Camden County. 227.52-square-mile county. Comprising thirty-seven municipalities, Camden County is the most densely populated county in southwestern New Jersey. Part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area, it is bounded on the west by the Delaware River and Gloucester County; Atlantic County is to the southeast, and Burlington County is to the northeast. It encompasses inner-city, suburban, and rural sectors with diverse levels of income. The urbanized areas of Camden and Gloucester cities and Pennsauken Township are home to approximately 27 percent of the county’s total population; another 27 percent reside in the rapidly growing townships of Cherry Hill and Voorhees. The borough of Lawnside, settled by local freed slaves and others migrating from Maryland before the Civil War, remains predominantly African American.
Lured by the Concessions and Agree-ments—a document written in 1677 by William Penn and other West Jersey landowners, which included assurances of religious freedom, equitable taxation, and representative government—persecuted Quakers were the first colonists in what was to become Cam-den County. In 1681 they settled along the Delaware River and then spread eastward, between Newton and Cooper’s creeks, to portions of today’s Camden City, Collingswood, Haddonfield, and Haddon Township. Because they sailed from the port of Dublin, Ireland,they were called Irish Quakers and their plot of land, a Tenth (the third Tenth allotted) of the divided West Jersey lands, was dubbed the Third or Irish Tenth.
Economic activity first centered on the Delaware River and the easily navigable portions of the rivers feeding it. Ferrying passengers and agricultural products from the countryside was an early industry and bustling Philadelphia, founded in 1682, an important market.
In 1686, Gloucester County was formed from a union of the Third Tenth and the adjoining Fourth Tenth; the combined area swept from the Delaware River to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1844 Camden County separated from Gloucester County and included Camden City, the county seat, Delaware, Gloucester, Newton, Union, Washington, and Waterford townships. Early settlers are memorialized in place names such as Cooper Hospital, founded by descendants of William Cooper, an original settler. Hoping to establish a town in proximity to Philadelphia, Jacob Cooper arranged streets and lots on his land in 1773, naming it "Camdentowne,” for Charles Pratt, the earl of Camden, an English sympathizer with the American cause of independence.
Skirmishes between British and American forces occurred often during the Revolutionary War in what would later become Camden County. Gen. "Mad” Anthony Wayne, Count Casimir Pulaski, and the young marquis de Lafayette were active in the Haddonfield area.
The disruptions caused by patrons of rowdy taverns, beer halls, and "pleasure gardens,” which served food and drink to passengers awaiting the ferries, threatened to increase with time. The need for police and a court system to maintain law and order in the city resulted in the incorporation of Camden City in 1828. The city was merely a collection of neighborhoods until the arrival of the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 1834 spurred population growth.
After the events at Fort Sumter in 1861, Camdenites rallied to the Union cause. The first volunteer company to apply for service in state regiments was the Zouaves, which served with the New Jersey Fourth Regiment throughout the Civil War. Commanding the Second New Jersey Brigade at Chancellorsville was Gen. William Joyce Sewell, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery. He later had an active business and political career, serving in the state senate and the U.S. Senate.
Walt Whitman visited his ailing mother in Camden City after the war, stayed on at the home of his brother George, then moved into his own dwelling at 330 Mickle Street, where he prepared the last, "deathbed,” edition of Leaves of Grass. He is buried in Harleigh Cemetery, Camden City, in a tomb of his own design.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Camden City emerged as an industrial and commercial leader. Eldridge Johnson established a machine shop, which became the Victor Talking Machine Company, that later merged with RCA. Joseph Campbell and Abraham Anderson started a canning and preserving business, later known as the Campbell Soup Company. The once-famous Esterbrook Pen Company and the New York Shipbuilding Company were established in Camden City prior to World War I, as were knitting mills; lace, leather, and cigar factories; the Van Sciver Furniture Company; and numerous banks. A popular slogan at the time was "On Camden’s supplies, the world relies.”
