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 63
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He served as a member of the State Board of Education, and as a member of the Fish and Game Commission. In 1917, he was appointed by Governor Edge a member of the Board of Conservation and Devel- opment, his term of office will expire in 1921.
JOHN CLAFLIN-Morristown-Merchant (retired). Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., on July 24, 1850; son of Horace B. and Agnes (Sanger) Claflin ; married at Monterey, Cal., on June 27th, 1880 to Elizabeth Stewart Dunn.
John Claflin was, till the time of his retirement from business in 1914, the head of the Claflin dry goods establishment in New York. His father who stood at the head of the mercantile men of the country had founded the Claflin Company. John Claflin was educated at the College of the City of New York, graduating from there in 1869. He afterwards traveled in Europe and the East, and in 1887 crossed the South American continent from the Pacific coast at 10 degrees south latitude to the Atlantic coast at the Equator. Upon his return he entered his fathers establishment and be- came a member of the firm in January, 1873. In 1890 the business was organized under the title of The H. B. Claflin Co., and in 1909 re-organized as the United Dry Goods Companies.
WATSON G. CLARK-Tenafly-Engineer. Born at Creskill, Bergen County, N. J., Sept. 1st, 1871; son of Elijah F. and Emma Gerould (Ranney) Clark, married at Tenafly, N. J., on June 18, 1902, to Mabel Marion Palmer, daughter of Henry B. and Kate (Nelson) Palmer.
Children : Watson Gerould, Jr., Henry Bogert Palmer, Mabel Bernice and Nelson Ranney.
Watson G. Clark attended private and public schools of New York till 1SS6, and the University Preparatory School in 1886-'S7. He received. his education for engineering in the New Yory University, from which in- stitution he was graduated in 1891 with a degree of B. S., and the degree of Civil Engineer, a year later.
After completing his education he became connected with Charles B. Brush, civil engineer, of Hoboken, N. J., and continued in business with him, until 1896. At that time he established a business of his own. and has since practised general engineering, and specialized on municipal work and foundation tests. In 1912-14, he designed and supervised the construc- tion of the Englewood approach, the roadway leading from the Dyekman street ferry to the top of the Palisades. At present he maintains offices at Tenafly and Edgewater, N. J., and also at 30 Church Street, New York city.
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On March 24, 1917 he was appointed a member of the State Highway Commission by Governor Edge for a three year term, and is now the Chair- man of the Executive Committee.
Mr. Clark is a member of the American Society of Civil Engin- eers.
His business address is 30 Church Street, New York, N. Y.
EVERETT COLBY-West Orange .-- Lawyer. (Photograph pub- lished in Vol. 1, 1917). Born in Milwaukee, Wis., on September 10, 1874; son of Charles L. and Anna Sims Colby; married at Plainfield, on June 30th, 1903, to Edith Hyde, daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Hyde.
Children : Elizabeth (died ) : Edith; Anne, Everett, Jr .; Charles Lewis.
Everett Colby came into public view when in 1905 he achieved a nom- ination for member of the State Senate from Essex County over the violent opposition of Major Carl Lentz, chairman of the Republican County Committee, and of the powerful organization at Major Lentz's command. Major Lentz had been regarded all over the state as one of the most auto- cratic leaders in all of the states history ; and, Mr. Colby's capture of the state senatorial nomination, after Major Lentz had said he could not have it, attracted attention all over the east. The Anit-Boss movement which exerted so marked an influence upon the later political history of the country had its birth in this struggle between Colby and Lentz.
Mr. Colby had been a member for three years of the New Jersey House of Assembly, with Major Lentz's countenance, when he sought pro- motion to the State Senate. When the County Chairman set his face against Mr. Colby's nomination, the Assemblyman met him at the prim- aries with a full opposition ticket ; and not only Mr. Colby but every man on his ticket was put in nomination and afterwards elected. One of the local results was the appearance in Trenton of a Republican legislative delegation in both Senate and House defying the regnant republican pow- ers of the state as well as of the county. The movement started out as the "New Idea" party; but later, when the "Progressives" came into prom- inence, became known as the Progressive Party of the State. Mr. Colby has been consistently in sympathy with that wing of the republican party ever since, and was a warm advocate of Colonel Roosevelt's nomination in the campaign of 1912 in which President Taft sought re-election. His work as a Progressive has helped to tincture the republican party of the United States with the spirit of the Progressive movement.
