USA > New York > Encyclopedia of biography of New York, a life record of men and women whose sterling character and energy and industry have made them pre?minent in their own and many other states. V.6 > Part 41
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Club of Easthampton, the Down Town Association, and the New York Cham- ber of Commerce. These affiliations show Mr. Hobart to be a man of broad-minded nature, diligent in his business prusuits, strong in his church activity, and enjoy- ing social fellowship through his club memberships. Mr. Hobart has his sum- mer home at Easthampton, Long Island, known as "Sommarina," where he spends seven months of the year.
Mr. Hobart married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1888, Marie Elizabeth Jefferys, a sketch of whom fol- lows, born in Liege, Belgium, February 16, 1860, a daughter of Charles Peter Beauchamp and Elizabeth (Miller) Jef- ferys. Mrs. Hobart is the author of The St. Agnes Mystery Plays. Children : Margaret Jefferys, a sketch of whom fol- lows; Rosamond, born August 9, 1892, died July 16, 1908; Charles Jefferys, born December 30, 1894, died June 14, 1910; Elizabeth Miller, born August 10, 1896, died October 17, 1896.
HOBART, Marie Elizabeth (Jefferys), Authoress.
Of social prominence in New York, the city which claims her as a resident, and equally so in Philadelphia, the city of her kith and kin, Mrs. Hobart has through her published volumes won further dis- tinction as an authoress. She is a daugh- ter of Charles Peter Beauchamp Jefferys, a civil engineer of Philadelphia, and his wife, Elizabeth (Miller) Jefferys.
Marie Elizabeth Jefferys was born in Liege, Belgium, February 16, 1860, her American parents returning to the United States with their infant daughter the fol- lowing June. Her maidenhood was passed in Philadelphia, her education carefully guided by private tutors in her own home. Her tastes, strongly literary,
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were given full rein, her environment, family tradition and station favoring a literary career did she choose to pursue it. Although she wrote and published sev- eral years before, it was not until 1904 that her first published volume, "Lady Catechism and the Child," appeared, fol- lowed in 1905 by "The Little Pilgrims of the Book Beloved." She published the "Vision of St. Agnes Eve," in 1906; "Athanasius" in 1909; "The Sunset Hour" in I9II; and "The Great Trail" in 1913. The critics have dealt most kindly with these books and assigned Mrs. Hobart's writings an honored place in the litera- ture of her country. She is a member of Trinity Parish, New York City. She was married in St. Peter's Church, Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1888, to Henry Lee Hobart, of previous men- tion.
HOBART, Margaret Jefferys, Authoress.
The eldest daughter of Henry Lee and Marie Elizabeth (Jefferys) Hobart, whose useful lives have ever been her inspira- tion and her guide, Miss Hobart in her own right has won an assured position in church and literary circles.
She was born in New York City, De- cember 1, 1889. After preparation at the Brearley School, New York City, and graduation in 1907, she entered Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, whence she was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree, class of 1911. From the year of her graduation until the present (1916), Miss Hobart has been assistant to the educational secretary, Church Missions House, New York, and during 1912-14 was librarian of the Church Missions House. She is a member of Trinity Par- ish, The Bryn Mawr Club of New York City, and various church and social or- ganizations.
Miss Hobart published in 1912 (with
Arthur R. Gray) "Japan Advancing- Whither?" and the same year under her own name, "Institutions Connected with the Japan Mission of the American Church ;" "Voices from Everywhere" was published in 1914; "Then and Now" the same year.
ABBOTT, John Beach, Lawyer, Editor.
Of distinguished American ancestry and son of a cultured, scholarly father, John B. Abbott, after exhaustive prepara- tion in private school, academy and uni- versity embraced his honored father's profession and was admitted to the bar in 1880. Since that time he has con- tinuously practiced at the New York bar, a member of both the Livingston and Monroe county bars, his residence at Geneseo, his offices No. 814 Powers building, Rochester. Eminent as a lawyer he has won further distinction as a jour- nalist and for thirty years has been the spokesman of the Democracy of Living- ston county, as editor of the "Living- ston Democrat." Public honors have been bestowed upon him including the offices of judge and surrogate of Living- ston county, and postmaster of Geneseo. He is a son of Adoniram J. and Mary (Beach) Abbott, his father born in 1819, died at Geneseo, New York, in 1898, a leading lawyer of the Livingston county bar for half a century, 1848-1898.
