Tag: Samuel Lanning

Samuel Lanning, or Laning, was selected as the inaugural Mayor of Camden, appointed by his fellow council members in both 1828 and 1829.

It was in 1631 that the Dutch Commander, De Vries, while sailing up the “De La Warr” River, discovered a verdant island at the spot where Camden now stands. This he named Jacques Eylandt, and the river afterward was named after Lord De La Warr, its discoverer, the Delaware.

At this point I am tempted, in a few bold strokes of this historical sketch, to tell of the evolution of the wilderness into a city, of the felling of primeval forest, of the growth of roads and streets from little pathways, of the founding of new homes, the advent of new faces, and of the innumerable things which gradually but surely alter the face of the land, but were I to attempt it I fear that the good people who have the courage to read this introduction would accuse me of theft of an idea from Hawthorne"s charming story "Main Street", of the facts from Mr. Cooper"s delightful and instructive sketch.

That part of the ordinance is interesting for it provides “that if any person from or after the first day of May next… shall burn his, her or their chimney… every such person shall forfeit and pay the sum of one dollar.”

Eighty years will have passed on Friday, February 14, since Camden became an incorporated city, and just now the citizens are looking back over those years and recalling with a pardonable pride the epochs that have made it a community of homes, of splendid industries and of clean, progressive government.