The Salem County Archive, a division of the Salem County Clerk’s Office, is a treasure trove for researchers, historians, and genealogists exploring South Jersey’s rich history. This invaluable government repository houses an extensive collection of government records and newspapers dating back to the late 1600s.
Cooper Maddocks is the archivist at the Salem County Archive.
One of the things that makes the archive exceptional is its dedicated staff. The archivist, Cooper Maddocks, possesses extensive knowledge of government record-keeping practices spanning five centuries and offers patient guidance to researchers navigating a vast body of material.
The archive’s commitment to preservation is evident, too, in its state-of-the-art records management tools, including a cutting-edge book scanner for oversized legal volumes and newspapers. This technology ensures the safeguarding of delicate and valuable documents for future generations.
Under County Clerk Dale A. Cross’s leadership, the Salem County Archive meticulously documents the county’s captivating story from the late 1600s to the present day in a wide array of record groups. Click this link for a list of government records at the Clerk’s office. The collection also contains original copies of newspapers from 1848 to 1991.
The Salem County Clerk’s Office demonstrates a strong commitment to open access. The Clerk’s office provides public access to a wealth of government records, fostering a deeper understanding of the county’s public history and governance. This commitment is further bolstered by the helpfulness of the archivist, who is dedicated to guiding researchers of all backgrounds.
Whether you’re a scholar, historian, genealogist, or simply curious about Salem County’s vibrant history, the Salem County Archive is an essential resource for delving into the past.
Chronicling America at the Library of Congress has updated its digital newspaper database with the inclusion of two historic Salem County newspapers: The Monitor and the Monitor-Register. These Woodstown, NJ papers, spanning 1884 to 1925, are now digitally accessible for historical and family history research.
The publications were successfully added through the New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project (NJDNP), a partnership involving Rutgers University Libraries, New Jersey State Archives, and New Jersey State Library. These institutions worked together to ensure this valuable resource was accessible to the public for free through a text-searchable database.
This collaboration followed their previous contribution to the online resources for Salem County when they added the Penns Grove Record in 2021. The record, which started publishing in 1865, covers 1882 to 1923.
Researchers now have an invaluable, free tool to explore various aspects of South Jersey history. The Salem County periodicals provide a window into politics, culture, business, religion, and daily events that shaped everyday life over the generations.
The comprehensive access provided by Chronicling America at the Library of Congress makes it easier than ever before for historians, genealogists, students, and anyone to delve into the rich history of South Jersey and unlock a treasure trove of information about family and local history.
One of the Salem County newspapers, the Monitor Register, available at Chronicling America at the Library of Congress.
One hundred two years ago, a mysterious killer came calling in Salem County about the time World War I was winding down. It started in remote corners of the county, in places such as Fort Mott, as a global pandemic, the “so-called Spanish Influenza,” spread throughout New Jersey.
The epidemic hit Fort Mott hard. Of the 210 men stationed there, 98 cases occurred, and six soldiers died. 1 Their bodies were shipped home, and an escort from the fort — pallbearers, a firing squad, and a bugler – accompanied the casket to the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in Salem. At the station, the military honor guard fired a volley over the casket, and the bugler sounded taps.
Meanwhile, countians braced for the battle with the deadly contagion as the Salem Standard and New Jerseyman warned the public not to get panicky. “These are days for calmness and courage. While the disease is distressing and occasionally is followed by fatal complications, most cases quickly recover. The public duty is to restrict the spread of the malady by observance of all the simple rules of health,” the editor noted.
Salem County Shutdown
As national newspaper headlines announced the retreat of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Army, local officials acted promptly, closing all places of entertainment, public assembly, churches, and motion picture houses. Normal life came to a sudden halt. 2
The epidemic struck Pennsville “full blast” that October, with more than one hundred cases reported. No family in the Delaware River community was not stricken, and in some instances, the entire family was down. The local physician, Dr. James, was almost worn out as he attended the sick day and night. As the medical situation worsened, Dr. MacDonald at Fort Mott received permission to admit civilians to the post-hospital, causing one newspaper to announce that “Salem County Now Has a Hospital.”
