ad- vocacy of the Wilson Progressive policies and of local option ; and Governor Wilson after the expiration of Senator Gebhardt's thir term appointed him to the office of Clerk of the Supreme Court to succeed Joseph P. Tumulty who had resigned the place to become President Wilson's Private Secre- tary. Senator Gebhardt's term will expire in 1918.
Senator Gebhardt is President of the First National Bank and a mem- ber of the Somerville Country Club.
JOHANNES SOPHUS GELERT - South Orange. - Sculptor. Born in Nybel Schleswig, Denmark (Prussia), December 10, 1852; son of Ludwig Christian Frederick and Constance Andrea (Petersen) Gelert ; married in Chicago in 1896, to Georgine J. B. Sundberg.
Children : Carl Robert, born in 1900; Alfred Christian, born in 1901; Elsa Ingeborg, born in 1903.
Johannes Sophus Gelert attended the village schools in Schleswig from 1859 to '65, spent a year at the schools in Copenhagen, and from 1870 to '75 studied art at the Royal Academy at Copenhagen. He began his artis- tic career in 1867 as an apprentice at wood carving. After his graduation from the Royal Academy of Copenhagen he made a tour through Germany and then worked for fifteen months in Paris. In 1878 at the Salon he ex- hibited a colossal group representing the Norse God, Thor, combating a bull. From 1879 to 1882 he was engaged on large monumental works in Berlin ; and in 1882 executed several decorative statutes for a theatre in
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Copenhagen. He afterwards studied at Rome on a scholarship awarded by the Danish government.
Mr. Gelert became a resident of the United States in 1887 and was ad- mitted to citizenship in 1892. He worked at his art in Chicago until 1898 and since then has been established in New York City. He exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 (member International Jury of Award), Paris Exposition 1900 (honorary mention), Nashville Centen- nial Exposition, 1897 (gold medal), Philadelphia Art Club, (for group "The Little Architect" (gold medal), American Art Society, Philadelphia (gold medal) and Buffalo Exposition (honorary mention.)
Among Mr. Gelert's important works are: Four statues representing Roman Civilization, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences ; portrait statue of Col. Stevens, founder of Minneapolis; portrait statue of Furman Uni- versity of Tennessee, Nashville; statue representing Denmark, for United States Custom House, New York City; colossal group representing the Struggle for Work, at World's Columbian Exposition; statue representing Napoleon the Great, for the Missouri State Building at the Louisiana Pur- chase Exposition ; statue representing Gothic Art for the Fine Arts Build- ing in St. Louis ; Haymarket Policeman Statue (Haymarket Square) and Beethoven and Anderson statues (Lincoln Park), Chicago; Grant's statue in Galena, Ill. and nine statues and a frieze in marble for the Bergen Coun- ty Courthouse at Hackensack.
Mr. Gelert is a member of the National Sculptors Society and of the Architectural League. His studio is at 11 E. 14th street, New York City.
ALEXANDER GILBERT-Plainfield .- Banker. Born at Eliz- abeth, August 10, 1839; son of Thomas and Phebe (Matthews) Gilbert ; married on June 6, 1865, to Louise F. Randolph, daughter of Isaac F. and Isabella F. Randolph of New Durham.
Alexander Gilbert has been President since 1897 of The Market and Fulton National Bank of New York. He was Mayor of Plainfield on a repub- lican nomination for the six years between 1891 and 1897. In 1892 he represented the 5tli Congressional District in the Re- publican National Convention at Minneapolis that put President Harrison in renomination. In 1908 he was one of the Presi- dential Electors who cast the vote of New Jersey for William H. Taft for President.
Mr. Gilbert was Secretary of the New York Clearing House Associa-
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tion in 1894 and 1895, a member of the Clearing House Committee in 1904 and 1905, and its President in 1906 and 1907.
He is connected with the New York Board of Trade, the New York City Chamber of Commerce, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the Pilgrim Society. He is also a member of the Union League Club of New York and of the Plainfield Country Club.
