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 23

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 23


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President of that Board. This appointment was resigned when Col. Gas- kill gave up his personal business to enter the army.


In 1915 he was assigned by Chancellor Walker to prosecute disbar- ment proceedings against a number of solicitors who were charged with malpractice and fraud upon clients. Later he was also called upon by the Chancellor to defend, before the Court of Errors and Appeals, the , independent authority of the Court of Chancery to disbar a solicitor for misconduct.


Col. Gaskill in 1917 was also assigned by Chief Justice W. S. Gum- mers as one of two commissioners to investigate financial operations of the Common Council of Newark.


He is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, the Trenton Country Club and the Nassau Club of Princeton.


Col. Gaskill's business address is 2535 Monitions Building, 20th and B. Streets, Washington, D. C., until his discharge from the United States Army.


FREDERICK TAYLOR GATES-Montelair, (66 South Moun- tain Avenue.)-Benevolent Representative. Born in Maine, Broome County, N. Y., July 2, 1853 ; son of Granville and Sara J. (Bowers) Gates ; married on March 3, 1886, to Emma L. Cahoone, of Racine, Wisconsin.


Frederick T. Gates, whose father was a clergyman and who was for a few years in early life himself a minister of the Gospel, is one of the con- fidential advisers of John D. Rockefeller in the distribution of his various charities and the establishment of his several foundations.


Dr. Gates graduated from the University of Rochester with the degree of A. B. in 1877. was awarded the A. M. degree in 1899 and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity of the University. Entering Rochester Theological Seminary, he graduated from there in 1890; and, ordained to the ministry the same year, became pastor of the Central Church in Min- neapolis, Minn. He served in that pulpit till, in 18SS, he became executive head of the American Baptist Education Society.


Dr. Gates became business and benevolent representative of Mr. J. D. Rockefeller in 1893, and served in that capacity till 1912. He is Chairman of the General Education Board ( Rockefeller Foundation) and also Presi- dent of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and member or officer of various other business or philanthropic organizations. He was given the degree of LL. D. by the University of Chicago in 1911.


GEORGE W. F. GAUNT -- Mullica Hill .--- Farmer. Born in Mantua Township, Gloucester County, September S, 1865 (De- ceased Sept. 24, 1918-see Vol. 1-1917) ; son of John and Eliza-


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beth C. Gaunt ; married at Camden, on December 5, 1888, to Anna G. West, daughter of Alfred R. and Phebe G. West.


Children : J. Webber, born March 4, 1887.


JOHN PALMER GAVIT - Englewood .- Editor and Writer. Born at Albany, N. Y., on July 1, 1868: son of Joseph and Fanny · Breese (Palmer) Gavit; married at Rondout, N. Y., on May 8, 1890, to Lucy, daughter of the Rev. Thomas and Caroline D. (Jayne) Lamont.


Children : Joseph Lamont, born at Chicago, Ill., December 8, 1898.


John P. Gavit's connection with the newspaper profession has been almost continuous since 1883, when he began to devote spare hours to it in the business office of the "Albany Evening Journal." With the excep- tion of an interval of several years of social settlement and industrial wel- ' fare work, he has been active in journalism, and is now a director of the New York Evening Post, Inc., and a director and member of the Lite- rary Council of Harper & Brothers.


Mr. Gavit received his education in the Albany public schools, gradu- ating from the Albany high school in 1886, and pursued during some eight years special studies, chiefly socialogical, in Hartford and Chicago Theo- logical Seminaries (Congregational). He has been connected with news- papers in Albany and Hartford, Conn., but the larger part of his journalis- tic career was in the service of The Associated Press, in which he was Albany correspondent, Day Manager at New York, Chief of the Washington Bureau and Superintendent of the Central Division with headquarters at Chicago. For the "Evening Post" he has served as Albany legislative and political correspondent, Washington correspondent and was managing editor from 1913 to 1918. In 1896, while in residence at the Chicago Com- mons social settlement, he founded and was for five years editor of "The Commons," organ of the international social settlement movement ; the magazine which was absorbed in what is now "The Survey."


Mr. Gavit served five years in the Signal Corps of the Connecticut Na- tional Guard. He is a member of Temple Lodge. No. 14, F. and A. M., of Albany of the National Institute of Social Sciences, of the Gridiron and National Press clubs of Washington. the Lotos Club of New York, and the Knickerbocker Country Club of Tenafly.


