Somerville, NJ’s First African American Neighborhood: Lottery Field
Part 5: An Integration Story:Somerville Public Schools
The partnership of the St. Thomas AME Zion Church and the African American community provided the first educational opportunities for Somerville’s African American children (See previous post). The existence of the Somerville Colored School (1858–1917), and its predecessor, The AME Church School (1847–1858) attests to the determination and strength of the partnership. Their centralized locations made St. Thomas AME Zion Church and the schools the center of Somerville’s first African American neighborhood. The neighborhood, located on each side of High Street, and west of Bridge Street (p 84), was known as the Lottery Field section. (See the above map.) The “lottery field’’ designation refers to the land originally raffled off in the 1809 Somerville/Davenport Land Lottery. Between 1809 and 1867, the African American community of Lottery Field grew until the location became the focus for redevelopment. The community’s ardent resistance to the redevelopment plan makes the Lottery Field location worthy of exploration.
The Somerville/Davenport Lottery (1809). Lottery ticket fundraisers were common practice in New Jersey. The Lutheran Church of Bedminster, the First Raritan (Somerville) Church, and The New Jersey Legislature held lotteries to finance new facilities or pay legal obligations (p 88–94). The precarious circumstances of the 1809 Somerville/Davenport Land Lottery led to unclaimed land lots in the northwest section of town. When businessman John Davenport’s interest in a Somerville business waivered, he partnered with William Johnson to broker the sale of his property. The 105 acre property was partitioned into 465 plots, recorded onto deeds, and offered for $25 each. Delayed more than a year, the drawing finally occurred in 1809. The drawn tickets were mostly blank, with the more valuable and centrally located lots being claimed (p 96).
While all the fees and deeds were officially recorded by 1810, land disputes and land claims continued for more than fifty years. Seemingly, John Davenport and his wife Margaret had operated in good faith by legally signing off on each deed before a judge. It appears the main beneficiaries of the Somerville/Davenport Lottery were several Somerville businessmen and William Johnson. The lottery’s registrar, Judge Daniel Beach, oversought other questionable lotteries. As the broker, Johnson submitted many deeds without the purchaser’s signature, creating the opportunity for fraudulent land claims. The official registry of deed holders exceeded the number of available lots, and many deeds are absent from the record (p 93–96). William Johnson, himself became the holder of several deeds, which he willed to the Freeholders of Somerset County upon his death.
The African American Lottery Field Neighborhood. The unclaimed swath of land from the Somerville/Davenport Lottery became the settling place of Somerville’s African American residents. The community included the formerly enslaved and (free) black citizens from the local areas and across the state. The community, with St. Thomas AME Zion Church and the schools at its center, grew without interference until 1865. That year, the neighborhood became the focus of redevelopment by the Somerville Board of Commissioners. Town leaders petitioned the legislature for ownership labeling the residents as, “..disreputable characters that gathered there [and] rendered the place a blot upon the village,” (p 664). In 1867, the petition was granted under the condition that the land’s resale recover the $1600 purchase price. Saddled with this obligation, the Board of Commissioners’ emerging challenge became the removal of the Lottery Field residents.
Resistance: Securing a School and Church Home. The Somerville Board of Commissioners proposed to remove the residents of the African American neighborhood to the south side of town, on the other side of Peters’ Brook (p 664). A campaign was launched to convince residents to relocate. These efforts included a series of public talks, organized by Samuel W. Davenport, the recently appointed executor of John Davenport’s estate. Prominent speakers like Wendell Phillips and George B. Cheever encouraged the residents to embrace the improvements. The community’s resistance was countered with an offer guarenteeing land for a new school building. Long denied access to Somerville’s educational institutions, the families agreed to leave, viewing the school building as the outcome of generations of their activism.
With its traditions grounded in resistance, the St. Thomas’ AME Zion congregation challenged the Somerville Commissioners’ displacement plan. The church had grown its membership and maintained Lottery Field as its home for almost 20 years. In partnership with the African American community, the church had provided long-term financial support to educate Somerville’s African American children. As a center of trust and power, the congregation leveraged its position within the African American community and the religious communities of Somerville. The congregation’s relationship with Mr. Samuel W. Davenport, the executor of the John S. Davenport estate yielded an offer to stay in Lottery Field. “Mr. Davenport took a great interest in his neighbors living on the Lottery Field near his home….giving money to help them build a church and land on which to build a school”, (Havens, 1997). The congregation and African American community then raised $2800 for the school’s construction. The 1868 building remained a one room structure until a 22 by 40 feet addition was built in 1894. Renamed The Somerville Colored School and newly supported by local taxes, it housed the school for the next 23 years when Somerville grammar schools desegregated in 1917.
The path toward Somerville’s school integration began with the intersecting interests surrounding the Lottery Field. The growth of and redevelopment plan for the Lottery Field neighborhood shaped the configuration and demographics of Somerville’s neighborhoods. Through activism, the St. Thomas AME Church and the African American community advanced its commitment to education-with the erection of a school building. This church-operated school and its successor, The Somerville Colored School, fostered the academic strengths of students like Frederick H. Moore, Sr. Moore’s graduation from Somerville High School is one outcome of generations of activism.
Resources
Protest Against the Robbery of the Colored Race by the Proposed Amendment of the Constitution
Somerville as it really is. New York: Nation Press.
Havens, Jessie, Former Slaves Had to start their own school, Messenger-Gazette. 1997, 6 February.
