Frank S. Albright

FRANK STRINGER ALBRIGHT was born on August 18, 1878 in New Jersey to Lewis and Margaret Albright. His early years were spent in Gloucester City where his father appears to have been the proprietor of a newspaper in 1880. Lewis Albright relocated to Camden in late 1889 or early 1890, first settling at 603 Clinton Street. The family lived at 448 Broadway at the time of the 1900 Census. There were two younger siblings, Lewis and Lillian, then at home, an older brother, William, having passed away. By 1900 Frank S. Albright had already gone into journalism, and was working as a reporter. Shortly after the census was taken, he married Anna Scheperkotter.

On November 22, 1903 Judge Charles G. Garrison appointed Frank S. Albright to the eleven person court jury charged with witnessing the execution of murderer Paul Woodward, on January 7, 1903. The execution was carried out as scheduled.

Frank and Anna Albright were living at 637 Pine Street when the 1906 City Directory was compiled. A journalist by trade, he was living at 569 Berkley Street with his wife Anna and a daughter, also named Anna, at the time of the 1910 Census. He had stepped away from newspapers for a time; in the mid-1910s he became secretary to then Mayor Charles H. Ellis. When the 1914 Camden City Directory was compiled the Albrights lived at 1455 Baird Avenue in Camden’s then-new Parkside neighborhood. They remained at that address through at least 1929.

Frank Albright was an editor with the Camden Post-Telegram when he registered for the draft in 1917. When the Post-Telegram was sold to the Camden Courier, and became the Courier-Post, Frank Albright, a staunch Republican and an ally of Camden Republican leader David Baird Jr., returned to Camden city government. Frank S. Albright was serving as City Publicity Agent in Camden in January of 1928. He later served as Deputy City Clerk under William D. Brown in the 1920s and early 1930s, whom he succeeded.

In November of 1927 Mayor Winfield S. Price appointed a committee to arrange for the observance in February 1928 of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the City of Camden. The committee was composed of Charles S. Boyer, Chairman; t. yorke smith, E.G.C. Bleakly, Mahlon F. Ivins Jr., Fred S. Caperoon and Frank S. Albright.

By May of 1933 he had been promoted to City Clerk. Frank S. Albright died in April of 1935 while still in office, and was succeeded by his deputy, Otto E. Braun.

Commissioner Stricken After Attending Opening of Legislature

Commissioner William D. Sayrs, Jr., director of public works, has been stricken with diphtheria and is a patient at the Municipal Hospital, it was learned today.

Hospital authorities this morning said Commissioner Sayrs was admitted to the institution yesterday. He is suffering from a “mild case of diphtheria,” they said, and is under the care of Dr. Joseph C. Lovett.

Unless complications should arise, the public works director will leave the hospital in two weeks physicians report. His condition today was termed “good.”

Sayrs entered the hospital after he had consulted with his physician, Dr. Levi Hint, according to Frank S. Albright, city publicity agent. The commissioner began feeling ill Tuesday, Albright said, when he attended the opening session of the legislature at Trenton.

Albright said Sayrs is directing the work of his department from his bedside at the institution. A phone has been installed at the bedside and the commissioner, Albright explained, is able to keep in touch with the various members of his department throughout the day.

Fellow commissioners remarked on the absence of Commissioner Sayrs from the city commission meeting yesterday, but could give no reason for it, they said.

At the office of Commissioner Sayrs this morning, it was reported that the director was “merely suffering from a slight cold.”

Baird Supporters Resorting to Contemptible Tactics, Miss Kelly Says

“Realizing the utter futility of their efforts to elect David Baird to the governorship, the Republican party in Camden County is resorting to every contemptible means at its command to intimidate the voters.”

This declaration was made last night by Miss Marie V. Kelly, former jury commissioner, at a meeting of 200 voters in the Fourth Ward Democratic Club, 455 Berkley Street.

“At a meeting of election officers,” Miss Kelly said, “William E. A. King, a member of the county board of elections sworn to preserve the sanctity of the ballot box, told these officers that the Republican party has promised Baird a 50,000 majority in Camden County and that they were to get the votes no matter how they got them and that they would be protected. He told them if the Democrats interfered that the Republican police would take care of the Democrats.

