Henry S. Scovel

HENRY SIDNEY SCOVEL was a prominent lawyer who served as Camden County prosecutor from 1905 to 1912. He was a member of the New Jersey State Assembly in 1897. He was also a good friend of the poet Walt Whitman as early as September of 1885.

Henry S. Scovel was born in 1858, and resided in the North Ward as late as 1870. His father, Colonel James Matlock Scovel, was locally famous as an orator, evangelist, and lawyer. His mother was the niece of John W. Mickle, and his maternal grandfather was Dr. Isaac S. Mulford, both of whom had schools named after them in Camden in the 1870s, which is a fairly good gauge of the two men's local importance and reputation.

On January 28, 1897 Henry S. Scovel was one of several dignitaries who were in attendance at the opening of the Catholic Lyceum on Broadway at Federal Street, adjacent to the church. Other attendees included Governor John W. Griggs, Mayor John L. Westcott, Attorney-General Samuel H. Grey, Camden city solicitor J. Willard Morgan, Senator H. W. Johnson, Assemblyman Louis DeRousse, J.J. Burleigh, Sheriff David Baird Sr., then Postmaster Harry B. Paul, ex-Judge Armstrong, Architect Henry S. Dagit, George A. Frey, and H. L. Bonsall. The Lyceum would evolve into Camden Catholic High School.

In 1898 he had a run-in with Stockton (later East Camden) politician Jake Schiller. It was during the second trial of Eli Shaw for the murder of his mother and grandmother, Mrs. Anna Shaw and Mrs. Emma Zane. They were found shot to death in September, 1897, in their bedroom of their home on Line Street near Third. Detective John Painter had found a revolver hidden in the chimney, one of several points in the circumstantial evidence that resulted in the indictment of Shaw. He was then a widely known young man about town and his arrest caused a big sensation. As time drew near for the trial feeling was intense, for there were adherents for and against the son and grandson, those arguments often grew bitter.

Henry Sidney Scovel, then one of the prominent criminal lawyers of Camden county, was retained to defend Shaw. Scovel was son of James Matlack Scovel, himself one of the leading barristers of this section. When the trial of Shaw was under way the city was astounded when it was charged Scovel had tampered with the jury. It was Schiller who made the charge.

The trial stopped abruptly. Scovel emphatically denied the story of Schiller and demanded vindication. An indictment for embracery was returned and at a trial, which had Camden on the tip toe of expectancy for days, it developed there was absolutely nothing to verify the charge, and Scovel was acquitted. He acted in two subsequent trials of Shaw, the second being a disagreement and the third acquittal for the son and grandson of the slain women.

Schiller, strangely enough, in later years became friendly with Scovel and when the latter was prosecutor from 1905 to 1912, “Jake,” as he was familiarly known, was usually to be found in the office at the courthouse. Scovel was then a white haired man of flowery speech and impressive personality who let bygones be bygones.

Henry Scovel married Gertrude Alma Graham in 1889. There were three children, daughters Ethel and Beatrice, and a son, Henry Graham Scovel, who followed his father into the practice of law.

In the fall of 1902 Henry S. Scovel was reported have been engaged to conduct the defense of Paul Woodward, who was on trial for murder. This was not the case however, and Mr. Scovel took no part in the proceedings. Woodward was found guilty and was executed at the Camden County jail on January 7, 1903.

Henry S. Scovel served for a time around 1905 in the New Jersey State Assembly. While there he sponsored a bill in the legislature compelling traction companies to construct front and rear enclosed platforms on trolley cars.

A resident of Haddonfield by 1910, Henry S. Scovel passed away there on October 5, 1918. He had been ill for some time prior to his demise.

He Is Charged With Embracery in the Shaw Murder Case

CAMDEN, N. J., April 6—H. S. Scovel, the lawyer who started to defend Eli Shaw, the young man accused of murdering his mother and grandmother, was put on trial here today charged with embracery arising out of the Shaw case. Information coming to Judge Dixon during the second day of the Shaw trial caused the case to be suspended at that point, and an investigation by the Grand Jury resulted in the indictment of Scovel.

The indictment charged the defendant with offering Jacob Schiller, a panel juror in the Shaw case, the sum of $100 in consideration of the latter giving a verdict favorable to the defendant. But one similar case is cited in the law books, and the penalty fixed by law is $600 fine and two years’ imprisonment.

Edward Enterken, the County Jailer, the State’s first witness, swore that after the Shaw panel was drawn, Scovel came to him in the county jail, and, calling his attention to the list, asked if Schiller was “all right.” Enterken said he thought he was. Scovel then told the witness to tell Schiller there was $100 in it for him if he were “all right.” When the first call of the case resulted in a mistrial, the witness testified that Scovel came to him and asked him never to say anything about the $100.

Juror Schiller was the next witness, but his evidence was indeterminate. Scovel denied the charge in every particular. Eli Shaw, who was brought from his cell to testify, said he knew nothing of attempts to bribe anyone.

The case will close tomorrow. An acquittal is looked for.