History of Bordentown, (Burlington County) New Jersey United States of America

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Biographies:

Richard Watson Gilder, editor, was born at Bordentown, N.J., Feb. 8, 1844; son of the Rev. William Henry and Jane (Nutt) Gilder. He attended his father's school, first at Bordentown, and afterward when it was removed to Flushing, L.I. At the latter place in 1856 he published the St. Thomas Register, a small newspaper, for which he set the type himself, and in 1860 he and two other boys, William F. and Joseph W. Allen, united in editing in Bordentown a campaign journal in support of Bell and Everett. In 1863 he enlisted in Landis's Philadelphia battery and served through the "emergency" campaign in Pennsylvania. After that he began to study law, but the death of his father in 1864 necessitat ing his self-support, he found employment as paymaster on the Camden & Amboy railroad. In 1865 he became a reporter on the Newark Advertiser in connection with which he was rapidly advanced through the grades of legislative correspondent and local editor to the position of managing editor. In 1868, in company with Newton Crane, he started the Newark Morning Register, and in 1869 also assumed the editorial duties of Hours at Home, a New York monthly, published by Scribner, Armstrong & Co. When that magazine was merged into Scribner's Monthly in 1870, he became managing editor, under Dr. Josiah G. Holland, who was editor-in-chief. In 1881 Scribner's Monthly became The Century Magazine, and in October, upon the death of Dr. Holland, Mr. Gilder became editor-in-chief. He was one of the founders of the Society of American artists, the American copyright league, the Authors' club, and the Free art league. He was elected president of the New York kindergarten association and the Public art league of the United States, and chairman of the New York tenement house commission of 1894. On June 3, 1874, he was married to Helena, daughter of Commodore deKay and granddaughter of Joseph Rodman Drake. He received the degrees of LL.D. from Dickinson college in 1883, A.M. from Harvard in 1890, and L.H.D. from Princeton in 1896. His first book of poems, The New Day, was published in 1875. His other poetical works are included in the following volumes: The Celestial Passion, Lyrics, Two Worlds, and Other Poems, and The Great Remembrance. All of these appeared in 1897 in a volume entitled Five Books of Song. He published also a patriotic collection, For the Country (1897); and In Palestine and Other Poems (1898).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Frederick Allen, metrologist, was born in Bordentown, N.J., Oct. 9, 1846; son of Col. Joseph Warner Allen, a civil engineer, state senator, deputy quarter-master-general and colonel of the 9th New Jersey volunteers, who, while serving with his regiment in Burnside's expedition the coast of North Carolina, 1861-'62, was drowned off Hatteras inlet while endeavoring to report to the commanding general during the storm, Jan. 13, 1862. William Frederick attended the Protestant Episcopal academy in Philadelphia, Pa. In 1862, after his father's death, he became a rodman on the Camden & Amboy railroad, and in 1863 was promoted to be assistant engineer. In 1868 he became resident engineer of the West Jersey railroad; on Oct. 1, 1872, assistant editor of the Official Railway Guide, and in May, 1873, was made its editor, and business manager of the National railway publication company, then of Philadelphia, afterward of New York. In 1875 Mr. Allen was elected permanent secretary of the general time convention, composed of the general managers and superintendents of the principal railroad trunk lines, which then met to determine upon schedules of through trains on the eastern and western roads. In the following year he was elected secretary of the southern time convention, consisting of representatives of the leading southern railway lines. These conventions were consolidated in 1886, and from them the American railway association, composed of companies operating and controlling 186,000 miles of road, was developed, and Mr. Allen became secretary of the association. By unanimous resolutions of the conventions his services were acknowledged for the formulation of the plan, and the accomplishment of the practical part of the work, which culminated in the adoption of standard time, based upon the Greenwich hour-meridians, by the United States and Canada, Nov. 18, 1883. The same system was subsequently adopted by other countries, and came into general use in Japan, the Philippines, Porto Rico, Spain, Australia, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Roumania, Servia, and part of Turkey, for which purpose a large amount of information was furnished by Mr. Allen. He was appointed by President Arthur one of the five delegates who represented the United States at the international meridian conference held in Washington, D.C., in October, 1884. Twenty-five nations were represented and the Greenwich meridian was adopted as the prime meridian and standard of time reckoning. An address delivered by him at this time on standard time as adopted in the United States was reprinted in many languages, with the proceedings of the conference. On April 22, 1890, he was elected as honorary member of the K.K. geographical society of Vienna, Austria, in recognition of his services in the adoption of standard time. He was selected as one of eight delegates to represent the American railway association at the meeting of the international railway congress, held in London, 1895, and one of six delegates, and an official U.S. delegate, to the congress in Paris in 1900. He was one of the council of the American metrological society for introducing the metric system; a member of the American society of civil engineers; a member of the American economic society; of the American society for the advancement of science; of the American academy of political and social science, and of the American statistical association.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Burgess Allison, educator, was born in Bordentown, N.J., Aug. 17, 1753. When but sixteen years old he began to preach in the Baptist church, and after attendance at the college of Rhode Island in 1777 he settled in his native town, where he preached for a short time, and then founded a very successful classical boarding school. In 1879 he received the honorary degree of A.M. from the college of Rhode Island, and that of D.D. in 1804. In 1796 he relinquished teaching, and invented and introduced into use some valuable improvements on the steam- engine in its adaptation to steam navigation. In 1801, he returned to his teaching and preaching, but the condition of his health soon obliged him to discontinue both. In 1816 he was elected first chaplain of the house of representatives, and from 1816 to 1824 held the same position at the U. S. navy yard in Washington. He contributed frequently to magazines, but wrote no books. He died in Washington, D.C., Feb. 20, 1827.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor