William 
John
Browning

WILLIAM JOHN BROWNING had a distinguished career in public service, culminating in his election to the United States House of Representatives in November of 1910. He had previously served as a member of the Camden Board of Education and of the city council. William J. Browning was appointed postmaster of Camden on June 18, 1889, and served until June 1, 1894, when his successor was appointed. He was Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the United States 1895-1911, when he was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry C. Loudenslager. A popular figure in South Jersey, he was reelected to the Sixty-third and to the three succeeding Congresses.

Upon his arrival in Congress on November 7, 1911, he was made a member of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and he was the ranking majority member of that committee at the time of his death. After falling ill during the winter if 1919-1920, he returned to work in Washington DC at the opening of the Congressional Session. William J. Browning passed away at the Capitol Building in Washington DC on March 24, 1920. 

Congressman Browning  was brought home and buried at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden NJ. William J. Browning was survived by his son, Dr. W. Kempton Browning, a prominent Camden physician. Shortly after his death, Evergreen Avenue, a street that ran east from Mount Ephraim Avenue opposite Evergreen Cemetery, was renamed Browning Street.

By the time America entered World War I, William j. Browning had become as member of Congress himself, as the representative from New jersey's First Congressional District, then comprising Camden, Gloucester, and Salem Counties.