USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 2 > Part 5
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The fifth generation in line from Jan the first and chil- dren of Pieter van Marselis, the emigrant to America, were Jannetje Pieterse van Marselis 5, who married Helmigh Roelofer van Houten, September 3, 1676, and became the ancestress of many if not all of the American Van Houtens; Marselis Pieterse van Marselis 5, who married Pieterje van Vorst, May 12, 1681; Neesje Pieterse van Marselis 5, who married Gerrit Garitse van Wageningen, May 11, 1681, and became the ancestress of the Van Wagoner and Garrison families; and Hessil Pieterse van Marselis, who married Lysbet Kuyper, and after her death married Magdelna Bruyn, at Acquackanonek. February 6, 1714.
The children of Marselis P. van Marselis were Elizabeth, who married Adrian Post, April 21, 1701, a grandson of Captain Adrian Post, who commanded the expedition for the settlement of Staten Island in 1650 and was himself a patentee of the Acquackanonck grant; Hillegontje van
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Marselis, who married Harpert Gelvantse, March 29, 1707; Pieter van Marselis 6, who married Jantje Pryas, Decem- ber 29, 1717, and Ariantie Bras, abont 1718; Amutje van Marselis; Catharyntje van Marselis, who married Reynier van Gieson, April 17, 1737; Jantje van Marselis, who mar- ried Johannes van Zoolinger, November 25, 1717; and Leena van Marselis, born August 11, 1699. The children of Pieter van Marselis and Janntje Pryas were Marselis vau Marselis 7, of Bergen, who had ten children; Edo van Mar- selis 7, who married Ariantje Sip, April 11, 1754, and ac- quired large tracts of land at Preakness, Wesel, and Totawa, New Jersey; John van Marselis 7, who mar- ried Belitje van Wag- oner, August 30, 1755; and nine others. The children of Edo van Marselis and Ariantje Sip were Edo Marsellus 8, born at Bergen, N. J., married Helen van Houten, of Totawa; Pieter Marsellus 8, - who married Jane van Winkle; Cornelius Mar- sellus 8; John Marsellus 8, who married Jane van Riper; Garret Mar- sellus &, who married M. DE M. MARSELLUS. Eleanor de Gray; Cataline Marsellus &, who married Isaac van Sann; and Adrian Marsellus &, who married John Park. The children of Edo Marselis and Helen van Houten were Mary Marsellus 9, who married Jan van Winkle and John Sip; Edo Marsellus, who married Elsie van Ripen, Polly van Winkle, and Margaret Snyder; Cornelius Marsellus, who married Elizabeth van Saun, Mrs. Jan Ben- son, and Polly van Saun; JJan Marsellus, who married Cor- nelius van Wagoner; and Peter Edo Marsellus 9, who mar-
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ried Jane de Motte. The children of Peter Edo Marsellus 9 and Jane de Motte were Mary Mandeville Marsellus 10, who married John I. Ackermann; Henry Marsellus 10, who married Cathrine van Winkle; Edwin Marsellus 10, who married Amelia Kent; John Cornelison Marsellus 10, who married Frances Roe; Helen Marsellus 10; James Mar- sellus 10; and Peter Marsellus 10.
Hessils Pieterse van Marselis 5 was one of the original patentees of the Goutum-Acquackanonck patent, now Pas- saic and Paterson, N. J., his manor house being the most imposing building on the patent. He left his property by will of October 6, 1744, to his son, Pieter Pieterse van Mar- selis, from whom it was inherited by Hessil van Marselis, who, dying in 1786, left his Acquaekanonck lands to the children of his seven aunts, Rachel Garretson, Klaisje Gar- retson, Antje van Winkle, Gertje Ryerson, Elizabeth van Riper, Vrontjes Garretson, and Mytie Banta, by will of Angust 11, 1786. November 24, 1806, an act was passed by the Legislature of the State of New Jersey on petition of heirs of Hessils Pieterse van Marselis for the appointment of trustees to act for them in the sale of lands inherited from him. John S. Benson, Abraham van Houten, Peter Hopper, Peter H. Garretson, Abraham H. Garretson, John P. Gar- retson, and Simeon van Winkle were appointed. The trus- tees sold the tract to James I. Post, May 1, 1807, who sold the property in 1836 to Peter E. Marsellus, a great-great- great-nephew of the original patentee, whose great-grand- children hold title to a part of it in 1901.
The children of John Cornelison Marsellus 10 and Frances Roe were Max de Motte Marsellus, who married May Westervelt; Frank Albertus Marsellus, who married Louise Masters and Lillian Guthrie; Roe Marsellus; and Ernest Marsellus.
