Eastern Monmouth County's rich history provides an almost limitless resource for historical fiction. Chapters of the Novel will be posted periodically. If you enjoy these stories and want more, drop me a note.
Rik van Hemmen
rhemmen@martinottaway.com
Foreword
The Grover Family was one of the first families to settle in Monmouth County, NJ in 1665.
Around 1730 they built a house that descendants continued to occupy until 1982, when the last Grover, Anna Lum Grover, was killed by a drifter who tried to break into the house.
The house survives to this day and became the headquarters of Navesink Maritime Heritage Association in 2015. Through a state grant, in 2021 NMHA hired Rick Geffken to prepare a history of the Grover family.
This history provided so much insight into the many faces of Eastern Monmouth County that it became apparent it would be worthy of a historical novel in the style of James Michener’s epic historical novels.
The authors of this book have shamelessly adopted the structure of Michener’s Chesapeake to achieve the goal of providing a concise history of Eastern Monmouth County. While the central characters in Michener’s story are imaginary, in this book the historical Grovers are the central characters. While the authors have found a very substantial amount of historical records for the Grovers as far as official documents is concerned, much less is known about their day to day lives and therefore many liberties were taken there. As such, the contact that the Grovers had with many other historical characters may not have occurred to the extent described in the stories, but the authors have worked hard at keeping context and historical events as accurate as possible.
Because throughout their history, the Grovers were a middle to upper class family, they will have had a front seat at the Navesink area’s many changes and advances. All the main events and story sidebars are historically true, and, overall, the novel provides a concise history of Eastern Monmouth County. It shows that this corner of New Jersey is unique in many ways and while today little of it is visible, the roads we drive, the waters we sail, and the parks, beaches, and woods we enjoy today, are echoes of this rich and varied historical tapestry.
Remarkably, there is a huge amount of history that predates the Grovers and the Grovers do not show up until quite far into the novel.
The endnotes provide further guidance with regard to historical accuracy.
We hope you enjoy reading about it as much we enjoyed putting it on paper.
A note about language.
We have made no effort to use contemporary forms of speech or idiom. Too often we simply do not know what the proper dialogue would be, but moreover we believe that while language may be different, the meaning of language is universal.