The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 68

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

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AN SANTVOORD, GEORGE, Lawyer and Author, late of Troy, New York, was born in Belleville, New Jersey, December 8th, 1819. His father was Rev. Staats Van Santvoord. Ile was graduated at Union College in 1841, during the ensuing three years devoted himself to the study of law at Kinderhook, New York, then removed to the State of Indiana. He subsequently returned to Kinder- hook, and there continued actively engaged in professional labors from 1846 to 1852. He afterward resided at Troy, New York, until the time of his decease. In 1852 and 1856 he was elected to the Assembly of New York, and in 1859 became District-Attorney of Rensselaer county, New York. IIe has published, in addition to numerous contri- butions to periodical literature, " Life of Algernon Sidney," 1851; " Principles of Pleading in Civil Actions under the New York Code," Svo., 1852 and 1855; " Indiana Jus- tice," 1845, and a recent edition thereof ; " Lives of the Chief-Justices of the United States," 8vo., 1854; " Prece- dents of Pleading," 8vo., 1858; and " Practice in the Su- preme Court of New York, in Equity Actions," 1860-62. He also wrote, for the "Democratic Review," lives of prominent and leading French revolutionists, including those of Robespierre, Danton and Carnot. His father, who was pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church at Belleville, New Jersey, was a man of sterling attainments, an exemplary minister, and a highly-respected citizen. He was accident- ally killed at East Albany, New York, by being run over by a train of cars, March 6th, 1863.

UCKER, HON. JOSEPH, a prominent citizen of New York, late of that city, was born at Eaton- town, New Jersey, but removed to New York in 1805, and there engaged in business as a master- mason or builder. He was an active participant in many of the actions and engagements attending the war of 1812, and served fourteen years in the State militia. He was twice elected, on the old Whig ticket, to

ILLEDOLER, REV. PHILIP, D. D., Prominent Clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, President of Rutgers College, New Jersey, Au- thor, late of Staten Island, was born in Farming- ton, Connecticut, September 22d, 1775, and was of Swiss parentage. While engaged in study at Edinburgh, he became distinguished as a scholar, particu- larly in the application of chemistry to the pursuits of life. The Highland Agricultural Society having offered a pre- mium of fifty sovereigns for the best analysis of oats, he was the successful competitor. In May, 1795, he became minis- ter of the Reformed Church in New York ; from 1810 to 1813 was pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania; from 1813 to 1820 officiated in Rutgers Street Collegiate Church, New York, and from 1825 to 1835 was President of Rutgers College, New Jer- sey, acting at the same time as Professor of Moral Philoso- phy in that institution. He was one of the founders of the Bible Society, and at different times published many lec- tures, addresses, essays and treatises. He died at Staten Island, September 22d, 1852.

ARICK, COLONEL RICHARD, Lawyer, Revo- lutionary Soldier, one of the founders of the American Bible Society, and President of that body, late of Jersey City, New Jersey, was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, March 25th, 1753. On the commencement of active and open hos- tilities between the colonies and the mother country, he was occupied in his profession, as lawyer, in New York city, and entered the patriot service as Captain in McDougall's regi- ment. He was afterward Military Secretary to General Schuyler, who then commanded the northern army, and subsequently was appointed Deputy Muster-Master-General, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He remained with that army until after the capture of Burgoyne, in October, 1777, when he acted as Inspector-General at West Point until after the discovery of Arnold's meditated treason. He then became a member of Washington's military family,