The Delaware River Bridge, renamed for Benjamin Franklin and dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge in 1926, established a commuters’ route between center city Philadelphia and Camden County. Within the next fifty years, six additional bridges—the Tacony-Palmyra, the Burlington-Bristol, the Delaware Memorial, the Walt Whitman, the Commodore John Barry, and the Betsy Ross— increased automobile access to the region. The High-Speed Line, a rail line opened in 1969, is another important transportation link with Philadelphia. By the 1990s, excellent interstate highways, a skilled labor pool, and an abundant number of industrial parks expanded the county job market. But due to an exodus of white, middle-class residents and the decline of the city’s manufacturing industries, Camden City, with an unemployment rate almost four times higher than the county average, was one of the poorest cities in the nation, dependent on state aid to balance its budget.
To encourage growth, the county’s largest private-sector employers are based in Camden City: Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center, Virtua Health System, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Campbell Company, and Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center. Additional federal, state, and county government offices located there currently make the city the second-largest employment center in South Jersey, after Cherry Hill Township.
Scores of historic sites in the county have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, including fourteen historic districts, five of which are in Camden City. A cultural renaissance along the Camden City waterfront began with the opening of the State Aquarium in 1992; the waterfront area now includes a children’s garden and a regional performing arts center. Nearby, on the campus of Rutgers University, are the Stedman Art Gallery and the Walt Whitman Cultural Center. In addition, the county is home to a children’s museum, two community orchestras, two local theatrical venues, and dozens of organizations devoted to the visual and performing arts.
Camden County has a population of 508,932, according to the 2000 census; the population is 71 percent white, 18 percent black. Median household income was $48,097.
Camden County College. In 1966 Camden County purchased a former seminary in Blackwood, including 320 surrounding acres, for the creation of a community college. Classes began on September 25, 1967. Over the years, the college has experienced impressive growth in physical size, enrollment, and academic offerings. In 1973 a branch of the college opened in Camden City, and in 2000 a campus opened in Cherry Hill. Today, with an enrollment of approximately twelve thousand students, the school is one of the largest community colleges in New Jersey. Academic offerings have expanded over the years to include not only traditional offerings but also well-regarded programs in robotics, computer-integrated manufacturing, nursing, and laser technology.
Camden Riversharks. The Camden Riversharks, a minor league professional baseball team, compete in the Atlantic League and have no Major League affiliation. The Riversharks play at Campbell’s Field, which opened in May 2001. The stadium, owned by Rutgers University, is also home to the Rutgers-Camden college baseball team. Situated near the Ben Franklin Bridge, the stadium seats 6,425 people and offers various amenities, including a picnic area and a 5,000-square-foot playground for children. The Riversharks play 126 regular season games from May through September.
Camp Alfred Vail. Established on a temporary basis in June 1917 to train Signal Corps soldiers for service in World War I, the "Signal Corps Camp at Little Silver” was located in what is now the Borough of Oceanport on 468 acres of the defunct Monmouth Park Race Track Association. It was designated a semi-permanent installation and renamed in honor of New Jersey inventor Alfred E. Vail on September 15, 1917. By the end of 1917, the camp had processed 2,416 enlisted men and 488 officers for service in Europe, including the 1st and 10th Field Service Battalions, the nth Reserve Telegraph Battalion, the 52d, 55th, and 408th Telegraph Battalions, and the 59th Aero Construction Squadron. The Signal Corps Pigeon Breeding and Training Section was established at Camp Alfred Vail in November 1917, and the Signal Corps Radio Laboratory in January 1918. To the latter, the chief signal officer assigned the men and airplanes of the I22d Aero Squadron for experiments in air-to-ground communications and radio direction finding. The Signal Corps School moved to Camp Alfred Vail from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, in September 1919. On August 6, 1925, the War Department declared Camp Alfred Vail "a permanent military post,” and renamed it Fort Monmouth.
