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RICHARD EDWIN GALBRAITH, eldest surviving son of William and Dorothy (Nixon) Galbraith, was born in West Hoboken, N. J., April 17, 1842. After completing his studies in the public schools of his native town he associated himself with his father, and learned, and for several years practiced, the art of a taxidermist. He was successfully identified in a professional capacity with P. T. Barnum, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and the Kentucky University at Lexington, and afterward was engaged for nineteen years in the ostrich feather business, in West Hoboken and New York, with E. V. Welch & Co. and their successors, Bene, Creighton & Co. These connections gave him a broad experience and a valuable training in both professional and commercial affairs, and brought him into prominence as a man of unusual ability, of great force of character, and of rare mental and executive attainments.

In 1884 Mr. Galbraith engaged in the real estate and insurance business in West Hoboken, which he still follows with characteristic energy and success. He has been an extensive operator in real property in that section, and through his enterprise and foresight has been instrumental in developing several important tracts.

In politics he is a conservative Democrat. He was four years a member and one year Chairman of the Town Council of West Hoboken, three years Chief of Police, two years a member and one year Chairman of the West Hoboken Board of Education, and one of the founders of the Hudson Trust and Savings Institution, of which he is a Director and a member of the Executive Committee. He has been President of the Palisade Building and Loan Association of West Hoboken since its organization in April, 1891. He is a prominent member and for three years was Master of Doric Lodge, No. 86, F. and A. M., of West Hoboken and is a member of Cyrus Chapter, No. 32, R. A. M., of Pilgrim Commandery, No. 16, K. T., and of the Scottish Rite bodies in the Valley of Jersey City, of Mecca Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of New York, and of the Masonic Veterans' Association, of Brooklyn, and is Past Junior Grand Steward of the Grand Lodge of Masons of New jersey. He is also a member of Ellsworth Post, No. 14, G. A. R., of the Town of Union, having enlisted in August, 1862. In Company F, Twenty-first New jersey Volunteer Infantry, and serving in the Third Brigade, Second Division, Sixth Army Corps, of the Army of the Potomac, in the Civil War. This was the first nine-months' regiment from New Jersey in the War of the Rebellion. Mr. Galbraith participated in both battles of Fredericksburg, and at the second battle was captured by the enemy and confirmed as a prisoner for about ten days. His high standing in the community, the esteem and confidence in which he is held, and his great popularity and wide acquaintance are attested by the several important positions he has filed, the duties of which he has discharged with ability, integrity, sound judgment, and faithfulness. Almost every important movement in West Hoboken, during the last fifteen or twenty years, has felt the impetus of his wholesome and benevolent influence.

Mr. Galbraith was married, June 1, 1865, to Sarah Jane, daughter of William Granger Quigley and Esther, his wife, of New York City and later of West Hoboken.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, pages 158-160.

WILLIAM GALBRAITH, probably the earliest and most noted taxidermist in Hudson County, was born in County Down, Ireland, of Scotch-Irish ancestors, the name being conspicuous in Scotland before the exodus caused by the wars and politcal disturbances. When a young man he emigrated to America and settled in New York City, but soon went to Long Island, and in April, 1838, removed to West Hoboken, N. J., where he died in October, 1872, in his sixty-seventh year. He was a distinguished tasidermist, and in the constant practice of his profession achieved considerable fame and eminent success. Numerous examples of his work which are still in existence attest his remarkable skill and ability, and stamp him as one of the leading taxidermists of his time. Coming to West Hoboken when the country was new and practically an unbroken forest, he found plenty of birds and animals, many of which exist now only in the specimens which he preserved.

Mr. Galbraith purchased a house and two lots on the corner of Spring and Cortlandt Streets, of Cyrus W. Browning, the founder of the Town of West Hoboken, and during his active life took a prominent part in local affairs, serving as Town Committeeman, etc. He was also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married, first, Jemima Payne, who bore him four children: Elizabeth Charity (Mrs. Whittemore), of Chicago, Charles S., of West Hoboken, and two who are deceased. His second wife, Eliza Billings, whom he married in New York, died in West Hoboken, leaving two children: William and John, both deceased. He married, third, in New York City, Miss Dorothy Nixon, by whom he had seven children, of whom one is living, namely: Richard E. of West Hoboken.

