The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 64

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

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of its origin and construction, especially as the account is from the hand of the originator himself, and is thus doubly deserving of incorporation into this sketch. Many years hefore his death, in compliance with a request of Mr. Cad- wallader D. Colden, then President of the Morris Canal Company, he wrote to that gentleman the following com- munication, which, in justice to the dead as well as the living, should have a permanent place in the records of the State : "Lake Hopatcong," he says in this communication, " in former times commonly called the Long Pond, had al- ways been a resort for sportsmen, but never attracted serious attention, excepting as an advantageous forge and mill seat. Its supposed dimensions were greatly exaggerated, and the only remark produced by its location was concerning the facility with which its water, leaving the bed of its natural outlet towards the Delaware, could be made to inundate Suckasunny plain, and seek an issue towards the Hudson. The Erie Canal was about thirty-five years ago an object commanding deep interest. By pouring the produce of the lake and western counties into the New York market, it seemed to threaten destruction to the agriculture of northern New Jersey, unless some mode of transportation cheaper than teams and turnpikes could be invented. Presiding over the Agricultural Society of Morris County, my mind was naturally turned to this emergency, and, during the repose of a fishing party on the banks of the lake, the pro- ject occurred to me of converting this vast reservoir, so aptly situated, into a canal, to penetrate New Jersey in con- necting the Delaware and Hudson rivers. The immense utility of such a communication was obvious, but the topog- raphy of the region to be traversed, the obstacles to be en- countered, the expedients for surmounting an uncalculated and enormous elevation, were all involved in utter obscurity. The naked project, when started for public discussion, was for these reasons treated rather as the aberration of a dreamer than as the anticipation of a sane mind. Gradually, how- ever, the idea worked its way into the reflective men of the community. Self-interest enlisted the warm advocacy of the population near the course of the projected canal ; men of liberal ideas everywhere desired to give fair investigation to so novel a scheme; opposition was finally circumscribed to that most respectable class of personages who understand nothing which they cannot see, helieve nothing which they cannot touch, and patronize nothing which they cannot coin into dollars. I had prepared public opinion by a series of essays in the county newspaper. Nothing definite was, however, known of the altitude to be overcome, the soil to be excavated, the undulations to be levelled, the course to be pursued, the difficulties to be surmounted, the expedients to be adopted. All was mere guess,

A few years after he settled in Morristown he lost a large part of the property he had brought with him, and in 1814, with his accustomed spirit, he established in that town an academy for boys, which he conducted with distinguished success for some fifteen years, many of the most eminent men of the country receiving their early training from him. But the great achievement of his life, the one that above every other entitles him to the gratitude of New Jersey and the respect and admiration of posterity, is the Morris Canal, which he projected, and did more than any other man, well nigh as much as all other men, to carry into execution. As and the calculations were very congenial to the data on this enterprise forms, and must ever form, a prominent chapter in the history of the New Jersey iron manufacture, not to say in the history of New Jersey itself, no apology is needed for giving here, with some particularity, an account which they were predicated. I saw the necessity of walking over all the difficult locations, accompanied by the most intelligent men of the respective vicinities, and with Professor Renwick, of New York, to whom the plan had

