History of Trenton, (Mercer County) New Jersey United States of America

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Biographies:

Daniel Agnew, jurist, was born in Trenton, N.J., Jan. 5, 1809. At an early age he went with his parents to Pittsburg, Pa., where he obtained his education and entered the legal profession. He became widely and favorably known as a sound lawyer, and at the revision of Pennsylvania's constitution in 1836, he was a member of the convention called for that purpose. In 1851 he became presiding judge of the Seventeenth judicial district, in 1863 supreme judge, and in 1873 chief justice. He received the degree of LL.D. from both Washington and Dickinson colleges. He resigned from his judge-ship in 1879, "with the reputation of being one of the ablest jurists that ever sat upon the Pennsylvanian bench." In 1880 he was chosen as first president of the constitutional temperance amendment association of New Jersey. He published "A History of the Region of Pennsylvania North of the Ohio and West of the Allegheny River, etc., etc." (1878); and "Our National Constitution: its Adaptation to a State of War" (1863). He died at Beaver, Pa., March 9, 1902.

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

Dorothy Lynde Dix, philanthropist, was born in Hampden, Maine, April 4, 1802; daughter of Joseph Dix and granddaughter of Dr. Elijah and Dorothy (Lynde) Dix. Her childhood days were spent in various New England cities and towns and when fourteen years old she opened a schooI for little children in Worcester, Mass., which she continued one year. She then went to live with her grandmother in Boston, Mass., and in 1821 resumed the work of teaching, establishing in her grandmother's house a school which developed into a large boarding and day school. In 1824 ill health compelled her to abandon the school and she rested for three years. She was a teacher in the family of Dr. W. E. Channing during the summers of 1827-31, pulmonary weakness forcing her to the south during the winters. In 1831 she established a model boarding and day school in the Dix mansion in Boston, which she continued with pronounced success until the spring of 1836, when her health entirely broke down. She had secured by her labors a modest competence which rendered her independent for a time, and she went to England. Just before her return to America, in the autumn of 1837, her grandmother died, leaving her a sufficient bequest to insure a comfortable income during the rest of her life, and she resolved to devote her time and energies to the good of her fellow creatures. In March, 1841, her attention was called to the treatment to which prisoners and lunatics were subjected, and she personally investigated every jail and almshouse in Massachusetts, collecting an appalling mass of statistics and testimony, from which she framed a memorial to the legislature of Massachusetts, dated January, 1843. This resulted in a radical reform in the prison and asylum management of the state. She pursued her investigations in nearly every state in the Union, presenting memorials to the legislature, demanding appropriations, and gaining success in almost every case. Asylums constructed with due regard to sanitary requirements were erected in every state, and the inmates removed from dens of filth and wretchedness to wholesome and comfortable lodgings. She also continued her work as far north as Halifax, N.S., and St. Johnsbury, N.B. In 1848 she memorialized congress for a grant of 5,000,000 acres of the public domain, the proceeds of the sale of which were to be set aside as a perpetual fund for the care of the indigent insane and the sum to be divided proportionally to their populations among the thirty states in the Union. In 1850 she raised the amount of her plea to 12,225,000 acres, nearly 20,000 square miles, ?ten million acres to be used for the benefit of the insane and the rest for the blind and deaf and dumb. The bill passed the house and the senate by large majorities, but was vetoed by President Pierce as unconstitutional and inexpedient. This disappointment proved a great blow to Miss Dix's always precarious health. She sailed for Europe in September, 1854, and visited asylums in England, Ireland and Scotland. For the last named country she succeeded in securing through parliament new and humanely administered asylums for the pauper insane, and greatly ameliorated their condition throughout Great Britain. In September, 1856, she returned to America after several months of rest and travel on the continent, and devoted herself to obtaining larger appropriations for her charities. At the outbreak of the civil war she was in the south and there discovered an organized conspiracy to seize Washington with its archives and records, assassinate President Lincoln, and declare the Confederacy to be the government de facto of the United States. She revealed this discovery to Mr. Samuel M. Felton. Detectives corroborated Miss Dix's statements and the danger was averted. Miss Dix then offered her services to the war department as nurse and was appointed superintendent of women nurses, a position involving the most arduous labor. She served throughout the war and at its close received from Secretary Stanton of the war department a stand of the United States national colors, in token of her services. These flags she bequeathed to Harvard college. Her closing years were spent in her old work of improving the condition of the insane throughout the United States. In October, 1881, her health once more gave way and she went for rest to the earliest founded of her hospital homes, the Trenton, N.J.. asylum. There she was taken seriously ill and the managers of the asylum passed a vote inviting her to end her days as a guest under the roof of the first institution she had founded. She left her property in trust, the income to be devoted in perpetuity to charitable objects. She published: Conversations on Common Things (1824, 60th ed., 1869); Hymns for Children, Selected and Altered (1825); Evening Hours (1825); Ten Short Stories for Children (1827-28); Meditations for Private Hours (1828); The Garland of Flora (1829); The Pearl, or Affection's Gift (1829); and Prisoners in the United States (1845). See Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix by Francis Tiffany (1890). She died at Trenton, N.J., July 17, 1887.

