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 45

Author: Sackett, William Edgar, 1848- ed; Scannell, John James, 1884- ed
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Patterson, N.J. : J.J. Scannell
Number of Pages: 592


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 45


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60


Mr. Prosser is a member of the Executive Committee of the Trust Companies Association of the State of New York and of the New York Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Executive Committee and a Direc- tor of the Astor Trust Company, of the Liberty National Bank, of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company and of the Tobacco Products Corpora- tion; a Director of the American Surety Company, the American Light and Traction Company, the General Electric Company, the International Nickel Company, the Railway Steel Springs Company, the Loomis Con- tracting Company, the Northern Railroad of New Jersey, the Kennecott Copper Corporation, and of the Texas & Pacific Railway Company, etc.


Mr. Prosser's club memberships are with the Union League, the Metro- politan, the Recess, the India House and the Bankers.


HENRY GOSLEE PROUT-Nutley, (Stockton Place.)-Engi- neer, Editor, Manufacturer. Born in Fairfax Co., Va .; son of William and Amanda (Goslee) Prout ; married on December 19, 1877, to Gabriella Perin, daughter of Col. Glover Perin, Medical Department, U. S. Army, and Elizabeth Page Perin.


Children : Glover Perin; Elizabeth Page; Henry Byrd; Curtis ; Phoebe Lee; Gabriella.


Henry G. Prout's ancestry is of old New England stock on both sides. The first of the line here, was Capt. Timothy Prout, who came to Boston, (Mass.) from Biddeford, Devonshire, in 1644, served as Surveyor of the Port, Captain of Forts and Artillery, Representative in the General Court (State Legislature) and Member of the Committee for the Settlement of Deeds with the Indians. His sixth son, Ebenezer, born and died in Boston, was member and Clerk of the General Court and a soldier in the Colonial Wars. Ebenezer's grandson, John, Col. H. G. Prout's great grandfather, served in the Revolution in a Connecticut regiment.


The maternal ancestor in America was a Welshman, Thomas Goslee, who settled in Connecticut, was a Colonial soldier and died in the Colonial service. His son, Henry Goslee, (Col. Prout's great grandfather) enlisted in 1776, at the age of sixteen, and served in the Revolutionary Army until the end of the war. He was wounded when storming a fort in New Jersey


416


Prout


under "Mad Anthony" Wayne and was at Monmouth and at Yorktown. His son, Henry Goslee 2nd, the Colonel's grandfather, was in the War of 1812. A third great grandfather, Stephen Benton, was also a Revolutionary soldier.


When the Civil War broke out Henry G. Prout was a boy on a farm in Berkshire, Mass. Later, in 1863, he was permitted to obey the tradi- tions of the family and in the 57th Massachusetts Infantry served as an enlisted man until the regiment was mustered out in 1865. This regiment was the third in the Union Army in the percentage of its total enrollment killed in battle. These three were the 2nd Wisconsin, 19.7 per cent ; 1st Maine Heavy Artillery, 19.2 per cent ; and 57th Massachusetts, 19.1 per cent, killed on the field or mortally wounded.


In 1871, H. G. Prout was graduated from the University of Michigan with the degree of C. E. In 1902 he received an honorary A. M. from Yale and in 1911 an honorary LL. D. from the University of Michigan.


During his college vacations he found employment under of- ficers of the Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., and after graduating he had further work under that Corps, the last being the com- mand of an expedition of recon- noissance in the Rocky Moun- tains. This service led to his se- lection by General Sherman for a commission in the Egyptian Army as one of six officers then sent out at the request of the Khedive. He went out as Major of Engineers and rose to the rank of Colonel in the General Staff. His service of four and one half years took him from Cairo to the Great Lakes and from the Red Sea to the western frontier of Darfour. His first year was in Cairo (Chief of the Bureau of Military Engineering), in the Delta and on the Syrian frontier. He commanded an expedition of reconnoissance in Kordofan and Darfour (Egyptian Soudan) for a year and a half. and then, at the request of General Gordon ("Chinese Gordon"), he succeeded Gordon as Governor General of the Provinces of the Equator-Gordon go- ing to Khartoum as Governor General of the Soudan. Thus, Prout be- came Gordon's subordinate. The Provinces of the Equator covered the Nile country from the 10th degree of latitude to the Lakes at the head of the Nile. This included the Albert Nyanza but the Khedives conquests never reached the Victoria Nyanza.


In 1879 Col. Prout came to live at Nutley which has been his home ever since. For 16 years he was editor of the "Railroad Gazette" (now the "Railway Age Gazette") an authoritative weekly journal of railway engineer-


417


Pyne


ing, transportation, finance and economics. It was his work there that won his degrees for him.


