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\”Let it be remembered,\” wrote Thomas Sharp in 1718, \”that upon the nineteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and eighty-one, Mark Newby, William Bates, Thomas Thackara, George Goldsmith and Thomas Sharp set sail from the harbor…of Dublin…We took our land in one tract together…bounding in the forks of Newton Creek and so over to Cooper\’s Creek…\” Sharp\’s narrative account of the first permanent European settlement in what is today West Collingswood is the most accurate history of the establishment of Camden County.

Many of the early settlers in late seventeenth and early eighteenth century West Jersey (modern day South Jersey) were, like the Newton Colony people, Quakers – members of the Society of Friends, persecuted in England for their religious beliefs and way of life. They came, lured by the Concessions and Agreements, a document written in 1677 by proprietors such as William Penn who owned a large portion of the land in West Jersey and wished to encourage Quaker settlement in the area. The settlement offered the promise of religious freedom, equitable taxation, and representative government.

Quakers were not the first people to arrive on New Jersey\’s shores. Some 13,000-15,000 years earlier, after a long migration eastward beginning in Asia and leading over the Bering Strait through Alaska and across the American continent, the Paleo-Indians (Old Stone Age Peoples), whose descendents eventually became known as the Lenape, had arrived. The Lenape were peace-loving, semi-nomadic people who lived in small family groups along the banks of waterways, spoke an Algonquian language, farmed, hunted, and fished.

According to Herbert Kraft, author of The Lenape, published in 1986 by the New Jersey Historical Society, \”Lenape\” in the Unami dialect, meant \”our men,\” \”men of the same nation,\” or, \”common people.\” Names such as Delaware, Munsi, Lenape, Unami, etc., are 17th and 18th century appellations which did not exist at the time of European contact; as a matter of fact, Kraft states, the Lenape Indians \”…were not a tribe in the political sense.\” To the explorers who encountered them along the Delaware River they simply became known as \”the Delaware.\”

The Quakers had also been preceded by a small band of Dutch families sent by the Dutch West India Company to establish a minor trading and fur post on the Delaware River. Fort Nasau, probably established in 1626 near today\’s Gloucester City, continued in use however for only about 25 years; it was taken over in turn by the English and the Swedes and again came under the authority of the Dutch. Finally, it was ordered dismantled by Peter Stuyvesant in 1651. Thirteen years later the English again triumphed in New Jersey and the Dutch were forced to cede the entire colony.

Camden County institutions, municipalities, and streets still bear the names of many of those who made this area their new home. Elizabeth Haddon, immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Tales of a Wayside Inn, arrived alone in 1701 to look after her father\’s land claims, and gave the family name to \”Haddon\’s Field.\” She married John Estaugh, a Quaker minister with whom she had an acquaintance in England. Elizabeth, herself, was much esteemed by the Friends and minister in her own right.

Early settlers also included William and Benjamin Cooper, whose descendants founded Cooper Hospital and Coopers Ferry; The Kaighns, Gills, Stokes, Collings, Coles, Ellises, Zanes, Burroughs, Kays, Morgans, Matlacks, and many, many others.

A ferry operated as early as 1688 by William Royden, then by William Cooper and, after 1693, by Cooper\’s son, Daniel, provided the earliest means of communication and transportation between the two colonies on the Delaware River. For nearly a century the settlement which grew up around it was known as Coopers Ferry; it became a center of activity during the Revolutionary War period, 1777-78, while the British occupied Philadelphia. British troops often crossed the river, disembarking at the ferry landing near the Benjamin Cooper House (Point and Erie Streets) to forage for food supplies in the surrounding countryside.

Because Quakers opposed war and most would not bear arms for either side, many of the sect were harassed and imprisoned. Military skirmishes in the area involved such well-known figures as General \”Mad\” Anthony Wayne; the young Marquis de Lafayette, who earned a command for his attack on British forces near today\’s Gloucester City in November 1777; and the Polish count Casimir Pulaski.

