Sewell Avenue

Sewell Avenue, from South Broad Street, circa 1919

Hamilton Township Public Library Local History Collection

General James F. Rusling of the Broad Street 
Land Association named Sewell Avenue after General William J. Sewell (pictured left) who served with the NJ Volunteers in the Civil War beginning as a captain in 1861, brevetted brigadier general and major general in 1865.  He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1896 for having assumed command of a brigade at Chancellorsville, Virginia, May 3, 1863.  He was a member of the NJ State Senate, 1872-1881, serving as president in 1876, 1879-1880.  He was elected to the US Senate and served from March 4, 1881 to March 3, 1887.   

Street Names

Trenton Evening Times, October 19, 1913

This information on Broad Street Park street names was excerpted from a larger article.  It explains the unfamiliar origin of the name Sewell.  William J. Sewell moved to Camden NJ from Chicago IL in 1860.  He became a Union Army officer during the Civil War and served with the New Jersey Volunteers.  He became a breveted brigadier general in 1865, a year before General Rusling received the same promotion.  He received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the battle of Chancellorsville.  General Sewell served in the NJ State Senate from 1872-1881 with two terms as president.  He served in the US Senate from 1881-1887.