For nearly twelve years Col. Prout was First Vice President and Gen- eral Manager of the Union Switch and Signal Co. (George Westinghouse, President ), engaged in the manufacture and installation of block signals and other safety apparatus for railroads. On the death of Mr. Westinghouse he succeeded to the Presidency and shortly after retired from business. He is now Chairman of the Nutley Chapter of the American Red Cross.


Colonel Prout is a member and former Director of the American Socie- ty of Civil Engineers, a Corresponding Member of the American Geograph- ical Society, and a member of the Century Club and Railroad Club of New York, the University Club of Pittsburgh, the Chicago Club of Chicago, and the Yountakah Country Club of Passaic.


M. TAYLOR PYNE-Princeton .- Lawyer, Trustee. Born in New York City, on December 21st, 1855; son of Percy Rivington and Albertina Shelton (Taylor) Pyne ; married at Trenton, on June 2nd, 1880, to Margaretta Stockton, daughter of Major General Robert F. Stockton, of New Jersey.


Children : Percy Rivington 2nd, born June 2nd. 1881 ; Robert Stockton, born May 27th, 1883, died 1903: M. Taylor, Jr., born November 5th, 1885.


Mr. Pyne is of English lineage and graduated from Princeton University with the degree of B. A. in 1877, and M. A. in 1880. He studied law in Columbia University, receiving the degree of LL. B. in 1879, and was given the honorary degree of L. H. D. in 1903, by the same institution. He was Republican Presidential Elector in 1908 and 1916. Chair- man of Princeton Township 1899 -1911; and is President of the Cayuga & Susquehanna R. R .. Co., the Warren R. R. Co., and. the Lake Carnegie Association, Vice President of the Princeton University Press and Chairman of the New Jersey Public Library Commission, of which he has been a member since its organization in 1900, and of the Board of Trustees of the Young Men's Christian Association of New York City.


Mr. Pyne has been Trustee of Princeton University since 1885 and of the Lawrenceville School since 1898; Director of the National City Bank of


418


Quackenbush


New York since 1892; Manager of St. Luke's Hospital, New York City, from 1882 to 1915; Manager of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. Co. since 1892, and Director of the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Co. since 1898, the Commercial Trust Co. of New Jersey since 1906, the Princeton Bank and Trust Co. since 1897 and the Prudential Insurance Co. of America since 1917. He was Director of the Farmers Loan and Trust Co. 1883-1917, the Franklin Trust Co. of New York, 1907-1912, the Consoli- dated Gas Co. of New York, 1892-1906, the Harvey Steel Co. 1892-1913, the New Jersey Zinc Co. 1892-1911, the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. 1891- 1914, the Lackawanna Steel Co. 1902-1913, the United States Mortgage and Trust Co. 1909-1910. He has also served as Trustee of St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H., and the Pomfret School, Pomfret, Conn.


Mr. Pyne studied law in the office of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate (Mr. Evarts being then Secretary of State of the United States and Mr. Choate later becoming Ambassador to the Court of St. James) and for a number of years practised law in New York State, for eleven years being General Solicitor of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. Co. He settled in New Jersey in 1894, his residence being "Drumthwacket," in Princeton.


PETER QUACKENBUSH-Paterson, (369 Broadway.)-Mer- chant. Born at Paterson, on February 24th, 1844; son of Peter and Hester (Demarest) Quackenbush; married at Paterson, to Sarah Amelia, daughter of William D. Quin and King Children : Sarah Amelia, born January 10, 1883, died October 12, 1898; William Dixon, born December 16, 1877, who graduated from Princeton University, class of 1899.


Peter Quackenbush is the head of the firm of Quackenbush & Com- pany, conducting a large department store business at Main, Ellison and Furman Streets, Paterson. He was a Delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, in 1904, that nominated Theodore Roosevelt for President of the United States, and was elected one of the Presidential Electors for Charles E. Hughes, the republican candidate for the Presi- dency in the campaign of 1916. Mr. Quackenbush's activities in civic direc- tions have been varied.


Mr. Quackenbush is a descendant, in the seventh generation, of Pieter Van Quackenbush, a Leyden University graduate, who came from Holland to this country in 1660 and settled in Albany, New York. On his mother's side, he is of the French Huguenot family of David des Marets who came from Picardy, France, 1663, to settle on Staten Island, moved then to Harlem (New York) and eventually to New Bridge on the Hackensack. Mr. Quackenbush is of the seventh generation also of the des Marets family.


