Charles M. Abrahamson was born in Sweden around 1856. He came to America in 1876. The 1880 Census shows him living in Philadelphia, where he worked as a clerk in a store. He was then a lodger in the home of Frederic Sohn, at 489 York Avenue. He married around 1881.
In 1882 he opened a secondary school, known as the Commercial School, at 608 Broadway. He also married about this time. According to George Reeser Prowell’s History of Camden County, New Jersey there were 109 students enrolled in 1885. The following year, only 49 were in attendance. The Commercial School was still open at 608 Broadway with Abrahamson as principal. One of the more notable students who attended classes during these years was long-time Camden political and business leader Alfred L. Sayres.
Charles M. Abrahamson later moved his home and his school to 506 Penn Street, near the home of advertising magnate F. Wayland Ayer and the present Rutgers University campus in Camden. He was at that site as late as 1904. The 1905-1906 Camden City Directory shows that he once again moved, this time to 426 North 4th Street.
The 1910 Census shows that Charles M. Abrahamson and his wife of 28 years, Matilda “Tillie” Abrahamson, were living at 426 North 4th Street. He was still the principal of the Commercial School at that time. Also at home were daughters Anna and Edith, and sons William, Herbert, and Louis.
Charles M. Abrahamson owned at 426 North 4th Street until the mid 1920s, when that block was taken and razed to make way for the new Delaware River Bridge. The 1924-1925 and the 1926 Directories show that he had relocated his school once again, this time to 207 Market Street. He himself had moved to 20 North 42nd street by 1924, sons William and Louis were still on North 4th Street. He is not listed in the Camden City Directory after the 1926 edition, nor are his sons. All who were still residing at 426 North 4th Street had apparently left for the suburbs in the wake of the bridge construction.
By 1930 Charles M. Abrahamson had passed away. Matilda Abrahamson was living with her daughter Mrs. Anna Davenport in Collingswood at the time the 1930 Census was enumerated.
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Charles M. Abrahamson
, where he worked as a clerk in a store. He was then a lodger in the home of Frederic Sohn, at 489 York Avenue. He married around 1881.
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