Although in 1764 William Cooper\’s great-grandson, Jacob, purchased land for subdivision in what is today known as Camden, few homes were established there until well after the Revolutionary War. By the close of that period only three houses had been erected between Third Street and the Cooper river and all belonged to members of the Cooper family. The namesake of the new settlement was Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden, an English nobleman who supported the American cause in Parliament.

In 1803 additional lots were laid out north and south of Arch Street between Front and fifth Streets. In 1820 Edward Sharp, envisioning a bridge and ferry system between Camden and Philadelphia, broadened the enclave from the south side of Federal Street to just beyond today\’s Mickle Boulevard from the river to Fifty Street and called it Camden Village.

Nonetheless, the City did not really begin to grow until 1834; the coming of the Camden and Amboy Railroad helped spur its population growth to 9,500 by mid-century. In 1838 a canal had been cut through Windmill Island in the middle of the Delaware River, making ferry travel easier under all weather conditions. The shortened commuter time combined with an increasing number of businesses and services made Camden an attractive place to live.

During the period following Camden County\’s separation from Gloucester County in 1844, the county population, having expanded greatly, exceeded 25,000. In 1853 a new county courthouse designed by noted architect Samuel Sloan was erected halfway between Market and Federal Streets. That same year the Camden and Atlantic Railroad (later the Pennsylvania Railroad) began its first run from Camden to Haddonfield. The following year it was extended almost to Atlantic City.

Later, during the Civil War, many Camdenites supported and fought for the Union cause. The Zouaves, a volunteer company, was the first to apply for service in state regiments. They fought at Antietam, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, and in the Wilderness Campaign; they marched with Sherman, fought in the Shenandoah Valley, and served under courageous officers such as General William Joyce Sewell. Those who died are memorialized at the Gettysburg Battlefield and by the Soldiers\’ Monument at Haddon Avenue and Mickle boulevard next to Cooper Hospital.

The postwar period brought the poet Walt Whitman to Camden where he first lived with his brother, George, on Stevens Street and later at 330 Mickle Street, Camden — today a National Historic Landmark maintained by the State of New Jersey. Whitman prepared the final or \”deathbed edition\” of Leaves of Grass in the Mickle Street house.

Portions of \”Specimen Days,\” a long essay on nature, in diary form, were written during the summer months Whitman spent convalescing at Laurel Springs. The poet\’s remains rest in a mausoleum of his own design in Camden\’s Harleigh Cemetery, a late-Victorian burial ground in the park-lawn style.

The end of the nineteenth century marked the beginning of Camden\’s emergence as a industrial and commercial leader. Eldridge Johnson\’s machine shop gave way to the Victor Talking Machine Company, predecessor of RCA, which ended its presence in the city in 1988.

In 1869 Joseph Campbell and Abram Anderson founded a preserving company that eventually became known as the Campbell Soup Company. The company flourished in the city of Camden during the next century, but will close it\’s processing facilities and gamble on Camden\’s future by erecting its corporate headquarters at the Waterfront Center.

The Esterbrook Pen and New York Shipbuilding Companies had established themselves in Camden before World War I. By then a popular saying was, \”On Camden\’s supplies the world relies.\” Immigrant labor seeking economic opportunity helped increase the city population, providing a welcome source of abundant and cheap labor for the many industries which sprung up. Cigars, sausages, patent drugs, leather goods, iron products, ships, linoleum, carriage bodies, gas mantles, and terra cotta items were among the hundreds of products manufactured in the county.

In 1926 President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the Delaware River Bridge, later renamed for Benjamin Franklin. It opened the way for commuters to work in Philadelphia and live in the Camden suburbs. A second bridge, the Walt Whitman, opened 31 years later, connecting Philadelphia and Gloucester City; in 1976 the Betsy Ross Bridge, linking Philadelphia and Pennsauken, opened to traffic.

