Joseph H. Carr
JOSEPH HAND CARR was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania on June 24, 1891 to Thaddeus Stevens Carr and his wife Mary. Sadly, Thaddeus Carr was killed in an accident in 1893. Mrs. Mary Carr worked as a dressmaker to support her family. By 1907 Joseph H. Carr had come to Camden to study law, taking up residence at 543 Vine Street in North Camden. He studied, worked as a law clerk and as a notary, probably in the law office of S. Conrad Ott. By the time the 1912 Directory was being compiled, Ott had taken Joseph H. Carr in as a partner. The two remained associated until Ott’s death in July of 1922.
Joseph H. Carr stayed at the Vine Street address through 1913. Directories from 1914 to 1916 show him at 701 North 6th Street. In 1917 he was staying at 317 North 6th Street.
Joseph H. Carr married Adelaide Weaver in Philadelphia in 1918. He also served in the armed forces during World War I. By the time of the 1920 Census he owned a home at 110 Lexington Avenue in Merchantville NJ, with his wife Adelaide. There were no children of this marriage.
In the mid-1930s Joseph Carr was serving as a lawyer for a real estate company engaged in a development venture in Delaware Township (present-day Cherry Hill). The project failed, and in the process of resolving the debt of the business, improprieties occurred.
Joseph Carr was convicted of embezzlement on January 11, 1936 and sentenced to two to three years in state prison. An appeal was denied in October of 1936, Carr however, remained free on bail. By this time he apparently had moved from Merchantville. He was living in Moorestown, New Jersey when the Census was taken in 1940 with his wife Adelaide and mother-in-law Mrs. Ella Weaver, and was still there when he registered for the draft in the spring of 1942. At that time he gave his occupation as “self-employed” and his place of work 309 Market Street in Camden.
Joseph and Adelaide Carr parted ways shortly after he registered for the draft. In 1944 he married Ruth “Sammie” Sampson. This marriage also produced no children.
Joseph H. Carr remarried in 1944. He passed away in July of 1958.
Here and There in Camden
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Recently wedded, Lawyer Joseph Carr, of the firm of Ott & Carr, was yesterday inducted into the service at his own request. He goes to Camp Meade today and will be attached to the judge advocate’s department.
For injuries sustained to his right knee in a fall at the Camden Terminal on April 23, Francis Gallagher, of Westmont, yesterday brought suit for $5,000 damages against the Philadelphia & Camden Ferry Co.
Four-year-old Frank Harris, of 329 Liberty street, so badly mangled two fingers with a hatchet that doctors at Cooper Hospital amputated the crushed digits.
To take a more lucrative position in a shipyard, Levering Minister yesterday resigned as a member of Engine Co. No. 4.
Recently resigning from the fire department, William Michalak was yesterday appointed to the police force as a member of the mounted squad.
Ott & Carr
1917–1918
S. Conrad Ott – Joseph H. Carr
Carr's Conviction Upheld in Appeal
Camden Courier-Post —
Former Lawyer Loses Plea to N.J. Supreme Court in Embezzlement Case
The New Jersey Supreme Court yesterday upheld the conviction of Joseph H. Carr, former Camden attorney, in Camden County Common Pleas Court on a charge of embezzlement of $15,253 as bailee of the Camden Safe Deposit and Trust Company.
Carr was convicted January 11 and was sentenced by Judge Robert A. Warke to two to three years in state’s prison. The alleged embezzlement represented tax sale certificates which the bank charged Carr converted to his own use. Carr has been at liberty in $7000 bail since his appeal was filed.
George D. Rothermel, who with Carl Kisselman represented Carr, said a new appeal will be filed with the Court of Errors when that court heard the first Tuesday in February. In the meantime, he said, application will be made to Judge Warke that Carr’s bail be continued. Carr was counsel for and a member of a creditors’ committee for a real estate development company in Delaware Township, part of whose property was put up in tax sales. The Camden Safe Deposit and Trust Company contended it furnished the money for the purchase of tax sale certificates by the committee and took an assignment of the certificates as collateral. It was charged that they were never delivered by Carr.
“The opinion upholding Carr’s conviction was released at Trenton this noon, was written by Chief Justice Thomas Brogan, and it refused to agree to one of the points of the appeal that the verdict was contrary to the weight of evidence.”
“We can arrive at no such determination in this matter for the reason that there was ample, proper and conclusive evidence to justify the court’s ruling,” said the high court’s opinion.
Other points in the appeal of Carr were that the bank was not the rightful owner of the funds alleged to have been embezzled and that Carr himself was the owner; that Carr was never entrusted with the funds or collection of the funds alleged to have been embezzled, and that his actions were in good faith.