Indian Summer at Sand Hill: The Revey and Richardson Families at the New Jersey Shore

Abstract

This essay discusses the centuries-long history of Monmouth County’s Lenape-Delaware Revey clan and the Cherokee Richardson clan using historical records and photographs from Monmouth County and the States of New Jersey and New York – as well as from the Sand Hill Indian Historical Association and private family archives. Although much of the general public today persists in thinking that all Lenape have left the state, small communities continued to inhabit the northern shore area throughout the colonial period and to this day, as documented by land transactions, vital statistics, censuses, military records, and archival references. They intermarried with whites, other indigenous people, and African Americans, and contributed greatly to their communities. The story of the Sand Hill Indians of Monmouth County told in part here illuminates the historical interactions of Native American, European, and African cultures at the New Jersey shore and how those interconnected communities evolved over two centuries.