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, 1919-1920, Vol II, Part 19

Author: Sackett, William Edgar, 1848- ed; Scannell, John James, 1884- ed
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Patterson, N.J. : J.J. Scannell
Number of Pages: 1454


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, 1919-1920, Vol II > Part 19


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A paper which he read before the School Masters' Association in 1905 on the question whether college requirements are too great in quantity led the Association to devote all of its meetings for a year to the con- sideration of the subject : and as the result of a second paper, laid before . the New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools, a halt was called on the tendency to increase college requirements and in many cases they were distinctly reduced.


Dr. Farrand was President of the School Masters' Association of New York (1895-6) ; and in his inaugural speech made a plea for a reform of college entrance requirements that moved President Seth Low, of Colum- bia, and President Eliot, of Harvard, to unite in calling a conference for a discussion of the problem. The conference was attended by representatives of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell and the University of Penn- sylvania, and by representatives of the secondary schools. Mr. Farrand was chairman of the committee charged with the selection of the Secondary School representatives, and participated. besides, in the general work of the Conference. At the annual meeting, at Johns Hopkins University, of the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools, Mr. Farrand returned to the subject with a striking address.


When in 1906 a new committee, known as the National Conference Committee on Standards of Colleges and Secondary Schools, was organized, Mr. Farrand was named to represent the College Entrance Examination Board, which, with the Carnegie Foundation. the Association of State Uni- versities and the various associations of colleges and secondary schools, had delegates in attendance. Mr. Farrand, as First Vice President, be- came President of the Conference. Its influence is felt throughout the College system of the country ; and Mr. Farrand's position on it has en- abled him to establish intimate relations and co-operation with some of the leading educational authorities of the nation.


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In 1909 Mr. Farrand was elected Alumni Trustee of Princeton Uni- versity for a term of five years, and in 1914 was re-elected for a second term. His educational experience and wide acquaintance with school and college men especially qualify him for work of this kind, and ever since his first election to the Board he has been one of its most active and in- fluential members.


Dr. Farrand's early education was acquired at the private school con- ducted by his father in New York City, and at the Newark Academy. Upon his graduation there in 1878, he passed entrance examinations for admission to Princeton University, but, because of his health, decided to suspend his studies for a while and connected himself with a banking establishment in New York City. Returning to his books in 1882, he grad- uated at Princeton University, with the class of '86. His brief connection with Scribner's Magazine followed. Six months later he was made a Master in the Newark Academy. In '89 he was appointed Associate Head Master and in 1901 became the Head Master of the Academy His ad- ministration has built it into one of the leading educational institutions in the East. It has had a long waiting list for years past.


Dr. Farrand holds the degree of Master of Arts from Princeton Uni- versity and Columbia, and Doctor of Letters from Hamilton College. He is a member of the National Conference on Uniform Entrance Re- quirements in English, 1894 (now Secretary), College Entrance Examina- tion Board, 1900, National Conference Committee on Standards of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Schoolmasters' Association of New York (President 1895-6), Middle States Association Colleges and Pre- paratory Schools (President 1902) ; Head Masters' Association of U. S. (President 1911), New England Society of Orange (President 1906-8), President Princeton Alumni Federation of New Jersey, 1909-11, Alumni Trustee Princeton University and Director State Charities Aid Associa- tion of New Jersey. He is a Presbyterian. His clubs are the University, Century, Princeton (New York), Essex (Newark), and Nassau (Prince- ton).


His address is Newark Academy, Newark.


LILLIAN FORD FEICKERT (Mrs. Edward F.)-Plainfield .- Woman Suffragist. (Photograph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born in New York City, on July 20, 1878; married to Edward Foster Feic- kert, of New York.


Lillian Ford Feickert is President of the New Jersey Women Suffrage Association and is now serving her sixth term in that position. She is of English, Scotch and Irish ancestry, her direct ancestors having come to Massachusetts in 1624, in the ship "Fortune." She has lived in New Jersey for sixteen years, and has been active in local and State woman suffrage work for the greater part of that time.


Mrs. Feickert is a Vice Chairman of the Woman's Committee of the


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N. J. Council of Vote Defence, a member of the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution and of several women's clubs.


CHRISTIAN W. FEIGENSPAN-Newark, (53 Lincoln Park.) -Banker and Brewer. (Photograph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born in Newark, December 7, 1876; son of Christian and Rachel Laible Feigenspan ; married December, 1910, to Alis Rule, of Cincinnati, Ohio.


