2 10 17 https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/6962da4a6cae5a9775811c8fbef23c82.jpg d1dbcb973c038eafeb181860033c15a3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text In 1933, Helen Waters opened a beauty shop on the second floor of 421 Cooper Street. She vigorously promoted her business with display advertising and flattering promotional articles in the Camden newspapers, encouraging the women of Camden to come to her for the latest in hairstyling and cosmetics. By the time Helen opened her shop at 421 Cooper, she had been widowed and her work as a beautician supported two daughters. The 1930 Census found her at age 30 living at the Harding Villa Apartments on Federal Street while her daughters Patricia and Dorothy, then aged 9 and 10, lived with her parents Daniel and Lida Chester elsewhere in Camden. Helen, who had an eighth-grade education, worked as a beautician for Binder's Beauty Shop in Philadelphia before opening her own establishment at 421 Cooper Street, where she and her daughters also came to live. In 1938, Waters added cosmetics and facials to her business. Her daughters both graduated from high school, including at least one year at Mount St. Mary's Academy run by the Sisters of Mercy in Plainfield, New Jersey. In 1940, living with their mother at 421 Cooper, Dorothy worked as a typist and Patricia as a telephone operator. Patricia actively promoted a women's basketball league in Camden for former high school players. The 421 Cooper Street building, originally a Greek Revival row house, had been renovated into an office building with Mission Revival embellishments. Other businesses and organizations, including the Camden County Real Estate Board and the Camden County Democratic Party, had offices in the building while Helen operated the shop and lived upstairs. In 1945, after both of her daughters had married, Helen bought the building but retained ownership only until 1947. When she put 421 Cooper Street up for sale, it offered an office suite on the first floor, additional office space on the second floor, "plus three nicely planned apartments with modern tile baths." Helen continued to operate her beauty salon in the building until at least 1950, but after its sale she moved behind it to 426 Lawrence Street. (Illustration: Advertisement, Camden Morning Post, October 6, 1933.) Time period on Cooper Street 1933-1947 Location(s) - Cooper Street 421 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other Harding Villa Apartments, Federal Street Binder's Beauty Shop, Philadelphia 426 Lawrence Street Occupation Beautician Birth Date c. 1900 Birthplace New Jersey (likely Cape May, listed there at 5 months old in 1900 U.S. Census) Death Date Unknown (after 1950) Associated Individuals Daniel and Lida Chester (parents) Joseph Waters (husband) Dorothy Waters (daughter, married Edwin J. Schmidt Jr. of Oaklyn, N.J., in 1940) Patricia Waters (daughter, married John Tesik of Hazleton, Pa., warrant officer in U.S. Navy, in 1945) Sources Camden City Directories, 1930-1947 (Ancestry.com) Camden Newspapers, 1930-1950 (Newspapers.com) U.S. Census, 1930-1940 (Ancestry.com) Research by Charlene Mires and Kaya Durkee Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Waters, Helen Description An account of the resource Helen Waters, a widow, supported her family by operating a beauty salon on the second floor of 421 Cooper Street from the 1930s to at least 1950. 1930s 1940s 400 Block 421 Cooper Street 426 Lawrence Street Adult Beauticians Cape May Cosmetics Female Philadelphia Widows Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text John Hanmore and his wife, Eleanor, together with two adult daughters and two grandchildren, were among the first residents of new Cooper Street row houses built between Front Street and Delaware Avenue in 1883. They moved to 65 Cooper Street in Camden from a middle-class, managerial neighborhood of Philadelphia, demonstrating the appeal of Camden as a commuter suburb for the larger city across the Delaware River. The Hanmores' new home was arguably the most desirable of the newly built, three-story homes, standing on the corner of Front and Cooper immediately west of the open square of the Cooper family mansion (later Johnson Park). The Hanmores filled their new home with walnut, oak, and mahogany furniture, installed window boxes for flowers, and added bay windows to the side of their row house that faced the square. One of the adult daughters, Elizabeth Hanmore, offered art lessons for schoolgirls. For John Hanmore, commuting from Camden to his work as a Philadelphia manufacturer of boiler and pipe coverings was likely easier and shorter than before—across the ferry to his business location on Delaware Avenue instead of a streetcar ride of more than 20 blocks from his earlier home at 2323 Green Street in Philadelphia. The family’s presence on Cooper Street proved to be a short one, however, because of