The Janeway family was one of the most prominent in New Brunswick during the 19th century, and one that is very well represented in our cemetery. Given that the Fourth of July was celebrated last week, we at Elmwood Cemetery were thinking of the historic families of the cemetery and how their personal family histories were just as much the history of the United States. Certainly, the Janeway family can be considered one with an important role in American history, even before the United States declared independence.
The first Janeway in America was William Janeway, a man who himself had a hand in developing one of the oldest institutions in New York City. William was born in London and grew up to be an officer in the Royal Navy. While the ship on which he was stationed, the Richmond, was docked in New York in 1696, WIlliam married and purchased an estate from William Merritt, the Mayor of New York. The following year he would return with his ship to England, where he would settle remaining affairs before he returned to his new home. Before he left for New York, King William III gave him the duty of transporting the Charter of Trinity Church to New York; he would become a vestryman of the church and ultimately was laid to rest in the church’s graveyard in Manhattan.
William and his wife Agnes had but one child, Jacob Janeway. Jacob would marry Sarah Hoagland and the couple would move to Middlebrook, Somerset County, New Jersey, where Jacob would own mills and a store. The couple had four children, but only one survived to a mature age. That son, George, would be involved in the American Revolution. He was born and grew up in Somerset, but as an adult lived in New York City, after he acquired his grandfather’s property. This lasted until the time of the American Revolution.
George Janeway served as a captain in the New York Militia with the Second Regiment. As a part of America’s revolutionary armed forces, he and his family couldn’t stay in New York City once the British invaded and occupied Manhattan. Instead, he and his family moved back to New Jersey, where they would reside for the duration of the war. His home was occupied by the British until the evacuation, upon which it had an “R” painted on the front door, indicating that the home belonged to a rebel American.
Captain Janeway would relocate to New Brunswick, in particular Buccleuch Mansion, where he and his family would stay for a time. When New Brunswick was occupied by the British from the winter of 1776 through June of the following year, the home was surrendered to the British. However, upon the end of the occupation of New Brunswick, the home would return to the continental control and, in the centuries since, legends of famous Americans like George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Horatio Gates, and John Hancock visiting the mansion have persisted.
In 1783, upon the evacuation of the British, George Janeway returned to New York, where he would remain influential. In another instance of the Janeway family’s connection to American history, he would be appointed by the state legislature of New York as one of the commissioners to lay out the Delaware and Hudson Canal on April 23, 1823. The D & H, as it has been called, was, although partially chartered by the New York legislature, one of the first successful private canals built in America. They would grow to include rail service too, being the company to bring to America its first steam locomotive, the Stourbridge Lion. The D & H Canal would operate until 1898 and the railroad would continue independently until it was purchased in January, 1991.
George’s son, Jacob Jones Janeway, would be influential in a different way than his father. While George gained prominence thanks to familial wealth and military service, J.J. Janeway would become a man of the cloth. He attended Columbia University and studied for the ministry under Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston, who became the fourth president of Queen’s College, the last president of the College before it acquired the name Rutgers. Janeway became the assistant pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia under Rev. Dr Ashbel Green and succeeded Dr. Green as sole pastor when Green became president of Princeton College.
Rev. Janeway would hold a variety of positions after this, serving as a professor at Western Theological Seminary and then for a year acted as pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Brunswick. He would leave this position to become pastor of the Market Street Reformed Church in New York until 1833, when he was elected as Vice President of Rutgers College, which was a post he would hold until 1839 when he became a trustee of Princeton College and President of the board of directors of Princeton Theological Seminary. Ultimately, he was quite an influential man during the early republic, publishing many works and maintaining correspondences with all sorts of influential people, including President James Madison.
Rev. Janeway and his wife Martha had eight children and many grandchildren. Many of these children and their children are buried at Elmwood Cemetery. These grandchildren would come of age in a time of great change in America, that being the Late Antebellum era. Consequently at least four of those grandchildren (in addition to one of their uncles, Rev. John Livingston Janeway) would serve in the Civil War, all fighting for the Union.
Hugh Janeway, who is buried at Elmwood Cemetery, helped to organize the 1st NJ Cavalry Regiment and was made a Lieutenant. The 1st NJ Cavalry fought in many battles and Janeway would himself be injured in battle multiple times, but he would continue to fight. Ultimately, he would be promoted to a Colonel. He would fight in the Appomattox Campaign until he was killed in battle at Amelia Springs just days before General Lee’s surrender. Ultimately, he was remembered by his fellow soldiers from New Brunswick, which named their local Grand Army of the Republic post Kearney-Janeway Post No. 15.
Dr. John H. Janeway is one of the grandchildren not buried at Elmwood, but his story is interesting nonetheless. A graduate of Rutgers, he entered the Army at the beginning of the war and would continue to serve well past the conclusion of the conflict. He would serve out West for a time and in 1893 would be appointed by President Grover Cleveland to be the Deputy Surgeon General. He retired from the army in 1904 with the rank of Colonel.
His cousin, Dr. Edward G. Janeway, a fellow Rutgers grad and another grandson not buried at Elmwood, would join the Civil War as a medical cadet in a U.S. Army Hospital, serving under the direction of John. He would have a long career after his military service, ultimately becoming the Health Commissioner of New York. His son would follow in his footsteps as a physician and would become the first full time professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Ultimately, he would be part of a long line of physicians; Edward’s grandson would become the physician-in-chief at Boston Children’s Hospital, and his great grandson would become a professor of immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine.
Edward’s brother, Jacob Janeway, who is also interred in Elmwood, would serve as a Colonel during the Civil War with the 14th New Jersey Infantry Regiment. Ultimately, his impact on New Brunswick, and the country more broadly, was not relegated to his military service. After the war he would become a successful businessman, getting into the manufacturing of wallpaper. One of his uncles owned the manufacturer Janeway & Company, but he struck out on his own in the 1870s when he joined his business partner Charles Carpender to form Janeway & Carpender Wallpaper Company. The business was quite successful, reaching out as far west as Chicago.
Ultimately, he would indirectly influence the establishment of New Brunswick’s most famous business, Johnson & Johnson. James Wood Johnson, seeing Janeway & Carpender’s former wallpaper factory from a train window, which the company had recently abandoned due to having outgrown the space, decided to get off his train to give it a look. Ultimately he agreed to rent the top floor for he and his brothers’ new company. If not for that fateful moment, there is no telling where Johnson & Johnson may have ended up.
While the Janeway family is still quite successful today, I think this is more than enough evidence of the strange and unique ways that the Janeway family has been a part of, and helped influence, American history. It is fair to say that the Janeways are, in some ways, a family of “Forrest Gumps” always being in the right place at the right time for historical happenings. Unfortunately, this familial history is less well known, but that is simply a reminder of the unknown history one can find at their local cemetery.
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