The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 73

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220

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Although not a politician, he took an interest in the affairs of the State and nation, and at different times represented the people in the State Legis- lature. Upon the death of his father, in 1839, he removed from his plantation to Haddonfield, where he lived the remainder of his life.

In 1842 he was elected president of the State Bank at Camden, an institution he lived to see take its place among the first in the country. He was always regarded as the friend of the small bor- rower, especially if he be a farmer and needed as- sistance until his crops could be harvested.

To the manners of a gentleman was united a sympathetic heart, thus insuring to those who had business with him a readiness to render them any service which was in his power. A reliable friend, a thorough business man, an influential citizen and a person of enlarged and benevolent views, he was beloved and respected wherever known. Here- mained at the head of the bank until the infirmi- ties of age prevented his attendance upon the duties of president, and much longer, through the persuasion of his friends, than he deemed proper he should fill so responsible a place. The compli- mentary resolutions passed by the board of direc- tors of the bank, upon his retirement, which were engrossed and presented to him, show the regard his associates bore towards him and his extended usefulness in that institution. In his old age he suffered much from a complication of diseases, and died December 4, 1884.

Mr. Gill was married to Sarah Hopkins, of Had- donfield. They had four children,-Rebecca M.,

Sochua Lippincott

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THE CITY OF CAMDEN.

who became the wife of Samuel S. Willits; Anna S .; John Gill, Jr., who has always resided on the homestead farm and is a director in the National State Bank of Camden, and William H. Gill, a merchant in Philadelphia.

ISRAEL W. HEULINGS, president of the National State Bank, has long been identified with the in- stitution, and is widely known in the business circles of Camden City and County, though he is a resident of Burlington County. The family is one of the oldest in West Jersey. His ancestors were from England, and his great-grandfather, William Heulings, with three brothers, were the first representatives of the family in this county. All located within or near the boundaries of what is now Burlington County. William's son Abra- ham had a son Isaac, who was the father of our subject. He married Susan W. Woodward, and from this union Israel W. was born in Chester township, Burlington County, December 24, 1810.

The youth and early manhood of Israel W. Heulings were spent upon the farm which was the family homestead, and after the death of his parents, when he was thirty-two years of age, he leaving the farm to his brother, removed to Moorestown, and there engaged in the coal and lumber business, which he followed until its trans- fer to his sons.

His first identification with the bank of which he is now the head came about in 1842, when he took the stock which his father had formerly owned. He was made a director in 1847, and elected president on January 15, 1884, his asso- ciates being convinced through long acquaintance of his eminent fitness for that responsible position. He has ever been regarded as a careful, conserva- tive, thorough man of business, possessing absolute integrity.

In politics he is and has always been a Republi- can, and, although not an office-seeker, the people of his party in Burlington County, in recognition of his pure character, sound common sense and business sagacity, during the war period elected him to the Legislature. He served with entire satisfaction to his constituents and credit to him- self through the sessions of 1863, '64 and '65.

Mr. Heulings, although a religious man, is not a member of any church. His mother was a mem- ber of the Society of Friends, and his father of the Episcopal Church, and it may, perhaps, not be amiss to say that the son's religious views contain something of the characteristics of each of these bodies, while not conforming to either.

Mr. Heulings was married, November 10, 1836, to Sarah M., daughter of William and Sarah

Hornor, born in Pemberton, N. J., in 1814. Six children have been born to them, of whom five are living. Susan W. was the eldest, and next, in the order named, were three sons,-William H., Albert C. and Isaac W., the last named of whom was for several years a practitioner of medicine at Haddonfield, before engaging with his brothers in the coal and lumber business which their father transferred to them, and of which the headquarters are at Moorestown, Riverton and Hartford. Emily J., youngest daughter of Israel W. and Sarah M. Heulings, is the wife of Dr. William Chamberlain, of Mount Holly, and Henry C. died in infancy.

