J. Eavenson & Sons
Founded in 1856 by Jones Eavenson, the J. Eavenson & Sons Company manufactured soap products for both consumer and industrial uses. J. Eavenson & Sons purchased the newly constructed but never used sugar refinery at Delaware Avenue and Penn Street in 1906. They adapted the refinery to produce soap products. At its peak, J. Eavenson & Sons employed about 250 people.
Also in 1906 the Eavenson Naptha Borax Soap Company of Camden, New Jersey paid $10,000 for the rights to salvage the cargo of the wrecked ship Sindia, which had gone down just off Ocean City NJ in 1901.
An Eavenson offspring, Alban Eavenson, partnered with J. Walter Levering to found Eavenson and Levering, a manufacturer of wool scouring soaps, with a large factory at 301 Jackson Street in South Camden. This factory became a major employer in the area in the years prior to World War II.
The J. Eavenson & Sons Company went out of business in 1956. The building was sold and was being dismantled when struck by fire in December of 1957. It subsequently razed.
The Jackson Street facility was used as a warehouse for many years, before finally being razed around 1990. The J. Eavenson & Sons site is now a part of the Campbell Field minor league baseball stadium.
The Eavenson Plant
The J. Eavenson Plant, around 1930 — note the “EAVENSON SOAPS” sign on top of the factory, visible from Philadelphia
J. Eavenson Soaps as seen from the RCA Building, early 1930s
The J. Eavenson Plant, around 1940
J. Eavenson & Sons, 1928
1890s Trade Cards
J. Eavenson & Sons trade cards, 1890s
Camden Soap Plant Is Swept by Flames
Philadelphia Inquirer —
$400,000 Loss Suffered in Two-alarm Fire Along Water Front
Fireman Injured In Blaze ‘Under Control Half Hour After Discovery
Loss estimated at $350,000 to $400,000 was caused by fire which swept the three upper floors of the six-story main building occupied by the soap manufacturing plant of J. Eavenson & Son, at Penn street, and the Delaware River, Camden, early last night.
Only a half dozen or more, of the 400 employees of the concern were in the building when the blaze started, and all have been accounted for. One fireman, Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Nichols, was slightly injured in a fall.
The flames, first observed a few minutes after 7 o’clock were caused, it is believed, by a short circuit in a belt conveyor on the fourth floor of the structure. Spreading rapidly through the great quantities of wooden packing boxes and oily soap materials, the flames leaped from the fourth to the fifth floor and then to the sixth, necessitating the sounding of two alarms.
Five Men in Plant Make Escape
John Yantry, a watchman, turned in the first alarm, while five men employees of the Eavenson firm quickly made their escape from the burning building. Of the normal quota of 400 employees, more than 300 are girls.
Following the arrival of a majority of Camden’s fire-fighting apparatus on the sounding of the second alarm, Fire Chief Peter Carter took charge, directing the firemen to devote their efforts particularly to saving the group of seven or eight buildings, of which the six-story structure was the centre.
Damage Confined to Three Floors
The fire damage was confined largely to the three upper floors of the burned building. But a large loss was caused by water throughout the lower floors of the structure.
T. A. Synder [sic], general manager of the Eavenson firm, hastened to the scene of the fire shortly after the first alarm was rung. It was he who placed the loss at $350,000 to $400,000.
The Eavenson factory, which formerly was utilized as a sugar refinery, was swept by fire three years ago with loss amounting to $200,000.
The blaze was visible from many points in this city and others, up and down the Delaware River, attracting thousands to the spot.
Veteran Fire Captain Honored At Retirement Ceremonies
Camden Courier-Post —
Eli Hunt Bids Farewell to Fellow Members of City Force
Officials Laud Term of Service
Quits Chasing Fires
Capt. Eli Hunt
The sound of a fire alarm means nothing except fond memories to Junior Capt. Eli Hunt, now, as he sits in his chair at home and lives over the many experiences he has gone through while a fireman with Engine Company No. 3, 1813 Broadway.
Captain Hunt took formal leave Saturday from his comrades, the smoke-eaters of one of the busiest fire houses in the city. The 55-year-old veteran was retired March 1 for disability, and the lads he led in many a fierce battle with flames, decided to show their old skipper that their hearts were with him now that he would respond to no more alarms.
Captain Hunt, his face seamed and lined with years of activity as a fire-fighter, sat silent while Battalion Chief Charles Erickson [sic] told the old smoke-eater that he was only retired, but that in spirit he was still a member of the Camden fire department.
