The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 116

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

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INCHI, CHARLES A., A. B., M. D., Physician and Surgeon, of Westfield, is the son of Dr. Frederick A. Kinch, whose biographical sketch immediately precedes, and is his associate in practice. IIe was born in Westfield, New Jersey, August 30th, 1851. Until he was thirteen years of age he attended the public school of his native town, and was then transferred to Grammar School No. 35, Thirteenth street, New York city. In regular course he entered the College of the City of New York, and gradu- ated with honor in the year 1870. He was awarded a special prize in chemistry by Prof. R. O. Doremus. HIe received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in the year 1873, and at onee entered upon the practice of his profession. October 24th, 1876, he married Carrie E., the eldest daugh- ter of the late Charles Cheney, Esq., of Elizabeth, New Jersey. lIe is a member of the District Medical Society of the County of Union.

OBART, REV. JOIIN HIENRY, D. D., Pastor of Christ's Church, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of New York, late of Auburn, New York, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 14th, 1775. His ancestors, in 1663, had emigrated from Norfolk, England, and settled in Hing- ham, Massachusetts ; his father, Enoch Hobart, was com- mander of a merchant ship. In 1788 he entered the Col- lege of Philadelphia, whence, in 1791, he was transferred to Princeton College, where he graduated in 1793. At first, owing to certain family considerations, he reluctantly undertook to fit himself for mercantile life in the counting- house of his brother-in-law; but finding, after a brief ex- perience, that his, tastes and inclination led him in another direction, he resolved to enter upon a course of preparation for the ministry. Receiving at this time an invitation to a tutorship at Princeton, New Jersey, he accepted the post, and began the discharge of his duties in January, 1796. At the same time he studied theology under the guidance of Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, the president of the collegc. In the spring of 1798 he resigned his tutorship and re- moved to Philadelphia, where he pursued his studies under the supervision of Bishop White, by whom he was admitted to deacon's orders, June 3d, 1798, and was invited to take charge of two suburban parishes near Philadelphia. In 1799 he was called to Christ's Church, New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he remained until he became Rector of St. George's Church, Hempstead, Long Island. Subse- quently he declined the Rectorship of St. Mark's Church, New York. In the following September, however, he ac- cepted an invitation to become an assistant minister of Trinity Church, New York. In ISOI he was ordained Priest by Bishop Provoost. IIe had already been Secretary of the House of Bishops, and was elected Secretary of the Convention of New York, Deputy to the General Conven- tions of 1801, 1804, and 1808, and on the last two occa- sions was Secretary to the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. In 1806 Union College conferred upon him the degree of D. D. In February, ISII, Bishop Moore, of New York, having been disabled from public service by a paralytie stroke, he was elected Assistant Bishop, and was consecrated on the 29th. In consequence of Bishop Moore's infirmities he was then charged with the entire duty of overseeing the church throughout the State of New York. In 1812 he was made Assistant Rector of Trinity Church, and, on Moore's death, in 1816, became Bishop of the diocese, and was also called to the Rectorship of Trinity Church. Ile was specially active in forming a theological seminary in New York, and the result of his efforts was the foundation of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Epis- copal Church. In IS21 he consented to undertake the duties of Professor of Pastoral Theology and Pulpit Eloquence in that institution. Ilis health failing under his severe labors, in the latter part of 1823 he embarked for England, and,

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November Ist, arrived safely at Liverpool. While abroad unaccustomed. His principal occupations in early life were he visited Great Britain, France, Switzerland, and Italy, and spent much of his time in investigations and inquiries relative to the progress of religion, and the social and moral condition of Europe. His first sermon, after his return home in 1825, was glowing and patriotic " to an unusual degree." Theological education, Sunday-schools, domestic and foreign missions, the Bible and Prayer-Book Society, the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, and other associa- tions of a similar character, commanded his warm and steady support. In 1818 he visited the Oneida Indians, and again in 1826, and it was through him that Eleazar Wil- liams (who was afterward thought by some to be the lost Dauphin, Louis XVII.) was admitted to orders, and offici- ated among the aborigines. He represented the " old-fash- ioned high-churchman " of his day, and never scrupled to set forth with all boldness the views and sentiments which necessarily hrought him into collision with Christians of other denominations, and which were not wholly approved of by many in his own church. In addition to a large num- ber of pamphlets, occasional sermons, and charges, he was the author, or editor, of several publications, which have had a very wide circulation. Among his more important works are : " Companion for the Altar," "Companion for the Festivals and Fasts," "Apology for Apostolic Order," " State of Departed Spirits," " Communicant's Manual," " Clergy- man's Companion," " Christian's Manual of Faith and Devotion," and an edition of D'Oyley and Mant's " Com- mentary on the Bible." He was married in May, 1800, to a daughter of Rev. Dr. Chandler, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and died in Auburn, New York, September 10th, 1830.