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been explained. Thus an approximation to some definite | deliberation its success was completely dependent. Gov- idea was obtained, but still mathematical certitude was want- ernor Clinton, with Judge Wright, and General Bernard, with Colonel Totten, successively took a rapid view of the line at all its hazardous points ; were informed of the pecu- liar obstacles of each location ; the expedients proposed to surmount tliese obstacles ; the capabilities of the country ; the objects of the enterprise, and its probable results. Their remarks on these subjects, submitted by me to their con- sideration, are embodied in their several reports presented to the Legislature of New Jersey, and, with the documents of Messrs. Renwick and Beach, all forming part of the General Report, dated November, 1823, drawn by me, as President of the Commission. Our uniform object had been, as shown in the Commissioners' Report, to induce the Legislature to adopt the canal as a State concern, but the design proved absolutely impracticable, through local in- terests, jealousies, and a most laudable dread of public debt. The only remaining expedient for executing the enterprise was to raise a company, endowed with privileges and bank- ing powers sufficiently liberal to allure subscriptions. The summer of 1824 was spent in sustaining through the press and otherwise the spirit which had been roused, and in prepar- ing a suitable charter for the contemplated company. It may be well here to remark, that, anticipating the danger of throwing the whole concern into the control of mere foreign capitalists, this draft of a charter provided that a certain number of directors should be chosen resident in each county penetrated by the canal. An unfortunate col- lision with the advocates of the Raritan Canal, then in agita- tion, delayed the passage of our charter; it was December; my academy had been in session several weeks, and I was constrained to return home, with assurances from the Morris members of the Legislature that the affair should be stren- uously urged. Several gentlemen from Wall street had volunteered their good offices, and very kindly took part in the Trenton lobby after my departure. Upon their sugges- tion the draft of the charter was transformed into its present shape, nor did I receive the most distant hint of any altera- tion until the bill was finally passed. A company was formed, and myself included in its direction. The pre- carious position of a canal coupled to a bank and directed by men of operations exclusively financial was obvious. The interests of the country, and the development of the iron manufacture, were merged into a reckless stock speculation. I did all in my power to arrest this perversion, but soon found myself a mere cypher, standing alone, and responsible in public opinion for acts of extravagant folly which I alone had strenuously opposed at the Board of Directors. My course would have been to resign my seat at once, but, anxious for an enterprise in which not only all my feelings but all my property were enlisted, and still hoping that pru- dence and even a far-sceing self-interest might ultimately prevail, I clung to the sinking ship until every hope of safety had vanished, and then vacated my scat by selling ing, without which no practical result was to be expected. A regular survey was indispensable, but I could not myself afford it; a private subscription to the necessary amount was clearly impossible, and there remained only to obtain legislative aid. Hence arose the necessity of organizing the friends of the enterprise into a sort of party, and of electing assemblymen favorable to a liberal grant. This was effected in the teeth of much opposition, ridicule, and suspicion. I accompanied our legislators to Trenton, and, assisted by Mr. Cobb, of Morris, and Mr. Kinsey, of Bergen, succeeded in obtaining a grant of $2,000 for a survey. It must be confessed, so narrow and uncertain was the information we could convey, that this generous grant seemed to many of the very men who made it a sacrifice to get rid of clamorous and indefatigable enthusiasm rather than seed sown to be in due time matured into a magnificent harvest. Such were affairs in the winter of 1822. Mr. Renwick had already, like myself, gratuitously and at his own expense gone over the whole line, and the operations of the ensuing year were now concerted with him. Be it here broadly stated, that, up to the time when the Morris Canal became a Wall street speculation, he was considered, by every person connected with the enterprise, as its chief engineer, and that without his zeal, talent and science it would not, within our day and generation, have emerged beyond a scheme transmitted to a more liberal and enlightened posterity. In April, 1823, I went to Albany, and, with Governor Clinton's countenance, obtained from the Legislature of New York a grant of its engineers to join in the Morris survey. But even this co- operation did not seem to me sufficient to counteract the apathy of friends or the prejudices and party spirit of op- ponents. I therefore wrote to Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, for the aid of General Bernard and Colonel Totten, heads of the United States engineer department. This re- inforcement, with the volunteer services of General Swift, constituted a weight of authority sufficient to overpower cavil, ignorance and hostility. From Albany I proceeded with Judge Wright, Chief Engineer of the Erie Canal, to Little Falls, for the purpose of engaging Mr. Beach to take the levels and survey the route, having previously conversed with him, and agreed with Professor Renwick to intrust him with that task. The spring and summer of 1823 were spent by me in collecting topographical and statistical information, as also in reconnoitring the various routes, in company with the inhabitants of their vicinity. IIere a singular fact should be stated, that the plain, good sense and local information of our farmers staked out the most difficult passes of the boldest canal in existence, and that in every important point the actual navigation merely pursues the trace thus indicated. In July, 1823, Mr. Beach appeared for the first time on the scene of action, guided by Mr. Renwick, to whom the de- libcrative department was confided. The Morris Canal was to be constructed on novel principles, and upon scientific lout, thus saving myself from ruin, if not from loss. From

