Harry
C.
Armstrong

HARRY C. ARMSTRONG was born in Camden NJ to George H. and Anna Armstrong in 1875. At the time of the 1880 Census the family lived at 535 Columbia Avenue, a small street that ran east from North 5th Street between Federal and Market Streets. George Armstrong then worked as a laborer. Besides Harry, there were three older sisters, Mary, Anna, and Martha, and a younger brother, Frank. George H. Armstrong was working as a salesman by 1887, when the family lived at 219 Penn Street. By 1888 the family had moved to the 500 block of North 4th Street, where they lived during the early 1890s.

At the age of 22 Harry C. Armstrong married a girl from Kimber Street in North Camden, Anna Schwartz. By 1910 the couple were living at 412 Vine Street. Harry C. Armstrong was working as a checker for the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

At the time of the 1930 census Harry C. and Anna Armstrong were living at 412 Vine Street in North Camden. His aged in-laws, Rudolph and Anne Schwartz were living with them. 

Harry C. Armstrong was working as a toll collector at the Market Street Ferry Terminal, which was operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, on July 17, 1937 when two gunmen attempted to rob him. He was shot to death when he sounded the alarm. 

Camden NJ, July 18 (AP)- New Jersey police scoured the Delaware River waterfront today for two men who shot to death Harry C. Armstrong, 63, a Pennsylvania ferry toll collector, in an attempted holdup Sunday morning.
       Detectives Clifford Carr and Herbert McCord said Armstrong was shot down as he stepped on a foot button in his ticket office, sounding a siren which brought police and frustrated the robbery.
      A watchman said he heard the siren and then a shot, and saw two white-shirted men dart from the ferry gate and disappear up a waterfront street. 

Camden Courier-Post - June 1, 1939

MAN IS HELD AGAIN IN FERRY MURDERS
Beckett Listed as Material Witness After Serving 6 Months for Assault

Raymond Beckett, 24, who police said confessed participation in the holdup-murder of Harry C. Armstrong, ferry toll collector, on July 17, last year, was held without bail for the grand jury yesterday as a "material witness" in the case.

Beckett will complete a six month county jail sentence for assault and battery today. County Detective James J. Mulligan appeared before Acting Police Judge Mitchell Cohen and asked that he be held for the grand jury, and the court complied.

Beckett, a resident of Bedford, Pa., was arrested after he allegedly had informed his wife "he could not come to Camden, because of a murder mixup there." Later Beckett implicated two other Camden men in the slaying, according to police. The case is still being investigated.

Armstrong, veteran employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was shot by two "white-pants" bandits early on the morning of July 17, when he sounded an alarm as they attempted to hold him up in the ferry toll booth at the Market street ferries..