Christian W. Feigenspan is the son of the late Christian Feigenspan who came to this country from Germany when a young man and estab- lished himself in business here, founding the brewery which bears his name, about forty years ago. He died in 1899, leaving a large fortune.


Mr. Feigenspan was educated in the public schools of Newark, the Barnard School for Boys in New York City, and Cornell University. After completing his studies at the University he spent several years in travel.


Upon the death. in December, 1907, of Christian W. Stengel, President of the Christian Feigenspan Corporation, Mr. Feigenspan was elected Presi- dent and began his business career. During the eight years since he be- came the head of the corporation, it has become one of the leading breweries of the country.


About six years ago Mr. Feigenspan became one of the founders and President of the Commercial Casualty Insurance Company, with a home office in Newark. The Commercial Casualty Insurance Company is now one of the largest financial and insurance institutions of the state.


Mr. Feigenspan was elected President of the Federal Trust Company about a year ago. His experience as Director of the Federal Trust Com- pany, the Union National Bank and the German Savings Bank gave him an insight into the banking business. He had acted as a member of the Auditing Committees of the two frst-named banks.


Mr. Feigenspan has been a member of the City Plan Commission since its organization ; and he was a member of the Committee of One Hundred for the celebration of Newark's 250th Anniversary, being vice-chairman and a member of the Executive and Finance Committees. He is also a member of the Memorial Building Committee.


During the recent anniversary celebration in Newark, Mr. Feigenspau donated to the City a reproduction of what has been called the finest equestrian statue of the world-that of Bartholomeo Colleoni, by Verrochio, which has been one of the artistic landmarks of Venice since about 1490. This magnificent reproduction, executed by J. Massey Rhind, the well- known Scottish-American sculptor, stands 45 feet high and is an exact copy of the original. The 'statue is of bronze and the pedestal of Cherokee marble surrounded by a bronze frieze. The statue is erected in Clinton Park, Newark, and its unveiling on July 26th, 1916, with appropriate ceremonies, was one of the features of the city's 250th birthday celebration.


In connection with the alterations and additions to the Memorial Hos- pital of Newark, Mr. Feigenspan and Mr. William F. Hoffman (also of Newark) have recently given a new building to the hospital to be used


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for the exclusive treatment of children. This new building when com- pleted will have accommodations for twenty-four beds with full hospital equipment.


Mr. Feigenspan is very much interested in photography and has a fine collection of photographs which he has taken. He is much interested, too, in horticulture, and, very fond of outdoor life and sports, has been rated as one of the best shots in the country.


Mr. Feigenspan is a member of the Essex County Country Club, the Down Town Club and many other organizations.


JOHN W. FERGUSON-Paterson, 421 12th Ave.)-Contractor and Civil Engineer. Born at Tiffin, Ohio, Dec. 19th, 1857; son of Peter and Maria Jeannette (Bixby) Ferguson ; married at Pater- son, N. J., on May 25, 1893, to Jennie B. Cooke, daughter of Wil- liam and Lydia (Stitt) Cooke.


Children : John W., Jr., May 12th, 1894; Arthur Donald, Feb. 17, 1899; Jean B., April 11th, 1906.


John W. Ferguson is a descendant of an ancient Scottish family. Rev. John Ferguson, his immigrant ancestor, was born in Dunse, Berwickshire, Scotland, Dec. 9, 1877, and was about seventeen years old when he came to this country and first settled with his father at Newport, R. I. After a struggle, became a minister at Attlebor, Mass. He also published a number of discourses and a "Memoic of Dr. Samuel Hopkins," the cele- brated theologian, for use in Sunday Schools. His father, (and John W. Ferguson's great-great-grandfather) who was a soldier under the Duke of Marlborough, in the Scott Greys, imigrated from the north of Scotland and settled with his son at Newport, R. I. Averse to fighting against his mother country in the Revolution, however, he returned to Scotland. Years afterward as an old man, he returned to Newport with his wife and family.


John William Ferguson, the subject of this sketch, spent the earlier years of his life in New Haven, Conn., where his parents had removed from Tiffin, Ohio. He received his education in the public schools of New Haven, which he attended to 1875, studying for entrance in the Yale Scien- tific School. Mr. Ferguson did not become a student at college, however, but turned his attention to practical engineering.


