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Robert S. Buck. - The family are of English extraction, the earliest representatives in America having settled in New England. Henry Buck, the progenitor of this branch of the family, was born in 1635, and removed in 1692 to Fairfield, N. J., then known as Fenwick�s colony. He died in advanced years, leaving several children, among those was henry, the second son in order of birth. He became the father of a son Ephraim, whose son Ephraim was the father of Jeremiah Buck, whose birth occurred in 1764. He married Miss Sarah Holmes, and had among his children a son, Robert S., the subject of this biography. The latter was born September 10, 1802, in Bridgeton, N. j., and having left school at an early age, was apprenticed to a miller. At the age of twenty-three he entered the political arena, and was elected by the Whig party to the office of sheriff of the county, which he filled with credit for three years. He never after held office, though often solicited to be the candidate for important positions.
On his retirement from the office of sheriff he engaged in the manufacture of bone buttons, and in the year 1836 entered the iron business in Bridgeton, in the establishment now known as the Cumberland Nail and Iron Company, an industry founded in 1814, by David and Benjamin Reeves. In company with Robert C. Nichols, Mr. Buck purchased the interest of Mr. Whitaker, a third partner, and the firm became Reeves, Buck & Co. In 1846, Mr. Buck removed his residence to Phoenixville, Pa., and assumed charge of the iron works at the point belonging to the firm. After a residence of ten years at Phoenixville, he returned to Bridgeton, and though retaining his interest in the extensive works his industry, energy, and perseverance had aided in establishing, retired from active participation in the business. In the year 1865, Mr. Buck purchased controlling interest in the works, and until his death, acted as president. He was married, in 1836, to Miss Caroline James of Salem County, N. J. Their children are Sarah H.Buck; Robert S.Buck, who died in infancy; Clara M. R.Buck, wife of Dr. F. L. DuBois, of the United States Navy; Robert James Buck, who served with credit during the late civil war, and married Miss Sidney E. Reeves, of Phoenix, Pa.; Chester Jones Buck, who married Miss Elizabeth R. DuBois; of Bridgeton; and Caroline James Buck, who is the wife of Lesley Lupton, Esq., of Rahway, N. J. Mr. Buck was in politics early a Whig, and afterwards a Republican, though during his later life not actively interested in political contests. As a man he possessed strict principles of honesty and integrity, was warm hearted and generous, courteous in his bearing, and with a peculiar magnetism which made those daily associated with him his friends. His business management was firm but kindly, his dealings just. While esteemed and respected by those who came in daily business contact with him, his attractive social and domestic qualities were known best to those who were admitted to the sanctity of his own fireside. Here were manifested all those graces of mind and heart which endeared him to family and friends.
In his religious preferences Mr. Buck was a Presbyterian and a regular attendant upon the services of that church. His death occurred at his home in Bridgeton, April 23, 1877, in his seventy-fifth year.
