Dr. Henry H. Davis
Dr. Henry Hill Davis was born at Crosswicks, New Jersey, on August 16, 1848. He began the study of medicine in 1867 in the office of Dr. Alexander Mecray, enrolled at Jefferson Medical College that fall, and graduated in March 1869. At the same time he completed a course in pharmacy at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, and then began practicing medicine in Camden. In 1874 he opened a drug store, which he conducted alongside his practice through at least 1886. In 1881 he joined the Camden County and Camden City Medical Societies and the State Medical Society. He ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Camden in 1883, losing to Claudius W. Bradshaw.
For most of the 1880s Davis made his home and conducted his practice and pharmacy at 299 Kaighn Avenue, at the northwest corner of Third Street and Kaighn Avenue; by the 1890–1891 City Directory he had moved to the southeast corner. He later served as a physician at the Camden City Dispensary, one of the city's early hospitals. The 1910 census recorded him and his wife residing in the apartments at 232 North 2nd Street, at the southeast corner of Second and Penn. He later lived with his wife, the former Harriet Blizzard, at 417 Cooper Street.
Over his career Davis served as a school board member and county coroner, and became Camden's first medical inspector and first chief medical inspector. He spent many years on the Board of Health, serving as its president when the Camden Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases was planned and built. He was also Chief of the Medical Department of Camden's public schools and the first School Medical Inspector in the State of New Jersey.
Plans for the Municipal Hospital were drawn in 1910, and construction began in 1912 under a building committee of Raymond L. Warren, John A. Mather Jr., and William H. Kensinger, M.D. The 1912 Board of Health comprised Davis as president, Dr. Marcus K. Mines, E. Winner Collins, Reuben L. Gaskill, Dr. S. G. Bushey, Dr. Melbourne F. Middleton, and Dr. William I. Kelchner. Bids to equip the hospital were let in 1914, and Dr. David Rhone was active in selecting the medical supplies and equipment.
In September 1911 four assistant medical inspectors were appointed in addition to Chief Medical Inspector Davis, and the medical department made significant strides in preserving the health and well-being of the students. In the first full month the five medical inspectors examined more than 2,700 students. The department also kept statistics on the childhood diseases prevalent in the schools and provided vaccinations in greater numbers. A year later the board appointed Dr. Roscoe L. Moore, a graduate of Camden High School, class of 1903, as an assistant medical inspector for the colored schools at a salary of $240 a year.
By the time school opened in September 1911, the district had immigrant pupils from Germany, Italy, England, Prussia, Poland, Romania, and Holland in its classrooms. In one month alone the medical department found 81 children with malnutrition among them, 16 native-born Americans with defective vision, and 84 with periodontal problems. The teachers' club told the board of the medical department's wonderful work, and the teachers agreed that the examinations alone reduced student absences and alerted teachers to medical problems. The department had a great deal of success meeting with parents who were more or less opposed to vaccination, but where parents refused to have their children vaccinated, the board refused the children admittance. The department also had the board pass a rule that a teacher found to have a communicable disease during the school year lost no salary for the time lost, up to 30 days.
In February 1913 scarlet fever reached epidemic proportions in the school district, and in March it was measles. Davis felt that epidemics resulted from there being too many families where diseases existed but who had no physicians to report them. If parents gave immediate attention to every case of a simple sore throat, they could prevent many severe and fatal cases of diphtheria and scarlet fever. He warned parents to be circumspect about the popular movie houses, which might be largely responsible for the spread of contagious and infectious diseases.
Davis held that classroom screens that let fresh air circulate through the room were a health benefit to the students. To prove his point, the board allowed him to open an all-girls open-air class at the Bergen School in September 1913. The teacher held the class outside regardless of temperature, weather permitting. Parents had to sign a consent form, and the students used Rochester, or portable, desks. The board bought suitable clothing for the students and provided milk twice a day and a daily lunch with a changing menu, of foods like cereals, cocoa, baked potatoes, and Horlick's malted milk (which the company kindly donated free). Attendance in the open-air class was much better than in the school's other classes. Davis concluded from this small experiment that the district should create more open-air classrooms, adding that other school districts around the country were establishing them. Nevertheless, because of the very small enrollment in the open-air class at the Bergen School, the committee on teachers discontinued the class as of February 1, 1925.
