The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 71

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 that on Education. Although an earnest Republican, he | religious and church subjects. From 1825 to 1827 he was is by no means a mere partisan, his course being always ja minister in Charlotte county, Virginia; from 1829 to 1832 dictated by a desire to promote the best interests of the people. officiated as pastor in the church at Trenton, New Jersey ; and from 1844 to 1851 presided over the Duane Street Church, New York. Subsequently he was elected pastor of the Fifth Avenue Church. From 1830 to 1833 he filled the position of editor of the Presbyterian, a church organ puh- lished in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; in 1833-1834 was Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-lettres in the New Jersey College; and from 1849 to 1851 Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government in the Theological Semi- nary, Princeton, New Jersey. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, in 1843, and by Harvard College in 1854. He published a volume of sermons entitled " Consolation ; " " Thoughts on Family Worship;" " The American Mechanic and Work- ingman ; " a biography of his father, Dr. Archibald Alexan- der; "Discourses on Christian Faith and Practice," 1858; a volume of " Sacramental Discourses ; " " Gift to the Af- flicted ; " "Geography of the Bible ; " " Plain Words to a Young Communicant ; " and "The American Surxlay School and its Adjuncts; " also numerous contributions to The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, and several of the publications of the American Tract Society. IIe wrote for The Literary World over the signature of " Cæ- sariensis." After his decease two volumes of his letters and remains were edited and published by Dr. Hall, of Trenton, New Jersey, a man of excellent repute and fine scholarly attainments. He was a preacher of persuasive powers, of fervent piety, and tireless in his self-accepted task of Christian enlightenment and moral teaching. He died at the Virginia Springs, July 31st, 1859.

ORMAN, GENERAL DAVID, Revolutionary Patriot, late of New Jersey, was born near En- glishtown, in this State. During the progress of the contest with Great Britain he was distinguished as an intrepid and able supporter of American rights and measures, and exercised over his fellow- citizens, and in a manner productive of the most beneficial and desirable results, the powerful influence acquired by him at an early date. At the memorable battle of German- town he commanded the Jersey troops, and at all times pos- sessed in a high degree the confidence and esteem of Wash- ington. He subsequently filled the position of Judge of the County Court, and for some time acted as a member of the Council of State. In person he was impressive and com- manding, and, possessing a fearless disposition and a will firm almost to stubbornness, was as a check and a constant terror to the wood-robbers and tories, toward whom he exer- cised a severity and harshness that could be justified only by the perils environing the loyal and honest, and the troublous circumstances surrounding the earnest efforts of a sorely- tried State and government. "Wo to the guilty culprits who fell in his power; without waiting for superfluous cer- emony the gallows was generally their fate." His complexion was dark and swarthy, and such was the aversion and whole- some fear he inspired in the minds of the spy and footpad that he acquired the name of " Black David," and sometimes " Devil David," " in contradistinction to David Forman, the Sheriff." Throughout his long life and varied career he was a shrewd and loyal observer of all passing events touching upon the interests of his fellow-citizens and the growing institutions of his country, and a prompt and effi- cient mover wherever and whenever he deemed his counsel or his services needed and desired. In the "New Jersey Historical Collections " is paid him, and justly, a high and enviable compliment : " Were it not for his exertions the county would have suffered far more from its intestine ene- mies." He died about 1812.

LEXANDER, REV. JAMES WADDELL, D. D., an eloquent Presbyterian Clergyman, Author, Editor, Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-lettres, late of Virginia Springs, was born near Gordons- ville, Louisa county, Virginia, March 13th, 1804, and graduated from the New Jersey College in 1820. He was the eldest son of Rev. Archihald Alexander, D. D., also an eminent Presbyterian divine, and writer on

E HART, COLONEL WILLIAM, Officer in the Revolutionary army, Lawyer, late of Morristown, New Jersey, was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, December 7th, 1746, and was the son of Dr. Matthias De Hart. Before the outbreak of the contest between the colonists and Great Britain he was actively engaged in professional labors as a legal practitioner, but relinquished his vocation at the ap- proach of open hostilities. November 7th, 1775, he re- ceived the appointment of Major in the Ist New Jersey Battery, and in the course of the ensuing year was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. September 6th, 1780, he again received a Lieutenant-Colonelcy in the 2d Regi- ment, Continental army. Before the close of the war he resigned his commission, and in Morristown, New Jersey, resumed the profession of the law. He was a leading mem- ber of the bar where he practised, and was noted for his brilliant sallies of wit and humor, which seemed ever ready to flash forth at an instant's warning, and at the slightest

