Robert D. Clow Jr.
Robert Denny Clow Jr., Camden real estate and insurance broker, circa 1914
ROBERT DENNY CLOW JR. was born June 26, 1890 in Camden to Robert D. and Jessie Clow. His family was then living at 404 Sycamore Street, his father being engaged in the insurance business with the Equitable Beneficial Insurance Association.
Robert D. Clow Jr. attended Camden public schools, and graduated from the Camden Manual Training & High School at Haddon and Newton Avenues. When the census was taken in 1910, the Clow family resided at 506 State Street.
While continuing his education after high school, Robert D. Clow Jr. worked briefly at the Munger & Long Department store at the corner of Broadway and Federal Street. A talented violinist, he devoted a year to music before becoming involved in real estate and insurance. He opened his own business in that line on October 15, 1912, at 411 Broadway, next to the newly built Eagles Hall. In 1915 he moved to 21 Broadway, where John H. Heaton had formerly had a piano store. On June 1, 1923, he opened a new office at 313 Market Street. During the early 1920s he devoted most of his attention to real estate matters in the Sewell section of Washington Township in Gloucester County. He was also active with the YMCA, the Elks, the Improved Order of Red Men, the Board of Trade (predecessor to the Chamber of Commerce), and other professional and fraternal organizations.
In January of 1920 Robert and Vera Clow lived at 211-A Penn Street, the Sabra Apartments. His mother and older sister Irena were living at 519 State Street when the 1930 Census was taken, but I could find no record of Robert D. and Vera Clow that year or in later references at my disposal.
His sister, Irena C. Clow still resided at 519 State Street as late as 1947, when she was working as the secretary-treasurer of the New Jersey Corporation Guarantee & Trust Company at 304–306 Market Street. She was still living at that address as late as 1956.
411 Broadway
411 Broadway — Robert D. Clow Jr.’s place of business, October 1912 to 1915
South Jersey A History 1624–1924
ROBERT DENNY CLOW, JR.—In the realty account of the growth and development of South Jersey, a chapter of considerable interest and value is that relating to the work that has been accomplished within the past several years through the enterprising real estate agency of Mr. Clow, who is one of the most prominent men in the State engaged in that line of business. With the opening up and introducing into the market of large tracts of suburban Camden, and their disposal to appreciative patrons and home-builders, Mr. Clow has a territory of activity entirely his own, and in which his painstaking methods have been given largest opportunity for their use. He is a son of Robert D. Clow, born December 25, 1852, died December 4, 1922, and of Jessie M. (Kane) Clow, born January 20, 1862, and survives her husband. Robert D. Clow was engaged in life insurance matters, and was associated with the Equitable Beneficial Insurance Association for thirty-one years.
Robert Denny Clow, Jr., was born June 26, 1890, at Camden, where he attended the public and high schools, afterwards taking business courses at Temple University, the Young Men’s Christian Association School, and the Bankers’ Business College. He also took a violin course at a conservatory of music.
Munger & Long Department Store, Broadway & Federal Street. Top: as seen from the Catholic Lyceum. Bottom: looking south on Broadway from the north side of Federal Street.
In the early part of 1906, he was employed at the Munger & Long Department Store as salesman, and later in the clerical and order departments of the Victor Talking Machine Company’s establishment, three years, 1906 to 1909; and he taught violin while holding these positions. For a year or so, he devoted himself to music, and in 1910 became associated with William P. Hallinger in the real estate and insurance lines, continuing until 1912 in the management of a branch office at South Camden. He established his own real estate and insurance offices, October 15, 1912, at No. 411 Broadway, Camden, removing in 1915 to No. 21 Broadway. On June 1, 1923, he opened his present offices at No. 313 Market Street, and he is devoting his entire time to the development of the business of the Fairfield Estates Corporation, at Sewell. He also handles all lines of insurance with the exception of life insurance.