Campbell, John Boston (b. 1856;d. Jan. 17, 1934). Industrialist. John Boston Campbell was born in Dumbartonshire, Scotland, near the birthplace of linoleum. He immigrated in 1880 to Brooklyn, New York, where he married Mary S. Lunt and fathered three children. In 1913 he began a five-year assignment to reopen, manage, and expand the American Oil Cloth Company plant in Salem. Shortly after the plant reopened in I9I4, Alexander and Louis Bomberg, brothers who together owned 50 percent of the company, conspired to burn down the plant to collect the insurance money. They attempted to involve Campbell, but he notified his superiors, who alerted the authorities—thus foiling the scheme. When the company reorganized, Campbell was made a vice president. Ten years later, he and his sons founded J. B. Campbell Manufacturing Company, renamed Mannington Mills in I927. When the demand for floor coverings dwindled during the Depression, Campbell kept his factory running and his workers employed by printing racing forms. During the various expansions of the plant, Campbell insisted on using Mannington workers and local residents for construction, declining outside contractors. Still privately held, Mannington is now one of the largest flooring manufacturing companies in the country.
Campbell, Joseph (b. May 15,1817; d. Mar. 27, 1900). Industrial canner. Joseph Campbell was born in Bridgeton, the son of Presbyterian fruit-farmers. His marriage to Sarah Boyd Foster in I858 produced three daughters and a son. In I869, Campbell partnered with Abraham Anderson to form the Camden fruit and vegetable canning firm Anderson and Campbell. After buying out Anderson in I876, Campbell expanded his product line. He also added partners—a son-in-law, William S. Spackman, and an investor, Arthur Dorrance. Dorrance acquired controlling interest in the Joseph Campbell Preserve Company in I889, and became president in I892. Campbell remained devoted to the company, which became the Campbell Soup Company in I922.
Campbell, Milton Gray (b. Dec. 9,1933). Athlete, educator, and motivational speaker. Milt Campbell grew up in Plainfield, where he participated on the football, swimming, and track and field teams at Plainfield High School. Although he made All-American in freestyle swimming and won a football scholarship to Indiana University, Campbell’s high school athletic career was most noteworthy for his performance at the I952 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Championships/ Olympic Trials, where he finished second in the decathlon, qualifying for the Olympic team. In the I952 Helsinki Olympic Games decathlon, Campbell took second place. After returning to Plainfield for his senior year of high school, Campbell won the I953 AAU Championships decathlon with a score that was third on the all-time list. Campbell played football and ran high hurdles in college. At the 1956 AAU Championships/Olympic Trials, he again finished second in the decathlon. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, Campbell became the first African American to win the Olympic decathlon, with an Olympic record score. In 1957, Campbell was drafted by the Cleveland Browns and later played in the Canadian Football League. In 1967, he founded the Chad School in Newark, with a program based around African American culture. He later had a career as a motivational speaker. Milt Campbell was elected to the United States Olympic Committee Hall of Fame in 1992.
Campbell, Lord Neil (fl. 1680s).Scottish proprietor of East Jersey. In the i68osa significant number of Scots became involved in colonizing East Jersey both as investors in the proprietorship and as settlers. Important among them was Lord Neil Campbell, member of a prominent family that included a brother, Archibald, earl of Argylle, executed for leading a rebellion in i685. Under suspicion, Lord Neil was required to post bond and stay in the Edinburgh area. Instead, he requested and received permission to emigrate, taking with him fifty-four settlers, most of whom were servants. While in the colony he served as deputy governor, established an eight thousand-acre estate on the Raritan River, and tried (unsuccessfully) to settle the boundary dispute with West Jersey. He returned to Scotland in i687.
Campbell Soup Company. Joseph Campbell, who had been born in Bridgeton, and Abraham Anderson, from Mount Holly, joined as partners in a Camden tomato canning and preserving firm in i869. They publicized their Beefsteak Tomatoes widely, using the trademarked image of a gigantic tomato hoisted upon two men’s shoulders. In 1876 Anderson and Campbell received a medal for their work at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. When difficulties arose, Campbell bought Anderson out and acquired new partners, including Arthur Dorrance of Bristol, Pennsylvania. In i89i, Dorrance and Campbell incorporated in New Jersey under the name of the Joseph Campbell Preserve Company.
