Moron pt. II – The Vineland Training School and Menantico Colony

Starting in 1913 the Vineland Training School operated a farm called the Menantico Colony. At the time known as the Vineland Training School for Backward and Feeble-minded Children, the school purchased 530 acres of land that was predominately scrub growth of oak and pine in order to cultivate it into arable land. Utilizing the labor of the institutionalized boys, the school went on to produce an abundance of corn, berries and sweet potatoes among a host of other fruits and vegetables.

It is difficult to ascertain who, exactly, had worked the farms. As mentioned in the above video, many of the institutionalized persons were not mentally handicapped but likely suffered from behavioral and cognitive problems that disupted day-to-day life, of which modern psychologists have come to more formally label. Whether there is an ethical distinction between having mentally challenged children work the farm and having recalcitrant young boys work the farm is uncertain. Where one side, the mentally-challenged children, could not consent, the badly-behaved boys had the mental capacity to do so.

At the time it was largely reported, and it remains to be the matter of record, that the work would be good for the boys. And the suggestion that such work would be good for the boys, character-building, motivational, and potential-unlocking, is hardly debatable. But it raises some ethical questions. Is it ethical or is it exploitative to utilize the unpaid labor of young boys, even if they are not coerced? Even if they had worked the farm under their own free will (which was likely the case), considering their institutionalized status as stipulated by parental consent, were they of fully volitional condition? Or does it count as tacit exploitation on the part of the Training School?

Either way, the Vineland Training School’s method of treatment conformed to the expectations of society in the early 20th Century. Their methods would probably be preferable even today. The children were treated well, for one. Furthermore, the Vineland Training School’s placement of the feeble-minded into farmwork was perhaps the least controversial and most acceptable of options. A 1919 report commissioned to observe the treatment of the feeble-minded in society, The Kallikaks of Kansas, epitomizes the contemporary views of most of society toward the mentally deficient. There was an imperative in place, that they had to be dealt with in some fashion that was perhaps the most humane but most importantly preventative of their integration and cross-fertilization:

“Up to the present time only a very small part of the feeble-minded population in any state has been housed at all, and very few of these in the proper sort of institution. The colony offers a cheap, safe and happy home for these innocents, where they will be kept from pauperism, crime and disease, and from burdening society with their numerous defective offspring […] The clearing of land offered an outlet for the destructive tendencies of the boys, which are very marked when they are closely confined at school and in institutions or are permitted to roam the streets. Instead of breaking windows, stealing and destroying property, or setting fire to haystacks and buildings, these boys are happy to cut down bushes, pull up stumps and bum the brush heaps. What boy ever lived who is not willing to work all day to gather material for a bonfire? […] The happiness of all the boys is notable. Besides they feel that they are doing something really worth while as the results of their labors become more and more evident. They also appreciate that they are making for themselves a home. They speak of ‘our colony,’ ‘our field,’ and ‘my cow,’ or ‘my pig.'”

Mentioned previously in the Moron post which elaborated on the role of Henry Goddard in the Vineland Training School, endeavors to segregate and sterilize the feeble-minded were fully mainstream and also academic. Perhaps the efforts of the Vineland Training School and other similar institutions to keep the children working on farms were bulwarks against less humane alternatives.

A 1920 Chamber of Commerce trade journal stated, “If one is fortunate enough to be escorted by an official in a round of inspection, there is inspiration in the trip. The faces of the inmates light up as they are approached and they call out their greetings with unmistakable pleasure. it is not an official making the rounds, but an elder brother come to visit awhile. This is the enveloping atmosphere at the Training School at Vineland. The home appears to run itself. We remarked this one day to our conductor. She stopped, smiling and musing. ‘And yet,’ she replied, ‘someone always knows where someone is.’ ‘Control without compulsion’ — that is the secret. ‘We believe in happiness first — all else follows,’ is a school truism.”

Whether that is fact or farce, at the very least there was a perception of goodwill inferred by the children on the part of the institution.

Farewell Post: Only a Hiatus

After this week’s blog posts, I’ll be waiting out the rest of 2012. These upcoming posts may very well be the last on this blog, but it’s much more likely that I’ll be returning in some fashion. Some incarnation of this blog will be continued in January 2013, possibly incorporated into another blog.

The narrow focus of chiefly Cumberland County history has been good for discovering oft-overlooked people, places, events and ideas. But I may broaden the scope. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’ll be something more ambitious. That’s a scary word that carries a connotation of –gulp—responsibility. And there is a trend of my oversold and overstated goals floundering completely. So I’ll be keeping it, whatever it turns out to be, simple and tight.

