The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-07

IN OLD VINCENTOWN
The Historic Village on the
Western Edge of the
South Jersey Pines.
BRAINARD, GlRARD AND WOoLMAN
A Chapter in the History Of a
Section of the State-The
Bonapartes Modern
Incidents.
BRAINARD, GIRARD AND WOOLMAN

Along the western edge Of the region OF
the Jersey .4Pines," where the fertile
farms, century-old plantation houses ana
progressive hamlets of Burlington county
merge by slightest gradations into dhe
terra i~ncognita that stretches to the dis
tant sea, lies V~incentown, an interesting
account of which appeared in a recent
| issue of the Newark Evening News.
A pleasant place is it withal. with ls
wide, main streets, shaded by ~overhang1ng
j 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 homes
| and gardens of long ago with yellow
| gravel paths, arbor vitae hedges, roses
in June, hollyhocks in August and lttle
Japanese chrysanthemums in OCTOBER
| and its evidence of modern thought and
| patriotism in we'll built churches and a
large school.
Away from the noise of great cities ana
| pursuing the even tenor of its rural lie,
| Vincentown boasts of no remarkable past.
Unlike Burlington, the ancient capltal ol
| West Jersey, the home of pr~o-Revolutlon-
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 lalo'
| 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 cwn of this
| 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 J. Frick, is an Indian
burial ground, and nearby stood the one
| story frame building where the Reverend
| John Brainard preached to the remnan
of the Quaxon Indians. Here by the side
of the creek this eminent missionary
baptised the red man in pre-Revolution-
airy days and carried to the semi-civilized
/ ADOIlSlAtS lIG iOSGoe Vi OAi
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 record2
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 man" here laid the founda-
lions of a fortune which won for him
and his later charities honor and renown.
Today in Philadelphia stands a college
named for it's 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 life has become of permanent
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 mind. Early
| accepted as a minister of the Society of
Friends. he visited through the middle
colonies, preaching to vast audiences in
/ the meeting houses. In him is to be
found the exemplar of the doctrines of
He denounced intemperance. the credit
system at the plantation stores, extrava-
giant dress and ornaments, the drafting
of men for the French and Indian war,
and, in fact, any form of military estab-
i lishment, and any custom or method
incompatible with the doctrines Of George
Fox. But above and beyond all this did
he ab1or the holding of slaves. Whenever
or wherever his voice sounded orshis 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 We're made in
yearly n quarterly meetings in East
and West Jersey against the system. John
Woolman centralized all the thought of
his time, preparing the way for Benezet,
Garrison and the later hosts of oppo-
nents. His unique figure stands foremost
of his period, never resting, never ceasing
WOODLANDS JOURNAL.
As a serivener 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,s he urged them
to manumit the slaves and to put them
selves in touch with the democratic
teachings of the society. His journal
co1lched in such limpid English that
Charles Lamb advised every studen.
to con it's style, breathes with the spirit
of personal liberty. AS was the case with
many colonial Friends, he paid a religious
visit to- York, England, where he died
in 1872, ever instilling into the minds OF
the Anglo-Saxon race the ideas of poll.
teal equality of man.
In gayer mood5sthe story of vincen.
town changes. AS yet; there are stories
told of the visit of Joseph Bonaparte
eldest brother of Napoleon, and once
King of Spain, who, leaving his adopted
home at Bordentown, would drive
through this country on his way to the
sea. With coach and horses, luggage
wagons and attendants, with sparkling
glass, gay ribbons and the paraphernalia
of State, this Count de Surveilliers dashed
through the highways bordered on eithe,
side by the somnolent pines. Then tina
merry blade, Prince Murat, good fellow
and spendthrift, and the studious or
nithologist Charles Bonaparte, the one tc
royster, the other to learn the moods oil
nature, came oft into central Burlington
They, too. are gone and well nigh for.
gotten.
MODERN VINCENTOWN.
In more modern times Vincentown has
the distinction of having furnished more