Author: Frank J. UrquhartPublisher:
ISBN: 9781331729624
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 790
Book Description
Excerpt from A History of the City of Newark, New Jersey, Vol. 3: Embracing Practically Two and a Half Centuries, 1666-1913 Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, one of the most brilliant and successful of New Jersey lawyers, who attained the position of Secretary of State in President Arthur's cabinet, came of distinguished ancestry. He was the son of Frederick and Jane (Dumont) Frelinghuysen, born in Somerset, New Jersey, August 4, 1817, died May 20, 1885, in Newark. On his father's side Mr. Frelinghuysen was descended from a line of talented men, filling positions of distinction in pulpit, army and state. The Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen was a native of Holland, educated there, and ordained a divine of the Reformed Dutch church. He emigrated to America in 1720 through a call of the American churches to the Classis of Amsterdam, Holland, and in this country was given a parish that covered almost the entire county of Somerset, and parts of Middlesex and Hunterdon. As a worker in this missionary field he was successful and diligent, and his character is better understood from the motto which was inscribed upon a small collection of his sermons, printed in 1773 - "Laudem non quero; culpan non timeo, which means I ask not praise; I fear not blame." The evidences of his faithful teachings are still to be found in the lives and memories of the present generation in Somerset county, who show in their faith and character the impression of his own. He was also one of those who stood for religious freedom and protected the interests of the Reformed Dutch church to which he belonged, against the encroachments of the Church of England, whose endeavors to drive them out after the surrender of New Amsterdam were resisted in the colonial courts of magistracy. His son, the Rev. John Frelinghuysen, was educated and ordained in Holland, and moved to Somerville, where he succeeded his father in 1750. He there founded a preparatory and divinity school for boys and young men. This was made the nucleus of a college, and one of his pupils, the Rev. Dr. Hardenburg, helped to erect from it Queens College, whose name was afterwards changed to Rutgers College, now one of the leading institutions of New Jersey. This Rev. John Frelinghuysen was a brilliant and popular preacher. He married, as her first husband, Dinah Van Berg, a woman of remarkable gifts and beautiful Christian character, daughter of a wealthy merchant who traded with Asiatic India, but lived in Holland. She married (second), after Dr. Frelinghuysens death in 1754, the previously-mentioned Dr. Hardenburg. The son of Rev. John and Dinah Frelinghuysen was General Frederick Frelinghuysen, born in Somerville, April 13, 1753. He matriculated at Princeton University, and was graduated in 1770, having as one of his classmates the gentleman who afterwards became President James Madison. Mr. Frelinghuysen studied law and was admitted to the New Jersey bar. He was then elected a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, and just at the opening of the Revolutionary War was appointed on the Committee of Safety. At different times he was a member of the Continental Congress. As captain of an artillery corps he took part in the battles of Trenton and Monmouth, under the command of General Washington. During the whiskey rebellion he was made major-general of the militia in New Jersey. From 1793 to 1796 he became a United States senator. His death occurred in 1804, and many were the eulogistic speeches made in courts and senate chambers to express the appreciation of all classes of citizens of his worthy services in the cause of the republic and the splendor of his courageous character. Frederick Frelinghuysen was the youngest of his three sons, born November 7, 1788, in Millstone, New Jersey. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
