The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 73

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

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IXON, HON. JONATHAN, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, comes of Eng- lish parentage, and was born in the city of Liver- pool, England, July 6th, 1839. There he re- mained until reaching his eighth year, attending public schools for two or three years. At that time the family removed to Maryport, in the county of Cumber- land, where Jonathan's education was continued at the public schools. In the spring of 1848, his father, desirous of improving his fortunes, came to the United States, whither his family followed him in July, 1850, and settled in New Brunswick, New Jersey. During December of the same year, Jonathan became an inmate of the home of Cor- nelius L. Hardenbergh, a lawyer, who suffered from the misfortune of blindness. To him the lad acted as attend- ant and amanuensis for nearly five years, or until September, 1855, in the meantime receiving much care and attention from the family, who highly appreciated his intelligence, devotion and ambition. His education was continued under their fostering care, a son, Warren Hardenbergh, giving especial attention to his tuition. So prepared, he was enabled to enter Rutgers College in 1855, and, after a full course assiduously pursued, he was graduated from that institution in June, 1859. After graduation he entered the office of his friend and quondam tutor, Warren Harden- bergh, as a student at law, and prosecuted his studies under these auspices for about twelve months. Mr. Hardenbergh then removed to New York, and Jonathan Dixon trans- ferred his allegiance as student to George R. Dutton, and subsequently, upon that preceptor in his turn seeking Ncw York as a field of action, to Robert Adrain, all of these gentlemen being members of the bar at New Brunswick. While acquiring a knowledge of his chosen profession, Jonathan Dixon secured the means of living by teaching in public and private schools. In due course his industry and perseverance brought him to the point toward which his attention had been steadily fixed, and he was admitted to practise. His admission as attorney occurred in November, 1862 ; three years later he was called as counsellor. About a month after being admitted, or in December, 1862, he re- moved to Jersey City, and entered the office of E. B. Wake- man in a clerical capacity. Here his abilities and love of his profession led, in the spring of 1864, to a partnership

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with his employer which was maintained for a period of Christian hospitality. Before his birth his mother had or- just twelve months. For five years thereafter Mr. Dixon conducted an independent practice, which proved quite suc- cessful ; so much so, indeed, that in 1870 he concluded that it was advisable to form a new partnership. This he did with Gilbert Collins, the style of the firm being Dixon & Collins. The firm met with uninterrupted success, and from the first occupied a high position at the bar. In April, 1875, he was offered a seat on the Supreme Bench of the State, and, accepting the appointment, his commission was issued, bear- ing date April .8th, 1875. In the exercise of the judicial functions he has always commanded the respect and confi- dence of the bar and of the community at large, his de- cisions evidencing learning, research, independence and im- partiality. IIe is indeed actuated by the true, judicial spirit, and worthily sustains the exalted reputation of the State judiciary. During his career at the bar, he held several positions of a public character. In 1863 he was Corporation Counsel for the town of Bergen, and again in 1869 the same honorable position was enjoyed by him for the city of Bergen. During 1871 he discharged the duties of a similar office in Jersey City. Politically he has always been an earnest Republican, and his abilities and valuable services have always been relied upon to good purpose in all emergencies until his elevation to the bench, since which time he has simply discharged, in an unostentatious and con- scientious manner, the political duties devolving upon every member of the community. In the year 1864 he very effi- ciently promoted the Republican cause as President of the Union League of Jersey City. He was married, Septem- ber 12th, 1864, to Elizabeth M. Price, of New Brunswick.

LARK, REV. SAMUEL ADAMS, D. D., Cler- gyman, late of Elizabeth, was born in Newbury- port, Massachusetts, on the 27th of January, 1822. IIis father, Thomas March Clark, was one of the descendants, probably, of Captain Thomas Clark, who was an early settler in the Plymouth colony. His mother, Rebecca Wheelwright, was descended from the Rev. John Wheelwright, a distinguished Puritan clergyman, who was educated at Cambridge University, England, and who, after varied experiences, including banishment from Braintree, now Quincy, Massachusetts, for errors of doc- trine, and the founding of the town of Exeter, New IIamp- shire, died in extreme old age near Newburyport. The parents of Dr. Clark were prominent in the town where they lived, for a period of more than fifty years. They were members of the Presbyterian Church. His father was the President of the Howard Benevolent Society from the year 1816, when that institution was organized, until his death in the year 1851 ; and his mother for more than thirty years was the President of the Newburyport Orphan Asylum. Ilis carly home was consecrated to good works and to porations and societies, should give expression to their grief.

