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 40
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It was on October 23, 1863 that he was sent to Paterson as rector of . St. John's Church, to labor in the only parish for English speaking people there. And there is scarcely any field of spiritual or humane endeavor that has not profited by his zealous efforts. At the time of his coming, there were but two Catholic edifices, St. John's and St. Boniface's, the latter for the Germans ; to-day there are eight churches for English speak- ing people; seven for those of other nationalities, and, in the vicinity of Paterson, fifteen churches or chapels that owe their origin to the local par- ishes. In several instances, the churches were built by Dean McNulty him- self.
Besides these, he founded a hospital, an orphanage, the Home for the Aged, a Home for Working Girls, club houses for men and women, and the Catholic population has grown from 6,500 to 43,000.
During the excitement that culminated in the popular demonstration at Trenton in 1893 against the excesses of what is known as the "Jockey Legislature" and which eventuated in the Anti-Gambling amendment to the State Constitution, Dean McNulty was a commanding and interesting fig- ure. His address on the floor of the Assembly Chamber, after the populace had taken possession of it, was the feature of the oratory of the hour. He has attained national fame for his consistent fight against intemperance ; he has been feared more than the entire police force by violators of excise
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laws. Until recently, when his advancing years demanded that he cease his activity, he was identified with every movement calculated to advance the moral and civic welfare of the community.
WILLIAM RALPH MEAKLE -- Paterson. (36 Eighteenth Ave.) -Banker. Born in Paterson, 1868; son of George and Sarah A. Meakle; married at Paterson, on June 5, 1892.
Children : Cadance, born February 5th, 1896; Roderic, born January 2, 1902.
William R. Meakle is M. W. Grand master of the Society of Free and Accepted Masons in New Jersey. He went into Haledon Lodge in 1899, served as Master of the lodge in 1907 and was elected to the position of Grand Master of Masons in New Jersey in 1916.
Mr. Meakle began his business career with the Paterson Savings Insti- tution when he was eighteen years of age and is now its Secretary. He was one of the first promoters of the establishment of the Paterson Cham- ber of Commerce and has been its Treasurer since its inception. He is also President of the Paterson Orphan Asylum Association.
Mr. Meakle's daughter Cadance is a musician whose work has been much praised by the "Musical Leader."
CLARENCE GARDINER MEEKS-Woodcliff, (3 32nd St.)- Merchant. Born at Town of Union, N. J., July 14th, 1880, son of Hamilton V. and Euretta E. (Gardner) Meeks, married Oct. 5, 1902, to Lillie Bennett, daughter of William R. Bennett of Brook- lyn, N. Y.
Children : Clarence Gardner, Jr., Jan. 1st, 1908, Elizabeth Evelyn, Dec., 23, 1905, Hamilton, July 10, 1902.
Clarence Gardner Meeks is a descendant of Joseph Meeks who was a prominent citizen of New York City prior to the American Revolution, his name appearing on the poll list of the electors in 1761. This an- cestor's three sons, John. Joseph and Edward all fought in the Revolution. The first mentioned held the rank of Captain and married Susana Helena Maria de Molinars, of an old French Huguenot family, owning only a country place at Morristown, N. J., adjoining Washington's headquarters, his wife acted as interpreter for Washington and Lafayette during their stay there. As a reward for his services, Captain Meeks was granted land near Syracuse, N. Y., which his descendants have never claimed.
Joseph Meeks, Jr., the second son, at the age of twelve assisted in tearing down the British flag from the top of a greased pole erected in Battery Park, New York City. Subsequently he was a soldier in the War of 1812. Later he was one of the founders of the original Tam- many Society, from which Tammany Hall has sprung. He married a
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daughter of Colonel Van Dyke, an officer of the Revolution and a descend- ant of one of the oldest Dutch families in New York.
Mr. Meeks attended the Union Hill Public School from 1888 to 1891 and at the end of that time entered Mrs. McFarlane's School in Hoboken, He later in 1894 took studies in Columbia Institute, New York City, and upon leaving this institution in 1896 entered Dwight School at New York City, from where he graduated in 1898 when he became a student at Columbia University in the class of 1902.
During his early career, Mr. Meeks served as a member of several Grand Juries, both county and federal. He was a candidate for the As- sembly of 1908 and Vice Chairman of the Republican County Committee for several years.
