Isaac J. Hill Headstone Installed!

Marker
Written By John Mills

After the Civil War, Isaac J. Hill moved to New Jersey. In 1867, Isaac published the first account of the 29th called, “A Sketch of the 29th Regiment of Connecticut Colored Troops.“ That book has since been used as a reference to other books and films.

Isaac died in 1882 and was buried in Red Bank Colored Cemetery in Woodbury, New Jersey. In 1962, the city took over Red Bank Colored Cemetery, building a parking garage over it and claiming they moved the bodies across town to Broad Street cemetery, now called the Presbyterian Burial Ground. Whether they actually moved the bodies is unknown, but their stones were relocated to the back of the Presbyterian Burial. While Isaac had a stone there, it was so weathered you couldn’t read it.

I always felt that someone so heroic should have a monument somewhere that represented his contribution to this country… somewhere where people like me who revere him could go to pay respects. Learning that Isaac was buried under a parking lot and that his stone had weathered to nearly nothing for display just didn't sit well with me.

To correct this, I worked with the Presbyterian Church at Woodbury to request a memorial headstone for Isaac J. Hill from the U.S. Office of Veterans Affairs. I also contracted with Cooper Monuments in New Jersey to build the base and install the headstone.

The installation of the headstone occurred today! Yay!!! My non-profit, Alex Breanne Corporation, funded the install using donations from amazing supporters like yourselves. Thank you all so much for the support.

It’s still unclear where Isaac J. Hill’s grave actually is… he may be under that parking lot, or he may be at the Presbyterian Burial Ground. Either way, there is now a specific memorial acknowledging his service to our country and that he did exist. I will rest better tonight because of that. Thank you all for helping me do that.

My non-profit has multiple efforts in-flight across 3 states. For those who would like to help us in our efforts, please consider donating at https://alexbreanne.org/donate.

Thanks once again for all of your continued support. God Bless.

John

John Mills

Originally from San Diego, John Mills is a technologist by trade, but an equity advocate and independent scholar by passion. The descendant of both southern and northern enslaved, John focuses on unearthing little known people and stories of this country’s history in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. John presents research through the lens and perspective of a descendant, with intent to inspire understanding and empathy, a means to inspire good, God fearing people, now armed with information, to look into whether they may be unwittingly aligning to biases resulting from the reverberating effects of a past time. John is a member of the Connecticut Freedom Trail and a member of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum Council. John is also working with an international team funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in an effort to deliver transformational impact on digital methods in cultural institutions...a means to decolonize museums. Finally, John is working with the state of Connecticut, business leaders and scholars in Middletown, CT to honor and memorialize a former enslaved individual by the name of Prince Mortimer.

https://alexbreanne.org
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