Camden People - Peter J. Samkovitch

PETER J. SAMKOVITCH, who also was known as Pete Samko, was born in Pennsylvania on March 30, 1903 to immigrant parents, Peter and Susanna Samkovitch. His father had come to America from what is now, his mother from modern-day Slovenia. The Samkovitch had moved to Camden from Pennsylvania by April of 1910, buying a house at 1622 Ferry Avenue in Camden's Eight Ward, a stone's throw from Church of the Sacred Heart at Broadway and Ferry Avenue, where they were members. Besides Peter J., the family included older brother Julius and younger sisters Olga and Amelia. Sadly, Amelia would pass before the decade ended. The elder Samkovitch was working for a junk dealer at the time of the 1910 census, he would later find work in one of Camden's Cigar factories.

When the Census was taken in 1919, Julius, then 19, was working as an electrician's helper at the nearby New York Shipbuilding Corporation. Peter J. Samkovitch was also working at the shipyard. In April of 1930, Peter J. Samkovitch was working as an upholsterer in a furniture factory, most likely the J.B. Van Sciver plant at Federal Street and Delaware Avenue. His brother and sister were no longer living at the Ferry Avenue address.

In the 1930s Peter J. Samkovitch became involved in politics as a Democrat. Politics in the 1920s and 1930s in the Eighth Ward was a contact sport, and the ward was known as "the Bloody Eighth". By this time he was known locally as Pete Samko. In the late 1930s he was secretary of the Eight Ward Democratic Club, which had its headquarters at 1724 Broadway. He was rewarded for his party activity with an appointment as a clerk in the City of Camden's health Department.

The 1947 Camden City Directory shows that he was still living at 1622 Ferry Avenue, and was still working for the city's health department, by then as an inspector. By 1956 he had moved to 1018 South 6th Street, and was still living there as late as the fall of 1959. By 1970 he was no longer appearing in the New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory for Camden County.

Peter J. Samkovitch retired to Florida. Last a resident of Cape Coral FL, he passed away on May 24, 1993.

Camden Courier-Post - February 10, 1938

'Why Try to Solve Depressions'

To the Editor:

Sir-If the wealthy are able to. accumulate vast fortunes and there is no law to limit their hoard then what sense is there in looking far solutions to depressions? .

If we have no limit to the possibilities of hoarding money and there is a limit to the amount of money that exists in the nation, then how in the world can a solution for depressions be found with such a condition existing?

We hear so much of Government Interference from these who would swallow the nation's currency amongst a few families, "What do they expect the Government to do when money is gobbled up and kept from the people to whom it really belongs?

If any one can figure out that the millionaires and billionaires are justified to their ungodly hoard of money, they I wish same one will do so and tell us of it. No one will deny that money is nothing more than an exchange of our toils and services. Then how is it possible far some to accumulate more than they could honestly earn in a thousand years or more?

Could any of the great wealthy earn the vast fortunes by honest toil? They absolutely could not and they have the nerve to try and force those who make possible these fortunes for them, to live on promises and bullets.

As long as we allow the present system of uncontrolled wealth to exist, class hatred will continue.

PETE SAMKO

Everett R. Meves reply to this letter

Camden Courier-Post - June 2, 1939

HEALTH BUREAU JOB GIVEN PETE SAMKO
8th Ward Democratic Club Aide Replaces Scheurman; Magin Hires 16

The hiring of Pete Samko, secretary of the Eighth Ward Democratic Club, as a $1380-a-year clerk in the health bureau, was announced yesterday by City Commissioner E. George Aaron. He replaces Frederick Scheurman, of 2969 Hartford road, former Fourteenth ward Republican committeeman.

Commissioner Henry Magin announced the hiring of 16 temporary laborers for the Water and Highway departments which come under his Department of Public Works.

The jobs, Magin said, are all replacements for persons who have been dismissed since he took office. He explained that 102 have been laid off during the period and 66, including yesterday's hiring, put on to replace them.

Three of the 16 will be assigned to the water bureau, Magin said, and the others to the highway department. Those hired for the former department and their salaries are: James McSparrin, 939 Elm street, $1690 annually; Oscar Banks, of 1704 Master Street, $5 a day, and Lawrence DiPilla, of 229 Mt. Vernon street, $4 a day.

The others given jobs at $4 a day are: Frank Armstrong, of 2617 Cramer street; Thomas I. Cook, of 530 North Front street; Albert Costanzo, of 211 Beckett street; Roberto Dianigi, of 607 North Front street; Samuel Lectino, of 421 Stevens street; Joseph Lynskey, of 643 Grant street; William Porter, of 436 Berkley street and Thomas Richter, of 423 Pearl street, David Schwartz, of 812 South Sixth street; Fred Seither, of 3015 River avenue; Albert Thompson, of 421 North Front street; Guiseppe Trulli, of 550 South Fourth street, and Michael Wozniak, of 1446 South Tenth street.

Hired, Replaced

Employment of two new laborers and reinstatement of two others was announced Wednesday by Commissioner Magin. Three employees who worked under former Commissioner Frank J. Hartmann were dismissed. The pay of all was $4 per day.

The new men are George Poole, of 276 Senate street, and William Weidman, 1041 North Thirty-fourth. Reinstated were James Jackson, 1117 Lawrence, and Otis Still, 261 North Eleventh. Those let out were Eugene Gatti, 208 Washington; Guilio Marcozzi, 321 Line, and George Pollard, 336 Stevens..