These routes and the development of high-speed rail transportation between Camden and Philadelphia have helped to push the county\’s population over the half million mark. This, combined with a broad economic and industrial base, several centers for higher education, three major hospitals, and an excellent interstate road system and connections, offer a bright future for the county.

County Historian & Director, Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission

– This material is from \”Know Your County\”, published by the League of Women Voters (1991). More information about the history of Camden County is available at the Library or through the Camden County Historical Society.

LAWRENCEVILLE — Sophomore Desmond Hamilton (Pennsauken) has qualified for the NCAA National Track & Field Championships in the long jump. \”In all of the years that Rider has had track and field, he is only the second person to get to nationals,\” said Rider head coach Rob Pasquariello.

Hamilton placed fifth in the men’s long jump with a distance of 7.45m (24’5.5\”) at the NCAA Regional Championships, hosted by the University of Florida May 25 in James G. Pressly Stadium at Percy Beard Track and qualified for the NCAA Championships.

\”The top five automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships,\” Pasquariello said. \”Our goal down there was to get to Nationals, and he did that.\”

\”I wanted to come in first,\” said Hamilton, who was the highest seed after a qualifying mark of 7.83m (25’8.75\”) made him the top seed in the Regional. \”To come in fifth and be just the second Rider athlete to qualify for Nationals is an accomplishment I am very proud of.\”

The 2007 NCAA Championships are June 6-9 in Sacramento, California. \”I’ve never been to ‘Cali’, and I am looking forward to it,\” Hamilton said.

The only other Bronc to ever compete at the NCAA Track & Field Championships was Jose Lopez in the 400m hurdles in 1994. \”That was my goal, to qualify for Nationals,\” Hamilton said. \”By ultimate goal was to place first. Now that will be my goal at Nationals. To put Rider on the map. If I can finish in the top 10, I’ll be an All-American. I’m going to try to win it, but top 10 would be good enough. \”

\”For a school our size to get somebody in there is pretty exceptional,\” Pasquariello said. \”And he has a legitimate chance of becoming an all-American. Out of over 200 Division I track & field programs to be one of the 24 athletes to make it to the National championships is a pretty big accomplishment.\”

At the ICAAAA Championships May 12, Hamilton won the long jump (25’8.75\”) and placed ninth in the 100m (10.75). The long jump distance ranked Hamilton fourth in the nation and his win was only the third all-time for Rider in IC4A competition and first since 1994.

\”Desmond continues to prove he is a big meet performer,\” said Pasquariello. \”I told him that morning that he could get at least 25 feet and he even exceeded what I thought he would do. The conditions were right for him to do well and he has done all of the things that we have asked so that he can succeed. He’s young and raw and our expectations for him keep going up. He set four ‘PR’s’ while winning the competition and that’s an impressive effort.\”

At the 2007 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships Hamilton won the long jump with a Rider record 7.28m, ran on the winning 4 x 100 relay, placed second in the 100m (10.55) and placed second n the 200m (21.42). His times in the 100 and 200 broke the old MAAC Championship records.

As a freshman at the 2006 MAAC Championships, Hamilton won the men’s long jump (7.02m) despite being sick all day. \”We told Desmond maybe he should be sick more often,\” said Pasquariello. \”Desmond has unlimited potential, on the track and in the jumps,\” said Pasquariello.

\”I had food poisoning or a stomach virus, I’m not sure which, but I was pretty much out of it the day before,\” said Hamilton. \”But there was never a doubt that I would be competing. Winning the long jump was a bit of a surprise today because I was so sick.\”

\”As a freshman he came in very confident, all the schools wanted him, and he has done everything we have asked of him,\” Pasquariello said. \”With his attitude and talent he is going to be something special.\”

Hamilton was also a standout basketball player at Pennsauken, earning all-conference honors, but gave up basketball his senior year to concentrate on his true love, track & field. \”I had to concentrate on track & field so I could get a scholarship,\” Hamilton remembers. \”There were a few schools recruiting me, but I really liked it here at Rider. The coaching staff and members of the team really made me feel comfortable here.\”

\”Desmond does everything you ask of him, and is willing to do whatever it takes to improve,\” said Pasquariello. \”You can’t ask more than that.\”

The qualifying rounds at the NCAA Championships are Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm Eastern Time, and the Finals are Thursday at 9:30 pm Eastern Time.

