Gouldtown, a very remarkable settlement of ancient date

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Class _Piit Book h 6

Copyright W.^-^ixpy^^

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Foreword

It has long been in mind to prepare and put in book form the oral traditions, as well as such authenticated facts, as could be collected from records and pubKc documents of the remarkable settlement of people of color, which has here been attempted.

The study of the three original families herein set forth in this county (Cumberland) and a fourth family connected to a degree with them, of Salem county origin, is a subject of some interest. That it is of more than local interest has been shown by lengthy newspaper articles in many metropolitan journals during the last thirty years.

The settlement was made the subject of historical allusion more than three-quarters of a century ago; and while many of those periodical articles have been based upon very insufficient information, the writers having been attracted to the subject by the historical allusions above referred to, they have been of a character indicating estimation.

To preserve these traditions, records, and histories as well as some of more enlarged interest, is the object here had in view.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Gouldtown; Its Tradition; Its People; Its General History 9

II. Fenwick; English History; His Sailing and

Chapter I. Gouldtown; Its Tradition; Its People; Its General

HISTORY.

In Judge Lucius Q. C. Elmer's history of Cumberland County, New Jersey, written in 1865, occurs this statement :

" Gouldtown — partly in the Northern part of Fairfield, and partly in Bridgeton Townships — although never more than a settlement of mulattoes, principally bearing the names of Gould and Pierce, scattered over a considerable territory, is of quite ancient date. The tradition is that they are descendants of Fenwick."

Judge Elmer, a distinguished Supreme Court Jurist of New Jersey, was the son of General Ebenezer Elmer, who was an officer in the Revolutionary Aj^my, first as an ensign, and shortly after as lieutenant in a company, and later, being a physician, serving as a surgeon ; he served, in all, during the war of the Revolution, a period of seven years and eight months. In 1814, he commanded a brigade of militia called out for the defence of Philadelphia against the British, and was ever after that known as General Elmer. Judge Elmer was born soon after the close of the Revolution in 1793, and had ample opportunity and ability for research in his native county. He died in 1883.

Much interest has always been taken in the community of Gouldtown by the neighboring communities, and this was always of a friendly character; in early times because of its traditional descent, and later because of the ethnological features recognizable.

General Elmer and his son were accustomed, on Sunday afternoons to meet in a schoolhouse and catechize the children of Gouldtown, in the neighborhood, in the years following the Revolution. These children and youth would not all be mulattoes (the term " mulattoes " is used in this book in its general significance, applying to the people of color of mixed blood) however, for in the community were pure white families — as for instance the Woodruffs, the Luptons, the Fullers, the Seeleys, and the Whites, and others ; traces of whom are to be found only in the farms they left, which were known by their names as the " Fuller Fields," the " White Fields," the " Jay Fields "; the names remaining a century or more after their owners had vanished. Only one of these names has been perpetuated in a village, and that of recent date and several miles distant from the original location. This is Woodruffs, about three or four miles northward from Gouldtown. It is a wealthy farming settlement on the line of the Central Railroad, and has a Methodist Church and a schoolhouse and post-office.

Gouldtown is comprised in two sections — following the two family names of Gould and Pierce, which were always known by their separate names, Gouldtown and Piercetown, but both known comprehensively as Gouldtown. It is remarkable in that it has perpetuated its family name in its locality for nearly two hundred years ; also because it is a community of mulattoes who,

The Village of Gouldtown. Sketched bv 16-vear-old Gouldtown

School Girl.

I'

contrary to the pet theory of some astute ethnological scientists, have perpetuated themselves generation after generation for almost two centuries; remarkable, too, for the known longevity of its people, who do not begm to grow old, as is often said, untU they come to threescore years, and a number of whom have reached the century mark, one of whom (Ebenezer Pierce Bishop) is still Hving, at this writing, who is one hundred and six years old, and one of whom (Mrs. Lydia Gould Sheppard) was buried in the year nineteen hundred and eleven, at the age of one hundred and two, m the Gouldtown Cemetery, and a number of others who are still living at ages between seventy and ninety-five

^^^Kellenberger's Pocket Gazetteer of New Jersey says- " Gouldtown— a post hamlet in Fairfield Township, Cumberland County, three miles southeast of Bridgeton, the county seat, which affords the nearest banking and shipping facilities, and is connected by daily stage (now by trolley cars). Here are two churches and a store. Population one hundred and

fifty."

