Maple Shade Arcadia Book Corrections
By Dennis Weaver

This is a page of the errors that are in the Maple Shade Historical Society's Arcadia book. Most of these errors would have been corrected had the "Corrections CD rom" been used. Others were made during editing.
This page is urged to be printed out and folded in half and kept in the back of your book or in a desk. -Dennis Weaver (Member of the Maple Shade Historical Society who wrote most of the book.)

Back cover write up- Disregard it. The Roberts came when the Matlack and Hancocks did. Stiles Corners is not mentioned. The brickyard came prior to the railroad. Etc...

Two more things (I don't own a copy of the book so) is the Maple Shade Farm on Mecray Lane was I would be sure 90% never named that. I was too generous with the word of mouthers. Could say maybe- House owned and probably built be John Stiles in the ???? (Need to study this), later owned by Dr. Alexander Mecray. It has been called the "Maple Shade Farm' probably in error due to the Mecray Extension later being called Maple Shade Farms. And 1916 Progress wrie up where Laura Frech said Henry Patterson planted maple trees down Mecray Lane and that is why railroad renamed station that.

The second toll house at Coles Ave. we have two photos of on which someone wrote wrong information. How could they even bypass the toll gate until the Shuster Tract came along and had roads? That toll house was built 1890 and Nathan Perkins objected to its location and took the Turnpike Co. to court over it.

Page 6, Acknowledgements- The people listed contibuted for the book, but alot of items were not used. (only so much room.) These might go into another book or calendar etc... down the line, or at least into the Maple Shade Historical Society archives. And under someone else's observation I will add Many were missed in the Acknowledgements- I can think of me, Dennis Weaver, Paul W. Schopp, Virginia Harris, the Bechler family, Fred Olt, Paul Altobelli, and Debbie Vit offhand. There was also miscredits and credits not credited. (Steinhauer postcard is from Ken and Sarah Miller)

Page 6, George DeCou is not from Maple Shade, but Moorestown and was their greatest historian. The 1897 series of Stiles houses and town photos are credited to him, and were given to the Historical Society by Anna Stiles Sharp who was a daughter of Ben Stiles, the son of Joseph B. Stiles. The Joseph B. Stiles mansion photo that George Decou took was probably kept by their family. Also since the person who gave George DeCou credit is mixed up in their facts, perhaps another possibility would be Chalkley Matlack who did live on the Gardner farm and who was an historian and a relative.
UPDATE- The photos were taken by T. Chalkley Matlack. (all 1897 Stiles, tollgate, train station, etc... photos)

Page 9, The Roberts Monument- The Mason family is of no relation to the Roberts family. The Roberts went to them and bought one eighth acre of land to erect their monument. A close study of the Roberts Monument book would even elude that it was not the exact location of the cave dugout. Much had changed since the Lippincotts in their youth found the dugout hole.

Page 10, Roberts' house photo is "Elmwood" and was on Lenola Road. See George DeCou's "Moorestown and Her Neighbors" book, page 29. Look across your Arcadia book page to the 1860 Lake and Beers map and you can find this house's location.

Page 12. No error but the bottom caption could be altered to explain- It appears to be a front and rear view of the "Old Place of the Stiles." These are both of the front of the house, taken at different times. You can also see this with the tollhouse at Fellowship Road as one has flags out and the other doesn't. The bottom photo is later as the tree seen in the above photo has been broken off about 9 feet above the ground, and the white wash seems more faded.

Page 14- Not a book "error" but it has been recently discovered that the Joseph B. Stiles mansion was razed in 1937.

Page 32- The Christian Frech house could be from that date or not. Christian Frech was not there until later, but this information was not known at the time. Christian Frech had a blacksmith shop in the village of Fellowship first. There was another blacksmith there, but probably in another house. I don't don't know which houses were earliest.

Page 33- Elam I believe died in 1919 and the uniform factory, which was planned to be moved since 1917, when the Congregational Church was planning a Church at Main Street and Maple Avenue, was moved by the Brubaker family about 1920. You will also see 1883 but I THINK 1885 is the actual date. 1883 came from the Brubakers in an obituary. (This wasn't a book "error" but now more is known.)

