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DUNCAN DUNBAR PARMLY, the oldest son of Rev. Wheelock H. Parmly, was born in Shelburne Falls, Mass., May 25, 1849, and until recently resided in Jersey City. He was graduated from Mount Washington Collegiate Institute of New York City and at an early age entered the office of Henry G. Marquand, banker, of New York City. Later he was connected with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad--now a part of the Missouri Pacific System,--and was on the founders and for many years the senior partner in the firm of Marquand & Parmly, bankers, of New York. Owing to ill health he was compelled to give up his active business and in 1893 became the President of the Phenix National Bank of New York City, and has since acted as the head of that financial institution. For the past eight years he has been a resident of the State of New Jersey with his home at Middletown in Monmouth County

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 82.

RANDOLPH PARMLY, of New York and Jersey City was born April 2, 1854, at Burlington, N. J., and is the son of Rev. Wheelock H. Parmly and Katharine (Dunbar) Parmly. He was educated at Hasbrouck Institute in Jersey City and at the University of the City of New York, from which he was graduated in 1875. Afterward he continued his course of study in the Columbia Law School.

Mr. Parmly was admitted to the bar of the State of New Jersey in June, 1878, and has continuously practiced from that time to the present. He is also a member of the New York bar. Having made a specialty of corporation law, he has spent a good portion of his time with certain corporations for whom he is counsel in the City of New York. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of Jersey City and of New York, and of the Lawyers' Club and the University Club of New York City.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 82.

WHEELOCK HENDEE PARMLY, D.D., for forty years the beloved pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jersey City, N. J. was born in Braintree, Vt., July 27, 1816, his parents being Randolph Parmly and Elizabeth B. Murray, the former of English and the latter of Scotch descent. He came of good New England stock. His father was the first male child born in the Village of Randolph, Vt., the date of his birth being January 15 1783, and at the request of the selectmen his parents, Jahial Parmly and Eunice Hendee, named him Randolph, after the town. His mother, a niece of Eleanor Wheelock, the founder and first President of Dartmouth College, was born in Chester, N. H., May 1, 1782, and was the daughter of Robert Murray and Jane Ramsey. In 1795 her parents moved into the State of Vermont, and there both families became prominent in all public and private affairs.

When fours years of age Wheelock H. Parmly removed with the family to Hancock and three years later to Middlebury, Vt., where they came, seven years afterward, to New Jersey, locating at Shrewsbury, Monmouth County. In 1838, after a residence of eight years in that town, they moved to New York City.

Dr. Parmly's parents did all in their power to give him a good early training, but their means were limited and he was dependent in a great measure upon his own efforts for his education. While residing in Shrewsbury he prepared himself for college by teaching and performing various other kinds of work, and at a very early age became a great Bible reader, a trait which characterized his entire life. His parents, though not members of any church, attended with their children the Episcopal services, but young Parmly, convinced of the truth of the Baptist principles, adopted the faith and practice of that denomination, and amid considerable opposition, from both his family and the Episcopalian clergy, was baptized August 3, 1834, in the Shrewsbury River. And connecting himself with the Baptist Church at Middletown, N.J.--the nearest society of that faith to his home.--he was faithful in his attendance on worship, active in all departments of church work, and influential among both old and young.

In 1838 Dr. Parmly entered Columbia College in New York City and was graduated from that institution in 1842, standing high in his class and receiving many tokens of excellence in scholarship during his collegiate course. About the time he entered college he united with the old Amity Street Baptist Church i New York, of which Rev. Dr. William R. Williams was pastor. He also formed a close friendship with Rev. Dr. Spencer H. Cone, of New York City, which, with that of Dr. Williams, lasted until his death. It was undoubtedly from these eminent clergymen and great teachers that he learned many of the principles which made him so successful during his career of half a century in the ministry.

On leaving college Dr. Parmly was confronted with the problem of determining his vocation in life--a problem which all young men must solve. He had been urged to enter the ministry by many friends who thought him peculiarly fitted for that profession; others assured him of success in a mercantile career, while others still tempted him with flattering offers in various branches of business; but the guiding voice of nature bade him preach the gospel a labor to which his "mind rather inclines." On August 10, 1842, at the request of Dr. Williams, he preached to the people of the Amity Street Church, and immediately afterward made this entry in his diary: "The subject of the ministry has occupied my mind for a long time. It is now settled, and I hope for good."

