|
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. |
