Clinton Township Newsletter

SENIORS ' CORNER The next meeting of the Clinton Township Seniors Club will be held on Wednesday, February 13 at 10:00 am in the lower level of the Annandale Reformed Church. Just a reminder, there will be a pot luck luncheon in celebration of St. Patrick's Day at our March 13 meeting. For more information call Pat Schutts at 908.735.0424. New members always welcome! Please keep watching this column for our trip schedule for 2013! at W e e k ly F i t n e s s P r o g r a m ! Lebanon Reformed Church Lebanon Reformed Church, 100 Brunswick Ave., Lebanon www.lebanonreformedchurch.org On February 20, Lebanon Reformed Church will begin a weekly fitness program featuring Certified Personal Trainer Nathan Robinson. The exercise sessions will be held in the church fellowship hall on Wednesday nights between 7:00 and 8:00 pm. The fitness workouts will be easy-to-follow and include a calorie-burning workout sure to help fulfill our New Year's Resolution of a healthier lifestyle. Put on your exercise clothes, lace up your sneakers and then bring a towel and water and a desire to have some fun! This weekly fitness program will continue through March 27. Classes are $15/session and drop-ins are welcome. For more information, call 908.236.6176. Additional information about Nathan can be found at at www.optimized-fitness.com. W o m e n ' s R e t r e at "Behold, I Make All Things New" – Revelation, 21:15 We would like to invite all Clinton Township women who are interested to a St. Joseph's Church Women's Cornerstone Retreat, at 50 Main Street, High Bridge on Saturday, February 23, starting at 9:00 am and concluding at 8:00 pm Mass. This is an opportunity for you to refocus and take time to be with God in a nurturing, prayerful and reflective place. Life will continue to be busy. Give yourself some time to take a breath and step away from your daily routine amongst other Christian women. Please contact Susan Brown: 908.236.6407 or 908.391.3163. R e a l E s tat e M a r k e t U p d at e Real estate sales figures for 2012 are now complete. We sold a total of 1,084 houses in all of Hunterdon County last year and in Clinton Township we sold a total of 165 of those houses with an average sale price of $368,000. The average days on market was 76 for the houses that sold. Naturally, this varies by price point. If you would like to see similar statistics on a monthly basis, you can visit a Monthly Market Update prepared by Joe Peters of Weichert realtors at www.jpeters.com. Joe can be reached at 908.238.0118 for more details. with love, the Clinton Township Newsletter The Historic P r e s e r va t i o n C o mm i s s i o n Tall–Tales About the Lenape and Round Valley by Frank Curcio My current research for the Cultural & Heritage Commission involves charting the pre–Encounter Lenape trails through New Jersey. I was surprised to find five of the main trails pass Round Valley and all of the trails connect either directly or indirectly with the trails leading to Round Valley. Perhaps others have noticed this as well because there are a lot of tall–tales about the Lenape and Round Valley. Unfortunately, most of what is taught about them is based on books written before 1920, while most of the factual information we know has been discovered by researchers since 1980. Two of the most prevalent tall–tales hold that Round Valley was either a major Lenape settlement or the home of the Lenape King—sort of a Lenape Forbidden City. Both are hogwash. The Lenape never had a king and never formed a single nation. Each Lenape community was independent. What bound them together was their common language, culture and traditions, along with family ties. Evidence of a permanent settlement in Round Valley has never been found. The Lenape trails were so well designated that Europeans were passing by sixty years before the first Europeans settled in Hunterdon. During those decades someone would have noticed an Indian village there. Finally, without well–drilling technology, there was not enough fresh water to support a major settlement—kind of ironic now that it holds 55 billion gallons of the stuff. The Valley's small creek would not attract the Lenape who called themselves "The People of the River". All their settlements were associated with large rivers—primarily the Delaware, Lehigh, Hackensack and Hudson along with the Raritan, Barnegat and Delaware bays. Most of the tall–tales have been derived from the research of Max Schrabisch who published major works in 1915 and 1917. Two bits of mis–information from his writings still haunt us. He held that the Lenape had no permanent settlements and that they were nomads. Modern researchers, led by the late Herbert Kraft, have given us a clearer and observably more accurate image of the Lenape. Calling the Lenape nomads is like calling a Clinton Township resident who works in Manhattan a nomad. Both travel for the same reasons: to work—in an office or hunting, gathering or fishing and to shop—in a mall or trading with another Lenape community. Modern commuters and the Lenape go home again, nomads don't— their home is where they pitch their tents. Kraft, using Carbon–14 dating techniques, has shown that the Lenape built permanent dwellings, called longhouses, which they were (20 by 60 feet). Since they were not easy to build, they were not soon abandoned. C–14 testing has shown that the longhouses were in place for years, even decades—permanent. Maize (corn) is a difficult crop to grow and process, yet the Lenape planted it with squash and beans. If they did all that work, they were unlikely to suddenly abandon them and go nomad, would they? So, really, the mis–information answers the questions of Round Valley; modern research only deepens the mystery. Is there a solution? More 16 F e b r u a r y (A p r i l ) Frank Curcio next time 2 0 1 3

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