In the State Senate, apart from promoting legislation aimed at the power of the dominating local political chiefs throughout the state, Mr. Colby's energies were largely directed toward the enactment of laws limit- ing the term of franchises granted by the authorities to the public utility companies. They had been securing, almost for the asking, street and other public right of way in perpetuity; and as the result of the move- ment in which Mr. Colby was most conspicuous, laws were enacted, not
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only in New Jersey, but in other states, forbidding grants that were to run in excess of fifty years.
Mr. Colby brought into the politics of the state a name that was not unfamiliar here. His uncle, Gardner R. Colby, had, in a previous cam- paign, made a very imposing, though it proved to be an unsuccessful, canvass for the republican nomination for the governorship; and it was the political opportunity that Gardner R. Colby's candidacy seemed to open that attracted Everett Colby into the New Jersey field. Mr. Colby's activities after he came into the state were strenuous. He became chair- man of the West Orange Republican Township Committee, a member of the State Board of Education and President of the State League of Re- publican Clubs. He was also a member. of Governor Murphy's personal official staff. He was the Progressive candidate for Governor in 1913 and one of the six Progressives appointed to the National Republican Com- mittee to manage the presidential campaign of 1916.
Mr. Colby came to New York when a boy, attended Browning's School and graduated from Brown University in 1897. After he had made a tour around the world, he entered the New York Law School, graduating from there in 1899. He was admitted to the bar of New Jersey and opened a law office there in association with Frank Sommer and Borden D. Whiting, under the firm name of Sommer, Colby & Whiting. He had meanwhile in 1901 been connected with the banking firms of Herrick, Hicks & Colby, and the law firm of Hatch, Debevoise & Colby.
CLARENCE L. COLE-Atlantic City .- Lawyer. Born in Alex- andria, Va., on Dec. 17, 1863; son of James R. and Melissa Cole ; married in Jan., 1885, to Lizzie Conover, of Atlantic City.
Children : Myra Ella, Clarence L., Jr., Maurice Y.
In the movement, intensively pursued immediately after Woodrow Wilson's inauguration as Governor, for the eradication of the corruption with which Atlantic City and county officialism had been impregnated for more than a quarter century, one of the purifying forces was exerted by Clarence L. Cole. It was because of his sympathy with the Progressive spirit of Governor Wilson's administrative policies that the Governor in February, 1911, selected him as Judge of the Circuit Court. He took the position on the Bench that had been filled by Judge Allen B. Endicott.
Judge Cole found his first employment as a messenger boy in Alex- andria, Va., for the Atlantic Pacific Telegraph Company, but soon after- wards he went with the Western Union. He clerked subsequently in gen- eral merchandise stores and became later an apprentice to the moulding trade in the shops of the Virginia Midland R. R. Co. at Alexandria. Re- turning to the telegraph service at Baltimore, he later was an operator at the Brighton Hotel in Atlantic City, and subsequently became manager of the main telegraph office there.
Meanwhile he had fixed his mind upon the practice of the law for a calling and he enrolled himself as a student in the law office of Judge Joseph Thompson. Soon after his admission to the Bar, in 1890, he was
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Collins
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made Assistant Prosecutor of the Pleas of the county under his preceptor, who then held the office of Prosecutor; and upon the expiration of their terms he and Judge Thompson entered into a co-partnership under the firm name of Thompson & Cole. That business relation continued until Mr. Cole was appointed to the Circuit Court Bench in February, 1911, which office he held until April, 1914, when he resigned to become County Judge. The latter office he held until November, 1915, when he resigned and resumed the practice of law.
Judge Cole is a member of the State Bar Association and the Atlantic County Bar Association. He is an F. & A. M. of Trinity Lodge, No. 79.
VARNUM LANSING COLLINS-Princeton, (214 Western Way) -College Professor Teaching. Born in Hong Kong, China, Dec., 1, 1870, son of Varnum Daniel and Mary L. (Ball) Collins ; married at Washington, D. C., Nov. 20th, 1901, to Princetta Lee Hanger, daughter of James E. and Nora (McCarthy) Hanger of Washing- ton, D. C.
Children : Princetta Lee, Sept. 25th, 1907, (died Oct. 3, 1907), Varnum Lansing, April 22, 1912.
Professor V. Lansing Collins received most of his education abroad particularly in London, Bexley and Paris.