EngS . H. G . a Daguerrectypr h. Brady

J. FENIMORE COOPER.

I. Feminin Cooper

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and acted as Recording Secretary until near the close of holds, having shown by the ability, fidelity, and success of the war. After the evacuation of the city by the British, November 25th, 1783, he was appointed Recorder of the city of New York, which office he held until 1789, when he took the position of Attorney-General of the State, and, at a later date, that of Mayor, which he held until 1801. He had been appointed, in 1786, in conjunction with Samuel Joues, Reviser of the State laws, and the result of their combined labors was the volume which bears their names, issued in 1789. IIe subsequently presided for some time as Speaker of the House of Assembly. He was one of the founders of the American Bible Society, and on the resig. nation of John Jay, who succeeded Elias Boudinot, was se- lected to fill its Presidency. For many years he was a member of a Christian church, and was dignified in his manners and fixed in his principles, political and religious. " In person he was tall (over six feet in height) and of im- posing presence." In the graveyard annexed to the church at Ilackensack, New Jersey, is a tall granite monument, in the rear of the building, bearing the following inscription : " In memory of Colonel Richard Varick, formerly Mayor of the city of New York, and, at the time of his decease, President of the American Bible Society. He was born, 25th of March, 1753; died 30th of July, 1831 ; aged seventy-eight years, four months, and five days."

NDERSON, JOHN A., Superintendent of the Bel- videre Railroad and its branches, was born, June 6th, 1829, in Flemington, Hunterdon county, New Jersey. He is the son of John H. Ander- son, a merchant of Lambertville. His family are . old residents of Hunterdon county, his mother, previous to her marriage, having been a Miss Alexander, nearly related to the Flemings, from whom the town of sego, the head waters of the Susquehanna, and nearly in the Flemington takes its name. He was educated at private schools in Ilunterdon, and at the Doylestown ( Pennsylvania) Academy. On the 4th of July, 1848, he entered the engineer corps of Ashbel Welsh, then engaged in locating the Belvi- dere Delaware Railroad, Martin Coryell being at that time Mr. Welsh's chief assistant. He continued a member of the corps until the road was located and built, when he served as a clerk in the working department, subsequently becoming Assistant Superintendent, and finally, on Mr. Welsh's resignation of the superintendency, in 1871, he was appointed Superintendent, his control as such extending to the Mercer & Somerset and the Flemington branches. On the consummation of the lease of the United Railroads to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1872, when the manage- ment of these roads passed to the Pennsylvania Company, although the stock remained in the hands of the United Companies, he was retained as Superintendent of what was then designated as the Belvidere Delaware Division of the United Railroads of New Jersey. This position he still

his management, that in his case the sagacity of the great Pennsylvania Company was not at fault, as, indeed, it very seldom is. He is also a Director of the Amwell National Bank. He takes a decided and active interest in the pros- perity of Lambertville and its people, including especially the employés of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad. Like all efficient officers, he is a humane man, and believes that the laborer not only is worthy of his hire, but is worthy, be- sides, of that combined good feeling and good treatment which is above all money value, except perhaps to the giver, who in a roundabout way usually gets his kindness back in cash, proving that if benevolence is not enlightened self- interest, it is entirely consistent with it. Since 1846 he has been a member of the Presbyterian church, and for several years an Elder, acting also, during a considerable part of the time of his membership, as Superintendent of the Sab- bath school connected with the church. He is, moreover, a devoted friend of the temperance cause, which, unlike some of its apostles, he supports by precept and example, too. Personally he is a courteous and estimable man, a Christian gentleman. He was married, August 31st, 1853, to Cornelia Coryell, of Lambertville.

OOPER, JAMES FENIMORE, Novelist, late of Cooperstown, New York, was born in Burlington, New Jersey, September 15th, 1789, and was the youngest of the five sons, and youngest but one of seven children of Judge William Cooper. In his infancy he was removed, with the family, to Cooperstown, where, several years previously, his father had, by the extinguishment of Indian titles, become pos- sessed of extensive tracts of land on the shores of Lake Ot- geographical centre of the State of New York. In this des- olate wilderness, far from any civilized settlements, the adventurous pioneer entered upon a career of remarkable success and influence by erecting the imposing hall which figures so prominently in the romances, and subsequently became the final resting-place, of his son, on the southern shore of the lake. "Judge Cooper was not only a man of remarkable energy and business skill, as his adventurous encounter of the toils and perils of frontier life at such a time would indicate, but possessed a strength and sagacity of mind which, added to the great wealth accruing from the rapid settlement of the country at the close of the revolu- tionary war, gave him and his family a kind and degree of influence for many years unequalled in all that region, and which reacted visibly, and not altogether happily, upon the character and tastes of the family. Traces of the independ- ence, not to say hauteur, engendercd by the sunshine of such position and influence, are to be detected in many pas- sages both of the history and the writings of the youngest