“Today Major Dickinson, deputy director of public safety, raised a false howl of gunmen to come here to make a rough house of the city. We know that this is weak propaganda to cover what the Republicans intend to do.”

Points to Murder

“Mr. Dickinson has evidently forgotten the murder committed at Third and Benson Streets on the eve of the city election in May by gunmen imported by the Republican workers to intimidate the voters of that ward—gunmen who remain uncaught and unpunished to this day.

“The most flagrant act on the part of the Republican Party is the removal of the polling place yesterday from the fourth district of the fourth ward from the E. A. Stevens School on Fourth Street to a private residence on Berkley Street. The polling place has been in the school for a number of years and no complaints had been made by Democratic members of the elections board. This change has been made without a meeting of the county elections board.”

“Frank Albright, city clerk, took it upon himself to make the change, basing his action on the statement the school was totally unfit for the board to sit in for a day to conduct the business of election.”

‘Refreshment’ Cited

“However, school children are forced to use this building every day of the school year. The residence to which the polling place has been transferred was reconditioned so that it could be used. The real reason for this change was that it will be much easier to dispense liquid refreshment in a private home than in a public school.

“It is a fine state of affairs when the people are called on to build a $10,000,000 city hall within six blocks of a school where children are forced to occupy a school which the city clerk says is in a horrible condition and totally unfit for use.

“I urge the people in the third and fourth wards of Camden to rise in revolt against the Republican organization that is trying by every means to prevent an honest exercise of the franchise at the polls on Tuesday. The protest must be registered by marking every blank on the ballot under the Democratic column.”

Fifth District Box Had Too Many Ballots, Prosecutor Told

Another investigation into the mysteries of Eighth Ward elections was begun yesterday when the April grand jury probed ballot-box stuffing in the Fifth District at the May 16 primary.

Prosecutor Clifford A. Baldwin requested the investigation after he “couldn’t make head nor tail” of the fact that 25 ballots remained in the box even after 232 Republican ballots the number of persons of that party recorded as voting had been counted.

Although unconfirmed, it was declared that all of the ballots were marked for Edmund A. Walsh, incumbent, who defeated mikey brown for election to the G. O. P. Committee.

It is understood the prosecutor pointed out that the ballots were in bundles of five or six, and apparently had not been cast singly.

Baldwin learned that the extra ballots were not counted by the election board, each member of which was called to the grand jury room yesterday afternoon. All expressed ignorance of how the ballots could have been placed in the box, it is understood.

When Baldwin was informed of the mystery he personally inspected the box, which has been impounded in the office of City Clerk Frank S. Albright.

“I couldn’t make head nor tail of it, so I presented the case to the grand jury,” Baldwin said. He refused to comment further.

Principal Figure in Many Battles Welcomes Quiz

‘Stuffing’ of Ballots Reported in Fifth and First Precincts

Rumors Are Checked

“The prosecutor and the grand jury have plenty to investigate in this ward concerning the last primary election.”

mikey brown, central figure in many Eighth Ward election squabbles and thrice accused in election irregularities, had that to say yesterday when informed that Prosecutor Clifford A. Baldwin and the April grand jury is investigating alleged ballot box stuffing in the ward at the last primary, May 16.

Disclosure of ballot box stuffing in the Fifth precinct of the ward, which the prosecutor said he asked the grand jury investigate was followed by reports yesterday that similar irregularities prevailed in the First precinct at the primary, and possibly in other districts.

Reports Checked

In extending his probe of ward political conditions, Baldwin said he is checking reports that a Brown challenger at the May election had refused to let the First precinct election board count what he declared were “stuffed ballots.”

The challenger is reported at close of the polling place to have said as he lifted a ballot box for the election board and spectators to see:

“There are ballots in this box that don’t belong there. They cannot be counted. I won’t permit it. And remember, mikey brown didn’t stuff this box today, as he had been accused falsely of doing at previous elections. Mikey wasn’t in this polling place, so you can’t blame him,”

Brown had been three times in Camden County Criminal Court for ballot box stuffing and other alleged election irregularities. He was exonerated twice, and there was a disagreement in the jury in the third case. At the May primary, he opposed Edmund A. Walsh in a contest for Republican county committeeman from the Eighth ward, but was defeated. Walsh was re-elected.

