USA > New Jersey > Atlantic County > Atlantic City > The Daily union history of Atlantic City and County, New Jersey : containing sketches of the past and present of Atlantic City and County > Part 31
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FREDERICK BERCHTOLD.
At the head of one of the score or more of tailoring industries is Mr. Frederick Berch- told. He was born in Germany in 1863. Ambitious to win a fortune in the new world he came to America at the age of eighteen, and settled in Egg Harbor City. He applied him- self closely to the tailoring business and now has a profitable shop of his own. He has been active in local affairs, is now a Justice of the Peace, secretary of the Agricultural and Horticultural Association, secretary of the Sterbe Kasse, a local death benefit society, and a member of Lafayette Fire Company. He has served on the finance committee of the Building and Loan Association for the past six years. He has a comfortable home on Philadelphia avenue, and a happy family.
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BIOGRAPHY.
HENRY BOICE.
Henry Boice was born in Absecon, N. J., December 8. 1829. Ile was the third child. and the oldest son of Peter Boice and Sarah Ann Chamberlain. After receiving such an education as the large land owners were able to give their children in the pay-school of that period, he remained with his father until twenty-one. His ever clear, shrewd mind sought greater opportunities than could be found in country life, and ambition led him to Phila- delphia, Pa. After reaching there the natural resources of the waters near his home im- pelled his interest in the oyster business, in which business he continued until 1877 or '78. when he retired from active business life.
December 21st. 1869, he married Kate M., daughter of Jonathan and Eunice Smith. They had one child, Elizabeth Clement, who survives them. In the spring of 1880 he re- turned to Absecon, N. J., settled near the scenes of his youth, continuing his interest in Atlantic City property, and sincerely enjoying the pleasures of which he had been ever fondest, hunting and fishing.
He was a man of tireless energy and stern integrity, honorable to all, and unassuming. March 19, 1899, ten years after the death of his wife, he died peacefully at his home in Abse- con, N. J., and rests beside his father near the church of which both were generous members.
To his memory his daughter caused to be built and donated to this city the "Henry Boice Annex" to the Atlantic City Hospital.
GEORGE A. BOURGEOIS.
Lawyer George A. Bourgeois, of Atlantic City, New Jersey, was born in Maurice- town, Cumberland County, on May 15. 1864. After attending the public schools of his native town, he finished his education with a two years' course in the Woodstown Academy. He graduated from the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania with the degree of L. L. B., in 1888; he was admitted to practice in the Courts of Philadelphia in June of the same year, he read law with E. B. Leaming. Esq., of Camden, N. J .. and was admitted to practice as an attorney in the New Jersey Courts in 1889. and as a coun- sellor in 1892. Previous to his admission to the bar he taught school four years in New Jersey, and for three years was Professor of Mathematics in Pierce Business College of Philadelphia.
In 1892 he came to Atlantic City and soon built up an excellent practice. He is a careful student and expert accountant and mathematician, and has won high rank as a member of the Atlantic County Bar.
CHARLES B. BOYER.
Charles B. Boyer, Supervising Principal of the public schools of Atlantic City, was born in Hamberg, Berks County, Pa., in 1860. He was educated in the public schools and taught school two years before he attended the Kutztown Normal School, where he grad- uated in 1882. He also took a post graduate course the following year, before he resumed teaching at Perkasie, Bucks County, where he continued as Principal for three years. The four succeeding years he was principel of the schools at Newtown, Bucks County, coming to Atlantic City in the fall of 1890, to fill the position of principal of the High School, under Supervising Principal W. A. Deremer. On the death of Mr. Deremer, in October. 1803, Prof. Boyer was chosen as his successor. How ably he has discharged his responsibilities, commanding at all times the confidence of the Board of Education and the respect and co- operation of the teachers and pupils needs no extensive recital here. Under his administra- tion the prestige of our public schools has steadily advanced.
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DAILY UNION HISTORY OF ATLANTIC COUNTY.
Mr. Boyer has been quite successful in the building and sale of fine cottages. He now occupies a beautiful home in Chelsea. In 1887 he married Miss Amanda L. Benner, daugh- ter of a prominent builder and contractor of Perkasie. They have one child, Miss Bessie L. Boyer.