ganized a Youth's Missionary Society. She heid the meet- ings in her own house. She induced the boys connected with the society to make monthly contributions, and so young Clark breathed, in his earliest childhood, the best possible domestic and Christian atmosphere. The brevity of this sketch precludes an extended notice of the virtues of his parents and the character of his home during his boy- hood; but, as he owed to these parents and to his early Christian culture nearly all that made his character so piccious, even the shortest record of his life should recog- nize the excellent stock from which he sprang, and the in- fluences which surrounded him in his childhood. The only surviving members of this Newburyport family are the brothers of the deceased : the Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island; the Rev. Rufus W. Clark, D. D., of Albany, New York, and the Rev. George H. Clark, D. D., of Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Clark studied theology at the seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. After completing his studies he took charge in Philadelphia of a new mission which afterwards was the Church of the Mediator. He was, for a short time, minis- ter of the Episcopal Church, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, and while there he was called to be Assistant in St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, Long Island, and also to the rectorship of the Church of the Advent, in Philadelphia. In the spring of 1848 he became the Rector of the latter church, and he held this position until April, 1856, when he was called to the rectorship of St. John's Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey. A minute of the vestry of the Church of the Advent, and a tribute from the Sunday-school of that church to his memory, after a separation of eighteen years, indicate that he was held in " grateful remembrance " for his " Christian zeal and loving interest in all the work and people of his charge." While a resident of Philadelphia, Dr. Clark married Sarah Henry, daughter of John S. Henry, Esq. His wife and six children survive him. Soon after taking orders he published the " Life of the Rev. Albert W. Duy," and subsequently published the " History of St. John's Church, Elizabeth." He was elected to represent the Diocese of New Jersey in the last two General Conventions, and at the time of his death was the President of the Standing Committee of the Diocese. IIe received the title of Doctor of Divinity from Rutgers Col- lege, New Jersey. And now, after this mere outline of an active and useful life, the writer would attempt a true por- trait of a beloved brother. The materials for this portrait may, in part, be found in the tributes given by others to his memory. There are surely few clergymen whose Christian character and faithful services elicit, when they die, such sympathetic recognition as his death drew forth. That the vestry of his church and the convention of his diocese should pass the common resolutions was to be expected, but it was not to be expected that other, and even distant cor-