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the moment the charter, altered without my knowledge, pointed, discharging his official duties on both occasions was obtained, the whole affair became a stock-jobbing con- with the zeal and fidelity which were a part of his character. Personally, he was one of the most attractive and estim- able of men. He, indeed, was in all respects a remarkable man : remarkable in his native gifts, in his culture, in his attainments, in his experience, in his achievements, in his masculine sense, in his vivid sensibilities, in his sparkling humor, in his gentleness, in his exquisite breeding, in the grace and variety and charm of his conversation, in his broad and progressive spirit, in his undrooping energy, in his lofty and spotless integrity, in his length of days, and in the health and happiness and honor that followed him throughout. He died in June, 1858, his wife, with whom he had lived for fifty-eight years, surviving him, as also the two children, liis only children, who came with him to this country in the dawn of the century-a son, Mr. Francis L. Macculloch, of Salem, and a daughter, wife of the lamented Jacob W. Miller, of Morristown, formerly United States Senator from New Jersey. cern; the canal a mere pretext ; my effort to recall the institution to its duty was regarded as an intrusion, and every pains was taken to force me to retire. Although nominally the chief of the canal department, everything was done without my concurrence; obstacles were opposed to all my inquiries, and there seemed a universal dread of my seeing or hearing of any transaction. The result was that the canal, after years of delay, amidst gross blunders and most lucrative contracts, was completed at a cost of about $2,000,000, while a responsible contract was rejected to execute the whole for $850,000. Fortunes were lost and gained; loans borrowed and squandered ; the property de- volved upon foreign capitalists; criminal justice inquired into its management, the bank exploded, after an attempt to involve New Jersey in a ruinous responsibility, and the canal remained an inefficient blot upon the map of the State. After numerous vicissitudes, the management has at length devolved upon gentlemen who understand the public as well as their own private interests, when honor and intelligence bid fair to redeem the charter of the insti- tution, rendering it not only lucrative to the stockholder, but a blessing to the country whose natural resources it now calls into activity. While the foregoing events were in pro- gress, I was the object of unmeasured abuse and misrepre- sentation by persons who sought to convert my labors into wealth and aggrandizement for themselves; let me there- fore be permitted to state what those labors were. Not only was the project itself first conceived by me, but I employed five years in exploring the route, and conciliating friends. The newspaper articles, the correspondence to obtain infor- mation, the Commissioners' report, and an endless cata- logue of literary tasks, were from my hand. I claim to have, single-handed, achieved the problem of rendering popular and accomplishing a scheme demanding vast re- sources, and stigmatized as the dream of a crazed imagina- tion. The abuse and misrepresentation are long since for- given ; the loss is forgotten. The enterprise seems now in a fair way to realize that public advantage which was ever the sole object in my mind, and I deem the sacrifice of a few years of comfort and repose as most amply remuner- ated. What was done was done to repay the hospitality of my adopted country." Never, surely, did public benefactor dispel from his shining name the mists and shadows of de- traction with a keener vigor or a nobler dignity. The vindication is not less historical than biographical, and as such, to repeat what was said above, it has a twofold claim to the space accorded it here. It is plain that this accom- plished man in his day did " the State some service." Nay, it would hardly be too much to say that at a critical period in the history of New Jersey he was to the commonwealth what leaven is to dough ; he leavened the whole mass. In 1830 he was appointed one of the Board of Visitors of the Military Academy at West Point, and in 1842 was' reap-

