John H. Jones
JOHN H. JONES was born in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland in 1809, and moved to Philadelphia at the age of 14, where he learned printing. He went into business for himself, and got into the business of publishing newspapers. His papers supported anti-immigration “Native American” principles, and were very popular in the Camden area. He moved to Camden and became the leader of the American Party.
John Jones was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 1858, and for Camden County Sheriff in 1859. He served as a freeholder from Camden’s Seventh Ward. In 1870 he took control of the Camden Democrat, and revived the fortunes of that newspaper.
After defeating Henry H. Bonsall in the mayoral elections of 1874, John H. Jones succeeded Samuel Gaul as mayor. John H. Jones died before the completion of his term, on October 27, 1876. He was succeeded by John Morgan.
During the mayoral term of John H. Jones, Camden’s second City Hall was completed, Cooper Hospital was incorporated on March 24, 1875, under the name of Camden Hospital, and Camden took part in the Centennial celebration of 1876.
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Camden, New Jersey.
John H. Jones
The History of Camden County New Jersey — George Reeser Prowell, 1886
JOHN H. JONES was elected mayor in 1874, by the Democrats, over Henry L. Bonsall, Republican, the vote being, Jones, 2789; Bonsall, 2748. He died before the completion of his term. He was born in Queen Anne’s County, Md., in 1809, and, at the age of fourteen, went to Philadelphia, became a book and job printer, and later published the Daily Sun, a Native American organ. He afterwards published the American Banner, a weekly advocate of Native American principles, and which found extensive patronage in West Jersey. He came to Camden and assumed the leadership of the American party, which, for several years, was dominant in the city and strong throughout this section of the State. In 1858 he was the nominee of a section of the party in the First District for Congress, but was defeated, and, in 1859, was the unsuccessful candidate of that party for sheriff of Camden County. He served in the Board of Chosen Freeholders from the Seventh Ward, and there, as elsewhere, was progressive in his views. In 1870, when the Camden Democrat was struggling for life, Mr. Jones was given charge of it and his vim and ability soon placed it in the van of influential journals in this part of the State. As a politician and journalist, he advocated the rights of the working men, and, as an employer, practiced his precepts, always paying high wages. He was childless, but no waif was turned from his door, and there were always happy children in his house. He left the mayor’s office on the evening of October 27, 1876, and went to his home at Seventh Street and Pine, and, shortly after entering, died without a word.
1861 — The First War Meeting in Camden
The History of Camden County New Jersey — George Reeser Prowell, 1886
On the 16th of April, 1861, three days after the Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter, at the entrance of Charleston Harbor, a large number of loyal and patriotic citizens of Camden City and County issued the following vigorous and spirited response to the President’s proclamation:
To the President Of the United States:
“The unparalleled events of the last week have revealed to the citizens of the United States, beyond question or the possibility of a doubt, that peaceful reconciliation upon the form of our Constitution is repelled and scorned, and secession means, in the hearts of its supporters, both Treason and war against our Country and Nation.
“We, therefore, the undersigned Loyal Citizens of the United States, and inhabitants of the city of Camden, in the State of New Jersey, responding to the proclamation of the President of the United States, hereby declare our unalterable determination to sustain the government in its efforts to maintain the honor, the integrity and the existence of our National Union and the perpetuity of the popular Government, and to redress the wrongs already long enough endured; no differences of political opinion; no badge of diversity upon points of party distinction, shall restrain or withhold us in the devotion of all we have or can command to the vindication of the Constitution, the maintenance of the laws and the defense of the Flag Of our Country.
| I. S. Mulford | Samuel S. E. Cowperthwait |
| E. R. Johnson | James M. Scovel |
| Louis L. Scovel | S. C. Harbert |
| B. M. Braker | John S. Read |
| Joseph C. Nichols | D. H. Erdman |
| Elwood C. Fortiner | Adam Angel |
| Joseph Vautier | George W. Vanhorn |
| Edmund Brewer | Charles S. Garrett |
| Uriah Norcross | Thomas M. Barracliff |
| Isaac L. Lowe | W. H. Saunders |
| Henry B. Goodwin | Jacob Harman, Jr. |
| Richard W. Test | Charles K. Horsfall |
| James M. Cassady | Timothy Middleton |
| John Duprey | William W. Sloan |
| Jesse Pratt | Charles Cloud |
| Hamilton Johnston | A. W. Test |
| Charles P. Dickinson | C. A. S. Driesback |
| Richard H. Lee | Henry Schock |
| C. G. Zimmerman | Walter Patton |
| Thomas M. K. Lee, Jr. | Azael Roberts |
| Charles J. Sanders | Thomas Jeffries |
| O. Gilbert Hannah | Joshua Howell |
| J. C. De Lacour | Martin Grey |
| Edward T. Andrews | S. L. Wayne |
| Conclin Mayhey | Abner Sparks |
| William Reynolds | Van T. Shivers |
| Simon Rammell | Westcott Campbell |
| H. H. Goldsmith | William J. Taylor |
| John Horsfall | Isaiah Norcross |