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The local editors, too, naturally would deplore his loss as | less preacher, an humble follower of Jesus, and a successful " that of a brother and a personal friend," and mark the day ambassador to my dear people." A more efficient ministry than that which marked his life is seldom secured in any parish, and the prayers which he offered at the begin- ning of his ministerial life were graciously answered. He was, indeed, a faithful shepherd, a vigilant watchman, a fearless preacher, an humble follower of Jesus, and a suc- cessful ambassador. The writer often remonstrated with him for his unceasing labors, but the anxiety of friendship could not keep him from his work. And with what fidelity, with what kindness, and sympathy and gentleness that work was done, those only can know who saw his face, and heard his voice, when they were in trouble and in sorrow. It should be recorded, too, that his philanthropy constantly carried him outside of his parish duties, and that many benevolent institutions found in him an advocate and a sup- porter. He was the life of every social company into which he entered, and the life of his own home. His buoyancy was never abated; it was perpetual, and was commonly mingled with the kindness of his heart. There was hardly an hour when he did not do good by creating a laugh, and he would sometimes brush away his tears at the very time of saying funny and cheering things. He was tender- hearted as a child, he was truly pious, he was remarkably faithful in Christian duty, at home as well as abroad, and yet he was an incessant blaze of fun; indeed, a most re- markable depositary of " comic animation." Nothing re- pressed him. "An apt conjunction of satin and lawn" never disconcerted him ; he would light up the face of a grave bishop, or start the wrinkles on a judge, with the same careless indifference, as to himself, which he showed when he made a crowd of children happy. Introduced to the venerable mother of the President of the United States, he asked her if she had sons, and then where they lived; and on learning that one lived in Washington, he wished to know what he did there. Hearing a very thin clergyman complain of being followed and annoyed by dogs in the streets, and seeing half-a-dozen other clergymen standing with sober faces and half-open mouths, listening to this re- of his going from them as "a day of general mourning," but this " man of warm sympathies," who "always had an ear for the tale of human suffering," to " whose heart the orphan and the poor widow never appealed in vain," whose " catholicity of spirit and freeheartedness led him constantly to overleap all narrow sectarianism and all party bound- aries," left his name to be recorded even in distant parts of the land, associated with all which makes life precious and good. Ample was the testimony to his " great ability and earnestness," to " his industry and willingness to assume duties and responsibilities," to " his judicious counsel, his earnest zeal, his cheerful faith," to his " good humor and per- sonal magnetism," to " his universal kindness," to his " winning the love and respect of all who knew him," and the loss was mourned " as children mourn the loss of a dear parent." It was with no common grief that the members of the vestry of St. John's Church, with some of whom he had been pleasantly associated for nearly twenty years, put on their records that they had lost " a beloved personal friend, the church a most conscientious, devoted rector, the community one always in sympathy with them in projecting and doing good ; that he had always manifested the most generous and Christian spirit ; had been unremitted in his labors, often to an extent far beyond his physical strength ; that he had preached the Gospel with faithfulness, warned the unwary, visited the sick; that the young, for whom it was his peculiar delight to labor, had lost a dear friend and counsellor; the poor, a most generous benefactor; the afflicted, a sincere sympathizer ; and that no act could be recalled which did not increase the pleasant remembrance of him who was our joy and comfort at all times." While it cannot be claimed that Dr. Clark possessed the qualities of a great preacher, it may truly be said that he was a very effective Christian teacher. He knew what he wished to say, and his sermons were marked by plainness, good sense and strong feeling. Thoughts came to him quickly, and he wrote with rapidity, not stopping to elaborate his style, and seldom, if ever, revising or correcting. He was honest, con- cital and not knowing what to say, he said, " The dogs scientious, fearless, and was an instructor who was successful think he's a bone." Approached, while in conversation in the best meaning of that word. There was a warmth and with a bishop's wife by a very large clergyman, it was im- possible for him, with his faculty of looking at and pre- senting things in their odd relations, not to say, " Permit me, madam, to present to you a portion of my friend, the Rev. Mr. " His aged female parishioners were often " lambs," or " brides." Ilis dog, goat, parrot, dead owl, hens, and the pencil-marked eggs on his breakfast table, were prolific sources of merriment to him and to his guests and his family. The habit of getting off funny things was as natural and as irresistible with him as the habit of breath- a glow about him in the pulpit which attracted his hearers. There was that which is superior to profound reasoning and to classic language-the earnest, clear presentation of all Christian duties, and of all Christian hopes and consolation. This, the real calling of a preacher, loyal to his Master, he well fulfilled, guided by the noblest of all principles, and by a true, pure heart. In one of his anniversary sermons, de- livered in St. John's Church, Dr. Clark says, "A more efficient ministry might have made a more efficient people ; "

and in his diary, a few days after he became the Rector of the Church of the Advent, in Philadelphia, he wrote, " I am intrusted with a precious charge. May God grant that I may be a faithful shepherd, a vigilant watchman, a fear-

ing. And he was never ill-natured, nor vulgar, nor irrev- erent in his wit, nor did he speak in it many idle words ; his fun was more useful than the solemn advice of others; lie would give a needed lesson, sometimes a long-remembered

