N. J., in 1712. He (2) married again December 6, 1712, Margaretta Johns Durie. He succeeded to the ownership of part of his father's lands. In 1720 he bought of Samuel Des Marest (2) a large farm at what is now Hawroth, N. J., some of which, until very recently, was owned by the descendants of his eldest son Albert., It extended from the Schraalenburgh road west to the Hackensack River. Some of his lands were claimed by Peter Sonmans, but were released to Zabriskie about 1751, by Hans Spier, agent of Sonmans. John Zabriskie (2) was a farmer, but was active in township and church

matters.

ABRAHAM O. ZABRISKIE.

He died in 1766. His second wife survived him. His children of the third generation were four by his first wife and nine by his second wife, to wit: Albert, Matilda, Nicholas, Christina, Elizabeth, John, Jacob, Elizabeth, Peter, Joost, Rachel, Cornelius, and Christian.

Of the above named thirteen children Jacob J. Zabriskie, of the third generation, born near Hackensack, July 27, 1718, married, in 1743, Sarah Varrick, a descendant of an old aristocratic family of New York. Their issue of the fourth generation was a son, John L. Zabriskie, baptized February 27, 1752. He died April 24, 1782. He married December 7, 1775,

Lena Lansing, of Albany, N. Y., where she was born October 5, 1750. She died April 26, 1826.

John L. Zabriskie's widow, after his death, married (2) November 14, 1786, General Abraham Oothout. John L. Zabriskie (4) had issue one son, John Lansing Zabriskie (5), who married Sarah Barrea. He was a prominent clergyman at Greenbush, N. Y., and had issue two children of the sixth generation: John Barrea Zabriskie (a prominent physician at Flatbush, L. I.) and Abraham Oothout Zabriskie (the subject of this sketch). Abraham Oothout Zabriskie, LL.D., of Hackensack and Jersey City, was born in Greenbush, N. Y., June 10, 1807, and when four years old went with his parents to Millstone, N. J. He received an academic education and matriculated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, in 1823, becoming a member of the junior class when only sixteen. He was graduated from that institution in 1825, read law with James S. Green, of Princeton, and was ad mitted as an attorney in November, 1828, and as a counselor in 1831. He practiced in Newark two years and in Hackensack nineteen years, and in 1838 was appointed Surrogate of Bergen County and was re-appointed in 1843, serving in all ten years. He not only learned how to frame statements of execution and administration, but acquired a full knowledge of ecclesiastical law as pertaining to estates of descendants, and also evinced a method and accuracy that distinguished his life.

In 1842 he was appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas of Bergen County and became master of the principles of criminal law. Later he often acted as counsel in criminal and civil cases, and in cases involving land titles. He became familiar with the duties of a practical surveyor and also with the proprietary history of New Jersey, and understood every patent in the old "Field Book of Bergen County," and the common lands assigned to each patent. He was regarded as a formidable adversary in all cases involving title to land, and was for several years Supreme Court Reporter to 1855. In 1844 he removed to Jersey City, and in 1850 he was elected State Senator and served three years.

He was a member of the committee of citizens which framed the charter of Jersey City, passed March 18, 1851; was the author of the "Long Dock Charter" of 1856; and from 1856 to 1866 was a Director of the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company. In 1859 he was appointed by Governor Newell Chancellor of New Jersey, but the Senate refused to confirm him, and the State, during that memorable struggle, was without a Chancellor for a year. In 1866 be was nominated by Governor Ward and confirmed by the Senate as Chancellor, and began his official duties May 1, 1866. He performed the duties of that office with a promptness and ability that have never been surpassed by any of his successors. He took a prominent part in the great railroad war as opposed to the monopoly, and for an expression used in a public speech earned the sobriquet of "Captain of the Pick-axe Guard." He was an eminent jurist, an able and learned lawyer, a sagacious business man, and officially connected with several corporate enterprises. He traveled extensively, and while on a trip to the Pacific slope died at Truckee, California, June 27, 1873.

He married (1) April 7, 1836, Sarah Augusta Pell, born September 9, 1810, died April 3, 1845. He married (2) January 2, 1848, Julia M. Halsey. His children of the seventh generation were Abraham, Lansing, Sarah A., and Augustus. Of these, Abraham (8) was commissioned Adjutant of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteers, October 18, 1861, promoted to Major February 10, 1862, to Lieutenant-Colonel December, 1862, and subsequently to

Colonel. He died May 24, 1864, of wounds received in the battle of Drury's Bluff, Va. Sarah A. (8) is the wife of Franz Ernst de Bille, a native of Denmark, who is at present Danish Minister to England.