Formerly it had a post-office, but, since the opening of a trolley line, that has been abolished for lack of patronage, and its first postmaster, Seneca Bishop, whose mother was a Pierce, was, perhaps, the first colored postmaster in this country. At his death Mordecai C. Pierce was made postmaster; he was succeeded by his widow, Mrs. Anna Gould Pierce, at his death, and she held the position when the office was

abolished.

The actual village is situated two and a half miles east from Bridgeton, the county seat of the County of Cumberland, but, as Judge Elmer states in his history, it is " scattered over a considerable territory," extending in a line of contiguous properties owned by the Goulds and Pierces and their connections from the farm of William C. Gould (inherited from his father, Furman Gould, Jr.), on East Avenue, Bridgeton, eastward to the farm of Stewart Haines Pierce near Carmel (inherited from his father, Adrian Pierce), a distance of almost seven miles; this long stretch of properties extends in width from one to three miles.

Several of the earlier Goulds and Pierces as well as Murrays intermarried with whites, and members of their immediate offspring went away and lost their identity, they and their descendants becoming white ; while, from those who still maintained their identity as people of color, there have come many who have reached distinction, and in whom their native County shows merited pride, as, for instance, a Methodist bishop, a chaplain in the United States regular army, a physician, a lawyer, a distinguished dentist, teachers, writers, journalists; and in the industrial arts, carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, painters, carriage builders, woolen spinners and weavers; brickmakers, machinists, engineers, electricians, printers, factory men, sailors, ministers of the Gospel, and farmers; in fact none of its sister villages has produced — taking equality of environment — more or better or more creditable individualities than has this settlement.

Surrounding Bridgeton and from one to seven miles distant are the post towns and villages of Roadstown, Cohansey, Shiloh, Deerfield, Carll's Corner, Woodruffs, Fairton, Gouldtown and Bowentown, the two last having no post-offices.

The Bridgeton and Millville Traction Company's trolley line passes through Gouldtown, along the beautiful Bridgeton and Millville Turnpike; the distance between the two cities, Bridgeton and Millville, is ten miles, — Gouldtown two and a half miles from the former and seven and a half miles from the latter city, with hourly car traffic connection with each. The settlement is an ancient one, the inhabitants tracing their ancestry back to earliest colonial times.

The community possesses two churches situated about a mile apart, one a Methodist Episcopal, and the other an African Methodist Episcopal ; the latter being in the village, the former in that part of the neighborhood now called Fordsville, the congregation of which is dominated by the Pierce family, while the Goulds are the dominating family in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

This settlement, comprising all the families and both churches, is important for many reasons other than those before enumerated. That it does not abound in wealth and culture is due in great part to the fixed habits of the people and to the fact that they have been all these years domiciled upon poor, timber-exhausted lands. The same labor, economy, and thrift which they have practised here, employed in homes upon a more productive soil, would long ago have placed many of the industrious, sober, and self-denying families of Gouldtown in circumstances of substantial comfort, if not of affluence. They are not as slothful and backward farmers as one might presume from the neglected appearance of too many of their homes and their teams ; but their poor land, coupled with the increased cost of living, compels them to give their attention to pressing necessities, to the neglect of the things which would add to appearances. They are interested in agriculture, close observers, and hard workers; and considering the conditions, obtain from their fields fair crops. They have estates ranging from $1000 to $15,000 or $20,000.

