The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 31

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

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in progress at the same time-and was also engaged in the | Joseph Gaunt, on which the main portion of Tuckerton is wood, coal and lumber trade, thus furnishing employment to a large number of hands. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and belonged to Little Egg Harbor Monthly Meeting. He was a man of honor and strict in- tegrity, truthful and prompt in his dealings, conscientious in the performance of his duties, firm in his attachments, kind to his neighbors, generous to the needy, affable and social in his intercourse; an affectionate husband, a loving and indulgent parent, a public benefactor, a plain unassum- ing man. He was married, February 18th, 1812, to Han- nah, daughter of James Willits, he being then but a little over nineteen years of age. He died at Tuckerton, August 14th, 1854, leaving a widow and five children, three sons and two daughters.

ILSON, BLAKELY, late of Jersey City, Bank President, was born, December 12th, 1815, in the city of New York, where also he received his education. When thirteen years of age he was placed in a banker's and broker's office in Wall street, New York, and rose from one station to another until he became thoroughly conversant with all the details of financial business. He remained in connection with the various operations carried on in that celebrated locality for a period of thirty-five years, when he was elected to the Presidency of the Second National Bank, of Jersey City, which position he ably filled for eleven years. During this period he was also a director in several important in- surance companies. In political feeling he was a Republi- can. During his residence in New York he was Second Lieutenant of a military organization. He was married, in 1844, to Sophia Newkirk. He died, February 13th, 1876, on the river Nile, in Egypt.

UCKER, HON. EBENEZER, Soldier, late of Tuckerton, was born, November 15th, 1757, in the State of New York, and was a son of Reuben Tucker. When he was about eight years old his father removed to the Province of East Jersey, where he purchased the whole of the island called Tucker's Beach, extending from Little Egg Harbor to Brigantine Inlet, ten miles in length, also a plantation near Tuckerton. In 1778 Ebenezer located himself in the settlement called "the middle of the shore," near Andrews' mill, then owned by the Shourds family. During the war of the Revolution he was in the Continental army, and served under General Washington, participating in the battle of Long Island and in other engagements; and also held several important trusts during that eventful period. At the close of the war he purchased the farm of John and

now built. He soon laid out the tract into building-lots, and erected houses. He also entered largely into the mer- cantile and shipping business, importing his groceries direct from the West Indies, in exchange for lumber. In 1786 the people of the village and vicinity met, and resolved that the village should be called Tuckerton. He was the first Postmaster of this new town; and when the District of Little Egg Harbor was created, which includes Tucker- ton, he was chosen the first Collector of the Customs for the same. He subsequently was made Judge of the Court of Burlington County, and occupied that position for several years. In 1824 he was elected a member of the Nineteenth Congress of the United States, and was re-elected in 1826, thus serving in the House of Representatives during the en- tire period of President John Quincy Adams' administration. He died at Tuckerton, September 5th, 1845, having nearly completed his eighty-eighth year.

HITELY, ROBERT J., M. D., Physician, of Pater- son, New Jersey, was born, January 16th, 1825, in that city, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Van Riper) Whitely. His father was a native of the north of Ireland, who emigrated to the United States and settled in Paterson, among the oldest inhabitants of that town, where he was for many years engaged in mercantile pursuits. His mother was a native of Paterson, descended from the early Dutch settlers, who came to eastern Jersey about the year 1680. Young Whitely received a fair education in the schools of his native town, which was completed at Rutgers College, New Brunswick. Having determined upon a professional life, he selected the science of medicine, and in 1843 entered the office of Dr. William Magee, of Paterson, whom he had chosen as his preceptor, and with whom he pursued his studies for four years. During this interval he matriculated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York city, where he attended upon three separate courses of lec- tures, and graduated from that institution in the spring of 1846. He at once commenced the practice of his profession in his native place, and was favorably received by his townsmen. In February, 1849, he was prevailed upon to accompany a party to California, as their medical adviser. They sailed from New York in that month, and took the long and circuitous route, rounding Cape Horn, and finally reached their destination. During the winter of 1849-50 Dr. Whitely was successfully engaged in professional pur- suits in San Francisco, and the remainder of the time he passed in the practice of his profession in the mining dis- tricts of Eldorado and Placer counties. In the spring of 1853 he bade farewell to the Golden State, and turned his face eastward, returning to the Atlantic States by the Pan- ama route, and reached Paterson in May, 1853. He at

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once resumed his practice after over four years absence, and new world. It was in 1833 that he landed in America, and soon found himself actively and successfully engaged in his professional labors, which he continued until the summer of 1868, when he sailed for Europe. He was absent from home about four months, and during that time visited, among other objects, the various hospitals of Great Britain and Ireland. He also made the tour of Europe in 1870, and was absent from this country some seven months, re- suming his practice after his return. He is among the oldest medical practitioners of Paterson, enjoying the confi dence, esteem and respect of his professional brethren, as well as of the community at large. He has been connected with the Passaic County Medical Society since 1847, during which time he has served twice as President of that body. He has been since its organization and is at present con- nected with the medical staff of the Ladies' Hospital, at Paterson ; and is also a Director in the Second National Bank of Paterson, having been identified with that institu- tion since 1869.

ARCY, ALEXANDER, M. D., Physician, of Camden, was born in Cape May county, New Jersey, April 16th, 1838. His parents were Samuel S. Marcy, M. D., an old physician of Cape May county, and Thankful (Edmunds) Marcy; the former was a native of Connecticut, who settled in Cape May county in 1817, and practised medicine from that time up to the last year or two. Alex- ander Marcy entered Amherst College in 1855, and left a junior. He began to study medicine with his father in 1859, and at the same time matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1861. He at once located for practice in Camden, New Jersey, and has continued to prosecute his profession in that city to the present time, with steady and increasing success. De- voted to his profession, he seeks to promote its interests, and has always been an active member of the Camden Medical Society, of which he was chosen President for the year 1876. He was married in 1861 to Hannah Mecray, of Cape May, New Jersey.

EDDIE, HON. THOMAS B., of Newark, Manu- facturer, Merchant, and Member of Congress from the Sixth District of New Jersey, is a native of Scotland, as were also his parents, who pos- sessed a modcrate independence. IIe was edu. cated in his native country, and was an earnest reader, especially of the literature of the day. The glowing accounts of the great western republic which from time to time met his eye, inspired him with a wish to view the land so happily described, and he determined to cross the Atlan- tic and ascertain if such unbounded prosperity existed in the

among other towns that he visited was the present city of Newark, then little more than a large village. The situa- tion pleased him so much that he soon determined it should be his future home. At that period it was a town of some manufacturing importance, and he at once selected an avo- cation which he believed was best calculated for advance- ment. Entering the factory of Smith & Wright, saddlers, he remained with them for about two years, and having by strict habits of economy laid up a sum of money, the fruits of his earnings, commenced on his own account the manu. facture of leather trunks and travelling bags. From the small beginning of two-score years ago, he has steadily augmented his manufacturing facilities, until his establish- ment is the largest of its kind in the Union, if not in the world. During his long residence in the beautiful city of Newark, he has become prominently identified with her interests, and has contributed in no small degree to her im- portance as a great manufacturing centre-the third city in the Union in that particular. At the same time he has given some attention to the interests of education. To the institution at Hightstown, New Jersey, which now bears his name, he has contributed largely of his means for its suc- cess. Of late years he went abroad, and passed a year in travelling through the greater portion of Europe, paying particular attention not only to many points of interest in Great Britain and Ireland, but also in France, Germany, Austria and Italy; besides which he was an attentive ob- server of the laws of trade and commerce, and of the par- ticular care taken by the government of Great Britain in fos- tering the interests of her merchants and manufacturers. On his return home he made an address to the Board of Trade -of which body he had long been a member and at one time President-which is replete with valuable information, being a general review of trade and the industrial pursuits, both mechanical and agricultural, of the different countries he visited. Towards the conclusion of his remarks he be- came the earnest advocate of a new department at Washing- ton, that of trade and commerce, as an adjunct to the one already added within a few years past, that of agriculture. In political creed he is an ardent member of the Republi- can party, and has been the recipient of the favors of that organization at sundry times. He was twice elected Mayor of Newark, and twice chosen as a Representative in the lower or popular branch of the State Legislature, where, during the great southern rebellion, he took an active part in support of the general government both with his influ- ence and his purse. Ile was nominated by the Republicans in 1876 as their candidate for the Forty-fifth Congress from the Sixth Congressional District of New Jersey, and was elected. Being a thoroughly practical man of the people, he will doubtless faithfully represent his constituents in the Federal legislature, and contribute by cvcry means at his command to advance not only their own interests, but that of the country at large; and it is to be hoped that he will

