George
Pfeiffer Jr.

GEORGE PFEIFFER JR. was born in Camden on March 16, 1856 to George and Catherine Pfeiffer, who had both emigrated from Germany and met in the United States. George Pfeiffer Sr. was a successful businessman, who owned a saloon and restaurant on South 4th Street, and later the George Pfeiffer & Sons brick and coal yard at Federal Street and the Coopers Creek Bridge. George Jr. followed him into the business world. His business interests would span the state, from Camden to Manahawkin.

George Pfeiffer engaged in a variety of business early in his career, including oil, bottling, real estate, and hotel keeping. He pursued the bottling business for five years with great success. By the late 1880s George Pfeiffer Jr. was involved in real estate and construction. He built a row of two story, five room brick houses opposite the Pennsylvania Railroad car shops that all sold within a roughly nine week period in the late spring and early summer of 1888, in what was then Stockton Township, present day East Camden. He also built and sold houses in Camden proper. He was involved with T.P. Newell in developing Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island, and served as secretary and treasurer of the Harvey Cedars Beach Company in the late 1880s and early 1890s. In 1890 he partnered with lumber yard owned Richard Fetters Smith, whose business was quite near the Pfeiffer family business on Federal Street. In these years George Pfeiffer Jr. lived at 312 South 5th Street in Camden.

George Pfeiffer Jr. is most noted for his business ventures regarding water. He was the president of the the Stockton Water Company in Stockton Township, which became East Camden, and he was the contractor who drilled Camden's artesian water wells in the 1890s.  

Besides the above mentioned business activities, George R. Pfeiffer Jr. also served as a Director on the board of the New Jersey Trust & Safe Deposit Company, and was president of the Sea Isle City and Egg Harbor water works

George Pfeiffer was a member of the Democrat party. He was a member of City Council in Camden, and served in the New Jersey Assembly and State Senate, besides holding other posts in state government. He also served as a United States Marshal.

George Pfeiffer Jr. married Adaline Adams in 1877. There were seven children, four of whom were still alive in 1897, Newell, Howard, Katherine, and Ada. His later years were in Merchantville NJ, where he owned a home at 35 Walnut Street. A grandson, George Pfeiffer III, was born in 1914. George Pfeiffer Jr. passed away in 1926 and was buried at Harleigh Cemetery in the family plot. Pfeiffer Street in East Camden was named in his honor.

George Pfeiffer III moved from Merchantville to Northern California in 1949, where in 1955 he founded and operated the Hilltop Hobbies Press for almost 40 years. He passed away in 1997. His children, Douglas and Lynne have followed him into printing and publishing, operating the Sandcastle Press and The Imaginary Press.

May 5, 1888

June 29, 1888

BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW - 1897

Pfeiffer Family Plot at Harleigh Cemetery