The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 107

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

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OWNE, JOIIN, M. D., late of Ringocs, New Jersey, was born in Monmouth county, New Jersey, September 2d, 1767. Graduating from the academy at Freehold, where he received an unusually thorough classical education, he began his professional studies in the office of Dr. Moses Scott, of New Brunswick, at that time president of the New Jersey Medical Socicty, and one of the most prominent medical men in the State. IIe subsequently attended lectures in the medical department of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania-at the same time studying under the supervision of Professor William Shipman, of Philadelphia- was graduated M. D. in the spring of 1791, and on the 3d of August in that year was licensed to practise as a physi- cian in New Jersey. In the fall of 1791 he entered upon the duties of his profession at Prallsville, removing thence in 1796 to the farm near Ringoes, where he resided for more than sixty years. Of the New Jersey State Medical Society he was for a long period a very prominent member, being repeatedly elected to office, and receiving from it the honorary degree of M. D. In 1821 he was one of the founders of the Hunterdon County Medical Society ; was the second President of that body (1822); was Vice-Presi- dent in 1825; was again President in 1846, and was Chair- man of the Board of Censors in 1821, 1824-25, 1827-28. He was also a member, elected in 1818, of the Cliosophic Society of Nassau Hall, Princeton, and for more than fifty years was a Ruling Elder in the Second Presbyterian Church of Amwell. His practice was very extensive, stretching over a tract of country some twenty miles long by six wide, and as the roads were few and bad his profes- sional rounds were uniformly made upon horseback. All told, something more than thirty years of his life was passed in the saddle. In temperament he was sanguine, in manner decided, and the confidence that he had in the remedies which he prescribed to produce the effect desired, tended largely to assure his patients, and materially helped him in his treatment of disease. His life was prolonged to the unusual length of ninety years, and up to a comparatively short time before his death he continued actively engaged. He died November 4th, 1857.

AYS, HON. JAMES L., of Newark, was born in Philadelphia in 1833, and was educated in the public schools of that city. Being designed by his parents for a business career, he was early trained therefor, and in 1853, when only twenty years of age, engaged in mercantile pursuits in Rock Island, Illinois, whither he drifted in the tide of emigration which about that time swept westward. After three years of western experiences, he returned to the East, and in 1856 located in Newark, New Jersey, where he still resides. IIere he in a few years built up a large

[ and successful business, and by his activity and ability achieved a prominent position in the community. A man of ardent impulses and great natural enthusiasm of character, he was among the foremost, when rebellion assailed the national flag, to engage in patriotic labors and especially in the work of organizing the loyal sentiment of his adopted State. He was one of the founders of the Union League, an organization which at one time exercised a controlling influence upon the politics of New Jersey ; and his influence and means were at all times freely given in aid of the cause of patriotism and national unity. A Republican by convic- tion, he was from the first an uncompromising supporter of the principles and policy of that party, and consequently the measures framed by the administration and Congress which were employed for the suppression of the rebellion. And no consideration of self-interest, or menace of a loss of patronage or social favor, ever swerved him a hair's breadth from his convictions of duty or his fidelity to principle. In 1863 Mr. Hays was elected a member of the Common Council, then embracing some of the best men of Newark ; and, illustrating in this position his high capacity, he was, in 1865, chosen to the lower branch of the Legislature, where he at once took a leading place. The following year, the people of the county having discovered in him precisely the qualities needed in a representative, he was elected to the State Senate. His term of service in that body, three years, covered a most important period in the history of the State. The questions growing out of the war and the abolition of slavery were all, so far as New Jersey was concerned, settled within that period, and as to them all Mr. Hays sustained an honorable and influential relation. The Legislature of 1866 proposing to withdraw the assent of the State, previously given, to the adoption of the Four- teenth Amendment to the Constitution, he presented an eloquent and able protest, which attracted wide attention from its comprehensive statement of the legal objections to such a course. As to matters of purely State concern, Mr. Hays occupied an equally prominent position, some of the most important acts of legislation having been consummated through his influence. He was always on the side of economy in expenditure and the largest possible develop- ment, consistently with the public demands, of the resources of the State. The educationalist interest had in him an earnest supporter, and all measures looking to the purifica- tion of the public morals uniformly commanded his active sympathy. In the care and protection of the interests of his own constituents he was at once vigilant and conscientions. He thrice defeated a stupendous "job," known as the Newark Park bill, thereby saving millions of dollars to the tax-payers of the city. He was chiefly instrumental in securing for his city, against a powerful opposition, a new line of railroad communication with New York, and also in defeating a project for the division of the county which was strongly urged by an influential and discontented element of its population. Since his retirement from the Senate