The children of Max de Motte Marsellus and May Wester- velt were Helen Marsellus, Eleanor Marsellus, and John Westervelt Marsellus, representatives in the twelfth genera- tion of Jan van Marselis and his wife, N. N. van der Marck.
The Central New Jersey branch of the Marselis family are the descendants of Ide Marselis, son of Marselis Piterse van Marselis and his wife, Pieterje van Vorst, born at Ber-
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gen, N. J., and baptized at the First Reformed Dutch Church of New York, September 15, 1690. The name of Ide or Edo came from the van Vorst family, his mother being the daughter of Ide Cornelise van Vorst and granddaughter of Cornelise van Vorst and his wife, Vromitje Ides. Ide van Marselis was a grandson of Pieter van Marselis, the head of the emigrating family of van Marselis to America. Febru- ary 15, 1722, Ide van Marselis bought a tract of land of seven hundred acres near the Indian town of lethal- anensy, Hunterden County, N. J. March 8, 1745, he bought a tract of two hundred aeres at what is now Dunellen, Plainfield Township, N. J. March 27, 1745, he bought two hundred and forty acres of land of James Alexander, Lord Sterling. The homestead of the Marselis family in Bound Brook was on what is now the north side of Main Street opposite the Central Railroad station, on the corner of the present location of Hamilton Street.
Ide van Marselis married twice. Ilis first wife was Maritje Comelese Coddemus or Cadmus, whom he married April 25, 1713, at the Dutch Church of Hackensack, N. J. His second wife was Ariantje Bras, married in 1717, daugh- ter of Hermanus Bras, of Hackensack. The children of his second wife were Hermanus tbaptized July 6, 1718, at Hackensack), Eden, Peter, John, Henry, Anna, Cathrine, and Lena.
Hermanus Marselis married Hannah Hutchins and set- tled in Piscataway Township, Middlesex County, now Dun- ellen, N. J., where he bought out his father's land interests excepting twenty acres. He died in December, 1747, leav- ing two sons, John and Peter, from whom are descended the Trenton and other Central New Jersey branches of the family. An important branch of the family settled in the Mohawk River Valley, where one of them lost his life in the massacre of Schenectady by the French and Indians.
GEORGE WASHINGTON VREELAND, of Morristown, is a member of one of the oldest Passaic Valley families. Born in Macoupin, Passaic County, N. J., February 22, 1820, he is the son of John Beam Vreeland, born February 5. 1792, died July 5, 1867, and Elizabeth Cooley, born Febru-
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ary 20, 1802, died December 22, 1849; a grandson of James Vreeland, born June 16, 1768, died September 2, 1840; and a great-grandson of John Vreeland, who lived at one time in Belleville, N. J., whence he moved to Bergen (now Passaic) County, buying lands of the Indians and settling at. Macoupin, where he died in the early part of 1700. John was the son of Jacob Vreeland, whose family came orig- inally from Holland, where the name was spelled Vreelandt.
George W. Vreeland received a public school education, and after- ward engaged in the grocery business in Chi- cago. Subsequently he engaged in the manu- GEORGE W. VREELAND. facture of mineral waters in Newark, N. J., removing thence in May, 1868, to Morristown, where he continued in the same line. IIe is one of the oldest manufacturers of mineral waters in the State. Mr. Vreeland has had a successful business career, and while devoting his energies to a large and growing trade has been somewhat active in public affairs. He has served as Constable, Overseer of the Poor, and Justice of the Peace, holding the latter office at the present time. He is a member of the South Street Presbyterian Church of Morristown and a progressive, enterprising citizen.
He married Sarah Maria Smith, born in January, 1825, died October 4, 1857, by whom he had five children, three of whom are living, namely: Mary E., wife of James O. Hal- sey, who has three children-James N., George V., and Car- rie C .; Isaac S. Vreeland, who married Miss Catherine E. Lockwood and has two children-Mabel and John; and
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John Beam Vreeland, who is noticed in the following sketch. Mr. Vreeland's second wife was Miss Harriet N. Faitoute, who died in 1900.
