Camden County, NJ
Peter Mott House
Photo: (c. Lawrence E. Walker Foundatin Collection)
The Peter Mott House is the oldest known house in Lawnside. Built circa 1845, the house was residence to Peter Mott, an African-American preacher who was the first Sunday school superintendent at Mount Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lawnside, and his wife, Eliza.
No birth certificates survive, but census records indicate that Mott was born around 1810. The 1850 Census lists Mott, 40, as a black male laborer owning real estate valued at $600. His wife, Elizabeth Ann Mott, was listed as 42. Gloucester County marriage records show that he married Eliza Thomas on Nov. 2, 1833.
Mott was a free Black man and an agent of the Underground Railroad. The size of his house in what was then called Snow Hill or Free Haven and its method of construction — two stories — reflect Mott’s status as a respected member of the community.
Land transactions for May 30, 1844, record Mott’s purchase of the property for his home from Thomas Stephenson for $100. The 1870 Census valued Mott’s real estate at $1,000 and his personal estate at $250.
The Borough of Lawnside, located eight miles north of Camden, is the only historically African-American incorporated municipality in the northern United States. It dates to Colonial times as a settlement of people of color.
Through the abolition of slavery in New Jersey, the perils of the Underground Railroad, the ravages of the Civil War and the grinding poverty of the Depression era, Lawnside has emerged as a viable, modern community.
Camden County Historical Society
Founded in 1899, the Camden County Historical Society is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the collection, preservation and presentation of the history, historic resources, historical artifacts and documents of Camden County and South Jersey.
Serving its members as well as the public, the Society conducts ongoing historical research, exhibition and education programs throughout the year.
The Society’s three-building complex on the eastern edge of Camden is one of the region’s largest historical facilities. Our museum, eighteenth-century mansion, library, offices and auditorium include more than 20,000 square feet of public area and 10,000 square feet of service and storage area. Our auditorium seats 100.
The Society has received a general operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission. Its outreach programs benefit from grants and the support of the Camden County Historical and Cultural Commission.
http://www.americantrails.org/nationalrecreationtrails/trailNRT/Croft-Farm-Cherry-Hill-NJ.html
History of Croft Farm
The Croft Farmhouse, was built in 1753.
Once a working mill and farm and a stop on the Underground Railroad, today Croft Farm is a vibrant Arts Center and public open space site. The Croft site has played an important role in the growth of Southern New Jersey for more than 300 years. It is on both the New Jersey and National Register of Historic Places.
From 1697-1897, four different mills earned the Kay and Evans families their livelihood. People and supplies traveled along Cooper Creek to Croft Farm, then known by such names as the Free Lodge Mill, Springwell, and Edgewater.
The centerpiece of Croft Farm is the 16-room farmhouse. Built in several stages, the original section of the house was erected in 1753 by Issac Kay and exists today as the dining room.
British troop marched by the house as they departed Philadelphia in 1778 for New York City. The Continental Army under General George Washington intercepted them precipitating the battle of Monmouth.
It was reported by a descendent of Thomas Evans that Croft Farm “was one of the stations to which runaway slaves were brought. The slaves came from Woodbury and were received by Thomas Evans, then quickly hidden in the attic of the house so that no one could find them. Then, in the middle of the night, they would be given something to eat and hurried off in a covered wagon to Mount Holly, where they were received and hidden again.” No one knows for sure how many people on the Underground Railroad were housed and fed at Croft Farm.
Records show that Josiah Evans arranged to purchase the freedom of two fugitive slaves, Joshua Sadler and Jefferson Fisher, rather than have them picked up by a bounty hunter. They remained at the mill, working to repay Evans for his kindness. Sadler went on to become the leader of a small settlement of freed slaves who established “Sadlertown” in what is now Haddon Township.
In the 1920s, with the once flourishing saw and grist mills no longer functioning, the Evans family sold the land to John W. Croft, Jr. who, along with assistant Thomas McCargo, farmed the land until 1981. In 1985, the Crofts sold the 80-acre property to Cherry Hill Township. In 1995, a new era began as the Cherry Hill Arts Center was dedicated on the grounds of Croft Farm. Croft Farm Trails were completed in 2010.
http://www.dvrbs.com/camden-religion/CamdenNJ-Church-MacedoniaME.htm
Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church
Photo: (c. Lawrence E. Walker Foundation Collection)
In 1860 the church was rebuilt with larger dimensions to meet the wants of the increasing membership. Between 1850 and 1883 the congregation enjoyed a prosperous and steady gain in membership. In 1882 the land adjoining the church, thirty by one hundred feet, was purchased, and in 1883 a two-story brick building, forty by seventy-five feet, was built by James Aspen, contractor, with basement, auditorium and front gallery. It has a seating capacity of eight hundred persons. This church was dedicated by Bishop Campbell. There were then two hundred and forty communicant members in the congregation and one hundred and fifty-five pupils in the Sunday school, with William S. Darr as the superintendent. The ministers of this church, in succession have been as follows: Revs. Richard Williams, John Cornish, Joshua Woodlin, John Boggs, Israel Scott, George Grinley, Henry Davis, Abraham Crippin; William D. Schureman, James Fuller, George W. Johnson, George E. Boyer, Theophilus Stewart, Leonard Patterson, Frisby J. Cooper, Jeremiah Turpin, Michael F. Sluby, Robert J. Long, John W. Cooper, P. L. Stanford, William H. Yocum and A. H. Newton, the present pastor.macedonia methodist episcopal church of Camden is situated on Spruce Street, below Third.
In 1832 Mrs. Anna George, a resident of South Camden, began a series of prayer meetings in different houses on Spruce Street, below Third, and at the meeting in the house of Benjamin Wilson resolutions were adopted for the building of a small church. In 1833 the cornerstone was laid, and the church, a one-story frame building, twenty by thirty feet, was completed and dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, by the Rev. Joseph Caul. This church was the first one built by any congregation of colored people in Camden County. Historic as it was, for the reason first mentioned, it was destroyed by fire in 1837. A brick church, thirty by forty feet, was then built on the site of the one destroyed, and finished in 1838. At this time there were thirty-four members of the church and twenty-six children in the Sunday school.
