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 64
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Prior to graduation, Mr. Cressman taught for three years in rural schools in Pennsylvania. At the age of twenty-three Mr. Cressman became principal of the High School at Egg Harbor City and held that position for nine years, when, in 1904 he became Supervising Principal. After five year's service in that capacity Mr. Cressman was appointed County Superintendent of Schools of Atlantic County and is still performing the duties of that office.
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Mr. Cressman was also connected for a number of years with the So- ciety for the Extension of University Teaching as an organizer and as such was the organizer and founder of a number of University Extension centers.
During this time, however, he also served for five years as the first president of the Enterprise Gas Co. and for several years as a Director of the Commercial Bank of Egg Harbor City, of which institution he is now the vice-president.
In 1918 he served as President of the New Jersey State Teacher's Association. He is also the Secretary of the Vocational Board of Edu- cation for Atlantic County and is identified with the Council of Education, National Education Association and is a past master of Trinity Lodge No. 96, F. & A. M., Mays Landing, N. J.
Mr. Cressman's business address is Egg Harbor City, N. J.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN CRESSON, JR .- South Orange, 152 Montrose Ave.)-Civil Engineer. Born in Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 23rd, 1873 ; son of Benjamin Franklin and Martha Amelia (Cham- bers) Cresson ; married at Fall River, Mass., Feb. 4th, 1913 to Amy Clark Tuttle, daughter of E. A. and Cornelia (Clarke) Tuttle.
Children : Cornelia, born Feb. 15th, 1915.
The ancestry of Benjamin Franklin Cresson, Jr., can be traced back to French, English and Irish progenators. The first members of the fam- ily of his father's side, are found settled in Philadelphia about 1657.
Mr. Cresson's date of residence in New Jersey began about six years ago. Previous to that time, he made his home in the city of birth, Philadelphia, where he received his earliest education in the Episcopal Academy of Philadelphia. Later he attended Lehigh University and the University of Pa., receiving from the latter the degree of B. S. Before leaving his native state, he was employed from 1894 to 1900, on railroad work for the Lehigh Valley railroad, the Penn. railroad, and the W. Va. short line railroad as well as on the Reading subway work in Phila- delphia.
But after leaving the Quaker state in 1900 before coming to New Jer- sey he located for thirteen years in New York City, where he laid his foundation for his future success as an engineer. One year after his ar- rival in that city he attracted the attention of the scientific world with his work as an assistant engineer on re-survey plans for the completion of the Hudson tunnels (now known as the McAdoo tunnels) under the North River.
From 1901 to '10 he held the positions of assistant engineer, align- ment engineer, and resident engineer in charge of precise triangulations on the North River. During this period, he was also resident engineer in charge of tunnels under the North River from the Weehawken shaft, as well as being resident engineer in charge of terminal Station, west section of the Pennsylvania Station in New York from the east side of Ninth Avenue to the east side of Tenth Avenue. He also did work in the
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capacity of an assistant engineer, on the Atlantic Avenue improvements in Brooklyn for the Long Island railroad.
During the years 1910-'13, he was deputy commissioner of Department of Docks and Ferries, New York City, as well as being in charge of en- gineering activities connected with that work. For several months dur- ing the absence of the Commissioner he acted in his stead. To further round out his experience, Mr. Cresson, Jr., in 1911, visited Europe to study the conditions and management of important harbors.
In 1913-'15, he was appointed chief engineer of the New Jersey Harbor Commission, which position he resigned to take up the duties on July 1, 1915, as chief engineer of the Board of Commerce and Navigation of New Jersey. This position however, also gave way in 1916 to the office of consulting engineer to the Board of Commerce and Navigation of New Jersey, and this position has been filled from that time, by Mr. Cres- son.
His latest and perhaps most important task in life, however, was given him, when in March, 1918, he was appointed consulting engineer to the New York, New Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commis- sion, which is now undertaking a two-year study of conditions at the Port of New York and for which investigation the legislatures both of New York and New Jersey have appropriated $100,000 each for the first year of the program, of study and the preparation of an operating plan - for the Port of New York which will be used for fifty years to come.
While this country was at war with Germany, in the early part of 1918, Mr. Cresson was called upon to act as consulting engineer to the Director of Storage of the War Department, United States Army, and had in his charge among other things the passing on of plans, designs, and the freight handling equipment, etc., for the Army Supply Bases at Boston, Mass., Brooklyn, N. Y., Philadelphia Pa., Norfelk, Va., Charleston, S. C., and New Orleans, La., on which work more than 200 million dollars were expended.