In his infancy he resided in China with his parents, and at the age of four went to England, where he lived until 1883. He then was sent to school in Paris for two years, returning in 1885 to Engalnd to prepare for Oxford University. Family plans changing, however, he entered Princeton in 1888, graduating with the degree of A. B. in 1892. On gradu- ation he became professor of Greek and Latin in Moores Hill College, Indiana and held that position for one year. He resigned to pursue graduate study at Princeton, became Reference Librarian at Princeton Uni- versity in 1896, and remained there in that capacity for ten years, when he became assistant professor of modern languages. After six years of service he became professor of French language and literature in 1912. and still holds that position, as well as that of clerk of the faculty. He has been acting secretary of the University since 1917.
Although Prof. Collins has been actively engaged in his profession as an educator he has also been an extensive contributor to literature. He is the author of "The Continental Congress at Princeton," which was published in 1908, also a history of "Princeton" (American Univ. and College Series) 1914, a compiler with F. P. Hill of a biblography of "books pamphlets and newspapers printed at Newark, N. J., between the years 1776 and 1900," a volume privately printed in 1902. He is also editor of the official General Biographical Catalogue of Princeton University. He edited for the Princeton Historical Association "A brief narrative of the ravages of the British and Hessians at Princeton in 1776-'77." Under the auspices of the American Philosophical Association he edited the "Lec- tures on Moral Philosophy," of President Witherspoon whose biography he is writing.
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Cooper
He is a member of the New Jersey Library Association, the American Bibligraphical Society, the Modern Language Association of America. the Princeton Historical Association, the Phi Beta Kappa, and the National Institute of Social Sciences.
.His club memberships are the Nassau Club of Princeton and the Princeton clubs of New York and Philadelphia.
DAVID GROVE CONRAD -- Barnegat .- Merchant. Born at Philadelphia, Pa., on March 16, 1867.
Senator Conrad is one of the directors of the Tuckerton Bank, and a stockholder in the Barnegat Water Company.
Having been practically a life-long resident of Barnegat, he has al- ways taken an important part in the public and civic activities of his home city. In 1905 he was appointed a member of the Ocean County Board of Freeholders, and the following year was elected a member of the board. He was twice re-elected in 1909 and again in 1912, both times with- out opposition. From 1912 until 1916 he served as assemblyman from Ocean County, and at the fall of 1916 elections was elected State Senator on the Republican ticket with a plurality of 227 votes over Hilliard, his op- ponent.
He is a member of Barnegat Lodge, No. 71; Knights of Columbus; State Council No. 202; Junior O. U. A. M .; and of Cedar Run Lodge, In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows.
EDWARD WILLIAM COOPER-South Orange, (568 Prospect St.)-Religious Worker and Publisher. Born in London, England, Jan. 21st, 1863; son of Edward and Mary (Hayslip) Cooper ; married in Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept. 1, 1887 to Fannie Fielding, daughter of William and Mary Fielding of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Children : Grace E., July 26, 1888; Alice F., July 24, 1890; Con- stance, Dec. 30, 1893; Edward W. Jr. July 31st, 1896 and Frances E. Jan. 19, 1904.
Edward William Cooper's early start in life, and his chosen business was obtained in Brooklyn, N. Y., where his parents took up residence, com- ing from England in 1869. In Brooklyn Mr. Cooper received his education in Public School No. 10, and in 1876, after graduating began his apprentice- ship to the printing trade. Within a few years he entered the employ of the Continental Fire Insurance Company of New York, and on the completion of six years service was appointed manager of the supply department, in 1885. Three years later found him, established in his present business-that of publishing insurance supplies and specialties in New York. In 1894, he took up residence in South Orange, N. J.
Despite the fact that his work has claimed a great deal of his time and attention, Mr. Cooper has taken an active part in civic and religious
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Cox
affairs. For eleven years he was a member of the Volunteer Fire De- partment of South Orange. From 1906 to the present date, he has been a trustee of the South Orange M. E. Church, and since 1895 superintendent of the Sunday School. He was elected head of the New Jersey Sunday School association in 1911, and held that office for three years, and in 1916 he became the head of the School of Methods for Sunday School teachers at Asbury Park, N. J.
The scope of his activities did not end here, however, as at various times he has occupied the following offices, chairmanship of the Finance Committee and trustee of the Newark District Epworth League Fresh Air Home, member of the Essex County Sunday School Association and also of that organization's executive Committee. He has also been closely associated with the Newark Conference Board of S. S. and the Board of Managers of the Newark District Church Society, organizer of the June Walk of the Sunday Schools of Essex County in 1908.
Mr. Cooper's business address is 83 John St., New York City.
JOHN J. COPPINGER-Jersey City, (256 Grove St.)-Assem- blyman. Born at Jersey City, N. J., Dec. 4th, 1874; son of Marty and Mary E. (Mulhearn) Coppinger.