The deadly outbreak tore through Carney’s Point. There were three deaths in one day on one street, and the federal government sent five doctors and five nurses to help, while the DuPont company sent ten physicians from Wilmington. Patients were treated at the du Pont hospital, but the number of sick workers who lived in barracks ran into the hundreds, so one of the girl’s dorms was converted into a temporary hospital. The Penn’s Grove Record noted that there had been so many deaths in Carney’s Point and Penn’s Grove that it was impossible to obtain accurate numbers.
The Du Pont Company was praised for being an “angel of mercy” during the flu of 1918 emergency. “The Company . . . established hospitals, furnished food, nurses, medical attention, organized an ambulance service, and delicacies for the sick without reference as to where they lived or were employed. They cared for hundreds of people without homes, and all were skillfully treated. 3
In Elmer, the epidemic played havoc with farm work, with some having difficulty attending to livestock, let alone gathering crops. One farmer, his wagon loaded with milk cases, was about to take it to market, although his temperature was 104 degrees. Only after a physician told him he might not live to get to the train station did he give up and let the milk soar.
A pall dropped on South Jersey as the disease tore a path across the region, people realizing the fatal power of this invisible enemy. At the height of the public health crisis, so many people perished undertakers could not keep up. Hearses rolled along township roads and country lanes while a pathetic site occurred at Ashcroft’s morgue with fathers, husbands, wives, and children weeping for their loved ones. Within a half-hour, one Sunday, six corpses arrived at the morgue, and 30 bodies were waiting to be embalmed. At Gross’s Undertaking Parlor, there were six bodies without caskets to bury them in. 4
Illustration from Illinois Health News, October 1918 provides ways to prevent the spread of the flu of 1918. Source: Chicago Public LIbrary
With entire households stricken, weakened families struggled
to survive as there was no one care for the children and the sick. When the “death angel” appeared at the
Sheppard family, all eight members were down.
The Hallenger family, where the young daughter was taken, there was the
added misfortune when one of the boys developed appendicitis. He had to be taken to the Bridgeton Hospital
for surgery. In many families, there was
no coal.
One of the saddest situations was at the farm of Clement Lippincott in Mannington Township, where both Mr. and Mrs. Warren Nixon passed away, leaving a family of six small children. The youngest was about six weeks old and the oldest was eight years. Never in the city’s history had there been such a death rate.
Salem City recorded up to 25 deaths as the weeks wore on. At this point, hundreds of people were down, and the doctors worked almost beyond endurance. Dr. N. S. Hires, a long-retired caregiver, volunteered his service when it became apparent that practicing physicians had more than they could do. Several doctors fell victim to the malady.
Hoping to control the influenza while also providing a place to care for the most severe cases, the Red Cross opened a temporary hospital in the Sunday School Room of the First Baptist Church. Placed under the charge of Mrs. W. H. Hazelton, she drew on Fort Mott for cots and homes and businesses for supplies to establish the hospital. At the curb stood the Red Cross supply truck, which had been commandeered to serve as an ambulance. 5
A Penn’s Grove policeman detailed to the post office door admitted only three people at a time. The officer arrested one hurried man as he insisted on going in and when he was searched he did not have a registration card. “He now gets his mail in care of Sheriff Mifflin.” 6
After a couple of weeks, the epidemic waned and the Board of Health lifted the quarantine while the Red Cross Hospital closed. 7 Life was returning to normal, but the crisis highlighted a long-standing need for a community hospital. In Salem City, the Emergency Hospital in the First Baptist Church had rendered invaluable service. The highest number of patients in the hospital at any one time had been twenty-six, and these included desperately ill people who could not get property treatment at home. There had been four deaths in the hospital: Mrs. William T. Mifflin, Mrs. Isabel Davis, Benjamin Lawrence, and Norman Gallaher. 8
To relieve suffering, the women of the county had rendered a public health service that could not be measure as the Red Cross took charge of caring for those admitted to the institution. Near the end of the crisis, Miss Irene Moore of New York, a registered nurse, and Mrs. Charles R. Lloyd of Princeton were sent by the State Department of Health to the local board of health for duty at the hospital. 8
Now is the time for a hospital. That is what the Salem Sunbeam pointed out as life returned to normal. The suffering and the tragedies which visited the county had demonstrated the need for a well-equipped local hospital. “We have been shown that when it is necessary we can provide a hospital and take care of those who would otherwise have suffered much more than they did. The Emergency Hospital was a means of saving life, but how much easier would it have been if this work and how much more could have accomplished if there was a permanent hospital,” the editor asked. 1
