The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 50

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

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didate for the office of Secretary of the New Jersey Senate, and upon the assembling of that body was elected to the office. He was again elected in the succeeding year. Oc- cupying so prominent a position in the political affairs of the commonwealth, so heartily respected by the community in which he is best known, and so generally regarded as a financier of exceptional ability, Mr. Voorhecs, as has been already said, could without difficulty command so large a share of the popular vote as to assure his election to almost any State office, or to a position in the national government. That he has persistently refused to put himself in the way of such preferment can only be accounted for on the ground that he possesses much more than the average amount of modesty. He was married, November Ist, 1854, to Naomi, daughter of Samuel Leigh, Esq., of Clinton.

AXWELL, HON. JOHN PATERSON BRYANT, Lawyer, Journalist and Congressman, late of Bel- viderc, was born at Flemington, New Jersey, Sep- tember 3d, 1804. He was the son of lIon. George C. Maxwell, who was for some time a representative in Congress from New Jersey. His ancestor, Anthony Maxwell, came to this country from the north of Ireland in the early part of the last century, and settled in Hunterdon county. He had two sons : William, who at the commencement of the revolutionary war was a major in the British army and stationed at Detroit; in order to join the Continental forces he traversed the wilder- ness on foot, and was afterwards promoted to a generalship and died a bachelor some time after the war ; the other son, John, was married and left a large family; during the war he raised a company in old Sussex county and continued to serve with his company until the close of hostilities. Sussex county was not remarkable for the loyalty of its inhabitants, and when he presented himself at the camp with his com- pany, it is said General Washington exclaimed in surprise : " What ! are there any Whigs in Sussex ?" He died at Flemington, at a good old age, about 1825. George C. was his eldest son, and is believed to have lived and died at Flemington. He graduated at Nassau Hall in 1792, was licensed as attorney-at-law in 1797, as eounsellor in 1800, and called as serjeant in 1816. He was married to Miss Bryant and died quite young, while a member of Congress. He left but two children, John P. B. and Anna Maria, the widow of William P. Robeson, deceased, and mother of the Secretary of the Navy. John P. B. graduated at Nassau Hall in 1823, studied law with Chicf-Justice Hornblower, and was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in May, 1.827, as an attorney-at-law, and as a counsellor in 1830, when he settled in the practice of his profession at Belvidere, the county-seat of Warren county. He soon turned his atten- tion to politics, was for a time the editor and proprietor of the Belvidere Apollo, the Whig paper of the county. He

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was strong in his political beliefs, but courteous in all his learning and spotless integrity which have made the ju- dealings with his opponents. In 1838 he was a candidate diciary of New Jersey known and honored throughout the land. He was married in 1857 to Miss Sloane, daughter of W. H. Sloane, of Flemington. of the Whig party for Congress, and was one of the mem- bers kept from what they claimed to be their seats by the famous " Broad Seal Controversy." In 1840 he was elected and took his place in the Congress that assembled in 1841, after the log cabin campaign which resulted in the over- whelming election of General Harrison and the Whig ticket generally. As a member of Congress he was more useful than showy. His great modesty and retiring habits kept him from making any attempts at display, but no one was more useful in the committee room than he was, and his career, though not particularly brilliant, was exceedingly honorable. In September, 1834, he was married to Sarah Browne, a young lady of an old family in Philadelphia, to whom he was tenderly attached. Their union, however, was not destined to be of long duration. At the time of their marriage his bride was far gone in consumption, and survived but five weeks after the ceremony. The death of one in whom his life was so much wrapped up cast a shadow over all his future life and caused him to look for his chief happiness beyond this world. IIe was a member of the Presbyterian Church at Belvidere, and one of its earnest supporters and most liberal contributors. In 1842 he was elected a Trustee of the College of New Jersey, and died at Belvidere, November 14th, 1845.

