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JOHN W. HECK
Originally published in 1900 |
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JOHN W. HECK, who has been actively and successfully engaged in
the practice of law in Jersey City since 1876, was born in Trenton, N. J.,
July 27, 1855, and when three years old (1859) came with his parents to
Jersey City, where his father took charge of the oil works of I. & C.
Moore, located at the foot of Morris Street. His father died in 1865. On
the 1st of April, 1867, young Heck entered the office of the late Stephen
Billings Ransom, with whom lie later began the study of law. He became a
clerk and student at law in the office of L. & A. Zabriskie on Septmber
28, 1874, and at the November term of the New Jersey Supreme Court in
1876 he was admitted to the bar.
After the dissolution of this firm Mr. Heck remained with Lansing Zabriskie, the senior member, until 1881, when Mr. Zabriskie retired from practice. Mr. Heck then assumed charge of the business as Mr. Zabriskie's attorney, and upon the latter's death on March 29, 1892, continued as the attorney for estates for which Mr. Zabriskie had been trustee. Mr. Heck's practice has been largely in that field of legal work. In 1884 Mr. Heck was elected a member of the New Jersey Assembly from the Sixth Hudson District, and during his terra introduced the famous citizens' charter, which was defeated by his Republican colleagues from Jersey City. He also introduced and secured the passage of the firemen's tenure of office act, removing the Jersey City Fire Department from politics, and re-introduced the bill providing for a bridge over the "Gap," on Washington Street, which, as in a former attempt to pass this bill, was defeated, owing to the powerful influence brought to bear against it. In 1885 Mr. Heck was renominated for member of Assembly, but was defeated by Hon. R. S. Hudspeth. Two years later, in 1887, a committee of the Hudson County Bar Association, of which Mr. Heck was made a inernber, was appointed to prepare a bill to provide proper indices in the office of the register of deeds, and in connection with Spencer Weart, a fellow member of the committee, Mr. Heck secured the passage of the law providing for the well-known " block system." The work under this act was performed by the commission appointed by Judge Manning M. Knapp, of which Mr. Heck was clerk, and completed in fourteen months. Hudson County now has the best set of indices to its land records that exist in the State. Mr. Heck was a charter member of the old Jersey City Athletic Club, and served in official capacities during the first six years of its existence and in 1884 was its President. He is a member of Amity Lodge, F. and A. M., of Jersey City, and of several social and fraternal orders, and a Trustee, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Bay View Cemetery Association. He was married October, 1884. to bliss Lillian Benson, of Haverstraw, N. V. They have had two children.
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UrbanTimes.com |
