The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 17

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

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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

characterized by constant and progressive success. He was admirably adapted by nature to the profession he had chosen, and his culture and acquirements were already large. He speedily became known as a careful and skilful practitioner, who conquered the confidence of the com- munity, and hence he was soon the possessor of a large and valuable patronage. He continued his habits of close study, and thereby kept himself abreast of his profession in its most advanced progress. As a result his patronage grew, and he rose rapidly and steadily to a high rank in his profession, which he has always maintained and in which he has the cordial recognition of his professional brethren and of the community at large. In the winter of 1862 and 1863 he attended a course of lectures at Bellevue College, receiving a diploma from that institution in the spring of 1863. He is a leading member of the District Medical Society of Hudson, and has several times served as the delegate of that society to the State Medical Society. He was a dele- gate to the convention of the American Medical Associa- tion, held in June, 1876. He was one of the organizers of the Jersey City Charity Hospital, and serves on its medi- cal staff. He is also one of the staff of the Hudson County Church Hospital. He acted on the staff of St. Francis' Ilospital from the time of its organization up to July, 1873. For several years he was Physician to the Children's Home in Jersey City, and for a number of years acted as City Physician. In the early stage of his practice he served a term of three years as Coroner of Hudson County. In 1863, when the call was made for army surgeons, he at once offered his services, hut his efforts to be placed on active duty at " the front " were unsuccessful. He is enthusiasti- cally devoted to his profession, and frequently contributes to its literature. He was married in 1855 to Gertrude Johnson, a granddaughter of Stephen Vreeland.

ROWN, HON. THOMAS S. R., Merchant, Key- port, was horn in Middlesex county, New Jersey. His father, Benjamin L. Brown, by occupation a farmer and builder, and his mother, whose maiden name was Susan Brown, were both na- tives of the same State. His youth was passed on his father's farm, and his education was obtained during this period in the county public schools. When sixteen years of age he was placed to learn the mason's trade, and upon acquiring this he cmbarked in the coasting trade, in which he was engaged for two years. In the winter of 1846 he settled in Keyport, New Jersey, where he went into business as a mason and builder. This, with marked and constant success, he continued up to 1864, when he entered mercantile life, dealing mainly in hardware, lumber and coal. He has always been an active and influential Dem- ocrat, and as such was elected one of the first commissioners of Keyport, a position which he held during 1870 and 1871. cast their ballots for that candidate in 1824. He was a

He was a Chosen Freeholder for three years, and in 1866 and 1867 was elected by his party to the Legislature, where he served with good effect for two terms, and headcd the Committee on Engrossed Bills the second year. Ile has been identified with all efforts to secure local improve- ments, and is esteemed as an active, public-spirited citizen, an excellent official and progressive merchant.

COTT, JOSEPH WARREN, LL. D., Lawyer, late of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was born, November 28th, 1778, in that town, and was the son of Dr. Moscs Scott, and the grandson of John Scott, a native of Scotland, who emigrated to America at an early date, settling in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Prior to the revolutionary war Dr. Scott removed to New Brunswick, where he resided until his death, engaged in the practice of medicine. During the war for independence he was professionally engaged in the army, and was present at the battles of Princeton and Bran- dywine. He was created, by a special act of Congress, Senior Physician and Surgeon of the General Army Hos- pital of the Middle District. He was a warm and intimate friend of Generals Washington and Warren. The latter, it will be remembered, was a physician, and fell at the battle of Bunker Hill. Dr. Scott had given his eldest son the name of the patriot physician, but the child died in its in- fancy, and he continued the name to his second son. The latter attended the schools of his native town, and also at Elizabethtown, preparatory to entering college. Ile gradu- .ated at Princeton, in 1795, before he had attained the age of seventeen years. He first appears to have selected the medical profession as his future role, and became a student in his father's office. He soon abandoned this, and then entertained the idea of becoming a clergyman. After a short course in theology he again changed his mind, and resolved to embrace the legal profession. With this view he entered the office of General Frederick Frelinghuysen, in New Brunswick, and was licensed as an attorney in 1801, becoming a counsellor three years later, and was finally made a serjeant-at-law in 1816. After his admission to the bar, in 1801, he commenced practice in his native city, in which he continued to reside until the end of his life. He was a most profound lawyer and able barrister and counsellor, and his practice was a large and lucrative one. He was appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas for the County of Middlesex, but beyond this never held any official position. He retired, in a measure, from practice about 1840; but as late as 1857, when nearly eighty years of age, he defended a criminal charged with murder, and made a powerful argument against the validity of the indictment. He was a supporter of General Jackson for the Presidency, and was one of the Electoral College of New Jersey who

