WESTAMPTON -- When residents here talk about their community's rich history, it is usual for them to bring up this section of the township known as Timbuctoo. (also known as Bucto), the small area along the Rancocas Creek was founded in 1825 and is believed to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad that conducted slaves to freedom. Part of Timbuctoo's significant history remains visible in the form of a small graveyard of Black Civil War Veterans Township residents will not forget this graveyard. "After all these years that cemetery is finally getting some recognition," said Samuel Hayes , past commander of the Westampton American Legion Post 509. The Westampton Historical Society will dedicate the cemetery today with a bronze plaque officially recognizing it as "Timbuctoo Civil War Memorial Cemetery" and honoring "the brave African-American men from this community who joined the Union Army in the fight against slavery during the Civil War. The ceremony is scheduled to take place at 10 am in conjunction with Black History Month, the. the ceremony is expected to draw a crowd of residents, elected local officials, members of the historical society and the American Legion. Timbuctoo often raises eyebrows outside the municipality, although is well known in Westampton, but Hayes said the name, even though it can be found on New Jersey maps. The area, which encompasses Church Street, Blue Jay Hill Road and Rancocas Road, "was founded by non-slaves and freed blacks in 1825" and "was prosperous as a community and boasted one of the first public schools in the township, as well as the AME Zion Church," according to information about the township's history posted on the municipal Web site. Burlington County 's Web site list The Timbuctoo Cemetery as a historic site, a community of freed slaves and a haven for fugitive on. The Web site also highlights the "Battle of Pine Swamp" in 1860, which involved armed residents of Timbuctoo preventing the capture of Perry Simmons , a fugitive slave living in the community, by a southern slave catcher aided by sympathetic local whites. Meanwhile, the graveyard of a dozen Black Civil War Veterans remains tucked away in Timbuctoo. Westampton Post 509 American Legion has made sure that those who interned there will never forget. "We've kept an eye on the cemetery throughout the years," he said. The American Legion post509 has placed American flags on the graves each Memorial Day and has researched the history of the cemetery, Hayes said. There are dozen soldiers interred in the cemetery including Louis B. Armstrong , Charles Love , Edward Chapman , who served in the Army's 22 Regiment and William W. Sullivan who served in the 29th Regiment. To help honor the soldiers, Hayes said, some local Boy Scouts recently erected a wooden sign at the graveyard, helped clean up the property and added some landscaping. Township Clerk Donna Ryan said will be maintained by the public works department now that the municipality has taken over ownership of land surrounding the cemetery there is better access to the site, which. She said officials are pleased with the renewed interest in the historic graveyard. "We're happy to see people interested in that part of Westampton's history," she said. Gary Jacques, president of the Westampton Historical Society, the bronze marker set on a stone that measures about 2 feet by 2 feet, donated by the historical society. "With the support of the community we thought it was the appropriate time to do it," he said. This all-Black settlement bears the name of the famous West African city that is today located in the Republic of Mali, a city that flourished as a commercial (trans-Saharan trade) and intellectual center (Sankore University) between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries as part of the great medieval empires of Mali and Songhay. It is possibly the only all-Black settlement in the nation carrying the name of an African community; there is uncertainty as to how it came to be called Timbuctoo Located along the Rancocas Creek about one mile from Mount Holly, "Bucto" or "Buck town," as it is commonly called, was a community of freed slaves and a haven for fugitive slaves. In connection with the latter, there occurred in 1860 an incident called the "Battle of Pine Swamp" that was reported in the New Jersey Mirror, a local newspaper. This incident involved armed residents of Timbuctoo preventing the capture of Perry Simmons a fugitive slave living in Timbuctoo, by a southern slave catcher aided by sympathetic local whites. The section of Westampton Township known as Timbuctoo was founded in the late eighteenth century, with the support of local Quakers like John Woolman and Samuel Aaron . At its peak of prosperity in the mid-to-late nineteenth century (it appears on an 1849 map of Burlington County ), it had more than 125 residents, a school, and an AME Zion church. It also served as a site for religious camp meetings (revivals) that attracted large crowds. Today the community has virtually

John Woolman came from a family of Friends (Quakers). His grandfather, also named John Woolman , was one of the early settlers of New Jersey. His father Samuel Woolman was a farmer. Their estate was between Burlington and Mount Holly Township in that state. John Woolman tells a story in his journal about a major turning point in his life. During his youth he happened upon a robin's nest with hatchlings in it. Woolman, as many young people would do, began throwing rocks at the mother robin just to see if he could hit her. He ended up killing the mother bird, but then remorse filled him as he thought of the baby birds who had no chance of surviving without her. He got the nest down from the tree and quickly killed the hatchlings, believing it to be the most merciful thing to do. This experience weighed on his heart, and inspired in him a love and protectiveness for all living things from then on. At age 23 his employer asked him to write a bill of sale for a slave. He told his employer that he thought that slave keeping was inconsistent with the Christian religion. Many Friends believed that slavery was bad — even a sin — but there was not a universal condemnation of it among Friends. Some Friends bought slaves from other people in order to treat them humanely and educate them. Other Friends seemed to have no conviction against slavery whatsoever.

