USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Passaic > The Passaic valley, New Jersey, in three centuries.. Vol. 2 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
Judge Depne married Mary Van Allen, daughter of John Sinart, who was for many years Cashier of the Belvidere Bank. Mrs. Depue died in 1859, leaving one child, Eliza Stuart. In 1862 Judge Depue married Delia Aun, daughter of Oliver E. Sloeum, of Tolland, Mass. Their children are Sherrerd, Mary Stuart, and Francis A.
The son. Sherrerd Depne, was born in Warren County, New Jersey, on the 1st of August, 1864. His life has been spent in greater part in Newark. Having graduated in 1881 af the Newark Academy. he entered Princeton Uni- versity, from which he was graduated in 1885. He was graduated from the Columbia Law School in New York ('ity in 1887, was admitted to practice the same year, and in September, 1890, was appointed Assistant United States District Attorney, serving one year. In 1894 he was ap- pointed City Attorney of Newark and served two years. lle is now a member of the law firm of Lindabury, Depne & Faulks, of Newark.
HENRY GRAVES, of Orange, N. J., was born in Boon- ville, Oneida County, N. Y., December 11, 1838. His par-
62
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
ents were Henry and Jerusha Caroline ( Knowlton) Graves, and through both of them he descends from very early American colonial ancestors. His first ancestor in this country in the paternal line was John Graves, who came from England and settled in Concord, Mass., about 1640. The line of descent from this immigrant ancestor to the subject of this sketch is as follows: John (1), Benjamin (2), Benjamin (3), Benjamin (4), Ros- well (5), Hobart (6), Henry (7), and Henry (8). On his mother'sside Mr. Graves's line goes back to William Knowl- ton, who came from England to America as early as 1615. The fol- lowing is his Knowlton pedigree: William (1), William (2), Thomas (3), Ephraim (4), Eph- raim (5), Thomas (6), Robert (7), Jerusha Caroline (8) (married Henry Graves, Sr.), and HENRY GRAVES. Henry Graves (9).
He received his early education in the public school of his native place, later attending the academy at Ogdens- burg, N. Y. In March, 1859, he came to New York City and entered the American Exchange Bank as'a clerk. He con- tinued in that institution in various capacities until Decem- ber 31, 1864. On the 1st of January, 1865, he entered into a copartnership with John Maxwell and J. Rogers Maxwell, in the firm of Maxwell & Graves. Mr. Graves has enjoyed a successful business career, and has for many years been a respected member of the business community of the me- tropolis.
IIe is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the Lawyers' Club of New York, the Metropolitan Museum of
63
BIOGRAPHICAL
Art, the National Arts Club of New York, the Essex County Country Club, and the New England Society.
He was married, October 4, 1864, to Harriet Isabella Hale, of St. Louis, Mo. Their children are Edward Hale Graves, Ilenry Graves, Jr., George Coe Graves, and Daisy Bell Graves.
SAMUEL HAYES CONGAR was a lifelong resident of Newark, and during his active life held a number of im- portant positions of trust. Ile came from some of the oldest and most distinguished families in the Passaic Val- ley, his father and grandfather being officers in the Revolu- tionary War, the former, Sammel Congar, receiving a cout- mission as First Lieutenant in the Fourth Militia Company of Essex County, May 5, 1777. Samuel Congar, father of Samuel and grand- father of Samuel Hayes Congar, died in 1752. He married Joanna Crane, daughter of Joseph and Abigail ( Lyon) Crane, grand- daughter of Jasper and Joanna (Swaine) Crane and of Joseph and Abi- gail (Pierson) Lyon, and a great-grand- daughter of Jasper Crane, Sr., Samuel Swaine, Henry Lyon. Rev. Abraham Pierson, Jr., and Abigail Clark, his wife. Her great- great-grandfather was Rev. Abraham Pierson, Sr. Major Samuel Con- SAMUEL H. CONGAR. gar was the son of Jonathan Conger and a grandson of John Conger.
Samuel Hayes Congar's mother, Hanuah Hayes, was the
64
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
daughter of Major Samuel Hayes (a prominent militia offi- ver in the Revolution) and Sarah Bruen, a granddaughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Day) Hayes and of John and Mary (Tompkins) Bruen, and a great-granddaughter of Thomas llayes ( who married a Miss Devison), of John and Esther ( Lawrence) Bruen, and of Seth and Elizabeth (Kitchel) Tompkins. Her great-great-grandfathers were Robert Denison, Obadiah Bruen, Richard Lawrence, Michael Tompkins, and Robert Kitchel. All these names represent well known families in East Jersey, and have fig- ured conspicuously in the civil, military, and commercial history of the State.
