George R. Danenhower

GEORGE R. DANENHOWER was born in Willow Grove PA on June 27, 1835. He first came to Camden in 1857. He enlisted as a private with Company C, 12th Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers in 1862, and was promoted to corporal on October 1, 1864, and sergeant on February 1, 1865. He served alongside his brother-in-law, Sergeant Virgil Willett, another Camden resident who would be involved in the grocery business after the Civil War.

George Danenhower returned to Camden after the war. In 1866 he opened a grocery store at 428 Kaighn Avenue. He soon opened a large store at 1201–1203–1205 Broadway, and went into the wholesale grocery business in 1880, in which he was very successful. George Danenhower moved from Camden to Beverly NJ in 1893, but continued in business in the city. From 1897 to 1900, Thomas S. Pancoast was in his employ.

After 65 years in the retail and wholesale trade, the George R. Danenhower & Son Company closed its doors in September of 1921.

Among the many church and civic activities engaged in during his lifetime, George R. Danenhower had been one of the original trustees of The Home for the Aged and Infirm of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

GEORGE R. DANENHOWER, senior member of the firm of G. R. Danenhower & Son, of Camden, N. J., who are among the leading wholesale grocers of South Jersey, was born at Willow Grove, Montgomery County, Pa., June 27, 1835. His parents were George and Elizabeth B. (Yerkes) Danenhower. His paternal grandfather, John Danenhower, in 1812 was working at the blacksmith’s trade at Bethayres, Pa. He probably spent there the greater part of his life. Both he and his wife, whose name before marriage was Elizabeth Sleiffer, were of German descent. She died May 22, 1852, aged seventy years. This couple reared five children.

Their son George, father of George R., was born June 13, 1803, at Bethayres, Pa. He, too, learned the trade of blacksmith, and followed it during his active life, at first near his birthplace, subsequently near Willow Grove and in Philadelphia County. He died near Bustleton, Pa., April 3, 1844, aged forty-nine years. His wife, who was born in Bethayres, in 1805, was a daughter of Jacob Yerkes, a millwright and expert mechanic, belonging to one of the well-known families of Philadelphia. Mrs. Elizabeth B. Yerkes Danenhower died in 1872, in the sixty-eighth year of her age. She and her husband were active members of the Methodist church. They had eight children, six of whom attained maturity, and three are now living: Jacob, in the grocery business in Camden; George R., the subject of this sketch; and Charles.

George R. Danenhower received a common-school education. He was but eight years old when his father died, and he was obliged to go to work as soon as his strength would permit. Until he was sixteen years of age he was employed as a farmer’s boy; and he then obtained a position at one hundred and ten dollars a year, eventually rising to the rank of head man with a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars a year. Out of this small sum he had saved four hundred dollars by the time he was twenty-three years of age; and with this he started in business in a small way at the corner of Second and Pearl Streets, Camden, in 1857. Two years later he sold his stock in trade and opened a store at the corner of Twelfth and Myrtle Streets, Philadelphia. Here he met with reverses, losing his all; but during the short time that he was in trade he had established a reputation for honest dealing, and he started again in Camden, soon building up a good business. An attack of sickness hampered him seriously; but success finally crowned his efforts, and at the breaking out of the war he was free from debt and in command of a flourishing trade.

Leaving all at the call for volunteers in 1862, he enlisted in Company C, Twelfth New Jersey Regiment, and served two years and ten months, until the close of the war. He was in the Second Army Corps, and saw a great deal of hard service. He participated in the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3–5, 1863, Gettysburg in the early part of July of the same year; and he followed the Confederate army through Virginia. In the engagement of Mine Run also he took an active part; and in the fierce battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864, he was wounded and left helpless on the battlefield for nine days, suffering intense pain and surrounded by untold horrors. About him lay the dead and wounded, in some places two and three deep; and the moans of pain and cries for water from the helpless added to his agony during his intervals of consciousness. He was taken from the field by the Federal forces under flag of truce; and when he again entered the Union lines he was sent to Fredericksburg, thence to Aquia Creek, from there to Washington, and thence to David’s Island, twenty-five miles above New York City. In the mean time news reached him of the death of his little daughter, six years old; and with the pain of his wound and the dreadful memory of the battle it seemed that his cup of misery was full. At the end of six months Mr. Danenhower returned to the ranks, and he subsequently took part in the siege of Petersburg and was present at Lee’s memorable surrender.

While he was in the army his wife had sold his business; and when he returned home he worked at farming for a while, and then for sixteen months was in the express business in Camden and Philadelphia. Selling his express business at a good profit, he opened a retail grocery store at 428 Kaighn Avenue, Camden; and three years later he built his present store at 1201, 1203, and 1205 Broadway, Camden. This is a three-story building, dimensions fifty by ninety-eight feet; and he now has in addition storage rooms in Philadelphia and a place of business there at 27 South Water Street. In 1880 he engaged in the wholesale trade, and his business is now so extensive that few grocers in the State rank ahead of him. His pay-roll includes twenty-two persons, and he keeps twelve horses and makes use of five wagons. Ever since Mr. Danenhower started in business in 1859 he has paid one hundred cents on the dollar, and he has the confidence of all with whom he has had business dealings. In addition to his grocery business he is largely interested in real estate in Camden.

He was married in 1858 to Malinda Willett, daughter of Joseph P. and Elizabeth (Fulton) Willett. She was born near her husband’s birthplace. Her father was a shoemaker and stone mason. She had six brothers and sisters; namely, Milton, Virgil, Irena, Wilhelmina, Valerius, and Almeda. Mr. and Mrs. Danenhower have been blessed with six children, three of whom are living; namely, John C., Paxon V., and Garfield W. John C. Danenhower is his father’s partner in business. He married Alice Beulah, and has two children — Willett and Donald.

In politics Mr. Danenhower has long been actively interested, first as a Whig, later as a Republican. He cast his first Presidential vote for Millard Fillmore. For over thirty years he was connected with the Union Methodist Episcopal Church of Camden, acting as trustee, steward, class leader, and superintendent of a Sunday-school of over one thousand scholars; and he is at the present Trustee of Collingswood Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1893 he moved from Camden to Beverly, and assisted in the remodelling of the church in the latter place, of which he was at that time a trustee.