JOSEPH W. COOPER, who served nearly half a century as one of the directors of the State Bank, was born in the Cooper mansion, at the foot of State Street, Camden, in the year 1799, and died October 2, 1871. He was the second son of Wil- liam and Rebecca (Wills) Cooper. Before he became of age he went to live with his great- uncle, Joseph Cooper, then residing in the old Cooper mansion built in 1734, and now standing at the corner of Point and Erie Streets. He assisted his uncle to attend to the duties of the farm, which is now covered by much of the at- tractively built-up portion of North Camden. In the year 1818, at the death of his uncle, who had no children, Joseph W. Cooper became chief heir to his large estate, including the valuable lands near the Coopers Point Ferry, north of the Cam- den and Atlantic Railroad and west of Sixth Street, and a part of the original survey to Wil- liam Cooper, the emigrant, in 1680. He con- tinued his occupation of a farmer after the death of his uncle, was married to Rebecca F. Cham- pion, and resided in the house built in 1734 until 1855, when he erected the elegant mansion on State Street, now owned and occupied by his son, Samuel C. Cooper. In 1849 he became one of the principal stockholders of the Coopers Point Ferry, and conducted it until 1854, when it was sold to the Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company; but the next year again became the chief owner of the same ferry. In 1856 he formed a stock company and, with himself as president, managed the ferry until the time of his death, in 1871.

Mr. Cooper was actively interested in the municipal affairs of Camden, being elected alder- man, by virtue of which he became one of the first Councilmen of Camden in 1828, and served almost continuously as a member of the City Council for twenty years. He was for a time president of the Camden and Atlantic Railroad and served many years as a director. During the years 1836-37-38 he was a member of the Legislature

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

of New Jersey. He was elected a director of the State Bank of Camden in 1825, and served con- tinnously until the time of his death, in 1871. Mr. Cooper possessed many sterling qualities of mind and heart, and was universally respected and esteemed by the community in which he resided.

JOSHUA LIPPINCOTT, who, for many years was one of the prominent directors of the National State Bank of Camden, is a lineal descendant of Richard Lippincott, the founder of the Lip- pincott family in America. Samuel Lippincott, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a prosperous farmer and a native of Chester town- ship, Burlington County, New Jersey. He was mar- ried to Priscilla Briant, by whom he had thirteen children ; of this number, six sons lived to an ad- vanced age. Joshua Lippincott, the eldest of these sons, was born on the 18th of March, 1776, and became a prosperous farmer, owning and cul- tivating with great success the farm previously the property of his paternal ancestors. He gave up this occupation while yet in middle life and removed to the city of Philadelphia, where he spent the remainder of his life in retirement and died, in 1855, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years. By his marriage with Mary Roberts, of Burlington County, he had four children, who grew to an adult age. Samuel R. Lippincott, the eldest child, suc- ceeded in the ownership of the paternal homestead, on which he resided until the time of his death, at the age of seventy-six ; Hannah, the only daugh- ter, died in her seventy-eighth year; George, the youngest, came to Philadelphia when eighteen years old and engaged in mercantile business until his death, in 1861 ; Joshua Lippincott, the second son, and the only member of this family who sur- vives, was born in Burlington County Decem- ber 4th, 1807. He obtained his education in the schools of Westfield, and spent one session at a school at Moorestown. After leaving school, and when but eighteen years old, he came to Philadel- phia, and the four succeeding years was employed as a clerk in a grocery store. He then entered into copartnership in the dry goods business in the same city with his cousin, Samuel Parry, under the firm- name of Lippincott & Parry. Their store, for sev- enteen years, was on Second Street, above Arch, and, at the expiration of that time, was moved to the southwest corner of Market Street and there continued until 1862, the two men being thus associated in a successful business for thirty-three years, during which long period they never had a written agreement with each other. They were engaged most of this time in the sale of cloths and cassimeres.

Joshua Lippincott was married, in 1833, to Mar- tha H. Sleeper, daughter of Jonathan Sleeper, a merchant, then doing business on Second Street, Philadelphia. She died about three years after their marriage.

His second marriage was with Elizabeth White, daughter of Joseph White, a merchant, on Market Street, Philadelphia. She died in 1878. Howard W. Lippincott, their only child, was born in 1855, and is now a stock-broker in his native city.

