Camden People - Joseph H. Carr

JOSEPH HAND CARR was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania on June 24, 1891 to Thaddeus Stevens Carr and his wife Mary. Sadly, Thaddeus Carr was killed in an accident in 1893. Mrs. Mary Carr worked as a dressmaker to support her family. By 1907 Joseph H. Carr had come to Camden to study law, taking up residence at 543 Vine Street in North Camden. He studied, worked as a law clerk and as a notary, probably in the law office of S. Conrad Ott. By the time the 1912 Directory was being compiled, Ott had taken Joseph H. Carr in as a partner. The two remained associated until Ott's death in July of 1922.

Joseh H. Carr stayed at the Vine Street address through 1913. Directories from 1914 to 1916 show him at 701 North 6th Street. In 1917 he was staying at 317 North 6th Street.

Joseph H. Carr married Adelaide Weaver in Philadelphia in 1918. He also served in the armed forces during World War I. By the time of the 1920 Census he owned a home at 110 Lexington Avenue in Merchantville NJ, with his wife Adelaide. There were no children of this marriage.

In the mid-1930s Joseph Carr was serving as a lawyer for a real estate company engaged in a development venture in Delaware Township (present-day Cherry Hill) in the mid-1930s. The project failed, and in the process of resolving the debt of the business, improprieties occurred.

Joseph Carr was convicted of embezzlement on January 11, 1936 and sentenced to two to three years in state prison. An appeal was denied in October of 1936, Carr however, remained free on bail. By this time he apparently had moved from Merchantville. He was living in Moorestown, New Jersey when the Census was taken in 1940 with his wife Adelaide and mother-in-law Mrs. Ella Weaver, and was still there when he registered for the draft in the spring of 1942. At that time he gave his occupation as "self-employed" and his place of work 309 Market Street in Camden.

Joseph and Adelaide Carr parted ways shortly after he registered for the draft. In 1944 he married Ruth "Sammie" Sampson. This marriage also produced no children.

Joseph H. Carr remarried in 1944. He passed away in July of 1958.ith

Camden Courier-Post - October 15, 1936

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