A Republican in politics, he adheres to the principles of that party, but has not held public office. During the World War, Mr. Clow was foremost in the various drives for men, munitions and money; he was a leading member of the Red Cross Chapter, chairman of one of the teams, and active on the Camden County and the Young Men’s Christian Association drives. His fraternal affiliations are those of the Free and Accepted Masons, affiliating with Camden Lodge, No. 15, where he was Senior Deacon four years; Siloam Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Crusade Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite; Crescent Shrine, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles Is of the Mystic Shrine; Camden Lodge, No. 293, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Wyoming Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men. He served one year as vice-president of the National Association of Real Estate Dealers; was one of the founders and charter members of the New Jersey Real Estate League; is a charter member of the Camden Real Estate Board, and was its president one year; was vice-president of the Camden Board of Trade in 1914–1915, before that organization became known as the Chamber of Commerce; is a member of the Mortgagors’ Club of Philadelphia and Camden; member of the Riverton and the Tavistock Chambers of Commerce; member and of past president of the Kiwanis Club, of Camden. His religious fellowship is with the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Clow married, January 1, 1914, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Vera G. Hoy, a daughter of Robert Hoy, deceased.
Photos
Robert D. Clow Jr. was active in both the YMCA and Elks, both on Federal Street east of Broadway. This postcard shows both buildings as they appeared from about 1905 through 1925. His offices at 21 Broadway was literally around the corner.
Wm. P. Hallinger Board President
Camden Post-Telegram —
Much Important Business Transacted at Real Estate Men’s Annual Meeting.
A-SHAPED SIGNS ARE IN DISFAVOR
At the annual meeting of the Camden Real Estate Board at the Hotel Ridgeway these officers were elected: President, William P. Hallinger; vice president, Raymond L. Warren; treasurer, Joseph H. Forsythe; secretary, Robert D. Clow, Jr.; trustees, three years, George W. Kirkbride and Meyer Baker.
President Hallinger appointed the committees for the ensuing year as follows:
Legislative committee—Howard A. Walton, chairman; George W. Jessup, Raymond L. Warren, William B. Hambleton, John A. Ackley.
Arbitration committee—Frank Burr, chairman; R.A. Rockhill, Maurice B. Rudderow, Ralph D. Baker, Edgar A. Freeman.
Membership committee—William Schmidt, chairman; Charles S. Ackley, Meyer Baker, Charles G. Jessup, Clinton I. Evans.
Auditing committee—Anthony J. Oberst, chairman; Leon E. Todd, William Derham.
Ways and means committee—George W. Kirkbride, chairman; T. Yorke Smith, Eldred I. Hibbs, Henry Budney, Carl Evered.
The board passed a resolution asking City Council to pass an ordinance prohibiting A- or V-shaped signs being placed on properties in Camden, either for rent or sale. This is one of the many actions that have been taken by the Real Estate Board with a view toward protecting the property owner’s interest. It is the feeling of the members that the extension sign, known as A- or V-shaped signs, are a detriment to properties and also to the appearance of the city.
It is considered that properties will rent just as well by the advertising in the newspapers, and from the personal work by the office organizations as by having them defaced with signs.
The following were elected to membership as follows: T. Yorke Smith, Leon E. Todd, Howard C. Walton, Francis C. Ely, of Camden, and John A. Ackley, of Vineland.
Practically all of the real estate men of Camden and the suburbs who do any business are affiliated with the Camden Board, and it is hoped that within the next few months all of the active real estate men of Camden county will be members of this wide-awake organization. The membership committee, of which William Schmidt is chairman, expects to call in the near future on the real estate agents who have not yet become associated with the board.
It was reported at this meeting by a number of the members that since the April meeting, at which time the minimum rate of commission for selling properties up to $10,000 was raised from two per cent. to three per cent., that no objections were made by the owners, as the latter appreciate that the Real Estate offices are under great expense, and also due in part to the fact that they not only receive the service from one office, with whom they place exclusive agency of their property, but from every member of the Board.
The Camden Real Estate Board was started in 1916 by a few agents who saw a future for real estate men, by uniting for the purpose of standardizing the business. A. Freeman was elected president and through his hard and earnest efforts the Board grew to a membership of thirty men in 1917. Geo. W. Jessup succeeded Mr. Freeman as president, and the past year has shown such marked improvement that the agents now appreciate the fact that by co-operating better results are obtained in handling of client’s properties. The more progressive agents are beginning to realize it, for by listing their property with one agent who is a member of the Board any member can and will sell said property.
It is hoped that all of the members who will be known as “Realtors” will place on all new signs, in addition to his name the words, “or by any member of the Camden Real Estate Board.”
It is hoped that the property owners will back up the agents in this movement, and in listing properties for sale to list same with only one agent or “Realtor,” thereby availing himself of the services of every member of the Camden Real Estate Board.
