Source: Rockford To-Day 1904
Published by The Rockford Morning Star
The Clark Company Press 1903
A Digital Collection of Rockford, Illinois History
THE ROCKFORD DAILY GAZETTE – July 23, 1890 pg. 2
Source: Rockford Daily Register 7/18/1904
see Central Park Gardens
Harlem Park introduces Ford days, free week nights free for dancing
Source: Rockford Morning Star 8/25/1920
It was 1948 before the first home was built in the subdivision at 2335 Harlem built by one of the officers of Free Sewing Machine Co.
Source: Rockford’s Harlem Park The People and the Time 790.068 B152r
Harlem Park (Amusement) closed in Sept 1928
Source: 1928 Rockford City Directory
John Camlin, of 1526 Harlem Boulevard, died 1938 at age 78
Former head of the United States, Illinois and Rockford Chambers of Commerce
Owner of John H. Camlin Agency
Organized Rockford Home Telephone Company, which was sold to Illinois Bell in 1919
Founder and Head of Rockford Savings and Loan Association
Owner of Henwood Theater Company
He developed the Harlem Park and Riverside housing subdivisions, and Camlin and Hultberg subdivision, the Phoenix and Camlin buildings downtown
Camlin Avenue is named in his honor
The “Father of Camp Grant”, he worked in Washington to have the camp established in Rockford during World War I
He owned 114 mortgages on properties in Rockford, and had stock investments in 29 businesses in Rockford and elsewhere
Born July 15, 1860 in Gravesend, England
At age 16 took seafaring trips to Calcutta and Bombay, India, then studied at Christ College, Oxford
Immigrated to Rockford from England on September 1, 1883, and lived with his cousin, C. W. Burlingame
He worked as a clerk and then at an insurance office; within 7 years of arriving in Rockford he bought the agency and named it John H. Camlin Agency
He was married to Kittie B. Camlin, who died in 1934
His estate will be given in trust to seven relatives, including three nephews from Rockford: Harold Andrew Camlin, Fred Gardner Camlin, and Theodore Camlin; and nephew William John Camlin of Newark, Ohio. Three relatives from Dublin, Ireland were named as beneficiaries: his brother, Charles Camlin; his sister, Mrs. Millie Ludgate; and Mrs. Fanny Camlin, widow of another brother.
In 1938, his estate was valued as: $700,000 in real estate, $3oo,ooo in mortgages, $60,000 in bonds, $33,000 in cash, and $1.5 million in stock, for a total of $2.6 million
Funeral Services at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, with the Reverend George Wyndham Ridgway officiating
Source: 03/10/1938 Register Republic and 07/07/1938 Register Republic, both in Rockford Public Library’s “Rockfordiana” files, “Biography – Camlin”
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