Heber E. McCord
Detective Heber E. McCord
HEBER E. McCORD was born June 23, 1902 in Elverson PA to Sidney P. McCord and his wife Eleanor D. Pike McCord. He was named after his paternal grandfather. Sidney P. McCord was for many years Camden’s chief financial officer. After a brief stint as a minor-league baseball player, Heber McCord joined the Camden Police Department on April 22, 1924.
Heber McCord married in the 1920s, and lived with his wife Olive in East Camden. The 1936 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory shows him living at 328 Boyd Street. In 1932 Heber McCord was promoted to detective, and was still in that post in 1947. He was then living at 432 South 6th Street with his father and brothers Merritt and William. Heber McCord moved to 804 W Kings Highway in Mount Ephraim in the mid-1950. By 1959 the McCord family included two sons, Robert and Michael E. McCord. After a 35 year career with the Camden Police Department, Heber McCord and family moved to Pinellas County, Florida in 1959.
Heber E. McCord eventually moved to St. Petersburg FL, where he passed away on October 25, 1974.
Heber E. McCord is remembered by his sons Michael and Robert McCord. Thanks to Michael McCord for his help in creating this page.
Heber Edmund McCord — Circa 1908
Heber E. McCord on his Morgan horse, Chester County, Pennsylvania
‘Chick Hunt’s Girl’ Gone
Camden Courier-Post —
Husband Dismissed When Brunette of Sixth Ward Shooting Fails To Appear in Court
Back into the notice of Camden’s Police Court, but not into its courtroom, Katherine Rosalie came today.
The attractive 23-year-old brunette who was known as “Chick Hunt’s girl” during the investigation of the Sixth Ward Republican Club shooting affray a fortnight ago, was to have appeared before Judge Bernard Bertman today to press charges against her husband, John Rosalie, 30 years old, of 1956 South Sixth street.
On January 10, it was made known; Mrs. Rosalie swore out a warrant charging her husband with threatening to kill her. Rosalie was arrested Monday night by Patrolman John Hallowell and the case scheduled for a hearing yesterday. Katherine didn’t appear and the case was postponed until today.
Today when the case was called Katherine was again absent from the courtroom and Judge Bertman sent Motorcycle Patrolman Heber McCord to the apartment house at 311 Cooper Street where the young woman formerly had lived. The officer returned with the information that Katherine had moved, no one at the apartment house knew where. Accordingly Judge Bertman dismissed the complaint against Rosalie.
Camden Police Crack Shots on Pistol Range
Camden Courier-Post —
Detective Now
Camden Courier-Post — 1932
HEBER M’CORD
[faint line illegible: ...cycle patrolman...] today become a detective attached to headquarters to replace Detective Benjamin Simon who is being demoted to traffic duty f[or] “insubordination.”
Man Held in Robbery of Mrs. Shane as Cops Plan 2 More Arrests
Camden Courier-Post —
Police Character Jailed Without Bail; Another Questioned
JOHNSON SEES SOLUTION NEAR
Asserts Witnesses Link Suspect To Crime
Jailed and Quizzed in Holdup
Stanley Powell, 28, of 1256 Whitman avenue, right, who was jailed without bail last night on suspicion of holdup and robbery in connection with the $10,380.50 robbery of Mrs. Mary Shane, and Frank Gromacki, 28, of 412 Broadway, left, who is being questioned by detectives investigating the case.
Stanley Powell, 28, Camden police character, was jailed without bail last night in connection with the $10,380.50 robbery of Mrs. Mary Shane, wife of a Camden State motor vehicle agent.
Powell is charged with “suspicion of holdup and robbery.”
Meantime police were questioning Frank Gromacki, 28, of 412 Broadway, in connection with the same case.
Arrest of two others was predicted as Harry Gassel, 27, of 1282 Liberty street, owner of the car allegedly stolen and used in the holdup, still was being detained at headquarters.
Lieut. Samuel E. Johnson, in charge of the detective bureau, predicted police would solve the holdup before morning, or less than 48 hours after it occurred.
“Powell has been linked definitely to this job by witnesses,” he said.
Mrs. Shane was robbed early Thursday morning while en route to the American National Bank on Broadway, near Kaighn avenue, to deposit funds taken in by her husband, Samuel, at 1289 Kaighn avenue, she told police.
