USA > New Jersey > The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century > Part 40
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cern. He then resolved to lead a professional life, and [ setts, about 1630. They have been noted for their ad- removed to Trenton in May, 1854, where he at once com- herence to the customs of the Puritans. The family genealogy is liberally interspersed with those who have been prominent in the church and local affairs of State. George W. Sanderson, a brother of Augustus E., and a member elect to the Legislature of Massachusetts, now holds the position of Clerk of the District Court of Northern Middlesex, Massachusetts, and owns and resides on a farm near Littleton, which has been in the occupancy of the Sanderson family over 120 years. The present generation is the sixth in descent from Edward Sanderson, one of the emigrant ancestors. Augustus E. Sanderson was educated at Appleton's Seminary, Mount Vernon, New Hampshire, now called the McCullock Institute. In 1854 he removed to New Jersey, and taught school near Lebanon; at the same time he commenced the study of the law with M. D. Trefren. He was licensed as an attorney in 1858, and made a counsellor-at-law in 1863. Immediately after his admission to the bar he opened an office in Lebanon, in 1858, and at once commenced to practise his profession. He was for a number of years Superintendent of Schools for the township where he resides, and otherwise identified with the local politics of the town and county. In 1870 he received the Democratic nomination for member of As- sembly, and was elected by a large majority. He was re- nominated and elected in 1871. During both sessions he served on the Judiciary Committee; and as the Democrats were in a minority, his being assigned to that important committee was highly complimentary. Although a Demo- crat, he is not an aggressive politician, and during the civil war was an earnest advocate for the cause of the Union. During his career in the Legislature his course was very generally approved by all parties. IIe advocated the gen- eral railroad bill, which subsequently became a law. IIe introduced the first free school bill, which was afterwards supplemented by the Runyon bill, and subsequently passed; it is at present the existing school law of New Jersey. Dur- ing his entire residence in the State he has commanded the respect of his fellow-townsmen, as well as the members of the profession at large. He was married, in 1856, to Mary A. Groendyke, of Lebanon, New Jersey. menced the study of law under Hon. Martin Ryerson as his preceptor, with whom he remained about one year, when Mr. Ryerson removed to Newton. He then entered the office of Mercer Beasley, now Chief-Justice, and fin- ished his studies preparatory to admission to the bar under the instruction of the latter for about three years, and was admitted as an attorney at the June term of 1858, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession at Trenton, where, however, he remained but a short time. In the autumn of the same year he went to Newton, where he agam followed mercantile pursuits, and so continued until the spring of 1865. Ile was active in organizing the Mer- chants' National Bank, of Newton, is its largest share- holder, and was elected Cashier, March 6th, 1865, at the first meeting of its directors. Although of Whig parentage on his father's side, his political creed up to 1854 was that of the old Jackson school, and never differed with the prin ciples of the Democratic party, except on the question of slavery. He has always been a radical anti-slavery man, and a zealous advocate of free trade and direct taxation. He joined the Republican movement in 1856, being one of its earliest members, and adhered to the organization until 1372, when he espoused the cause of the Liberal Republi- cans and Democrats, and supported the claims of Horace Greeley for the Presidency, and has continued to act with the Democratic party since. He was a member of the Constitutional Commission that proposed amendments to the constitution, in 1873, and introduced a number of measures of reform, several of which were adopted in whole or in a modified form, and are now incorporated into the constitution of the State. He labored earnestly, industri- ously and zealously in favor of every reform measure that was introduced. He favored an elective judiciary, the abolition of the Court of Chancery, the abolition of capital punishment, woman suffrage, the equal taxation of all kinds of property, and no exemptions even for churches and insti- tutions of learning, the election of State officers by the people, measures to prevent bribery at elections and several other reforms; and he opposed a change of representation in the Senate and the creation of any new offices. He was married, September 10th, 1860, to Joanna Hill, daughter of the late Jonathan Hill, of Sussex county.