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Mr. Hays has held no public position, except that of a member of the Board of Education, being absorbed in the management of his personal interests and in the performance of less ostentatious but equally important duties in connec- tion with some of the leading charitable and religious organizations of the city. Mr. Hays is a forcible writer and an able speaker, and both pen and voice have been liberally used in furtherance of Christian and patriotic enterprises. He possesses great firmness and decision of character, is tenacious in his friendships, and generous to a fault. What he does he does effectually; what he believes he believes absolutely and unchangeably. In his personal manners he is suave, genial, frank, but he is never undignified where dignity best befits the man. He is and has been for many years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and that large and prosperous denomination has no man in its ranks who is prouder of its traditions and history, or more faithful, in his daily life, to the principles or standard of duty which it maintains.

ALENTINE, MULFORD D., Manufacturer, of Woodbridge, was born in that town, October 26th, 1843. His father, James Valentine, a brick manufacturer, was born in New York, and his inother, Catherine (Ackerman) Valentine, daugh- ter of James Ackerman, Esq., was also a native of New York. Mulford Valentine received his education at the district schools of the vicinity in which he lived. His attendance at school continued, with some interruption, until he had reached the age of eighteen. By that time the war of the rebellion had broken out, and he, like multitudes of the young men of those days, felt that he had a part to play in the great drama of the time. So he en- tered the army of the Union as a private in the 28th New Jersey Infantry. His term of enlistment was for nine months, and at the expiration of that time he returned with his regiment to the Army of the Potomac, and participated in a number of engagements. He was finally mustered out of service, July Ist, 1863, and on leaving military life he entered Eastman's Business College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, where he remained for about six months. Leaving there, he went to New York city, and took a position as bookkeeper for the firm of L. T. Valentine & Co., propri- etors of a large paper warehouse. He remained in this situation from 1864 to 1866, when, having determined to enter business on his own account, he returned to his home at Woodbridge, New Jersey, and associated himself with his brother, J. R. Valentine, under the firm-name of M. D. Valentine & Co., for the manufacture of fire-brick and drain tile. Their commencement in business was on a small scale, and for the first year they only undertook the manu- facture of Bath brick, sometimes known as Bristol brick, for the cleaning of cutlery. Their success in this branch

was not encouraging, and at the end of a year they com- menced the manufacture of drain-pipe in addition to their former specialty. A year later, in 1868, the enterprising young firm added to their rapidly growing business the manufacture of fire-brick. They have occupied from the first the present site of their manufactory, and their beginnings in all their several departments were small. Year by year they have added to their business and to their establishment, until to-day the firm ranks among the foremost fire-brick manufacturers in the country. Indomitable energy, strict de- votion to business, and an integrity and uprightness that none could question have accomplished the result. Their manu- facturing establishment consists of half a dozen large two- story brick buildings. The largest is 80 by 125 feet in ex- tent, and the others range from eighty feet square to forty by fifty feet. There are four kilns, the capacity of all being very great, baking from 22,000 to 52,000 bricks at one time. They are of the old English, round style, and are known as the " up-draught." The capacity of the works is upwards of 4,000,000 bricks per annum, and besides the various kinds of brick turned out, they produce very heavily of drain tile, stove linings, etc. When working to their full capacity, the works employ about one hundred hands. The products of the establishment are noted everywhere, and the market for them is national, orders being received from North, South, East, and West. Fortunately, the facilities for shipment are very great, and goods can be loaded on boats or cars. The premises have a frontage of three hundred feet on the creek, and a siding of the Pennsylvania Railroad has been laid beside the factory. Mulford Valentine, the head of the firm, was married, September 10th, 1868, to Rachel V. Camp, of Ocean county, New Jersey.

