Joseph E. Nowrey

JOSEPH E. NOWREY was born in 1865 in Glendon PA, near Easton, to Alexander and Mary Nowrey. His father had moved to Camden around 1873. Alexander Nowrey established a dry goods business at 842 Locust Street, before passing on February 10, 1877. His mother Mary kept the dry goods business going. Between 1887 and 1891 Joseph Nowrey was employed as a machinist for a dredging company, and made his home at 842 Locust Street in Camden NJ. He and his family had moved to 939 South 4th Street by June of 1900. Next door at 943 South 4th Street was shoe merchant Henry Kobus; well known blacksmith Thomas Daley lived around the corner at 337 Walnut Street; his son Thomas J. Daley would serve as Camden’s city engineer for over twenty years.

After serving as police recorder, Joseph Nowrey served as mayor of Camden NJ from 1902 to 1905, when he was succeeded by Charles Ellis. He had won the November 6, 1901 election by a very small plurality. He was the only Democrat to hold the Mayor’s office until 1923. He also served as the Sheriff of Camden County from 1911 to 1914. Known as “Honest Joe,” he was also involved with several fraternal organizations, including the Modern Woodmen of America and the Improved Order of Red Men. He served as Grand Sachem and Great Prophet for the State of New Jersey in the first years of the century. In May of 1904 he was grand marshal of a parade in Camden involving the Red Men, some 7,000 of which were in Camden for a convention. He was also a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Irish-American organizations.

Mayor Nowrey’s term was marked with controversy, as his Democratic administration attempted to institute changes to laws and policies enacted by the previous Republican administrations. He feuded with fellow Democrat William J. Thompson, and his refusal to sign $50,000 in school bonds authorized by Council led to legal action that ended up in the New Jersey State Supreme Court during the first year of his administration. He was widely criticized for his refusal to authorize the school loan in the Camden Post-Telegram, and he attempted to dissolve Camden’s Board of Education in September of 1903. This feud continued for months. In June of 1904, he announced he would run for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1904, but did not succeed in this bid, having alienated many regular organization Democratic leaders. In the late summer of 1904 City Council passed an ordinance authorizing the issuance of bonds to raise money for the purchase of a public park; Mayor Nowrey held off signing the bill until he had time to examine the merits of the issue. In September of 1904 he was nominated by the local Democratic party to run for re-election as mayor. His chances were thought good, as he had settled the feud with William J. Thompson. Joseph Nowrey was defeated by Charles Ellis in a bitterly fought election in November of 1904.

When the census was taken in 1910, the Nowrey family resided at 939 South 4th Street. Joseph Nowrey was engaged in real estate at the time; his term as Camden County Sheriff began the following year. At the time of the 1920 census, Joseph Nowrey, then 54, was living at 921 Cooper Street with his wife Mary and children Joseph E. Jr., Myrtle, and Roland. He was then in the construction business. Joseph Nowrey had retired by 1930. He, wife Mary, and son Roland still resided at 921 Cooper Street in April of that year. He remained active in Democrat party affairs well into the 1930s.

Joseph E. Nowrey Sr. passed away in 1937, and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Camden, next to his mother and father. His wife died on April 1, 1950, and was buried by his side.

A great-nephew, PFC John A. Nowrey, the grandson of his brother George, was killed in action while serving with the United States Army during World War II. George Nowrey passed on in January of 1938.

Please take notice of this information while reading the following articles and editorials reprinted from the Trenton Times covering Mayor Joseph Nowrey’s administration. Joseph Nowrey was a Democratic Mayor and the Trenton Times was aligned with the Republican party politically. One must consider this in evaluating the Times coverage of Mayor Nowrey’s actions while in office.

A combined A. Harry Moore rally and social evening will be conducted by Democratic voters of the Eleventh Ward tonight at the Maennerchor Hall, Twenty-seventh Street below River Avenue.

Former Sheriff Joseph E. Nowrey, Mrs. Florence Melnik, Gene Mariano and Assembly candidates, Vincent de P. Costello, William French, Jr., and Frederick Stanton, will speak. Mrs. Lillian Pisko, committeewoman, will preside. Mrs. Anna Rush is chairman of the committee in charge of the affair.

Rallies in interest of Moore and other Democratic candidates will also be conducted in Collingswood and Lawnside tonight.

Mrs. Emma E. Hyland, state committeewoman; Ralph Wescott, Haddonfield freeholder candidate, and Gene Mariano will address the voters in Collingswood at a mass meeting to be held at the Independent headquarters, Lees and Haddon Avenue.

Isaac Eason, former attorney general of the United States; Rev. Robert A. Jackson and Albert Melnik, will speak at the Lawnside A. Harry Moore Club at the Lawnside fire hall on Warwick Road.

