Land to build the African Union School was purchased in 1834. It was located near the present day corner of Church St and Rancocas Rd. The description in this original hand-written deed reveals some surprising details about the school's founders and the political environment of the day.
The Battle of Pine Swamp was a confrontation between a notorious "slave catcher," named George Alberti, who worked on behalf of a Maryland enslaver, and several Timbuctoo residents. The residents came to the aid of a neighbor named Perry Simmons. Alberti arrived with a posse and sought to capture Simmons and return him to enslavement in Maryland. Simmons' neighbors successfully overpowered Alberti and his posse, and ran them away. Read a blow-by-blow account in the New Jersey Mirror.
Mount Moriah AME Church purchased land for their first sanctuary in March of 1826, six months before the first Timbuctoo land sales were recorded. The sanctuary location also included a cemetery. Some of the trustees named in the 1826 deed became Timbuctoo residents. Over the years, this church was a popular place of worship for people from Timbuctoo. Mount Moriah Cemetery was also a common choice for burial of Timbuctoo's deceased. In the early 1880s, a second cemetery parcel was purchased. Today, Mount Moriah Cemetery is the largest African American Cemetery in Burlington County.
The land purchase for the Timbuctoo Cemetery is documented as occurring in December of 1854. However, the oldest gravestone is dated 1847. This cemetery was established as part of the Zion Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal African Church. This congregation was part of the AME Zion denomination, according to the deed. Although a majority of remaining gravestones are US Colored Troops (USCT) who fought in the Civil War, information in the deed and findings of ground penetrating radar indicate the USCT graves are actually a small minority of the total number of interments, most of which were unmarked. Only three surviving headstones are non-military.
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