AYLOR, JOHN, Packer, etc., of Trenton, was born in Hamilton Square, Mercer county, New Jersey, October 6th, 1836. When he arrived at the age of ten years his father died, leaving the family without any means of support. John sought and obtained work in a brickyard, and from that time assumed the care of his mother and three younger brothers and sisters, and was their chief dependence. At the age of fifteen he entered as clerk a retail grocery store in the city of Trenton, and remained in that capacity for five years. During the last year of his service he was intrusted with the purchase of stock in Philadelphia and New York, and thus acquired a knowledge of business and formed an acquaintance with business men which largely aided him in his subsequent operations. At the age of twenty years he started a retail grocery store under his own name, with a cash capital of fifteen dollars. In this he continued for three years, and then tore out counters and shelves and boldly launched out into the wholesale trade. It was the

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first venture ever made in the city of Trenton of a distinct- ively wholesale business of any kind. Many careful and sagacious business men doubted the expediency of the un- dertaking and predicted its failure. The first year he sold $250,000 worth of goods, and the annual sales thencefor- ward steadily increased until 1870, when they reached over a million of dollars. The wholesale trade which grew out of this successful pioneer experiment has now become the most important element of mercantile life in the city. During the year 1870 he sold his interest in the grocery business, and huilt a packing-house and slaughtering estab- lishment, which he is now successfully operating. He has served two terms in the Trenton Common Council, and in that capacity secured the passage of an ordinance submitting to a vote of the people the question of removing the pub- lic markets from Greene street, and the abandonment by the city of the market business. By his zealous labors for two years he procured the success of these projects. This question was one of the most interesting and exciting local contests that had agitated the community for several years. He contributed liberally to the stock in private market as- sociations, and several new and handsome markets have been erected, one of which, in honor to him, bears the name of Taylor. In 1866 he conceived the project of erecting an opera house, and hy taking half the stock himself and energetically canvassing for the remainder he secured the success of the enterprise. The building was begun the same year and opened to the public in 1867. It cost $125,000, and is the finest structure of the kind in New Jer- sey. Many sagacious people also predicted that this enter- prise would be a disastrous failure, but there is now nothing in the city in which the citizens take a greater pride than in the Taylor Opera House. He was also chiefly instrumental in organizing Company "A," of the National Guard, one of the finest military organizations in the State. In the directions indicated and in various other ways he has suc- cessfully labored to foster a spirit of public improvement in Trenton.

UNYON, HON. ENOS W., Lawyer and Judge, was born, February 24th, 1825, in Somerset county, New Jersey. He is the son of Squire Runyon. His family is of Huguenot descent, his ancestors having left France on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, settling first in England, from which one branch of them emigrated to this country, taking up their residence in the Carolinas, whence some of their descendants removed to New Jersey. He was educated at the Plainfield Academy, and afterwards taught school until his 25th year, at the same time preparing himself for the bar. Ile began the study of law with Cornelius Boice, and finished his preparatory course with Joseph Annin, a relative of President Edwards. He was admitted to the

