The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 80

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

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EOMANS, REV. JOHN WILLIAM, Presby- terian Clergyman, of Trenton, was born in this State in 1Soo-1804, and graduated from Williams College, 1824, and also at the Andover Seminary. March 16th, 1834, the congregation of the Tren- ton Church chose as pastor Rev. Symmes C. , Henry, but the call was declined. On the following June 6th a second choice was made, and he, being then pastor of a Congregational church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was elected to fill the vacant pulpit. He was then duly received by the Presbytery, and installed October 7th, 1834. In that service Rev. David Comfort presided; Rev. J. W. Alexander preached, I Cor. xi. I, and Drs. B. H. Rice and A. Alexander gave the charges. His actual ministry is to be dated from September 11th, 1834, to June Ist, 1841, when he entered on the Presidency of Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. " To his energy and influence, not less than to the enterprise of the congregation, is owing the erection of the commodious church which is now occupied by the congregation." The corner-stone of the new building was laid May 2d, 1839, and services were held for the first time January 19th, 1840. The preceding structures stood upon the western part of the church lot : the present one was placed in the central part. The dimensions are, 104 feet length ; 62 feet breadth ; steeple 120 feet. On the after- noon of the same day Dr. How preached, and Dr. A. Alex- ander administered the Lord's supper; three deacons and three elders were also then ordained, James Pollock, Aaron A. IIutchinson, Francis A. Ewing, M. D., John A. Hutch- inson, Benjamin S. Disbrow, and Joseph G. Brearley ; and in the evening an eloquent sermon was delivered by Rev. J. W. Alexander. In April, 1837, a church was organized by a committee of Presbytery in Bloomsburg, then a suburb of Trenton, and the place of worship was the building erected by those who followed Rev. William Boswell in his secession from the regular Baptist denomination, and which was vacated upon his death in 1833. This mission was zealously conducted for a year by Rcv. Charles Web-

ster, 1837, and was then suspended until the formation there of the Second Church of Trenton. He had a seat in the General Assembly of 1837, when the decisive acts were adopted which resulted in the division familiarly known as the Old School and the New School, the latter portion form- ing a distinct congregation. " No disturbance was produced in the Trenton congregation by this revolution ; with entire unity it remained in the ancient fraternity of the churches of the New Brunswick Presbytery." The following is a portion of a letter written by him to the Rev. John Hall, D. D., an eminent divine, and the historian of the church in Trenton : " The building of the church fairly led the way to the construction of tasteful architecture in the place. The court house was built at the same time, but the draft of the church helped to determine the form of that; and the row of cottages beyond the canal, and some other handsome dwellings which followed in the course of improvement, were built by the men who came there to build the church. I shall never forget the cordial and earnest way the trustees and others of the congregation, and indeed the whole body, engaged in the work. I have scarcely known a people who resolved to appropriate so much to the erection of a house of worship in proportion to their means at the time. They went through the work without one case of personal dis- affection arising out of their proceedings, and their zeal and labor have since proved a great blessing to them and to others. . . .. We had during my ministry there no occasion which was signalized as a revival. The accessions to full communion were, if I rightly remember, more or less at every sacramental celebration of the supper. Sometimes, perhaps, the records will show, twenty or thirty in a year; perhaps even on a single occasion twenty. . . . . But many are far more decisive than I am inclined to be in aiming at the kind of awakenings which are frequent in some parts of the Church, and published with so much avidity in the papers." The total additions to the communion in his pas- torate were seventy-two on examination, and eighty-five on certificate. June Ist, 1841, he entered on the Presidency of Lafayette College, Pennsylvania.

OUGIITY, JOSIIUA, retired Merchant and Bank President, of Somerville, was born, 1799, in Morris county, New Jersey, and is a son of the late Major-General Solomon Doughty, of the New Jersey State Militia. The family is of English descent, and were settled in New Jersey prior to the revolutionary war. Joshua Doughty received a substantial business education, and when he reached the age of eighteen years he left home, and during the greater portion of the next three years was engaged in the whole- sale dry-goods house of Doty & Halsey, in the city of New York. Ile then went to the Southern States, and sojourned for about a year in Mobile, Alabama. Leaving that city,

