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 58

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 58


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Mr. Wescott had not been long practising his profession in Camden when Gov. Leon Abbett made him Presiding Judge of the Common Pleas of Camden County. He succeeded Charles Reed, who, as his school master, had given him his first lesson in oratory with the aid of a raw-hide and who, himself having become a lawyer, had died while serving on the Bench.


In 1894 Camden County was agitated by the murder of the wife of John Miller, a farmer, living near Merchantville and a vigorous pursuit of the clues culminated in the arrest of Francis Lingo, a negro. The negro stoutly asserted his innocence; and the Supreme Court assigned Mr. Wes- cott to defend him. An antagonistic public sentiment forced Lingo's con- viction, but after an exhaustive argument by his counsel before a full bench on appeal, the verdict was set aside and a new trial ordered. At the second trial Mr. Wescott's cross-examination of the State's witnesses was so thorough and illuminating that the court directed Lingo's acquittal with- out calling on the defense to produce any testimony.


Although not active in politics, Mr. Wescott was named as a presi- dential elector on the Cleveland ticket in 1892 and in 1910 responded to the progressive agitation to the extent of actively supporting the candidacy for governor of Frank S. Katzenbach, who three years before had lost to John Franklin Fort by a slim majority. Mr. Wescott's speech for Katzenbach all but defeated the nomination of Woodrow Wilson, then President of Princeton University and who at that time was as completely unknown to Mr. Wescott in the political sense as he was to the country at large. Im- mediately after the nomination of Mr. Wilson, Judge Wescott had left Taylor's Opera House without waiting to hear the candidate's speech of ac- ceptance. He read it in the evening paper, however, on his way home, and was so struck by its force that he wrote to Mr. Wilson and was soon there- after received at the Wilson home in Princeton where the two men at once became friends. When in 1912 Gov. Wilson sought among the New Jersey delegates the one best fitted to put his nomination before the National Con- vention in Baltimore, he chose Mr. Wescott. Mr. Wescott's formal presenta- tion of Gov. Wilson's name became a powerful campaign document. Four years later the President selected Mr. Wescott to again present his name at the National Convention at St. Louis.


In 1914, Gov. Fielder named Mr. Wescott to be Attorney General of the State, the appointment being for a term of five years. In the enthusiasm that followed his success in the Baltimore Convention, Mr. Wescott's friends


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induced him to become a candidate for the United States Senate and he entered the Senatorial primary of that year. In 1916 many influences in the state pressed his name again upon public attention for the office and he entered the Senatorial primary again commonly regarded as the prefer- ence of the Administration and made an excellent showing in both polls.


Mr. Wescott was President of the New Jersey Bar Association in 1913, is a 32nd degree Mason and a member of the Academy of Political and Social Science.


ANDREW FLEMING WEST - Princeton. - University Dean. Born at Allegheny, Pa., May 17, 1853; son of the Rev. Nathaniel and Mary (Fleming) West ; married on May 9, 1889, to Lucy Marshall Fitz-Randolph, of Morristown.


Children : Randolph West, born at Princeton, August 7, 1890.


Dr. West graduated from Princeton University in 1874 with the A. B. degree and the University conferred the Ph. D. degree in 1883. He holds the degree of LL. D. from Lafayette College, conferred in 1897, and the D. Litt. conferred by Oxford University in 1902. He became a Professor of Latin in Princeton University in 1883 and has been Dean of the Graduate School at Princeton since 1901. He is a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome and Chairman of the Committee on the School of Classical Study. He planned the Graduate College of Princeton University.


Dr. West is a writer on university education, particularly the topics referring to classical education. Besides having been the editor of "Ter- ence" (1888), and "The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury" (1889), he is the author of "Alcain and the Rise of the Christian Schools" (1893), "Latin Grammar" (1902), "American Liberal Education" (1907) and "The Grad- uate College of Princeton" (1913).


EDWARD WESTON-Newark .- Electrician. Born in England, on May 9, 1850.


After Edward Weston came to the United States in 1870, he experi- mented with electro-magnetic machines; and in 1875, he established the first factory in America for the construction of such machinery. He is the inventor, besides, of a notable group of meters for electrical measurement. He also started the manufacture of arc light carbons according to methods of his own invention, and thus became the founder of another new in- dustry in America ; and it was only after he had shown the way in an un- mistakable manner that the arc was able to make progress and develop to its present-day magnitude.


