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 8

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 8


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


OLIVER HUFF BROWN-Spring Lake .- Merchant. Born at Farmingdale, Dec. 12th, 1852, son of Peter and Sarah Brown.


Oliver H. Brown began his life work as an employee of a country store at Avon. Two years later he was offered an opportunity by John A. Githen of Asbury Park, and was manager of the business for eight years. Many trips across the seas enlarged his business views and ex- periences ; and when he came back in 1881 he was ready to go into busi- ness for himself. He then established a unique business in the way of furniture, fine china, bric a brac glass, etc. in Spring Lake. The business


64


Brown


grew rapidly and he subsequently opened branches in Lakewood and Asbury Park. Mr. Brown is much consulted as a commissioner in his line of business.


His activities and progressiveness in the community brought him the office of Mayor of the borough of Spring Lake, irrespective of politics ; and when Spring Lake, North Spring Lake and Como consolidated, he was elected first Mayor of the new borough and still continues to hold this office covering a period of twenty-six years. In 1896 he was nominated for a seat in the House of Assembly of 1897 and served one term. In 1902 the Republicans of the County named him as there candidate for the State Senate, and he was renominated and re-elected in 1905, 1908 and 1911 serving nine years in the Upper House. In the first two campaigns his democratic opponent was Dr. Hugh S. Kinmouth of Asbury Park, and the third campaign opponent was Judge Ruliff F. Lawrence of Freehold. He was also a dele- gate to the National Republican Convention in Philadelphia that in 1900 renominated President Mckinley, with Theo. Roosevelt on the ticket as the candidate for Vice President.


Senator Brown is President of the First National Bank of Spring Lake and a director of the Lakewood Trust Company, the First National Bank of Lake- wood, the First National Bank of Bradley Beach and the New First National Bank of Farm- ingdale, and has large interests in other Monmouth county en- terprises. He is largely inter- ested in The New Monmouth Hotel of Spring Lake and has always been its Treasurer ; the owner also of a number of hotels on the coast ; is President of the New Essex & Sussex Hotel of Spring Lake and of the New Montery Hotel of Asbury Park; President and half owner of large property at Jefferson, New Hampshire, consisting of four hotels, one of these being the famous Hotel Waumbek, a number of cottages and a golf course that is said to be one of the best in the country.


MARY SPALDING BROWN, (Mrs. Wm. Thayer Brown) -East Orange, (172 Prospect St.)-Civic Worker. Born at Byron, Ill., on Oct. 14th, 1854; daughter of James L. and Harriet Irene (Good- will) Spalding; married at Rockford. Ill .. on Aug. 24th, 1875. to William Thayer Brown (died May 7th, 1916) son of Horace and Mary Thayer Brown, of Vermont.


65


Browning


Children : Horace, Harriet Irene, Wiliam Thayer Brown, JJr., and Elizabeth Eulalia.


Mrs. Mary Spalding Brown is interested in charitable and civie work. Her family traces its origin in this country back to 1630. She was educated in the schools and at the college in Rockford, III. She lived afterwards in Chicago; and coming East resided in Springfield, Mass., before coming to New Jersey in 1900.


While living in Chicago 1884-1897 Mrs. Brown was a member of the Fortnightly Club serving a term as Secretary, and also Vice President of the Chicago Woman's Club. She was a member too, of the Board of Managers of the Training School for Nurses connected with Cook County Hospital and served as Director in the Home for the Friendless. At the World's Fair in 1893 Mrs. Brown was a member of the Committee on Organization of the World's Congress of Representative Women.


Since making her home in East Orange Mrs. Brown has been interested in all kinds of social and civic work. In 1906, '7, 'S she was President of the Womens Club of Orange. In 1910 Governor Fort appointed her a mem- ber of the Board of Managers of the New Jersey State Reformatory for Women, at Clinton. Later Mrs. Brown received commissions from Gover- nors Woodrow Wison and Fielder, but in 1915 she was obliged to resign from the Board on account of ill health. She is a member of the Board of the Womans Exchange, Vice President of Young Womens Christian Asso- ciation, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and just now is, of course, much interested in Red Cross and other forms of "Pre- paredness" work. As a member of Trinity Congregational Church she is active in the Womans Guild.


WILLIAM JOHN BROWNING-Camden, (315 Linden St.)- Merchant. Born in Camden, April 11, 1850; son of William Hinchman and Mary Cooper (Borroughs) Browning: married at Camden, on December 30, 1873, to Lillie A. Taylor, daughter of Rev. Thomas R. and Sarah S. ( Webb ) Taylor.


