Vineland, New Jersey was founded in the midst of the Civil War in 1861. Charles Landis, a Utopian, started it as a planned community. He selected a large amount of wilderness where fruit could be grown because raising fruit trees required less expensive equipment than growing wheat or corn. Landis said that he wanted to open the town up to both the middle class and the poor. Landis also banned the sale of alcohol, making Vineland one of the first “dry towns” in New Jersey.
Each plot that was sold in the town had to have a house erected within one year to prevent investors from taking on property and leaving it vacant. Landis also set forth in the deeds that the properties be bordered by trees to allow for a thriving bird population. Landis believed that birds were the best protection against insects that would ravage fruit trees.
The agreement for the purchase of the land was signed by Landis on July 1, 1861, less than three months after the firing on Sumter.
The Vineland Civil War Memorial is one West Landis Avenue and Northeast Boulevard. Landis Avenue was laid out by the founder in 1861. It was to be a wide boulevard with shops and offices along it. During Reconstruction it grew tremendously but in recent years “urban renewal” has removed many classic buildings and in some cases there are just empty lots. There is an active railway line through the middle of Landis Street.
Because this area was the town center, there are several monuments as well as two painted murals. Below shows a mural with the date of the founding of Vineland.
The monument is well-maintained, with an American flag flying over it. It was erected in 1911 by the Lyon’s Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. The unveiling was on the 50th Anniversary of Vinelands’ founding and the anniversary of the start of the Civil War.
In 1900, the New Jersey Memorial Home for veterans was opened by the state at 524 Northwest Boulevard in Vineland to care for Civil War veterans. This brought a large number of veterans to the home, which is nearby the monuemtn and may have been an impetus for the building of the memorial. After World War I, the home began admitting veterans of that Great War. The veterans built a series of cottages on the campus where unmarried men and women stayed leading to exposes of “Love Nests” in the newspapers.
The monument itself is topped by a bald eagle. The central shaft has an inscription on its front with a medal representing the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans organization that erected it.
On one side is a Union infantryman.
On the opposite side is a Union sailor looking out for blockade runners or enemy ships.
The front is inscribed with a dedication:
TO THE MEMORY
OF THE SOLDIERS
AND SAILORS WHO
HEROICALLY DEFENDED
THE UNION DURING
THE CIVIL WAR
1861-1865
ERECTED BY
LYON POST No. 10
G*A*R
By 1867, Vineland had schools, shops, mills, and churches. In that year there were 200 Episcopalians, 350 Presbyterians, 275 Methodists, 250 Unitarians, and some Quakers. So it had some religious diversity. The town had two newspapers, a bank, and two hotels. In 1862 there was a post office established. In 1861 there had only been 25 people living there, but by 1867 there were about 9,000 people, an incredible rate of growth especially during the Civil War. Most were transplants from New England.
The post was named after General Nathaniel Lyon who commended St. Louis’s Union troops at the beginning of the war. He was killed at Wilson’s Creek in Missouri in August of 1861. Lyon was the first Union general to die in the war. I could not find any record that Lyon ever visited Vineland.
Note: All color photos of buildings in this post were taken by Patrick Young except as noted.
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Sources:
The Founder’s Own Story of the Founding of Vineland, New Jersey by Charles Landis published by The Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society (1903)
Historical Collection of New Jersey Past and Present by John Barber (1868)
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