Introduction
Thomas J. Daley, c. 1931
THOMAS J. DALEY was born on September 8, 1889 to Thomas and Isabella Daley at 337 Walnut Street, Camden NJ. The elder Daley was a blacksmith and wheelwright by trade, and operated a smithy at 112 Kaighn Avenue for over forty years, during which time he was well known for his fine workmanship. The Daley family lived at 337 Walnut Street in the late 1880s and early 1890s.
After attending the SS. Peter and Paul school in Camden and St. Joseph's Prep School in Philadelphia, Thomas Daley graduated in 1909 from St. Joseph's College. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1913. Thomas Daley went to work in the engineering department of the City of Camden in July of 1913.
Thomas J. Daley married his wife Mary on September 8, 1915. A daughter, also named Mary, was born after the January 1920 census was taken. Thomas J. Daley was by then already working for the city as a civil engineer, under the direction of long-time City Engineer Levi Farnham. When Levi Farnham died in November of 1923, Thomas Daley was appointed Acting City Engineer. On May 21, 1925 he was appointed City Engineer.
Several large public works projects took place while Thomas Daley was City Engineer, including the construction of Camden's new City Hall and a new marine terminal, both still in use in 2005.
The 1920 census shows Thomas Daley as living with his wife and parents at 1471 Baird Avenue. Father Thomas Daley Sr. passed away on February 19, 1928. Thomas Daley Jr. was still working as City Engineer and living at 1471 Baird Avenue when the 1947 Camden City Directory was compiled.
The Daley family had left Camden by the time the 1959 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory was released.
South Jersey: A History 1624–1924
South Jersey: A History 1624–1924
THOMAS JOSEPH DALEY—A man of energy and ability, public spirited and untiring in activity, Thomas Joseph Daley was born at No. 337 Walnut Street, Camden, New Jersey, September 8, 1889. His father, Thomas Daley, born in Ireland, was brought to Camden County, New Jersey, when an infant. Raised in the vicinity of Laurel Springs, he came to Camden when a young man and conducted a general blacksmithing and horse shoeing business for a number of years and then retired. His mother, Isabella (Kelly) Daley, was born in Camden.
Thomas Joseph Daley attended SS. Peter and Paul’s Parochial School, in Camden, St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, in Philadelphia, where he was matriculated for St. Joseph’s College in 1905, and St. Joseph’s College where he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1909. He took a course in civil engineering of four years at the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated in 1913 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He was employed in the engineering department of the city of Camden on July 7, 1913. He became third assistant engineer on January 1, 1917; first assistant engineer on January 1, 1918, and acting city engineer on November 15, 1923, upon the death of the city engineer. He was appointed engineer of maintenance on January 1, 1925, and city engineer on May 21, 1925, in charge of the engineering department of the city of Camden. He holds a license from the State of New Jersey as municipal engineer and land surveyor.
Mr. Daley assisted in raising money for the Camden Community Hotel, and was a member of the team captained by Theodore Kausel. He was a member of the building committee which supervised the construction of the Elks Home. He is a member of Camden Lodge, No. 293, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart.
Thomas J. Daley was married in Pottstown, September 8, 1915, to Mary A. Keene, of Pottstown, daughter of Peter and Mary Keene, both of whom are living. They are the parents of Mary Isabella Daley, born February 17, 1920. Mr. Daley lives at No. 1471 Baird Avenue, Camden, and his business address is Engineering Department, City Hall, Camden, New Jersey.
Camden News Notes
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Camden News Notes
Camden News Notes
[Multi-item column including:] •• Captain Stanley and a squad of policemen raided the barber shop of William W. Woomer, 264 Kaighn avenue, Camden, yesterday, on a warrant sworn out by Mrs. Edna M. Laird, of 230 Chestnut street, charging Woomer with keeping a disorderly house.
Margaret Oberst Bride of Mr. West
Camden Post-Telegram —
MARGARET OBERST BRIDE OF MR. WEST
Talented South Fifth Street Girl Weds Prominent Young Plumber.
PRETTY CEREMONY AT CATHOLIC CHURCH
Miss Margaret M. Oberst, the pretty and talented daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony J. Oberst, of 803 South Fifth street, was married yesterday morning at 11 o’clock in Ss. Peter and Paul’s Church, St. John and Spruce streets, to Mr. James B. West, Jr., a prominent plumber and stepson of John McGowan, of 501 Trenton avenue. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Father B. Zoller.
Miss Anna Oberst, sister of the bride, was bridesmaid, and James Crerand best man. The bride was attired in a white embroidered dress, wore a veil with lilies of the valley and carried a shower bouquet of bridal roses. The bridesmaid was gowned in pink satin, wore a pink picture hat and carried a bouquet of pink roses. A reception and banquet was given at the home of the bride’s parents last evening.