Mr. Weston has been able to overcome difficulties which seemed in- surmountable because he has introduced into most of his physical problems a chemical point of view of his own. He has not gotten his chemistry


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wholesale as it is dispensed in some of our hot-bed method educational in- stitutions, but wont, for himself, to the bottom of things.


It was rather fortunate for him that one of the first employments he got in New York was with a chemical concern which made photographic chemicals. Photochemistry is an excellent experience for any young chemist who is disposed to generalize all chemical reactions by mere chemical equations. His observation of small details in chemical or physical phe- nomena led him to improve the art of nickelplating and electrolytic deposi- tions of metals to a point where it entered a new era. Clumsy attempts had already been made for the commercial refining of copper by means of the electric current. His careful laboratory observations revealed to him the true principles upon which economic industrial electrolytic copper refining could be carried out. The study of the electro deposition of metals forced him to the study of the construction of dynamos at that time. The dynamo was still at its very beginning-some sort of an electrical curiosity. Little or no improvement was made until he undertook the careful study of the various factors relating to dynamo efficiency.


Dr. Weston filed his first United States patent on dynamo construction in 18- which was soon followed by many others and before long he had in- augurated such profound ameliorations of dynamos as to enormously in- crease their efficiency. He marked an epoch in physical science by con- structing the first industrial machine which was able to change one form of energy, motion, into another, electricity, with a hitherto unparalleled small loss. It was in the Weston factory that the first practical application was made in this country of electrical power transmission for factory purposes. Its success there led to its adoption by the Clark Thread Company of New- ark for some special work.


In his factory, also, the first arc was used for general illumination .. From 1875 Mr. Weston was very energetically engaged with the develop- ment of systems of both arc and incandescent illumination by electricity. At the start, the electro arc produced a light of bluish tint. Mr. Weston found a cure by introducing vapors of metal or metallic salts or oxide into the arc itself, and so modified the color of the light. Thus he became the inventor of the so-called "flaming arc." In his endeavors to make the elec- tric incandescent lamp an economic possibility, he joined in the rivalry among inventors of the Edison (q. v.) and Swan magnitude in search of the really practical incandescent lamp. All the known forms of carbon had the fatal defect of structural lack of homogeneity. Weston tried to solve this difficulty by passing the current through the filament while the filament was placed in an atmosphere of hydrocarbon gas with the result that the filament acquired the same electrical resistance over its whole length. In his efforts to produce in his laboratory an artificial filament from an abso- lutely uniform structureless chemical substance, he produced eventually a flexible transparent sheet similar to gelatine and called "Tamadine." These films could be cut automatically with the utmost exactitude, producing filaments of uniform section which then could be submitted to carboniza- tion before fastening them to the inside of the glass bulb of the incan- descent lamp.


While he was engaged in the solution of these problems, Dr. Weston found himself handicapped continually by the existing clumsy and time-


540


Wheeler


consuming methods of electrical measurement. So he was compelled to in- vent, for his own use, a set of practical electrical measuring instruments. It was not long before some of his business friends wanted duplicates of the instruments ; and, almost before he realized it, he was giving considerable attention to their construction and further development. Dropping his con- nection with the dynamo and electric light enterprises, he plunged into the new industry which he had created-of making accurate, trust-worthy and easy-to-use electrical measuring instruments. His early modest shop has developed into one of the most remarkably equipped factories in the world. He has created radically new methods of measurements and introduced an accuracy undreamed of heretofore. By long and repeated observations in which many years have been consumed he has been able to determine the electrical behavior of each one of hundreds of alloys at different tempera- tures. Noting the remarkable properties in some manganes alloys he com- pounded, he managed to produce an alloy which has sixty-five times the re- sistance of copper. The metallic alloys Weston discovered are used prac- tically in nearly all kinds of electrical measuring instruments throughout the world; and, throughout the world, his instruments and methods are found in all properly equipped laboratories and electro chemical establish- ments. The Russians used them on their captured battleships. One set of patents is said to have involved an expenditure of nearly $400,000 to main- tain his rights to them.


SCHUYLER SKAATS WHEELER - Bernardsville .- Engineer. Born in New York City, May 17, 1860; son of James Edwin and Ann (Skaats) Wheeler; married in October, 1898, to Ella Adams Peterson, of New York ;- 2nd, in April, 1901, to Amy Sutton, of Rye, N. Y.


