The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 23

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

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EEKMAN, HON. GEORGE CRAWFORD, Lawyer and Jurist, at Freehold, was born, July 2d, 1839, on Beekman farın, at the old village of Middletown, in the county of Monmouth. The house where he was born and reared com- mands a magnificent view of Staten Island, the Narrows, Long Island and the whole expanse of Raritan Bay, with Sandy Hook and the ocean beyond. Here Com- modore Bainbridge passed his early youth, with his grand- father, "Squire " Taylor, who then owned this farm. In view of the great ships, sailing up and down the blue waters, he doubtless formed an inclination for a life on that element where he afterwards won his fame. Here, too, General Clinton was entertained on his retreat from the battle of Monmouth to Sandy Hook by the Tory owner, whose son, Colonel Taylor, was an active and prominent loyalist. George C. Beekman is the second son of Rev.

Jacob Ten Broeck Beekman and his wife, Anna Crawford. He is seventh in descent from William Beekman, or, as originally spelled, Beeckman, a native of Hasselt, Overyssel, Holland, who was sent to America by the Dutch West India Company, in 1647, as one of their agents, and was among the earliest magistrates of New Amsterdam. One of his sons, Gerardus Beekman, was a physician at Flat- bush, Long Island, a member of Leisler's Council, and afterwards of the Council of New York, from Cornbury's time until his death, in 1723. Between 1700 and 1722 he purchased several large tracts of land on the Millstone and Raritan rivers, in Somerset county, New Jersey ; one of his sons and two of his grandsons settled on portions of those lands. From one of these ultimately sprang Rev. Jacob T. B. Beekman, who was born on Ten Broeck homestead, near Harlingen, in the county of Somerset. He was licensed as a minister of the Reformed Dutch Church, but afterward connected with the Presbyterian Church. He helped to found several new churches in Monmouth county, and preached the gospel for half a century. He was faithful to his trust until his death, which occurred, without suffering, April 23d, 1875. His son, George C., attended the com- mon school of his native village until he was thirteen years of age, when he entered the celebrated collegiate prepara- tory school of Mr. Vanderveer, at Easton, Pennsylvania. He left this school for a private and select school at Bergen Hills, then tauglit by Mr. Voorhees, now a lawyer at Jersey City. Mr. Voorhees giving up this school, he became a pupil in Parker's school, at Astoria, Long Island. In 1856 he matriculated at Princeton College, and graduated in the class of 1859, receiving the degrees of A. B. and A. M. in course. After leaving college he entered the law office of Joel Parker, since Governor of the State for two terms, at Freehold, where he acquired a full knowledge of the law, and was licensed by the Supreme Court at Trenton, in June, 1863, as an attorney-at-law, and as counsellor three years later. He began the practice of his profession at Freehold, where he has since continued, and had up to 1869 an extensive line of business. In this last-named year he was appointed by the Legislature of New Jersey, in joint meeting, Law Judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the place, and Orphans' Court of the County of Monmouth. ITis appoint- ment was for five years, but the office not being very re- remunerative he resigned his position at the expiration of three years. While judge none of his decisions were re- versed by the higher courts. As a magistrate he was thor- ough and impartial in the administration of the law, and endeavored at all times to mitigate the severity of the law when it was consistent with the public good. At the ex- piration of his office there were fewer criminals in the State prison from Monmouth county than from any other county of the State, in proportion to its population. Since resum- ing the practice of law he has been engaged in nearly every important case which has been tried at the Monmouth bar.