Samuel Hayes Congar was born in Newark, December 10, 1806, and attended the common schools of that city, leav- ing at the early age of eleven to enter the drug store of his uncle, Dr. Samuel Hayes, a prominent physician and drug- gist of his day. Afterward he learned the trade of coach and carriage painting, which he followed with great suc- cess until late in life. In the meantime he was active and influential in promoting various local movements. He was Librarian of the old Newark Library Society at a period when the library was opened one evening a week, and for a time was Preventor of the Second Presbyterian Church. He was also Librarian of the New Jersey Historical Society for a number of years and until his death, which occurred in 1872, and in this capacity did much towards advancing the society's growth and influence. Mr. Congar was once a member of a military company, served for several years as an Alderman in Newark, and was a member of the Third Presbyterian Church.
He married Ilannah Johnson Parkhurst, daughter of Henry L. Parkhurst, of Newark, and had two sons: Horace P. Congar, who died September 30, 1849, aged nineteen, and Henry Congar, now an honored and respected citizen of Newark.
JOHN WHITEHEAD, LL.D., of Morristown, author of Volume I of this work, was born in Jersey, Licking County, Ohio, September 6, 1819, His father, Onesimus Whitehead,
65
BIOGRAPHICAL
was born in New Jersey, and emigrated to Jersey, Ohio, in 1814. His mother was Pyrene Case, born in Connectiont and went to Obio with her father, Isaac Case, and settled at Worthington in Franklin County.
The Whiteheads of New Jersey trace their genealogy back to John Whitehead, who was a " freeman " in New Haven, Conn., and one of the founders of that colony, in whose records his name appears as early as 1630. This John Whitehead was the ancestor of the Whitehead family which appeared in New Jersey early in the eighteenth cen- tury. This ancestor John had a son Isaac, who was in Elizabethtown as early as 1668. He became a man of con- siderable importance in New Jersey, was Clerk of the town meetings in Elizabethtown for fifteen years, and was also Clerk of the Provincial Legislature for almost as many years. In 1681 a controversy sprung up between the an- thorities of Newark and some owners of meadow land. Isaac Whitehead was selected to act as umpire between the two contending parties, and his finding was by the order of the town meeting to be considered final. He was addressed as " Esquire," which in those days denoted that one so ad- dressed was to be entitled to more than ordinary distinc- tion, the title not being bestowed indiscriminately as it is in modern times.
John Whitehead, the subject of this sketch, is descended from Onesimus Whitehead, a son of this Isaac Whitehead, and claims that descent through four generations of yeo- maury living in Morris County. He is also a lineal descend- ant from John Condit, the ancestor of that wide-spread family of Condits scattered all over the republic and found in almost every State. Two of his great-grandfathers, Onesimus Whitehead, private, and Jonathan Condit, Cap- tain, served with honor in the Revolutionary Army, both in the New Jersey State troops.
Deprived by death very early in his life of a father's care, he was adopted by the Hon. AAsa Whitehead, a leading law- ver in the northern part of New Jersey, by whom he was educated for the legal profession and in whose family he lived until his own marriage. After receiving a careful classical education he entered the office of his uncle as a
66
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
student-at-law and was licensed as an attorney on the Sth of September, 1840, and in due time as a counsellor. He opened an office in Newark, and from that time until the present, with a few years intermission, has been an active practitioner and is still engaged in his profession with as much industry as ever.
While never neglecting the interests of his clients he has devoted much of his leisure time to literary pursuits, to the cultivation of which he was impelled by his mental charac- teristics. In some of these lines he has been enthusiastic, especially in that of history.
Early in his public life Mr. Whitehead took an active part in the establishment of a system of public schools in New Jersey and was Treasurer of a National organization for the advancement of education. For ten years he was Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Education in the City of Newark, in which city he was then residing. In 1855 he removed to an adjoining township and was there elected Superintendent of Schools for five successive years. For one year he was one of two Examiners and Visitors of Schools of the County of Essex, the only time during which that office was in existence in New Jersey.
