The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-06
In OLD VINCENTOW
The Historic Village on the
Western Edge of the
South Jersey Pines.
BRAINARD, GIRARD AND WOOLMAN
A Chapter in the History Of a
Section of the State-The
Bonapartes - Modern
Incidents.
BRAINARD, GIRARD AND WoOLMAN

Incidents.
Along the western edge of the region OF
the Jersey ''Pines,'' where the fertlle
farms, century-old plantation houses ana
progressive hamlets of Burlington county
merge by slightest gradations into Hhe
terra i~ncognita that stretches to the dls-
tant sea, lies Vineentown, an interesting
account of which appeared in a recent
issue of the Newark Evening News.
A pleasant place is 1t withal. with its
wide main streets, shaded by ~overhanging
| trees: its crescent-shaped pond, Where
the pent-up waters of the Rancocas make
| their final leap, amid silver spray, swift
rushing to the Delaware; its old MONIES
| and gardens of long ago with yellow
gravel paths, arbor vitae hedges, roses
| in lime. hollyliocks in August and little
| Japanese chrysanthemums in OCTOBER,
and it's evidence of modern thought ana
| natriotism in we'll built churches and u
| large school.
AWAY from the noise of great cities ana
| pursuing the even tenor of its rural ille'
Vincentown boasts of no remarkable past.
Unlike Burlington, the ancient capital Oh
West Jersey, the home of pro-Revolution-
airy Governors, and all the activity that
| such a record implies. Unlike Borden
town, the abiding place OF Kings, ana the
| spot where the first mile of track OF the
| Camden and Amboy system was lald;
| unlike Tuckerton and her revolutionary
"reminiscences of guerilla whaleboat war
/ fare in Little Egg Harbor; unlike Moores-
town, the modern home of orthodoxy IN
the Society of Friends; unlike Mt. Holly,
| with her traditions of William ", later
King of England, who here commanded,
! as a young man, a detachment of British
troops: unlike all these towns OF TINS
section of the State, Vincentown can lay
no claim to National distinction. Never
| theless there are still the memories OF
| events of lesser import, which are worth
a passing notice.
AN INDIAN BURIAL GROUND.
Beyond the town limits, and within the
| meets and bounds of the farm belonging
| to Mr.. William ]. Frick, is an Indian
| burial ground, and nearby stood the one
| story frame building where the Reverend
| John Brainard preached to the remnant
| of the Quaxon Indians. Here by the side
Of the creek his eminent missionary
baptised the red man in pre-Revolution-
ary lays and carried to the semi-civilized
Aborigines the message of Christianity.
Although a resident of Mt. Holly, where
he officiated in the Presbyterian Church,
| John Brainard left the ease and refine
mnts of the town, and in the heat of
summer and cold of winter, cared for the
! fast-fading band of converts and brought
them within the pale of his church. No
stone or monument marks the spot of his
labors. Is not the sacrifice of this heroic
man worthy of a permanent record?
In the latter part of the last century
there landed at Egg Harbor a young
Frenchman, who, travelling through the
Pines" reaches Mt. Holly. Ever and
anon the emigre would come through
V%incentown, pack on back, an itinerant
vender, quick in a bargain, and thus
rapidly increasing his wealth. This little
unnoticed mani here laid the founda-
tions of a fortune which won for him
and his later charities honor and renown.
Today in Philadelphia stands a college
named for its benefactor, who made
his start in the world in the vicinity of
Vincentown. Need 1 say that it was
Stephen Girard?
THE APOSTLE OF ABOLITION.
Near Vincentown, in the 1920, was born
| one whose lie mas DeCcI1o Oh pGIliIdIieill
interest wherever the English language
is spoken. John Woolman, the "apostle
of the Abolition movement" was of
| Quaker ancestry, from whom he derived
a strong religious bias OF min Early
accepted as a minister of the Society of
Friends, he visited through the middle
colonies, preaching to Yast agdiences" y Y
found the exemplar offthe doctrines Of
the society. isee so1eG fss1s ~ y
He denounced intemperance,s the. credit
system at the plantation stores, extrava-
CANT dress and ornaments, the drafting
of men for the French and Indian war,
and, in fact, any form of military estab,,
lishment, and any custom iors method
/ Incompatible with the doctrines of George
Fox. But above and beyond all this did
he abhor the holding of Slaves, Whenever
or wherever his voice sounded or his pen
wrote, the idea of human bondage met
with his denunciation. Although soon
after the settlement of Philadelphia the
Germantown Friends condemned slave
holding, and remonstrances were made In
yearly and quarterly meetings in East
and West Jersey against the system. John
Woolman centralized all the thought oil
his time, preparing the way for Benezet,
Garrisons and the later hosts of oppo-
nents. His unique figure stands foremost
of his period, never resting, never ceasing
in his fight for principle.
WOOLMAN,S JOURNAL.
AS a scfivener of wills he refused to
write any in which the right of hold
ing human beings as property was ac-
knowledged;'' as a visitor at the houses
of the wealthy Quakers, he urged them
to manumit the slaves and to put them
selves in touch with the democratic
teachings of the society. His Journal
couched in such limpid English that
Charles Lamb advised every student
to con it's style, breathes with the spirit
OF, personal liberty. As was thelcase with
many colonial Friends, he paid a religious
visit to York, England, where he, died
in 1772, ever instilling into the minds of
the Anglo-Saxon race the ideas of poll
teal equality of man.
In gayer mood the story of Vincen-
town changes. AS yet, there are stories
told of athe visit of Joseph Bonaparth
eldest brother of Napoleon, and onde
King of Spain, who, leaving his adopted
home at Bordentown, would : drive
through this country on his way to tho
sea. With coach and horses. luggagej
wagons and attendants, with sparkling
glass, gay ribbons and the paraphernalia
of State, this Count de Surveilliers dashed
through the highways bordered on eithea
side by the somnolent pines. Then tha&
merry blade, Prince .Murat, good felloS
and spendthrift, and the studious or-
nithologist Charles B~onaparte, the one I'd
royster, the other to learn the moods OF
nature, came oft into central Burlington
They, too. are gone, and well nigh for
gotten.
MODERN VINCENTOWN. \
In more modern times V~incentown has
the distinction Of having furnished mofe