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In his jury trials he has met with remarkable success, and | and in all of them the original Christian name of "Martin " is considered a strong advocate. As a lawyer he is very earnest and faithful to the interests of his clients, often making their cause his own, at a considerable sacrifice of time and means. His political opinions coincide with those of the Democratic party. In 1860 his first vote was cast for the three Douglas electors on the fusion ticket, after erasing the names of the Bell and Breckenridge electors. Since then he has voted the solid Democratic ticket. Since 1860 he has taken an active and earnest part in the several political campaigns which have occurred during that period. He has been a delegate to many State, county and Con- gressional conventions, and was a delegate to the National Convention at St. Louis, in 1876. Although taking a prominent part in his party as an orator and leader, he is no politician or office-seeker, but contributes his services and means for the success of the principles which he believes to be conducive to the county, State and national welfare. He has also been for a considerable time a prominent member of the Masonic order in his county. In his manners he is plain and unassuming; open in expression of his senti- ments ; strong in his friendships and enmities, and of a free, generous nature ; unyielding and persistent in his opinions, and of an original turn of mind ; slow in his judgment, and rather obstinate when he has reached a conclusion. He is of strong, robust form, with an excellent constitution, of which he has never taken much care. He comes of a long- lived race, and has a fair promise of many years of an active and useful life. He is a firm believer in the Scriptures, which he has studied diligently for years, and also believes in special providences. He has, however, but little sym- pathy for any of the ecclesiastical corporations, and is not a member of any church, although he attends the Presby- tėrian.

YERSON, HON. THOMAS C., late Associate- Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, was the third son of Martin Ryerson and Rhoda Hull, and born, May 4th, 1788, at Myrtle Grove, Sussex county, New Jersey, five miles west of Newton, the county-seat. He was a great-great- grandson of Martin Ryerson, of French Huguenot descent, who emigrated from Holland about 1660, and settled at Flatbush, on Long Island; was a member from an early age of the Dutch Reformed Church, as its records still show, and, for those days, possessed of considerable prop- erty. On the 14th of May, 1663, he married Annettie Rap- pelye, a daughter of Joris Jansen Rappelye, who settled on Long Island in 1625, in which year his first daughter, Sara, was born, the first white child born on Long Island. From this marriage have sprung large numbers of the name of Ryerson (besides numerous descendants of the female branches of the family), who are scattered over New York, New Jersey and several other States, and many in Canada,

has been kept up, that being the name of both the father and grandfather of Judge Ryerson. His grandfather re- sided in Hunterdon county, New Jersey, whence his father removed to Sussex about 1770, dying there in 1820, in his seventy-third year; his father and grandfather were both distinguished as surveyors, being deputies of the Surveyor- General of both East and West Jersey, and his father was thus enabled to make very judicious land-locations for him- self, and at his death left a landed estate of between forty and fifty thousand dollars. Until the age of sixteen Judge Ryerson remained at home, working on his father's farm and receiving only the common education of the country. In 1800 his father removed to Hamburg, in the same county, where he died, and in 1804 his son began prepar- ing for college at a private school in the family of Robert Ogden. He was an older brother of Colonel Aaron Ogden, a graduate of Princeton College, in 1765, and one of the founders of the Cliosophic Society. He was born at Eliza- - bethtown, practised law there for several years, was in the American army during the war of the Revolution, and, on account of the effect of the sea air upon his health, removed about 1785 to Sparta, Sussex county, five miles from Ham- burg, where he owned considerable real estate, and died in that county in 1826, aged eighty years. His fifth daughter, Amelia, married Judge Ryerson, in November, 1814; an older daughter, Mary, was married some fifteen years earlier to Elias Haines, of Elizabethtown, the father of the Hon. Daniel Haines, late Governor, Chancellor, and Judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. After some time spent in this private school he finished his preparatory studies at the Mendham (New Jersey) Academy, then taught by the late Hon. Samuel L. Southard, and in 1807 entered the junior class at Princeton, graduating there, in 1809, with the third honor in a class of forty-four. This school acquaintance with Mr. Southard ripened into an intimate and life-long friendship, and a very warm and enduring friendship grew up between him and the late Judge George K. Drake, who was graduated at Princeton in 1808. After graduating he studied law with the late Job S. Halsted, of Newton, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1814; four years of study with a practising lawyer were then required, even of graduates, and during a part of this time he was out with the New Jersey militia, at Sandy Hook, to resist a threatened attack of the British. Immediately after being licensed he began practising law at Hamburg, marrying in the following November, as above stated, and continued practising there till April, 1820, when he removed to New- ton, where he resided till his death, August 11th, 1838, aged fifty years, three months and seven days. For two years (1825-27) he was a member of the Legislative Coun- cil of New Jersey, and in January, 1834, was elected by the joint meeting a Justice of the Supreme Court, in place of Judge Drake, whose term then expired. It is well known that Judge Drake had given great offence, but without good