At present Mr. Meeks is vice-president of the Gardner & Meeks Company of Union Hill, N. J., treasurer of the Woodcliff Land Improve- ment Company. North Bergen, N. J., as well as being a director in both these concerns, and also in the Hudson Trust Company and the Union Automobile Company. He is also connected as a member of the Board of Managers of the Hoboken Bank for Savings, the. Board of Directors of the New Jersey Lumberman Association, the Hudson County Park Com- mission, and formerly from 1910 to 1915 was a member of the State Board of Geological Survey of the State of New Jersey.
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During his life he has always taken great interest in public and pa- triotic enterprises. While this country was at war with Germany he served as Federal Food Administrator of North Hudson, was chairman of the North Bergen Committee in the third, fourth and fifth Liberty Loan Campaigns, and also took an active part in the Red Cross, United War Work, and other drives of this kind.
Mr. Meek's memberships in organizations of a business order include, the Labor Committee of the New York Lumber Trade Association, the Hudson County Building Material Dealers Association, of which he served at different times as President and Treasurer; the Building Mater- rial Exchange of New York, and the Hudson County Retail Lumberman's Association, of which he was formerly president. He is also a member of the Council of Christ Hospital of Jersey City.
His club memberships are New York Club, N. Y. City : Columbia Uni- versity Club, N. Y. : Arcola Country Club, Arcola, N. J .; Down Town Club, Jersey City, N. J. ; Carteret Club, Jersey City, N. J. ; Sons of the Revolution, N. Y .; member and vice-president of the Lumber Trade Golf Association, Lincoln Association, Jersey City. N. J .; Mystic Tie, and Lodge No. 123, F. & A. M. He is also a 32nd degree Mason of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonary Valley of Jersey City, N. J., and of the Sa- laam Temple, Newark, N. J.
His business address is 212 Union Street, Weehawken, P. O., N. J.
SPENCER MILLER -- South Orange .- Engineer ; Inventor. ( Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Waukegen, Ill .. on April 25, 1859; son of Samuel Fisher and Charlotte (Howe)
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Miller ; married on January 1, 1884, to Hattie M. Ruggles, daugh- ter of Willard G. Ruggles.
Children : Mrs. Marguerite Miller Grannis ; Spencer, Jr. ; Helen ; Emerson.
Of Spencer Miller's mechanical inventions, that for which he is most widely known, is of a marine cable way that makes it possible to transport coal from ship to ship under headway at sea. The invention was born of the difficulty the Federal Government experienced in coaling its ships during the Spanish-American War. Originally a machine with a capacity of fifteen tons an hour, it has been improved until its capacity is eighty tous an hour. It is in use in the navies of the United States, Russia, Britain, Japan and Italy. Another device of Mr. Miller's has increased the facilities for the broad-side coaling of ships in harbor from twenty-five tous per hour to one hundred tons per hour.
'A second of Mr. Miller's important inventions is the Breeches Buoy cableway, an apparatus which has been adopted by the United States revenue cutter service. The buoy cableway apparatus is equipped with an automatic steam reel which takes in and "pays out" the suspended hawser as the ships approach or separate; and by its use a ship can rescue pas- sengers from any other ship in the heaviest sea. He is now a member of the Federal Naval Consulting Board, being Chairman of its Committee in Life Saving.
Mr. Miller's technical education was acquired at the Polytechnic In- stitute of Worcester, Mass., from which he graduated in 1879. After acting as a special tutor in mathematics in Amherst College for a time he became a draftsman for the Link-Belt Machinery Company : and there his mind turned towards the mechanical problems that have since interested him. Before long he had designed a number of rope drives as well as a novel arrangement for handling merchandise by continuous systems of conveying : and he soon afterwards found a means of equalizing the grip upon pulleys of different diameters by varying the angles of the grooves. Connecting himself, a little over thirty years ago, with the Lidgerwood Manufacturing Co., of New York, he developed a new overhead cable carrier system that is now used in various parts of the world in constructing United States fortifications, dams, filtration beds, sewers, etc. Thomas A. Edison was the first patron of this device: it was installed for use at Panama in the construction of the Gatum locks. A long-skidding eable way he devised for the taking of cypress logs out of the swamps of Louisiana. is now employed in the forests of not only the South but of those as well. in the states of the North and in Canada.