ANDERSON, HON. AUGUSTUS E., Lawyer, was born, February 15th, 1832, in Littleton, Mid- dlesex county, Massachusetts, and is a son of Ira and Asenath (Hatch) Sanderson; his maternal grandmother was Mary Webster, a relative of the late IIon. Daniel Webster. The Sanderson family, of Massachusetts, are descendants of Edward and Robert Sanderson, who settled in Watertown, Massachu-
LIET, JOSEPH, of Washington, Lawyer and Law Judge of the Courts of Warren County, New Jersey, was born in Franklin township, of that county, and is the son of Daniel Vliet, and a grandson of Garrett Vliet, Major-General of New Jersey Militia, and whose division performed es- . cort duty on the occasion of the visit of General Lafayette to Trenton, in 1825. The family was among the carliest settlers of the Musconetcong valley, and several of his an- cestors participated in the war of the Revolution. He was educated principally in his native county, and in 12.45
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entered the law office of Hon. A. G. Richey, where he tion not sufficiently pronounced, and he was one of the commenced his preparation for the bar, to which he was ad- mitted as an attorney, January 3d, 1850, and in 1852 was appointed a Master in Chancery. He was licensed a coun- sellor in 1855, which entitled him to practise in the Supreme courts. Ile was appointed, by Governor Price, Prosecutor of the Pleas for Warren County, which position he held for the usual term of five years. After an interval of five years -during which time the position was filled by Colonel James M. Robeson-he was again appointed by Governor Randolph, in 1865; again, in 1870, by Governor Parker ; and a fourth time, in 1875, by Governor Bedle. After re- ceiving his license as an attorney, in 1850, he practised his profession for one year at Asbury, and then removed to Washington, where he has since resided. He was elected the first Mayor of Washington, after its incorporation as a borough, and served in that position for three years. He is attorney for the First National Bank, at Washington; and was of counsel for the Morris & Essex Railroad Company in Warren county, during its construction and until it was merged into the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Rail- road. During the long period that he has filled the position of Prosecutor of the Pleas he has tried over twenty homicide cases; noticeable among which was that of the Rev. Jacob Hardin, convicted and executed for the murder of his wife. In this case he was assisted by James M. Robeson and the late Hon. William L. Dayton, Attorney-General of the State. During his long service the great variety of criminal business of which he has had charge has been ably man- aged, and there is probably not a single instance where an indictment of his preparing has been quashed through a defect in the bill. As a lawyer he ranks equal to any in the country, and is highly respected by the bar and also by his fellow-townsmen. Politically he is a Democrat, al- though too deeply engrossed in and devoted to his profes- sion to be an office-holder or office-seeker, outside of his professional appointments. He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Crevley, of Bloomsburg, New Jersey, who died in 1872. In 1874 he was married to Martha Voorhees Losey, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In February, 1877, he was appointed Law-Judge of Warren county.
YINGTON, WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, of Newark, General Agent for New Jersey of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, of New York, was born, December 26th, 1840, at. Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, New York. His father was the Rev. John Byington, born at Great Barring- ton, Massachusetts, and his mother, Catherine (Newton) Byington, was a native of Vermont. His father was a cler- gyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but withdrew from it because he believed its position on the slavery ques-
leading men in the organization of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Mr. Byington's boyhood was spent on his father's farm, in northern New York, on which he acquired a fine physical constitution, as well as the earnest political con- victions of his father. But while yet a lad he was am- bitious for a better education than the district school of a small town could afford, and at the age of sixteen he went to Battle Creek, Michigan, where an elder brother resided, and spent a year at the public school. At the age of seven- teen he taught his first school, and from that time for four years he supported himself entirely by teaching in the winter, while attending school in the summer. At the age of twenty-one he graduated with a high rank at the State Normal School of Michigan, which was then, as now, cele- brated for the thorough drill which it gave its pupils. Im- mediately on liis graduation he was called back to Battle Creek to take charge of one of the schools there, and a year after was called to the mastership of the IIoughton Union School, of Detroit, one of the finest in that city, which po- sition he held for three years. At the end of this time he resigned, on the ground that teachers were not