Children : W. Kempton Browning.


William J. Browning probably has a larger acquaintance with the public men of the United States than any other man in New Jersey. For sixteen years he was Chief Clerk of the National House of Representatives at Washington, and left his desk there only to take a seat on the floor as a member of the House. Congressman Henry C. Londenslager, who had rep- resented the first district for eighteen years, died in Angust, 1911 ; and Mr. Browning was elected in the Fall of that year to fill the vacancy. He served in the office of Chief Clerk longer than any man who had ever held the office. He was elected to Congress in 1912-1914-1916. In the campaign of 1912 he was the only republican elected in the New Jersey Congressional delegation.


Mrs. Browning's father was Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Camden for many years ; and her brother, the Rev. Thomas R. Taylor, who is also a Baptist minister, is Chaplain of the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. Mr. Browning himself is of Quaker descent and was brought up


66 Browning


a Quaker. His early schooling was acquired at the Friends Central High School, Philadelphia. He was engaged in the wholesale dry goods business in Philadephia for thirty years, entering the firm of Davis Kempton & Com- pany, when a boy of fifteen and finally becoming a member of the firm.


Mr. Browning served as a member of the Board of Education in Cam- den for four years and as a member of the City Council for four years more. President Harrison named him in 1889 as Post Master of Camden, in which position he served for five years. When he was appointed Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives in 1895, the famous Thomas B. Reed of Maine was its presiding officer. His position not only gave him unusual opportunities for acquaintance with the distinguished men of the country but brought him into intimate relations with all of them. He has been a friend of the Presidents ; and, when President Mckinley fell before the pistol of an assassin, Chief Clerk Browning was one of those who ac- companied the remains to the grave and took part in the me- morial services. His influence has also been largely exerted in the most important national le- gislation of the years.


Ever since Mr. Browning's election to Congress he has been a member of the House Com- mittee on Naval Affairs ; and, always an advocate of a large navy, he was largely instrument- al in securing the $536,000,000. appropriation for a more effi- cient and larger navy authorized at the close of the 64th session. Besides these larger activities Congressman Browning succeed- ed in pushing through the House at the session of 1916 an item in the River and Harbor bill ap- propriating $79,000 for the deep- ening of the Delaware River in front of the city of Camden ; and it would have passed the Senate but for the filibuster over the "armed neutrality" resolution that defeated the con- sideration of all other legislation.


Mr. Browning served in the National Guard of the state of New Jersey for twenty years, connecting himself with company C of the Sixth regiment and retired with the rank of Major. He was Adjuster of the Camden and Suburban Railway for several years before it merged with the Public Service Corporation, and is at present a Director and Secretary of the West Jersey Traction Company. He is a member of the Y. M. C. A. in Camden, the Gloucester County Historical Society, the Camden Board of Trade, the Union League of Philadelphia, the New Jersey Society of Pennsylvania, the Academy of Fine Arts of Philadelphia, the Camden Republican Club and the First Ward Republican Club of Camden, a 32d. Degree Mason, a Knight


67


Bryant


Templar, Tall Cedar of Lebanon, a Shriner and a member of Camden Lodge, B. P. O. E.


Congressman Browning's son is a physician practicing in Camden.


LEWIS T. BRYANT-Atlantic City .- Lawyer. Born in Atlantic County, July, 1874.


Lewis T. Bryant is the head of the New Jersey State Department of Labor and the State Commissioner of Labor. With the idea of following the profession of Civil Engineer, Gen. Bryant entered Pennsylvania Military College at Chester, Pa., and graduated from there with the C. E. degree in 1891; but, preferring the practice of law, he entered the office of Allen B. Endicott as a student and was admitted to the bar in 1898.


Connecting himself with the United States Volunteer Army as Captain of Company F., 4th Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers Infantry, Gen. Bryant became Major in the spring of 1899. and later Assistant Inspector General of the National Guard of New Jersey with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was later commissioned Inspector General of the National Guard with rank of Brigadier General.