Page 37, The Moorestown and Camden Turnpike was discontinued in 1907 not in 1909, the County buying the road then. Here is the correct caption-
Toll gate tender Charles McElwee with his wife and daughter Rachel are in the photo. A second toll house and tollgate was added about 1880 at the southeast corner of Main Street and Coles Avenue as people would by pass the Fellowship Road tollgate by traveling along a road by the railroad, now Front Street. The Moorestown and Camden Turnpike was discontinued in November of 1907.

Page 39, Wrong trolley information. Here is the corrected caption-
Postcard of Main Street at Spruce Avenue with a trolley. To the right are the John Mennel Dry Good Store and Post Office and the Christian, later William Frech home, and to the left what looks like woods actually has in it several homes. The Camden & Suburban Railway trolleys, later Public Service, ran from 1901 to 1928 when bus use replaced them.

Page 44- Someone added to the caption "and inn" due to the name Mennel's Inn. Its just a name. Ex.- The Jug Handle Inn doesn't have rooms.

Page 56- Should read aerial view at Main Street and Pine Ave.

Page 57- This is an early draft from information someone who knew nothing wrote out on the back of the photograph. Here is the correct info-
The Barlow Building, 2 West Main Street, after the second floor was put on and the addition to the rear. The first office on this corner was a frame building. In 1917 a brick one story office was erected. In 1923 a second story was added, as well as a large rear addition also having a second story. The building, now 100 by 80, had its first floor used as real estate offices and the second floor as a hall.

Page 62, it should be southeast corner.
Note several wrong photo credits and missed credits are through out the book and small mistakes. These would have been fixed if the Corrections CD rom had been used. (an example is Municipal building mentions Warick Fashions spelled wrong as Warwick.)

Page 66- No comma between water and utilities. It is water utilities, meaning water and sewer.

Page 67, The Betterment League was formed earlier then 1922 as had been thought.
The Maple Shade Betterment League formed in 1919 having only 5 members attend its first meeting. In February of 1920 it had two hundred and sixty members. In December of that year it incorporated for "the social welfare and civic betterment of the entire community of Maple Shade."

One achievement was the building of a Community Hall on the north side of Main Street, west of Forklanding Road in early 1922. The hall was used for meetings, socials, minstrel shows, movies, and dances. After the depression, it became a gas station and then the Victory Cafe bar.

Page 104- It would have been nice if they combined captions to include "Rexall" in the caption as people remember that.-
Roland L. Pettit and Miriam his wife, ran the first drug store in town, Pettit's Drug Store, at the southeast corner of Main Street and Forklanding Road. The Pettits moved to Pennsauken where he continued as a druggest. The store was then owned and operated by the Tobias family as the "Maple Shade Pharmacy," a Rexall drug store.

Page 106, Virginia Harris' store location got flubbed in the editing. Here is the original (lengthy) caption-
North Forklanding Road before the Urban Renewal project. The bungalow store is the Republican Club. To its right is Harris' News Agency, then Johnston Insurance, then the Taxi bar. On the near side of the street is the Bethel Pentecostal Church.

Harris' News Agency moved to South Forklanding Road in the early 1970s. When it was at the above location it was probably owned by Wilbur Ellis Sr. "Pappy" Ellis had a pool room in the back of it. The store was run by Grace and Bob Skillen. Virginia Harris, their neice, bought it in 1941. Virginia worked there from a child and would deliver 200 newspapers before school each morning. The News Agency once delivered over 1000 papers and handled the whole north side of town. (Photo courtesy of Virginia Harris and the Bechler family)

Page 116- 1858 is my mistake, Maybe. I would now be inclined that the Muffett brickyard house was built in 1863 after they took title to the property. ?? A census, I believe indicated they were there in 1860, but I believe they were related to Sarah (Moffett) Pancoast, wife of Nathan Pancoast in the Mecray Lane farmhouse and could have been staying there or nearby. I guess the caption should read "The house was probably built in 1863 after the Muffetts bought the brickyard."

Page 117- I wish other photos made it and this one didn't. Its in my area of unresearched information and I who made the caption am at fault. It was probably a slaughter house as the writing on the photo's back said which I left off the caption. I just feel the reason the Sauseleins bought the land was for a brickyard and this is a shortlived, small scale etc...item. Anyhow probably a slaughter house.

Page 126- This correction is from Hank Baron. The book says eight million years when it should say eighty million years.


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