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BRIARD, CRAMER, BROOKE, SCOVEL, MULFORD,  WHITALL, COOPER GENEALOGY

 CHERYL ANNE CRAMER (BRIARD) - Born June 15, 1948 in Collingswood, NJ.  Mother is Marcelle Louise Koch (Cramer) and Father is Richard Scovel Cramer.   Raised in Englewood, NJ and Deal, NJ.  Graduated from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, PA.  Illustrator and Art Teacher, married Fred K. Briard on December 22, 1973.  Three children Anne Elizabeth, Alice Victoria, and Marie Marcelle, one grandson, Christopher James.

FRED KENNETH BRIARD -  Born March 23, 1942 in Newark, NJ.  Mother is Gertrude Blatherwick (Briard) Father is Kenneth Louis Briard.  Raised in Chatham, NJ.  Graduated from Washington & Jefferson College and Rutgers School of Social Work. Served in U.S. Army, Captain, Intelligence, American Red Cross,  School Social Worker.

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RICHARD SCOVEL CRAMER - Born August 15, 1918 in Merchantville, NJ, graduated Atlantic City HS,  attended Rutgers Univ., Market Research Analyst, married Marcella Louise Koch (Cramer),
children, Geoffrey Scovel, Richard Scovel, Charles Wayland, Timothy Matlack, & Cheryl Anne Cramer (Briard)*.  Died September 11, 1995.  Buried Arlington Cemetery, Pennsauken, NJ.

MARCELLE LOUISE KOCH (CRAMER) - Born January 26, 1920 in Camden, NJ,  graduated Camden Catholic HS, graduated Peirce College, Philadelphia, PA., Secretary for Smith, Kline, & French and RCA Victor, married Richard Scovel Cramer September 21, 1945.  Died August 17, 1987.
Buried Arlington Cemetery, Pennsauken, NJ. 

 

 

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MARGUERITE DEAN BROOKE (CRAMER)-Our Grandmother - Born December 24, 1890, Camden, NJ.,  Married June 10, 1909 to Wayland Post Cramer, our Grandfather.  Children:  Dorothy Scovel Cramer (Curtis), Elizabeth Merriel Cramer (Marks), Richard Scovel Cramer*, Janice Mulford Cramer (Thuring),  Married 1926 Baltimore, MD to Joseph Mason Cramer.  Died March 17, 1950, Margate, NJ.

WAYLAND POST CRAMER-Our Grandfather - Born  October 1885, Cramer Hill, Camden, NJ, Died 1935 NJ.  Graduated Peddie Institute, Hightstown, NJ ,  graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 1909.  Treasurer of Cramer Real Estate Co. and Cramer-Bilt Homes.

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ANNA (Annie)  DEAN SCOVEL (BROOKE)- Society of Friends,  born August 12, 1864, Camden, NJ, married Charles John Brooke on December 1, 1889, died June 28, 1938 at home, 29 W. Maple Ave, Merchantville, NJ. Children:  Marguerite Dean Brooke (Cramer), Evelyn Garnham Brooke.
CHARLES JOHN BROOKE - Architect, born March l1, 1869, St. James Rd., Croydon, Surrey, England, lived on High Street, Gorleston, England, attended Great Yarmouth School of Art, emigrated to America in 1888, died August 7, 1933 at home, 29 W. Maple Ave, Merchantville, NJ.

                                                   

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COLONEL JAMES MATLACK SCOVEL, ESQ. - b. January 12, 1833 Harrison, Ohio, d. April 3, 1893, Camden, NJ.  Buried at  Cape May Courthouse, Cape May, NJ.  Married Mary Mulford (Scovel), b. June 5, 1831 Camden, NJ d. April 3, 1893 Camden, NJ,  Society of Friends, daughter of Dr. Isaac Skillman Mulford & Rachel Mickle (Mulford).  Children;  Henry Sydney Scovel, Esq., Anna Dean Scovel (Brooke)*, Mary Scovel (Senor). 

     (The following is reprinted from the book, "Hannah Matlack Scovel" by Eleanor Scovel Miller, 1930)

     Hannah's first son, James Matlack Scovel born in 1833, attended Hanover College and then went to Camden, New Jersey, to study law with Abraham Browning who had married his (James') mother's half sister and he became one of the foremost criminal lawyers of his era.  He had the gift of oratory and a wit that sometimes bordered on the Rabelaisian.  In the agitation that preceded the Civil War, the young lawyer's speeches attracted the favorable attention of President Lincoln and they became friends.  During the Civil War, my Grandfather was sent by the President to London on confidential government business.  He married a charming member of the Society of Friends, Mary Mulford, daughter of Doctor Isaac Skillman Mulford, Camden's second medical man and author of "A Civil and Political History of New Jersey." 

