Edward S. Hance

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Edward S. Hance

Source: History Morris County New Jersey, Volume II, Lewis Publishing Co., 1914

This family, the name of which was originally HANS, is of old Quaker stock, and was founded in America by three brothers who came over from the old world and settled in the middle States, locating primarily at Red Bank, New Jersey. One of these brothers remained at Red Bank, another removed to Norristown, Pennsylvania, and the third, the ancestor of the present branch, located in Warren county, New Jersey.

Isaac HANCE, the first recorded progenitor of the Morris county family, was a son of John and Elizabeth (MILLER) HANCE, and was born April 28, 1779. He was a farmer and passed his life in this county. He married Margaret MOTT, born April 11, 1785, daughter of Joshua and Mary MOTT. They had children:

Mary,
Elizabeth,
Lucy,
Alexander,
Harriett,
John,
Mary Ann,
Margaret,
Emily,
Sarah,
Sarah (2),
Isaac, and
an infant unnamed.

John HANCE, son of Isaac and Margaret (MOTT) HANCE, was born in Morris county, New Jersey, March 18, 1813, died October 11, 1886, aged about seventy-three years. He was a farmer like his father, and afterward became superintendent of the old Irondale mines. He also entered mercantile life, and was for many years a member of the firm of ORAM, HANCE & Company, merchants of this place. Mr. HANCE was twice married. His first wife was Mary Ann HULSE, daughter of Jonas and Cynthia HULSE, of Morris county; by this marriage there were five children:

George, a member of Company B, Twenty-seventh New Jersey Militia;
Isaac;
William, who has served two years in the United States Navy;
Cynthia;
John, deceased.

John HANCE married (second) Sarah HULSE, who lived to be about seventy years old and died February 27, 1899. There were five children also by this marriage:

Edward S., of further mention;
Charles M., deceased;
Mary (deceased);
Margaret;
Sarah.

Edward S. HANCE, son of John and Sarah (HULSE) HANCE, was born in Irondale, Morris county, July 16, 1851, and is now the postmaster of Wharton and a member of the undertaking firm of GILLEN-HANCE Company, of this town. Mr. HANCE received an interrupted education owing to the outbreak of the Civil War. He first attended the public schools at Mine Hill, but was taken from school before the completion of his studies to fill the position of clerk in the store of HANCE & Company, the regular clerk being among those young men who were required to leave their avocation and serve the country in the field. At the conclusion of the war, he resigned his position in the store and returned to his studies for another two years.

In the fall of 1868 he entered the Bryant and Stratton Business College in Newark, New Jersey, and returned home in the fall of 1870, after having completed the course. He then entered the employ of the firm of ORAM, HANCE & Company, occupying a position in their store until the early nineties. In the year 1878 he entered the undertaking business at Port Oram, now Wharton and Succasunna, the style of the firm being at first JARDINE & HANCE. In 1912 the Mr. GILLEN became the senior partner, and under the name of GILLEN & HANCE establishments were conducted in the towns of Wharton and Dover, the business now being one of the oldest in the county.

Mr. HANCE has become a man of strong influence in the community and in politics is a Republican. He has served as a member of the board of freeholders of Morris county, and on December 16, 1898, was appointed to his present responsible office of postmaster of Wharton, which he has filled with great and acknowledged ability for the past fifteen years. This has been of exceptional satisfaction, as his father, John HANCE, who was one of the founders of the town, occupied the same position before him, and with equal credit, Edward S. HANCE being at that time his father’s assistant. Mr. HANCE has thus passed his entire life in Morris county.

He has been prominent in many ways in the town, having been connected at various times and in various capacities with a number of the institutions and business associations of the place. From 1878 until 1890 he acted as secretary and superintendent of the Port Oram Manufacturing Company, makers of iron for wire purposes and of boiler tubes. He is greatly interested in Masonic and fraternal matters, and for a number of years has been a member of the Masonic Club of New York. He was one of the first members of Paterson Lodge No. 60, B. P. O. E.; and belongs to Acacia Lodge, No. 20, F. and A. M. of Dover, being next to the oldest past master of the lodge now living. He is also a member of the Hopocon Tribe, I. O. R. M., being past great sachem of the order for the State of New Jersey.

In the year 1875 Mr. HANCE was married to Elizabeth TALMADGE, daughter of Job A. and Alice TALMADGE, of Morris county, where she was born and resided until three years of age. At that time her parents removed to Petersburg, Virginia, taking her with them; but owing to the hostilities between the north and the south and the strong sentiments then prevalent, and the Battle of Reams Station, the family was compelled to return north, and again made their home in Morris county, New Jersey. Here Mr. HANCE met Miss TALMADGE and they were married. They became the parents of five children:

Alice, now assistant postmaster, unmarried;
Fred, in the railway mail service, married Louise Champion;
Edward R., unmarried, a Congregational minister, now pastor of the Borough Park Congregational Church of Brooklyn, New York, after having passed four years of preparation at Hackettstown, four years in Wesleyan College, Middletown, Connecticut, and three years in Union Theological Seminary, New York;
Harry, assistant chemist of the war department at Picatinny Arsenal, married Edith FARR;
Nellie, wife of John BENNETT, of Roseville, near Newark, having one son, James BENNETT.

This biography was transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003).