The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 51

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

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journals, writing upon all subjects of public interest, but | and Surgeons in that city, and from it received, on March with especial effect upon certain favorite topics. His style is clear, compact and logical, being neither obscured by profuse verbiage, nor weakened by displays of tinsel rheto- ric. As a speaker he is earnest, direct, and argumentative, appealing to the reason rather than to prejudice and passion, and aiming to produce conviction rather than at the mere entertainment of his hearers. It has been said by Emerson that every man's life is full of judgment days ; and it is true. We are all of us tried and measured, oftener than we think, at the bar where our peers sit in judgment. But to the just and upright man, the man who has lived a clean life, using his gifts for the benefit of his fellows, standing bravely at all times for the right, keeping always in view the day of final assize, these days of human judgment have no terror. To such they can be days of victory only. They bring the laurel and the crown, and so even here afford a compensa- tion for all the disappointments and pains and sorrows of life. So Mr. Merchant finds it in the mellow autumn of his days. He has lived a useful, pure and upright life, and he has his reward in the confidence and esteem of his fellows. They rank him as one who can be depended upon to stand inflexibly in defence of law and justice and order, whenever and by whomsoever assailed. They know him as one who bestows liberally of his substance to the suffering and the poor, and who is ever ready to help the weak against the cruelty of the strong. They recognize him as a self-made man, who never forgets that he came himself from the ranks of the humble and the obscure, and that it is his duty to help, in so far as he may, the ascent of the deserving who aspire as he did to loftier heights. With such an estimate of his life and career, the subject of this sketch may well be con- tent, for it will make luminous his last days here, as it will no less surely shed a lustre over his memory when he is gone.

ALDWIN, HENRY R., A. M., M. D .. , of New Brunswick, was born in the city of New York, September 18th, 1829. His father, Eli Baldwin, M. D. and D. D., was for many years a distin- guished minister of the Reformed Church, and was a descendant of the Baldwins who settled in Newark, New Jersey, prior to 1764. His mother, whose maiden name was Phebe Van Nest, was a native of New York city. His youth was passed in the select schools of the latter place, and in his sixteenth year, 1845, he was en- rolled on the lists of Rutgers College, from which, having passed through its entire course, he graduated in the class of July, 1849. Directly after receiving his degree of Master of Arts, he entered upon the study of medicine with Dr. George J. Janeway, at New Brunswick, and completed his preparations and a college course of medicine in the office of Drs. Parker and Watts, of New York. He then attended the regular course of lectures at the College of Physicians

4th, 1853, his diploma as Doctor of Medicine. Immediately upon the culmination of these studies, he was honored by his preceptor, Dr. Robert Watts, who at that time was pro- fessor of anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, with the appointment of Clinical Assistant, and filled this position with great capacity for a period of six months, During this period he also acted as junior at the Bellevue Hospital, and continued in this position, and as House Physician, eighteen months. This service was of great benefit to him, as it enabled him to render his studies im- mediately practical. In fine, he became an able and careful practitioner before he had entered upon his professional career. In October, 1854, he commenced practice at Sta- pleton, Staten Island, being associated with Dr. William C. Anderson. His health failed him, and shortly after he was reluctantly compelled to relinquish this field, in which his success had been marked. As the needed change he ac- cepted the surgeoncy of the steamship "Baltic," of the Collins Line, in August, 1855, and discharged its duties most acceptably, and with benefit to his health, for some months. In December of that year he settled in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and was married, on December 27th, 1855, to Elizabeth Van Cortland Rutgers. Here he has ever since been in active practice, and is recognized among the leaders of the profession in the State. He is prominently identified with the New Jersey Medical So- ciety, having acted as its Treasurer from 1867 to 1875, and now serving as its First Vice-President. At the revival of the Middlesex County Medical Society he filled the positions as President and Vice-President in regular succession. He is as energetic and useful a citizen as he is efficient and at- tentive as a physician. All measures for public improve- ments, all methods for advancing the educational interests of his section, have invariably received his support. He has served as Alderman of the city of New Brunswick and as one of the Board of Chosen Freeholders. He was one of the incorporators of the New Brunswick Water Works, and for twelve years was a distinguished member of the Board of Education for that city, and in addition served for two years as its Treasurer. He is a gentleman of progres- sive ideas and fine social qualities, and is esteemed wherever known.

