USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 2 > Part 30
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foot press for jewelers, silversmiths, and sheet metal work- ers. This press is particularly adapted to the economical use of expensive tools and is in nse by many large mannfac- turers. Mr. Chapman also produced engraving machines for calico and satinet printers, special and dead center lathes, stamping presses, and many other useful appliances, and built up a large and substantial trade throughont the world. He was a man of acknowledged ability, not only as an inventor, but also in executive and business capacities, and achieved remarkable success and a wide reputation. He was a Republican, a member of the Newark Board of Trade and the Newark Yacht Club, and actively identified with the community. He died in January, 1899.
On September 5, 1871, he married Miss Esther E. Hatters- ley, who survives him. They had eight children: Harry (deceased), Bertha, Agnes (wife of Roger M. Dowie), Ger- trude, William H., George E., Walter W., and Esther H. Since Mr. Chapman's death the business has been success- fully conducted by his widow and their eldest son, William HI., who had received an excellent training under his father and has given evidence of marked inventive genins.
WALTER S. NICHOLS is a representative of many of the oldest and best families in New Jersey. His ancestors were distinguished in the early history of Newark and classed among its most influential and distinguished citi- zens.
The name Nichols is first mentioned in the Newark town records on the 3d day of December, 1669, a little more than three years after the first settlement of the town. The notice is very brief and not much to the point, giving no in- formation as to the subject matter of the titles of which mention is made. It was agreed, so says the record, " the town assembled, that the letter prepared should be coppyed ont and sent to Col. Nicholls in the Town's behalf-and signed by Mr. Treat in the name of the Town." This Colonel Nicholls was undoubtedly the Governor appointed in 1664 by the Duke of York, over the lands granted to him by Charles II., and who, under his commission, undertook
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to give titles to lands in New Jersey although the duke had conveyed the whole of that Province to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret prior to Nicholls's commission as Governor. Genealogical investigations indicate an older brother of this turbulent officer who settled in Connecticut as the probable ancestor of the Nichols family in Newark.
The next mention of a Nichols is in 1775, when Rob- ert Nichols is named as one of three persons ap- pointed to treat with Captain Riggs concerning " some dis- puted lands." In 1815 Isaac Nichols, the grandfather of Walter S., appears prominently in the business of the town as one of its leaders, and from that time for half a century Isaac Nichols was identified with all the interests of New- ark, both public and private. He was of uncommon sa- gacity, wise and prudent, thoughtful and considerate in all his undertakings. He was very frequently called upon to act in many fiduciary capacities, as executor, administrator, trustee, and guardian.
Walter S. Nichols was born in Newark, November 23, 1841, and is the son of Alexander Me Whorter Nichols and Hannah Riggs Ward. His paternal grandfather was Isaac Nichols, already mentioned, and his maternal grandfather was Caleb S. Ward, a descendant of one of the original set- tlers of Newark. He is the great-grandson of Captain Rob- ort Nichols, of the Second Regiment New Jersey Militia, and of Deacon Joseph Davis, wagon master in the Essex County Militia, both of whom served with credit in the Revolutionary Army. He is also a descendant of many of the first and early settlers of Newark, whose names will be recognized at once by any student of the history of that town, such as Riggs, Ward, Swaine, Farrand, Johnson, Law- rence, Bruen, and Davis. His lineal descent from several noble families of England, including the Clintons, Mont- gomeries, and Beanchamps, is undoubted, as is also his de- scent through Sir William Booth from the Saxon, Norman, and Scottish Kings of England, the Carlovingian rulers of France, and the carly Emperors of Germany. Mr. Nich- ols is too good a republican to lay any stress or claim any more respect on account of these genealogies, but as these facts seem to be within the scope of this publication his
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biographer feels in duty bound to state them.
Mr. Nichols was prepared for college in the Newark Wesleyan Institute. He entered Princeton University in 1860 and was graduated in 1863, receiving the degree of A.M. from that institution in 1866. After graduation he entered the office of the Hon. Joseph P. Bradley, late Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court, as a student-at-law, but has never practiced that profession. Soon after this he be- came associated with C. C. Hine, now dead, in the business of publication of insurance literature in the City of New York. This led to his adoption of a new and rather untried profession, that of consulting mathematician and legal ad- viser of various corporate and other business interests on insurance matters, and as editor of several works on the law of insurance, contracts, and agents, and of the Insur- ance Law Journal and the Insurance Monitor. This he has followed assiduously and successfully for the last thirty years, and has acquired in it a reputation known and recog- nized all over the republic.