In 1917 he was chosen by Hon. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, to act as an Associate member of the Naval Consulting Board of the United States; and until a short time ago was member of the Com- mittee on Terminal Port Facilities of the Storage Committee of the Council of National Defense.
His club memberships are the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institute of Mining Engineers, Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain, member and director American Association of Port Au- thorities, member Municipal Engineers of New York, International Con- gresses of Navigation, Engineers Club of New York, etc.
Mr. Cresson's business address is 50 Church Street, New York City.
FRANCIS E. CROASDALE-Atlantic City, (17 N. Florida Ave.) -Secretary to Governor. Born at Atlantic City, N. J., Oct., 6. 1886, son of Charles Wilson and Anna (Conover) Croasdale, mar- ried at Atlantic City, N. J., in June, 1916 to Helen Florence Thorne daughter of Harry and Ella Thorne.
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Children : Charles Wilson, 2nd, born 1915; Frances Ella, born 1918.
Francis E. Croasdale's father was Charles Wilson Croasdale who served in the Civil War with the Pennsylvania Reserves, and was honor- ably discharged from the service as a brevet captain, and who later was commissioned as an officer in the Third U. S. B. V. His. mother was Anna Conover Croasdale who at one time resided in Gloucester City, N. J. Both parents were among the number of pioneer settlers of 'Atlantic City.
At the time of Mr. Croasdale's appointment as secretary to the Gov- ernor in Dec. 1916 he was living in the building which he was born in and which his father and mother had erected nearly forty years previously in the southern section of the island.
Mr. Croasdale attended the public schools of Atlantic City in 1892-1900 and later the high school of that city from which he was graduated in 1904.
Immediately after completing his education. he became a reporter on the Atlantic City Daily Press which at the time, was being published by Walter E. Edge (now Governor). During this period he also studied law in the office of Eugene G. Schninghammer, at Atlantic City. In 1912 he became editor of the paper, and he also served as its legislative cor- respondent in Trenton, In 1914 he, with two other employees, organized a company and leased the Press and the Atlantic City Union, and combined both into the Press-Union Company of which he is still secretary and a stockholder.
In 1915, he was private secretary to speaker of the House of As- sembly, Carleton Godfrey, and in 1916 toured the State with Walter E. Edge and Senator Joseph S. Frelinghuysen in the Republican campaign of that time, and managed the publicity work.
Mr. Croasdale was appointed State Librarian in Feb. 1919 for a term of five years.
His business address is cor. Pennsylvania and Atlantic Avenues, At- lantic City, N. J.
FRANCIS BACON CROCKER-Ampere .- Electrical Engineer. Born at New York, N. Y., on July 4th, 1861; son of Henry H. and Mary (Eldridge) Crocker.
Francis B. Crocker is one of the founders of the Crocker-Wheeler Co., at Ampere, just outside of Newark, and one of the noted engineers of the United States. He was graduated in 1882 from Columbia University with the degree of E. M. and received the degree of Ph. D. in 1884 and the Honorary M. S. degree in 1914. Columbia established in 1889 the first course in electrical engineering in the country; Mr. Croker was put in charge of the department and for twenty-five years remained as head Pro- fessor of Electrical Engineering.
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In 1887 Mr. Crocker was also one of the founders and Vice-President of the C. & C. (Curtis & Crocker) Electric Co. Since the foundation of the Crocker-Wheeler Co., in 18SS, he has been and still is active in its affairs. The company is one of the greatest industrial establishments in the State, and prominent, the world over, in the manufacture of electrical machinery. It is especially noted for the high quality of its products, and thousands of machines made at the Ampere works are sold all over this country and in many foreign countries.
Mr. Croker was President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1897 and '98, and of the New York Electrical Society from 1889 to 1892. He is Foreign Member of the British Institution of Elec- trical Engineers, a Fellow of the A. A. A. S. and was Permanent Secre- tary, in 1893, of the International Electrical Congress.
He is the author of "Management of Electrical Machinery" (7th edi- tion), 1907; "Electric Lighting," (6th edition), 1904; "Electric Motors," (2nd edition), 1914; and of many articles and papers in the "Electrical World," in "Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engi- neers" and other journals.
Mr. Crocker is a member of the University Club of New York.