AN SYCKEL, BENNETT, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, was born, April 17th, 1830, in Bethlehem, Hunterdon county, New Jersey. He is the third son of the late Aaron Van Syckel. Prepared for college at Easton, Pennsylvania, he was matriculated at Princeton in 1843, entering the sophomore class and grad- uating in 1846, in the same class with his brother, Dr. S. Van Syckel, of Clinton, and D. A. Depue, now one of the judges of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Immediately after graduating he entered the law office of Alcxander Wurts, of Flemington, in which he remained until he was admitted to the bar in 1851, when he at once began the practice of his profession at Flemington. His professional zeal and ability soon won for him a high reputation at the bar. A hard student, a close thinker, and a forcible speaker, his cases were prepared with thoroughness and presented with the best effect, a cause intrusted to him never failing to strike the court or jury with all the power of which the law and the facts admitted. His foren sic abilities are unquestionably of the first order. IIe pursued his profession at Flemington until 1869, when he was ap- pointed to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, a station to which he was reappointed in 1876, and which he now occupies, exemplifying in the discharge of his judicial duties, as formerly in his practice, that profound

EFFREY, OSCAR, Lawyer, of Washington, was born, August 31st, 1838, at Lockport, New York. IIis father, Joseph Jeffrey, a merchant of Lock- port, died when Oscar was an infant. His mother, whose maiden name was Adeline Baush, removed with him to Jersey City, New Jersey, where, some time after, she also died, leaving him an orphan in his eleventh year. Soon afterwards he removed to Warren country, acquired there a good common-school education, and at the age of eighteen entered as clerk the store of Mr. Robert Blair, at Johnsonburg, in that county, in which he remained eight years, beginning meanwhile, how- ever, the reading of law under the direction of David Thompson, of Newton. In 1864 he became a student in Mr. Thompson's office, and in the same year was ad- mitted to the bar, receiving his license as counsellor two years later. In 1865 he established himself at Washington, Warren county, where he now lives, and in which he has built up, with rapidity, a large and increasing practice, ex- tending to all the courts of the State. His professional abilities and attainments and his unspotted and fearless in- tegrity are recognized wherever he is known. Although still young he occupies a commanding position in his pro- fession, into which he has the satisfaction of reflecting that, under Providence, he has raised himself by his own efforts. In politics he is a Republican, and though not a thick-and- thin partisan, much less an office-secker, throws himself with zeal into a political canvass. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Recording Steward of the Quarterly Conference. The cause of religion has few workers more earnest or unsleeping than he. Mr. Jeffrey was married in 1872 to Emma L. Wild, of Pater- son, New Jersey.

AN SYCKEL, SYLVESTER, M. D., of Clinton, was born, February 21st, 1826, in Union town- ship, Hunterdon county, New Jersey. IIe is the son of the late Aaron Van Syckel and Mary (Bird) Van Syckel, the family being originally of Hol- landish extraction. He was prepared for college at the academy of the Rev. John Vandervecr, at Easton, and entered Princeton in 1842. Graduating in 1846, he entered the office of the celebrated Dr. Valentine Mott as a private pupil, at the same time attending lectures at the University of New York-the faculty of this institution then including Drs. Mott, Draper, Mathson, Bedford, Payne and others scarcely less celebrated. In 1849 he received his

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degree, and was appointed Assistant Physician at Bellevue | the best equipped and most effective preachers in the State. Hospital. At the end of six months' he was made House He was married in 1844 to Ann Whittaker, only daughter of John Whittaker, of Trenton. Physician, and a little later was made House Surgeon. From Bellevue he was appointed by Governor Clark to be one of the Quarantine Hospital physicians, and in this ca- pacity served through the ship-fever epidemic of 1850, an epidemic during the continuance of which Dr. Doane and ANN, PHILIP H., Banker, of Washington, was born in 1819 in Mansfield township, Warren county, New Jersey. He was educated at Schooley's Mountain, and spent the early years of his manhood in agricultural pursuits. In 1854 he was elected Surrogate of Warren county, hold- ing the position until 1859, when he engaged in the general mercantile business in Washington, pursuing it for three years. In 1864 he was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas for Warren County, an appointment renewed in 1869, holding the office for ten years. In 1865, in conjunction with S. T. Scranton, J. K. Swayze, William Shields, George W. Taylor, J. V. Matteson, W. Winter and others, he organized the First National Bank of Washing- ton, of which he was elected the first Cashier, a place he several other of the medical attendants died at their work. Dr. Van Syckel himself, worn out by sickness and over exertion, was finally compelled to resign, and for the re- establishment of his health moved to Clinton, New Jersey, where he soon acquired a large practice. Since 1851, when this change was made, he has become thoroughly identified with the town and its interests, and has for many years held a leading place among its physicians. During the civil war he was offered the position of Surgeon to the 3Ist New Jersey Regiment, but sickness in his family com- pelled him to decline the proffered position. Appreciating his professional qualities, he has been appointed by several of the most prominent of the life insurance companies to guard their interests in the capacity of Examining Physician. He was married, March 24th, 1853, to Mary E., daughter has filled ever since. The bank, as happens often in the of John Carhart, of Clinton.