He is a member and has been one of the Directors for sev- eral years of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and is also a member of the New Jer- sey Historical Society. He is now and for many years has been President of the Board of Trustees of the old historic First Presbyterian Church of Newark, the oldest church organization of that denomination in the State. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society, has been one of the counsel and mathematical examiners of the Act- uarial Society of America, and a large contributor to its proceedings. In 1888 he was the American representative of that society to the International Congress of Actuaries in London, of which he is also a member.
Mr. Nichols possesses the virtues, but not any of the ob- jectionable characteristics, of his Puritan ancestors. Broad and comprehensive in his views on all subjects submitted to him, tenacious in his opinion, decided and firm in his judgment of men and measures, he is nevertheless tolerant of the opinions of others, believing that it is the birthright of freemen to exercise unchallenged private judgment in all important matters relating to human actions and human
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happiness. He is an important and influential member of society and wiekls a forceful mastery by the sheer force of his firm and decided character.
WILLIAM FRED SEIDLER, M.D., has been a lifelong resident of Newark, N. J., where he was born September 16, 1860, his parents being William Fred Seidler, Sr., and Amelia Deisler. He was educated in the public schools of his native city, and in 1874 entered the drug business, which he studied and mastered, passing the examination before the New Jersey State Board of Pharmacy in 1879. In 1884 he was graduated from the New York College of Pharmacy. Ilis ambition, however, was to become a phy- sician as well as a drug- gist, and accordingly he entered Bellevue Hos- pital Medical College, New York, in 1889, and passed and received the degree of M.D. from that institution in 1891. In the meantime, in 1887, he had engaged in the drug business for him- self by purchasing his present drug store at No. 21 Ferry Street, Newark. This was the first drug store on the east side of the railroad, having been established WILLIAM F. SEIDLER, M.D. in 1862, and under Dr. Seidler's able and energetic management has become one of the best equipped and best known drug centers in the city.
In addition to condueting this store he has been actively and successfully engaged in the general practice of medi- cine since 1891. He was district physician to the Newark
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Board of Health from 1891 to 1895, was chief surgeon of the Genito-Urinary Clinic of the City Dispensary for five years, and served as house surgeon to St. Michael's Hospital for nine years, resigning recently on account of increasing professional duties. He is now chief surgeon and President of St. James's Hospital, visiting physician to the German Hospital of Newark, and a member of the Essex County Medical Society, the New Jersey State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. Dr. Seidler has always been among the leaders in scientific investigation and prac- tice as related to the medical profession. He was one of the first physicians in New Jersey to use the X rays, an appliance which he employed on a very large scale and with remarkable success. He served as hospital steward of the old Fifth Regiment, N. G. N. J., for three years, receiving an honorable discharge, and for four years he belonged to the Essex Troop, of which he is now an associate member. He is also a member of the North End Club and of the Essex County Country Club. He was formerly a member, until he resigned, of the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Redmen, the Jr. O. U. A. M., the Foresters of America, and the Daughters of Liberty. He was married, October 5, 1899, to A. J. Rose, of Roseton, N. Y.
ALFRED MILLS, of Morristown, is a representative of the lawyers of the olden time, when to be a member of the legal profession was an honor of the highest character. He represents the lawyers of a half century ago in more senses than one- grave, dignified, courteous, of high-toned honor, of long established integrity, honoring the profession by his legal attainments and his unblemished reputation for hon- estv.
He comes of the very best stock in Morris County and is descended from many of the earliest settlers of New Eng- land. His father, Lewis Mills, who was a merchant of many years' standing in Morristown, was a man of fine character and sterling integrity, who willingly performed all duties incumbent upon him as a citizen and in the church of which he was a most prominent member. His mother, Sarah Este,
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was a daughter of Major Moses Este, of the Revolutionary Army, and his wife, Ann Kirkpatrick. At the battle of Mon- mouth he was severely wounded and left on the field. After the victory was won Colonel Alexander Hamilton found him, had him removed to a place of safety, and his wounds cared for, and thus saved his life.