Mr. Whitehead has been quite a prolific author. He has written a series of articles on the history of the English lan- guage which were printed in the Northern Magazine, many others on the history of Newark, published in a local newspaper in that town, several on the lawyers of Morris County fifty years ago, some describing his travels in Nor- way, and many on the case of Fitz John Porter, which, with those on the lawyers of Morris County and travels in Nor- way, were published in a newspaper of Morristown. His defence of General Porter received great attention in vari- ous parts of the United States, and was much commended. He has also written on other subjects for magazines and papers. His favorite study is history, and it was but nat- ural that he should employ his pen in that branch of human knowledge. His last effort in that direction was entitled " The Judicial and Civil History of New Jersey," published in a royal octavo volume of 520 and more pages. This book,
67
BIOGRAPHICAL
written for lawyers, judges, and courts, was received at the time of its publication with universal commendation.
But his friends believe that what Mr. Whitehead him- self considers the crowning effort of his life, and to which he looks back with the greatest satisfaction, is the establish- ment of " The Morristown Library and Lyceum," an insti- tution which, through his unwearied exertions and inde- fatigable energy, after many years of struggle, was at last established on a substantial basis. On the 14th of August, 1878, the building with several thousands of books on its shelves was opened to the public. The edifice is a large, substantial structure of stone, elegant in its architecture, and commodious in all its appliances, and was erected at a cost of $60,000. More than twenty thousand volumes are now gathered within its walls, every one of which, except those presented to the library, has been selected by Mr. Whitehead, who has not relaxed his efforts to make the in- stitution a blessing to the community. Now its President, he is still watching over its well-being with the same en- thusiasm which marked his carlier efforts in its behalf.
Although decided in his political views and ever an ar- dent and active supporter of the party to which he has given his allegiance, he has ever studiously avoided all can- didacy for political office.
He was one of the original members of the New Jersey Historical Society and a life member of the Newark Library Association. In 1890 he was made President of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, which office he still holds, having been re-elected from year lo year; and in 1894 the National Society honored him by making him one of its Vice-Presidents, which office he also still holds. His presence and voice are always in evidence at the annual meetings of the National Society, and few are more active or enthusiastic in their devotion to the prin- riples which are the foundations of this patriotic associa- tion. In 1899 Wilberforce University, of Ohio, conferred on him the degree of LL.D.
He married, in June, 1843, Catharine A., youngest dangh- ter of Hon. David Mills, of Morristown, who is still living. Of three children born of this marriage one only, Katharine M., survives.
68
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
AMZI DODD, LL.D., the first Vice-Chancellor of New Jersey and since 1882 President of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark, was born in what is now the Township of Montclair, then part of the Township of Bloom- field, Essex County, N. J., March 2, 1823. He is the second son of Dr. Joseph Smith Dodd and Maria Grover and a lineal descendant of Daniel Dod, an English Puritan, who emigrated to America about the year 1646, and, in company with other immigrants, helped to form a settle- ment at Sagus (now known as the City of Lynn), a thriving sea- port on Massachusetts Bay. This his earliest American progenitor died prior to 1665, leav- ing four sons, all in their minority, the eld- est of whom was, after his father, named Dan- iel. While yet under age he joined the col- ony of Rev. Abraham Pierson, who founded the town of Newark in 1666, and to him a AMZI DODD, LL.D. home lot was assigned in the neighborhood of what was for so many years known as the "Stone Bridge." He was a good mathematician, a surveyor by profession, and in 1692 a member of the Colonial General Assembly. His son, John, his grandson, John, and his great-grandson, John, were all, in a direct line, ancestors of Dr. Joseph Smith Dodd, father of Amzi Dodd, and in their times were all men of mark. Dr. Dodd was born in Bloom- field, N. J., January 10, 1791, was graduated from Princeton College in 1813, and commenced the practice of medicine in his native place in 1816. He was a skillful physician, and a man widely esteemed and respected. He was elected to
69
BIOGRAPHICAL
the State Senate in 1842, and was largely instrumental in establishing the State Lunatic Asylum. He died Septem- ber 5, 1847.
Amzi Dodd was carefully educated at home and at the Bloomfield Academy, and in 1839 was so well advanced in his studies that he found no difficulty in securing admission to the sophomore class at the College of New Jersey, his father's alma mater. In 1841 he was graduated with the highest honors, being chosen to deliver the Latin salutatory at the commencement in September of that year. Among his classmates who have risen to distinction may be men- tioned the Rev. Theodore Cuyler, the eminent Brooklyn di- vine; the Rev. Dr. Duffield, of Princeton University; Gen- eral Francis P. Blair, late of Missouri; John T. Nixou, United States District Judge; Edward W. Seudder, of the New Jersey Supreme Court; the Rev. Dr. Potter, of Ohio; Professor A. Alexander lodge; the Hon. Craig Biddle; and others in legal and ministerial lite.