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lesson, while he sent his hearer away laughing. " It is | Speaker of the Senate at the close of the war, and, while probable," said a friend, who preached a memorial sermon acting in this capacity, as Acting Governor in 1781-82; from 1782 to 1785 and from 1789 to 1792 was Governor of North Carolina ; in 1788 was a member of the Conven- tion to adopt the Federal Constitution ; and from 1793 to 1799 was an active and influential member of the United States Senate. According to Wheeler, " he was vain of his literary attainments, and published in the North Carolina University Magazine, poetical tributes to General Francis Nash and Governor Caswell." However this may be, he was certainly an upright and honored citizen, a man of un- usual scholarly attainments, and an earnest worker in the interests of his country. At the time of his death he was a Trustee of the University of North Carolina. IIe died at Danbury, North Carolina, in November, 1807. in St. John's pulpit, " that he is chiefly remembered by many as a cheerful man. Was there ever another who had such a kind and mirthful word for every one ? Did any one ever scatter so much sunshine along the very streets through which he passed ?" But " this cheerfulness," adds his friend, " was as little the manifestation of a heart that could not profoundly feel, as it was of a mind that could not strongly think." The portrait cannot be complete; a sketch, the lines not fully filled. " There was so much of him to go," said his brother, the Bishop of Rhode Island, and all those who were nearest to him respond, "so much of him to go." He carried a charm about him. He was a delightful com- panion. His activity, energy, inflexibility in principle, firmness in duty, won respect; his personal character, his generosity, his sweetness, his piety, won love. His soul was white and clear from his early boyhood, and he kept it so to the very end. The long and successful rectorship of Dr. Clark in St. John's Church terminated with his death, on the 28th of January, 1875; and not only the people of his parish, but the people of the city, of all classes and of all creeds, deplored the irreversible event. It may be doubted if any citizen had so many friendships, and it is certain that no possible loss in the community could have been more deeply or universally lamented. A hundred clergymen, it is supposed, attended the funeral services. The large church was filled with mourners. Bishop Stevens and Bishop Scarborough were in the chancel and made addresses. The bells of the city were tolled. A noble life had ended; a great heart had ceased to beat. The congregation of St. John's has placed a memorial tablet within the church edifice, and, by vote of the vestry, a monument has been erected, in Laurel Hill cemetery, Philadelphia, over the grave of this beloved minister.

ARTIN, HON. ALEXANDER, LL.D. (degree conferred by Princeton College), Soldier and Statesman of the revolutionary war, Governor of North Carolina, Author, late of Danbury, North Carolina, was born in New Jersey, about the year 1740, and studied at the New Jersey College, graduating from that institution in 1756. In 1721 his father had emigrated to the colonial settlements from Tyrone county, Ireland, and settled in New Jersey, where, it is sup- posed, he resided until the time of his decease. In 1772 he removed to North Carolina, and settled eventually in Guil- ford county, in that State. IIe served as a member of the Colonial Assembly, was actively engaged for some time as Colonel of a Continental Regiment, took a prominent part in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, was State Senator in 1779-80-81-82-85-87 and '88, served as

ILL, TIIOMAS, D. D., LL.D., Clergyman, Mathematician, Author, of New Jersey, was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, January 7th, 1818. His father, a tanner by trade, was for many years a Judge of the Superior Court of Common Pleas, and on both the paternal and the maternal side he is of English extraction. He was left an orphan at the age of ten, and two years later was appren- ticed to the printer of the Fredonian newspaper, passing the ensuing four years in its office. While in his seventeenth year, after spending from ten to twelve months in a common school, he entered an apothecary's shop, where he served for three and a half years. In 1843 he was graduated at Harvard College, in 1845 completed his term of residence at the divinity school, and on Christmas of the same year was settled at Waltham. He is a Unitarian of the evan- gelical school, " but so little sectarian, or strictly denomi- national, that he has been invited to deliver the address be- fore the Society of Christian Inquiry in the orthodox College of Burlington." In 1859 he succeeded Horace Mann in the Presidency of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio; and in 1862-68 was President of Harvard University. He has been a frequent contributor to the periodical and occa- sional literature of the day, having written poems, re- views, translations, essays, for The Christian Examiner, The Religious Magazine, The Phonographic Magazine, The North American Review, and The Atlantic Monthly. He has also published sermons, lectures, and addresses, and contributed several valuable papers to " The Pro- ceedings of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science." He wrote also the greater part of the articles on mathematics, ctc., to be found in Appleton's " Cyclopædia," and published an " Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic," " Geometry and Faith," and " First Lessons in Geometry." It is, however, in his investigations in curves that he has exhibited a remarkable originality and fertility. He has added to the number of known curves,

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and simplified their expression in an admirable manner; lican principles. In 1862 he was commissioned as Presi and, by going beyond the common methods of using co-or- dinates, and presenting novel combinations, has greatly extended the field of research. "It is understood that he has now in manuscript a work on curves of great value and importance."