Bandit Flees in Auto
A man snatched the money, representing December 31 license fees from Mrs. Shane as she carried it across Broadway in an ordinary shopping bag near the bank. The thief escaped in an automobile with three accomplices. First break in the case came when the car believed abandoned by the bandits was found late Thursday night in West Collingswood Heights. A West Collingswood Heights woman, after reading the abandoned car had been used by the bandits, in the Morning Post appeared at police headquarters and declared she believed she could identify one of the men.
Detectives refused to divulge the woman’s name but said she was convinced the man had waited on her when she patronized a Kaighn avenue store.
Gromacki was taken into custody at Broadway and Kaighn avenue, a few feet from the scene of the holdup, by several Camden detectives and two motor vehicle inspectors.
Powell was arrested by Detectives Clifford Carr and Heber McCord as he was preparing to eat a meal in a restaurant on Market street near Second.
Both were taken to detective headquarters, where Powell calmly denied any implication in the holdup. He was removed to police headquarters, and after being “booked” was placed in a cell. Commissioner Mary W. Kobus was present during the grilling of Powell.
The State Motor Vehicle Department ordered the closing of the agency operated by Mrs. Shane’s husband. The order closing Shane’s office pending an investigation came from Acting Motor Vehicle Commissioner Arthur W. Magee.
“All agents were recently ordered to carry holdup insurance,” Magee said, “and since Shane reported he had none, this was in direct violation of the rules of the department.”
The number of the bandit car, which crashed into a truck while making a getaway, was obtained and the vehicle was reported stolen shortly after the holdup, police said.
Shortly before midnight Thursday detectives received a call from Fred Cannady, New Jersey and Washington avenues, West Collingswood Heights that the car probably used in the holdup had been found abandoned at Pennsylvania and Washington avenues. Cannady said he saw a man leave the car at 11 a. m.
Detective Clifford Carr made a preliminary investigation and declared all the glass in the windows and windshield was unbroken. Acting Sergt. Joseph Carpani ordered the car impounded at Lane’s garage, Haddon avenue and Line street, where it was investigated for fingerprints.
Carr reported the finding of a shopping bag, believed to be the one carried by Mrs. Shane at the time of the holdup, and a roll of adhesive tape in the car.
Following the holdup Mrs. Shane was taken to police headquarters and questioned for more than 11 hours. She was taken to her home at 11 p. m. by state motor vehicle inspectors, who talked to her there until 1 a. m. Previously, at police headquarters, she was shown numerous rogue’s gallery pictures and partially identified one of them as the suspect who stole her bag.
Testimonial Banquet
Testimonial Banquet program —
in honor of
Sidney Pearson McCord
City Comptroller for 25 Years
Camden, New Jersey
1911 1936
Testimonial Banquet
in honor of
Sidney Pearson McCord
Comptroller
City of Camden
New Jersey
for
Twenty-five Years
Thursday evening, July 9th, 1936
Hotel Walt Whitman
Sidney Pearson McCord
If “Sid” McCord’s great, great grandfather had not been absent during a massacre at the time of the French and Indians wars in Franklin County, Pa., in 1756, thus perhaps saving his life; or if “Sid” had not passed a United States Civil Service examination in 1900; or if “Sid” had decided to stick to his trade of plasterer, then we would not be here tonight honoring “Sid” as City Comptroller of Camden, the man with the longest continuous service record in that job—25 years on July 1, 1936.
And if “Sid” had not decided to give up his trowel for the pen, and then had not gained the invaluable experience in the Division of Municipal Financial Research of the Federal Bureau of the Census for five years, then the City of Camden would not today have the splendid financial recording machinery that it now has in the City Comptroller’s office. The financial bookkeeping for the city’s business is entirely McCord’s idea, welded together as the result of the investigations he made for the Federal Government in 76 cities of the United States with a population of more than 30,000 each. With the Federal Government, it was McCord’s duty to collect and tabulate all of the financial data. In doing so he had the opportunity to study just how the American city functioned financially.
And, further, if “Sid” had not had all of that experience and had not been named City Comptroller on July 1, 1911, then many other American cities would not have had ideas which he has put into the office, for many cities, in the years that have gone by—the 25 years—have heard of this man and his comptroller’s office system and have come to Camden to have a “look see” and take back ideas for their own towns. And some of these towns have been the big ones, too.
And, the last “if” is this: If our friend “Sid” were writing this about Sidney Pearson McCord, he wouldn’t write it—he’s too modest—and we would all go on knowing him simply as City Comptroller Sidney P. McCord—and a blamed good one, too, a hale fellow, friend of man.
