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 5
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Barber
ture was utilized for selling space. In time even this pretentious estab- lishment outgrew the demands. In the imposing new $2,000,000 establish- ment in which the business of many millions a year is now carried on, L. Bamberger & Co., give employment to more than 2,500 persons.
Mr. Bamberger is also widely known for his philanthropies and as a patron of art.
ISAAC BARBER-Phillipsburg .- Physician and Surgeon. Born at Forty Fort, Pa., on Sept. 4th. 1854; son of Robert Kennedy and Mary (Stroh) Barber; married at Phillipsburg, on June 26th, 1901, to Bridgie McIlhenny, daughter of Patrick and Catherine McIlhenny, of Phillipsburg.
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Besides his professional relations, Isaac Barber has been a member of the State Senate of New Jersey and is now a member of the State Board of Taxes and Assessments. He is of a family that has long figured in the history of Warren County. John Barber, the first of its line, settled be- tween 1735 and 1740 at, now, Lopatcong township. The branch is supposed to have descended from Thomas Barber, one of the settlers of Windsor, Conn., in 1635. The wife of John's son, Jesse, was of the Shipman fam- ily, of Norman descent, whose founder was knighted by King Henry III, in 125S. George Washington, their son, was born at Union town in Jan. 1802 and died at Stewartsville, (Warren Co.) in 1883. His wife's father drove a supply wagon in the Kennedy Brigade of teams dur- ing the Revolution ; and one of her brothers was United States Marshal of New Jersey, Judge of the Court of Errors and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1844. William Maxwell, who was a Brigadier in the Revolutionary Army, was also of her line. Dr. Barber's father was a son of George Washington Barber. His moth- er's grandfather served in the Revolution under General Anthony Wayne and was wounded at the battle of Trenton ; and her father was a soldier in the War of '12.
Dr. Barber received his early education in the local public schools and prepared for college at Blair Presbyterial Academy. In 1872 he entered Lafayette College, graduating in 1876. He pursued his medieal studies under Professor Trail Green in Easton, Pa., and in 1879 graduated with the M. D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania. For a year
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he served as a medical referee at New York, of the Metropolitan Life Insur- ance Company of New York ; and from 1892 to '97 was a United States Pen- sion Examining Surgeon under President Cleveland's administration. For two years he was City Physician and a member of the Board of Health, of Phillipsburg.
Dr. Barber made his appearance in politics when he was elected in 1896 to represent Warren County in the State Senate. In 1899 he gave way to Johnston Cornish, but in 1902 was re-elected to serve for the three year term ending in 1905. Governor Wilson in 1912 appointed him a mem- ber of the State Board of Assessors. The Board was legislated out of office by the Economy and Efficiency Act of 1915, and its functions were trans- ferred to the new State Board of Taxes and Assessments and Governor Fielder named Senator Barber to serve on that Board. His term of office will expire in July of 1918. Senator Barber is connected with Montana Lodge K. of P .; Ortygia Company No. 10 U. R. K. P .; and served for two years as Brigade Surgeon for the New Jersey Brigade U. R. K. P. of New Jersey.
NATHAN BARNERT - Paterson. - Retired. Born in Posen, Prussia, on Sept. 20, 1838; son of Mayer and Ida (Newfelt) Bar- nert ; married on Sept. 2, 1863, to Miriam Phillips, daughter of Henry L. and Jane (Chapman) Phillips (deceased March 31, 1901.)
Nathan Barnert once Mayor of Paterson and widely known through his philanthropies was brought to this country by his parents in 1849. Settling first in New York the family removed in 1861 to Paterson where Mayor Barnert's father died twenty years later. He was schooled in Prussia and New York City; but started early in life at the tailoring trade in which his father was engaged.
The family arrived on this side about the time of the outbreak of the California Gold Field excitement; and young Barnert was lured, by the . promise of the fabulous wealth gold digging promised, to the Pacific coast. The prospect did not "pan out", as he anticipated and he had to content himself with mercantile engagements in San Francisco. A trip to the Hawaiian Island and to the gold regions on the Frazer River gave him an acquaintance with that section of the world, that however brought no wealth with it; and in '56 he returned to the East, and in Paterson, in partnership with Marks Cohen opened a merchant tailoring establishment. During the Civil War he was awarded large contracts for clothing for the Federal army. Fortunate real estate investments added to his stores; and in '76 he retired from mercantile pursuits to devote himself to his property in- terests.
