The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 75

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

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hard times materially checking it, although his business is in itself restricted and exclusive, diamonds being a very dispensable sort of luxury to the million, and hardly an absolute necessity even to the upper ten thousand. Ilis establishment, which is large and admirably arranged for its purposes, employs, when running at full force, some 150 men, the products being of the finest jewelry, and the annual sales, in good times, amounting to over $600,000. He trades directly with the retailers, supplying houses in all quarters of the United States, though of course not many houses in any one quarter, the commodities being too costly for general use. It speaks well for his business, and still better, perhaps, for his management of it, that it successfully weathered the late financial storm, and -has steadily held on through the succeeding dead calm, ready to catch the first breath of the returning breeze, and go forward at the old rate of speed or at a higher one. Of his marked abilities as a business man there can be no question. That they are not questioned by his fellow-citizens may be inferred from the various trusts to which at different times he has been called, having been an Alderman of the Ninth Ward for two years, and being at present one of the Trustees of the American Trust Company, of Newark, a Director of several of the most prominent Fire Insurance Companies in that city, and President of the Mer- chants' National Bank. He was married in 1832 to Sarah Ann Carroll, of New York city.

URAND, JAMES M., of Newark, Diamond-Broker and Manufacturer of Fine Jewelry, was born in Essex county, New Jersey, March 23d, 1813. Ile is a son of Henry Durand and Electra Bald- win, natives of New Jersey, with which the family, on both sides, have long been identified. He was educated at South Orange. Leaving school at the age of sixteen he went to New York city to learn the trade of watch-case making, after learning which he settled at Camp- town, New Jersey, now known as Irvington, one of the suburbs of Newark, where he associated himself with his uncle, under the firm-name of C. & J. M. Durand, for the UNTER, REV. ANDREW, D. D., Chaplain in the Revolutionary Army, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, late of Burlington, New Jersey, was born in New Jersey circe 1750, and studied at Princeton College, graduating from that institution in 1772. During the conflict between the colonies and Great Britain he labored with fearless zeal as an encouraging counsellor and spiritual exhorter among the men of '76, and, at a later date, engaged in teaching in a classical school at Woodbury. He was then occupied for a time in agricultural pursuits, and the cultivation of a farm, on the Delaware near Trenton. From 1804 to ISO8 he presided as Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in his Alma Mater; and, in the course of the following year, became the head of an academy in Bordentown, New Jersey. He afterwards accepted a Chaplaincy in the Washington navy-yard. In the Trenton newspaper, of Monday, Decem- ber 30th, 1799, is the following notice : "The Rev. Mr. Hunter, who officiated yesterday for Mr. Armstrong, after reading the President's proclamation respecting the general mourning for the death of General Washington, gave the intimation in substance, as follows: 'Your pastor desires me to say on the present mournful occasion, that while one sentiment-to mourn the death and honor the memory of General Washington-penetrates every breast, the proclama- tion which you have just heard read, he doubts not, will be mannfacture of watch-cases and machinery in all its branches, he superintending the former part of the business, and his uncle the latter. In 1837 he retired from the Camptown establishment, and removed to Newark, becoming the com. pany in the firm of Taylor, Baldwin & Co., jewelry mannfac- turers. This firm was succeeded by that of Baldwin & Co., in which he was also the company, the latter firm being succeeded in turn by that of Baldwin & Durand, the busi- ness of the three firms together continuing for a period of thirteen years. Between the retirement of Baldwin from the last mentioncd firm and the forming of the present firm there were two other firms, Durand & Annin, and Durand, Carter & Co., the latter expiring in 1862, when the present one, Durand & Co., was formed, he being, as will be observed, the only constant quantity throughout these combinations, a fact due in part no doubt to circumstances, yet in some measure expressive of the stability and persistence of his strongly marked character. It is seldom mere accident that leads one to keep his place in the figure during so lively a change of partners. A firm foot and a level head are apt to have something to do with it. Certain it is at any rate that he has both of these requisites to a successful business career, as also that his own career has been in fact eminently suc- cessful. For forty years he has been a leading manufacturer in Newark, and his prosperity, instead of standing still or waning, is increasing year by year, not even the present , duly attended to; yet believing, as he does, that he but

