The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 38

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

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HOTWELL. This family is one of the oldest in New Jersey. Abraham Shotwell, the first of the name of whom there is an account, is believed to have been of English origin. His name is the fourth in the list of the inhabitants of Elizabeth- town and the jurisdiction thereof, who took the oath of allegiance to King Charles the Second, and his suc- cessors, etc., beginning the 19th of February, 1665. In the contentions between the people and Governor Carteret, he was bold and outspoken against the governor's usurpations. He became the victim of Carteret's wrath, his house and grounds were confiscated, and he himself driven into exile. A portion of this property includes the whole east side of Broad street, from the Stone Bridge to a point seven hun- dred and ninety-two feet north of Elizabeth avenue, the Courthouse and First Presbyterian Church being on the op- posite side of the street. He retired to New York and appealed to the Lords Proprietors. In the meantime he returned to his home, sustained by his townsmen. His ap- peal was not sustained, and he was informed by orders from the Proprietary Government that he must depart the town, and should he return that he would be subjected to severe indignities. His property was sold at public auction, August 25th, 1675, for {12, to Thomas Blumfield Carpen- ter, of Woodbridge, who resold it a fortnight later, for £14, to Governor Carterct. Shotwell obtained a grant of land from the New York government, and died in exile. Daniel, who settled on Staten Island, was probably his son. John, another son, married, in New York, October, 1679, Elizabeth Burton. The property so arbitrarily wrested from Abraham Shotwell was restored to his son, John, on May 12th, 1683; he petitioned the Council for its restora- tion, as the following will show : "At a meeting of Council held the 10th day of May, Anno Domini 1683, The petition of John Shotwell being here read, and upon reading thereof it being alleged that the lands for w'ch he desires a survey and patent is now or late in the possession of Elizabeth Carteret, w'w, the relict and executrix of the late Governor, Captain Philip Carteret, deceased. Its agreed that the ffurther consideration thereof be deferred till the next Seventh Day morning, being the 12th instant, at 8 of the clock in the fforenoon, and that notice then be given to the Widdow Carteret that she may then appear, and if she has aught to allege against the substance of the petition she may then be heard." " Elizabeth Towne, May 12th, 1683. The matter of John Shottwell's petition came here into debate, and the Widdow Carterctt being also here present, and in writing gave in two papers as her answer to the substance of the said petition. And it being asked the said Widdow Car-

