Camden People - William Anderson

WILLIAM ANDERSON was born in Ireland around 1831. He came to America in 1853, according to the 1910 Census report. William Anderson and wife Elizabeth were living in Newton Township, probably near where would be found ten years thereafter. The 1870 Census shows him living in what was then Newton Township, near the Starr Iron Works. It appears that he worked there for many years, as would his son John. The family at that time included wife Eliza, 35 and also Ireland-born; sons John and Abram, 8 and 5 respectively, and a daughter, also named Eliza, aged 2. This part of Newton Township later was annexed by Camden and comprises much of the old Seventh Ward.

The Anderson family stayed in the same area through at least nine decades. When new homes were built in the 1000 block of Line Street in the 1880s, William Anderson acquired 1032 Line Street. This would be the family home as late as 1947 into the 1920s.

William Anderson generally worked as a factory laborer, but was active in politics, and served as County freeholder from Camden's Seventh Ward in the 1890s and 1900s. His wife Eliza had passed by June of 1900. During the time William Anderson was freeholder, his John Anderson served on Camden's police force. By the time the 1910 Census was taken William Anderson had retired. He passed away on January 1, 1912. Son John did not survived until the 1920 census, and oldest grandson Thomas B. Anderson was killed in a freight car accident in Philadelphia in March of 1932. Daughter-in-law Delia Anderson lived at 1032 Line Street well into the 1930s, and the house was passed down to granddaughter Elizabeth, who with her husband Harry Strauss was living there when the 1947 City Directry was compiled.