PPLEGATE, JOHN S., Lawyer and Bank Presi- dent, of Red Bank, was born in Middletown, Monmouth county, New Jersey, August 6th, 1837. He comes of good old Jersey stock, his ancestors on both sides as far back as the year 1700 being also natives of Monmouth county, and at the pe- riod of the Revolution were active Whigs and soldiers in that heroic struggle. His parents, Joseph S. and Ann (Bray) Applegate, followed agricultural pursuits, and their son grew up amid the quiet and health-giving surroundings of farm life. His preliminary educational training was ob- tained in the neighboring schools, where he made good use of his opportunities. Being destined for a learned profes- sion, his parents sent him to college, his course being taken at Madison University, at Hamilton, New York, from which he graduated in 1858, after four years study, receiv- ing the degree of A. B. Choosing the law for a career, he pursued his studies for a time at Red Bank, and afterwards entered the office of Hon. W. L. Dayton, at Trenton. Un- der the superintendence of that learned lawyer and polished advocate he prosecuted his studies until his preceptor was offered and accepted the responsible position of Minister to the Court of France. Then he removed to Jersey City and completed his term of study with E. B. Wakeman. In due course he received his license as an attorney in November, 1861, and subsequently, at the February term of 1865, he was admitted as counsellor. He began and has always continued practice at Red Bank, and is acknowledged to stand among the leaders of the bar in that section. His

practice lies principally in the State and county courts. IIe

dent for Monmouth county of the Union League of America and he organized a chapter of that patriotic organization in nearly every township of the county. He was a member of the Republican State Executive Committee in 1865, and m that capacity rendered most efficient service to the cause. In 1865 he was married to Deborah C. Allen, danghter of Charles G. Allen, a prominent citizen of Red Bank.

IATT. This family is descended from Captain William Piatt, of New Jersey, who served in the revolutionary war, being attached to Colonel Ogden's regiment, and between whom and Colonel Ogden a warm personal friendship existed. Re- maining in the army after the termination of the war, he was detailed a member of General Arthur St. Clair's command in the campaign against the Miami Indians. This war, it will be remembered, was undertaken for the purpose of freeing the Ohio region from hostile Indians, being the first organized attempt at driving the native tribes westward. St. Clair was given command of the north- western army, and was also appointed Governor of the Northwestern Territory. In the spring of 1791 he took the field, and during the ensuing summer Generals Wilkinson and Scott were gradually advanced with a force of some eight hundred men ; the whole army numbercd some fifteen hundred. In November the entire force was concentrated, and on the 4th of that month St. Clair ordered a general attack to be made, himself commanding the attacking body. The result was eminently disastrous; more than six hun- dred of the regulars were killed, and the remainder were utterly routed-the most signally destructive battle fought with the Indians since the defeat of Braddock. In this battle Captain Piatt unquestionably perished, but no relial le information of a definite character as to his fate ever reached his family. When last seen by his retreating comrades he was severely wounded, and was supporting himself against a tree, and his last request was that he might be given a loaded musket so that his life should be sold dearly. By his wife, Sarah, daughter of John Shotwell, of Shotwell's Landing, New Jersey, he had three children : William, Je- mima and James. William studied medicine; upon grad- uation established himself in New York, and was for many years a leading practitioner in that city. Jemima, who was said to bear a striking resemblance to her gallant and un- fortunate father, was a distinguished preacher in the Society of Friends, and was well known throughout the American branch of that religious organization. She married her cousin, Elijah Shotwell, of Plainfield, New Jersey. . James removed in early life to Ohio, where he married, was a con- siderable land-owner, and a man of something more than local prominence. From him the noted Colonel Don Piatt,

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 73

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