Mr. Quackenbush was employed, at the start, for eighteen years, ex- cept for a little season spent in Newark, by John C. Van Der Voort, a Pat- erson dry goods store keeper. Then, in 1878, he opened a store of his own at 178 Main Street for the sale of fancy goods, dress trimmings, etc. In 1882 John B. Mason was taken into partnership and the firm became known


419


Quackenbush


as it is to-day, as Quackenbush & Company. The growth of the business necessitated more room, and adjoining buildings were utilized and new de- partments introduced. In 1892 the firm purchased all of the street front from 182-192 Main Street ; but the leases expiring in 1896, the firm erected the six story and basement building in which the business was conducted until the great fire of February, 1902, ravaged the business heart of Pater- son. Mr. Quackenbush suffered the pain of seeing the result of twenty-four years of hard work wiped away in a few hours. But, "with stock all gone and pluck all saved," the firm immediately resumed its sales in temporary quarters until the building at Main and Ellison Streets was re-erected and in condition for use. The year following the fire, Mr. Quacken- bush took his son, William Dix- on, into the partnership, but the young man was obliged by ill health to withdraw from active work in 1904, and is now a resi- dent of Colorado Springs.


Mr. Quackenbush has been a Director of the Second National Bank since 1890, was active in the organization of the Citizens Trust Company, a member of its Board of Directors the first year, has been Vice President of the Paterson Board of Trade and in 1900 was President of the Pater- son Business Men's Association.


Mr. Quackenbush is quite as large a figure in the civic and benevolent life of the communi- ty as in its business life. He was a charter member of the Charity Organization Society and is now its honorary President. He helped to or- ganize the Paterson Rescue Mission and held the office of President for ten years. He still remains on its Board and is deeply interested in its work, now carried on by the Salvation Army. In 1906, he with Mrs. Quackenbush donated $10,000 for the purchase of a plot of ground for the Paterson Gen- eral Hospital in memory of their daughter who died in October of 1898; and on the death of his wife in 1907, he settled an additional $40.000 on the hospital for the erection of a nurses home on the site. The building, known as the "Sarah Amelia Quackenbush Memorial Home," affords ample accom- modations for the under graduate nurses. On the first anniversary, May 1, 1916, of the organization of the Reformed Church of the Covenant, Mr. Quackenbush presented the congregation with a new chapel at a cost of $40,000 ; he had already donated lots worth $10,000 for both chapel and church. Mr. Quackenbush was brought up in the Reformed Church and has been for many years an elder in the Broadway Church.


Mr. Quackenbush served for two years as a member of the Paterson Board of Education and for four years as a member of the Paterson Park


420


Queen


Commission. He is connected with the Holland Society of New York, the New Jersey Sons of American Revolution, the New Jersey Historical Socie- ty, the National Historical Society, the National Geographical Society, a Fellow of the American Geographical Society and a member of the Hamilton Club of Paterson.


PAUL ALLAN QUEEN-Flemington .- Lawyer. Born at Mount Pleasant, (Hunterdon Co.), August 8th, 1853; son of John Wahl and Livera Apgar Queen ; married on December 21st, 1SS0, to Lizzie McLenahan, daughter of Robert Mills McLenahan, M. D., and Chris- tiana Van Syckel McLenahan, late of New Hampton, (Hunterdon Co.)


The father of Paul Allan Queen, who died in February, 1917, in his ninety-first year, had lived all his life at Mount Pleasant, where he was active in educational, religious and civic affairs. Thomas Queen, Sr., the great grandfather was of Scotch extraction, coming to this coun- try to settle in Philadelphia, a- bout the year 1791. His son, Allan Queen, took up his resi- dence at Mount Pleasant, mar- ried Eleanor, daughter of the late Henry Rockefellar and so be- came the founder of the Queen family in New Jersey. He too, took a large interest in public and educational affairs.


After a preparatory course, Paul Allan Queen was engaged in teaching before entering upon the study of the law, which he had chosen for a profession. Af- ter his admission to the New Jersey Bar he was connected with important litigation, acted as Counsel for several of the municipalities of the county and for several years was County Solicitor. In 1893 he became a member of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, serving for three years, and in 1899 was elected Surrogate of Hunterdon county, serving for five years. He was a Delegate from the Fourth Congressional District to the National Democratic Convention, held in Baltimore, in June, 1912. It was at the hands of that convention that Gov. Wilson received his first nomination for the Presidency. In 1912 Governor Wilson appointed Mr. Queen Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hunterdon county ; he served until the expiration of his term, in 1917.


Judge Queen is one of five sons, who have achieved positions in their


421


Randolph


several professions. Two of these, the Rev. Sylvanus R. Queen, a Presby- terian clergyman of Philadelphia and William Henry Queen, of Mount Pleasant, are dead. The surviving brothers are Louis Apgar Queen, M. D., of New York City and ex-JJudge John Wahl Queen, of Jersey City.


