The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 88

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

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to see it stereotyped in brick and mortar; looked upon it as the offspring of a superficial, labor-saving, self-sparing age, as an idea which has freed parents and sponsors from the sense of their responsibility in the religious care of chil- dren; and declared that it had cheated pastors with the notion of an easier way of doing what Jesus laid on Simon, as the highest test of love, the feeding of his lambs. "It has puffed up multitudes with the conceit of knowledge, and almost of a new order in the church. And it has sub- stituted in the minds of children the most superficial smat- tering for that sound, patient, thorough instruction in the faith and practice of the gospel which Christ intrusted to his church, for which he holds her accountable, and for which she makes the fullest and most adequate provision." Of the incorporation of Burlington College, in 1846, he writes : " I have singular pleasure in announcing to the convention the incorporation of Burlington College, with a charter securing its direction, forever, to the church. . . . For many years I have earnestly expressed my conviction of the importance of such an institution for the diocese. . A body of men of higher intelligence and more entire de- votion to their enterprise than the Board of Trustees I have never been permitted to co-operate with. As my best ap- proval of their spirit and exertions, I have accepted their appointment as agent to procure a suitable endowment for it. I design to devote myself to it unreservedly, and shall count on a generous reception from my brethren of the clergy and laity. . . . I need not repeat here . ... my strong conviction of the eminent fitness of the Diocese of New Jersey for all the purposes of education; and chiefly for what concerns us most, of education in the church." The plan of hiring clergymen was always odious to him. To one who proposed it once he wrote in curt response : " I do not ordain coachmen." Ifis aversion to doing every- thing by societies has kept from the diocese, as it took from the general church, the missionary organization which pre- vails generally; his own theory being the rule that the church is the brotherhood, the missionary society, the Bible distributer, by divine right. "The prominence, and the faithful discharge, of public catechizing, his greatest great- ness, which in his own parish was monthly, and whenever it could be in all his visitations, shows his appreciation of the charge to Simon. A greater conformity to the requirc- ments of the ' Prayer Book ' in daily prayers and weekly and holy-day eucharists, and a far more rubrical perform- ance of the services than existed before, attest the influence of his frequent teaching and the power of his example. . . . . For his monuments, one may stand anywhere and look around and see them, in the churches, the parsonages, the school-houses that dot the land. And in Burlington, St. Mary's Church, St. Mary's Hall and Burlington College are enduring memorials of his incessant, undaunted works of faith and love which God has blessed so richly." In the American Colonization Society he was always warmly in- terested, and regarded it as one of the wisest works of