-RU-

Memories- At a Saturday night wedding reception, the year is around 1969. Who got married no one knows but they are having fun. From left, George Cleary, (look close you can just see him) Ed Simila, Lou Grello, Bob Seufert and John Azzari. The young ladies are unknown.

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\”Let it be remembered,\” wrote Thomas Sharp in 1718, \”that upon the nineteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and eighty-one, Mark Newby, William Bates, Thomas Thackara, George Goldsmith and Thomas Sharp set sail from the harbor…of Dublin…We took our land in one tract together…bounding in the forks of Newton Creek and so over to Cooper\’s Creek…\” Sharp\’s narrative account of the first permanent European settlement in what is today West Collingswood is the most accurate history of the establishment of Camden County.

Many of the early settlers in late seventeenth and early eighteenth century West Jersey (modern day South Jersey) were, like the Newton Colony people, Quakers – members of the Society of Friends, persecuted in England for their religious beliefs and way of life. They came, lured by the Concessions and Agreements, a document written in 1677 by proprietors such as William Penn who owned a large portion of the land in West Jersey and wished to encourage Quaker settlement in the area. The settlement offered the promise of religious freedom, equitable taxation, and representative government.

Quakers were not the first people to arrive on New Jersey\’s shores. Some 13,000-15,000 years earlier, after a long migration eastward beginning in Asia and leading over the Bering Strait through Alaska and across the American continent, the Paleo-Indians (Old Stone Age Peoples), whose descendents eventually became known as the Lenape, had arrived. The Lenape were peace-loving, semi-nomadic people who lived in small family groups along the banks of waterways, spoke an Algonquian language, farmed, hunted, and fished.

According to Herbert Kraft, author of The Lenape, published in 1986 by the New Jersey Historical Society, \”Lenape\” in the Unami dialect, meant \”our men,\” \”men of the same nation,\” or, \”common people.\” Names such as Delaware, Munsi, Lenape, Unami, etc., are 17th and 18th century appellations which did not exist at the time of European contact; as a matter of fact, Kraft states, the Lenape Indians \”…were not a tribe in the political sense.\” To the explorers who encountered them along the Delaware River they simply became known as \”the Delaware.\”

The Quakers had also been preceded by a small band of Dutch families sent by the Dutch West India Company to establish a minor trading and fur post on the Delaware River. Fort Nasau, probably established in 1626 near today\’s Gloucester City, continued in use however for only about 25 years; it was taken over in turn by the English and the Swedes and again came under the authority of the Dutch. Finally, it was ordered dismantled by Peter Stuyvesant in 1651. Thirteen years later the English again triumphed in New Jersey and the Dutch were forced to cede the entire colony.

Camden County institutions, municipalities, and streets still bear the names of many of those who made this area their new home. Elizabeth Haddon, immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Tales of a Wayside Inn, arrived alone in 1701 to look after her father\’s land claims, and gave the family name to \”Haddon\’s Field.\” She married John Estaugh, a Quaker minister with whom she had an acquaintance in England. Elizabeth, herself, was much esteemed by the Friends and minister in her own right.

Early settlers also included William and Benjamin Cooper, whose descendants founded Cooper Hospital and Coopers Ferry; The Kaighns, Gills, Stokes, Collings, Coles, Ellises, Zanes, Burroughs, Kays, Morgans, Matlacks, and many, many others.