THEOPHILUS HENRY BOYSEN.
Theophilus Henry Boysen, M. D., was born January 14, 1854, at Ragersville, Tuscara- was County, Ohio, where his father, Dr. Otto Boysen, practiced his profession nearly seven- teen years. In 1867 the family moved to Buffalo, N. Y., where the son graduated from the medical department of the University of Buffalo in 1874.
After two years' practice in Buffalo, the subject of this sketch moved to Egg Harbor City, where he has built up a splendid practice. In 1878 he was elected school trustee, and in 1884 Mayor, serving three terms in succession, and again in 1891, serving three years more. He was elected Coroner of the county in 1879, serving three years, and served two terms as school superintendent. In 1880 he became secretary and one of the charter mem- bers of the County Medical Society, with Drs. Job B. Somers, D. B. Ingersoll, Boardman Reed and others. He has been president of this organization and is now a permanent dele- gate to the State Medical Society. He is a member of the American Medical Association, and keeps np with the best thought in his profession.
For years Dr. Boysen has been President of the Aurora Singing Society, the first of its kind organized in South Jersey. He has been secretary of the Egg Harbor B. & L. Association since its organization, and is one of the town's most progressive citizens. He is a Jeffersonian Democrat. On October 27, 1878, he married Miss Catherine, daughter of Abraham Kinzinger, who was one of the freedom-loving Germans who took an active part in the Revolution of 1848. Their union has been blessed with eight children, seven of whom are living.
GEORGE F. BREDER.
George F. Breder, editor and publisher of the German Herald and Postmaster of Egg Harbor City, was born at Egg Harbor City, January 29, 1862. He is a son of Casper Breder, who came, with his parents, to Egg Harbor City in 1857, being among the very first settlers in that Colony. In 1860 his father was married to Eliza Keller, the daughter of another pioneer settler, and George is the oldest of ten children. Educated at the public schools, George, at the age of thirteen, entered the Pilot printing office. After several years of ap- prenticeship, Mr. Breder worked at his trade as compositor, and being proficient in both the English and German languages, had no difficulty in obtaining work on metropolitan daily papers. In 1885 he returned to this county and was employed on the Daily Review in Atlantic City, and later became City Editor of this paper. In 1889 he purchased the Zeitgeist printing office at Egg Harbor City, and continues publishing this German weekly, changing the name to Deutscher Herold-German Herald. The printing establishment of Mr. Breder is a large one. Besides his own weekly abont twenty monthly church papers for different congregations in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are printed there. The job department has been greatly enlarged by purchasing the entire Hammonton Mirror-Journal plant a year after, and moving it to Egg Harbor City.
Mr. Breder has held various public offices in his native town. He was Justice of the Peace for eight years, and Assessor for three years. In 1893 he was elected Coroner of Atlantic County on the Republican ticket. In 1898 he was appointed Postmaster, and the grade of the office advancing from the fourth to the third class, becoming a Presidential office, he was re-appointed by President Mckinley and confirmed by the Senate in Decem- ber, 1899, for a term of four years. Mr. Breder has an interesting family of five children- two boys being twins.
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BIOGRAPHY.
BENJAMIN H. BROWN.
Mr. Benjamin H. Brown, one of the few surviving founders of Atlantic City, was the son of John M. Brown and Rosanna Hartley, of Philadelphia, and was born in Philadelphia, December 31. 1821. Soon after graduating from the University School, he engaged in the lumber business, and continued therein till he accumulated a handsome fortune. In 1854 he furnished the material for the United States Hotel. on this then rather desolate shore, in which was celebrated with elaborate banquet the arrival of the first train on this island, July 1. 1854. The ereditors of William Neligh, the builder of the hotel, demanded their money. The matter was taken into court and Hon. Thos. H. Dudley was appointed trustee of the property. In 1859 Mr. Brown bought in the property to protect his own interests, for $30,000. It then comprised the entire square between Maryland and Delaware avennes, from Atlantic avenue to the ocean. The following winter he built the large wing facing on Atlantic avenue, and furnished it elaborately and made it equal to any hotel along the coast at the present time.
