Burlington County Employees Clean Up Preserved Site On Juneteenth

BURLINGTON COUNTY, NJ — For the first time, Burlington County offices were closed in honor of Juneteenth on Friday.

A large group of county employees used that time to help out at the site dedicated to the life and legacy of one of the county’s most important historical figures, according to officials.

Burlington County Commissioner Deputy Director Dan O’Connell led a group of more than 30 county employees in a volunteer service project at the Dr. James Still Historic Office and Education Center.

The center is named after Still, a Shamong native who was born in 1812 to two former slaves. He was largely self-educated, but he would become one of the wealthiest landowners in Burlington County.

Still became known as the “Black Doctor of the Pines” because of his successful medical practice featuring natural herbal remedies. He treated hundreds of patients, curing some, it was said that licensed doctors could not heal.

Still’s medical center was located on the site of the education center in Medford.The state bought the site in 2006 with the intention of restoring it to how it appeared in the 1800s when Dr. Still operate his medical practice. It was the first African-American historic site purchased with New Jersey Green Acres funding.

The education center was created in 2013 at the Bunning Farm, east of the Still property. In 2017, the Dr. James Still Nature Walk was created on the farm by a group of Boy Scouts so that visitors could explore nature as Still did.

During the project on Friday, county employees raked, weeded, planted, helped cut branches and clear debris and overgrowth from a nature trail, installed fence posts for the new community garden being cultivated at the site, and cleaned the exterior and interior of the new building the Center acquired to house some of its exhibits.

“On Juneteenth we commemorate the date when slaves in Texas found out they’d been freed more than 2½ years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, but it also celebrates the triumphs and achievements of Black Americans in the face of racism,” O’Connell said. “Dr. James Still was one of our county’s great historical figures, so we thought performing some service at the site of his historic medical office and the center dedicated to him would be an ideal way to spend part of the holiday. The Center is a fantastic place, and we’re very pleased with what we were able to accomplish today.”

The project was made possible when offices closed after President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. Read more here: Biden Signs Bill Making Juneteenth A National Holiday