As far back as 1860, a large audience assembled to listen to a well-prepared paper on agriculture delivered in the Gouldto^\Ti schoolhouse by a young man of the neighborhood, who had not then reached his majority. In that paper he cited methods of cultivation practised in China; dealt with the pulverization of the surface; descanted upon the value of " compost," and spoke of utilizing mud and forest leaves as fertilizing agencies. A half century ago there was a Moral and Mental Improvement Society in Gouldtown, and it was from this society's librarj^ that the youth borrowed and read Dick's Works and by those books was inducted into the primary mysteries of natural philosophy. Many simple experiments were made by the boys of the community after the models given by that interesting writer. This library contained many volumes of standard works.

The " Saturday Evening Post " was regularly read by the principal families, as were also some of the early magazines. Such books as the History of England; Burns' Poems; Pilgrim's Progress; Robinson Crusoe; Josephus; Plutarch's Lives, Milton, and Shakespeare, were among those owned and read by the families. Perhaps few books were more highly prized by the devout than Baxter's " Saints' Rest " ; but works of fiction were eagerly read and, we might say, studied, by many inhabitants of Gouldtown two and three generations ago. In my early childhood I heard the " Last Days of Pompeii " discussed by women of Gouldtown. Had they possessed the means and received the encouragement, several persons of the community would have made commendable progress in literature. Despite their surroundings, the generations that have passed away contained within them several who could be classed as well-read.

The principal institutions outside of the family were.

Lummis-Gouldtown School House.

and are still, the school and the church. Up to 1860 these both occupied the same building, the circuit preacher getting around once every three or four weeks. In the interval the pulpit was supphed by local preachers, among whom was " Uncle Furman Gould," the first preacher of any kind known among the Goulds. The preaching, both of the circuit preacher and of the local preacher, occupied itself exclusively with the eternal themes of " fleeing the wrath to come,'* and securing a home in heaven. The hardships of poverty, and homes on earth, had no place in their sermons. They had no lessons to give save such as might tend to make the " souls " of their hearers " prosper." The preachers as such had nothing to contribute to aid the people in making their homes more attractive and sanitary, or their farms more productive.

The same with even more emphasis could be said of the school. The Gouldtown school was a typical " Districk " school with its own Board of Trustees. These trustees, three in number, with very little knowledge of school books or methods, hired the schoolmaster who, without examination or license, started in on the appointed day to " keep school." These schoolmasters never had one word to say as to the purpose of education, and never related it, except in " ciphering," to anything in the actual lives of the scholars. They were taught to spell, to read, to write, and to cipher; but were taught nothing on life, conduct, and character — nothing that might aid or inspire youth to advance materially or even intellectually. The idea of the general improvement of the student did not seem to be present. It is painful to say, but nevertheless true, that neither the church nor the school as they existed in Gouldtown under the old methods contributed anything directly to the material or moral growth of the conmiunity.

That the church contributed powerfully indirectly, by the stress it put upon conscious spiritual life, must be admitted; and that the school did the same by its almost mechanical methods of teaching children to read and write; but both failed to enter into, to improve or brighten, the every-day life of the people as they might have done. Nothing that either taught had the slightest bearing upon their most burning question, How to wring a living out of poor land? Their actual situation, crying as it was, called forth no sympathetic response from either church or school. The teachers were almost always white men, and, it must be said, did their best. Nevertheless, the people have held on to their land from generation to generation ; have bought and cleared land ; reared families and developed character. It must be said also that much of the land held by the Gouldtowners of to-day is of but little more exchangeable value than it was fifty years ago, though more productive now than it was then. Thus, instead of rising on a tide of general increase in the values of real estate, their fate, through no fault of their own, has been just the opposite. Instead of an unearned increment enhancing their holdings, there has fallen to them an unmerited decrement, taking from them as by the stealth of night the modest fortunes they had acquired. The changes in farming and living which have come over the country within recent years, and especially the development of market gardening, and market farming in the South with the cheap and abundant facilities for transportation, have very seriously affected the Jersey farmer. He has had to make the most thorough readjustment of both means and ends. In the early days the average Gouldtown farmer had but the one end in view, namely, to produce enough from his farm to furnish food for his family and provender for the stock that he kept. He managed usually to have tough horses, and fattened his hogs well; but his cattle were of the comparatively milkless wandering " breachy " variety that no one would have to-day. The corn, wheat and oats from his farm coupled with salt hay from the marsh, with potatoes, turnips and cabbage and a little clover hay; a few by-products, with a fair sowing of buckwheat and rye, furnished rations for man and beast and fattened the hogs from which an ample supply of wellcured hams, pork and lard was made, and, with many, a fatted beef was annually killed and salted down. In some cases, wool from their own sheep made their clothing, and rags from worn-out clothes were woven into the carpets that covered their floors.