At his home town Mr. Miller is greatly interested in civic work such as establishing public libraries, parks, playgrounds, parkways, etc. He is a member of the Essex Co. Mosquito Extermination Commission and wide- ly known as the "Father" of the Anti-Mosquito Movement in New Jersey : and his public spirit has led to his call of local public positions.
Mr. Miller is Vice President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Ameri- can Institute of Mining Engineers and member of council of Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. He is a member of the Engineers'
Minch
Club of New York, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D. C., University Club, Washington, and of numerous smaller organizations.
ALFRED ELMER MILLS -- Morristown .-- Lawyer. Born at Morristown. July 22, 1858: son of Alfred and Katherine Elmer (Coe) Mills, Never married:
Alfred Elmer Mills received his early education at private schools in Morristown and at Trinity School, a military school, at Tivoli-on-the-Hud- son, New York, and graduated with honors from Princeton University, re- ceiving the degree of A. B. in 1882 and of A. M. in 1885. Hle read law in the office of his father, Alfred Mills, and was admitted to the Bar as an attorney in 1886 and as a counselor in 1889, becoming associated with his father in the practice at Morristown. He is counsel for the Town of Morristown from 1892 to 1894, and Prosecutor of the Pleas for Morris county from 1898 to 1903, when he was made Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Morris county, serving until 1913. He has since been engaged in the practice of his profession at Morristown.
Judge Mills is a member of the Board of Managers of the Morris County Savings Bank, a Director of the National Iron Bank of Morris- town, President of The Washington Association of New Jersey and by - Governor Fort's appointment was a member of The Washington Crossing Commission in 1910.
Judge Mills is a member of the Board of Managers of the Morristown Library, one of the Trustees holding the title to the Morristown Green, a Vestryman of St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Mor- ristown and for many years Treasurer of its Building Committee. He is a member of the American Bar Association, of the New Jersey State Bar As- sociation, and the Bar Association of Morris County, at one time its President.
Among his clubs are the Morristown, the Morris County Golf, the Mor- ristown Field. the Princeton Club of the Oranges and the Princeton Club of New York.
During the war with Germany Mr. Mills has been very active as Government Appeal Agent for District Number 1 for Morris County as well as serving on Various Liberty Loan and Red Cross Campaign Committees. He was chairman of the Morristown Committee of the Associate Mem- bers of the Legal Advisory Board during the War and was also one of the Four Minute Speakers, for a short time, before becoming Government Appeal Agent.
BLOOMFIELD HOLMES MINCH-Bridgeton .- Banker. (Pho- tograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Bridgeton, on October 10. 1>64 ; son of Francis B. and Elizabeth H. (Tice) Minch ; mar- ried on December 30th, 1886, to Nellie Rabean, daughter of An-
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drew and Mary Rabeau, of Camden. (died January 5, 1896) :- 2nd. on December 15, 1906. to Marion Kenney, daughter of Michael Kenney, of Somerville.
Children : Robert F .. born September 16, 1888: Oeleta E., born September 26th, 1891.
Bloomfield H. Minch has served Cumberland county in both the Houses of Assembly and State Senate, and in 1907 was President of the Senate. For five years later, he was a member of the State Board of the Equaliza- tion of Taxes. He is now devoting his attention entirely to his business engagements.
Senator Minch was educated at the South Jersey Institute which he attended from 1879 to 1883. His first nomination to the Assembly was given to him by the Republicans of Cumberland county in 1893, and. re- elected three times afterwards, he served in the Houses of '94-95-96-97. In 1901 he accepted the republican nomination for the State Senate: and, re-elected in 1904 and 1907, was one of the efficient men of the Senates that sat in Trenton between 1902 and 1910. His appointment as a member of the State Board for Equalization of Taxes came from Gov. Fort in 1910. Mr. Minch's connection with the Senates of previous years assured the confirmation of his nomination as soon as Gov. Fort submitted his name, and he served until 1915.
