J. Henry Bacheller

Joseph Henry Bacheller (February 1, 1869 – December 12, 1939) was an American banker, philanthropist, and Republican Party politician from Newark, New Jersey. He served as a member of the Newark board of aldermen from 1887 to 1901 and served as its president in 1903. He also represented Essex County in the New Jersey General Assembly in 1901 and the New Jersey Senate from 1903 to 1906.

Early life and education Joseph Henry Bacheller was born on February 1, 1869, to John Collins Bacheller and Harriet (née Parcells) Bacheller. The Bacheller family first arrived in the Americas around 1630 in Ipswich, Massachusetts and settled much of Massachusetts. John Collins Bacheller was a manufacturer and the first Bacheller, in the ninth generation, to permanently move to Newark, New Jersey.

Joseph was educated in the Newark public schools. Following his election, he predicted an end to the Great Depression, telling a meeting of the Newark Advertising Club that his study of the financial panics of 1873 and 1893 led him to believe that depressions were caused by "extravagance, speculation and inflation." He urged the advertisers to "preach optimism and thus add your voice to a restoration of confidence which we have so sadly lacked and which now seems at hand."

Political career Bacheller was a member of the Republican Party. From 1887 to 1901, he represented the ninth ward on the Newark board of aldermen. For several years, he chaired the Finance Committee. In 1903, he was president of the board of aldermen.

He was president of the Children's Aid Society of Newark, a director of the Newark YMCA, a member of the Essex Club and Downtown Club of Newark and president of Rockaway River Country Club. He was a trustee of the Newark Free Public Library and a member of the Newark Sinking Fund Commission.

He died on December 12, 1939, after a long illness.