AVIS, WILLIAM M., Lawyer, was born, July 13th, 1840, at Elizabeth, New Jersey. His father was Dr. Charles Davis, and his family, originally of Welsh extraction, is one of the oldest in the State, Joseph Davis having settled at Bloomfield in 1660. The house built in that year by this remote ancestor is still standing, and-what is much more singular in this country of quickly varying for- tunes-still remains in the family. He received an Eng. lish and classical education at Elizabeth, and subsequently

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read law in the office of the HIon. Il. D. Maxwell, at | 1863, when he relinquished it in order to accept the post of Easton. In 1864 he was admitted to practise at the Penn Surgeon to the Board of Enrolment of the Fifth Congres- sional District of New Jersey. This latter office he retained until the final suppression of the rebellion, returning to private practice in 1865. In 1870 he was appointed one of the staff of St. Michael's Hospital, and in the same year Physician to the Essex County Home for the Insane, both of which appointments he continues to hold. He is a member of the New Jersey and Essex County Medical So- cieties, and is a Director of the Germania Fire Insurance Company of Newark. He was married, April, 1859, to Eveline, daughter of Reynier Van Giesson, of Mount Clare, New Jersey. sylvania bar, and after reading for a year in the office of Hon. J. G. Shipman, of Belvidere, he was admitted in 1865 to practise at the bar of New Jersey. In the same year he established himself at Philipsburg, and since that time he has built up for himself an extensive practice rang ing through all the courts of the State. He is a staunch member of the Republican party, but has never sought nor accepted office, preferring to devote his entire time to the duties of his profession. He was married, April 25th, 1866, to Elizabeth W., daughter of the late Dr. Frederick S. Weller, of Paterson, New Jersey.

ROSS, JEREMIAH A., M. D., of Newark, New Jersey, was born, February 2Ist, 1827, in Scho- harie county, New York. His father, Lemuel Cross, a carpenter and subsequently a country storekeeper, never succeeded in rising above very moderate financial circumstances. From the very outset of his career the lad had his own way to make in the world. Educated at the district school, he worked with such perseverance that he fitted himself to pass an ex- amination for teacher, and having passed was duly licensed. During the next four or five years he was alternately a teacher and a pupil, attending the best available schools when he had laid by sufficient money, earned at teaching, to pay his way, and spending all of his leisure time in study. A considerable portion of this extra study was directed into legal channels, he having about this time determined upon law as a profession, a determination that was nullified by subsequent circumstances. His school education was finally finished by attendance during two or three terms at Canajo- harie Academy. When twenty-five years old, he left New York and took up his abode at Franklin, Essex county, New Jersey, and here, abandoning his intention to enter at the bar, he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr S. Daley. Setting himself at the acquisition of his profes- sion with the same earnestness of purpose that had marked his previous student life, in the fall of 1854 he entered the medical department of the University of Michigan, and in 1856 the Albany Medical College, receiving his degree in the spring of that year. In August of the same year he es- tablished himself in Newark, New Jersey, and in a very brief period built up for himself an extensive and highly profitable practice. Immediately after the battle of Wil- liamsburg, in 1862, he joined the little company of surgeons who volunteered from New Jersey to go to the front and care for the wounded; and during his absence the United States Army Hospital at Newark was established. To this institution he was appointed, upon his return, Assistant Contract Surgeon, a position which he held until December,