Modernism has compelled the farmer of Gouldtown to adopt different aims, and to farm for the market, or rather for the middleman who stands in the market gate. In some cases he raises tomatoes and other articles to be delivered directly to the canners on contract, but often his goods go to the commission man for whose labor and skill the farmer pays on one end, and the consumer on the other. Entering the markets the Jerseyman finds himself, as has been previously intimated, in the presence of growers from the South; and their cheaper labor and earlier seasons, again call for readjustment of methods so that his goods may appeal to customers through their quality and appearance. It is to the credit of the Jersey farmer that it can be said he has weathered the storm and has not been crowded out of the markets. Jersey products and poultry hold the highest rank in our great Eastern markets.

The people of Gouldtown, especially the Goulds,

have never been very ardent lovers of money ; they have

rather placed stress upon the development of the social

^-and spiritual nature. Despite their very severe condition they have kept up from earliest times those customs of social enjoyment, indoors in winter and outdoors in summer, which have made them famous for generous hospitality. All the instruction which they received for generations both with regard to the work of their fields and the manner of entertaining guests, was that which came down from parent to child by oral tradition, until the coming in of modernism with its Farm and Home Journals and the like; yet they have maintained themselves well socially.

Several years ago in the city of Washington an official from New Jersey in a public speech referred to the sterling character of individuals of Gouldtown and of their general good deportment. " I can remember well when a schoolboy there, that there was not a boy in school who swore; and I remember noting at one time there was not a child in school who could not read." [T. G. S.] Few inhabitants of Gouldtown proper, from earliest times, were actually illiterate, although none was highly educated. The following quotation from a recent Bridgeton paper will show in what light the community is regarded by its neighbors.

GOULDTOWN HONORED.

There is no section of our County more highly honored than is Gouldtown, from which men have gone forth to become widely known and honored.

Bishop Benjamin F. Lee was for some time, before he was made a Bishop, President of Wilberforce University at Wilberforce, Ohio, of which he is now a member of the Advisory Board. He is a man of solid piety, an able preacher and highly honored by all who know him, as well as by those of his own church.

Another is Theophilus G. Steward, who, for many years was chaplain of the United States Army and now since being on the

Bishop Benjamin F. Lee.

HU"wtrji »- ai r " -' r- » k > *. !^i -"j i ;x t . - ■ ..■■. ■ ^l^ * • 1 — „- -■..■.-, .j.-.-.-. ■.. ' -..UMgp^^ ' -Jm. ' A'UHllMf 'T^ — ' T" — 'A^MVIVK.VIfi* ■ retired list, ably fills a professorship at Wilberforce University. He is a preacher of far more than ordinary ability and able to acceptably fill any pulpit in the land.

Yet another is Theodore Gould, who is a member of the Philadelphia Conference of his church and for several years has acceptably filled the office of presiding elder. He also is a man of noted piety and of much ability as a preacher.

We doubt if there is another section of the County from which three more highly honored and useful men have gone forth.

Chapter II. Fen Wick ; English History ; His Sailing And Landing

HIS COLONY.

The restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, was followed by the war with the Dutch during which the King, Charles II, granted to his brother James, Duke of York, all the lands the Dutch had held in America. The grant, as formally stated, included a large portion of the Province of Maine, and the country from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay. This grant included Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, all Long Island and the whole of the territory of New Netherland.