 Ministry Woolman took up a concern to minister to Friends and others in remote places. He went on his first ministry trip in 1746 with Isaac Andrews . They went about 1,500 miles round-trip in three months, going as far south as North Carolina . He preached on many topics, including slavery during this and other such trips. In 1754 Woolman wrote Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. He refused to draw up wills transferring slaves. Working on a no confrontational, personal level, he individually convinced many Quaker slaveholders to free their slaves. He attempted personally to avoid using the products of slavery; for example, he wore undyed clothing because slaves were used in the making of dyes. Whenever he received hospitality from a slaveholder, he insisted on paying the slaves for their work in attending him. Woolman worked within the Friends traditions of seeking the guidance of the Spirit of Christ and patiently waiting to achieve unity in the Spirit. He went from one Friends meeting to another and expressed his concern about slaveholding. One by one the various meetings began to see the evils of slavery and wrote minutes condemning it. In his lifetime, Woolman did not succeed in eradicating slavery even within the Society of Friends in the United States ; however, his personal efforts changed Quaker viewpoints. In 1790 the Society of Friends petitioned the United States Congress for the abolition of slavery. The fair treatment of people of all races is now part of the Friends Testimony of Equality. Woolman was also committed to the Friends Testimony of Simplicity. When his business was booming he felt convicted that it was taking too much time and was distracting him from the more important matter of fulfilling the calling that God had given him to spread truth and light to other Friends and other people in general. He gave up his retail business and made a living as a tailor and an orchard tender. Woolman also lived out the Friends Peace Testimony by protesting the French and Indian War  to support the war.[1] The Journal of John Woolman is considered to be an important spiritual document, as shown by its inclusion in the Harvard Classics. Final days

Woolman's final journey was to England in 1772. During the voyage he stayed in steerage and spent time with the crew rather than in the better accommodations of the other passengers. He attended the London Yearly Meeting, and the Friends there were persuaded to oppose slavery in their Epistle (letter sent to other Friends in other places). John Woolman went from London to York where he contracted smallpox and died. A memorial to him is located in Mount Holly , New Jersey on the site of one of his orchards.

 Samuel Aaron, educator, born in New Britain, Bucks County, Pennsylvania., in 1800; died in Mount Holly, New Jersey, 11 April, 1865. He was left an orphan at six years of age, and became the ward of an uncle, upon whose farm he worked for several years, attending school only in winter. A small legacy inherited from his father enabled him at the age of sixteen to enter the Doylestown, Pennsylvania, academy, where he fitted himself to become a teacher, and at the age of twenty was engaged as an assistant instructor in the classical and mathematical school in Burlington, New Jersey Here he studied and taught, and soon opened an independent day school at Bridge Point, but was presently invited to become principal of Doylestown academy. In 1829 he was ordained, and became pastor of a Baptist church in New Britain . In 1833 he took charge of the Burlington high school, serving at the same time as pastor of the Baptist church in that city. Accepting in 1841 an invitation from a church in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he remained there three years, when he opened the Treemount seminary near Norristown, which under his management soon became prosperous, and won a high reputation for the thoroughness of its training and discipline. The financial disasters of 1857 found Mr. Aaron with his name pledged as security for a friend, and he was obliged to sacrifice all his property to the creditors. He was soon offered the head-mastership of Mt. Holly , New Jersey , institute, and a large, well-established school for boys, where, in company with his son as joint principal, he spent the remainder of his life. During these years he was pastor of a church in Mt. Holly . He prepared a valuable series of textbooks introducing certain improvements in methods of instruction, which added greatly to his reputation as an educator. His only publication in book form, aside from his textbooks, was entitled "Faithful Translation" ( Philadelphia , 1842). He was among the early advocates of temperance, and was an earnest supporter of the anti-slavery cause from its beginning.

Perhaps the key remaining evidence of the existence of this community is a cemetery on Church Street; Westampton Township. 

  It contains the graves of Black Civil War veterans.