The captain smiled with satisfaction as Commissioner Mary W. Kobus, director of public safety, told Captain Hunt that he was a gallant old fire-fighter, and had fought along the traditions that had made the Camden department one of the best.
Flowers Presented
Satisfaction and smiles still rode the captain’s face as Acting Capt. Edward MacDowell presented him with a bouquet of flowers. He was still grinning in glee when Acting Captain Rich gave him another gift. He still retained that smiling face as Commissioner Kobus presented him with a beautiful smoking set, the gift of his old comrades.
Then, as he sat silently in his chair, the fact that he was no longer a fire-fighter of Camden save in memory and spirit, rolled down upon him and the pent emotion gave way, it could not longer be dammed.
Tears ran like rivulets down the grizzled face of the retired captain, and he didn’t attempt to stop them either, as one handkerchief against that torrent of weeping would have been as effective as trying to stop a hole in a levee with a toothpick.
Standing in formation, too, were his old boys, and everyone of them had a suspicious moisture in his eye, as they gazed upon the old skipper, now ready to retire to a merited if not entirely welcome retirement.
It was 8 a. m. when the ceremonies started down in the ancient camp of the firefighters on Broadway. Battalion Chief Erickson [sic] made a neat and effective speech.
Remains In Spirit
“You are not retiring from the department,” he said, “you are still a member though no longer active. Don’t figure that you are done as a fireman because you are not.
“You’ve earned your rest and you can feel assured now that you have retired that you owe the city of Camden nothing, you have given her the best that was in you, the finest ability you commanded and the loyalty which you know.
“Your boys are sorry to see you depart, but when you go they know that you go to a rest you have merited and an ease that rightfully belongs to you.”
Commissioner Kobus followed in like strain, expressing her delight as being able to have a part in the ceremonies.
“We have to hurry this up,” said the commissioner laughingly, “for I never come down to this firehouse that an alarm does not sound.”
“You are not retiring from the department,” said the director, “you have come up from the ranks and will remain an inspiration to these young firemen, even if you be away from them.
Set Good Example
“You have given them a splendid example to follow by your own loyal, splendid service to Camden. You are something of an ideal for these men to follow, and so long as they stand by the ideals of yourself and the gallant old firefighters of the department, Camden will still have the best department of any city in the United States.
“You are getting a rest period and you earned it. You don’t want to feel that you have retired, you just want to remember that the boys in the department will be with you as you take the rest that you have earned.
“You retire with the respect of everybody in the department, and no higher honor could be paid to any member of the fire department than to merit and hold such respect.”
Captain Hunt was compelled to retire as the result of injuries received in an automobile accident on Oct. 20, 1935. He had been to National Park where he has a kennel of hounds, the captain having been an ardent hunter when physically sound.
Hurt Severely
It was his usual 24-hours off day and as he drove through Woodbury on the way to Camden his car was struck by another at Thorofare. Captain Hunt was injured so badly that he was in the hospital for two months, with concussion of the brain, his injuries leaving a lesion that has made locomotion a mite difficult, although Captain Hunt is able to stand without the aid of his cane.
“I’m going to take life easy,” he said, after he had gathered his presents and been photographed numerous times.” [sic] I have many relatives living around whom I haven’t seen for some time, so I guess I spend a good bit of leisure going around and getting acquainted with them.
“But don’t forget, retired or not, I’m still a fireman and will probably jump out of bed as usual when I hear the alarm.”
Junior Captain Hunt joined the department on August 1, 1918, as a hoseman in Engine 3, where he was honored today. He was promoted to junior captain and assigned to Engine 9, Twenty-seventh and Federal streets in April, 1928. He returned to his old company, however, as a junior captain in March, 1932, and retired on a pension last Monday.
Captain Hunt battled against some of the worst fires in Camden’s history.
For five and one-half hours he was on duty when flames attacked the plant of the Eavenson Soap Works on Delaware avenue and Penn street on Jan. 21, 1919. He worked straight through for 28 hours when Sitley & Sons’ grain and feed plant, burned at Chelten avenue and the Pennsylvania railroad.
In connection with the latter fire it started on Hunt’s day off, and he was compelled to forego his leisure, as the department had but a single platoon in those days. He was in the fight against the fire at the U. S. Naval aircraft factory in Gloucester, June 8, 1920, the Baker-Flick blaze on Dec. 21, 1921 and another fire in the Eavenson Soap Works on Oct. 20, 1922.