The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 104

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, publisher
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 924

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TRYKER, SAMUEL STANHOPE, M. D., was born at Trenton, New Jersey, May 4th, 1842. Ile is not only a native but a descendant of natives, his ancestors being American for many generations back. He received his preparatory education at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and his classical at Princeton, studying medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, from the medical department of which he graduated in March, 1866. He settled in West Philadel- phia, where he now resides. He is a member of the Pathological Society of Philadelphia, and of the Philadel- phia Obstetrical Society. As yet he contents himself with drawing from the fountain of medical literature, instead of contributing to its treasures, except indeed as every success- ful practitioner, especially in a great city, cannot help doing, seeing that practice furnishes the material of litera- ture. He is at present Visiting Accoucheur to the Phila- delphia Hospital. Still on the sunny side of his prime, of excellent general culture, and of acknowledged professional skill, he has a firm footing on the ladder of fame, and will, it may be safely predicted, steadily ascend the shining rounds.

LARK, WILLIAM PATTERSON, M. D., late of Belvidere, New Jersey, son of the Rev. Joseph Clark, was born in New Brunswick, in which town his father was for many years pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. After graduating in 1819 from the College of New Jersey, Princeton, he studied medicine, was licensed as a physician, and for a short time was engaged in practice in Wilkesbarre, Penn- sylvania. He subsequently removed to Clinton, Hunterdon county, and in 1821 was one of the founders of the Hunter- don County Medical Society. He was the second Treasurer of that organization (elected May 7th, 1822), and at the same time served as a member of the Board of Censors. His essay, "A Cursory Analysis of the Theory of Health, Predisposition, and Disease," read at the first semi-annual meeting of the society (October 23d, 1821), was the only paper read at that mecting, and was the first of any sort read before the society. In 1836-37 he was Third Vice- President of the New Jersey State Medical Society. He

URYEE, REV. PHILIP, Pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church at English Neighborhood, and late of Morristown, New Jersey, was born in New York in 1775 or 1776. In November, 1828, he was called from Saratoga, New York, to the church at Bergen, to succeed Rev. Mr. Abeel. His installation took place December 21st, 1828, on which occasion Rev. Benjamin C. Taylor preached the sermon, and Rev. Staats Van Santvoord addressed the pastor and the people, immediately after which he delivered his introductory discourse, on Mark xvi. 15: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Having, in his former field of labor, taken great pleasure and labored diligently in rearing new churches, while foster- ing the interests of his principal charge ; and, being pos- sessed of a kind spirit and gentleness of manner, he knew excellently well how to seek and follow the things which secure peace ; with mild persuasion he gained many friends at English Neighborhood, and labored diligently and lovingly in his holy calling. About this time occurred the foreclosure of a mortgage covering the schoolhouse at New Durham, which had been executed by the seceding Con- sistory. The case was decided in favor of the mortgagee, and a heavy amount had to be raised to meet the claim. The Reformed Dutch Church at Bergen then aided their involved brethren to the amount of one hundred dollars, and the Collegiate Church in New York appropriated to them three hundred dollars, received by them in 1836. Thus relieved from these temporal difficulties, " God was pleased, in the winter of 1837-38, to visit them with spiritual blessings," and at the February communion nine- teen persons were admitted to church membership on con- fession of faith. In 1839, in consideration of the growth of population at New Durham, and the increased desire for more frequent service there, the Classis, in September, recommended the attention of the English Neighborhood Consistory to the propriety of organizing a district church at New Durham. On the Ist of October the Consistory ex- pressed their view of its inexpediency, and on the 7th of that month determined that it would not " at present " ad- vance the interests of the church. The measure was not effected until March 27th, 1843. It was effected kindly, however, and the English Neighborhood Consistory agreed to convey to the New Durham Church the lecture-room. owned by them at this place. In 1847 he requested his Consistory to take measures for calling another minister, in consideration of his increasing bodily infirmities, but they