John Hanmore’s sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack in 1885. The Camden County Courier described his last moments with dramatic flair: "The deceased had been out riding with his daughter on the evening of his death, and returned about eight o'clock, sat down to the supper table with the rest of his family in apparently good spirits. He was just in the act of handing a cup to his little [grand]daughter when suddenly he fell from his chair to the floor. The members of the family came to his assistance, and raised him up, but life was extinct. Death was caused by paralysis of the heart, induced by consumption." The family remained at 65 Cooper Street for three years longer, but thereafter the property served as a boarding house until its demolition to allow for the 1913 construction of a new office building headquarters for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Time period on Cooper Street c. 1883-1885 Location(s) - Cooper Street 65 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other 2323 Green Street, Philadelphia (previous address) 7 S. Delaware Avenue (business address) Occupation Manufacturer of felt coverings for pipes and boilers Birth Date c. 1825 Birthplace Newburgh, New York Death Date April 4, 1885 Associated Individuals Eleanor Hanmore (wife) Elizabeth Hanmore (daughter) Mary Gerard (daughter) May / Marie Gerard (granddaughter) Roy Gerard (grandson) Sources Camden and Philadelphia City Directories (Ancestry.com) New Jersey and U.S. Censuses (Ancestry.com) Death of John Hanmore reported in Camden County Courier, August 7, 1885; legal notice for construction of bay windows published in Camden Courier-Post, March 31, 1885; art lessons advertised in Courier-Post on various dates in 1884 and 1885; public sale of household contents advertised in Courier-Post, June 6, 1888. Research by Charlene Mires Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hanmore, John Description An account of the resource John Hanmore, a Philadelphia manufacturer, moved his family to a new home on Cooper Street during the 1880s. His death changed the family's fortunes. 00 Block 1880s 65 Cooper Street Adult Death Interiors Male Manufacturers Philadelphia Renovations Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text Margaret Chambers, a boarding house operator and entrepreneur, was a fixture at 59 Cooper Street for two decades beginning in 1893. In addition to the home she owned at 59 Cooper, between Front and Point Streets, her boarding house business extended at times to two adjacent row houses and other addresses in Camden. In this way she cultivated an income independent of her husband, a saloon keeper sometimes at odds with the law. How Margaret came to be in Camden is a mystery. Born in south-central Ohio in 1854, she lived in her home community through a first marriage and gave birth to three children. But sometime after the death of her first husband, in 1884, she moved east, possible joining other extended family members in the Philadelphia area. By 1889, she had married John Chambers, a Camden saloon keeper. In the years following their marriage, John Chambers seemed to aspire to greater respectability as he opened the John Chambers Hotel and Restaurant, at Broadway and Division Streets, in 1891 and the next year became the proprietor of the Exchange Hotel at Second and Market Streets. However, he had already drawn the attention of local authorities for not strictly following the requirements of Camden's retail liquor license by serving drinks by the pitcher. In 1895, he was charged with assault and battery (although ultimately found not guilty) in a dispute over a customer's payments for drinks. In 1897, he was arrested again for selling alcohol on Sundays. Margaret Chambers, meanwhile, took steps to assure an independent living. In 1893, she purchased in her own name a three-story brick row house at 59 Cooper Street, across the street from the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company. In addition to two sons from her previous marriage, by 1895 six boarders lived in the 11-room home. Her husband, John Chambers, appears to have been an inconsistent presence; although he continued to be listed intermittently in Camden city directories, census takers did not find him at 59 Cooper Street in 1895, 1900, 1905, or 1910. During 1900 and 1901, at least, he lived across the river in Philadelphia and Margaret began representing herself in public records as a widow, representing separation or desertion. In 1901, she went to court in Philadelphia to attest that her husband was unfit to renew a liquor license he then held for 600 Beach Street in that city. Margaret struggled to keep up with the taxes on her Cooper Street boarding house, but she nevertheless expanded her business by 1910 to include two adjacent row houses (57 and 61) and another boarding house at 1724 S. Fourth Street. By this time 60 years old, she employed