For a side line he organized with Robert A. Healy and William C. Martin the Annandale Screen Plate Company for the furnishing of supplies to paper mills. One of his unique speculative enterprises was the erection of buildings for rental to mill operators. The first of the structures, at Railroad Avenue, Grand Street and Dale Avenue, Paterson, was completed in 1882 and was followed later by the erection of the Fulton mill.
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Meanwhile Mr. Barnert found time to engage in the affairs of the com- munity about him. In 1870-'71 the Paterson Board of Alderman commis- sioned him to examine the accounts of the city's financial and tax officers ; and the prosecution and imprisonment of a number of officials who had been faithless to their trusts, followed. His work in that direction brought him into the eyes of the people; and in 1876 the democrats of the sixth ward put him forward as their candidate for Alderman. His service in the Board attracted sufficient attention to make him conspicuous as the candi- date for the mayoralty ; and in 1883 he was given the democratic uomina- tion. Notwithstanding the normal Republican majority of the city. he achieved an election and in 1889 was elected for a second time. He mean- while had been renominated in 1885 and '87 but failed of election.
Mayor Barnert's beneficences are scattered all over the city of Pater- son. The Temple of the Congregation Bnai Jeshurun is one of his notable gifts. He also built a free school for Hebrews. Later he established and endowed the Miriam Barnert Hospital as a memorial to his deceased wife. To all the up-lift movements of the city and to the charities he has always been a large contributor.
Mayor Barnert is a member besides others of the Independent Order of the Bnai Brith, of the Free and Accepted Masons, of the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is President of the Hebrew Temple and of the Hebrew Free School.
BERTHA RUNKLE BASH-Berkeley Heights .- Author. Born at Berkeley Heights, N. J., daughter of Cornelius A. and Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle. Married on October 26th, 1904, to Louis H. Bash, son of Daniel N. Bash, Major, U. S. A., and Virginia Ballance Bash, of Peoria. Illinois. Children : Virginia, born March 6th. 1913.
Bertha Runkle Bash acquired her education at private schools in New York, and began writing soon after she left school. She is the author of four novels, The Helmet of Navarre. 1901; The Truth About Tola. 1906; The Scarlet Rider, 1913; Straight Down the Crooked Lane. 1915; and of various short stories. Her work consists entirely of fiction.
Mrs. Bash is a member of Barnard Club. New York; Century Club of California, San Francisco.
The wife of an army officer, Bertha Runkle has spent most of her adult life in the Phillipines, in Texas, and on the Pacific coast. In face of the great changes now before the army, she expects to have no permanent home
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for years, but can always be reached in care of the Century Company, Publishers, New York.
GEORGE RAIMES BEACH-Jersey City, (75 Montgomery St.) Lawyer and Financier. Born in Jersey City, March 14, 1873; son of Marcus and Mary R. (Jackson) Beach ; married in Jersey City, April 30, 1901, to Lucy McBride, daughter of Harry and Amelia McBride, of Jersey City.
Children : George R. Beach, Jr., born May 27, 1905; Katharine L., born February 3rd, 1908.
Marcus Beach, the father of George Raimes Beach, was for many years a prominent factor in the business and political life of Hudson County. The family, come from Connecticut and New York, had been prominent in those parts of the country for years. Records of his marriage to Sarah Pratt, daughter of Mary and Richard Pratt, of Milford, show that a Thomas Beach was in Connecticut, from England, as early as 1650. Suc- cessors of his line were after- wards in Wallingford, Conn. and Goshen, New York, Adna 2'd, born 1757, in Wallingford and married in 1781 to Mary, daugh- ter of Captain Timothy Stanley of Winchester, Conn., was the grandfather of Marcus Beach. His son, Fisk Beach, born in Litchfield, Conn., and married to Rosey Fyler, daughter of Ste- ven and Catherine Fyler, mem- bers of an old Connecticut fam- ily, moved to Hunter, Greene County, New York, and was en- gaged in farming in that Cats- kill region till he died, in 1875.
Marcus Beach was born in Lichfield, Conn., December 5, 1819, and spent his early years there. He came to New York City at twenty, and engaged in the live stock trade. He con- cluded eventually that Jersey City offered larger facilities for handling his growing business ; and in 1850 he established a cattle yard there in partner- ship with Thomas E. Bray and John R. McPherson, under the firm name of Beach, Bray and McPherson. Mr. Bray was, till his death, one of the most influential financiers in Hudson County. Mr. McPherson afterwards served in the State Senate and was a United States Senator. His eighteen years there is the longest senatorial term in the state's history.