In 1877 he secured a position as rodman in the engineering depart- ment of the old Boston and New York Air Line Railroad. One year later he became employed in the same capacity in the engineering department of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad (now Erie R. R.). He remained with this concern until the early part of 1891, and during that time was advanced from one position to another until he reached that of assistant chief engineer of the entire system.


In 1892 he established himself, as a civil engineer and building con- tractor, in the city of Paterson, N. J. He personally continued this busi- ness until 1905, when as a much larger concern it passed under the pro-


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prietorship of the John W. Ferguson Company, incorporated. He re- mained however at its head as executive and managing officer.


Among the numerous buildings erected by this company, the more important are, the New Jersey State Armory, Hamilton Trust Company, United Bank Building, Colt Building and the Meyer Brothers Department Store Building, all in Paterson; the Kings County Power Station, Brook- lyn, N. Y., Hackensack Trust Company Building, Hackensack, N. J., the Babbitt Soap Factory Building, Babbitt, N. J., the Babcock and Wilcox Plant, Bayonne, N. J., the Newark Warehouse, Newark, N. J., the Gera Mills, Forstmann & Huffmann Mills, and the recent large addition to the already vast building of the Botany Mills, of Passaic, N. J., De Laval plants at Trenton, Poughkeepsie, and Peterboro, Ont., the final construc- tion work at Camp Dix and many other important structures.


Mr. Ferguson is a director in the Paterson National Bank, and in 1913 was elected Vice President of the Manufacturing Association of Paterson. In 1903, also, he was one of the principal organizers of the Taxpayers Association of Paterson, and remained as chairman of the Executive Committee during its activities until 1914.


His club memberships are, American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the New Jersey Chapter So- ciety of Sons of the American Revolution, life member of the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of New York, the Hamilton Club of Paterson, Engineers Club, Hardware Club, and the Railroad Club of New York, Arcola Country Club.


Mr. Ferguson's business address is 152 Market street, Paterson, N. J.


JAMES CHAMPLIN FERNALD - Upper Montclair. - Clergy- man, Author, Editor. Born at Portland, Me., August 18, 1883; (Deceased Nov. 10, 1918-see Vol. 1-1917) ; son of Henry B. and Mabel C. Fernald; married April 29, 1869, to Mary Beu- lah Griggs, of Rutland, Vt., one of the early graduates of Vas- sar College, and a member of the church where he held his first pastorate ; after a brief union she died June 7, 1870; June 18, 1873, married to Nettie S. Barker, daughter of Charles Luther and Rachel Maxwell Barker, of McConnelsville, O., graduate of Shep- ardson College, Granville, O.


ISAAC FERRIS-Merchantville .- Manufacturer. (Photograph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born in Philadelphia, Pa., October 4, 1854; son of Isaac and Dorothea (Lare) Ferris; married at Cam- den, 1880, to Sarah Yeager, daughter of Henry and Sarah Yeager, of Camden.


Isaac Ferris has been for many years an active factor in the shoe manufacturing industry in the south section of New Jersey. His father


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Fitzgerald


was a type of the old time shoe maker, employing a few journeymen to assist him at the beach and making his sales to the shoe dealers. Mr. Fer- ris, while attending the schools of the town, became acquainted with the business of the shop; and by the time he was sixteen years old was as able to fashion a shoe as his father was. He was employed afterwards for a short time in a shoe factory, and soon learned the art of manu- facturing by the methods of the later days. He started a little factory of his own in 1876 when he was twenty-two years of age with limited capital, but succeeded weli enough to build, in 1884, a larger factory in South Camden. He continued there until 1900 in the management and control of a constantly growing business.


Its magnitude eventually compelled him to provide himself with more ample quarters ; and the factory at Second and Market street in Camden was the result. It is still in operation there. The business grew, and in · April, 1916, it passed into the hands of a corporation, known as the Ferris Shoe Company, and employing a capital of $2,000,000, which Mr. Ferris helped to organize. While Mr. Ferris is not now active in carrying on the business he is a Director of the company, and largely interested in it financially. The company has, besides its factory in Camden, another in Cleveland, O., and has recently put up a third factory in Philadelphia.


Mr. Ferris is a Director in the Camden National Bank and the Securi- ty Trust Co., and of several other companies in Camden. His only club membership is with the Manufacturers of Philadelphia.