Medical suites were more or less established when the board consented to the purchase of medical cabinets and examination screens for the schools. Many girls were embarrassed to be examined with boys present, but with the screens in place the examinations continued, and the medical department found children with malnutrition, vision problems, tuberculosis, and lice, and children whom Davis classified as “dull or deficient.” The teachers' club urged the board to hire full-time nurses to follow up on the work of the doctors. Davis echoed the request: nurses would help eradicate the lice problem by visiting the children's homes and instructing parents on what to do, and could give advice on minor diseases caused by dirt and lack of good hygiene. He told the board that in one New Jersey city the use of school nurses was so successful that the number of nurses rose from 8 to 38, and he proposed one nurse for every 5,000 students.
The board hired Miss Sarah Kroenwetter as the district's first nurse on January 19, 1914, at a salary of $625 a year, and Davis assigned her to the Central School. Within three months Nurse Kroenwetter examined every student in the school and visited 101 homes of pupils sent home for treatment of lice. Davis also assigned her to visit the homes of children the medical department had identified as mentally deficient, to obtain family histories, and she spent time working with parents on how to keep their own hands, and their children's, clean. Because of her excellent work and her continued training at the University of Pennsylvania, the board granted her an annual $100 salary increase starting in January 1915.
After looking over the historical records of the Camden County Board of Health, Davis found that Camden had never been freer from disease than at present. He was delighted that parents were calling physicians when their children became ill, and could say with pride that as of February 1915 not one school had reported the death of a child from an illness. He attributed this to the medical department's early detection and isolation of those infected. The board directed him to prosecute parents who sent their children to school with dirty hands, and to this end he held “court” each Wednesday, summoning parents and their children through the courts.
With the start of the 1915–1916 school year Davis needed three more nurses, and when an assistant medical inspector resigned, he pleaded to replace the inspector with a nurse. The board hired Nurse Rebecca O. Kandle, who qualified by competitive examination and held a New Jersey certificate, at a starting salary of $720 a year.
In September 1918 Davis reported that the so-called Spanish Influenza was an epidemic, and the severity of the disease caused many deaths among the students (more than 600,000 Americans lost their lives in the 1918 flu epidemic). Average daily attendance dropped by almost 2,000 students, and the disease affected teachers and janitors as well, yet Davis knew of many instances in which teachers rendered heroic service. Because of the medical emergency, the board gave Davis the authority to decide when, or whether, a school should close during the epidemic, and he closed both the day and evening schools from October 1 to November 6, 1918. A second influenza epidemic broke out in January but abated by March, allowing Davis to declare the epidemic ended; only after that announcement did attendance, for both students and staff, improve significantly. Influenza returned in February 1920, depleting staff attendance as well as student attendance, but this time there were no fatalities.
Meanwhile, the Camden Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases was officially opened in 1916 under Davis, who by then held the title of Health Director of the City of Camden. Dr. Rhone treated more than one hundred polio patients in the large epidemic of that year, and a Dr. Jungman was employed as full-time Medical Director.
In 1917 Dr. Jungman was called into military service, and the hospital was run by Davis and Dr. John Leavitt. During the influenza epidemic of 1918 the hospital was filled to overflowing, and patients were housed in the doctor's bungalow and the nurses' home, as well as in the armory on Haddon Avenue. Additional nurses and physicians were assigned from the New York Shipbuilding Corporation during the epidemic. Davis did notable work with Dr. Marcus K. Mines when the influenza epidemic of 1918 hit Camden.
Epidemics of smallpox occurred in Camden, and not infrequently, before 1910. Under Davis's supervision, vaccination of the whole population was pressed, and the disease became less common. However, the periodic influx of migratory workers has always been a public health problem in South Jersey, and an outbreak of smallpox in Camden in 1925 brought 97 cases and 44 deaths. There was one fatal case in 1933 and one in 1947. In 1923 Davis was succeeded as Health Director by Dr. Arthur L. Stone.
The Henry H. Davis School, the largest elementary school in Camden, was built in 1925 at 3425 Cramer Street in East Camden, designed by architect Benjamin Howell Lackey. Davis Street, adjoining the Municipal Hospital property, was also named in his honor.
Davis served as president of both the Camden County and Camden City Medical Societies, was a member of the American Medical Association, among other professional organizations, and was an active member of Camden Lodge No. 293, B.P.O.E..
Dr. Henry Hill Davis died in 1929, a much loved and respected figure who served the city faithfully for many years; a later account records that he was killed by an automobile in his eightieth year.
In the Newspapers
The newspaper articles and documents below record Dr. Davis's work as county coroner and, later, as a Camden health official.
Matilda Scholl, Death Certificate
Death Certificate of Matilda Scholl, May 29, 1885