| Thomas H. Dudley | Alden O. Scovel |
| Robert Folwell | Philip J. Gray |
| Edw. H. Saunders | George W. Gilbert |
| James O. Morgan | Charles D. Hineline |
| David H. Sheppard | Thomas H. Davis |
| Richard Fetters | Charles De Haven |
| Charles C. Reeves | Thomas Ackley |
| S. H. Grey | John Gill |
| N. B. Stokes | James B. Dayton |
| S. O. Wright | James M. Stevens |
| Joseph Dlinston | Joseph French |
| David Creary | George Campbell |
| John R. Barber | A. A. Merry |
| James H. Denny | E. Wells |
| William R. Maxwell | William D. Clark |
| Robert Wible | William B. Hatch |
| Hamilton William | E. O. Jackson |
| George W. Jackson | A. B. Martin |
| Joseph Maurer | Richard O. Robertson |
| Joseph D. Brown | Timothy O. Moore |
| William S. Scull | George W. Stanley |
| Daniel Witham | Robert Schall |
| Isaac Shreeve | Reynell Coates |
| Adam Hare | Aaron Hewit |
| George Wardell | Henry Shuster |
| Joseph Coffman | William Hartsgrove |
| George W. Conrow | William B. French |
| W. A. Winchester | |
| John M. Natty |
In response to a call, on the 18th of April an enthusiastic meeting was held in the county court-house, which was formed of a large collection of prominent citizens. The court-room was decorated with flags and mottoes. John W. Mickle was chosen president and Samuel C. Harbert and Thomas G. Rowand secretaries. The president addressed the meeting first and Rev. Mr. Monroe offered a prayer. Hon. Thomas P. Carpenter, Thomas B. Atkinson (mayor) and Joseph Painter were appointed a committee on resolutions. Judge Philip J. Grey addressed the meeting, after which the committee adopted a long series of patriotic resolutions. The Washington Grays, Stockton Cadets and the Zouaves marched into the room and were received with cheers, Samuel Hufty read a resolution which was signed by many persons, who immediately formed the Home Brigade. David M. Chambers, Captain Stafford, Benjamin M. Braker, John H. Jones and E. A. Acton each addressed the meeting. James M. Scovel was then called upon and responded in eloquent terms and with patriotic energy. S. H. Grey offered a resolution, which was adopted, that the City Council and the Freeholders of the county be requested to appropriate money for the equipment of persons who may volunteer in defense of the country, and S. H. Grey, James M. Cassady and Joseph Painter were appointed a committee to look after the interests of the resolution. The meeting continued in session until eleven p.m.
First Free School Opened to Public
Camden Post-Telegram —
FIRST FREE SCHOOL OPENED TO PUBLIC
Contents of Corner Stone Settles Question of Date Building Was Erected.
SOME OF THE PAPERS DESTROYED
By the finding of the corner stone in the foundation of the Kaighn school, at the intersection of Sycamore street, Fourth street and Newton avenue, Saturday, all doubts were dispelled as to when the building was erected.
Owing to the fact that all of the records appertaining to the school have either been lost or destroyed considerable discussion has been had throughout the city as to the date and the contractors were given especial instructions to be careful in locating the stone and to see that its contents were preserved as far as possible.
The workmen had about given up hope of discovering the stone when about 11 o’clock one of them, in digging out the lower course of stone of the foundation walls, came across an odd shaped block. He struck it with a pick and the top came off disclosing two glass jars within.
The corner stone was taken to the workshop of the contractors and examined. It was found to be of white marble 16 inches long, 9 inches wide, 3 inches deep. The jars were in a niche 10 inches long, 6 inches wide and 5 inches deep.
The first jar opened contained a number of coins bearing the date 1853 and a quantity of paper reduced to pulp by the action of the elements. When this mass was taken out and dried it resembled powder.
The other jar contained a copy of the city charter; a copy of the ordinances of City Council, while R. W. Howell was the presiding officer; the specifications of the building, of which Lewis E. Foy was the architect. These were all water soaked.
In a good state of preservation after being dried were found two copies of the The Reformer and New Jersey Temperance Advocate, respectively, dated December 14 and 21, 1853; The Camden Democrat, December 24, 1853, Isaac Mickle, editor; The West Jerseyman, December 14 and 21, 1853, Philip J. Gray, editor; The American Banner, December 17 and 24, 1853, John H. Jones, editor; address of the Native American National Convention to the citizens of the United States with a copy of the resolutions adopted July 5 and 7, 1845.
The documents will be turned over to J. W. F. Bleakly, secretary of the Board of Education and it is more than likely that some of them will be placed in the corner stone of the new building, to be erected on the site of Camden’s first public school.
A Dead Man Accused
Philadelphia Inquirer —
A DEAD MAN ACCUSED.
Forgery Charged in a Stock Transaction—Other Camden News.
The suit of Mrs. Deborah Jones against the Camden Fire Insurance Company to recover 284 shares of stock, valued at $5,000, was begun in the Circuit Court in Camden yesterday. The plaintiff alleges that David W. Belisle, a veteran journalist, who is now dead, transferred the stock to Rudolph W. Burdsall, secretary of the company, by forging her name and falsely representing himself to have a power of attorney. Mrs. Jones is quite wealthy and the widow of the late Mayor Jones, of Camden.