CHUREMAN, IION. JAMES, Revolutionary Pa- triot, Mayor of the city of New Brunswick, New Jersey, late of that place, was one of its leading and most prominent citizens. In the opening of the revolutionary contest, he graduated at Queens College. On a certain occasion, as the anecdote is told in the "New Jersey Historical Collec- tion," the militia were suddenly called out to go against the enemy; their captain made a speech urging them to volunteer, but not one complied; he then stepped out from the ranks, and, after volunteering himself, addressed them with such persuasive eloquence that a company was instantly formed, which went to Long Island, and there did gallant and efficient service in the conflict between the patriots and the royalist troops. In the course of the war, he was taken prisoner by a party of mounted British, near what is now Bergen's Mills, on Lawrence brook, three miles south of New Brunswick. He was then temporarily confined in the guard-house in New Brunswick, which stood near the Nelson mansion, where he was supplied with nutritious food through the kindness of Mrs. Van Deusen. He was transferred from there to New York, and imprisoned in the sugar-house of that city, with his com- rade, George Thomson. Philip Kissack, a tory, touched by their forlorn and suffering condition, furnished them with money, with which they purchased food, and thus kept themselves from starvation and ultimately death. Finally, they bribed the guards to give them the privilege of walk- ing about and exercising in the yard attached to the house ; and one night, having supplied them with liquor in which there had been placed a quantity of laudanum, they dug through the wall and escaped to the upper part of the city, near where the old prison stood. There they managed

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to secure a small fishing-boat, and with a single oar paddled across the Hudson to Powles' Hook, and thence proceeded to Morristown, where they were welcomed by their patriot brothers-in-arms. In 1786-87 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, and a member of Congress from his State, 1789-91, 1797-99. From the latter year until 1801 he served as a United States Senator; and subsequently be- came Mayor of the city of New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was again a representative in 1813-15. He died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, January 23d, 1824, aged sixty-seven years.

E BOW, JAMES DUNWOODY BROWNSON, Journalist and Statistician, an eminent citizen of New Jersey, late of Elizabeth, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, July 10th, 1820, and in 1843 graduated from the Charleston College, in his native State. His father was a merchant of good standing and repute. He was for seven years em- ployed in a mercantile house, but after graduating devoted . himself to the study of law, and in 1844 was admitted to the Charleston bar. Subsequently he became editor of the Southern Quarterly Review, Charleston. One of his articles, entitled "Oregon and the Oregon Question," at- tracted much attention both at home and abroad, and oc- casioned a debate in the French Chamber of Deputies. In the latter part of 1845 he removed to New Orleans, Louis- iana, and there established his Commercial Review. After a short term as Professor of Political Economy and Com- mercial Statistics in the University of Louisiana, in 1848, he was for three years the Chief of the Census Bureau of the State, and collected and published valuable statistics of the population, commerce and products of Louisiana. Upon his appointment, in March, 1853, as Superintendent of the United States Census, he collected and prepared for the press a large part of the material for the quarto edition of the " Census of 1850." He was a warm supporter of the material and intellectual interests of the South; was a mem- ber of nearly every southern commercial convention since 1845, and presided over that held at Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1857. HIe contributed many articles on American topics to the new edition of the " Encyclopedia Britannica; " de- livered various addresses before literary, agricultural .and other associations, and was one of the founders of the Louisiana Historical Society, since merged in the Academy of Science. In the years of commotion preceding the out- burst of the rebellion he put forth many virulent denuncia- tions of the Northern States and their institutions; and throughout the contest, though his Review was necessarily discontinued, his voice and pen were incessantly busied in lauding the aims and actions of the Confederacy. At the conclusion of the war, however, he was brought to admit the superiority of the free to the slave labor system, and

urged upon the Southern States the wise policy of en- couraging immigration. He afterward re-established his Review, first in New York, later in Nashville. His " En- cyclopedia of the Trade and Commerce of the United States," two volumes, 8vo., was published in 1853; his "Southern States: their Agriculture, Commerce, etc.," in 1856; and the "Industrial Resources of the Southwest," compiled from his Review, three volumes, in 1853. His " Compendium of the Seventh United States Census" also deserves approving mention. He died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, February 27th, 1867.