John Beach Abbott was born at Dans- ville, Livingston county, New York, De- cember 31, 1854. He was educated in public school, Geneseo Union Free School, Geneseo Academy, Le Roy Aca- demic Institute, Geneseo State Normal School and the University of Rochester. After completing his university course he studied law, being admitted to the New York State bar in 1880, coming to the Monroe bar in 1901. Six years after his admission he became editor of the
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"Livingston Democrat," published at Geneseo, New York, and from that date (1886) has continued its editorial head, also maintaining Geneseo as his legal residence. He is a learned and able lawyer, has an extensive practice at both bars and is highly regarded as a man of honor as well as of professional strength. He served as county judge and surrogate of Livingston county from August 27 to December 31, 1914, having been ap- pointed by Governor Martin H. McGlynn, county judge and surrogate of the county to fill a vacancy. Since 1903 he has been president of the Livingston County Bar Association ; is a member of the Roches- ter Bar and New York State Bar asso- ciations.
A Democrat in politics he has made the "Livingston Democrat" a powerful party organ and is recognized as a party leader. He has represented his district in many conventions and is one of that inner circle which dominates district and State conventions, and has made the Democracy of Western New York a power which the Eastern State leaders must reckon with. He was postmaster of Geneseo, 1888-1890, but with that exception he has held only the offices named, those being of a purely legal nature. He is a strong and effective orator before court, jury or audience and has made frequent platform appearances. As an editorial writer he has gained State fame and is a powerful advocate for any cause he espouses. His clubs are the Geneseo and Rifle of Geneseo, his college fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian.
Mr. Abbott married, August 29, 1878, at LeRoy, New York, Louise M., daugh- ter of Aloysius and Catherine Schmit, her father a lawyer of Barmen, Rhenish Prussia, Germany. The family home is at Geneseo, New York.
JOHNSON, Frank Verner, Lawyer.
Frank Verner Johnson, a successful attorney of New York City, was born at Bradford, Vermont, March 12, 1863. His ancestor, William Johnson, was born in Kent, England, according to tradition, and was an early settler of Charlestown, Massachusetts. He was a planter, was admitted a freeman, March 4, 1635, and was with his wife Elizabeth received into the Charlestown church, February 13, 1635. He made a deposition, now on file, December 29, 1657, stating his age as fifty-four years, from which we learn that he was born in 1603. In early family records it is stated that "he was a Puritan of good parts and education, and brought with him from England a wife and child and means." He died December 9, 1677, his widow in 1685, leaving six sons and a daughter.
Joseph Johnson, son of William and Elizabeth Johnson, was born in Charles- town, and baptized there by Rev. Thomas James, February 12, 1637. He was one of the founders and proprietors of Haver- hill, Massachusetts, whither he and his brother John removed from Charlestown. He held various town offices. He mar- ried (first) Mary Soatlie, and (second) in 1666, Hannah, daughter of Ensign Thomas Tenney, of Rowley, England.
Thomas Johnson, son of Joseph and Hannah (Tenney) Johnson, was born December 11, 1670, in Haverhill, and died February 18, 1742. He was a town officer, one of the founders of the Haver- hill North Parish Church, of which he was elected deacon, March 23, 1732, and of which his own family at its foundation constituted a fifth of the membership. He married, May 1, 1700, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Cornelius and Martha (Clough) Page, granddaughter of John
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Clough, of Salisbury, Massachusetts, who came from London in 1635 in the ship "Elizabeth." She died June 12, 1752.
Hon. John Johnson, son of Deacon Thomas and Elizabeth (Page) Johnson, was born at Haverhill, North Parish, No- vember 15, 1711, and was one of the founders and earliest settlers of Hamp- stead, New Hampshire, formerly a part of Haverhill. He procured the charter for the town and was paid his expense by vote of the town, May 30, 1750. Gov- ernor Benning Wentworth, the royal gov- ernor, appointed him a magistrate, and he was one of the justices of the Court of General Sessions at Portsmouth for the Province of New Hampshire. He died April 1, 1762, leaving five surviving sons, all of whom adhered to the cause of the patriots during the Revolution. He married (first) Sarah Haynes, and (second) Sarah Morse. Haynes John- son, son of Hon. John and Sarah (Haynes) Johnson, was born at Hamp- stead, New Hampshire, August 28, 1749. At an early age he went from Hampstead with his elder brother Thomas as one of the first settlers in that part of the Con- necticut Valley known then as the "Coos" or "Cohass" country, which included the Ox-bow and other rich meadows in the present town of Haverhill, New Hamp- shire, and Newbury and Bradford, Ver- mont. The town of Mooretown, subse- quently Bradford, received its charter in 1770, and at an annual town meeting, May I, 1775, it was voted to raise a stock of ammunition and Haynes Johnson and Benjamin Jenkins were made "a commit- tee to look out and procure a stock of powder, lead and flints." While actively engaged in his duties on this committee he was taken ill and died at Concord, New Hampshire, September 2, 1775. He married Elizabeth Elliot, and had three children.