LLISON, MICIIAEL E., Methodist Clergyman, of Washington, was born in 1818 in Burlington county, New Jersey. His ancestors were of English descent, but at the period of his birth had resided in New Jersey for several genera- tions. He was educated at Lawrenceville, Mer- cer county, and at the Methodist Seminary in Pennington, at which latter institution he taught for two years. In 1842 he was entered by the New Jersey Conference to preach, and began his ministration on the Parsippany and Fairfield circuit, after which he was stationed successively at Dover, Orange, Haverstraw, New York; New Brunswick, Hobo- ken, the First Church at Paterson ; St. Paul's, Jersey City ; Clinton street, Newark ; Trinity, Staten Island; St. Paul's, Newark-the largest church in that city-Simpson, Jersey City, and again at Hoboken. For four years he was Pre- siding Elder in Morristown District. In 1873 he was sta- tioned at Washington, New Jersey, where he has since re- mained. He has been the Secretary of the Newark Con -- ference for the last thirteen years. In 1857 he visited Eu- rope, travelling extensively in England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Italy, meanwhile enriching with his corre- spondence the columns of the Christian Advocate. He has been an unwearied and efficient worker in his church, which justly regards him as one of its ablest ministers. Of fine native abilities, well-trained intellectually, and rich in that diversified experience assured by the rules and methods of the church, and of which, as may be seen from this out- line of his services, he has drunk to the full, he is among

case of capable and trusted cashiers, has been largely under his management, the ability and fidelity of which are suffi- ciently shown by the high character and prosperity of the institution. For a number of years he was a Director of the Phillipsburg Bank before its conversion into a national bank, and he has served several terms in the Belvidere and Washington Town Councils, and held many other positions of public trust. In politics he is a Democrat and a great favorite with his party, as indeed he is with his fellow- citizens in general. Intelligent, steadfast, just, sensible and genial, he is a man to win golden opinions from all classes of people. He was married in 1845 to Miss Dunham, daughter of the Rev. Johnson Dunham, of New York.

ODGSON, WILMER, M. D., of Keyport, was born in Columbia, Virginia. His father, Joseph Hodgson, a merchant of Columbia, was a native of Washington, District of Columbia. His mother was Anna Pannill, of Virginia. Receiv- ing his primary education in his native town, he entered Hampden Sidney College in 1858, in which he was pursuing his studies at the outbreak of the civil war in 1861, when, like thousands of other young men in the South, he exchanged the academic text-book for the manual of arms and joined the Confederate army, serving with distinguished gallantry throughout the war. In 1864 he began the study . of medicine under Dr. F. B. Watkins, an eminent physician of Richmond, Virginia, and after attending a regular course of lectures at the Medical College in Richmond, went abroad, where he spent several months, industriously prose- cuting his studies. On his return he attended a course of

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lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and in 1867 began the practice of his profession in Keyport, Monmouth county, New Jersey, where he has since continued it, making it steadily larger and more lucra- tive. Few physicians of his age are so fully equipped by training and experience. In the natural course of things a professional career of usefulness and distinction undoubtedly awaits him.