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postponed acting on his request for some time. On the |began to survey, the Indians gathered around and watched 6th of February, 1848, he requested the Consistory to join him in asking of Classis the dissolution of the ecclesiastical tie which had so pleasantly subsisted between them for nearly twenty years. The kindness of his feeling for this flock was attested on the occasion by the following state- ment : " There is a considerable sum due me for wood and hay, also in money. These arrearages I give to my Con- sistory, hoping that it may encourage all my friends to have my place filled." On the 3d of April, 1848, the Classis, as requested, dissolved the connection be- tween him and the church, and adopted a resolution ex- pressive of " their esteem for this honored servant of Christ, and their appreciation of his valuable pastoral labors." Under his ministry there were added to the communion of his church eighty-four persons on confession of faith, and twenty-eight on certificate-in all, one hundred and twelve. Shortly after his resignation of his pastoral charge he re- moved to Morristown, New Jersey, to reside with his son- in-law, Richard W. Stevenson, M. D. There, on the 24th of February, 1850, he passed away. In 1834 he was honored by the Trustees of Rutgers College with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. His widow, his daughter-Mrs. Stevenson-and his son, Abraham Duryee, survived him. On the west wall of the English Neighborhood Church is a white marble plate, placed there as a memorial of him by Thomas H. Herring.

EPUE, HON. DAVID AYRES, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey, was born at Mount Bethel, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, October 27th, 1826. Hle is of Huguenot descent, and his ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Pahaquarry, Warren county. When Samuel Preston, in 1787, went out with a party into Northampton county on his first surveying tour, he met with two members of the family, and experienced at their hands great hospitality, and from them gained much valuable information. Writing to Hazard's Register in June, 1828, respecting the Meenesink settlement, this sur- veyor says, that "at the venerable Samuel Dupuis' they found great hospitality and plenty of the necessaries of life ; " also, that " Samuel Dupuis told them that when the rivers were frozen he had a good road to Esopus (now Kingston) from the mine holes on the mine road some hundred miles; that he took his wheat and cider there for salt and necessaries. . . They were of opinion that the first settlements of Hollanders in Meenesink were many ycars older than William Penn's charter." Samuel Dupuis (or Depue) treated the surveying party so well that they concluded to make a survey of his claim " in order to be- friend him, if necessary." But the Indians thought they ought to say something about this time. So, when the men unaffected manners, and in his intercourse with his fellows

for a while. At length an old Indian laid his hand on the shoulder of one Nathaniel Scull, and said, " Put up iron string; go home." This injunction seemed likely to be followed up by further demonstrations of Indian disap- proval, so the surveyors " quit and returned." In another letter the same writer says: " I found Nicholas Dupuis, Esquire (son of Samuel), living in a spacious stone house in great plenty and affluence." From him the surveyor ob- tained much information as to the means of communication with the outside world enjoyed by the settlers, when and by whom the mine road was made, the ores that were dug, and the formation of the original settlement ; but he only gave it as tradition, there being no records of any kind. At the time of this interview, June, 1787, Nicholas Dupuis was about sixty years of age. The settlers then were by no means clear whether they were living in the jurisdiction of New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Judge Depue's ancestors .continued to reside in this section, and his father, Benjamin Depue, was a citizen thereof. The family moved, however, in 1840, to Belvidere, Warren county, New Jersey. After a sound preliminary training, the subject of this sketch en- tered Princeton College, matriculating in 1843. At the conclusion of a three years' course he was graduated, and soon thereafter began the study of law under the direction of John M. Sherrerd. In due course he was admitted to the bar, July, 1849, and began practice at Belvidere in the same year. IIe met with encouraging success, and prose- cuted his profession until the year 1866, when Governor Marcus L. Ward offered him a seat on the Supreme Bench, to succeed Judge Daniel Haines. The nomination was ac- cepted, and his commission bears date November 15th, 1866. On the expiration of his term, in 1873, he was reappointed by Governor Joel Parker. Being himself a Republican, and originally appointed by a Republican, this renomination by a Democratic governor is all-sufficient tes- timony to the ability, impartiality and integrity of his ad- ministration of justice. On appointment he was assigned to the Essex and Union Circuit, and in order to be conve- nient to the sphere of his duty he removed to Newark, where he has since resided. He received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Rutgers College in 1874. The judiciary of New Jersey has always ranked deservedly high, alike for ability and integrity, and this eminence will never be lost so long as the bench is occupied by men like Judge Depue. No purer or more thoroughly conscientious jurist ever wore the ermine. With a singularly even-balanced mind, a kecn discrimination, and vast capacity for work, joined to pro- found knowledge of the law, he fills precisely the popular estimate of the upright, incorruptible judge, and his rulings and decisions carry with them an influence and weight which make them practically irresistible, whether as state- ments of law or interpretations of evidence. Judge Depue, with all his learning, is a man of exceptionally simple and

