6 10 100 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 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 https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/c73d7e33565f6f9105a59eb313de4046.jpg 36ff85bb0bdc4d702942e1c05673dfb8 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 Artifacts Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Artifacts from the collections of Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts. Description An account of the resource Artifacts recovered during archaeological dig prior to construction of the Rutgers-Camden dormitory at 330 Cooper Street, Camden, N.J. 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 Charles Joly Beer Bottle Description An account of the resource Three Charles Joly beer bottles were uncovered during the Cooper Street dig. The bottle not only represents the growth of beer production in the United States, it also shows how the nation was expanding with new innovations that allowed for the transportation of perishable items by rail with the use of refrigerated box cars. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Recovered from excavation prior to construction of Rutgers-Camden dormitory at 330 Cooper Street, Camden, N.J. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University–Camden Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1875–1895; photograph, June 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ernie Ariens (Graduate Student, American Material Culture, Spring 2018); photograph by Jacob Lechner Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Collection of Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts Relation A related resource Affleck, Richard, George Cress, Ingrid Weubber, Rebecca White, Kimberly Morrell, and Thomas Kutys. Phase II and Data-Recovery Archaeological Excavations of the Smith-Maskell Site Cooper Street Development Camden, New Jersey. Archaeological Excavation Report, Burlington: URS Corporation. 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 During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, two Chinese laundries operated in the 200 block of Cooper Street. Like their counterparts throughout the United States in this era, the men who hand-laundered clothing for Camden's white residents endured harassment and sometimes violence. They also earned respect from Cooper Street neighbors who came to their defense as they persisted in the hot, damp, monotonous work of earning a living in one of the few occupations open to them at the time.<br /><br />Camden gained its first Chinese laundry by 1877, around the same time that a <a href="https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/chinatown/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">community of Chinese immigrants</a> began to form in Philadelphia. Judging by business listings in Camden city directories, Hong Sing's laundry at 62 and then 108 N. Second Street was the only commercial hand-laundry in the city from 1877 until 1881. By 1884, the number of Chinese laundries grew to six, enough to attract the attention of the <em>Camden County Courier.</em> In a story headlined "The Heathen Chinese," the <em>Courier's</em> writer observed: "If in the next few years our Chinese population and their laundries increase in the proportion that they have recently we shall soon have a veritable Chinatown in our midst, and if any one has a dirty shirt or soiled linen it will be his own fault." Camden's Chinese laundries had three to four men each, living at the laundries, and the city's residents were becoming accustomed to seeing the "Celestials" who wore traditional clothing and braided their hair in queues. The Chinese, for their part, operated at risk of vandalism and attacks by young men described by the newspaper as "hoodlums."<br /><br />The numbers of Chinese and non-Chinese laundries in Camden grew with the city's population, and Chinese immigrants dominated the business with 30 of 41 laundries in 1890; 40 of 63 in 1900; 37 of 49 in 1910; and 29 of 35 in 1920. Some Chinese entrepreneurs ran two or three laundries, and some started laundries other South Jersey communities like Merchantville and Haddonfield. They did not, as the Camden newspaper expected, coalesce into a local Chinatown but dispersed their laundries around the city. On days when business did not require their presence, the laundry men maintained cultural connections by participating in the social life of Philadelphia's Chinatown.<br /><br />The Chinese laundries on Cooper Street were located at 214 and 220, in a row of four small brick row houses that then stood on the site occupied in 2020 by the Cooper Street Historic Building Apartments and its adjacent parking lot. The row houses, two and one-quarter stories each, may have been built as early as 1820, when Cooper Street was still a country road leading to the Delaware River ferries. The aging row thus would have offered a relatively cheap yet prominent location on a street otherwise regarded as a fashionable address.<br /><br />The first of the Chinese laundries on Cooper Street is documented as operating for just one year, during 1885 at 220 Cooper. This house had adjacent wood-frame outbuildings and stables, previously occupied by a milk distribution depot and a manufacturing facility for Fleishmann's yeast. During the location's year as a laundry, the Camden city directory named the owner as Junkee Kwong. The New Jersey State Census recorded three Chinese men at this address, rendering their names as Hong Sing, Charlie Lee, and Louie Lee. Like so many other Chinese men during the era of the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chinese Exclusion Act</a> (1882), they were single; immigration restriction prohibited bringing additional Chinese women or families to the United States.