Camden Hails Her Sons, Conquerors, at Victory Jubilee
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Battle Flags Wave in Triumph O’er Parade Reviewed by Admiral
Gray Veterans of G. A. R. and Wounded Ride; Centopath Passes in Reverential Hush
The Peace with victory which Camden’s sons along with millions of other soldiers of all the Allied countries helped to bring home was celebrated by a jubilee in Camden yesterday which eclipsed anything that the city across the Delaware has ever attempted in her history.
Nearly every man, woman and child who did not actually march in the jubilee parade stood on the side lines and watched it and cheered themselves hoarse as the soldiers and sailors who went out from their town to fight marched past, this time as the conquerors in the world’s greatest war.
Favored by glorious sunshine, a sunshine that was reflected in the faces of the people, the day’s proceedings went off perfectly. For months Mayor Ellis and all his city family, together with a large committee of leading citizens, had been planning the affair. Their handiwork stood the test. It was good.
Admiral Henry Wilson, commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet, came to his boyhood home to be the principal guest of the city and chief reviewing officer of the jubilee. With him were national statesmen and municipal officials.
Soldiers, sailors, war workers, members of fraternal orders and men who fought under the flags of Canada, England, Italy and Poland, marched in the parade which was miles long. Every succeeding division seemed just a little better than the one which preceded it, and, when it was all over and the soldiers and sailors had filed into the old Third Regiment Armory to sit down to a piping hot banquet, the hardest thing of all was to say which had made the finest showing.
All Honor to the Dead
Amidst all the gayety and happiness there was a sober note expressed by the memorial cenotaph which preceded the parade and which brought every hat off as it passed in solemn silence.
The heroic figure of an American soldier in bronze standing on a granite pedestal which bore a gold star with the number 135, symbolical of the Camden county men who laid down their lives in their country’s cause, was carried along the route ten minutes before the parade commenced. Encircler [sic] by flowers and palms, it moved through the reverential hush which had fallen over the throngs.
While every organization in the county of Philadelphia was represented in the parade, to the thousands who lined the sidewalks, there was really only one great big important factor—the service men. And when those self-same service men, many of whom bearing the Distinguished Service Cross of their own United States, others wearing the Croix de Guerre, bestowed on them by the sister republic of France, and still others carrying on their breasts the Italian and British War Crosses, given them by grateful countries, marched down the streets and avenues, all the pent up emotion in thousands of hearts was let loose.
It mattered not whether the men were officers or enlisted men, black or white, neat or untidy, they were all soldiers and they had done all that was asked of them. Their home town honored them. The men in blue and the women in blue, too, received a welcome not one whit less feeling than their brothers in khaki.
They had a certain advantage over the doughboys, for they put half a dozen of the prettiest and smartest yoemanettes that ever wore Uncle Sam’s uniform at the head of their division. The crowd simply had to be with them.
Canada and England, too, had a detachment of men in line. About two dozen of these veterans, half of whom wore the ribbon of the Mons Star, showing that they were in service in France in 1914, were in line, and they marched snappily and smartly and drew their full modicum of pleasurable comments.
Red Cross women, some of them grandmothers, others young girls still in their teens, marched in their snowy white uniforms with their crosses of red emblazoned on headcover and breast. Salvation Army lassies who had cooked doughnuts right up under the muzzles of the guns were there with Y. M. C. A. and Knights of Columbus workers.
Elks, Masons, Knights Templar, Red Men, Moose and scores of other fraternal organizations turned out in all their glorious trappings and regalia.
The delegation of Elks, startling in their spic and span white uniforms, marched behind their own band like squads of veterans. A foretaste of what Philadelphia will see during the coming week was given when more than 100 Knights Templar, resplendent in their uniforms and swords and cocked hats with white ostrich feathers, marched in the second division of the parade. As the formation reached the reviewing stand near the Ninth Ward Republican Association they deployed into the formation of a cross, the symbol of their order, and marched past in this formation.
Many gorgeous floats were in line, th Ninth Ward Republican Association having no less than five. All were artistic. The first was bedecked with growing flowers, while a beautiful young woman reprsenting “Peace” stood flanked by a soldier and sailor. The one following had a replica of the Liberty Bell with the inscription, “Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards men.” Two soldiers rang the bell. Behind them marched a band playing “Onward Christian Soldiers” as the men marched on. Floats symbolical of every war activity were there. The Knights of Columbus showed a replica of their famous service hut which was the doughboy’s home when he had no other.
