Person:Edmund Halsey (1)

North Jersey History & Genealogy Center of the Morristown and Morris Township Library
Edmund D. Halsey Papers, 1793-1906:
Edmund Drake Halsey was born in Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey on September 11, 1840, the youngest of seven siblings. His mother was Sarah Jackson, granddaughter of Colonel Stephen Jackson, friend of General George Washington and founder of an early Rockaway iron mine and foundry. Edmund Halsey graduated from Princeton College in 1860 and practiced law for two years in Morristown, New Jersey before enlisting with the Union Army. He quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant and served with the army until January 1865, when he was honorably discharged after contracting pleurisy. In November of that year he resumed the practice of law in Morristown and became involved with litigations concerning important interests such as the Morris Canal, the Orphans Court, and local mining companies as well as the legal management of area estates and properties. He married Mary Darcy of Newark, New Jersey. They were to have seven children, though only one, Cornelia, would live long enough to have children of her own. Edmund Drake Halsey died October 17, 1896 in Rockaway and is buried in that town's Presbyterian Church cemetery.

Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, pg 124: http://books.google.com/books?id=TrbNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP8&dq=Proceedings+of+the+New+Jersey+Historical+Society+second+series+1890-1891&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false The Early Iron Industry Of Morris And Passaic Counties.

Morristown, N. J., Dec. 19, 1890. My Dear Mr. Nelson:—My grandfather's brother, William Jackson, when an old man spent much of his time at Kockaway, where he was born and brought up. He wrote a long MS. account of early iron enterprises in which he was engaged, and in it he said he and his brother (my grandfather, Col. Jos. Jackson), were the first to roll, round and square iron in this country—that they did it in the Paterson mill which they leased of Colt. I knew this from others also. That they built together the rolling mill in Rockaway 1822 I also know. It cost them I think $8,000, and my grandfather paid his brother as much for his half as the whole cost. Uncle William then went off and built Clinton furnace, near Newfoundland, which enterprise nearly ruined him. In 1865 I went with him to Clinton to see the ruins. It was just forty years from the time he cut the first stick at Clinton. Did you ever notice tho sketch I prepared of my grandfather, Col. J.? Only a few were printed but I think I sent one to the Historical Society? It contains some account of this first rolling mill.

Old Judge David Ogden, of Newark, was a very prominent man. He was a son of Col. Josiah Ogden, who built Trinity Church, and was born 1679 and died in 1763. Judge David was born 1707 and died 1798 at Jamaica, Long Island. He was a Tory, as was his son Isaac, and son-in-law, Nicholas Hoffman. He married Gertrude Gouverneur, but your letter gives me the first notice of her death.

Yours Very Truly,

E. D. HALSEY (Edmund Drake Halsey)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Memorial# 10451049, in Find A Grave.

   http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10451049

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Crayon, J. Percy. Rockaway records of Morris County, N.J., families: cemetery records, church history, military records, local history, genealogies of old families, nearly 20,000 data. (Rockaway, N.J.: Rockaway Pub. Co., 1902).
3.   First Family of Rockaway
   35.
4.   Percy Crayon, www.rootsweb.com/~njmorris/cemeteries/rockaway.htm.

   birth & death dates

5.   Email from Cheryl (Chatfield) Thompson.

   Birth location & date; also death date.

6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Edmund D. Halsey Papers, 1793-1906. H 929 MSS Hals.

   Morristown and Morris Township Library
   http://jfpl.org/HCFindingAids/EdmundDHalseyPapers.xml
   http://www.jfpl.org/HCFindingAids/Decampfamily.xml#a1