LOCAL

Civil War-era black community in Mount Laurel gets historic honor

Carol Comegno
The Courier-Post
Jacob's Chapel  Meeting House (left) and AME church are all that remains of  the African-American community of  Colemantown in Mount  Laurel. A national historic site marker is to be erected between them Saturday

MOUNT LAUREL - A national historic designation marker will be erected Saturday at the site of a former African-American community in Mount Laurel as part of an anniversary celebration to commemorate the U.S. abolition of slavery.

A day of activities for all ages will celebrate Juneteenth, which refers to the abolition announcement by federal troops in Texas on June 19, 1865, following the end of the Civil War.

Jacob's Chapel AME Church, its cemetery and meetinghouse are the only remains of the 19th-century black community of Colemantown, which also served as an Underground Railroad escape stop for Southern slaves even before the Civil War.

The marker designating Colemantown and the church as locations on the state and national registers of historic places will be unveiled at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at 318 Elbo Lane, between the church and the meetinghouse.

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An indoor/outdoor celebration will continue until 4 p.m. with food, music and a historic theater reenactment to highlight the community's history and ancestors, and the role they played in the underground path to freedom.

The church, the Southern Burlington County Branch of the NAACP, the Historic Underground Railroad Museum of Burlington County, and the Dr. James Still Historic Office Site and Education Center in Medford are partner hosts for the celebration. 

Still of Medford, known as the Black Doctor of the Pines, is buried in the cemetery, where Civil War veterans also were laid to rest. Samuel Still, his great-great nephew and volunteer chairman at the education center, said the marker also mentions the doctor. 

James Still was known as the Black Doctor of the Pines. There will be an archaeological excavation at the Dr. James Still Historical Site in Medford for six weeks this summer.

The Rev. Terrell Persons, the church pastor, said the Jacobs Chapel AME Colemantown Foundation secured a grant from the Garden State Historic Trust to purchase the marker. 

He said much of the credit for the national historic designation goes to the late church member Helena E. Robinson, who filed the initial application more than 10 years ago. She died last year.

The long process ended when consulting historian Paul Schopp helped to complete the application requirements to in a submission to the State Historic Preservation Office in the state Department of Environmental Protection. 

The church was built around 1865. The meetinghouse, a former schoolhouse moved years ago from its original Medford site, is older. While the church is a functioning congregation, the meetinghouse awaits repairs and has been closed since it was seriously flooded during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Last month, Preservation New Jersey listed the building among its 10 most endangered history sites.

Persons said the congregation has not had the money to repair it, but now is about to start the first phase of renovation at an initial cost of $100,000. The total repair estimate is much higher.

 

Carol Comegno: (856) 486-2473; ccomegno@gannettnj.com