har, June 8th, 1854, and at once entered upon the practice in Plainfield. At that time he and Mr. Boice, his late precep- tor, were the only lawyers in Plainfield; but, though the laborers were few, the harvest was not plenteous, and he had to depend on the growth of the town for the growth of his practice. This dependence, however, did not fail him in the end; Plainfield has grown, and his practice with it, until both are large and flourishing, his practice having become lucrative in all branches of the profession. Mean- while, in 1856, when his practice was not yet absorbing, he founded the Plainfield Gazette, and conducted it for about three years, placing it on a sound footing, financially and journalistically. In 1862 his brother, Nelson Runyon, be- came his law-partner, the name of the firm being E. W. & N. Runyon. Most successful lawyers, in the smaller cities at least, are drawn, soon or late, into politics, and he has not proved an exception, owing in some measure, possibly, to his former connection with the press. In 1867 he was elected to the New Jersey Legislature, in which he took a leading part in favor of conferring the right of suffrage on the colored people of the State, being the most outspoken and fearless of all the advocates of the measure, and doing more, perhaps, than any other member to secure its passage. It was not a popular measure at the time, and his prominent connection with it no doubt contributed to prevent his return to the next Legislature, but he had the consolation of suc- cess in the line of duty, to which has since heen added the general admission that he was right, the bitterest opponents of the measure then conceding now its justice and wisdom. In April, 1873, he was appointed Law Judge of Union county, a position which he still holds, and the duties of which he has discharged to the satisfaction of the bar and the public. IIe was married, February 20th, 1850, to Miss Vail, daughter of Stephen Vail, of Plainfield.

AXON, WILLIAM B., Lawyer, of Plainfield, was born in May, 1829, at Unadilla Forks, Otsego county, New York. He is a son of the Rev. Wm. B. Maxon, of the Seventh-day Baptist Church. The Maxon family came to this country from England in the seventeenth century, and set- tled in Rhode Island, where the whole family was murdered by the Indians, except one boy, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who was also a minister of the Sev- enth-day Baptist Church. The mother of the present sub- ject was Lucinda Le Roy, whose mother was a native of Stonington, Connecticut, and, when a young girl, signalized her revolutionary spirit hy secretly entering the British lines, in company with another girl, and bringing off the British flag in triumph. The descendant of this spirited maiden, whosc life is now to be sketched, received a classi- cal education at the Du Ruyter Institute, and at the age of eighteen went to New York city, where he was employed

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in the Novelty Iron Works, then operated and partly owned by Mr. Thomas Stillman. Six months in this establishment convinced him that he had no aptitude for the mechanical arts and he accordingly relinquished the study of thein. In 1849 he went to California, in which he cast his first vote for President, voting for General Scott in 1852. Finally discovering what he believed to be his true bent, he began the study of law, reading with Mr. Wheelan, formerly law- partner of Ex-Governor Smith, and in 1854 was admitted to the California bar. He practised in San Francisco until 1859, when he was elected to the California Legislature, wherein he served with credit for one term, declining a re- nomination. Previously, however, he had held the office of Judge of the Court of General Sessions of San Mateo county, during his incumbency of which the Terry-Broder- ick duel took place, the first hostile meeting of the parties being frustrated by their arrest under a warrant issuing from him. Their second meeting, as is well known, eluded the officers of the law, with a result fatal to Senator Broderick. To return, while in the Legislature he was a member of the committee to investigate the necessity of an expedition against the Indians, making a minority report in opposition to the measure, and in favor of protecting the Indians rather than fighting them. This report, especially notable as coming from one who tracks his lineage through pools of innocent blood shed by Indians, was ultimately adopted, whereby the State was saved certainly a great expense and probably a great shame. After spending sixteen years in California, including the turbulent times in which the Vigil- ance Committee bore sway, a stern but necessary rule as he believes, he returned, in 1867, to the East, settling at Plain- field, New Jersey, though entering into a legal partnership with Judge Titsworth, of Newark. He continued this partnership for two years, when he was elected Superin- tendent and Agent of the American and Mexican Railroad and Telegraph Company, organized to construct a railroad and telegraph line from Guaymas, in Sonora, to El Paso, in Texas. He spent two years in the service of this company, whose enterprise, owing to the unsettled state of the country and the death of Judge Whiting, one of the principal pro- jectors, was eventually abandoned. In 1873 he resumed his practice and his residence in the city of Plainfield, where he has since attained great distinction in his profession, par- ticularly as a jury lawyer, in which respect his reputation may fairly be said to have become national. IIis recent defence of a young girl accused of larceny was remarked upon at the time by the press of the metropolis, and of the country at large, as an effort of surpassing ability and elo- quence. In politics he was a Whig so long as the Whig party existed, after which he adhered to the Republican party until the nomination of Mr. Greeley, in 1872, when he took his place among the Liberal Republicans. Since 1874 he has been Corporation Counsel for the city of Plain- field. He was married, in 1867, to Miss Titsworth, daugh- ter of the late Judge Titsworth, of Plainfield.

