The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 90

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

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tiful refreshing, and the April report shows an addition of | he was unanimously admitted a member of the New Jersey fifty persons to the communion of the church, of whom thirty-six were admitted by profession. The year 1850 was still another year of blessing, when thirty-four persons were added to the church. His health was in a precarious con- dition for several years preceding his resignation, yet he strug- gled on until the opening months of 1855, when he yielded to necessity, and April 18th his pastoral relations were dis- solved, after a ministry of twenty-two years. The chosen associate of his life and ministry was Clarissa Dart, daughter of Joseph Dart, of Middle Haddam, Connecticut, to whom he was married in August, 1831, soon after the completion of his preparatory studies. He died on the evening of February 7th, 1856, aged fifty-three years, leaving three sons and one daughter, the latter but two years of age.

DELL, HON. and REV. JONATHAN, Physician, Poet, Refugee, etc., was born in Newark, New Jersey, September 25th, 1737, was Master of Arts of Nassau IIall, educated for the practice of medi- cine, and served as Surgeon in the British army; he left the army while stationed in the West Indies, went to England and prepared for holy orders. He was ordained deacon December 21st, 1766, in the Chapel Royal of St. James' Palace, Westminster, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Terrick, Bishop of London ; and in January, 1767, was advanced to priest's orders. On the Christmas day preced- ing he had been appointed by the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts as Missionary to Burlington, New Jersey, where he arrived July 25th, 1767, and was the next day inducted into St. Mary's Church, Burlington, by his excellency, William Franklin, Esq., Governor of the Province of New Jersey. In October 12th, 1768, he was the leading spirit at a voluntary convention in New Bruns- wick, New Jersey, which drew up a scheme with sixteen articles, and afterward was one of a committee of two from each of the three provinces of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, to solicit a charter for the Corporation for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Deceased Clergymen in said provinces. In the charter thus obtained he was constituted Secretary of this corporation. In 1769, through his efforts, the church building in Burlington was extended westward twenty three feet, a new bell placed in the belfry, and elegant hangings and furniture given by Mrs. Franklin, the governor's wife, for "the pulpit, desk, and table." On the 25th of July, 1771, in addition to the care of his parish, Dr. Odell resumed the practice of medicine, generously declining the contributions of his parishioners until the debt incurred for the enlargement of the church should be cancelled. On the 6th of May, 1772, he was married in Burlington, by the missionary of Trenton, to Annie De Cou. In 1774, without the usual examination,

Medical Society, and appointed Chairman of a committee to confer with the attorney-general with reference to an appli- cation to the governor for a charter of incorporation. At the outbreak of the revolutionary war, as a subject of Great Britain and clergyman of the Church of England, who had taken the most solemn " oath of supremacy " at his ordina- tion, he used all the efforts he could discreetly to promote peace. In October, 1775, among papers seized by the local Committee of Inspection and Observation, two letters from Dr. Odell were found, whereupon he was paroled, and the matter referred to the Council of Safety, and afterwards to the New Jersey Provincial Congress, before whom he prayed, by memorial, to appear. After hearing and delib- eration, the " Congress declined passing any public censure against him." Meanwhile Dr. Odell was indulging his muse. IIe and Mr. Stansbury were the two most important loyal versifiers of their time. "As a political satirist," says Winthrop Sargent, in his collections of " The Loyalist Poe- try of the Revolution," " Dr. Odell is entitled to high rank. In fertility of conception, and vigor and ease of expression, many passages in his poems will compare favorably with those of Churchill and Canning." In a few days after the Declaration of Independence was signed, Dr. Odell's parole was taken, restricting him to a circle within eight miles of Burlington. The pcople of Burlington were almost unanimous in their aversion to independence. They were lovers of peace and good order, yet, as the months went by, they were not without molestation by the agitators. In December, 1776, a message was received by Dr. Odell that a party of armed Tory-hunters were in search of him. He was hidden, by a Quakeress, in a sccret chamber of her house, and in the evening taken to town by her and placed in other lodgings, whence, on the 18th, hc left the town and a wife and three children (the youngest not five weeks old), to ramble as a refugee, because he would not sacrifice his principles. He reached New York at last, and was oc- casionally employed as a Deputy Chaplain in the army. The vestry at Burlington, on the Easter after he left, voted that liis salary should be continued, notwithstanding his ab- sence, a pleasing proof of their friendliness towards him. Early in 1782 standards were presented to the King's American Dragoons with imposing ceremonies, when the Rev. Dr. Odell made an address, in the presence of a large number of distinguished officers of the British army and navy, including Prince William Henry (afterwards William IV.), who was at that time in New York. When the British forces left that city, November 5th, 1783, Dr. Odell accompanied them to England. When the province of Nova Scotia was divided, Dr. Odell was called to a seat in the King's Council in the Province of New Brunswick, and became the Secretary, Registrar and Clerk of the Council, with a salary of a thousand pounds sterling. There, after a long separation from them, he was rejoined by his family. . For thirty years he faithfully discharged the duties of these