Schuyler S. Wheeler is the President of the Crocker Wheeler Company, manufacturers of electric equipments at Ampere. (Essex Co.) With Pro- fessor Francis B. Crocker he organized the company in 1889 and has. since been its head.


Mr. Wheeler's interest in the application of electric force to tools and motors of one kind and another, was aroused early in life. At one time he was a member of Edison's engineering staff. He was given charge of the work at the first incandescent light station, when the light was introduced in 1883 and contrived many of the devices that were adopted for the per- fection of the light. The electric elevator and the electric light machines are also among the modern new power devices he has produced. From 1888 to '95 he was the Electrical Expert of the Board of Electric Control in New York City.


In 1904 Mr. Wheeler received from Franklin Institute the John Scott medal for the invention (1886) of the electric buzz fan. His book, prepared in collaboration with Professor Crocker, on the practical management of dynamos and motors is a recognized authority. He brought to this country the Latimer Clark library, the largest collection of rare electric books in existence, and presented it to the American Institute of Electric Engineers.


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He organized the United Engineering Society and the erection of its build- ing in New York was chiefly the result of his energy.


Mr. Wheeler was educated at the Columbia Grammar School and enter- ing Columbia College left there before graduation to become Assistant Electrician of the Jablochkoff Electric Light Company, remaining there un- til he joined the Edison staff. He was successively electrician of the Her- zog Teleseme Company and manager as well as electrician of the C. & C. Electric Motor Company, the first concern engaged in the production of elec- tric motors. Shortly afterwards the Crocker-Wheeler Company was organ- ized.


Besides being the co-author of the work on dynamos and motors, Mr. Wheeler wrote the code of professional ethics for engineers which was adopt- ed by the American Institute of Electric Engineers in 1912. He holds the Honorary degrees of D. Sc. from Hobart College and M. Sc. from Colum- bia, is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member, at one time President, of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He has been Vice President of the Automobile Club and is a subscriber of the University Club. the St. Nicholas Society, Somerset Hills Country Club and the New York City Chamber of Commerce.


JOHN JOSIAH WHITE-Atlantic City .- Judge. Born on his father's farm near Pemberton, Burlington Co., August 16th, 1863; eldest son of Josiah and Mary Kirby (Allen) White; married at Lansdowne, Pa., on February 20th, 1890, to Laura C. Harris, daughter of John W. and Carolien (Delacroix) Harris.


Children : Elizabeth.


John Josiah White is a member of the Court of Errors and Appeals of the State of New Jersey, and one of the owners and proprietors of one of the most imposing sea-coast hotels in the United States. He is of Quaker ancestry, some of his fore-bears having been prominent ministers in the Society of Friends in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Among the earliest of the direct lines on these shores were Christopher White, who settled in Alloway Creek, Salem county, in 1677; William Haines who came to Bur- lington in 1682, and Samuel Smith, first noted in the annals of 1694, who was a member of the Assembly until his death in 1718. Joseph Kirkbride who came to Philadelphia in 1682, Mahlon Stacy who was the first settler of Trenton in 1678 and Isaac Shoemaker from Cresheim on the Rhine, one of the party of eighty German Quakers who founded Germantown, were also of his line.


Judge White left Swarthmore College at the end of his sophomore year to become a student in the law office of Nathan H. Sharpless. He attended the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. meanwhile, receiving the B. L. degree in 1SS4. He was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar and later to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, engaging in active practice until 1901.


Judge White removed to Atlantic City in 1901, and with his father and two brothers built the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel on the Atlantic coast. They have since been the proprietors and managers of it.


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Whitehead


Judge White took a conspicuous part in the clean-up movement in At- lantic City in 1910-'11, and in June of 1911 Gov. Wilson nominated him to the Senate for the seat on the Bench of the Court of Errors and Appeals that had been made vacant by the death of Judge George R. Gray of New- ark. The Senate confirmed the nomination, and in January, 1912, when the unexpired term for which he had been appointed ran out, Gov. Wilson re- nominated him for the full term of six years and he is still serving.


Judge White is a member of the Country Club of Atlantic City, Seaview Golf Club and Atlantic City Yacht Club.