<br /><br />A Chinese laundry of greater duration operated at 214 Cooper Street from 1889 to 1901. In 1889, Ghe Lee advertised his business as the <em>Camden Courier-Post</em> as "the first good laundry in Camden." City directories subsequently listed the laundry operators at this address as Charlie Tom (1890-93) and Ying Lee (1894-1901). In 1895, Ying Lee and the laundry shared the address with the family of a German cigar-maker. The laundry at 214 Cooper opened while new, grander houses were built next door at 204, 206, and 210 Cooper in 1890. The neighbors who moved into these homes included a retired wealthy couple, the head of a manufacturing firm, and an attorney.<br /><br />An incident in 1897 provides greatest access to the experience of Ying Lee, the 214 Cooper Street laundry, and the attitudes of Cooper Street neighbors toward the Chinese in their midst. Ying Lee, born in China in 1860, had lived in the United States since childhood. He would have lived first in the western United States, where racism and discrimination prompted migration to other regions. By 1880, at age 20, he was in Philadelphia. By 1894, he was in the laundry business at 214 Cooper Street. Over the door, he displayed a small American flag. <br /><br />Harassment and vandalism of Chinese laundries was common in Camden, and the rowdiness alarmed and frightened Cooper Street's residents. Their appeals to police seemed to receive little attention. For Ying Lee, a particularly harrowing incident occurred in 1897 when three young men, two white and one African American, threatened him with knives and held him at gunpoint while they searched for money. Thieves had learned that Chinese laundrymen kept cash in their businesses, and in this case they escaped with  $15--not a large sum, but a significant amount for the income of a hand laundry.<br /><br />The escalation of violence prompted Ying Lee's neighbors to take further steps to try to restore peace to the neighborhood. The problem was not the Chinaman, they told the local press, but the local rowdyism against him. Dissatisfied with the response of local officials, a civil engineer who lived across the street from the laundry, Richard Pancoast, looked across the river to Philadelphia's Chinatown for assistance. He alerted the missionary in charge of the YMCA in Chinatown, Frederick Poole, who visited the mayor of Camden to urge action against laundry violence. To the consternation of local officials, Poole described Camden as a particular problem area in a letter to the Chinese Minister in the United States in Washington. The missionary also called the matter to the attention of the governor of New Jersey, who summoned Camden's mayor to a meeting.<br /><br />The publicity does not seem to have prompted any particular action on the part of authorities. The next year, however, the Camden Board of Health focused on 214 Cooper Street as an example of unsanitary properties needing attention for the benefit of public health. They cast this as an action against the owner of the property, a local oyster dealer, but their perception would have aligned with then-common associations between Chinese immigrants and disease. The 214 Cooper Street house, according to the Board of Health, "has been a constant menace to health in that community for a number of years." The board ordered under-drainage to reduce risk of typhoid fever and other diseases.<br /><br />In the wake of the 1897 holdup, Ying Lee's neighbors encouraged him to get a gun to defend himself, but he declined. He remained in business at 214 Cooper Street until 1901, and he expanded to one and sometimes two other laundries in Camden. He was displaced from Cooper Street when the house he rented became part of the property being assembled for construction of a new mansion for a wealthy shipmaster, John B. Adams. Ying Lee may have returned to Philadelphia, where that city's directory in 1904 listed a person by the same name  in the business of Chinese goods at 912 Race Street, in the heart of Philadelphia's Chinatown. Time period on Cooper Street 1885, 1889-1901 Location(s) - Cooper Street 214 and 220 Cooper Street Occupation Laundry Operators Associated Individuals (As recorded by Census or Camden City Directories) Junkee Kwong (220 Cooper Street, 1885) Hong Sing (220 Cooper Street, 1885) Charlie Lee (220 Cooper Street, 1885) Louie Lee (220 Cooper Street, 1885) Ghe Lee (214 Cooper Street, 1889) Charlie Tom (214 Cooper Street, 1890-93) Ying Lee (214 Cooper Street, 1894-1901) Richard Pancoast (neighbor, 205 Cooper Street) Research by Charlene Mires and Lucy Davis Sources Camden City Directories (Ancestry.com).<br /> Camden and Philadelphia Newspapers (Newspapers.com).<br /> Jung, John. <em>Chinese Laundries: Tickets to Survival on Gold Mountain. </em>Yin and Yang Press, 2010.<br /> U.S. Census. Posted by Charlene Mires Direct corrections to cmires@camden.rutgers.edu 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 Chinese Laundry Men Description An account of the resource Two Chinese laundries operated on Cooper Street during the late nineteenth century. 1880s 1890s 200 Block 214 Cooper Street 220 Cooper Street Business China Crime Immigrants Laundries Philadelphia Police Public Health 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 Data Description An account of the resource Data about past residents, compiled from city directories and the U.S. Census (work in progress). Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Data compiled from public records. 