Alfred Mills was born July 24, 1827, at Morristown, N. J., where he has always resided. He was prepared for college in the Morristown Academy, entered Yale University in 1844, and was graduated in 1847. Very soon after leaving college he entered the office of Edward W. Whelpley, then practicing law in Morristown, afterward Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. He was licensed as an attorney in 1851 and as a counsellor in 1854. In 1856 he entered into partnership with Jacob W. Miller, previously for twelve years United States Senator from New Jersey. He was associated with Mr. Miller up lo the time of the latter's death in 1862. In 1872 he and Will- iam E. Church established the firm of Mills & Church, which rontinned until Mr. Church, in 1883, accepted the position of Judge of the United States Circuit Court for the District of Dakota. He began the practice of his profession in his native town and has continued it from Chat time until the present with unvarying success. He has made the study of the law his delight, he rejoices in its symmetrical definitions, ils log- ical results, and its abstruse principles. His diction is dis- tinet, precise, and to the point; his arguments convincing; and ashenever assumes the task of condneting a cause where any difficult principles are involved without preparation, he never fails in presenting all the arguments necessary to sup- port the cases intrusted to him. His mental perceptions are acute, and in the trial of a cause before a jury, or in the presentation of it to a court, he is alert to seize every salient point and ready to grapple with every question presented by his opponent. One great characteristic of his practice is his entire correctness in all the details of his profession. He rarely, if ever, makes a mistake. He is a good trial lawyer; juries respect him, trust him, know that he will never de- send to any improper methods to secure their verdict, and they know, too, that implicit confidence may be placed in his
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statements. He is, however, more fitted to act as counsel- lor, for chamber practice, and arguments before the higher courts. As an adviser of clients he is unrivalled, his great knowledge of legal principles, his long continued research, his industrious study, and his peculiar adaptability of mind and reason to select the rules suitable to the case in point rendering him invaluable as a counsellor. In the trial of a cause he is bold but not reckless, self-confident but not opinionated, sagacious, never descending, however, to the arts of the cunning advocate, never deviating from the path of honesty.
For many years his services have been sought in fiduciary positions such as executor, trustee, and guardian. He has been often selected by testators and owners of large estates, who desire honest and conscientious managers of their prop- erties. These have been so great and so numerous as to re- quire a very large portion of his time. There is perhaps no member of the bar in New Jersey who has been so frequent- ly called upon to act in these positions of trust.
He is a public spirited and patriotic citizen, ever respond- ing to the demands of the community in which he has so long lived, whether in political, religious, or benevolent en- terprises. For nearly his whole life he has been a con- sistent and prominent member of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church and for many years Senior Warden. He has been prominent in the conventions of the Episcopal Church in New Jersey, and has held all the offices which are given to laymen. Since 1874 he has regularly repre- sented his diocese as a delegate at the triennial meetings of the General Convention, and for many years has been a mem- ber of the Board of Managers of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the United States. He was one of the originators of the Morristown Library and Lyceum, and since its organi- zation one of its Directors and ever foremost in promoting its influence and protecting its interests. He has also been a Director in the First National Bank of Morristown and other corporations, and is interested in all the benevolent in- stitutions of the town.
Mr. Mills has never been an aspirant for political office, being absorbed in the performance of the duties attendant
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on his very large practice, but has been frequently invited by his fellow citizens to become their candidate. In 1874 he was elected Mayor of Morristown and held the office until 1876, when he was nominated as the Republican candidate for Congress in the district where he resided. It was a foregone conclusion that no Republican could be elected, as the district was largely Democratic, but his patriotism and devotion to the political party which had nominated him, and in whose principles he believed, would not permit him to decline. Although he went into the contest with the certainty of defeat he was not dismayed and conducted the campaign with marked skill, and succeeded in seenring the admiration and respect of his antagonists for the ability and honorable manner in which he fought the political battle. In 1867 he was appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas of the county. In this and in every public position, as well as in private life, he acted with a conscientious regard for the performance of his whole duty.