JOHN BEAM VREELAND, of Morristown, lawyer and Judge, was born in Newark, N. J., December 30, 1852, and is the son of George W. and Sarah M. (Smith) Vreeland. lle attended the public schools of Newark until fifteen years old, and then removed with his parents to Morris- town. After pursuing business employment with his father for two years he took up the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1875, at the November term of the Supreme Court. From that time until June, 1876, he served as Deputy County Clerk. In June, 1876, he formed a legal copartnership with E. A. Quayle, which continued until 1879. He has served as Clerk of Morris Township, as Assistant Proseentor of the Pleas, and in other important offices. He has since pursued the practice of his profession alone, enjoying much success and attaining a very promi- nent position at the bar. As a lawyer he has a reputation for keen perceptive powers and is a close student-qualities which have contributed in a marked degree to his notable success in his profession. In the early part of 1898 he was appointed by Governor Voorhees to the office of Judge of the several courts of Morris County.
He is an active and influential Republican. In 1895 he was nominated for State Senator and was elected by a ph- rality of 1,526. In the Senate he served on important committees and introduced various bills, notably the School Teachers' Retirement Fund Bill, which became a law in 1896. He is a Deacon in the Sonth Street Presby- terian Church of Morristown and active in church work.
Indge Vreeland was married, in 1878, to Miss Ida A. Piot- rowski, who died in 1896, leaving two daughters: Eda and Vera E. His second marriage occurred in 1897, to Miss Ida King Smith.
LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN, D.D., pastor of the South Park Presbyterian Church of Newark, was born in St.
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Louis, Mo., November 19, 1854, the son of George Otis Allen, of Boston, Mass., and Julia Olds Whitney, of Kentucky. He is a member of the well-known and historic Whitney and Thornton families. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Dewey Whitney, of Vermont, and his maternal grand- mother Mildred Rootes Thornton, a descendant of Colonel Anthony Thornton, of Virginia, an officer in the Revolutionary War and in command of a regiment at Yorktown, and of William Thorn- ton, an officer in the War of 1812.
Dr. Allen is a gradu- ate of Washington Uni- versity, and received the degrees of B.A. and M.A. from that institu- tion, and in later years the degree of D.D. from the University of Woos- ter. After a two
years' post-graduate course at Princeton Uni- LYMAN W. ALLEN, D.D. versity with the class of 1881, and after studying for the ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary, he was ordained by the Presbytery of St. Louis in 1882, and in that year began his pastoral work in the suburbs of his native city. After several years of successful labor in St. Louis he resigned the pastorate of the Carondelet Presbyterian Church in 1889 to accept a call to the South Park Presby- terian Church in Newark, N. J., where he has remained ever since, and where he has met with marked success in his ministerial labors, his church being one of the largest and most flourishing in the Passaic Valley. In the midst of his numerous pastoral duties he finds time for literary work and is the author of several books, miscellaneous poems, and prose articles, which have been published in
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various magazines and newspapers. His works are: " The Coming of His Feet and Other Poems,"-the much loved poem, " The Coming of His Feet," having achieved a very wide-spread popularity, and having been incorporated in a number of hymnals,-and an epic poem, " Abraham Lin- coln, The Star of Sangamon," the latter having received the $1,000 prize offered by the New York Herald in 1895. This prize poem has met with the highest commendation from well known writers and crities, and from the religious and secular press all over the country.
Dr. Allen is a Director of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church of New York City, a member and Chaplain of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Chaplain of the Nova Casarea Chap- ter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a member of the Princeton Club of New York and New Jersey, and a member of the Society of American Authors of New York City. He was married September 5, 1880, to Myra Irwin, of St. Louis, Mo., and has four children: June Thornton, Mildred Steele, Thornton Whitney, and Marguerite Irwin.
It is fitting that Myra Irwin Allen, his wife, should be mentioned in this work with her husband because of her remarkable personality and wide-spread influence. She was the daughter of Archibald Steele Irwin, a devoted and heroic Union officer in the Civil War, and a great-great- granddaughter of Archibald Steele, of Philadelphia, Adju- tant to General Arnold at the storming of Quebec, ap- pointed by General Washington Colonel of the Western Ex- pedition, and for fifty-seven years in the service of his country. From her father she inherited a lofty patriotism. She was the Chaplain of the Nova Carsarea Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of New Jersey, and prominent in their councils. She was a woman of thorough education, having graduated with high honors in the same class with her husband at Washington University, St. Louis, and having kept thereafter through life in close touch with the world of culture. She was both a musician and a poet. In society she had her own distinctive and ex- alted place. Sparkling with wit and humor, brilliant in conversation, she was always the center of a wide circle of
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appreciative, loving, and admiring friends. In religious work she was specially prominent, by the very innate force of her character, culture, executive ability, and spirituality. The President of the Church Missionary Society, she was also the First Vice-President of the Ladies' Foreign Mis- sionary Society of the Presbytery of Newark, frequently presiding with rare grace and commanding intellectual and spiritual power. Always interested in charitable work, she was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Female Charitable Society of Newark, and a friend to the poor, a large number of whom were always recipients of her tender help and sym- pathy. Of a deeply religious temperament. her delicate and sensitive nature reached out intuitively for the things of the Spirit. God was to her a reality, and her life was marked by a simple but deep and pervasive faith in Him. All who came into contact with her felt and reverenced the spiritual qualities of her character, at once so fervid, but at the same time so humane. Mrs. Allen died March 29, 1900, after prolonged and intense suffering. Probably no case of sickness in Newark ever occasioned deeper and more wide- spread sympathy throughout her long illness. Prayer was offered for her in many of the pulpits of the churches of Newark, by bands of Christian women, and by individuals. HIer influence throughout a large section of territory and among a very large circle of friends and acquaintances will be felt for many years as an inspiration towards a higher life.