Dr. Parmly was unanimously voted a "license to preach the gospel" by the Amity Street Church on the 16th of July, 1844, and in the following month (August) was graduated from Madison Theological Seminary, where he had pursued a thorough course of study. On august 6, 1867, Madison University conferred upon him the honorary title of Doctor of Divinity.

Soon after graduation he received a call to the pastorate of the Harlem Baptist Church of New York City, which he was obliged to refuse on account of impaired health and a serious affliction of the eyes that had developed during his course in the seminary. A three wees' sea voyage brought him to New Orleans, where he began to preach, and while there he accepted the assistant pastorate of the Baptist Church at Clinton, La., which he filled most acceptably for tw years, declined during that period three calls to become pastor of churches in the North. He developed a strong friendship for the negro, frequently visited them in their cabins, took a fearless stand on the slavery question as an advocate of human rights, and afterward sheltered many a fugitive slave during his residence in the South he also acquired that habit of great hospitality which always characterized his home.

The illness of his mother, however, compelled him to return at the end of two years to New York City, and on November 15, 1847, he accepted a call to the Baptist Church at Shelburne Falls, Mass., where he remained two years, and resigned, the winter climate of the Berkshire hills being too hard for his constitution. Shortly after he accepted this pastorate he married Katharine Dunbar, daughter of Rev. Duncan Dunbar, of the Macdougal Street Baptist Church, New York City, and a lady "lovely in character, strong in faith, wise in judgment, remarkable for patience, prayerful, and zealous in every good work." Upon her death on July 10, 1877, he wrote in his diary: "The brightest light of my home has gone out," while another expressed these words and sentiments: "She added to the sum of human joy, and were everyone to whom he performed some loving service to bring a blossom to her grave, she would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers."

Dr. Parmly assumed the duties of pastor of the Baptist Church at Burlington, N. J. in May, 1850, and remained there nearly five years, during which time the "church grew mightily."

On the 1st of September, 1854, at the age of thirty-eight, he entered upon his labors as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jersey City, and ably, honorably, and satisfactorily filled that pastorate until his death, August 1, 1894,--a period of forty years, lacking one month. When he came to Jersey City there was but one church of the Baptist faith in the pace, and that was made up of the scattered membership of churches which had been formed and which had proved too weak to continue their organizations. The church was then known as the Union Baptist Church and had 206 members. Three other vigorous Baptist churches now exist in the city, the beginnings of which came largely from the old church during Dr. Parmly's pastorate. The mother church changed its name on the establishment of the other churches to the First Baptist Church of Jersey City, and now has a membership of nearly four hundred.

Dr. Parmly labored hard with great success, baptizing in the winter of 1865 alone over one hundred converts. In that year he spent four months in Europe, and, returning with new energy, entered into his work with redoubled force, giving also a vast amount of his time to the general interests of the city, the State, and the Nation. He was especially active in the establishment of the denominational school now known as Peddie Institute at Hightstown, N. J., contributing years of labor and large sums of money for that purpose.

As a pastor Dr. Parmly certain excelled. His people were strongly attached to him, and under no circumstances would they allow him to go in response to the successive calls which he received from other societies. He was recognized as the man for the place. Once each year he endeavored to visit personally every family in his congregation and his calls upon those who were sick were frequent. Believing in this method as he did, it certainly added largely to his success in pastoral relations. He preached, while in Jersey City, five thousand sermons, made addresses on public occasions to an equal number, attended 844 funerals, performed 1,425 marriages, raised nearly $300,000 for the church and $50,000 for benevolent purposes, received into the church over 1,000 members and baptized more than 1,300 others.

He remained as the faithful servant of that church until September, 1887, when, at the age of seventy-one, he was unable to bear longer the burden of the pastorate alone, and at his request the church called to his aid an assistant pastor. Two years later he again asked to be relieved, and by unanimous vote of the church was made its Pastor Emeritus, a position he held until his death, which occurred August 1, 1894. He was survived by four children: Duncan D. Parmly, Mrs. Elizabeth P. Thompson, Randolph Parmly, and Christine D. Parmly. One son, Walter, died in his youth.

His only installation as pastor of the church in Jersey City was the singing by the congregation of Montgomery's beautiful humn, of which the following is a part:

"We bid thee welcome in the name
Of Jesus, our Exalted Head;
Come as a servant, so He came,
And we receive thee in His stead.