WILLIAM C. GEBHARDT-Clinton .- Lawyer. (Photograph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born at Croton (Hunterdon County), March 28, 1859 ; son of G. W. and Jane Cavanagh Gebhardt; mar- ried at Frenchtown, on June 24th, 1886, to Evelina E. Reading, daughter of Philip G. and Evelina Evans Reading, of Frenchtown.


Children : Elinor Reading, wife of Herbert Clark Gilson ; Clara Allen, Evelina Evans, William Reading, Philip Reading.


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William C. Gebhardt was Clerk of the Supreme Court of the State, and in the State Senate where he served for nine years was regarded as a forceful member on the Democratic side.


Senator Gebhardt whose family coat of arms traces its ancestry back to 1330, graduated from the Clinton Institute, read law in the office of Theodore Hoffman and was admitted to the bar at the June term of 1884 as an Attorney and three years later as a counselor. He has since done business in Clinton, and, besides, maintained an office in Jersey City.


His public work began when he was made Corporation Counsel of the town of Clinton. He filled that position for ten years and was also President of the local Board of Education. He had held position as a school principal before he studied law. In 1900 he was elected by a plurality of 1281 to represent Hunterdon County in the State Senate and re-elected in 1906 and 1909. The majority of 2237 by which he won in the third campaign was the largest ever cast for a senatorial candidate in Hunterdon. Senator Gebhardt's senatorial work was featured particularly by his advocacy for the Wilson Progressive policies and of local option ; and Governor Wilson after the expiration of Senator Gebhardt's third term appointed him to the office of Clerk of the Supreme Court to succeed Joseph P. Tumulty, who had resigned the place to become President Wil- son's Private Secretary. Senator Gebhardt's term expired in 191S.


Senator Gebhardt is President of the First National Bank.


JOHANNES SOPHUS GELERT - South Orange .-- Sculptor. Born in Nybel Schlesvig, Denmark (Prussia), December 10, 1852; son of Ludwig Christian Frederick and Constance Andrea (Peter- sen) Gelert; married in Chicago in 1896, to Georgine B. Sund- berg.


Children : Carl Robert, born in 1900; Alfred Christian, born in 1901; Elsie Ingeborg, born in 1903.


Johannes Sophus Gelert attended the village schools in Schlesvig from 1859 to '65, spent a year at the schools in Copenhagen, and from 1870 to '75 studied art at the Royal Academy at Copenhagen. He began his artis- tic career in 1867 as an apprentice at wood carving. After his graduatiou from the Royal Academy of Copenhagen he made a tour through Germany and then worked for fifteen months in Paris. In 1878 at the Salon he ex- hibited a colossal group representing the Norse God, Thor, combating a bull. From 1879 to 1882 he was engaged on large monumental works in Berlin ; and in 1SS2 executed several decorative statues for a theatre in Copenhagen. He afterwards studied at Rome on a scholarship awarded by the Danish government.


Mr. Gelert became a resident of the United States in 1887 and was ad- mitted to citizenship in 1892. He worked at his art in Chicago until 1898 and since then has been established in New York City. He exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 (member International Jury of Award), Paris Exposition 1900 (honorary mention), Nashville Centen- nial Exposition, 1897 (gold medal), Philadelphia Art Club, (for group "The


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Little Architect" (gold medal), American Art Society, Philadelphia (gold medal) and Buffalo Exposition (honorary mention ).


Among Mr. Gelert's important works are: Four statues representing Roman Civilization, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences; portrait statue of Col. Stevens, founder of. Minneapolis ; portrait statue of Furman University of Tennessee, Nashville; statue representing Denmark, for United States Custom House, New York City ; colossal group representing the Struggle for Work, at World's Columbian Exposition ; statue repre- senting Napoleon the Great, for the Missouri State Building at the Louisi- ana Purchase Exposition; statue representing Gothic Art (for the Fine Arts Building in St. Louis; Haymarket Policeman Statue (Haymarket Square) and Beethoven and Anderson statues (Lincoln Park), Chicago; Grant's statue in Galena, Ill., and nine statues and a frieze in marble for the Bergen County Courthouse at Hackensack, and a life sized portrait statue in bronze of C. W. Post (1917) at Battle Creek, Michigan.


Mr. Gelert is a member of the National Sculptors Society and of the Architectural League. His studio is at 11 E. 14th street, New York City.


ALEXANDER GILBERT-Plainfield .- Banker. (Photograph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born at Elizabeth, August 10, 1839; son of Thomas and Phebe (Matthews) Gilbert; married on June 6, 1865, to Louise F. Randolph, daughter of Isaac F. and Isabella F. Randolph, of New Durham, N. J.


