Frank B. Sweeten

FRANK BENJAMIN SWEETEN was a prominent contractor in Camden for many years. He made his home at 426 Benson Street in the 1880s. When the 1900 Census was enumerated he lived at 750 Wright Avenue. By 1906 he had returned to Benson Street, taking up residence at 430 Benson Street, where he would remain into the 1920s, when he built a home at the corner of Cove Road and Maple Avenue in Pennsauken NJ, opposite that of New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Lloyd.

FRANK BENJAMIN SWEETEN—As manager of extensive business interests, Mr. Sweeten has contributed, in no small degree, to the modern development and progress of numerous towns and cities of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. His father, Benjamin Franklin Sweeten, was born in Barnsboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey, and was a carpenter, builder and contractor in Camden. He married Sarah Beauchamp, a native of Newton, Maryland, and they were the parents of four children, namely: Joseph H., Frank B., Ella (now deceased), and Laura.

Frank Benjamin Sweeten was born November 11, 1858, in Camden, New Jersey, and was educated in the public schools of that city and the Friends’ Central School. At the age of sixteen years he entered the employ of James W. Vance & Company, hardware dealers of Philadelphia, as clerk, and continued from 1874 to 1876. Succeeding this he was employed three years as traveling salesman by A. Leddin Izzard, a dealer in wood and willow ware, of Philadelphia. On attaining his majority he became associated with his father in the contracting business, under the name of B. F. Sweeten & Son. Five years later he was made a partner with his father and, on the death of the latter, he took over the business, which he conducted under the name of Frank B. Sweeten, trading as B. F. Sweeten & Son. During the lifetime of the father, most of the work consisted of bridge-building and construction of houses.

Among these were bridges in Camden, Crum Creek, Pennsylvania; Pocomoke City, Maryland, and in Cape May County, New Jersey, some of which are still doing service. They also did considerable road-building in South Jersey. In the work of more recent years may be mentioned: One million dollars’ worth of sewer construction in the city of Baltimore, Maryland; many miles of sewers and street paving in the city of Camden; the entire water and sewer systems in Avalon, New Jersey; entire sewer system in Millville, New Jersey; sewers in New Brunswick, New Jersey; Quakertown trolley line in Quakertown, Pennsylvania; electric railway in Ocean City, New Jersey; paved between tracks of the Camden, Gloucester & Woodbury Railroad Company. For seventeen consecutive years, the concern removed ashes and garbage and cleaned the streets of the city of Camden, ending in 1904.

Mr. Sweeten is an attendant of the Episcopal Church, a supporter of its various undertakings, and friend and well-wisher of every good work. He is a charter member of Camden Lodge, No. 293, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and of the Fourth Ward Republican Club of Camden. These associations indicate his interest in human welfare and public spirit. He is reckoned among the most substantial and most highly esteemed residents of Camden.

Mr. Sweeten was married, October 6, 1887, in the home in which he now resides, in Camden, to Charlotte H. Bond, a native of Salem County, New Jersey, daughter of Edwin and Emma Bond, the latter now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Sweeten are the parents of a son, Irvine C. Sweeten, born in June, 1889.