Born in 1848, the son of Surinamese-Dutch whaler William Adrian Vanderhoop and his Wampanoag wife Beulah Oocouch Saulsbury, Edwin grew up in Gay Head, Massachusetts with 8 brothers and sisters.

to teach, most likely at the Branch Normal School, a college a product of the Morrill Act of 1862 and which is now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

After a while, the strong weather of the cliffs pushed it into disrepair and the house became known as the “Haunted House.”[7] In 1892, Vanderhoop was also listed as the clay agent for the town.

In 1869 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began the process of incorporating the town of Gay Head (as Aquinnah was called before 1998) by dividing the tribal lands among its members.

Adrian Vanderhoop, Edwin's father, purchased one of the tracts defined by the state from tribal member William Morton in 1890 for $40, and immediately signed it over to his son.