V


BENJAMIN S. WHITEHEAD-Newark, (379 Mt. Prospect Ave.) -Manufacturer. Born in Newark, January 24th, 1858; son of Ed- mund B. and Elizabeth R. (Stainsby) Whitehead ; married at New- ark in 1882, to Fannie M. Thompson, daughter of John and Eliza- beth Thompson, of Mendham.


Children : Ray B., age 34 years; Helen W .; Anthony, age 30 years.


Benjamin S. Whitehead is President of the Whitehead & Hoag Com- pany in Newark, and active as well in church and community work. He is of Revolutionary stock ; the records show that Daniel Whitehead was a resi- dent of Dutchess county, N. Y. in 1760. Mr. Whitehead's grandfather, Steven C., was a Methodist preacher whom the famous Bishop Francis Asbury ordained. His father was for eighteen years Assistant Col- lector of Internal Revenue at Newark under the administra- tions of Lincoln, Grant and Garfield.


Mr. Whitehead was educat- ed in the public schools, at the Cooper Institute, New York, and at the New Jersey Busi- ness College. In 1873 he went into the printing business in a modest way, and under his management it has grown into the magnitude it has now at- tained.


Mr. Whitehead has been a member of Centenary Metho- dist Church for many years, and has long officiated as one of its Trustees. He has been a Trustee also of Centenary Collegiate Institute at Hacketts- town and is a member of the Board of Managers of the Y. M. C. A. of New- ark. He is connected with the Newark Board of Trade, has been a Direc-


543


Williams


tor of the Manufacturers National Bank of Newark, is Chairman of the City-wide Community Boys Work, President of the North End Community Boys Work and of the New Jersey Automobile and Motor Club, is Governor of the Down Town Club and a member of the Essex and Union Clubs. He has been President of the Whitehead & Hoag Company since its incorpora- tion twenty-five years ago.


WILLIAM HALSTED WILEY-East Orange .- Publisher. Born in New York City, July 10, 1842; son of John and Elizabeth B. Wiley ; married on June 1, 1870, to Joanna King Clarke, of Zanes- ville, O.


Children : Sara King, born September 23rd, 1871; married Fred'k L. Drummond, January 24th, 1891, died March 6th, 1909.


William H. Wiley, besides having a record as a soldier in the Civil War, represented the Eighth New Jersey District in the 5Sth and 59th Congresses of the United States (1903-1907) and in the 61st Congress (1909- 1911). He began his education in the public schools of New York City and graduated from the New York Free Academy (now the College of the City of New York) in 1861. He afterwards studied at the Rensselaer Polytech- nic Institute in Troy, graduating in 1866 with the degree of C. E., and took a course at the Columbia College School of Mines.


At the outbreak of the Rebellion Mr. Wiley connected himself with the 7th Regiment New York Volunteers, became a First Lieutenant U. S. Vols. in 1862, and, when he was mustered out in 1864, was a Major of the Volun- teer Army. Since 1876 he has been engaged in the publication of scientific works. Mr. Wiley is author of "Yosemite, Alaska and Yellowstone" (18SS) and is the New York correspondent of "Engineering" of London.


Mr. Wiley was President of the International Jury, Brussels Exposi- tion, 1897 ; member Superior Jury, Brussels ; Commissioner for New Jersey, St. Louis Exposition, 1904; and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society Mechanical Engineers, American Insti- tute Mining Engineers, American Institute Electrical Engineers, A. A. A. S., National Geographical Society, Order of Leopold, Belgium ; Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art. Society for the Preservation of the Adirondacks. Seventh Regi- ment War Veterans (President), and of the Veterans Department of South Loyal Legion, U. S. A.


Major Wiley's club memberships are with the Engineers, the Universi- ty and the Municipal Art of New York, the East Orange Republican, the Essex County Country, Mountain Golf and the Twilight Park Clubs.


ROBERT WILLIAMS-Paterson, (385 Park Ave.) -Judge. Born in Paterson, March 16, 1860; son of Henry Augustus and Mary Louisa (Van Saun) Williams ; married at Atlantic City, on April 23, 1891, to Alice Winslow Ingham, daughter of George T. Ingham and Annie T. Ingham, of Salem.


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Children : Robert Jr., born January 27th, 1892; Henry A., born January 15th, 1895.


Robert Williams is a Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals-the Court of final resort in the state. He had filled a number of other state offices before going upon the Bench. He is a lawyer by profession, is in- terested besides in banking and publishing enterprises, and has led a long political career.