UFFIELD, REV. GEORGE, son of George Duf- field, D. D., and grandson of George Duffield, D. D., an ardent revolutionary patriot and chap- lain of the old Congress, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1818. Upon the completion of a course of preparatory studies, he entered Yale College and graduated from that institution in 1837. In 1840 he was ordained to the ministry, and set- tled for some time in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where he soon became known as a diligent student and earnest preacher. He then removed to Brooklyn, New York, and was engaged in that field of labor until 1852, when he assumed the pas- torate of the Central Church, Northern Liberties, Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania. For some years past he has officiated at the Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has written many hymns, but will be chiefly remembered for the one, " Stand up for Jesus."

OX, REV. SAMUEL HANSON, D. D., LL. D., Presbyterian Divine, Writer on Religious Sub- jects, of New York, was born in Leesville, New Jersey, August 25th, 1793. He commenced the study of law in 1811, afterward studied theology, and finally, July Ist, 1817, was ordained by the New Jersey Presbytery. From 1820 to 1833 he officiated as pastor of the Spring Street Church, New York; from 1834 to May, 1837, presided as Professor of Sacred Rhetoric at Auburn, New York ; and from that time until 1854, when by the failure of his voice he was obliged to relinquish his charge, was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, New York. July 10th, 1834, having openly taken sides with those favoring the abolition of slavery, and aided in founding the Anti-slavery Society, he was one of the sufferers by a mob, which attacked and sacked his church and house. IIc was successively an ardent advocate of abolition, temperance, colonization, New School Presbyte- rianism, and the aims and measures of the Evangelical Alliance. IIe won high rank as a writer and preacher,

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and has been frequently a delegate to the religious anniver- saries held in London, England. Among his more notable works are "Quakerism not Christianity," and " Interviews, Memorable and Useful, from the Diary of Memory," New York, 1853. In all measures pertaining to political move- ments, in the South and North, as related to the slavery question, he was an unflinching and eloquent partisan of logical Seminary, in Madison, New Jersey. For several freedoni ; and was a prime mover in many important steps taken to remove from his country its chief disgrace and blemish. The well-known Bishop A. C. Coxe is his son.

OMAYNE, NICHOLAS, M. D., Lecturer on An- atomy and Medicine, late of New York city, was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, in September, 1756. Ile studied under Dr. Peter Wilson, and completed his medical education at Edinburgh, where he published a dissertation " De Genera- tione Puris." He subsequently spent two years in Paris, and also visited Leyden, returning about the year 1782 to New York, where he commenced his professional career. Ile gave private lectures on anatomy, and taught many professional branches with remarkable success. Upon re- linquishing his labors in this direction he again visited Europe. Later, on account of his connection with the scheme of Blount's conspiracy, he was incarcerated for some time. He was first President of the New York Medi- cal Society, in 1806; and in 1807 was made first President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which he had been instrumental in founding. In that institution he gave instruction in anatomy and the institutes of medicine. He died in New York city, July 21st, 1817.

ACCLINTOCK, REV. JOHN, D. D., LL. D., Clergyman, Author, late of Madison, New Jersey, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1814, and graduated from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1835. He subsequently became a mem- ber of the New Jersey Conference, and after being a short time in the Methodist ministry was, in 1837, elected Professor of Mathematics in Dickinson College, but in 1839 was transferred to the chair of Ancient Languages. While residing at Carlisle he made a translation, in co-operation with Blumenthal, of Neander's " Life of Christ ; " and with Professor Crooks began the preparation for publication of a series of Greek and Latin text-books. From 1848 to 1856 he filled the position of editor of the Methodist Quarterly Review, and later was appointed a delegate of his church to the English, Irish, French and German Conferences. He was also present at the World's Convention at Berlin, in 1856. On his return from Europe he was elected President

of the Troy Union, and was during a brief period pastor of St. Paul's Church, New York. In June, 1860, he sailed for Europe again, and took up his residence in Paris, France, in order to take charge of the American chapel es- tablished in that city. From its organization, in 1867, until the time of his decease he was President of the Drew Theo-

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 64

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