Category: Edina

Founded in 1832, Edina township lies on an island of some 83 acres that is about a mile long and a quarter mile wide. It sits about half a mile from the St. John’s River mouth and toward its northern bank. During the era of slave trading,  it was known as “Factory Island” based on the presence there of a “factory” or warehouse where goods were traded for enslaved Africans.

Edina was established by 38 repatriates who set out from Monrovia to settle land recently acquired by the colonial authorities. The town was named to honor the colonizationists of Edinburgh, Scotland, who funded the land purchase.

Footnote: E. Skinner, “Liberia: Extracts of a letter,” African Repository, June 1836, p. 169; J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207; Cassell, 1970, p. 103; Brown, p. 87-88, 95, n. 21; also d’Amico, 1977, pp. 121-122.

When the representatives of the Liberian colonial government began visiting in the 1820s, the local ruler with authority in the area was Bob Gray. With his permission, the colony established a trading post on the island.

The government’s trading post or “factory”  was completed by Jan. 28, 1827. Assigned to manage the warehouse was “Mr. Harris,” who lived there with his family.

Footnote: J. Ashmun, “Accessions of territory – and new establishments connected with the colony, African Repository, May 1826, p. 93.

In a letter to the American Colonization Society, Colonial Governor Jehudi Ashmun described the island in rhapsodic terms:

“Embosomed in a majestic and navigable river – and approaching within two miles of its mouth – this river, of easy and safe entrance for vessels of 90 to 100 tons – abounding with fish, and having its course through a fertile and delicious, and, I am obliged to add, salubrious country – rising a few feet only over a narrow sandy beach, which skirts its margin on every side – possessing a rich and mellow soil – fanned sixteen hours in every twenty-four, even in the dry season, by a sea-breeze, tempered and sweetened in its passage up the river by the verdure which crowns its banks – nothing in the original, simple dress of nature, I repeat it, can be imagined more delightful – and no residence in this country more eligible.”

Footnote: J. Ashmun, “Accessions of territory – and new establishments connected with the colony, African Repository, May 1826, p. 93.

When ACS agent Elliott Skinner first visited the island in early 1835, he saw the ruins of “an ancient wharf,” which evoked images of the previously thriving local slave trade.

“I fancied before me a store of goods, filled with rum and other things to excite war and purchase human flesh; the barricade, the clinking chain by which human beings are fastened to each other by the neck, were present before me. I heard or fancied I heard the groan of the husband torn forever from his wife and family, and that of the despairing wife and mother was a reality to my imagination; every degree of family connexion torn asunder by the monster slave trade, I fancied before me the blood-stained soil of Africa and the blazing native village.

Footnote: E. Skinner, “Liberia: Extracts of a letter,” African Repository, June 1836, p. 169.

In Skinner’s view, responsibility for spilled African blood laid thousands of miles away”

“I traced the evil to the whole of the slave ship, and the watery grave that swallowed its thousands, and thence to the slave market and slave planation, and the course of hereditary slavery. I thought of the black cloud that hovers over my country, and saw all this evil embodied in the name Factory Island, and almost wished that the Island and its name were annihilated together.”

The name of the island was soon “annihilated,” in keeping with Skinner’s wish. In April 1836, he informed the ACS that initial plans for Edina had been laid.

Footnote: E. Skinner, “Liberia: Extracts of a letter,” African Repository, June 1836, p. 169.

When a census was taken in 1843, Edina had 202 residents, with 156 acres planted. Sixty-seven residents identified their occupations. One held an appointive office, six worked in agriculture, five were artisans, eight merchants, four  professionals, 24 semiskilled, and 18 unskilled.

In 1843, 232 residents were members of three local churches. One hundred and twenty were Baptists, 104 Methodists and 8 Presbyterians. In addition, the Methodist Church operated an indigenous mission here.

Footnote: U. S., Congress, Senate, U. S. Navy Department, tables showing the number of emigrants and recaptured Africans sent to the colony of Liberia by the government of the United States … together with a census of the colony and a report of its commerce, &c. September, 1843: Senate Document No. 150, 28th Cong., 2n sess., 1845.

When Liberia declared its independence in 1847, the country contained 11 towns. Edina was one of them.

Most polities in the area at the time, including Liberia, were composed of non-continuous towns. In other words, they consisted of settlements widely separated by unclaimed forest and mangrove swamp.

Of the various neighboring examples, Liberia at independence most resembled the Kru polity, which consisted of widely dispersed settlements along the coast.

By 1850, some residents were already growing export crops.

Footnote: J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207.

In 1924, a local “Social, Intellectual and Improvement Club” was incorporated. Among its members were U. A. Potter, president; J. A. Benson, vice president; J. R. King, secretary; J. E. Smith, assistant secretary; S. Annette Potter, treasurer; J. E. Johnson, organist; Lavinia P. P. King, custodian; W. F. R. Johnson, lecturer; J. W. Early, instructor; honourable members: Gen. T. M. Moore, the Rev. J. R. Daves, the Rev. T. J. King, F. E. R. Johnson, S. G. Harmon and L. A. Grimes; patrons: the Rev. S. A. Liberty and J. S Smith; member: Clavender V. King, B. E. Johnson, Ellen C. Potter, Ettmarte C. Early, H. L. Harmon, Catherine H. C. Crusoe and E. T. Woods.

The Club also incorporated a brass band.  Its members included J. R. King, band master; C. R. H. Johnson, assistant band master; J. S. Woods, secretary; J. F. Brown, treasurer; J. A. Deshield, custodian; J. A. Benson, instructor; and members: J. F. Duncan, T. J. Deshield, Nicholas Johnson, J. E. Smith, S. C. Liberty, P. F. Taylor, Thomas King and C. A. Green.

In 1927, Colonel J. B. Horace was named commander of the third battalion of the second regiment of the Liberian army of Grand Bassa County. Members of the militia living in St. John River City and surrounding areas were exempt from reporting to Edina and Buchanan for quarterly parades.

In 1938, the Edina-Buchanan Ferry Company was incorporated. It charged travelers a maximum of 12 cents for trips on the Mechlin, Benson and Saint John Rivers between Edina, Upper Buchanan and Moore’s Point. Company stockholders included Harriet Harmon, J. Allen Benson, J. Wallace Smith, Jannie Brownell nee White, C. C. Dougans nee Russell, Stephen J. Crusoe, T. Reuben Hill, Thomas R. Horace, Moses B. King, James E. Morgan and John S. Woods.