The veterans of other wars were not forgotten in this jubilee of the greatest war of all. Grand Army men whose gray locks bespoke their years rode in automobiles bearing the tattered colors of their old Civil War regiments. The soldiers of a later day, men of the Spanish-American War, were in line with their comrades.
The wounded were there, too. They could not march in the parade, but they rode and their faces were smiling and their hearts were glad as they realized that this welcome was for them.
Triumphal arches were erected at points along the route of the parade and the square at the courthouse was a mass of color.
Among the officers in command of the sections of the service division were Lieutenant Colonel Samuel G. Barnard, of the 112th Field Artillery; Captain J. Walter Scott, former adjutant of the Third Regiment; Captains English, Richards and Dickinson, of Battery B; Lieutenant J. G. Williams, Ensign Beaston and Lieutenant William Opfermann, of the aviation corps.
Battle Flags Wave Triumphant
Shortly after 1.30 o’clock James H. Long, chairman of the parade committee of the Victory Jubilee and Memorial Committee and marshal of the pageant, gave the order to march. The Lyric Band, which escorted nearly all of the troops to the terminal in the dark days of the war, was given the honor of heading the line. Chief of Police E. A. Gravenor and Assistant Chief of Police Edward S. Hyde led the parade, followed by a platoon of mounted policemen under Captain William E. Albert.
Then came Marshal Long and his aides, who were: Frank E. Van Hart, William D. Sayrs, Jr., Frank Fithian, A. Benjamin Sparks, Kessel Webster, William Isgard, Robert D. Clow, Andrew B. F. Smith, William Lorrigan, Charles Austermuhl, David Doane, William C. Davis and William D. Vanaman.
Directly behind the Lyric Band marched Mayor Charles H. Ellis at the head of the Victory Jubilee and Memorial Committee, of which he is chairman.
And at the head of the division were the battle flags of the Twenty-ninth and Seventy-eighth divisions, on which General John J. Pershing personally pinned battle pennants during those memorable days back in October in the Argonne forest. Behind the 4th marched the famous engineers, headed by Captain Keasby and Captain Beals Smuck. Three battle pennants were pinned to their flags, which never touched the ground while they were bridging the rivers in the Argonne under hellish shell fire for the doughboys to advance. Then came the 112th Field Artillery, Battery B’s heroes of the border and of France, headed by Captain Charles Richards and Captain Dickinson. In the same section marched the Eleventh Machine Gun Battalion with its battle flags and pennants fluttering.
There was another great cheer as the Seventy-eighth Division, New Jersey’s Lightning boys, loomed into view. The heroes of the 311th Infantry, 303d Engineers, 307th, 308th and 309th Field Artillery and other regiments of that famous command were given a mighty ovation behind their battle flags, which led them in their assault on St. Mihiel and the day they attacked and captured Grand-Pre in the terrible conflict in the Argonne.
Behind them marched the Marines, headed by Lieutenant Monitor Watchman, of the Fifth Regiment, Second Division. With the Marines marched the regular army units, men who had served in as many as five battles and wore three and four gold service stripes on their sleeves.
Then followed the naval contingent. They were commanded by Commander Francis W. Hoffman and Commander W. G. Hodgson.
The order “eyes left” flashed along the line as each platoon drew near the reviewing stand and Admiral Wilson with his band to his cap returned the salute. With the admiral on the stand were former United States Senator David Baird, Congressman William J. Browning, County Collector John S. Well, City Clerk W. D. Brown and others.
At the armory a splendid banquet was served to the soldiers and sailors. For days past corps Red Cross workers had been preparing the good things to eat and the men did full justice to them. They marched in the armory where the food was spread on the tables and enjoyed themselves while bands played. After dinner there were speeches. Mayor Ellis in welcoming the men said:
“This is one of the happiest moments of my life. I have waited patiently through months of trial for the glad day when I could bid you welcome to the City of Camden once again.
“We are planning to erect a lasting memorial in memory of those heroes who gave their lives and in memory of the valiant deeds you performed on land and sea.
“Camden will always cherish the memory of this day, rever the memory of your dead comrades and will inscribe your valiant deeds on that memorial. I bid you welcome in the name of the most patriotic little city in America. I thank you.”
Prosecutor Charles A. Wolverton welcomed the men on behalf of the county and paid a tribute to their valor recalling their wonderful victories of the Argonne and other battlefields of France.