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 48
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Children : 2nd marriage. James Wood, born May 31, 1874; Emily Wells, born October 18, 1884, married Arthur L. Bates, at Mead-
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ville, Pa., October 20, 1909; their children, Josephine Rusling, born September 1, 1913.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE SAUNDERS-Plainfield,-Inventor, Born at Columbus, Ga., on November 1, 1856; son of William Trebell Saunders, D. D., and Eliza (Morton) Saunders; mar- ried at Narragansett Pier, R. I., 1886, to Bertha Louise Gaston, of Narragansett Pier, died, 1906).
Children : Louise (Mrs. Maxwell Evarts Perkins) ; Jean (Mrs. Marsom I. Buttfield).
Mr. Saunders, twice Mayor of North Plainfield, is Chairman of the Naval Consulting Board of the United States and a Director of the Feder- al Reserve Bank at New York. He holds a Commission also from Gov. Fielder as a member of the N. J. Board of Commerce and Navigation.
Mr. Saunders is a descendant of Sir Edward Saunders, one of the Knights of the Horseshoe who discovered the Alleghanies. His earliest an- cestors were of the original Jamestown expedition; and he is a grand- - nephew of Robert Saunders the 14th President of William and Mary Col- lege, Williamsburg, Va. The University of Pennsylvania conferred the Bachelor of Science degree upon him in 1876 and the degree of Doctor of Science in 1911.
Before graduation from the University, Mr. Saunders was editor-in- chief of the "University Magazine" and class poet. After his graduation he engaged in newspaper work in Philadelphia, acted as special correspon- dent for southern newspapers at the Centennial Exposition and made two all-night baloon ascensions, reaching a height of three and one-half miles. Engaging subsequently in building enterprises, he was, from 1878 to 1881, the engineer in charge of the construction of docks, ware-houses and ship channel. in New York harbor at Black Tom Island, and incidentially de- signed and patented the apparatus now in general use for sub-aqueous drilling, using the tube and water jet system.
In 1881, he became engineer for the Ingersol Rock Drill Co., and in- vented and patented rock drilling and quarrying devices, track channelers, and gadder and bar channelers, also a system of pumping liquids by com- pressed air now generally used in the Baku oil fields in Russia and radial- axe system of coal mining.
Meanwhile, Mr. Saunders' political activities have been very wide. He was for sometime a member of the New Jersey State Democratic Commit- tee ; and Gov. Wilson made him a member of the New Jersey Harbor Com- mission. He became a member of the New Jersey Board of Commerce and navigation when the administrative departments of the state were re-or- ganized in 1916. It was upon the nomination of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, that the Secretary of the Navy appointed him a member of the Naval Consulting Board of the United States and he is a chairman of the Board. He is also one of the Executive Committee of the League to Enforce Peace.
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Mr. Saunders was Secretary, Vice President and is now President, of The Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company ; formerly President, now Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ingersoll-Rand Company ; now Director of the A. S. Cameron Steam Pump Works; also of the American International Corporation, the Latin American Public Works Corporation and the New York & Honduras Rosario Mining Company ; formerly President and Di- rector of the Muhlenberg Hospital of Plainfield ; Director of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (Ex-Pres.) ; Director American Manufacturers Export Asso .; member, N. Y. Chamber of Com- merce ; Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America (member of Advisory Committee of Federal Trade Commission) the National Foreign Trade Council ; member Advisory Board U. S. Fuel Administration for N. Y .; Director of the Machinery Club (Past President) India House; member of the Aero Club, Engineers' Club; University Club; Ameri- can Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engi- neers, Mining and Metallurgical Society of America; National Civic Fed- eration (Chairman of the New York Welfare Committee) ; American Iron and Steel Institute; United Engineering Society (Trustee) ; American Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia) ; Academy of Politi- cal Science in the City of New York and National Democratic Club ; Fellow American Geographical Society ; Chairman for Nicaragua, Permanent Pan- American International High Commission, and University of Pennsylvania Club, New York.
Mr. Saunders is editor of "Compressed Air Magazine" and author of "Compressed Air Information," "Compressed Air Production," co-author of "The Subways and Tunnels of New York," co-author Dana & Saunders "Rock Drilling." and author of numerous pamphlets and other publications, among them, "Compressed Air, Its Production, Transmission and Use," "A Practical Consideration of Compressed Air," "Quarrying by the Channeling Process," "The History of the Rock Drill," "Rock Drilling Economics," "Tunnel Driving in the Alps." "Right and Strength in Equal Suffrage," "Reveries of a Business Man." "Business and Politics and the Anti-Trust Laws," and "Compressed Air in the Arts and Industries" for the Interna- tional Engineering Congress, San Francisco, 1915.