During the ensuing four years after leaving college Mr. Dodd was engaged in teaching, principally in Virginia, but, intending to become a lawyer, read law diligently, and gave his vacations to acquiring a practical insight into its in- tricacies by service in the office of Miller & Whelpley, promi- nent lawyers at Morristown, N. J. In January, 1848, he was licensed as an attorney and admitted to the New Jer- sey bar, and afterward became associated in business with the Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, then an eminent prae- titioner at the bar and later Secretary of State of the United States. In 1850 Mr. Dodd severed this connection to devote himself to the duties of the office of Clerk of the Common Council of Newark. For three years he held this position, maintaining his own law offices, and attending to such practice as came his way. This finally grew to such volume that he resigned his office the more fully to devote himself to professional work. Early connection with corporation and fiduciary affairs led him largely into legal departments calling for judicial rather than forensic powers. Although occasionally taking part in litigated cases in court, he was far less inclined to jury trials than to arguments to the
70
THE PASSAIC VALLEY
bench, in which his intellect and also his temperament found more congenial exercise.
Mr. Dodd early developed ability as a public speaker. His first effort of importance was a Fourth of July oration, delivered in the First Presbyterian Church at Newark in 1851. " His panegyric upon Washington fell from his tongue deep into every heart, and for many a day the young orator's name was on every lip." Later efforts about this time were a literary address at commencement at Prince- ton, and a discourse before the Essex County Bible Society, of which he was President. Opposed to the extension of slavery to the Territories, he was one of that resolute little band of anti-slavery men who raised their voices in loud protest against the movement in its favor, and as a " Free- soiler " aided in the formation of the Republican party and became an active champion of its principles. In 1856 he was selected to lead the fight in Essex and Hudson Coun- ties, being chosen as the Republican nominee for Congress. In this campaign, as well as in that of 1860, which resulted in the election of Lincoln, he won new laurels as an orator. In 1863 he was elected by the Republicans of Essex County to the New Jersey Legislature, but declined a second term. Brilliant, logical, and powerful as an orator, he might, had he so willed, have achieved forensic distinction equal to that of his most gifted contemporaries. There was that in his nature, however, which inclined him to the rôle of coun- sellor rather than to that of advocate; and while gracefully yielding to the calls made upon him to deliver lectures be- fore lyceums and institutions of learning, and to greet his old classmates at Princeton in an anniversary oration, he gradually relinquished his public oratorical efforts, the more completely to devote himself to the demands of pro- fessional work.
In 1871, when the business of the Court of Chancery be- came so pressing that Chancellor Zabriskie was obliged to ask for the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Dodd was selected for the position. In the delicate and important work thus assigned to him he was engaged continuously until 1875, when he resigned. In 1872 he was nominated by Governor Parker, and confirmed by the Senate, as one of
71
BIOGRAPHICAL
the Special Justices of the Court of Errors and Appeals, the highest judicial tribunal in the State. In 1878, toward the close of his term as Justice of the court, the Governor of the State, General George B. Mcclellan, wrote to him as follows:
STATE OF NEW JERSEY, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, TRENTON, January 18, 1878.
Hon. AMZI DODD, Newark.
DEAR SIR :- Although your term of office as a member of the Court of Appeals does not expire for several weeks, there are reasons which seem to render it advisable for me to take measures to fill the appointment at an early day. I do not care to make a nomination without first ascertaining the wishes of the party most interested, and I therefore write to you that it will afford me peculiar satisfaction to be permitted to nominate you as your own successor. Perhaps you will pardon me for saying that I am led to this determination by the high estimate in which you are held by all who have been thrown in contaet
with you. Very truly and respectfully, your obedient servant,
(Signed) GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN.
To this flattering recognition of his services, accompanied by so earnest a suggestion that he accept re-appointment, Judge Dodd returned an affirmative reply, whereupon Gov- ernor MeClellan made the appointment, sending with his commission the following complimentary letter:
STATE OF NEW JERSEY, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, TRENTON, February 7, 1878.
Hon. AMZI DODD, Court of Errors and Appeals.
