Charles
W.
Austermuhl

CHARLES W. AUSTERMUHL 

CHARLES WILLIAM AUSTERMUHL— Allied with every progressive business interest of Camden as Mr. Austermuhl is through his well-known insurance activities in this city, he is also individually an enterprising leader in civic welfare movements and in prominent financial and loan institutions. Much credit is to be given to him for his advanced citizenship interests, and for the active part that he has always taken in the betterment and improvement of the community. He has the reputation of being one of the most successful insurance men in Camden, his business bringing results, and his methods being those of mutual help.

A son of William and Anne E. (Massan) Austermuhl, Charles William Austermuhl was born February 4, 1883, on Bridge Avenue, Camden, where he attended the Stevens Public School, entering at five years, and graduating when he was thirteen years of age. He began life as an office boy at the Strawbridge and Clothier store, in Philadelphia, and had risen to the position of bookkeeper, when he went to another department store, where he became office manager. He then turned his attention to the business of R. F. Smith & Son, lumber dealers, with whom he became associated as bookkeeper, and while in their employ he became interested in insurance and building operations. He established a business for himself, July 5, 1908, and in partnership with R.W. Test, as Austermuhl & Test Company, this firm later dissolving partnership to form the Charles W. Austermuhl Company. In 1914, Mr. Austermuhl joined partnership with Andrew B. F. Smith, of the lumber company, under the firm name Smith-Austermuhl Company, with their first office at River and Federal streets, then No. 529 Market Street. Then the present Austermuhl Building was erected, the firm moving into its new quarters in November, 1920. Mr. Austermuhl is a member of the board of directors of the Central Trust Company, and of the Stockton Building and Loan Association, and he has been a director and the secretary of the Market Building and Loan Association since its organization in 1915; he is president of the Camden Materials Company, secretary and treasurer of the Jersey Mortgage Investment Company, and director of the "Post Telegram" Company, and the New Jersey Appraisal Company. He is a Republican in politics, but has not held political office. During the World War, Mr. Austermuhl was a member of the public welfare and the public safety committees; he was active in the Red Cross and the Salvation Army campaigns; and was foremost in Victory and Liberty Loan drives. He is a director in the Camden Community Hotel [the Walt Whitman Hotel], and is a member of the building committee. His fraternal affiliations are those of the Trimble Lodge, No. 117 Free and Accepted Masons, thirty-second degree; Excelsior Consistory, and Crescent Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Camden Lodge, No. 293, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; the Tavistock Country Club, and the Camden Club. His religious fellowship is with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Austermuhl married, February 21, 1920, at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, New York City, Vera S. Laudenfeld, a daughter of Henry and Rachel (Spaide) Laudenfeld..

Philadelphia Inquirer
April 25, 1905

Isaac C. Toone
H. Raymond Staley
First Baptist Church
Linden Street
Rev. John W. Lywll
Florence Clayton Toone
Laura Estelle Toone
Elizabeth McCully
Bertha Pearce
Margaret Riggs
Howard G. Toone
Percy England
Charles Austermuhl
Burroughs Robertson
Eugene Haines
Henry Bullock

Click on Images for PDF File of Complete Article

Admiral Henry Wilson - Charles H. Ellis
Elisha A. Gravenor - Edward S. Hyde
William E. Albert - James H. Long
Frank S. Van Hart - William D. Sayrs Jr.
Frank S. Fithian - A. Benjamin Sparks
Kessel Webster - William H. Iszard
Robert D. Clow - Andrew B.F. Smith
William H. Lorigan - Charles Austermuhl
David Doane - William C. Davis
William Vanaman - David Baird Sr.
J. Wesley Sell - William D. Brown
Charles A. Wolverton - William J. Browning

Charles W. Austermuhl, president of the Smith-Austermuhl Insurance Company, of Camden, died in Cooper Hospital shortly after 9 a. m. on Wednesday [September 14]. He was 55.

One of the best-known insurance brokers in South Jersey, Mr. Austermuhl was taken to the hospital on Monday after he had been convalescing at his home, 602 Chester avenue, of Moorestown, for two months. He was ordered to bed early in July after a general breakdown induced by a heart condition. When his condition grew worse over the weekend he was sent to the hospital. He was extremely active in the affairs of Camden and took large part in the organization of the Community Hotel Corporation which built and still owns the Hotel Walt Whitman. He was a member of the old City Planning Commission which brought about numerous improvements in streets, parks and municipal properties in Camden.

Mr. Austermuhl was a director in the David Baird Lumber Company and was treasurer for many years of the old Camden Club, which in recent years became the City Club. He was a member of the Tavistock Country Club and the Camden Lodge of Elks for many years.

He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Vera S. Austermuhl; a daughter, Ruth S. Austermuhl; his mother, Mrs. Annie E. Austermuhl, and a sister, Mrs. Edgar S. Batten. Funeral services were held at his late residence, 602 Chester avenue, Moorestown, on Saturday afternoon. Interment was in Harleigh cemetery, Camden.