The land that Indian Acres is situated on was owned by Thomas C. Crookshank, former Cecil County delegate. It had been in his family since the early 1800’s. In fact, there is a deed that shows in January of 1842, Mr. and Mrs. Crookshank recorded a right of way to the property that extended from the entrance on Knights Island Road all the way to “Queen’s Point Landing” which is now the location of our T-dock. The Crookshank family cemetery is still located in the campground and the right of way still exists to this day that allows for families to bury in the graveyard.
Mr. Crookshanks descendant, Ernest Crookshank deeded the land to Courtland Developers in 1962. In 1972, After Courtland Developers failed to get their project completed, they sold the land to a group of investors. These investors also purchased the surrounding properties and properties Courtland had failed to develop but had sold. These investors invented a new concept to camping. Instead of renting a campsite, you purchase the land, receive a deed and have access all year long. The idea had already taken off in Virginia and Ocean City Maryland before it was brought to Cecil County, Maryland.
The location in Earlville was ideal as it provided access to the Chesapeake Bay but was still close to major cities such as Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore, which made travel to the campground easy. Indian Acres advertised the amenities and activities in newspapers including duck/goose blinds, boating, a large swimming pool, playgrounds, year-round 24-hour security and much more. The biggest selling point was, after 80% of the lots were sold, the lot owners would take over the management of the park and purchase the common area for $495 per lot sold, accumulating an estimated total of $880,000.00. The developer would then solely be there to sell their unsold properties. This language was initially incorporated in all the recorded deeds and Land Installment contracts as the properties were sold.
In 1976, after making several large land purchases and some mishandling of funds, Indian Acres went into Bankruptcy. The lender, Diversified Mortgage Investors foreclosed on the undeveloped portion of the campground and the common ground in 1977, selling the property at public auction. When no buyers made an offer, diversified purchased it back. In 1978 Diversified Mortgage Investors sold the development rights and common ground to WSC Inc. This should have triggered the 80% threshold for owners to take over the management of the park, but WSC ignored this contractual obligation.
The owners of WSC continued to sell properties and manage the day to day operations of the park, including the collection of annual dues paid by property owners. In 1984 the then owners of WSC sold their stock and interest to 3 partners: Albert W. Schiffrin, William E. Sklar and John C. Wilson. The stock purchase agreement included the right of way to the properties for deeded owners and a list of properties that had already paid the required $495 for the 80% buyout of common ground and management rights. These properties were not obligated to pay this fee again.
In 1987, John C. Wilson passed away. One year later partners Mr. Schiffrin and Mr. Sklar added Robert Minnisale as a third partner. In order to “buy in” to the stock agreement, Mr. Minnisale had a portion of his pay deducted until he had paid in fully. The stock agreement was worth $1,000,000.00, so each party was entitled to $333,000.00 each. A memorandum was created and signed by all parties that stated in the event a partner wanted to sell their stocks they would be entitled to this $333,000.00 which could be paid in one lump sum or over a period of 10 years with interest. This investment passed over to the partners beneficiaries in the event they passed away. Another clause in this memorandum stated that if the stocks were sold for more than $1,000,000.00, then the partners or their estates would be entitled to 1/3 of the additional funds.
In 2007 Mr. Sklar passed away and in 2013 Mr. Schiffrin passed away. Immediately following their deaths, Mr. Minnisale began making the payments to the estates for the redemption of the stocks. These payments were made to the surviving children of the partners and paid from the Indian Acres Association account, not Mr. Minnisales business account, WSC. Inc. These payments were listed as “management fees” for accounting purposes. During this time, Mr. Minnisale, the only surviving partner was still receiving his portion of management fees.
In 2016 Mr. Minnisale sold his stocks to Joe Behrle and Don Hayes in the amount of $1,500,000.00 to be paid over 10 years through payroll of Indian Acres. Mr. Minnisale has testified under oath in court that he is not an employee of Indian Acres, has not received a paycheck from Indian Acres since 2016 and has not been in the park. The depositions of 1 current office manager who has been there for over 20 years and a previous office manager that had been there for 28 years, states that he continues to receive his payments through payroll and receives health care coverage, short term/long term disability as well as life insurance. In fact, both stated that on numerous occasions Mr. Minnissale had called inquiring about his paycheck.
Since 2016 when Mr. Behrle and Mr. Hayes took over Indian Acres, property owners have been forced to pay substantial increases to the annual dues and an added assessment on each lot. During the time between their purchase and the present, Indian Acres has fallen into a state of disrepair, with toilets in bath houses not connected to the floor, wires open in the bath houses, the pool not being properly winterized and owners being kept from accessing their deeded property. It is in this time period that we gained access to corporate documents uncovering the long history of fraud, deceit and mishandling of our funds.
1850 Census showing the Crookshanks
Thomas Crookshank Obit 1917 
Thomas Crookshank Obit 1917
