John Avison Jr. (1805-1882) was born in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, England, on May 17, 1805. His parents John and Annis (Broadbent) Avison had six (6) children. All but two children immigrated to the United States. John Avison's father immigrated to Paterson in 1826 following the death of his wife earlier that year.
Avison received an ordinary English education and learned the trade of a shoemaker alongside his father for a few months until his father's death in 1827. With his skills, Avison then worked for Joseph Gledhill at shoemaking for a short time. In 1828, he started a shop of his own on Congress (now Market) Street. Although it is unclear what year he moved the business, Avison expanded and moved to Prospect Street where he continued at work. His location on Prospect Street appears significant because based on various accounts of how enslaved people were moving from safehouse to safehouse in Paterson – using a ditch (possibly a natural spring) running behind the buildings along Van Houten Street – Avison was situated right near it.
In 1855 Avison was elected as Justice of the Peace in Paterson, and was devoted in fulfilling the duties of his office. He was widely known in Paterson as one of the oldest justices of the city, and as one who maintained a reputation for integrity and honorable dealing. He acted as administrator and executor of a large number of estates, and held a number of positions of importance in the city, including service on the school board for three years, overseer of the poor the “Poormaster” beginning in 1851—52 for a number of terms, and filled the office of Police Justice from 1856 until the establishment of the Recorder’s Court. According to his advertisement in the 1865 Paterson directory, Avison’s titles also Commissioner of Deeds and insurance agent.
Avison took an active interest in religious matters and was for many years a member of the Cross Street Metho
dist Episcopal Church, a short distance from his offices, and served as president and treasurer of its board of trustees. He was one of the founders of the Market Street M. E. Church in 1860 as a branch of the Cross Street Church, and filled the important position of president and treasurer of the board of trustees of that body during the building of the church edifice. The Market Street Church was lost in the Great Fire of 1902.
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