Philip Wilson

PHILIP WILSON was born in Camden NJ on April 19, 1869 to Henry B. Wilson Sr. and his wife, Mary. Besides Philip there were four other children, Henry B. Wilson Jr., Lizzie Wilson, R.I. Wilson, and James B. Wilson.

Henry B. Wilson Sr. was born in Providence, RI in 1828. In 1849, he moved to Gloucester City with his parents and worked as a clerk for the Gloucester Manufacturing Company until 1854. In the same year, he came to Camden and became an active organizer of the Republican Party in Camden County. During this same time, he opened a coal office and hardware store at Front and Kaighn Avenue.

When Camden was divided into three wards; middle, north and south, Henry B. Wilson Sr. represented the south ward in City Council for a number of years. During the term of President Rutherford B. Hayes, from 1877 to 1881, he was postmaster of Camden City. He was also a member of the Board of Education and was a second term member of the Commission of Public Instruction, the precursor of the city Board of Education, at the time of his death. A few years after his passing the newly-built H. B. Wilson Elementary School, at South 9th and Florence Streets, was named in his honor.

Mr. Wilson was probably more prominent in business circles than in politics. He was one of the founders, and one-time vice-president of the Camden National Bank; president and director of the Camden Fire Insurance Association; had an active interest in church work and was a senior warden of St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church for nearly a half century.

The Wilson family made its home in the 1870s and for most of the 1880s at 339 Mount Vernon Street. Late in 1889 or early in 1890 the family moved to 345 Mount Vernon Street. Henry B. Wilson Sr. died of blood poisoning on June 7, 1898 in his home at 345 Mount Vernon Street. He was 70 years old. His wife along with daughter Elizabeth and Philip Wilson were still living at 345 Mount Vernon Street when the 1900 Census was compiled. Philip Wilson was working as a “paying teller.” Mary Wilson would reside at 345 Mount Vernon Street into the mid-1920s.

Philip Wilson appears in the Camden City directories from 1887 through 1880–1891 as living with his parents and working as a clerk in a grocery business in Philadelphia. He would soon come back to work in Camden, in the banking industry. He also in time became president and general manager of the Delaware River Discharging Company, located at 1157 South Front Street, which was in the business of loading and unloading ships. The location is interesting as his father had a coal and wood business in the 1880s and 1890s at 1135 South Front Street.

In 1895 Philip Wilson was a co-founder of Camden Lodge 293 of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Other charter members included John Foster, Frank A. Ward, Charles L. Bowman, Dr. A. Haines Lippincott, Dr. J. F. Leavitt, Fred W. George, T. L. Bear, William M. Fithian, Everett Ackley, Fithian S. Simmons, Paul E. Quinn, John N. Kadel, William G. Maguire, Frank B. Sweeten and Maurice Hertz.

Philip Wilson married Emma Foulon around 1901. Her father, Charles Foulon founded a bakery on Federal Street in the early 1880s, which her brother, also named Charles Foulon, operated along with an ice cream parlor on Federal Street for many years.

The 1906 City Directory and the 1910 Census shows Philip and Emma Wilson living at 932 South 4th Street. The Wilsons were not blessed with children, but did have over 30 years together before Emma’s passing in 1933. Philip Wilson’s occupation was listed in the 1906 directory and in the census as “paying teller.” By 1914 the Wilsons had moved to the Helene Apartments on Cooper Street. The City Directory for that year associates him with the discharging company.

When the Central Trust Company celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1916, Philip Wilson was on its board of directors. This is interesting in that he had worked for many years at a competing institution, the Camden National Bank, of which his father was a co-founder. At some point after 1916 Philip Wilson became president of the Central Trust Company. The Central Trust Company was absorbed by the Camden Safe Deposit & Trust Company in 1927. Philip Wilson in turn was named as vice-president of the combined banks. In 1938 the Camden Safe Deposit & Trust Company shortened its name to that of Camden Trust. By 1948, the Camden Trust had grown to be the largest bank in South Jersey, with branches in Camden, Gloucester City, Haddonfield, and Blackwood.

