Biography
Elmer was born in Cedarville, New Jersey on August 23, 1752. He pursued an academic course, studied medicine and practiced in Cedarville. He served in the Continental Army as ensign, lieutenant, surgeon’s mate, and regimental surgeon, and later practiced medicine in Bridgeton, New Jersey from 1783-1789. He was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1789–1795, serving as speaker in 1791 and 1795.
He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Congresses, serving in office from March 4, 1801-March 3, 1807 Not renominated by the Republicans in 1806, the Federalists put up a combined ticket with Dr. Elmer which was unsuccessful.
He was a member of the New Jersey Legislative Council in 1807, and was chosen vice president of that body. He was collector of customs of Bridgeton from 1808 until 1817, when he resigned, was reappointed in 1822 and served until 1832, when he again resigned. He served in the War of 1812, as adjutant general of the New Jersey Militia and brigadier general of the Cumberland brigade. He was vice president of Burlington College from 1808–1817 and 1822-1832. He retired from public life and died in Bridgeton on October 18, 1843. Elmer was interred in Old Broad Street Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Bridgeton.
Read more about this topic: Ebenezer Elmer
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)