John J. Coppinger's father was the late Marty Coppinger, who was born in Galaway, Ireland. His mother was Mary E. Mulhearn, who was born in Philadelphia, Pa.
Mr. Coppinger received his early education in St. Peters Parochial School at Jersey City, from which he graduated in June, 1889.
Soon after completing his school training, he began his apprentice- ship in the plumbing business with John W. Thompson. After a period of five years, he became a journeyman. Upon the death of his employer he established a business of his own, and has continued as a master plumber for more than nineteen years.
In politics Mr. Coppinger has always been an ardent Democrat, and an active worker for that party. For the past five years he was a representative of the Democratic County Committee, and in 1918 he was elected to the Assembly.
His memberships in fraternal and other organizations are Jersey City Lodge No. 211, B. P. O. Elks, Hudson Council 1240, Knights of Columbus, Div. No. 16 Ancient Order of Hibernians, and he has served as Treasurer of the Master Plumbers Association three years and still holds that po- sition.
Mr. Coppinger's business address is 203 Grand St., Jersey City, N. J.
ROBERT LYNN COX-Montclair, (87 North Mountain Ave. ) -Lawyer. Born in Joe Davies County Ill., Nov. 27th. 1865, son of Jeremiah L. Cox and Deliah Garretson Cox, married at Buffalo,
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Cranmer
N. Y., on Sept. 17th, 1890, to Margaret, daughter of John McKenna and Abigail Wheeler.
Children : Howard L .. Carleton W .. and Marion Ruth.
Robert Lynn Cox studied in the country schools of Joe Davies county, Ill., and later attended the village high school of Nova, Ill.
When nineteen years old he went to Buffalo, N. Y., and entered the employ of the Buffalo School Furniture Company as a shipping clerk in the foundry department. At the end of several years he became su- perintendant of this factory. Later in 1890-'95 he was associated with his uncle, Oliver S. Garretson, in the publishing and printing business in New York and Buffalo, and while engaged in this industry. also studied law. In July 1898, he was admitted to the New York Bar, after having received in 1898 a degree of LL. B. from the University of Buffalo. He then engaged in the general practice of law as senior partner successively with the firms of Cox & Kimball, Cox. Kernan & Kimball and Cox, Kimball & Stowe.
In the years 1903,-'04 .- '05, and '06 he represented the second As- sembly district in the city of Buffalo in the New York Assembly, serv- ing also as a member of the cities, General Laws, Codes and Judiciary Committees and was chairman of the last named committee in 1906. In order to accept a position of attorney and secretary to the Association of Life Insurance Presidents, he in 1907 removed to New York. After the death of Grover Cleveland, in 190S, Mr. Cox succeeded him as chief ex- ecutive officer of the association under the title of general counsel and manager, and remained in this position until 1916. At that time, he re- signed to become third vice president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York. In 1917 he was appointed a member of the State Board of Education by Governor Edge and his term will expire in 1924.
Mr. Cox is a Royal Arch Mason and Past Master of Washington Lodge No. 240, F. & A. M., of Buffalo, N. Y., member of the Phi Delta Phi Fraternity, American Bar Association, also of the Manhattan and Republican Bar Association, also of the Manhattan and Republican clubs of New York, and member and director of the Montclair Golf Club.
His business address is No. 1, Madison Ave., New York City.
GEORGE THOMAS CRANMER-Trenton .- U. S. Court Official. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born at Barnegat, Dec. 6th, 1848 : son of Capt. George Cranmer, (a New Jersey mariner), and Charlotte Collins Cranmer; married on April 6th, 1893, to Tacy Margaret, daughter of Wilkinson G. and Martha C. Conrad,
Children : Martha Charlotte, born Dec. 30th, 1895; died at Bar- negat, April 1, 1907.
George T. Cranmer, for one year Assemblyman and for nine State Senator from Ocean Co., has been for twenty-six years Clerk of the United State District Court for the New Jersey District. On both sides, he is of English extraction. The Cranmer family, one of the oldest in Eastern
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Crawford
New Jersey, claims descent from Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canter- bury who was burned at the stake, by order of Queen Mary, at Smithfield, England, in 1556, for his devotion to Protestantism. The family in New Jersey is descended from William Cranmer, who settled at Southold, Long Island, New York, in 1640, and whose descendants settled in Monmouth County and at Little Egg Harbor in the early part of 1700. A paternal ancestor, Daniel Leeds, compiler of William Bradford's New York Al- manacs and a Quaker writer and controversialist of fame in his day, settled at Little Egg Harbor, Leeds Point, in the latter part of the seventeenth century.