     James Scovel travelled extensively in Europe and made two trips to the Holy Lands, (rather unusual in those days).  His upbringing was rigorous and in conformance with that of a Minister's son, however, he was a big, handsome man with great vitality and much charm; generous to a fault.  He tasted of the flesh pots and enjoyed life thoroughly.  He loved good food and drink but never to excess.  Several amusing stories are told of him.  One, the neighbors across the way in the Arch Street (Camden) house deplored his carelessness in not pulling down the blinds and wrote a note to that effect.  The reply was: "I shall try to keep in mind pulling down the blinds but I should like to remind you, if you don't like it, you needn't look."  Another:  Senator Sewell said in meeting:  "Jim, I haven't seen you around lately.  Been away?"  "Yes," my Grandfather replied, "I was hunting - in South Jersey."  "Any good?"  said the Senator.  "Well," was the reply, "the hunting was good but the shooting was damned poor."  There were two daughters and when my Grandfather thought the beau or beaux were staying too late, he had no hesitancy in coming into the "parlor", his long nightshirt flapping around his legs, going to the window, throwing open the shutters with a flourish and saying:
"Beautiful sunrise, gentlemen, beautiful sunrise!"  The young men took the hint although it was often not later than 9:00 or 10 o'clock.  Annie* and/or Mary were furious with embarrassment.  "Jim" was fond of poetry, had a wonderful memory and recited stanza after stanza of Sir Walter Scott's poems.

     Walt Whitman was a friend often entertained in the Arch Street house.  The poet sat in front of the open fire, reading his poems, having been fortified by a whiskey toddy.  There is, treasured by a member of the family,  an autographed portrait of the poet and an autographed copy of "Leaves of Grass"** bound in pin-seal on which, unfortunately, one of the grandchildren scribbled over the title page.  

     When James Scovel was President of the New Jersey Senate and voting was to be gone into o the amendment to give negroes citizenship, $20,000.00 was laid on my Grandfather's desk and he was told it would be his if he voted against the amendment.  It was most insulting to one so enthusiastic about the cause of the negro.

                                                                       *Anna Dean Scovel (Brooke) my Great Grandmother
                                                                      **Bequeathed to Lehigh University Library by Dorothy 
                                                                          Cramer (Curtis)

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PYNE POYNTE, Delaware River, Camden, NJ

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HANNAH COOKE MATLACK (SCOVEL), b. 1805 130 South Broad St., Woodbury, NJ, d. January 20, 1885,  Wooster, Ohio.  Hannah married Dr. Sylvester Scovel in Philadelphia, PA on June 23, 1829.  They had nine children, James Matlack Scovel*, Sylvester Fithian Scovel, Robert Ashley, John, Isabel (Barnett), Hannah, Kitty, and Belle.  Hannah's Scovel's husband, Dr. Sylvester Scovel was President of Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.  He died on July 4, 1849 in a cholera epidemic which swept through the college.
 
(The following is reprinted from the book, "Hannah Matlack Scovel" by Eleanor Scovel Miller, 1930)

     On an autumn afternoon in 1827, in Woodbury, Hannah tied the strings of her plain but rich bonnet and was on her way to a Tea given by a friend for the young and handsome Sylvester Scovel, a Presbyterian minister, newly arrived in Woodbury.  Scovel was a graduate of Williams College and Princeton Theological Seminary.  They had met before and an immediate and strong attraction between them was noticeable.  If opposites attract it was the case between these two, in looks at least.
Sylvester Scovel was tall and robust-looking.   Hannah was small, slightly over five feet, dainty but rather frail in appearance.  Due to her father's wealth and cheapness and abundance of servants at that time, she had no knowledge of housework.  My Grandfather used to say that before marriage, his mother had never ironed a pocket handkerchief (let alone other, heavier work).  This is brought out to show the change from this era of her life and that following her marriage.