Two years following. Jere Mekibben leased the hotel, but was not successful, so that the following ten years, till 1870, the house was conducted by Messrs. Brown and Woelpper, who were partners in the lumber business. Excepting two years. when the property was leased to Messrs. Davis and Selfredge, Mr. Brown conducted it himself till 1889, when he sold the property to John S. Davis. In 1899 the site was sold in building lots and this notable landmark, for the last ten years standing at Pacific and Maryland avenues, was sold in sections and removed.
During his prime, Mr. Brown, as a Whig and as a Republican, took an active part in public affairs. He was a member of the last Whig convention, which convened in Baltimore in 1852, and nominated Gen. Winfield Scott for President. In 1858 he was a member of Council from the Eighteenth Ward, and in 1859 City Treasurer. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, and in 1865, just before President Lincoln was shot, Mr. Brown was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue, Fourth District of Pennsylvania. In 1868 he was again a delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated Gen. Grant for President, and all his life has taken a lively interest in public affairs.
The subject of this sketch, who has been so closely identified with the progress of Atlantic City during its entire history, recalls many pleasing incidents of his life at the shore, and of a host of old friends and neighbors who have been associated with him in hotel and cottage experience as the various enterprises have been developed which made Atlantic City as the stranger finds it to-day.
He still maintains a summer house on States avenue, where he has passed the pleasantest days of his long and useful life, having his winter residence at 944 Franklin street, Phila- delphia.
JOHN LAKE BRYANT.
Hon. John Lake Bryant, who died at his home in this city, October 8, 1883, was a descendant of two of the pioneer families of the county, the Lakes and the Bryants, whose genealogies appear elsewhere. He left a widow and one son, Lieut .- Col. Lewis Thompson Bryant, who is the only surviving male descendant of either the Bryant or Thompson families. The father was born at Pleasantville, but came to this island when an infant and passed his life here. He had very meagre opportunities for an education when a boy, living at South Atlantic City, where his father operated a salt works and was in charge of a life-saving station. By reading and study evenings, when a young man, learning the trade of a carpenter, he improved his education, and by unusual energy and enterprise became one of the foremost and most influential citizens of this city.
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DAILY UNION HISTORY OF ATLANTIC COUNTY.
He kept pace with every improvement and was always conspicuous in the front rank. He became one of the leading contractors and builders of hotels and cottages. He built and owned at various times the Brighton, Traymore, Shelburne and Waverly. He became proprietor of the Ashland House, now Hotel Heckler, in 1872, and built the Waverly five years later.
He was elected to Council in 1868, 1875 and 1880, serving one year each, and in 1880 was appointed a member of the Board of Health. In 1878 he was elected Mayor and made an excellent executive officer. He was elected to the Assembly in 1882 by a decided majority, and proved himself one of the most useful and most distinguished members. He was active and aggressive, and at times eloquent, advocating measures and defending the interests of his native city and county.
His ardent desire to benefit mankind was one of the qualities of his heart. He was vice- president of the Atlantic City Fire Company at the time of his death, October 8, 1883. Had he lived he would have been renominated and re-elected to the Assembly and to higher honors. There never was in the history of this city a more touching testimonial of pathetic grief than that paid to the memory of John L. Bryant, when his body was taken to its last resting place. Atlantic City lost an aggressive leader and devoted friend when he departed this life in the prime of his manhood.
LIEUT .- COLONEL LEWIS T. BRYANT.
Lewis T. Bryant was born in Atlantic City. July 26th, 1874, and belongs to one of its honored pioneer families. His father, the late Hon. John L. Bryant, was one of the early promotors of Atlantic City, and always interested in the advancement of the resort. He was at one time Mayor of the city, and at various times held many public offices of trust, and at the time of his decease represented Atlantic County in the House of Assembly.
The son entered the Pennsylvania Military College at Chester, and after a full course graduated with the degree of Civil Engineer in the year 1891, being the youngest graduate from that institution from the date of its organization. After leaving college and making a tour of Europe, he returned to Atlantic City and commenced the active control of his hotel, the Waverly, and under his progressive management it has been very successful and enjoys the patronage of a large and select list of patrons. The Waverly for years has been one of the oldest and best established hotels of this resort, it having been previously conducted by Lieut .- Col. Bryant's father.
