Charley Smith

Charley Smith was born Charles P. Smith in New Jersey around 1877. He married Gertrude Kirkbride around 1902. The 1910 Census shows him living in North Camden with his wife Gertrude at 525 Erie Street, and working as a contract painter. The Smiths had three children at that time, George, Charles Jr., and Gertrude; also at home was Charley Smith’s mother Rebecca, and his mother-in-law, Louisa Kirkbride. Around this time he was the manager of the Old Highland Baseball Club, which took its name from the nearby Highland Worsted Mill on State Street. This was one of the more noted teams active playing semipro baseball around Camden before World War I.

Charley Smith and his family eventually left Camden. He bought a farm out on the Marne Highway in Mount Laurel NJ, just east of Moorestown, where he was living in April of 1930 when the census was again taken. The Smith family then included four more children, Richard, Horace, William, and Ruth. Mother-in-law Louisa Kirkbride still resided with the family. Son George B. Smith was by then a professional golfer.

Charley Smith remained in the Mt. Laurel–Moorestown area, passing away in his home.

Charley Smith’s Old Highland Club, which was one of North Camden’s prominent outfits, is pictured above. Smith, who managed the club, recently died at his Moorestown home. In the front row, left to right, sitting are Dory Gillam, second-baseman and ______, outfielder. Second row kneeling, left to right, are Allie “Dutch” Barr, infielder and pitcher; _____ Williams, infielder; and William “Dutch” Padgett, infielder. Last row, left to right are Bill R_____, catcher and outfielder, Bill Hess, pitcher, Bill Eckenhoff, catcher; Charley “Box” Haldeman, outfielder; and Herb House, pitcher. The mascot is George Smith, son of Charley and who now is a _________ golf professional. Hess, Eckenhoff, and Haldeman are also dead.