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offices. He died at Frederickton, New Brunswick, Novem- ber 25th, 1818, aged eighty-one years. The above has been gleaned from the valuable " History of the Church in Burlington, New Jersey," by the Rev. George Morgan Hills, D. D., in which may be found, at length, many original letters of Dr. Odell, and some of the best speci- mens of his poetical powers.

RANT, GABRIEL, Physician and Surgeon, grad- uated at Williams College, Massachusetts, in the class of 1846, and in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in the class of 1851. After practising medicine for some time in Newark, he entered the United States service, June 13th, 1861, as Surgeon of the 2d Regiment, 2d Brigade, New Jersey Volunteers, under command of Gen- eral Kearny, and served with the regiment at the first battle of Bull Run. At Washington he was examined by the United States Army Medical Board, and at the same date promoted to the position of Brigade Surgeon of Volun- teers, afterwards designated by act of Congress as Surgeon of United States Volunteers. November 4th, 1861, he was assigned to Palmer's brigade of cavalry. This brigade or- ganization being subsequently abandoned, he was assigned, December 12th, 1861, to French's brigade as Brigade Sur- geon, and afterward as Division Surgeon-in-Chief, and served in the battles of Fair Oaks, Gaines' Mill, Peach Orchard Station, Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Mal- vern Hill, second action at Bull Run, Antietam and Fred- ericksburg, and attended the wounded at Williamsburg and South Mountain. He then accompanied General Stoneman as one of his Staff Surgeons in the grand reconnoissance of March 14th, 1862; and organized the Brigade Hospital at Camp California, and the Division Hospital at Harper's Ferry. February 18th, 1863, he was assigned as Medical Director of Hospitals, at Evansville, Indiana ; and while on duty there, was sent, May 29th, of the same year, by order of General Burnside, commanding the Department of the Ohio, to Vicksburg, in charge of the steamer "Atlantic," to transport to his own hospitals the wounded belonging to the State of Indiana. This large steamer was fitted up with all the appointments of an extensive hospital-surgeons, stewards, nurses, and complete stores of medical and surgi- cal supplies. At Columbus the steamer was stopped by General Asboth, in command at that place, and loaded with a regiment of infantry, a battery of artillery, and stores of ammunition. With these materials of war he was sent ninety miles up the Yazoo river, in the rear of Vicksburg, and arrived at Sartatia as Blair and Kimball were fighting the rebel General Johnson. This was the most critical period of the campaign; General Grant was investing Vicksburg ; Pemberton had come out from the city to attack

him, and the enemy, with stubborn desperation, was throw- ing every available force on the rear and flank of the Union army. The hot southern climate, malaria, and inadequate supplies, surrounded with great difficulties the alleviation of the sufferings of those sick and wounded ; and the medi- cal officers, as well, suffered extremely from fatigue and the same depressing influences of exposure and climate. "The services rendered by the surgeons engaged with the army in the several fights in the rear of Vicksburg will probably never be recorded, for they are in the shadow of the grand capitulation. But the toilsome march, the exhausting care of sick and wounded under an almost tropical sun, was en- dured by them cheerfully, in the consciousness of deserving well of their country and profession." JIe was present also at the bombardment of Vicksburg, and from there returned with the wounded to Indiana, where he resumed his ordi- nary duties. September 4th, 1863, by order of General Burnside, at the request of Medical Director Carpenter, he was placed in command of the Madison United States Army Government Hospital, at Madison, Indiana. This institution was then in an incipient state of erection, and by him was completely established and organized. About seventy buildings were erected en echelon, and 2,095 beds were officially reported. The enlarged accommoda- tions, during the latter part of its existence, increased it to 3,000 beds. The highest number of patients was 2,760, principally from the battle-fields of Georgia and Tennessee. The whole number of different patients was 7,300; the mortality was 120, being 1.66 per cent .; the average length of time each patient was in the hospital was twelve weeks. After serving a year and a half in this institution he resigned, January 13th, 1865, and was relieved from duty February 4th, 1865. Brevet Brigadier-General C. S. Wood, As- sistant Surgeon-General United States Army, thus refers to the management of the hospital in a letter addressed to him : " While you were in charge of the Madison General Hospital, a very large establishment, your varions adminis- trative and professional duties were performed with efficiency and to the entire satisfaction of this office."