properly paid for their services, and received the highest testimonials for his remarkable ability and success. At the age of twenty-six he now went into the life insurance business, and spent about three years in travelling in that interest in the West. In 1870 he removed to New York city, where he was an insurance broker for four years. Being a man who could not but give the whole of his fine abilities and intense energy to thoroughly understanding and prosecuting his business, he made a careful study of the science and history of life insurance, and gained considerable reputation as a very vigorous writer on this subject. It was in 1872 that he issued what was a great desideratum, his first "Synopsis of Ten Years of Life Insurance Business," which he has since issued annually. It gave all the statistics of all our American companies for ten years, and had an immediate sale of about 40,000 copies. In the beginning of 1874 Mr. Byington was invited by the Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, of New York, to the responsible post of General Agent for the State of New Jersey. He thereupon moved to Newark, in this State, and has devoted himself ever since to its duties. Being a man of very positive convictions, he has not hesitated to take a pronounced position in fighting against everything, especially in the insurance business, which he saw to be an injury to its truest interests, and his familiarity with the general subject and his command of a sharp and telling style have made his work in this line very successful. Physically, Mr. Byington is a man of large frame and well-proportioned figure. He is an active and public-spirited citizen, taking great interest in every good cause ; in politics he is an earnest Republican; and is a communicant of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church. Ile was married, December 25th, 1865, to Kate M. Preston, of Battle Creek, Michigan.
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ULVER, JOSEPH EDWIN, M. D., Practising year the excellent private school of Dr. John H. Whittaker, Physician of Jersey City, was born, February 9th, 1823, in Groton, New London county, Con necticut. His parents were Joseph and Permelia Lamb Culver. For several generations .his an- cestors on both sides were natives of Connecticut. His early education was obtained at the public schools of his native place. The schools there, however, were of a very high character, and afforded him large opportunities for advancement in his studies. He was of a specially studious disposition, and from the first made the utmost of the opportunities afforded him. Not only did he indus triously perform the regular mark of school study, but he availed himself of every leisure hour at home to prosecute ad- ditional studies. It was well that he possessed this perse- vering energy, for when he was only two years old his father had died, and it was inevitable that the fatherless boy should as early as possible depend upon himself for support. He was only ten years of age when the responsibility of self- support came upon him, and from that time forward he has earned his own livelihood. The ambition that characterized him continued to manifest itself in his devotion to books, and he read and studied what time could be spared from work and sleep. Such progress did he make in this way that when he was only sixteen year of age he passed the necessary examination and taught a public school in his native town. Succeeding satisfactorily he continued in this employment for several years during the winter months, and thus he obtained the means to advance his own education. In the summers of 1839 and 1840 he was a student at the Connecticut Literary Institution located at Suffield. Here in the latter year, by request of the principal, he wrote and delivered an oration on " Political Fame," on the occasion of the annual commencement. He obtained a fair knowl- edge of the Latin language and a smattering of the Greek, and attempted the study of the French without a teacher, and of course without a pronunciation. But scientific pursuits claimed his chief attention. For the pure and mixed mathematics he always cherished an especial fondness, and in these branches he never needed the assistance of a tutor ; albeit he never failed to solve the most difficult test problems submitted to him by his teachers and school. fellows. His reading extended to every department of human knowledge, but a strong preference for the natural sciences now led him for a few years to devote all his lei- sure time to conjoined study and experiment. And when at length he decided to enter the medical profession he was already quite familiar with what was then known of elec- tricity and galvanism, optics, acoustics, chemistry inorganic and organic, human and comparative physiology, human anatomy, materia medica, toxicology, hygiene, and the his- tory of medicine. In the year 1847 he matriculated at the Berkshire Medical College, at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he attended one course of lectures. The following spring he went to New York city, where he attended for one
