Benjamin Dunham Acker

The 1860 U.S. Census records Benjamin living in Woodbridge Township, Middlesex, New Jersey, along with his parents and three siblings, Joseph B. Acker, Milo P. Acker and Smith Acker.² Ben was five years old when the census was taken on 27 June 1860. His father, Josiah Acker, who is 30 years old, is listed as a railroad laborer. His mother, Mary E. Acker, is 26 years old.

Home for the Ackers is still located in Woodbridge, Woodbridge Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey when data is gathered on August 26 for the 1870 Census.³ Benjamin is now 16 years of age and he is working as a farm hand, as is his father. In the interval since the 1860 census, Ben has gained four new siblings -- Lillie (Lillian), Mary E., Charles and William. Not mentioned in that census is another child, Abraham, who was born 30 October 1861. Abraham must have died quite young since he is not listed as a member of the family in 1870.

Ben either eluded the census taker in 1880 or the indexing for that particular census has failed to pick up his name. Based on family oral history, we know that Ben worked as a carpenter on construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.⁴ It's likely, therefore, that he was living in the New York or New Jersey area in the late 1870s and early 1880s.

We next pick up a record of Benjamin Acker when he marries Henrietta "Etta" Maude Mugridge on 28 September 1887 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.⁵ The couple's first child, Gladys Olive Acker, is born the following year, on 20 May 1888, in Brooklyn, New York.⁶ The couple's second child, Mary Ellen Acker, was born in May of 1890 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.⁷

In the 1900 U.S. Census, we find the four members of the Acker family living at 1916 Page Street.⁸ Ben is working as an electrician. Gladys is now 12 years old and Mary Ellen, who is listed as "Marie E." in this census, is 10 years old.

By 1910, when the next census was taken, Ben and Etta are divorced.⁹ Ben is living with his sister, Lillian Acker, at 66 Clark Street in Brooklyn, New York, where Lillian is running a boarding house. Ben is stil working as an electrician. I have not yet tracked down the whereabout of Etta Acker in 1910, but it's likely that she was still living in Philadelphia.

Benjamin Acker and Lillian Acker are still living at 66 Clark Street in Brooklyn when data for the 1920 U.S. Census is gathered on 21 January 1920.¹⁰ She is running the boarding house and Ben, who is now in his early sixties, continues to work as an electrician. He is employed at a "navy yard," which might have been the Brooklyn Navy Yard. At some point in the early 1920s, both Ben and Lillian moved to Vineland, New Jersey. Frank Delaney, Ben's grandnephew, remembers visiting them in Vineland where they were managing a chicken farm. He believed that Fred Graves, one of the 66 Clark Street boarders listed in the 1920 census, was also involved in the chicken operation and may have been the individual who owned it. It is not clear whether Ben or Lillian had any ownership interest in the business. Frank believes that Ben may have constructed many, if not all, of the buildings used by the business. Although Lillian stayed on in Vineland until her death in December 1928, Ben moved on at some point because we find him in Pennsylvania by 1930. While there's no family history on the point, he may have left Vineland when Lillian died. By that time he was sixty-eight years old and probably interested in retirement.

Benjamin Acker is listed in the U.S. Census for 1930 as a resident of Pennsylvania. He is living with his older daughter, Gladys Olive (Acker) Miller, his son-in-law, Norman Thomas Miller, and his two grandchildren, Norma Miller and Burdsall Dunham Miller.

Benjamin Dunham Acker died on October 9, 1935, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was buried on October 12, 1935, at Northwood Cemetery in Pennsylvania. Bronchial pneumonia and "debility from age" were the causes of death listed on Ben's death certificate. The individual listed on the certificate who provided information about Ben was his former wife, Etta M. Acker. It would appear that even though Ben and Etta had been divorced for more than thirty years, the two remained on friendly terms. In fact, the place of death noted on the certificate was Etta's house, located at 626 Spruce Street in Philadelphia.

¹ Recorded in the Family Record section of the family Bible, as well as in a typewritten list of Acker family members dated May 20, 1931 prepared by Joseph Bernard Acker, son of Josiah and Mary Ellen (Bernard) Acker.
² 1860 U.S. Census, M653, Roll 699, Pages 196 and 197.
³1870 U.S. Census, M593, Roll 874, Page 572.
⁴ Information passed down from Franklyn Lowery Delaney, who was Benjaim Acker's grandnephew, to Robert F. Delaney during discussions about the family history (1999-2004).
⁵ Recorded in the Family Record section of the family Bible.
⁶ Family Bible.
⁷ 1900 U.S. Census, T623, Roll 1474, Sheet 9B, ED 816, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ 1910 U.S. Census, T624, Roll 955, Sheet 20B, ED 4, Brooklyn, New York.
¹⁰ 1920 U.S. Census, T625, Roll 1143, Sheet 14B, ED 7, Brooklyn, New York.

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