Mr. and Mrs. West left last evening for a wedding trip and part of the time will be spent in Atlantic City. On their return they will reside in their own home, 446 Pine street. There was a reception last night with a banquet served by Hemmer.
Among those present at the banquet and reception were: Mr. and Mrs. Anthony J. Oberst, Mr. and Mrs. John Durmann, Mr. John McGowan, Mr. and Mrs. Alphons J. Schnittius, Miss Anna Oberst, Mr. and Mrs. George W. Bittell, Mr. Joseph Crerand, Mr. and Mrs. George Schick, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. James Crerand, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Daley, Mr. Thomas J. Daley, Mr. Robert Daley, Mr. and Mrs. John M. McGowan, Mr. James McGowan, Miss Elizabeth Hose, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hyde, Miss Elizabeth Hyde, Mr. John Holston, Mr. George Schick, Sr., Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Brockhoff, Mr. and Mrs. Edmund J. All, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Casey, Miss Edith Ferry, Mr. and Mrs. Alex. Elezak, Mr. and Mrs. Emil J. Riegert, Mr. and Mrs. John Dewyre, Mr. and Mrs. E. Zimmermann, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cary, Mr. Thomas J. Moore, Mr. Thomas Curley, Mr. and Mrs. Patty, Mr. and Mrs. W. Mendell, Mr. and Mrs. Swartz, Miss Agnes Hennessey, Mr. and Mrs. K. Jenkins, Mr. H. Lee, Mr. Schneider, Mr. Joseph Clarkson, Mr. W. Jones, Mr. George Hoff, Mr. C. J. Welsh, Mr. Horace Kearns, Mr. John Osler, Mr. S. Newcomb, Mr. W. Shaw, Mr. J. Neilson, Mr. and Mrs. John Prentice, Mr. and Mrs. William Donaldson, Mr. and Mrs. Powell, all of Camden.
Mr. and Mrs. George Hafner, Miss Florence Rieger and Mr. and Mrs. George Aufort, of Philadelphia, Pa.; Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Schwickerath, Miss Marry Schwickerath and Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Oberst, of Egg Harbor City, N. J.; Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Becker, Miss Elizabeth Becker, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Burke, of Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mr. and Mrs. Dominic Tivnan, of New York; Mr. and Mrs. John Dare, of Clayton, N. J.
Marine Terminal Foundation Solid
Camden Courier-Post —
Daley Reports Tests Show River Bed Firm for Piling Supports
Camden’s new $2,000,000 marine terminal will rest on the strongest possible foundation, according to a preliminary report made today by Thomas J. Daley, city engineer, on the results of driving test piles for the project about 1,000 feet south of Clinton street.
Driving of the test piles was started by the city early last week. The work is the initial step in obtaining data required by the South Jersey Port Commission in preparing specifications for the new marine terminal. The terminal will be built by the city near the old municipal pier, between Clinton and Spruce streets.
“Our tests show,” Daley said today, “that the condition of the ground at the proposed site is such as to prohibit the driving of the piles to the desired depth of 45 feet below low water. In order to reach that depth, jetting of the piles was resorted to as a means of penetrating to within a few feet of the desired depth. With this accomplished, driving again will be undertaken to determine the bearing power of the piles at the point we seek.”
Jettying of the piles, Daley explained, is done by means of a pipe which is placed alongside a 60-foot pole. Water is sent through the pipe from a hose attached to a point directly to the undersides of the piles. This, Daley explained, loosens the hard earth and enables the engineers to continue with the pile driving.
Daley said the earth reached by four of the six piles has been so solid that each of the four will have to be jetted. This, he said, indicates that the site will afford the best possible foundation for the terminal.
Residents Protest Cooper Street Widening
Camden Courier-Post —
Two of the Cooper Street property owners who appeared at a hearing this morning at City Hall protested assessments to be levied against them for the widening of the thoroughfare from Fourth to Ninth Streets.
The objectors declared they did not feel that it was fair that they should be taxed for improvements from which they derive no benefit. Their protests were heard by the Commissioner of Assessments in the commission chambers at the hall.
The commissioners, Charles S. Wolverton, Wilbur B. Ellis, and James F. Lennon, said after the hearing that they will give further consideration to the complaints before submitting their report to the city commission. This will be done, they said, in the case of two complaints from property owners along Baird Boulevard, who protested being taxed for the planting of trees and the grading of “islands” on that thoroughfare from Bank Street to Maplewood Avenue. A public hearing on this improvement also was conducted this morning.
Thomas J. Daley, city engineer and clerk of the assessment commission by virtue of his position, explained after the hearing that the two Baird Boulevard property owners said they felt that the expenses of the improvement should be borne by the people who erected the properties along the highway.