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terett if she desired any tyme to offer or object anything as to his clearness relating to marriage, we have no cause against the substance of the petition, she said she had no to think him under any engagements of that kinde. So, ffurther answer than what she gave in writing. And it ap- pearing that Abraham Shotwell was the possessor, occupant, clearer and improver of the land mentioned in the petition, and that John Shottwell is the said Abraham Shottwell's sonne and heire; It is therefore agreed and ordered that the Deputy Governor issue out a warrant to the Surveyor General and his deputy, to survey the same lands and make return thereof, in order that the said Shottwell may have a pattent thereof, according to the concessions." The next official account of John Shotwell is found in the " Records of Friends," as follows : "At a monthly meeting, the 19th of ye IIth month, 1709, held att Nathaniel Fitz Randolph's, (Woodbridge) New Jersey. Our friend John Shotwell hath requested this meeting to have a meeting settled at his house (Statten Island) once every quarter, to which this meeting consented, and it is to begin ye first First Day, in ye next First Month, and so to continue quarterly." Respecting a recommending him to your care, with desires for his pros- perity in ye blessed truth, we dearly salute you and take leave. Your affectionate friends and brethren. Wm. Southby, Saml. Carpenter, Griffith Owens, Richard Hill, Wm. Hudson, Thom. Story, Nicholas Waln, Thon. Griffith, Ralph Jackson, Hugh Dewbury, David Loyd, Christopher Blakeburne, Nathan Stanberry, Anthony Mor- ris." In the Eighth month, 1709, John Shotwell applied for a certificate on account of marriage, to carry to Flush- ing, Long Island, which was immediately granted, and in the following month the Flushing " Records " show that John Chatwell, or Shotwell, of Staten Island, and Mary Thorne, of Flushing, were married. The same record shows that in Ninth month, 1712, his brother Abraham married Elizabeth Cowperthwaite, daughter of John Cow- perthwaite, of West Jersey. Abraham after his marriage resided in the neighborhood of Metuchen. Immediately meeting held at the same place the 21st, Third month, 1713, after his marriage John Shotwell settled on the northerly the following entry appears : "The meeting that was ap- pointed att John Shotwell's, att Statten Island, is found in- convenient to be on ye day it was appointed, and the time of holding it is changed to ye sccond First Day, in ye Fourth, Seventh, Tenth and First months." John Shotwell died in 1718 at Woodbridge, where he resided at the time. In his will he is called " John Shotwell, of the Towne of Wood- bridge, in ye County of Middlesex, and Province of New Jersey, yoeman." His will was proved at Amboy, October 5th, 1719, before John Barclay. John Kinsey, his trusty and well beloved, and his son-in-law John Laing, are the executors named. In it he directs all his lands to be sold, and all goods indoors and outdoors, husbandry uten- sils and joiners' tools, cattle and horses, and his negro, Tom, are to be disposed of. After making bequests to his sons, John and Abraham, and daughter, Elizabeth Laing, and Sarah Smith, wife of Benjamin Smith, he orders the balance to be put out on interest for the use and benefit of his well-beloved wife. Joseph Shotwell, who married Mary Manning, in Woodbridge, in 1716, was no doubt a son of Daniel Shotwell, of Staten Island. The following certificate appears on record, referring to John Shotwell, Sr., son of John formerly of Staten Island : " From our Monthly Meeting, held att Philadelphia the 29th day of ye Eighth month, 1708, to the Monthly Mceting of Friends at Woodbridge, greeting : Whereas, John Shotwell, who came from your parts to serve an apprenticeship in this city, which being fulfilled and he intending to return to ye place of his former abode, hath regularly applied to this meeting for a certificate concerning his conversation (whilst among us) and clearness with re- spect to marriage. These are, therefore, according to ye wholesome and necessary discipline of truth, to certify on his behalf that, after due inquiry made, we find his conver- sation has been orderly and his diligence in keeping to meetings commendable as becomes our holy profession, and had not an existence. bank of Rahway river, long known as Shotwell's Landing, now better known as Rahway Port, and lying within the limits of the city of Rahway; he also acquired a tract of land adjacent to his residence, where he died in 1762. His eldest son, Joseph, was born in 1710, married at Flushing, Long Island, in 1741, located where the National Banking House of Rahway now stands, and was a prominent mer- chant a century and a quarter ago. The land lying between the North and Robinson's Branch of Rahway river, now known as Upper Rahway, was his farm. Soon after the close of the revolutionary war two of his sons opened and maintained a direct trade with Bristol, England, shipping flaxseed and other produce and receiving in return dry goods, by means of a small vessel that navigated a portion of Rahway river. Before the close of the century they suc- ceeded (in what was at the time regarded a great and doubtful undertaking) by means of the race way leading to Milton Lake, in obtaining sufficient power to run suc- cessfully what have since been known as the Milton Mills, and to a descendant of one of the above Rahway is largely indebted for many of the improvements more recently made. John the second, son of John Shotwell, of Shot- well's Landing, was born in 1712. Soon after attaining his majority he started for the West, and eventually reached and scttled the premises now owned and occupied by John Tay- lor Johnson, President of Central Railroad of New Jersey, now in the bounds of Plainfield city, but at that time known as the vicinity of Scotch Plains. And here it may not be improper to remark that the mountain beyond and the Short Ifills, that bound the . beautiful plain on the east, were oc- cupied and scttled before the plain, which, being covered with a stunted growth of scrub oaks, was regarded as of little value for agricultural purposes. At the time of which this is written the present growing and beautiful city of Plainfield There was a Plainfield, a neighbor-