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he engaged in business on his own account in Appalachicola, | in the army was cut short at the battle of Spottsylvania, Florida, where he opened the first store and sold the first where he was wounded in both legs and in the head. Ilis right leg was so severely injured as to render amputation necessary, and after spending four months in hospital, he was (December 15th, 1864) honorably discharged from the service. Up to the time of his discharge he had taken part in all the hard fighting in which both regiments-during his respective connections with them-had been engaged, and his army record was thoroughly creditahle to his patriotism and soldierly ability. Soon after his discharge from the army he opened a general store in Branchville, and was employed in mercantile affairs until the fall of 1871, when he was appointed an officer in the register department of the New York Post-Office. Still retaining his residence in New Jersey, he discharged the duties of this responsible position until March, 1872, when he was appointed State Librarian of New Jersey. Admirably fitted by his clerical training for an office of this sort, his management of the library has been of the most satisfactory character, and his ability was acknowledged by his reappointment in January, 1876, for a further term of three years. In politics, as may be inferred from his war record, he is an earnest Repub- lican, heartily devoted to furthering the interests of his party. He was married, January Ist, 1866, to Frances, daughter of Mr. John Hendershot, of Sussex county. goods ever offered in that town. He continued this ven- ture for about two years, when he removed to Franklin, Alabama, where he again embarked in business, carrying on a general country trade, and remained there until 1836, when he closed up his business in the South, and returned to New Jersey, where he selected Somerville as his future residence, and purchased property in that town. In 1838 he built a store, and again entered into a general trade in which he continued to be interested until 1866. He pro- cured, in 1848, the charter for the Somerville County Bank, and immediately upon its organization he was elected its first President, and held that position uninterruptedly for twenty-five years, resigning in 1873. This bank is one of the most substantially prosperous institutions of the kind in the State; and its present high standing is due, in a great measure, to his judicious management in former years. It still retains its organization as a State bank. He is a prom- inent member of the Democratic party, and in 1860 was one of the delegates to the National Convention at Charles- ton, where he supported Mr. Guthrie for the Presidency ; but when that body adjourned to Baltimore, he supported Breckenridge. In 1863 he was nominated, by the De- mocracy of Somerville, as their candidate for State Senator, and elected to the same by the largest majority ever given to a Democrat in that county. While in the Senate he served on the Committee on Treasurer's Accounts, and during his first year, when the majority in that body was Democratic, he was Chairman of the said committee. He has been, for a number of years, President of the Raritan Water-Power Company. He is a man of stern integrity, rare business discernment, and has done much to advance the material prosperity of Somerville; indeed, he is perhaps one of its largest real estate owners. He was married, in 1835, to Susan M., daughter of Colonel Isaac Southard, and a niece of the late Senator Samuel L. Southard.

cDANOLDS, JAMES S., State Librarian, Trenton, was born in Branchville, Sussex county, New Jer- sey, July 11th, 1841. Having received a thor- ough common school education, he entered, as a clerk, a store in Branchville, and subsequently obtained a clerical position in New York. In the latter he remained until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in the 7th New Jersey Regiment, Colonel Joseph Revere. With this organization he remained until the 15th of August, 1862, when he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and assigned to Company D, in the 15th New Jersey Regiment. In March, 1863, he was promoted to be First Lieutenant, and in March, 1864, to he Captain -his successive advances being the reward of faithful and efficient service. Two months later (May 12th) his career

ILLS, GEORGE MORGAN, D. D., Clergyman, Scholar, Historian, etc., the youngest of six chil- dren-four daughters and two sons-of Horace and Almira (Wilcox) Hills, was born in Auburn, New York, October 10th, 1825. His parents were natives of Connecticut, his father's birth- place being near Hartford, and that of his mother near New Haven. They carried the influences of religion and learning with them to their western home, where for thirty years they were prominent in whatever gave Christian refinement to the place. The subject of this notice was prepared for col- lege exclusively in select schools and under private tutors, and very early evinced great promise in oratory and bellcs- lettres. When fourteen years of age he removed with his parents to the eity of New York. At seventeen he set to music Coxe's ballad, " Carol, Carol, Christians," which is believed to have been the first Christmas carol sung in this country. He was graduated with honors at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1847, his oration at the Com- mencement, on " Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne," being so marked, that, at the solicitation of several distinguished literary gentlemen present, it was published. He immedi- ately became a candidate for holy orders in the Diocese of Western New York. After three years' study in divinity, he was made Master of Arts in course, was ordained Deacon in Trinity Church, Buffalo, New York, by Bishop De Lan- cey, and took charge of Grace Church, Lyons, New York.