Mr. Gilbert early in life chose the banking business for his occupa- tion and from '63/97 was Cashier of the Market & Fulton National Bank of New York. In 1897 he was elected its President and continued as such until January 1st, 1917, when he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. He continued as such until early in 1918, when the Market & Fulton Bank was merged with the Irving Trust Company, with which in- stitution he is still actively connected as Chairman of its Board of Di- rectors.


He was Secretary of the New York Clearing House Association from 1894-95. A member of the Clearing House Committee in 1904 and 1905 and President of the Clearing House in 1908 and 1907, and is the Dean of the New York Clearing House Association.


He was Mayor of Plainfield for six years from 1891-1897. In 1892 he represented the Fifth Congressional District of New Jersey in the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis, that re-nominated Presi- dent Harrison.


In 1908 he was one of the Presidential Electors who cast the vote of New Jersey for William H. Taft, for President.


He is connected with the New York Chamber of Commerce, the New York Board of Trade, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the Pilgrim Society. He is also a member of the Union League Club of New York and of the Plainfield Country Club.


CHARLES P. GILLEN-Mayor of Newark. Born August 6th, 1876, son of Thomas and Mary A. Conry Gillen.


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Charles P. Gillen was educated in public and private schools including Seton Hall College where he finished his course of training in 1892.


In 1894 he organized the firm of Charles P. Gillen & Company, en- gaged in a general real estate and insurance business, which firm has continued in business since that time.


Since becoming a voter Mr. Gillen has been active in politics always as an anti-machine Democrat.


In 1912 he was elected by the city as a member of the Board of Street and Water Commissioners and while filling this office he differed with party leaders as to certain municipal policies. He opposed the grant- ing of various franchises to street car company interests on the ground that the city was not receiving an equitable consideration in return for the privileges requested. He fought and defeated the proposed trolley loop around Military Park referred to as the "death loop" and as the "Park trolley grab."


In 1915 when Mr. Gillen was refused a renomination on the Board of Works ticket by the Democratic organization, he filed a nominating petition and became an independent candidate. He was successful in the election, defeating both Democratic and Republican organization candi- dates. He carried every ward in Newark. This is a political record. He also was the first independent candidate to carry the city of Newark.


In 1917 the Commission form of Government was adopted by the city. Mr. Gillen became a candidate for Commissioner and was high man in a field of eightyone candidates. On November 20th, 1917, he was chosen Mayor.


EDWARD E. GNICHTEL-Newark .- Manufacturer and Bank- er. Born at Newark, N. J., April 25th, 1869; son of Frederick and Amelia (Lightlove) Gnichtel.


Edward E. Gnichtel's father, Frederick Gnichtel, was a long resident of Newark, N. J., living there from the time of his marriage. 1850 until his death, April 14, 1894.


It was natural then that Mr. Gnichtel as a boy was educated in the Newark public schools which he attended and from which he was gradu- ated in 1882.


Although a manufacturer of Newark since 1894 Mr. Gnichtel has been considerably active and prominent in politics. In 1901-2-3, he repre- sented Essex County in the New Jersey Assembly, and during the period of 1903 to 1906 he was a member of the Board of Fire Commissioners in Newark, and in 1907 was elected President of that body.


Three years later. in 1910, he was a candidate for Mayor of Newark of the Republican party, and in 1913 he was appointed the first Com- missioner of Jurors for Essex County.


This does not conclude his civic activities, however, for in 1915 he became a member of the Newark Board of Health and Chairman of the Hospital Committee. One year later he also was appointed Treasurer of the Citizens Health Committee on the Problem of Infantile Paralysis, and


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became a member of the Committee of One Hundred as well as being elected Treasurer of the Manufacturers Committee during the same period.


Probably the most noteworthy of Mr. Gnichtel's achievements was his inauguration of the Building and Loan law of 1903 in the State of New Jersey which has since that time governed the building and loan association of the state.


At present Mr. Gnichtel is President of the Springfield Avenue Trust Company, Newark, N. J.


His club memberships are the Newark Board of Trade, Masonic Lodge and the Essex Club. .


Mr. Gnichtel's business address is 253 Mulberry street, Newark, N. J.