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hood or locality, but it was some two or three miles to the | Nottinghamshire, England, born about the year 1617, and eastward, in the township of Piscataway, county of Middle- sex ; the Plainfield of to day is in Umion, formerly Essex county. In the year 1788 Friends decided to build a new meeting house, and the structure yet stands near the depot in Plainfield. The name by which the old town had been called was transferred to the new one, and thereafter the present Plainfield had a name and a record. John Shotwell acquired a large tract of land between Scotch Plains and Plainfield, extending from the mountain to the Short Hills. By his first wife, a daughter of Shobel Smith, of Wood- bridge, he had one son, John Smith Shotwell, two of whose sons at one time resided at Turkey, now New Providence ; another, fifty years ago, was a prominent auctioneer and merchant in New York. By his second wife, a daughter of William Webster, Jr., he had a numerous family of children. Two sons occupied portions of the original homestead ; one went to Sussex county, and another to Canada ; the youngest son, Hugh, settled in Harrison county, Ohio. Abraham, the third son of John of Shotwell's Landing, was born in 1719, married at Flushing, Long Island, and settled on the bank of the river, between Staten Island and the Landing, on Iands believed to have been originally taken up by his father, which are yet owned and occupied by a grandson. Jacob, the fourth son, married at Flushing, Long Island, and was a merchant in Rahway. The house he occupied is yet standing in a good state of preservation, having been sul)- stantially built on oak frame covered with cedar shingles. Alexander Shotwell, a grandson, has long been a resident of the State of Alabama. Samuel, the fifth son, resided in what is now Grand street, near the Landing; his descend- ants are to be found in the northern part of the State. Ben- jamin, the sixth son, married at Flushing, Long Island, and inherited the homestead at the Landing, which descended through three generations and finally passed into the hands of strangers. Benjamin Lundy, one of the most persistent of abolitionists, the publisher of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, was a grandson of Benjamin Shotwell. The descendants of Abraham Shotwell may be found in every part of the Union and also in Canada, but few of them are aware of the suffering and privation he endurcd more than two centuries ago for his love of liberty and outspoken op- position to oppression and tyranny.

HOTWELL, ABEL VAIL, Retired Merchant and Secretary and Treasurer of the Rahway In- surance Company, was born, October 18th, 1814, in that place, and is a son of Abel and Elizabeth ( Vail) Shotwell. His father carried on a tannery in Rahway for many years, and which was quite an extensive one for those days. His mo- ther was a native of Somerset county, New Jersey, and the fifth in descent from Edward Fitz Randolph, a native of

who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1630, it is sup- posed, with his parents. Edward Fitz Randolph was mar. ried, by Rev. John Lathrop, pastor of the Scituate and Barnstable Church, May 10th, 1637, to Elizabeth Blossom, born in Leyden, 1620, to which city her parents had es- caped to avoid the persecutions of the English, and who also came to America the same year, landing at Plymouth from the celebrated " Mayflower." About the year 1668, Edward came to Piscataway, New Jersey, where he soon after died, after which his widow married Captain John Pike, of Woodbridge. Their son, Nathaniel, married Mary Holby, at Barnstable, Massachusetts, in November, 1660, and about the year 1667 he removed with his family to Woodbridge, New Jersey. In 1693 he represented that place in the Assembly held at Perth Amboy. From 1705 until 1713-the year of his death-Friends' Meetings were held in his house (which is said to have stood near the black walnut tree on the place recently owned by John Barron, deceased, near the railroad depot, Woodbridge). His son Edward married Katherine, daughter of Richard and Margaret Hartshorne, of Middletown, New Jersey. This Richard Hartshorne represented Monmouth county in the Provincial Assembly, and was Speaker of the same. He was also high sheriff of the county, and a member of the governor's council. Their son Edward was born May 7th, 1706. On July 26th, 1734, the monthly meeting of Friends at Woodbridge furnished Edward Fitz Randolph, Jr., with a certificate to Flushing, Long Island, Meeting, on account of his marriage with Phebe, daughter of James Jackson, of that place. Phebe was one of a family of twenty-two children, nineteen of whom grew up and mar- ried. Edward Fitz Randolph and Phebe his wife resided on the farm now owned and occupied by their great-grand- son, Robert C. Vail, now in Raritan township (formerly Woodbridge), situated about midway between Rahway and Plainfield. One or more sharp skirmishes occurred on this farm during the war for independence. On one occasion a party of American militia, being closely pressed, retreated into the low grounds called "Ash Swamp," followed by the British cavalry, whose horses soon became mired to the saddle girths, when the Americans, who had taken shelter behind the trees, killed and wounded many of the enemy. The children of this last couple were six in number, two sons and four daughters. The fourth child, Catharine, married one John Vail, and the fifth child, Margaret, married his brother, Abraham Vail. The offspring of this last-named pair were Ephraim Vail, now living (November, 1876) in the ninety-third year of his age. He resides in the house his father built-as he was accustomed to say-in the year the war broke out in Boston, 1775. Ephraim's sister, Eliz- abeth, married Abel Shotwell. In connection with this generation of the family, an interesting historical fact de- serves mention in this place. At a period during the revo- lutionary war, when the opposing forces were manœuvring

