ALLENTOWN – The waning months of 2018 brought a decision from federal officials that has historical significance for Allentown.
In a letter to Allentown resident P.J. Meara, Jennifer Runyon, of the research staff of the
U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Reston, Va., said, “We are pleased to inform you the board, at its Nov. 8, 2018, meeting, approved your proposal to change the name of Negro Run in Upper Freehold Township to Ashby Creek.
“The change has been made in the Geographic Names Information System, the nation’s official geographic names repository … The entry reads as follows: Ashby Creek: stream, 4.2 miles long, in Upper Freehold Township … the name commemorates George Ashby (1844-1946), a black Union soldier who worked on a farm in the area … Not: Negro Run.”
The former Negro Run, now Ashby Creek, runs past Conines millpond behind Lakeview Drive and along the northern side of Route 526 in Allentown and Upper Freehold Township.
Civil War veteran and Allentown resident Sgt. George Ashby was the oldest New Jersey Civil War veteran when he died in 1946 at age 102. Ashby was buried at the Allentown African Methodist Episcopal Church cemetery.
“The purpose of this name change is to acknowledge a great resident of our town and serviceman to our country,” Meara, 37, wrote in a petition requesting support for the name change.
This was not the first attempt to change the name of Negro Run. An article published in “The New York Times” on Nov. 3, 1994, cited an effort by Richard G. Smith to have the creek’s name changed. That effort did not result in the name of the creek being changed.
Within the past year, Meara said, he came upon the name Negro Run and for various reasons, he initiated an effort to have the creek’s name changed.
The name change has come about just as Allentown officials are developing a park that will bear Ashby’s name.
Ashby was farming in Crosswicks, Burlington County, when he accepted a $100 enlistment bonus to join the Union Army. In August 1864, Ashby was mustered in as a private in the 22nd United States Colored Troops. He was later assigned to fight in the 45th United States Colored Troops.
Ashby’s regiment was assigned to the Union’s Army of the James and placed in the all-African American XXV Corps, commanded by Major Gen. Godfrey Weitzel.
As part of operations around Petersburg, Va., Ashby’s regiment fought in the battles of Chapin’s Farm, New Market Heights, Darby Town, Fair Oaks and Hatcher’s Run.
After the Confederate lines were broken in April 1865, the XXV Corps took part in the final pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia that ended with Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
Joan Ruddiman, a retired teacher and lifelong resident of Allentown, referred to the effort to rename Negro Run in the 1990s when she was asked to provide perspective on the 2018 decision.
“Interestingly, the attention to renaming Negro Run is more salient today than when the first discussion was raised in the 1990s as we see monuments literally fall in the wake of offense taken against how people lived and what they believed generations ago,” she said.
“For example, students at Princeton University were outraged to learn that a bastion of Princeton history, Woodrow Wilson, exhibited racist attitudes. That would be true, as he was a Virginian and a product of the attitudes and politics of a 19th century ‘son of the South.’ He was also president of the university, governor of New Jersey, president of the United States, and drafted the ideals of the League of Nations after World War I.
“Context is essential in these discussions. In the 1990s when the first objections were raised to the name of this minor creek, historian Mary Clark and others did not defend the offensive name, but did bring forth precise arguments that countered the suggestions made that Allentown and the Upper Freehold area were racist and that the name of the run was evidence of that racism,” Ruddiman said.
“Actually, this area had agreeable interactions between the races from its earliest days and later was very active in the abolition movement. Giles Wright, a noted African American scholar, conveyed that Allentown was known for having positive interactions between whites and blacks.
“One point of evidence of this was the safe haven the whole town provided to escaping slaves who came through Allentown on their way from Crosswicks to Cranbury on the Underground Railroad.
“The slaves were brought to Allentown and left Allentown undercover (hidden in wagons), but while in town, they walked openly in the streets, cared for and sheltered by townspeople, both white and black.
“Lost to history is the reason, the context, why the run was originally named. What we do know is that the name today is divisive. Renaming the run Ashby Creek is appropriate in honoring a man who admirably served his community and his country. The Ashby family were stalwart members in town for generations. This new name embodies a heritage of racial integration the community can embrace,” Ruddiman said.