LARK, HON. ABRAHAM, one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey, late of Rahway, was born at Elizabeth- town, New Jersey, February 15th, 1726. His grandfather, Thomas, was the son of Richard (who cmigrated to Elizabeth in 1678), and resided on the Upper or Western Road, about midway between Eliza- bethtown and Rahway ; he had at least three sons and one daughter : Thomas, Abraham, and James, and Mrs. Day. Captain Abraham Clark, commander of the troop, outlived his hrother Robert but fifteen days; Thomas, the eldest, was named in the first charter of the borough as one of the aldermen-" he was judge, and, I believe, keeper of the king's arms, as many muskets and cartouche boxes with the letters ' G. R.' on their covers remained in the house until used by our patriots."-Dr. Abraham Clark. He secured a good English education under competent teachers, and was markedly addicted to the study of mathematics and of civil law. A constitution naturally weak and a slender form prevented him from engaging in laborious pursuits, to which, although rcared as a farmer, he was almost wholly.

surveying, conveyancing, and giving legal advice. He was not by profession a lawyer, but tendered advice gratuitously, a task for which he had rendered himself competent by the ardent pursuit of his favorite study. This generosity, which in those more primitive times was held in high estimation, procured him the honorable title of " the poor man's coun- sellor." His frequent services as an arbitrator of litigated titles to land in different counties of the State indicate the high estimation in which his integrity and the correctness of his judgment were held beyond the immediate circle in which he lived; and this opinion is confirmed by the appointment of the General Assembly, which empowered him to settle undivided commons. Previous to the com- mencement of his congressional duties, the confidence reposed in his zeal and ability by his fellow-citizens had been variously manifested. As High Sheriff of the County of Essex, and Clerk of the Colonial Assembly at Amboy, under the royal dominion, he had won distinction through official assiduity and capacity. When the tempest of the Revolution began to agitate the land, he had already passed the meridian of life, and arrived at an age when the actions of men are more frequently guided by principle than by pas- sion ; and it was, therefore, under a well-settled and solemn conviction of the justice of the cause, that he appeared in the first ranks of the revolutionary phalanx, and devoted his remaining years to the service of his country. In the commencement of the conflict he distinguished himself as an active member of the Committee of Public Safety, as a con- stant attendant and assistant at popular meetings, and as a persevering promoter of patriotic feelings by private com- munication. After an unremitting series of services in his native province he was summoned to exercise his talents upon a more extensive stage. On the 21st of June, 1776, he was appointed by the Provincial Congress, in conjunction with Richard Stockton, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson and Dr. John Witherspoon, a delegate to the Continental Congress. They were instructed to unite with the delegates of the other colonies in the most vigorous measures for supporting the rights and liberties of America, and, should it be deemed necessary or expedient for this purpose, to join with them in declaring the united colonies independent of Great Britain. He then applied himself zealously to the loyal discharge of his new duties, and for a long time was one of the leading mem- bers of the Jersey delegation. His abilities and persever- ance in the business of committees, and his plain, clear view of general measures, rendered him a valuable member of the House; while his fervid patriotism and unswerving in- tegrity attracted the respect and admiration of his colleagues. " His faith and firmness were amply tested a few days after he took his seat by his cordial co-operation with those who advocated the immediate proclamation of independence, and it is believed that his strong conviction of the propriety of that measure united with his many political virtues in pro- 'moting his appointment." One of the first duties which