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between the mountains and the Short Hills, General Wash- ington attended by his staff rode up to the house of John Vail (who had married Catharine Fitz Randolph), and asked for a guide to lead them to some prominent place on the mountain where a good view could be obtained of the country below. Edward Fitz Randolph, a younger brother of Catharine Vail, happening to be at the house, volun. teered his services to guide the party, when one of the general's staff, or attendants, dismounted, and Edward took his place in the saddle. He led the general and his staff to what has since been known as " Washington's Rock," a prominent and conspicuous place on the face of the moun- tain, some two or three miles south of Plainfield. Imme- diately after the general and staff had left Vail's seat for the mountains, a boy was despatched to a neighboring pasture- field, where a horse was soon caught, and the general's dis- mounted attendant at once followed in rapid pursuit. This Edward Fitz Randolph subsequently purchased and resided on the farm adjoining his brother-in-law, John Vail, where he died about the year 1830. The farm of John Vail, where Washington called for a guide, is now owned and occupied by his grandson, Jonah Vail. Captain Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, of revolutionary fame, who resided in Woodbridge, was a cousin. Hartshorne Fitz Randolph, an uncle, settled prior to the Revolution in Morris county, and from him the township of Randolph is named. The wife of the late Hon. Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, is a granddaugh- ter of Hartshorne Fitz Randolph. Abel Vail Shotwell, the sixth in descent from the pilgrim of the " Mayflower," re- ceived a common school education in his native town of Rahway, and in 1830 effected an engagement as a clerk in a mercantile establishment there. Four years later he com- menced business on his own account, and was actively en- gaged therein until 1863. In 1868 he became connected with the Rahway Fire Insurance Company, which has been in existence since 1836. For the past ten years he has been Second Vice-President of the Rahway Savings Bank, and also Secretary to the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Rahway, which position he has held since the or- ganization of the bank in 1865. He was for many years a Director in the old Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Rahway, which was chartered in 1828, and wound up its affairs in 1865, since which period it has ceased to exist. When the city government of Rahway was formed in 1858, he was chosen to represent the First Ward in the City Coun- cil. He was married, November 2d, 1859, to his second cousin, Rosetta Shotwell Ebert, of Hamilton, Ohio, grand- daughter of Hugh Shotwell, formerly of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and also, on her father's side, great grand-daughter of Colonel Michael Smyscr, of York county, Pennsylvania, an officer in the war of the Revolution. Colonel Smyser was captain in Colonel Swope's regiment, and was one of the captured at Fort Washington, on the Iludson, November 16th, 1776. York county sent him seven times to the Ilouse, and he served two terms in the State Senate.

HOTWELL, JACOB R., Retired Merchant, was born, October 8th, 1813, in the city of Rahway, New Jersey, and is a son of the late Joseph D. and Elizabeth (Fitz Randolph) Shotwell. He is the great-grandson of Joseph Shotwell, one of the early settlers of East Jersey, and a grandson of Henry Shotwell, who was born in that province about 1751 and died in 1824. His house was the resort of the minis- ters of the Society of Friends, and was always open to re- ceive and welcome them. The family were leading mem- bers of that society, and have been identified with Rahway for very many years. Joseph D. Shotwell, son of Ilenry, was born in the city of New York, April 6th, 1782, and died December 7th, 1856; he married Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Fitz Randolph, of Blazing Star, a member of the old family bearing that name, so familiarly known in New Jer- sey ; the latter died November 26th, 1839, aged eighty-five years. Jacob R. Shotwell was educated partly at the Friends' Select School, in Rahway, and thence passed to the celebrated Westtown Boarding School, near Philadel- phia, also under the control of the same denomination, com- pleting his studies in Gummere's Collegiate School, at Bur- lington, where he graduated in 1831. Returning to Rahway he engaged there in mercantile pursuits, in which he was actively occupied until 1860, when he retired. He was one of the founders of the Rahway Gaslight Company, and has been its President since its organization in 1857. He is Vice-President of the Rahway Savings Institution ; one of the incorporators and a Director of the Hazelwood Ceme- tery, of Rahway ; a Director of the Jersey City Fire In- surance Company; a member of the Board of Commission- ers of Fisheries of the State of New Jersey. IIe was one of the incorporators of the Rahway Public Library, which was organized in 1858 and incorporated in 1864, and is now under the direct and able management of an association of the ladies of Rahway. Ile was also Chairman of the Com- mission appointed by act of Legislature to lay out " strects, avenues and squares " in the city of Rahway. Ile was a member of the first Board of Water Commissioners under an act of the Legislature, for supplying the city of Rahway and places adjacent with pure and wholesome water, and labored assiduously and successfully to accomplish that ob- ject. He is a life-member of the American Pomological Society, and has all his life taken an active interest in horti- culture, landscape gardening, and their kindred pursuits. He has been for many years a member of the New Jer- sey Historical Society. He has been thoroughly identi- fied with every public improvement, and has done much to advance the interests of the city. In politics he was an old-line Whig; and has acted with the Republican party since its organization. Ilc was married, September 30th, I841, to Elizabeth B., daughter of Ilugh Hartshorne, of Locust Grove, near Rahway; she died May Ist, 1846. December 7th, 1848, he married his second wife, Martha, daughter of Daniet Stroud, of Stroudsburgh, Monroe co., l'a.