Mr. Gilbert early in life chose the banking business for his occupa- tion ; and from '63 to '97 was Cashier of The Market and Fulton National Bank of New York; and in 1897 he was elected its President and con- tinued as such until January 1, 1917, when he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. He is the Dean of the New York Clearing House Bankers.
FREDERICK W. GNICHTEL-Trenton .- Lawyer. Born in Newark, June 20, 1860, son of Frederick and Amelia (Lightlove) Gnichtel ; married August 15, 1SSS, at Trenton, to Caroline Callis Stevenson, daughter of George Hartman Stevenson. Children : One daughter.
The family of F. W. Gnichtel came from Weimar, Saxony, Germany, immediately after the collapse of the Revolution in 1848 and 1849; some members of the family had taken an active part in the up-rising there. They settled in Newark, where he was born and lived until 1881. His edu- cation was acquired in the public schools of Newark; and he en- tered the offices of J. Franklin Fort and J. A. Cobb to study law. Meanwhile he studied shorthand, practiced it in New York for a time, went to Tren- ton in 1SS1 and has lived there since. Chief Justice Beasley ap- pointed him law reporter and official stenographer of his cir- cuit, and he found the opportun- ity between times to engage in newspaper work for many years. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1893, and has practiced law in Trenton ever since.
When Mr. Gnichtel became in- terested in public affairs, he act- ed with the Republican party ; in 1901 was elected to the Tren- ton Common Council, and re- elected in 1903. During his two terms he was Chairman of the Finance Committee, and leader of the majority. In 1905 he was elected Mayor of the city ; at the end of his term he declined a re-nomination. The
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acquaintance with municipal problems he had acquired in the two city ยท offices, led Governor Stokes to appoint him a member of the Commission to Investigate the Laws governing Municipalities. His report was an argu- ment in favor of complete Home-Rule for the government of cities, which was afterward so widely urged throughout the state.
In May, 1909, was appointed by Governor Fort to act ad interim as Judge of the Mercer County Common Pleas; in 1910 Fort appointed him for the full term of five years. His term expired on April 1, 1915. The state having a democratic Governor, he failed of re-appointment. In 1910 he was an active member of a committee organized to secure the passage of an act permitting the cities of the state, on a referendum, to discard their existing forms of municipal government for the "short ballot" system of Commission Rule. The act the committee framed was passed by the legis- lature; and, later he took an active part in the movement that culminated in the acceptance of the act by the people of Trenton. Thirty-seven cities have adopted the Commission Rule System. In June, 1916, he was elected President of the New Jersey Bar Association.
CARLTON GODFREY-Atlantic City .- Lawyer. Born at Bees- leys Point, Cape May county, January 13, 1865.
Carlton Godfrey represented the county of Atlantic, in the New Jersey House of Assembly for three terms, and in 1915 was Speaker of the House. He had previously, while serving, as City Solicitor of Atlantic City, drawn the charter under which the city was operated from 1902 until the form of government was changed to the Commission Rule System. He directed the movement that obtained for Atlantic City almost all of five miles of ocean front for park purposes and secured the necessary legislation. The better roads that have since been provided for the territory in and near the coast resort are largely the product of his energy.
Speaker Godfrey was educated in the public schools, and himself taught school until he entered the office of James B. Nixon, then of At- lantic City but later of Camden, as a law student. Admitted to the Bar in 1889, he has since practiced the profession in Atlantic City. His first partnership was with Burrows C. Godfrey formed in 1894 and continued until 1914, when Burrows C. died, and Speaker Godfrey associated himself with H. Starr Giddings and Raymond P. Read under the firm name of Godfrey, Giddings & Read.
He took a deep interest in school matters and was a member of the Board of Education and Atlantic City for twelve years. He has the dis- tinction too of being one of the very few in New Jersey who have served as Secretary of a local Building and Loan Association continuously for a period of more than twenty-five years.
Mr. Godfrey has been President of the Guarantee Trust Company of Atlantic City since its organization in 1900, and in the same year became President of the West Jersey Title & Guaranty Company. He is a member
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of the New Jersey Bankers Association and in 1906-1907 was its Presi- dent.
