Cumberland County NJ Archives Biographies.....Myron J. KIMBALL, 1846 - 1915
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 8, 2008, 4:15 pm

Author: Mary Depue Ogden, Editor  (1917)

KIMBALL, Myron J.,
Financier, Enterprising Citizen.

  In all of the relations that made up the many phases of the busy and useful
life of Myron J. Kimball, he was connected with New Jersey, since 1866 a
resident and business man of Vineland, but through birth and the ties of
ancestry he was a son of New England. His, grandfather, William Kimball, changed
his residence from Massachusetts to Vermont, and there Charles A. Kimball,
father of Myron J. Kimball, was born.

  Charles A. Kimball was a contractor and builder of Wallingford, Vermont,
during the greater part of his life, and was there accidentally killed while
razing a building, April 13, 1865. His wife, Caroline C., who died in 1857, was
a daughter of William Kent, an early settler of Wallingford, Vermont, member of
the ancient Kent family of Leicester, Worcester county, Massachusetts. The many
ties that Myron J. Kimball sundered when he chose a New Jersey home were
likewise those of his wife, Clara A. (Prince) Kimball, whose family was of Maine
residence. The position Mr. Kimball gained in the Vineland community, where
nearly all of his interests centered, was one of prominence and influence, and
the following record of his life activity, told in part in the words of his
associates, is one that, omitting nothing, speaks only of merit and honor.

  Myron J. Kimball was born in Wallingford, Vermont, December 17, 1846, and died
in Vineland, New Jersey, July 24, 1915. His education was obtained in the public
schools of his birthplace, which he attended until his fifteenth year, and the
high school at Winchendon, Massachusetts, the latter place being the home of his
sister. He was nineteen years of age when in January, 1866, he came to
Vine-land, New Jersey, and there began the connection with the lumber business
that endured until his death. His first employment was in the planing mill of
Earle & Butterick, where he rose through various grades of service to a
managerial capacity, with active charge of the business. When the firm of Earle
& Butterick disposed of their property and interests to D. A. Newton & Company,
Mr. Kimball was offered and accepted the position of manager, which he had held
under the former control. This place he held until 1871, when he and W. V. and
John Prince purchased the business with which he had so long and so honorably
been identified. As Kimball, Prince & Company, this combination continued until
1876, when John Prince retired from the firm, selling his interest to his
partners. Under the leadership of Mr. Kimball its operations were widely
extended, branches were established at Millville and Avalon, and a high level of
prosperity in the affairs of the company was reached. Throughout the lumber
trade Mr. Kimball was known as a progressive, able, and upright business man,
conducting his operations along lines of fairness and absolute integrity. He had
few other business interests, but as president of the Vineland National Bank was
in close touch with all business and commercial enterprises of the locality. He
was one of the organizers of this institution, which opened business under its
Federal charter in May, 1883, with a capitalization of $50,000, and at the first
meeting of the stockholders was chosen a director and vice-president. In the
fall of the same year the president, who had been chosen at the election that
placed Mr. Kimball in the vice-president's chair, resigned, and from that time
until his death Mr. Kimball was at the head of the affairs of the bank as
president, an office he graced with commanding ability. He was a member of the
auditing committee of the Pennsylvania Lumbermen's Mutual Fire Insurance
Company, being one of the original auditors, and was also president of the
Siloam Cemetery Association. of which he was for a number of years director. He
fraternized with the Masonic order, belonging to Vineland Lodge, No. 69, Free
and Accepted Masons. His interest in the welfare and advancement of his
community did not take the form of political activity, but in every project
aiming at the benefit of Vineland he was an important factor, one of his latest
acts of public spirited generosity being a liberal subscription to a fund for
the purchase of modern fire apparatus for the local company, a donation he made
in the name of his firm.

  His long and valuable association with the First Baptist Church of Vineland
forms one of the most interesting chapters in his life story, while his service
to the denomination was such that his death creates a vacancy most difficult to
fill. Becoming a member of the First Baptist Church in 1867, he was for eight
years superintendent of the Sunday school, and at the time of his death was
senior member of the board of deacons, to which he belonged for twenty years. He
was liberally broadminded in his views, labored with strong devotion in all
departments of his church, and followed the standard of his Master in sincerity
and love. His long and untiring service in the local organization was equalled
by his work in those associations whose scope is broader and whose problems
correspondingly more perplexing, and for twenty-five years he was a member of
the board of managers of the New Jersey Baptist Convention, and for twenty years
a trustee of the West Jersey Baptist Association. There came from the lips of
his pastor, Rev. A. Stokes Watson, at the time of Mr. Kimball's death a
beautiful appreciation of his life and church service, which is in part quoted
below:

  The place which has known him in the House of God these many years will know
him no more forever, but the sweet and sacred memory of his presence and his
words, as well as the example of his faithfulness, will abide until this
generation has been gathered to its fathers. Yea, and long after, for the
children and the children's children will be told of him who, through summer
heat and winter cold, while duties crowded upon him and the years multiplied,
was always found in his place in the House of God. As a citizen of this
community he was known as one of Vineland's "grand old men." Every one loved him
because he was interested in every one. Every one honored him because of his
sturdy convictions. He belonged to every one, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile,
Catholic and Protestant. The children were instinctively drawn to him and in him
found a true friend.

  For fifty years he lived here this beautiful brotherly life—a benediction of
God. Many of us know how profound was his faith in prayer. Prayer was to him the
way into a more intimate fellowship with his Heavenly Father—the instrument by
which our wills are to be brought into harmony with the will of God.

  Deacon Kimball had profound faith in "the eternal goodness." In his heart he
sang with Tennyson in his "In Memoriam." Always fearful of himself he laid upon
the goodness of God as his sole hope. His life was one long psalm of
thanksgiving. His waking prayer was one of joyful praise for another day of
privilege.

  But there was another realm to which he belonged—the home. What a home was
that, dedicated to piety, chastity, and hospitality! What a heritage, his love,
his precepts, the hallowed associations of all these years!

  Great as a Baptist, greater as a man, greatest as a Christian, the world has
had his life, the denomination has had his services, the church has had his
counsel and fellowship, and the community his example as a successful Christian
merchant, and we may say of his relation to all these what was said of Phillips
Brooks in his relation to Harvard University, "To them he gave his constant
love, large service, and high example."

  Myron J. Kimball married, June 3, 1869, Clara A., daughter of John Prince, who
came to New Jersey from Maine. He is survived by her, one son, Eugene M., and a
brother, Charles A. Kimball, of New York City.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

MEMORIAL CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY

UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF MARY DEPUE OGDEN

VOLUME III
MEMORIAL HISTORY COMPANY NEWARK,  NEW JERSEY
1917


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