He married Katharine Elmer Coe, daughter of Judge Aaron Coe and Katharine Harsen Elmer, of Westfield, N. J. Mrs. Mills died several years ago, leaving two sons and two daughters. The two sons, Alfred Elmer and Edward Kirk- patrick, are both lawyers and are practicing with their father.
TIERBERT CORNELIUS RORICK, of Newark, was born in Ledgewood, Morris County, August 31, 1861, and comes from an old New Jersey family. His great-grandfather, Michael Rorick, owned the land on which the famous zine mines of this State were subsequently discovered, and was a private in the Sussex County militia in the War of the Revolution. Gaspar Rorick, son of Michael and grand- father of Herbert C., was an extensive lumber merchant and resident of Franklin, Sussex County. He married a Miss lloyt, of an old Vermont family, and while temporarily re- siding in Montreal, Canada, in 1816, their son, Samuel Hoyt Rorick, the father of Herbert C., was born. Samuel was for many years the collector for the old Morris Canal and
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Banking Company, of New Jersey. He married Phoebe Mc- Peek, daughter of John McPeek and Susan Jayne and a granddaughter of Jonathan McPeek, a private in the Sussex County militia in the Revolutionary War. The Rorick fam- ily is descended from ancient Holland ances- try, and came to New York when that Prov- ince was under Dutch rule.
Herbert C. Rorick at- tended the public schools of Ledgewood, N. J., and was grad- uated from the Cente- nary Collegiate Insti- tute at Hackettstown in 1882. He taught school in Morris County 12 for four years and after- ward was engaged in other employments un- til 1890, when he estab- HERBERT C. RORICK. lished himself in the life insurance business. He spent some time in Europe in company with the distin- guished novelist, F. Marion Crawford, and upon his return again engaged in the life insurance business, which he has since followed with great success, becoming manager of the Colonial Life Insurance Company at Newark in 1898. In this connection he has displayed marked ability and gained a high reputation among the leading insurance men of his section.
Mr. Rorick was one of the original members of the Eastern Division of the New Jersey Naval Reserve and its first Lien- tenant Commander. He is a Democrat, as were all his fam- ily, and is a member of the Jeffersonian Club of Newark, Secretary of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Vice-President of the Roseville Ath- letie Association, and a member of the Newark Athletic
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Club. He is also a prominent Mason, holding membership in St. John's Lodge, No. 1. F. and A. M., of Newark (of which he is a Past Master), in Mecca Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of New York, and in all the Scottish Rites bodies, including the New Jersey Consistory 32 , of Jersey City. He was married, May 19, 1900, to Mathilde M. Wilke, of Orange, N. J.
LUTHER GOBLE .- The Goble family in New Jersey is of French origin. It is supposed that its ancestor in this country was a Huguenot who fled from France to escape the persecution of Protestants which followed the Revoca- tion of the Ediet of Nantes.
The first authentic mention of the name in this country is found in the records of the First Presbyterian Church at Morristown. The earliest date at which it appears was 1712, and there are over eighty entries in these records of the name. There were different residences connected with these names, many being in Morris County and some in Somerset and Sussex Counties. In one record, made in 1783, the name Robert Goble is affixed the title Esq., which at that time was not used indiscriminately as now, but then meant that the man entitled to such an affix to his name was of more than ordinary consequence. Another, JJonas Goble, is described as a Deacon in the Baptist Church. The roster of officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War contains the names of a number of the Goble family.
Luther Goble, a descendant of the Morris County family, was born in 1770, a son of Simeon Goble. He first prom- inently appears in Newark very early in the nineteenth con- tury. At that time that town was one of the largest con- ters of manufacturing interests in the whole country. A very important trade had sprung up with the Southern States, the principal products being boots, shoes, carriages, harness, saddles, and clothing. Mr. Goble's beginnings were small; the means of transportation were limited; no railroads or steamboats afforded facilities for the transpor- tation of the products of industry. Mr. Goble was an ener- getie man, equal to the emergencies of his situation, and
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was by no means daunted by his limitations. He foresaw that the time was coming when the future immense volume of manufactures would find an outlet. But the present was to him important, and he lost no time in embracing what opportunities were at his hand. He began the manufacture
Luther Goble
of his partienlar line of goods in his own way and found the means of transportation to the great emporium not many miles distant. His wares were honestly manufactured, and his reputation as an upright dealer was soon established- a reputation which he kept until the end of his life.
