“You never know if you’re going to be an important figure in America,” Monmouth County Clerk and Archives Division Director Christine Hanlon said during a program honoring the county’s history held Oct. 1 in the Collins Area. “The event is to inspire young people and college students to really think what about themselves and their own history (and what) … they want to preserve?”

Hanlon, along with County Archivist Julia Telonidis, invited 44 organizations representing each Monmouth County town to share their rich history with county residents and recognize African-American sites in Monmouth County, such as Cedar View Cemetery in Lincroft, for the event known as Monmouth County Archives and History Day.

Beginning at 9 a.m. with light refreshments, attendees visited exhibit tables set up around the gymnasium dedicated to monuments and markers around the county.

The Friends of Cedar View Cemetery was represented by the organization’s president, John Smack, and member, Ines Hennessey. Last sold on Nov. 14, 1850, by former slaveowner John B. Crawford, the cemetery is a 2.05-acre tract (about the size of a Manhattan city block) that was purchased by 14 African-American men for $60. The men divided it into 24 plots.

“Each family had its own plot. My family was the Reeves Family. My great-great grandfather and that house was over on Middletown-Lincroft Road, right down the road from [Brookdale] here. They rolled that house by logs and mule over to Lincroft Road, across the field, and that’s where the family’s been since 1850,” said Smack, who is the 2021 winner of the Barbara Carver Smith Award for historic preservation.

“The deeds are still active and shared by many of us. But, the Reeves deed, we have a copy of it and it’s still active,” Smack said of the cemetery where former slaves, Black Civil War veterans and World War I veterans are buried.

From 1991 to now, descendants have prioritized the recognition of slavery in Monmouth County, as well as preservation of their names and history. Restoring Cedar View in November 2015 represented a progressive part ownership and reparations for African Americans in Monmouth County. Among those buried there are Francis Beldo, Alexander Frost, Elijah Frost, Jesse Frost, John Holmes, Lloyd Johnson, Samuel Kearny, Hosea Reeves, Joseph Reeves, Silas Reeves, Samuel Schanck, Edward Shemo, Jesse Taylor, and James Wall. However, no one knows exactly how many people are buried there.

At the Oct. 1 event, county residents learned about organizations such as the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in Red Bank.

Bill Andersen of Summit attended the event with his son who is studying art and archival history as a volunteer and intern at the National Guard Militia Museum in Sea Girt.

“Y’know? I wasn’t aware of that until the gentleman spoke today. It’s sad. You kind of think of the North not having that issue, and we’re kind of further up enough North to think we didn’t have that issue,” Andersen said of the cemetery with graves of former N.J. slaves. “Thinking about it, the cruelty of it, is that men, meaning human beings, have enslaved other human beings back to the Egyptians. So, it’s a terrible thing no matter where you are in history. But, for us, as Americans, slavery is a terrible stain on our history.”