THOMAS WILKINS DAVIS, of Philadelphia, and for many years a director in the National State Bank of Camden, is a lineal descendant, in the fifth generation, of John Davis, who emigrated from Wales and first settled on Long Island. John Davis was a devoted and consistent member of the Society of Friends, to whose reli- gious faith most of his numerous descendants in this country are adherents. His wife (Dorothea Hogbin) was an Englishwoman of large fortune. In 1705 they migrated to Salem County, New Jer- sey, and settled near the site of Woodstown, whence some of their children had located before them. At that place he died at the advanced age of one hundred years, leaving eight children. David Davis, the third son, was a justice of the peace, one of the judges of the courts of Salem County for a number of years, and in 1725 was one of the four Friends who organized the Pilesgrove Meeting. He owned and lived on a large tract of land, on which he built a commodious brick house, which is still standing. In it he lived until his death, at the age of sixty years. His wife (Doro- thea Cousins, a native of England) survived him to the age of ninety-six years. They had seven children, of whom Jacob, born Fourth Month 22, 1734, was the youngest. He was married, Fifth Month 21, 1761, at Woodstown, to Esther Wil- kins, by whom he had seven children. He was a man of pure and unblemished character and high- ly respected in the community in which he lived at the time of his death, in 1820, at the age of eighty-six years. Thomas Davis, the father of Thomas W. Davis and third son of Jacob and Es- ther (Wilkius) Davis, was born Third Month 13, 1768, in Salem County, N. J. In 1796 he was married to Esther Ogden, daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann Ogden, and resided near Swedesboro', Gloucester County.

The grandfather and father of the present Thomas Wilkins Davis kept a general country store in the now borough of Woodstown, Salem County, the subject of this sketch remaining with his father from youth to manhood and having the active supervision and control of the business for

Thus. W. Lewis

HI Rose

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THE CITY OF CAMDEN.

several years preceding the retirement of his father, which took place in 1832. In that year Mr. Davis came to Philadelphia and entered the dry-goods jobbing trade on Market Street, between Second and Third Streets, and so continued with varying success, but with the confidence and friendship of all the leading merchants up to 1868, at which date, through close application to busi- ness, he had acquired a large trade and had become the senior partner of the then well-known and highly respected house of Davis, Kempton & Co. He then withdrew from the firm, altogether retir- ing from active business, and devoting his leisure and a fair share of his means to the care of friends and others whose circumstances rendered such aid desirable, in this way disposing of a considerable part of the rewards which had come to him for years of unremitting labor.

Mr. Davis was married, in 1834, to Phobe S. Townsend, daughter of Joseph and Esther Town- send, of Baltimore, Md. His married life ex- tended over forty-five years, Mrs. Davis dying in 1879, and having but one son surviving, Henry Wilkins Davis, who, in 1875, married Elizabeth C., daughter of William A. and Hannah R. Allen, of New York.

The only financial institution other than the National State Bank of Camden, with which Mr. Davis has been closely identified, is the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia, of which he has been a trustee for upwards of twenty- five years. In this capacity he has borne an active share of the labors and responsibilities of its business and his counsel has at all times been influential in aiding its progress and maintaining its unquestioned reputation as a sound company.

WILBUR F. ROSE, the present cashier of the National State Bank, was born in Tuckerton, Burlington County, New Jersey, February 11, 1838. At the age of four years he removed to Phila- delphia and obtained a preparatory education in the schools of that city, and graduated from the Central High School. Soon after his graduation he entered a broker's office on Third Street, and in 1854 was elected a clerk in the Bank of Penn- sylvania, of the same city. In 1862 he was called to a position in the National State Bank of Camden. By reason of his intelligence, long experience and special fitness for the business of banking, he was promoted from time to time, until, in recognition of his merits and abilty as a financier, he was elected cashier of that institution February 2, 1885, which position he now very ably and ac- ceptably fills.

In addition to his business as a banker he

has taken an active interest in the growth and development of the city of Camden. He repre- sented the Second Ward, of which he is a resident, in the City Council for one term of three years, being elected by the Republican party, and made an efficient member. . During his term as Council- man he was chairman of the finance committee, and illustrated his usefulness as well as his ability as a financier, by funding the floating debt of the city, and abolishing the order system and estab- lishing the present plan of cash payments.