It had been impossible to tell the actual number of deaths in the county, but at Carney’s Point and Penn’s Grove there were more than 30 deaths, the editor observed. The emergency hospital at Carney’s Point was taxed to its utmost, and several months ago Judge Waddington made a suggestion along these lines to the Board of Chosen Freeholders, but no action was taken. That we must have a hospital is becoming more apparent every day. And the people are ready for it. No matter what plan is adopted what is needed is a start. The rest will come in good time. 2
Salem County Needs a Permanent Hospital
As troops returned home from Europe, the movement to establish a hospital grew. But the sponsors of the Salem County Memorial Hospital had a “hard road to Hoe,” according to the Elmer Times. In addition to financing the undertaking, there was “the exceptionally bothering question of location and style of building,” as the organizers considered how to balance the needs of the western and eastern regions. If placed in Salem, it would be of little service to the opposite side of the County as Bridgeton and Vineland Hospitals are much more convenient, and if a patient was to be taken by train, it was a quick ride to Camden Hospitals, the paper observed. On account of these barriers of geography, it was hard to raise enough enthusiasm to start the project. 3
Also, rather than being placed in a municipality, it was thought it should be out in the open. The wide-awake Chamber of Commerce in Woodstown secured an offer of four acres on the old Woodstown Race Track free, and the Borough pledged $30,000. This advantage of a central location and admirable surroundings appealed to many. But the Salem newspaper editor noted that it was an advantage to have it in the city because of the ready access to physicians at all times, and also the ability to retain nurses and aides. Besides, it would take two years to erect a new building. 2
An option had been procured on the old Ford Hotel in Salem,
and William H. Chew, the chairman of the campaign, was forceful in his appeal
for this location. He was convinced that
any other site would be beyond financial reach.
Another argument for Salem City was its manufacturing interests. Also, it was the center of the population (if
not of the territory), especially when considering the riverfront settlements
between there and Penns Grove, as a vast majority of all the emergency patients
would come from this developed area.
When a meeting was held in Penns Grove, an “animated
discussion” about the site in Salem City took place. Since the people of Salem had gone so far
with the project, it was a pity that this matter of local pride and prejudice
should interfere with the work, Mr. C. E. Wood replied. “Salem is the logical location for such an
institution. The county seat and the hospital
is a matter in which all the people of the county should be interested.”
Salem County Hospital Difficulties Resolved
These difficulties were soon worked out and ten months after peace was declared, 2,000 people from all parts of the County turned out for the dedication of the fine memorial for heroes, The Salem County Memorial Hospital. It was a glorious tribute dedicated to the “memory of those who remained in France and those who returned, the Salem Sunbeam reported. The old Fort Hotel was a “stately mansion for the sick and suffering.”
The Memorial Hospital of Salem County around the 1930s . (Salem County Historical Society Photo)
The hospital opened for the reception of patients Monday morning with Miss Jane D. Nicholson, superintendent, and Miss Josephine Elwell and Miss Alma Baker, assistants. It was declared by the physicians who toured the building that few hospitals had ever been opened with such complete furnishings, down to the smallest detail. Mrs. Gilbert Barr of du Pont City was the first patient to enter on Monday. She gave birth to a fine boy at 9:15 on Tuesday morning. Dr. W. H. James of Pennsville was the physician in charge. Also on Monday, Frank I. Morrison, came to be treated for an accidental gunshot wound in the hand and on Tuesday John Riley; while painting a roof in Salem was severely bruised in a 20-foot fall. Chester H. Spicer and Rev. Hyman were also there for repairs on Tuesday. 4
The deadly pandemic brought a lasting improvement to Salem County. Following the devastation that shattered so many lives, Salem County established a permanent hospital better to prepare the community for future public health emergencies and provide efficient inpatient care for the growing community while dedicating it to the community’s World War I heroes. Salem had been the first to answer the call and the first to establish a memorial that continues to serve the residents of the area today.
A version of this article originally appeared in the Newsletter of the Salem County Historical Society in the summer of 2019
Endnotes
“Now for a Hospital,” Salem Sunbeam, October 18, 1918 [↩]
