NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

The ancestral history of the Axtell family can be very clearly traced back over a period of three hundred and fifty years, and beyond that time representatives of the family appear here and there in English annals. The progenitor of the American branch was Thomas Axtell, a Puritan Englishman, who set sail for America on board the good ship "Globe," on the 7th of August, 1635, and afterward settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts, where he died in 1646. About 1740 Henry, the great-grandson of Thomas, moved to New Jersey, and located near Mendham, Morris county. Henry, the son of Thomas, was killed in the Wadsworth Indian massacre, on the 20th of April, 1676. Henry, son of the Henry Axtell who came to New jersey in 1740, participated in the Revolutionary war, in which he was major of a battalion of New Jersey colonial troops, under command of Colonel Jacob Ford, Jr. Major Henry Axtell was the father of Silas C., a native of Morris county, who married Elizabeth Loree, and among their children was Jacob T. Axtell, the father of our subject. Jacob T. Axtell was born in Mendham, Morris county, New Jersey; was there reared and educated and married Miss Rachel Enslee, a daughter of William Enslee, whose father, John Enslee, also figured in the Revolutionary history of Morris county. Jacob T. Axtell was by occupation a contractor and builder.

Charles F. Axtell was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on the 26th of May, 1845, and received a common-school education in the public schools of his native town and township. Mr. Axtell learned the printer's trade in the office of The Jerseyman, at Morristown, and from 1867 to 1869 he was an associate publisher of that paper, subsequently serving for several years in the government printing-office, at Washington, whence he went abroad to investigate the methods employed in German printing offices, visiting Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfort, Mayence, and other continental cities.

In 1873 he entered the law offices of Messrs. Pitney and Youngblood and was admitted to the bar as an attorney-at-law in 1877, and in 1891 as a counselor-at-law, and has since followed that calling, establishing for himself an enviable reputation and meeting with the distinct success that is ever the logical result of fearless integrity, thrift and intelligently applied industry. In 1863 Mr. Axtell enlisted his services for the defense of the Union, and became a member of Company E, First Battalion, New Jersey Emergency Men, and he is now an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is past commander and past adjutant of A. T. A. Torbert Post, No. 24, Department of New Jersey.

Politically considered, Mr. Axtell has always rendered a firm allegiance to the Republican party and has been the incumbent of various minor offices, including township collector, clerk and counsel, and city clerk and treasurer of Morristown. In the years 1879 and 1880 he was elected to the New Jersey legislature and in that honorable body he served as a member of the committee on revision of laws and the joint committee on state treasurer's accounts. He is now serving his second term as justice of the peace, besides which he has a general practice. Mr. Axtell has shown an open frankness and fearlessness in the expression of his convictions; by political diplomacy and careful judgment he has attained a recognized prestige that has placed him in the front ranks of his profession. Touching upon his social relations we may state that Mr. Axtell is an affiliate of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has acquired a high degree of popularity and has been honored with official preferment. He is a past master of Cincinnati Lodge, No. 3, and present eminent commander of Ode de St. Amand Commandery, No. 12, Knights Templar, and he is also a member of the Mystic Shrine, in Mecca Temple, New York city.

Mr. Axtell was married September 26, 1883, to Miss Ella M. Patterson, of Stratford, Connecticut, and their children are: Roland P., Rachel E. and Merritt F.

Mr. Axtell is one of the best known men in Morris county, throughout which he has a large number of warm personal friends.

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