The Ays Indians lived along the confluence of the St. Sebastian and the Indian River (Rio d'ays) when the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. For hundreds of years afterward, settlements in the Indian River area were restricted to the coast, where citrus, pineapples, and fishing were the primary industries. In 1816, George Fleming, an Irishman who had served in the army of Spanish Florida, received a large land grant on both sides of the St. Sebastian River, an important step in the area's growth. Roseland's first citizen was Dempsey Cain, who settled on the river's north side in 1877 and is credited with naming the community on the south side Roseland after the wild roses that grew there abundantly. As more settlers arrived, a post office was built in 1892, and in 1893 a depot and water tower were constructed for Henry Flagler's East Coast Railway. In 1910, the A.A. Berry Land Development Company purchased the remnants of the old Fleming land grant, and Roseland still retains the original Berry Land Office Building and the 1926 Roseland Community Center, built of lumber salvaged from the first bridge to cross the St. Sebastian River.