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is genial and kindly to the last degree. In his leisure hours he finds great delight in the perusal of favorite authors, and there are few men of his years who are more familiar than he with the best thoughts of the kings and priests of litera- ture. He has a fine appreciation of humor in its higher forms, and the happy faculty, moreover, of seeing the sun- shine of things rather than the shadow. Such a man- pure, able, broad in all his views, steady in the discharge of duty, inflexible in his detestation of wrong, squaring his life by the perfect standard established by the Master-is not merely a blessing to the community which his virtues illuminate : he is a model and a helper, by as much as he reinforces the moral forces of the world, to the whole brotherhood of man.

INDSLEY, JOHN BERRIEN, M. D., was born at Princeton, New Jersey, October 24th, 1822. Ilis family, in the paternal line, were among the first colonists at Morristown, New Jersey, while his maternal ancestors, the Lawrence family, set- tled at Hell Gate, Long Island, as early as 1660. Hle was educated at the University of Nashville, Tennessee, from which he graduated in 1839, taking the degree of A. M. in 1842, and after attending the session of 1841-42 'at the medical department of the University of Louisville, entered the medical department of the University of Penn- sylvania, from which he graduated in March, 1843, with William Walker, of Nicaragua fame, subsequently attending the session of 1849-50 at the medical department of the University of Louisville. His home has been at Nashville since 1824, when his father, having declined the presidency of Princeton College, took charge of the Nashville Univer- sity. In October, 1850, he became Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, and Dean of the Faculty, devoting six years mainly to the duties of the deanship, the school meanwhile growing from nought to over four hundred students. In IS73 he resigned his professorship. From February, 1855, to May, 1870, he was Chancellor of the University of Nash- ville, preserving it unharmed throughout the war. He is a member of the American Medical Association, and a very faithful one, having attended nine of its annual meetings; and of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Phila- delphia, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the author of a " Eulogy on R. M. Porter, M. D.," 1856; and of an " Introductory Lecture," 1858; and is now engaged on the " Medical Annals of Tennessee," at the request of the State Medical Society. He is also engaged now on a work to be entitled, "Sources and Sketches of Cumberland Presbyterian Ilis- tory," his literary efficiency in behalf of Presbyterianism having already earned for him the degree of D. D., from the College of New Jersey. In conjunction with Dr. J. G. M. Rumsey, of Knoxville, he will publish in the course of the

present year (1877) the "Abridged Annals of Tennessee." In 1875 he was Secretary of the State Board of Education of Tennessee. He was Acting Post Surgeon at Nashville in February, 1862, by General A. S. Johnston's request. In 1874 he was Professor of Materia Medica in the Tennes- see College of Pharmacy, and in 1876 Health Officer of Nashville. He was married, February 9th, 1851, to Sarah McGavock, daughter of Jacob McGavock, of one of the old families of Nashville.

IELD, CHAUNCEY MITCHIELL, M. D., of Bound Brook, New Jersey, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1850. The Field family is of English extraction, but has long been settled in New Jersey. Several of its members served in the Continental army during the revolutionary war, while in later years, in civil life, the name has been no less distinguished. The Hon. David Dudley Field, a recognized leader of the New York bar, and the Rev. M. S. Field, D. D., the able editor of the Evangelist, may be mentioned, as typical representatives at the present day. Dr. Field's fatlier, R. R. Field, Esq., was the founder of the house of Field Brothers, extensive cloth dealers of St. Louis ; subsequently changing his residence to Brooklyn. Here, as already stated, Dr. Field was born. Entering, when a lad, the Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School, he was graduated thence with first honors ; and from the College of New Jersey, Princeton, he was graduated with similar distinction in 1871. Immediately upon taking his B. A. degree, he began the study of medi- cine under Dr. Markoe, of New York, subsequently entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and was graduated thence M. D. in 1874. For some six months after his graduation he continued his professional studies in the New York hospitals, and then established himself in Bound Brook, taking the practice of the well-known Dr. Smith, of that town. Although so recently entered upon his professional career, he has already acquired something more than a local reputation, his skilful treatment of disease, joined to his success in a number of difficult surgical opera- tions, having given him a distinctive and honorable stand- ing among medical men.