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provocation. In 1779 he acted as President of the St. Tam. many Society. Two of his brothers, also, were efficient partisans of the patriot cause, one of them having been aide to General Wayne before he was killed at Fort Lee, in 1780. Ile died at Morristown, New Jersey, June 16th, 1801.

RENEAU, PHILIP, distinguished Poet and Jour- nalist of the revolutionary period, late of Mon- mouth, New Jersey, was born in New York city, January 2d, 1752, and graduated from the New Jersey College in 1771. His grandfather, Andrew Freneau, was a merchant of New York; and Peter Freneau, his father, was a dealer in wines and liquors. The family was of French Huguenot extraction. He was edu- cated at Nassau Hall, New Jersey, where James Madison was his room-mate and intimate personal friend. While still in his boyhood he exhibited considerable satirical power and facility in versification, and when at college wrote " The Poetical History of the Prophet Jonah," in four cantos. He intended originally to apply himself to the study, and ultimately practice, of law, but afterward changed his purpose and engaged in a seafaring life; and in 1776 went, in a mercantile capacity, to the West Indies where he remained for some time. During the contest with Great Britain his pen was constantly launching forth its tirades of sarcasm and invective against the blind policy and tyrannous measures of the mother country, and his political burlesques in prose and verse were extensively cir- culated and relished. "Some of his verses, descriptive of memorable events on land and sea, are genuine specimens of the national ballad." In 1780, while on his way again to the West Indies, he was captured by a British cruiser, and subjected to a long and cruel confinement on board the prison-ship " Scorpion." This term of intolerable captivity, whose torments and privations were heightened by an un- called-for harshness and severity on the part of his jailers and the superior officers in command, he has commemo- rated in his pocm, "The British Prison-ship." On his release he became a frequent contributor of patriotic verses to The Freeman's Journal, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But from this pecuniarily profitless occupation finally he turned to mercantile affairs, and made several voyages to the West Indies. For several years after the conclusion of the war he was employed alternately also as newspaper editor and sea-captain. In 1791 he assumed the editorial duties of the New York Daily Advertiser. Upon the es- tablishment of the Federal government at Philadelphia, he was appointed French translator in the Department of State, under Jefferson, and at the same time became editor of the National Gazette, of Philadelphia, which was made the vehicle of bitter and incessant attacks upon the policy and administration of Washington. It is not positively

| known, however, that he is responsible for all the articles on this subject; and, according to his own statement, the most severe and caustic of the series were written or dic- tated by Thomas Jefferson, In October, 1793, the National Gazette was discon in ed, and retiring to New Jersey in the course of this year he started, May 2d, 1795, at Mount Pleasant (near Middletown Point), The Jersey Chronicle, which lived for about twelve months. While residing there he also printed an edition of his poems. Subse- quently, after editing for a year, in 1797, and at New York, The Timepiece and Literary Companion, a journal devoted to belles-lettres and general news, he resumed his former employment as master of a merchant vessel. The second war with Great Britain reanimated his slumbering muse, and in pungent and stirring verse he chronicled the suc- cesses of his countrymen and satirized the defeats and vic- tories alike of his old adversaries and persecutors. The remainder of his life was spent in retirement at his resi- dence in New Jersey, with frequent visits to Philadelphia and New York, where his acquaintance with eminent statesmen and literary characters was very extensive. He enjoyed the friendship of Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and for a long time was in constant correspondence with the last three celebrities. He lost his life by exposure and cold, while going on foot in the night, during a heavy snow-storm, to his residence, near Freehold. " His productions animated his countrymen in the darkest days of '76, and cheered the desponding soldier as he fought the battles of freedom." Although compara- tively unknown to the present generation of readers, he was a true poet, and an able writer of essays and political articles. His poems embrace all the popular forms of com- position, and exhibit notable excellency in fluent versifi- cation. His humor is finely illustrated in his numerous satirical poems, and in the political squibs and lampoons which he produced with remarkable facility. Campbell and Scott borrowed from liim with no sparing hands, while Jeffrey predicted that the time would come when his poetry, like " Hudibras," would " command a commentator like Grey." Many of his smaller poems possess great elegance of diction, and in the preceding half century were much admired and eulogized by both the critical few and the mass of general readers. His patriotic songs and ballads were everywhere sung with enthusiasm by the revolution- ary heroes, and in England were regarded as powerful in- centives to disaffection and rebellion. In the " New Jersey Historical Collections," he is briefly described as " a man of naturally fine feelings, but an infidel in sentiment." Ile published "A Translation of the Travels of Abbe Robin," New York, 1783; " Poems," Philadelphia, 1786; " Miscel- laneous Works," 1788; " Pocms written between 176S and 1794," Mount Pleasant, New Jersey, 1795; " Letters on Various Subjects," etc., by Robert Slender, Philadelphia, 1799; a new edition of his " Pocms," 1809; and " Poems written between 1797 and 1815," two volumes, New York,

