![]() Maplewood was originally formed as South Orange Township, which was created on April 1, 1861, from portions of Clinton Township and what was then the Town of Orange. ![]() View of Maplewood from South Mountain Reservation James Ricalton, a teacher born in New York of Scottish parents who became the school district's first permanent teacher, helped set the high standard of education that persists in the school district to this day. In 1867, when the State of New Jersey established public education through the School Law, the newly appointed County Superintendent merged the three associations into one school district, which was formalized in 1894 as the South Orange-Maplewood School District. The three communities developed and functioned independently, each establishing their own school associations: South Orange established the Columbian School in 1814, which would form the basis of Columbia High School North Farms established the North Farms Association in 1817 and Jefferson Village the Jefferson Association in 1818. In 1802, Jefferson Village and North Farms were named as districts within the Township of Newark. The area became known for its orchards and related industries, including cider mills and rum distilleries, as well as honey and livestock. Boyden also built and put into operation the first steam engines to service the railroad through Maplewood. In 1855, Seth Boyden settled in what was then Middleville to retire but innovated a number of agricultural products, especially berries. The village changed its name from North Farms to Middleville in 1830, and then to Hilton in 1880 when it was granted a post office. ![]() It became a stagecoach stop between Newark, Jersey City (then Paulus Hook), and Morristown and thereby a center for trade and light manufacturing. Over time, this community became known as the Hilton section. ![]() Those who came up today's Springfield Avenue settled on a hill crest near today's intersection between Tuscan and Springfield Avenue and established a hamlet known as North Farms. This was in use until 1846 and fell into disrepair until 1858, when it was taken into use as a Methodist Episcopal church. Although the residents of the area were predominantly Presbyterian, the first house of worship was a Baptist chapel in 1812. By 1815, there were approximately 30 families in the community. The apple harvest was apparently quite impressive and included the " Harrison" and "Canfield" varieties. John Durand, the son of Hudson River School painter Asher Brown Durand (who was born in Maplewood in 1796), describes the place as a picturesque but slightly backward community with close ties to Springfield. This settlement, which roughly corresponds to downtown Maplewood today, developed several mills and orchards. Six families (with last names of Smith, Brown, Pierson, Freeman, Ball and Gildersleeve) came up today's Ridgewood Road and established scattered farms around a center that became Jefferson Village, named after Thomas Jefferson. Those who came from Newark on the trail that now corresponds to South Orange Avenue settled the area that became South Orange village. These three routes resulted in the development of three separate communities that coalesced to become Maplewood and South Orange. They had acquired most of today's Essex County from the Native Americans and followed three trails that roughly correspond to South Orange Avenue, Springfield Avenue and Ridgewood Road. The first European settlers arrived around 1675, primarily English, Dutch and French Puritans who had earlier settled Hempstead, Long Island, and Stamford, Connecticut, via Newark and Elizabeth. These paths form the basis for what are the township's main thoroughfares today. When surveying the area now known as Maplewood, Robert Treat found several trails used by Lenape tribes of Algonquian Native Americans, though there was only sparse pre-European settlement. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 25,684, an increase of 1,817 (+7.6%) from the 2010 census count of 23,867, which in turn reflected a decline of one person from the 23,868 counted in the 2000 census. The township is an inner-ring suburban bedroom community of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. Maplewood is a township in Essex County in the U.S.
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