Mrs. Queen's father was a physician of large practice and her mother was a sister of ex-Justice Bennet Van Syckel of the New Jersey Supreme Court.


LEWIS V. FITZ RANDOLPH-Plainfield, (741 Front Street.) - Financier (retired). Born in Somerville, on May 16, 1838; son of Enoch Manning Fitz Randolph and Mary Ann (Van Syckle) Fitz Randolph ; married on May 16, 1867, to Emily Caroline Price, daughter of Matthias Price, of Newark.


Children : Lee Ashley Grace, of New York City; Mrs. Charles Daniel Parfitt, of Ontario, Canada ; Mrs. Robert Spurr Weston, of Brookline, Mass .; Mrs. Harry Keith White; Miss Marion Fitz Randolph.


Lewis V. F. Randolph is living in Plainfield free from the cares of busi- ness, after a career of exceptional variety and activity. His experience and life work have included those of an accountant, director, treasurer and president of railways, banker, manager of estates, mayor, exchange presi- dent, traveller, poet, ranchman, horticulturalist, publisher and lecturer.


The Fitz Randolph and Van Syckle families have had their homes in New Jersey for up- wards of two hundred and fifty years, and the names of several of their fore-bears are on the roll of Revolutionary heroes. Mr. Randolph was but six years of age when his parents came to Plainfield, and he has held his home there during the greater part of his life. His early edu- cation was acquired chiefly at the Mauriac Academy in Plain- field. His father, a manufactur- er, teacher and poet, died at for- ty-one. The son went from the Academy to earn a living. While serving as a clerk, he taught a private grammar class, with me- chanics and clerks older than himself for pupils. Before he was sixteen years old he taught a Bible class in Sunday School and continued in charge


422


Randolph


of it for nineteen years, and a literary society which he helped to organize flourished for eighteen years.


In 1854 Mr. Randolph became connected with the American Exchange Bank in New York City, and continued in that service until, in 1863, he en- listed in the Union Army. Mustered out as a sergeant, he returned to the bank's service and went from it to the Illinois Central Railroad, as an ex- pert accountant. There in time he was placed in the Company's money de- partment in Chicago and later became Secretary to the President, Assistant Treasurer, Treasurer and Director of the Company. Twenty-one years of service with the Company left him in impaired health; and in 1885 he sought recuperation in travel. Purchasing a ranch in the West, on his re- turn, he came to own about four thousand grade Hereford and short-horned cattle in New Mexico.


In 1886 the executors of Samuel J. Tilden's will invited him to become their Secretary and to assist in the management of the estate; and he be- came Secretary of the. Tilden Trust, the New York Library Corporation to which ex-Gov. Tilden had bequeathed some millions of dollars and which was in part the foundation of the great public library at the 42nd Street corner of Fifth Avenue, New York. When Andrew H. Green, one of the Trustees of the estate died, Secretary Randolph was appointed to fill the vacancy ; and in the administration of the estate he was closely associated with John Bigelow, noted as scholar and statesman.


For nine years, later, Mr. Randolph was President of the Atlantic Trust Co., and in 1903 was made President of the Consolidated Stock & Petroleum Exchange of New York. Twice re-elected to the Presidency, he retired in 1906. He organized and was the first President of the Atlantic Safe Deposit Co., accepted the Presidency of the Kanona & Prattsburg Railroad Co., helped the Carolina & Cumberland Railroad Co. out of bankruptcy, and sold it to the Southern Railway, served as President of a company operating a line of steamboats about New York harbor and up the Hudson River ; and, as President of the Illinois and Iowa Fuel Company, operated large coal mines in the Middle West. For many years he was half-owner and publisher of a newspaper. He was also a Trustee of the Jonathan Sturges estate ; and, as co-executor and trustee under the will of William R. Clark- son, assisted in the transfer of the property according to the Clarkson will to the Jennie Clarkson Home for Children (of which he is Vice President) and which now cares for about fifty little ones.


Mr. Randolph was elected Mayor of Plainfield in 1880. In that posi- tion he appointed the first Trustees of the Public Library and was for years a member and Vice President of the Board. He was one of the organizers and an original Trustee of the Muhlenberg hospital.