After availing himself of the educational facilities afforded him in his native village, he entered Pennington Seminary at Pennington, in his fourteenth year. At the age of sixteen, and before graduation, he met with an irreparable loss in the death of his mother, and shortly after- wards accepted the position of bookkeeper and cashier in a large mercan- tile business at Eatontown, (Monmouth Co.) where he remained for five years. He was engaged in business in Trenton, from 1871 to 1876; then returned to his native village at Barnegat. In 1878 he was the republican candidate for member of House of Assembly for Ocean County, but was defeated by Rufus Blodgett, later United States Senator. In September, 1879, President Hayes appointed him Collector of Customs for the District of Little Egg Harbor, at Tuckerton ; he resigned July 1, 1880.
In November, 1882, he was elected for Ocean County, to the House of Assembly. In 1883 he was unanimously nominated for State Senator for Ocean County, and elected over ex-Senator Emson. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1886, and again in 1889. He was Chairman of the Republican Senate caucus and of the Republican joint caucus for four years. In the session of 1889 he was nominated by the minority republican caucus for President of the Senate. His nine years of service in the Senate ended in 1893. He was an Alternate Delegate-at-Large to the National Republican Convention at Chicago in 1888, and also to the National Re- publican Convention at Minneapolis in 1892. His appointment on Janu- ary 2, 1893, as Clerk of the District Court of the United States for the District of New Jersey was made by U. S. Judge Edward T. Green. He succeeded Linsey Rowe, who had resigned, and he has since held the position under Judges Green, Kirkpatrick, Lanning, Cross, Rellstab, Haight and Davis.
The Senator is a member of the Order of the Knights of Pythias, served as Grand Chancellor of the State of New Jersey for the year ending in February, 1895, and, connected with the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Trenton, is a member and Secretary of its Board of Trustees.
EARL STETSON CRAWFORD-Nutley .- Artist. Born in Philadelphia, Pa., June 6. 1877; son of Franklin Matthew and Florence A. (Depuy) Crawford; married at Princeton. on Jan. 14, 1902 to Brenetta B. Herrman, daughter of Charles D. and Emma F. Herrman of Toledo, O., and New York.
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Cressman
E. Stetson Crawford, grandson of John B. Stetson of Philadelphia, did mural work on the United States Government building at San Fran- cisco, has done other work of the same kind on seversi important private collections, and has been connected with the School of Applied Design for Women in New York since 1912. He has served as an Art Director in several publications and is a portrait painter. Stained glass windows in a number of churches are of his design.
Mr. Crawford was educated at the School of Industrial Art in Phila- delphia, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Delacluse and Julien Academies and at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris; and he subsequently -
attended art classes in Munich, London. Rome, Florence and Venice.
Mr. Crawford has acted as an instructor of advanced classes in book- cover designs and composition work; has been a member of the Nutley Shade Tree Commission for five years and was for some time connected with the National Guard of Pennsylvania. He is a Fellow of the Society of American Illustrators, a member; and since 1912 Secretary, of the National Association of Portrait Painters, and a member of the Loyal American Society.
Mr. Crawford is a Republican in politics, an Episcopalian in faith, a member of the Masonic Order and is connected with the T-Square and Salmagundi Clubs.
Mr. Crawford's studio in New York is at 51 West Tenth Street, and he has a summer home at Roque Bluffs, Me.
HENRY M. CRESSMAN-Egg Harbor City-County Superin- tendent of Schools. Born in Sellersville, Pa., November 17, 1871; son of Henry S. and Sarah A. (Snyder) Cressman; married in Sellersville, Pa., August 21, 1895, to Emma F. Jacoby, daughter of Enos S. and Elizabeth Fellman Jacoby, of Sellersville, Pa.
Children : Ruth J., May 14th, 1896 ; Paul J., March 9, 1903. (died April 1, 1912).
Henry M. Cressman traces his ancestry back to German forebears who settled in Pennsylvania in 1722 and 1728. His grandfather was Philip Cressman, his grandmother, Mary Magdelena Stout. Most of his education and training for his profession was obtained in the Sellersville High School, Bethlehem Preparatory School and at the Lehigh University, South Beth- lehem, Pa. From the last mentioned institution he received the degree of A. B. in 1895 upon graduation, and later, in 1901, the degree of A. M. In 1916 Muhlenberg College also conferred upon him the degree of Pd. D.
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