Rewriting TMR’s Origin Story

By David M. Malatzky

 

You probably already know how the NYC Scouts acquired TMR.  Representatives went around to local landowners and obtained options to purchase their properties.  An option is an agreement to sell a property at a specific price if purchased by a specific date. The landowners were famously not informed that their land was going to NYC interests because of fear that they would jack up their prices.

 

In the fall of 1927, the thirty-two landowners were invited to Monticello to sign deeds and receive payments for their properties.   At least this is what Sullivan County Historian James Burbank wrote in 1952.  The true story is somewhat different.  

 

We know this now because the Museum recently acquired copies of the 23 deeds giving the NYC Scouts ownership of the original 9,776 acres of TMR property on Oct. 8, 1927.  The deeds tell us much about the 55 original landowners, plus two real estate firms.  This included thirteen married couples, seven persons under age 21, and the estate of a deceased person.  

 

The biggest surprise is where the landowners lived.  Only eight lived in Tusten, which was part of the land purchase.  Four lived elsewhere in Sullivan County, four in Orange County, three in NYC, one on Long Island, one in Connecticut, and four in Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia.  Furthest of all were landowners from Chicago and River Forest, both in Illinois.  Why individuals living as far away as Philadelphia and Chicago owned part of what we now know as TMR is a mystery worth solving.  

 

The deeds are all between the original landowners and the Gaul & Kampfer real estate firm and dated between Sept. 26, 1927 - Oct. 7, 1927.  After the deeds were signed, they were certified by a local Notary Public.  Milton U. Gaul, President of Gaul & Kampfer, personally made the trip up to Sullivan County to sign the deed transferring the property to the Boy Scout Foundation of Greater New York and obtain certification by a Notary Public.  All the deeds and certifications were brought to the Sullivan County Courthouse and recorded in the County records on Oct. 8, 1927.  Thus, the NYC Scouts owned TMR.