ARD, JOHN, Physician, late of Newark, was born in Orange, New Jersey, April 26th, 1774, and studied medicine with Dr. Condit, also of Orange. He afterward removed to Bloomfield, and thence to Newark, where he resided until his decease. In 1830 his office was at the corner of New and Broad streets ; later he moved to Orange street, and subse- quently built the house adjoining the residence of Hon. Marcus L. Ward, there remaining till 1836. He was emi- nent as an obstetrician, "although he never attended but one hundred and fifty cases per annum," " had great powers of endurance, was very kind and pleasant in his manners, and attentive to his business ; and was an eminently religious

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man." He was a contemporary of Dr. Hayes, and was [ son, in speaking of the early physicians of Sussex county, succeeded in his practice by his brother-in-law, Dr. J. B. says : " The leading mind was Dr. Fowler; he came into the county a few years prior to its division, and soon com- Jackson. The following well-known medical gentlemen may claim him with justifiahle pride as their common an- pelled all its physicians either to take license or retire. cestor : Drs. Eleazar Ward, John F. Ward, Edward Ward, George Ward, Augustine Ward, Monroe Ward, and J. R. Ward. Dr. Samuel L. Ward, of Belleville, belongs to a collateral branch. He died June 24th, 1836, aged sixty- two years.

OWLER, HON. SAMUEL, M. D., Physician, Manufacturer, Member of the New Jersey Legis- lature and of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses, late of Franklin, was born, October 30th, 1779, at the family homestead, built by his father, near Newburgh, Orange county, New York, and which is still standing, a pleasant and well-pre- served edifice. He came of English ancestry. Joseph Fowler is mentioned as a first settler near Mispat Kills, Long Island, New York, as early as 1665. John Fowler, the father of Samuel, and sixth in descent from Joseph, re- sided at Newburgh, and married his cousin, Glorianna Fowler, the daughter of his uncle, Samuel Fowler. The subject of this sketch received a thorough academic educa- tion at the Montgomery Academy, and his medical educa- tion under the instruction of Dr. David Fowler, of New- burgh, and attended the lectures of the Pennsylvania Medical College, at Philadelphia, an institution which included at that time Drs. Rush and Physic in its faculty. After com- pleting his medical studies and lectures, he removed to Hamburgh, Sussex county, New Jersey, and was licensed to the practice of medicine in that State on the 17th day of March, 1800, he being then a little over twenty-one years of age. In 1808 he married Ann Breckenridge Thompson, the daughter of Colonel Mark Thompson, of Changewater, New Jersey, one of the representatives in Congress from this State during the administration of Washington. After pursuing the practice of his profession at Hamburgh for a few years, he removed to Franklin, a small village, about three miles distant, situate in the valley of the Wallkill, and there his first wife died, leaving one child, a daughter, the wife of Moses Bigelow, of Newark. In 1816 he married his second wife, Rebecca Wood Platt Ogden, the daughter of Robert Ogden, Esq., formerly of Elizabethtown, but at this time of Sparta, Sussex county, New Jersey, to which place he had removed in 1786. The children of this mar- ringe were four sons and three daughters, viz .: Samuel, Mary Estelle, Henry Ogden, Robert Ogden, John, Rebecca Ogden and Clarinda. He died at Franklin, of heart dis- ease, on February 20th, 1844, aged sixty-five years. An interesting account of the estimation in which he was held as a physician is given by Dr. Thomas Ryerson, in his Re- port to the Medical Society of New Jersey at their cen- tennial meeting, held at New Brunswick, 1866. Dr. Ryer-

Into his hands speedily passed the consultation business, and his opinion may therefore be taken as a fair indication of the scientific status of the profession at that time." A very able practitioner of the present day, who was contem- poraneous with the last years of Dr. Fowler, says of him : " He was by far the best naturally endowed practitioner I ever knew." Of acute perception, vivid imagination, and yet of judicial mind and an original thinker, his native talents placed him far in advance of his day, when Cullen and his disciple, Gregory, shaped the theory and practice of the country. He was familiar with Brown and Davison, as with Cullen and other writers of his time. There are in- deed very few practitioners of experience, though of defec- tive education, who fail to acquire a set of principles which they act upon if they cannot express. But it is equally true that some " remain mere empirics in the midst of the rub- bish with which reading and observation have furnished them." But Dr. Fowler was neither; to use Bacon's simile, " He was neither an ant nor a spider; " neither a collector of others' ideas nor a weaver of his own fancies, but a bee, who, by proper mingling and analyzing, elaborated and utilized the various products of his industrious observation. He was fond of saying that "The whole art of medicine consisted in knowing when to stimulate and when to de- plete ; an aphorism that requires but slight modification to be level with the present knowledge." The District Medi- cal Society for the County of Sussex was formed in 1829 by him and several others. In person he was large and tall, of dignified and agreeable presence, courteous and affable in his manners. His head and physiognomy indi- cated native strength of character and mental activity. He was strictly temperate, and exemplary in all his habits; an early riser, and of untiring industry, and endeavored to de- vote all liis leisure moments to the attainment of useful knowledge. He was for many years owner of the iron works at Franklin Furnace, which in their various branches he conducted, while at the same time attending to the arduous duties of his profession ; his regular medical practice being more extensive perhaps than that of any country physician in the State, including, besides his own county of Sussex, the neighboring ones of Passaic, Morris and Warren, and extending even into the adjoining county of Pike, in Penn- sylvania, and Orange, in New York. He also found time to take an active and leading part in national and State politics, representing his county in the upper branch of the State Legislature, and afterwards his State in the Twenty- fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses during the administra- tion of General Jackson, of whom he was a warm supporter, and one of the earliest friends in New Jersey. As a mineralogist and geologist he is estimated by men of science as among the first in the country. Dr. Charles T. Jackson,

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the discoverer of the somnific powers of cther, in speak- ing of him in connection with four other mineralogists of equal eminence, says : " They were at the head of their pro- fession, and it will be long before we look upon their like again." It is evidence of the estimation in which he was held in these branches that he was made a member of many of the leading scientific socicties of his day, among which were the Geological Society of the State of Pennsyl- vania, and the New York Lyceum of Natural History ; an honorary member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of the State of New Jersey ; a corresponding member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, etc. He was also an honorary member of the Scientific Society of London and Dublin, and of other European scientific socie- ties. He was an intimate friend and correspondent of Thomas Nuttall, the well-known English naturalist, at one time, while in this country, Professor of Natural History at Harvard University ; a correspondent and friend of Baron Charles Leaderer, minister from Austria to this country during the third decade of the present century ; of John Torry, Professor of Chemistry at West Point Military Acad- emy from 1824 to 1827, afterward Professor of Chemistry and Botany in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and, later, Professor of Chemistry at Princeton College; of Dr. Troost, State Gcologist of Tennessee ; of Adam Seybert, William Mead, John Holbrook, George Carpenter, a correspondent to the American Journal of Science and Art, and Professor Keating, of Philadelphia. Among his occasional correspondents were Professor Ben. jamin Sylaman, Professor Berzelius, of Stockholm, Sweden; Professor Vannuxen, of the South Carolina College ; Jolin Finch, M. C. C .; Professor Griscom, Frederic Cozzens, Professor Benedict, of New York, and Dr. J. N. Phillips. The rare mineral known as " Fowlerite," first discovered by him at Franklin and brought to public notice, was named in his honor by his brother mineralogists. Early in life he became interested in the valuable mines and mineral locali- ties of the region in which he resided, and for many years made efforts to bring them to the notice of the scientific world. By his extensive correspondence with the naturalists and generous distribution of minerals he induced men of science from all parts of the country to visit the place. It was soon discovered that in this sequestered region the rarest and most valuable American minerals were to be found, many of them peculiar to these localities and found nowhere else in this country or in Europe, and applications from many quarters were made to him to make a business of the exchange of minerals. As indicating the modesty of his character, as well as the disinterestedness with which be pursued his researches, to one who thus applicd he an- swered, " My object is the promotion of science, and not to make a trade of the business, and when gentlemen of science have applied to me for minerals I have furnished what they requested from the locality, and received in return such specimens as they thought proper to give me." In 1825 Providence had given him.