SEYMOUR L. CROMWELL-Mendham .- Banker. (Photograph published in Vol. 1, 1917). Born April 24th, 1871, Brooklyn, N. Y., son of Frederic and Esther Husted Cromwell; married November 29th, 1899, to Agnes Witney, daughter of Mrs. Stephen Suydam Whitney, of Morris Plains.
Children : Frederick, born Sept. 10th, 1900; Seymour L., Jr., born November 20th, 1902; Whitney Husted, born November 29th, 1904; John, born August 25th, 1915.
Mr. Cromwell was educated at the Brooklyn Latin School, Morse School in New York City, Harvard University, Class of '92, and the Uni- versity of Berlin. On returning to America he became an officer in the East River Gas Company, and afterwards in the Brooklyn Wharf & Ware- house Company. In '98 he served in Troop "A" U. S. Volunteers and par- ticipated in the Porto Rican campaign. In 1896 he became connected with the firm of Strong, Sturgis & Co., bankers and brokers, New York City, of which firm he is still a member.
In New Jersey he has been interested in charitable and penal prob- lems. He is President of the State Charities Aid and Prison Reform As- sociation ; was at one time President of the Conference of Charities and Corrections, and has recently been appointed by Governor Edge as one of the Prison Inquiry Commission, and is also serving on a commission that has to do with the food supply of the State in the present crisis.
Mr. Cromwell is a Director in several banks and industrial com- panies; a Governor of the New York Stock Exchange; President of the Essex Fox Hounds, of Peapack ; member of the Somerset Hills Country
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Club and Raritan Valley Country Club; and, in New York, member of the Union, University, Harvard, Racquet and Tennis Clubs.
JAMES J. CROSS-Newark, (68 South 6th. St.) .- Water Transportation and Assemblyman. Born at New York City, Jan. 26th, 1870; son of Joseph and Mary (Reiley) Cross; married at Newark, N. J., to Margaret Farrell, daughter of John and Mar- garett Farrell of Montelair, N. J.
James T. Cross's father was born in England and his mother was born in Ireland. They came to this country and settled in New York. He moved to this state forty years ago, coming to Newark, where ne attended the Christian Brothers School.
He was captain of some of the largest excursion steamers that left New York Harbor, among them being the "Mandalay" "Glen Island" and "Republic."
At the November 1918 elections he was elected as representative from Essex county to the State Assembly on the Democratic ticket.
He is a member of the Newark Elks Lodge; Joel Parker Association, Sem Senape Club, Puritan Club, and the American Association of Masters, Mates and Pilots.
JULIET C. CUSHING (Mrs. G. W. B.)-East Orange. Born New York, N. Y .; daughter of Simon and Sarah M. (Olmstead) Clannon ; married at East Orange, October, 1875 to George W. B. Cushing, son of Prentice and Eleanor Taintor Cushing of Massa- chusetts.
Juliet C. Cushing has been President of the Consumers League of New Jersey since its organization in 1900. The League organized the New Jersey Child Labor Committee in 1904. It is now known as the New Jersey Child Labor and Welfare Committee; and Mrs. Cushing is the Committee's chairman. She is a vice-president of the National Consumer's League, the President being Hon. Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War. She is acting chairman of the Committee of Women in Industry, both of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defence and of the New Jersey Women's Committee of the Council of National Defence and she has been appointed assistant director of the Federal-State Employment Service. Mrs. Cushing is also interested in the organization work of the Presbyterian Church and has been President of the Presbyterial and Synod- ical Societies connected with Presbyterian Church of New Jersey. She is also President of the Orange Auxiliary to the MeAll Mission in France.
Mrs. Cushing's father. a native of County Ross, Ireland, was edu- cated at Trinity College, Dublin. Her mother was of old Colonial stock, a descendent of Jonathan Gilbert who traced his line back to Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Mrs. Cushing was educated in private schools and was graduated
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Cutting
from Miss Wadleigh's Department of the Twelfth Street School in New York.
The Consumers League of which Mrs. Cushing is President is an asso- ciation of persons who, in making their purchases, strive to further the welfare of those who make or distribute the things bought. Its objects are to better conditions for women and children who are wage earners ; to further the enactment and enforcement of laws for their protection ; to in- crease the demand for goods made and sold under right conditions and to abolish sweatshops and tenement and child labor. It urges upon every buyer responsibility for conditions in industry of which he does not ap- prove and upon employers a high standard of law-abiding, humane treat- ment of employees. It appeals to the consumer to do "Christmas Shop- ping" early and against Saturday afternoon shopping; to the employer, to give women employees a living wage, reasonable hours of labor, sanitary conditions in work and lunch rooms and a Saturday half-holiday during two summer months; and to the employee to render conscientious and in- telligent service and to make the interest of a fair employer his own in- terest.
