Ray Street
Ray Street runs for one block, north from Pearl Street to Elm Street, between Borton Street and North 9th Street. The street first appears in city directories in 1890. As of 2006 there were no houses still standing on Ray Street.
Ray Street is named for Mrs. “Ray” Cox, the wife of developer and builder Charles W. Cox, who built the homes on Ray Street. Coincidentally, Borton Street, which is parallel to Ray Street, was named after the best man at the Cox wedding, lawyer Joshua Borton.
Phil Cohen
1946 Map of Camden
Ray Street runs north from Pearl Street, west of Borton Street
1946 Map of Camden — Ray Street runs north from Pearl Street, west of Borton Street
Satellite View of Ray Street, 2006
Satellite images of Ray Street, 2006. Ray Street is to the left of Borton Street.
500 Block of Ray Street
Hospital Cases
Camden Courier-Post —
COOPER
Lewis Raupp, 53, 833 North 6th Street, dog bite of right index finger.
Anna Veroline, 34, 318 Walnut Street, sprained ankle.
Albert Passarella, 15, 433 Spruce Street, sprained ankle.
Thomas J. Owens, 35, 420 Taylor Ave., bruised wrist and knee.
Joseph Manfredi, 14, 335 Chestnut Street, infected palm.
Margaret Cramer, 9, 323 Erie Street, infected finger.
Laurence Wiggle, 5, 505 South 6th Street, cut hand.
Joseph Carbone, 18, 336 Walnut Street, cut chin.
Thomas DiRenzo, 13, 522 Clinton St., splinter in left foot.
Cecelia Homan, 32, 511 Ray Avenue, foreign body in eye.
Mary DiVincenzo, 10, 311 Beckett St., foreign body in eye.
WEST JERSEY
Theresa Marolda, 59, 1713 South 4th Street, cut finger.
Benjamin Druasowictz, 34, 1282 Van Hook St., cut finger.
Charles Mangold, 52, 3 North 4th Street, cut finger.
Stanley Kaminski, 25, 1119 Liberty Street, cut hand.
Marie Birsch, 15, 697 Van Hook St., foreign particle in eye.
Willard Dickson, 3, 1739 Railroad Ave., puncture wound of thigh.
Boy Suspects Caught in Running Gun Fight
Camden Courier-Post —
Arrested after a chase during which shots were fired at them, two boys, who already have criminal records, according to police, were released last night in $[?]000 bail each.
The youths are Merritt Hall, 17, of [?]14 Ray street and Phillip Schatz, 19, of 214 Arch street. Both are charged with attempted larceny of an automobile and an additional charge of carrying concealed deadly weapons was lodged against Schatz.
Hurlock, a detective, and Ashenfelder [sic], a policeman, saw the boys trying to start a car parked on Cooper street near Fifth. The boys fled amid a volley of shots, but were not captured until several hours later by Beutler and Roger, policemen who recognized the two from description.
Schatz, police say, threw a pistol into the gutter while police pursued him. Both boys are believed responsible for thefts of a number of cars in the vicinity of Cooper street.
Suspended Jail Sentence is Given Operator Where 17 Were Taken in Raid
Camden Courier-Post —
Pleading non vult to charge of operating a “numbers” headquarters raided by the police last July, Dominic Olivette, 28, of 444 Royden street, was fined $100 and given a suspended sentence of six months in criminal court yesterday.
Olivette was arrested by a detail of police led by former Director of Public Safety Charles V. Dickinson and Lieutenant George Frost when they captured 17 men in the Royden street house.
In police court the day following the raid Olivette was fined $100 by Judge Garfield Pancoast on charges of violating Section 422 of the city ordinances prohibiting disorderly persons from congregating in a building.
Olivette paid the fine and was later indicted by the grand jury following an investigation by Prosecutor Clifford A. Baldwin. Judge Shay, in imposing the fine, refused Olivette’s plea that he be allowed to pay the sum on installments.
