Oscar A. Eastlack
For a City Light Plant
To the Editor: Sir—I see by the Courier-Post that Public Service threatens to put the bus fares from 5c to 10c if the electric cars are changed.
I would say let them charge what they like for power and bus rides. Let the people build and have their own power and light plant and allow some good company to run buses in this vicinity at five cent fare that would be best for the public.
OSCAR A. EASTLACK.
Camden.
OSCAR ADAMS EASTLACK was born in Mantua NJ in 1869. When he was one, his father, Charles Eastlack, came to Camden, where he prospered in the retail grocery business. Charles Eastlack was the first to operate a chain of grocery stores in Camden. After being educated in the Camden public schools and the Louderbach Academy in Philadelphia, Oscar Eastlack went into his father’s business.
Oscar Eastlack was interested in sports. A fan of boxing, he promoted Old Dan McConnell in the 1890s and early 1900s. Around 1907, Oscar Eastlack brought the first automobile to Camden, a red Brush automobile, manufactured in Detroit by Alanson Partridge Brush, who had designed the first Cadillac, before opening his own automobile manufacturing venture. Oscar Eastlack was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and was involved in the erection of their fine building, the Eagles Hall, that stood at 415 Broadway.
Oscar Eastlack sold his grocery and bakery business in 1920, and established Camden’s first truck dealership, which he ran until his retirement around 1930. He spent his later years living in an apartment at 301 Penn street.
Oscar Eastlack passed away at home, of a stroke, on January 19, 1938. After services at the Joseph H. Murray Funeral Home, he was cremated, and his ashes interred at Harleigh Cemetery.
Oscar A. Eastlack, Ex-Grocer, Dies
Camden Courier-Post —
Found Victim of Stroke by Daughter; in Business With Father for Years
Oscar Adams Eastlack, 69, widely-known resident of Camden, where he had lived virtually all of his life, died suddenly Wednesday night in his apartment at 301 Penn street.
For many years he was engaged with his father, Charles S. Eastlack, in the grocery business and had three stores. He also took an interest in sports, and had promoted some fighters.
When his daughter, Mrs. Carl Schafer, went to her father’s apartment at noon Wednesday to take him for an automobile ride, she found the door locked. Thinking her father was out, Mrs. Schafer left and returned about 2.30 o’clock. Receiving no answer to her knock, she obtained a key from the janitor and entered the apartment.
She found her father unconscious. She called Dr. Charles B. Lesher, who said Mr. Eastlack had suffered a stroke. He died at 8.45 p.m. without recovering consciousness.
Born in Mantua, Mr. Eastlack came to live in Camden when he was about one year old. He was educated in the Camden public schools and at the Lauderbach Academy in Philadelphia. He entered business with his father, whose stores were at Broadway and Walnut street, Third and Sycamore streets and Fourth and Washington streets. Mr. Eastlack’s father died about six years ago. The elder Mr. Eastlack was originator of the chain store in this region.
The store at Broadway and Walnut street, in later years, was turned into a bakery, and this Mr. Eastlack sold in 1920, entering the automobile business. He retired from active business about eight years ago.
Always interested in sports, Mr. Eastlack was an ardent boxing fan and one time managed “Old Dan” McConnell when the latter was one of the leading Eastern lightweights. He owned the first automobile that was operated in Camden. He was a member of the Camden Eagles and a life-long Democrat.
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Eastlack is survived by one granddaughter, Ann Eastlack Schafer.
Services will be held in the funeral home of Joseph H. Murray and Son, 408 Cooper street, tonight. The body will be cremated and the ashes buried in the family plot in Harleigh Cemetery tomorrow morning.
Oscar Eastlack Listed as Owner of Initial Motor Vehicle to Operate on City’s Cobbled Streets During Century Turn
Camden Courier-Post —
By DAN McCONNELL
To many older Camden residents the above reproduction of a photograph nearly 38 years old, will bring back fond memories. The view shows the first automobile driven over Camden streets back in the early 1900’s. Seated in the vintage car can be seen the late Oscar A. Eastlack, its then proud owner, and the late George Kruck, the city’s first sealer of weights and measures. The three men seen standing beside the delivery wagons were then employees of the Charles F. Eastlack & Son Grocery store, located at Broadway and Walnut street. Warren Davis, owner of the prize photograph, who is hale and hearty at the age of 66 years, is seen standing third from the left, beside a delivery wagon horse. The other men, Henry P. Scott and George W. Hugg, are believed deceased. Davis, then manager of the Eastlack store, is now manager of a local grocery store.