AN HORN, REV. WILLIAM, Pastor of the Church of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Chaplain in the Revolutionary Army, was born in New Jersey in 1746, and was the son of Peter Van Horn. IIe was educated at Dr. Jones' academy, in Pennepek, New Jersey, and was ordained at Southampton, Pennsylvania, where he continued for a period of thirteen years, laboring zealously in all times and seasons

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and serving for several years as chaplain in the army during the war. In 1785 he became the pastor of the church of Scotch Plains, remaining in this relation until 1807, when he resigned, and removed with his wife and seven children to the West, designing to settle near Lebanon, Ohio. He died of dropsy, en route, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Octo- ber 31st, 1807.

LARK, REV. JOSEPH, Clergyman, late of New Brunswick, was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, October 21st, 1751. He early felt the power of religion, and was admitted to the com- munion by that distinguished Christian and patriot, Rev. James Caldwell. At the age of sev- enteen he was apprenticed to Icarn the trade of a carpenter, and had great difficulties to contend with in obtaining the elements of learning. After working all day at his trade, he studied the Latin grammar at night by the light of a pine-knot; and thus, by indefatigable diligence, made him- self acquainted with the classics. In two years after com- mencing this course he presented himself as a candidate for admission to Princeton College, and after a creditable ex- amination was received into the junior class. The war soon afterward broke up the tenor and systematic regularity of the instructions at this institution, and he joined the army, and with his patriot comrades in arms served valiantly and efficiently for several years. While thus engaged in a military capacity, he received flattering testimonials from several distinguished military characters for his fidelity and ability in the discharge of various important trusts. After many in- terruptions he eventually returned to college and the prose- cution of his studies, and in 1781 obtained his bachelor's degree. He then applied himself to the study of theology, and at the expiration of two years was duly licensed to preach the gospel. October 21st, 1783, he took charge of the congregation at Allentown, whence he was translated in 1797 to New Brunswick. " The Rev. John Woodhull, of Freehold, having been called, and having declined the call, an invitation was given in 1796 to the Rev. Joseplı Clark, pastor of the united churches of Allentown and Notting- ham. His people made a vigorous opposition, but they were finally overruled by the Presbytery ; and Mr. Clark was installed January 4th, 1797, with a salary of {250. President S. Stanhope Smith preached the sermon, 2 Timo- thy i. 13, and also presided, and gave the charge." He con- tinued in this connection for sixteen years, until his decease. IIe was " a solid, serious, and impressive preacher ; " was capable of moving the feelings in a notable degree ; and " wept freely himself ; while the tears of his auditors attested the power which he exercised over them. He blended great dignity with affability. Few ministers have enjoyed to a greater degree the confidence and affection of their people. As a proof of their esteem, in 1809 they raised his salary from $666.66, on his request, to $800." He was

highly esteemed by his brethren in the ministry, and his counsel and judgment were greatly prized in the ecclesias- tical courts. He was for many years a Trustee of the Col- lege of New Jersey, and a Director of the Theological Seminary ; and was also one of the most successful agents in collecting funds for rebuilding Nassau Hall after its de- struction by fire. The only production of his pen that was given to the world is a " Sermon on the Death of Governor Paterson;" who, after an exemplary and useful life, died peacefully, September 9th, 1806. That discourse was so eloquent and acceptable that the trustees ordered the print- ing of five hundred copies. " It was written in a clear, manly style; first defining the character of a Christian statesman, and then applying the description to the deceased. The closing part of the discourse was a masterly appeal to the conscience and feelings of the different classes of hearers addresscd. The number of communicants at his decease was one hundred and twenty-seven, nearly double what it had been at his accession. He died in New Bruns- wick, New Jersey, October 20th, 1813." The Sunday before his death, he preached from the text : "The time is short," I Corinthians vii. 29. On Tuesday night he retired to bed in his usual health, and suddenly expired about three o'clock the next morning. A handsome monument to his memory was erected by private subscriptions, and two quar- ters' salary were voted to his widow, subject to the deduction of $36 for supplies.

