Introduction
Elmer Ellsworth Stevens was born in New Jersey in 1862 to Henry and Elizabeth Stevens. At the time of the 1880 census he was living with his parents and brother Henry. He had already taken up the trade of upholsterer.
Elmer E. Stevens moved to Camden NJ in the mid 1880s. The 1887–1888 Directory has him at 610 Clinton Street. He married Charlotte Wicks, whose family had also come to Camden in these years, on Christmas Day, December 25, 1887. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens moved around a bit in the next few years. The 1888–1889 directory shows the Stevens family as residing at 541 West Street, where his widowed mother-in-law also lived. The 1890–1891 directory shows him as having moved to Cramer Hill which was then a part of the Town of Stockton.
During the 1890s Elmer Ellsworth Stevens became a volunteer fireman, as a member of Stockton Hose Company No. 2.
The Stockton Hose Company No. 2 was incorporated on December 14, 1892 by David Austermuhl, E.F. McMenimen, John Renner and George J. Swope. The company actually had been organized several months prior to its formal incorporation. Their apparatus was quartered in an old blacksmith shop at 2407 Federal Street; the shop had been altered to accommodate the company’s needs. This structure was razed and a new firehouse erected on the same site in 1897. This building remains in good condition today and in 1994 was occupied by a restaurant. In 1900 Elmer E. Stevens was Foreman; William H. Mershon, President; Martin J. Ryan, Vice-president; R. H. Plum, Recording Secretary; Samuel Wentz, Financial Secretary and Josiah Jones, Treasurer.
After the merger of the Town of Stockton and the City of Camden, Elmer Ellsworth Stevens subsequently took a position with the Camden Fire Department.
By 1930 Elmer Stevens had retired. He was then living at 2129 44th Street in Pennsauken NJ with his wife, daughter Perla May, and son-in-law Allen Polk. His son, Elmer E. Jr., born in 1895, lived on 43rd Street and operated a real estate agency. There were also two other daughters, Polly and Elsie.
Elmer Ellsworth Stevens passed away in 1949.