A ferry operated as early as 1688 by William Royden, then by William Cooper and, after 1693, by Cooper\’s son, Daniel, provided the earliest means of communication and transportation between the two colonies on the Delaware River. For nearly a century the settlement which grew up around it was known as Coopers Ferry; it became a center of activity during the Revolutionary War period, 1777-78, while the British occupied Philadelphia. British troops often crossed the river, disembarking at the ferry landing near the Benjamin Cooper House (Point and Erie Streets) to forage for food supplies in the surrounding countryside.

Because Quakers opposed war and most would not bear arms for either side, many of the sect were harassed and imprisoned. Military skirmishes in the area involved such well-known figures as General \”Mad\” Anthony Wayne; the young Marquis de Lafayette, who earned a command for his attack on British forces near today\’s Gloucester City in November 1777; and the Polish count Casimir Pulaski.

Although in 1764 William Cooper\’s great-grandson, Jacob, purchased land for subdivision in what is today known as Camden, few homes were established there until well after the Revolutionary War. By the close of that period only three houses had been erected between Third Street and the Cooper river and all belonged to members of the Cooper family. The namesake of the new settlement was Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden, an English nobleman who supported the American cause in Parliament.

In 1803 additional lots were laid out north and south of Arch Street between Front and fifth Streets. In 1820 Edward Sharp, envisioning a bridge and ferry system between Camden and Philadelphia, broadened the enclave from the south side of Federal Street to just beyond today\’s Mickle Boulevard from the river to Fifty Street and called it Camden Village.

Nonetheless, the City did not really begin to grow until 1834; the coming of the Camden and Amboy Railroad helped spur its population growth to 9,500 by mid-century. In 1838 a canal had been cut through Windmill Island in the middle of the Delaware River, making ferry travel easier under all weather conditions. The shortened commuter time combined with an increasing number of businesses and services made Camden an attractive place to live.

During the period following Camden County\’s separation from Gloucester County in 1844, the county population, having expanded greatly, exceeded 25,000. In 1853 a new county courthouse designed by noted architect Samuel Sloan was erected halfway between Market and Federal Streets. That same year the Camden and Atlantic Railroad (later the Pennsylvania Railroad) began its first run from Camden to Haddonfield. The following year it was extended almost to Atlantic City.

Later, during the Civil War, many Camdenites supported and fought for the Union cause. The Zouaves, a volunteer company, was the first to apply for service in state regiments. They fought at Antietam, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, and in the Wilderness Campaign; they marched with Sherman, fought in the Shenandoah Valley, and served under courageous officers such as General William Joyce Sewell. Those who died are memorialized at the Gettysburg Battlefield and by the Soldiers\’ Monument at Haddon Avenue and Mickle boulevard next to Cooper Hospital.

The postwar period brought the poet Walt Whitman to Camden where he first lived with his brother, George, on Stevens Street and later at 330 Mickle Street, Camden — today a National Historic Landmark maintained by the State of New Jersey. Whitman prepared the final or \”deathbed edition\” of Leaves of Grass in the Mickle Street house.

Portions of \”Specimen Days,\” a long essay on nature, in diary form, were written during the summer months Whitman spent convalescing at Laurel Springs. The poet\’s remains rest in a mausoleum of his own design in Camden\’s Harleigh Cemetery, a late-Victorian burial ground in the park-lawn style.

The end of the nineteenth century marked the beginning of Camden\’s emergence as a industrial and commercial leader. Eldridge Johnson\’s machine shop gave way to the Victor Talking Machine Company, predecessor of RCA, which ended its presence in the city in 1988.

In 1869 Joseph Campbell and Abram Anderson founded a preserving company that eventually became known as the Campbell Soup Company. The company flourished in the city of Camden during the next century, but will close it\’s processing facilities and gamble on Camden\’s future by erecting its corporate headquarters at the Waterfront Center.