FREDERICK W. GNICHTEL-Trenton .- Lawyer. (Photo- graph published in Vol. 1-1917). Born in Newark, June 20, 1860, son of Frederick and Amelia (Lightlove) Gnichtel ; married August 15, 1888, at Trenton, to Caroline Callis Stevenson, daugh- ter of George Hartman Stevenson.


Children : One daughter.


The ancestors of F. W. Gnichtel came from Weimer, Saxony, Germany, immediately after the collapse of the Revolution in 1848 and 1849; some members of the family had taken an active part in the up-rising there. They settled in Newark, where he was born and lived until 1881. His edu- cation was acquired in the public schools of Newark; and he entered the offices of J. Franklin Fort and J. A. Cobb to study law. Meanwhile he studied shorthand, practiced it in New York for a time, went to Trenton in 1881 and has lived there since. Chief Justice Beasley appointed him law reporter and official stenographer of his circuit, and he found the opportunity between times to engage in newspaper work for many years. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1893, and has practiced law in Trenton ever since.


Mr. Gnichtel is a Republican and in 1901 was elected to the Trenton Common Council, and re-elected in 1903. During his two terms he was Chairman of the Finance Committee, and leader of the majority. In 1905 he was elected Mayor of the city; at the end of his term he declined a re-nomination. The acquaintance with municipal problems he had acquired in the two city offices, led Governor Stokes to appoint him a member of the Commission to Investigate the Laws governing Municipali- ties. His report was an argument in favor of complete Home-Rule for the government of cities, which was afterward so widely urged through- out the state.


In May, 1909, was appointed by Governor Fort ad interim Judge of the Mercer County Common Pleas; in 1910 Fort appointed him for the full term of five years. His term expired on April 1, 1915. The state having a Democratic governor, he failed of re-appointment. In 1910 he was an active member of a committee organized to secure the passage of an act permitting the cities of the state, on a referendum, to discard


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their existing forms of municipal government in favor of Commission Rule. The act the committee framed was passed by the legislature; and, later he took an active part in the movement that culminated in the acceptance of the act by the people of Trenton. Thirty-seven cities have adopted the Commission Rule System. In June, 1916, he was elected President of the New Jersey Bar Association.


CARLTON GODFREY -- Atlantic City .- Lawyer. Born at Bees- leys Point, Cape May county, January 13, 1865.


Carlton Godfrey represented the county of Atlantic, in the New Jersey House of Assembly for three terms, and in 1915 was Speaker of the House. He had previously, while serving as City Solicitor of Atlantic City, drawn the charter under which the city was operated from 1902 until the form of government was changed to the Commission Rule System. He directed the movement that obtained for Atlantic City almost all of five miles of ocean front for park purposes and secured the necessary legislation. The better roads that have since been provided for the territory in and near the coast resort are largely the product of his energy.


Speaker Godfrey was educated in the public schools, and himself taught school until he entered the office of James B. Nixon, then of At- lantic City, but later of Camden, as a law student. Admitted to the Bar in 1889, he has since practiced the profession in Atlantic City. His first partnership was with Burrows C. Godfrey formed in 1894 and continued until 1914, when Burrows C. died, and Speaker Godfrey associated himself with H. Starr Giddings and Raymond P. Read under the firm name of Godfrey, Giddings & Read.


He took a deep interest in school matters and was a member of the Board of Education in Atlantic City for twelve years. He has the dis- tinction too of being one of the very few in New Jersey who have served as Secretary of a local Building and Loan Association continuously for a period of more than twenty-five years.


Mr. Godfrey has been President of the Guarantee Trust Company of Atlantic City since its organization in 1900, and in the same year became President of the West Jersey Title & Guarantee Company. He is a member of the New Jersey Bankers Association and in 1906-1907 was its Presi- dent.


RUDOLPH J. GOERKE-Newark, 634 Cinton Avenue. ) -Mer- chant. Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., September 19th, 1867; son of Rudolph J. and Pauline (Heinz) Goerke; married at Brooklyn, January 23rd, 1895, to Ottilie N. Van Velsor, of Flushing, L. I. Children : four girls and two boys.


Rudolph J. Goerke has been for many years a conspicuous figure in the mercantile life of the upper part of New Jersey. His parents were


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.


born in Germany, and came thence to Brooklyn, where the elder Mr. Goerke made the acquaintance that eventuated in his marriage to Miss Heinz. The father soon afterwards went into business, opening a house furnishing store in that city.