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mercy that the age has produced. To all concerns of state [ the steep way, the rough way, to clear for himself, to he devoted keen attention, and, though never mixing in struggle up alone ; and in such heart he conquered." And with unflinching courage, and in the face of timidity and prejudice, he asserted and reasserted, before the Court of Bishops, his conviction of the entire innocence of the Bishop of New York; "to proclaim his firm belief, that, and the scandal and partisanship of that persecution, were more harmful to the church than would have been the truth of the false charges against him; and so to invite to him- self the revived bitterness of all that cruel storm." Says Rev. Dr. Mahan : "To the more solid and essential traits he added also the lighter graces and accomplishments. . . . . He was skilful in song, as well as mighty in the severer mere politics, was a discerning and thoughtful statesman. At the formation of the Historical Society of New Jersey he was one of the earliest members, for many years attend- ing their meetings, and finding time in 1846 to write an address to be delivered before them, by their invitation, in which he stands on the broad ground, "A Jerseyman in New Jersey." In 1845 he delivered the oration before the venerable Society of Cincinnati; and on every fitting oc- casion his cheering voice was heard in lyceum, lecture- room, pulpit and academy, urging his listeners on to gen- erous deeds and kindly measures. In 1851 he delivered the introductory lecture before the Mechanics' Library and | labors of life; . . . . an elegant scholar, an orator, a poet. Reading Room Association, on " The Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; " and, at the death of President Harrison, de- livered at Burlington an address, at the invitation of the Common Council. At the decease of Taylor, also, he preached a sermon on its lessons, at the request of the stu- dents, and also addressed to the people of his charge a solemn and touching pastoral letter. While famine was desolating Ireland he was the first to move the plan by which his native State should assert, and substantially, its sympathy, and the first resolution of the Newark meeting was to adopt his proposition bearing on the subject, " Re- solved, That we approve of the proposition of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Doane to charter a Jersey ship, and to freight her with the least possible delay." His English correspondence was very extensive and interesting, comprising such names as Hugh James Rose, Pusey, Keble, Newman and Man- ning, Dr. Hook, Archdeacon Harrison, Bishop Terrot and Bishop Forbes, Rev. J. H. Horne, the Bishops of Oxford and New Zealand, Archbishop Howley, Sir Robert Inglis, Hope, Gladstone, Acland, Mrs. Southey, Wordsworth, etc. In 1841 he received and accepted from Rev. Dr. Hook, Vicar of Leeds, an invitation to preach the sermon at the consecration of his new parish church, the act permitting the clergy of the American church to officiate in England having recently been passed. In 1858 he urged the ob- servance of the Rogation days, and authorized a form set in a letter to the clergy and laity of the Diocese of New Jersey; and it was " a happy return to the liturgical treasures of better days," that gave back to his diocese, in the Second Evening Service, which he authorized, the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and the unmutilated Benedictus and full Versicles of the English " Prayer Book." Speaking of his numerous trials, triumphs, etc., Dr. Ogilby writes : "Our bishop, as everybody knows, has been the butt of accusa- tions as gross as those which caused St. Athanasius . . . to be twice condemned by synods of his peers. . .. . Unlike the great champion of antiquity, however, Bishop Doane, though accused, has never been condemned. The charges brought against him were solemnly dismissed by his peers. . . . With an easy path before him, whose way was smoothed by concessions and compromises, . . . he chose . He was the poet of works, with whom song is but the blossom that prepares the way for solid fruit. Burling- ton College and St. Mary's Hall are his two great poems. Such, however, was the exuberance of his genius that blos- som and fruit, in his case, sprang side by side, as it were, on the selfsame bough; and his poetical powers, like his practical, continued fresh and vigorous to the last." And in all his poems may be found two sterling characteristics, sweet fervid simpleness, and deep devotional feeling. Again : " His poetical writings were simple necessities. He could not help them. His heart was full of song. It oozed out, in his conversation, in his sermons, in everything that he did. . . Never sarcastic, he had a great capacity for severity. His power of reproof was most scarching and severe, often most uncomfortable. Ile seemed always to try not to say it; but sometimes it would come out, gen- erally with some softening word after it. Often he had an endurance of impertinence and insult which amazed me. And a playful rebuke came much more freely from him, when it would meet the case." Again, in Dr. Ma- han's sermon : " He was a mighty Preacher. Of him it might eminently be said, that his preaching was not in word only, but in power. Mighty in the Scriptures, he had hardly a thought, varied and original as all his thoughts were, which did not spontaneously arm itself, as it were, in the panoply of inspiration. And the theme of his preaching was always Christ. . " And in Dr. Ogilby's sermon : "As a preacher no bishop surpassed him. He has pub- lished more sermons than the whole House of Bishops- able sermons, which will be perpetual memorials of his in- tellectual powers and of his zeal for the church." He died, April 27th, 1859, in the twenty-seventh year of his episco- pate. From the Church Journal is gathered the following: " The hour for the funeral was fixed at one o'clock, on Sat- urday, April 30th, at which time, from every part of the diocese, clergy and laity came up to render this last homage of reverence and love to their departed bishop; while Phila- delphia and New York, and even more distant parts of the church, were largely represented; and Burlington itself was out en masse. . The body lay in an apartment of his late residence at Riverside, where it was viewed by

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thousands of persons. The Bishop of Vermont, Bishop Potter, of New York, and Bishop Southgate, being in at- tendance, together with more than a hundred clergymen in surplices, beside many others. . ... On reaching the gate of St. Mary's churchyard, the opening sentences of the burial service were said by the venerable rector of Trinity church, New York. . . The lesson was read by Bishop Southgate. . . The concluding prayers and benediction were said by Bishop Potter." " The Life and Writings of George Washington Doane, D. D., LL. D., for twenty- seven years Bishop of New Jersey, containing his Poetical Works, Sermons, and Miscellaneous Writings, with a Memoir by his son, William Croswell Doane," four vols., was published in New York in 1860, and simultaneously in London, where, as at home, it met, and deservedly, with a warm and appreciative reception, both from the clergy and the laity.