MY DEAR SIR :- 1 take great pleasure in forwarding to you the new commis- sion for the office you now holl. This appointment was made solely in conse- quence of your eminent merit and without solicitation from any quarter, and it is very gratifying to me that you have consented to accept it.
Very truly your friend, (Signed) GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN.
In 1881 Judge Dodd was again called to serve the State as Vice-Chancellor, taking the office at the request of Chan- cellor Runyon; but in the following year he resigned this position, and also his seat upon the bench of the Court of Errors and Appeals, being moved to do so by the pressure brought to bear upon him to accept the Presidency of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark-a cor- poration with which he had been officially connected as mathematician for nearly twenty years. In this office he succeeded his friend, Lewis C. Grover, who had resigned. In 1875 Judge Dodd was appointed a member of the New
72
THIE PASSAIC VALLEY
Jersey Board of Riparian Commissioners by Governor Bedle, and held that position until April, 1887. In 1876 the Supreme Court of the State appointed him one of the managers of the New Jersey Soldiers' Home. In this serv- ice-a gratuitous one- he has continued to the present day, laboring with zeal and serupulous fidelity in the interests of these veteran wards of the State. It is a noteworthy cir- cumstance that, though of pronounced Republican political views, the several public offices he has held have been by appointments received from Democratic administrations, and, it is to be added, unsolicited on his part.
Judge Dodd's opinions as an equity judge are to be found in the New Jersey Reports, Volumes 22 to 34, inclusive; and as a member of the Court of Errors and Appeals, the court of last resort for the review of the Supreme, Chancery, and inferior courts, his opinions are in Volumes 36 to 42, inclu- sive. They are regarded by lawyers as possessing superior merit, and belonging to the best class of juridical produc- tions. Some of them have become authoritative cases in important questions. One of the most notable is that of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company against the National Railway Company, decided in 1873, and recorded in Volume 7, C. E. Gr., 441. The decree of Vice-Chancellor Dodd in this case was supported by a train of argument so clear and conclusive that no appeal was taken from it, though great property interests as well as public questions of great im- portance were involved. The result of the injunction issued against the defendant prohibiting the construction of the proposed road was the passage soon after of the general railroad law of the State, in pursuance of the suggestions in the opinion that such a law was the necessary means for obtaining what the judicial tribunals under existing laws could not assume to supply.
In 1874 he received the degree of LL.D. from his alma mater. Judge Dodd's active and useful life has been abso- lutely free from sensational attempts to arrest public atten- tion and singularly devoid of ostentation, yet no man in the State is better known, more highly respected, or more popu- lar. His entire career has been marked by uprightness and
73
BIOGRAPHICAL
sincerity of purpose; devotion to duty and zeal in the public interest have signalized every step of his advance.
Judge Dodd was married, in 1852, to Miss Jane Frame, a danghter of William Frame, of Bloomfieldl. He resided in Newark until the summer of 1860, when he removed to his present home in Bloomfield. His domestic life has been a delightful one, and the social position of his family has been second to none. Of the nine children of the marriage three danghters and three sons are living. The oldest, Julia, is the wife of the Rev. H. B. Frissell, D.D., principal of the Hampton (Va.) Normal and Agricultural Institute, the able successor of General Armstrong, its famous founder. One of his daughters, Caroline, is the wife of Leonard Richards, a New York merchant, and the third, unmarried, resides with her parents. One of the sons, William S. Dodd, is a lawyer. Another, Edward Whelpley Dodd, is in business. The third, Joseph Smith Dodd, is a practicing physician.
THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN was the grandson of Rev. John Frelinghuysen, who came from Holland to America in 1720, settling near Somerville, N. JJ. His father, Frederick Frelinghuysen, a graduate of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, was a distinguished lawyer, states- man, and officer in the Revolution.
Mr. Frelinghuysen was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1804, read law with Richard Stockton, was admitted to the bar in 1808, and became a counsellor in 1811 and a sergeant-at-law in 1817. He settled and prac- ticed his profession with great success in Newark. He was Attorney-General of the State from 1817 to 1829, declining the office of Justice of the Supreme Court in 1826. In 1829 he was elected United States Senator and served until 1835. lle was elected Mayor of Newark in 1837 and 1838 and Chancellor of the University of the City of New York in 1839. In 1844 the Whigs placed him in nomination for Vice- President of the United States with Henry Clay as their candidate for President. He was President of the Ameri- can Bible Society and of the American Board of Commis- sioners of Foreign Missions, and in 1850 was elected Presi-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.