Camden People - FRANK S. FITHIAN

FRANK S. FITHIAN was born in Bridgeton NJ on December 15, 1864 to Charles B. Fithian and his wife, the former Emma Pyle Sheppard. He was one of at least six children. The Fithian family relocated to Camden County in 1864. Charles Fithian listed his occupation as harness maker in 1860, and as a horse doctor in 1880. He was living at 312 West Street in 1887, and was Assistant Superintendent of the Camden Horse Railroad, which operated a horse-drawn trolley service in Camden in the days before the city was electrified. By 1890 the Charles Fithian family had moved to a large home at 545 Washington Street.

Frank S. Fithian married Emma Wrifford on November 30, 1883. In the late 1880s and early 1890s he worked a clerk in Philadelphia. The Fithians made there home at 216 Stevens Street in these years. A son, Leslie Fithian, was born around 1886.

Frank S. Fithian had risen to the position of Chief Clerk of the Water Department of the City of Camden during the administration of Winfield S. Price, Mayor of the City of Camden from 1927 to 1931. At the time of the 1920 census, Frank S. Fithian owned a home, with his wife Emma, at 1452 Wildwood Avenue in Camden's Parkside neighborhood. By 1930 prominent lawyer and politician Rocco Palese had become a neighbor, residing at 1462 Wildwood Avenue. Also residing at 1452 Wildwood in 1920 and 1930, when the Census was taken, was son Leslie, an electrical engineer by trade, and daughter-in-law and daughter Anna V. Fithian. Other families on that block included the Auerbach, Lichtenstein, and Heine families.

Frank S. Fithian was a member of Ionic Lodge No. 94, F.& A.M., and of Camden Lodge 293 of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.

Frank S. Fithian passed away on January 30, 1936 at his home at 1452 Wildwood Avenue in Parkside, survived by his wife, son, and daughter-in-law, who were all residing at 1452 Wildwood Avenue at that time. After funeral services at the Holl Funeral Home at 1401 Princess Avenue, Frank S. Fithian was laid to rest at Harleigh Cemetery.

Leslie Fithian operated the West Jersey Electric & Construction Company, headquartered at 907 Division Street, at that time. Anna Fithian, by 1959 a widow, resided in Collingswood in the late 1950s.