Tag: Woodrow Wilson High School

Howard Unruh, one of America’s first mass shooters, killed 13 people in a 1949 shooting rampage—in part due to undiagnosed schizophrenia.

Originally a part of Stockton Township, the area that is now known as East Camden was merged into Camden proper in 1899 along with the neighborhood now known as Cramer Hill.

ROBERT E. ALLENBACH was the Chief of Police in Camden, New Jersey from 1998 through 2004. The crime rate plummeted during his tenure and the community, he was well respected in the community, but fell victim to the partisan politics that have crippled Camden for much of the past 30 years.

Federal Street was originally called Joseph Cooper’s Lane, and ran from the river to the old Haddonfield Road. In 1803 Joshua Cooper, who was an ardent Federalist, called it Federal Street. His father, Daniel Cooper, had, in 1764, built a large three-story brick house and established a ferry about the same time to Philadelphia. This lane was to provide the farmers in the area a way to get to the ferry.

Joe Acquaro has been involved in South Jersey baseball for more than five decades. He’s a 1954 Woodrow Wilson High School graduate where be played third base for the ’53 and 54 varsity baseball team, where they won the Camden City Series, Group 3 and Sectional State Championship teams under Hall of Famer Binney Pawlak. Teammates of his were future South Jersey Baseball Hall of Famers, Joe Canuso, Bill Davidson, Sam Croge and An Watson. Prior to entering Wilson, Acquaro had already started building a career in the independent summer leagues. In 1951 he won the Camden County Parks League second half batting title hitting.500, leading Camden Eastside to the league title. He continued playing in the parks, Gottschalk Twilight and American Legion Leagues.

JOSEPH “JOE” ACQUARO grew up in Camden, New Jersey. He was the son of Biagio “Benny” Acquaro and the former Frances Petrella. He was one of the top baseball players in Camden and is inducted into the South Jersey Baseball Hall of Fame.

GEORGE ACKERLE was born December 14, 1920 in New Jersey. He was one of at least seven children born to Paul F. and Anna Ackerle. The Ackerles lived in Deptford NJ through at least April of 1930. Paul Ackerle was a baker by trade, working in Camden as early as 1918, and young George followed him into that trade. Sometime after 1930 Paul Ackerle moved to Camden NJ. By 1947 he owned his own bakery, Ackerle’s Bakery at 653 Ferry Avenue. Paul Ackerle and family were then living at 1128 Jackson Street in Camden’s Whitman Park neighborhood. George Ackerle was renting a home at 322 York Street in North Camden, and his brother Paul, then in the United States Navy, resided there as well.

ROBERT T. ABBOTT was born in Salem, New Jersey on March 21, 18689 to Benjamin P. Abbott and his wife, the former Beulah Horner. The family moved to the Wrightsville section of Stockton Township, what is now Camden, in the 1870s. The 1880 Census shows the family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Abbott, Robert, and his younger siblings William, Flora, and Estella. Another sister, Beulah, born in 1876, had died before the end of the following year. Two more Abbott children were born in the 1880s, James Griffee Abbott and Emma Abbott. The Abbotts made their home at the corner of 24th and Federal Streets in the 1880s. Benjamin Abbott was in business as a commission merchant. By 1885, Robert T. Abbott was working for his father as a clerk.

Former Mayor of the City of Camden from 1959 through 1969, died on September 14, 2005 at the Masonic Home of New Jersey in Burlington.

My father, Biagio Acquaro, had a self-owned business at 2713 Federal Street in East Camden, from the 1940’s through the late 1960’s. His establishment was called “Federal Hat Cleaning.” My Dad would clean and block felt hats for people located all over the tri-county area. Even people from Philadelphia would come over and take advantage of his expertise.

Howard B. Unruh, a mild, soft-spoken veteran of many armored artillery battles in Italy, France, Austria, Belgium and Germany, killed twelve persons in East Camden this morning.

Camden Courier-Post – February 8, 1939
Robert Abbott, 73, retired Camden police sergeant and brother of William S. Abbott, former member of the Board of Education, died yesterday at West Jersey Hospital after a week’s illness of pneumonia. He had been retired since 1921.