and also for several months the private surgical school of Dr. William Detmold. In the fall and winter of 1848 he attended the course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city, and received his diploma therefrom in the spring of 1849. After his graduation he went to live in the southern part of North Bergen, subse- quently Hudson City, and now included in the municipality of Jersey City. Here he at once entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he has ever since been actively engaged. He rapidly achieved success in the career he had chosen, and his practice soon extended into every city and township in Hudson county. In the summer of 1849 he was chosen physician for the townships of Bergen and North Bergen, and also for IIudson county, which positions he continued to fill for several consecutive years. Having been examined and licensed by the Medical Society of New Jersey, he became a member of the Passaic District Medical Society, and in 1850 was a delegate from that body to the State Medical Society. By the State Medical Society he was empowered to organize the District Medical Society of Hudson County, which accordingly was chartered in 1851. He wrote the constitution and by-laws of the Hudson Dis- trict Medical Society. He compiled and published in 1873 "A Documentary History of Recent Discussions in the District Medical Society for the County of Hudson." He has held every office in the gift of said society, and he is at the present time the appointed historian and custodian of its archives. In 1871, 1872 and 1873, he was one of the Standing Committee of the Medical Society of New Jersey. He is a charter member of the New Jersey Academy of Medicine, Vice-President, and Chairman of Committee on Admissions. One of the founders of the Jersey City Patho- logical Society, he was also its first President. For many years he has been a member of the New York Pathological Society, and he has belonged to the Neurological Society of New York city since its reorganization. He is one of the attending physicians of St. Francis Hospital, having been on the staff since its organization. In years past he has written more or less of the reports of the IIudson District Medical Society, which have been published annually in the " Transactions of the Medical Society of New Jersey." Aside from this he has contributed from time to time to the literature of his profession. In 1868 he published, in the transactions of the State Medical Society, "A Case of Choleraic Dysentery-Death by Septicemia ; " in 1869 a paper on the hygrometer, being a plea for its general use in epidemiological observations. In 1876 he published, in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, "A Case of Hydrophobia,'' in which the symptoms and post mortem appearances wcre carefully noted and an attempt made to lay the foundation of a rational treatment of this disease on its pathological conditions. Ile is a thorough scholar and a close professional student, taking an ardent and active in- terest in all matters pertaining to his chosen calling. llis
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profession, however, has not absorbed all his attention and | ish about their associates. The hospital, prematurely put energies. He has taken a strong and practical interest in to work, ran a feeble race for two years, and fell dead. Recently it has been resuscitated, but with fewer patients than attendants it languishes, and is itself a fearfully expen- sive example and victim of chronic disease. The following original essays by Dr. Culver may be mentioned : Thesis for graduation, on certain physiological relations and uses of the oxides and oxysalts of iron ; papers read before the District Medical Society-I. "On Digestion; " 2. " On the Origin and Relations of Urea, Uric Acid and Uric Oxide in Vertebrates and Invertebrates; " 3. "On Pepsin ; " 4. " Concerning the Effects of Zinc Oxide on those who Manu- facture and Use it ; " 5. " On Putrefaction " (read on retir- ing from the presidency of the District Mcdical Society) : papers read before the Academy of Medicine-I. " Experi- mental and Rational Researches Concerning the Pigment of Jaundice ; " 2. "A New Method of Testing for Bile- Pigment in Urine and Other Liquids," general educational matters. During four years of his residence in Hudson City, he filled the position of City Superintendent of Public Schools, and for one year he was one of the County Board of Examiners of Public School Teachers. When he entered upon the duties of the former office, in 1860, Hudson City had not a school building nor a school worthy of the name. He assisted the city to borrow twenty thousand dollars, with which three commodious schoolhouses were built and furnished. He classified the pupils according to their studies and proficiency, and graded the departments accordingly. He wrote the rules and regu- lations for the government of the schools, and the by-laws adopted by the Board of Education. The system of school management organized by him has never been changed essentially. Three years after it was put on trial the State superintendent pronounced the schools of Hudson City the best in Hudson county, and the schools of Hudson county the best in the State. Moreover, he is active in the general duties of citizenship, and in the year 1860 