A City of the Dead
Camden Courier-Post —
A City of the Dead
Burial Place Where Thousands Lie Started More Than 80 Years Ago Along Blackwoodtown Pike; Tragic Death of First President of Evergreen
BY BEN COURTER
About this time of year fair Spring puts over all that expanse extending from just below Vanhook street along Blackwoodtown pike, now Black Horse, down to Ferry avenue and up to near Chase street, new raiment.
Sere spots become emerald, trees lose their bareness, shrubbery fills out and there is a rejuvenation as if to prove, after all, that thousands sleeping there, some since the middle of last century, are part of the immortal plan everywhere manifest.
In June comes the great display. Nowhere does there seem a spot where there are more roses. There is one great splash of red, from tiny, delicate tea roses, to glorious American beauties. Vagrant daisies vie with coreopsis; humble violets snuggle in hidden places; ubiquitous dandelions spangle what greensward is left. Few remaining pines or cedars put on a greener livery, oaks shake off the sered leaves of yesteryear and catkins of poplars already have given place to permanent foliage. Amidst it all are the white stones marking the places where lie many of the men and women who took part in the affairs of Camden and its suburbs. There are the humble markers of a myriad of citizens, the monuments of the more exalted, the graves of those who fell in the Civil War, the Spanish War, the World War. Evergreen Cemetery may not be a Stokes Poges, yet a Thomas Gray could write an “elegy” none the less.
A Rooty Sidewalk
Boys of another generation will tell you, beside the tombs and the quiet bordered walks, they recall that torturous path alongside the fence where the roots of the great maples used to find their way. They crept through the year through the sand and stone and successive rains left them exposed until many a bared toe of an urchin on his way to Tice’s Pond or Daubman’s Pond at Northmont was stubbed until it looked like a bit of mincemeat. And many a wayfarer stumbled over those roots, considered an abomination along the sandy road where the young bloods of another day tried out their nags. The concrete Belgian block paving now seems a straitjacket for that old road to the side of the cemetery, a fitting marker to the passing of old days.
Centreville had just about been launched when Evergreen Cemetery was incorporated, on Feb. 20, 1850, the 32 acres of ground being bought of the Isaac Cooper estate. Those early incorporators were William J. Hatch, Benjamin A. Hammell, Richard W. Howell, Joseph J. Hatch and Benjamin Browning, all men of substance back there when the Civil War was brewing. William Hatch was the first president, holding that position until his tragic death, on March 22, 1856, when he was killed by a trespasser on his land, as was a kinsman many years after. He was succeeded by Charles Sloan, then by Cooper Browning and again by Thomas A. Wilson, long one of Camden’s leading men and whose grandchildren now reside within shadow of the old burial place in Woodlynne.
In April of 1850 J. C. Sidney was instructed to build the chapel and vault, while Henry Gamble’s design for laying out the cemetery was accepted.
The first application for a grave was made by Benjamin A. Hammell, one of the incorporators and twice mayor of Camden, in 1848-49 and 1857-58. That was in May of 1850 and was for the reinterment of his daughter, who had died in 1835 at 2 years of age. Years afterward he was buried in the same plot, just northeast of the chapel. A marble slab marked the resting place of Richard Fetters, one of early Camden’s leading men, and his wife, Hope, who died Oct. 18, 1839. There, too, is the grave of John Hanna, once postmaster of Camden, who died April 7, 1862, while the great Civil War was raging.
Other Family Plots
There one may find the family plot of C. A. Bergen, once Congressman from this district, and Mayor John H. Jones, who died suddenly while in office, on Oct. 27, 1876, is buried there, as is Dr. Thomas F. Cullen, who died Nov. 21, 1877, one of the best-known surgeons in this section 60 years ago.
It was in Evergreen that Comrades of the G. A. R. used to make their most spectacular showing on Memorial Day, when the Posts hereabouts were in the heyday of their strength, when the veterans were still about like those of the World War in point of years. They went out there early in the morning, held their exercises, sounded taps and planted flags over every grave. Those ranks have become thin with the passing years and but a handful survive, all over the fourscore-year mark, but still with spirit undimmed. Spanish-American War vets used to aid as now do those of the more recent conflict, but it is certain that those who fought at Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville or Gettysburg will not be forgotten when Memorial Day dawns this year—or in years stretching into the future. That little spot about Post 37 monument ever seems more than ordinarily sacred to one who knew those vets back there, 20 or 30 years ago.
Most of the old oaks or maples or pines have disappeared. Frank Garrison, who has been superintendent for several years, is replacing those monarchs. Still, it is unlikely the cemetery will quite have that suggestion of a bit of wilderness plucked out of the primordial forest it did when the roots of the giants, like vagrant things of steel, pushed their way through the sandstone back there ever so many years ago. Old Evergreen is a city of the dead to be sure, and yet to countless families hereabouts there is something of a link permanent as eternity itself. There are locked up memories that will abide always; there, as many speed by in modern gas buggies, are dropped thoughts for those who once trod the earth, who once walked with us, who once aided the community in its uncharted destiny.