Philip and Emma Wilson had moved to 230 West Summit Avenue, Haddonfield, New Jersey by 1924. The 1920 Census shows them living at 310 Warwick Road, next door to lawyer J. Russell Carrow and his wife Hilda. In 1930 Philip Wilson journeyed abroad. He returned to the United States by way of St. Johns, Newfoundland aboard the S.S. Nerissa, arriving in New York on September 28, 1930. This appears to have been a business trip, as Camden businessman Kirby Garwood accompanied him. The S.S. Nerissa was torpedoed in April of 1941. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson vacationed in California in 1932.

Emma Foulon Wilson passed away in June of 1933 at Cooper Hospital after a lengthy illness.

After the death of his wife Emma, Philip Wilson continued to reside in Haddonfield. In 1935 he took a trip to Havana, Cuba. He returned to the United States at New York on November 24, 1935 aboard the steamship Quirigua, then owned and operated by the United Fruit Company.

By the end of 1936 Philip Wilson had moved to 230 West Summit Avenue in Haddonfield. In the fall of that year Philip Wilson and Hilda Carrow traveled to Europe together. They returned in December, sailing from Villefranche, France on December 3 aboard the S.S. Rex, arriving in New York on December 10.

By 1940 Hilda and J. Russell Carrow had divorced, and Philip Wilson and the former Mrs. Carrow had married. They were living at 230 West Summit Avenue in Haddonfield when the 1940 and 1947 City Directories were compiled.

Philip Wilson died on November 15, 1949 of prostate cancer. He was interred at the Harleigh Mausoleum on November 18. His widow lived at 310 Warwick Road from the 1950s through at least 1970. Hilda Donnell Wilson died of cardiovascular disease on November 26, 1986 and was buried at the Oakes Mausoleum at Harleigh Cemetery on December 1.

Philip Wilson’s brother, Admiral Henry B. Wilson Jr., went on to fame as a naval officer. The Admiral Wilson Boulevard, leading from the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to the Airport Circle in Pennsauken, is named in his honor, for his service as the commander of the American fleet in French waters by the First World War. Admiral Wilson convoyed troops and supplies to France during the war without the loss of a single life.

Condition of Bank — March 7, 1916

Wife of Banker Succumbs After Operation; Had Been Ill One Month

After a long illness, Mrs. Emma Foulon Wilson, 50, wife of Philip Wilson, vice president of the Camden Safe Deposit and Trust Company, died at 9.30 o’clock last night in Cooper Hospital.

Mrs. Wilson underwent an operation in the hospital one month ago. She lived with her husband at 230 West Summit Avenue, Haddonfield.

Wilson, formerly was president of the Central Trust Company and the Delaware River Discharging Company. He is a brother of Admiral Henry B. Wilson, former commandant of the Annapolis Naval Academy.

Mrs. Wilson is survived by three sisters, Mrs. Joseph Street, Haddonfield; Mrs. Anna Riedel, Haddon Heights, and Mrs. William Maguire, whose husband is president of the board of managers of the West Jersey Homeopathic Hospital, and a brother, Charles Foulon, formerly proprietor of a bakery and restaurant at Fifth and Federal streets. She was a daughter of the late Charles and Anna Foulon.

Funeral services for Mrs. Emma Foulon Wilson, 50, wife of Philip Wilson; vice president, of the Camden Safe Deposit and Trust Company, who died Wednesday, will take place at 2 p.m. tomorrow, at the mausoleum in Harleigh Cemetery.

Wilson formerly was president of the Central Trust Company and the Delaware River Discharging Company. He is a brother of Admiral Henry B. Wilson, former commandant of the Annapolis Naval Academy, and resides at 230 West Summit Avenue, Haddonfield.

Brother of Admiral Was President of Old Central Trust Co.