ONGAR, HON. HORACE N., of Newark, Law -. yer and ex-Secretary of State, was born in Newark, July 31st, 1817. His ancestors on the paternal side originally settled at Woodbridge, and from this place they migrated to different parts of New Jersey and New York. His mother was a granddaughter of Rev. David Bostwick, who was for many years pastor of the Wall Street Presbyterian Church in New York, and one of the leading divines in the State. The subject of this sketch, after being engaged in teaching school for a number of years. and reading law in the offices of Cornelius Boice, Esq., at Plainfield, and Lewis C. Grover, Esq., at Newark, took his license as an attorney, and com- menced the practice of his profession in his native place. He had always taken an interest in politics, and his strong anti-slavery convictions led him, as early as 1848, to join in the premature movement of that year for the overthrow of existing parties by the foundation of a Free.Soil party. He was a delegate, with Hon. George Opdyke and others, from New Jersey to the Buffalo convention, and sustained the nominations of Van Buren and Adams by speech and pen in the campaign which followed. For a period afterwards he acted with the Free-Soil wing of the Whig party, and in 1850 became the acknowledged editor of the Newark Daily Mercury. Under his guidance this journal became the leading political paper of the State. It was a troublous time for leadership, and it required a strong will and a de. termined hand to guide and shape public opinion and to control the warring elements of political strife, but success was measurably obtained and secured. During the period from 1850 to 1860 the Mercury was in the front of the anti-slavery fight, and its editor enjoyed the confidence and friendship of all the well-known leaders in the cause. In 1860 he was a delegate to the National Convention at Chi- cago, and advocated to the last, with unflagging energy, the selection of Mr. Seward for President. The choice of Mr. Lincoln, however, was entirely satisfactory, and received his earnest support, and the nominations were ratified by the American people. Upon the formation of the adminis-

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tration of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward was appointed Secre- tary of State, and, without solicitation, he tendered to Mr. Congar the position of United States Consul at Hong Kong, then one of the leading appointments in the East. This position was accepted by him, and from 1861 to 1865 he was absent in China, where his services were duly appre- ciated and acknowledged by the government. In 1865, in consequence of impaired health caused by the climate of southern China, Mr. Congar was compelled to tender his resignation, which was accepted by the State Department. With this acceptance was transmitted his appointment, by the President, as Commissioner of Emigration of the United States under the then existing law. Returning to the United States through Europe he assumed, in the summer of 1865, the duties of his new office in Washington. Connected with the State Department he was twice commissioned as Acting Assistant Secretary of State, during the illness of the Hon. F. W. Seward, consequent upon the injuries received by him from the assassin, Payne. In the spring of 1866 Mr. Congar was appointed, by Governor Marcus L. Ward, Secretary of State of New Jersey, and he resigned his posi- tion in Washington and removed to Trenton. Here he dis- charged the duties of his office with care and fidelity until 1870, when he was tendered the position of Vice-President in that sterling old company, The Mutual Benefit Life In- surance Company, at Newark, New Jersey. He accepted the offer, resigning the office of Secretary of State, and re- moving to his old home. He continued in this position for three years, when he found his health badly affected by the confinement of office life, and was obliged to resign. He was subsequently tendered, by President Grant, the po- sition of Consul to Prague, Bohemia, and he spent two years in Europe, returning in the fall of 1875, after resigning his consulship.

TRYKER, JAMES D., Banker, of Lambertville, was born, January 7th, 1800, in Bethlehem, Hun- terdon county, New Jersey. Having received a good common-school education, he became at the age of sixteen a clerk in the general country store of Samuel Brittain, at Frenchtown, where he remained for three years, after which he went to Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and took charge of his brother's store there, remaining one year. In 1821 he returned to New Jersey, and went into his brother's store at Flemington, remaining there until 1823, when he engaged in business with Mr. Wilson Bray, at Everittstown. He removect to Frenchtown in 1825, and in the year following to Lambert- ville. There he united with his brother in establishing a general retail business, under the name of S. D. & J. D. Stryker, the two meanwhile becoming interested in the lumber trade, in favor of which they, in 1848, closed their mercantile business, launching exclusively and extensively into that traffic, purchasing large tracts of timber in the Lehigh

regions of Luzerne and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania, erecting mills near White Haven in that State, and selling lumber by wholesale at their mills and at Philadelphia. The business, managed with great judgment and energy, as it was, proved exceedingly profitable. When the Lambert- ville Bank was organized, in 1858, he was made a Director, his brother, S. D. Stryker, having been chosen president, to which office, on the death of his brother in 1863, he suc- ceeded, and still holds it. He is also President of the Lambertville Gas Company, and a Director of the Water- power Company of Lambertville. Experienced, discreet, faithful, and crowned with success, he has in a high degree, as he deserves, the confidence and esteem of his fellow- citizens. He has been for many years an elder of the Pres- byterian Church at Lambertville.