Gen. Bryant was Secretary of the New Jersey Commission at the Louis- iana Purchase Exposition from early in December, 1903, till the close of the display. He served also as Secretary of the Jamestown Exposition Com- mission. In January of 1904 he was appointed to succeed John C. Ward as Inspector of Factories and Work Shops. An act passed a little later in the year changed the title of the office to that of Commissioner of Labor : and Gov. Murphy continued him in the office under the new title. On the expiration of his term in 1909 Governor Stokes renominated him and when that second term ran out, in 1910, Governor Fort appointed him again. Gov- ernor Wilson reappointed him although a Republican; and by legislative enactment his term was extended and his term will expire in September of 1918.


Colonel Bryant is identified with the hotel and other real estate in- terests in Atlantic City and for 13 years was Captain of the Morris Guards, Atlantic City's celebrated military social organization.


PERCY BRYANT-Rahway, (Bowdoin Park.)-Physician and Alienist. Born at Charles City, Iowa, on April 19, 1862; son of Nathaniel C. and Mary Eliza (Southall) Bryant ; married at New York City, Feb'y 21, 1900, by the Rev. Melville K. Bailey of Grace Chapel, New York City, to Josephine Myrick Webb, daughter of Edward and Hannah Elizabeth (Myrick) Webb, of Newcastle, Maine.


Children : Nathaniel, born Dec. 26, 1900; Cushing, born June 15. 1902-both at Newcastle, Maine.


Percy Bryant's paper on Simple Idiopathic Epilepsy, (State Hospital Bulletin, N. Y., October, 1896), is the earliest medical literature ever pub- lished on the Auto-Toxaemic origin of Epilepsy ; and shortly afterwards it was copied by the Journal of Mental Science, London, England. He was


68


Bryant


one of the Surgeons who assisted Dr. William T. Bull in the notable Ma- loney case, in 1886; - Maloney suffered a wound of the abdomen with a 38 cal. revolver, the bullet making eleven punctures of the intestine, an in- jury that was then classified as fatal. The accident occurred in the even- ing, and a laparotomy was performed the same night at eleven o'clock, at Chambers St. Hospital. The patient made a rapid recovery and developed no sequelae. This case established a land mark in the development of ab- dominal surgery, because extended surgical interference in these cases was, at that time, generally regarded by the profession as harmful and futile, if not malpractice. The operation has since saved hundreds of lives, especially in military service.


Dr. Bryant is eighth in descent from John Bryant, Sen. of Scituate, a Plymouth Colony Colonial Legislator, and Mary Hyland, his wife, whose family came to America in 1636, from Tenterdon, Eng. John Bryant was a member of the Military Company of Scituate, in 1643, and in 1658, was commissioned Seargeant. He was three times elected a Representative to the Le- gislator from Scituate. His son, Thomas Bryant, Esq., served as a Representative in the Massachusetts legisla- ture for several years. He was a ship-builder, as four generations of his descend- ents were also, and a man of great wealth and influence in New England, with an estate of £10,000 which was many times larger than the average estate of the well-to-do of that period, 1748, when he died. (Vol. II, P. 221, Probate records, Plymouth, Mass.) Another of the descendents was Nathaniel Bryant, Shipbuilder, of New- castle, Me., who was born in 1738. He built there before the Revolutionary War, a wharf, the remains of which are still to be seen ; and his son Na- thaniel Bryant, born in 1765, had ship-yards at Newcastle and Noble- borough, and a trading post at Jefferson, then ten miles distant by water, where he owned over 1,000 acres of timberland which supplied lumber for his vessels.


Dr. Bryant's father was Commander Nathaniel Bryant, U. S. N. who served in the Mexican war as Acting Master of the U. S. Sloop Dale, and served in the American Civil War, from the beginning to the end of hostil- ities. He commanded the Gun-boat "Cairo" of the Mississippi Flotilla in 1862, and received prize money for the capture of the Confederate Gun- boats "Sumpter", "General Bragg" and "Hiawatha".


69


Buchanan


Dr. Bryant was educated in the High School at Cedar Falls, Iowa, Columbia College, New York City, (M. D. 18SS,) and at the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College, (M. D. 1883.) He served twenty-two months as an Interne and House Surgeon in Cook County Hospital, Chicago, (1883-5,) and was afterwards Ambulance Surgeon to the Chambers Street Hospital, New York City. During his incumbency as House Surgeon, he was lecturer to the Illinois Training School for Nurses. He was subse- quently assistant physician at Wards Island Insane Asylum, New York City, and at the Buffalo State Hospital. He was promoted to First Assis- tant Physician in the latter named institution in 1895, after passing No. 1 in the competative Civil Service examination held at Albany, Dec. 24, 1894, and was promoted to Medical Superintendent of the Manhattan State Hos- pital, New York City, in 1897, after passing a competative Civil Service examination. In 1901, he resigned on account of failing health, and later entered into private practice at 52 Midwood St., and afterwards at 134 Hawthorne St., Brooklyn, but was obliged to move from the city and take up an out door life. In 1906 he purchased the Bowdoin estate of ten acres, at Rahway, and is living there in retirement.