Charles Stewart Galbraith was born on Long Island, on the 21st of September, 1831, and adopted his father's profession, which he has followed for many years. He has traveled extensively in the interest of his work, and resides in West Hoboken.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 158.

THE GARRABRANT FAMILY, the inter members of which are numerous in the western part of Bergen and Hudson Counties, claim descent from Gerbrand Claesen, a Dutch emigrant, who, at one time, had much influence over the early affairs of Bergen. Claesen was from Amsterdam, and was at Bergen probably two or three years before he married Maritie, only daughter of Claes Pietersen Cos, which was August 25, 1674. He became a large property owner and held many official positions. In 1689 he obtained permission of Governor Leisler to purchase a tract of land now in Putnam County, N. Y., and, on December 6, 1699, he purchased of George Willocks an extensive tract of land on the Pequanonek River, then in Bergen County.

His issue were nine children: Peter, Claes, Herpert, Cornelia, Metje, Cornelius, Maria, Gerrebrand, and Mindert. Some of these remained at Bergen, where their descendants still live, while others settled on their father's lands on the Pequanonek River, whence their issue spread over Bergen and Passaic Counties.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 164.

ABRAM QUICK GARRETSON, for nine years prosecuting attorney of the most populous county of the State, during five years more Law or President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hudson County, and now an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is descended from the old Holland stock which contributed so largely in early colonial days to the stability and prosperity of the States of New York and New Jersey. The names of his ancestors appear in the old Dutch records of New Jersey, the first of them having come over from Holland soon after the first planting of New Amsterdam. The Garretsons were among the number who originally settled in the present territory of New Jersey, in the vicinity of New York City. Later branches of the family pushed into the western counties with the first pioneers. Judge Garretson’s direct ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Somerset County. He is the son of Martin Schenck Garretson and Ann Beckman Quick and a great-grandson of Abraham Quick, a colonel of New Jersey militia in the Revolutionary War.

Judge Garretson was born in Franklin Township, Somerset County, on the 11th of March, 1842. He was sent to school in Trenton at the age of thirteen, and entered Rutgers College in the fall of 1859. His preparation had been such that he was enabled to enter the sophomore class in the classical course at the age of seventeen, graduating with honors three years later, in 1862, and standing first in his class. In 1865 he received the degree of A.M. in course. He chose the legal profession as promising the best opportunities for a career. He also determined to select the largest city of his State as his field of operation. Accordingly, we find him, almost immediately after graduation, entering as a student the law office of the well known Chancellor’ A. O. Zabriskie, of Jersey City. After spending two years in the Chancellor’s office, he rounded out his legal studies by a year at the Harvard Law School. In November, 1865, he was admitted to practice at the bar of New Jersey as an attorney, and at the end of three years, in 1868, and as soon as the law of the State permitted, he was admitted as a counselor, giving him the right to practice in the highest courts of the State. He was afterward admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court at Washington.

The young lawyer’s success was not only immediate, but quite phenomenal, as was shown by his appointment in February, 1869, only one year after his admission as a counselor and only four after his first practice, to the responsible position of Prosecutor of Pleas for Hudson County, an office identical in every respect except its name with that of the ordinary district attorney of other States. He was appointed for a term of five years by Governor Randolph, and filled the position so ably and with such general satisfaction that at the end of the time he was re-appointed for a second term by Governor Parker. He served four years of this second term, making a continuous service of nine years, and then resigned to accept in 1878 the appointment by Governor McClellan as Law or “President” Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hudson County. He served in this capacity for five years.

The ability and integrity displayed by Judge Garretson upon the bench only served to greatly increase the esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens. But notwithstanding all this, he desired to return to private practice, and this he eventually did in 1883, when his term as judge expired, he having announced that he was not a candidate for re-appointment previous to the expiration of his term.

