USA > New Jersey > Camden County > The history of Camden county, New Jersey > Part 65
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Jacob Cooper, in his town plan of 1773, laid out
as the north line the old Ferry Road and called it Cooper Street, and also laid out Market Street. These streets extended from the river to Pine or Sixth Street. The Chews Landing road was laid about 1800, and the Kaighns Point road about 1810, soon after the ferry was established at that place.
When the town was incorporated as a city, in 1828, all the old streets, Cooper, Market, Plum (now Arch), and Federal Streets centred on the old road to the ferry at Twelfth Street. Several of these early roads within the bounds of the city have been vacated and entirely lost sight of.
FIRST TOWN PLAN OF CAMDEN .- Jacob Cooper, a son of William and Deborah (Medcalf) Cooper, was a merchant in Philadelphia, and conceiving the idea that at a future day the great crossing- place on the Delaware known as Cooper's Ferries would be a town of considerable importance, obtained of his father, April 23, 1764, one hundred acres of land lying on the river north of a tract of one hundred acres owned by his brother Daniel. The north line of the tract was the old bridle-path to the ferries, and which, in 1761, was laid out as part of the road from Haddonfield to the ferry, then at the foot of Cooper Street.
In the year 1773 he laid out forty acres of this tract into streets and lots, and named it after the Earl of Camden, who was a firm friend and ally of Lord Chatham in the struggle for constitutional liberty in the colonies. The old road on the north side he named Cooper Street. Market Street was also by him laid out from the river to what is now Sixth Street. The south line of the plot was mid- way between Market Street and Plum (now Arch). Streets were laid out from Cooper Street eastward as follows: King (now Front), Queen (now Se- cond), Whitehall (now Third), Cherry (now Fourth), Cedar (now Fifth) and Pine (now Sixth). The names were changed to the present at the incor- poration of the city, in 1828. The Public Square located at the intersection of Market and Third Streets, was at the same time laid out. The lots were one hundred and sixty in number. The first eight lots fronted on the river and extended back to Front Street. No. 1 was on Cooper Street. One hundred and twenty-six of these lots, with the exceptions of Nos. 24, 30 and 32, were sold hy Jacob Cooper. The names of purchasers, with number of lot, are here given :
1. Lyon and Falconer.
7. A. Todd and J. Hartley.
2. Robert Parrish. 8. Barzilla Lippincott.
3. Andrew Forsyth. 9. Lyon and Falconer.
4. Robert Parrish. 10. Lyon and Falconer.
5. Isaac Coates. 11. William Moulder.
6. Thomas Mifflin. 12-13-14. Samuel Noble.
-
Plan of the Town of Camden, in the Township of Newton, in the County of Gloucester, in the State of New Jersey, as laid out by Jacob Cooper, 1773, and also an addition of twenty-nine lots by Joshua Cooper, in the year 1803.
8
PINE
STREET
140 40 +0 46 40 40 40 40 40 9
157
180
196 158
156
159
155
160
154
16/
153
162
7
152
$63
151
164
150
185
2
149
166
5℃
148
167
60 40 40 40 49 40 40 40 40 40
ST 60 feet
CEDAR
STREET
$109 180
180 110
108
107 X
112
129
x
271
28
121
27
IC+
X
115
120
26
40
119 X
25
150.26'
2 180
118 X
24
STREET
STREET
x 80 /89
780 81
6/80
+41401
29
STREET
STREET
332 27
35L'
352
76
85
8
75
86
91
95 99
18
74
87 X
90 X
17
75
88 0
2 89 X.50
40 40 97
WHITEHALL
STREET
10
65
150 40 40 50
15
64
14
47
52
63
66 71
72;
13
46
53
62
×
IR
51
"
00
67 68 69 70
59
9
180 58
45 40 10 45
STREET
40 45 10 52
7
28
31
35
38 39 40 41
6
40
35
5
x
×
34
4
ALLEY
100
125 1
HIGH WATER
MARK
40 40 10 49 40 40 60
60 40 40 46 46 40 10 40 50 40 40 507
60f
KING
STREET
100
,00
100
100
Nol
No 2
No 3
No 4
No 5
Mo 7
et
400 feet
E
V
1
R
E
W
A
L
D
E
The lots North and East of the dotted line, were laid out by Jacob Cooper, in 1773. The lots included within the dotted line, were Isid out by Joshua Cooper, in 1803. The lots South and West of the dotted line were laid out by Edward Sharp, in 1820.