Interested in the great work of conservation of the natural resources of the State. Senator Minch was the pioneer in championing and present- ing legislation in 1902 which laid the foundation for the legislation that has followed, creating the various conservation boards that have since taken up the work of conserving the timber lands and the water sheds of the State. He is also author of the legislation which provided the fire lines for the protection of the timber lands along all railroad tracks, and which has had been effect of preventing the vast waste that had previously been created by the fires caused by locomotive sparks. He also shaped much of the Present corporation legislation, being for years Chairman of the Committee on Corporations, and also provided the unique charter acts for second class cities with populations of under 20,000, which were the foundation for the Commission form of government that came with the Walsh Act., State Control of the oyster industry of the State is also the pioneer work of Mr. Minch. In politics, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated William Mckinley at Philadelphia in 1900, and was also an alternate delegate-at-large to the Republican National Conventions of 1908 and 1916.
Senator Minch is President of the Bridgeton Gas Light Company, of the Parker Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company, of the North Bridge- ton Land Company, and of the Cumberland Building and Loan Association and Vice President of the Bridgeton National Bank. He is connected with the Union League Club of Philadelphia, the Cohansie Country Club of Bridgeton and Welcome Council Jr. O. U. A. M., and is a member of Elks Lodge 733, of Brearley Lodge of Masons and of Cohanzie Lodge I. O. O. F.
JAMES F. MINTURN -- Hoboken, (630 Hudson Street. )-Jurist. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Hoboken, on
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Minturn
July 16, 1860; son of John and Anna Minturn ; married at Ho- boken, on November 15, 1890. to Annie C. Foley, (died January 10, 1893) ;- 2nd, Minnie T. Foley, both daughters of Timothy T. and Margaret A. Foley, of Hoboken. Children : Franklin and Geraldine.
James F. Minturn has been Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey since 1907, and has been previously a Circuit Court Judge. He had represented Hudson county in the State Senate, was one of the organizers of the State Charities' Aid Association, the Hudson County Bar Association, the Free Public Library of Hoboken and of the Red Cross Society, of which he is President; also assisted in the organization of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and was its counsel for several years.
Justice Minturn was educated in the public schools of Hoboken and at the Martha Institute. While at college, his health failed, and he com- pleted his studies under the tuition of Professor Louis Barton, of Rutgers College. He graduated from Columbia College Law School with the de- gree of LL. B., and read law in the offices of Ogden & Niven, in Hoboken. He was admitted to the New York Bar as an attorney and counsel and also to the New Jersey Bar and the Bar of the United States Supreme Court.
From 1884 until his appointment on the Circuit Court Bench, Justice Minturn was Corporation Counsel of Hoboken. Among the important liti- gations in which he represented the city was that over the ownership of the river front. in the United States Supreme Court, to which the Hoboken Land and Improvement Co., the German steamship companies and the Lackawanna and Pennsylvania railroad companies were parties. In his private practice, among other prominent cases. he appeared as counsel for the late Henry George in the contest for the bequest in John Hutchin's will to promote the circulation of Mr. George's work. That case went to the Court of Errors and Appears before Mr. George's claim was finally sustained.
Justice Minturn's appointment to the Circuit Court in 1907. came from Gov. Stokes; and it was upon Gov. Fort's appointment that he became As- sociate Justice of the Supreme Court. Upon the expiration of his term in 1914, Gov. Fielder re-appointed him. His new term will expire in 1921.
When the proposed judiciary amendments to the State Constitution were pending. Justice Minturn contributed an article to the "New Jersey Law Journal" designed to enforce his contention that they were not sutti- cient for the relief of the courts. He also contributed an article on "The Iniquities of the Tariff" to Belford Magazine; and he has contributed poli- tical articles to magazines and newspapers. In recognition of his scholar- ship, Seton Hall College in June of 1908, conferred the LL. D. degree upon him. Justice Minturn was, from 1884 until its amalgamation with the Fourth, Judge-Advocate of the Second Regiment of the National Guard; and, honorary member of the De Long Guards of Hoboken, has always tak- eu an active interest in military affairs, qualified as an expert marksman and won several medals on the Sea Girt ranges. He has been President of
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Moore
the First National Bank of Guttenburg and Vice President of the Ocean County Trust Company.
JAMES FRANCIS MOONEY-South Orange .-- College Presi- dent. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., on September 19, 1864; son of Bernard and Anna Mooney.
James Francis Mooney is President of Seton Hall College; and under his administration the College has attained a success unprecedented in its history. The number of students has been doubled; many endowments have been received; and new dormitories, of the value of two hundred thousand dollars, have been added to the buildings.