During the intervals between seasons Lieut .- Colonel Bryant studied law in the office of Judge Allen B. Endicott, and was admitted to active practice at the New Jersey bar in February, 1898.
Lieut .- Colonel Bryant has been Captain of the Morris Guards, Atlantic City's leading military and social organization, for six years, and has also been prominently identified with other organizations.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war the Morris Guards volunteered their services on the first call, but were not accepted. When the second call for troops was made they again volunteered and were among the first companies mustered into the United States service from the State of New Jersey, Lieut .- Colonel Bryant then receiving his commission as Captain of Company F, Fourth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, and received his commis- sion as Major on March 6, 1899, while in the field. After being mustered out of the United States service he was commissioned Aide-de-Camp, with rank of Major, on the staff of Major-General W. J. Sewell, commanding the Division National Guards of New Jersey, and was later promoted to Paymaster on General Sewall's staff, with rank of Lieut .- Colonel, which position he now holds.
In the fall of 1899, the subject of this sketch purchased the Convent property, lot 143 feet, fronting on the ocean, by 500 feet deep, between Ohio avenue and Park Place, and there expects soon to erect a fine beach front hotel, the Waverly property having been pur- chased by the city for a high school site.
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BIOGRAPHY.
RICHARD J. BYRNES.
Hon. Richard J. Byrnes, of Hammonton, was born in Philadelphia in 1830. 11: step father, whose name he bears, was an Irish gentleman in the employ of Stephen Girard for many years. At the age of ten years the boy went to work in John Greenleaf Whittier's abolition paper, the Pennsylvania Freeman, and later was sent to a private school to fit him for orders in the church. Young Byrnes graduated from the Central High School, and later began the study of law. He was employed two years in a silk importing house, when he secured a position in the Mechanic's Bank. He was active and enterprising and successful in speculations. In 1857 he first met Charles K. Landis, and later left the bank to engage with Landis in the real estate and brokerage business. In 1858 he came to Hammonton and engaged actively in selling farms and inviting settlers to locate there, and has been there ever since.
For four terms of five years each, he was one of the Lay Judges of Atlantic County. He was active in organizing the first building association, twenty-seven years ago, and has been its president ever since. Ten years ago he took a leading part in organizing the People's Bank, and has served as the president of the Board of Directors ever since. At the out- break of the civil war he helped to form a company of cavalry, which his real estate interests at that time prevented him from joining. No man has done more to advance the best inter- ests of Hammonton during the past forty years than Hon. Richard J. Byrnes.
JOHN B. CHAMPION.
Ex-Councilman John B. Champion, of this city, was the youngest of ten children, and was born at English Creek, May 13, 1834. His father, Enoch Champion, was for many years a blacksmith and farmer there on the banks of the river and worked hard to support a large family of children in very humble circumstances. The mother died when the sub- ject of this sketch was but three years old, and the father died seven years later. John began work on a farm at $2.50 a mouth, having very meagre opportunities for schooling. After he was 15 years old he worked for Richard Doughty on a farm four years. He then followed the sea four years till he was qualified to be in command of a vessel. Three of his brothers were lost at sea, were never heard from after leaving port. He then quit the sea and became a partner of his old employer, Richard Doughty, in the fish and oyster trade. Transportation then to Camden and Philadelphia was by wagon through the woods and swamps, over sandy roads. The junior partner made the purchases of the baymen and got the loads ready, while Mr. Doughty made two trips a week to the city to market. They prospered and the young man soon married Lydia, his partner's only daughter. In 1864 Mr. Champion built the American Hotel at English Creek, and conducted it successfully for five years. He then sold it to Capt. David Lee and purchased of the late William Moore the stone hotel at Mays Landing, which he conducted successfully for seven years.
He moved to Atlantic City in 1876, purchasing the Champion House and livery stable property of Charles H. Rogers, for $10,000, at the corner of Virginia and Atlantic avenues. This business he conducted successfully for twenty years, till 1897, when he sold it to Mr. George Allen for $40,000. It has since been converted into a handsome brick block con- taining a fine millinery store and flats, also a large boarding house.