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be not only the originator of the new department of the gov- ernment alluded to above, but that he may be early called upon to organize the same.

ERHUNE, GARRIT, M. D., Physician, of Passaic, was born in Bergen county, New Jersey, in Oc- tober, 1801. His parents both came from the same county, in which his father, Richard N. Terhune, followed agricultural pursuits. His mother was HIannah Voorhees. From the com- mon schools of his native place Garrit Terliune received his primary educational training. Ile fitted for college at the classical school of Dr. Sythoff, and then entered Princeton College, from which he was graduated in 1823. Having determined to adopt the medical profession, he began study therefor immediately upon leaving college, having for his preceptor first the same Dr. Sythoff from whom he obtained his university preparation, and subsequently Professor John WV. Francis, of Rutgers Medical College, then in operation in Jersey City, although an adjunct of Rutgers College, of New Brunswick. He graduated in medicine in 1829, and at once began practice in Hackensack. After a short while he removed to Passaic, where he has since followed his profes- sion with much success. He was the first President of the Passaic County Medical Society. In the year 1828 he was married to Elizabeth A. Zabriskie, of St. Johnsville, New York.

OORHEES, PETER L., Lawyer, of Camden, was born in Blawenburgh, Somerset county, New Jersey, July 12th, 1825. He is descended of New Jersey ancestors, his parents being Peter Voorhees and Jane Schenck, daughter of Captain John Schenck. His educational advantages were only such as could be obtained at the common schools of the neighborhood, but of them he made the most diligent nse, and acquired the elements of a sound education. Up to his twenty-first year he was occupied on the home farm, but farming not being to his taste, and the law possessing great attraction for him, he determined to follow the latter as his career. Accordingly he entered the office of Richard S. Field, of Princeton, as a student, and in connection with his studies there he, in the following year, 1847, attended the law school then attached to Princeton College, but long since discontinued, having been conducted for about three years only. From this institution he received in due course the degree of LL. B., and subsequently that of A. M. He was admitted to the bar in November, 1851, and located in Camden in October, 1852. In this city he has since resided and practised. One of the oldest practitioners in this sec- tion of the State, he is also among the leaders of its bar. This position he has attained by the force of sheer hard work. There may be more brilliant men among his com-

peers, but there is none who is a sounder or better read lawyer, nor is there one who more completely masters every case intrusted to him, who is more successful before the courts, and who enjoys so thoroughly the confidence of his clients and the respect of the profession. For one year he served as City Solicitor of Camden, and he is counsellor, for this section of the State, for the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, although one of its opponents in the great railroad war in New Jersey. He was married in 1855 to Annie F., sister of the late Hon. W. L. Dayton, the distinguished statesman.