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 Cole Street (300 Block) Residents Database Description An account of the resource Cole Street was a one-block street that ran from Third to Fourth Street between Linden and Pearl Streets. Row houses, both owned and rented, stood on both sides of the street from the early 1880s until urban renewal demolition created the campus of Rutgers-Camden in the 1960s. The street ran through the site of the current Athletic and Fitness Center on the campus.<br /><br /><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11wB76DnRGvEUzL-W2wj-JVAeQiTevSlZS2Jqx6fI38I/edit?usp=sharing">Link to database</a>. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Camden City Directories Camden Newspapers U.S. and New Jersey Censuses Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1880s-1960s Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Research by Lucy Davis and Charlene Mires Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Created from public sources Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource <strong>Google Sheets database:</strong> <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11wB76DnRGvEUzL-W2wj-JVAeQiTevSlZS2Jqx6fI38I/edit?usp=sharing">link here</a>. https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/files/original/102be0fae6e53064d8daa05e145c9be4.jpg 454bb3c58bd68f131cacb5c9b5477bc1 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 Buildings Description An account of the resource Houses and other structures on Cooper Street in Camden, N.J. Place Residence, business, or other entity. Illustrations <em>Camden Post</em>, November 27, 1897. Significance Built during the 1820s and home to two generations of the Cooper family, the mansion at 121 Cooper Street later served as a public library and an important site of activism for woman suffrage and other civic projects led by Camden women. Architectural style Federal, adapted to Second Empire by addition of Mansard roof. Date of construction ca. 1825 History <p>A large brick house, home to descendants of Camden’s founding Cooper family for two generations, stood on Cooper Street between Front and Second Streets for nearly a century, from the 1820s until 1919. The land, later designated as Johnson Park, had been acquired by members of the Cooper family from another English Quaker landholder in 1689. Richard Matlack Cooper, who inherited the property from his grandfather, chose it as the location for a residence that reflected his prominence, wealth, and need to accommodate a large family: his wife, Mary Cooper, eight of their children, periodically other relatives, and the domestic servants whose labor sustained the household. Built by 1825 (possibly earlier), the symmetrical red-brick structure was five bays wide and at least that deep. A brick wall surrounded the residence, a brick stable stood in the rear, and fruit trees shaded the grounds.</p> <p>The home’s first head of household, Richard M. Cooper, played a significant role in the economic vitality of Camden through his roles with the <a href="https://camdenhistory.com/businesses/banks/first-camden-national-bank-trust" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">State Bank of Camden</a>, initially as its first cashier (1812-14) and then as its president (1814-42). The bank, one of the institutions that propelled Camden’s growth as a city less dependent on Philadelphia, stood just a block away from the Cooper Mansion (as it came to be known). Cooper also held positions in government, including judge and justice of the Gloucester County courts and state assemblyman. In 1829, he was <a href="https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/C000760" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">elected to the first of two terms in the U.S. Congress</a> on an anti-Jacksonian ticket headed by John Quincy Adams for president. His politics aligned with his banking interests as he opposed President <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/andrew-jackson/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Andrew Jackson</a>’s dismantling of the centralized <a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/second-bank-of-the-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Second Bank of the United States</a>, headquartered in Philadelphia. Cooper’s votes on military matters were consistent with his faith heritage as a Quaker as well as anti-Jacksonian politics. During his first term, he voted against the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indian-Removal-Act" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Indian Removal Act</a>, which nevertheless passed and forced Native Americans to relocate to territory west of the Mississippi River. During the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/nullification-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nullification crisis</a> of 1832-33, when South Carolina attempted to declare a federally enacted tariff null and voice within the state, Cooper voted against giving Jackson the power to use military authority to enforce collecting duties on imports.</p> <p>When Richard M. Cooper <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7173544/richard-matlack-cooper" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">died in 1843</a> at age 76, the mansion on Cooper Street and the rest of his property passed in equal parts to his children, with the provision that half of the income from his holdings be reserved for his wife, Mary (who outlived him by more than two decades). She continued to inhabit the mansion, together with her adult unmarried children and domestic servants. Prominent among the siblings were the youngest, who were twins: Dr. Richard M. Cooper and lawyer William D. Cooper, who were around 30 years of age at the time of their father’s death. Dr. Cooper played a leading role in public health in Camden, including co-founding a dispensary to provide medical services to indigent patients. The twins’ older sisters Elizabeth, Mary, and Sarah became known for their support of charitable causes. By 1860, the household of siblings and Irish domestic servants also included a 13-year-old niece, Helen Cooper, whose mother had died. (In later years, Helen married another prominent resident of Cooper Street, Dr. Henry Genet Taylor.)