James Shackleford desperately wants to save the Van Dyke farm. He desperately wants to find out more about the slaves who lived on it. And he’s frustrated that his “baby” could possibly be turned into a residential development.
JEFF GRANIT staff The historic Van Dyke farm on Davidson Mill Road in South Brunswick has an 18th-century farmhouse complete with slave quarters. The bodies of the slaves are said to be buried somewhere on the property. “I would have my heart ripped out if it came to that point,” Shackleford said of the South Brunswick farm. “We don’t have something like this in central New Jersey or all over the state.”
Eastern Villages Association (EVA) historian James Shackleford is talking about the 191-acre, 300-yearold Davidson Mill Road property, which has its slave quarters intact. It is the main source of a feud between developer Joe Morris and local residents, represented by the EVA.
“Historically speaking, the farm is a time capsule of New Jersey’s past,” said Jean Dvorak, an EVA member. “The house dates back to the 1700s and has intact slave quarters on the second floor, with records and written evidence of its story. The land has a cemetery with a Revolutionary War-dated grave, and we also have verified testimony of the existence of a slave cemetery on the property as well.”
JEFF GRANIT staff The historic Van Dyke farm on Davidson Mill Road in South Brunswick is part of an ongoing battle between its land developer, who wants to sell the property, and residents who want it preserved. Morris owns the development rights to the farm. In 2005, he tried to change the zoning of the land to build a warehouse, but after many complaints from residents, the township denied the rezoning. In October 2005, Morris came up with a plan to build 76 luxury houses on the property, which is allowable under the current land usage. The township then began to work with the county and state on preserving the farm.
However, talks with the developer are at an impasse.
“They don’t want to talk about it,” Shackleford said of the developer. “I always think, ‘They might wait, wait, wait, hoping that we’ll give up.’”
“There’s nothing prohibiting [the developer] from building,” said Elaine Livingston, a member of the EVA, which is a volunteer community organization fighting to preserve the historic character of the northeastern part of the township. “The economy is so lousy right now that it doesn’t pay for him to build houses.”
Livingston adds that because Pigeon Swamp State Park is near the farmhouses, Morris may not be able to build as many houses as he wants because of environmental concerns. The members of the EVA also believe that Morris truly still wants a warehouse to be built.
“He’ll use the farm as a bargaining tool,” Livingston said. “He would have ripped it down by now, he could still rip it down. He’s going to use this.”
“The county is the hope,” said EVA member Bill Klimowicz.
The township and the county are making an effort to buy the farm, but it may not be enough. They need a willing seller, and money will be a big issue.
“We won’t be the one putting up the majority of the money,” said Mayor Frank Gambatese. “The county is the one; they’ve made an effort to reach out to the owner of that property. We will chip in as much as we can.”
The township only has a limited amount to chip in, though.
“We only have $4 million left in our Open Space Trust Fund,” Gambatese said. “We certainly can’t give any more than that or we’ll have to raise the rates.”
Gambatese does recognize the importance of the land.
“It’s an important piece of land,” he said. “It’s the last really large parcel of land in South Brunswick; 200 acres is a lot. If it can be preserved, it would be great. But it’s not in our hands.”
As for the county, officials are continuing to work on the issue, although they foresee problems.
“We’ll do an appraisal on it,” said Middlesex County Freeholder Director David Crabiel. “It’s not in yet, but we’ll make our offer. It will be lower than what the owner wants. I’m not optimistic. He’s a developer, he wants to make money. We can only offer what the valid appraisal is. If we go up, we’ll just go up a little bit.”
Crabiel said the appraisal should be in within the next 60 days. Phone calls to Joe Morris’ lawyer, Frank Petrino, were not returned.
Meanwhile, the EVA continues to fight for the farm.
“We have to keep embarrassing them,” Livingston said.
She believes that this situation led, in part, to New Jersey’s becoming the first northern state to apologize for slavery.
There has also been some talk that Fresh Ponds be made a historical district. However, the members of the EVA have not looked into the situation yet.
Yet it’s not just the historic aspect of the farm that makes EVA members believe it should be preserved.
“Preserving open space in any town is a plus,” Dvorak said. “We must not forget that prime farmland is rapidly disappearing in New Jersey. This land, according to the farmer currently farming it, produces both high quality and high quantity of crops.”
In 2006, the farm was named one of the 10 most endangered historic sites by Preservation New Jersey, a private, membership supported group that advocates for and promotes historic preservation in the state.
“It has connections to the Revolutionary War and the farmhouse has no major changes to it,” said Swathy Keshavamurthy, a historical sites preservationist for Preservation New Jersey. “It’s pretty much how it was originally built.”
Shackleford is extremely interested in the township’s history and being on the farm upsets him because he knows there is so much more to learn about it.
“I know there’s a story here – I just can’t get it,” Shackleford said. “I get a little piece here, a little piece there and I keep discovering away and chipping away. There are probably Van Dykes living in New Brunswick. But how do I get to them? How do I find them?”
He does know a bit, however. The house was built in the mid-1700s and was owned by the Van Dykes until it was bought in the 1950s by William Pulda. Caretakers live on the farm now.
Shackleford knows that the Van Dykes are buried on the property and that slaves were buried there as well, although again the frustration comes creeping back. He simply does not know where they are buried. He said that generally the slaves would be buried about 800 feet from their white counterparts and that this would put their burial right under the New Jersey Turnpike, which borders the farm.
Shackleford said that getting the proof that slaves were buried here could be the impetus to the county and state really making a better effort to get the farm preserved.
“I would love to find the burial sites,” Shackleford said. “Then I could say, ‘Look, here’s proof that it’s important.’ I need to find something a little more special.’ ”
Shackleford continues to search for clues, hoping to find the family Bible for the black Van Dykes.
“I have one of the white Van Dykes that lived here, but it doesn’t talk about their slaves,” Shackleford said. “Black families always did family Bibles- it was a tradition for a long time.”
He found an African American Van Dyke in Franklin Park named Libby on an old map. However, he could never locate her.One of the best discoveries on the farm was the bill of sale for Amy, a 16-year-old slave girl who was sold to the Van Dykes. Amy went on to have at least four children.
“They bought her to breed her, that’s what they bought her for,” Shackleford said.
Shackleford speculates that there could have been about eight people living in the slave quarters on the farm, including Amy, her four children, her husband or lover and other workers to farm the land.
“The slaves lived above the kitchens,” Livingston said. “There were just three tiny rooms; they were not even painted. New Jersey slaves were quite different than southern slaves, but they brought in about two-thirds of the crops. They were responsible for New Jersey’s riches.”
“The Great Ditch, one of the first public works projects ever attempted in the country, was conceived by the landowners of the Van Dyke farm and neighboring farms, and there can be little doubt that much of the digging was probably done by slaves,” Dvorak said. “We must also presume that the farmland itself was cleared of trees by slaves. Just standing at the edge of one of those fields and thinking of the effort it must have taken to till and work that land gives me an incredible sense of how hard a life those slaves must have suffered.”
Livingston also believes it’s important to preserve the site because children are not educated about slaves in New Jersey.
“This farm is a perfect way to teach slavery,” Livingston said.
“We need to learn and remember the lessons of our history,” Dvorak said. “Perhaps if we could remember its truths, we might find better ways to deal with the human problems we face today.”