Tag: John W. Wescott

John Leighton Westcott, notable for his tenure as Mayor of Camden from 1892 to 1898, should not be mistaken for John W. Wescott, who served as a judge in Camden for many years starting in 1885.

Ethan P. Wescott (1883-1954) was a lawyer in New Jersey, following in his father’s footsteps. Active in fraternal organizations, he had a successful legal career and later ventured into the dairy business. Buried in Camden, NJ.

Acknowledged by the world as the poet of democracy, Camden’s own Walt Whitman was acclaimed here yesterday on the 120th anniversary of his birth as the “prophet of a new internationalism.”

Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 7, 1885.—At a quarter after twelve o’clock today a warrant was sworn out before Magistrate Cassady, of Camden, for the arrest of Harry Gallagher, the democratic judge of the First precinct of the Seventh ward, on the charge of altering and falsifying the returns of his precinct in the interest of Branning. Officers are now scouring this city and Camden for him, but it is alleged that he has fled. Mr. Burrough, the republican candidate for County Clerk, claims a clear majority of 120 over Mr. Branning, and his friends propose to stand up for his and their rights and to secure them. The Seventh ward and Gloucester city precinct returns bear every evidence of having been altered. City Solicitor Morgan, while Harry Gallagher, the Judge of the First precinct of the seventh ward, was reading off his returns, looked over his shoulder and states that he saw where the words “eighty-three votes for Burrough” had been crossed out and the words “forty-three votes for Burrough” written over it, and the words “one hundred and sixty-three votes for Branning” changed to “two hundred and three votes for Branning.” The ink was not dry on the paper, and it had evidently just been done.