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reason for it, to the Hieksite Quakers, by his opinion in the | sitions he was a man of the firmest independence and celebrated suit between them and the Orthodox Quakers, for which they determined, if possible, to defeat his re- eleetion ; to aeeomplish this they aided, in 1333, in eleeting a large majority of Democrats to the Legislature, which the year before had a majority of the other party. Although a leading and influential Demoerat and politieally opposed to Judge Drake, Judge Ryerson, in eommon with many other Democrats, was strongly opposed to this unjustifiable pro- scription, a warm advocate of Judge Drake's re-election, and used all his influence with the four Democratic mem- bers from Sussex in its favor. He was not in Trenton during that session till after the joint meeting, and his name was brought forward in the Democratic eaucus as an oppos- ing candidate, without his eonsent, and he knew nothing of it till after his election. The leading opponents of Judge Drake, finding that the votes of the Sussex members would re-elect him, resorted to the use of Judge Ryerson's name as the only means of preventing it, and thus, without his knowledge, he was made the instrument of defeating an excellent and irreproachable judge, his own warm personal friend. So strong an impression had he made upon the Sussex members in favor of Judge Drake that one of them voted for him in joint meeting, notwithstanding his own Democratic caucus nomination, and other Democrats also bolted the nomination, so that, notwithstanding the large Democratic majority in joint meeting, he was elected by only a very small majority. So strong, however, was the Hicksite feeling against Judge Drake that he received but one vote from the members south of the Assanpink. Theo- dore Frelinghuysen was then in the Senate, his term to ex- pire March 4th, 1835. He also had given great offence to the Hicksites by his able and eloquent speech in the same suit, and to reach him the same combination was continued till the election of October, 1834, and resulted in sending General Wall to the Senate in his place. The news of his election was a complete surprise to Judge Ryerson, and with it came letters from prominent Democrats urging him to accept, and assuring him that his declination would not benefit Judge Drake; that party lines had become drawn, and he could not now under any circumstances be re- elected. He held the matter under advisement till the receipt of a letter from Judge Drake himself, dated Febru- ary 3d, 1834, urging him to accept, "and that promptly." YERSON, HON. MARTIN, LL. D., late of New- ton, Lawyer, Jurist and Statesman, was born, September 15th, 1815, at Hamburg, Sussex county, New Jersey, and was the eldest son of Hon. Thomas C. Ryerson, whose biographical sketch will be found preceding, and grandson of the elder Martin Ryerson, who, in the early history of Sus- scx, was for many years deputy surveyor, and prominent in the affairs of the county. He received a first-class academi- cal education, which enabled him to matriculate at Prinee- ton College, from which institution he graduated in the class of 1833. He subsequently commenced reading law He said also, " I feel under obligations to you, and my other friends, for your zeal in my behalf; but it has proved ineffectual, and I have no confidence in the success of another effort." And again, " If the place is thrown open, nobody knows into whose hands it may go. I rejoice that it has been so disposed of that we may still confide in the independence and integrity of the bench." This letter de- cided him to accept, and he was sworn into office, February 25th, 1834, holding it till his death, in August, 1838. Judge Ryerson's course at the bar and on the bench fully justificd the opinion of Judge Drakc, quoted above, as in all po-

