Andrew Wojtkowiak

Andrew Wojtkowiak was one of the first Polish immigrants to settle in Camden. Born in the Posen district of what was then Germany, he came to America in 1884 with brothers John L. and Adalbert Wojtkowiak. He married around 1896. When the Census was taken in 1910, the Wojtkowiaks were living at 831 Sycamore Street. By 1920 the family had moved to 1227 Chase Street. There were five children: Frank, Andrew Jr., Joseph, Catherine, and Martha. Andrew Wojtkowiak was then working as a puncher at one of Camden’s shipyards.

Andrew Wojtkowiak later worked at Camden Forge. He had retired by April of 1930, when the census was enumerated. Preceded in death by his wife Mary, Andrew Wojtkowiak passed away in May of 1942.

One of Andrew Wojtkowiak’s nephews, Private John Wojtkowiak, was killed in action serving with the United States Army during World War I. Another nephew, Stanley Wojtkowiak, founded the Stanley Heat & Fuel Company, later run by great nephew John White, which served many residents of Camden’s Whitman Park neighborhood from the 1920s through the 1970s. A third nephew, Casimir Wojtkowiak, worked as a Camden County detective under Chief Larry Doran in the 1930s and 1940s.