Lansing Zabriskie (8), now deceased, was a prominent lawyer in Jersey City, as is also his brother Augustus, at the present time. Augustus and Sarah have children of the ninth generation.

JOHN N. ACKERMAN is a descendant in the direct line from David Ackerman, the first American ancestor of the family. Southeast of Rotterdam, in Dutch Brabant, twenty-four miles from Breda, is the City of Bois-Le-Duc, called by the natives Hertogenbosch. It is now the chief town of North Brabant, and was built and strongly fortified in the eleventh century, though it was a place of some note much earlier, being near the Maas River and the great highway built by the Romans in their later conquests in Northern Europe. In the seventeenth century there was much heath land to the south and west of it which has since been reclaimed. Agriculture and manufacturing were then, as now, the main employments of the people, Tilbury, the nearest city, being noted for its extensive cloth manufactories. The city contains the chapel and church of St. John, built in 1260 and rebuilt in 1312,-one of the oldest and best preserved edifices in Northern Europe. From the city a road leads almost direct to the renowned battlefield of Waterloo. Near Bois-Le-Duc, in about 1620, was born David Ackerman, the son of a farmer and the progenitor of the Ackerman family in Hudson and Bergen Counties. Growing to manhood, he married in 1644, and engaged in tilling the soil until the stampede to the New World, caused by religious persecution and the threatened war with Spain and England drew him into its vortex. Being an ardent Protestant, he could not brook the fanatical domination of Romanism, and when in August, 1662, the power of the state could no longer protect him in the exercise of his religious liberty, he, with many of his neighbors, including the Storms, Terbosches, and others, whose descendants. have since become a numerous host in Bergen County, embarked with their families on board the Dutch West India ship" Fox" (Captain Jacob Huys), and on September 2, following, landed at New Amsterdam. David had with him his wife and six children-the latter aged respectively twenty, eighteen, sixteen, twelve, eight, and six years. It has been said "it may be doubted whether he survived the voyage"; but there is little reason for such doubt. It is true that the emigrant list published is a list of those who sailed from Holland ports, not of those who actually arrived at New Amsterdam. It is likewise true that the records make no further mention of either David or his wife. But these facts furnish no ground to doubt their arrival on our shores. The first family abode was in the Markvelt Stegg. In 1668 the family nucleus was at New Harlem. Whether David or his wife were living at the time of the removal to Harlem, whether Elizabeth on her marriage and removal to Harlem took her brothers with her, are at best subjects of conjecture. David may have

died at the Markvelt Stegg residence, or he may have removed to Harlem and died there. However this may be, as no public records of deaths were kept, the date of his death and that of his wife, as well as her name, are facts which are likely never to be ascertained, except by accident. Of the children, Ann was the first to break the family circle by her marriage in 1664, and subsequent removal up the Hudson. Elizabeth followed her example in 1668, uniting in marriage with the somewhat renowned Kier

Walters (ancestor of the Kiersens), who, however, died two years later. Lawrence was a youth of untiring energy and persevered in everything he undertook. In 1669, being then only nineteen, he hired a portion of what was then called the Archer farm at Harlem. In 1679 he married Greetje Egberts and remained at Harlem until 1685, during which time two daughters were born to him. David, the eldest son, went to New York, where, in 1680, he married Hellegorid Ver Planck, and remained there until 1686, during which time several children were born to him. Lodowyck, who seems, at first, to have been rather a wild boy, went to Kingston, N. Y., where, in 1681, he wooed and wedded Miss Jenneke Blaeck, by whom he had at least two children. After his removal to Bergen County his wife died and he married Hillegorid Bosch, by whom he had two children.

Abraham, the youngest of the children, married, in 1683, at New York, Aeltje Van Lear, by whom he had six children before his removal to New Jersey, and four more in New Jersey. Lawrence and David were the first of the family to remove to Bergen County in 1686. Lodowyck and Abraham followed in 1694. They all settled on large tracts of land between the Hackensack and Saddle Rivers, and also west of the Saddle River. The family became very numerous both in Bergen and in what is now called Passaic County. Numerous members of the family have been the most active and influential in the county, and have been honored with town, county, and State offices. Others have been important factors in religious work, and have attained eminence in various branches of learning.

Lawrence Ackerman was buried at Wyckoff or Oakland. His children were John and James.

Both

John Ackerman, son of Lawrence, married Catherine Romaine. are buried at Wyckoff or Oakland. Their children were Lawrence, Nicholas,

and James.