Towers Theatre Packed at Climax of All-Day Invasion Here

Tours Smaller Towns

By Ransloe Boone

Demanding a fair election and protection to Democratic voters, A. Harry Moore was greeted here last night by the largest crowd to gather at a Democratic meeting in Camden’s recent history.

The Democratic candidate for governor brought to a climax an all-day speaking tour of Camden county with a mass meeting which overflowed the Towers Theatre, Broadway and Pine Street. At least 3500 persons crowded the theatre to its doors and more than 1000 others, unable to get in, heard the speakers’ words through amplifiers over the sidewalks.

Moore criticized Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Lloyd, for his refusal last week to order state police into Camden to protect the interests of the Democrats.

“The court has not given me that assurance. Instead, the court delivered from the bench a fine speech for my opponent.”

The Democratic candidate had promised in an earlier speech here September 8, to name names of those he charged had resorted to illegal practices at the polls. He made no mention of them last night except to say he had given the names in affidavits filed with Justice Lloyd.

Earlier in the evening the Democratic standard-bearer addressed more than 250 at a combined meeting of Merchantville, Delaware Township and Pennsauken Township voters at Merchantville Hall, 15 West Maple Avenue, Merchantville, and to 1200 at Gloucester city hall.

In an address at noon to employees of the RCA Victor and Campbell Soup companies, Moore, without naming his Republican opponent, declared: “Come on with your millions, and with the editors you have bought and paid for, and next Tuesday I’ll crash through to the governor’s chair!”

“When I speak of the editors who have been bought, and paid for, I’m not in anyway referring to the local newspapers—the Morning Post and the Evening Courier. Both of these papers have been fair to me in handling the news of the campaign.”

The Camden mass meeting was opened by former Mayor Joseph E. Nowrey, who presided. District Court Judge Myron Ernst, of Jersey City, predicting Hudson County would give Moore 100,000 majority, paid tribute to Mayor Frank Hague, of Jersey City, Democratic state leader.

“We love and respect Mayor Hague,” he declared. “He never has been a boss, as the Republicans charge, but he gives the people value, dollar for dollar.”

He declared the election of Moore would be a “beacon signal making possible the election of a Democratic president of the United States.”

Other speakers included Gene Mariano and E. George Aaron, Camden attorneys; Harvey Rothberg, Trenton, organizer of the A. Harry Moore Veterans’ League; James Baker, former president of the State Board of Taxation; Edward Hart, Jersey City corporation counsel, and the three Democratic candidates for Assembly, Vincent de P. Costello, William C. French, Jr., and Frederick Stanton.

Entrance of Moore was the signal for a deafening ovation. Stamping, whistling and cheering broke out spontaneously as the Democratic candidate stepped on the platform. He was forced to wait several minutes before he could silence his supporters and open his address.

Moore opened his Camden county tour with an open-air address to more than 700 employees of RCA Victor and Campbell Soup Companies at Second and Market Streets at noon.

“I want to see that every poor boy and girl in the state has a chance equal to the rich,” he declared, describing how he himself had started as a poor boy and went to work when he was 13 years old.

“You are my kind of people and I am going to represent you. You are the laboring class and the American Federation of Labor has endorsed me. Labor organizations are with me everywhere.”

“There is a demand for a change.”

Moore attacked what he termed the “Hoover promises of prosperity.”

“Where is the job for every man that he promised, where the chicken at every table and the automobile for every workingman that we were to have under Hoover prosperity?” he asked.

Moore visited the New York Shipbuilding Company at 2 p.m., and greeted many workers. Five other open-air meetings followed at Mt. Ephraim, at Runnemede, at the Blackwood Bank, at Clementon Democratic headquarters, and at the Atco station. More than 2300 heard the candidate at these meetings.

Moore’s cause was aided by two prominent Collingswood Republicans when the Democratic candidate spoke in that borough. Both Mayor Joseph H. Van Meter and Thomas M. Jack, former mayor and former sheriff, greeted Moore on his arrival in Collingswood and attended the meeting there.

David Baird was responsible for passage of the Public Service paving bill which relieved the company, of which he was a director, of the expense of paving between and beside its tracks. He saved the company $3,000,000 a year, placing the burden on the taxpayers.

“When this measure came up during my term as governor, I vetoed it.”

“At that time Senator Albert S. Woodruff, whom I consider a most honest and upright man, refused to favor the measure as demanded by Baird. ‘I represent the people, not you,’ Woodruff told Baird, and I admire Woodruff as a man who can be a man, not a mouse.”

“Baird then answered Woodruff: ‘You’ll vote to override the veto or you won’t go back to the Senate.’ Woodruff refused, and he was defeated at the next primary.”

“When he was a member of the United States Senate, David Baird answered only 193 out of 454 roll calls, being absent for 261 of them, and yet now he promises to be a full-time governor if he is elected. He failed to appear at the 1930 special session of Congress, yet he collected his stipend just the same.”