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

prominent member of the Order of the Cincinnati, entering the New Jersey Society in 1825, as the eldest surviving son of his father, Dr. Moses Scott. In 1832 he was elected Assistant Treasurer of the general society, and in 1838 be- came the Treasurer-general. In 1840 he was elected Vice- President of the State Society, and in 1844 became its President. In 1868, when he had reached the age of four- score years and ten, he was present at the inauguration of Rev. Dr. James McCosh as President of the College of New Jersey, and with his associate, Judge Herring, were the two oldest living graduates of Princeton College. While he was a student in that institution the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon was still its president, and as such conferred on him the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts. On this occasion, one of the first acts of the new incumbent was to make him the recipient of the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was a most accomplished gentleman, well versed in the Latin tongue, and was wont to correspond with his friends in that lan- guage up to his latest year ; he was likewise an excellent English scholar, and thoroughly acquainted with the old poets. In early life he had been honored by one of the governors of the State as a member of his staff, with the rank of Colonel; and by this appellation he was more familiarly known. Ile died in New Brunswick in May, 1871, having nearly reached the great age of ninety-three ye .. l's.

HACKLETON, JUDSON G., M. D., Physician, of Matawan, was born in Belvidere, New Jersey, June 16th, 1836. His father was Hon. Benjamin Shackleton, who, although he was a merchant by occupation, for many years occupied the bench of Warren county, and who now resides in Jersey City. Judge Shackleton's wife was Ellen Stull, a native of Pennsylvania. Their son, Judson, received his education at the select schools of Belvidere. It was early decided that he should enter the medical profession, and accordingly when he left school, at the age of eighteen, he entered the office of Dr. R. Byington, an old and prominent practitioner of Belvidere. Ile remained here as a student until 1855, when he matriculated at the New York Medical University. Ifis preliminary reading had been diligent and thorough, so he entered the institution fully prepared to avail himself to the utmost of every advantage offered. During his univer- sity course he continued his close and studious application, and his progress was rapid and pronounced. He graduated in the spring of 1857, and at once settled at what was then Middletown Point, but what is now known as Matawan. Here he commenced the practice of his profession, and so decided was his natural fitness for his career, and so thor- ough had been his preparation for it, that he advanced rapidly toward success, and in a comparatively short time found himself in the possession of an extensive and lucrative practice. Ile entered the army September 20th, 1862, as of Atchison, in the same State. In 1859 he left Kan-

Assistant Surgeon of the 29th New Jersey Volunteers, and served with that regiment for a period of nine months. With the exception of that interval, his residence and prac- tice at Matawan have been uninterrupted since his settle- ment there after receiving his diploma. He stands high in his profession, and the entire confidence of the community is accorded to him. He was married, October 26th, 1864, to Cordelia M. Rose, of New York city.

EMKE, REV. HENRY, of Elizabeth, Clergyman and Priest of the Order of St. Benedict, was born, July 27th, 1796, in the Grand Duchy of Meck- lenburg, Germany, and is descended from an old Lutheran family. He received his education in the Colleges and University of Mecklenburg- Rostock, and was intended by his family for a medical ca- reer. When but a youth and a student he volunteered, as did many of his compatriots, to serve in the army against Napoleon, and was attached to the corps commanded by Blucher, which participated in the battle of Waterloo, and there he witnessed the overthrow of the usurper. After the war was over he resolved to become a Lutheran clergyman, having been reared in that faith; but the lax ideas then prevalent shocked him, as he had been carefully educated in one of the strict old patriarchal families, and he left his home irresolute. He visited Bavaria, and there came under the teaching and advice of some of the leading hishops of the Roman Catholic Church, and having resolved to devote himself to the priesthood, after a severe course of study was ordained in 1826, by the venerable Bishop Sailer, of Ratis- bon, in whose diocese he labored for cight years, and then sailed for America in 1834, and was at first stationed in Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia, where he remained a year ; and then became the associate of the Russian Count, Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (whose father was a Russian prince, and his mother was a daughter of the celebrated general, the Count of Schmettan). Count Gallitzin was one who gave up position and fortune, everything, in fact, to establish a church in the wilderness of Western Pennsylva. nia. Father Lemke was associated with Count Gallitzin for five years, and until his death, and then became his biographer. He subsequently secured a tract of land in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and then returned to Germany, and brought hack with him a colony of monks of the Order of St. Benedict, and founded the Abbcy of St. Vincennes, on the above-mentioned land. This body has since grown rapidly, and has three mitred abbots in the United States. In the meantime Father Lemke became a member of the order, and, leaving the colony in Pennsylva- nia in a prosperous condition, went, in 1856, to Kansas, and inaugurated a mission of that order in the town of Doniphan, which was afterwards transferred to the flourishing priory

