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WILLIAM
JOSEPH MYLES was born May 20, 1906 to William A. Myles and the former Margaret
Williams. He grew up in and around 15th Street and
Federal Street
in East Camden.
William J. Myles was still in school when his father died and was forced to drop out
in order to take care of his widowed mother. Devout Catholics, the Myles' family
were members of
St. Joseph's Roman Catholic
Church, which in those years stood on
Howell Street
between
north 25th and
North 26th
Street. The parish priest from 1902 through 1930 was the Rev. Anthony C.
Shuvlin, and Father Shuvlin was a great influence on William J. Myles, inspiring him
to both devout faith and community service.
William J. Myles lived briefly in Delair during the early 1920s. City Directories
from 1924 through 1926 show William J. Myles working as a truck driver and living at
970
Federal Street.
City
Directories from 1924 through 1929 show Margaret Myles renting a home at 2301
Federal
Street.
William Joseph Myles founded a company called Wm J. Myles Hauling in 1925. The
company is still owned by the same family and is now known as
Myles Transportation Inc. The 1943 City
Directory shows the business at 110-118
Arch Street in Camden.
By 1949 a terminal had been
established at 1031-1035 North
4th Street which was still in use as late as October 1970. By 1977 the
business had moved to Cinnaminson, New Jersey where is still operates.
On June 2, 1926 William J. Myles married Ethel Marguerite Schaffer. The Myles' had
six children, Ethel, Dorothy, Phyllis, William Jay, Bartholomew and Richard. The
William J. and Ethel lived at 2301
Federal Street with
his mother through at least 1930. Margaret Myles however
does not appear at the Federal Street address in the April 1930 Census. At some
point in the 1930s the Myles family moved to 446
North 34th Street in
East Camden. The 1943 City Directory
shows that the family had moved to the Colwick section of what was then Delaware
Township (present-day Cherry Hill), New Jersey. The family is listed at 15 Ambler
Road in that year's New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory. The 1960 New Jersey Bell
Telephone Directory indicates that son William Jay Myles had established residence
next door at 19 Ambler Road. Ambler Road would be
William J. and Ethel's home for the rest of their lives. Ethel Myles died on June
26, 1959. William J. Myles joined his wife on April, 1979.
As William J. Myles he got older in life and as his company was very successful, he
made time to be involved in the civic like of Camden. He was very active in raising
money for numerous charities, and was also very active in the Catholic churches in
Camden. His many fundraising activities included drives to build
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, the
now
Camden Catholic High
School after the original was destroyed by fire, and many, many more. In the
early 1970s he was awarded the
Camden County Bar Association's
William T. Boyle Award
for Distinguished Community Service, named after Camden Judge
William T.
Boyle, a leading citizen of the early 20th Century. This was but one of the
many awards conferred to William J. Myles during his
lifetime.
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