The land that became the original St. Albert's Jr. Seminary had a varied if  not a long history.  The general area seems to have been lightly settled by farmers.  The progress of the land was from Nathaniel Conklin to Charles Booth to Louise and Freeman Wheeler.  The latter was an enterprising real estate developer at the turn of the century.  He bought much land in the area, had it surveyed and divided into small lots.  Apparently he expected large development in the neighborhood.  The Middletown and Unionville Pike Road, today's Wawayanda Avenue or South Plank Road, had been conceived and partially built by 1853 but the traffic just passed by because Middletown itself did not in­crease appreciably in population until the 1960's.  The large influx Wheeler hoped for never came and much of his land was sold to farmers.