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HOTWELL, ABRAHAM F., President of the these two were the only medical practitioners in the entire National Bank of Rahway, New Jersey, was born, August 6th, 1817, in that city, and is a son of John and Sarah (Freeman) Shotwell, both of whom were natives of New Jersey. His father was a farmer by occupation, and the old Shotwell homestead, near Rahway, is still occupied by the family, the land having been originally purchased by them from the Indians. There is quite a curiosity on the lands in the shape of a pear tree which has borne fruit yearly for the last two centuries, and never once failed during all that time. His mother was of the Freemans of Woodbridge, likewise an old Jersey family. He received his education at a select school in his birthplace known as the " Rahway Athenaeum," from which he graduated in 1834. After leaving school he went to New York city, where he was engaged in mercan- tile pursuits for several years. He subsequently returned to Rahway, and from 1858 to 1865 was Cashier of the Far- iners' and Mechanics' Bank, of that city. Upon the organi- zation of the National Bank of Rahway, in 1865, he was elected its President, and has ever since occupied that po- sition. He is also a Director of the Rahway Savings Bank. He was married in 1845 to Mary J. Wood, of New York.

CHENK, DOCTOR JOHN FRELINGHUYSEN, Physician, of Flemington, was born in Neshanic, Somerset county, New Jersey, June 6th, 1799. He is of Dutch descent, his ancestors having come to this county from Holland and settled in the Millstone valley. His father, Dr. Henry H. Schenk, was an assistant surgeon in the revolutionary army, during the latter part of the war for independence. On the mother's side his grandfather was Jacob R. Hardenberg, first President of Queen's (now Rutgers) College. The early education of Dr. Schenk was obtained in the schools of Neshanic and vicinity, and subsequently, when he had passed through the proper course of preparatory training, he commenced the study of medicine, reading under the direc- tion of his brother, Dr. Jacob R. Schenk, and Dr. Vander- veer. Subsequently he attended a regular course at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, graduating in due form. He was licensed to practise in the year 1820, and established himself as a practitioner at North Branch. He remained there but a short time, and then removed to Readington, New Jersey. His stay at the latter place was also brief, and in 1822 he removed to Flemington, where he has ever since continued to reside, and where for more than half a century he was engaged in active professional practice. In 1870 he retired from regular practice, and since then his professional labors have been confined to an occasional consultation with his son, Dr. W. H. Schenk. When he first established himself in Flemington there was but one other physician in the place, and for a long time

neighborhood. He brought to his new profession high natural qualifications, thorough professional training, a zealous enthusiasm and an unflagging energy. As a result, he speedily built up a very large practice, extending over a considerable portion of the country surrounding Flemington. The success attending his practice was great, and his repu- tation as a skilled physician and surgeon rested on a secure and permanent foundation. Since 1820 he has been con- nected with the Somerset and Hunterdon County Medical Societies. He has been President of the latter association, and is now an honorary member of it. Through all his long career he has been highly esteemed by his professional brethren, and by all in the community in which he has lived. Politically he has taken no more active part than is required of every good citizen. His political sympathics are with the Democratic party. He was married in 1820 to Miss Van Deursen, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, sis- ter of Dr. Van Deursen of that city. She died in 1848, and in 1850 he married Miss Churchill, of Portland, Con- necticut. She died in 1865. His son, Dr. W. HI. Schenk, is one of the leading physicians of Hunterdon county. Another son has long been connected with journalism in New Jersey.

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 38

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