Mr. Saunders' office is at 11 Broadway, New York City.
EDWARD SHAFFER SAVAGE-Rahway .- Lawyer. Born in Rahway, July 1, 1854.
Edward S. Savage is the President of the new State Department of Conservation and Development created by the Economy and Efficiency acts of 1915. The Department embraces what under the old system had been the State Water Supply Commission, the Forest Park Reservation Commis- sion, the Geological Survey, the Washington Park Crossing Commission, the State Museum and the Fort Nonsense Park Commission. Mr. Savage is a democrat of long standing and was prominent during the incumbency of Leon Abbett as Governor. While a lawyer by profession Mr. Savage is more largely interested in financial and real estate affairs.
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Mr. Savage read law in the office of Cortlandt Parker of Newark, and graduated from the Columbia Law School in 1876. A year later he was ad- mitted to the New Jersey bar. He practised law in Newark for a few years after his admission, but, later moving his business to New York, he was associated with George W. Miller for twenty years as his partner. In 1912 he retired from active practice to give attention to the other field of finance and real estate.
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In 1883 the democrats of Middlesex county named Mr. Savage as their candidate for the House of Assembly and, re-elected, he served in the Houses of 1884-1885. In 1915, upon the re-organization of the State depart- ments, Gov. Fielder named Mr. Savage as a member of the Department of Conservation and Development and he was elected to the Presidency of that commission. His term will expire in July of 1918.
AGNES ANNE SCHERMERHORN (Mrs. John Relyea) -East Orange, (11 Halsted Place) .-- Club woman. Born at Chateaugay, N. Y., daughter of Camille and Helene (Lanctot) Le Fort., mar- ried at Chateaugay, on September 10, 1900, to John Relyea Scher- merhorn, son of John S., and Mary Jane ( Relyea ) Schermerhorn.
Children : Jane Eleanor born August 12th, 1902, John Ryer, born May 22nd, 1905; Robert Hendryck, born September 5th, 1909.
Agnes Anne Schermerhorn, is descended from an old French family. Both of her great, great grandfathers came from France about 1740 and settled near Montreal, Canada. That was in the days of the great North- west Fur Trading Company, and their experiences as pioneers were many. Her maternal grandfather came to Northern New York during the Papi- neau Rebellion in the latter thirties, while her paternal grandfather came a few years later. During the days of 61, Camille Le Fort, her father enlisted in the Union Army and took part during the entire Civil War, until the armies were mustered out. He was twice wounded.
Mrs. Schermerhorn was educated in the Chateaugay Academy, at- tending that institution in her early life. In her sixteenth year she en- tered the Oswego State Normal School, graduating three years later.
During the later years, she has taken a great interest actively in civic, educational, public health, legislative and social welfare problems. She is now president of the New Jersey State Federation of Womans' ('lubs. and State Director to the General Federation of Womans' Clubs. She has been an active member of the Womans' Club of Orange since 1903, having filled several offices therein. She is the organizer of the Woman's Legis- lative Bureau under the direction of the New Jersey State Federation of Woman's Clubs. Its members attend the sessions of the State Legisla- ture, and work for legislation affecting women, children and the home. In July, 1918, she was appointed one of the five commissioners for the Ame- lioration of the Blind in the State. The appointment came through the State Board of Institutions and Agencies and was ratified by Governor Edge.
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Schmidt
She is a member of the Second Federal Reserve District Liberty Loan Committee; the State Executive Committee of War Saving Stamp Commission ; member of the organization committee of the College for Women at New Brunswick; a vice-chairman of the New Jersey Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense, and a member of the Na- tion Institute of Social Sciences.
GRANT BARNEY SCHLEY-Far Hills .- Banker. Born at Chapinsville, N. Y., February 25th, 1845 (Deceased Nov. 22, 1917 -see Vol. 1, 1917) ; son of Evander S. Schley ; married in New York in 1879, to Elizabeth, daughter of George E. Baker, of New York.