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anticipates the wishes of those for whom the intimation is given, Mr. Armstrong requests the female part of his audience in the city of Trenton and Maidenhead, as a testimony of respect for, and condolence with Mrs. Washington, to wear for three months, during their attendance on divine service, such badges of mourning as their discretion may direct.' " His second wife was Mary Stockton, a daughter of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. He had an uncle, also Rev. Andrew Hunter, who was a pastor in Cumberland county, New Jersey, 1746-1760. IIe married Ann Stockton, a cousin of Richard Stockton, and died in 1775. His widow was buried in the Trenton church-yard, in October, 1800, and the funeral sermon on that oceasion was delivered by President Smith. He was a loyal and learned divine, a man of excellent parts, scrupulous in the performance of every duty, and tireless in his efforts to improve the moral condition of those around him, and to promote the welfare of his State and country. He died in Burlington, New Jersey, February 24th, 1823.

IRK, HON. WILLIAM HENRY, Builder and State Senator, of Newark, son of the late John H. Kırk, and descended from a Hollandish family, resident in New Jersey from early colonial times, was born in New York, 1813. Having received a sound English education in New York, he moved with his parents to New Jersey, whence they had originally come, and which they had always regarded as their home. Here he served an apprenticeship to the trade of carpentry, subsequently studied architecture, and eventually established himself as an architect and builder. His business, founded on the substantial basis of a thorough knowledge of its details, rapidly increased ; his reputation for reliability extended, and his operations spread far beyond the limits of the town to which they were at first confined : among his works are to be included many of the finest public and private buildings in the State. Occupying so conspicuous a position in business circles, he naturally became prominent in public affairs. In 1871 he was elected one of the Chosen Free-holders of Essex county, and this was followed in 1873 by his election, on the Republican ticket, to the Legislative Assembly of the State. In the lower house he quickly made his presence felt by his able and determined opposition to the Reformed School Bill, a measure introduced in the interest of the church of Rome ; his action being so well to the liking of his constituents that he was re-elected in the following year. During his second term the Roman Catholic Protectory Bill was introduced, and was met by him with determined opposition. Owing to his efforts the bill was greatly reduced in its demands, but he was unable to bar its passage. Carried up into the Senate, the effect of his vigorous denunciation of the bill in the House-aided by his personal appeals to Senators-awakened a spirit of resistance that in the |a period extending over nearly a half century. He possessed

end determined in its defeat ; and the constitutional amend- ment of 1875 removed the matter beyond the chances of future legislation. In the year that he won this substantial vir tory he was nominated State Senator, and so entirely had his conduct received the popular approval that he was elected by an altogether unprecedented majority of some 4,000. In this election the whole Romanist interest of the district was brought to bear against him, making his success the more striking, and the more strikingly convincing of the esteem in which he is held. As a Senator he has evinced the same strong qualities that made him a leader in the lower house, and he is regarded in Newark as a worthy representative of the first city of the State.

ACWIIORTER, REV. ALEXANDER, D. D .- conferred by Yale College in 1776-an eminent Presbyterian divine, late of Newark, New Jersey, was born in Newcastle county, Delaware, July 15th, 1734, and graduated from the New Jersey College in 1757. His father, Hugh MacWhorter, was a native of Ireland. In 1759 he settled near Newark, New Jersey ; and from 1764 to 1766 was employed by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia in a mission to North Carolina. In 1775 he was sent by Congress to the western counties of North Carolina, to persuade the numerous royalists of that State to adopt the patriot cause, and aid in resisting the growing tyranny of the mother country. Near the close of 1776 he hastened to the army encamped on the Pennsylvania shore, opposite Trenton, to consult concerning the protection of New Jersey, and was present at the council of war which advised the passage of the Delaware, and the surprise of the Hessian troops. In 1778, at the solicitation of General Knox, he accepted the Chaplaincy of his artillery brigade, and enjoyed friendly relations with Washington during the few months that he held this office. In 1779 he accepted a pastorate and the Presidency of Charlotte Academy, in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina ; but the place being captured by Cornwallis, he lost his library and furniture, and, fearing further attacks, was recalled, and finally reinstalled at Newark, New Jersey. In 1788 he was a prominent actor in the settlement of the confession of faith, and the formation of the constitution of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. He was for thirty-five years a Trustee of the College of New Jersey; and, after the burning of the college build- ings in 1802, the collection of funds for a new edifice was chiefly due to his influence, and personal solicitations in New England. In 1800 he published a "Century Sermon," describing the settlement and progress of the town of Newark, New Jersey, and its environs; and in 1803 a collection of sermons, in 2 vols., 8vo. His deep religious impressions began to influence him strongly when but sixteen years of age ; and after being ordained in 1759 he was minister of the First Presbyterian Church, with slight interruptions, for

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Romeo. F. Chaben. M. 2.

