Update on our Caching in Lamington 8/11/2008

This is information from a gentleman who lives now in Tenants Harbor, ME, who obviously lived in Lamington, NJ at one time, regarding the Lamington Black Cemetery. He has his PC set up to automatically notify him when a certain word appears anywhere in the world and it notified him when we posted our log for the Lamington Black Cemetery cache we did on Monday. He has some ties to the cemetery in the past and his last name is the same as a local road in Lamington area. The following is what he sent us in an email: I sold Lamington House in 1981 and up to that point there had been very little activity in our “Slave graveyard”. It would be almost 60 years ago that I used to venture into the graveyard, primarily to hunt deer or rabbit. On many occasions I recall trying to decipher the names/dates on the soft grave markers (shale?) but the effort was fruitless. It was very obvious where the graves were, however, as the depressions in the ground left very little doubt of their existence. I assumed the depressions were caused by the rotting of the wooden coffins. Who knows?
My sister and I had always been told that the graveyard was, in fact, the burial grounds for the slaves that arrived in the area as part of the Underground Railroad movement. My ears never heard any discussion of actual slavery in the Lamington/Bedminster area. Had slavery been in use in the area I think we would have heard of it. On the contrary, the residents were involved in helping the runaways. I would be interested is reviewing the documents that you saw which told a different story. I only pass on what I was told.
Much later, the graveyard was substantially cleaned up by the new owners of Lamington House. Ceremonies were, I understand, held there honoring the “slaves” and their history. Mother once served on a committee (perhaps she chaired it) composed of the Minister and several parishioners of the Lamington Presbyterian Church. I do not recall that anything constrictive ever came out of this gathering.
This was very interesting and we would like to thank him for contacting us about it.