Asked what he knew about the latest Eighth ward situation, Brown said:

“All I can say is that the prosecutor and the grand jury will have plenty to investigate pertaining to the May 16 primary in the ward.”

Box Not Impounded

The first precinct ballot box has not been impounded by City Clerk Frank S. Albright, as was the case of the box of the fifth precinct. Baldwin said he was checking rumors one of the first precinct boxes contained about 50 or 60 stuffed ballots. Baldwin said that if the situation be found by him to be as reported, he will request the grand jury to summon witnesses.

Baldwin said he also is checking reports that the names of dead persons were “voted” at the ward primary.

Commissioner Says, However, He Awaits Public Sentiment

Moore Signs Act, New Fees Fixed

Stewart and Bennett Against, Hanna and Rhone For

With four members of the city commission deadlocked on the issue, Commissioner Clay W. Reesman last night appeared to hold in his hands the final decision as to whether Sunday beer sales will be permitted in Camden.

This was revealed when he announced that his deciding vote on the issue would be guided by a “sounding of public sentiment.”

On April 26 Mayor Roy R. Stewart and Commissioner Harold W. Bennett declared they would vote against any resolution permitting Sunday sales, while Commissioners Frank B. Hanna and Dr. David S. Rhone declared they would favor such a resolution. Reesman asserted at that time that “it would be foolish for him to comment until the measure before the legislature becomes a law.”

Measure Now Law

The state measure, which permits Sunday beer sales upon resolution of municipal bodies, became law yesterday when Governor A. Harry Moore signed it. The bill, primarily, extends the state temporary beer act until August 31.

When asked last night how he stood on the Sunday beer sale question in Camden, Reesman said: “I can’t state any opinion at this time, for I really have none. I want to sound public sentiment first. What ever the people want, that is the way I’ll be guided,” He added that he would be unable to say how much time would be required for him to arrive at an opinion.

As soon as the city commission learned that the governor had approved the measure yesterday, it met in special session and adopted a resolution calling for an additional fee from Camden beer retailers for the extended period of two months.

At the same time, the Beverage Tax Division of the State Tax Department announced that all retailers of beer and wines must make tax payments by July 7 on all purchases and sales of beer by them between April 7 and July 1.

Tax Experts Coming

To assist retailers in determining their tax liability representatives of the Beverage Tax Division will sit for one week, from July 1 to July 7, in seven South Jersey towns, as follows: Camden, Room 212, court house annex; Burlington, city hall; Bridgeton, court house, July 1 and 3 only; Atlantic City, Room 729, Guaranty Trust building; Gloucester City, clerk’s office, city hall; Cape May Court House, court house, July 6 and 7 only; Salem, city hall, July 5 only;

Retailers who have purchased beverages from any source outside New Jersey will be subject to a tax of three cents a gallon if the tax has not already been paid by the manufacturer or distributor.

Mayor Stewart, in expressing his opinion on Sunday beer sales, declared it would have a bad effect on the community and its people, and that employees of restaurants and inns were entitled to a day of rest as other workers.

Commissioner Bennett declared sale of the beverage would not help observance of the Sabbath. Commissioners Hanna and Rhone took the view that Congress had legislated 3.2 percent beer as non-intoxicating, and that it was therefore as equally non-intoxicating on Sunday as any other day, and that its sale would make little difference.

New Fees Cited

The Beverage Tax Division also pointed out yesterday that the extension beverage act require manufacturers to pay an additional license fee of $400, and distributors an additional fee of $100 if their licenses are to be automatically extended. Security for the extended term must also be furnished and acceptable to the State Tax Commissioner.

Licenses for the extended period will be issued in South Jersey at the offices of Deputy Beverage Commissioners Frank B. Middleton, Jr., in Camden, at 130 North Broadway, and Frederick Stahle, 4105 Sunset Avenue, Atlantic City.

Various South Jersey communities, following the lead of Camden, are expected to announce new additional fees for municipal licenses before a week has passed.

The city resolution provides that the additional fee must be paid to Frank S. Albright, city clerk, before tomorrow night, and that all the beer regulations adopted by the city April 6 remain in “full force and effect.”