DAVID AYRES DEPUE, LL.D., Chief Justice of the Su- preme Court of New Jersey, is of Huguenot descent, his an- cestry in America being traced back to Nicholas Dupui, who married Catharina Renard. Nicholas came to this country from Artois, France, in 1662, and settled in New York City on the site of the present Produce Exchange. His son, Moses, born in 1657, married Marie Wynkoop, and had a son, Benjamin, born in 1695, who married Elizabeth Schoonmaker, September 3, 1719, and, died in 1765. Benja- min, son of Benjamin, Sr., and father of Abraham Depne, was born at Esopus, now Kingston, N. Y., in June, 1729,
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removed to Lower Monnt Bethel, Northampton County, Pa., in 1765, and died there September 26, 1811. He was a member of the First Battalion of Associaters of the County of Northampton, Pa .. and was a member of Captain JJohn Arudt's company, which was engaged in the battles of Long Island, August 27, 1776, and of Fort Washington, Novem-
DAVID A. DEPUE, LL. D.
ber 16, 1776 ( Penn. Archives, second series, vol. 14, p. 561); and was one of the thirty-three members of that company who rallied next day at Elizabethtown. ( History of Easton, Pa., pp. 126 and 127.) He served thereafter in the war as Commissary. He was elected a delegate from Northamp- ton County, Pa., to attend a convention at Philadelphia to apportion the delegates to be elected throughout the Proy-
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ince of Pennsylvania, to meet in convention, at Philadel- phia, to frame a constitution for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and to draft certain rules governing the same. (Penn. Arch., 2d ser., vol. 14, p. 560.) He was elected from Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County, Pa., on the Committee of Safety (Penn. Arch., 2d ser., p. 597). and attended two meetings at Easton, Pa. ( Id. pp. 608 and 613.) He was commissioned by the Su- preme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsyl- vania, August 7, 1784, Justice of the Peace for the Town- ship of Mount Bethel, Northampton County. (Commission in the Recorder's office at Easton, Pa., in Deed Book D, vol. 1, p. 238.) He was also commissioned by the same Council, John Dickinson, President, September 4, 1784, one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Northampton, Pa., for the term of seven years. (Commis- sion in the Recorder's office at Easton, Pa., in Deed Book D, vol. 1, p. 238.) He married Caterina Van Campen, daughter of Colonel Abraham Van Campen. Abraham Van Campen was the son of Jan Van Campen and Tietze Decker, daughter of Jan Decker. He was born at Esopus, Ulster County, now Kingston, N. Y., baptized October 9, 1698, and afterward moved to Sussex County, N. J. After the Revolution he was commissioned a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas by Governor Livingston. He married Sus- anna Depne, baptized at Esopus, N. Y., January 9, 1698. He died leaving a large estate and many slaves. The History of Sussex and Warren Counties, pp. 160 and 161, says of him :
The first judges of the Court of Common Pleas in Sussex County (then com- prising Sussex and Warren) were Abraham Van Campen, Jonathan Robeson, John Anderson and Jonathan Pettit, appointed in 1753; by Royal Ordinance of His Majesty George III, to organize the County Courts. Judge Van Campen remained upon the bench until August, 1766, during which time he was the pre- siding officer of the court, and, as appears by the minutes, was rarely absent from his seat during its session.
He was Colonel of and commanded the First New Jersey Regiment in the French and Indian War of 1755, and was assigned to duty with his regiment by Governor Belcher on the frontier of the Province of New Jersey. (History of Warren and Sussex Counties, p. 34.) Abraham Depue, son of Benjamin and Caterina Van Campen, who was born Sep-
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tember 28, 1765, and died October 21, 1851, married Susan- nah Hoffman, January 5, 1792. Their son, Benjamin, born September 1, 1796, married Elizabeth Ayres, and died June 18, 1884. They were the parents of Chief Justice Depne.
