Robert RUSLING

   User ID: P00050582.

  General Notes:

Famous New Jersey Mason Robert Rusling (1812-1879)



Lumber Merchant. New Jersey Assemblyman 1859-61.

Lodge: Independence 42 Residence: Hackettstown

ROBERT RUSLING, sixth son of James Rusling (his first by Hannah Rose), was born at Newburgh, Warren County, New Jersey (about two and one-half miles southwest of Hackettstown), January 1, 1812. He was a clerk in my father's general store at Washington, New Jersey, for some time, but ultimately became a merchant tailor, and settled in that business at Hackettstown, New Jersey, and lived and died there. He had an aptitude for public affairs, and identified himself with everything of that nature in and about Hackettstown. In 1850 he was elected a Justice of the Peace there, and was reflected for several terms. In 1853 he was instrumental in procuring the charter for a bank at Hackettstown, and was long one of its directors. In 1853 he was also appointed one of the commissioners to establish public waterworks there. In 1855 he was active in securing the charter of Hackettstown as a borough, and became its mayor for three terms in succession.

He was influential in securing the extension of the Morris and Essex Railroad from Dover to Hackettstown, and so through to Easton. He was nominated for the Assembly in 1857, but defeated by five votes. He ran again in 1858, and was defeated by seven votes. He ran again in 1859 (pretty plucky!), and was elected, and again in 1860 and 1861, though a Whig and Republican in a strong Democratic county. In 1862 he was appointed United States Internal Revenue Assessor for the Third District New Jersey and continued until the office was abolished in 1873. He organized the Union Cemetery Company of Hackettstown, and was its president many years. He was one of the charter members of Musconetcong Lodge No. 81, I. O. of O. F., and also one of the founders of Independence Lodge No. 52, A. F. and A. M., and in 1874 was elected Grand Master of the Masonic fraternity for New Jersey. In 1874 he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Warren County, and filled the office with marked ability and dignity.

Robert Rusling was an ardent friend of education and for twenty-five years in succession was elected school-trustee at Hackettstown. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian church at Hackettstown and chairman of the building committee, when the present edifice was erected there, and though not a member of said church then, he became a member before he died. He was also a fine singer, and choir-master of said church for many years. He was well and favorably known, not only in Warren County, but throughout New Jersey, and everywhere respected and esteemed as an upright man and a public-spirited citizen.

George M. Rusling, son of Robert, became a civil engineer and railroad contractor, and was a man of a good deal of ability and means. He lived at Hackettstown and had an office in New York. James, his brother, was a lumber merchant at Hackettstown, but in 1898 was appointed United States Postmaster there, as was his brother Robert before him in 1877 and again in 1881. Joseph, another brother, was Chief Engineer and Superintendent of the New York and Susquehanna Railroad and is now in business in New York for himself as contracting engineer, 26 Cortlandt Street. He lives at Paterson, New Jersey, and is a man of ability and means. He had two sons in Princeton University in 1899 and they are now in business with him in New York. Their names are George M. and Van Dyck Rusling.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation. Lumber Merchant

Robert married Mary McCRACKEN on 7 Nov 1838. (Mary McCRACKEN was born on 13 Nov 1818 and died on 14 Nov 1907.)