Charles F. Eastlack & Son Grocery store, Broadway and Walnut Street, Camden — Camden Courier-Post, January 29, 1938
There she is, ladies and gentlemen!
The first automobile to be operated over the rambling streets of Camden and its then proud owner, the late Oscar A. Eastlack are pictured above.
The car was called a Brush and its motive power was furnished by a one-cylinder engine. The four cylinder machine, if you please, could make a top speed of 20 miles an hour and that speed represented an infraction of the law and merited arrest and a fine of $20.
Oscar Eastlack has passed on, but he did have the honor of owning and driving the first car in the city of Camden.
Back in the late so-called gay 90’s and in the early years of the turn of the century, he was what we would call today a boulevardier. He was also Camden’s leading sportsman. He was an ardent disciple of athletics and boxing. He actually was himself a fine boxer and runner.
His early love was for horses and he was a familiar figure around town when he drove a sporty horse and high wheeled sulky from the old McCaffrey carriage factory at Tenth and Market streets. Even when he became an extreme automobile enthusiast he retained his love for fine horses.
The photograph produced above was taken, as near as can be ascertained, about 1901. Through the nearly 38 years the photograph retained its unfading print.
For many years it lay undisturbed in an old trunk owned by Warren F. Davis, of 555 Newton Avenue, who for eight years was manager of the Charles F. Eastlack & Son Store at the northwest corner of Broadway and Walnut street. The building was, more recently, a confectionery and ice cream store.
The senior Eastlack died a few years ago. The elder Eastlack had been in the business for many years after the younger Eastlack had converted it into Camden’s finest and most modern confectionery and ice cream emporium. Then Eastlack sold the business and entered business as a distributor of motor trucks.
Seated beside the late Mr. Eastlack was George Kruck, then sealer of weights and measures and a one-time Republican political leader. Mr. Kruck has been dead for many years. He was a debonair dresser and wore a handlebar mustache, a sartorial adornment that in those days marked the best dressed men of old time Camden.
It will be noted that three men are standing beside the horse-drawn wagons who drew the Eastlack delivery wagons about the city streets delivering groceries to many families in all sections of the city.
The three men standing, all employees of the Eastlack store, from left to right: Henry P. Scott, George Hugg and Warren Davis. Before the picture was taken, the men were ready to snatch the reins in the event the horses became startled by the sound when the automobile was started.
Most people actually were afraid to ride in the “red devil” as it was called. He said it was painted a fiery red in color.
He recalled another incident of those days of the past when the late George Holt, the man who built most of the houses on Holt Street between Mickle and Stevens street, sold his stable of blooded horses because his prize thoroughbred usually followed Eastlack’s car and several times the horses ran away.
When Eastlack would proudly drive his red devil down Broadway, people would stop in their tracks and gawk at the machine, Davis said. He estimated the car originally cost about $750. He drove it for about two years and sold it for about $100 and bought a later model Brush. The Eastlack car was cranked by hand and there was a long brass horn dangling from the side of the car. Later Eastlack had the Brush replaced with a home-made steering wheel.
According to Davis the first time Eastlack took his “red devil” out on Broadway he was arrested for “burning up the street,” which today would be termed reckless speeding or reckless driving. A fine of $20 was imposed — a dollar for each mile.
In narrating many tales in connection with the historic vehicle, Eastlack had a “rumble seat” built on the rear of the machine. The rumble seat was a collection of boards supported by wire chains. He told how Eastlack would invite friends for rides. He admitted that he would take a corner at a sharp angle and playfully dump his passengers into the street.
Scott said he has lost all trace of his two former business associates. Hugg’s father, Dr. Isaac M. Hugg, was a prominent Camden physician. Davis insists that Oscar Eastlack owned and drove the first automobile in the city of Camden.