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son, and which perhaps contributed to the personal troubles and collisions of his later years." His mother, to whom in personal aspect as well as in mental and moral traits he bore a striking resemblance, was the daughter of Richard Fenimore, of New Jersey, of a family of Swedish descent and personal distinction. She, like her husband, was en- dowed with rare energy of character, possessed a cultivated and brilliant intellect, and is said to have found great pleasure in general and especially in romantic literature. IIer thoroughness as a housekeeper, personal beauty, and family consequence, made her to a notable degree a sharer in the influence of her husband, both in the household and in the surrounding community. Respecting his birth and ancestry, Mr. Cooper wrote the following letter to a friend : " HALL, COOPERSTOWN, December 6th, 1844. Sir : I was born in neither of the places you mention, but in the last house but one of the main street of Burlington, as one goes into the country. There are two houses, of brick, stuccoed, built together, the one having five windows in front, and the other four, the first being the last house in the street. In this house dwelt Mr. Lawrence, my old commander, Captain Lawrence's father, and in the four-window house my father. My father was a native of Pennsylvania, but he lived several years in Burlington. In 1785 he first visited this part of the world, having a large tract of land on the shores of Lake Otsego. In the winter of 1785-6 he com- menced the settlement of his tract, or Cooper's Patent, as it was called, and in 1788 this Cooperstown was regularly laid out. That year my father had a house built here, and my mother passed the summer in the place. But it was still too new to tempt her to remain here, and in September, 1789, I was born at the residence I have mentioned. In 1790 the family came here for a permanent residence. My

claims on New Jersey, however, go a little further, My

father having been elected to Congress in 1794, and that body then sitting in Philadelphia, he brought my mother and such of the children as were not at school as far as Burlington, where he left them. Being the youngest child, I remained with my mother, and by these means commenced Latin with a well-known Irish pedagogue in Burlington, of the name of Higgins. I was twice with this man ; once in 1796, and again in 1798. On each occasion I remained about a year in Burlington. My mother was a Jerseywo- man, and strongly attached to her native State. In 1798 her reluctance to return to this place was so strong that my father actually purchased a house in Burlington, with the intention of leaving my mother in it; but so great was the grief of my brother and myself at the idea of giving up our lake and haunts at this place, that she abandoned her own wishes to ours, and consented to return. I am inclined to think that my father, whose interests in New York were very large, was afraid to go through the same risks again, for we returned to Burlington no more. I am only remotely connected with Gloucester. William Cooper, who became possessed of the property on Cooper's creek, and around