he published in Silliman's American Journal of Science, vol. ix., "An Account of some New and Extraordinary Min- erals Discovered in Warwick, Orange county, New York." In 1832, in same journal, vol. xxi. : "An Account of the Sapphire and other Minerals in Newton township, Sussex county, New Jersey." He also contributed to "Gordon's Gazetteer and History of New Jersey " an article on the " Franklinite, Red Oxide of Zinc, and other Minerals found in the valley lying at the foot of the IIamburgh and Franklin mountains ; " and also a notice of the geology and mineralogy of the same region for "Cleavland's Mineralogy," new edition. He is supposed to have given the name of " Franklinite" to the ore of iron now so extensively known hy that name, the great value of which he foresaw, although no means were discovered during his lifetime of working it with success. IIe made it known to mineralo- gists by sending specimens to all parts of this country, and to many eminent naturalists in Europe ; among others to Berzelius, of Stockholm, and Professor Thompson, of Glas- gow, by whom it was analyzed, and awakened an interest in it, which has since resulted in its successful development and manufacture. The extensive zinc mines of Sussex, now worked with great profit and affording the only red oxide of zinc known in the world, were at this time owned by him, but were disposed of before his death. In regard to his connection with these mines, A. C. Farrington, geol- ogist and mining engineer, says, in his " Report of the New Jersey Zine Company," published in 1852 : " The late Dr. Fowler, about thirty-five years since, became the owner of these mines, and, to scientific attainments uniting practical business talents of the highest order, appears to have been really the first one to appreciate their true value. He made several efforts to have them worked, and offered liberal inducements to others to join him in the enterprisc. But the untried nature of the ore, and the difficulties in obtain- ing competent operatives, caused a failure of his plans, without lessening in his mind the value of the ore and the ultimate success that would be likely to attend future at- tempts to work it. While he was a member of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, a law was passed directing the Secretary of the Treasury to canse a standard set of weights and measures to be prepared for the use of the government in the different custom houscs. F. R. Hasler, LL.D., then Superintendent of the Coast Survey, was intrusted by the secretary with the execution of this important duty, and Dr. Fowler succeeded in hay- ing New Jersey red oxide of zinc reduced to alloy with copper to form the brass used for these standards, mining and transporting many tons of the ore from his mines at Franklin to Washington City." His remains are interred in the valley of Hardyston, which ncar half a century be- forc his death he sought as a youthful stranger, with no fortune but that which he carried in his own brave heart- a will to use with industry and faith the talents which

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OWLER, COLONEL SAMUEL, Franklin, New Jersey, eldest son of the celebrated scientist, Dr. Samuel Fowler, of Franklin, New Jersey, was born, March 25th, 1818, at Ogdensburg, at the homestead of his grandfather, Robert Ogden. His mother, Rebecca Ogden, was a lineal de- scendant of the Sir John Ogden knighted by Charles II. for services rendered in assisting Charles I. to escape after the battle of Worcester. He received an ample preparatory education, and subsequently, having determined upon law as his profession, entered as a student the office of the late Governor IIaines. In 1844 he was admitted to practise at the New Jersey bar. Two years later he married Henrietta L., daughter of D. M. Brodhead, Esq., formerly of Phila- delphia, and shortly after his marriage took up his residence at Port Jervis. IIere he built a fine mansion, surrounded by handsomely laid-out grounds, on the bank of the Never- sink river, and in honor of his wife he called the domain Glen-nette. Through his means and influence the village of Port Jervis was rapidly developed into a thriving town, and his eminent public services in this respect made him the most prominent man of the locality. In politics he was a recognized leader, and the Democratic party, of which he was an earnest member, was a considerable gainer by his counsels and active exertions in its behalf. He was for a time Chairman of the New York Democratic State Com- mittee. He was also nominated to represent the counties of Sullivan and Orange in Congress, but was defeated by a small majority. In 1855 he left New York and returned to his native State, where he continued to reside until his death. Sussex county, New Jersey, is celebrated for its great mineral wealth, and more particularly for its Frank- linite, a very rare mineral, composed of the red oxide of zinc and iron, and found nowhere else in the world. Colonel Fowler owned several valuable mineral claims at Sterling Ilill, and at Franklin, a small village on the banks of the Wallkil river, where he resided on his farm with his family. The State is largely indebted to him for the development of its ores, in which he invested both labor and capital. The Newton Herald and Democrat, of October 21st, 1869, says : "All remember Colonel Samuel Fowler's magnificent zinc boulder of 5,000 pounds which he contributed to the World's Fair Exposition at London some fifteen years since, which so astonished the savans of Europe. . At that fair Sussex minerals won three prizes-zinc, iron and paints." Ile was the inventor of the zinc paint from which so many fortunes have been made, and which is so celebrated not only in our own but in foreign countries. The first idea of its manufacture he relates as follows : "At a certain time a chimney connected with the furnace at Franklin was found deficient in draught. This was attempted to be remedied by fixing a bottomless barrel to the top of the chimney ; through this barrel many volatilized ingredients from the contents of the furnace passed, forming incrustations on the inside of the barrel. When the barrel, after months, per-

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 90

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