ILL, JOHN, President of the National State Bank of Camden, was born July 9th, 1795. His great- grandfather came to this country from or near London when quite a young man, and settled near the present limits of the village of Haddon- field, New Jersey; he was a relative of John Haddon, who became possessed of large landed estates in West Jersey. Elizabeth Haddon, a daughter of John Haddon, came to this country when about nineteen years of age, and settled on a part of her father's property. Some years later she married John Estaugh, a member of the religious Society of Friends, who was travelling in America in the service of the ministry. By the records it appears that John Gill, in connection with John Estaugh, assumed control of these large estates, which was so satisfactory to John Haddon that he made a gift of a tract of land to John Gill, in recognition of his valuable services. This tract embraced a portion of that now included in the village of Haddonfield. John Gill died in 1749, leaving a son, John, who took charge of his affairs, and who, after the decease of Elizabeth Estaugh, in 1762, acted as one of the executors of her estate, her husband, John Estaugh, having died in Tortola, one of the West India islands, while there on a religious visit about twenty years previous. John Gill re- sided most of his life on the property owned by his father, and appears to have been a very active business man, and participated to a considerable extent in the political affairs of the country. He married Amy, daughter of David Davis, of Salem county. He died in the year 1794, leav- ing six children-one son, John Gill, and five daughters. The son, John, married Annie Smith, and occupied the old homestead the greater part of his life. He did not take so active a part in public affairs as his father, except that his name appears quite frequently on the mecting records of the Society of Friends, of which he was a member. He died in 1837, leaving two children, one son and one daughter.

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A noticeable feature in the genealogy of this family is, that [ cause was the honorable character of his dealings. Al- for several generations there has been but one son, to whom was always given the name of John Gill, after the first comer. John Gili, the subject of the present sketch, was born on the property that had been in the family name for so many years, and at the age of twenty two married Sarah Hopkins, of Haddonfield. About ten years later he pur- chased a large farm in the neighborhood and removed to it. After the death of his father, in 1837, he went to the old Gill property in the village of Haddonfield, where he now resides. As the owner of considerable landed estate he has always shown a lively interest in agricultural affairs, and for many years took an active part in the matters of the neigh. borhood. He was elected a member of the House of As. sembly of New Jersey in 1832, and to the Senate in 1849. On the 8th of November, 1842, he was clected President of the State Bank, at Camden, New Jersey, and occupied the position by continuous annual elections till the final conversion of the bank into a national institution on the 2d day of June, 1865. He has continued to be President of the National Bank as he had been of the State bank, and has accordingly held that position for the space of thirty- five years, and may well be considered a veteran bank president. It is in a large degree owing to the care, fidelity, oversight and close attention on the part of John Gill, that the institution he represents has become one of the foremost in the State. Shortly after he became its president, by reason of heavy losses in former years, its solvency was greatly questioned, and the value of its capital stock became much reduced, hut the high social position held by Mr. Gill, and the devotion of much of his time and services, at once restored confidence in the bank, and since that time it has steadily improved. For the past few years, on account of the infirmities of age, he has not taken an active share in the labors of the institution he represents, but his interest increases with each succeeding year, and he now points with pride to the bank, as having braved the financial storms for sixty-five years.

MERY, WILLIAM P., Merchant, of Flemington, was born near Flemington, July 17th; 1811. After receiving an ordinary English education, at the age of fourteen years he was given a position 0 in the store of Samuel D. Stryker, a prominent general dealer in Flemington. Here he remained during the ensuing seven years, developing marked mercan- tile ability and thoroughly.mastering the intricacies of the business, besides acquiring the confidence and estcem of the community. Upon attaining his majority he at once estab- lished himself in business upon his own account, engaging in a general retail trade that rapidly expanded until it be- came the most flourishing in the county. His personal popularity had much to do with his success, but its essential

though shrewd at a bargain, and always properly alive to his . own interests, he was always eminently just, and his cus- tomers never suffered from relying upon his word. A mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church, of the Hunterdon County Bible Society, an earnest worker in Sunday-schools, and prominent in all undertakings for the advancement of Chris- tianity, his business and private life were entirely in accord, and both were cqually to his honor. In 1864, having amassed a considerable capital, he sold his business and engaged in an extensive lumber trade, his dealings covering northeastern New Jersey and the adjacent counties of Penn- sylvania, the latter section being in charge of one of his sons. Another son is engaged in the wholesale dry-goods trade in New York, and a third is established as a barrister at Trenton. Into this more extended sphere of operations he has carried the same qualities which assured his success in his Flemington store, and he is generally regarded as one of the leading men in his section of the State. It was largely owing to his energy and public spirit that the Flem- ington railroad was built, and he was equally prominent in the organization of the Hunterdon County National Bank. In both of these corporations he is at present a Director.