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a vigorous and sound intellect; and was respected for the extent of his learning, and his earnest piety as a minister. His wife, Mary (Cumming) MacWhorter, was a sister of Rev. A. Cumming, of Boston, Massachusetts. In the " History of Newark," by Dr. Stearn, is found a full account of his life and labors, as patriot and pastor, through the troublous days of the struggle for independence down to the time of his decease. After a career of remarkable useful- ness, and experiences of a varied and suggestive nature, he died at Newark, New Jersey, July 20th, 1807.

ACON, REV. GEORGE B., late of Orange, New Jersey, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, May 23d, 1836, and was the son of the venerable Dr. Leonard Bacon. A delicate boy and youth, his studies were more or less interrupted. After due preparation he hecame a student at Vale Col- lege, as a member of the class of 1856, but was unable to complete the usual course of study on account of ill health. He received, however, his degree in due time. After leav- ing college he sailed with Commodore Foote to Japan, and before his return home visited also China and Siam. After this season of foreign travel, which greatly benefited his health, he entered the ministry of the Congregational Church, and in 1861 accepted a call to the pastorate of the church in Orange. "The Valley Church," Oliver Johnson says in The Orange Journal, " was the chief scene of his life and work, to which he lovingly gave his service by giv- ing his whole heart. It was precious to him beyond all expression. He would have faithfully loved and served any flock of the Lord Jesus over which he might have been set in charge, for his nature was tenderness, sympathy, and fidelity ; but this church was his first charge, and he their first pastor, ordained among them in 1861, when he was twenty-five years of age. He and they had wrought upon each other from the beginning with a subtle interchange, an unconscious reciprocation of mental, moral, spiritual in- fluence, until the union had become in their mind and his sacred almost as wedding-bonds." Dr. Bacon was a valued contributor to the press, He died September 15th, 1876.

IIABERT, ROMEO F., M. D., Physician, of Ho- hoken, is a native of London, England, in which metropolis he was born, August 9th, 1828. His father, Xavier Chabert, was born in Avignon, France, and was an officer under Napoleon Bona- parte ; his mother, Mary Ann Palser, was a native of Bristol, England. In the year 1830 the family removed to the United States, and established their residence in the city of New York, The education of Romeo Chabert was

obtained at the celebrated French school of Peugnet & Brothers, in New York city. The medical profession had been decided upon, and in the year 1854 he commenced the study of medicine, matriculating at the New York Uni- versity. He graduated from the university in the spring of 1856, having had the advantage of studying under Dr. Valentine Mott, and soon afterwards commenced profes- sional practice in New York. He remained there one year, and during that time he attended and graduated from the New York Ophthalmic School. In 1858 he removed to Hoboken, and there he has since resided, actively en- gaged in professional labors, and at present stands in the front rank. Ile is connected with the New Jersey State Medical Society, the District Medical Society of Hudson county, the New Jersey Academy of Medicine, and the Jersey City Pathological Society. He has been a delegate from the State Medical Society of New Jersey to those of New York and Massachusetts, and was a delegate to the American Medical Association, in 1864, from the Hudson County Medical Society. For one year he acted as the Physician for the city of Hoboken, and one year Superin- tendent of Public Schools. For fifteen years he has been connected with St. Mary's Hospital, of Hoboken, in the capacity of Attending Surgeon, and during the last two years he acted as Consulting Surgeon. This hospital, it may be remarked, is the first charity hospital founded in the State. In 1860 Dr. Chiabert was commissioned Divis- ion Surgeon of the Second Division New Jersey State National Guard, under General E. R. V. Wright. He is enthusiastically attached to his profession, is still a close student, and is a hard and earnest as well as an eminently successful worker. He was married, October 21st, 1847, to Harriet A. Hope, of New York,