| Camden, in 1687, and in whose descendants most, if not all of it, still remains, was my direct ancestor. But our branch of the family passed into Pennsylvania long before the Revolution, where my father, grandfather, and I believe my great-grandfather, were born. The latter, however, may have been born in Gloucester, though he certainly died in Bucks. I have always understood he had property dis- tinct from that on which he lived, and have always supposed it was at or near the old family homestead. This is all matter of tradition, though it is tradition pretty accurately obtained. John Cooper, the uncle of the late Richard Mat- lack Cooper, and my grandfather, were first cousins, as were Marmaduke Cooper, Isaac's father, and my grand- father. You will sce by this how near I come to your county. I am a New Yorker by education, interests, prop- erty, marriage, and fifty-four years residence; but New Jer- sey has, and ever will have, a near hold upon my feelings. My ancestors, in various directions, were among her first settlers, and, though William Cooper, the root of us all, first settled at Burlington in 1679, he went so soon to Gloucester that I have always regarded that county as the real nest of the whole brood. If I ever spoke of Gloucester as my place of origin, it must have been in reference to the facts here mentioned. My father maintained some inter- course with his Gloucester county kinsmen, but I have had less. I have known the two Captains Cooper of the navy, father and son, and we recognize the relationship; and I saw the late Richard M. Cooper once or twice, as well as William Cooper, but this is nearly the extent of my acquaint- ance in that quarter of the country. There are two hamlets that are called Cooperstown at no great distance from you, I believe-one the property of Isaac Cooper, who inherited his father Marmaduke Cooper's large fortune; and the other once belonged to my father, whence its name. I cer- tainly was not born in it, however, nor do I remember ever to have seen it, though I may have passed through it when a boy. I cannot be mistaken as to the place of my birth, as my mother often pointed it out to me when a school-boy in Burlington, and it was often mentioned in our family discussions. I so well recollect the place that I went to it without a guide a few years since, and finding the house, I inquired of an old blind gentleman who was seated on the adjoining stoop, if my father had not once lived in that house. This person, whose name was How, and whose family owned all three of the houses, my father and Mr. Lawrence being their tenants, recollected all about it, and remembered the births of two, if not three children, in the house. It was the last house my father occupied in Bur- lington, and I being the youngest child born there, of course I was right. My sister, who was also born in Burlington, but in a different house, being several years my senior, con- firms all these impressions. In addition, I well remember that Dr. Hartshorne, of Burlington, has often been men- tioned to me as the professional man who did me the favor to act as accoucheur. Thus, you see, I cannot claim a sen-