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devolved on him as a member of the great national council, States, which office he held until the ensuing clection, when involving personal safety and fortune, and above all, the he was elected a Representative in the Second Congress, and continued to hold that honorable appointment until a short time previous to his decease. In the Congress of 1794 he cxcrted his influence and talents in support of the rcsolutions submitted by Madison, relative to the commerce of the United States. IIc was also prominent during the troublous period of the Genet complications; and on one occasion moved a resolution to prohibit all intercourse with Great Britain, " until full compensation was made to our citizens for the injurics sustained by them from British armed vessels, and until the Western posts should be delivered up." Exhausted by his political toils and in- creasing infirmities, he finally retired from public life on the adjournment of Congress, June 9th, 1794. In the following autumn, September 15th, he was stricken down by sun- stroke, which terminated his existence in two hours. IIe died in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and was buried in the church-yard at Rahway, New Jersey. liberties of his country, was discharged with alacrity; and he affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence " with those feelings of pride and resolution that are excited by a noble but dangerous action." November 30th, 1776, he was again elected by the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, and continued, with the exception of the session of 1779, to be annually re-elected a delegate from that State until November, 1783. During this long period of service his necessary intimacy with the proceedings of Congress, and the course and nature of the arduons and protracted affairs which frequently demanded a great extent of atten- tion, memory and judgment, rendercd him an active and eminently useful member. In 1788 he again took his seat in the national legislature. The intervals of his non- election to Congress were not devoted to leisure, nor applied to that relief from public cares which the feebleness of his constitution required. His exertions and services in the State Legislature, of which he was a member during those periods. were properly appreciated, and his influence became so extended that he personally incurred popular praise or reproach, in proportion to the applause or odium excited ICHARDS, REV. AARON, Revolutionary Patriot and Presbyterian minister, late of Rahway, was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 17IS. IIis great-grandfather, Thomas Richards, born in England about 1602, came to America, settled in Hartford, Connecticut, about 1637, and there died in the course of the following year; his son, John, born in 1631, married as early as 1656 Lydia Stocking, and died in 1712, at Newark, New Jersey; one of his sons, John Richards, was born in 1687, and married in 1717 Jane, daughter of Deacon Azariah Crane, of Newark, New Jersey, and died in that town, March 16th, 1748; Mrs. Jane Richards, his wife, died September 12th, 1741, in her fifty-sixth year; they had three sons : Moses and Aaron, twins, and David, born in 1720. In 1743 Aaron graduated at Yale College, having associated there with such men as Governor William Livingston, Samuel Hopkins, D. D., Samuel Buel, D. D., James Sproat, D. D., Noah Welles, D. D., William Peartree Smith, D. D., Eliphalet Williams, D. D., William S. Johnson, President and LL. D., Thomas B. Chandler, D. D., and others ; Caleb Smith, of Orange, New Jersey, was his classmate. He was ordained by the Presbytery of New York, November 15th, 1748, and in- stalled the first pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Rali- way, New Jersey, where he retained the pastoral charge during an uninterrupted period of forty-two years. His usefulness and happiness were much impaired by a morbid hypochondria, to which he was more or less subject during the greater part of his ministry. He is spoken of, in 1753, as " a pious minister under the deepest melancholy and temptation, harassed with perpetual suggestions to cut his own throat. Naturally, however, he was gay and lively." by the general acts of the Legislature. An act to regulate the practice in the courts of law in New Jersey, in some de- gree curtailing the emoluments of practitioners, was called " Clark's law" by the members of the bar; and they, in general, manifested a strong spirit of enmity toward him as the supposed framer of the act. HIe was styled the " father of the paper currency," although he opposed the emission with the whole weight of his influence, until pop- ular meetings were convened to devise a plan for arresting the course of justice and closing the courts. Contrary to the advice of his friends, who urged a consideration of the personal danger he incurred, he attended one of these meet- ings, and there explained and enforced the reasons which induced him to desire the postponement of the emission until the fate of similar experiments, then in train in the neighboring States, might afford a practical view of their results. He was instrumental for a time in calming the popular ferment, but was ultimately compelled to coalesce in a measure which appeared unavoidable. He possessed the reputation of being a rigid economist in all things relating to the public treasure; and was one among the earliest pro- moters of those measures which led to a convention for the purpose of framing a more stable and efficacious constitution for the government of the States. In 1787 he was ap- pointed a member of the general convention which framed the Federal Constitution, but was prevented by ill health from joining in the deliberations of that illustrious assem- bly. He was opposed to the constitution in its primitive form, but his objections being removed by subsequent amendments, it met with his cordial approbation and sup- port. In the winter of 1789-90 he was appointed a com- missioner to settle the accounts of his State with the United |Having espoused the cause of his country during the war