IELD, HON. RICHARD STOCKTON, LL. D., Jurist, Judge, Attorney-General of New Jersey, late of Princeton, New Jersey, was born at White- hill, Burlington county, New Jersey, December 3Ist, 1803, and graduated from the New Jersey College in 1821. The history of the family de- scent is veiled in some obscurity, but it is given as certain that he was descended from the same family as John Field, the celebrated English astronomer of the middle of the sixteenth century, who was the first to avail himself of the Copcrnican system as a basis for calculations for practical purposes, in his " Ephemeris Anni 1557 currentis, Juxta Copernici et Rcinhaldi Canones fideliter per Joanncm Field." This work, which was of considerable magnitude, was undertaken at the suggestion of the famous Dr. Dee, and was probably the first publication which gave to the discoverics and rescarches of Copernicus the attention and prominence they merited. He was born about the year 1520, and was a son of Richard Fielde, of Ardsley, who, it

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is asserted, was a grandson of William Fielde, or Feld, of Bradford, who died in 1480. In 1555, the year preceding the publication of his first " Ephemeris," he was admitted Fellow of Lincoln's College, Oxford. About 1560 he mar- ried Jane Amyas, a daughter of John Amyas, of Kent, and removed from London, where he had been living, to Ards- ley, where he died in 1587. He published an " Ephemeris" for 1558, and another for 1559, in each of which he sus- tained with increasing force and earnestness the value of the system that he had been instrumental in introducing into his native country. " It was in recognition of the great service which he had thus rendered to the cause of science that he received a patent in 1558, authorizing him to wear as a crest over his family arms a red right arm issuing from the clouds and supporting a golden sphere, thereby intimating the splendor of the Copernican dis- covery. There is a seal in the possession of the family at Princeton which was no doubt handed down from one generation to another: on one side is the family coat-of- arms; on another is the crest before referred to-an arm supporting a globe; and on the third side ' R. F.,' the in- itials of the name of Robert Field, the emigrant ancestor of the family in this country. John Field had nine chil- dren, from the second of whom, Mathew, born at Ardsley, in 1563, it has been attempted to trace the American family of that name. This, however, is considered to be erroneous, while it is admitted that the American family are descended from William of Bradford, the supposed great-grandfather of the astronomer, which, if correct, would make Richard Fielde, the father of John, and John Fielde, the known an- cestor of the emigrant, first cousins." William Fielde, de- ceased in 1559, had a son, also William, who died in 1619, leaving Robert, born about 1605, who married, May 18th, 1630, Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he came to New Eng- land in 1635, or nine years later. In 1645 he removed with his family to Newtown, Long Island, and with others received from Governor Keift a patent for a tract of land known as the Flushing Patent, which was dated October Ioth, 1645. He had five children; the second, Anthony, died in 1691, and had two children, the eldest of whom, John, settled in Bound Brook, New Jersey, in 1685, and was the founder of the family in that State. His direct de- scendants, as far as they can be traced, are Robert Field, born January 6th, 1694; married Mary, daughter of Samuel and Susanna Taylor, by whom he had Robert, born May 9th, 1723, and married Mary, daughter of Oswald and Lydia Peale, He died January 29th, 1775, and had post- humous issue, Robert C. Field, born April 5th, 1775. He graduated at Princeton College in 1793, and in 1797 mar- rled Abby, daughter of Richard Stockton and Annis Boudi- not. He died in 1810, leaving five children. He was also a nephew of Richard Field, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In the year following his father's death he removed with his family to Princeton, where Mrs. Field's family resided, and there received his