One other man charged with “numbers” writing was fined $100 with the privilege of paying at a $2 weekly rate. He is Herbert Lantry, 35, of 519 Ray street, arrested by Lieutenant Herbert Anderson November 26. He was held for the grand jury by Judge Pancoast when arraigned in police court.
A Husband's Terrible Deed
Camden Patriot —
A HUSBAND’S TERRIBLE DEED.
Ex-Policeman Mason’s Fearful Vengeance on His Wife for Her Infidelity.
SHOT HER AND CUT HER THROAT.
THE WOMAN STILL ALIVE, BUT MAY DIE AT ANY MOMENT.
The Man’s Home Repeatedly Broken Up by His Wife’s Dissolute Habits -- A Touching Scene in Front of the Hospital -- Mason Surrendered to the Authorities and Was Placed in Jail.
[Special to The Patriot.]
CAMDEN, March 3.--Officer Benjamin Middleton, of the Camden police force, went off duty at two o’clock this morning, and had hardly got settled comfortably in his home when he heard a pounding at the door. When he opened it he saw a man, haggard and bloody, who exclaimed: “I have just killed my wife, and I want you to lock me up.”
“What is your name?”
“Thomas S. Mason, and I live in Wrightsville. Come; I will show you what I did.”
Officer Middleton hurried on his coat and hat, and started out with Mason, who conducted him to No. 527 Ray street, where he found a terrible confirmation of the story. The officer’s first discovery was that the woman was not dead, but apparently dying. She had been shot three times, one ball entering the shoulder, one passing through the fleshy part of the leg, and one, causing the most dangerous wound, entering the thigh. In addition to this, her throat had been frightfully slashed with a razor. The officer quickly summoned help, and the wife was taken to the Cooper hospital, where it was said she would probably not recover, and Mason, together with Nellie Walker and Henry Schulke, were taken to police headquarters. The facts, as closely as it was possible to obtain them, are as follows:
Threw a Burning Lamp at Mason.
Mason is in the employ of the Pennsylvania railroad company at its shops at Pavonia. He claims that he has known of his wife’s dissolute life in his absence, and that he has endeavored to entrap her. Returning to his home in Wrightsville last night he found her absence [sic], and was told that he might find her at the house of Nellie Walker on Ray street. He took a revolver, seven-barrelled, and each barrel with a ball cartridge in it, and a razor, and made for the house. He watched this house from nine o’clock until 1.30 this morning, watching men and women come and go, but not seeing his wife. He managed, by getting close to a window, to hear his wife’s voice and that of his little five-year-old daughter. He tried to enter, but was refused admittance.
He went back to his home for a saw and hatchet, returned, and tried with these implements to get through the cellar door. But this was not a quick enough method, and at the last moment he broke down the front door and rushed in, with his revolver drawn. He found, he declares, his wife, Nellie Walker, Schulke, and another man all cuddled in one bed. He fired at them. The unknown man jumped out of bed and escaped through the window.
Mrs. Mason threw the burning lamp at her husband. It exploded and set the room on fire, and amid this scene Mason emptied his revolver in the direction of his wife. Then he seized her and
Whipped the Razor Across Her Throat,
her sholders [sic], and her face. The flaming mattress endangering the whole house, and Mason thinking he had finished the work, dropped razor and revolver and helped Schulke throw the blazing mass out of a window. This done he went to Officer Middleton with an admission of his crime. He claims that he has repeatedly had his home broken up by his wife’s dissolute habits, that he has frequently forgiven her, and that she has invariably left his home for her depraved companions.