McCord was born in Reading, Pa., on August 14, 1869. His forebears, Scotch-Irish, settled Elverson in 1742, and his great, great grandfather was one of the original settlers. His father, Heber Pearson McCord, fought in the Civil War as a member of the Third Pennsylvania Reserves. “Sid” came to Camden in 1886. He lived then in the Fourth Ward. When the Ninth Ward was cut out of the Fourth “Sid” found himself in the Ninth and he has been there ever since. He now lives at 432 South Sixth Street, which is the Second precinct of the ward. He was married in 1900, and has six children, Heber E. “Mickey” McCord, acting city detective; Merritt I. McCord, Sidney P. McCord, Jr., Sarah H. McCord, now Mrs. William S. Hartman, of Elverson, Pa.; Mary A. McCord and Charles William McCord.
The whole city knows this man as “Sid” McCord, his office force affectionately call him “Boss” and where anyone knows anything about the affairs of a city in the nature of finance, they call him “the best comptroller in the State.” He is a registered municipal accountant with the State. He was prevailed upon in November, 1907, to resign his post with the Federal Government and become Deputy City Comptroller, and then when Samuel Hufty, his old boss, retired on a pension on July 1, 1911, McCord succeeded to his job. Hufty previously held the long-distance record of service as City Comptroller, 22 years. Camden has had only five comptrollers since the establishment of the office in 1880. McCord has been a director of the West Jersey Trust Company for the last 12 years.
That McCord’s system in the comptroller’s office has proved successful is attested by the fact that during the 25 years very few changes have been required in the bookkeeping systems as the result of changing legislation in the State relative to the recording of municipal accounts to conform with new State financial laws.
Sidney Pearson McCord, City Comptroller Par-Excellence, your friends greet you and thank you for your efforts in behalf of the City of Camden for the last quarter of a century. You have been and are doing a wonderful job. Long may you continue.
Detectives Find Rifle Stolen Here in 1930
Camden Courier-Post —
A rifle which was among $500 worth of firearms and ammunition stolen from the store of William Stein Company, 313 Federal street, on February 25, 1930, was recovered yesterday by Detective Heber McCord in a pawnshop at Fifty-ninth and Market streets, Philadelphia. Pawnshop proprietors are required to furnish police authorities with serial numbers of all weapons pledged. The serial number of the stolen rifle was reported to Philadelphia police and broadcast on a “flier” received by the Camden detective headquarters. McCord said investigation had shown the man who pawned the rifle purchased it previously without knowledge it was stolen here.
5 Youths Arrested as Holdup Suspects
Camden Courier-Post —
Police Believe Bandit Gang Plans of Group Halted by Roundup
Police believed they had frustrated the formation of hoodlum bandit mob yesterday with the arrest of five South Camden youths after a holdup of a grocery store at Tenth Street and Ferry Avenue.
Two of the five suspects were identified by the grocer, John Jacobs, as the bandits who entered his store at 960 Ferry Avenue, held him up at gun point and escaped with $23.95. Jacobs told Detectives Heber McCord and Clarence Arthur that he recognized one of the bandits as Anthony Mona, 19, of 947 South Third Street, a former boxer, whom he saw fighting in the ring, McCord said.
A radio call was sent to all cars to pick up Mona. A short time later, District Detectives Leon Branch and John Houston arrested Mona as he was eating in a restaurant near Broadway and Kaighn Avenue.
After questioning by McCord and Arthur, Mona implicated the others. They are Dominick Spinagotti, 17, of 251 Mt. Vernon street; Vito Brandimorto, 20, of 245 Chestnut Street; Salvatore Martorano, 21, of 344 Cherry Street, and Victor Labato, 19, of 274 Mt. Vernon street.
Mona was searched in the detective bureau. Police found $6.65 in change in his pockets. The others were rounded up at their homes by Detective Sergeant Benjamin Simon and Detectives Joseph Mardino and Robert Ashenfelder.
According to Simon the youths were “just beginning to embark on a career of crime.”
When the others were brought to the detective bureau for questioning, all but $2 of the loot was recovered, Detective McCord said.
McCord said the youths signed statements saying Mona and Labato entered the store while the others waited in Mona’s car outside the store, all fleeing together after the holdup.
Pair on Trial Claim They Were ‘Dupes’ in Check Fraud
Camden Courier-Post —
State Closes Case Against 2 Men Charged With Pay Swindle Plot
COPS READ STATEMENT
Two men who declare they were the unwitting dupes of a third, who is still at large, went on trial yesterday in Criminal Court before Judge Clifford A. Baldwin. The defendants are charged with conspiracy to defraud tradesmen and others through the use of counterfeit paychecks of the R. C. A. Manufacturing Company.
The defendants are Alfred J. Bittner, 25, of 892 Lois avenue and Benjamin Joie, 25, of Williamstown. The third man, accused by the others as the “brains” of the alleged plot, is George Hickman, now a fugitive.
The State closed its case late yesterday when Detective Thomas Murphy read a statement made to him by Bittner at the time of his arrest. James Mulligan and Heber McCord, two other detectives, said they were present when Bittner made the statement.
According to the document Murphy read to the jury, Bittner said Hickman came to him and asked him to do a printing job. When Bittner heard it was a check job, he refused to take it, saying he did not want to get into trouble.
Refused Printing Job
Hickman went away, returning several days later with material which he asked Bittner to look over. Bittner said he told Hickman the material could be used in a check printing job. Again Hickman asked Bittner to do the work, Bittner said, and again he refused.
According to the statement, Bittner’s reply each time was: “Not interested.” Hickman again appealed to him to do the job, asserting “no one will catch up with you, if you do it.” Finally Bittner said he would tell Hickman about the printing business.
Hickman promised Bittner money for the information, and then came to Bittner’s home and started using his press. Bittner noticed Hickman was printing RCA checks and asked him where he obtained the trademark.
The reply, Bittner said, was: “In Philadelphia.”
Bittner told Murphy he watched Hickman print the checks until about 100 were printed. Several days later, Bittner said, he heard Joie was arrested, and a couple of days later he, himself, was arrested.
Murphy testified under cross-examination a search of Bittner’s home resulted in discovery of four pieces of blank paper “that looked similar to the paper used in the forged checks.”
Murphy also testified Joie said he had been paid $25 by Hickman for the use of his car one day, but that he knew nothing about Hickman’s business or any conspiracy to use the paychecks to swindle victims.
Photograph Identified
James Bennett, Oaklyn grocery clerk, was the first witness. He identified a photograph of Hickman as the man who came in and cashed one of the counterfeit checks. Bennett said he saw no one else in the car. He said he wrote down the license number of the car on the sleeve of his white coat.
Others who identified the photograph of Hickman as the passer of similar checks were: Charles Brodson, 1220 Empire avenue, owner of the Central Liquor Company; Albert Drell, employee of a meat store at 1192 Yorkship Square; David Raphael, chain grocery employee at Haddon and Kaighn avenues; Jules Rosenberg, grocer, of 618 West Maple avenue, Merchantville, and Samuel Kaplan, of a chain store at 1068 Kaighn avenue. Cecelia Rosenberg, wife of the proprietor of a liquor store at 2320 Federal street, was the only victim who could not positively identify Hickman’s picture.
Edwin Bigger, assistant paymaster of the RCA Manufacturing Company, testified the checks were not those issued by his company. Lawrence M. Crowther, an executive of a Philadelphia firm that prints the RCA checks, also testified they were counterfeit.
The trial is expected to continue for several days.
Engraver Testifies
John S. Quirk, 218 North Tenth street, Philadelphia, a designer and engraver, said he had done some work for Bittner. He told how County Detective James Mulligan came to his office when he showed the detective a copy of an RCA trademark cut on which he had worked for a man he said may have been Bittner. Under cross-examination Quirk said the copy shown him in court and the copy also presented for examination, bore no relation.
Edward H. Fritsch, office manager for Ruttle, Shaw and Wetherill, typesetters, said Hickman came to his establishment for type set on three occasions. Joie, he said, picked up one order. He identified some of the type shown him in court as set by his firm. He also identified a style book shown him as coming from his company’s offices.
E. Irving Silverstein, 5503 Pine street, a photo engraver for the Atlas Photo Engraving Company, identified a border on the checks which he said he made up for Hickman.
Chief of County Detectives Lawrence T. Doran told of the investigation. He said he had gone to Bittner’s printing establishment, where he found the stylebook shown in evidence, as well as four blank sheets of paper similar to that used for the bogus checks.
Brass Theft Suspect to Face Grand Jury
Camden Courier-Post —
Charged with stealing brass fittings worth $700 from the Noecker & Ake Shipyard, Twenty-eighth Street and Harrison Avenue, Frank Benson, 18, of 637 Linden street, was held in $1000 bail for the Grand Jury by Police Judge Mariano yesterday.
Benson was caught Wednesday by a shipyard employee who told police he waited two hours in the rain for the suspect.
Detectives Heber McCord and Donald Swissler were commended by Judge Mariano after they reported recovering most of the loot.
Seek Killer of Toll Collector
Gettysburg PA Times —
Camden NJ, July 18 (AP)— New Jersey police scoured the Delaware River waterfront today for two men who shot to death Harry C. Armstrong, 63, a Pennsylvania ferry toll collector, in an attempted holdup Sunday morning.
Detectives Clifford Carr and Heber McCord said Armstrong was shot down as he stepped on a foot button in his ticket office, sounding a siren which brought police and frustrated the robbery.
A watchman said he heard the siren and then a shot, and saw two white-shirted men dart from the ferry gate and disappear up a waterfront street.
Draft Registrant Leaps 5 Floors to Death at City Hall
Camden Courier-Post —
Sleuths Vainly Try to Grab Florida Man Who Asked About Status
A 30-year-old Florida descendant of one of North Carolina’s blue-blooded families walked into police headquarters Saturday afternoon and asked them to check his status with a Florida draft board.
Two hours later the man was dead, his crushed body lying on the Market street pavement of the City Hall after he leaped from a fifth floor window in the City Hall detective bureau. The jump was made before the eyes of three detectives all powerless to reach him in time.
Identified tentatively as Manly McDowell, he had told detectives he was living at the Dixie Hotel, Florida. He was dead on arrival at Cooper Hospital. The man’s head was crushed and his arms and legs were broken.
Detective Harry Kyler was walking through police headquarters in the City Hall basement, when Patrolman Marshall Thompson called his attention to McDowell’s request. The man wanted to know if any notifications had been sent out by the board to him lately, explaining that for the past several months he had been traveling in the South and had been out of touch with his local board.
Asks for Cigarette
Kyler took McDowell to the Detective Bureau and telephoned Miami police asking them to check McDowell’s draft status and his record. Kyler told McDowell to sit down until the return call was made.
The detective told Acting Sergeant John Opfer about the man, then left to answer another call. On his return at 5.55 p. m, Kyler learned of the leap.
Others besides Opfer in the bureau were Detectives Heber McCord and Clifford Del Rossi. All three said McDowell drank considerable water and smoked several cigarettes but gave no indication of contemplating suicide.
Opfer said McDowell sauntered over to the accident bureau to McCord and asked for a cigarette. McCord gave him one, then turned his back. After several puffs, McDowell put the cigarette on a filing case, leaped to the top of a table and out the window. Opfer saw the man ascend the table and yelled to McCord to stop him. McCord was too far away to grab him.
Makes Grab in Vain
DelRossi, meanwhile, walked into the bureau just in time to see the man going out of the window. He also attempted to grab him.
Acting Desk Sergeant Frank Nelson had reported off duty a short time before and as he turned the corner of the city hall on the Market street side, he saw the man’s body on the pavement. Believing him to be a heat victim, or drunk, Nelson went over to investigate just as the police ambulance arrived.
Five minutes after the death plunge, the return call was made from Miami police which said McDowell was not wanted by either police or draft board. They said the draft board had been instructed to get in touch with Warren Steiffell, employed in the Brooklyn State Hospital, Brooklyn, N. Y., whenever they wanted to reach McDowell. Kyler later learned Steiffell had been inducted into the Army and stationed at Madison Barracks, Watertown, N. Y. A call to the barracks revealed Steiffell was on 48-hour leave.
Was Hospital Orderly
Attaches at the hospital said they knew McDowell as a former orderly, who had worked in hospitals in the New York City area. Kyler learned the man had worked as an orderly last year for several months at the Pilgrim State Hospital, Brentwood, N. Y.
Kyler contacted an aunt yesterday, Mrs. W. A. Leslie, of Morganton, N. C., who said McDowell’s only living close relative was a sister, Mrs. W. J. Verbeck, of Manlius, N. Y. Word was sent to the sister of McDowell’s death and she is expected to arrive here today to make positive identification.
Broken Headlight Leads to Arrest of Hit-Run Driver
Camden Courier-Post —
Camden City Detective Heber McCord is shown pointing to the cracked headlight on the automobile of George S. Casmer, of Audubon, which police charge struck and killed Ralph S. Siliphant, 57, of Camden on Sept. 27. Police were called when Casmer took his automobile to a Haddon twp. garage for repair. Strands of cloth purported to be bits of a coat Siliphant was wearing were found on the headlight.
Driver in Fatality Is Held for Jury
Camden Courier-Post —
A Bellmawr motorist today pleaded not guilty to a charge of death by auto when arraigned in municipal court in connection with the death last Friday of Miss Katharine O’Neill, 71, of 510 Penn street. Held for grand jury action was Francis Schramm, 33, of 205 East Browning road. He was released on his own recognizance after Detective Heber McCord, accident investigation bureau, testified there was no criminal negligence involved in the accident. Miss O’Neill was struck at Sixth and Market streets. She was dead on arrival at Cooper Hospital.
Heber McCord’s Nightstick and Service Revolver
Heber McCord’s nightstick and service revolver
Heber McCord & Michael McCord — 1960
Heber McCord & Michael McCord, 1960
SIDNEY P. M’CORD DIES AT READING, PA. AFTER LONG ILLNESS
Camden Courier-Post —
Lodge Rites to Be Held Here Sunday Night for Retired Comptroller
Sidney P. McCord, 75, retired Camden City comptroller, died yesterday in a Reading, Pa., hospital. He had been ill more than a year and lived on his farm at Elverson, Pa., since his retirement last May after serving the city 36 years.
Services will be held Sunday night by Camden Lodge of Elks and Ionic Lodge No. 94, FAM, in the funeral home of Joseph H. Murray and Son, 408 Cooper street. Another service will be held Monday at Elverson where burial will take place. Mr. McCord was a member of the Last Man’s Club of the local lodge of Elks.
Mr. McCord’s four sons were with him for some days, taking turns at giving him blood transfusions. Merritt, the eldest, gave him some blood shortly before the end.
Born Aug. 14, 1869, Mr. McCord lived most of his life in Camden’s Ninth ward. His most recent home here was at 432 South Sixth street. Known as one of the outstanding [the scan does not show the next word] lic official. He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate in the first city commission election.
Joined City Staff in 1907
Mr. McCord joined the city’s staff Nov. 25, 1907, as assistant to the late Colonel Hufty, then comptroller. He became comptroller July 1, 1911.
A widower, Mr. McCord is survived by four sons, Heber, Camden detective; Merritt, of Moorestown, with the Camden Trust Co.; Sydney P., Jr., Camden attorney, and Charles W., a teacher, of Mercersburg, Pa.; two daughters, Mrs. William Hartman, of Elverson, Pa., and Mrs. Mary Acton, of Georgia. Seven grandchildren also survive.
City Comptroller Lang, who succeeded Mr. McCord, expressed sorrow over his passing.
“During my seven years as a member of the city sinking fund commission and the five years I have had the honor to be president, I really learned what an able official and fine gentleman Mr. McCord was,” Lang said. “I also learned to appreciate his ability as a municipal comptroller. The people of Camden placed their trust in him. The city has lost a faithful public servant. I like, thousands of others, lost a dear friend.”
No city official, in the memory of many old timers, was held more in respect and esteemed by his own department employes than “Sid” McCord. Advancing years slowed his gait but mentally he continued as the alert and efficient “watchdog of the Camden City treasury.”
Mr. McCord regarded his position as a sacred trust and was justly proud of the fact that during his long regime the city never defaulted in meeting its obligations.
Even after he had waged an unsuccessful campaign for election as a city commissioner in opposition to a non-partisan group of candidates he was not relieved of his position. “Sid” McCord was never a politician and never pretended to be. He was a friend of every employe in both the old and present city halls.
Kept Sinking Fund Job
When he decided to apply for a pension he asked Mayor Brunner, director of revenue of finance, if he could retain his unsalaried job as secretary of the city sinking fund commission. Brunner granted that request.
Mr. McCord was born in Reading, Pa., and with his parents made his home here when he was six years old. When he started out to make his own living he never had any idea he would some day be considered a financial genius. He learned the trade of plasterer and worked at it for several years.
Went to Alaska
Back in 1898 Mr. McCord along with the late Edmund Pike, later to become one of the city’s best-liked policemen, started for Alaska to seek their respective pots of gold. Reaching Dawson City they staked their claims along with hundreds of other gold prospectors. Their total haul of gold netted them only $400. After that experience McCord and Pike started the long trek back to Camden.
It was Mr. McCord who tossed out the archaic municipal accounting system in use when he became comptroller and brought the system up to date, changing it from a cash to a revenue and expense basis showing how the city stands financially on any account and at any time.
Called by Death
SIDNEY P. McCORD