THOMAS F. FITZGERALD-Trenton, (227 Perry St.)-Journ- alist and Publisher. (Photograph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born in Tullamore, Kings County. Ireland, March 17th, 1844: son of Robert and Mary Fitzgerald ; married at Trenton, on Nov. 24, 1885, to Josephine Augusta Lloyd, daughter of Alfred R. and Adelia Lloyd.


Children : Margaret Fitzgerald Hutchinson, born Dec. 28, 1889; Josephine Fitzgerald Stont, born June 26, 1893; Dorothy A., born February 5, 1897; Frances G., born March 27, 1899.


Thomas F. Fitzgerald is descended from the Kildare branch of the Geraldines. His wife is a descendant of American Revolutionary stock on the paternal side, and on the maternal of the sturdy pikemen of the West Ireland. He was educated in the national school of his native town under the tutelage of Hugh McMonagle, an educator of note. He was given a good commercial schooling and in his youth acted as clerk for his father who was then what was known as a "corn buyer." But he had taken a liking in his early youth for newspaper work, and wrote for his home journals.


In 1863 Mr. Fitzgerald immigrated to the United States, landing in New York, where, for a brief period, he served as bookkeeper in a mercantile establishment. He afterwards made a tour of the South and Southwest in search of fame and fortune without finding either. After a migratory experience lasting seven years he returned to New York with the belief


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Florance


that if a young man could not make a livelihood there he could not well succeed anywhere. He met an old school-mate, Patrick Emmett O'Brien, who obtained for him a position on the "New York Herald," as its repre- sentative in Trenton, a position which he continued to fill for over a quarter of a century. In addition thereto he was the correspondent of the "Philadelphia Record" and several New Jersey Newspapers.


He relinquished part of this work in 1898, upon becoming one of the proprietors of the "Trenton Sunday Advertiser," one of the leading news- papers of New Jersey. He sold his interest in that newspaper in 1914. In 1877 he began the publication of the Trenton and Mercer County Directory and sold his interest in it in 1917. In 1879 he issued the first number of the present New Jersey Legislative Manual which he improved from year to year until it is now the text book on all matters of interest concerning state and county governments.


Mr. Fitzgerald has attended every session of the New Jersey Legisla- ture since 1872 and his newspaper work has brought him the acquaintance of nearly all the public men of New Jersey, during all that period of 46 years-Governors, Congressmen, Judges, members of the legislature, and leading politicians of all parties. He has been the repository of their confidences and held their friendship, and has himself achieved some favorable notice as a political writer.


Mr. Fitzgerald is a member of Trenton Council, Knights of Columbus, the New Jersey Legislative Correspondents Club (of which he is dean and whose first President he was) the Trenton Press Club and the Mercer County Democratic League.


Mr. Fitzgerald's summer home is in Belmar.


WILLIAM EDWIN FLORANCE-New Brunswick, (390 George Street.)-Lawyer. Born in Toronto, Canada, April 14, 1865.


William Edwin Florance is Treasurer of the Committee of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America on the Seminary Grounds and Property at New Brunswick, and a trustee of Rutgers College. In public life he was Prosecutor of the Pleas for Middlesex County and is now member of the New Jersey State Senate.


Senator Florance studied in the public schools of New Brunswick and graduating from the high school of that city, entered Rutgers College. He graduated from there with the class of 1885; and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and of the Chi Psi Fraternity of the College. He studied law in the offices of the ex-United States District Attorney J. Kearny Rice and of the late Justice of the Supreme Court Willard P. Voorhees, and was admitted as an attorney in November, 1887 and as a counselor in November of 1890.


Senator Florance has been successively City Collector and City Treas- · urer of New Brunswick and Mayor of the City. In 1914 ex-Senator George S. Silzer resigned the office of Prosecutor of Middlesex County to accept a Circuit Court Judgeship ; and ex-Mayor Florance was made his succes-


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Folwell


sor. In 1915 he was elected Senator from Middlesex County over William A. Spencer, Republican.


Senator Florance was a member of the State Board of Education by appointment of Governor Stokes from 1905 to 1911. He is President of the New Brunswick Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Vice President of the National Bank of New Jersey, one of the managers of and counsel for the New Brunswick Savings Institution, a director and counsel for the Security Building and Loan Association, a member of Union Lodge F. and A. M. and a Past Regent of Adelphic Council No. 1,015, Royal Arcanum.


CHARLES H. FOLWELL-Mt. Holly .- Editor and Publisher. (Photograph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born in Washington, D. C., on October 30, 1871; son of Charles H. and Mary A. (Ap- plegate) Folwell ; married on April 25, 1894, to Mary Nelson Neill, daughter of Alexander and Ellen L. Neill, of Hagerstown, Md.