Done the 16th July, 1803, by J. CLEMENT. Surveyor.
CAMDEN VILLAGE.
Laid off by Edward Sharp, April 10th, 1820, from a part of the Estate of Joshua Cooper, adjoining Camden, on both sides of Bridge Ave., Gloucester County, N. J. Recorded, July 3d, 1820. Liber FF, folio 289, &c.
Z
WOODLAND OF COOPERS HEIRS
280'15
269.11
2.70.21
276.20
281.71
106 ×
40 40 40 46 46 40 40 40
80 feet wide
9 9 10 40 40 40 40 40
124
Trust for Public in Uses
100 feet wide
40 40 46 46 40 40 40 601046 40 40 40 40 40 46 40 6018
/02/80
IBC 117 × 8
9 40 40 40 40 40 40 40
9 40 40 40 40 4040 40
25
22
78
83
9
94
97 1
21
93
20
92
IS
AVENUE
55%
352
+0 40 40 40 8016 40
19 180
40
4-8
51
MARKET
40 40 40 40 40 40 40
PLUMB
FEDERAL
340'26
760
160
1501
HAIGHNTON
42
57 × 9
QUEEN
150
180
29
30
SC
.
27
52
40
25
10
11
/12
19
14
15/16
18
19 20 21
22 23 24 25
1
2
Wessels
Grounds
Stables &
90
9 C
90
140 49 40 50
232.251
3401
140'
ALLY
170
9
no
66
80.7'
BRIDGE
3401
340!
ALLEY
40 40 40 60 11 40 40 4-0 40
45
54
44
55
10
43
56
1
8
12%
1351
STREET TO
135
25.2
WHITEHALL
150'
13.51
136 73)
100
100'
COOPERS
79
82
+
STREET
180 125
180
Convered in
158
166
15-25
12.2
105 X
109
116
STREET
CHERRY
150.4
100
135.9
290.81
150
150
STREET
(38.+5'
ALLEY
352
17
10 10 40 40 40 40 49
180 ST
9
940
Improvements
320 feet +
A R
16
PLUMB
CHERRY
9 6
(26
8+0'
419
THE CITY OF CAMDEN.
15. William Wane.
56. John Kearsley.
58. Mosee Bartram.
59. George Bartram.
60. Barzilla Lippincott.
61-62. Jamee Cooper.
63. John Eldridge.
64. Samuel Miles.
22. Israel Cassell and Jon. Davis. 65. James Coffe.
23. Allen Cathcart aud Henry 68. John Beedle.
Casdrope.
25. Isaac Mickle (bought after Jacob Cooper's death).
26. William Adame.
27. Vincent Mari Polosi.
28. Nicholas Hicks.
.29. Jonathan Shoemaker.
30. V. M. Polosi.
31. Christopher Perkine.
32. V. M. Polosi.
83. Samuel Powell.
84. George Hopper.
85. Joseph Brown.
86. John Brown.
88. William Brown.
91. John Eldridgo.
92. Jamee Reeves.
93 to 98. John Haltzell.
101. John Haltzell.
45. James Channell. 102-103. Benjamin Horner.
46. John Porter.
108-109. Edward Gibbs.
47. John Keareley.
48. Andrew Burkhart.
49. John Fenton.
120. Richard Townsend.
50-51. William Rush.
121. John Eldridge.
122. Mathias Gilbert.
53. John Porter.
126. John Haltzell.
54. John Kearsley.
127. For public use.
Lot No. 127, on the corner of Plum (now Arch) Street and Fifth Street, was reserved for public use, and on the 22d of April, 1776, Jacob Cooper con- veyed it to Charles Lyon, Nathaniel Falconer, William Moulder and Nicholas Hicks, in trust for the inhabitants to erect a house of worship and make a burial-place. The north part of the lot was made a burial-place and a school-house in later years was erected upon the south part. It is now and has been for many years occupied by an engine-house under the charge of the Fire De- partment. The most of the persons named in the list before given resided in Philadelphia. But little information is obtained of the progress of the town before 1800. In the year 1803 Joshua Cooper, son of Daniel, deriving the land from his father, laid out a street from the river to Sixth Street, which he named Plum. On the north side of Plum Street he laid out twenty-nine lots and on the south side twenty-four lots.