Under the measure, according to Albright, distributors in the city that do not pay a state beer license must also pay an additional $50 fee.

Retail beer servers began paying their new fees shortly after the city commission passed the resolution.

Reesman to Decide If Commissioners Offer Resolution

Beverage Dispensers Will Discuss Question at Next Meeting

19 Licenses Issued

“The Camden City Commission will take no action on the Sunday beer sale question unless the people express a strong desire for Sunday beer.”

This is the declaration made yesterday by Mayor Roy R. Stewart.

And not only are members of the city commission divided on the Sunday beer issue but saloonkeepers are themselves.

Fred J. Stuebing, president of the Camden County Beverage Dispensers’ Association, revealed that some members of the association are against Sunday sales and some are in favor of it.

“We have not gone on record for or against Sunday sales.” Stuebing said. “Some of our members are against it. The question will be brought up at our own meeting a week from today.

Wants His Day Off

“Personally, I would not want to keep my place open on Sunday afternoons. I want a day off after working all week. I might open up for a while Sunday evenings, though, if it were permitted.”

In the event of a resolution being introduced in the city commission to permit Sunday sales after 1 p.m., the final decision would rest in the hands of Commissioner Clay W. Reesman since he has refused to commit himself on the issue, while Mayor Stewart and Commissioner Harold W. Bennett have announced against it, and Commissioners Frank B. Hanna and Dr. David S. Rhone have pronounced themselves in favor of it.

“I don’t think there is any insistent demand for Sunday beer,” said the mayor. “If there is, I haven’t heard about it.

“Furthermore, I see no real reason for Sunday beer. In the so-called good old days before prohibition, saloons were closed on Sundays. Why should they be opened now?

“And as I said in a statement some time ago, the men and women employed in the retail beer business deserve a day off a week for recreation and worship just as any other workers.

“The City Commission will take no action unless the people express a strong desire for Sunday beer.”

Owners Interviewed

There was a rumor in circulation yesterday that quite a number of Camden saloonkeepers had been “interviewed” by certain politicians on the Sunday sale situation.

“You don’t want to sell beer on Sunday, do you?” is the question that is said to have been put to them. And it was put in such a way that a negative answer was expected, the rumor has it.

This report apparently is borne out by the attitude of Mayor Stewart. The mayor’s statement came as a surprise particularly in view of the fact that Camden saloonkeepers recently contributed to a fund for the purpose of having the ban on bars removed and also to bring about Sunday sales.

Camden saloon and restaurant keepers have been complaining because the roadhouses in the suburban districts were permitted to sell beer on Sunday and that they also were allowed to remain open later than the closing time specified for similar places operated in the city limits.

These same Camden saloonkeepers also have complained about the political clubs within the city being permitted to remain open after the regular closing hours and also that they have been allowed to remain open on Sundays.

New Licenses Granted

Meanwhile, City Clerk Frank S. Albright yesterday announced approval of 19 new applications for retail beer licenses, bringing the total in the city to 239. Three new wholesale licenses also were sanctioned.

Following are the retail permits: John Pennington, 818 Broadway; Salvatore Spitalore, 201 Royden Street; Samuel Friedenberg, 575 Van Hook Street; Fred Steubing, 318 Market Street; Frank Markiewicz, 673 Ferry Avenue; Matthew Orland, 3, 5, 7 and 9 Ferry Walk; Anthony Laskowski, 1200 Everett Street; Albert Ross, 1425 Mt. Ephraim Avenue; Samuel Hurwitz, 703 Chestnut Street; Clito Viviano, 522–524 Walnut Street; Harry Adams, 406 North Seventh Street; Daniel Cirucci, 305 Benson Street; Charles A. Bieri, 318 Kaighn Avenue; Max Kleinfeld, 101 Chestnut Street; John MacDougall, 839 Market Street; Alexander Wrightson, Southwest corner Ninth and Chestnut Streets; David Plasky, 2362 Broadway; Luigi Corda, 702 South Second Street, and Irving Cartin, 201 Mechanic Street.

Wholesalers: Camden County Beer Distributors, 1203 Chestnut Street; William Grams, 2101 Federal Street, and Justin Peterson, 511 Chelton Avenue.