     For marry she did, and Sylvester Scovel was the man, despite the attitude of her father who was bitterly against it.  James Matlack had other ideas for his beloved first daughter than the hard life of a minister's wife.  He considered her too  delicate for marriage and motherhood; she had a weak back - and became quite stooped in later years, her doctor did not consider marriage advisable for her.  James Matlack, apart from his daughter's interest in the young Presbyterian minister, did not like ministers of any denomination; called them "black coats" - paid to preach.  He forbade his daughter's marriage in no uncertain terms.  His personal ill will toward Rev. Scovel was the main reason the call from the Woodbury congregation was declined.  He left there in 1828 and after preaching for six months in Norristown, Pennsylvania, received and accepted a commision from the Board of Missions to labor as a missionary in the West.  He and Hannah were married in Philadelphia on June 23, 1829 and on the same day directed their steps toward their new and distant home in the Ohio Valley. In a Memoir of Sylvester Scovel, D.D., "Late President of Hanover College, 
Indiana, and formerly Domestic Missionary and Missionary Agent of the West" by James Wood, D.D., published in 1851 it reads:

     "Had we the talent and inclination for a romance, we might here introduce a narrative which, with some expansion and embellishment would form by itself a volume of thrilling interest.  Without gathering material from the realms of fancy or fiction, the simple facts in the case would furnish all the essential requisites for a regular drama, partly amusing and partly tragic.  Several distinguished Ministers in Philadelphia, after being fully acquainted with the circumstances, advised their marriage but they preferred waiting for James Matlack's consent.  After a delay of two years he reluctantly gave his permission, did not witness the ceremony nor ever invite the bridegroom to his house.  He even threatened to disinherit his daughter."

     The foregoing is interesting but unfortunately there is no one living now who could give an idea of the young couple's trials and tribulations in more detail.  There is a slight parallel, we feel, between this story and that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Hannah was about twenty-one when she met Sylvester Scovel.  Her father, though he visited her and her family of (then) ten children in later years (Dr. Scovel was visiting his aged mother in Massachusetts) never entirely forgave her.  While he did not disinherit her, he left her considerably less than he willed to her brother and half-sister. 

     Sylvester Scovel's father Jonah was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.  He married Sarah Spencer of one of the first families of East Haddam, Connecticut where they were both born.  

     Hannah's first child was James Matlack Scovel who was my grandfather.  Evidently she loved and revered her father in spite of his attitude toward her marriage and her husband.

     For a person considered too delicate for marriage and children, she confounded such ideas by having eleven children.  A son died at 21  of typhoid fever while preparing for the ministry and a daughter died in infancy.  Nine children lived.  Hannah reached the good age of ninety.

     Rev. Scovel's district in the Ohio Valley consisted of over 20 miles long and width of ten miles, which a church at Harrison Ohio, and Lawrenceburg, Indiana.  Their home was a one-room cabin.  Hannah told that she took yards of red goods in her trunk and made curtains.  Later, boxes and barrels of various necessities were sent to her by Eastern friends.  She distributed these and the people of the congregation were delighted.  Here was the scene of Sylvester's labors for the next three years.  It was in the strictest sense a missionary field requiring diligent, protracted and self-denying exertions on the part of the minister.  One of the Rev. Scovel's church members wrote of him:

     "He combined an eminent degree every Christian virtue.  As a pastor he was pre-eminent and truly the father of his people, entering with the deepest interest into all their feelings.  He wept with those who wept and rejoiced with those who rejoiced.  The poor and the rich shared alike in his kind attention and generous hospitality."

     During the two years when his family residence was at Lawrenceburg, there occurred an extraordinary rise in the Ohio River, by which the whole town was inundated.  The Scovels' were taken from the second story of their house and conveyed to a place of safety across the river.  The flood was one cause of Rev. Scovel's removal from that place and settlement at Harrison.  The congregation at Harrison, from personal attachment, from sympathy for him in view of his losses and from their desire to contribute to his comfort as their minister, purchased a parcel of ground containing about ten acres with a dwelling house which they invited him to occupy as a parsonage.
This he was glad  to accept, affording him timely and valuable assistnce in the support of his family. 
Owing to the embarrassment occasioned by the purchase of a parsonage and the expense of finishing the meeting house, there was never more than three hundred dollars (yearly) subscribed for the pastor's salary and sometimes even this small sum was not fully realized.

     In 1836, Sylvester received a call from the Board of Missions to act as their agent in the West.  He rode the circuit which took him away from home for weeks at a time, and the family moved to Kentucky.  We are told that while Hannah was alone with her children, one day an Indian appeared and indicated in limited English tht he wished to enter and have food.  The family were about to have their midday meal; he was invited to join them at table.  He made several appearances. 

     How the once elegant Miss Matlack managed during those early years of work, child-bearing and loneliness constitutes a lesson in fortitude and patience.  That their devotion to each other was very great is evidenced in letters to her.

