Kay-Evans House @ Croft Farm - Cherry Hill, NJ
N 39° 54.011 W 075° 01.191
18S E 498303 N 4416678
Thomas Evans, second owner of this house, was an active quaker abolitionists and used his property as a station along the underground railroad, assisting runaway slaves traveling north to freedom.
Waymark Code: WM363V
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 02/16/2008
Views: 15
It was reported by a descendent of Thomas Evans that Croft Farm "was one of the stations to which runaway slaves were brought. The slaves came from Woodbury and were received by Thomas Evans, then quickly hidden in the attic of the house so that no one could find them. Then, in the middle of the night, they would be given something to eat and hurried off in a covered wagon to Mount Holly, where they were received and hidden again." No one knows for sure how many people on the underground railroad were housed and fed at Croft Farm.
Records show that Josiah Evans arranged to purchase the freedom of two fugitive slaves, Joshua Sadler and Jefferson Fisher, rather than have them picked up by a bounty hunter. They remained at the mill, working to repay Evans for his kindness. Sadler went on to become the leader of a small settlement of freed slaves who established "Sadlertown" in what is now Haddon Township.