FREDERICK WILHELM SCHMIDT-Morristown, (29 Ann Street) .- Manufacturer Crushed Stone, etc. Born at Millington, N. J., Ang. 27th, 1865; son of John Henry and Margaret (Nish- witz) Schmidt,; married at Millington, N. J., March 31, 1891, to Effie Louise Taff, daughter of Wilhelmina Nishwitz and Daniel (Willis) Taff, of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Children : Louise, born March 20, 1894; Frederick W., Jr., born July 1, 1897; John Henry, born Sept. 3, 1902.
Frederick Wilhelm Schmidt is a grandson of Peter Nishwitz, a Polish gentleman who served as Napoleon's bodyguard, and later emigrated to America.
He attended the public schools of Madison, N. J., from 1870-81, and when sixteen years old began his business career by entering the busi- ness of his uncle, Frederick Nishwitz, who conducted the Acme Harrow Fa tory at Millington, N. J. He became manager of the factory later, and in 1888 he moved to Morristown where he reorganized the carriage business which his father was conducting there.
In 1895 he became interested in the Good Road movement which was then spreading through the state, and purchasing a tract of land at Millington, underlaid with trap rock, he organized the Morris County Crushed Stone Company. He later purchased and reorganized several other quarries, and consolidated them all under the name of the North Jersey Quarry Company which he still conducts and of which he is the presi- dent and general manager. He is also president of the North Jersey Amie- site Company, manufacturers of a patented asphaltic concrete for road surfaces.
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Scudder
He is a member of the Millington Field Club, the New Jersey Manu- facturers Association, the Washington Association and the Morristown Lodge of Elks.
His business address is 17 South Street, Morristown, N. J.
WALLACE MCILVAINE SCUDDER-Newark, (510 Parker St.) -- Newspaper Proprietor. Born in Trenton, on December 26, 1853 ; son of Edward Wallace and Mary Louise (Drake) Scudder ; mar- ried to Ida Quinby, 1880, daughter of James M. and Phoebe (Sweezey) Quinby, of Newark; 2nd in 1906, to Gertrude Wither- spoon, daughter of Orlando and Cora (Taylor) Witherspoon.
Children : Edward Wallace, Antoinette Quinby, Wallace M.
Wallace M. Scudder is the owner and publisher and the editor-in-chief of the "Newark Evening News." He was one of its founders and has been the chief of its managers from the time of its first publication in 1883.
Mr. Scudder's father was for nearly thirty years an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the state and recognized as a Jurist of unusual acumen and soundness. George Drake, father of Mr. Scudder's mother, was also an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in the 1820 decade.
Mr. Scudder began his education at the State Model School in Trenton and afterwards went to the Lehigh University, graduating in 1873. He subsequently took a course at the Harvard Law School, studied law with Judge Garret D. W. Vroom in Trenton and Vice Chancellor John R. Emery , in Newark. He was admitted as an attorney in 1877 and given his counsel- or papers in 1880. He had been engaged for three years in the practice of . the law when, in 1883, he became interested with Henry A. Steele, Lawrence S. Mott, Russell P. Jacoby and two or three others in a movement for the publication of a newspaper built on lines of metropolitan journalism, that was much needed in the rapidly growing city of Newark ; and on September 3, 1883, the first issue of the paper made its appearance as the "Evening News." With a circulation exceeding 90,000, over a territory embracing all of the North cities of the state, it has become one of the valuable after- noon newspaper properties in the United States.
Besides being engrossed with the great cares attending the publication of the "Evening News," Mr. Scudder finds time to engage in the large financial and civic life of Newark. Among the others, he was one of the members of the Citizens Committee of 100 that in 1916 prepared the six months' celebration of Newark's founding in 1666, serving on its sub-com- mittee on Schools and Philanthropies.
Mr. Scudder, originally a Presbyterian by faith, is now a vestryman in St. James Episcopal Church and was the same in Trinity. His wife is the daughter of an Episcopalian clergyman. He is a Director in the National Newark and Essex Banking Company and the Securety Savings Bank and
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a Governor of the Essex Club, of Newark, and member of the Morris County Golf Club and Baltusrol Golf Club.
THOMAS J. SCULLY-South Amboy .- Transportation. Born in South Amboy, September 19, 186S.
Thomas J. Scully has had an eventful career as the Representative of the Second District in the Congress of the United States. His early educa- tion was acquired in the schools of his native town and at Seton Hall Col- lege. When he left the College he was taken into the towing business which his father had established in 1874. His energy afterwards built the Scully Towing and Transportation Company into an important maritime enter- prise. It owns more than fifty ocean going tugs and barges and carries more than a million tons of freight annually to all parts of the world.