Mr. Rose was chosen a director in the West Jersey Ferry Company in 1885, and is now a member of the board. He was elected a member of the Street Railway Company in 1874, and since 1883 has been secretary of the company. He is one of the charter members of Trimble Lodge, No. 117, Free and Accepted Masons, and has taken all the degrees of that order up to and including the thirty-second degree. He has taken an active inter- est in the religious and moral welfare of Camden ; served as president of the Young Men's Christian Association of this city from 1881 to 1885, inclu- sive; was for a time superintendent of the Sunday- school connected with Centenary Methodist Epis- copal Church, of which he is a member and a trustee.

Mr. Rose was married, in 1869, to Mary C. Whitlock, daughter of Friend Whitlock, Esq., a re- tired lumber merchant. They have two daughters,- Elsie and Mary.

THE FARMERS AND MECHANICS BANK OF CAM- DEN was originated in the year 1855. After a few years existence it obtained a change in its charter, and, under the authority of the United States gov- ernment, became the First National Bank of Cam- den, now well known as one of the most prosperous financial institutions in West Jersey. An act of the Senate and General Assembly, approved March 31, 1855, empowered Charles Kaighn, Cooper P. Browning, Albert W. Markley, Abraham Browning, Samuel J. Bayard and their associates to engage in the general banking business. The capital stock of the institution was made three hundred thousand dollars, with a paid-in capital of one hundred thousand dollars in shares of one hundred dollars each. After the stock was sub- scribed and the necessary preliminary steps were taken, the following-named persons, on July 16, 1855, were elected as the first Board of Directors : Albert W. Markley, Abraham Browning, Richard W. Howell, Charles S. Garrett, Maurice Browning, William P. Tatem, Benjamin P. Sisty, Nathaniel N. Stokes, Ezra Evans, Benjamin Shreve, George Haywood, Cooper P. Browning and William Busby.

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HISTORY OF CAMDEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

On the same day the board elected Albert W. Markley president, and David R. Maddock cash- ier, The lot on the southeast corner of Front Street and Market was purchased by the Board of Directors, and, on September 2, 1855, they en- tered into a contract with Charles Wilson to erect a banking-house on this lot, at a cost of eighteen thousand dollars. Before the completion of this buil- ding, a temporary office was secured on Market St., near Third, and on January 2, 1856, the bank was opened for business. James H. Stevens was elected teller ; William Wright, book-keeper ; Philip J. Grey, notary public; and Hugh H. Bates, runner and watchman. Nathaniel N. Stokes was elected president April 14, 1857, and Benjamin P. Sisty cashier on the 22d of the same month. On April 21, 1858, James H. Stevens was elected cashier. This institution, as the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Camden, continued business as a bank of issue, under the State system, with varying suc- cess, until after the passage of the act of Congress, creating the present national banking system, soon after which event it fulfilled the requirements and accepted the privileges of the new system, and has since met with unabated prosperity as

THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF CAMDEN .-- The Congress of the United States, in order to per- fect the system of national finances, passed an act which was approved by President Lincoln, Febru- ary 25, 1863, "to provide a national currency, secured by a pledge of United States bonds, and provide for the circulation and redemption there- of." Recognizing the superiority of the national system, in contrast with the State system, the di- rectors of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Camden, together with other enterprising citizens and financiers of the county and city, organized themselves into an association and resolved to ac- cept the provisions of this act by having the insti- tution changed into a national bank. The signa- tures of stockholders, representing a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, were obtained by the 16th of April, 1864; articles of association were then prepared and signed by John F. Starr, N. N. Stokes, Maurice Browning, Jonas Livermore, George L. Gillingham, Clayton Lippincott, and John F. Bodine. The gentleman just named, to- gether with William T. McCallister, became the first Board of Directors and Peter L. Voorhees solicitor. On April 30, 1864, the comptroller of the currency issued his certificate of author- ity to this Board of Directors to commence the business of banking under the national law, as "The First National Bank of Camden." N. N. Stokes was elected president, and James H. Stev-

