Camden People - George A. Wonfor

GEORGE A. WONFOR was born in New York around 1883, the son of English parents, George H. and Selena Wonfor, a photographer who plied his trade in Tucson and Phoenix AZ in 1891, and in Chester PA in 1899 and early 1900. George H. Wonfor settled in Camden in 1900, first at 312 Federal Street. Son George A. was already a trained photographer. Within a year or two the Wonfor family had relocated to 319 Federal Street Street. In 1905 George H. Wonfor made his son a partner in his business, now known as George H. Wonfor & Son, and located across the street at 318 Federal.

Sadly, George H. and Selena Wonfor were two of the many killed at Atlantic City when a three car passenger train of the West Jersey and Seashore Electric Railroad plunged from a drawbridge that spanned the tidal waters separating Atlantic City from the mainland in April of 1906. George A. Wonfor remained in Camden, and carried on the family business at 318 Federal Street..

George A. Wonfor first married at the age of 22. He married Alice M. Colsey, daughter of prominent merchant John G. Colsey. Her older brother, Arthur Colsey, would later serve as Camden's Chief of Police. The couple moved to 615 Market Street in late 1909. They had two children, George H. Wonfor II and Edith. It appears that Alice Colsey Wonfor passed away in 1913, as she is not listed in the 1914 Camden City Directory. In 1914 George A. Wonfor was elected by the Professional Photographers Association of New Jersey as the delegate to the national convention.

George A. Wonfor remarried around prior to the compilation of the 1915 Camden City Directory. His new wife was 22 year old Ella D. Sell, the daughter of Camden policeman Ferdinand F. Sell.

George A. Wonfor still resided and was plying his trade at 615 Market Street at the time of the 1920 Census. He served as the official photographer for the Delaware River Bridge Commission during the construction of what today is called the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, between Camden and Philadelphia. His business in the 1920s specialized in industrial photography.

At the time of the 1930 Census, George A. Wonfor and wife Ella lived in Cinnaminson NJ at 309 Cleveland Avenue, with his son, George H., then 21 and also working as a photographer, and daughter Edith, 14. In 1934, an Ohio newspaper reported George A. Wonfor as living in Trenton, I believe that is in error, as the 1936 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directory and the 1947 Camden City Directory show the Wonfors still residing at the Cleveland Avenue address. The Wonfor Studio move at least twice, George A. Wonfor, Inc. had offices at 532 Federal Street in 1936, and 503 Market Street in 1947.

George A. Wonfor's son, George H. Wonfor moved to Ohio in the 1930s, where granddaughter Maralynann Wonfor was born in 1936. His father-in-law, Ferdinand F. Sell, who had been living with the Wonfor's in Cinnaminson, passed away in October of 1936. Sadly, son George H. Wonfor also died, in Lima, Ohio in 1937.

By 1952 George A. Wonfor had passed away himself. Daughter Edith was then living in Stockton CA, serving as a director of nursing education at a hospital in the area. His widow, Ella Wonfor had moved to there as well. Ella Wonfor passed away in Yucaipa, San Bernadino County CA in September of 1988. Daughter Edith Alice Wonfor also spent her last years in Yucaipa, dying at the age of 85 in September of 1996.