My first “greatest hit” is The First Pioneer Artist of Glasstown Speaks. I most enjoy watching the Dennis Tawes video, for he is a creative spirit. It didn’t take any prodding from me (nor much post-production editing) for him to weave together a coherent story from his disparate ruminations on art. My second greatest hit, and the post I most enjoyed writing was last week’s on The Tea Burning of 1774. It’s an event with a number of elements I find appealing: early American history, rebellion & social unrest, economics and even a little maritime activity. My third and fourth greatest hits are An Insight Into Glass and A Brief Comment on Glass Art. Glass is so central to South Jersey, especially Cumberland County. Glass, as an industry, commodity and artform, is so interwoven with the history of the area that it deserved three posts. David Iams is also very informative. My fifth greatest hit, and the post that got the most attention and feedback was the Moron post. A little low on the content side, I thought, but that will be fixed very soon. Very soon.

Thanks. After Monday, check back in January for updates.

The Tea Burning of 1774

There is perhaps no event more seared into the nation’s mythos as the defining image of the Revolution than the Boston Tea Party. An incident of less renown but one that similarly captures the agitative spirit of the war of American independence occurred in 1774 in Greenwich, NJ. The actions of the British inspired the war-hastening vandalism of the Boston Tea Party which in turn inspired the copycat tea burning at Cumberland County a year later.

Greenwich still exists and is the location of the former and current Cumberland County Historical Society headquarters, the Wood Mansion and the Gibbon House respectively. At the time, however, Greenwich was a small farming community. A ship called the Greyhound, carrying a cargo of tea from the East India Tea Company set out through the Delaware Bay with Philadelphia as the destination. Given that Philadelphia was the intellectual epicenter of the revolutionary movement, in order to avoid encountering hostilities from the radically-minded, the Greyhound did not dock there directly. They made their way through the Cohansey River to Greenwich and stored the cargo at the cellar belonging to the loyalist Daniel Bowen for safekeeping.

The county’s inhabitants formed an impromptu, locum tenens committee of five citizens to secure the tea. On December 22, a more formal assembly was convened in Bridgeton, attended by representatives of the various townships of Cumberland County. Due to the mysteriousness of the circumstances, from the arrival to the identity of the importer, the assembly agreed to store the tea pending investigation.

The importer was, of course, the East India Tea Company. The East India Tea Company was a joint-stock company chartered by Britain that by 1774 was substantially controlled and administered by the Crown. The Tea Act of 1773 incited a great pathos among the Colonial Americans, and a great anger. The Act was a protectionist measure by Britain, an effort to outmaneuver independent tea merchants by selling directly to consumers in the American colonies at lower prices than the merchants could match. Covertly, it was an attempt to get Americans to consent to the notorious “taxation without representation” laterally through the direct purchasing of British goods.

The morning following the assembly, the committee discovered that the tea chests had been seized, stolen, and destroyed. The perpetrators were reputedly disguised as Boston Mohawks but it is difficult to discern what’s fact and what’s legend of an era in which the reliability of the historical records is hampered by the communicative limitations of rurality. The tea burners are believed to have been members of the Admonishing Society in Bridgeton, another of the type of clubs of young men that met in coffeehouses and discussed politics, a staple of the intelligentsia throughout Europe and America since the Age of Enlightenment. It was members of the closely-knit network of friends and families that were the Elmers, Ewings, Fithians, Newcombs, Piersons, Howells, Hunts and Seelys, who were tried for the crime. Having the sympathy of much of the county’s residents, no one was ever indicted. The May 1775 trial had a jury stacked in the favor of the radicals and the September 1775 trial had a jury stacked with Tories but both resulted in the same: the tea burners had garnered garnered enough public support to avoid prosecution, or at the very least the people of the county had vindicated the tea burners because they implicitly agreed with their actions.

Reference material

Gerlach, Larry R. Prologue to Independence: New Jersey in the Coming of the American Revolution. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1976. Print.

The First Pioneer Artist of Glasstown Speaks

Fourteen years ago the city of Millville sought to establish a hub of economic and cultural activity. The efforts to renovate High Street into a centerpiece of the local community led to the creation of the Glasstown Arts District. What is ostensibly six blocks of stores and galleries has courted artists from across the country to reside there. The Pioneer Artist program offers loans of up to $5,000 at 0% interest to artists relocating there from elsewhere. The first Pioneer artist was Dennis Tawes from Jacksonville, who operates the Amethyst Gallery, a small cottage in a series of cottages located at 212 North High Street. His style is primarily that of wildly vibrant expressionism. The walls of his gallery are adorned with paintings, some of them naturalist, some of them abstract, all of them somewhat quirky. In the video below he goes into some of the detail of his process and reveals what he thinks art is.

Some of his work is available at his website. Or his work can be seen on the Third Fridays of every month.

A Brief Comment on Glass Art

I recently spoke again with Wheaton Arts docent David Iams, who remarked on the changes in glass art. How recent innovations contrast with traditional techniques that had characterized glass art for centuries.