Mr. Champion is a member of the Red Men and Masons. He was a member of City Council eleven years, and has been a director of the first building association, the first bank. the first gas company and the Consumers Water Company since their organization. Ile lacked but 50 votes of being elected State Senator in 1886. He was on the Citizens' Com mittee that purchased the first steam fire engine for this city, and advanced the cash, $3.000. from his own pocket for the purchase, till Council later could reimburse him. He has always been deservedly popular with his fellow citizens, and has achieved success by well directed effort, prudence and industry. Two brothers, Enoch and Jacob, and one sister, Mrs. Jane Homan, live near the old homestead in Egg Harbor township.
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DAILY UNION HISTORY OF ATLANTIC COUNTY.
JOSEPH S. CHAMPION.
Joseph S. Champion, the pioncer undertaker in this city, was born at Mays Landing. He was the son of Samuel and Angeline Champion. His father, who is still living, at the ripe age of ninety years, was the first manufacturer of sash and doors in South Jersey, and the only one till Disston mill was established in this city, in 1873. The father was also a ship-joiner, and found plenty of work on many of the several hundred vessels that were launched at Mays Landing during his prime. There were six children in the Champion family.
The son followed the occupation of the father, finishing his schooling at an early age in the pay district school.
In 1870 he began business as an undertaker, and by his courtesy and enterprise soon had calls from all parts of the county. Hc soon saw the advantage of locating permanently in the center of population and business, and opened an office in the Barstow Block in this city, where he remained till he moved into his present large and complete establishment, No. 27 North Pennsylvania avenue.
Here at his office and residence he has well stocked ware rooms, and the most complete of modern facilities for meeting emergencies, pleasing the most fastidious and conducting his business in the most approved manner.
At Pleasantville he has recently erected a large and elaborate brick and slate receiving vault, and is conceded to be at the head of his profession in this part of the State.
He is a member of the A. O. U. W., of the I. O. O. F., and the Royal Arcanum. He has been successful in real estate transactions and stands high in social and financial circles.
STEPHEN COLWELL.
Stephen Colwell, best known in this section for his connection with the Weymouth Iron Works, and as one of the original directors of the Camden & Atlantic Railroad, was born in Brooke County, W. Va., March 25, 1800. He died at his home in Philadelphia, January 15, 1871. He graduated at Jefferson College, in Pennsylvania, at the age of nine- teen, studied law in Steubenville, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one, and practiced his profession seven years in St. Clairsville, Ohio, till he moved to Pittsburg, in 1828.
Eight years later he came to Philadelphia, married Sarah Ball, daughter of the late Samuel Richards, and succeeded his father-in-law in the management of the iron works at Weymouth, N. J., and at Conshohocken, Pa. He was a charter member of the Union League, a working member of the American Iron and Steel Association, a director in sev- eral railroads, a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and of Princeton Theological Seminary, and actively identified with several charitable and religious organizations all his life. He was a man whose ability and usefulness was widely recognized. He was the author of many pamphlets on social science, political economy, finance, pauperism, organized charities and productive industries. One son, Charles R. Colwell, of Weymouth, is the only surviving member of the family.
FRANKLIN P. COOK.
Franklin P. Cook, of the Hotel Senate, was born in Philadelphia, December 3, 1851, and was educated in the public schools of that city. His father, the late H. B. Cook, was ex- tensively engaged in the building business. In the spring of 1872 contractor H. B. Cook built the Senate House, an unpretentious boarding house of about fifty rooms on the north- west corner of Pacific and Rhode Island avenues. In the fall of 1879 an addition was built
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BIOGRAPHY.
to the house, and in 1891 it was raised and extensively enlarged and improved. so successful was the son in conducting the business which devolved upon him through the death of his father.
During the winter of 1897 the hotel was moved to the ocean front on Rhode Island avenue, and again extensively improved, making it thoroughly up-to-date, one of the bright- est and most desirable beach front hotels in Atlantic City.
In politics Mr. Cook is a Republican. He was elected a member of the City Council in 1882, and three times re-elected. He was a progressive and efficient official, having much to do with the building of an elevated boardwalk along the beach, and in making the city more satisfactory to visitors. He was appointed a member of the Board of Water Commissioners in 1895, for which his business experience and tact as a hotel keeper amply qualified him. He is one of the charter members of the Neptune Fire Company, and was one of the first to advocate the use of horses in the fire department of this growing resort.
ENOCH CORDERY.
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