[ education, being eventually graduated with high honors by Princeton College. He then entered upon a course of legal studies with his maternal uncle, the eminent jurist, Richard Stockton, and in February, 1825, was admitted to the bar. He afterward removed to Salem, in his native State, where he was engaged in professional labors until 1832, the date of his return to Princeton. For several years he was a member of the State Legislature, and in February, 1838, received from Governor Pennington the appointment of Attorney-General, which office he resigned, however, in 1841. He was an influential and leading member of the convention which met at Trenton, May 14th, 1844, and formed the present constitution of the State; and when, in 1851, it was resolved to form an association of the surviving members of that convention, he was chosen to deliver the address at its first annual meeting. That address, delivered February Ist, 1853, has been printed, and contains an elo- quent memorial of the great convention which, sixty-six years before, met in Philadelphia, and, with Washington as its President, formed the Constitution of the United States. In the New Jersey Historical Society, whose third President he was at the time of his death, he always took a warm and generous interest ; and to its publications contributed his most elaborate work, "The Provincial Courts of New Jersey, with Sketches of the Bench and Bar." It forms the third volume of the " Collections," and was the subject of two discourses delivered by him in January and May, 1848, At the meeting of the society, in September, 1851, he read a valuable paper on the "Trial of the Rev. William Tennent for Perjury, in 1742," which was printed in the proceedings of the meeting; and to the Princeton Review, July, 1852, contributed the leading article on " The Publi- cations of the New Jersey Historical Society," noticing especially " The Papers of Governor Lewis Morris." In 1851 he was elected one of the Executive Committee, and held this position until 1865, when, on the elevation of Hon. James Parker to the presidency, at the decease of Hon. Joseph C. Hornblower, he became Vice-President. In 1868, on the deathi of the former, he succeeded him in the Presidency. At the annual meeting, in January, 1865, he delivered an "Address on the Life and Character of Chief-Justice Hornblower; " and at the January meeting, in 1869, a similar one on his predecessor, President Parker. He was also deeply interested in the public education sys- tem of his State and country, and upon the organization of the State Normal School, in 1855, was chosen President of the Board of Trustees. This position he filled with ad- mirable energy and ability until the day of his decease, and every annual report made to the Legislature by the board was made by him. For several years he presided as Pro- fessor in the law school connected with Princeton College, " which owed its very existence to his energy and talent," and in 1859 his Alma Mater conferred upon him the de- gree of Doctor of Laws. During the conflict between the North and South " he was a staunch supporter of the gov-

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ernment," and took a decided stand relative to certain constitutional views and theories, which he upheld with energy and warmth. July 4th, 1861, by request of his fellow-townsmen, he delivered an oration, with " The Con- stitution not a Compact between Sovereign States " as his subject and point of departure. On the death of Hon. John R. Thomson, a Senator in Congress from New Jersey, he was appointed, in the following November, by Gover- nor Olden, to fill the unexpired term. January 21st, 1863, he was appointed, by Lincoln, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. While serv- ing as a member of the Senate he delivered a speech, " or rather argument," on the discharge of State prisoners, Jan- uary 7th, 1863, which excited the attention of a large por- tion of the Republican party, and its supporters of the press. He therein defended the position that the right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus was vested in the President, and not in Congress. On taking his seat upon the bench of the United States District Court he delivered " a most learned and excellent charge " to the grand jury, which has since been printed in a pamphlet of twenty-four pages. In his judicial life he has been described by District-Attorney Keasbey as " a wise, upright and fearless and merciful judge." The same gentleman then continues : " Only one decision of his was ever reversed; that was one in which the Supreme Court were at first almost evenly divided, and ordered a new argument. . . He had a keen perception of the real point and merits of a case. . . . . Hc was fully acquainted with the fountains of English eloquence, and his mind was so stored with the fruits of his learning that he had a rare facility of expression. He always preferred to charge juries or decide cases on the spot. He could al- ways do it better than if he stopped to think or write. I think that if we could reproduce simply his addresses to prisoners about to be sentenced, they would be striking models of manly and tender exhortation." He cherished a warm admiration for Lincoln, and, February 12th, 1866, the anniversary of the President's birthday, at the request of the Legislature of New Jersey, delivered an excellent oration on the life and character of that great citizen and statesman. At the Centennial Celebration of the American Whig Society of the College of New Jersey, in June, 1869, he delivercd his last public address, " and it is one marked by great purity of style and graceful erudition," on his favor- ite theme of education. IIis various contributions to the New Jersey "Collections," and his numerous discourses and addresses, are valued additions to American special literature, and contain much material of permanent intcrest to the general student, as well as to the historian and anti- quary. In April, 1870, while in the discharge of his duties on the bench, he was stricken with a paralysis, and after uttering some incoherent remarks fell senseless from his seat. Ile was then carricd from the court-room to his homc, where, after lingering a few weeks in a totally un- conscious state, he died, May 25th, 1870. In 1831, while general interests.

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 75

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