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

sas, and again visited Germany, where he sojourned a year. | John R. Conover, at that time of Red Bank. After two Returning once more to the United States, in 1860, he years of diligent study lie matriculated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, where he attended during the winter course of 1845-46. The next course he took at the University of New York, from which he gradu- ated in the spring of 1847, receiving therefrom his degree of M. D. During this session he also was an attendant at the celebrated private school of medicine of Dr. William Detmold. Locating himself in Red Bank, he has since 1847 been engaged in active practice, being associated with his brother until that gentleman's removal to Freehold, in 1858. During the long period in which Dr. Conover has been practising in Monmouth county, extending over a term of thirty years, he has devoted himself exclusively to his noble profession, securing a very extensive patronage, en- joying the entire confidence of his numerous patients as well as the community at large, and commanding the re- spect and esteem of the most distinguished of his profes- sional brethren. He has for many years been a member of the Monmouth County Medical Society, was its President during one year, and has been several times a delegate to the New Jersey State Medical Society. To-day he stands among the oldest and most highly esteemed practitioners in Monmouth county. He was married, November 25th, 1863, to Anna Maria Throckmorton, of Red Bank. stopped in New Jersey to take charge, for a season, of St. Michael's Church, Elizabeth. This parish was in an enfee- bled condition, but he brought it safely through all difficul- ties, and in the course of five years it had become too small to accommodate its worshippers. In 1865 the congregation was divided, and leaving the German element to retain pos- session of the Church of St. Michael, he, with the Irish members, commenced the erection of the Convent and Church of St. Walburga, which was regularly chartered in 1868. The convent has a large number of nuns of the Order of St. Benedict, and he is their chaplain, besides act- ing as pastor to those of his faith in that portion of the city of Elizabeth. On St. Mark's Day, April 25th, 1876, he celebrated his golden jubilee, being the fiftieth anniversary of his induction into the sacred order of the priesthood, on which occasion the little chapel of St. Walburga's Convent was the scene of an unwonted display. Both the pastoral residence and the chapel itself were decorated with arches of green, and the bishops of Newark and Rochester, New York, preceded by nearly one hundred priests, escorted the venerable father and priest to the church. A solemn high mass was sung, a sermon preached hy Bishop McQuade, of Rochester, who paid a merited tribute to the veteran priest, and the benediction was given by Bishop Corrigan, of Newark. At the altar a fine golden chalice was presented to him by a pupil of the Benedictine nuns, as the offering of the sisters and their pupils. One of the congregation gave an elegant altar; another, a set of vestments; others, a fine cope; and at the dinner, which followed the services, Vicar-General Doane, in the name of the clergy of the dio- cese, presented the reverend father with a purse containing nearly a thousand dollars. Father Lemke has now entered his eighty-first year, but is still a hale and hearty man; his appearance is impressive, heightened especially by the long white beard, one of the characteristics of his order.

RAIG, JAMES, M. D., Physician, of Jersey City, was born, January 22d, 1834, in the city of Glas- gow, Scotland, and is a son of John and Margaret (McIntyre) Craig. He received a preliminary education in the schools of his native city, and when seventeen years of age emigrated to the United States, and settled for a while in the Northwest. Some time elapsed after his arrival in America before he made choice of a profession, but eventually he selected that of a physician, and for this purpose entered the office of Dr. J. H. Stewart, of St. Paul, Minnesota, where he prose- cuted his studies with diligence for about two years. In 1859 he went to New York city, where he matriculated in the medical department of its university, and having passed through the two years' curriculum, graduated therefrom in the spring of 1861. During the same period he attended a course of lectures and study in the celebrated private school of Drs. Thomas and Donaghe, of the same city ; and like- wise was a participant in two courses of lectures in the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, from which latter institution he received a diploma for that special branch of study. He also attended clinics in the Bellevue and New York Hospi- tals, receiving therefor certificates. After obtaining his de-