RUDOLPH J. GOERKE-Newark, (634 Clinton Avenue. )-Mer- chant. Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., September 19th, 1867; son of Rudolph J. and Pauline (Heinz) Goerke; married at Brooklyn, January 23rd, 1895, to Ottilie N. Van Velsor, of Flushing, L. I. Children : four girls and two boys.
Rudolph J. Goerke has been for many years a conspicuous figure in the mercantile life of the upper part of New Jersey. His parents were born in Germany, and came thence to Brooklyn, where the elder Mr. Goerke made the acquaintance that eventuated in his marriage to Miss Heinz. The father soon afterwards went into business, opening a house furnishing store in that city.
There Mr. Goerke, while completing his studies in the public and high schools of the city, obtained the early business training that fitted him for the greater enterprises of his later years. He had scarcely passed man- hood years when he and his brother launched out for themselves with a department store at Broadway and Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn. Under the firm name of Goerke Bros. they made it a going venture, and continued at that location until changes in the character of the purchasing popula- tion compelled the closing of the store, and moved Mr. Goerke to seek other fields for his activities.
He came to Newark twenty years ago ; and, looking for a site for a new venture, he was quick to see the trade opportunities of the Market street corner of Broad in that city. That corner had already became locally notable for its surging throng of way farers. It has since risen to the third place among the population centers of the United States. Mr. Goerke fore-saw its greater destiny, and picked it as the scene of his new business enterprise. The department store he established there grew in popularity until "Goerke's store" and "The Four Corners" came to mean the same thing in the Newark mind.
So, when the subway tube to New York was projected with a terminal at one end of Military Park and the imposing terminal building of the Public Service Corporation was reared at the other end, Mr. Goerke saw the new drift of the moving throng, and opened his new store on the Cedar street corner of Broad street, across the way from the Park. The new growth the business has experienced there, has more than vindicated his judgement. In collaboration with E. A. Kirch of Newark, Mr. Goerke, in March of 1913, opened the first department store in Elizabeth, which from the very opening of its doors has been a success.
Mr. Goerke has been largely interested in all matters that make for the up-build of Newark as a commercial and business metropolis ; and, as a member of the Newark City Committee of 100, contributed towards the success of the City's 250th birthday festivities from May to October of 1916. He is a member of the Board of Trade, Director in the Dime Sav- ings Bank and the Clinton Trust Company, Newark: a large factor in
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several building and loan associations, and associated with golfing and motoring organizations.
JOHN KINSEY GORE-Orange, (59 High Street.)-Actuary. Born in Newark, Feb. 3, 1864. son of George Witherden and Mary Lewis (Kinsey) Gore; married at Newark, in 1898, to Jeannette Littell, daughter of John Meeker Littell and Amelia Littell, of Newark.
Israel Gore, to whom Mr. Gore's family traces its lineage, came from Margate, England, and settled in Newark in 1826. He was a physician and surgeon and acquired a large practice and a wide professional repu- tation. His son, George Witherden Gore, born in Margate, England, in 1824, came with his father and mother to this country, and in 1848 married Miss Kinsey. Miss Kinsey was of Quaker stock, and of a family that had long been prominent in Burlington County.
Mr. and Mrs. George Witherden Gore lived in Newark at the time of the birth of John Kinsey Gore. Mr. Gore studied in the public schools of Newark ; and, when he entered the High School in 1870, he was noted for having qualified for admission at an exceptionally early age. He af- terwards went to Columbia University (1879-'83), where he graduated with the A. B. degree. Three years later the College conferred the A. M. degree upon him. While in College, he taught in an evening school and found occasional employment as a bookkeeper; and, after graduation he became a teacher - eventually Vice Principal - in the Woodbury School in New York City, a scientific preparatory school.
It was not however until he was drawn into insurance activities that he found his life calling. In 1891 he was given a position as a clerk in the Actuarial Department of the Prudential Insurance Company in Newark, and rose rapidly from one position of responsibility to the higher one. He had been with the company only three years when he was made its Mathe- matician. A year later he was promoted to the position of Assistant Actuary, and two years later placed at the head of the Actuarial Depart- ment. Mr. Gore still holds that position. In 1907 he was elected a member of the Board of Directors and in 1912 became Vice President.
