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RICHARD EDWIN
GALBRAITH.
RICHARD EDWIN GALBRAITH, eldest
surviving son of William and Dorothy (Nixon) Galbraith, was born
in West Hoboken, N. J., April 17, 1842. After completing his
studies in the public schools of his native town he associated
himself with his father, and learned, and for several years practiced,
the art of a taxidermist. He was successfully identified in a
professional capacity with P. T. Barnum, the Chicago Academy
of Sciences, and the Kentucky University at Lexington, and afterward
was engaged for nineteen years in the ostrich feather business,
in West Hoboken and New York, with E. V. Welch & Co. and
their successors, Bene, Creighton & Co. These connections
gave him a broad experience and a valuable training in both professional
and commercial affairs, and brought him into prominence as a
man of unusual ability, of great force of character, and of rare
mental and executive attainments.
In 1884 Mr. Galbraith engaged in
the real estate and insurance business in West Hoboken, which
he still follows with characteristic energy and success. He has
been an extensive operator in real property in that section,
and through his enterprise and foresight has been instrumental
in developing several important tracts.
In politics he is a conservative
Democrat. He was four years a member and one year Chairman of
the Town Council of West Hoboken, three years Chief of Police,
two years a member and one year Chairman of the West Hoboken
Board of Education, and one of the founders of the Hudson Trust
and Savings Institution, of which he is a Director and a member
of the Executive Committee. He has been President of the Palisade
Building and Loan Association of West Hoboken since its organization
in April, 1891. He is a prominent member and for three years
was Master of Doric Lodge, No. 86, F. and A. M., of West Hoboken
and is a member of Cyrus Chapter, No. 32, R. A. M., of Pilgrim
Commandery, No. 16, K. T., and of the Scottish Rite bodies in
the Valley of Jersey City, of Mecca Temple, Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine, of New York, and of the Masonic Veterans' Association,
of Brooklyn, and is Past Junior Grand Steward of the Grand Lodge
of Masons of New jersey. He is also a member of Ellsworth Post,
No. 14, G. A. R., of the Town of Union, having enlisted in August,
1862. In Company F, Twenty-first New jersey Volunteer Infantry,
and serving in the Third Brigade, Second Division, Sixth Army
Corps, of the Army of the Potomac, in the Civil War. This was
the first nine-months' regiment from New Jersey in the War of
the Rebellion. Mr. Galbraith participated in both battles of
Fredericksburg, and at the second battle was captured by the
enemy and confirmed as a prisoner for about ten days. His high
standing in the community, the esteem and confidence in which
he is held, and his great popularity and wide acquaintance are
attested by the several important positions he has filed, the
duties of which he has discharged with ability, integrity, sound
judgment, and faithfulness. Almost every important movement in
West Hoboken, during the last fifteen or twenty years, has felt
the impetus of his wholesome and benevolent influence.
Mr. Galbraith was married, June
1, 1865, to Sarah Jane, daughter of William Granger Quigley and
Esther, his wife, of New York City and later of West Hoboken.
Source: Genealogical
History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, Editor,
Cornelius Burnham Harvey, The New Jersey Genealogical Publishing
Company, 1900, pages 158-160.
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