Introduction
DR. BENJAMIN W. KAUFFMAN was born in Russia on August 25, 1898 to Mr. and Mrs. William Kauffman. He came to America in 1904 with his parents and younger sister Sophia. Two more sisters came after the Kauffmans had moved to New Jersey, Pauline and Minnie.
William Kauffman was working as a teamster at the Farr & Bailey Oil Cloth Works in South Camden in April of 1910. The family then lived at 1222 Chestnut Street, just off of Haddon Avenue, a block with many Polish immigrant families. At 1210 Chestnut lived the Wojtkowiak family; sons John, Casimir, and Stanley Wojtkowiak would all leave their mark on Camden. At 1230 Chestnut Street was Martin Purzycki’s saloon. One of Purzycki’s stepsons was about two years older than Benjamin Kauffman. That boy was Leon Lucas, the 1920 Olympic light-heavyweight boxing contender and the founder and long-time owner of Donkey’s Place on Haddon Avenue.
By January of 1920 when the next census was taken, the Kauffman family was residing at 1609 Mt. Ephraim Avenue. William Kauffman at that time had a retail bottling business. Benjamin Kauffman was then working as a railway clerk. He would complete his education during the 1920s.
When the census was taken in 1931, Dr. Kauffman was living at 1518 Mount Ephraim Avenue, where his widowed sister, Sophia Gross, owned a hosiery shop. He was practicing as an optician at that time. By August of 1933 he had an office at 706 Broadway in South Camden. That summer he coordinated a quoits league in Camden as part of a city-wide effort to provide recreational outlets for the unemployed. Quoits is a game similar to pitching horseshoes, the main difference being that it is played with four-pound steel rings.
Dr. Kauffman and his wife Adele still resided at 706 Broadway when the 1947 Camden City Directory was compiled, and were still there as late as October of 1956. By the fall of 1959, Dr. Kauffman had moved to 1655 Park Boulevard in Camden’s Parkside neighborhood. He later moved to the Cooper River Plaza Apartments in Pennsauken NJ. He is listed at that address in the 1970 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory for Camden County. Last a resident of Pennsauken, Dr. Benjamin Kauffman passed away in April of 1971.
Quoit Enthusiasts Meet Here Tonight
Camden Courier-Post —
Dr. Kauffman to Serve as Manager of Activities in Camden
Dr. B. W. Kauffman, optometrist, of 706 Broadway, has accepted an invitation to act as manager of quoit activities being promoted by Camden home gardeners among employed and unemployed men at the garden plots and playgrounds.
The invitation was extended by Arthur M. Taylor, rehabilitation director of the Camden City Emergency Relief Administration, under whose direction an extensive program of sports and other civic activities for both employed and unemployed is being promulgated.
Taylor and Dr. Kauffman hope to have the co-operation and assistance of officers and members of the South Jersey Quoit League in forming several leagues in Camden, and all interested in quoits are invited to meet with Taylor and Dr. Kauffman at 8 o’clock tonight in Taylor’s office, Room 401, City Hall. Plans for several city leagues will be made.
Nine teams of home gardeners already have been organized, and are playing nightly at the 21 various garden plots in the city. Approximately six more gardeners’ teams are being formed. In addition, several other organizations have started forming teams for at least one other league. Men visitors of the emergency relief organization are getting up a team of quoit enthusiasts, war veterans’ posts will enter the competition, and several other organizations have responded to the call, Taylor said yesterday.
“We hope to organize about 50 teams,” said Taylor, “and arrange a schedule so that championship matches can be played off as a feature of the Camden Home Gardens Show and Exhibition, which will be held in Convention Hall, September 14, 15 and 16.”
Lester Store Razed By $100,000 Fire
Camden Courier-Post —
Flames on Broadway Are Subdued After Seven-Hour Battle
The clothing and jewelry store of S. Lester, at 713 Broadway, was destroyed by fire of undetermined origin following an explosion late Saturday night.
Eight companies fought the two-alarm fire for seven hours and succeeded in saving adjoining buildings in the block which were threatened by the roaring flames. An invalid woman was carried to safety. Two other persons fled to the street. One fireman was injured.
Damage was estimated at $100,000 by A. Lee Newman, manager. S. Lester, proprietor, returned from Florida yesterday to learn of the misfortune.
Fire Chief John H. Lennox today said the cause of the fire probably never will be known.
“All we know is that it started on the first floor,” Chief Lennox said. “The basement was all right so it was not the heating system that caused it.
“The store was closed at 10.25 p. m. What happened between then and 11.24, when the first alarm came in, we’ll probably never know, except that there was an explosion. So aflame was the building when firemen arrived that it was impossible to trace the fire’s origin.”
Three Explosions
The fire started in the building at 11.18 p.m., the time being fixed by an automatic alarm system. Sheets of flame shot through the first and second floor windows just as the audience was leaving the last show of the Towers Theatre across the street.
Alarms were turned in by three persons. A boy ran into the drug store of Theodore Ellis, at Broadway and Pine street; a pedestrian ran to the firehouse of Engine Company No. 1, at Fourth and Pine streets, and an alarm was sounded by an employe of a private watchman service summoned by breaking of an electric circuit by the explosion.
Engine Co. 1, 2 and 8 and Truck Co. No. 1 answered the first alarm under Acting Deputy Fire Chief William Van Pfefferle, who turned in the second alarm, bringing Engine Co. 3, 6 and 7 and Truck Co. No. 2, together with Fire Chief Lennox and Police Chief George Frost.
Part of the roof fell in shortly after 2 a.m., according to the report of Acting Battalion Chief Laurence Newton.
It was 6.30 a.m. yesterday before the last of the firemen pulled away. During the seven hours traffic was routed off Broadway. Southbound traffic was sent down Fifth street, northbound traffic up Sixth street, diversion points being Royden and Spruce streets.
Some damage was done to the roof and smoke and water did other damage to the Gray Hat Shop at 717 Broadway. Carl Schwartz and his wife, Fay, proprietor of the hat shop, were forced to flee from their apartment above their store.
Mrs. Catherine Burrichter, an invalid living in a two-story house at 711 Broadway, was carried out by firemen. The roof of the Burrichter home was slightly damaged by fire, while smoke and water poured through the house.
Hoseman Stephan Szwack, 37, of 1234 Dayton street, attached to Engine Co. No. 8, suffered a cut on the left hand while fighting the fire. He was treated at West Jersey Hospital.
Crowds were attracted to the scene by the explosions and the flames.
Lester was met in Philadelphia by Newman as he returned from Florida yesterday, and told what had happened.
To Open Temporary Store
Lester said a temporary store will be opened within a few days while a new store is being built. Collection records and account books were saved by their steel containers, Lester explained, and were moved to the office of Dr. Benjamin W. Kauffman at 706 Broadway.
“I am glad the explosions and fire did not occur until after 11 o’clock,” Lester said. “At that time the store was closed, so no customers or employees could be injured.”
Lester had been in business at 713 Broadway since 1935. His first Broadway store was opened at 936 Broadway in 1928.
The proprietor immediately took charge of salvaging unharmed merchandise, moving of records, search for a temporary store location and outlining plans for a new building with an architect.
“We shall start at once to construct the finest store in South Jersey,” Lester said. “Our temporary store will be open with new merchandise for the Easter season.”