Daley said that each abutting property owner on Cooper Street, from Fourth to Ninth Street, will pay an assessment of approximately $5.50 per front foot for the widening. The city taxpayers as a whole, he said, will also bear $5.50 per front foot, the other half of the cost of the improvement. The total cost of the widening, he reported was $35,126, of which abutting property owners will pay $17,400, and the city taxpayers about $17,700.
The Baird Boulevard improvement, Daley said, cost a total of $3,020, of which the abutting property owners will pay $2,140 and the city taxpayer, as a whole, $880. The cost to such property owner per lot, he explained, will be about $10, all lots being about 20 feet wide.
An assessment on both improvements, Daley reported, will be fixed by the city after the commissioners of assessment file their report. The city commission will then fix a date when property owners who may have objections may appear at a public hearing.
City Engineer Clerk Is Again Discharged
Camden Courier-Post —
Hanna Serves Latest Firing Notice on Weinstein Who Appeals
E. Allan Weinstein, chief clerk in the office of Thomas J. Daley, city engineer, received notice today from Frank B. Hanna, superintendent of streets, that he has been discharged. Dismissal papers, Weinstein said, were served by Hanna personally at Weinstein’s home, 441 Kaighn avenue.
Weinstein said he has filed an appeal with the Civil Service Commission asking that he be granted a hearing. The discharged clerk reported that he had been suspended December 29, by Daley, followed by another notice of suspension December 30 signed by Commissioner Sayrs. He said the charges made against him included inefficiency, insubordination, absence without leave, failure to obey orders and neglect of duty.
Weinstein declared that he denied all the charges in the appeal he has filed with the Civil Service Commission. He said he was previously suspended last September on charges of “loitering in the City Hall offices” and “reading a newspaper.”
The discharge notice served on him today, he said, contained the name of Commissioner Sayrs, signed by Miss Martha Kemble, the director’s confidential secretary. Weinstein said Hanna explained he had not received notice previously because Commissioner Sayrs has been ill. The commissioner is a diphtheria patient at the Municipal Hospital.
Weinstein, commenting on his dismissal today, charging discrimination by Commissioner Sayrs before the director became ill.
“As chief clerk,” Weinstein said, explaining his charge, “I had charge of the payroll. He had several persons in the department who were paid by the day. If they had been appointed by Sayrs, and they were absent from work a day or so, they were given their pay for the time they were away. But if they had not been named by Sayrs and were hold-overs from the previous administration, they would not be paid for the time they happened to be absent. This was particularly the case during the Christmas season. The Sayrs’ appointees were paid for Christmas, and those not appointed by him, but who had been Non-Partisans, were not. It was a plain case of discrimination.”
Thomas J. Daley, Sr.
Camden Courier-Post —
THOMAS J. DALEY, SR.
The funeral of Thomas J. Daley, Sr., father of Thomas J. Daley, city engineer of Camden, will be held from his late residence, 1471 Baird avenue, on Wednesday. Services will be conducted in the Sacred Heart Church, Broadway and Ferry avenue.
Daley was known as one of the oldest blacksmiths and wheelwrights in the city. He died last night at his home at the age of 75.
For more than forty years he had operated a blacksmith shop at Front and Kaighn avenue. He was noted for his fine workmanship.
His widow, Mary, and one son survive him.
U. of P. Graduates Meet Here To Form Newest Alumni Body
Camden Courier-Post —
By GORDON MACKAY
“Hail Pennsylvania, noble and strong; To thee with loyal hearts we raise our song.”
To the lilting strains of the song by Edgar M. Dilley, newspaperman and bard and alumnus of the Class of 1897, the newest infant among the alumni societies of the University of Pennsylvania, sprang into life last night.
More than 150 sons of the institution across the river gathered in Hotel Walt Whitman for the joint purpose of celebrating the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, founder at the university and cementing their ranks with a new alumni club.
Judge Clifford A. Baldwin, designated by Thomas S. Gates, president of the university, to head Camden activities in connection with the bicentennial in 1940, presided at the meeting. It took the informality of a smoker, then developed into the serious purpose of bringing the 800 Penn alumni in Camden county into a group that eventually should form one of the largest alumni clubs anywhere in America.
Varbalow Named Head
Judge Joseph Varbalow was named as the head of a committee to effect the temporary organization and to present a constitution and by-laws under which the South Jersey alumni association could be formed.
Associated with Judge Varbalow on this committee are John H. Reiners, Jr., representing the college; W. Tingle Dickerson, Wharton School; J. William Markelm, evening school; Thomas Daly, engineering school; Dr. Byron Tuttle, dental school; Frank M. Travaline, Jr., law school; Ellery K. Taylor, architectural school and school of fine arts; Pierce Connor, school of education; Dr. William S. Miller, veterinary school, and Dr. Joseph E. Roberts, medical school.
