Introduction
William Carter was appointed to the Camden Fire Department on October 9, 1872 as Driver with the Hook and Ladder Company. He was promoted to Tillerman with that company on February 8, 1872. He was dismissed from service with the Camden Fire Department when Edward J. Dodamead was reappointed on April 8, 1873. William Carter had been working as an iron moulder and living at 526 West Street during his time in service with the Fire Department.
William Carter was born in Camden on August 19, 1850. He was the son of Benjamin Springer Carter and his wife, the former Hannah Ann Browning. The family was living in Camden’s North Ward at the time of the 1860 Census. Besides William, there was an older brother, Alfred B. Carter, and younger siblings Jacob, Harry, and Laura Carter. When the census was taken in 1870 he was boarding at the home of Benjamin and Mary Jane Ostler in Camden’s Middle Ward and working as a laborer.
As stated above, William Carter was working as an iron moulder and living at 526 West Street in the early 1870s. After leaving the Fire Department, he apparently went back to work as an iron moulder, and was injured on the job on August 24, 1874. Whether or not he recovered from the injuries he suffered is not known. By 1880 he was gone from Camden.
(news brief — William Carter injured)
Philadelphia Inquirer —
...A man named William Carter, employed in the foundry at Cooper's Point, received a severe fall yesterday afternoon, and was dangerously injured in his back and side.
…A man named William Carter, employed in the foundry at Cooper’s Point, received a severe fall yesterday afternoon, and was dangerously injured in his back and side.