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of the Revolution, he was compelled to flee from the for his pulpit were provided by the presbytery. Ile was British invaders in 1776, and to reside a few months at eventually compelled to relinquish the pastoral office, and was dismissed from his charge, May 6th, 1801. Ile married Mary Sutphen, of Monmouth county, New Jersey, who sur- vived him and died at Somerset, and had four children . Mary, wife of Grover Coe; Jane, wife of Mr. Stewart, of Elizabethtown; Elizabeth Ryerson, wife of Isaac Van Ars- dale, of Somerset ; and Elias Van Arsdale, LL. D., of Newark. He died at Springfield, New Jersey, October 24th, 1803. South Hanover, New Jersey, where he ministered to the Presbyterian Church until the time came when he was cnabled to return to his home in safety. With advancing years he became more than ever a victim of the most dis- tressing hypochondria, " so that at length, at the age of seventy-two, he desisted entirely from prcaching." Thc pastoral relation was dissolved November 2d, 1791, and he died at Rahway, May 16th, 1793, in the seventy-sixth year of his age and the forty-fifth of his ministry. His wife, Susannah Smith, a native of England, survived him but a few months. They had seven children : Smith, Alexander, William, Samuel, Vroom, Mary, who married Joseph Barnett, of Rahway, and Betsy, who became the wife of James Brown, of Woodbridge.

AN ARTSDALEN, REV. JACOB, at one time Pastor of the Springfield Presbyterian Church, was born at Somerset, New Jersey, February 8th, 1745, and was, as his name indicates, of Dutch extraction. Symon Jansen Van Arsdalen emi- grated from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1653, locating at Flatlands, Long Island, where he was classed among the first and most respected citizens; he died about the year 1710, Icaving two sons, Cornelius and John, the prolific source of all the Van Arsdale family in America : Cornelius had six sons-Derick, John, Simon, Philip, Abra- him and Jacobus-who settled in Somerset county, New Jersey, as early as 1726; he had also three daughters- Alletta, Petronella and Mary. John was the great-grand- father of the late Cornelius C. Van Arsdale, D. D., of New York ; Philip, born February 12th, 1701, at Flatlands, Long Island, married, April 30th, 1726, Jane Van Dyck, of Red Mills, Long Island (born February 23d, 1703), and hd cight children-Cornelius, Hendrick, Mary, Isaac, Philip, John, Jacob and Abraham : he died in his ninety- seventh year, June 17th, 1797, at Somerset, New Jersey. The subject of this sketch was educated at Princeton College and graduated from that institution in 1765, a classmate of Judges Bacon and Rush, of Drs. Halsted and Rumsay, of Robert and Jonathan Ogden, of Rev. Samuel Kirkland, of Rev. Drs. Jocl Benedict and Jonathan Edwards, college presidents, and other worthies. June 19th, 1771, he was ordained by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, in whose connection he continued until the latter part of 1774, when he was received by the Presbytery of New York, and put in charge of the church of Springfield, New Jersey. He con- tinued in the orderly and faithful performance of the duties of this office, as far as his health permitted, more than a quarter of a century. In the spring of 1797, and again three years later, he was, by reason of long-continued ill- ness, disqualified for preaching, and, at his request, supplies

AMILTON, IION. ROBERT, Lawyer, of Newton, was born at Hamburg, Sussex county, New Jer- sey, 1811. ITIs father was General Benjamin Hamilton. He received a substantial education, directed his attention to the study of law, was ad- mitted to the New Jersey bar in 1836, and was made counsellor three years afterward. He served I wo terms as Prosecutor of the Pleas of Sussex county, and for several years was Director of the Board of Chosen Frceholders. In 1862 he was nominated by the Democrats as their candidate for Assembly, was elected both that and the succeeding year, and served during the sessions of 1863-64. During the latter session the Speaker, Mr. Taylor, died, and Mr. IIamilton was elected to succeed him. In 1872 he was nominated by the Democrats of the Fourth Congressional District as their congressional candidate. The district is composed of the counties of Hunterdon, Warren, Somerset, and Sussex. He was elected by over 2,000 majority. In 1874 he was renominated and again elected by an increased majority. Mr. Hamilton is an able lawyer, and previous to his election to Congress had an extensive practice in all the State courts. He is an unflinching Democrat, and an earnest advocate of the doctrines of that party.