Mrs. Cushing is a member, and in 1896-97-98 was President of the Womens Club of Orange; and was a Delegate to the Conventions of the General Federation of Women's Club held in Louisville, Ky., in Denver, Col. and in New York City.
MARY STEWART CUTTING (Mrs. Charles W.)-East Orange. (50 Munn Avenue) .- Author. Born in New York City, June 27, 1851; daughter of Ulysses and Mary (Stewart) Doubleday ; mar- ried in New York City, December 29, 1875, to Charles Weed Cut- ting, who died in 1893.
Children : Charles W., Ulysses D., Mary S., Janet B., Amy D.
Mary Stewart Cutting ( from her earliest childhood, was given to mak- ing up stories and trying to write them. After she grew up she wrote a number for children that were printed in a little Church Mission paper, "The Young Christian Soldier ;" and the acceptance of a few of her poems by Lippincott's Magazine winged her ambition for the larger fields of literature. During her married life she wrote but little; but after her husband's death she took up literature as a profession. In two years she offered a dozen or more manuscripts sixty-three times to publishers and had but three of them accepted. One appeared in Harper's, another in the Cosmopolitan and the third in McClure's.
In the hope of striking some new and popular vien she varied the style and topics of her stories with only measurable success until her "Fairy Gold" caught the eye of an editor in McClure's. Having accepted the manuscript he said he would take all the "married life stories" she chose to send in. When she remarked that there was nothing new about that sort of thing .- that it was only just what every one knew all about,-he replied that she was the only one writing it. She took the suburbs for the setting of her contributions afterwards, and her stories have run in nearly
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all the magazines. Mrs. Cutting says of her work that she writes slowly and envies the people who dash off so many thousand words a day ; and that the one of her stories she likes the best is "The Song of Courage," published in "Everybody's" magazine several years ago but never published in book form.
Mrs. Cutting's father served in the Civil War and was a Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers and a brother of General Abner Double- day. Her mother's father was Dr. James Stewart, a New York physician. Mrs. Cutting has lived in-besides New York-Chicago for a year, after- wards in Bergen Point and moved to East Orange in 1898.
Mrs. Cutting's books are : "Little Stories of Courtship," "Little Stories of Married Life," More Stories of Married Life," "The Suburban Whirl and Other Stories of Married Life," "Heart of Lynn," "The Wayfarers," "Just for Two," "Lovers of Sanna," "The Unforseen," "Refractory Hus- bands," and "The Blossoming Rod."
Mrs. Cutting is a member of the Authors League of America.
DAVID R. DALY-Jersey City. (324 York Street) -Manufac- turer. Born at Piermont, N. Y., June 8, 1853, son of William and Mary Ann (Rennie) Daly. Married to Jane Gaisford, daugh- ter of James and Mary A. Gaisford, of Dobbs Ferry, N. Y.
David R. Daly is of Irish parentage. He was educated at old Public School No. 1 in Jersey City, and in the technical classes of the Cooper Institute, New York. He entered the employ of J. H. Gautier & Co., of Jersey City, at an early age. Eagerness for the technical education, which he found to be a necessity in his employment, led him to attend the classes at the Cooper Institute. He has been with the Gautier Company ever since, and the story of his career is one of steady rise to prominence in its management, now being the Company's President and General Man- ager.
Mr. Daly has taken an active part in the civic and trade life of the city, and his interest in the educational welfare of the community led Mayor Wanser to name him a director of the Board of Education. Later, Mayor Fagan appointed him a member of the Free Public Library Board, and he is now its Treasurer. He has also held the office of President of the Jersey City Chamber of Commerce for the years 1905, 1906 and 1911.
Mr. Daly is a director of the Home of the Homeless in Jersey City, an institution for orphaned children ; a trustee of the Provident Institution for Savings, Vice-President of the Hudson County National Bank, and a member of the Union League, Palma and Carteret Clubs.
MARY SHARPE DANIELS-Ocean Grove .- Writer and Educa- tor. Born at Somerville, N. J., Feb. 8th, 1863; daughter of Rev. Josiah Reeves and Abigail (Sharpe) Daniels.
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Daniels
Mary Sharpe Daniels comes from English and Scotch stock. Her earliest known ancestors in America were officers in the Colonial wars; the less remote include Capt. John Daniels, of the Cumberland (New Jer- sey) Militia, and Brig .- General Silas Newcomb, of the New Jersey State Militia, both of whom were active in the American Revolution, the latter being a participant in the "Greenwich Tea Party."