ONOVER, ROBERT R., M. D., of Red Bank, was born in Freehold township, Monmouth county, New Jersey, October 3d, 1824. His fa- ther, Colonel Robert Conover, who died in 1826, was a native of the same township, and followed agricultural pursuits. He served with ahility as an officer in the war of 1812. The mother of Robert R. Conover was Gertrude Sutphen, also from Monmouth county, and a granddaughter of David Sutphen, one of the revolutionary patriots who fought so nobly in the memora- ble battles of which old Monmouth was the scene. Dr. Conover's early education was principally ohtained at a gree he selected Jersey City as his future residence, where boarding-school and academy in Mount Holly. Being he opened his office in the spring of 1861, and where he destined for the medical profession, he commenced his has remained ever since, actively engaged in professional studies in 1843 under the tuition of his brother, the late Dr. ! duties, having acquired a large and remunerative practice,

Galaxy Pub. Co. Philada

anos Graig, M. D.

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

and enjoying the confidence of his professional brethren and of the community at large. He has been for years a mem- ber of the District Medical Society of Hudson County, and in 1875 was a delegate to the New Jersey State Medical Society from the first-named body. He was the Attending Physician of St. Francis' Hospital, when that institution was in its infancy, and before it was permanently organized. The great pressure of other professional duties forced him to relinquish hospital service. In the present year (1876) he was elected a member of the New York Medico-legal Society. He has at various times contributed papers on medical subjects for publication, and has ever taken a great interest in all that pertains to the advancement of his chosen profession in the city of his residence and the State of his adoption. He was married, December 2d, 1862, to Catha- rine Nicholson, a native of Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland.

TRONG, PROFESSOR THEODORE, LL. D., late of New Brunswick, was a son of Rev. Joseph Strong and Sophia Woodbridge, and was born, July 26th, 1790, at South Hadley, Massachusetts. He was graduated at Yale College in 1812, taking the prize in mathematics and a high stand in all his studies, and at once became tutor in Hamilton College, in which institution he was also Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy from 1816 to 1827, when he ac- cepted the same position at Rutgers College, which he held for thirty-five years, from 1827 to 1862. He was one of the original members of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. From the first the whole strength of his distin- guished and cultivated powers of mind was given to mathe- matical studies. The hardest problems, which had long baffled the efforts of others for their solution, he liked best to attack and conquer. His range, in fact, of mathematical investigation and attainment, spread through the highest sphere of inquiries wherein Newton and La Place had gone before him. He early resolved some difficult ques- tions pertaining to the geometry of a circle, propounded as a challenge to all mankind in " Rees' Encyclopedia," by some distinguished Scotch mathematicians. He completed the solution of cubie equations in a truly scientific way which none of the European mathematicians had ever been able to accomplish. By a most ingenious mode of factoring he devised also a method of extracting any root of any integral number by a direct process. In 1859 he published a " Treatise on Algebra," in which he presented the whole science in original forms of his own, a thorough piece of solid intellectual masonwork. In the summer of 1867 he wrote out largely, if not wholly, at Clinton, New York, a volume on the " Differential and Integral Calculus," full of new processes and results of his own origination. In this splendid treatise he exhibits the highest style of analytic power of mind. For fifty years a teacher of the higher