The Esterbrook Pen and New York Shipbuilding Companies had established themselves in Camden before World War I. By then a popular saying was, \”On Camden\’s supplies the world relies.\” Immigrant labor seeking economic opportunity helped increase the city population, providing a welcome source of abundant and cheap labor for the many industries which sprung up. Cigars, sausages, patent drugs, leather goods, iron products, ships, linoleum, carriage bodies, gas mantles, and terra cotta items were among the hundreds of products manufactured in the county.

In 1926 President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the Delaware River Bridge, later renamed for Benjamin Franklin. It opened the way for commuters to work in Philadelphia and live in the Camden suburbs. A second bridge, the Walt Whitman, opened 31 years later, connecting Philadelphia and Gloucester City; in 1976 the Betsy Ross Bridge, linking Philadelphia and Pennsauken, opened to traffic.

These routes and the development of high-speed rail transportation between Camden and Philadelphia have helped to push the county\’s population over the half million mark. This, combined with a broad economic and industrial base, several centers for higher education, three major hospitals, and an excellent interstate road system and connections, offer a bright future for the county.

County Historian & Director, Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission

– This material is from \”Know Your County\”, published by the League of Women Voters (1991). More information about the history of Camden County is available at the Library or through the Camden County Historical Society.

LAWRENCEVILLE — Sophomore Desmond Hamilton (Pennsauken) has qualified for the NCAA National Track & Field Championships in the long jump. \”In all of the years that Rider has had track and field, he is only the second person to get to nationals,\” said Rider head coach Rob Pasquariello.

Hamilton placed fifth in the men’s long jump with a distance of 7.45m (24’5.5\”) at the NCAA Regional Championships, hosted by the University of Florida May 25 in James G. Pressly Stadium at Percy Beard Track and qualified for the NCAA Championships.

\”The top five automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships,\” Pasquariello said. \”Our goal down there was to get to Nationals, and he did that.\”

\”I wanted to come in first,\” said Hamilton, who was the highest seed after a qualifying mark of 7.83m (25’8.75\”) made him the top seed in the Regional. \”To come in fifth and be just the second Rider athlete to qualify for Nationals is an accomplishment I am very proud of.\”

The 2007 NCAA Championships are June 6-9 in Sacramento, California. \”I’ve never been to ‘Cali’, and I am looking forward to it,\” Hamilton said.

The only other Bronc to ever compete at the NCAA Track & Field Championships was Jose Lopez in the 400m hurdles in 1994. \”That was my goal, to qualify for Nationals,\” Hamilton said. \”By ultimate goal was to place first. Now that will be my goal at Nationals. To put Rider on the map. If I can finish in the top 10, I’ll be an All-American. I’m going to try to win it, but top 10 would be good enough. \”

\”For a school our size to get somebody in there is pretty exceptional,\” Pasquariello said. \”And he has a legitimate chance of becoming an all-American. Out of over 200 Division I track & field programs to be one of the 24 athletes to make it to the National championships is a pretty big accomplishment.\”

At the ICAAAA Championships May 12, Hamilton won the long jump (25’8.75\”) and placed ninth in the 100m (10.75). The long jump distance ranked Hamilton fourth in the nation and his win was only the third all-time for Rider in IC4A competition and first since 1994.

\”Desmond continues to prove he is a big meet performer,\” said Pasquariello. \”I told him that morning that he could get at least 25 feet and he even exceeded what I thought he would do. The conditions were right for him to do well and he has done all of the things that we have asked so that he can succeed. He’s young and raw and our expectations for him keep going up. He set four ‘PR’s’ while winning the competition and that’s an impressive effort.\”

At the 2007 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships Hamilton won the long jump with a Rider record 7.28m, ran on the winning 4 x 100 relay, placed second in the 100m (10.55) and placed second n the 200m (21.42). His times in the 100 and 200 broke the old MAAC Championship records.