OOK, LEWIS C., M. D., was born in December, 1818, at Stewartsville, Warren county, New Jer- sey. He was a son of Dr. Silas C. Cook, of that county. He graduated at Princeton College in 1838, and studied medicine in the medical de- partment of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1842. He succeeded his father in the practice of medicine at Stewartsville, and subsequently formed a partnership with Dr. Rea, which lasted until the latter retired from practice, when he formed a new partner- ship with his younger brother, Dr. John S. Cook. The lat- ter partnership continued until he removed to Chicago, Illinois. After four years of successful practice in that city his declining health induced him to return to the East, upon which he renewed his partnership with his brother at Hackettstown, in his native county, where he resided for the remainder of his life. He was an active and leading member of the Warren County Medical Society, which he frequently represented in the State Medical Society. His profession in all its relations was the object of his ardent devotion, a devotion which never flagged while his life en- dured, and which was reflected back in the esteem and ad- miration accorded to him by his fellow-practitioners through- out the wide circle of his acquaintance and the still wider circle of his reputation. Personally he was a man of fine appearance, graceful address, refined and genial manners, and warm social feelings, unstinted in his charities, tena- cious in his friendships, steadfast in his convictions, and above all, unfaltering in his faith, the type, in short, of a Christian gentleman. He died on the 11th of January, 1874, of typhus fever, after an illness of sixteen days, dying, as he had lived, in the full possession of the Christian faith as taught by the Presbyterian Church, of which he had long been an exemplary member. He was married, in March, 1852, to Miss Janet Eaton, whom he survived, though but for a few years.

OOK, JOHN S., M. D., was born, June 19th, 1827, near Stewartsville, Warren county, New Jersey. IIe is a son of Dr. Silas C. Cook, long a promi- nent physician of that county. Having prepared for college at Easton, Pennsylvania, he entered Lafayette College in 1844, remaining at that institution until 1846, when he left it to enter Union College, from which he graduated in 1847, completing the curriculum in three years, which would seem to imply an unusually thorough preparation at the outset, or unusual proficiency in the course, if not both. He began the study of medicine with his father, and finished it in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, at which he graduated in 1850. Soon after his graduation he entered upon the ' practice of his profession at Hackettstown, New Jersey, where he has since pursued it, acquiring an extensive prac-

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tice, and establishing an enviable reputation both as a been County Examiner of Public Schools; President of the physician and a man. For a number of years he was as- Cumberland County Sunday-School Association; member of the Board of Trustees of the West Jersey Academy ; member of the Board of Directors of the Cumberland County Bible Society, ete. He has also for a number of years been Medical Examiner to the American, of Phila- delphia, and the Mutual and Atna, of New York, Life Insurance Companies. He has married twice : first, April 7th, 1859, to Caroline H. Bateman, who died August 23d, 1874; and, second, June 14th, 1876, to Louise L. Goff. sociated in the practice with his elder brother, the late Dr. Lewis C. Cook, a physician of distinction, and in all re- spects an ornament to the profession, as indeed may be as truthfully said of the younger brother, whose professional abilities and personal character are held in the highest regard by the community which they serve and adorn. He is a member of the Warren County Medical Society; of the New Jersey Academy of Medicine; and of the State Mcdi- cal Society, of which he is Vice-President. He was mar- ried, in 1855, to Georgia Lewis, of Columbus, Ohio.

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 107

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