Captain Haynes (2) Johnson, son of
Haynes (1) and Elizabeth (Elliot) John- son, was born August 13, 1775, in New- bury, Vermont, and died November I, 1863. He settled on a large farm on the Connecticut river, in the town of Brad- ford, Vermont, was for a long time cap- tain of the Bradford militia company, and was all his life prominent in town and military affairs. He and his wife were members of the Congregational church of Bradford. He married, April 8, 1802, Jane, daughter of Captain Ezekiel Sawyer, who served as an officer in the Revolutionary army.
Thomas Johnson, son of Captain Haynes (2) and Jane (Sawyer) John- son, was born December 13, 1816, at Bradford, and died March 6, 1894. He attended the public schools of his native town, and when a young man left home to work in Boston and Charlestown, Mas- sachusetts. In 1856 he purchased and settled on the large river farm in Brad- ford, adjoining the place on which he was born, and there spent the remainder of his life. The local newspaper, at the time of his death, said: "Mr. Johnson was an upright man in all his dealings, and was one of the most respected and substantial citizens of Bradford. He was one of the best representatives of the old class of citizens who made Vermont what it is." He married, February 12, 1862, Harriet E., daughter of Christopher and Emily (Walker) Avery, of Corinth, Ver- mont, a descendant of Captain James and Joanna (Greenslade) Avery, who were among the first settlers of New London, Connecticut. Her maternal grandfather was a lieutenant in the Revolution. Chil- dren : Frank Verner, mentioned below; Charles Forster, born August 6, 1865; Herbert Thomas, January 27, 1872.
Frank Verner Johnson attended the public schools of his native town and the Bradford Academy, Vermont, graduating in the class of 1882. He then entered 288
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Dartmouth College and was graduated in the class of 1886 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1889 he entered the Law School of Columbia College in New York City, and was admitted to the New York bar in May, 1891. For many years during the' earlier period of his profes- sional career he was the New York attor- ney of the Travelers' Insurance Com- pany of Hartford, Connecticut, and de- voted a large part of his time to the defense of negligence actions on behalf of policyholders in that company. He entered upon the general practice of law in New York, and has been especially successful in the field of trial attorney. He is a member of the New York Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the New York County Lawyers' Association, the Man- hattan Club of New York, the Dartmouth College Club of New York, the Founders' and Patriots' Society, and of several col- lege fraternities. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church. He married, April 19, 1893, Evelyn Webber, born August 29, 1866, daughter of Chris- topher and Julia (Cooper) Webber, of Rochester, Vermont, granddaughter of Christopher Webber, Sr., a lawyer of Vermont. Children, born in New York City : Evelyn, April 29, 1894; Frances Virginia, July 3, 1895, died in August, 1896.
STRONG, Augustus H., Scholar, Author, Theologian.
Augustus Hopkins Strong, scholar, author, theologian, son of Alvah and Catherine (Hopkins) Strong, was born in Rochester, August 3, 1836. He is of pure Puritan lineage, his ancestor, Elder John Strong, of the Congregational order, hav- ing settled in Plymouth in 1639 where he passed a godly life. He had eighteen
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children ; his eldest son had fifteen. In the maternal line, descent is claimed from Stephen Hopkins, who came over in the "Mayflower" (q. v. sketch of Samuel M. Hopkins). Alvah Strong, the father of Augustus H. Strong, was born July 18, 1809, and died April 20, 1885. He came to Rochester in 1821 ; learned the printer's trade; worked in the Albany "Evening Journal;" became proprietor (chief) of the Rochester "Democrat"; retired from business in 1859; was deacon in the Bap- tist church for thirty years; was a founder and the first treasurer of the Rochester Theological Seminary. He was a genial, friendly, quiet man, with great interest in the cause of education and in the prosperity of his church, liberal to a fault and beloved by all who knew him.