RICK, RILEY ALLEN, Manufacturer, was born in New York city, October 7th, 1837, his parents, of Welsh descent, being natives of Burlington county, New Jersey. Receiving his preliminary education in the schools of New York, he entered Harvard College, graduating in the class of 1858. Immediately upon graduating he succeeded to the business founded by his father in 1832, the manufacture of cast-iron pipes for water and gas, which he has since then success- fully carried on. The business also included the making and erection of gas works, and among the heaviest contracts that he has filled may be mentioned the building of the works of the Central and Suburban Gaslight Companies of New York. In the latter, as well as in the People's Gas- light Company, of Albany, New York, he has been for a number of years a Director, and has been associated in the same capacity with the Merchants' Exchange National Bank, of New York. For more than two years he was upon the direction of the New Jersey Southern Railroad Company, being at the same time Secretary of that corporation. For many years he has been prominently connected with various religious and benevolent associations, and is now a Trustee of St. Luke's Hospital Association, of the New York Bible Society, and a Director of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation of New York. In 1866, associated with Mr. Robert Campbell, of New York city, he founded the town of Bricksburg, in Ocean county, New Jersey, and has de- voted a great portion of his energy and no small part of his wealth to its establishment and development. The town now numbers upwards of one thousand inhabitants, and its flourishing condition is the best testimonial to the liberality, foresight and business ability of its founder. He was mar- ried, January 10th, 1861, to Anna Stone, daughter of Charles H. Brown, Esq., of Boston, Massachusetts.

preparatory training at a private school, William entered Princeton College in 1845. He pursued the three years' course, and graduated in 1848, and received the degrees of A. B. and A. M. in due course. His tastes leading him to the medical profession he began his studies with a view to its adoption under the direction of Dr. John McKelway, of Trenton, who still lives at the advanced age of eighty nine years. He matriculated at Jefferson College in 1848, and graduated in the spring of 1851. On receiving his diploma he settled at Trenton and commenced practice, which he continued with encouraging success until the fall of 1862, when he felt his services were needed in support of the national cause, and he entered the army as Surgeon of the Ist New Jersey Cavalry. From this time until 1864 he continued in active service, and rose to be Surgeon-in-Chief 2d Division Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He returned to Trenton in the fall of 1864, having been dis- abled for active field service, and resumed private practice. His friends and former patients welcomed him back, and soon he found himself surrounded by a more extensive prac- tice than before. He had charge of the troops which were quartered in the vicinity of Trenton until their removal in the summer of 1865. The city was at that time and always had been a rendezvous for drafted men, and his hands were kept pretty full. Dr. Phillips ranks among the leading practi- tioners of Trenton, and is very highly respected by his medical brethren, while the general community honors him for his many estimable qualities, both as a physician and a citizen. He is a member of the Mercer County District Medical As- sociation, and has served as its President several times. Frequently he has been sent as a Delegate to the meetings of the New Jersey State Medical Association, and for the past three years has acted as Treasurer for the body. For eight years he has been Physician to the New Jersey State Prison, and was re-elected in April, 1876, for a term of three years additional. Hc is a member of the State Health As- sociation of New Jersey, the United States Pension Examin- ing Surgeon for his district, Medical Examiner for the New York Mutual Life Insurance Company. His religious views are those of the Presbyterian Church, and he is a member of the Fourth Church of Trenton, and President of its Board of Trustees. He was married in December, 1851, to Margaret S. McKelway, daughter of his professional pre- ceptor ; she died in 1857, and he married a second time, in 1865, his wife being Meta R. McAlpin, of Philadelphia.

HILLIPS, WILLIAM W. L., A. M., M. D., Physi- cian, of Trenton, was born in Laurence township, ERCHANT, SILAS, President of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Company of Newark. The world in these latter days is largely ruled by self-made men. As the power of caste has been broken, and the privileged classes have lost their control in so- ciety, the individual has come to be measured for Mercer county, New Jersey, February 19th, 1829. His father, George Phillips, was a native of the same place and carried on farming there, while it had been the family residence for many years. Ifis mother, Abigail Ketcham, came from Mercer county, having been born at Pennington. After obtaining a good what he is worth, and thus merit in a homespun coat com-

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successful. From being one of the smallest, his company has come to be one of the largest and most substantial in a city which numbers in its list of fire insurance corpora-