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

Peter Dumont Vroom, Jr., governor of New Jersey, was born in Hillsborough township, N.J., Dec. 12, 1791; son of Col. Peter D. Vroom, who served throughout the Revolution, and Elsie (Bogart) Vroom; grandson of George and Garretje (Dumont) Vroom. Heattended the Somerville academy and was graduated from Columbia college, A.B., 1808, A.M., 1812; was admitted to the bar in 1813, and practised successively in Morris, Sussex, Hunterdon and Somerset counties, being admitted counselor, 1816. He married in 1820, Anna, daughter of Peter B. Dumont; she died, 1829. He was a representative in the state legislature from Somerset county, 1826-27 and 1829; became a sergeant-at-law, 1828; was elected governor of New Jersey as a Jackson Democrat, serving, 1829-32 and 1833-36, and was appointed by President Van Buren a commissioner to adjust the claims of the Choctaw Indians, 1837. He was a Democratic representative from New Jersey in the 26th congress, 1839-41, and in the latter year removed to Trenton, N.J. He was married secondly to Matilda M., daughter of Gen. Garret D. Wall. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention, 1844; assisted in the revision of the state statutes, 1846; was a presidential elector on the Pierce and King ticket, 1852, and declined the office of chief-justice of the supreme court of New Jersey, 1853. He was U.S. minister to Prussia, 1853-57; was named by Southern Democrats for the Vice-Presidency in 1860; a delegate from New Jersey to the peace convention at Washington, D.C., 1861; appointed a commissioner of the state sinking fund, 1864; reporter of the state supreme court, 1865, and was a presidential elector on the Seymour ticket, 1868. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Columbia, 1837, and from the College of New Jersey, 1850, and was a trustee of Rutgers college, 1822-73. Of his sons, Peter Dumont Vroom (Rensselaer Polytechnic institute, 1862), served with distinction in the civil war, being promoted 1st lieutenant, 3d U.S. cavalry, July, 1866, appointed mayor and inspector-general, 1888, and retired as brigadier-general, 1903; and Garret Dorset Wall Vroom became a jurist. Governor Vroom published: Reports of the Supreme Court of New Jersey (1866-73). He died in Trenton, N.J., Nov. 18, 1873.

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

John Redman Coxe, physician, was born in Trenton, N.J., in 1773. He attended the schools of Philadelphia, Pa., studied in Scotland, and in 1794 was licensed to practise medicine. He then spent two years in study in Europe and in 1796 began practice in Philadelphia. He was physician to the hospitals there and in 1809 accepted the chair of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1818 he was transferred to the chair of materia medica and pharmacy and held it until 1835, when his colleagues offered a statement to the trustees declaring the department of materia medica and pharmacy of too little importance to occupy the whole time of a professor, stating that Professor Coxe was incompetent to discharge the duties of the chair, and suggesting that he be removed from the faculty. This was done, greatly to the indignation of Dr. Coxe's friends and the public generally. Dr. Coxe's subsequent record refuted the charge of incompetence. He is the author of: Inflammation (1794); Importance and Respectability of the Science of Medicine (1800); Vaccination (1802); Combustion (1811); Emporium of Arts and Sciences (2 vols., 1812); The American Dispensatory (5th ed., 1822); An Inquiry Into the Claims of William Harvey to the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood (1834); Recognition of Friends in Another World (1845); and The Writings of Hippocrates and Galen epitomized .from the Original Translations (1846). He also translated Orfila's Practical Chemistry (1818); and edited the Philadelphia Medical Museum (1805-11). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., March 22, 1864.

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