ELDEN, J. CAREY, Physician, Acting Assistant Surgeon of the Ward United States Hospital, in Newark, New Jersey, late of that city, was born in Powhatan county, Virginia, in 1824, and was a graduate of the medical department of the New York University. He was for two years the Assistant-Surgeon at Ward's Island Hospital, New York, where he gained considerable reputation as a physician and surgcon ; and in 1860 established himself in Broad street, Newark, New Jersey. He served several years also as Acting Assistant Surgeon of the Ward United States Hos- pital in that city. He was found dead in his office, Novem- ber 14th, 1865, having died soon after coming in from a professional visit early in the morning, and was supposed to have died in one of the epileptic paroxysms to which he was subject. " He died at the age of thirty-one, and was never married. He was large and tall, pleasant and sociable, honorable in his business relations, and had made many friends."

name. His childhood was passed in his native village, where, among his early associates, were the late Commo- dore Decatur and his brother, the late Captain Lawrence, and the celebrated Andrew Hunter. In company with these, and many other distinguished citizens of the State and times, he received his education as an academy boy. Under the tuition of a Mr. Hunter, a gentleman of high literary attainments and a classical scholar of ample ability, he received an education far more liberal than was generally obtainable, even by youth of respectable parentage, at that early period, when the whole country was struggling to re- cover from the ruinous results of the Revolution. His literary course was concluded with distinction, and he left the academy with its highest honors; and, at the age of seventeen years, commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship of his father, whose age and ability amply qualified him for the correct initiation of his son into the theory and practice of this noble science. He was after- ward sent to Philadelphia for the purpose of pursuing his medical studies under a distinguished practitioner of that metropolis and attending medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. He there became resident, as a pupil, in the family of the late Dr. Duffield, where the various rela- tions which render life desirable and pleasant were displayed in the most attractive form. During the time of his attend- ance at the university, he enjoyed the opportunity of hearing and profiting by the lectures of some of the most eminent professors of that or any other period. Such were those of Professor Shippen, on midwifery, anatomy, and surgery ; the venerated Benjamin Rush, on the institutes of medicine and clinical practice; Woodhouse, on chemistry ; Professor A. Kuhn, on the practice of physic; and Professor Ewing, on natural philosophy, etc. He attended also many occa- sional lectures, together with the actual demonstrations of the clinical and anatomical departments of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and reaped such practical advantages as were then afforded by the Philadelphia Almshouse. About the time that his novitiate was drawing to its close, the " Western In- surrection " broke out, and he, fired by the prevalent patriotic enthusiasm, became engaged in the expedition then preparing for the field, and shouldered his muskct, as a private in the ranks. He then marched with the troops until the town of Lancaster was reached, when, being a slim and delicate youth, he was nearly overcome by the un- usual exertion. Subsequently, through the kindly exertions of Professor James, he became an assistant in the surgical department, Previously, however, he was compelled to pass a very rigid examination, " but he came forth triumph- antly from the 'Green Box,' and eventually received the legitimate diploma from the hands of the provost and pro- fessors." On his return from the bloodless field of insurrce. tion he was discharged with honor, and, after a brief sojourn with the Duffield family, where his preceptor's daughter was the magnet attracting him in that direction, he procecded

'ENDRY, BOWMAN, M. D., late of Gloucester county, was born in Woodbury, Gloucester county, New Jersey, October Ist, 1773. His grand- parents emigrated from England at an early period in the colonial history of America, and settled in Burlington, New Jersey, where his father, Dr. Thomas IIendry, was born. After some years the family removed to Woodbury. His father secured an extensive practice, and maintained through life an enviable professional reputation in Woodbury and its vicinity. ITis mother was an English lady, remarkable for those traits of character which command respect and call forth the affcc- tions in all the social and domestic relations. The family name was Bowman, and hence the origin of his Christian to his paternal home in Woodbury to commence the active