As a freshman at the 2006 MAAC Championships, Hamilton won the men’s long jump (7.02m) despite being sick all day. \”We told Desmond maybe he should be sick more often,\” said Pasquariello. \”Desmond has unlimited potential, on the track and in the jumps,\” said Pasquariello.

\”I had food poisoning or a stomach virus, I’m not sure which, but I was pretty much out of it the day before,\” said Hamilton. \”But there was never a doubt that I would be competing. Winning the long jump was a bit of a surprise today because I was so sick.\”

\”As a freshman he came in very confident, all the schools wanted him, and he has done everything we have asked of him,\” Pasquariello said. \”With his attitude and talent he is going to be something special.\”

Hamilton was also a standout basketball player at Pennsauken, earning all-conference honors, but gave up basketball his senior year to concentrate on his true love, track & field. \”I had to concentrate on track & field so I could get a scholarship,\” Hamilton remembers. \”There were a few schools recruiting me, but I really liked it here at Rider. The coaching staff and members of the team really made me feel comfortable here.\”

\”Desmond does everything you ask of him, and is willing to do whatever it takes to improve,\” said Pasquariello. \”You can’t ask more than that.\”

The qualifying rounds at the NCAA Championships are Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm Eastern Time, and the Finals are Thursday at 9:30 pm Eastern Time.

-RU-

By Dr. James Doster

A special dinner meeting was held Tuesday, May 22nd to discuss the concept of bringing a retired U.S. Navy warship to Gloucester City as a museum ship. The meeting, at Vincent\’s Seafood Restaurant in Gloucester City, was hosted by Dr. Jim Doster and brought together Gloucester city leaders, from the government and business sector, with experts in marine issues and Navy procedures pursuant to museum ship donations. The key speaker was Captain Jim Aldrich, USN (ret) who laid out the process required to procure a retired ship from the Navy. Photo USS Chas Adams at full power

The ship being discussed is the USS Charles F. Adams DDG-2. Adams is the class leader of 23 DDGs built for the US Navy and 6 built for foreign navies. The USS Charles F. Adams is 437 feet long with a beam of 47 feet and is the first ship ever built from the keel up as a missile ship. The USS Charles F. Adams is armed with two 5\” 54 caliber gun mounts, six MK46 torpedo tubes, a twin rail MK11 Tartar missile launcher and an eight tube MK16 Anti-Submarine Rocket (ASROC) launcher. Adams was capable of carrying 42 Standard or Harpoon missiles and the ship had nuclear weapons capability with the MK16 ASROC launcher. The personnel compliment of the Charles F. Adams was 363 enlisted men and 20 officers. The keel was laid for the Charles F. Adams on June 16, 1958 and the ship was officially decommissioned on August 1, 1990. Currently, the Charles F. Adams is moored in the back basin of the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Adams Survey Team  (onboard the Adams last week) from left, Wayne Misenar, Dave Myerly, Harold Strassner, Bill Hunteman, Bill Reinard, Captain Dick Feckler, Captain Bob Branco, Dr. Jim Doster

Representing the City of Gloucester City at the meeting was Mayor Bill James, Councilman Jay Brophy and Bob Bevan. The business community was represented by Gloucester City Small Business Association President Dave Stallwood and Vice President Ken MacAdams. Also present at the meeting were 14 former Navy men who are part of the Adams Class Veteran\’s Association (AVCA) which was formed with a vision to preserve the last remaining DDG of the class as a memorial to the over 60,000 men who operated these great ships. The men of the ACVA were also in town for the purpose of conducting a detailed onboard survey of the material condition of the Adams. During the two day survey, over 335 spaces were inspected, cataloged and discrepancies were chronicled so as to provide a valid baseline for the restoration efforts to bring Adams to museum status.

