By MADDY VITALE
A new exhibit at the Ocean City Historical Museum celebrates a South Jersey African-American family and their vital impact on history.
The exhibit, “Runaways, Herbs, and Taffy,” explores Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad and the storied Still family of South Jersey.
Attendees listened to speakers Saturday in the library lecture hall talk about the significance of the Still family, Tubman and the abolishment of slavery, in a presentation in honor of Black History Month. Afterward, they went back to the museum to view the exhibit and enjoy a reception.
The featured speaker was Samuel C. Still III, a descendent of Dr. James Still, who was a respected herbal doctor and one of the largest landowners in Burlington County in the mid-1800s. Ocean City historian, Loretta Harris, also spoke, as well as Barbara Dreyfuss, of the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May.
Specifically, Still spoke of Dr. Still’s accomplishments in the mid-1800s in Medford.
Still created a non-profit to help oversee the property where Dr. Still once lived in Medford. Guests may visit for tours and talks about the herbal doctor.
Still, whose second great grandfather was Dr. Still’s older brother, Samuel Still, was the first freeborn child from Levin and Charity Still. Three of Levin and Charity’s children would grow up to be notable historical figures. Dr. Still was one of them.
The other two brothers were William and Peter Still. William settled in Philadelphia and became a major conductor of the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman. Peter Still would be left in slavery for 40 years and later be reunited with his family in 1850.
Still spoke with passion about his love for preserving his family’s legacy, learning about and teaching others about the historic significance that the Stills have had on the Tri-State area.
“I’ve been doing this this since I was 13 years old,” Still, a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, said while speaking about his family’s history in front of more than 50 attendees in the Community Center lecture hall. “It is a labor of love.”
Harris spoke of how she became involved in the Still family history. Through her research, she was able to link the first African-American resident in Ocean City, Jacob Still, who moved to the resort in 1884, to the notable Still family.
Jacob Still died in 1901 of congestive heart failure and there was not too much known about him. There were no photos of him, only an image or silhouette used for his obituary.
Harris contacted Samuel Still about her possible discovery.
Still thanked her and said he wanted to look into it, she told the crowd during her talk.
“He called me back in a month,” she said with a smile.
Still believed that Harris’ research indeed led to a correct assertion that Jacob Still was part of the South Jersey Still family.
After the presentations, the audience and speakers along with museum president John Loeper, and trustee members and volunteers, Carol Dotts, Beth Bowman, Sue Fasy, Karl Wirth, and others went back to the museum to enjoy a reception and view the new exhibit. State Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, of Ocean City, was among the attendees.
People chatted about the exhibit, which took visitors to the time and through the lives of some of the Still family members.
“It is wonderful,” Harris said, while looking at the exhibit with Samuel Still. “But it is a little overwhelming, too. I keep finding out more things in my research, to tell you the truth.”
The exhibit is part of the museum’s rotating displays, which means it will continue to be prominently displayed for about a month or so and then moved to another area of the museum, when something else is featured.
Terri Capille, of Egg Harbor Township, walked around the museum and looked at the exhibit until stopping to read about the life of Peter Still.
“It is great local history,” Capille said. “It is just amazing.”
During Still’s presentation, he showed the audience pieces of history that he found through years of research.
One slide in his presentation showed a copy of a manumission, which is a formal emancipation from slavery. A slave would earn their freedom in various methods. They were freedom papers.
Still told the audience that he wanted to “encourage” African-American people to do their research on their family’s history.
“When I say encouraging people, I’m talking about my people. For far too long we’ve had far too many people mixing and mashing up our story,” he said. “It’s far too long; we need to be telling our own story.”
Dreyfuss, a museum trustee at the Harriet Tubman Museum, spoke of the significance Tubman and others in the African-American community to free many slaves.
“The people we talk about in the museum, the things that they did and achieved in dire circumstances, it was truly amazing,” Dreyfuss said.
Tubman worked directly with William Still in their efforts to free slaves.
Harriet Tubman freed herself in 1849. At the time, the plantation owner who enslaved her was heavily in debt, Dreyfuss explained.
“She knew the landscape and she freed herself,” she continued.
In her lifetime Tubman freed at least 70 people directly and showed hundreds of other slaves how to become free, Dreyfuss noted.
“We have her today as a model to look up to as to what a real American hero is,” Dreyfuss said.
For more information about the Ocean City Historical Museum, visit https://www.ocnjmuseum.org/ or visit the Facebook page. For more information on the Still Family of South Jersey visit www.drjamesstillcenter.org