Children : Charles H., Jr., born 1895; Elinor Neill, born 1902.


Charles H. Folwell is editor and publisher of "The New Jersey Mirror," of Mount Holly. His father, a well known journalist, was connected. at the time of the birth of the son, with the Agricultural Department in Washington. Soon afterwards the elder Folwell returned with his family to Mount Holly, his native town, and purchased "The Mirror," which he published until his death, in 1884. The property was conducted by his estate until the son attained his majority, when he came into possession.


The present editor of "The Mirror" obtained his education at local private schools, the Lawrenceville School and at Greylock Institute. (f South Williamstown, Mass. He later took practical courses in printing and newspaper reporting. Under his direction "The Mirror" has been greatly improved and the field of its influence considerably widened. It recently observed its one-hundredth anniversary. During the century of its ex- istence, it has been owned by but two families, the Palmers, by whom it was founded, and the Folwells.


Mr. Folwell is a former President of the New Jersey Press Association of which his father was President more than three decades ago. He is a director of the Camden and Burlington County Railway Company, a sub- sidiary line of the Pennsylvania system, was Chairman of the Public Safety Committee of Seventy, of Mount Holly, at the outbreak of the war, and is interested in various public and business activities. In politics he is a staunch Republican and takes an active part in State ond County political affairs. He was the first supervisor of Bills of the House of As- sembly and organized the office under the new system when the practice of engrossing all legislative bills was superseded by the modern plan of print- ing the bills. For seven years he was Secretary of the State Water Supply Commission.


Mr. Folwell's mother was a graduate of Bordentown Female College. His wife is of a prominent Maryland family. Her father was President of the Hagerstown Bank and one of the best known of Maryland lawyers and bankers. On her maternal side, Mrs. Folwell is the grand-daughter


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Foote


of William Loughridge, the inventor of the air-brake. Mr. Folwell's son, Charles H., Jr., graduated with the class of '17 as a Civil Engineer at Princeton University and is ar Ensign in the Navr.


Mr. Folwell is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, of Mount Holly Lodge, No. 848, B. P. O. E., and is connected with other or- ganizations. He attends St. Andrew's P. E. Church, of Mount Holly.


HORACE MANGOLE FOODER --- Williamstown, (110 Main St.) -Physician and Assemblyman. Born at Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 6th, 1884; son of Godfrey and Susan (Peterson) Fooder ; married at Camden, N. J., Nov. 24th, 1909 to Mabel Walker, daughter of Charles E. and Auna (Bates) Walker of Blue Anchor, N. J.


Children : Elwood Godfrey, born Jan. 14th, 1911.


Dr. Horace Mangole obtained most of his early education in the public schools and the Central High School of Philadelphia. He was later in- structed by private tutors, and after taking up studies in the Medico- Chirvigical College, of Philadelphia, was graduated in 1908.


Within one year after his school training was complete Dr. Fooder € took up residence in Williamstown, N. J., and began practice at the place where he now resides for a period of eleven years.


Although most of his time has been taken up with his professional duties, Dr. Fooder has also taken an active interest in civic affairs. From 1913 to 1919 he was a member of the Gloucester County Board of Free- holders and of which he was also a director for two years (1916-1917), at another time he filled the office of Physician to the Board of Health, of Monroe Township, and was later President of the Fire Commissioners of Monroe Township. He was elected member of the General Assembly in 1918 and for a second term in 1919. During the past World's War, he was physician on Draft Board No. 2, of Gloucester County.


Dr. Fooder is a member of the Gloucester County Medical Society, New Jersey State Medical Society, American Medical Association, Medical Club of Philadelphia, Physicians Motor Club of Camden, Elks Lodge No. 293, Camden, Odd Fellows Lodge of Williamstown and Improved Order of Red Men, Williamstown.


Mr. Fooder's business address is 110 Main Street, Williamstown, N. J.


ROBERT DUMONT FOOTE-Morristown, (James Street.) - Farmer. (Photograph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born in Cincin- nati, O .. July 19, 1862; son of John Camtor and Mary (Dumont) Foote; married at Madison, on July 7, 1886, to Marie Gilmour Hopkins.


Robert D. Foote has long been known in the civic and social and financial life of Middle Jersey. He has sometimes been mentioned in connection with the democratic nomination for governor and in one cam-




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