AFFERTY, JOHN C., Senator from Hunterdon county from 1856 to 1859, was born at Woodbury, Gloucester county, New Jersey, December 29th, 1816. His father was William Rafferty, D. D., President of St. John's College, Annapolis, Mary . land, a native of Ireland and a graduate of Glasgow University ; his mother a Miss Chandler, of Orange county, New York. His father died in 1830, and his mother when he was an infant. After his father's death he attended school at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for a year; in 1832 entered the sophomore class at. Yale, and graduated in 1835. He commenced the study of the law in the office of A. D. Logan, Esq., in New York city, attended the law school at Cambridge from 1837 to 1838, Judge Story and Professor Greenleaf being the instructors, and was ad- mitted to the bar in New York in 1838. In 1841 he mar- ried Laura E. Ogden, a daughter of O. W. Ogden, who was United States Marshal of New Jersey under Jefferson, Mad- ison, Monroe and John Q. Adams. Upon his marriage he settled in New Germantown, New Jersey, and engaged in agriculture and milling. In 1855 he was chosen State Senator for Hunterdon county, and upon the expiration of his term as Senator, in 1859, was unanimously elected Secretary of the Senate, and in 1860 re-elected to the same position. In March of the same year he was appointed by the State Democratic Convention one of the senatorial dcle- gates to the Democratic Convention at Charleston, Hon. William Wright, ex-Chancellor Williamson, and Ilon.

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James Wall being the other senatorial delegates. In 1862 he moved to Flemington, the county-seat, and resumed the practice of the law. In 1863 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Parker State Military Agent for New Jersey at Wash- ington, and continued to fill said position until March, 1866, when he returned to Flemington. In 1867 he was appointed County Superintendent of Public Schools by the State Board of Education for a term of three years. Three years later he was again elected Secretary of the State Senate. He is now engaged in the practice of the law at Flemington.

ATES, HENRY J., Manufacturer, of Newark, was born in New York city, December 7th, 1819. He is the son of Thomas Yates, also a manufac- turer, who in 1817 came to this country from Sheffield, England, his native place, and settled in the city of New York, where he married Hep- seber Thacker, likewise of English birth. The son re- ceived his education at the public schools of New York, and at private schools in that city, attending one or the other until he was fifteen years of age, when he went to Newark and entered the service of William Rankin, a hatter, with whom he learned hatting. In 1843, having mastered his trade, he formed a partnership with Mr. Vail, under the name of Vail & Yates, the firm doing a large and flourish- ing business, which it continued till 1857, when the partner- ship was dissolved, and the present firm of Yates, Wharton & Co. was formed. Of this firm and its operations, Bishop, in his work on "American Manufactures," thus speaks : " In 1857 the firm of Vail & Yates was dissolved, and Mr. Yates made his present prosperous connection with Mr. John Wharton, well known as one of the most skilful of practical manufacturers at that time in the business. The energy and discrimination displayed by the old firm were not wanting in the new one. The careful regard to mate- rial and finish, with the special study of chemical effects, was rather increased than neglected, and tended not only to the profit of the establishment, but likewise to the advance- ment of the national industry which was thus represented. In 1861 the operations of the firm, by the growing demand for its specialties, justified a move of which the wisdom has been amply evidenced in the greatly enlarged sale of their productions. This was the establishment of a central depot in New York city, through which the market could be more directly and conveniently reached. The number of hands employed by this firm, which varies with the fluctuations of business, is never less than two hundred, and at times reaches five hundred. The machinery operated by them comprehends every improvement known, though no patents for specialties have recently issued to them, notwithstanding the fact that some of the most important innovations in this manufacture have originated in their factories." Mr. Yates

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 51

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