"Come as a messenger of peace,
Filled with His spirit, fired with love?
Live to behold our large increase,
And die to meet us all above."

Dr. Parmly was especially interested in the cause of Christian education, and gave himself unreservedly to the upbuilding of Peddie Institute and the New Jersey Baptist Education Society, becoming a member of the latter in 1852, serving it for more than forty years as a member of its Board of Managers, for seven years as President, and then being elected its Honorary President, an office specially created for him. From almost the first he was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Peddie Institute and for many years one of its Education Committee. In every capacity he was a good man, a true Christian, a benefactor anchored in the Baptist faith by an intense study of the Scriptures, and loyal to all the trusts confided to his care No man had a more honored leadership in his church in the State, and none was mre beloved or more universally esteemed.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 79-82.

John H. Post. Captain Adriaen Post first came to America from Harlengen, Holland, about 1653, as agent or manager of Baron Van der Cappellan's colony on Staten Island. Upon the destruction of that colony by the savages early in 1655, , Mr. Post fled to Bergen (Jersey City), whence, in September following, he, with his wife, five children, two servants, and one girl, were taken prisoners by the savages at what is known as the second massacre of Pavonia. The family escaped by the payment of a heavy ransom, and Post was thereupon dispatched by the Bergen colonists to treat with the sachems of the Hackensack tribes for a release of other prisoners. After his return from a successful performance of this duty he settled at Bergen and eventually became one of the most active and influential members of the struggling colony. Having had some military experience in Holland, the Bergen colonists appointed him Ensign of the militia September 6, 1665. On May 12, 1668, he bought from Governor Philip Carteret lots Nos. 35, 55, 117, 100, and 164, of the Bergen common lands, containing in all about 165 acres. He built and resided on lot 164, containing fifty-five acres. On June 10, 1673, he was elected to represent the Town of Bergen in the provincial assembly, where he acquitted himself with distinction. On July 19, 1672, he was appointed Prison Keeper for East Jersey, and was the first person to hold that position. "Captain Post," by which official title he always went, died at Bergen in February, 1677. His wife's name is not mentioned. He left a large family. He was the ancestor of all the Posts in Bergen and Hudson Counties. He resided in the town on lot No. 164. His children were Adriaen, William, Elias, in the town on lot No. 164. His children were Adriaen, William, Elias, Margaretta, Francis, and Gertrude. Adriaen (2) became one of the patentees of the Aquackanock patent. The latter's two sons, Adriaen and Abraham (3), came to Bergen County in 1735, and married respectively Hendricke Ackerman and Rachel Hertie. Abraham located on the upper Saddle River, purchasing lands of Hendrick Vandelinda.

John H. Post, the subject of this sketch, is descended in the seventh generation from Captain Adriaen Post. His paternal grandfather, Henry Post, a farmer, was born in the western part of the county, but died in Secaucus, where his son, Adriaen Post, the father of John H., was born in 1818. Adriaen Post was a farmer in New Durham and Secaucus, and died in the latter place March 15, 1896, in his seventy-eighth year. His wife, Mary Van Giesen, daughter of Garret Van Giesen, died December, [sic] 31, 1891, aged seventy-two. Her family was also a very early one in Hudson County, and like the Posts was of Holland Dutch descent. Mr. and Mrs. Adrian Post had five children, namely: Henry, Leah Ann, John H., Adrian, Jr., and one who died in infancy.

John H. Post was born in New Durham, Hudson County, October 7, 1844, but has spent most of his life on a part of the old family homestead on the Paterson plank road in Secaucus. He received a thorough education, attending the public schools of Secaucus, Union Hill, and Bergen Point, and a boarding school at Deckertown, N.J., and since completing his studies has devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. Mr. Post is one of the best farmers in Hudson County, and has been eminently successful. He has always taken a deep interest in public affairs, and, though never aspiring to office, has served three years as a school trustee and three years as district clerk. With these exceptions he has declined political or public preferment. In politics he is a consistent Republican, and in a quiet way has rendered efficient service to his party. He is a progressive, patriotic citizen, honored and respected, and enjoys the confidence of the entire community.

Mr. Post was married April 6, 1868, to Fredericka Huber, daughter of Frederick Huber, of Secaucus. They have four children: Adrian, Christina, William H., and Walter.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 72-73.