Nicholas Ackerman, son of John, was born January 24, 1795, died June 1, 1869, married Polly or Maria Snyder, who was born in 1801, died March 24, 1877. Their children were John N., born January 28, 1818; Abraham, born August 27, 1830; and George.

John N. Ackerman, whose name heads this sketch, was born in Franklin Township, Bergen County, N. J., January 28, 1818, and is now one of the oldest residents of Hackensack. He is the eldest son of Nicholas Ackerman and Polly or Maria Snyder, a grandson of John Ackerman and Catharine Romeyn, and a great-grandson of Lawrence Ackerman. He was educated in the public schools of Franklin Township. He left home at the age of fifteen, and for two years worked at the trade of carriage making. Since then he has earned his own livelihood. When seventeen he went to New York City and learned the carpenter's, arade, mastering every branch. In 1837 he returned to Hackensack, N. J., married Rachel R. Vanderbeek, and engaged in business as a manufacturer of sash, doors, and blinds, which he followed with marked success until 1896, a period of fifty-nine years. He then retired to enjoy in private life the fruits of a long and honorable career. Mr. Ackerman has resided in Hackensack since he established himself in business there in 1837, and from the first has taken an active interest in the growth and development of the town, and all those public matters which appeal to the progressive spirit of a patriotic, energetic citizen. Though never aspiring to office, and as a rule avoiding political life, he was for ten years a Justice of the Peace, and in this and other minor capacities has displayed great ability, sound judgment, and commendable enterprise.

Mr. Ackerman was married, June 14, 1837, in Hackensack, to Rachel Ryerson Vanderbeek, born February 7, 1806, died June 26, 1891, a descendant, like himself, of one of the old Holland Dutch families of Bergen County. Their children are George J. Ackerman, born March 27, 1839, and Mary R. Ackerman, born September 27, 1845.

George J. Ackerman, oldest child of John N. and Rachel R. Ackerman, married Julia A. Groesbeck, December 24, 1863. She was born November 27, 1842, and died April 11, 1886. They had one child, George Groesbeck Ackerman, born November 6, 1867, who married, September 27, 1893, Emeline Inglehart, of Watertown, N. Y., who was born December 3, 1869. They have one child, Alison Groesbeck Ackerman, born October 13, 1896.

AARON E. ACKERMAN, of Hackensack, is of the seventh generation from David Ackerman, the first of the family in America (see sketch on page 53). He was born at Saddle River, Bergen County, September 6, 1836, and is a son of Peter Ackerman and Eliza Eckerson, and a grandson of Albert Ackerman and Eliza, his wife. This Albert served as a soldier in the War of 1812. Aaron Ackerman's maternal grandparents were Aaron Eckerson and Matilda Westervelt. As will be seen, Mr. Ackerman is of Dutch extraction on both sides of the family tree.

He was educated in the public schools of Bergen County, remaining on his father's farm until he reached the age of seventeen. He then entered the employ of Conklin & Post, of Schraalenburgh, as a carpenter, and continued with that well known firm for about twenty-three years. On the death of Mr. Post he became a partner with Peter L. Conklin, the senior member of the old firm. The new firm of Conklin & Ackerman continued in business eight years, or until 1882, when Mr. Conklin retired after an active life of forty years. Mr. Ackerman succeeded to the business, which he still conducts, and which is one of the oldest of the kind in East Jersey, having been in continuous existence for nearly sixty years. And under his able and energetic management it has not only retained but greatly increased its old-time prestige and usefulness. The buildings and other carpenter work which he has erected in Hackensack and vicinity would, if enumerated, make a list that would fill a good sized volume.

Mr. Ackerman is a man of acknowledged ability and integrity, and both in business and social relations has always enjoyed the respect and confidence of his fellowmen. Enterprising, patriotic, and public spirited, he has taken from the first a deep interest in municipal affairs, and liberally encourages every worthy project. He served three years and one month in the War of the Rebellion, becoming a second sergeant, and is a prominent member of the Second Reformed Church of Hackensack.

He married Miss Abigail Wygant, and they have two daughters: Nellie, born in 1863, and Fannie, born in 1871.

ALEXANDER TAGGART MCGILL, A.M., LL.D., for thirteen years Chancellor of the State of New Jersey, was born October 20, 1845, in Allegheny City, Pa., where his father, Rev. Alexander T. McGill, D.D., LL.D., was a professor in the Western Theological Seminary. His great-grandfather was an Indian fighter of note in Pennsylvania, and served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Continental Army under Washington at Trenton and Princeton. The Chancellor's father was for some years a lawyer in Georgia, but later studied theology and became professor in the Western Theological Seminary. When the Chancellor was nine years old,