Augustus H. Strong received his pre- liminary education in the schools of his native city, and took a full classical course in Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1857 with high standing as a scholar, receiving many prizes in English composition, and the gold De- Forest Medal for public speaking. Two years later he was graduated from the Rochester Theological Seminary, of which he was to be long the honored head. He spent the latter portion of 1859 and all of 1860 in pleasurable and improv- ing travel in Europe, and upon his return in 1861 he was ordained to the Baptist ministry with his first pastorate that of the First Baptist Church in Haverhill, Massachusetts, from 1861 until 1865. Thence he was called to the First Church of Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained until 1872. In both these charges he was notably distinguished for the zeal and fidelity with which he discharged his pastoral duties and for the clearness, strength and spirituality of his pulpit utterances as well as for the vital Chris- tianity that informed them, the sincerity,
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skill and valor with which he expounded its doctrines, and this without bigotry or the mere delight of belligerency. He was the honorable and enlightened inter- preter of his creed, and while still a young man he was eminent as a theo- logian.
Thus equipped as a scholar and theo- logian he accepted, in 1872, the call to the presidency and the Chair of Systematic Theology in the newly established Rochester Theological Seminary and dedicated himself to the work of training young men for the gospel ministry, in an institution in which he was already deeply interested and which his father had been largely instrumental in establishing. Therein he served continuously for forty years, becoming president emeritus in 1912; increasing its endowments from less than $200,000 to more than $2,000,- 000; securing faculties, numbers of the members of which are famous in their departments; enlarging the body of students and, more than all, impressing his personality and teachings upon the licentiates, many of whom have made their mark as preachers of the world, so that through his various activities in its behalf the institution ranks among the first of the seminaries of the great Baptist denomination. Meanwhile he has been in constant request and has generously responded to the demands made upon him for sermons on ceremonial occasions, for missionary objects, and for many secular addresses, also thereby attaining ex- tended repute for his oratorical gifts. He has been distinctively honored by high and responsible positions in the church. Among other trusts he has held the presi- dency of the American Baptist Mission- ary Union, 1892-95, and that of the Gen- eral Convention of Baptists of North America, 1905-10. Honorary degrees from leading universities have been freely conferred upon him-Doctor of Divinity
by Brown, 1870; Yale, 1890; Princeton, 1896; Doctor of Laws by Bucknell, 1891 ; and Alfred, 1894; and Doctor of Litera- ture by Rochester, 1912.
Dr. Strong has been a voluminous author. His principal theological work is "Systematic Theology" published in 1886, with six editions ensning until 1903 and revised and enlarged in three volumes in 1908. It is a standard theological work highly regarded and adopted as a text- book in the seminaries. Its principal propositions are: (1) Conscience in man as reflecting the holiness of God; (2) Christ as God manifested in bearing human sin and redeeming from it; (3) The unity, sufficiency and authority of Scripture. "Philosophy and Religion" appeared in 1888; "Christ in Creation and Ethical Monism" in 1899. "The Great Poets and Their Theology," a splendid work considered from both the philo- sophic and the literary point of view, was issued in 1907. The "great poets" dis- cussed are Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shake- speare, Milton, Goethe, Wordsworth, Browning and Tennyson. A supplemen- tary work, "American Poets and Their Theology," treating of Bryant, Emerson, Whittier, Longfellow, Poe, Lowell, Holmes, Lanier and Whitman-is in press as this is written (July, 1916). Other printed volumes of Dr. Strong are "Union with Christ," "Miscellanies, His- torical and Theological," "One Hundred Chapel Talks to Theological Students" and "Lectures on the Books of the New Testament."
Dr. Strong is prominent in scholarly activities, member of the Alpha Chi (ministerial), "Pundit" (literary) and the Browning (literary) clubs, to each of which he has contributed valuable papers. He is also a member of the Yale Chapter of Psi Upsilon.
Dr. Strong married (first) Harriet Louise Savage, of Rochester, November
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6, 1861. She died July 8, 1914. Of this union there are six children, viz: I. Charles Augustus, born November 28, 1862; psychologist ; who married Bessie, daughter of John D. Rockefeller, March 22, 1889; she died November 14, 1906. 2. Mary Belle, born August 29, 1864; mar- ried Dr. Robert G. Cook, June 2, 1892. 3. John Henry, born December 7, 1866; pastor of the Eutaw Place Baptist Church, Baltimore, Maryland ; who mar- ried Eliza Livingston McCreery, June 20, 1894. 4. Kate Louise, born February 10, 1870; who married Rev. Charles G. Sewell, January 16, 1900. 5. Cora Har- riet, born February 10, 1870, unmarried. 6. Laura Rockefeller, born June 19, 1884; who married Edmund H. Lewis, June I, 1910. Dr. Strong married (second) Mrs. Marguerite G. Jones, of Rochester, Janu- ary 1, 1915.
WARFIELD, Frederic Parkman, Attorney-at-Law.
