Local Actor

Charles Kline Landis (1833 - 1900)

Charles K. Landis was born in Philadelphia. He was educated as a
lawyer. He became involved with a partner in the founding of
Hammonton. After this experience, he decided to found another town as
"an ideal community." He decided upon the land that is now Vineland.
The area had become accessible due to the fact that the railroad from
Camden to Glassboro had recently been extended to Millville.

Landis had no cash, and the community was started with 500 dollars in
gold given to him by his mother. He was able to convince Mr. Wood, who
owned large tracts of land in the area, to sell him 20,000 acres at 7
dollars an acre, no money down and no payments required for 3 years.

He immediately began to clear land for the main road through the town
which was 100 feet wide and called Landis Avenue. Intending to make it
a vine country, he called it Vineland.

Many rules were made to ensure the success and beauty of the town"main
streets were to be 100 feet wide, secondary roads 66 feet wide. There
were to be no fences, low lands were to be drained, workers were paid
double their previous salary, trees were lined with a double row of
shade trees, roadsides were seeded with grass, hedges were planted
throughout. Liquor could not be sold in the community. Churches,
schools, societies and industries were to be organized. The land must
be worked, homes had to be built. No land speculation was allowed.

He advertised heavily, and soon, his ideal community was a reality.

A disastrous event in his life with the shooting of a reporter named Uri
Caruth of the newspaper the Vineland Independent, in 1875. After years
of feuding, Caruth wrote an article about his personal life which
incensed Landis. In a rage, he shot the editor in the back of the
head. After lingering for months, the man died and Landis was tried for
murder in Bridgeton. His defense was insanity. Witnesses were called
to convince the jury that Landis was deranged. The jury agreed, and
Landis was freed. The judge stated that Landis was sane before the
murder, and certainly sane when in court--therefore the insanity was
temporary. Landis was set free.

Landis also purchased Sea Isle and got permission to subdivide the
island and sell off the land. The main street on that island is also
called Landis Ave.

He bought additional land in the East Vineland area and called it new
Italy (Nuova Italia) and gave the streets Italian names to make the area
more desirable to the large number of Italian immigrants that came to
Vineland.

He also owned much of the land that is now Landisville. He had intended
to make it the county seat of a new county called Landis County. This
county was to be made up by land taken from the surrounding counties.
This was too much for the people of the area who began to call him "King
Landis." The idea was a political disaster, and the jewel of his crown
never achieved the luster that he intended. Landisville never eclipsed
Vineland and remains another of the many small towns of this area.

Landis spent much of his money advertising and giving awards for
excellence to the inhabitants of his ideal community to encourage
preeminence. He also gave away land for parks, cemeteries, and
churches. With this attitude, it is no wonder that this amazing man did
not die a rich man, but did die with the satisfaction of having
succeeded in such a major accomplishment.

Frank De Maio, M.D.

Frank De Maio, M.D.

Frank De Maio was born in the small town of Landisville, New Jersey. He
was educated locally, then bussed to Vineland High School for further
education. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology at
Villanova University, then a Degree in Medicine at Hahnemann Medical
School.

He took his Internship, Residency and then Fellowship at Hahnemann, then
taught at Hahnemann Medical College for one year as an Instructor in
Medicine.

He decided to leave academic medicine in 1963 and returned to Vineland
to start the practice of medicine. As of this time, he continues to
practice medicine with a specialty in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary
Disease at the South Jersey Hospital System.

He has served on virtually every committee at the hospital, including
the Board of trustees. He has received a number of awards from the
community, and is active in a number of organizations in the community.

His interest in history is long-standing and community involvement in
history began years ago with the promulgation of Italian history via the
Sicilian American Club of South Jersey. The interest in local history
came about when he served as a Board Member of the Vineland Historical
and Antiquarian Society. He suggested to Linda Schimmel of the Vineland
Downtown Improvement District that they have a yearly Founder,s Day
celebration. She enthusiastically became involved. When he left the
Vineland Historical Society, he started the "Friends of Historic
Vineland" and the re-creation of historical characters became an even
more prominent part of his historical activity.

He has played a number of roles, especially that of the founder of
Vineland, Charles K. Landis.

Each year, during Founder,s Day, the entire third and fifth grade
classes of Vineland are taken on a field trip where they meet historic
characters. The third grade must study New Jersey History, and the
fifth grade must study American history, which of course includes the
Civil War. For this reason, Dr. De Maio, has played both the role of
Charles K. Landis of Vineland, and that of General Robert E. Lee of the
Civil war.