On Wednesday, August 19 members of the extended Truitt family, led by 103-year-old Margaret Adele McGee, dropped by for a visit to Cropwell Meeting. McGee and her daughter Patti McGee Colston had flown in from California for this special reunion. They were joined by Camden Cuty firefighter Damon Truitt and some cousins, along with Evesham Township mayor Jaclyn Veasy and other municiple officials.
Margaret told stories of worshiping as a small girl at Cropwell in the 1920s. She had fond memories of sitting up high and looking out over everyone, which was very charming as none of the raised platforms for benches is higher than two feet.
The Quaker towns in South Jersey weren’t just stops on the Underground Railroad, but terminals. In the 1830s many sled-emancipating enslaved people in Maryland and Delaware joined free Blacks heading north. Quakers provided them with land and jobs and a degree of protection. One family that settled among Cropwell Quakers was the Truitts. Generations of the family worked and lived alongside the Evans family.
The Truitt family’s story was profiled a few years ago by the TV program Roots Leas Traveled, which features Margaret, Patti, Damon, and lifelong Cropwell member Connie Evans.