Judge Williams began his studies in the schools of Paterson and, enter- ing Princeton, graduated with the A. B. degree in 1881; in 1884 the A. M. degree was conferred upon him. In preparation for the law, he took a course at the Columbia College Law School, while learning the code of the practice in the office of his father, who was also a lawyer. He was ad- mitted to the New Jersey Bar as an attorney in 1884 and as counselor three years later. In 1906 the Court of Chancery appointed him a Special Master.


Judge Williams's political career began when he was nominated in 1889 for the House of Assembly of 1890. Re-elected in the following year, he was the choice of the minority for Speaker of the House in 1891. Five years later he was promoted to the State Senate by the republicans of Passaic county ; and in the last two years of his term was its presiding officer.


He has since held a number of important State offices. The joint meet- ing of the Legislation named him a State Director of Railroads in 1903 but he resigned in 1904 to become a member of the State Riparian Board, be- ing President of the Board in 1908-'09. He had become a member of the Repubican State Committee and of its Executive Committee in 1898 and served till 1911 when he resigned to accept appointment by Gov. Fort to the Public Utility Commission. He had previously served on the Railroad Commission whose functions by an act of 1911 were transferred to the Utility Board. In the Utility Board too he served as President until in 1912, he withdrew to resume his law practice in Paterson. Early in 1914 a vacancy occurred on the Bench of the Court of Errors and Appeals and Gov. Fielder nominated Commissioner Williams to fill it for the unexpired term, and reappointed him in 1915, for the full term of six years.


Mr. Williams's home activities have been quite as marked as those in State affairs. He is Secretary and Treasurer of the Call Printing and Publishing Company which issues the "Morning Call" in Paterson and a Director of the National Ribbon Company and of the First National Bank of Paterson. He was Judge Advocate of the First Battalion N. G. N. J. with the rank of Captain.


Mr. Williams is a Presbyterian in faith. His club memberships are with the Masonic, the Arcola Country Club and the Princeton Club of New York.


EDMUND WILSON-Red Bank .- Lawyer. Born at Shrews- bury, on December 15, 1863 ; son of Thaddeus and Charlotte Ann Wilson.


Edmund Wilson was for six years Attorney General of the state. In September, 1903, he had been retained by United States Attorney General


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Wilson


Moody as special assistant in the trial of cases which the national Depart- ment of Justice was pressing against certain bank officers in New Jersey for violation of the National Banking Aet. He served for years on the State Board of Education and in June, 1907, was made a member of the State Board of Railroad Commissioners. He resigned that position in 1908 to accept appointment as Attorney General and served in the latter office until 1914.


Attorney General Wilson's father was the pastor of the Presbyterian church at Shrewsbury for forty-five years-at the time of his death Pastor Emeritus. The Attorney General prepared for college at Phillips Acad- emy in Exeter, N. H. and entering Princeton University in 1881 graduated from there in 1885. He studied law at Columbia University, New York, and in the offices of General Henry M. Nevius at Red Bank. Admitted to the Bar in 1898 he immediately entered into partnership with General Novius and the relation continued until the General was made a Circuit Court Judge in 1896.


WOODROW WILSON-Princeton .- 28th President of the United States. Born in Staunton, Va., December 28th. 1856; son of Joseph R. and Jessie (Woodrow) Wilson ; married June 24th, 1885, to Ellen Louise Axson, of Savanah, Ga., who died August 6th, 1914. Re-married at Washington, D. C., on December 1Sth, 1915, to Edith Bowling Galt, of Washington, D. C.


Children : Margaret Woodrow Wilson; Mrs. Francis Bowes Sayre; Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo.


Woodrow Wilson-scholar, author, statesman and orator-is of Scotch- Irish lineage on both his father's and his mother's side. His father, a native of Ohio, was a distinguished scholar and clergyman of the Presby- terian church, some time Professor at the Columbia (S. C.) Theological Seminary and at the time of his death Professor in the Southwestern Theological Seminary at Clarksville, Tenn. His mother was a native of Scotland.


President Wilson acquired his early education with private tutors and at the schools of Augusta, Ga., Columbus, S. C., and Wilmington, N. C. He entered Davidson College, N. C. in 1874, Princeton a year later, graduat- ing there in 1879, and studied law at the University of Virginia. Charlottes- ville, graduating in 1881.




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