Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, Sr.

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Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, Sr. bigraphy, stories - American politician

Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, Sr. : biography

March 12, 1869 – February 8, 1948

Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen (1869–1948)

Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, Sr. (March 12, 1869 – February 8, 1948) represented New Jersey as a Republican in the United States Senate from 1917 to 1923.

Biography

He was born in Raritan, New Jersey, on March 12, 1869. He comes from a historic New Jersey political family, he is a cousin of congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen. He married Emily Macy Brewster, and had two daughters: Victoria Frelinghuysen who married John Grenville Bates, Jr.and Emily Frelinghuysen who married Edward Bilkey and Ross McFarland; and a son Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, Jr.

After fighting in the Spanish-American War and starting an insurance business, Frelinghuysen was elected to the state Senate in 1905 and became president of that body in 1909. He held several state-wide offices before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1916. He was New Jersey’s first directly elected senator following ratification of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox–Porter Resolution, officially ending America’s involvement in World War I at the estate of Frelinghuysen in Raritan, New Jersey. The President stayed on the estate until at least July 4. After a failed reelection bid in 1922, Frelinghuysen returned to the insurance business. He died on February 8, 1948 in Tucson, Arizona, and was interred at St. Bernard’s Cemetery in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Legacy

A memorial plaque was placed on the estate grounds commemorating the Knox–Porter Resolution officially ending America’s involvement in World War I. Today the estate is long gone and suburban sprawl has replaced it with mini-malls. The marker remains in a patch of grass near a Burger King parking lot along Route 28, just north of the Somerville traffic circle.