strictest integrity. He was an able lawyer, well read, and was remarkable for a discriminating and sound judgment, an earnest and successful advocate, with great influence over courts and juries in Sussex and Warren, to which counties he confined his practice ; and as a Judge it is be- lieved that he enjoyed in a high degree the esteem and eon- fidenee of the beneh and bar, as well as of the people at large. For the last eight years of his life he was a very devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, his wife having joined it some eight years earlier, and dying three years before him. Her father was for many years an ex- emplary and very influential elder of the same denomina- tion, and a large number of his descendants have been and are professing Christians. Judge Ryerson was very easy and affable in his manners, delighting in social intereourse and conversation, with a great fund of aneedote; very simple and economieal in his personal tastes and habits, spending, however, freely in educating his ehildren, and noted for his liberality to the poor around him and to the benevolent operations of his day. So much did he give away that he left no more estate than he inherited, although in full practice for twenty years before his appointment as Judge. He often said to his children that he desired only to leave them a good education and correct principles, and that they must expect to make their way in life with only these to depend upon. Both as lawyer and Judge he was very painstaking and laborious, conscientiously faithful in the diseharge of duty to his clients and the public; having a strongly nervous temperament, the mental strain was too great and resulted at length in a softening of the brain, from which he died after an illness of three months, leav- ing three sons and a daughter, and a widow, his first wife's younger sister, and since deceased, to mourn an irreparable loss. Two of his children remain, the youngest son, Colonel Henry Ogden Ryerson, having been killed in May, 1864, at the head of his regiment, on the second day's bloody fighting in the battles of the Wilderness, in Virginia. The eldest, Judge Martin Ryerson, died, June 11th, 1875, and is the subject of the following memoir.

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in his father's office, afterwards continuing his studies with Hon. Garret D. Wall, in Trenton, and concluding his course in the office of ex-Governor Pennington, at Newark. He was licensed as an attorney in November, 1836, and at once commenced the practice of his profession in the last- named city, where he continued a short period, and thence removed to Newton, where he resided during life, with the exception of a few years, when he sojourned in Trenton. He was made a counsellor-at-law in 1839, and acquired distinction in his profession. He was a prominent member of the convention, in 1844, which framed the present con- stitution of the State. In 1849 he was elected a member of Assembly, when the late Chief-Justice Whelpley was speaker, and served upon the Judiciary Committee; it was mainly through his influence and instrumentality that the charter was obtained for the Farmers' Bank, at Decker- town. Upon an increase of judges in the Supreme Court, he was appointed an Associate-Justice of the same by Gov- ernor Brice, and filled the position only three years, ill health compelling him to resign the bench, in 1858. In 1873 he was appointed as one of the Judges of the Alabama Claims commission, a position which he was compelled to resign in January, 1875, by reason of the complete failure of his health. He had likewise been selected by Governor Parker one of the Commissioners to revise the constitution, which he had assisted to frame in 1844; but was also con- strained to relinquish the position from the same cause. His political opinions were those of the Democratic party, down to the period when the attempt was made to force slavery in Kansas and Nebraska, and the Democrats sur- rendered unconditionally to the slave power. At that time he sundered his connection with it, and entered, with all the enthusiasm of his nature, into the work of organizing and building up the anti-slavery sentiment which finally crystallized in the Republican party organization. At the commencement of the recent civil war he was among the foremost supporters of every measure looking to the main- «tenance of the Union and the vindication of its authority. He was in constant correspondence for many years with many of the most influential men in the country, and, by his counsel and advice, contributed much towards shaping the policy of the government during the critical periods of the war. His mind was well stored with useful informa- tion, and his wonderful memory enabled him to draw upon it at will. He engaged actively in the political campaigns which occurred during and immediately after the war, and was mainly instrumental in the revolution in the old Fourth Congressional District, when the Republicans triumphed for the first time. He threw himself with wonderful zeal and energy into that tremendous conflict ; and he also did yeo- man's service for his party in all the succeeding elections, especially in those of 1868, 1870 and 1872. He would, without hesitation, at a moment's notice, summon a confer- ence of leading politicians from all parts of the State, at Newark, or Paterson, or New York, and opposition to his

policy was generally in vain. His elan was irresistible and his enthusiasm contagious. In religious belief he was a Presbyterian, and had been for many years a leading mem- ber of the congregation in Newton, and of which he had been a ruling elder for ten years; and was likewise fre- quently selected as a delegate to various church synods and other ecclesiastical bodies. He was also a strong advocate of the temperance cause, and was often called upon to at- tend conventions of that organization. He was a man of great energy of character, looking with earnest care at all the details of every enterprise in which he was about to en- gage; and was the energetic and active leader in every local improvement in his native town. As a lawyer he oc- cupied a front rank in his profession; and as a Judge he was regarded by those qualified to give an intelligent opin- ion as one of the ablest and very hest on the bench. He was a kind, considerate, cultivated Christian gentleman, a scholar, a patriot, a genial and invaluable citizen; and in all the elements of intellectual manhood an honor to his native county and State. In 1869 Princeton College, his Alma Mater, conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was twice married, his wives being sisters; he died, June 11th, 1875, leaving a widow and three children, two daughters and a son.