VILLAGE OF CAMDEN .- Edward Sharp, in 1812, built the rough-cast house now standing on the southeast corner of Cooper and Second Streets (lot 42 in Jacob Cooper's town plot), long known as the Dr. Harris house. On the 8th of June, 1818, he bought of Joshua Cooper ninety-eight acres of
land lying on the river and south of the Lower Ferry road or Federal Street. In 1820 he laid out a part of this into streets and lots, and named it "Camden Village."
Edward Sharp had for some years been agitating the building a bridge across the Delaware River to Windmill Island, and after the purchase of this land, and in 1820, laid out the land from the river to Cedar or Fifth Street, with a broad street through the centre, which was named Bridge Ave- nue, now the line of the Camden and Amboy railroad. The only buildings on this terri- tory at that time were the stables of John D. Wessels, at the corner of Federal and Front Streets, and then near the bank of the river. Ed- ward Sharp presented a petition to the Legislature asking for authority to build a bridge across the Delaware. A newspaper of that day says: "The Windmill Island Bridge Bill passed the Senate January 22, 1820, and the House February 18th following."
The eastern end of this bridge was to be at the foot of Bridge Avenue, and, although the bill au- thorizing its construction passed, yet the bridge was never built. Lots were sold as follows be- tween the river-front and Queen Street (now Sec- ond) : Nos. 1 and 2, to Samuel Lanning; lots 3 to 7 and lot A, to John D. Wessels; lot 16, southwest corner of Federal and White Hall (now Third) Streets, to Daniel Ireland ; lot 28, southwest corner of Federal and Cherry Streets, to Reuben Ludlam. On Queen Street, north of Bridge Avenne and the alley, were six lots marked B, C, D, E, F1, F2; they were sold as follows : B, to William Butler ; C, to Samuel Smith; D, to Isaac Sims; E, to James Read; and F1 and F2, to David and Dorcas Sims. Financial reverses soon overtook Edward Sharp, and his land was sold by the sheriff, July 13, 1822, to Elihu Chauncey and James Lyle, who, on the 22d of July the next year, 1823, sold to Henry Chester. Part of this land, July 18, 1833, and Au- gust 31, 1836, came to Esther Nunes, who laid out one hundred and forty lots, the greater part of them water lots, and on the river-flats.
COOPER's HILL .- That part of Camden known as Cooper's Hill as applied to the ground then, rising from a marsh west of Fourth Street and south of Bridge Avenue, forming a knoll covered in part with stately oak and pine-trees and on the eastern part, beyond Broadway, was a magnificent apple orchard. It belonged to Richard M. Cooper, president of the State Bank at Camden, and shortly after his death his son, William D. Cooper, in 1842, sold the timber, cut down the apple-trees and laid out the ground in one hundred town lots,
17. David Dominick.
18. Samuel Miles.
19. Thomas Mifflin.
20. Nicholas Hicks.
71. John Beedle.
73. George Bartram.
74. Moses Bartram.
75. John Brown.
76. Joseph Brown.
77. George Naper.
78. Samuel Powell.
79. Thomas Lewis.
81-82. William Rigden.
33. William Adams.
34. Samuel Noble, 35-36. Aquilla Jones.
37. Samuel Bryau.
39. Jacob Spoeder.
42. James Cooper.
43. Samuel Robios.
44. Joseph Budd.
110-111-112. Samuel Hopkins.
115-116. Martin Fisher.
52. Benjamin Town.
55. John Shoemaker.
16. James Ark.
21. Isaac Coates.
420
HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
which, December 5, 1842, he offered for sale. They sold rapidly and at good prices, for the high ground made the locality desirable as a place of residence, and it now forms the bulk of the Fourth Ward, the most populous in the city, containing within its limits the City Hall, Cooper Hospital, three public school-houses, five churches with two thousand members, and ten thousand people. William D. Cooper made sale to Joab Scull of the lot on the northeast corner of West and Berkley Streets, upon which the latter built the first house in the new settlement. The only house on the tract, before Scull built, was the one Richard M. Cooper built in 1820, on the east side of the Woodbury and Camden Academy road, and which was removed to make room for the row of three- story bricks on Broadway, south of Berkley.
Within the limits of what is known as Cooper's Hill were formerly ponds, of which Mickle, writing in 1845, says: "There was in the olden time a pond about half a mile southeast of the Conrt-House in the City of Camden, which was much frequented by wild geese and ducks, Al- though the bed of the pond is now cultivated, there are those who remember when it contained several feet of water throughout the year. It was called by the Camden boys 'the Play Pond.'"
This pond is said, by one of the boys who used to play there, Benjamin Farrow, to be where now stand the dwellings of the late John H. Jones and Jesse W. Starr. He says there were two ponds, one called the "wet pond " and the other the " dry pond," and that they were made in the time of the Revolution by the erection of redoubts.
The land on the north side of Cooper Street, and north of Birch, which was left to William Cooper by his grandfather, William, was devised to his sons, Daniel and Richard M. Cooper. The former dying intestate, his share descended to his three danghters,-Mary Ann (who married William Carman), Abigail and Esther L. Cooper,-and in the partition of his estate, which followed his death, the land mentioned was divided into alter- nate portions between these daughters by their uncle, Richard M. Cooper, and about 1842 laid out by William D. Cooper and sold.
On the 7th of February, 1853, Rachel Cooper, daughter of William Cooper (of the upper ferry), sold the land lying between Market and Federal Streets, above Eighth, to Charles Fockler, who laid it out into fifty-nine lots.
That part of the city north of Birch Street and to Main Street was laid out with streets and in two hundred and forty-five lots in 1852, by the heirs of William Cooper, and in January of the
same year Joseph W. Cooper laid out one hundred and seventy-two lots north of Main Street, and ad- vertised them for public sale February 5, 1852. These tracts comprise the plans and additions to the city on the old Cooper lands.
THE KAIGHN ESTATE .- The Kaighn estate, which was left by Joseph Kaighn by will, in 1749, to Joseph and James, John, Isaac and Elizabeth, extended from Line Street to Kaighn Run. The lane, now Kaighn Avenue, was the dividing line of part of the property left to Joseph and John, the former inheriting the south side and the latter the north side, including the old mansion built about 1696 by his grandfather, John Kaighn. Jo- seph built a house on the south side, known in later years as the Ferry House. After the death of James, in 1812, his property was divided by parti- tion, and the lots at the foot of Kaighn Avenue were soon after sold.
There are a number of houses standing which were built by the Kaighns. The oldest of these is the one built by John Kaighn, the first settler, who, soon after his coming, in 1696, erected a one- story house of brick, on the river-shore, now on the southeast corner of Second and Sycamore Streets, a thousand feet from tide-water. It became the property of James, the grandson of John Kaighn, and on his death, in 1811, came through one of his children to Mrs. Hutchinson, a granddaughter, who, in 1864, sold it to Charles McAllister, who, using the old walls, made of it two three-story houses, in one of which he resides. Elizabeth Haddon, in 1721, presented John Kaighn with two box and two yew-trees, which he planted in front of his house. The yew-trees are still stand- ing, having a girth of six feet, but the box-trees decayed and disappeared, the last in 1874.
The Ferry House, at the southeast corner of Front Street and Kaighn Avenue, was built by Joseph Kaighn, grandson of the first settler, be- tween 1755 and 1760. Joseph Kaighn died in 1792, when his son Joseph, then residing in the farm-house on Quaker Lane, opposite Newton Meeting-house, moved into the homestead and oc- cupied it until 1809, when, having built the spa- cious mansion on the south side of Kaighn Ave- nue, above Second Street, which afterward became the property of his son Charles, he removed there and made it his home until 1831, when he built the brick house at the southwest corner of Third and Kaighn Avenue, and moved there, where he lived until his death, in 1841, when it became the home of his daughter Mary, afterwards the wife of John Cooper.
The house at Front and Kaighn Avenue was .
421
THE CITY OF CAMDEN.
leased as a ferry-house to Christopher Madara, and in 1816 to George W. Hugg. In 1821 Joseph Kaighn sold the house, with the ferry, to Sarah, widow of Thomas Reeves, and after her death it was purchased by Ebenezer Toole. It is now the property of Edward Shuster. During the Revolu- tion the house served as a target for gunners on British ships lying in the river, and the late Charles Kaighn had in his possession a spent can- non-ball which came down the chimney while his grandfather, Joseph Kaighn, and family were tak- ing supper.
Another old house, built before 1800, is on the north side of Kaighn Avenue, below Locust Street. It belonged to John, son of James Kaighn, who died in 1811. In 1842 it became a part of the Capewell glass-works property and was used as a finishing and packing-house. After the closing of the glass-works it was fitted up and divided into three dwellings,-Nos. 239, 241 and 243 Kaighn Avenue. On the northeast corner of Front Street and Mechanic is a large three-story brick house. It was built in 1824 by Joseph Mickle, who intend- ed it for his residence, but he died before it was finished and it became the home of his widowed daughter, Priscilla Matlack, who married James W. Sloan, a leading man in municipal matters. Near the above, on Front Street, is the house built by Frederick Plummer, the Baptist preacher, in 1820, in which he used the brick composing the prison built at Gloucester in 1716.
The Little Newton Creek Meadow Company was organized to preserve the river-banks below Kaighns Point. In 1696 John Kaighn bought four hundred and fifty-five acres of land from Robert Turner, lying between Line Ditch and Line Street, and Archibald Mickle about the same time bought to the south. To construct a bank to re- claim the large,expanse of low land lying between them was the joint work of the Mickles and Kaighns at a very early day, there being but a single owner on the north and on the south of the small stream that forming the dividing line, the maintenance of the bank was a simple matter; but when Joseph Kaighn died, in 1841, and his land on the north became divided among several heirs, while the same process was going on with the Mickle land, on the south, complications took place, and in 1844 the Little Newton Creek Meadow Company was organized, with William Mitchell, president, and John Cooper, secretary and treasurer. The company found the banks in need of repairs, which were made at a cost of three thousand dollars. The company performed its duty well until 1874, when the numerous new 50
owners, ousted the old officers, and the new ones neglected their duty, and, when, the great storm of October 24, 1878, broke the bank and flooded the lower part of the city, Council was compelled to repair the damages.
FETTERSVILLE .- In 1833 Richard Fetters, a prominent citizen of Camden, purchased of Charity and Grace Kaighn a number of tracts of land be- tween Line and Cherry Streets and between Third Street and the river. This land was laid out into lots, and offered for sale at low rates and easy terms, which attracted many purchasers, a large propor- tion of them colored persons, a number of whom are still among the most respected residents. Benjamin Wilson was one of the first. He was a local preacher, and built a house a few doors below the Macedonian Church. George Johnson, who, in 1835, bought a lot and built the humble home which now shelters him, was born in 1802. He has clear recollections of the events of nearly eighty years ago. His brother, Jacob Johnson, at the same time bought and built on the northwest corner of Third Street and Cherry, where, in com- fort, he is spending the remainder of a useful life.
At 247 Spruce Street reside Mary E. S. and Neolus Peterson, educated and refined women, who for many years were school-teachers. Their father was Daniel Peterson, a Methodist preacher of ability, and their mother, Mary, was a daughter of Jonathan Truitt, a noted colored divine of Philadel- phia. The Petersons settled in Fettersville in 1835 and built the house where the daughters now reside. Both were pious and educated, and did much to promote religion and education among their peo- ple. They were active in the organization of the Macedonian Church. Daniel died in 1857, and Mary in 1865. In 1838 Jacob Ham bought and built on the west side of Second, above Spruce, where there was a cluster of large willow-trees, which furnished shade, while from the river came cool breezes, making it a favorite trysting-place for the people in warm weather. It has been called "Ham Shore" ever since Jacob Ham built his house there. In the days of slavery there were many scenes of capture and rescue of alleged fugi- tive slaves in Fettersville. Opposite the church, shortly after it was built, lived a colored man named John Collins, whom the officers claimed as a fugitive, and one night sought to capture, but the women, armed with clubs and pokers, drove them away. Collins, for greater security, removed to Westfield. On another occasion, the officers having captured a fugitive in the county, put him in a wagon, and were driving towards the ferry, passing by the Macedonian Church while a prayer-
.
