FULL CIRCLE: The True Farmstead, a landmark in the history of the African American community of the Sourland region, is now fully owned by the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum in Skillman.

By Anne Levin

Thanks to a collaboration between the Sourland Conservancy and the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM), the museum is now the full owner of the historic True Farmstead in Skillman.

The Conservancy had partnered with the SSAAM in 2022 to purchase the property with support from the Somerset County Cultural Heritage Commission and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (NJDEP) Green Acres Program. This past May, an agreement was signed making the SSAAM the full owner. The Farmstead will house the offices of the SSAAM and the Sourland Conservancy, and will serve as an interpretive space for African American culture and history.

“By transferring its co-ownership of the historic True Farmstead entirely to SSAAM, Sourland Conservancy restores an important cultural and ecological landmark to the African American community,” reads a release from the museum.

“What these two organizations have achieved with this measure is remarkable,” said SSAAM Board President Catherine Fulmer-Hogan. “The team at SSAAM has so much gratitude for our friends and collaborators at the Sourland Conservancy for understanding the True Farmstead’s significance to the history of African Americans of the region, and then making the critical and equitable choice to transfer their ownership to SSAAM. What a powerful and beautiful legacy for us all.”

The True Farmstead was originally owned by William Reasoner, a Black Union Army veteran who worked as a farmer after the Civil War. His widow later married Spencer True, a descendant of the formerly enslaved Friday Truehart, who was freed in 1802 and became an early African American landowner in the Sourland region. In 1780, when he was 13, Truehart had been taken from his mother Dinah in Charleston, S.C., and brought to New Jersey by his enslaver, the pastor of the Hopewell Old School Baptist Church. In the early 1800s, more than 12,000 enslaved people like Truehart lived and worked in New Jersey.

The Trues made their home on the farmstead, which originally included the land where the National Historic Register-listed Mt. Zion AME Church stands today. Since its founding in 2016, the SSAAM has been engaged in preservation of the church building.

“The True Farmstead is my legacy,” said Patricia Payne, a trustee of the SSAAM and a descendant of Truehart. “It represents the strength and perseverance of Black families to survive and thrive in the Sourlands. That the SSAAM and the Sourland Conservancy were able to purchase and preserve the property honors my family. To transfer ownership of the property to the SSAAM represents a sincere desire on the part of the Sourland Conservancy to preserve our Black history as well as the precious natural resources of the Sourland region.”

The Conservancy will continue to use the Farmstead grounds as a model for homeowners to learn how to incorporate native plants into traditional landscaping, to restore the ecosystem to benefit humans and wildlife. The organization will also store trees and supplies on the property to support its ongoing forest restoration project, and will host workshops and educational events at the site. Also planned for the Farmstead is the training of stream monitor volunteers to conduct water quality and habitat assessments for the NJDEP, and the engagement of volunteers in stewardship and planting projects on nearby preserved property.

According to the Conservancy’s Executive Director Laurie Cleveland, the organization’s mission is a natural fit with the SSAAM.

“The Sourland Forest produces oxygen and filters pollutants from our air and water,” she said. “Eight hundred thousand New Jersey residents rely on the Sourland Mountains to provide some or all of their clean drinking water. The healthy forest helps reduce flooding in areas where the most vulnerable communities are often located, and it also helps to mitigate the impacts of climate change which will, again, disproportionately impact communities of color. The seeds we’re planting today will leave a healthy legacy for future generations.”