David Ayres Depue was born at Mount Bethel, Northamp- ton County, Pa., October 27, 1826, his father having re- moved there from New Jersey. In 1840 the family returned to this State, settling in Belvidere, Warren County. The son was prepared for college under Rev. John Vanderveer, D.D., at Easton, Pa., and was graduated from Princeton University in 1816. He then entered the law office of John M. Sherrerd, of Belvidere, and after his admission to the bar as an attorney in 1819 began active practice in that town, remaining for about a year, after being licensed, in Mr. Sherrerd's office. Then, following the advice of his friend and instructor that he should become independent and fight his own way, he opened an office in Belvidere and soon gathered around him a circle of friends and clients. He had not been idle during his clerkship, but had applied him- self industriously and carefully to the study of law, not alone as the means by which he was to earn his bread, but from a pure love for the science. After he began the prac- tice of the profession he did not allow himself to be drawn aside by the ambition, so common to young lawyers, of ac- quiring political honors. He was a born lawyer, and de- lighted in delving into the abstruse principles of legal science. He did not study law simply to use it for the pres- ent exigeney, nor to prepare himself for future contests, but because he loved its abstract ideas and revelled in its meta- physics. He soon became known as a prominent member of the bar in his part of the State. So when, in 1866, he be- came an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, he brought to the office an unusual preparation for the performance of its duties. He did not seek the nomina- tion and could, in no sense, have been considered a candi- date. In fact, he wrote to Governor Ward, when he heard that his name was mentioned in connection with the ap- pointment, that he was not an applicant for the nomina- tion. So soon as he was appointed he removed to Newark, where he has ever since resided. His circuit, at first, com-
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prised the Counties of Essex and Union, by far the most im- portant in the State; Newark, the largest city in New Jer- sey, being in Essex, and Elizabeth in Union.
For nearly thirty-five years Judge Depue has been a mem- ber of the Supreme Court of this State and Circuit Judge of the County of Essex. For a large part of that time that county has comprised the whole of his circuit. Union was long since placed in that of Judge Van Syckel. From the first term of court held by him Judge Depue fastened him- self upon the affection and confidence of the people, and they have never swerved from their loyalty to him. His ad- ministration of justice, both in the State and in the county, has been eminently acceptable to the people, and his resig- nation was universally regretted.
Judge Depue took his seat on the bench at the November term of the year 1866, but, of course, could take no part in delivering opinions, except such as were oral, and could only listen to arguments. His first opinion was given at the March term, 1867. It was a case of quo warranto arising upon the school law of the State. The cause was not of any great importance, but it received, as did every case sub- mitted to him, a thorough and searching examination. His opinions are always exhaustive, and he has the faculty of ascertaining every point there is in a cause.
In 1873 his first term closed, and he was renominated by Governor Parker, who, although politically opposed to him, appreciated the importance of retaining him in the judiciary of the State. In 1880 he was again renominated, this time by a Democratic Governor, and confirmed. His third term expired in 1887, when he was again made an Associate Jus- tice, and again in 1894. These re-appointments were just tributes to his impartiality, ability, and integrity. He has, since his appointment to office, never swerved a hair's breadth from the strict line of duty. When on the bench he knows no friend or foe, and is swayed by no motive other than the earnest desire to do justice to all. His keen dis- crimination and quick intuition enable him to discern at once what is the true path of duty, and he never fails to fol- low it. On the 1st of May, 1900, Judge Depue received the ad interim appointment of Chief Justice of the Supreme
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Court, on the resignation of Chief Justice Magie, and at the succeeding session of the Legislature he was nominated and confirmed for the full term, and resigned the office, his resig- uation to take effect on the 16th of November, 1901, at the expiration of a service of thirty-five years as a Justice of the Supreme Court.
With all his mental acquisitions, his intellectual ability, and his profound learning he is a man of simple and unaf- fected manners and is easy of access to all, no matter how poor or humble. He is a great reader, and delights espe- cially in biography. His tastes are scholarly and lead him to the highest order of literature. He dearly loves the so- ciety of friends, and will unbend himself with them in his leisure moments, indulging in humor and the disenssion of lighter themes than those connected with the abstract legal principles. Two colleges in New Jersey have conferred the degree of LL.D. upon Judge Depue-Rnigers, in 1874, and Princeton, in 1880.
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