OSS, HION. MILES, Merchant, of New Brunswick, was horn at Raritan, New Jersey, in 1828. When quite young he removed with his father to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he was educated, and engaged with his father in the vessel trade. Hle was for some time one of the Chosen Frce- holders of New Brunswick, Mayor of the city, and was for two ycars successively elected to the New Jersey Assembly. Ile is largely engaged in the wholesale coal trade, was for a long while a leading Bank Director, a member of the Board of Street Commissioners, and variously interested in the public institutions of New Brunswick. In 1874 he was nominated by the Democrats of the Third District as their candidate for Congress, and although the district had elected a Republican representative two years previously, he was elected by over 2,000 majority. The Third District is com .

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posed of the counties of Middlesex, Monmouth and Union. His congressional career has been a satisfactory one, and he has the entire confidence of his party.

EFFERS, HON. WILLIAM N., Lawyer, late of Camden, New Jersey; was born in New York, and after being admitted to the bar of that State, went to New Orleans in the employ of John Jacob Astor. After a short stay in the South he removed to Cincinnati, and undertook to practise as a lawyer ; but soon became involved in some transaction which occasioned an indictment to be found against him in the criminal court of that city, for the forgery or falsification of a bond. He was, however, permitted to put in bail of a nominal character, and to leave without a trial. He came to New Jersey about the year 1813, and after a short resi- dence in Mount Holly, where he secured the friendship and patronage of Judge Rossell, who remained his warm friend as long as he lived, was in 1814 examined and licensed as an attorney. He then took up his residence in Salem, and in 1817 was admitted as a counsellor. In 1834 he was calied to the degree of serjcant-at-law. " Ile was never a well-read lawyer, but had some remarkable characteristics. He was a very handsome man, and distinguished for polite manners and a winning address." He rapidly acquired an extensive and lucrative practice in his profession, and as an advocate before a Court of Common Pleas, or a jury, won merited distinction as a mnost astute and formidable adver- sary ; and he had also the faculty of always retaining his clients, who seemed never, when worsted even, to attribute blame to him in the slightest degree. At an early period he engaged in the political movements of the hour, taking sides with the Democratic party. In 1827, and in several years afterward, he was elected a member of the Assembly, and in 1829 was a candidate in the caucus of the Jackson members for the position of Governor, but did not succeed in obtaining the nomination. He was also named for the Senate of the United States, and at one time confidently ex- pected to succeed. " Salem has always been a warmly contested county, sometimes on the one side, sometimes on the other." He was one of the first who engaged person- ally in canvassing for votes, now so common a habit as to occasion no surprise, and for this step was strongly con- demned by many who deemed it undignified and unbecom- ing. Although he had warm personal friends, he contrived to create equally violent opponents, and much injustice may have been done him by those toward whom he showed a hostile attitude, or who were politically opposed to him. Ile was intimately identified with the early management of the Salem Bank, originally chartered in connection with a steam flonr-mill, and in some way was interested in the setting up of a manufacturing company in the name and under the direction of a brother; and in connection there-

with was accused, justly or unjustly, of blamable transac- tions, which occasioned a legislative investigation. In the early part of Jackson's administration he was appointed Minister to one of the South American republics, and had proceeded as far as Mobile on his way to the mission. In the meantime, however, some of those persons whose enmity he had provoked procured a copy of the old indict- ment against him, and he was recalled before he left the country. This occasioned his renunciation of politics, and he eventually removed to Camden, New Jersey, where he resided and was actively engaged in his profession, holding only the office of Prosecutor of Pleas, until his death in 1853, at the age of about sixty-five years.

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 116

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