RICE, THEOPHILUS T., M. D., Physician, of Tuckerton, was born, May 21st, 1828, at Town Bank, Cape May county, New Jersey, on the estate which had descended from his great-grand- father, William Price, and is a son of John and Kezia (Swain) Price, both of whom were also natives of the same State. The Price family during the revolutionary era were well known as loyal to the patriot cause, and during the war some of them were distinguished for their services, among them William Price, mentioned above, who was a captain in the Continental army and served in the cause of the colonies during that conflict. When young Price was about three years old his father sold his share of the paternal estate to his brother, Captain Wil- liam Price, and purchased a farm at Swaintown-a short dis- tance from Cold Spring, in the same county-from his father-in-law, Daniel Swain, and the family homestead still remains at that locality. Daniel Swain was descended from one of the oldest and most respected families of Cape May county. Young Price received his rudimentary educa- tion in the common schools of the neighborhood, which he attended until he was thirteen years old, when his father placed him in the academy at Cold Spring, which had then been recently founded, and which was carried on success- fully for several years by Rev. Moses Williamson, at that place. He there obtained a fair English education, and re- mained there about three years. The learning which he acquired at that academy was considerably augmented by diligent private study, after leaving school. He next as- sisted his father on the farm until he was twenty years old, when he commenced teaching school, and one year after- wards began the study of medicine. He subsequently ma- triculated at the Pennsylvania Medical College, and at- tended the regular courses of lectures delivered in that institution, from which he graduated in March, 1853. The following month he settled at Tuckerton, having been in- vited to do so by Dr. Mason, a physician then in practice there, and he has continued to reside there ever since, giv- ing close attention to his profession, and has won for him- self a well-merited reputation as a most successful physician and surgeon. He has been for a long period an active and influential member of the Medical Society of Burlington

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county. During the war he was an earnest supporter of the government, and after the battle of Gettysburg offered his services as volunteer surgeon ; they were accepted and he was assigned to duty at Chestnut Hill Military Hospital for one month, when, the wards being relieved of part of their wounded crowds, he returned to his practice. His political creed is that of the Repub ican party, and he became their nominee, in 1868, as Representative of the Fourth Legisla- tive District of Burlington county, and was elected. Dur- ing his term of service he introduced and secured the pas- sage of a bill to charter a railroad from Tuckerton to Egg Harbor City ; also of an act to charter a company to con- struct a ship-canal from the river Delaware to Little Egg Harbor river. He was the author of the bill to protect harmless and insectivorous birds, passed at that session ; and he introduced a bill to charter an institution for the reform- ation of inebriates, which, however, failed to pass. In IS70-71 he was actively associated with John Rutherford, A. K. Pharo, and other gentlemen, in the construction of the Tuckerton Railroad, having been a Director and the Secre- tary of the company from its first organization ; and has also been the local Treasurer since its first year. IIe has also been a Director in the Beach Haven Land Company, and an associate of the gentlemen who have displayed so much energy in establishing that new and growing watering- place. He has also been a Director of Medford, New Jer- sey, Bank for the past sixteen years. He has ever been a warm friend of education for the masses, and filled for eight years the position of Superintendent of the Public Schools in the township of Little Egg Harbor, where he resides. During that period there were eleven schools under his care, and into them he first introduced several important . reforms. In religious belief he is a Baptist, and assisted in founding the Baptist Church at West Creek, of which he was chosen the first deacon. He was one of the founders of the Tuckerton Bible Society, and has been its Treasurer for many years. IIe has also been a liberal friend to the mis- sionary cause, and he supports and conducts almost entirely a home mission school. He is a member of the New Jer- sey Historical Society, and is at the present time (1876) President of the Tuckerton Public Library Society, besides which he has also filled several important trusts. A man of literary tastes, he is the author of a number of contribu- tions, both in prose and verse, that have appeared from time to time in the papers. As a citizen he stands high in the estimation of the public, and having been so long identified with the welfare and prosperity of lis scction, lie is regarded by all as a gentleman of the highest intelligence, who aims to do good in all things, and who endeavors, as much as lies in his power, to advance the general interests of the county and of the State. He was married in November, 1854, to Eliza, youngest daughter of Timothy Pharo, one of the most successful business men of Tuckerton, New Jer- scy, whose biographical sketch will be found elsewhere in this volume.

ENCYCLOPÆDIA.

