Jersey Genesis. The Story of the Mullica River (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Jersey Genesis. The Story of the Mullica River, by Henry Charlton Beck. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1945. 304 pp. $3.50. THE slogan "Know Your Own State" has produced a small library of books in the past decade. This movement has been variously promoted, particularly so by the Department of Economic Development in Trenton, New Jersey. The author of this volume, Jersey Genesis, has been Chairman of a Conference of this State agency and otherwise active in this interest. This latest of his books has apparently struck a popular note and is already in a second printing. It has some distinct values which will be noted after pointing out some limitations more or less common in other works of the same class which have come to the notice of the present reviewer. The title seems definitely unfortunate, for Jersey Genesis suggests history. The author's expression "more folklore than history" (p. 20) makes clear the point at issue. Jersey Genesis was definitely Quaker. William Penn's resounding words, "We put the power in the people," in his first message to the Quaker pioneers at Burlington, dominated the first fifty or more years of New Jersey as of Pennsylvania history. They are sometimes said to have shaped the type of our country's government. All Pennsylvania school children were made aware of this during the recent Tercentenary of Penn. It was a great misfortune that Governor Martin's activity in making this possible in Pennsylvania was not followed in New Jersey. If the rising generation of our children could have these few words engraven on their memory there might be some hope for the restoration of real democracy as opposed to political (boss) rule. Professor Thomas J. Wertenbaker in his monumental work on The Founding of American Civilisation (New York, 1938) has treated Jersey Genesis. Unfortunately, with that of several others, his work is not mentioned in this volume. Somewhat in line with the above consideration it seems necessary to observe that in dealing with folklore an active and discriminating judgment is required, otherwise actual facts of history get perverted. There are numerous instances of this in the present volume. For the first time, so far as I know, the venerated Thomas Osborn is called "Tommy" and the folk myth is repeated that he betrayed the encampment of Count Pulaski to the invading British, and so was responsible for the Little Egg Harbor Massacre. Seventy-five years ago, as I well remember, both Thomas Osborn and Joseph Willits were charged in current stories with this disgraceful act, but a careful investigation by the Society of Friends, to which they both belonged, absolutely exonerated them. Much later, when the monument at Chestnut Neck was dedicated, a military officer with authority from the War Department gave the name of the culprit, and it was not that of one of the pioneer Quakers. 33 34 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION The association of the names of Ann Gaunt and Ann Willits, eminent Quaker ministers, with that of Rhoda Osborn Lamb, seems to indicate that they were contemporaries. Rhoda Lamb belongs to my youthful period ; the others to an earlier time. In this trio of Quaker preachers the name of Lucy Ann Evans is omitted. I have often listened to the recital of her saintly character and her fame as a prophetess at Bridgeport or Wading River where she lies buried in a suitably marked grave. One other observation in the Quaker field: David Mapps (sometimes spelled Mapes) was a Negro of note in the Mullica Valley. He and his wife were devout and highly esteemed members of the Society of Friends. He was an overseer and member of the School Committee of Little Egg Harbor Monthly Meeting. He built the Friends Meeting House at Bridgeport. A forest fire destroyed the last remains of the frame structure not long since, but I have in my possession one of the wrought iron "beam cradles" supporting the roof, evidently from the foundry, where Jesse Evans, husband of Lucy Ann, had an important interest. In a monograph by Charles F. Green, David Mapps appears in a heroic role in 1812 as he declines on religious...