Ready-to-serve tomato soup was one among the two hundred products the company manufactured. Arthur Dorrance’s son, John T. Dorrance, a chemist trained in Germany, joined Campbell’s Camden laboratory in i896, concentrating on the manufacture of condensed soups. Five of them—tomato, chicken, oxtail, vegetable, and consomme— were released in i897. The following year, the company adopted the now famous red-and-white soup-can design that was later celebrated by Pop artist Andy Warhol.
Condensed soups were extremely successful, and John T. Dorrance became a director and vice president of the company and finally its president. Other products were phased out, and the company changed its name to the Campbell Soup Company. During the 1930s Campbell began marketing tomato juice, and by i935 it was the leading tomato juice manufacturer in America. It has consistently promoted new product development ever since.
The most important of many reasons for this rapid and consistent growth was the company’s skill at advertising and marketing its products. Its major advertising image was the Campbell Kids, created by Grace Drayton in 1904. Campbell’s marketing strategy has continued to be successful. Since 1908, the company has regularly published cookbooks promoting its other products. It also relied extensively on newspaper, magazine, radio, and television advertising. In i994 the Campbell Soup Company was inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame. Today it is one of the leading advertisers in the United States.
Campbell has also made important acquisitions. First it acquired the Franco-American Soup Company in Jersey City. After World War II it acquired V8 juice, a blend of eight vegetables along with several flavor enhancers. Since then Campbell has bought many other food producers, including Pep-peridge Farm, Pace Foods, Prego, Swanson, and Godiva chocolates.
Campbell stopped making soup in Camden in i980, and all other manufacturing operations at that site ceased ten years later. Its main tomato processing operations are now located in California, but the company has kept its world headquarters in Camden. Its soups are sold in almost every country, and it remains the largest tomato soup manufacturer in the world.
Campbell Museum. The Campbell Museum originated in 1966 when John T. Dorrance, Jr., chairman, and W. B. Murphy, president, of the Campbell Soup Company started collecting soup-related decorative arts. Chartered as a nonprofit organization by the state of New Jersey, the museum opened in 1970 in Camden, at the headquarters of the Campbell Soup Company. It included exhibit space, along with a theater for films and lectures. The museum housed an extensive and unique collection of utensils, including tureens, bowls, spoons, and ladles, that were connected to the company’s main product—soup. While most of the items were old and historic, the collection also contained contemporary examples designed by modern crafts persons. By the i990s declining attendance led to the decision to close the museum. In i996, the collection was transferred to the Winterthur Museum and Gardens in Delaware with an agreement that it would show the collection in a single gallery and in 1942, Camp Kilmer was the nation’s first army camp built specifically for the staging of troops. Covering more than fifteen hundred acres, the base contained more than twelve hundred buildings, including accommodations for fifty thousand troops at one time. Its general arrangement, particularly the innovative use of camouflaged buildings, was designed to confuse enemy bombardiers during an air attack. More than one thousand German and Italian prisoners of war were interned at the camp during World War II.
The main gate of Camp Kilmer, c. 1951.
Camp Kilmer. The U.S. Army camp located two miles east of New Brunswick was named for Sgt. Alfred Joyce Kilmer, a native of New Brunswick killed during World War I and a poet best known for "Trees.” Activated in 1942, Camp Kilmer was the nation’s first army camp built specifically for the staging of troops. Covering more than fifteen hundred
acres, the base contained more than twelve hundred buildings, including accommodations for fifty thousand troop sat one time. Its general arrangement, particularly the innovative use of camouflaged buildings, was designed to confuse enemy bombardiers during an air attack. More than one thousand German and Italian prisoners of war were interned
at the camp during World War II.
Deactivated in 1949, the base was reopened during the Korean War and remained operational through 1955. It served as a reception center for thirty thousand Hungarian refugees who fled the Soviet invasion of their country in 1956. A regional maintenance and support facility for U.S. Army Nike missile batteries was constructed at the base during 1959.
Camp Kilmer was permanently closed in 1962. The majority of its land and infrastructure became the Kilmer Campus of Rutgers University, including Livingston College. The only remaining vestige of the base’s military past is the Joyce Kilmer Army Reserve Center, headquarters of the 78th Division.