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1815. An edition of his " Revolutionary Poems," with a May roth he arrived at the Omaha village, and encamped memoir and notes by E. A. Duyckinck, was published in New York in 1865. Peter Freneau, his brother, edited and published at Charleston, South Carolina, 1795 to 1810, the City Gazette, a Democratic newspaper. He died, or "perished miserably," at Monmouth, New Jersey, Decem- ber 18th, 1832, in the cightieth year of his age.

UNT, WILSON PRICE, Pioneer Traveller, the hero of Irving's "Astoria," late of St. Louis, was born in Hopewell, New Jersey, in the house still standing, probably, on the property of Benjamin S. Ilill, and served an apprenticeship in the store of his uncle, Abraham Hunt, of Trenton, New Jersey. His adventurous and enterprising spirit brought him to the notice of John Jacob Astor, of New York, who planned an enterprise across the mountains. The conduct of the contemplated expedition was assigned to him, he being one of the partners of the company organized, and ultimately the head of the establishment located at the mouth of the Columbia. June 23d, 1810, articles of agree- ment were entered into by him, in connection with J. J. Astor, Alexander McKay, Duncan McDougal, and Donald Mckenzie, acting for themselves, and for the several per- sons who had already agreed to become, or should there- after become, associated under the firmn of "The Pacific Fur Company." He was then appointed an Agent, for the term of five years, and selected to reside at the principal establishment on the northwest coast. In the latter part of the following July he repaircd to Montreal, the ancient em- porium of the fur trade, and made extensive preparations for the work in hand, engaging Canadian voyageurs, and laying in supplies of ammunition, provisions, and Indian goods. The expedition then set forth from St. Anne's, and made its way up the Ottawa river, and along the smaller lakes and rivers, to Michilimackinac, arriving at Mackinaw, at the confluence of Lakes Huron and Michigan, July 22d. Here he remained for some time, seeking to complete his assortment of goods, and to increase his number of voyag- eurs. August 12th he finally left Mackinaw, and pursued the usual route to Prairie du Chien, and thence down the Mississippi to St. Louis, where a landing was effected, September 3d. October 2Ist he took his departure from St. Louis, and soon arrived at the mouth of the Missouri, reaching the mouth of the Nodowa, after a season of suffer- ing and peril, November 16th. January Ist he set off to return on foot to St. Louis, and arrived at his destination on the 20th of the same month. Here he was greatly im . peded in his plans by the opposition of the Missouri Fur Company, which saw in him and his expedition rivals and keen competitors. April 17th he was again with his party at the station near the Nodowa river, where the main body of the company had been quartered during the winter.