The benefits to Gloucester City of having the USS Charles F. Adams as a museum ship are varied and numerous. Discussed were the prospects of overnight programs onboard the ship as well as \”Reservations Only\” dining in the Officer\’s Wardroom. Area NJROTC units, Sea Scouts and Sea Cadets could all utilize the ships facilities for training and recruitment. Shipboard firefighting training and marine emergency response training were also proposed onboard the Adams. Area veteran\’s groups would play a large part in the project once the Navy releases the ship to Gloucester City and the ACVA. Daily guided tours would be a positive draw for the city\’s tourism industry as the Waterfront Development project takes shape.

The first step in procuring the USS Charles F. Adams as a Museum Ship is the filing of a 500+ page application to the Navy, which details towing, maintenance, insurance, mooring, security, environmental and feasibility issues. The ACVA has procured the services of a well respected Marine Engineer, Joe Lombardi who will guide the application process to ensure compliance with all the intricacies which the Navy requires. The City of Gloucester City and the business leaders are exploring avenues in which they could be involved in the mammoth undertaking of establishing a Museum Ship on our waterfront.

Several local residents, upon hearing of the possibility of Adams coming to Gloucester City, have already volunteered to spend time onboard cleaning, painting and restoring the history warship to her original condition. Once the Navy releases the ship to the ACVA and Gloucester City, there will be plenty of work for all hands, but just imagine………What a asset the USS Charles F. Adams would be for our City!

more info

MORRISON

Margaret Mary

On May 30, 2007. (nee Kelly) Age 98. Of Woodbury. Formerly of Gloucester City. Beloved daughter of the late Peter Kelly and Delia (nee Brennan).

Loving wife of 62 years of the late Louis James Morrison. Devoted mother of Mary Morrison Williams, Edward J. Morrison, and Anne R. Piontkowski. Caring sister of Joseph, James and Edward Kelly and sister-in-law Jean Morrison. Beloved grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of 14.

Margaret was a graduate of Camden Catholic High School class of 1927. She was resident of Woodbury for 40 years where she was a parishioner of St. Patrick\’s R.C. Church and a member of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas: Court Queen of Peace #1398. She lived in Gloucester City for 30 years and was a former parishioner of St. Mary\’s R.C. Church as well as a member of the Altar and Rosary Society. Margaret was also a member of Catholic Daughters of America: Court Giese #439.

Relatives, friends and members of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas are kindly invited to attend her viewing on Monday Morning from 10 am to 12 noon at Saint Mary\’s R.C. Church: 426 Monmouth Street, Gloucester City, NJ 08030. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 12 noon in the church. Interment New Saint Mary\’s Cemetery, Bellmawr.

Family requests that memorial donations in lieu of flowers be made in Margaret\’s memory to St. Mary\’s R. C. Church Memorial Fund at the above address or to St. Patrick\’s Parish Center c/o St. Patrick\’s R.C. Church, 64 Cooper Street, Woodbury NJ 08096. Please write in the memo of the check Margaret Mary Morrison. Expressions of sympathy can be e-mailed to the family through our funeral home website www.mccannhealey.com under online obituaries of Margaret Mary Morrison.

Memories- At a Saturday night wedding reception, the year is around 1969. Who got married no one knows but they are having fun. From left, George Cleary, (look close you can just see him) Ed Simila, Lou Grello, Bob Seufert and John Azzari. The young ladies are unknown.

from the pages of the Courier Post

The Rev. G. Richard Civalier was 33 when he was welcomed to the Episcopal Church of the Ascension after a missionary journey in Newfoundland. But Civalier, who has been church rector for 27 years, said his life almost took another route.

\”I was convinced that I would be a hotel manager,\” Civalier said. \”But then I just felt that I was being drawn to something else.\”

After majoring in business at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, Civalier said he was called to the priesthood during a church service in Woodbury in 1968.

More than a decade later, Civalier said he was instantly attracted to Ascension\’s family-centered congregation. He and other church officials at the 160-year-old Episcopal church boast a strong tradition of keeping multiple generations of families involved.

Anna Rettew, 89, who was born and raised in Gloucester City, said the church has played a vital role continues