UTLER, HON. AUGUSTUS W., of Morristown, Lawyer, and Member of Congress, is a native of the place of his residence, having been born there October 22d, 1827. His father, Joseph Cutler, was also born in Morristown, in the neigh- borhood of which he followed agricultural pur- suits. On the maternal side he is a descendant of Silas Con- dit, a member of the Continental Congress, his mother, Elizabeth Cook, being a granddaughter of that distinguished man. Augustus was brought up on the home farm, and ob- tained his education -in the schools of his native place. When the time arrived for the choice of a profession he se- lected that of the law, and began to study in the office of Governor Haines. In due course he was admitted as an attorney in 1850, and three years later was received as counsellor. He soon won a good standing at the bar, and in 1856 was appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas for Morris county. This position he held until 1861. Ten years later, in 1871, he was elected Senator from Morris county, and served for three years with great credit to himself and advantage to his constituents. During this term he served on the committees on Judiciary and Education. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1873, and labored faithfully and successfully for the introduction into the organic law of many much needed reforms. In 1875 he was elected to Congress from the Fifth Congressional Dis- trict, comprising the counties of Bergen, Morris, and Pas- saic, and did such good service as to secure re-election in 1876. His affiliations have always been with the Demo- cratic party, and he has always exerted a wide influence as an earnest exponent of its best principles. In the advance- ment of the cause of education he has from early life mani- fested a deep interest, identifying himself with every move- ment of educational value. Of the Board of Education of Morristown he has been President since its organization in 1870. He was mainly instrumental in causing the moneys received from riparian rights by the State to be entirely ap- propriated to the school fund, thus securing a free school system to the State. This question reached a settlement during his term in the State Senate, his earnest efforts con- ducing in very great degree to the satisfactory result. While there may be more brilliant men at the bar than he, there are few who have won a more solid position by well-di- rected, hard study, and persistent attention to the interests of his clients and constituents. He was married in IS54 to Julia R. Walker, of Albany, New York.

9 ¿RIGGS, HON. JOIIN W., Lawyer and Legislator, of Paterson, was born, July 10th, 1849, near New- ton, Sussex county, New Jersey, and is a son of Daniel and Emeline (Johnson) Griggs, both of whom are also natives of New Jersey, the former being engaged in agricultural pursuits. He ob- tained an excellent education in the Collegiate Institute, at

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Newton, and in the autumn of 1865 matriculated at La- [ placed in his honor and integrity that, during a greater part fayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, where he completed of his manhood, he has been intrusted with the settlement of many estates throughout the county. Aside from these, and other duties of an official character, his entire life, from the time of his leaving school, in 1817, until the year 1867 -a period of just half a century-has been devoted to agricultural pursuits. In the year last named he disposed of his interests in the farm and removed to Mount Holly. In 1874 he was chosen President of the Union Bank, of Mount Holly, which position he has filled with credit to himself and with great benefit to the institution. He has always taken an active part in all matters pertaining to the improvement of the town, and manifests much interest in everything that tends towards the development of the county and State. Since 1844 he has taken no active part in politics; but his principles accord with those held by the Republican party, and he is held in high estimation by the members of both political organizations. He was married, in 1837, to Margaret B. Fenimore, of Camden county, New Jersey. his studies, and graduated from that institution with the class of 1868, as Bachelor of Arts. After leaving college he entered the office of Hon. Robert Hamilton, to engage in the study of the law, remaining there until May, 1871, when he removed to Paterson, where he selected as his preceptor Hon. Socrates Tuttle, with whom he continued until the prescribed term of three years' reading was con- cluded, when he was duly licensed as an attorney, in No- vember, 1871, being raised to the rank of counsellor-at-law in 1874. Immediately after his admission to the bar, in 1871, he commenced the practice of his profession in Pater- son, continuing the same on his own account until the winter of 1873, when he became the law partner of his preceptor, Hon. Socrates Tuttle, and is still his associate. In the autumn of 1875 he was elected by the Republican party as the Representative to the lower house of the State Legislature from the First Assembly District of Passaic County, and was re-elected in 1876. During his first term he served on several prominent committees in that body, and took an active part in the preparation of the new Elec- tion law, which went into operation during the winter of 1875-76. Although young in years, he has already achieved a first-class reputation as a barrister and an efficient legis- lator. He was married October 7th, 1874.

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 31

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