in its neighborhood, but on the 15th set forward toward the country of the Sioux Tetons. June 11th he encamped near an island below the Arickara village, and there com- menced a trade with the Indians under the regulation and supervision of the local chieftains. July 18th he took up his line of march by land across the tributaries of the Mis- souri, and over immense prairies destitute of trees and human life, skirting the Black Hills, and pursuing a west- erly course along a ridge of country dividing the tributary waters of the Missouri and the Yellowstone. January 31st he arrived at the falls of the Columbia, and encamped at the village of Wishram, situated at the head of the long narrows. Eventually, after experiences and trials of a most formidable and disheartening character, he arrived safely at Astoria, the distance from St. Louis to that place, by the route taken, being upward of thirty-five hundred miles. August 26th, 1813, after a sojourn of six days at Astoria, he set sail in the "Albatross," and arrived at the Marquesas, where he learned that the British frigate " Phoebe " had sailed, with the " Cherub " and the " Raccoon," for Colum- bia river. This intelligence alarmed him greatly, since the errand of the hostile vessels could have for end only the demolition of Astoria, and the interests which he had been so zealously promoting there. November 23d he pro- ceeded to the Sandwich Islands; and January 22d set sail for Astoria, intending to remove the property thence as speedily as possible to the Russian settlements on the north- west coast, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British. February 28th he cast anchor, in the brig " Ped- ler," in the Columbia river ; soon after landed; and upon settling various complicated business arrangements, and laboring loyally in the interest of J. J. Astor, set sail again April 3d, and bade a final adieu to Astoria. In Irving's " Astoria," may be found the following lines : " The absence of Mr. Hunt, the only real representative of Mr. Astor, at the time of the capitulation with the Northwest Company, completed the series of cross-purposes. Had that gentle- man been present, the transfer, in all probability, would not have taken place." On his return from the fur region, he settled at St. Louis, where he died in 1842.

CNEVEN, WILLIAM JAMES, Author, Professor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, or in the Medical School connected with Rutgers Col- lege, New Jersey, from ISOS to 1830, late of New York city, was born in Galway county, Ireland, March 26th, 1763. He was cducated at the Colleges of Prague and Vienna, at the latter of which he graduated in 1784. He became a zealous member of the Society of United Irishmen, and after an imprisonment-in consequence of his connection with it, and ensuing results --- of four years, was liberated, and passed the summer of 1802

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in travelling through Switzerland on foot, of which journey he published an account entitled "A Ramble in Switzer- land." He subsequently acted in the capacity of Captain in the Irish Brigade of the French army, but resigned his commission, and emigrated to the United States, arriving at New York, July 4th, 1804. From 1808 to 1830 he pre- sided as Professor in the College of Physicians and Sur- geons, or in an establishment dependent on the Rutgers Col- lege, New Jersey. In 1812 he was appointed, by Governor Clinton, Resident Physician ; in 1840 was again nominated to the same office; and, during the prevalence of the cholera epidemic of 1832, was actively employed as one of the medical council. IIe published an " Exposition of the Atomic Theory; " " Pieces of Irish History," 8vo., 1807; " Use and Construction of the Mine Auger," London, 1788; and an edition, carefully prepared, of " Brande's Chem- istry;" besides occasional essays and addresses on various subjects. He was also a valued contributor to the current medical and scientific journals. He died at New York city, July 12th, 1841.

ARTIN, LUTHER, LL. D., Lawyer, Educator, Revolutionary Patriot, Judge, Statesman, late of New York, was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1744, and graduated from the New Jersey College in 1766. He was subsequently engaged in teaching school at Queenstown, Mary- land ; then entered upon a course. of legal studies; and was admitted to the bar in 1771. He afterward com- menced the practice of his profession in Accomac and Northampton counties, Virginia; and, after his admission as attorney in the courts of Somerset and Worcester, rapidly attained an extensive and lucrative clientage. In 1774 he became a member of the commission to oppose the claims and exactions of Great Britain, and a member also of the Annapolis Convention. He published an answer to the address of the brothers Howe ; also "An Address to the Inhabitants of the Peninsula between the Delaware river and the Chesapeake." February 11th, 1778, he was ap- pointed Attorney-General of Maryland; and in 1784-85 acted as a member of the old Congress. Strongly influ- enced by his political ideas and principles, he wrote many pungent and violent essays against the Democratic party of his time ; and in 1804 was one of the defenders of Judge Chase, who was impeached in the House of Representatives for alleged misdemeanor. He was likewise the personal and political friend of Burr, whose acquittal he was instru- mental in procuring, when on trial for alleged treason in 1807. In 1814 he was appointed Chicf Judge of Oyer and Terminer, for Baltimore, Maryland ; and in 1818 was given the appointment of Attorney-General of the State. Although a member of the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, he violently opposed the adoption of that in- strument, advocating the cquality of the States, and con-