mathematics, and for nearly sixty an earnest and successful student of them, he bore with him throughout all his long life the characteristics of a mafi devoted to the highest and best ends of human pursuit. He was industrious, thought- ful, simple-minded, humble, cheerful and happy. He was a man of remarkable gentleness of spirit, and at the same time of great ardor in his moral convictions. He abhorred shams of all kinds and everything like intrigue and mean insinuations and intentions. In conversation, disquisition and debate, of all of which he was quite fond, his eyes and features were always on the move with life. He was a positive patriot, and took a great interest in the political and social questions of the times, and occupied always the ad- vanced positions of the hour in all matters of social reform. He was a man of full height and breadth in his physique, of dark complexion and dark eyes, and of a very intellec- tual face. He was always very regular in all his bodily habits, and enjoyed generally robust health. He possessed a competency of worldly goods from the beginning of his professional labors, and while his life was checkered with many trials, it aboundcd in many and great blessings to the very end. He was a man of most decided and unwavering faith in the Word of God; the great facts of revealed religion stood out as clear to his eye as those of mathematical truth, and they were all precious to his heart. He did not in- deed join the church of Christ on earth, because of his great distrust of his own heart, until a short time before his death ; but he everywhere openly confessed Christ among men all his days, and was a man of childlike faith in God and prayer, and a great lover of the Bible and of good men. He said to the author of this sketch, when almost eighty years of age, when speaking of this beautiful world and of our grandly appointed life in it : " We ought to go through life shouting." He died at New Brunswick, New Jersey, February Ist, 1869. He married, September 23d, 1818, Lucy Dix, of Littleton, Massachusetts, who survived him until November, 1875.

TRONG, HON. BENJAMIN RUGGLES WOODBRIDGE, Counsellor-at-Law and Judge, of New Brunswick, was born at Clinton, Oneida county, New York, February 21st, 1827. Ile is the son of Professor Theodore Strong, whose bio- graphical sketch immediately precedes this. After a preliminary training, he entered Rutgers College in 1843, and graduated after a full course in 1847. Develop- ing an inclination for the law, he began reading for that profession under the direction of Hon. John Van Dyke, of New Brunswick, but he was not liecnscd to practise as an attorney until 1852, having in the meantime been attracted to California in 1849 by the gold discoveries. Ile remained on the Pacific coast for two years, and was one of the first finders of gold in Oregon. On his admission to the bar in New Jersey, he speedily gained himself a good position in

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

the profession, and during his career thereat he was made | 1761 to the time of his tragic death in 1781 the Rev. James the depositary of various important trusts. For several Caldwell, of revolutionary fame, was pastor of this church. He was shot and killed by the British in Elizabeth. The graveyard attached to the church contains the remains of many illustrious dead. terms, extending in all over ten years, he was Corporation Counsel for New Brunswick. He was counsel for the Na- tional Bank of New Jersey, and for several large manufac- turing companies, and other corporate institutions. At a comparatively early period in his professional life he was appointed a Notary Public and a Master in Chancery. On April Ist, 1874, he was appointed Judge of the Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, and Orphans' Courts, for Middle- sex County, for a term of five years. In politics he is an earnest Republican, but he is not a politician in the ordinary acceptation of the word, though all movements having for their object the promotion of the public welfare receive his hearty and active support. He was married in 1872 to Harriet A., daughter of Hon. Jonathan Hartwell, of Little- ton, Massachusetts.

EMPSHALL, REV. EVERARD, D. D., Minister, of Elizabeth, was born in Rochester, New York, August 9th, 1830. His father, Thomas Kemp- shall, was a merchant of Staines, England, and came to this country in 1812, settling in Rochester when it was only a forest. He was a man uni- versally loved and respected for his integrity of character, and represented his district in Congress from 1839 to 1841. His wife was Emily Peck, of New Haven, Connecticut. Everard, their son, received his education at Williams Col- lege, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1851. He then entered upon a theological course at Princeton Seminary, graduating in 1855. After completing his theological course he entered upon the ministry at Buffalo, where he preached two years. He started the Delaware Street Pres- byterian Church there, now known as the Calvary Church. After leaving Buffalo he preached as "a supply " for two years at Batavia, New York. In the year 1861 he was called to Elizabeth, New Jersey, to take charge of the First Presbyterian Church of that place, which pulpit he has since continued to fill to the eminent satisfaction of the congrega- tion. In 1869 he was a member of the Board of Foreign and Domestic Missions. In 1859 he married Charlotte A. Eaton, only daughter of Orsamus Eaton, of Troy, New York. The church in which he now ministers is one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in the country, having been organized more than two hundred years ago. It is sup- posed to have been founded very shortly after the settlement of the town in 1664-65. The men who founded both the town and the church were, with very few exceptions, from New England. The first minister was Rev. Jeremiah Peck, a native of London, England, and one of the early settlers of New Haven, Connecticut. For the first half century of its existence the church was an independent one, and became Presbyterian not earlier than 1717. It was represented for the first time in the Synod of Philadelphia in 1721. From

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 17

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