IN MEMORIAM - Charles Berry

CHARLES G. BERRY appears in Camden City Directories for 1887-1888, 1888-1889, and 1890-1891 as living at 226 Point Street, working as a shoemaker in Philadelphia. He apparently received an appointment to the Camden Fire Department in 1890, and was assigned to Engine Company 4. He was one of the original members of that unit.

Engine Company 4 was organized on June 1, 1890 at 320 Vine Street in North Camden, with a two-hitch, second class Button steam engine and a one-hitch Button hose carriage. The charter members were as follows; Company Foreman, Amedee S. Middleton; engineer, Francis Turner; stoker C. Barney Harvey; driver, Edward Hartman; and hosemen Walter W. Browning and Charles Berry.

Not long afterwards he apparently contracted tuberculosis, a condition which his exposure to the elements while fighting a fire on November 1, 1892 aggravated. Charles Berry died at his home on Point Street on March 21, 1893.

The newspaper article below gives Fireman Berry's address at "236 Paint Street", three different City Directories list him at 226 Point Street. The latter is most likely correct.

Camden Post - March 23, 1893

First Ward Republican Club - John L. Westcott - Robert Smith - George Barrett - Rev. A.G. Lawson North Baptist Church - Engine Company 4 - Jesse Conley - James Dunn - Joseph Love Samuel Elfreth - Amedee Middleton - Frank Turner - Edward Hartman - Walter Browning Robert Steer - William Bogia - Charles Jefferson Kay - George Martin