From the first he entered into the spirit of his work; and, among other improvements in business methods, in 1896, invented a system of recording and tabulating statistics that has since been in use by the Company, and has also been utilized by other companies. Meanwhile Mr. Gore has found time to devote to the life of the community around him, and made his influence felt in public and civic affairs. In 1895 he was elected a member of the old Board of Education of Newark, and he is at present a member of the Board of Sinking Fund Commissioners of Orange.
Mr. Gore is the author of several articles on vital statistics and ac- tuarial subjects, including "Should Life Insurance Companies Discriminate against Women?", "The Improvement in Longevity in the United States in the Nineteenth Century," and "Is Human Life Lengthening?"
Mr. Gore is a member of Columbia University Club, the New Jersey
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American Mathematical Society, the Actuarial Society of America (its President, 1908-'10), the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, Newark Board of Trade, New Jersey Automobile & Motor Club, New England Society of Orange (its President, 1912-'13), and Hope Lodge, F. & A. M. East Orange.
WARREN LEE GOSS-Rutherford .- Author. Born at Brew- ster, Mass., on Aug. 19, 1835; son of William W. and Hannah (Foster) Goss; married in Feb. 1871 to Emily A. Torbush, of Norwich, Conn.
Children : Harry T., born Oct. 20, 1871, a Mechanical Engineer, firm Goss & Brice, New York City.
An enthusiastic veteran of the Civil War, Warren Lee Goss's writings, most of them, have a martial flavor. He started out with the idea of being a lawyer; but, the Rebellion breaking out meanwhile, his patriotic ardor was aroused, and he enlisted as a private in the United States Engineers in 1861. When the term of his enlistment ran out in 1863 he re-enlisted as a sergeant of Co. H of the 2nd Regiment, Mass. Captured, he had a taste of life in a southern military prison at Libby and Andersonville and later at the prison on the Charleston Fair Grounds and at Florence, South Carolina. He served until the close of hostilities, and, when he was dis- charged in Nov. 1865, sat down and wrote the "Soldier's Story of Cap- tivity at Andersonville," (1866). In 1887 "The Century" in its War Series printed eight chapters of his "Recollections of a Private," and in 1880 these were embodied in a volume with added chapters. "Jed," now in its 28th thousand, was published in 1889; "Tom Clifton" in 1892, "Jack Alden" in 1895, "In the Navy" in 1908, "Boys' and Girls' Life of Grant" in 1911 and "The Boy's Life of General Sheridan" in 1913 are others of his offerings-all books on the Civil War and written to promote patriot- ism. In his "English Review of the Civil War," published in the "North American Review" in July, 1889, Lord Wolseley, Adjutant-General of the British Army, especially commended Mr. Goss's articles on the "Recol- lection of a Private" for general study. "For, after all," Lord Wolseley wrote,' "questions of strategy and of tactics and of the importance of organization of all kinds, turn upon the effect which is ultimately pro- duced on the spirit and well being and fighting efficiency of the private soldier."
Mr. Goss is descended, on his father's side, from Colonel or General William Goss who, after or just before the Restoration, together with his father-in-law General Edward Whalley, both of them military officers under Oliver Cromwell, and also members of the Court that tried and convicted Charles I. of high crimes and treason and condemned him therefore to death, fled from England and went into hiding in Western Massachusetts. His mother was decended in the ninth generation from Elder William Brewster pastor of the Mayflower through his daughter Patience who married Governor William Prence. When his son graduated and went into business in New York City, Mr. Goss moved his home from Norwich, Conn. to Rutherford to give his only son a home.
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Mr. Goss was educated at the Pierce Academy, Middleboro, Mass., and took a course in 1860, '61 at the Harvard Law School. Since the close of his servire in the army he has been engaged largely as editor and magazine writer. From 1873 to '76 he was President of the National Union of ex- prisoners of War and in 1890 its historian. He was for five years on the staff of the Commander-in-chief of the G. A. R. and for two years officiated as its National Patrictic Instructor.
Mr. Goss's club and society membership are with the G. A. R., the Society of American Authors, etc.
