See mail-in order form below DOWN A COUNTRY LANE Life in Camden County, NJ, After the Civil War By Dennis G. Raible Size: 9 x 11.25", 308 pages, bibliography, fully indexed, includes 131 photographs, illustrations, maps and specimen documents. "Down a County Lane" provides a rich history of south Jersey's common folk. Among other things, this is a publication about suicide in Haddonfield, the movement to chase out the whiskey sellers, arguments over dead paupers, and race riots between Black and Italian railroad workers laying track in Camden. A member of the board of the Camden County Historical Society, Dennis G. Raible has written a book that is both a serious work of history and a sweeping overview of everyday life -- and controversies -- of the common people in southern New Jersey in the decades after the Civil War. Relaxing retreat of a read Along with hints of scandal and acrimony, the book provides a broad panorama of Camden County life in a quieter era. As such, it is one of those rare books that offers an enveloping, relaxing retreat from the frantic pace and worries of the twenty-first century. Down a County Lane explores and recreates the daily realities of common citizens, local merchants and community life of the late 1800s. Highly readable and packed with vintage maps and photos of local landscapes as they once were, the book is a treasure trove of memories for some and unexpected discoveries for others. Raible, an accomplished historian and author, has crafted a richly-detailed book that is effective as both a personal entertainment as well as an educational and research resource. A world of farmers In the 1870s, more than half of all adults in what is now Haddonfield, Haddon Township, Collingswood, Audubon, Gloucester, Woodlynne and Oaklyn were involved in agriculture. It was a place dominated by huge barns, herds of cows, vast tracts of apple orchards, horse-drawn wagons creaking under heavy loads and talk of the latest in plows, threshers and other farm technology. This book enables the reader to "see" and feel that world that existed along the same roads and fields we zoom past today. Raible has done a particularly good job at documenting the "Down a Country Lane" details and celebrates the craftsmen and merchants of an earlier south Jersey. now-quaint and even forgotten craftsmen who once ruled the local economy: blacksmiths, wheelwrights, coachmakers, potters, brickmakers and coopers. One of the most important jobs -- there was a ceaseless demand for it -- was the making of coffins. It was the coffin makers of Haddonfield and elsewhere who ultimately evolved into the undertaking businesses we know today. Domestic help The book also burrows into some fascinating but little-explored areas of daily life, such as the use of domestic servants. In the late nineteenth century, half of all females who worked outside the house were employed as domestic help and Raible points out some notable local cases. "Jacob Rowand, a Haddonfield conveyancer, had a nineteen-year-old female domestic helper at his home," he writes in a section chronicling the hired help used by some of the region's best known families. Similarly, he has dug out newspaper accounts of some of the more colorful events of local tavern life, such as the 1864 suicide of 35-year-old Joseph B. Albertson in Haddonfield: "While under a fit of delirium tremors, Albertson jumped from the second-story window of Matlack's Hotel and broke his neck." Whiskey sellers and dead paupers This is a book that plumbs the real social and political controversies of the time. The author studiously traces the evolution of local railroads, the spread of religious denominations, the roil of post-Civil War emotions, the issue of African-American civil rights, the growing discontent of women, the angry response to income tax, and municipal struggles over such things as driving the whiskey sellers out of Haddonfield and the question of who should pay for burying dead paupers. Return to top of page Print this form out and mail it in with a check or money order. This title is in stock and available for immediate shipment. Title: Down a Country Lane by Dennis G. Raible Publisher: Camden County Historical Society Softcover $10.00 Shipping $5.00 Name: Address: City, St., Zip: Telephone: E-mail: Mail this order to: Book Sales Camden County Historical Society P.O. Box 378 Collingswood, NJ 08108-0378