TUDDIFORD, REV. PETER OGILVIE, D. D., Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Lambert- ville, son of Rev. Peter Studdiford and Phoebe (Vanderveer) Studdiford, was born at Readington, New Jersey, January 11th, 1799. " His child- hood was marked by his dutiful conduct to his parents, his unexceptionable deportment generally, his unu- sual tenderness of conscience, and deep thoughtfulness on the subject of personal religion. Having been devoted to God in covenant by baptism in his infancy, and having received a faithful religious training under the parental roof, he early consecrated himself to the service of Christ, and became a communicant in the church at Readington, of which his father was then the pastor." He pursued his classical studies in part at the academy in Basking Ridge, in the care of Rev. Robert Finley, D. D., and in part at Somerville, under the tuition of Cullen Morris. Having completed his prep- aration, he entered Quecns (now Rutgers) College, at New Brunswick, and in the summer of 1816, when but seventeen years of age, graduated at that institution with the highest honors of his class. After leaving college, he was occupied for about three years in teaching, first in Bedmin- ster, subsequently in Somerville, "and with great accept- ance, although many of his pupils were older than himself." July 8th, 1819, he entered the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, at Princeton, where he remained prose-

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cnting his studies for the ministry until September 29th, IS21. On the 27th of April in the same year, at a meeting of the Presbytery of New Brunswick in Trenton, he was licensed to preach the gospel, together with nine of his fel- low-students, only one of whom was surviving in 1867. During the spring vacation he preached in the employ of the General Assembly's Board of Missions about Bristol and Tullytown, Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, November 28th, 1821, in the Presbyterian Church at Trenton, he was or- dlained as an evangelist by the Presbytery of New Bruns- wick, at the same time with Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D., and the late Rev. William I. Armstrong, D. D .; and on the following Sabbath, December 2d, commenced his labors at Lambertville, having agreed to supply that church, and the one at Solebury, Pennsylvania, alternately, for one year. In September, 1822, upon the application of seven persons, the church of Lambertville and Georgetown was organized by Rev. Dr. Hodge, under the direction of the Presbytery of New Brunswick; and Emley Holcombe and Jonathan Pidcock were chosen ruling elders. "On the fly-leaf of the session-book, in the handwriting of Dr. Studdiford, penned at the time of the first meeting of the session, is the motto: ' Who hath despised the day of small things?' How sig- nificant in view of subsequent changes and results since reached !" In June, 1825, he was formally installed pastor of the churches of Lambertville and Solebury, public ser- vices being held in the morning at Solebury, and in the afternoon at Lambertville. Some time in the course of this year he opened a classical school in his own house; and from that date to the commencement of his last sickness, for forty-one years, continued engaged in the instruction of youth ; several of whom, including two of his own sons, have entered the Christian ministry, while others are occu- pying stations of usefulness and honor. As a testimonial of the estimate in which he was held as a scholar, in 1821 the trustees of the College of New Jersey conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts; and in 1844 that of Doctor in Divinity. " It is due to him and to this church (Lambertville, New Jersey) to state that on several occa- sions he had been called to the pastorate of other churches with promising expectations; in the year 1826 to the Re- formed Protestant Dutch Church of Readington, as succes- sor to his father, then recently deceased; in 1837 to the church of Scraalenburg, also to the church in Bedminster, where he had been engaged in teaching for a season, and to the church of Lodi in New York, besides having received flattering overtures from several other churches. But all these invitations he declined, because both his deliberate judgment and the feelings of his heart prompted him to abide with this people, and carry forward the work which he had commenced with such a small beginning. I need not say what this church owes to him, grown as it has from seven communicants to about three hundred, or how much this town (in whose prosperity he felt a lively interest) is in- debted to him, having increased during his residence from a

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 104

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, publisher Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy publishing company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, publisher
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 924