There Mr. Goerke, while completing his studies in the public and high schools of the city, obtained the early business training that fitted him for the greater enterprises of his later years. He had scarcely passed man- hood years when he and his brother launched out for themselves with a department store at Broadway and Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn. Under the firm name of Goerke Bros. they made it a going venture, and continued at that location until changes in the character of the purchasing popula- tion compelled the closing of the store, and moved Mr. Goerke to seek other fields for his activities.


He came to Newark twenty years ago; and looking for a site for a new venture, he was quick to see the trade opportunities of the Market street corner of Broad in that city. That corner had already become locally notable for its surging throng of way-farers. It has since risen to the third place among the population centers of the United States. Mr. Goerke foresaw its greater destiny, and picked it as the scene of his new business enterprise. The department store he established there grew in popularity until "Goerke's store" and "The Four Corners" came to mean the same thing in the Newark mind.


So, when the subway tube to New York was projected with a terminal at one end of Military Park and the imposing terminal building of the Public Service Corporation was reared at the other end, Mr. Goerke saw the new drift of the moving throng, and opened his new store on the Cedar street corner of Broad street, across the way from the Park. The new growth the business has experienced there, has more than vindicated his judgement : In collaboration with E. A. Kirch of Newark, Mr. Goerke, in ·March of 1913, opened the first department store in Elizabeth, which from the very opening of its doors has been a success.


Mr. Goerke has been largely interested in all matters that make for the up-build of Newark as a commercial and business metropolis; and, as a member of the Newark City Committee of 100, contributed towards the success of the City's 250th birthday festivities from May to October of 1916. He is a member of the Board of Trade, Director in the Dime Sav- ings Bank and the Clinton Trust Company, Newark; a large factor in several building and loan associations, and associated with golfing and motoring organizations.


JOHN KINSEY GORE-Orange, (59 High Street.)-Actuary. Born in Newark, Feb. 3, 1864; son of George Witherden and Mary Lewis (Kinsey) Gore; married at Newark, in 1898, to Jeannette Littell, daughter of John Meeker Littell and Amelia Littell, of Newark.


Israel Gore, to whom Mr. Gore's family traces its lineage, came from Margate, England, and settled in Newark in 1826. He was a physician


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and surgeon and acquired a large practice and a wide professional repu- tation. His son, George Witherden Gore, born in Margate, England, in 1824, came with his father and mother to this country, and in 1848 married Miss Kinsey. Miss Kinsey was of Quaker stock, and of a family that had long been prominent in Burlington county.


Mr. and Mrs. George Witherden Gore lived in Newark at the time of the birth of John Kinsey Gore. Mr. Gore studied in the public schools of Newark; and, when he entered the High School in 1875 he was noted for having qualified for admission at an exceptionally early age. He af- terwards went to Columbia University (1879-'83), where he graduated with the A. B. degree. Three years later the College conferred the A. M. degree upon him. While in College, he taught in an evening school and found occasional employment as a bookkeeper; and, after graduation he became a teacher-eventually Vice Principal-in the Woodbridge School in New York City, a scientific preparatory school.


It was not however until he was drawn into insurance activities that he found his life calling. In 1891 he was given a position as a clerk in the Actuarial Department of the Prudential Insurance Company in Newark, and rose rapidly from one position of responsibility to a higher one. He had been with the company only three years when he was made its Mathe- matician. A year later he was promoted to the position of Assistant Actuary, and two years later placed at the head of the Actuarial Depart- ment. Mr. Gore still holds that position. In 1907 he was elected a member of the Board of Directors and in 1912 became Vice President.


From the first he entered into the spirit of his work; and, among other improvements in business methods, in 1896, invented a system of recording and tabulating statistics that has since been in use by the Company, and has also been utilized by other companies. Meanwhile Mr. Gore has found time to devote to the life of the community around him. and made his influence felt in public and civic affairs. In 1895 he was elected a member of the old Board of Education of Newark, and he is at present a member of the Board of Sinking Fund Commissioners of Orange.


Mr. Gore is the author of several articles on vital statistics and ac- tuarial subjects, including "Should Life Insurance Companies Discriminate against Women," "The Improvement in Longevity in the United States in the Nineteenth Century," and "Is Human Life Lengthening."


Mr. Gore is a member of Columbia University Club, the Essex County Country Club, the American Mathematical Society. the Actuarial Society of America (its President, 1908-'10), the New Jersey Chamber of Com- merce, Newark Board of Trade, New Jersey Automobile & Motor Club, New England Society of Orange (its President, 1912- 13), and Hope Lodge, F. & A. M. East Orange.




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