Miss Daniels' early education was obtained in public and private schools of New Jersey, including the Jersey City High School and the Centenary Collegiate Institute at Hackettstown. Her more advanced studies were pursued at Wellesley College, Mass. She holds the degrees cf B. A. from Wellesley College (1886) and of M. A. from McMaster Uni- versity, Toronto, Canada (1894).
For one year after graduation, Miss Daniels taught Greek in Welles- ley College and afterwards held the chair of Greek and Latin in Moulton College, Toronto, for five years. Resigning this position in 1895, she devoted herself for many years exclusively to writing as a means of self- support. Her work has been chiefly in the form of stories for young people and travel sketches in numerous periodicals, among which were "Youth's Companion," "Young People," "Classmate," "Forward," "Girl's Com- panion," "Young People's Weekly," "Independent," "Outlook," "Church- man," "Christian Advocate," "Christian Endeavor World."
During the period between 1900 and 1915, Miss Daniels spent several years at longer or shorter intervals in travel with her family throughout Europe, North Africa, the nearer Orient, Canada and the West Indies, these journeyings ending abruptly after the beginning of the war.
While a resident of Toronto, Can., her interest in literature led Miss Daniels to organize and conduct a ciub for the study of Nineteenth Cen- tury Literature and also a Browning Study Club. For the past six years she has been a member of the Woman's Club of Asbury Park, and for three years was chairman of its Literary Department. At the present time she is vice president for the Third District (Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties) of the New Jersey State Federation of Woman's. Clubs.
WINTHROP M. DANIELS-Princeton .- Interstate Commerce Commissioner. (Photograph published in Vol. 1. 1917) Born at at Dayton, O., September 30, 1867 ; son of Edwin A. and Mary B. Daniels ; married at Montville, Conn., October 12, 1898, to Joan Robertson danghter of Carmichael and Mary Clark Robertson, of Montville, Conn.
Children : Robertson Balfour, born Aug. 6, 1900.
Winthrop M. Daniels attended the public and private schools of Day- ton, Ohio; and, entering Princeton in 1884, obtained his A. B. degree in 18SS. While doing graduate work in the University, he taught for two years in Princeton Preparatory School. Princeton awarded the A. M. degree to him in 1890. The same year he entered the University of Liep- zig. In 1891 he was engaged as an Instructor in Economics at Wesleyan
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University in Middletown, Conn. In 1892 he was called to Princeton Uni- versity and made Assistant Professor of Political Economy; and three years later he was elected Professor of Political Economy. He was still holding this chair when, in 1911, Governor Wilson tendered him a place on the Public Utility Commission of New Jersey. He served on that board until Gov. Wilson, having become President of the United States, nomi- nated him to place on the Interstate Commerce Commission. A va- eancy had occurred in the Commission; and the original appointment was to fill an unexpired term to end January 1st, 1917. He was re-ap- pointed for a full term and was confirmed by the Senate in January, 1917.
Commissioner Daniels served for several years as ad interim editorial writer on the staff of the New York Evening Post; and for three years as Secretary and Treasurer of the American Economic Association. He has published a volume entitled "Elements of Public Finance," and also various economic and literary studies for the periodical publications.
Commissioner Daniels is a member of the Cosmos Club, Washington, D. C., and of the Transportation Club of Chicago; and, though his official duties make a residence in Washington necessary, his home is still in Princeton.
WALTER B. DAVIS-Salem, (West Broadway)-City Superin- tendant of Schools. Born at Shiloh, N. J., July 30th, 1873; son of Theodore F. and Eliza S. Davis; married at Shiloh, N. J., to Re- becca Fogg, in 1894, who died in Colorado in 1903. Married on Aug. 1, 1907, to Nelle Tomlinson, daughter of Samuel and Etta M. (Moore) Tomlinson.
Children : Miriam Eliza, Everett Fogg, and Marietta Carolyn.
In his childhood Walter B. Davis attended the public schools of Shiloh graduating from the Hopewell Township High School in 1890. He received his higher education in Salem, W. Va. College, and in Alfred University, Alfred, N. Y.
The senior Davis was the leading business man of the village of Shiloh, having kept the general store and post office. He then became part owner and manager of the Davis Rainear and Davis Canning Establishment, and there Young Davis learned the can-making trade.
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