ANVIER, REV. LEVI, Clergyman, late a Mis- sionary of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, was born, April 25th, 1816, at Pittsgrove, New Jersey, and was the son of Rev. Dr. Janvier, a Presbyterian clergyman of eminence. His early education was obtained from his father, and he subsequently entered Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsyl- vania, and also studied for a short pcriod at Lawrenceville. In 1835 he entered the junior class of Princeton College, and graduated with the second honor in the class of 1837, being the salutatorian at the commencement. Having be- come a communicant , member of the Presbyterian Church he decided to devote himself to the work of the gospel ministry, and for that purpose entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton. While a student there he offered himself to the Board of Missions, as a missionary to Lodi- ana, in northern India. Having been duly ordained, he sailed for India, accompanied by his wife, in Septemher, 1841, and reached his destination in the spring of 1842. During the voyage he had commenced the study of the Urda language, which is largely spoken in Lodiana; and, as he possessed a remarkable facility for acquiring lan- guages, he was able to preach in that tongue soon after his arrival in that country. Some months later he commenced to translate tracts and hooks, which were published by the mission. He next acquired a thorough familiarity with the Panjabi language, and with the aid of Dr. Newton, of the same mission, undertook the preparation of a Panjabi

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dictionary, which was completed in 1854. It is a quarto ! volume of four hundred and thirty-eight pages, in three columns. He continued his labors as a preacher and trans- lator up to the time of his death. He had gone to Mala, in the province of Lodiana, to preacli and distribute tracts, and in the evening was met by the fanatic Akali Sikh, who, without the slightest provocation, felled him to the ground with a club. He lingered until the following morning, but was insensible. He died March 25th, 1864. The mur- derer was arrested, tried, convicted and hanged.

REESE, JACOB R., M. D., Banker and Real- Estate Operator, of Trenton, was born near Hope, Warren county, New Jersey, March 4th, 1826. His father, Isaac Freese, was also a native of the same county, where for some years he was successfully engaged in farming, and afterwards in mercantile pursuits at Hope ; his mother was Hannah Read, a daughter of Isaac Read, a wealthy farmer of his day in Warren county. Our subject is of Holland and English extraction, being descended on the paternal side from a family who came originally from a northern province of Holland which bore their. name (Freisland). Leaving Holland during the early settlement of the United States they took up a large tract of land in Warren county, New Jersey, and were among the pioneers in that section of the country. The primary education of Jacob R. was obtained in the schools of the neighborhood, followed by an academical course at the Clinton Academy, in Hunterdon county, under the charge of Rev. Albert Williams. From the age of eight years he had been kept a part of each year behind his father's counter, it being his father's wish and design that his son should receive a business, while receiv- ing a school, education. When, therefore, he returned from the academy, at the age of about nineteen, he at once took his accustomed place in his father's country store, but the learning he had obtained made him to want more, and he soon commenced to beg of his father the privilege of study- ing some profession. His choice was that of law, but the father belonged to the "old fogies " of that early day who believed, honestly believed, that " no lawyer could ever enter heaven," and, earnestly desiring that his son should be a good as well as a useful man, would not consent that Jacob should enter a law office, but would consent that he should study medicine. Arrangements were accordingly made with Dr. Joseph Hedges, then in active practice at Hope, and for more than two years thereafter he diligently pursued his medical studies; afterwards attended two full courses of medical lectures at Philadelphia, and then re- ceived his diploma as M. D. Turning his steps westward, he located at Bloomington, Illinois, and immediately entercd upon his professional practice. Devoted to his profession, and with an energy which is characteristic of the man, he

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 23

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