Henry Braid Wilson Sr.

Henry Braid Wilson was born in Providence, RI in 1828.  In 1849, he moved to Gloucester City with his parents and worked as a clerk for the Gloucester Manufacturing Company until 1854. In the same year, he came to Camden and became an active organizer of the Republican Party in Camden County. During this same time, he opened a coal office and hardware store at Front and Kaighn Avenue. He made his home during 1870s and through at least the latter part of 1889 at 339 Mt. Vernon Street. By the time the 1890-1891 Camden City Directory was compiled, Henry B. Wilson Sr. and family had moved to 345 Mt. Vernon Street.

When Camden was divided into three wards; middle, north and south, Mr. Wilson represented the south ward in City Council for a number of years. During the term of President Rutherford B. Hayes, from 1877 to 1881, Henry Braid Wilson was postmaster of Camden City. He was also a member of the Board of Education and was a second term member of the Commission of Public Instruction, the precursor of the city Board of Education, at the time of his death.

Mr. Wilson was probably more prominent in business circles than in politics. He was one of the founders, and one-time vice-president of the Camden National Bank; president and director of the Camden Fire Insurance Association; had an active interest in church work and was a senior warden of St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church for nearly a half century.

Early in his life, Mr. Wilson married Miss Mary Ann Wilson (no relation). They had five children: Henry B. Wilson Jr., Lizzie Wilson, R.I. Wilson, James B. Wilson and Phillip Wilson.

Henry. B. Wilson died of blood poisoning on June 7, 1898 in his home at 345 Mt. Vernon Street. He was 70 years old.

The H.B. Wilson Elementary School, at South 9th and Florence Streets, was named in his honor.

His son, Admiral Henry B. Wilson Jr., went on to fame as a naval officer. The Admiral Wilson Boulevard, leading from the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to the Airport Circle in Pennsauken, is named in his honor, for his service as the commander of the American fleet in French waters by the First World War. Admiral Wilson convoyed troops and supplies to France during the war without the loss of a single life. 

Another son, Phillip Wilson became president of the Central Trust Bank. He married Emma Foulon, whose father Charles Foulon and brother, also named Charles Foulon operated a bakery and ice cream parlor on Federal Street for many years.