BIOGRAPHY: EDWARD B. HUMPHREYS - Salem County NJ Information located at http://www.rootsweb.com/~njsalem/ On a USGenWeb/NJGenWeb Web site TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN, County Coordinator in 2007 Please see the web site for my email contact. ---------------------------------- Copyright 2007 Janice Brown The original source of this information is in the public domain, however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is restricted without written permission from the transcriber (who has edited, compiled and added new copyrighted text to same). ======================================================== SOURCE: Biographical, genealogical and descriptive history of the First Congressional District of New Jersey by Mrs. Wainwright; New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1900 pages 21-22 Bio: Edward B. Humphreys Mr. Humphreys was born in Sharptown, Salem county, August 31, 1830, his parents being Samuel and Rachel (Bilderback) Humphreys. He was one of seven children, and his early youth was passed at his parental home and in attendance at the village school, where he pursued his studies under the direction of Messrs. Bullock, Cochran and Lippincott. His opportunities, however, in that direction were someone limited, he being able to obtain only the rudiments of an education in the school-room. THrough reading, experience and observation, however, he has become a well-informed man. In early life Mr. Humphreys worked on a farm for a time and later went to Philadelphia, whereby he permanent severed his connection with agricultural interests. About 1850 he returned to Sharptown and soon began business on his own account. With borrowed capital he purchased a small stock of merchandise and opened a store, continuing in business there for about eight or ten years, when he disposed of his interest in his native town and came to his present place of residence (in Woodstown NJ). Here he purchased the store then towned by Joseph K. Riley, conducting the store for about a year, when he sold out, at a good profit, to Messrs. Lawson & Pancoast. Soon afterward he purchased the corner lot now occupied by his present store and residence. In 1864 he erected the business block, and from that time has conducted one of the largest, best equipped and complete general mercantile stores in this part of the state. In 1868 he admitted Edward Wallace to a partnership in the business and that relation was maintained for 17 years, when in 1885 Mr. Wallace withdrew. Mr. Humphreys still conducts the business and has a very large patronage. He has carefully sutdied the public taste, and his earnest desire to please his patrons, combined with his reliability, has won him a large trade. Along other lines Mr. Humphreys has been closely allied with the business interests in Woodstown. He has made extensive and judicious investments in real estate, and has thus contributed ot the upbuilding of the city. In 1881 he purchased the old Ford hotel property, and afew years later he sold a few feet at the corner at exactly the price paid for the entire amount. In 1885 he erected a fine opera-house on Salem street, and in 1886 he also built on the Ford property a pantaloon factory. In 1888 he erected the fine hotel on East avenue, one of the finest buildings of the town, doing this for the purpose of furnishing a place of entertainment for the traveling public where they would not be surrounded by the influence of intoxicants. He is a man of strictly temperance principles, and without regard for the financial side of the question he erected the hotel; the investment, however, has proved a profitable one. He was one of the organizers of the Woodstown First National Bank; for a time, however, he was not associated with that institution. Many of its directors preferred an up-town location, somewhat removed from the business center, and believing this unwise, Mr. Humphreys severed his connection with the institution. Some years later, however, the wisdom of his opinion was demonstrated, and to-day the bank is occupying an excellent site in the center of the town, sold to them by Mr. Humphreys. He is the owner of much valuable property, comprising three of the best business corners in the town. Another enterprise which elicited his attention and aid was the Woodstown Monitor. In 1885 he began the publication of a bright, interesting journal, which was at first printed at the office of the Gazette, in Camden, and later at th ehome office in Woodstown. This journal is now owned and published by Benjamin Patterson, Esquire, and has been consolidated with the Woodstown Register, under the name of the Monitor-Register. In 1858 Mr. Humphreys was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Webb Null, a daughter of William Null, at that time the proprietor of Null's Mills. Their children are Mary, William, Edward and Belle; but William died in 1879, at the age of nineteen years. (end)