An Insight Into Glass

David Iams, docent at the WheatonArts glass museum and former docent at the Wheaton Arts Folklife Center, gave a brief but detailed insight into the history and development of glass in South Jersey.

Q When did glassmaking begin?

David Iams It was invented, or more likely stumbled upon in 2000 B.C. Initially it was likely puddled. Around 50 B.C.  the blow pipe was invented, which allowed for glass to become a commercial product. The techniques used in the Roman Empire are still in use in glassblowing studios today. The beaker (see image below), for instance, is hexagonal. It was blown into a mold. The handle on the top was probably patched onto it when it was still viscous.

Q What are some details of the glassmaking process?

Iams Glass is something that melts at about 2000 degrees. You can alter its state by adding other ingredients to make it melt at a higher or slightly lower temperature. Glass is basically made of silica sand, the kind you get on the beach, combined with limestone and potash. Those are two alkaline products, mixed with silica sand, which is basically an acid. Glassmaking was popular in New Jersey because a lot of the ingredients were available. [The availability of] sand and also wood, which when burned produces potash. Water was a way of transporting glass. Port Elizabeth was a major port on the eastern seaboard back in the 18^th century.

Q What are the techniques of glassblowing?

Iams Most vessels made in the history of glass were containers. [For window glass, frequently made in New Jersey], one way is to take a gob of molten glass from a furnace, blow it out and spin it. As you spin it, centrifugal force flattens it out into a disc. Take it and cut it into panes. Make them rectangular except for the one in the middle. [You emboss the one in the middle] to make Bullseye glass. That kind of glass is still used in some parts of Cumberland County, such as Greenwich, where there are a lot of historic buildings. It was ppular to use that glass to make a little framework of windows around a doorway.

Iams A glass [gets its green color] from the iron oxide in it. Add other ingredients to the basic mixture of glass and it’ll change color. It can be made almost completely clear by adding a mineral called manganese. That’ll [also] make it white, or if you add enough that’ll make it amethyst. Gold oxide gives glass a cranberry color.

Q What is the Folklife Center?

Iams It is a little museum that was started about 30 years ago. The building that houses it was part of the original Wheaton Village campus. It was developed under the auspices of New Jersey Council on the Arts. Initially, it was an exhibition of basic folklore and folk activities around [South Jersey]. For instance, there was the boatbuilding process of Dorchester, New Jersey. There was the Native American community here and their old folk crafts. The Jersey Devil, of course, is another famous piece of folklore. Recently it’s been getting away from exhibitions. The word “Folklife” is a term developed in the 1970’s or thereabout to define the body of traditional activity that governs day to day life in certain areas and traditions. Traditions are defined as beliefs and practices, that are passed down from one generation to another by word-of-mouth, not so much from formal training. So, if you learn how to make a pot from watching your aunt or uncle make a pot. The Folklife Center spent a lot of time focusing on the traditional arts and crafts around here. Boatbuilding, weaving, basket making, and similar activities. In more recent years, under its current director, the Folklife Center has more emphasized the ethnic traditions [of South Jersey]. There have exhibitions that have celebrated the [Mexican culture] here. A lot [of local Mexicans] come from Wahaca, in the South of Mexico, which has a very rich cultural tradition. We have also celebrated the Italians, who are very well assimilated, and the Indian-Americans, many of whom are professionals here. Most recently, there has been an exhibition of the culture of the Balkans. They have very colorful costumes. Like I said, the Folklife Center doesn’t do exhibitions so much anymore, and is changing its focus more on becoming an educational center. But that’s what got it started.

A Gallery of South Jersey Glass

Stained Glass Windowpane of the Art Nouveau Style

By Dale Chihuly

Whimsical glass pipe. Purchased from the estate of Charles Pedrick of Bridgeton, New Jersey, who had amassed one of the largest collections of South Jersey whimseys

Two of the oldest glass works in the country. Manufactured by the Wistar Glass Factory, the first American glass factory, established by Casper Wistar in 1739.

Vials, flasks, swirls and jars, in great demand in the 18th and 19th centuries, were needed to hold liquids and foodstuffs. The aqua green color of the glass is an effect of the South Jersey sand.

The pedals of the Millville Rose (left) were fashioned by the crimp (right).

Glass Variety

“[In order to press glass,] instead of blowing through a pipe, which would take years of training to become skilled at, they’d take a gob of glass, dump it into a mold, and then put another mold on top to press it into place. Subsequently, they’d pipe the glass into a mold to automate the entire process.”
– David Iams, docent of the glass museum at WheatonArts

The green jar by the Whitall Tatum Company, or Millville Glass Works. The purple flask by German glassmaker Henry William Stiegel, who started a glass factory in Manheim, PA. The amethyst color is from the abundance of manganese in the glass.