     Sylvester Scovel, who had been given a degree by Hanover College at Hanover, Indiana, became its president in 1846.  He was well thought of at Hanover and labored assiduously to build it up.  He was cruelly struck down by cholera (which raced through the college, killing many of the students) and died July 4, 1849.

    

 
 

     

 

 















 


 
 

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JAMES MATLACK, ESQ.  b. January 11, 1775, Woodbury, NJ, J d. January 16, 1840 Woodbury, NJ.  Society of Friends, Lawyer,  Representative from NJ, 1821-1825,  Judge of Common Pleas.
James Matlack lived at 130 South Broad Street, Woodbury, NJ.  The house was built and occupied by John Cooper, member of the Continental Congress, and Judge of the County Court.  The house was used as headquarters by Lord Cornwallis during the three days he was in Woodbury.   John Cooper was James Matlack's ancestor.   James Matlack married Elizabeth Kennedy b. 1782 in  Dunure, Ireland (daughter of Robert Kennedy of Ayr and Galloway).  Their children were Hannah Cooke Matlack (Scovel)*  and Robert Kennedy Matlack.  Elizabeth Kennedy (Matlack) died of typhus in 1814  and James Matlack married her younger sister, Keturah Kennedy b. 1792, d. June 15, 1829.
They had one child, Elizabeth Hendry Matlack (Browning), who later married Abraham Browning, Esq. "New Jersey is the Garden State".  James Matlack died in 1840 and is buried in Eglington Cemetery, Clarksboro, NJ.

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HANNAH WHITALL (MATLACK), b.  August 16, 1752,  d.  January 20, 1797 Woodbury, New Jersey.  Married Joseph Matlack (Son of Richard Matlack) in Haddonfield, NJ in June 1771.  Society of Friends.  Children were, James Matlack* and Mary Matlack.

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ANNE COOPER (WHITALL), b. April 23, 1716 in Woodbury, New Jersey, d. September 23, 1797,

Society of Friends (Woodbury), Diarist, Herbalist, Revolutionary War Heroine.  Second daughter of Anne Clark (Cooper) and John Cooper.  Whitall received training in the arts of housekeeping, spinning, and was passionate about reading and writing.  She married James Whitall (only son of Job and Jane (Sidon) Whitall) at age 23 and inherited a large plantation at Red Bank along the Delaware River.  The couple raised 6 sons and 3 daughters, James, John, John S., Joseph, Benjamin, Zathu, Sarah and Hannah Whitall (Matlack)*.  Anne Cooper (Whitall) died on September 23, 1797 of a yellow fever epidemic which also took the lives of two of her grown children and grandchildren.  She is buried on the top of Woodbury Hill in Woodbury, NJ in the Friends' burial ground.  Her diary was discovered in an attic in the early 1900's.

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JOHN COOPER,  b. 1683, d. 1730, Society of Friends, m. Anne Clark (Cooper) at Haddonfield Society of Friends in l712, built his home at 130 South Broad Street, Woodbury, NJ.  Cooper was a member of the Continental Congress and Judge of the County Court.   Anne Clark (Cooper's) maternal  father was publisher of Friends' Books in London.  Their children were James, David, John, Anne Cooper (Whitall)*, & ?.                                                                               

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WILLIAM COOPER, JR. b. 1660 d. 1691, Society of Friends, Farmer, m. Mary Bradway (Cooper), children were, John Cooper*, Hannah  and  Mary.

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WILLIAM COOPER, SR. - b. 1632 d. 1710, Society of Friends (Quaker), Yeoman, Blacksmith, m. Margaret ? (Cooper), children were William*, Hannah, Joseph, James & Daniel.  William Cooper was born in Coleshill, Amersham, Hertford, England.  He and his family  fled religious persecution   and emigrated to America in 1679.   He first settled in Burlington, West Jersey but shortly after built his home  on a high bank (Cooper's Pt.) at the mouth of the Cooper River and Delaware River in what is now Camden, NJ.  He named it Pyne Poynt after the vast forest of pine trees in the area.  There, monthly meetings of the Friends were held for both sides of the Delaware River (present day Penn Treaty Island and Kensington, Philadelphia).  A canoe ferry had already been established so that settlers could attend. 

PYNE POYNT, DELAWARE RIVER, CAMDEN, NJ

                                 Cheryl Briard, Illustrator 1975

Pyne Poynte, Camden, NJ

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