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duties of life upon an independent footing. After a survey, having for end the choice of a proper theatre of action, it was resolved that he should enter upon his medical career in Haddonfield, Gloucester county; and accordingly, in 1794, he commenced practice as a physician and surgeon in that town and its vicinity. But there existed, previously to that time, a colonial act, entitled, "An act to regulate the practice of physic and surgery in the colony of New Jersey," passed September 26th, 1772, prohibiting the prac- tice of those professions hy any person whatsoever, until " examined, approved, and admitted " by two judges of the Supreme Court, aided by such persons as they might see fit to call to their assistance in the execution of their duties. The operation of this salutary law was, of course, tempora- rily suspended by the confusion resulting from the Revolu- tion ; but on the 26th of November, 1783, an act of similar import and intention was passed by the Assembly of the State, a Board of Examiners heing therein appointed, as aids to the judicial authorities in carrying out its provisions. He thus became liable to those provisions, although already armed with the diploma of the first medical school in the country ; and that the act had not sunk into desuetude when he commenced his career is sufficiently proved by a docu- ment still in existence, which contains the necessary legal certificate of his professional qualifications, signed by the members of the Board of Examiners, Drs. Nicholas Bell- ville and Ebenezer Elmer; and also the authorization of the judges of the Supreme Court, Hon. James Kinney, and Hon. Isaac Smith, dated March 11th, 1796. In a very brief space of time he became the doctor of Gloucester county, his rides extending from the Delaware to the sea- board, and being not unfrequently pushed, at the request of other practitioners, to the very extremities of the State. During about fifteen years of the early part of his profes- sional career, he rode upon the saddle, and by night or day, in heat or cold, in storm or sunshine, was on horseback. At length, resolving upon an improvement in his mode of travelling, he purchased at a vendue an old-fashioned sulkey, of the kind used in those days by the wealthier por- tion of the community only. "An old Friend, who had witnessed this extravagance-an outlay of thirty dollars- quietly remarked : ' Doctor, I fear thee is too fast in making this purchase. Thee will not be able to stand it, and make thy income meet thy expenses.' This remark furnishes a strong proof of the primitive simplicity of those times." During a period of about thirty years the general amount of daily travelling performed by him was from thirty to fifty miles ; hut his journeys sometimes extended to the almost incredible distance of seventy-five miles in a single day ; and the necessary rapidity of his movements on such occasions was sufficient to tire out four horses in succession. " It has been computed that, during his entire career of profes- sional usefulness, more than five hundred of these noble animals were completely exhausted in his service." He was ever peculiarly fortunate in the department of obstetrics,

which, previously to his time, had been almost monopolized for years by female accoucheurs ; and certainly no other in- dividual in West Jersey ever introduced into the world so many children, with so much honor to himself, and ease to the mother and infant. " It is much to be regretted that there exists no detailed record of the very numerous opera- tions which he performed, from time to time, during his long course of practice ; yet evidence enough remains to show that many of them were difficult and dangerous, such as are sufficient, when performed in the great medical insti- tutions of capitals, and made public through the press, to establish an enviable reputation for the operator. In the theory of medicine his conceptions were clear, correct and decided, his tact in diagnosis remarkable, and his clin- ical practice rich in original prescriptions. " How, in the midst of such engrossing professional labors, he managed to keep pace with the progress of his profession, it is difficult to conjecture, . . . . but that he did so, with remarkable success, is not to be disputed." He was a subscriber to the principal medical periodicals, both foreign and domestic, and was always found prepared to converse and to act upon the scientific discoveries and professional improvements of the day. Nothing can tend more strongly to substantiate the justice of this statement than the frequency with which he was called in consultation by the most prominent physi- cians of New Jersey and the men of science of the country. For many years also he had charge of the Gloucester County Almshouse, and consented to serve as Surgeon to a volunteer company of cavalry, formed in 1805 by Captain J. B. Cooper, from the young gentlemen of Woodbury, Haddonfield and the adjacent country. His political opinions, though decided, were never blazoned abroad ; he never entered into political contests, but, steadily per- forming his private political duties and maintaining his right to individual judgment on such subjects, suffered none to invade that right, and never invaded the similar rights of others. In religion, as in politics, he cautiously avoided those controversies which, without benefiting any one, might have lessened the sphere of his professional usefulness; but was never backward in the simple statement of his faith. His freely-avowed sentiments were those of a churchman, and through life, he manifested, on all proper occasions, a decided preference for the Episcopalian service over any other mode of divine worship. For the Society of Friends, many of whom were ranked among his deeply valued asso- ciates and most intimate acquaintances, he always enter- tained the highest esteem. The natural consequence of his excessive and continual exertions was the access of a pre- mature old age ; and as an additional evidence of decay, he was attacked by that terrible and, at his age, hopeless affliction, epilepsy. Until this fatal illness, he had never been known to travel for recreation or amusement; . but now his excellent friend and attentive physician, Dr. Spencer, persuaded him to visit New York for the benefit of change of scene and air. In that city he became the

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honored guest of his medical adviser's particular friend, the late Major Gamble, U. S. A., of whose genuine hospitality he retained a pleasing remembrance until death. The visit had the effect of cheering his mind, but permanent relief was beyond all human art. The absolute necessity of re. linquishing the practice of his profession became daily more apparent, and an effort was made to settle his temporal affairs. In this undertaking his friends encountered diffi- culties productive of most painful feelings. " Instead of being a man possessed of vast riches, as many, recollecting his ex- tensive practice, naturally supposed, he was found compara- tively poor. His liberality on all occasions, but more especially the neglect of his account books and the collec- tion of just debts, resulted in this state of his affairs at last. No remedy could be applied ; the time and opportunity were gone, and thus the condition of his pecuniary circumstances became the proudest monument of his lifelong and self- sacrificing liberality." For two years immediately preceding his death he had declined entirely the practice of his pro- fession, being generally confined to his chamber or the house. He was married in 1796 to a daughter of Dr. Duffield; and died, April 23d, 1838.

ODD, JOSEPH SMITH, Physician, late of Bloom- field township, New Jersey, son of General John Dodd, was born in that place January 10th, 1791, and graduated at Princeton College in 1813. IIe commenced the practice of medicine in his native village in 1816, and there was profession- ally engaged without any interruption of moment for more than thirty years. ". He was a contemporary of Drs. John C. Budd, Isaac Pierson, John Ward, Uzal Johnson and Abraham Clark. In 1842 he was elected to the Council (afterward called the Senate) of New Jersey, to which office, after serving one term, he was re-elected under the new constitution of the State. While in the Senate he took an active and leading part in originating and establishing the State Lunatic Asylum ; was the Chairman of the Committee having charge of that subject, and contributed greatly by his exertions to the successful inauguration of that institution. About this time he became associated with Dr. Joseph A. Davis, now a prominent physician of Bloomfield, as a part- ner, and, with the gradual failure of his health, began to retire from active professional life. He had a large prac- tice, embracing the principal part of Bloomfield township, and extending into the townships of Livingston and Cald- well. " His unremitting devotion to it impaircd, at a com- paratively early age, the vigor of his constitution, never very robust, and contributed to bring on the discase of which he dicd. He was decidedly of a reflective cast, and evinced this in the carcful and considerate treatment of his patients, as well as in the ordinary intercourse of life. The sound-

ness of his judgment was perhaps the conspicuous feature of his character." It is a remarkable fact that, in a prac- tice of thirty years, he never lost a patient in labor. Ile was a man of scholarly tastes and retained through life the love which, in his youth, he had for general studies, especially the mathematical and classical. He was a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church, and a devout and thorough student of the Scriptures, with which, and the psalms and hymns of Watts, his memory was largely stored. "He met death September 5th, 1847, with an undisturbed Christian hope, and left behind him the influence and fruits of a pure, laborious and useful life." His son, Amzi Dodd, is a resident of Newark, New Jersey.

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 88

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