Mason is thirty-seven years old, and his wife is about the same age. He is a wood-turner by trade, and worked at the Pennsylvania car shops at Pavonia. He came from Philadelphia, where he was on the police force for six years, three years in the Second district under Lieutenant Gillingham, and three years under Lieutenant Patterson in the Twenty-fifth district. His resignation from the force, where he made a good record, was due to his wife’s infidelity. He caught David Oesterholt, a brother officer, coming out of his house, at No. 401 Worth street, one night. They had a fight. Oesterholt was convicted of assault and battery, while Mason resigned from the force. Mason moved to Wrightsville, hoping his wife would reform, but
Her Immoral Conduct Continued
and he had her arrested before Justice Miles, of Stockton township, recently, but did not press the case as he was averse to sending her to jail. The couple have not lived together of late, Mason taking the two elder children and the wife having the little girl Lizzie. Before being locked up Mason was taken over to the Cooper hospital to have the burns on his hands dressed. His wife lay in the same institution dying, but Mason did not ask to see her nor did he mention her name.
There was a touching scene in front of the hospital when the officers brought Mason out to take him to the county jail. Coming down Benson street was his flaxen-haired, blue-eyed little girl, in charge of an elderly woman. The little one ran up and threw her arms around her papa, and he bent down with tears in his eyes and kissed her. She noticed his bandaged hands and troubled look, and began to cry.
“Don’t cry, little girl,” he said, “papa’s all right.”
Nellie Walker, in whose house, at No. 527 Ray street, the shooting took place, is a mill hand, and the neighbors say drunken orgies were of frequent occurrence at the house. Both she and Henry Schulke, the man found in bed with the women, are still locked up in the city jail. Schulke is about twenty-two years old, a lumberman, and lives in Philadelphia.
529 Ray Street
Philadelphia Inquirer —
Corson — Death Notice
CORSON.—On the 18th inst., David B., son of William and Mary Corson, aged 4 months. The relatives and friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral, on Monday, 20th inst., at 2 o'clock, from his parents' residence, 529 Ray street, Camden, N. J. Interment at Evergreen Cemetery.
Judge Pancoast Proves to All That Honesty Is Best Policy
Camden Courier-Post —
If there’s anything Police Judge Pancoast doesn’t like it’s to have people trying to fool him, he said. So yesterday Pancoast sent two alleged speakeasy inmates to jail for 60 days and gave the confessed proprietor only 50 days.
Emil Hatter, 35, of 829 Carpenter Street, was arrested for violating the ordinance prohibiting congregation of disorderly persons on the premises by Lieutenant Herbert Anderson Thursday. Hatter told the court that he was proprietor and was in the illegal liquor business to provide for his two children.
“That’s no excuse,” said the judge, “you should provide for them without breaking the law.”
He fined Hatter $50 and sentenced him to 50 days when he was unable to pay. The judge then turned to Edward Mackay, 38, of 531 Ray street, and Alfred Brooks, 45, of 700 Pearl Street [wrong address — PMC], who, Anderson said, were drunk in Hatter’s establishment.
Both men admitted having a few drinks, elsewhere, but insisted they were sober and that they did not buy the drinks from Hatter.
“I’m good and tired of having people trying to fool me,” said Pancoast. “I don’t know what they take me for. I’m going to end it, though, by giving each of you 60 days.”
Unable to pay a fine of $100, George Young, 29, colored, 954 South Ninth Street, was sentenced to 100 days when he pleaded guilty to operating a “wash-boiler” still in violation of the city speakeasy ordinance. His wife, Ethel, 19, and Annie Fussel, 37, of 614 Chestnut Street, alleged inmates, were given 30 days each in default of $25 fines.
Boy Found Drunk Gets 30-Day Term
Camden Courier-Post —
A 16-year-old youth who was found unconscious in a vacant house from the effects of drinking liquor was sentenced to 30 days in jail yesterday by Police Judge Garfield Pancoast.
He is Julius Carter, 1288 Van Hook street, who was discovered Monday night in a house at 534 Ray street by Motorcycle Patrolman Earl Wright.
“You are certainly starting out well,” Judge Pancoast told the boy. “Where did you get the liquor?”
“Some fellows gave it to me,” was the reply.
“Well, I am going to stop you from starting that habit,” was Judge Pancoast’s answer.