Camden People - Nathan Thornton

NATHAN THORNTON was born in Virginia on December 22, 1873. He had moved to Camden by the time the 1890-1891 Camden City Directory was compiled, and is listed as living on Miller Street, south of Jefferson Street. By 1900 he was then working as a laborer and living at 1001 Ferry Avenue. By 1910 he had secured a position with the Camden Police Department. Nathan Thornton then lived at 972 Ferry Avenue, boarding with Haney Miller and his family. Nathan Thornton board with Miller through at least January of 1920. The 1924 Camden City Directory shows Nathan Thornton had married. He and wife Pearl are listed at Jefferson Avenue.

Nathan Thornton remained on the police force through the spring of 1930. The 1930 Census show Nathan Thornton and his wife Pearl living at 918 Jefferson Avenue with Pearl's niece Alberta Foye.

Nathan Thornton passed prior to the 1940 Census. At that time, his widow Pearl was still living at 918 Jefferson Avenue with her 21 year-old niece, Alberta Foye. The 1947 Directory lists a Robert L. Thornton living at 918 Jefferson Avenue with a wife named Pearl. This however appears to be an error.

Alberta Inez Foye graduated from Camden High School in June of 1937, then graduated from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in 1943 with a degree in Elementary Education. She retired from the Camden City School District. Not long aafter the 1940 Census, Alberta I. Foye married a physician, Dr. Bascome S. Waugh. When the 1947 City Directory was compiled, they lived at 1882 South 10th Street, a short walk from the Jefferson Avenue home, where Dr. Waugh also practiced medicine.

Alberta Foye Waugh and her husband later lived in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Dr. Waugh died in 1992. Alberta Foye Waugh passed away in Maryland in 2004. Her community activism was well know in Hadonfield South Jersey and Philadelphia. She was a founding member of the South Jersey Links Inc. and worked tirelessly with the Women's Auxiliary to the Camden County Medical Society where she served as president and the Women's Auxiliary to the South Jersey Medical Association.

Camden Courier-Post * February 9, 1922

FAT WOMAN IN THE WAY

John Kretcher, a grocer, of 884 Ferry Avenue, opened his store just in time in the morning to see a colored man swiping his supply of bread and cakes from the front doorstep. He pursued the thief and would have caught him had not a fat little negress he could not recognize gotten in his way and hold him fast until the bread robber made his escape around the corner. Policeman Nate Thornton appeared a few minutes later but by that time the thief and his fat friend were gone.