The Lenape Who Came Before Us

The earliest residents of the Maplewood-South Orange area were The Lenape (len-AH-pay), Native Americans who once populated “a vast domain stretching along the Middle Atlantic coast from New York Bay to Delaware Bay, between the Hudson and Delaware River valleys,” according to Robert Grumet’s book, The Lenapes.

John Kraft, an archaeologist, educator and director of Lenape Lifeways, presented a slide-illustrated lecture at Durand-Hedden in 2005 under the aegis of the Horizons Speakers Bureau of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A Long History in New Jersey

Fluted spear points document the arrival of the Lenapes’ ancestors in the Middle Atlantic region12,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Around 1000 BC the advent of the bow and arrow, pottery and farming made a new, more settled way of life possible for the Lenape people, who lived in New Jersey at the time of European exploration and settlement.

Early 17th century estimates of the Lenape population range from 8,000 to 20,000, divided into some 20 bands or villages. Sadly, 125 years later, following the arrival of European explorers and settlers, their numbers had fallen to a few hundred.

Chief Tuscan– Truth or Lore?

Chief Tuscan (or Tuskin), who is said to have lived in our valley, was reputedly born a Mohican. The late Maplewood historian Beatrice Herman wrote that according to James Ricalton, the village’s famous schoolmaster, Chief Tuscan had migrated from Upper New York State, and married a young Native woman, joining the Lenni Lenape and setting up household with her in the ravine along what is now Tuscan Road.

By one account, Chief Tuscan died in 1801. Members of his tribe staged an elaborate funeral ritual, and he was buried in the vicinity of his home. Some historians, including Mr. Kraft, believe that the Native Americans were long gone from this area by that time.

In the early 1920s, Mr. Ricalton, along with William Sayer, a member of the Board of Education, explored the swampy area near the East Branch of the Rahway River, which runs through Maplewood Memorial Park and the Tuscan School area. Mr. Ricalton collected not only artifacts but stories from descendants of the early residents.

After the Hickories: William Howard Curtiss: Visionary or Failed Promoter?

The executors of the C.V.S. Roosevelt Jr. estate were enmeshed in a long dispute over his

will, but upon its resolution, William Howard Curtiss of Ralston Ave., South Orange purchased the grand house and its land in March 1902. It is interesting to surmise his motives.

Curtiss was a financier of sorts who had just had a series of well-publicized failed business ventures. A private secretary to John D. Rockefeller in the 1890s, (and before that an oil merchant, then a broker), Curtiss went on in 1900 to be the treasurer of the Third Avenue Elevated Railway in Manhattan, an enterprise that went bankrupt despite his efforts to raise capital. He was a promoter of a Colorado silver mine which failed in 1901, and in 1902 took on the role of an aggrieved stockholder, suing U.S. Steel over the conversion of $200 million ($5 billion today) in bonds.

After these harsh losses, no doubt W. H. Curtiss was tired of the financial world and wanted a change when he purchased the Roosevelt property from the estate’s executors for $60,000. Perhaps he saw real estate as a safe investment, or he wished to protect whatever wealth he had by buying land (in his wife, Lillie’s, name), or he had a vision of how to develop the hillside into homes, including perhaps a home for himself in the old mansion. His real estate brochure for Roosevelt Park extolls the parklike land and “the benefits of railroad, trolley, telephones, telegraph, express and livery service” as well as a new school and delivery service from New York stores.

Yet, despite Curtiss’ connections with influential New Yorkers, real estate was not his forte either. He made only four sales in the two years before he sold the property to T.B. Ackerson in 1904.

After the Hickories: Thomas Benton Ackerson, Master Developer

Thomas Benton Ackerson, owner of the eponymous T. B. Ackerson Company, entered the

Roosevelt Park story in 1904. A developer of houses and industrial buildings in New York City and Long Island, Ackerson crossed the Hudson to successfully take up where William H. Curtiss had failed. Ackerson, whose 1905-1914 Fiske Terrace development in Brooklyn has recently received N.Y.C. Landmark status, was pivotal in ensuring that high standards were used in the creation of Roosevelt Park.

Ackerson's company bought a large parcel of the former Roosevelt estate from Curtiss for $116,830 on December 5, 1904. Moving quickly, Ackerson incorporated his company in New Jersey, with an office listed on Ridgewood Road. Soon after, it promoted the sale of lots, some featuring model homes.

It was a family affair: his brothers were co-owners, and his sister-in-law often acted as sales agent. Ackerson focused on the overarching layout of Roosevelt Park, planning its roads, utilities, and subdivisions and providing home designs and financing. The new homes featured the "latest" utilities (city sewer, electricity, and gas) and were eclectic in design. Area builders, including most prominently the West Orange firm Wolfe, Jilson, Douglas, acted as subcontractors.

Lot sales proceeded quickly, with house construction following episodically. By August 1908, 100 of 125 plots had been purchased by home builders or investors. Ackerson reduced his involvement in late 1909, and sold most of the remaining lots to the Wolfe firm. By January 1910 his New Jersey company was dissolved, and Ackerson's ties to Roosevelt Park ended.

Today, T.B. Ackerson’s communities like Fiske Terrace and Roosevelt Park remain highly regarded and have maintained their integrity. Brightwaters, his planned 1,700-acre community in Islip, L.I., celebrated 100 years in 2007. A plaque in that town dedicated to him says "he achieved the ideal in community development."