Introduction
Jesse Johntra was born in Camden around 1856 to Daniel and Sarah Rogers Johntra, one of at least seven children. Daniel Johntra was a moulder by trade, but had worked on the Camden police force around 1870, and later as a turnkey at the Camden County Jail. The 1880 census shows the family living at 113 North 8th Street. Members of the Johntra family would reside within a block of this address through the 1950s. Jesse Johntra was then married, and was working as a stone cutter. He and wife Mary C. Johntra were living with his parents at the time of the 1880 Census. The couple would soon move to 818 Carpenter Street, where they were residing in 1887. Next door at 816 Carpenter Street lived the Daniel Carter family. Son Peter B. Carter would later become the Chief of the Camden Fire Department.
Jesse R. Johntra was partners with a G. Workman in the mid-1880s in an ice firm called the Eastern Ice Company. About 1890 Jesse Johntra got a job as letter carrier. Jesse Johntra then moved to 807 Federal Street. Among his co-workers with the Postal Service were Walter P. Ellis and Benjamin Grum.
By 1910 Jesse Johntra had moved to Collingswood NJ. The 1920 Census shows him living at 29 East Stiles Avenue in Collingswood with an adult son and four daughters. By 1930 Jesse Johntra had retired, and was then living at 732 Market Street with his sisters Anna and Daisy Johntra, both retired schoolteachers. Anna Johntra taught in the Camden public school system for 40 years. Daisy also retired from the Camden school system. Two other sisters, Ella and Carrie, also taught at one time or another in Camden.
Jesse Johntra died on September 15, 1940 at Cooper Hospital in Camden. He was buried at Evergreen Cemetery.
Rites Wednesday For Miss Johntra
Camden Courier-Post —
Services for Miss Anna M. Johntra, 90, who taught in Camden public schools nearly 40 years, will be held Wednesday at 11 a. m. in the funeral home of Benjamin R. Denny, 433 South Sixth street. The Rev. W. I. Roberts, pastor of Bethel Methodist Church, will officiate. Burial will be in Evergreen cemetery.
Miss Johntra, who resided at 732 Market street, died in her home Friday after a long illness. Born in Camden, she was a lifelong resident. She became associated with the Camden school system in September, 1876, when she taught at the Liberty school.
On Dec. 4, 1905, she was named principal for boys and girls at the Linden school, Tenth and Linden streets, since torn down. The Powell school now occupies the site, Miss Johntra held the post to June 3, 1916, when she retired.
Surviving are two sisters, Miss Daisy Johntra, also a retired Camden school teacher, of the Market street address, and Mrs. Carrie Hibbert, of Camden, wife of Samuel Hibbert, retired Camden policeman; several nieces and nephews. Jesse Johntra, a brother of Miss Johntra, a Camden letter carrier, died in 1941.