History of Westfield, (Union County) New Jersey United States of America

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Biographies:

William Weston Patton, educator, was born in New York city, Oct. 19, 1821; son of William and Mary (Weston) Patton. He was graduated from the University of the City of New York, A.B., 1839, A.M., 1842, and from the Union Theological seminary, 1842, and was ordained in 1843. He was pastor of the Phillips Congregational church, Boston, Mass., 1843-46; at Hartford, Conn., 1846-57, and at Chicago, Ill., 1857-67; editor of Advance, Chicago, Ill., 1867-72; western secretary of the American Missionary association, 1873-74; lecturer at Oberlin and Chicago theological seminaries, 1874-77, and president of Howard university, Washington, D.C., 1877-89. He was married Jan. 11, 1843, to Sarah Jane, daughter of Horatio and Maria (Pettit) Mutt of New York, who died in 1850; and secondly, in 1851, to Mary Boardman, daughter of Norman Smith. She died in 1880. He was a corporate member of the A.B.C.F.M., 1869-89; a member of the Society of the Cincinnati; vice-president of the Sanitary Commission of the Northwest, and an honorary member of the Society of Sciences, Literature and Art, London, England. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Indiana Asbury university in 1862, and by the University of the City of New York in 1882. He is the author of: The Duties of Christians to Suppress Duelling (1844); The American Board and Slave Holding (1846); Pro-Slavery Interpretation of the Bible Productive of Infidelity (1846); The Young Man's Friend (1847); Conscience and Law (1850); Piety and Military Services (1861); Spiritual Victory (1874); Prayer and Its Remarkable Answers (1875); Count Tolstoi and the Sermon on the Mount (1887). He died at Westfield, N.J., Dec. 31, 1889.

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

Alexander Wilson Drake, engraver, was born near Westfield, N.J., in the year 1843; son of Isaac and Charlotte (Osborn) Drake. He studied wood engraving under John W. Orr of New York city, and under William Howland; and drawing under August Will, at Cooper union, and at the National academy of design. He was a teacher of drawing at Cooper union and took up the study of painting. He was in the wood engraving business on his own account in New York city from 1865 to 1870, when he accepted the position of art superintendent of Scribner's Monthly, which in 1881 became the Century Magazine. He organized the Bartholdi loan association which raised the money to build the pedestal for the statue of Liberty in New York harbor. He is the author of numerous contributions in prose and verse to current literature, and was elected a member of the Century association, the Players' and Grolier clubs, the Architectural league, the Municipal art league of New York, and the Caxton club of Chicago, Ill.

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