The next month after the grant was made a fleet of four ships, with a force of three or four hundred men, under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls, as the lieutenant-governor of the Duke, sailed from England. With Nicolls were joined as commissioners Sir Robert Carr, Sir George Cartwright and Samuel Maverick, with extraordinary powers for settling all difficulties in the New England colonies, as well as to take possession of the Dutch province and reduce its inhabitants to obedience.

No sooner was the province fairly in English hands than new names were given to different portions, its boundaries were as far as possible defined, and grants of land were made to Englishmen. That region lying between the Hudson and the Delaware was named Albania, and grants and purchases were made within its boundaries from Sandy Hook to the mouth of the Raritan, and from the Raritan to the Achter Cul, now Newark Bay. But before Nicolls, in the name of the Duke of York, had taken possession of all New Netherland, the Duke, in 20 anticipation of that event, granted in June, 1664, the whole country, from the Hudson to the Delaware and from latitude 41 ° 40 ' to Cape May, to two favorites of the Court, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret.

To the new province of New Cesarea, the name of New Jersey was given, in commemoration of Carteret's defence of the Channel Island of Jersey against the forces of the Commonwealth in 1649.

Of this grant, however, Nicolls knew nothing till June, 1665, when Captain Philip Carteret arrived as Governor of the new province. There was, of course, no alternative but to receive with courtesy one coming armed with such credentials, though Nicolls represented to the Duke that he had hastily given away the fairest portion of his dominion.

A storm had driven Carteret's ship, the Philip, into Chesapeake Bay, but in July she arrived at New York, and a few days later anchored off the point now known as Elizabethport, New Jersey, and landed her thirty emigrants. At the head of these people, Carteret, with a hoe over his shoulder, marched to the spot he had chosen for a settlement, two or three miles inland, and to which in honor of the Lady Elizabeth, the wife of Sir George Carteret, he gave her name. He found at the point where he and his people landed, four families who had taken possession of lands under the grant which had been made by Nicolls. The newcomers brought with them the title of a new English province, and though more than one settlement had been earlier made by the Dutch on this side of the Bay of New York, this was the actual beginning of the State of New Jersey at Elizabeth.

Four years before, the West India Company had discerned and sought to take advantage of the discontent and apprehension felt by so many of the English, both at home and in the colonies, at the restoration of Charles II. The directors invited them to settle on the Raritan, or in its neighborhood, and offered them most favorable terms. Three of the magistrates of New Haven, where this discontent was very general, Matthew Gilbert, the Deputy Governor, Benjamin Fenn, and Robert Treat entered into negotiation with Stuyvesant upon the subject, on behalf of some New Haven people, and found no difficulty in getting from the Dutch Governor the promise that a hearty welcome would be given and religious freedom be secured to anj^ Puritan Colony that should plant itself within the Dutch jurisdiction. But the English asked also for political independence, and the negotiations were suspended. The question of civil relations Stuyvesant felt must be referred to his superiors at home.

Even that concession, he was instructed, the Directors were disposed to make to almost any, provided that Dutch supremacy was acknowledged in the last appeal. The New Haven people were the most eager to set up anew for themselves when the Winthrop charter brought them within the jurisdiction of Connecticut, and they would, perhaps, had there been time enough, have yielded somewhat in their demands. But while diplomacy hesitated events made no halt. Before any agreement could be reached satisfactorj'^ to both parties. New Netherland ceased to be a Dutch colony, and the Duke of York had granted to its new proprietors the whole region from the Hudson to the Delaware.^

The land granted by the Duke of York to Berkeley was soon after sold by him to John Fenwick, who in turn was obliged to part with nine-tenths of it to William Penn, Gauen Laurie, and Nicholas Lucas, to satisfy certain serious obligations, leaving for himself but one-tenth, or " ten-hundredths," as it was called. This John Fenwick was the second son of Sir William Fenwick, Baronet of Northumberland, and had already attained a degree of celebrity. The story of his life as related by John Clements is as follows :

He was second son of Sir William Fenwick, Baronet, who represented the County of Northumberland in the last Parliament under the Commonwealth (1659), and one of four brothers, Edward, John, Roger and Ralph.