HENRY PUSTER is a fine example of the German-American citizen, one of that large class whose industry, economy, intelligence, and sturdy integrity have done so much toward the development of our country, and whose solid qualities and valuable services in all departments of private and public life have been valuable services in all departments of private and public life have been recognized in every portion of the republic. He is a native of Jersey City, N. J., where he was born March 10, 1858, and where he has always resided. His father, Valentine Puster, a native of Bavaria, came to America about the year 1850, and located in Jersey City, where his son enjoyed the advantages of the public as well as the German private schools.

While but a youth he made choice of the jewelry business as his life work; but after a short apprenticeship he became convinced that his tastes, abilities, and natural aptitudes pointed to a very different sphere of action. Hence, with more mature judgment revising his former decisions, he resolved to make the law his profession. In the light of subsequent events no one can doubt that this was a most fortunate change. Mr. Puster now entered the law office of Hon. William D. Daly, since State Senator and Congressman. For four years following he received kindly advice and instruction from Mr. Daly, as well as from his partner (at that time), Mr. Wynkoop, who took a lively and warm interest in him, seeing his aptitude and industrious endeavors, and coached him through all the intricacies confronting the law student. Mr. Puster also found a warm friend in the lat Hon. Bennington F. Randolph, Judge of the Jersey City District Court, who did much for him while pursuing the rugged course of the law student, and he afterward had the extreme pleasure of succeeding his benefactor and friend on the District Court bench.

At the close of this period Mr. Puster took his examination in company with a number of fellow students from the same building (Flemming Building), and to-day is the only living and successful lawyer of all those who took the journey to Trenton bent on attaining the same goal. After becoming regularly admitted to the bar of New Jersey, he at once entered upon the practice of his profession in his native city, where his courtesy, ability, and knowledge of the law, his tireless activity, with prompt and thorough attention to business, rapidly added to his circle of friends and steadily built up for him an extensive and valuable practice. He is a man of kind and generous impulses, as is evidenced by the fact that he is known as a friend of the poorer classes, who often receive the benefit of his legal services and advice with little remuneration or quite gratuitously.

So bright and energetic a man could scarcely fail to become a leader in politics. He comes of Democratic stock and has always been true to the Democratic standard, and hence enjoys the fullest confidence of his party. As early as 1881, when but twenty-three years of age, he was elected Alderman of his district, the Sixth, and received the cognomen of "the School-Boy Alderman," which position he held for two years, and labored assiduously for his district with good effect. In 1890 he was chosen Assemblyman for the same district by a large majority over his opponent, Hon. James S. Erwin. The duties of this office he discharged with ability till the Hon. Leon Abbett, having discovered his fitness for the honors and responsibilities of the bench, in April, 1891, appointed him to succeed William P. Douglass as Judge of the First District Court of Jersey City. As a jurist he fully met the high expectations of his friends, presiding with marked dignity, ability, justice, and decision.

Judge Puster is a member of Grant Lodge, No. 89, K. of P., of Unique Council, R. A., and of the order of Good Fellows; Past Grand of Lincoln Lodge, No. 136, I. O. O. F.; and representative to the Home for Aged Indigent Odd Fellows of New Jersey, of which institution he is a Director and formerly President. He has also served several years as the representative to the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows of New Jersey. He is one of the managers of the Aged German Home, known as the Raymond Roth Altenheim, under the management of the German Pioneer Verein, as well as counsel for the same institution. He is also counsel for five different building and loan associations.

On the 24th of January, 1883, Judge Puster was married to Miss Julia A. Wenner, daughter of John C. Wenner, for many years past a leading business man and manufacturer of Jersey City. They are blessed with four daughters, in whom Judge Puster has a great and fatherly pride.

He became associated in partnership with Hon. Robert S. Hudspeth, ex-Presiding Judge of the Hudson County Court of Common Pleas, and has a suite of finely appointed offices in the Davidson Building, Jersey City. Judge Puster is still a young man, having only reached the prime of life, and has every prospect of a brilliant future before him.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, pages 170-171.