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tence in your forthcoming work. There will be plenty of | ing from the war with Great Britain, while popular tastes the name without me, however; and I shall certainly obtain and associations pointed to the still more exciting experi- ences of the revolutionary days as a desirable subject of de- lineation. Then, breaking free from the trammels of prece- dence and conventionality, he ventured upon the virgin soil of a domestic tale filled with characters familiar to Ameri- cans, and depending for its interest upon scenes in which a large part of his contemporaries had actually participated. The composition of the work was kept secret until near its completion, when again the warm counselling of listening friends induced him to undertake its publication. For some time a publisher was sought in vain, and when, finally, Charles Wiley consented to assist him in his aims, it was only at his own expense, and by his personal supervision of . the proof sheets, and occasionally actual participation in the type-setting, that the first volume was made ready for publi- cation. Then came a halt, and, either from lack of confi- dence in its success or lack of funds, he was strongly tempted to abandon his second work, and in an incomplete condition leave it to its fate as a fresh failure. He would have gladly given the copyright to any publisher who would complete it at his own expense, but could find no one who would accept the responsibility. Thus, though begun soon after the appearance of " Precaution," three years elapsed before " The Spy " was put into the hands of the public. It had, as it deserved, an immediate and brilliant success. "The novelty of its subject, the originality of every feature, the exciting and familiar scenes, the well-known characters hardly disguised by the thin veil of fiction, the pungent incense to national pride and patriotic feeling, and withal the rough vigor and manly quality of the style, were well fitted to the popular habits and tastes." In the States it met with cordial yet cautious praise by critical littérateurs, but was eagerly read by the general mass of the community, while in England it took the reading public by storm, and rapidly won a popularity rivalling even that of the Waverly novels, then at the very zenith of their success. It ran rap- idly through many editions both at home and abroad, and has probably received a greater number of translations and attracted a more widespread admiration than any similar work ever written in English, being at a later period trans- lated even into Persian, Arabic, and other Oriental lan- guages. This stroke of fortune necessarily determined the character of his future life and labors; and, relinquishing his profession, he gave himself to authorship with remarka- ble diligence and earnestness. After an interval of two years was produced the " Pioneers," and in its preface he has given its real motive and inspiration. He says : "I wrote my first work because it was said I could not write a grave tale ; so to prove that the world did not know me, I wrote one so grave that nobody would read it. I wrote the second to see if I could not overcome this neglect of the reading world. The third I have written exclusively to please myself." The " Pioneers " lacks the stirring turmoil the book, and no doubt find much information and amuse- ment in it. If you think proper, however, simply to state that I am of Gloucester county stock originally, I shall be one of the last to deny it. The fact is not of much impor- tance to the world, but it has some interest with myself. Very respectfully, your servant, J. FENIMORE COOPER." Amid the rude experiences and the perilous incidents of a frontier life he passed his youth until, at the age of thirteen, he was sent from home to be entered in the freshman class of Yale College. The youngest pupil in that institution, and too young to secure the benefits or escape the perils of college life, his career there seems to have given no indica- tions of the lustrous future which lay in store for him. At the close of his third year as student he voluntarily left the college, and entered the United States navy as a common sailor, in which capacity he was employed about two years, chiefly on board the "Sterling." He was then promoted, first to the rank of Midshipman, and before the close of his sea-life to that of Lieutenant, remaining partly with the sloop-of-war " Wasp," and later, for a time, in a vessel on Lake Ontario. That the varied and vivid experiences of this naval life had a powerful influence, if not in determin- ing his career, at least in preparing him for it, is obvious from the perfect familiarity with ocean aspects and sea- manship which is displayed in his nautical romances. In 1811 he resigned his post as Lieutenant and removed to Mamaroneck, Westchester county, New York, and was a resident of that place when, a few years afterwards, he began his career as author. It is narrated that, while read- ing aloud to his wife a newly-published English story of do- mestic life, and yawning over its tiresome pages, he exclaimed that "he could write a better novel himself." " You had better try," was the response, and it pushed him into a cur- rent of thought whose ultimate result was his transformation into the leading novelist of his time and country. After a few weeks of secret labor, he astonished his wife by reading to her the opening chapters of " Precaution." " The style, scenery and spirit of the book readily betray, its origin, and when completed it gave but little satisfaction to the author, or pleasure to the reader." It was, however, warmly praised by partial friends, who listened to its chapters as they were successively completed, and through the inter- vention of Charles Wilkes was published in 1819, and at the expense of the author, who had little faith in its excel- lcnce as a literary production. Though at least equal to the average novel of the day, it was so imitative as to have passed for a long time as a work of English origin, and for many years was not acknowledged by its anthor, and never, with his approval, included among his works. " But it did the great service of awakening to consciousness the real powers of the man. The resolution to write another work of fiction was soon formed, and everything favored the choice of the fortunate theme." The country was cmerg- i and favorite characters of the " Spy," but is still one of the

