Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/204

 FRELIXGHUYSEN

FREMONT

president of the American trust society, 1842-48; vice-president of the American Sunday-scliool union, 183(3-60; member of tiie council of the University of the city of New York, 1839-50, and for several years vice president of the American colonization society. He received the degree of LL. D. from the College of New Jersey in 1833 and from Rutgers college in 1841. He died in New Brunswick, N.J., April 12, 1S(3.

FREUNQHUYSEN, Theodorus Jacobus, cler- g_vman, was born in West Freislauil, Holland, in 1691. He was ordained to the ministry of the Reformed Dutch church in 1718 and after a short pastorate in his native land was sent to America in 1720 to found churches in the Dutch settle- ments on the Raritan river in New Jersey. He had charge of the region embraced in Somerset and Middlesex counties and was the father of the several churches planted in the Raritan valley. He has been classed as " one of the greatest divines of the American church." He was a member of the first convention of the Dutch Reformed church, held in New York, and was largely instrumental in the establishment of the independence of that church in the new vrorld. His live sons were ordained to the ministry and two daughters married clergymen. He preached in the Dutch language and his sermons were translated and printed in English in 1730, having been printed in Dutch as early as 1731. All his sermons printed in the Dutch language were translated by the Rev. William Demarest and published in 18.56. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from the College of New Jersey in 1749. He died in Somerset county, N. J., in 1753.

FREMONT, Jessie Benton, author, was born in Rockbridge county, Va., May 31, 1825; daughter of the Hon. Thomas H. and Elizabeth (McDowell) Benton; and granddaughter of Col. James and Sarah (Preston) McDowell, on whose estate in Rockbridge county many of her youth- ful days were spent. Her father, for thirty-one years a U.S. senator in congress, made his winter home in Washington and his summer home in St. Louis, Mo., the journey being made by post coach every two j'ears, each journey consuming three weeks' time. In 1839-40 she was a student at Miss English's seminary, Georgetown, D.C. In 1840 she met Lieut. John Charles Fremont, U.S.A., and in 1841 they were married. She remained an inmate of her father's home, 1841- 49, while her husband was pursuing his cele- brated explorations which won for him the sobriquet of "Pathfinder." Not till 1849 did she share with him pioneer life in the new-found El Dorado. They made their residence at Mon- terey and her influence with the delegates to the state' constitutional convention which sat at Mon- terey went far toward excluding slavery from

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the new state. She returned to W'ashington In 1850 with her husband, who had been elected U.S. senator, and in 1853 accompanied him to Europe, where they were received at the court of St. James and at the Tuileries with distinction. She was an influential fac- tor in the national campaign of 1856 when her husband was the candidate of ^4 the new Republican party for President, "'***^-< "''*/'

and, as a woman, ^, J

born in Virginia, the \

daughter of a Mis- souri senator, she be- came a prominent y^Jj /{^^^^^<4^^ figure in the canvass. ' /

The champions of " Free speech, free soil, free press and Fremont, ' ' added to their political slogan " and Jessie. '" In 1857 and again in 1860 she trav- elled extensively with her husband in Europe, their children always with them. She joined her husband at St. Louis when he commanded the Department of the West, 1861-62. Her eldest son, a lad of twelve, served on his father's staff. In New York city she aided in the organization of the Soldiers' and Sailors' orphan home, the Sanitary commission, and other patriotic organi- zations for the benefit of the soldiers in the field; and at her suggestion and request congress furnished provisions for the suffering inhabitants of Charleston and other southern ports. In 1869 she travelled with her husband and family in Denmark, where she was received by the king and queen and visited German}-, Austria and the Austrian Tyrol. In 1878-81, while her husband was governor of Arizona, she gave her personal attention to advancing the educational interests of the territory. In 1886-87 she aided her hus- band, while residing in Washington, in preparing his "Memoirs" for publication, their daughter, Elizabeth Frfimont, acting as typist. To this work Mrs. Fremont contributed a biographical sketch of her father. Senator Benton, and the introductory chapter entitled " Some Accounts of the Plates." In 1888 General Fremont re- moved with his family to California for health and during a temporary visit to New York in June, 1890, he died before his wife could reach him. He left no property, but his widow re- ceived from congress in 1890 a special pension as widow of a retired major-general in the United States army, and the same year the ladies of California purchased for her a tract of land in Los Angeles, where, in a grove of orange trees.