THE QUACKENBUSH FAMILY in Bergen and Hudson Counties are descended from Peter Quackenbush, of Oostgeest, Holland. His son, Rynier Pietersen Van Quackenbosch, came to America in 1673-74 and located at New Amsterdam, where he married, March 2, 1674, Elizabeth Jans, of Flushing, L. I. He was a carpenter by trade, and prsued that calling in New Amsterdam. His wife having died in 1691, he married, the following year, Classie Jacobse. He had a large family of children, among whom were Abraham, Jacob, and John. Abraham settled at Schraalenburgh in Bergen County and married Susanna, a daughter of Samuel Hellings (Helms), by whom he had issue ten chidlren. His brother John married Lena Van Houten, and his brother Jacob married Ann Brower. John and Jacob both located in the northerly part of Bergen. Abraham, John, and Jacob each reared large families, from whom having sprung numerous descendants now scattered over Bergen County.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 178-179.

CHARLES WESLEY RANDALL, of Jersey City, has been actively and successfully engaged in the practice of architecture in Hudson County since 1880, or during a period of twenty yeas. He was born in the Hudson City section of Jersey City in 1856 ad is the son of George W. Randall and Sarah Hellier, both of whom are of English descent. His family originally settled in old Hudson City in 1837, and has ever since been active and influential in important capacities.

Mr. Randall was educated primarily in Public School No. 1, of Hudson City (now Jersey City), and subsequently took a course at Cooper Institute, New York, graduating therefrom as an architect. In 1880 he entered upon the active practice of his profession in Hudson County, and from that time to the present has built a large number of houses and other buildings, in all of which appear evidences of his genius. He is a man of decided artistic talent, energetic and influential in all the affairs of life, thoroughly identified with the best interests of the community, and one of the best architects and builders in the County of Hudson.

In 1880 Mr. Randall married Eleda Erickson. They have three children: George E., Elizabeth G., and Josephine E. Randall.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 146.

ISAAC ROMAINE, of Jersey City, is a lineal descendant of (1) Klaas Jansen Romeyn, who came from Holland to America in 163 and eventually settled in Hackensack, N. J., where his son (2) Albert was born in 1680, and where the latter's son (3) Nicholaas was born in December, 1711. The next in descent, (4) Albert Romein, son of Nicholaas, was born in Schraalenburgh, N. J., February 11, 1752, and had a son (5) Roelef A., whose birth occurred July 24, 1774. John R. Romine (6), son of Roelef A. Romein, was born in Bergen County, N. J., My 18, 1806, and married Ann, daughter of John Zabriskie, of old Bergen (now Hudson) County. They were the parents of Isaac Romaine, the subject of this sketch, who was born in Bergen Township, Hudson County, N. J., on the 4th of May, 1840. These worthy ancestors not only took a lively interest in public and business affairs, but transmitted to their numerous descendants in general and Mr. Romaine in particular their sturdy Dutch characteristics and habits of thrift, and left behind them careers which illumine the pages of history and grace the annals of their respective communities.

Mr. Romaine attended the Columbia District School until 1852, prepared for college at a private school in the Township of Bergen, Hudson County, and was graduated from Rutgers College in 1859. Having studied law with Hon. A. O. Zabriskie, subsequently Chancellor of the State of New Jersey, he was admitted to the bar as an attorney in November, 1862, and as a counselor in November, 1865, and since the spring of 1863 has practiced in Jersey City. He was Corporation Counsel of the City of Bergen from 1865 to 1867, and, becoming an Alderman in May, 1869, was President of the Board of Alderman in 1869 and 1870, immediately preceding the consolidation of Bergen and Jersey City. In 1883 he was appointed a member of the Board of Finance and Taxation, but was not seated on account of legal complications until 1886. In 1884 he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly, in which body he served on the Committee on Claims and Revolutionary Pensions and Stationery, as well as on the Joint Committee on Passed Bills.

Throughout his career Mr. Romaine has been a stanch and active Republican. He is a master and examiner and a special muster in chancery for New Jersey. Prior to the expiration of that office by legal limitation, July 1, 1897, he was a Commissioner of the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of New Jersey. At the present time he is a Commissioner of the District of New Jersey. At the present time he is a Commissioner of the District Court of the United States for the District of New Jersey. He has been President of the Star Mutual Building and Loan Association of Jersey City since 1886 having been one of its founders and its first Vice-President in 1885. He is a member of the Holland Society of New York City and was its Vice-President from Hudson County, N. J., in 1897 and 1898. He is also a member of the Jersey City, Carteret, and Union League Clubs of Jersey City, and of other important organizations.

December 29, 1863, he was married to Miss Annie A., daughter of John W. Morton, of Jersey City. She died February 1, 1895.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 78-79.