a chamber maid to assist with the laborious effort of housing and feeding her boarders. She rented primarily to single people who worked in nearby businesses and industries and sometimes to widows or couples, some with children. Margaret Chambers persisted in Camden until 1913, around the time when the Victor Talking Machine Company purchased and demolished houses in her block to build its new headquarters office building at Front and Cooper. By this time she also had obtained a divorce from John Chambers, whose fate is otherwise difficult to trace in public records due to other individuals with the same name. During the summer of 1913, Margaret spent six weeks revisiting her home community in Ohio. Although she returned to Camden, by November she was back in Ohio and was married for a third time, to a local farmer and landholder. She lived the remainder of her days in Chillicothe, Ohio, and died in 1934. Time period on Cooper Street 1893-1913 Location(s) - Cooper Street 59 Cooper Street (owned) 57 and 61 Cooper Street (operated as boarding houses) Location(s) - Other 326 Market Street (boarding house, 1892) 1724 S. Fourth Street (boarding house, 1910) Chillicothe, Ohio (before and after residence in Camden) Occupation Boarding house operator Birth Date July 1854 Birthplace Chillicothe, Ohio Death Date 1934 Associated Individuals Augustus Miller, first husband (in Ohio, died 1884) Jacob Worth Miller, son (a civil engineer, died of tuberculosis in 1905 while living at 59 Cooper Street) Charles Miller, son (insurance agent in 1910) Mary E. Miller, daughter John Chambers, second husband Jenice Butter, live-in chamber maid employed in 1910 Nora Butter, milliner, daughter of Jenice Butter Alise Butter (child), daughter of Jenice Butter Gottfried Frick, third husband, in Ohio Audrey L. Menuez, niece, in Philadelphia Known boarders in Camden, 1893-1910: Gideon York Albert Hoey Nancy Joyslin Sallie Walker Charles Brownlow Thomas Jutt Marie/Maria Sterling, play writer Franklin Smith, bookkeeper William Watson, produce salesman Carrie Broonie, pen raiser Richard Obee, play writer Charles Twitchell, machinist Charles Carpenter, machinist Louis Glover, machinist Benjamin Westhoff, machinist Edwin Madden, house painter William Banker, foreman Mary Banker Isaac Stein, cabinetmaker, house painter Emma Stein, operator, pen works Evalyn Senyard, paper box maker Elsie Senyard (child) John Seaman, pull over, shoe factory Estella Seaman Russell Seaman (child) Harry Green, carriage painter Madge Green Ruth Green (child) Jessie Bartlet, mechanical draftsman Victor Philips, ship wright Burkley Philips, ship wright Sources Camden and Philadelphia City Directories (Ancestry.com) New Jersey and U.S. Censuses (Ancestry.com) Newspaper reports in the Camden Daily Telegram, Camden Morning Post, Philadelphia Times, and Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette (Newspapers.com) Research by Charlene Mires Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chambers, Margaret Description An account of the resource Margaret Chambers, a boarding house operator and entrepreneur, was a fixture at 59 Cooper Street for two decades beginning in 1893. 00 Block 1890s 1900s 1910s 57 Cooper Street 59 Cooper Street 61 Cooper Street Adult Boarding House Operator Female Philadelphia Saloons Widows Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text James I. Battle is the only known African American to move from a position of service to head his own household on Cooper Street. Born in Georgia in 1876, by the 1890s Battle had migrated north and settled in Camden. From 1896 until 1899, he worked as a live-in janitor for the Camden Republican Club at 312 Cooper Street. He left this job and the housing it provided in 1899, when he married another African American migrant from Georgia, Hattie Daniels. They made their home at 403 Friends Avenue for most of the first quarter of the twentieth century, but for four years (1909-1912), they returned to Cooper Street. City directories and the U.S. Census of 1910 find them at 63 Cooper Street, a three-story brick row house that they rented just east of Front Street. At that time, their house and two adjacent (61 and 65) belonged to the Victor Talking Machine Company, where James also worked as a steward. Their departure from the Cooper Street home in 1912 coincided with Victor's plans to build its new headquarters on the same site at Cooper and Front Streets. The Battles, who had no children, returned to 403 Friends Avenue until the 1920s, when they moved to Atlantic City. Time period on Cooper Street 1896-99, 1909-12 Location(s) - Cooper Street 312 Cooper Street (1896, 1897, 1898, 1899) 63 Cooper Street (1909, 1910, 1911, 1912) Location(s) - Other Atlantic City: 131 Willow Avenue (1894) Camden: 640 Cherry Street (1900) Camden: 403 Friends ' Avenue (1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908; 1916, 1917, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1926) Atlantic