</p> <p>The younger generation of Coopers waited until after their mother’s death in 1869 to renovate the mansion to reflect contemporary architectural tastes. The formerly two-story house became three stories with the additional of a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/mansard-roof" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mansard roof</a>, a European design element that had become popular in France and the United States. Similar renovations were taking place at other older homes around Camden. The <em>West Jersey Press</em> took note of the widespread improvements during these years following the Civil War, observing, “They evince the highest taste in many cases, and some of the buildings metamorphosed possess considerable architectural beauty. The Mansard roof is a great addition, and has been generally adopted, where changes have been made.”</p> <p>The twins Richard and William Cooper nurtured an idea for another Camden improvement, in the form of a hospital. Although both of them died in the mid-1870s before the project could be carried out, their sisters Elizabeth and Sarah and another brother, Alexander, stepped forward to contribute and raise the necessary funds. The Camden Hospital–soon named <a href="https://www.cooperhealth.org/about-us/our-history" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cooper Hospital</a>–opened in 1887. A building for the hospital stood ready by 1877, but it took another ten years to fund an endowment to support its operations.<br /><br /><strong>Uncertain Future</strong></p> <p>By 1880, the household at the Cooper Mansion had diminished to only the sisters Elizabeth, age 74, and Sarah, age 76, with four or five servants (most of them Irish immigrants). The sisters’ deaths in the 1880s closed a chapter for the mansion as a family home and opened uncertainty about the future for the property. At the time of the mansion’s construction, Camden was only beginning to emerge as a city and the Cooper family held most of the land north of Cooper Street as undeveloped property. But the terms of Richard M. Cooper’s will in 1843 had released his heirs to develop the land as they saw fit. At that fortuitous time, when Camden gained in status as the seat of <a href="https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/locations/camden-county-new-jersey/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">newly formed Camden County</a>, building lots sold at a fast clip.  The square where the mansion stood, between the industrialized Delaware River waterfront to the west and recently built residential blocks to the east, consequently became a rare open space in the fast-growing, densely developing city. Only two other houses stood in the block, both facing Front Street.</p> <p>During the 1890s, the future of the Cooper Mansion touched off a debate in Camden. The local Women’s Parks Association, formed in 1893, succeeded in persuading the Camden City Council to purchase the mansion and its square from the Cooper Estate for $75,000 (financed by a bond issue) in 1895. The resulting Cooper Park, with its new landscape of curving walks, benches, and streetlamps, raised a question of whether the old mansion should be retained within the more picturesque setting. The Parks Association, which had responsibility for maintaining the square, divided over the issue; for a time, a committee of City Council supported demolition. A flurry of public debate in the fall of 1897 centered primarily on whether the outmoded aesthetics of the building marred an otherwise improved public space. Opponents of demolition argued for giving the mansion a new purpose as a manual training high school or a library. In a victory for a project long favored by the <a href="http://www.dvrbs.com/camden-texts/camdennj-womansclub-1894-1919.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Camden Woman’s Club</a> (whose membership overlapped with the Parks Association) and other influential citizens, the proponents of the library prevailed.<br /><br /><strong>Library</strong></p> <p>The mansion, reduced in size by demolition of a  rear extension, opened as the Cooper Library in 1898 with a collection of 2,000 books amassed through public donations. The building remained a residence as well, but only for park caretakers and a librarian. The caretaker from at least 1900 through 1909, Thomas Jones, nurtured the plants and trees of the park and kept it spotless. Known affectionately to parkgoers as “Pop,” Jones shared quarters in the mansion with his wife and teenage son. Jones had immigrated from Ireland as a child; his wife Ellen’s parents also were Irish. Also resident in the mansion-turned-library was the librarian, Marietta Kay Champion. A descendant of the prominent Kay family of Haddonfield, Champion was a longtime Camden resident whose father had been one of the founders of <a href="https://stpaulschurchcamden.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. Paul’s Church</a> on Market Street. Champion’s formal schooling had ended in the eighth grade, but she pursued further education through the Camden University Extension, which offered college-level lectures for adults (in that program, she earned honorable mention for a paper on “The Story of Faust” in 1891). Champion also had a keen interest in history. On the basis of documenting her genealogy, she became a member of the <a href="https://nscda.