Senator McPherson had, long before, invented a model car for the
Beach
transportation of cattle, the use of which in the business of the firm extend- ed its lines all over the country ; and for many years it controlled the cattle trade in New York and northern New Jersey. Mr. Beach was followed across the river by a number of other stock dealers, and Jersey City grew to recognition as a great cattle yard and held it for a good many years. Quite as conspicuous in politics as in business, Mr. Beach became one of its largest tax-payers, and served as a member of the Jersey City Board of Finance (its President part of the time) for some years, till Governor Ab- bett appointed him to a seat on the bench of the County Courts, which he filled many years.
George Raimes Beach was carefully educated. He attended No. 6 school, Jersey City ; and at the Stevens Preparatory School and completed his general studies at Columbia University. He equipped himself for the bar at Columbia University Law School ; became a member of the New York bar, and was admitted in New Jersey in November, 1897. He is a Referee in Bankruptcy and a Special Master in Chancery, a Member of the Hudson County Bar Association and one of the Trustees of the New Jersey State Bar Association. He has been receiver of a number of large compa- nies, the International Mercantile Agency and the Columbia Real Estate Company among them. As the receiver of the latter company he signed the longest deed ever recorded in Bergen County, became the largest single lot owner in the county and made more conveyances of land through the County Clerk's office than any other individual since the establishment of the office.
Notwithstanding the cares the management of the large estate his father left, impose on him, Mr. Beach exhibits the same interest in public, church and charity affairs Judge Beach had displayed. In the Jersey City Board of Trade, of which he was for three years Vice-President, he was Chairman of the Committee on Municipal Affairs; and, when Jersey City prepared to hail the opening of the under-river tunnel into New York City, he was one of the Committe of Fifteen appointed by Mayor Wittpenn to ar- range a fitting celebration.
His activities in church and charity work are very varied. His father was a Vestryman in Holy Trinity P. E. Church Jersey City. George R. Beach has connected himself with St. Pauls P. E. Congregation, being Ves- tryman, and Chairman of the Finance Committee there; and in 1912-'13-'17. was a Delegate to the Annual Convention of the Newark Episcopal Diocese.
He is a Trustee and President of the Board of the Poor, appointed by the Mayor of Jersey City ; President of the Organized Aid Association : one of the trustees and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Home for the Homeless and a Trustee of the Legal Aid Society. He is also a Director of the New Jersey Title Guarantee & Trust Company of Jersey City : Presi- dent of the Court House Realty Company, the West Beach Bathing Com- pany and the Beach Land Company ; Secretary, Treasurer and Director of the Carteret Land Company ; a Director of the Glenridge Land Company. the Hyannisport Associates ; Trustee of the Glendale Cemetery Association ; on the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Membership Committee of Jersey City Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Mr. Beach was Grand Marshal of Commencement Exercises at Colum-
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bia University at graduation in June, 1897; Chairman of Class Decennial Celebration ; Vice-President of Class of 1895, and Treasurer of the Twenty- fifth Anniversary Fund of the Class of 1895 Columbia University. His club memberships are with the Carteret of Jersey City, the Columbia University, Lotos (member of Committee on admission) ; Arcola Country; and Down Town, Jersey City. He has a Country seat at Hyannisport, Mass., and, there, is a member of the Hyannisport Golf and Country Club and President of the Hyannisport Village Improvement Association.
REX (ELLINGWOOD) BEACH-Lake Hopatcong. - Author. Born at Atwood, Mich., September 1, 1877 ; son of Henry Walter and Eva Eunice (Canfield) Beach; married in 1897 to Edith Crater.
The latest distinction Rex Beach has achieved came in his election in May of 1917, as President of the Author's League of America, Colonel Theo- dore Roosevelt is Vice President of the League. Mr. Beach, who has lately achieved quite as large a distinction as a playwright as he had already achieved as an author, was educated with a view to the practice of the law. Before he had been admitted, the success of some of his offerings to the magazines turned him to literary pursuits. He was a student at Rollins College, Winter Park, Fla., from 1891 to 1896 and pursued his law studies at the Chicago College of Law in 1896 to 1897, and, in 1899 and 1900. at the Kent College of Law in Chicago.
Mr. Beach has been a prolific writer in all lines since the appearance of his "Pardners" in 1905. "The Spoilers", which was given to the public a year later, achieved a wide circulation. With James McArthur he re- fashioned it into the play of the same name that had a long run in the theatres of the East. In association with Paul Armstrong, he later pro- duced the play "Going Some" which also held the boards for some years. Mr. Beach is the author of, besides "Pardners", "The Spoilers" and "Going Some", "The Barrier" in 1907; "Silver Horde", 1909; "The Ne'er Do Well". "The Net", 1912; "Iron Trail", 1913; "The Auction Block", 1914; "Heart of the Sunset", 1915; "Rainbows End", 1916 and "The Crimson Gardenia". 1916.
Mr. Beach was Secretary of the Chicago Athletic Club 1905-1906, is a member of the Athletic, Players and Lambs Clubs of New York City.
EDWARD THEODORE BELL-Paterson. (294 Broadway)- Banker. Born at Stanhope, March 26, 1843; son of Edward Sulli- van and Catherine Louise (Beach) Bell, married at Newton, on June 9, 1870, to Anna A .. daughter of Judge Daniel Stewart Ander- son (Mrs. Bell died November 23, 1908. )
Children : Mae Anderson, now Mrs. Edward Van Ingen: Ed- ward T. (deceased) ; Thornton Beach.
Edward Theodore Bell while professionally a banker, has been the receipient of many public honors, and active besides in civic affairs. He
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was one of those whom Governor Bedle named in 1876 to represent New Jersey at the International Exposition in Paris ; and. while he was serving in that capacity he was in charge of the arrangements, in the American section, for the banquet to Gen. Grant, who was then making his historical tour around the world. His interest too, in the things that make for the beauty of Paterson has been marked. He was one of the original mem- bers of the Park Commission that has provided the city with its recrea- tion grounds. The idea of having a becoming City Hall erected as a cen- tennial memorial, originated with him. His prominence and energy in
that work led to his election as chairman of the Commission charged with the erection of the new City Hall, and he served on that commission un- til 1898 when he resigned.
Mr. Bell's education was be- gun in the public schools and finished at the Collegiate In- stitute in Newton. In 1860 when he started out on his banking career, he began at the foot of the ladder as a mes- senger for the Hackettstown Bank; and rose rapidly. Four years later he was made teller in one of the Jersey City banks. Before the end of the year he had been invited by the Direc- tors of the First National Bank of Paterson to become its Cash- ier. Accepting, he eventually became a member of the Board of Directors and continued to be a Direc- tor even after he had retired from the Cashiers desk in 1875. Seven years later he resumed his banking activities as Vice President of the bank, and in 1894 was elected its President.
He had been meanwhile instrumental in the organization of the Pat- erson Savings Institution and in the preparation of its charter and is now its Vice President.
Mr. Bell is an active republican. He is of the Presbyterian faith and President of the Board of Trustees of the Church of the Redeemer, which he attends.
HENRY FRANCIS BELL - Paterson. - Banker. Born at St. Stephen, Province of New Brunswick, Canada, August 27, 1861; son of James and Jennie ( Waddell) Bell; married at Paterson, January 23, 1889, to Fannie Livingston Turner, daughter of Ralph and Mary Louise Turner of Paterson.
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Children : Florence Hurd, born November 22, 1889; James, born March 14, 1891.
Henry F. Bell has been President of the Citizens Trust Company of Paterson since its organization in 1901 and is otherwise active in the financial life of the community. His parents were born in Ireland, mar- ried in Boston, Mass., and came to Paterson in 1860. He attended Miss Major's School, the public schools, was prepared for College by the late James D. Donnell, and entered New York University in 1878, graduating in 1882 with the de- gree of A. B.
In the fall of 1882 Mr. Bell was engaged by the firm of Louis Franke, dealers in raw and thrown silks, having a large mill in Paterson. In 1883 he was connected with the People's Gas Light Company of Pater- son, which had been organized by his father. In 1885 he un- dertook the management of the extensive real estate interests of his father and the develop- ment of the Riverside Section of Paterson. In 1900 he rebuilt the Paterson Opera House which had been destroyed by fire and, when in 1901 the Citizens Trust Company was organized, he was chosen President, which position he still holds.
Mr. Bell is a member of the Psi Upsilon and Eucleian and also of the Bankers Clubs of America, the Hamilton Club of Paterson, the Arcola Country Club and of the Passaic County University Club.
FRANK BERGEN-Elizabeth, (421 N. Broad St.)-Lawyer. Born in Hillsboro Township, Summerset County on December 1, 1851 ; son of Peter S. and Rebecca M. Bergen. Married at Mystic, Conn., on May 24, 1887, to Lydia S. Gardiner, daughter of Robert and Louisa M. Gardiner, of Mystic, Con.
Children : Francis, born Jan. 30th, 1892; Charlotte V., born Feb. 3, 1898.