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The next year he was advanced to the priesthood, by the | name of Sa-go-ya-ta-gaia-ha ha, " The great worker to save same prelate, in Trinity Church, Geneva, New York, and souls." In December, 1867, by commission from Bishop Coxe, he laid the corner-stone of St. James' Church, Clevc- land, New York. In August, 1868, on nomination of Bishop Clarkson, he was elected one of the Trustees of Dakota Hall, at Yankton, Dakota Territory. The same month, by appointment of Bishop Coxe, he preached in St. Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo, New York, before the last conven- tion of the undivided Diocese of Western New York. The sermon, entitled, "The Record of the Past an Incentive for the Future," was printed by request, and very widely copied and circulated in the church papers. As a member of the preliminary committee for the erection of a new diocese in central New York, he offered, in behalf of the church-people of Syracuse, an episcopal residence to cost not less than $20,000, and his own parish church for the cathedral of the new diocese, if its primary convention would give it the name of the "See of Syracuse," and its bishop make that city his seat. A month later, when the new diocese came into existence, and was named "Central New York," he was chosen President of its first Standing Committee, and at its special convention, in January, 1869, he was among those prominently balloted for as bishop of the diocese. In May following, by request of the Trustees of the Syra- cuse Home Association, he laid the corner-store of the new building for that institution. In August he was appointed by Bishop Huntington as President of the Fourth District Convocation, and organized the clergy and lay representa- tives from the counties of Oswego, Madison and Onondaga, in accordance with a new canon, dividing the diocese into convocation districts. In October he was elected Financial Secretary of the Diocesan Board of Missions. In January, 1870, he was made First Vice-President (the bishop being president) at the organization of The Church Brotherhood of Syracuse, and prepared an " Office of Devotions " for the opening of its meetings. In the midst of these labors, and holding so many positions of responsibility, he was un- expectedly called to the rectorship of the venerable parish of St. Mary's Church, Burlington, New Jersey. The press- ure was very strong, and the attractions very great. Ile resigned all his offices and trusts in the Diocese of Central New York, and accepted the parish in New Jersey in Sep- tember, 1870. "An Historical Sketch of St. Paul's Church, Syracuse, New York," which he printed soon after, shows that during his thirteen years' rectorship in that parish, there was a total of baptisms, 616; confirmed, 397; com- municants added, 603; marriages, 205; burials, 212; a gain in the Sunday-school of 200 children, and offerings amounting to $123,565.58. Complimentary resolutions were presented to him by his vestry, and $1,000 in money as a parting gift. The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Central New York likewise, through their secretary, ad- dressed him a public letter, expressive of their deep sense of loss by his removal, and bearing testimony to his valua- instituted into the rectorship at Lyons. On the 7th of Oc- toher, 1852, in St. Bartholomew's Church, New York, he was united in marriage, by his brother, the Rev. Horace Hills, Jr., with Sarah, the eldest daughter of the late John Dows, of the firm of Dows & Cary, New York. In 1853 he was called to Trinity Church, Watertown, New York, where he remained with great acceptability and success until he was chosen Rector of St. Paul's Church, Syracuse, New York. He entered upon his duties there in May, 1857, and the congregation increased so rapidly, that the next year the church building was enlarged and otherwise improved. In 1861, accompanied by his wife and two other relatives, he made an extensive tour through Europe, which occupied nearly a year, during which he contributed every week " Letters from Europe " to the columns of the Gospel Messenger. He had personal acquaintance with Bishop Wilberforce, Dean Hook, Canon Harold Browne, and other dignitaries of the Church of England, and the memorable pleasure of an interview with the only survivor of those present at the consecration of Bishop Seabury, and of receiving from the Bishop of Aberdeen, Scotland, the gift of a portrait of one of Seabury's consecrators. Returning to his parish in 1862, he was elected by the Convention of Western New York a Trustee of the General Theological Seminary, and subsequently placed by that body on their " committee for the examination " of the students. In 1863 he was elected by the diocesan convention as one of four clergymen appointed to represent that body in the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which he subsequently did in Philadelphia in 1865, where he was a member of the " committee on the prayer-book." In 1863, at the request of the rector of that parish, he laid the corner-stone of Christ Church, Jordan, New York. In 1364, at the request of Bishop De Lancey, he preached the sermon at the consecration of St. George's Church, Utica, New York. In 1865 he preached a sermon commemora- tive of Bishop De Lancey, entitled, " The Wise Master- Builder," which, after being repeated by request, was printed. In the following autumn, at the suggestion of Bishop Coxe, he organized " The Onondaga Convocation," a voluntary association comprising the clergy in the counties of Onondaga, Cayuga and Cortland. In 1867, in addition to the care of his large parish, he inaugurated a very prom- ising mission among the Onondaga Indians, at their " reservation," eight miles from Syracuse, preparing for them a mission service, their own language being on one page and its translation into English on the opposite, fitting them up a chapel, preaching to them through an interpreter every Sunday afternoon, baptizing adults and children, pre- senting a class for confirmation, and marrying, with Christian rites, some who had been living for years in pagan con- cubinage. The attachment of these Indians to him became very great, and their chiefs and principal men gave him the | ble labors for the church in that diocese. Meanwhile he