City: 704 Arctic Avenue (1926, 1927, 1929) Occupation Janitor for Camden Republican Club (1896-1899) Steward / Waiter Birth Date October 3, 1876 Birthplace Georgia Death Date Unknown Associated Individuals Hattie (Daniels) Battle, wife, married 1899 in Camden John W. Battle, relationship unknown, co-worker at Camden Republican Club Anna Daniels, mother-in-law Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com) U.S. Census (Ancestry.com) Research by Charlene Mires Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Battle, James Iverson Description An account of the resource Once a janitor, James Battle may be the only African American to advance from a position of service on Cooper Street to heading his own household. 00 Block 1890s 1900s 300 Block 312 Cooper Street 63 Cooper Street Adult African Americans Alumni House Janitor Male Southern Migration Steward Victor Talking Machine Company Waiter Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text For about 20 years, from c. 1888 until 1908, the Reverend William H. Burrell performed marriages for couples who presented themselves at his home at 43 Cooper Street. He was among a group of Camden clergymen described in newspapers as operating "marriage mills," which offered swift weddings in contrast to more burdensome marriage licensing requirements implemented across the river in Pennsylvania in 1885. Burrell, a Methodist Episcopal minister who served at least three congregations in Philadelphia before moving to Camden c. 1888, proved especially successful in the marriage market. The Camden Courier-Post reported in October 1888 that Camden registered between 400 and 500 marriages per month, with Burrell performing an average of five marriages a day for a fee of $2.50 each. Burrell may have benefited from the downfall of Joseph J. Sleeper, 51 Cooper Street, whose qualifications to perform marriages came into question during an 1888 bigamy case. In addition to the close proximity to the Camden ferries, which Sleeper had advertised, Burrell differed from some of his pastoral colleagues by not insisting on personally knowing the bride and groom or having an acquaintance to vouch for them. He also would perform weddings on Sundays, which others did not. In all, the Courier-Post estimated that Burrell's yearly income from weddings could total about four times what he would have earned by serving a congregation. Burrell, about 66 years old when he moved to Camden, owned his three-story row house at 43 Cooper Street (between Front and Delaware) and headed a household consisting of his wife, Elizabeth, and adult daughter, Alma. His daughter Margaret and son-in-law Charles W. Boyle, a telegrapher, owned the row house next door at 41 Cooper Street. The marriage business brought occasional drama to 43 Cooper Street. In 1891, two already-married reporters from the Philadelphia Press launched a personal investigation and found they were able to get married in Camden under different aliases five times in the space of two days by Burrell and others. At other times, enraged parents of allegedly under-aged brides and grooms appeared to protest the nuptials. Burrell lived at 43 Cooper Street until his death in 1909. He and his wife, Elizabeth (who died in 1903), were buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia. Time period on Cooper Street c. 1888-1909 Location(s) - Cooper Street 43 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other Cochranville, West Fallowfield, Chester County (1870 Census) 79 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia (1880 Census) Waynesburg Methodist Episcopal Church, Chester County Twentieth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia Hancock Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia Cookman Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia Ocean City, New Jersey (preacher at camp meeting, operated W.H. Burrell & Son general merchandise business with son Harry G. Burrell until 1883) Bethany Methodist Episcopal Church, Camden, (guest preacher April 1888) Camden Home for Women, 527 S. Fifth Street (to speak about temperance, April 1888) Occupation Clergyman (Methodist Episcopal) Birthplace New Jersey (both parents born in Pennsylvania) Death Date October 14, 1909, buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Philadelphia Associated Individuals Elizabeth A. Burrell (wife) Margaret Burrell Boyle (daughter) Lilly Burrell (daughter) Harry Burrell (son) William Burrell (son, became funeral director in Camden) Alma Burrell (daughter) Lottie Staples (niece) Charles W. Boyle (son-in-law, married to daughter Margaret, 41 Cooper Street) Lillian Boyle (granddaughter) William E. Boyle (grandson) Joseph J. Sleeper (neighbor, 51 Cooper Street) Birth Date 1822 Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com) "A Month's Marriages," Camden Courier-Post, October 17, 1888, and additional news stories in the Camden Daily Telegraph, Morning Post, and Courier-Post, and Philadelphia Inquirer (Newspapers.com) U.S. Census (Ancestry.com) Research by Charlene Mires Lucy Davis Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Burrell, William H. Description An account of the resource William Burrell, a clergyman, performed weddings for couples seeking to evade license requirements in Philadelphia. 