The town of Creswell, NC was founded in 1875 by newly freed African Americans who left Somerset plantation owned by Josiah Collins after the Civil War. These individuals included Jupiter and Lucreecy Phelps Pailen (image), who began living on the land of a formerly-enslaved man from Somerset named Washington Bennett in 1867.

Much of the land that would become Creswell was owned by Washington and his wife Jenny. In 1875, Jupiter and Lucreecy bought a plot of land in town next to his brother George.
The exodus of freedpersons from Somerset plantation was an expression of their desire for independence as well as their need to rid painful memories of their former enslavement.

Most descendants of Somerset’s enslaved community would not return until 1986, when historic site manager, Dorothy Redford organized the first-ever Somerset Homecoming .
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Source: Somerset Place State Historic Site, formerly the Somerset plantation in Creswell, NC. See less
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