New Jersey Counties: First Wall Maps and Atlases

Camden County

County Data
Founded: 1844, from Gloucester County
Total Area: 229 square miles
Population: 34,457 (1860); 513,657 (2010)
County Seat: Camden
Largest City: Camden

1857: County Wall Map

Frederick Carles Merry (1812–1900). &qout;Map of Camden County New Jersey" (Philadelphia: R. L. Barnes; Camden: Lloyd Van Derveer, 1857) [Library of Congress]. Wall map, with added color, 115 X 91 Cm115 X 91 Cm115 × 91 cm. Scale: 1 mile to 1.5 inches. (No county atlas was published.)

First detailed wall ­­­map of Camden County. It includes on the top right side a map of the three wards of Camden City by Edward H. Saunders at a scale of 666.66 feet to 1 inch, and additional town plans of Gloucester and Haddonfield at smaller scales on the sides below. Seven townships—Centre, Delaware, Gloucester, Newton, Washington, Waterford, Winslow—are tinted orange, yellow, green, or blue. The three wards of the city/township of Camden are blue, orange, and green. (The small Union Township, beside the Delaware River, would be dissolved in 1868 when Gloucester City incorporated.) Landowners' names populate the county map, but only a few public and commercial buildings are noted on the Camden and Gloucester city maps. Engravings of the Camden County Court House, the Camden Farmers' & Merchants' Bank, and the State Bank in Camden embellish the borders of the central map.

Also included are tables of township census figures and areas (in square miles). The historical note at the bottom right summarizes changes in the territory and its name from 1682 to 1844, when the county was formally established.

2013: Long-a-Coming depot, current home of the Long-a-Coming Historical Society.

Major towns are titled with bold arcs of letters. The most important roads are named with capital letters, and, occasionally, accompanying mileages are given—for example, diagonally in the middle is "Cross Keys and Long a Coming Road" with "From Cross Keys to Long a Coming 7⅔ miles." The Camden and Atlantic Railroad line, built in 1853 to connect Philadelphia with Atlantic City, passes through Long-a-Coming at the center of the map. The depot located there was built in 1856 and is the oldest in the state.

Major changes have come to the three islands pictured in the Delaware River. No longer an island, League Island has become part of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard grounds. Windmill Island was removed by the Federal Government in the 1890s to facilitate shipping lanes, and Petty's Island, now vacant and owned by Citgo Petroleum Corporation, which is owned by the Venezuelan government, is in the process of being donated to New Jersey for environmental developments. In 2009, a pair of American bald eagles was living on the island.

1834: Camden, city and t-ship of Gloucester co., on the river Delaware, opposite to the city of Philadelphia, and port of entry and delivery of Bridgeton collection district. . . . The site upon which it stands, was taken up between the years 1681 and 1685, in several parcels by Messrs. Cooper, Runyon and Morris. . . . The district has a length of 2½ miles on the river, by about 1¼ in breadth to the bridge over Cooper's creek. But a small portion only, of this area, is built upon: the greatest portion is employed in tillage, chiefly of fruit and early vegetables, for the Philadelphia market, to which the soil is admirably adapted; and a considerable part is still in woods, yielding shade and recreation to the inhabitants of that great city, in the hot season. The district is divided into 3 distinct villages, separated by vacant grounds from half a mile to nearly a mile in extent. That, opposite to the Northern Liberties, is known as Cooper's Point, at which there is an extensive ferry establishment, tavern, store, livery stable, and a dozen dwellings. The lower village, nearly opposite to the Navy Yard, is called Kaighnton or Kaighn's Point, from the family of that name, which settled on it in 1696. . . . It contains 35 dwellings, a store, school house, 2 taverns, a tannery, an extensive smithery and manufactory of steel springs for carriages. The central and largest part of the city was originally called Camden, about the year 1772, when first divided into town lots, by the then proprietor, Jacob Cooper, and is nearly equidistant between the two Points, and opposite to the central part of Philadelphia.

At the period of incorporation, 1828, the population of the district was 1143; in 1830 it had increased to 1987, and now, Sept. 1833, by a census made for this work, amounts to 2341; of whom 417 are heads of families, or housekeepers, 1237 males, 1104 females, 78 widows, and 105 people of colour. It contains 364 dwelling houses, and 60 other buildings used for manufactories, stores, and schools, a Baptist, a Methodist, and a Quaker meeting house, a court-house, or town hall, where the city sessions are holden, quarterly, by the mayor, recorder, and alderman, for the trial of minor offences, and a prison connected therewith; an academy, at which are taught the rudiments of a common English education; "the State Bank of Camden," with a capital of $300,000 dollars; a turpentine, a paten leather, and a tinware manufactory; 2 tanneries, a steam saw mill and steam grist mill, 2 saddlers and harnessmakers, other than those connected with the coachmakers; 6 coachmakers, whose business exceeds $60,000, annually, and whose work, much of which is exported, is remarkable at once, for cheapness, lightness, strength, and beauty of finish; 8 smitheries, connected with 2 of which are manufactories of steel springs; a white or silver smith, a clock and watchmaker's shop, a comb manufactory, a trunk manufactory, 2 bakeries, 2 cooper's shops, 2 druggist's shops, 12 stores, 5 lumber yards, 5 livery stables, 9 taverns, including the ferry houses, 2 cabinetmaker's shops, 2 tailor's shops, 11 master carpenters, 4 master stone and brick masons, 2 painters and glaziers, a gold and silver plater, 2 printing offices, from each of which a weekly newspaper is issued, and 3 physicians and 6 lawyers.

There are here also several handsome public gardens, much frequented by the Philadelphians, who have ready access to them by the steam ferry boats constantly passing the river [Gordon, pp. 114–115].

1872: County Map

1872: County Map. F. W. Beers. "Topographical Map of Camden and Gloucester Cos., New Jersey." From Beers's State Atlas of New Jersey: Based on State Geological Survey and from Additional Surveys by and under the Direction of F. W. Beers (New York: Beers, Comstock & Cline, 1872) [Historic Maps Collection]. Lithograph map, with added color, 34.7 × 54.5 cm. Scale: 2 miles to 1 inch.

This map of Camden County is from the state's first atlas. The county now includes eight townships, colored yellow, pink, orange (appears gray), or blue: Centre, Delaware, Gloucester, Haddon, Newton, Stockton, Waterford, and Winslow. (Washington Township was transferred to Gloucester County in 1871.) The incorporated city areas of Camden and Gloucester are green. The border between Waterford County and the adjacent Gloucester and Winslow Counties has become more contorted; Long-a-Coming has been renamed Berlin. In the Delaware River, Petty's Island is now called Treaty Island, presumably referring to William Penn's peace treaty (1683) with the Lenape Indians who were living on the Pennsylvania shore at that time. Ironically, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the island had a reputation for lawlessness because of the gambling and dueling that took place there. It is now part of Pennsauken Township, which was later formed from parts of Stockton Township.