pels, much more largely than formerly, the same degree of respect as when clothed in royal purple. With this enlarge- ment of the sphere of human action stimulus has been given to the development of native ability among all conditions of tions several of national prominence. As an underwriter, men, and as a result we find in all the walks of life those Mr. Merchant has held steadily to the view that the primary object in insurance should be to afford the largest security alike to policy-holder and stockholder at the least possible cost ; that the duties of the insurer and the insured are re- ciprocal ; that the full benefaction of the system can only be realized where all transactions are controlled by the spirit of the golden rule; and if he could have the selection of his own epitaph, it would probably be that in the respon- sible position he now occupies in connection with this great interest, he had faithfully adhered to the requirements of that sublime command. While Mr. Merchant's career has been largely that of a man of business, he has for over a quarter of a century been actively and prominently identified with public affairs. He was an active member of the old- time School Committee of Newark, and upon the creation of the present Board of Education, charged with the man- agement and control of the entire educational interest of the city, he was chosen to that body, serving until 1860, when he voluntarily withdrew. A warm friend of education, he was among the first to urge that larger recognition of its claims which, for a time stubbornly resisted by a false and niggardly conservatism, has in these larger days incarnated itself in comprehensive laws, in liberal appropriations, and in generous policies, all contemplating the largest possible diffusion of the benefits and blessings of sound education among the masses. In 1852 Mr. Merchant served as a member of the lower House of the State Legislature, where he occupied a leading position, acting on the Committees on the Judiciary, Lunatic Asylum, and Education-three of the most important in the entire list. In all the political struggles of the middle period of his life, Mr. Merchant bore a conspicuous part. During this period of active par- ticipation in public affairs, his influence in the State was positive and well defined. A sagacious adviser, with rare powers of discrimination as to the character and motives of his contemporaries, his counsel was often sought by the leading men of his party, while in many important crises he was largely influential in determining the policy, not only of his party, but of the State as well. Thus, in 1859, at a critical moment in the political history of the State, he defeated a movement to hand over the so-called Ameri- can party to one of the rival organizations, and by his sagacity and courage enabled it to maintain both its influence and independence, and so to dictate nominations and a policy which secured to the State a conspicuously wise and loyal administration during the troublous period which soon followed. In all these matters Mr. Merchant's influence was greatly heightened by his facility as a writer, in which he is excelled by few men not of the purely professional and literary classes, and also by his ability as a speaker. At one who have made their way from the lower to the higher sta- tions by the assertion of sheer innate force and the utiliza- tion alike of inherent qualities and passing opportunities. Silas Merchant, the subject of this sketch, belongs to this class of self-made men. His early opportunities were meagre and limited. The foot of the ladder was for him planted among harsh conditions. Born in Reading, Con- necticut, on the 13th of December, 1808, his childhood was spent in Morris county, New Jersey, whither his parents removed in March, 1809. Here he was employed on a farm until the age of twenty. His only means of acquiring an education were such as were afforded by the country schools of that period, and these, which' taught merely the primary studies in a most superficial way, he was able to attend only in the winter months. But such opportunities as he pos- sessed he improved to the utmost, his naturally vigorous mind steadily developing under the influence of study, so that when manhood was reached he was thoroughly pre- pared to grapple with its duties and responsibilities. When twenty years of age, in the year 1828, Mr. Merchant, quit- ting the farm on which he had been reared, went to Geor- gia, where he was employed as a clerk in a mercantile establishment until 1832, when he returned to New Jersey. He was married in that year to Electa Heaton, daughter of John H. Heaton, and granddaughter of Hon. David Ayres, of Flanders. Three children were subsequently born to him, all of whom are now deceased. Locating in New- ark, he engaged in the wholesale clothing manufacture, his house being the second in that business established in that city. He continued in this business almost continuously until 1863, a period of over thirty years. His business re- lations being largely with the South, and more particularly with Virginia, the breaking out of the rebellion and the con- sequent interruption of intercourse and destruction of com- mercial values in the seceding States, stripped him of the accumulations of years of industry and enterprise; but, ac- cepting the adverse fortune with cheerful courage, he paid every dollar of his indebtedness, balanced his books, and went forward over the wreck to new labors and new expe- riences. In November, 1860, Mr. Merchant had been elected President of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Company of Newark, and having closed out his manufacturing busi- ness, he addressed himself with characteristic vigor to the duties of his new position, withdrawing entirely from politi- cal life in order the more completely to meet its require- ments. Realizing that insurance is, in fact, a practical science, he familiarized himself with its principles, its methods, and its conditions of prosperity, gathering up meanwhile the lessons of experience, and his administration has, as a natural sequence, been throughout exceptionally |period in his life he was a liberal contributor to the 1.ublic

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 50

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