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BIOGRAPHY OF
EDMUND W. KINGSLAND.
EDMUND W. KINGSLAND, President of the Provident Institution
for Savings of Jersey City and one of the ablest and best known
financiers in Easter New Jersey, was born in Jersey City on the
15th of December, 1839, his parents being Edmund W. and Sarah
A. Kingsland. He is a direct descendant in the sixth generation
from Isaac Kingsland, an Englishman from the Parish of Christ
Church, on the Island of Barbadoes, W. I., and a nephew of Major
Nathaniel Kingsland, of the same place. On July 4, 1668, one
Captain William Sandford, also of Barbadoes, W. I., purchased
of the Hackensack Indians a tract of land between the Hackensack
and Passaic Rivers, extending "northward about seven miles."
This purchase was made in the interest of Major Kingsland.
On June 1, 1671, the Major conveyed the south half of this to
Sandford and kept the north half after extinguishing the Indian
title. By the Major's will, dated March 14, 1683, he gave one-third
of his New Jersey lands-about 3,402 acres-to his nephew Isaac.
Isaac's residence was at Kingsland Manor near Rutherford in
Bergen County. His descendants are still numerous in both Bergen
and Hudson Counties. The name of his wife does not appear.
Edmund W. Kingsland received his early educational training
under the tutorship of the late William Leverett Dickenson, and
subsequently attended the New York Polytechnical School, from
which he was graduated with honor in the class of 1856. After
completing his studies, which were designed to fit him for the
practical affairs of life, he accepted a clerkship in the wholesale
notion house of Lyman Cook & Co., of New York City, and remained
with them until 1863, gaining a broad and accurate knowledge
of business matters as well as the entire confidence and respect
of his employers.
In 1863 Mr. Kingsland resigned his position as clerk for Lyman
Cook & Co. and was made general clerk of the Provident Institution
for Savings in Jersey City. There he soon gained recognition
for those abilities which have ever since characterized his business
life and which have long made him a powerful factor in local
financial circles. He gradually rose by promotion and in 1888
was elected Secretary and Treasurer, which positions he filled
with great energy and satisfaction until July 20, 1896, when
he was elected President. In this capacity he has maintained
and in a large measure increased the prestige and substantial
character of the Provident Institution for Savings, making it
one of the soundest and best known fiduciary concerns in Eastern
New Jersey.
Mr. Kingsland is one of the leading citizens of Jersey City,
where he has spent his entire life. He is public spirited, progressive,
and enterprising, thoroughly identified with every project which
promises advancement to the community, and generously encourages
those movements that have the welfare of the place at heart.
He is a member of the Union League Club of Jersey City, a man
of broad and accurate learning, and universally respected and
esteemed. In 1877 he married Miss Justine Bayard Blackwell,
of New York City, and of their five children two are living.
Source: Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties,
New Jersey, Editor, Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey
Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900, page 68.
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