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