BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer
Arthur VanDyke (r) and Dorothy VanDyke talk of their experiences at the 300-year-old farm once toiled by their family generations ago. SOUTH BRUNSWICK – On May 25, slaves once discarded as property were memorialized as people.
Residents of South Brunswick dedicated a memorial on the 300-year-old VanDyke farm to the slaves that once worked its fields centuries ago. A headstone of concrete and steel near the end of the driveway marks the location where it is believed that the slaves are buried. On it is a plaque engraved with “In memory of the African Americans of centuries past whose remains lie here in the fields of the VanDyke farm where they toiled under hardship and difficulty.”
Members of the Eastern Villages Association (EVA), a community organization that wishes to preserve the Davidsons Mill Road farm, organized the small memorial service.
Beneath the shade of a large tree, amid the roar of the nearby New Jersey Turnpike, a series of speakers reflected on the lives that were lived on the farm as well as the horrors of the people kept prisoner there by an institution that treated them as objects.
Photos by MIGUEL JUAREZ staff People join hands May 25 at the end of a memorial service to slaves who worked the 300-year-old VanDyke farm in South Brunswick. “We all owe a debt of gratitude to the slaves, because we used them and abused them … and we’re in debt to their memory as we find them lying here in unmarked graves,” said Bill Klimowicz, a member of the EVA, who made the headstone and organized the service.
The headstone marks no specific grave site, but rather the general area where it is believed the slaves are buried.
“It’s somewhere in this area. We’re not 100 percent sure, but this is as close as we’ve come, so we’ve chosen this spot,” said Jean Dvorak, another EVA member.
The spot that was chosen came from information given to the EVA from a direct descendant of the original VanDyke family, Arthur VanDyke, who attended the memorial. VanDyke lived on the farm from 1923-43 and remembers, growing up, the presence of several small wooden crosses in the area, away from the family graveyard. Over time, the wooden markers decayed, as did the memory of their exact location.
People bow in silent prayer at a slave cemetery site at the VanDyke farm. “I remember it being here when I was a kid – it was here. It was only a few wooden crosses and a patch of woods, and they didn’t look very good,” VanDyke said before motioning to his right. “But neither did the family graves, even 60 years ago.”
The land the farm sits upon was granted to the VanDyke family by the king of England in the late 1600s. Once acquired, the family proceeded to buy slaves that worked the fields until New Jersey abolished slavery in 1804, making it the last northern state to outlaw the institution. The discovery that the farm had made use of slave labor came from the discovery of records detailing the sale of slaves to and from the VanDyke family, as well as the willing of them to descendants. The quarters where the slaves lived are still standing on the farm.
According to VanDyke, the family farm used to be much larger, but as the years have gone on, bits and pieces of the property have been sold or paved over.
“The turnpike went through the middle of [the property] and kind of separated them. This was the homestead, which had been in the family for centuries. My father owned the adjacent farm,” VanDyke said before motioning across the turnpike. “And my uncle owned one over there. The three farms were left by my grandfather, who died in 1882.”
The VanDyke family left the farm entirely in 1954, and the land was soon bought by another family, the Puldas. The farm is currently owned by William Pulda of North Brunswick who, due to illness, has given power of attorney to his brother, Walter Pulda who, in turn, has turned over the development rights to the brothers Joe and Robert Morris, the principals of Morris Realty Associates.
Arthur VanDyke, who is in his early 80s, currently lives in Mountainside.
The Morris firm, at first, expressed its desire to build a warehouse on the property and petitioned the township to change the zoning to allow them to do so. But amid outcry from residents concerned about traffic and pollution, as well as a desire to preserve the farm for historical purposes, the measure was defeated in February 2005. The company then regrouped in October and announced that it was going to instead build 76 luxury houses, a plan which is allowed under the zoning of that area.
Currently, the township is in negotiations with the firm to buy the land for preservation. In order to do so, the township would need extensive assistance from the state and county, which it is trying to secure, as the 191-acre property is acknowledged by all parties as very expensive.
According to Klimowicz, the slave memorial also serves to increase awareness of the historical value of the land, and he hopes that it will help with the preservation efforts.
“We used the memory of the slaves as one of our strong points to save the farm; and here they lie, no markers on their graves, no remembrance at all, and I just felt this had to be done,” said Klimowicz.