John F. Rittenhouse

John F. Rittenhouse was born in Maryland around 1880 and settled in Camden, where he became a familiar figure in the Cooper Point neighborhood. By the early 1900s he operated a small store at 941 Point Street, selling cigars, candy, ice cream, and everyday groceries. He ran the shop with his wife, Madeline, and the couple lived above the store, as many Camden merchants did during that era.

The business became a neighborhood fixture, remembered for its ice cream sign featuring an Eskimo and for the steady presence of the Rittenhouse and Rowan families behind the counter. After John’s death in February 1933, Madeline kept the store going for more than two decades. In 1959 she retired, and her son William “Woo‑Woo” Rowan took over. Under his name, the store remained a gathering place for local families well into the 1970s.

The family’s ties to Camden’s working life ran deep. John and his son Francis worked at the nearby Mathis Shipyard, while stepson Robert Rowan found employment in the city’s leather trade, likely at the John R. Evans & Co. leather factory. Francis Rittenhouse was also active in Philadelphia’s Mummers tradition as a member of the Fralinger String Band. Through the store and their work, the family became part of the everyday fabric of Cooper Point for more than half a century.

John F. Rittenhouse, 53, store proprietor, of 941Point Street, who died Thursday, will be buried Monday. Burial will be at Arlington Cemetery, after services 10:30 AM at Scroeder Chapel, Broadway and Royden Street.

Mr. Rittenhouse was a member of Camden Lodge, No. 293, of Elks; Camden Lodge 111, Loyal Order of Moose, and Thomas Jefferson Council, No. 138, Junior Order United American Mechanics.

He is survived by his wife, Madeline H. Rittenhouse; a son, John; a daughter, Mrs. Ada Gruner, and three stepsons, William, Robert, and Francis Rowan.

My grandmother and grandfather were the owners of the store at 941 Point Street. My father was his son… his name was Francis Hull Rittenhouse. He worked at Mathis Shipyard and so did my uncle John Rittenhouse.

My grandmother, after my grandfather died, needed to make money and was a bootlegger and she had an ice cream sign, an Eskimo ice cream sign. When the little red light was on, it meant she had liquor.

My grandmother was speaking to her delivery man on the phone, he was in a phone booth [on River Road —ed.] when Unruh went crazy and killed people in the store, he missed this man.

Frances J. Rittenhouse — October 2005