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was received by his New Jersey friends with every demon- stration of cordiality and confidence. Bishop Odenheimer completed his college of Examining Chaplains by appoint- ing him to its only vacancy, and shortly afterwards made him Lecturer on Homiletics and Pastoral Theology in Bur- lington College; and on Sunday, December 4th, 1870, he was solemnly instituted by Bishop Odenheimer into the rectorship of St. Mary's parish, in the presence of a large congregation, including the rectors, teachers and pupils of St. Mary's Hall and Burlington College, most of whom remained after the communion office to add their bidding of "God-speed " to that of the wardens and vestrymen. On the 13th of July, 1871, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from his Alma Mater, Trinity Col- lege. In October following he was made a member of the Board of Missions of the United States. In the same year he was placed on the Indian Commission of that board. In June, 1873, he was chosen by the trustees of that institution a Fellow of Trinity College; and in July, 1874, he was elected Sub-Dean of the House of Convocation of that body. On September 29th following, he was appointed by Bishop Odenheimer, Dean of the Convocation of Burling- ton, of which he had previously been both Treasurer and Secretary. At the special convention of the Diocese of New Jersey for the election of a bishop, and such other officers as might be needed to put the diocese in full work- ing order, he received several ballots for Bishop of New Jersey, and was elected Secretary of the Standing Commit- tee of the Diocese, with power to make all the arrange- ments necessary for the confirmation and consecration of the bishop-elect. He was also appointed Chairman of a special committee of five to respond, on behalf of the dio- cese, to the farewell letter of Bishop Odenheimer. At the convention in May, 1875, he was elected Registrar of the Diocese. On the 6th of October, 1875, by appointment of Bishop Scarborough, he laid the corner-stone of St. Faith's Church, Red Bank, Gloucester county, New Jersey. In January, 1876, he prepared an " Office for the Benediction of the Old Church of St. Mary, in Burlington," which was used by Bishops Scarborough, Odenheimer, and others, on February 2d following, at the reopening of the venerable fabric, restored and beautified for parish purposes. May 30th, 1876, in St. Michael's Church, Trenton, New Jersey, by appointment of Bishop Scarborough, he preached the sermon at the opening of the ninety-third annual conven- tion of the Diocese of New Jersey. The subject was, "The Transfer of the Church in America from Colonial Dependence to the Freedom of the Republic," from St. Matthew xxi. 43. By unanimous vote of the convention it was published. On the Ist of June he issued his great his- torical work called, " History of the Church in Burlington, New Jersey ; comprising the Facts and Incidents of Nearly Two Hundred Years." It is a handsome octavo of 739 pages, showing extraordinary research, universally praised by scholars and people of culture, and for it he was imme-

diately made a member of the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania. In June, 1876, Dr. Hills was elected Dean of the House of Convocation of Trinity College, Hartford ; and in July following he was elected a Trustee of Burlington Col- lege and St. Mary's Hall. During his rectorship in Bur- lington seventy additional sittings have been made in the church, the organ doubled in size, a handsome rectory pur- chased, and a Guild founded for all departments of church work, in which there is now a large, active membership. Dr. Hills has three sons and a daughter.