00 Block 1880s 1890s 1900s 43 Cooper Street Adult Clergy Male Methodist Episcopal Philadelphia Religion Weddings Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Biographical Text Matilda Toy operated a boarding house during 1887 at 37 Cooper Street, where she lived with her husband, Jacob, an electrician. Their boarders included Bowman Shivers, sergeant-at-arms office (doorkeeper) for the United States Senate; John Willits, a laborer; Amos Homan, a cigar dealer; and Matilda's brother Harry Lounsberry, a tinsmith. Matilda Toy subsequently operated boarding houses at other addresses in the vicinity of the Camden waterfront. Following the death of Jacob Toy c. 1895, Matilda met her second husband, widowed railroad foreman William P. Lewis, when he lived as a boarder in her home at 422 Stevens Street. They married in 1904. Time period on Cooper Street 1887 Location(s) - Cooper Street 37 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other 309 Market Street (operated boarding house, 1888) 403 Arch Street (operated boarding house, 1891) 422 Stevens Street (operated boarding house from at least 1895 until at least 1900) Birth Date January 1849 Birthplace New Jersey Associated Individuals Jacob Toy (first husband, d. by 1895) Harry T. L. Toy (son), b. February 1872, a paper hanger in 1900 Vera H. Toy (daughter), b. November 1883 Bowman H. Shivers (boarder) John Willits (boarder) Amos Homan (boarder) Harry Lounsberry (brother and boarder) Charles B. Lounsberry (brother, Elizabeth NJ in 1912) Alfretta Lounsberry (sister, in Camden in 1912) Arilia L. Phillips (sister, in St. Paul in 1912) William P. Lewis (second husband, married in 1904) Occupation Boarding house operator Death Date March 8, 1911 Research by Charlene Mires Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com) New Jersey Marriage Index (Ancestry.com) Obituary for Matilda Lounsberry, Monmouth Democrat, March 14, 1912 (Newspapers.com) U.S. Census (Ancestry.com) Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Toy, Matilda Description An account of the resource Matilda Toy is an example of an itinerant boarding house operator, moving to different rented houses from year to year. 00 Block 37 Cooper Street Adult Boarding House Operator Female Widows Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People Description An account of the resource Residents of Cooper Street Person An individual. Name Amos Homan Time period on Cooper Street c. 1887-c. 1906 Location(s) - Cooper Street 37 Cooper Street Location(s) - Other Harrison, Gloucester, N.J., 1860 and 1870 Census Mickle Street, Camden, c. 1884 122 N. Second Street, Camden, 1906 Occupation Cigar dealer Previously a laborer, teamster, and porter Biographical Text Amos Homan sold cigars at 37 Cooper Street, a corner row house with a store on the first floor and rented rooms above. He lived at the same address, beginning as a boarder by 1887 but owning the property (mortgaged) by 1900. He also was among the local incorporators of the J.A. Delmar Coal Company in 1903. Homan was a veteran of the Civil War, having served as a private in Company H, New Jersey 12th Infantry Regiment, from September 4, 1862, until December 15, 1863, when he was transferred to a reserve unit due to unspecified poor health. While living in Camden, he was a member of the United Methodist Church on Third Street. Church records listed him as "widowed," although no records document his marriage and Census records list him as single. Birth Date 1840 Birthplace New Jersey Death Date Unknown, between 1906 and 1910. Buried with an undated veteran's headstone in Arlingon Memorial Park, Kearney, Hudson County, N.J. Bibliography Research by Charlene Mires Lucy Davis Associated Individuals Matilda Toy (operator of boarding house at 37 Cooper Street, 1887) Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com) Civil War Veterans Records (Ancestry.com) "Incorporated To-day," Camden Courier Post, June 29, 1903 (Newspapers.com) New Jersey State Census, 1905 (Ancestry.com) Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1885, 1891 (Princeton University) United Methodist Church Records (Ancestry.com) U.S. Census, 1860, 1870, 1900 (Ancestry.com) Posted by Charlene Mires Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Homan, Amos C. Description An account of the resource A Civil War veteran, Amos Homan operated a cigar stand at 37 Cooper Street and eventually bought the building. 00 Block 1880s 1890s 1900s 37 Cooper Street Adult Boarder/Lodger Cigars Civil War Coal Male Retail United Methodist Church Widowers