Samuel Kitchell, 1635-1690

Samuel Kitchell was among the first white settlers in present-day Newark, having come from the New Haven colony in 1666 with Robert Treat. According to The Mountain Society, the settlers had come believing that the land had already been purchased from the Indians by the Governor and Council. However, the Hackensack Indians would not allow them to settle. An agreement for a first sale, extending to the foot of "the great mountain called Watchung," was signed on July 11, 1667; Kitchell was one of the signers. A second sale was made a decade later. This was a purchase from the "Winachsop and Shenachtos Indians, the owners of the great mountain Watchung." This purchase included a large portion of surrounding land, including the present-day Oranges, Maplewood, Bloomfield, and Belleville.

Lois Ward, 1723-1804

Lois Ward, born September 21, 1723, was a great-granddaughter (on her paternal grandfather's side) of John Ward and a great-granddaughter (on her paternal grandmother's side) of Samuel Kitchell. John Ward (1620-1694) and Samuel Kitchell (1635-1690) were among the original white settlers who had come from the New Haven colony with Robert Treat to settle in Newark in 1666.

Lois was married in 1748 to William Hand. The couple had 11 children. For a time, the family lived at the Hand House (still standing) in present-day Maplewood. Both died in Livingston in the early 1800s.

Hand House, Maplewood

At the south side of Valley Street, in between Harvard Avenue and Tuscan Road, there is a house that has stood for nearly 200 years more than the vast majority of homes that have since sprung up around it. According to Images of America: Maplewood, the house "may have been built as early as 1730. Records indicate that William Hand sold part of his farm to Samuel Pierson in 1762." Chief Tuscan's encampment may have been just behind the house, on the bank of the stream, and he may be buried there along with his horse.

William Hand was born September 9, 1721, in East Hampton, New York. He married Lois Ward (born September 21, 1723), of Newark, in 1748. The couple had 11 children. William Hand died in Livingston on August 20, 1806. Lois died December 28, 1804, also in Livingston.

College Hill, Maplewood

In Maplewood, there is a neighborhood known as College Hill. The streets are named for various US colleges: Harvard Avenue, Bowdoin Street, Yale Street, Oberlin Street, Rutgers Street, Colgate Road, Wellesley Road, and Amhurst Court.

This current google map shows the streets in College Hill as they are now and as they were in 1902. The blue line shows the neighborhood boundaries; the purple lines show streets that existed in 1902 that do not exist today; and the green lines show streets that exist now that did not exist in 1902.

View College Hill, Maplewood in a larger map

Below is the 1902 map that appeared in Maplewood, past and present : a miscellany, written in 1948 by Helen B. Bates.

Below is the detailed image of the College Hill area from the above map:

The streets must have been developed sometime between 1889 and 1902, as this map from 1889 shows no streets in the area. Tuscan, Prospect, and Springfield are in existence on the 1889 map.

The full map (Essex County, 1889 with ads) can be found at Rutgers.

Unanswered Questions:

• Exactly when did these streets get developed, and why? The majority of the homes were not built until the late 1920s.
• Why were some of the streets removed?
• Why were they named for colleges?

Clinton Township, Essex County, New Jersey

Clinton was a township in Essex County, NJ, from 1834 to 1902. It was created on April 14, 1834, from portions of Elizabeth, Newark, Orange, and Union. Clinton included present-day Maplewood, South Orange, Irvington, and Newark. On April 1, 1861, part of Clinton was formed into newly created South Orange (now present-day Maplewood), which also pulled land from a section of Orange. Irvington's formation as an independent village on March 27, 1874, pulled more area from Clinton. By March 11, 1902, what was left was absorbed into Newark as a result of a referendum held on March 5 of that year.

1850 Essex County map with Clinton township enlarged.

Link to full 1850 Map Showing the Former Clinton Township. Middleville on this map is the site of the present-day Springfield Avenue business district of Maplewood. Vauxhall is present-day Vauxhall which is where Whole Foods, Best Buy, and Target are today. The road running between Springfield, Vauxhall, Middleville, and Clintonville and then running east to Newark is today's Springfield Avenue, which has been a road since before European settlement. The Morris and Essex Railroad can be seen where it still is today, just north of Vauxhall, Middleville, and Clintonville, and just south of Short Hills and what was then called the 1st Mountain and the 2nd Mountain (the first and second ridges of the Watchung Mountains).

Unanswered Questions:

• Why was Clinton Township so named?
• Why was it created? And why was it disbanded?