Richard Vliet Lindabury was born on 13. Oct. 1850 at Peapack, Somerset County, New Jersey. He was the son of
Jacob Lindabury and
Mary Ann Vliet. Richard Vliet Lindabury married
Lillian Van Saun, daughter of
Jacob Van Saun and
Mary (Unknown), on 8. Jul. 1892; issue a son and two daughters. Richard Vliet Lindabury was shown in the census on 24. Jan. 1920 as a lawyer.
Richard Vliet Lindabury and
Lillian Van Saun appeared on the census of 24. Jan. 1920 at Far Hills, Somerset County, New Jersey. Richard Vliet Lindabury died on 15. Jul. 1925 at age 74; after a fall from his horse.
He attended the Dutch Reformed Church in Somerset Co. New Jersey. He did study for the ministry but a sickness intervened to change his plans. He served a clerkship in the office of ex-Congressman Alvah A. Clark and that pointed his ambitions towards the legal profession. He was the chief counsel of the US Steel Corp. in the suit regarding the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. H had a farm at Bernardsville, covering several hundred acreas which is noted for its fine herd of Guernsey cattle.
RICHARD VLIET LINDABURY
To achieve success in one's chosen profession in a community that in favorably inclined from the fact that that community is one that had watched every step from youth, is not a particularly noteworthy success. Rat to extend that reputation beyond local and State lines and to win commendation from unfriendly communities is an honorable distinction much harder to attain. In a great city and at a bar noted for its many eminent lawyers. a new member is not received with open arms nor 18 honor and prominence thrust upon a new comer. The high position held in the legal world by Mr. Lindabury has been won in open competition with great lawyers ID many courts in many cities and in suits of the greatest importance, the Supreme Court of the United States having been the scene of some of his legal tights and victories.
Son of a Somerset County farmer, Richard V. Lindabury was born at Peapack, New Jersey, October 13, 1860. He attended the public schools and after exhausting their advantages was so fortunate as to win the friendship of Rev. Henry P. Thompson, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, who encouraged his ambition, offered to tutor him for college, that he might prepare for the ministry. For three years they labored together, but when about ready to enter Rutgers College a severe illness from which recovery seemed doubtful interfered and all thoughts of a college course and ministerial career were necessarily abandoned. After his recovery. Ex-Congressman Alvah A. Clark, who was looking for an assistant in his law office, offered the place to the young man. Ile accepted and for four years he studied under the able direction of Mr. Clark, teaching school at intervals to assist in defraying expenses. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in February, 1874, and at once opened an office in Bound Brook. He succeeded in building up a good practice In the four years he remained In Bound Brook, but that town was too limited in its opportunities for a MAD of his ambition and in 1878 he located in Elizabeth and entered the field against the strong established lawyers at the Union County bar. He won his way through sheer merit and during his seventeen years there gradually
acquired a large clientele and a reputation that far overlapped county lines. His standing at the bar was so high that In 1892 Mr. Lindabury, then forty- two years of age, was chosen as associate counsel with the eminent Joseph H. Choate in the litigation resulting from the suit brought by the Singer Manufacturing Company against the State of New Jersey for unjust taxation. This suit after a duration of three years was settled in favor of the Singer Company; later he was also retained with Mr. Choate by the American Tobacco Company in the suit instituted by the attorney-general of the State of New Jersey charging the company with operating unlawfully in restraint of trade. Mr. Choate withdrew from the case later, leaving its management entirely in Mr. Lindabury's hands. The celebrated case finally reached the Court of Errors, where, after a strong and masterly argument by Mr. Lindabury, a decision was handed down in favor of his client. These suits brought him nation-wide fame and later he figured prominently as counsel in great number of corporate suits brought against some of the greatest corporations of the country. including the Amalgamated Copper Company, the American Smelting Company, the New Jersey Zinc Company and the United States Steel Corporation, the latter case brought by the United States government to establish a violation of the Sherman Act.
In 1898 he moved his legal office to Newark and in 1898 founded and became senior partner of the law firm, Lindabury. Depew F'aulks, an association that still continues.
Other notable cases in which Mr. Lindabury has taken prominent part as counsel are: Robothom vs. the Prudential Insurance Company and Fidelity Trust Company of Newark, in which the merger plan of these companies was successfully enjoined; Conklin vs. The United States Shipbuilding Company; State of New Jersey it Rogers & Adrian. in which was established the right of the Supreme Court of the State to adjudicate between two rival senates of New Jersey and determine the legal senate; the case before the United States Supreme Court involving the constitutionality of the Federal Corporation tax of 1909; Blanchard vs. the Prudential Life Insurance Company, involving the Question of whether the surplus of that company belongs to the policyholders or the stockholders.
Twenty years ago Mr. Lindabury, as vice-president of the Anti-Race Track League, aided In the final extermination of the notorious race track ring that controlled racing in his State and by its winter and summer and night racing bad become so flagrant in its contempt for decency and public opinion that it had become a menace to public morals as well as a corrupting fountain bead of political immorality. To carry out the plans of the league and rid the State of the curse. Mr. Lindabury was brought face to face with the alternative of opposing some of the influential men who had secured power in the Democratic party or giving up the fight for public morality. He did not hesitate, but killed race track gambling and gained the powerful enmity of the men who then controlled the Democratic party. Mr Lindabury was urged to accept a nomination for Governor, but refused as he has also refused appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States and to the Chancery Court of New Jersey.
His connection with the Prudential Life Insurance Company dates from 1906, when he became a stockholder of the company and general counsel. The year previous he had successfully represented the company's interest in the Armstrong insurance investigation in New York City, and has since been identified with all the questions that have arisen relative to the Prudential and which have culminated in the impending mutualization plan.
His legal business is large and in cases of great moment he Is ever prominent. He appeared as counsel for the United States Steel Corporation in 1911 during the progress of the Stanley Congressional Committee Investigation and a year later he was retained by J. P. Morgan & Company, the United States Steel Corporation. and other representative concerns to represent them before the Pujo committee. In 1911 he was appointed by Governor Dix, of New York, a commissioner of the Palisades Interstate Park, succeeding W. B. Dana.
Far from the realms of law or business, two recent events have served to prominently bring Mr. Lindabury before the nation. As general counsel for the Prudential Life insurance Company. he was designated by the board of directors to accept on behalf of the company the statue of the late president of the company, John F. Dryden, unveiled September 24. 1913. Ins oration was an eloquent biographical review of the life of the ex-president and so valuable a contribution to literature as to command widespread atten• Hon. Again, as president of the Cleveland Monument Association, he delivered an address at the dedication of the memorial tower at Princeton, October 22, 1913, that was not only a heartfelt tribute to the memory of President Cleveland, but a masterpiece of pure diction and elevated Rend• ment that could only emanate from the finished orator.
While Mr. Lindabury maintains offices in the Prudential Building in Newark, his residence is a beautiful farm of six hundred acres at Bernardsville, Now Jersey. One of the attractions of the farm and the pride of Its owner is one of the finest herds of Guernsey cattle found anywhere in the United States. Fie belongs to many of the leading clubs of New Jersey and New York City and in political faith is a Democrat. Ills scholarly attain- manta were recognized by the faculty of Rutgers College in 1904 in conferring upon him the honorary degree of LL. D.
Mr. Lindabury married. July 8, 1892, Lillie, daughter of Jacob and Mary Van Saun, and has children: Margaret and Richard Vliet Lindabury, Jr.
"A History of Newark."