Dr. Bryant was Asst. Opthalmologist in St. Bartholomews Hospital, New York City, in 1902, and Assistant Surgeon, with the rank of Capt. 74th Regt., N. Y. N. G. from 1893 to '97, and during his service there quali- fied both as a sharpshooter and as an expert. He reorganized the methods of instruction in the Training School for Nurses at the Buffalo State Hos- pital in 1890, and at the Manhattan State Hospital in 1897. and brought both schools from a primative state of development to a high degree of efficiency. He is a Democrat in politics, in religion an Episcopalian, a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion and member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants (life member), Society of Colonial Wars (life member), American Medico-Psychological Association, Columbia Uni- versity Alumni Association, New York State Medical Association, and New England Historic Genealogical Society, (life member).


Mrs. Bryant, (Josephine Myrick Webb) was graduated from the Lin- coln Academy, Newcastle, Me., 1892, is Corresponding Secretary to the Wom- ens Political Union, Rahway, and is a member of the Society of Colonial Dames, Massachusetts Chapter, in right of General Constant Southworth, who served in King Philips War. From both parents she comes of notable New England stock "In ye old Colonye", and is a descendant of two signers of the Mayflower Compact, Isaac Allerton and Stephen Hopkins.


JOSEPH RAY BUCHANAN-Montclair, (Watchung Ave. )- Journalist, Author. Lecturer. Born at Hannibal. Mo .. December 6, 1851; son of Robert S. and Mary Ellen (Holt) Buchanan : married at Denver, Col .. December 16. 1879. to Lucy Anna Clise. daughter of John Dawson and Amanda Williams Clise, of Do- ver. Col.


70


Buchanan


Children : Robert, born July 7, 1881; Gilbert D., born March 25, 1894; Ray, born July 9, 1899.


Joseph R. Buchanan's father was a native of Virginia, of Scotch an- cestry ; his mother, a daughter of Judge William E. Holt, was born and reared in "Old Kentucky." A pompous southern Colonel once remarked to Buchanan : "The trouble, sir, with you New Jerseymen is that you have no pride of race and nativity." Buchanan rather upset the stiff-necked gentleman by his reply: "How do a Virginia father, a Kentucky mother and a Missouri birthplace strike you, Colonel?"


Young Buchanan, when choosing a career, just naturally followed in the footsteps of his father and his father's father, although when the choice was made he was entirely free from parental restraint or influence. It was in the blood. His grandfather established at Hannibal one of the first newspapers published in Northeastern Missouri. It was on this paper that Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain") received part of his early training in a field he afterwards adorned. Robert S. Buchanan, father of Joseph R., learned the printing business and received his editor- ial training in this same estab- lishment, by the side of the young man who was destined to become one of the world's most famous writers and humorists.


Joseph R. Buchanan began his career as a newspaper man in his early twenties, at Louis- iana, Pike county, Mo., under the tutelage of Captain J. C. Jami- son, proprietor and editor of the "Riverside Press." Captain Jamison was one of the best known of the "old school" journ- alists of the south and west. Under this wise guidance Bu- chanan was enabled to add the journalistic touch to an educa- tion which had been obtained in private schools of Missouri and Illinois.


After two years of service on the Riverside Press, when he was in his twenty-fifth year, he established, as its manager, the first daily newspaper ever published in Pike county. It was as editor of this paper that Champ Clark, later Speaker of the House of Representatives, first actively entered political life and made himself known outside the lines of the county. On account of a business disagreement with the owners of the paper, Buchanan withdrew and began the publication of an opposition daily. In this enter- prise he was financially supported by men then and since prominent in the politics of the nation and upon the bench, among whom were Colonel David P. Dyer, United States Senator and later Justice of the United


Buchanan 71


States District Court, and Judge T. J. C. Fagg, for years a leading mem- ber of the Missouri bar and Judge of the State Supreme court. The paper suspended publication soon after the election of 1876 and Buchanan re- turned to the Riverside Press. In 1878 he was attracted by the great silver discoveries in Colorado and joined the throng that headed for that state and fortune. Instead, however, of grasping the pick and shovel to dig for wealth, Buchanan gave way to the "call of the blood," and again took up daily newspaper work. He was editor of the Denver Daily Democrat in 1878 and 1879 and advertising manager of the Daily Republican, which succeeded the Democrat in the latter part of 1879. During 1880 and 1881 he was connected with newspapers in Leadville, Colorado, which was then a hustling mining town of 35,000.