Candidacy of Moore to Be Expounded at Meetings in City and Suburbs

The campaign for A. Harry Moore, gubernatorial candidate, and local Democratic candidates, will be carried into six wards of the city and in seven communities of the county tonight.

All meetings and speakers are as follows:

Second Ward Democratic Club, 841 Market Street; Eugene Aumetre, John Crean, Vincent Gallagher, Leon H. Rose and Charles Woods.

Fourth Ward A. Harry Moore Club, 455 Berkley Street; Samuel T. French, Victor King, Thomas Madden, Leon H. Rose, Gene Mariano, Samuel P. Orlando and Rev. Robert H. Jackson.

Sixth Ward Democratic Club, Fourth and Walnut Street; Frank Connor, Albert Melnik and Thomas Madden.

Tenth Ward Democratic Club, Fifth and Vine Streets; Boyd Morrison, Joseph E. Nowrey, Charles Degnan and David L. Visor.

Seventh Ward A. Harry Moore Club, Seventh Street and Kaighn Avenue; Dr. Leroy Baxter, of Jersey City; Isaac Eason, Dr. Clement Branch, Rev. Robert H. Jackson, Mrs. Bertha Shippen Irving and Frank Suttill.

Eleventh Ward Democratic Club, 927 North Twenty-seventh Street; Boyd Morrison, Firmin Michel, Victor King, Mrs. Bertha Shippen Irving.

Gloucester City Democratic Club, 308 Monmouth Street; Boyd Morrison, Gene Mariano, Joseph Varbalow.

Magnolia A. Harry Moore Club, Evesham and Gloucester Avenues; Firmin Michel, Edward L. Canning, John Delaney, Marie V. Kelley and Francis Homan.

Lindenwold Colored Voters’ Club, Blackstone Hall, Lindenwold; Eugene Aumetre, William Williams and Oliver Bond.

Somerdale Club, Whelen home, Somerdale Road and Oggs Avenue; Marie V. Kelly, David L. Visor and Mrs. Emma E. Hyland.

Somerdale Democratic Club, Leone Hall, Warwick Road and Helena Avenue; Samuel P. Orlando, Aaron Heine, Lawrence Gregorio and E. George Aaron.

East Haddonfield Democrat Club, Crescent and Berlin Road; Edward L. Canning, Albert Melnik and Judge Frank F. Neutze.

East Haddonfield Improvement Association, Batesville, Delaware Township; Ralph Wescott, Judge Frank F. Neutze and Mrs. Florence Melnik.

More than five speakers from North Jersey will appear at as many meetings as possible.

July 9 Set for Reception and Picnic to New Revenue Collector

“Harry L. Maloney Day” will be celebrated by South Jersey Democrats, Sunday, July 9, when the newly-appointed collector of internal revenue will be guest of honor at a picnic at Silver Lake Park. State leaders of the party will attend. Maloney, Democratic state committeeman from Camden County and Mayor of Bellmawr, was named by President Roosevelt to succeed Edward L. Sturgess and is expected to take office by July 1.

Plans for the outing were made last night at a meeting in Democratic headquarters, 538 Stevens Street, at which Albert S. Marvel, Jr., was named chairman of the general committee. Vincent de P. Costello was elected secretary and former Mayor Victor King treasurer.

The committees follow:

Ways and means— Sidney Kaplan, chairman; Judge Samuel M. Shay, Judge Frank F. Neutze, Victor King, Vincent Gallaher, Samuel P. Orlando and Thomas N. Madden.

Entertainment— Joseph A. Varbalow, chairman; Patrick H. Harding, Joseph E. Nowrey, Calogero Salvagio, Thomas Cavanaugh and Joseph A. Gorman.

Refreshments— Ralph W. Wescott, chairman; Raymond Hadley, Walter Bateman, Joseph Ackroyd, James Hainesworth, Joseph Harczynski.

Athletics— Frank Abbott, chairman; John Lyons, Joseph McVey and Daniel T. Hagans.

Music— John P. Bissinger, chairman; Ventorino Francesconi, William Bell, Bernard Tracy and Matthew P. Johnson.

District organization— Michael J. Powell, chairman; Dominick Josephs, Ralph Comilli, Herbert McAdams, William Noonan, Edward Huston, Harry Daly and William Kistner.

Transportation— Mayor Emerson Jackson, of Gloucester, chairman; Lewis C. Parker, George Cohen, John Bennett, Horace L. Brewer and Sabba Verdiglione.

Printing— Charles J. Clark, chairman; Raymond Saltzman, Jack Goldstein, Walter Kelly and William M. Williams.

Publicity— Edward C. Bowe, Herbert Beattie, Patrick Whalen, Alfred R. White and Luke Bates.

Mrs. Emma E. Hyland, state committeewoman, and Miss Marie V. Kelley, vice-chairman of the county committee, will head a women’s reception committee to be chosen later.

The committees will meet again Monday night to complete arrangements.