Frank Bergen is General Counsel for the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, which operates practically all of the transportation facili- ties and the gas and electric power plants in the state. He was educated in public schools at Somerville, and read law in the office of Isaiah M. Dilts. He was admitted to the Bar of the state as an Attorney at the
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November term of 1873, and as a Counselor at the November term of 1876. Soon after he opened his office in Elizabeth for the practice of his profession, he was made City Attorney. Elizabeth was at that time in the throes of her bankruptcy excitements; and Mr. Bergen's official posi- tion made him an important factor in the conduct and settlement of the resulting litigations. He soon achieved recognition for his skill in muni- cipal and corporation law ; and his advise on pending legislation effecting the government of cities and the treatment of large business interests was frequently sought by the leaders in Trenton. His growing practice led him to seek a larger field for his professional activities, and he established himself in Newark. His work there commended him to the attention of the Public Service Corporation and in 1903 he was appointed its General Counsel.
Mr. Bergen is a member of the Lawyers and Lotos clubs of New York, the Essex of Newark, the Mattano and the Town and Country of Elizabeth, and of the Somerset Hills Country club.
JAMES J. BERGEN-Somerville .- Jurist. Born in Somerville, on October 1, 1847 ; son of John J. Bergen and Mary A. (Park) Bergen ; married at Somerville, on May 3, 1883, to Helen Arden, daughter of James S. Huggins, of New York City.
James J. Bergen, one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, had previously been active in the political and public life of the state. The first of his ancestors found in this country was Hans Hansen, a native of Bergen and Norway, a ship carpenter by trade, who came to New Amsterdam in 1633 to cultivate a tobacco plantation. When petitioning for a land grant in 1656, Hans's wife, Sarah, described herself as "the first born Christian daughter of New Netherlands". The family settled in Brooklyn, later moving to Flatbush and Hempstead, L. I. Hans's grandson came to New Jersey and owned tracts of land in Somerset and Hunterdon counties. Members of the family have all been prosperous busi- ness people ; and Justice Bergen's father was engaged in the lumber trade.
Justice Bergen attended the old Brick Academy in his native town and is a graduate of Calvin Butler Seminary. He was a student in law with H. M. Gaston, admitted to the Bar at the November term of 1868 as an Attorney and made a Counselor in November, 1871. Meanwhile. in January of 1870 he formed a law partnership with Mr. Gaston which was continued until Mr. Gaston retired twenty years later.
In the Fall of '75, Justice Bergen was elected to the New Jersey House of Assembly, Legislature of 1876, and re-elected to the Legislature of 1877. The election was somewhat notable because Justice Bergen has always affiliated with the Democratic party, and the general trend of politics in Somerset was toward the Republicans. In 1890 he was drawn into the service again and served in the Legislature of 1891 and '92. In both of the latter sessions he was Speaker of the Assembly. He was urged to be- come a candidate for the Governorship in one of the succeeding cam- paigns, and in 1896 was a Delegate to the Democratie National Conven-
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tion that gave his first nomination for the Presidency to William J. Bryan.
Justice Bergen was meanwhile serving as President of the Board of Commissioners of Somerville; and in 1877 Governor Bedle appointed him Prosecutor of the Pleas of Somerset County. In March of 1904 Chan- cellor Magie appointed him a Vice Chancellor, and on October 11, 1907, Governor Stokes named him to the Senate for the Supreme Court Justice- ship. He has held the position since, Governor Fielder having reappointed him in 1914. His circuit comprises the counties of Union and Middlesex.
Justice Bergen has been specially active at home in the organization of police and fire departments, was influential in securing a sewerage sys- tem and other improvements for Somerville and took a prominent part al- so in the demonstrations that attended the Anti-race gambling excitements of some years ago.
Justice Bergen was President for some time of the Somerville Savings Bank, has been a Director of the First National Bank of Somerville and is a member of the Bachelor Club of Somerville and the Raritan Valley Country Club.
WILLIAM GEORGE BESLER-Plainfield .- Railroad President. Born at Galesburg, Ill., March 30th, 1864; son of John D. and Anna (Chopin) Besler, married on October 10, 1888, to Effie B. Lewis.
William G. Besler is President of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. He has risen to his station by progressing promotions from a train masters clerk. With a technical education acquired at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he entered the office of the train master of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, at Galesburg, in 1880, and was speedily advanced to Division Superintendent. In 1899 the Philadelphia and Read- ing Railway Company tendered him the position of Superintendent of the road, and, accepting, he became the General Superintendent in September, 1900. In March, 1902, he was made General Manager, and in December, 1902, Vice President as well as General Manager of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and was elected President of the company, on May 1st, 1914.
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