Span of a Century: 1860s

Stage lines still played an important part in the transportation of passengers and freight from Camden to the interior portions of West Jersey in 1860.

A great Union meeting was held in the Court House in April of 1861. John W. Mickle, for whom Mickle Street and Boulevard was named, presided and resolutions were adopted calling on the Board of Freeholders and City Council to appropriate money for the equipment of persons who might volunteer in defense of the country. The first official tender of a company of uniformed and drilled militia was that of the Camden Zouaves made to the Governor on April 18, 1861. The Stockton Cadets, Captain Edward G. Jackson, and the Zouaves, Captain John R. Cunningham, were also mustered into the service, the Cadets becoming a part of Company A and the Zouaves a part of Company G, Fourth Regiment.

Under the call for 300,000 Volunteers for the Union Army, made July 8, 1862, the quota for Camden city was 107, for the county 143, a total of 250. Under the call made on June 25, 1863, Camden City, 135; Camden County 155; a total of 290. Under the call of July 18, 1864, the city’s quota was 425, and the county’s 509, or a total of 934 men. The last call, that of December 19, 1864, was for 214 men from the city and 305 from the county. At this time there were still only three wards in the city — North, Middle, and South — and ten townships in the county: Center, Delaware, Gloucester, Newton, Monroe, Stockton, Union, Winslow, Waterford, and Washington.

The first concerted movement among the storekeepers of Camden to close their stores on holidays occurred July 4, 1863.

In the Presidential Election of November 8, 1864 Camden City voted as follows: For Lincoln 3,332 votes, for McClellan 2,785 votes. In the Electoral College New Jersey voted four for McClellan to three for Lincoln. The only other States to cast their votes against Lincoln were Delaware and Kentucky.

The Camden Home for Friendless Children was incorporated April 6, 1865. The first home, a rented property at 522 Federal Street, was formally opened May 30, 1865, although three weeks earlier the first child had been admitted. In 1869 the house at 520 Federal Street was also rented because the other building had become over-crowded. In 1871 the tract of land on the Haddonfield Turnpike, present-day Haddon Avenue, was donated by Mrs. Eliza C. Collings, and a piece adjoining was given by Mrs. Mary Ann Cope Morris, of Germantown. On this land of about one acre the building of the present Home was begun May 13, 1873.

The Kensington & New Jersey Ferry Co., Inc. operated its first boat The Shackamaxon on July 28, 1866 from the head of Point Street in Camden to Shackamaxon Street in Philadelphia. In May of 1880 this company was purchased by the Camden & Atlantic Railroad Company and boats were run from the railroad company’s new slips at the foot of Wood Street. The ferryboat The Shackamaxon was subsequently taken to New York to ply between that city and Ellis Island. She was badly damaged in a storm on June 6, 1893.

Broadway Baptist Church was formed in 1867 in a carpenter shop which stood on the present site of the Tabernacle Baptist Church. After ten years of struggle to keep the church active, some members, on October 10, 1877, organized the Tabernacle Baptist Church.

A meeting of the citizens of West Jersey was held in the Camden Court House on June 19, 1868, to consider methods for constructing a bridge across the Delaware River at an estimated cost of $2,000,000. A similar meeting was held in Philadelphia a few days later and it was recommended that a company be formed for the purpose of building the bridge. As a result the Philadelphia & Camden Delaware Bridge Company was incorporated on March 9, 1869.

The paid Fire Department was established on September 2, 1869. The fire apparatus which was installed December 7, 1869 consisted of two engines, two hose carts and one hook and ladder truck. Part of the equipment was housed at Fifth and Plum (now Arch) Streets; and part in the house of the Independence Fire Company in South Camden. William Abels was Chief Fire Marshal at this time. Prior to this the fire protection was furnished by a number of volunteer companies, to each of which the city made a small contribution.