Mr. and Mrs. Randolph (who celebrated their golden wedding at their home in Plainfield in May of 1917) made in 1908 and afterward a series of foreign tours. They came back with works of art and curios gathered in all parts of the world. In 1900, Mr. Randolph's volume of poems en- titled "Survivals" appeared ; seven years later he published "Fitz Randolph Traditions" ; and in 1915 he delivered a series of lectures on India and on Italy before Carson-Newman College of Tennessee, and the college conferred the degree of Litt. D. upon him. He is, and has been for many years, President of the Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Plain-


423


Record


field, of which his grandmother, Mary Manning Fitz Randolph, was a con- stituent member a hundred years ago.


WILLIAM THACKARA READ-Camden .- Lawyer. Born in Camden, on November 22, 1878.


William Thackara Read is Comptroller of the State Treasury. He had previously been a member of the State Senate. His early education was gotten at the public schools in Camden. He subsequently attended the William Penn Charter School of Philadelphia, and graduated from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1900 with the degree of Bachelor of Science.


He attended the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania and be- came familiar with the practice in the law office of J. Willard Morgan, former State Comptroller. He was admitted to the Bar as an attorney in November, 1903, and as a counselor in 1906. Opening an office in Cam- den, he was made solicitor of the First National Bank and of the Mutual Building and Loan Association, of that city. He is a member of the Board of Managers of the Camden County Bar Association and a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association and of the American Bar Association. He has been also Solicitor of the borough of Riverton and of the township of Voorhees, and for eight years was District Examiner of the Board of Education of Camden.


Mr. Read is a republican. In 1911 he was sent to the State Senate, representing Camden county and three years later re-elected. He soon com- manded rcognition by his colleagues and served at various times on the Committees on the Judiciary, State Prison, Corporations, Elections, Militia and Riparian Rights. He was Senate minority leader in the Senates of 1913-'14 and majority leader in 1915 and served on the Jury Reform Com- mission.


While he was serving his second term, the republican joint caucus of the two Houses elected him to succeed Edward I. Edwards, democrat, as Comptroller of the State Treasury. He became the State's chief financial officer in February the following year and is now holding the position.


Senator Read is a militant statesman and in March, 1909, became second Lieutenant of the Third Regiment N. G. N. J. assigned to the First Battalion as Quartermaster and Commissary. He is an expert rifleman and was a member in 1910-'11 of the Third Regiment Rifle Team. In 1915 Adjutant General Sadler appointed him on his staff with the rank of Major.


Senator Read is Vice President of the First National Bank of Cam- den and Director of the West Jersey Trust Co. of Camden, and of the Colestown Cemetery Co. He is a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and the Army and Navy Club of New York. He is connected with the Camden Lodge No. 15, F. and A. M., Siloam Chap- ter, Van Hook Council, Excelsior Consistory 32nd degree, Tall Cedars of Lebanon and Crescent Temple.


GEORGE LAWRENCE RECORD-Jersey City, (15 Exchange Place.)-Lawyer. Born at Auburn, Me., March 13th, 1859; son of


424


Record


Calvin and Melancy (Beals) Record ; married at Auburn, Me., Feb- ruary 22, 18SS, to Eliza Hanscom.


No man in New Jersey has led a more variegated political career than that which George L. Record has led. Beginning as a democrat, swung to the republican side by the free silver agitation of 1896, and, by his anti- pathy to the bosses, to the Na- tional Progressive Party, he is chiefly noted for his radicalism in politics and statesmanship. It was he who inspired, and in some cases formulated, the re- forms in election and corpora- tion methods that distinguished the administration of Woodrow Wilson as Governor. He ad- mired Gov. Wilson's progressive spirit ; and the same admiration made him an advocate of the nomination of Theodore Roose- velt for President of the United States by the convention that eventually gave a second nomi- nation to President Taft. In that sensational campaign Mr. Record was called in some prints the "Field Marshal" of the National Progressive Party.


Mr. Record had practised law in Jersey City for some time, been an unsuccessful aspirant for a demo- cratic nomination for Congress in opposition to the democratic chieftains of Hudson County, and had served as counsel of the State Riparian Board, when the nomination of Mark M. Fagan for Mayor of Jersey City brought him into prominence. Mr. Fagan had succeeded in capturing the support of the republicans of the city without asking the leave of the party leaders ; and upon being elected evinced a disposition to fight them that pleased Mr. Record's militant humor. Mayor Fagan made him Corporation Coun- sel ; and from his desk in that office Mr. Record practically dominated the policy of Mr. Fagan's eight year administration. Its chief feature was an attack upon the railroad valuations, which Mr. Record claimed were un- fairly low, and upon the efforts of the trolley companies, that were just then coming into existence, to secure perpetual street franchises. When Dr. Wilson stepped from Princeton University into the Governorship, Mr. Record was called into conference for the formulation of the reform plans the new Governor had in mind.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.