tending that a small State should have as many Congress- men as a large one. He is the Author of "A Defence of Captain Cresap from the Charge of Murder made in Jeffer- son's Notes ; " and " Genuine Information, etc., of the Con- vention at Philadelphia," etc., Svo., published in 1788. He was a loyal and upright citizen, although a man of strong prejudices and passionate temperament ; an unflinch- ing friend to those he esteemed, and an outspoken enemy when opposed by political adversaries. He died at New York city, July 10th, 1826.

ALL, JOSEPH LLOYD, Bank. Lock and Safe Manufacturer, was born, May 9th, 1823, at Salem, New Jersey, and is the second son of Edward and Anna (Lloyd) Hall. He removed with his parents to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1832. His educational advantages were very limited, as he hegan to earn his own living at eight years of age; and although his early tastes inclined him to mechanical pur- suits, yet circumstances combined to prevent their gratifica- tion. In 1840 he engaged in a steamboat enterprise, and continued in that business upon the Mississippi river and its tributaries until 1846, when he returned to Pittsburgh and formed a copartnership with his father, under the firm-name of E. & J. Hall, and cmbarked in the manufacture of fire- proof safes. This industry was undeveloped, and they also found such strong competition from the wealthy and long- established Eastern houses in the same line, that they deter- mined to remove to Cincinnati, which they carried out in 1848. In that city they established the nucleus of the present immense manufactory, and both father and son toiled in their little workshop from day to day with inde- fatigable patience and energy. They labored assiduously to educate the public mind to a fuller appreciation of the great security obtained by the use of fire and burglar-proof safes, and stemming the current of opposition with a rare and admirable pertinacity for years, they finally triumphed over adverse circumstances and stood on a firm foundation. In 1851 his father disposed of his interest in the business to William B. Dodds, and the firm of Hall, Dodds & Co. succeeded ; they employed, at that time, a force of fifteen hands, and produced about two safes per week. This firm was dissolved in 1857, and was thereafter followed by others in succession, in all of which Joseph L. IIall was the senior partner and chief executive. The Ilall Safe and Lock Company was organized in May, 1867, of which he was chosen President and Treasurer, and, as formerly, still exercises a rigid surveillance over all the practical operations of the works. This is said to be the largest safe manufac- turing establishment in the world, and is probably more than four times as large as any similar concern in the United States. It employs some six hundred mechanics of consummate skill and experience, and has a capacity for turning out about fifty safes each working day. He has

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devoted his mechanical genius to the perfection of the arti- cles manufactured by the company, and his many improve- ments attest his aptness and fitness for the task. He is the patentee of some thirty well-known and valuable inventions in bank locks and safes. He has built some of the largest safes ever constructed, and, without exception, they have preserved their contents intact during the severest tests. The manner in which his five hundred safes passed the terrible ordeal at the great fire in Chicago, October, 1871, is a sufficient proof of their reliability. The company have branch houses in every important city in the Union, and the reputation of the safes and locks is limited only by the confines of civilization. At the outbreak of the late civil war, in 1861, he undertook the execution of a contract to alter, for the United States government, within thirty days, five thousand Austrian muskets, and performed the work so satisfactorily and efficiently, that he was awarded many other contracts during the war. He never aspired to nor accepted a public office, although often solicited to become a candidate. He has been for many years an active, zeal- ous, and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is at present one of the most liberal supporters of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, of Cincinnati. Such is the record of a man who, by dint of indomitable energy and native genius, won his way to a proud and en- viable position in the business and social world-a position which his generous and hospitable nature well fits him to grace. IIe was married, in early manhood, to Sarah Jane Jewell, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and this union has been blessed with twelve children, three sons being now associated with him, all of whom are active and efficient business men-the oldest, Edward C. Hall, having filled the position of Vice-President of the company.

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 71

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