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Colonial Dames Society</a>; later in life, she served as secretary of the <a href="https://cchsnj.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Camden County Historical Society</a> (which met for a time in the library).</p> <p>The Cooper Library soon became designated as a branch within a small system of libraries in Camden. In 1903, Camden accepted a gift of $100,000 from Pennsylvania steel magnate <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Carnegie" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Andrew Carnegie</a>, who financed library buildings around the country in keeping with his “<a href="https://www.carnegie.org/about/our-history/gospelofwealth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gospel of Wealth</a>” philosophy. The new Carnegie-funded building, which opened in 1905 on Broadway at Line Street, became the central <a href="https://www.nj.gov/dca/njht/funded/sitedetails/carnegie_library_camden.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Camden Free Library</a>; in addition to the Cooper Branch Library in the former mansion, another branch opened in East Camden.<br /><br /><strong>Women's Activism</strong></p> <p>Just as women had played a pivotal role in establishing Cooper Park and saving the mansion, they increasingly used the Cooper Branch Library as a place for gathering and activism. These activities escalated after 1907, when a renovation installed an auditorium on the building’s second floor. The Camden Woman’s Club, a mainstay of civic and social activity for middle- and upper-class women since 1894, moved its headquarters to the library after the renovation. By 1912, the library began hosting speakers who promoted <a href="https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/woman-suffrage/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">woman suffrage</a>, and it hosted meetings of the Camden Equal Suffragist League beginning with the organization’s founding in 1913. Local  <a href="https://www.dar.org/">Daughters of the American Revolution</a> met at the library and established a Visiting Nurses Society, which also met there. At the Cooper Branch Library in 1916, with the Great War underway in Europe, local women organized a chapter of the New Jersey Women’s Division for National Preparedness. During the war, the library became headquarters for the Red Cross. Other groups that united women and men for civic betterment—the Civic Club and the Playgrounds Commission, for example—gathered in the library as well. Collectively, these activities made the Cooper Branch Library a center for Progressive Era causes for more than a decade and defined it as predominantly a place for women’s activism.</p> <p>An act of philanthropy in 1915 signaled an approaching end to the mansion’s service as a library and community center. Eldridge R. Johnson, the founder and president of the <a href="https://ethw.org/Victor_Talking_Machine_Company" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Victor Talking Machine Company</a>, announced his intention to donate $130,000 for construction of a new, modern library in Cooper Park to replace the older building. Johnson’s factories and offices, the product of rapid expansion since the company’s founding in 1901, stood adjacent to the park. He intended the gift to provide a library more in keeping with the scale and impressive, neoclassical architecture of cultural institutions in major American cities. Although not stated as such in the public record, such a library would compare favorably or potentially outshine to the central Camden Free Library that had been funded by Andrew Carnegie. The new <a href="https://johnson-park.camden.rutgers.edu/library.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cooper Branch Library</a>, constructed behind the old Cooper Mansion, opened in 1919. Then, with only a ripple of public opposition, contractors demolished the mansion. Johnson donated additional funds to renovate and beautify the square, which the city renamed <a href="https://johnson-park.camden.rutgers.edu/history.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Johnson Park</a> in his honor in 1920.</p> Associated Individuals For a list of all known occupants of 121 Cooper Street, visit the <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15gz3_mGk3FcNl0TPaOZAq6B1CHvOpqRcY7a99xkp_l4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cooper Street Residents Database</a> and scroll down to 121. Sources Camden City Directories (Camden County Historical Society and Ancestry.com).<br /> Camden County Property Records.<br />New Jersey State Census, 1885-1915, and U.S. Census, 1850-1910 (Ancestry.com).<br />Camden, New Jersey, Newspapers.<br /> Prowell, George R. <em>The History of Camden County, New Jersey.</em> Philadelphia: L.J. Richards &amp; Co., 1886.<br />"<a href="https://li.proquest.com/elhpdf/histcontext/21st_Congress.pdf">Twenty-First Congress</a>" and "<a href="https://li.proquest.com/elhpdf/histcontext/22nd_Congress.pdf">Twenty-Second Congress</a>" (Proquest). Research by Charlene Mires and 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 Cooper Mansion (121 Cooper Street) Description An account of the resource Demolished home to two generations of the Cooper family, later a public library. 100 Block 121 Cooper Street 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s Attorneys Bankers Banking Cooper Family Cooper Hospital Cooper Park Demolition Doctors Eldridge Johnson Extended Family Johnson Park Librarians Libraries Mansard Philanthropy Public Health Public Officials Red Cross Reform Renovations Woman Suffrage Women's Clubs World War I 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 Data Description An account of the resource Data about past residents, compiled from city directories and the U.S. Census (work in progress). Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Data compiled from public records. 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 Cooper Street by Block, 1839-1860 (before house numbering) Description An account of the resource Data about residents of Cooper Street in Camden, New Jersey. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Philadelphia city directories (Camden listings) and the U.S. and New Jersey censuses. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1839-1960. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Compiled by Charlene Mires Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Compiled from public sources. Relation A related resource For later years, also see <a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/collections/show/5"><strong>Cooper Street Database</strong></a>. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Google Sheets database: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ReDb-ps_X08EscIu8yeVQCMIHBHKRgrS1dsBTy86kBk/edit?usp=sharing"><strong>Link here to view.</strong></a> 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 Data Description An account of the resource Data about past residents, compiled from city directories and the U.S. Census (work in progress). Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Data compiled from public records. 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 Cooper Street Domestic Workers Database Description An account of the resource Data about domestic workers on Cooper Street in Camden, N.J. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Camden, N.J., City Directories; U.S. and New Jersey Census; Camden newspapers. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource c. 1850-1940 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Compiled by Charlene Mires, Lucy Davis, and students at Rutgers-Camden. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Compiled from public sources. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource <strong>Google Sheets database: </strong><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QTGRqmoC110Mr7I2nO9aPjjBZC0UTSJ5Rx0zF_Y2b4A/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Link here to view</a>. 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 Data Description An account of the resource Data about past residents, compiled from city directories and the U.S. Census (work in progress). Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Data compiled from public records. Dataset Data encoded in a defined structure. Examples include lists, tables, and databases. A dataset may be useful for direct machine processing. 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 Cooper Street Residents Database Description An account of the resource Data about past residents of Cooper Street in Camden, N.J. (work in progress). Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource c. 1840s-c. 2020 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Compiled from public sources. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource <strong>Google Sheets database: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15gz3_mGk3FcNl0TPaOZAq6B1CHvOpqRcY7a99xkp_l4/edit?usp=sharing">Link here to view</a>.</strong> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Compiled by Lucy Davis, Charlene Mires, and students at Rutgers-Camden. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Camden, N.J., City Directories; U.S. and New Jersey Census; property deeds; Camden newspapers. Relation A related resource Also see:<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/64">Cooper Street by Block, 1839-1860 (before house numbering</a>.<br /></strong><br /><strong><a href="https://omeka.camden.rutgers.edu/items/show/63">Blocks Adjacent to Cooper Street, 1839-1860 (before house numbering).</a></strong> Data 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 Artifacts Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Artifacts from the collections of Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts. Description An account of the resource Artifacts recovered during archaeological dig prior to construction of the Rutgers-Camden dormitory at 330 Cooper Street, Camden, N.J. 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 Copper Alloy Thimble and Pins Description An account of the resource Straight pins filled a number of needs in the nineteenth-century household. Women used them to sew clothes and fasten baby diapers, and men used them to fasten documents before the invention of the staple. The thimble protected the pointer finger from needle injuries while sewing. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Recovered from excavation prior to construction of Rutgers-Camden dormitory at 330 Cooper Street, Camden, N.J. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Rutgers University-Camden Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Photograph July 2018 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Lucy Davis (Graduate Student, American Material Culture, Spring 2018); photograph by Jacob Lechner. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Collection of Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts Relation A related resource Affleck, Richard, George Cress, Ingrid Weubber, Rebecca White, Kimberly Morrell, and Thomas Kutys. Phase II and Data-Recovery Archaeological Excavations of the Smith-Maskell Site Cooper Street Development Camden, New Jersey. Archaeological Excavation Report, Burlington: URS Corporation.