Prominent among those who helped in the formation was Agnew MacBride, 77, of the class of 1882, the oldest alumnus of the university present. MacBride, blind attorney, recited the activities which he had known as a student and alumnus until the loss of sight incapacitated him from officiating further at athletic meets.
MacBride, his voice choked with emotion, told how pleased he was to be “with the boys” and declared the University of Pennsylvania “reached the ideal which Benjamin Franklin had in mind when he founded the academy that afterward became our alma mater.”
Wistar Wood opened the program by exhibiting motion pictures “Pennsylvania Looks Ahead,” scenes depicting the campus, showing photographs of some of the great scholars who are on the faculty today.
Class Work Shown
Action pictures of class work in the various departments also were shown. These views were followed by the principal address of the occasion, given by Dr. William P. Harbeson, Professor of English at the University, but plain “Bill” Harbeson at last night’s jollity.
Dr. Harbeson began with describing Socrates as the first real scholar known to mankind’s history. Then he named in turn the men he called the greatest teachers in American university and college life, starting with the famous Dr. Mark Hopkins, first president of Williams College in Massachusetts.
“Then there was Sumner of Yale,” said the speaker, “who first spoke of the ‘forgotten man,’ a phrase now so often quoted and so frequently garbled. In Harvard was Charles Townsend Copeland, the inimitable ‘Copey,’ about whose work and personality men remained up through the night to talk about and never tire or weary of so doing.
“At Pennsylvania we had Edgar Fahs Smith, Cornelius Weygand, whom I feel was the ‘Mark Hopkins of our university’; William Romayne Newbold and George William McClellan.”
Sins Redeemed Franklin
Dr. Harbeson described Franklin as “a citizen of the world” whose “inherent humanity” was his greatest attribute. Franklin, too, he averred “had several sins to redeem him.”
“Franklin had nobody to make him,” continued the professor. “He made himself and a good job he did of it, too. His greatest characteristic, the greatest thing to admire about the citizen of the world was his public spirit. In Philadelphia his name is connected with all the firsts, library, hospital, academy.
“We are living in a yeasty ferment today in this country which has now become ‘Upsidedownia.’ And we, the so-called intellectuals, are the persons who are getting it where the turkey got the ax. We are too content to let others do the things that we should do ourselves, and we listen too readily to those who can go on the radio with a laxity of tongue and picture to us a paradise on a blueprint.”
Dr. Harbeson urged that, whether our thought be liberal or conservative, “we follow things through, calmly and arrive at our own conclusions.”
Backing of Munger Asked
Wood, secretary of the General Alumni Association, also told of the activities of that organization, here and in other countries. He urged the Camden alumni form into an organization, which, he declared, would be one of the strongest among all the university alumni groups.
Charles J. Miel, secretary of the Bicentennial Committee, recited the progress which had been made to celebrate 200 years of university life two years hence.
He declared that without any organized effort already Camden had contributed to the fund, one of the contributions being $30,000, from Eldridge Johnson, whose past benefactions he recounted as amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Judge Baldwin then urged the Camden alumni to stand squarely behind George Munger, new football coach, and asserted that Camden was large enough and its alumni body ample enough to insure a performance each year of the Mask and Wig Club.
125 in County Form U. of P. Alumni Club
Camden Courier-Post —
Charter Left Open for 300 Additional Members; 18 Trustees Elected
More than 125 Camden county graduates and former students of the University of Pennsylvania last night completed organization of the alumni club and became charter members of the organization, with the rolls held open for an expected 300 additional charter members.
Those elected were R. Pierce Joseph, Thomas J. Daley, Judge Clifford A. Baldwin, Ellery Taylor, Dr. William G. Moore, J. David Stern, J. William Markelm, C. W. Tingle Moench, W. Tingle Dickerson, Dr. Joseph E. Roberts, Frank M. Travaline Jr., Dr. Byron G. Tuttle, Edmund D. Scaramuzzi, Dr. Edwin Helm and Jesse G. Haydock, Jr.
Varbalow Presides
Judge Varbalow conducted the business session and Judge Baldwin introduced the guest speakers, Dr. Murray Saylor, dean of the department of physical education, and Dr. John H. Harbeson, professor of English literature.
Student Days Recalled
Dr. Harbeson, who had written as an author, recalled the professors and classroom atmosphere of his student days at the University in 1887, became a newspaperman, gave up journalism, returned to Pennsylvania to teach, retiring for a second time.
South Jersey alumni of the university represent the third largest group in the country. There are approximately 875 graduates in the Camden county area. The newly formed association will sponsor social and cultural activities, and will cooperate with university trustees for the welfare of the institution.
Church and School of Saints Peter & Paul
Church and School of Saints Peter & Paul