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His goods were in demand, his business increased, and workmen in Newark and in adjacent towns and villages were employed by him, until his trade became the largest of its kind in the country. His business capacity was of the best; he was prudent and sagacious, forecasting, and knew just exactly when the proper moment came to gain present advantage or to secure a future good. His name became a synonym for honesty and fair dealing, his credit was un- bounded, he prospered, and became one of the wealthiest manufacturers in the city of his adoption. His disposition was kindly and his benevolence wise, judicious, and extended to all deserving objects. His numerous employees became, in a singular manner and with great good judgment, the objects of his benefactions. His keen judgment of human nature enabled him to make selection of the proper persons to whom to extend his bounty. A favorite method with him was the choice of certain tried workmen, who had been long enough in his employ for him to learn their merits, to whom he sold at nominal prices lots with suitable dwell- ings erected on them, giving them long credit in which to pay for them. In this way he enabled many of his em- ployees to obtain homes. Some of these dwellings remain to this day as testimonials of the wise beneticence of this excellent man, and many worthy men blessed the name of their benefactor to their dying day.
Luther Goble had five children: two sons, Jabez G. and John L., and three daughters-Sarah, who married dames M. Carrington; Mary, who married Frederick S. Thomas; and Emma, who became the wife of Caleb Halsted Audness, Esq.
Luther Goble died in 1832, from an accident. He was erecting two houses for his daughters on Broad Street, be- tween Walnut and Kinney, and while superintending some part of the work in one of the upper stories fell to the cel- lar. The result was a broken back and other very serious injuries, and death occurred. Very few of his contempo- raries survive; to them his memory is precious. He was one of the kindliest of men, ever ready to listen to applications for aid, and never refusing a worthy applicant. Many men
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of his time owed their future success to his sound advice and timely pecuniary aid.
JABEZ G. GOBLE, M.D., eldest son of Luther Goble, was born in Newark, N. J., on the 13th of November, 1799.
I. G. Goble
He was graduated from Hamilton College in 1819. Re- ceiving his medical diploma from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the City of New York, he became a physi- cian of prominence in his native City of Newark and throughout the State of New Jersey, and served as Presi-
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dent of the New Jersey State Medical Society. In 1816, hav- ing retired from active practice, he was induced by the Mntnal Life Insurance Company of New York to become their medical examiner and representative for the State of New Jersey. He was anthorized to act in both capacities -the only instance in the history of the company where both of these positions have been entrusted to the same person.
He died in 1859. He married Emily Hinsdale, leaving two children: a danghter, Elizabeth Hinsdale, who married Stephen A. Halsey, of Astoria, Long Island; and a son, Luther Spencer Goble, whose sketch follows.
LUTHER SPENCER GOBLE, the only son of Dr. Jabez (. Goble and his wife, Emily Ilinsdale, was born in Now- ark, N. J., February 5, 1826. He received a thorongh classical education in private schools in Newark, and was licensed as an attorney in 1847 and as a counsellor-at-law in 1850. He immediately began the practice of his pro- fession in his native city, and attained success and an hon- orable standing at the bar.
But the connection of his father with life insurance turned his attention to that important business and, becoming more and more satisfied of its merits and benefits, in 1847 he became, for special reasons, a co-representative with his father of the Mutnal Life Insurance Company. While he devoted nearly the whole of his time to his profession, which soon became lucrative, he was materially aiding his father. In 1859 Dr. Goble died and his son then became the sole representative of the company in New Jersey, still contin- ning his practice until 1863, when he decided to relinquish it and devote all his energies to the duties of the position of general agent for New Jersey. His decision was justi- fied by the result. The volume of insurance increased un- der his prudent, careful management and energy, and he soon acquired a reputation for marked ability and for in- tegrity. In 1873 he severed his connection with the Mutual Life Insurance Company and accepted the position of Vice- President of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of
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