In the same year he formed a legal partnership with James H. Vredenburgh in Jersey City. In 1900 he was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

While Judge Garretson has always been a consistent Democrat in politics, in local affairs his sympathies are fully enlisted in the welfare of the community. He has served as one of the Commissioners for the Adjustment of Tax Arrearages for Jersey City since 1887, when that commission was organized. In Jersey City an immense amount of property has been snowed under a great burden of tax arrears which it was utterly impossible for its owners to meet, while if they abandoned their property the city treasury was unable to realize upon it, and it has been the delicate and difficult task of the commission to readjust such old claims of the city and fix a sum which the property owners could pay and thus put such property on a tax-paying basis, and at the same time lift a burden which could not fail to depress values and impede municipal growth and development. Claims aggregating millions of dollars have been thus readjusted, while the commission is now beginning to see the prospective end of its labors.

Judge Garretson was a founder in 1888 and is President of the New Jersey Title and Guarantee Trust Company, the only one of its kind in Jersey City, and is a Director in the Third National Bank. He is also similarly interested in other directions. His name must ever be linked with the progressive development of his adopted city, where he has resided since 1865.

November 12, 1879, he married Josephine, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Davis) Boker, of Philadelphia. Their children are Leland Beekman, Josephine Boker, and Eleanor Helen.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 88-90.

THE GAUTIER FAMILY, at one time numerous in Hudson County, was a French Huguenot family who came to America after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. By intermarriage a considerable landed estate in Bergen, N. J., came into possession of the family. This property, at what is now Greenville, is known as the "Gautier farm," descended through one Captain Thomas Brown. Jacques Gautier, of Saint Blancard, in the Province of Languedoc, France, is said to have been the first American progenitor of the Gautiers. He settled in New Amsterdam, and left issue two sons, Daniel and Francois, besides daughters. Daniel (2) married, at New York, September 6, 1716, Maria Bogert, and had eleven children, one of whom was Andrew (3), who was born in 1720 and married (1) in 1744 an English lady named Elizabeth Crossfield, and (2) in 1774 Elizabeth Hastier. Andrew (3) was a prominent man in New York, and left issue four children, one of whom, Andrew (4), born December 18, 1755, married (1) Mary Brown, of Bergen, and (2) Hannah Turner. Andrew (4) took up his residence at Greenville and left eight children, from whom are descended the Gautiers of Bergen and Hudson Counties.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 166.

ALBERT ZABRISKIE HARING is a lineal descendant of Jan Pietersen Haring, the first emigrant of the name (see sketch on page 61). Cornelius Jansen Haring (2) (the third of the children of Jan Pietersen Haring (1) and Margaretta Cozine), born in New York in 1672, married, in 1693, Catalyntie, daughter of Judge Matthew Flearboom, of Albany, N. Y. Cornelius removed to Tappan, N. Y., with other members of the family, in 1686, and in 1721, when the Tappan patented lands were divided, he received as his portion a large tract in Harrington Township, on both sides of the Tappan road and extending east of that road as far as what is now Northvale. He subsequently bought of Samuel Des Marest (2) a farm of several hundred acres near what is now Haworth, N. J., on which he erected his family mansion and resided until his death. Much of this farm remained in the ownership of his descendants up to twenty years ago. His seven children of the third generation were John C., Margaret, Sophia, Vroutie, Daniel C., Cornelius C., and Jacob C.

Of these seven children, Cornelius C. Haring (3) married, in 1710, Rensie Blawvelt, and dying left eight children of the fourth generation: Caroline, Abraham J., Cornelius C., Margaret, Maria, Elizabeth, John C., and Sophia.

Abraham Johns Haring (4) married Elizabeth Mabie. He bought and settled on a large farm just north of what is now called West Norwood, in Bergen County. This farm had formerly belonged to his grandfather, Cornelius Haring (2). He left three children: John A., born in March, 1751 (died); Peter A.; and John A. (2), born April 9, 1762. Of these Peter A. resided on his father's farm until his death.

Peter Abrams Haring (5), born at Norwood, N. J., April 16, 1754, married Maria Blawvelt, by whom he had two children of the sixth generation: Elizabeth, born January 20, 1773 (married Abraham A. Blawvelt), and David P.

David Peters Haring (6), born May 27, 1775, married Lydia Zabriskie, and lived all his lifetime on a portion of his grandfather's farm near West Norwood. His children of the seventh generation were Margaret (died), Lavina (married John Tallman), and Peter D.

Peter D. Haring (7) married Betsey Bogert, and had issue of the eighth generation David P. (married Catharine Bross), Samuel B. (married Letty Blawvelt), Albert Z., Newton (died), Ann Maria (married Isaac Onderdonk), and James (married Jane Van Houten).

Albert Zabriskie Haring, the subject of this sketch, was born near Norwood, N. J., December 21, 1848. He attended the common schools of Bergen County until fourteen years of age, and then became a clerk in the grocery business, which occupation he followed for a number of years. In 1872 he entered as a clerk the Hudson County National Bank of Jersey City, then under the management of John Armstrong, John Van Vorst, and Hon. A. A. Hardenburgh. He has been in the bank for twenty-nine years, has occupied various positions in it, and for the past twelve years has been its Paying Teller.

He married in 1866 Jemima, the daughter of the late Senator Ralph S. Demarest, and has two children of the ninth generation: Chauncey and Minnie C. The latter is married and has issue of the tenth generation, Clarisse, born in 1900. He has a summer residence at Demarest, N. J.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 63.

JOHN W. HECK, who has been actively and successfully engaged in the practice of law in Jersey City since 1876, was born in Trenton, N. J., July 27, 1855, and when three years old (1859) came with his parents to Jersey City, where his father took charge of the oil works of I. &C. Moore, located at the foot of Morris street. His father died in 1865. On the 1st of April, 1867, young Heck entered the office of the late Stephen Billings Ransom, with whom he later began the study of law. He became a clerk and student at law in the office of L. & A. Zabriskie on September 28, 1874, and at the November term of the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1876 he was admitted to the bar.

After the dissolution of this firm Mr. Heck remained with Lansing Zabriskie, the senior member, until 1884, when Mr. Zabriskie retired from practice. Mr. Heck then assumed charge of the business as Mr. Zabriskie’s attorney, and upon the latter’s death on March 29, 1892, continued as the attorney for estates for which Mr. Zabriskie had been trustee. Mr. Heck’s practice has been largely in that field of legal work.

In 1884 Mr. Heck was elected a member of the New Jersey Assembly from the Sixth Hudson District, and during his term introduced the famous citizens’ charter, which was defeated by his Republican colleagues from Jersey City. He also introduced and secured the passage of the firemen’s tenure of office act, removing the Jersey City Fire Department from politics, and re-introduced the bill providing for a bridge over the “Gap,” on Washington Street, which, as in a former attempt to pass this bill, was defeated, owing to the powerful influence brought to bear against it. In 1885 Mr. Heck was renominated for member of Assembly, but was defeated by Hon. R. S. Hudspeth. Two years later, in 1887, a committee of the Hudson County Bar Association, of which Mr. Heck was made a member, was appointed to prepare a bill to provide proper indices in the office of the register of deeds, and in connection with Spencer Weart, a fellow member of the committee, Mr. Heck secured the passage of the law providing for the well-known “block system.” The work under this act was performed by the commission appointed by Judge Manning M. Knapp, of which Mr. Heck was clerk, and completed in fourteen months. Hudson County now has the best set of indices to its land records that exist in the State.

Mr. Heck was a charter member of the old Jersey City Athletic club, and served in official capacities during the first six years of its existence, and in 1884 was its President. He is a member of Amity Lodge, F. and A. M., of Jersey City, and of several social and fraternal orders, and a Trustee, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Bay View Cemetery Association.

He was married October, 1884, to Miss Lillian Benson, of Haverstraw, N. Y. They have had two children.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, pages 112-113.

JACOB H. HOPPER. The Hopper family, it is said, started in France. They spelled the name Hoppe, and finally changed it to Hopper. Some of them went to Holland during times of religious persecution. It is known that Andries (Andrew) Hopper came to America from Amsterdam, Holland, with a wife (and, perhaps, two or three children), as early as 1653, and located in the City of New Amsterdam. The name of his wife does not appear in the New Jersey records. After their arrival the couple had three children born to them: William in 1654, Hendrick in 1656, and Matthew in 1658.

Of the three last named children William (2) married Mynen Paulus and had issue three children: Christina, Gertrude, and Belitie (Bridget), all born in New Amsterdam. William's two brothers, Hendrick (2) and Matthew (2), went to Bergen (Jersey City) in 1680. There, on March 14, of the same yea, Hendrick (2) married Mary Johns Van Blarkum, a daughter of the American emigrant of that name, and April 15, 1683, Matthew (2) married Ann Peterse, afterward called Antje Jorckse. It does not appear that Hendrick and Matthew purchased lands in Bergen. They probably lived on leased lands while there. William (2) went to Hackensack in 1686, where he joined the Dutch Church in March of that year. His brothers Hendrick (2) and Matthew (2) went to Hackensack the following year. William (2) had a child, Andrew, baptized at Hackensack in March, 1686, shortly after his arrival. Nothing more is said of William (2), and the inference is that he died soon after. Hendrick (2) and Matthew (2), soon after their arrival, each purchased from Captain John Berry, a farm of between two and three hundred acres at Hackensack (party in the present village), and extending from the Hackensack River to the Saddle River. Each of them settled and built on his farm, where they remained until their deaths. Both were farmers, but took an active art in town and church matters. Matthew was a deacon of the "church on the Green" in 1705.

Matthew's children (of the third generation) were Andrew, born in 1684, at Jersey City, married Elizabeth Bross; Christina, born in 1686 (married John Huysman); Lea, born in 1695 (married Jolin Vanderhoff, of Albany); Rachel, born in 1703 (twice married); and John, born in 1705 (married Elizabeth Kipp). All except Andrew were born at Hackensack. Hendrick's children of the third generation were Andrew, born in 1681 (married Abigail Ackerman); John, born in 1682 (married Rachel Terhune); William, born in 1684; Catharine, born in 1685 (married Peter Garretse Van Allen, of Rotterdam, Holland); Garret, born in 1696; Gertrude, born in 1699 (married Hendrick Alberts Zabriskie); and Lea (married Christian Alberts Zabriskie).

Many of these, with their children, removed to Paramus and scattered through Saddle River, Ridgewood, and Mildland Townships, where their descendants are to-day numerous. Members of the family have represented Bergen County in both houses of the Legislature; others have worn the judicial ermine with dignity and respectability; still others have become famous as physicians, clergymen, lawyers, mayors of cities, publicists, mechanics, sailors, soldiers, and agriculturists.

Jacob H. Hopper, the subject of this sketch, is a lineal descendant of Andrew Hopper, the first emigrant of the name. He is a son of John Hopper and Elizabeth (Goetchius) Hopper, and was born at Saddle River, in Bergen County, August 6, 1823. Having received a fair common school education in the schools of his native county, he acquired while quite young the trade of harness-making, which he followed successfully at Hackensack until 1880, when he was made superintendent of the cemetery in that village. He still holds this position, having filled it with great ability and fidelity during the last twenty years. Mr. Hopper has also been a prominent figure in public affairs. He was Town Collector of Hackensack for three years and a Justice of the Peace for ten years, and has served as a member of the Town Committee. For forty-nine years he has been a leading member and one of the chief supporters of the Hackensack Christian Reformed Church. The ability, faithfulness, and integrity with which he has discharged every trust, and the active interest he has taken in the progress and welfare of his town and county, have won for him great respect and the confidence of all who enjoy his acquaintance. He is public spirited, enterprising, and patriotic, and a liberal, progressive citizen, whose energies have been directed toward useful and charitable ends.

He married Lydia Bogert, a descendant of one of the old Bergen County families, and their children are Ann Elizabeth, John Henry, and Martha Amelia Hopper.

Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 71-72.