Saddlertown

Saddlertown. . , Joshua Saddler is reputed to have been a Maryland fugitive slave whom Josiah Evans, a Quaker, helped to gain his freedom. Accounts of Joshua's escape, discovery, and emancipation, while interspersed with historical accuracy, has not yet been confirmed. However records reveal that by 1834, Saddler and his family were known as "free persons of color" in the community. On May 3, 1842, with "Two Hundred Dollars of lawful money well and truly paid," Joshua Saddler purchased five acres of land in Haddon Township (then Newton Township, Gloucester County, NJ), from the estate of John Rowand. These five acres became known as "Saddlertown." Joshua and Hannah his wife lived the balance of their lives in the settlement, as did a good number of their eleven children. Hannah died in Saddlertown on September 12, 1877. Joshua followed on January 15, 1880. In his Last Will and Testament, proved February 5, 1880, Joshua expressed the desire that Saddlertown land remain in family hands. He also admonished the family that they were "...in no instance to commit waste by cutting the timber growing thereon..." , , On August 22, 1892 Haddonfield Quakers Charles and Beulah M. Rhoads purchased a portion of Saddler's original 5-acre property from Joshua Saddler's grandson Jefferson Fisher, Jr., and built a combination church/school for the residents of Saddlertown, completed in 1893. Eight founding members of the church were Robert Hankinson, Elizabeth Hankinson, Joseph Hankinson, Jefferson Fisher,Jr., Mary Ann Fisher, Moses Cornelius, Margaret Fussell, and Isaac Saddler. The church is now called the Rhoads Temple United Methodist Church. Children of Saddlertown attended school on the first floor of the church building from 1893 until 1912. In 1912 a new one-room schoolhouse was erected by the Haddon Township Board of Education on land purchased from the estate of Aaron Stoy. The schoolhouse no longer exists. , , The Saddlertown community was enlarged in 1899 when Dr. Lawrence L. Glover purchased land from Sarah Elizabeth Hunt, adding an additional 18 building lots to the Saddlertown tract. , , Saddlertown history also includes the Saddlertown Summer Rest Cottage, founded in 1893-94 by Isabel M. Shipley of Camden, NJ. The home was advertised as a "summer home for aged and infirmed colored people." For at least 20 years Shipley cared for a reported 200 people. Shipley described the rest home as being in Saddlertown "across from a chapel built by a friend of the race [Charles Rhoads]."