History of Jefferson, (Gloucester County) New Jersey United States of America

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Biographies:

Asher Brown Durand, artist, was born in Jefferson. N.J., Aug. 21, 1796; a younger brother of Cyrus Durand, the banknote engraver. He learned to engrave on metal in his father's jewelry shop. He then made copper plates by rolling out coins and with gravers of his own manufacture made his first copper prints. In 1812 he was apprenticed to Peter Maverick, an engraver in New York city, and became his partner in 1817. His first original work was The Beggar, after a painting by Samuel Waldo. This was followed by The Declaration of Independence, after Trumbull's painting, which consumed three years' time to complete; Musidora (1825), General Jackson (1828) and a large number of subjects for the Annuals, for the American Portrait Gallery and for other publications. In 1836 he took up painting in oils of American landscapes and American historical characters. Besides portraits of eminent men, his subjects included Harvey Birch and Washington, The Capture of Andr?, The Dance on the Battery, The Wrath of Peter Stuyvesant and God's Judgment on Gog, all of which he engraved. His landscapes embraced The Catskills from Hillsdale, The Franconian Mountains, The Rainbow, Sunday Morning, Primeval Forests and several Views of Lake George. His large canvas A Mountain Forest (1869) went to the Corcoran gallery, Washington; and Studies from Nature, Il Pappagallo and Kauterskill Cove were in the Centennial exposition, 1876. He was a founder of the National academy of design and succeeded S. F. B. Morse as its president, serving 1845-61. His son John became a prominent art critic and editor. He died in South Orange, N.J., Sept. 17, 1886.

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

Cyrus Durand, engraver, was born in Jefferson, N.J., Feb. 27, 1787. He was the son of a watchmaker and was descended from Huguenot ancestors. He learned the trade of his father and added to it a knowledge of the construction of machinery, in which he found profitable employment during the enforcement of the non-intercourse acts of the British parliament. In 1814 he located in Newark, N.J., where he was a silversmith. He volunteered as a drummer in the U.S. army and served three months during the war of 1812-14. He constructed machines for carding and weaving hair, to be used in manufacturing carpets in 1815. He then directed his attention to banknote engraving and he made ruling machines for lathe work and straight line engraving. This was apparently the beginning of geometrical lathes afterward universally used in banknote engraving. He also made machines for engine turning and transfer presses. He was married to Mrs. Phoebe Woodruff, who lived to be one hundred years old, and they had six children. Of these, Jane Wade was married to the Rev. John L. Chapman, Elias Wade became a noted landscape painter, Juliet P. married a Mr. Baker, and the Rev. Cyrus B. Durand was rector of St. James church, Newark, N.J. Cyrus was chief of the bureau of engraving and printing, Washington, D.C., for many years, and died in Irvington, N.J., Sept. 18, 1868.

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