ens, cashier. On July 6, 1864, Jonas Livermore was chosen president to succeed N. N. Stokes, who resigned, and on Thursday, September 1, 1864, the institution commenced business as a national bank. Hon. John F. Starr was elected president April 7, 1875, and has since continued to hold that responsible position. The first report of the bauk to the comptroller of the currency, under the pres- idency of Mr. Starr, was made June 30, 1875. The individual deposits then were $167,802.60, and the undivided profits $29,979.58. The report to the same authority, on October 7, 1886, showed the in- dividual deposits to be $618,448.88, and the undi- vided profits $111,974.47. These figures clearly show the substantial prosperity of this institution and the success of its management. On April 17, 1875, C. C. Reeves was chosen cashier to succeed James H. Stevens, who resigned. Watson Depuy, the present efficient cashier, was elected assistant cashier October 14, 1876, and on January 8, 1878, succeeded Mr. Reeves as cashier. Jonas Liver- more was elected vice-president January 9, 1883, a position which he continues to hold. William S. McCallister died January 13, 1868, and D. T. Gage was elected director to fill the vacancy. E. E. Read was elected January 9, 1875, in place of C. A. Sparks.

On January 11, 1876, the Board of Directors was increased from nine to thirteen members by the election of Henry Fredericks (elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of N. N. Stokes), Charles Stockham, Genge Browning, M. A. Fur- bush and John S. Read. March 4, 1876, Rene Guillou was elected in place of Genge Browning. January 9, 1877, John A. J. Sheets was elected a director to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna- tion of John S. Read, December 11, 1880. William J. Evans was appointed a director to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George L. Gillingham, November 28, 1883, John F. Starr, Jr., was ap- pointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna- tion of Rene Guillou, and Clayton Conrow to fill that caused by the death of John F. Bodine. De- cember 19, 1885, Alfred W. Clement, of Haddon- field, was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Maurice Browning.

The following members compose the present Board of Directors : John F. Starr, Jonas Liver- more, D. T. Gage, Clayton Lippincott, Edmund E. Read, Henry Fredericks, Charles Stockham, M. A. Furbush, J. A. J. Sheets, William J. Evans, Clay- ton Conrow, John F. Starr, Jr., and Alfred W. Clement. Peter L. Voorhees, solicitor ; Samuel T. Davison is paying-teller of this bank ; Thomas S. Nekervis, agent at the Philadelphia office; Harry

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THE CITY OF CAMDEN.

T. Nekervis, receiving-teller ; Sanford Livermore, book-keeper ; William S. Jones, general assistant ; John J. Pierson, messenger; and Francis N. Guise, watchman.

The office at No. 216 Market Street, Philadel- phia, was opened on May 24, 1875, and has since that date been connected with this bank as a part of its business interests.

JOHN F. STARR was born in Philadelphia in 1818 of Quaker parentage, who were descendants of members of the Society of Friends of the same name, who settled in America as early as 1710. He received a limited education in Friends' school, and at the age of fifteen years he went to learn his trade in the steam boiler-works of his father and older brother where he was fitted for the successful business career which followed. In 1840 he became associated with his father and brother in the business and so continued until about 1843. In 1845 Mr. Starr removed to Cam- den, N. J., where, in 1846, he built an iron foun- dry on Bridge Avenue for the manufacture of gas machinery, street mains and other castings. These works he named the " Camden Iron Works." The year following, he and his brother Jesse again en- tered into copartnership. Finding their works on Bridge Avenue too limited for their rapidly-grow- ing business, they bought the land and removed their plant to its present location on Cooper's Creek. The Camden Iron Works were so enlarged by important additions from time to time that they became, through the energy and enterprise of the firm, the largest works of the kind in the country, and enabled the Messrs. Starr to establish an extensive and lucrative business by erecting the gas-works and supplying the gas machinery for most of the large cities in the United States as well as in Canada. In the prosecution of their business the services of from eight hundred to twelve hundred men were required. These works gave a new life to the prosperity of Camden and their erection did more to attract attention to Cam- den as a manufacturing centre than all its otber industries combined, and their influence had a marked and beneficial character upon the material interests of the city for years.

In 1860, when the Camden Iron Works were in the full tide of successful operation, the firing up- on Fort Sumter aroused the country, and scores of the workmen of Jesse W. & John F. Starr left to battle with treason. Here was a supreme oppor- tunity for the firm and they embraced it. The wives and children of those who were at the front

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The history of Camden county, New Jersey, Part 73

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards Number of Pages: 1220

Author: Prowell, George Reeser, 1849-1928
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Richards
Number of Pages: 1220