Dr. Mooney studied at St. Francis' College, Brooklyn, until 1881, en- tered the Sophomore class of Seton Hall College in the latter year and was graduated from Seton Hall with the class of 1884. He took a course of Theology at Genoa, Italy, and was ordained to the Priesthood in that city in 1889. There also he received from the College of St. Thomas Aquinas the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Occupied with parish work from 1889 to 1901, he became a Professor at Seton Hall College in the latter year, and was appointed its President in 1907. In 1908, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from St. Mary's College, Emmetsburgh, Md., and again in 1914, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from St. John's College, Brooklyn.
Dr. Mooney enjoys a reputation for scholarship of a high order. His writings include addresses, articles on ecclesiastical jurisprudence, and a commentary on the pontifical decree, "Ne Temera."
DANIEL MeFARLAN MOORE-East Orange, (510 Park Ave.) -Electrical Engineer and Inventor. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Northumberland, Pa., on February 27. 1869; son of the Rev. Alexander Davis and Maria Louisa (Doug- las) Moore; married on June 5, 1895, to Mary Alice Elliott, of New York City.
Children : Dorothy Mae, born 1900; Elliott MacFarlan, born 1902; Beatrice Jean, born 1912.
D. McFarlan Moore's earliest paternal ancestors settled on the eastern shore of Maryland, before the Revolutionary War. His Grandfather was a "powder monkey" at the storming of Fort McHenry, where the Star Span- gled Banner was written, and his great-grandfather was captain of one of the guns. Every male member of the family was enlisted in the army. "The powder monkey" became editor of the old "National Intelligencer," of Washington, D. C., and was closely associated with the early history of the United States. He was Grand Sire of the Odd Fellows. His son, the Rev. Alexander D. Moore, the inventor's father, was a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and an uncle, Col. William G. Moore, was the Pri-
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Moore
vate Secretary of President Andrew Johnson. Among his maternal an- cestors were Sir Arthur Johns and the Earl of Gray. His great great grandfather was Col. Archibald Orme, a member of Gen. Washington's staff.
Mr. Moore was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania, the Moravian Parochial School, Ulrich's Preparatory School and Lehigh Uni- versity. He entered immediately into the employ of the United Edison Manufacturing Company, and for four years was in close touch with many of the largest early electric light installations on both land and sea. He also had charge of the installation and trial cruise of the first war vessel to be steered by electricity. He told of his experiences in an article published in Frank Leslie's Magazine in 1893. In 1894 he organized the Moore Electri- cal Company and later the Moore Light Company, and was Vice President and General Manager of both companies for eighteen years, at the end of which time the Moore Light interests were absorbed by the General Elec- tric Company.
Mr. Moore early developed an absorbing interest in inventions. His first patent was granted to him in 1893, and since that time more than 100 additional inventions have been patented in the United States as well as in most all other civilized countries. For over 25 years he has been continu- ously active in a variety of ways that have been interesting to the public. A large number of his technical articles have been published. and he has presented to various scientific societies and colleges, many papers which have been translated into foreign lauguages. For many years he has been interested in the production of electric light by the flow of electricity through various gases, not through solid wires as in the case with the ordinary incandescent electric lamp.
Mr. Moore is widely known because of his having exhibited the Moore Light in its various stages of development at many electrical shows, and of his numerous scientific lectures in various parts of the country before such bodies as the Brooklyn Institue of Arts & Sciences, National Electric Light Association. American Electro-Chemical Society, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, etc. Moore Light Companies were organized in France, Switzerland and Russia.
In 1893, Mr. Moore contributed to the transactions of the American In- stitute of Electrical Engineers, a paper on "A New Method for the Control of Electric Energy," and in 1894. "Cassier's Magazine" published his article entitled : "The Light of the Future," which was the first attempt to treat this subject in a concrete manner, and attracted wide attention. His paper in 1896, before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, on "Recent Developments in Vacuum Tube Lighting." excited much comment, so that a few months later, the "Moore Light" became the object of principal interest to thousands at New York's first Great Electrical Show at the Grand Cen- tral Palace. During the Electrical Show at Madison Square Garden, in 1898, the "Moore Chapel," lighted with vacuum tubes, aroused interest, as did somewhat similar exhibitions in Boston. Philadelphia, and else- where. Later the long glass tubes of the Moore Light came into general commercial use.
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