Mr. Scully has always evinced a deep interest in the life of the com- munity around him ; and in 1898, when Dr. Ambrose Treganowan resigned the Mayoralty of South Amboy, the Council named Mr. Scully, who had served three years in the Board of Education, to fill out his unexpired term. In 1909 the people elected him to serve for the full term. While in that office he improved the dock facilities and the sewer system and re- organized the fire and police departments. In 1908 the democrats of the district sent him as a delegate to the National Convention that named Wm. J. Bryan for President and he was also a candidate on the Bryan ticket for Presidential Elector. He was a delegate, too, to the National Conven- tion of 1912 that nominated Woodrow Wilson.
Mr. Scully came into view as a candidate for Congress in 1910 and took the nomination against Benjamin F. Howell (rep.), who had repre- sented the District of Washington for sixteen years, and defeated him by nearly 4,500 plurality. He was renominated and re-elected in 1912, 1914 and 1916. The result of the contest between himself and Robert Carson, whom the republicans had nominated against him in the 1916 campaign, was in doubt for weeks after the election. The total of the returns filed with the county clerks by the election boards of the district indicated Car- son's election with fourteen more votes to his credit than Scully had to his. Congressman Scully claimed that the correction of errors in the count would put him in the lead. A recount was ordered. Because a tie between the parties in the National House of Representatives was threatened, the re- opening of the ballot boxes was awaited with the keenest interest all over the country. The recount disclosed a majority in favor of Mr. Scully and Mr. Scully retained his seat.
JOHN PRESTON SEARLE-New Brunswick .- Educator. Born in Schuylerville, N. Y., September 12, 1854; son of Rev. Samuel Tomb and Cornelia Fonda (Southworth) Searle: married at Somerville, on December 12, 1882, to Susan Bovey, of Cherokee, Ia.
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Serviss
At its session in Asbury Park in June, 1917, the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America elected John Preston Searle President of the General Synod. Since 1902, he has been President of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.
The Rev. Dr. Searle graduated from Rutgers College in 1875, and from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1878. Rutgers College con- ferred the A. B. degree in 1875, the A. M. degree in 1878 and the D. D. de- gree in 1893. Ordained as a minister of the Reformed Church in America, he became in 1878, pastor of the church at Griggstown, (N. J.) and from 1881 to 1893 was pastor of the First Church in Somerville. In 1893, he ac- cepted the tender of the position of Professor of Systematic Theology in the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, becoming also President of the Faculty in 1902.
Dr. Searle is Vice President of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church of America. Since 1898, he has been a Trustee of Rut- gers College. He is a member of the Executive Commission of the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches; was .President of the Commission in 1915 and 1916, and was Chairman of the Council of the Re- formed and Presbyterian Churches in America in 1902-'03-'04 and 1906.
Besides being a frequent contributor with sermons, memoirs, etc., to the religious press, he is the author of "An Outline of Theological Encyclope- dia" and of "Life of Talbot Wilson Chambers, S. T. D. LL. D."
He is a member of the Delta Upsilon, and Phi Beta Kappa and con- nected with the University and Rutgers Clubs of New York, the Rutgers Club of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Country Club.
GARRETT PUTNAM SERVISS-Closter .- Journalist, Scientist. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917.) Born in Sharon Springs, N. Y., March 24th, 1851; son of Garrett Putnam and Catherine Shelp Serviss; married to Eleanore Betts, 1875; second marriage to Henriette Gros le Blond, 1907.
Children : son of first wife, Garrett Putnam, died in 1907; two step-children, Germaine Gatier Serviss (adopted daughter), born in France, 1899, and Edward Gatier, born in France, 1897.
Garrett P. Serviss is of pre-Revolutionary American parentage, on both father's and mother's side, and spent his boyhood among the hills of the Schoharie, near its junction with the Mohawk. He acquired his early edu- cation in the public schools and at Johnstown (N. Y.) Academy, graduating from Cornell University, 1872 (B. S.), and from Columbia College Law School, 1874 (LL. B.). He was admitted to the bar of New York the same year, but instead of entering upon the practice of the law, went into journ- alism in 1875, as a reporter for the "New York Tribune." In 1876 he went to the "New York Sun" in the same capacity. In 1878 he was made night copy editor and writer of editorials, particularly on astronomy. and became known anonymously throughout the United States as "The Sun's Astron- omer." In 1882 he became night editor of "The Sun," continuing his editor-
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ial writing and giving maus lectures on astronomy in New York and else- where.