Returning to Denver in 1882, Buchanan, who had become greatly in- terested in the labor movement, established the "Denver Labor Enquirer," which during the six years of its existence was widely known and influen- tial among papers devoted exclusively to labor interests in the country. In response to the urgent calls of the organized workingman of Chicago, Bu- chanan began the publication of a semi-weekly paper in that city. in March, 1887. This paper he called the "Chicago Enquirer."


In addition to the service rendered by his two newspapers, Buchanan was an active and influential personal force in the labor movement during the years of its most important development. He traveled in almost every state in the Union and in Canada, lecturing, organizing and participating in the management of strikes and trade disputes of various kinds. He was a member of the General Executive Board of the Knights of Labor in 1884 and 1885, at a time when that organization was the dominant ele- ment in the labor movement and was counted the strongest combination of workingmen in the world. In September, 18SS, owing to the dishearten- ing strife between the many conflicting elements then existing in the labor movement, Buchanan suspended both his Denver and Chicago papers and withdrew from active participation in the inner concerns of the move- ment. He continued, however, to write and lecture on labor topics and to sturdily defend labor unionism. He never entirely abandoned this work, even after his walks in life led him far afield.


In October, 1888, Buchanan removed to New York City, accepting the editorship of the departments of economics and politics with the American Press Association, a position he held for over fifteen years. In 1904 he joined the editorial force of the "New York Evening Journal," a connec- tion sustained for ten years. In November, 1914, he took charge of the educational and publicity bureau of the New York Department of Street Cleaning, and in October, 1915, was elected secretary-treasurer of the So- ciety for Street Cleaning and Refuse Disposal of the United States and Canada.


Mr. Buchanan is author of "The Story of a Labor Agitator," an inti- mate autobiographical record of the American labor movement during its crucial period, published by the Outlook Company in 1904. He is also the author of numerous short stories and of papers on social, economic and political questions.


72


Buchanan


Although during recent years he has been identified with and has sup- ported the regular organization of the Democratic party, Joseph R. Buch- anan has all of his life been essentially an independent in politics. It has been said of him by his best friends that "he wouldn't stand hitched." His answer to this challenge has always been: "Parties and party organi -. zation are necessary under our form of government; but I shall always follow the principles in which I believe, regardless of party or of how often I feel it necessary for me to change my allegiance to organizations or leaders."


Before he cast his first vote for President, he had accepted the doc- trines of Peter Cooper, Jesse Harper, James B. Weaver and the leaders of that time who opposed the monopolies which controlled the currency, and the transportation and telegraph lines of the United States. He sup- ported the Greenback party and was active in the organization and the propagation of the doctrines of the reform parties which succeeded it, such as the Union Labor party, the Anti-Monopoly party (first People's party ), the United Labor party and the Populist party. He was associated with Ignatius Donnelly and other radicals in the organization of the latter party and wrote into its declarations the first organized national demand for the adoption of the Initiative and Referendum in law-making in this country. This party in 1892 carried 22 electoral votes for its candidate for President, James B. Weaver, of Iowa, and in that year and 1894 elected sixteen Representatives in Congress, four United States Senators and eight Governors of States. The party went into rapid decline after 1896, when the Democratic party adopted most of its leading principles and nominated William Jennings Bryan for President. The Populists endorsed the can- didacy of Mr. Bryan and went down with him in his first defeat for the office of President. Mr. Buchanan was the New Jersey member of the National Committee of the Populist party and was its nominee for Con- gress in the Sixth New Jersey District in 1892 and 1894. He supported Mr. Bryan's candidacy in 1896 and 1900, campaigning continuously for two months prior to election day in the former year, in New Jersey and New York. He ceased to believe in Mr. Bryan after the Democratic convention, held in St. Louis in 1904. He was one of those who said, "Bryan took the final step in his desertion of Populist principles and broke the last tie that bound Populists to him at St. Louis."




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.