View transcription
Read the article: Matilda Scholl, Death Certificate
Nothing Done Yet, Camden Daily Telegram, October 8, 1892

View transcription
Boys Playing With Matches Started a Big Fire
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900

View transcription
Read the article: Boys Playing With Matches Started a Big Fire
Boys Playing With Matches Started a Big Fire, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900, panel 2

View transcription
Ruins of the Market House and Old Postoffice Building, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900, panel 3

View transcription
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900, panel 4

View transcription
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900, panel 5

View transcription
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900, panel 6

View transcription
The Burned District in Camden, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900, panel 7

View transcription
Destructive Work of Flames, continued, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900, panel 8

View transcription
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 14, 1900, panel 9

View transcription
School Staff and Administration
Alfred Cramer School dedication plaque, Board of Education and staff, 1913

View transcription
Read the article: School Staff and Administration
Tag: dr-henry-h-davis

Kaighn Avenue
One of Camden's major east-west streets, running from Kaighn's Point at the Delaware River east to Admiral Wilson Boulevard and the Airport Circle in Pennsauken, with block-by-block address histories from the 1860s through the early 2000s.

Davis Street
Davis Street runs southeast from north of Sheridan Street to Ferry Avenue in the East Camden/Morgan Village area, named for Dr. Henry Hill Davis — Camden's first medical inspector and School Medical Inspector in New Jersey.

Lincoln School
aka Claudius W. Bradshaw School; aka Challenge Square Academy; aka Met East High School 1151 Kaighn Avenue Camden had become an industrial city by the 1880s, and although the country went into an economic slump in the early 1890s, generally referred to as "the panic of 1893," the city continued to grow and with it the need for new schools.

2nd Street
2nd Street extends north-south between Front Street and 3rd Street, running parallel to the Delaware River until Mechanic Street. In the early 1970s, several buildings were cleared on the east side of North 2nd Street below Mickle Street to make way for the Royal Court townhomes and Mickle Tower senior citizens apartment building.
Four Prominent Physicians
Ben Courter's 1931 Camden Courier-Post reminiscence of four leading South Jersey physicians — Drs. Godfrey, Iszard, Davis and Gross — recalling how Dr. H. H. Davis transformed health care for Camden's schoolchildren.

Camden Opens Hospital in Battery B Armory
President H. H. Davis of the Camden Board of Health selected the Battery B Armory as an emergency hospital during the 1918 influenza and pneumonia epidemic.

Dr. Davis Urges Annual Clean-Up Week
Dr. H. H. Davis, president of the Board of Health, urged residents to observe the city's annual clean-up week and to “can the rubbish and help can the Kaiser and other filth.”

Two School Nurses Appointed
Dr. H. H. Davis, chief medical inspector, appointed Edna M. Moore and Mary F. Snyder as public-school nurses, bringing the district to three.

School Staff and Administration
Marble dedication plaque of the Alfred Cramer School listing the 1913 Camden Board of Education members and school officials, including H.H. Davis, M.D., medical inspector.

One of the New Schools Opened
The Camden Daily Courier reports the opening of the James M. Cassady School, with Health Physician Davis explaining the closing of the Dudley School during a diphtheria outbreak. (Transcription incomplete.)

Camden Lodge No. 293, B.P.O.E. — Membership Ballot Notice
A membership ballot notice for Camden Lodge No. 293, B.P.O.E., listing the applicants to be balloted on at the April 18, 1906 stated meeting; Dr. H. H. Davis served on the investigating committee for one candidate.

Royal Welcome for Ex-Sheriff Baird
The Philadelphia Inquirer's account of the enthusiastic welcome given State Assessor and former Sheriff David Baird on his return from Europe; Dr. H. H. Davis was among the Camden men in the greeting party.

Boys Playing With Matches Started a Big Fire
Boys playing with matches behind the Market House on Federal Street started the biggest fire in Camden's history on May 13, 1900, destroying nearly half a hundred buildings along Federal Street and Taylor Avenue before four Philadelphia engine companies helped master it.

Obsequies of Henry B. Wilson
An account of the funeral of former Postmaster Henry B. Wilson, at which Dr. H. H. Davis served as one of the pallbearers.

Side-Splitting Farce Goes On
The Camden Daily Telegram's account of the Police Committee's hearings on charges against city policemen, at which Dr. “Mark Hanna” Davis was noted as absent from the Reformers' deliberations.

Boy Attacked by Dog on Spruce Street
A ferocious dog nearly killed six-year-old Walter Vanstavern on Spruce Street near South 7th Street; Coroner H. H. Davis took charge of the case.

Burial Certificate for Charles Blieth
Coroner Davis issued a certificate of burial for Charles Blieth, of No. 22 Oak Street, who died without medical attendance.

Coroner Davis Holds Inquest in Child's Death
Coroner Davis held an inquest on a colored girl believed to have been murdered; the jury found she came to her death from shock at the hands of persons unknown.

Infant's Body Found on Broadway
Coroner Davis took charge of the body of an infant found on Broadway near Branch Street, and of the recovered body of William Knowells, drowned off the Chestnut Street wharf.

Camden News — June 2, 1885
A Philadelphia Inquirer column of Camden news, closing with Coroner H. H. Davis's inquest verdict of accidental death in the killing of Mrs. Matilda Scholl.

Throughout the State
A Trenton Evening Times statewide news column noting the death of Mrs. Matilda Scholl, struck by a train on the West Jersey Railroad in Camden.

The Day Inquest
A Philadelphia Inquirer column of Camden items, including the death of Mrs. Matilda Scholl on the West Jersey Railroad, of which Coroner H. H. Davis took charge.

Matilda Scholl, Death Certificate
The New Jersey death certificate of Matilda Scholl, a 31-year-old Camden housewife accidentally killed at Line Ditch and the West Jersey Railroad on May 29, 1885; Coroner W. N. Davis signed it.

Killed on the Rail
The Camden Post's account of the death of Mrs. Matilda Scholl, struck and killed by a West Jersey Railroad train near the ferry; Coroner H. H. Davis took charge of the case.