RANE, REV. ELIAS W., late of Jamaica, Long Island, was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and graduated at Princeton in 1814. During a subsequent period of six years he acted at Morris- town in the capacity of teacher, and officiated at Springfield as minister of the gospel. In 1825, in the course of a noteworthy revival, eighty or more persons were enrolled among the members of his church, and much abiding good was accomplished. From 1826 until the time of his death his field of labors was in Jamaica, Long Island, where, in the memorable revivals of 1831 and 1839, which produced in many noted instances the most surprising and desirable results, seventy-four and seventy-six persons were secured to the church as permanent and exemplary members. ITis death, which came upon him suddenly, found him environed by good works and excellent projects. He died November 10th, 1840, aged forty-four years.

ARD, LESLIE DODD, M. D., of Newark, son of Moses D. and Louisa Ward, was born at Madison, New Jersey, July Ist, 1845. Both lines of his ancestors, the Dodds and Wards, have been for many years prominent in East Jersey, the ·families centring in Newark and vicinity. His uncle, Ira Dodd, took a leading part in furthering the build- ing of the railroad uniting Bloomfield and Newark, and was for a time President, as also one of the original corporators of the company by which the line was built. Various other of his relations have been engaged in important public and private enterprises in New Jersey and elsewhere. In New York his family name is well known, his cousin being senior member of the publishing house of Moses Dodd & Co. He was educated at the Newark Academy. In the early part of 1864 he enlisted in the 37th New Jersey Regi- ment, obtaining the rating of Orderly Sergeant. In the latter part of the same year he retired from the service and began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Fisher, of Morristown. Later, he attended lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, receiving his degrce

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of M. D. from that institution in 1868. Establishing him- self at Newark, he was fortunate at the outset of his career in being associated with Dr. Lott Southard, a physician of high standing and well established reputation. This connection, which continued for two years, gave him the basis of an extensive and lucrative practice : a practice which has since continuously increased. In the profession he is regarded with general favor, and is an active member of the State and county medical societies. For the past five years he has been Visiting Surgeon to St. Barnabas Hospital, Newark; is County Physician to Essex county, and is Medical Director of the Prudential Insurance Com- pany. He was married, March 5th, 1874, to Minnie, daughter of James Perry, one of the leading manufacturers of leather, of Newark.

ICKS, ELIAS, eminent Quaker Preacher, Founder of the Hicksite Departure, Itinerant Preacher and Exhorter of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- land, Ohio, New York, etc., late of Jericho, Long Island, was born in the township of Hempstead, Queens county, Long Island, March 19th, 1748, and was the son of John Hicks and Martha Hicks, who were descended from reputable families; his father was a grandson of Thomas Hicks, who has honorable mention in the journal of Samuel Bownas; neither was a member in strict fellowship with any religious society until shortly before his birth ; his father then joined in membership with Friends ; " .. . . but as his residence was mostly at some distance from meeting, and in a neighborhood where very few Friends lived, my associates, when young, were chiefly among those of other religious persuasions, or, what was still worse for me, among those who made no profession of religion at all. This exposed me to much temptation ; and though I early felt the operation of divine grace, checking and reproving me for my lightness and vanity, yet being of a lively, active spirit, and ambitious of excelling in my play and diversions, I sometimes exceeded the bounds of true moderation, for which I often felt close conviction and fears on my pillow in the night season." When eight years of age he removed with his father to the south side of Long Island, near the seashore, and there settled on a farm. Five years later he was placed with one of his elder brothers, his mother having died two years previously ; and subsequently was apprenticed to learn the trade of a house-carpenter and joiner. His master at that period, though an orderly man and a frequent attendant at Friends' meetings, " was yet in an eager pursuit after temporal riches, and was of but little use to me in my religious im- provement. We had to go from place to place, . . . . to attend to our work, and I was thereby introduced into hurt- ful company, and learned to dance and to pursue other frivolous and vain amusements." At the expiration of his | parties would not grant to their best friends, who were of a

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 80

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