GEORGE JAY GOULD-Lakewood .- Capitalist. Born in New York, February 6, 1864 ; son of Jay and Helen Day (Miller) Gould ; married September 14, 1886 to Edith M. Kingdom.
George J. Gould has been making his home in New Jersey for some years. His estate at Lakewood is one of the most imposing in the country. His father was the most potent railroad magnate in the world of his day, and George Jay Gould, as the head of the family the late Jay Gould left, has succeeded to the functions in the railroad and business world that were engaging his father's attentions when he died. Mr. Gould's adminis- tration of the estate left by Jay Gould has multiplied its value many fold.
Mr. Gould was educated by private tutors and first came into the busi- ness life of the country as a clerk in the banking house of W. E. Connor & Co., New York, in which his father was a controlling partner. Mr. Gould succeeded his father in the partnership in December, 1885 and became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in February of the following year. He entered the railway service in April, 1SSS as President of the Little Rock & Ft. Smith Railway Company, and he was elected the same year as President of the Manhattan Railway Company (N. Y.), serving until 1913. It was in 1888 also that he made his first appearance among the officers of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company of which he is now President. He became its first Vice President in May and reached the Presidency in January of 1893. From May, 1893 to March, 1911 he was President of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, and since 1911 has been chairman of its Board of Directors. He became President and Director of the St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Company in 1892, continuing in that relation until March of 1911. He was from 1893 to 1911 President of the Union National and Great Northern Rail- way Company, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Wabash Rail- way Company from 1903 to 1905 and Vice President of the Western Union Telegraph Company from 1901 to 1910.
Mr. Gould is now also Director D. & R. G. Ry. Co., Rio Grande South- ern R. R., Western Md. Ry. Co., W. Va. Central & Pittsburgh Ry. Co., Utah Fuel Co., Davis Coal & Coke Co., Guaranty Trust Co., Globe Express Co .. and Manhattan Ry. Co.
Mr. Gould is a member of the State of New York Chamber of Com- merce, the American Geographical Society, the S. R. and the Society of Foreign Wars. His club memberships are with the Kaiserlich und Konig-
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liches Yachtgeschwader zu Pola, Royal Southampton Yacht, New York Yacht Club, Atlantic Yacht, Spesuita Island Rod and Gun, Automobile of America, Country of Westchester, County of Lakewood, Rumson Country, New York, New York Athletic, and the Lawyers, of New York City.
Mr. Gould's New York City home it at 857 Fifth Ave .; his office at 165 Broadway, N. Y.
WILLIAM B. GOURLEY-Paterson .- Lawyer. Born in Gil- ford, County Down, Ireland on March 2, 1857 ; son of Henry Gour- ley Catherine (Boyle) Gourley.
William B. Gourley has served in the State Legislature, been Chair- man of the Democratic State Committee, served as a member of the Democratic National Committee and proven his efficiency as a presiding officer and chairman at some of the most turbulent State Conventions in the history of that party. His parents came to the United States in 1866 and settled in Paterson. He was educated in the public schools; and, having studied law in the offices of James Evans, once City Counsel of Paterson and of Albert Comstock, also of Paterson, was admitted as an attorney in June, 1880 and as a counselor at the June term of 1883. He was afterwards licensed to practice at the Bar of the United States Circuit and District Courts.
Mr. Gourley allied himself with the democratic party and was an inde- pendent candidate for the New Jersey House of Assembly in the old fourth Assembly district of Passaic County in 1881. His opponent was Thomas Flynn who was afterwards Speaker of the House. Mr. Gourley was de- feated upon that occasion by 26 votes, but four years later commanded the regular nomination of the party. The plurality of 1300 by which he then won at the polls was the largest that had ever been given for a candidate for that office in Passaic up to that time. The legislative session of 1886 in which he participated was full of exciting episodes; and one of his achievements was the making of an all-night speech, of five hours dura- tion, to prevent the passage, in the closing hours of the legislature, of an act to which his constituents were opposed. Before that session was over, Gov. Abbett nominated him to the Senate for Prosecutor of the Pleas of Passaic County and he served for two terms of five years each.
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