In 1885 he started the American Astronomical Society, now a depart- ment of the Brooklyn Institute; and in 1892 developed the "Urania Lec- tures" in Carnegie Music Hall, which were devoted to astronomy, geology and the scenery and history of the earth. These were illustrated with elaborate settings, transparent painted drops and electrical lighting de- vices, which were a novely in America at that time. Three lectures were prepared : "A Trip to the Moon," "From Chaos to Man," and "The Wonders of America," and during two years these were presented in most of the great cities of the United States and Canada. Since then Mr. Serviss has devoted his time to travel. study, writing and lectures, having, perhaps, the most repute for his astronomical writings and lectures.
Most of his journalistic work for many years has taken the form of short editorials and articles on scientific and popular topics, treated in a way to interest and instruct the average curious but busy reader.
Mr. Serviss is the author of the following books: "Astronomy With An Opera-glass" (Appleton), "The Moon" (Appleton), "A Columbus of Space" (Appleton), "Astronomy With the Naked Eye" (Harper), "The Moon Metal" (Harper ), "Eloquence" (Harper), "The Second Deluge" (McBride, Nast), besides "The Conquest of Mars," "The Sky Pirate," and "The Moon Maiden," stories of scientific mystery published by newspaper syndicates.
Mr. Serviss is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science. European address: Arceau par Beire-le-Chatel, Cote D'Or, France.
MINOLA GRAHAM SEXTON (Mrs. Chandler) -Orange, N. J., (172 Cleveland Street.) Club Woman and Suffragist. Born in New York City. Dec. 5, 1859; daughter of Andrew J. and Caroline (Ross) Graham; married at Orange, Dec. 23, 1885, to Chandler Sexton, of Albany, N. Y.
Children : Andrew J. Graham, born April 8, 1887, and Caroline Graham, born March 20, 1894.
Andrew J. Graham, A. M. (1830-1894), the father of Mrs. Sexton, was a native of Ohio and a descendant of New England stock; widely known as an educator and as author of the Graham system of shorthand. His many texts and reference books for shorthand students and writers are regarded as standard and authoritative works in their field. The business which he established in 1858 for the publication of his works has been continued by his family under the firm name of Andrew J. Graham & Company. In 1856 Mr. Graham married Miss Caroline Ross, of Phila- delphia, a daughter of Dr. Samuel and Mrs. Sarah Ross, members of the Society of Friends. Mr. and Mrs. Graham moved to Orange from New York City in 1874. when they purchased a home at 172 Cleveland Street, where Mr. and Mrs. Sexton and family reside.
Mrs. Sexton attended the Dearborn-Morgan School in Orange for a time but was educated almost entirely by her father and private tutors.
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She became a very rapid shorthand writer and acted as her father's secre- tary until the time of her marriage.
Mrs. Sexton regards women's clubs as universities in which their mem- . bers should carry on educational and civic activities. The first club she joined was the Woman's Club of Orange (founded in 1872 and now has 1,000 members), in which she has been Corresponding Secretary and Chair- man of the departments of Science and Economics.
While a member of the Bureau of Associated Charities of the Oranges she was convinced that Prohibition would be the greatest alleviation of the world's misery and crime, and so she became affiliated with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Her next decision was that women must have the ballot in order to work effectively for temperance and all civic betterment. She then organized the Orange Political Study Club, in 1898, under the auspices of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Associa- tion. She was President the first four years and is now the Honorary President and Chairman of Reconstruction. The Club has honored her as its founder by planting a tree in her name on the Lincoln Highway in Newark. The Club has departments of education, civics, legislation and suffrage.
When this country entered the war against Germany (1917) the Club immediately gave precedence to war relief work, and under the guidance of Mrs. Sexton, its Chairman, it raised a large sum of money for the Soldiers' Club House at Camp Dix (owned and conducted by the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association). Many hundreds of hospital gar- ments were made and the club secured subscriptions for $60,250 worth of the fourth issue of United States Liberty Loan Bonds.
The New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association elected Mrs. Sexton President in 1900, which position she held for six years; at the end of that period she was made Honorary President for life. The Suffrage cause encountered great opposition at that time, but the new president went through the state speaking before women's clubs and other societies and arranged many suffrage meetings in large cities; great two-day rallies were also held every summer at the Ocean Grove Auditorium by the invitation of the Camp Meeting Association.
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