he was elected Treasurer of Hudson City, the duties of which position he LARK, HON. ALVAH A., of Somerville, Lawyer and Congressman, was born, September 13th, 1840, at Lebanon, Hunterdon county, New Jer- sey. He is the son of Samuel Clark, who re- moved to New Germantown, in the same State, when Alvah was quite young. Mr. Clark kept the hotel at this place, and his son assisted him in the business in all the capacities necessitated by the exigencies of a country hotel. At the same time the lad attended school as much as his duties would permit, and having determined upon following a learned profession he made the best use of all his opportunities. Thc profes- sion he had fixed his mind upon was that of the law, and so steadily did the fire of ambition burn within him that at the age of nineteen he had succeeded in preparing for col- lege, studying part of the time with Rev. D. Blauvelt, of Lamington. Circumstances, however, not permitting him to take a collegiate course, he entered the law office of Hon. J. C. Rafferty in 1859, and there remained two years. At the expiration of that term he passed to the office of I. N. Dilts, Esq., in which he continued to study and acquire a knowledge of the practical details of the profession, until he was admitted as an attorney in 1863. Thereupon he at once opened an office at his old home, New Germantown, and began practice. After laboring in this sphere for three years, he removed to Somerville, where he has since con- tinued. ITis practice has grown to be a large and profitable one in all branches of the profession. He is a well-read lawyer, and devotes great care to the preparation and man- agement of his cases. To these circumstances, in connec- tion with his great natural ability, his marked success, whether in chamber practice or before the courts, is to be attributed. Several corporations have secured his services as attorney, among which may be mentioned the Bound performed for a period of eight years. Before the issue of war-bonds was authorized by State legislation, Hudson City had borrowed more than one hundred thousand dollars, for the payment of which the lenders held no other security than the signature of the Treasurer and the integrity of the city officers. For these eight years the bonds of Hudson City were very acceptable at the banks and among capital- ists. He is one of the Trustees of the Hudson City Savings Bank, appointed by the act of incorporation. The by-laws adopted by the trustees, under which the bank management is controlled, the trustees permanently organized, and the duties of their chosen officers defined, were written by him. The Hudson County Hospital was chartered in 1860 through the joint efforts of Drs. T. R. Varick and J. E. Culver. There were ten regents, who appointed a staff of four regular physicians. Subscriptions to the amount of twenty- five thousand dollars, more or less, were found to be ob- tainable, when the war of the rebellion put a stop to further progress. Soon after the war ceased, however, the project was revived. About this time, without the knowledge of the staff and the surviving regents, an amendment to the hospital charter, doubling the number of regents, was hurried through the Legislature. Upon the heels of this sharp practice the new quota of regents was filled, and they were then brought to sanction a second amendment legaliz- ing the appointment on the hospital staff of irregular prac- titioners. At this juncture the District Medical Society de- murred and appointed a committee to wait upon the regents and protest against this infringement of vested rights. Dr. Culver wrote and presented the protest on this occasion. It was published by order of the District Medical Society. Ignoring the staff elect, the regents now appointed a new one, far greater in numbers and not inconveniently squeam-
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Brook & Delaware Railroad Company, the Hamilton Land | tion and placing him upon dry ground. The moral was not Improvement Company, and the Dime Savings Bank of Somerville. Politically he belongs to the Democratic party, and as a political organizer is one of the strongest men in the organization. In 1876 he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the Fourth Congressional District, and succeeded in making it in one of the sharpest contests ever known in the district. The campaign which followed was unusually bitter and was fought with great determination on both sides. In the result Mr. Clark was elected by a majority of over five thousand, a statement which sufficiently attests the estimation in which he is held. A polished, courteous gentleman, a good speaker, and more important still, a good debater, he will prove a valuable ac- quisition to the Democratic side of the House of Repre- sentatives. His law practice has consisted largely of con- tested cases; one of the most important of these was the Vandeveer will case. He was married in 1864 to Anna Van Debeek, of Somerset county, New Jersey. A truly self-made man, he presents some of the finest characteristics of the best class of self-made men, being at once self- reliant and energetic, modest and moderate.
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