422
HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
meeting was in progress. When opposite, the prisoner raised a lusty cry of "kidnappers," which, in a few moments, emptied the church of wor- shippers and surrounded the wagon with rescuers While they were parleying, Hannah Bowen cut the traces, and the horse, minus the wagon, was driven away, while the officers were glad to ex- change their prize for personal safety.
The colored settlement at Fettersville grew rapidly, and at one time figured largely in the census table, the colored population of the South Ward, in 1850 reaching nearly one-fourth of the entire population of the ward; but the proportion has since decreased, being slightly in excess of seven per cent. in 1885. The actual number in 1850 was seven hundred and twenty-five, and in 1885 it was seven hundred and ninety-one, while the total population in the former year was four thousand one hundred and twelve, and in the latter year eleven thousand and sixty-four.
In 1835 Richard Fetters bought other lands of Charity Kaighn and her sister, Grace Kaighn, east of his first purchase and extending south to Mount Vernon, or Jordan Street. His first sales from this venture were to Joseph P. Hillman, Joseph Sharp, Aaron Bozarth, Josiah Sawn and Adam Watson, on the east side of Fifth Street, from Division Street to Spruce. This was in 1836, and the price was one hundred and twenty-five dollars for a lot forty feet front and one hundred feet deep. Fetters' plan placed all the fronts on the streets running east and west, under the impression that the travel would be in those directions, and in this he would have been correct, had his design for a ferry at the foot of Spruce Street, for which he procured a charter, been realized. All of the plots above-mentioned were in the terri- tory embraced in Camden at the time of its incorporation, in 1828. In 1815 there was but one house between Kaighnton and Camden, and that was the farm-house of Isaac Kaighn, a son of James, and which was on the old Woodbury road, near the river.
Camden, although laid out in 1773, was a town only in name until about 1815. The dwellings clustering around the ferries retained the names by which it had been known for over a century-" The Ferries," or "Cooper's Ferries." A few lots had been sold and houses built, a post-office had been established, a store opened, but the main business grew out of the ferries. A stage line was estab- lished to Burlington, to Leeds Point, in Atlantic County, to Salem, Bridgeton and Cape May. At the beginning of the century there was not a house of worship in the area now embraced within the
city, and but one school-house, which stood a dis- tance out from the settlements on the Haddonfield road, and on the land of Marmaduke Cooper, now owned by Marmaduke C. Cope.
RICHARD FETTERS, who was in his day and gen- eration one of the most prominent men of the city, the proprietor of that part of Camden known as Fettersville, a leading spirit in almost every large en- terprise, a member ofalmost every corporation board organized during his business life and the holder of many public offices, was born January 19, 1791, of parents who resided at Coopers Point. His early life was spent for the most part in New Jersey. He removed to Camden in 1826 and opened a store at Third and Market Streets. It was not long afterwards that he laid out Fetters- ville, and entered upon land operations in North Camden. Almost from the start he held a position of prominence, being elected to the Council in 1828, and thus beginning a long and active public career. He was a lifelong Democrat of a pro- nounced type. He died July 3, 1863, after a short illness. The editor of one of the Camden jour- nals, a short time before his death, in connection with an announcement of his dangerous condition, spoke of his character and usefulness as follows: "Mr. Fetters is one of the pioneers of this city and has probably done more for the advancement and improvement of the place than any other single gentleman. Always active, and possessing an ener- getic spirit, he made himself foremost in all enter- prises conducive to the growth and prosperity of Camden, and took the initiative in all matters of essential public improvements. The conception and gradual increase of the advantages of our fer- ries was one of his practical theories, and from the first he was closely connected with them. His energy of character also infused life and spirit into the project of erecting works to supply the city with water, and, in fact, no enterprises of truly beneficial bearings have been started in Camden that have not received his fostering care and ap- proval. He has held several important public po- sitions and through indomitable energy and perse- verance he acquired a competency .
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