Frederic Parkman Warfield is a native of this State, where his grandfather was a pioneer settler, a scion of a very old Maryland family. Richard Warfield, un- doubtedly of English parentage, settled near Annapolis, Maryland, in 1662. His home was west of Crownsville, Anne Arundel county, and his estate bordered on Round Bay of Severn. It is apparent that he was a man of means, as his rent roll shows the possession of various estates, known as "Warfield," "Warfield's Right," "Hope," "Increase," "Warfield Plains," "Warfield Forest," "Warfield Addition," "Brandy," and "Warfield Range." Some of these came through the inheritance of his wife. In 1670 he mar- ried Elinor, daughter of Captain John Browne, of, London, who operated mer- chant vessels between London and An- napolis. The estates known as "Hope" and "Increase" were purchased by him in
1673 and came into possession of his daughter, Mrs. Warfield. Richard War- field was a member of the vestry of St. Ann's Church, was also a military officer, and died in 1703-04. His third son, Alex- ander Warfield, was a surveyor, and received lands by inheritance from his father, one mile south of the present Millersville. This is the only portion of the original estate now held by descend- ants. Alexander Warfield was on a com- mittee for extending Annapolis, and in 1720 surveyed a tract of thirteen hundred acres, known as "Venison Park," which he divided between his sons Alexander and Absolute. He was also the owner of "Benjamin's Discovery," "Warfield's Addition," and "Brandy." He married Sarah, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Pierpont, who had an estate on the Severn river. Their youngest son, Rich- ard (2) Warfield, inherited "Brandy" from his father on which he resided. He, married Sarah, daughter of John and Agnes (Rogers) Gaither, and they had sons Lancelot and Richard. Richard (3) Warfield, son of Richard (2) and Sarah (Gaither ) Warfield, resided at "Brandy," which he inherited jointly with his brother, and later sold to the brother his share, and removed to Frederick county, Maryland. He married (first) Nancy, daughter of Thomas Gassoway, and (second) Anna Delashmutt, daughter of Elias and Betsey (Nelson) Delashmutt, the latter a daughter of John Nelson, of Frederick county. The only son of the second marriage was Lindsey Delash- mutt Warfield, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving in the State of New York, and participating in the battle of Lundy's Lane. He was so pleased with interior New York that he settled there after the close of the war, locating at Rushville, Yates county, near the beau- tiful Canandaigua Lake. He married Elizabeth L'Amoreaux, and two of their
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sons were Union soldiers in the Civil War, made prisoners, and confined in Libby and Andersonville prisons. One of these, Charles H., was among the first to enlist in the State of New York, and became a first lieutenant in a New York infantry regiment. Another, Myron Franklin, was born in 1840 at Rushville, and lived at Prattsburg, Steuben county, New York. He married, October 25, 1866, Frances Helena Parkman Green, daughter of Robert and Sophia (Park- man) Green, granddaughter of Captain Henry Green, a pioneer of Rushville, born 1762, in Killingly, Connecticut, and de- scended from Thomas Green, who was among the first settlers of Malden, Mas- sachusetts. They had children: Charles Henry, born 1867; Carrie Isabelle, Anna Delashmutt, Richard Nelson, Frederic Parkman, Augustus Bennett, born July 24, 1878; the last named a captain in the United States regular army.
Frederic Parkman Warfield, second son of Myron Franklin and Frances Helena Parkman (Green) Warfield, was born January 24, 1876, in Prattsburg, where he attended the public schools, and was afterward, for five years, a student at Canandaigua Academy. Entering Hamil- ton College in 1892, he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts four years later. He at once entered the Columbia Law School at Washington, D. C. (now Washington University), from which he was graduated in 1899, and in the same year was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia. During the three years that he was a law student he was an examiner in the United States Patent Office at Washington. In 1901 he was admitted to the New York bar, and since that time has been engaged in the general practice of his profession in New York City, making a specialty of patent trade marks and corporation law. On coming to New York he became a member of the
firm of Duell, Megrath & Warfield, which firm continued four years, when its head, Charles H. Duell, was appointed a judge on the bench of the District of Columbia, and retired from the firm. This then continued as Warfield & Duell, including Mr. Holland S. Duell. When Judge Duell retired from the bench in 1907 he again became a partner of the firm, which is now known as Duell, Warfield & Duell. Mr. Warfield has been engaged in many important law cases involving large finan- cial considerations, notable among which was "Bethlehem Steel Company vs. Niles- Bement-Pond Company," in the Circuit Court of Appeals. In acknowledgment of his efficient services in this case, his English clients, namely, the English As- sociation of Steel Makers, presented him with a beautiful silver cup, bearing the following inscription :
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