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ablest of his productions. With the exception of the have been equally to his credit and comfort to have left " Bravo," it was his favorite, and from beginning to end its composition was a labor of love. It found a publisher at once, but at home was far less immediately popular than its predecessor; but in Europe its striking portraiture of Amer- ican scenery, and the new phases of life it presented, se- cured it a warm welcome, and at the time contributed sen- sibly to the reputation of American literature. Within a year after the " Pioneers " appeared the "Pilot," and its immediate occasion is said to have been the perusal of Scott's " Pirate." This, in its first success, outran all its predecessors, and gained at a bound a position which no subsequent work of the kind has been able even to contest. Said the Edinburgh Review : "The empire of the sea is conceded to him by acclamation." Two years later ap- peared " Lionel Lincoln," which, though carefully and elaborately written, with the "Spy" as its model, was, in comparison with preceding works, received with a degree of coolness that displeased and piqued him. Then came " The Last of the Mohicans," perhaps the most cxciting, best sustained, and popular of his achievements upon a field he has held as peculiarly his own. Never before had the romance of Indian character, or the author's dramatic pow- ers been so successfully exhibited. A universal popularity at once greeted its appearance, and it was immediately reproduced in almost every civilized language, and it con- tributed in a greater measure to the general impressions of the Old World regarding aboriginal life in the New than all other works combined. In 1827 appeared the " Red Rover," generally esteemed the most dramatic and powerful of his sea tales ; and in 1828 the " Prairie," "scarcely less interesting as a romance, or less triumphant as a work of art than ' The Last of the Mohicans.'" Between the pro- duction of these two tales he visited Europe with his family, where he remained till 1833, and his residence there occa- sioned some of the most unpleasant passages of his life. Warmly devoted to his country and her institutions, he was prompt in resenting, in every country, the disparaging slan- ders and imputations which Europe, at that nascent period of American existence, harbored and disseminated ; and yet this very love of country rendered him the more painfully sensitive to the faults of principles and conduct by which his countrymen continually brought down ridicule upon themselves and the United States. Indignant at the viru- lence of those opposed to republicanism, he was scarcely less so at its allies for their errors and inconsistencies. " These faults he felt it was both his right and duty to cor- rect. His literary position, and the consciousness of un- questionable patriotism, gave him, as he thought, the right to expect that well-meant rebuke of obvious evils would be both welcome and effective." In accordance with this idea he wrote " The Letters of a Travelling Bachelor." But however laudable the real and avowed purpose of this step, the effect was anything but beneficial or desirable, and this work was only the beginning of a series "which it would unwritten." His " Residence in Europe," the " Letter to My Countrymen," " Homeward Bound," "IIome as Found," and " The Monikins," gave such deep and gen- eral offence at home that it required all the recollections of his genius and the splendid merits of his earlier publica- tions to reconcile an indignant public to his apparent censo- riousness and assumption. While this series was in prog- ress, and he to all appearances engrossed in literary and political discussion, the "Bravo" was sent forth, re- ceived with applause in America, and in Europe with mingled eulogiums and denunciations. In his own estima- tion it was his ablest work, and, except the " Pioneers," most completely expressed the convictions of his understand- ing and his most cherished sentiments. Alternating with various political works, he also published, while still in Europe, " The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," " The Heiden- maucr," and "The Headsman of Berne." On his return home he found himself a centre for attack of the entire press of the country in consequence of the tone of the works before mentioned, and was overwhelmed with cutting criti- cism, which only too often was characterized by vindictive hatred and an offensive personality wholly unmerited. But, beyond the satires contained in his fictions, no word of de- fence was published by him to the many charges of his po- litical enemies until full five years had elapsed. Then was published his "Naval History of the United States," the only historical production of his pen except a series of naval biographies published in a magazine. " This was a work of great labor and research, and was regarded by the author with a partiality which . . . . the public judgment has hardly confirmed. . .... This work, following the personal tales and essays referred to, and in a few particulars taking novel and unpopular views, elicited from the press attacks of such violence and personality as to provoke the author into the most remarkable series of legal prosecutions ever known in the annals of literature, and which continued for several years to absorb the larger share of his time, and hest ener- gies of his mind." Particularly did his recital of the battle of Lake Erie clash with many of the accepted and favorite opinions of the public, in seemingly detracting from Perry's accustomed honors in this exploit, and in assigning to El- liott an unexpected if not the chief merit in the affair. But, whatever may be the truth of the case, it is generally agreed that his position was taken in fair intent, and has the sanc- tion of the award of three competent arbitrators to whom was submitted the whole question as the result of the legal prosecutions. The law of libel when these suits were be- gun was undefined and almost nugatory : practically, there was but little defence of private character against the most wanton assaults of the press; and if the restraints of the law of libel were at all justifiahle, then was presented occasion for giving it a new definition and needed force. And from all that transpired of Cooper, nothing is more clear than that the correction of this great evil was the lead-

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 68

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