»Scribner's History United States, vol. ii, page 330, et seq.

In 1640 Sir William had his residence at Stanton Hill, of Stanton Manor, in the parish of Horsely, Cumberland, where he had considerable landed estate. The mother, Elizabeth, was perhaps of one of the border families, and brought to her husband additional property, increasing his wealth and influence. John was born in 1618, at Stanton Hall, but the day of the month is not known. In 1636 he was styled Knight and Baronet, and five years after that time he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Walter Covert, Knight of Slaughan, Sussex. This lady was mother of his children, and from her came the direct and collateral branches in New Jersey. The family was of Saxon origin, and formed a powerful clan in Northumberland. Their ancient fastness was in the fenny lands about Standfordham, a small town near the Southern boundary of the shire before named.

The tower of Fenwick at Widdington, in Northumberland, near the coast of the North Sea, shows its antiquity in its rude strength and scanty limits similar to those built by the Saxon invaders during the fifth and sixth centuries. This was probably the first seat of the family after their coming over, and whence it may be traced through many of the shires of England.

In the ninth year of the reign of Edward III ( 1334) an inquisition was had of New Castle, and Johannes Fenwick was twice appointed Sheriff. During that time it was much enlarged and strengthened, being an important point of protection and defence against the Scotch. In those warlike times this place had no commercial importance, but had grown to be one of the largest ports in England.

The enmities of former generations have passed away, and what was once a necessary appendage to every town is now visited by the curious to see the means of defence in a barbarous age. In the twelfth century.

Sir Kobert Fenwick of Northumberland endowed the Abbey of New Minster, in the same shire, with two parts of his villa of Irdington, in Cumberland, thus showing his liberality towards, and his adherence to, the CathoHc Church.

John Fenwick having passed through his law studies at Gray's Inn, London (1640), abandoned his profession for a season and accepted an appointment in the Parhamentary Army. His first commission reads as follows:

You are hereby ordered and required as Ma j or under Colonel Thomas Barwis in his regiment of cavalry which was raised in the County of Westmoreland to assist the garrison of Carlisle, and to exercise the officers and soldiers under his command according to the discipline of war. And they are hereby required to yield obedience unto you as Major of said regiment. And all this you are authorized unto, until the pleasure of the Parliament of the Lord General be known.

Given under my hand and seal at Bernard Castle, 27th day of October, 1640.

To John Fenwick, Major, These. O. Cromwell.

In the same year he was ordered by the Parliament, with horse and dragoon to relieve Holy Island Castle in Durham. It was besieged by the royal troops and well nigh captured, when he appeared and defeated the enemy. He was an active and efficient officer, having the confidence of the Parliament and the Protector. After the trial and sentence of the King, he was detailed as commander of cavalry, in conjunction with the foot troops under Colonel Hacker, Colonel Hanks, and Lieutenant- Colonel Phayor, to attend the execution.

The order ran in this wise:

These are therefore to will and require you to see the said sentence executed in the open streets before Whitehall, upon the morrow, being the thirtieth of tliis instant, month of January, between the hours of ten in the morning and five in the afternoon of the same day, with full effect. And these are to require all officers and soldiers and others the good people of this nation of England to be assisting unto you in this service. Given under our hands and seals, etc., etc.

This warrant was signed by all the members who sat as judges upon his trial, and the most of whom witnessed the carrying out the sentence. In the discharge of this important and delicate duty the most reliable officers and the best disciplined troops were selected, which placed John Fenwick among the first of those in the army about London at that time.

The religious status of John Fenwick during this period is doubtful and contradictory. While he was with the army he became a convert to the opinions of George Fox, and by a certificate dated February 11, 1649, he is shown to have been a member of the Independents, a denomination of Christians more Presbyterian than Quaker. Be that as it may, he eventually adopted the principles and practices of Friends and adhered to them until his death. The narrative goes on to recite what has already been stated as follows: