The Real Story of the Huston-Springer Houses

The James Springer House

Author's Note: I apologize for this post running a bit longer than most. However, I felt that these two houses needed to be dealt with together, as their histories are inextricably linked. This is one of those cases where you really can't understand one property without understanding the other, and I didn't see any good place to divide it up into two posts.

There are many reasons why I enjoy researching and writing these posts (the pay not being one of them). Obviously I enjoy the history -- uncovering and giving voice to stories that have either never been told or which have been largely forgotten. I like trying to better understand the past and the people who inhabited it. But there is also the mystery and informational "treasure hunt" aspect to it. I really like starting with just a bare bones amount of information, and seeing how much of the story I can end up filling in. But as with any investigation, my ability to reconstruct the story is limited by the resources I have and the amount of data I can collect. Luckily, sometimes those limits expand over time. With more resources comes more information, and sometimes with more information comes different conclusions.

Yes, this is all going somewhere. A little more than six years ago, I did two posts about the Springers of Northern Mill Creek Hundred. It wasn't until halfway through the second post that I finally got to the two houses I had originally set out to explore. These were what I had called the Stephen Springer, Sr. and Stephen Springer, Jr. Houses, both located in Mendenhall Village, on the south side of Mendenhall Mill Road. At the time, all I had to go on was a misleading passage from Runk, some not-so-helpful censuses, and the usual maps.

From all that, I surmised that Stephen Springer moved sometime in the 1820's from his family's home in Hockessin to the westernmost of the two Mendenhall-area houses, the one off of Village Drive. I stated that this house later went to his son James, while Stephen, Jr. built the eastern house (near Pump House Circle) in 1843, after being given a portion of the family farm. I had no information on what became of either property after the ownerships of Stephen, Jr. and James.

Recently, though, I received an email from the current owners of the western home, which I had labeled the Stephen Springer, Sr. House. After looking back to see how little information I had about it the last time, I decided to take another look, this time armed with, among other things, access to historic deeds and land transfers. And wow, I'm glad I did. It turns out, some of what I wrote was correct, some of it was sort of correct, and some of it was just flat out wrong. I'm here now to correct the record, as best as I can. It's still not crystal clear, but I'll lay out the situation as I now understand it.

I do still believe that Stephen Springer moved to the area in the 1820's, and I even did get the reason right (there's a reason why I usually attempt to figure out why someone moved to a given area). His wife was the former Margaret Huston, and it was in fact her family's farm to which they moved. In June 1763, Margaret's grandfather Hugh Huston purchased about 195 acres in three tracts from John Brackin, who had acquired them through various transactions. (The 1763 deed does a fantastic job of documenting all the sales, back to John Evans buying 100 of the acres from William Penn in 1707.) When Hugh died in 1789, the property went to his son Samuel. Samuel Huston died in 1815, but his will dated two years earlier did something interesting, and ultimately important for us.

At least part of this was probably Alexander Huston's home

Besides giving money to various children and providing for his widow, Samuel devised most of his land to his son James. However, his will states, "Also I give and devise to my son Alexander Huston fifty acres of my land and plantation I now live on to be run off of the westernmost end thereof.." So, James got about 150 acres and Alexander got 50, on the western end. The end where the formerly-called Stephen Springer, Sr. House is. Alexander was born in 1783, so he was already 32 by the time his father passed. It's possible that he was already living on and farming the western end of his father's land, or he may have broken off his own farm in 1815. I'm unsure of the age of the house that stands there now, but it's entirely possible that it was built by or for Alexander Huston.

The other 152 acres stayed in James Huston's possession until 1826, when he died "intestate and without issue" (meaning he had no will and no children). His siblings became his heirs, and they sold their shares of the land in 1827 to their sister Margaret and her husband, Stephen Springer. At some point after 1832, Springer must have acquired Alexander Huston's 50 acres as well. (Huston mortgaged it to David Justis in 1832.) I know this because of Springer's 1842 will. It's also how I know that my initial assumptions about the houses were wrong.

If you'll recall, in the original post I pointed out the Runk stated of Stephen, Jr, " After assisting his parents on the farm until he was twenty-one years old, a portion of the homestead was given to him, upon which he lived until within a few years of his death." That is both technically correct and somewhat misleading. What happened when young Stephen was 21 was that his father died. Runk makes it sound like he was carved out a portion, more along the lines of what happened with Alexander Huston. What actually happened makes more sense and completely flips the history of the two houses, at least as far as I had understood it.

Stephen, Jr. wasn't just given a portion of the homestead, it was divided evenly between himself and his brother James. The will states, "[...] Bequeath to my son James Springer all that house and tenement together with the fifty acres of land that formerly belonged to Alexander Huston with all and singular the appertainences thereon together with so much off of the upper end of the mansion farm as mite make fifty acres so as the two mite make one hundred acres of land in the whole..." Later it states, "I do will and bequeath to my son Stephen Springer the house and tenements on the farm where I now live together with the house near the creek with about one hundred and three acres of land..."

The Springer brothers' properties in 1849

So, what does all this mean for us? Well, by using the descriptions, the 1849 map, and a little common sense, we can infer that Stephen Springer, Sr.'s home was not the one to the west near Village Drive, but was in fact the eastern house near Pump House Circle. He gave James the western house and its 50 acres, which had been Alexander Huston's, and another 50 acres off the main farm. It was Stephen, Jr. who got his father's house, the remaining 103 acres, and another house down near Mill Creek, seen on the 1868 map below. This second house was located across from the foot of Graves Road, where Camp Wright is now.

The Springer brothers in 1868

Since the elder Stephen moved his family onto his wife's family's farm, it raises an interesting question: Did he also move them into the old Huston house? I don't know the age of the eastern house, which I now feel comfortable calling the Stephen Springer House, but it seems possible that at least part of it could date back to James, Samuel, or even Hugh Huston. What I have been able to determine to a much greater degree than before is the later history of the Stephen Springer House. As noted before, the house went to the younger Stephen, who was married to Mary Love, the daughter of long-time area minister Thomas Love.

Stephen Springer, Jr.

The couple and their five children seem to have split time between this house, which they called Hillside, and Mary's father's home on Lancaster Pike in Loveville. In the original post, I surmised that the house probably left the family soon after 1900. It turns out that I was more right than I knew. What actually happened is that Stephen sold the 103 acre farm to his son Robert in 1892. Robert was a carpenter by trade, so he probably didn't live at Hillside (he's listed in Wilmington in 1900). And whatever the reason, Robert seems to have had money problems soon thereafter. In January 1900, NCC Sheriff John E. Taylor sold the eastern Springer farm at auction to George Klair, who in turn sold it a few months later to Irvin V. Gregg. Gregg sold 16 acres to Rebecca Malin in 1903, but held on the the remainder for a few more years.

Ad for the sale of the Stephen Springer farm, then
owned by Robert Springer

In 1909, Irvin Gregg sold the remaining land to Edna Sharpless Wilson, the widow of David H. Wilson. David had grown up just north of the area in question, and had died in 1906. Edna and her family, which included four sons in their late teens/early twenties, farmed the land for more than a decade. In 1920, though, she sold the property (103 acres minus the 16 sold to Malin) to the Associated Charities of Wilmington. This social welfare group had been founded in 1884 by Emalea Pusey Warner, and was looking for a site for a country camp for children. Two years later, funds from the very first Wilmington Flower Market were used to construct buildings for what would become Camp Wright. Since the group didn't need as much land as they had, in 1924 they sold about 80 acres to two Polish immigrant couples, John and Annie Redecki and Lawrence and Mary Wozniak. What's neat is that the numbers do add up. The land that's now the Camp Wright Acquisition owned by the county is 7 acres. 80+16+7=103

A few months later the Wozniaks sold their half to the Redeckis, who then sold the entire farm in 1926 to another Polish couple, William and Florence Czarnecki. The Czarneckis sold in 1928 to John and Annie Waibel. The Waibels only owned the property for two years as well, as they sold in 1930 to something called the Renappi Corporation. For an explanation as to what that was, we first have to circle back and pick up the story of the western Springer farm, last seen willed to James Springer by his father Stephen.

The death of James Springer, March 1882

As noted in the original post, James Springer didn't remain on the farm long, as he soon moved to Newark. There, he became involved in business, social, and political pursuits. A recap of his endeavours can be seen in the obituary above, published at his death in March 1882. Later that year, the family attempted to sell the farm, as shown in the ad below. This ad also gives us a piece of information we often do not have -- the name of the tenant. In this case, it was James Shakespeare. However, it appears that they were unsuccessful in selling the farm at that time, since it didn't actually sell until 1888, to Hervey Walker.

Sale ad for the James Springer Farm, November 23, 1882

One of the biggest yet-to-be-solved mysteries in this story is exactly how old the house was that the Springers sold to Walker. I recently had the great pleasure of touring the house, and I'm convinced that what's there today dates at least back to Alexander Huston more than 200 years ago. The current owners added a section to the back that fits seamlessly with the rest from the outside. There are two older sections -- a larger south-facing one and a smaller west-facing one. Which is the oldest is a topic of debate. However, I will say that there are reasons to believe that part of the house could long-predate Alexander Huston. It's quite possible that he moved into and possibly enlarged a home that had already stood for the better part of a century. This house certainly still holds secrets.

The Hervey Walker who bought it in 1888 was the son of Robert Walker, and grew up on the family farm located off of Skyline Drive behind the Pike Creek Shopping Center. The barn Hervey toiled in as a boy still stands by the pool at Linden Knoll Condominiums. In '88, the 30 year old Walker purchased the 100 acres left to James Springer by his father, as well as another 9 willed to James by William Moore in 1866. Hervey, wife Joanna, and son Robert lived on the farm through at least 1910. By 1918 they resided in Wilmington though, and in 1921 sold the 109 acres to John Napolski. (Why the area was so attractive to Poles at the time is perhaps an investigation for another day.)

The Napolskis remained through the death of John in 1927. In early 1929, the tracts were briefly sold by the sheriff to Clara Davis, who sold them right back to John's widow Mary. I don't know if they tried to make it work but couldn't, but for whatever reason Mary sold the farm in October of that year to Daniel Cauffiel, which, along with the 1930 sale of the eastern farm to the Renappi Corporation, marked the end of an era for the former Huston-Springer farms.

If the name Cauffiel sounds familiar, it may be from hearing of the Cauffiel House overlooking the Delaware River off of Philadelphia Pike south of Claymont. That was the home built by the same Daniel Cauffiel, who worked as the primary real estate manager for the duPont family. And as a true real estate agent, Cauffiel sold the tracts on October 29, 1929 to the same Renappi Corporation. Incidentally, if the date sounds familiar, October 29, 1929 was the last and busiest day of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which kicked off the Great Depression. Cauffiel was obviously unconcerned about the financial situation, as was the man for whom the Renappi Corporation acted as a holding company -- Donald P. Ross.

Donald Peabody Ross was an executive with Wilmington Trust (founded by the du Ponts), and also (not at all coincidentally) the husband of Wilhelmina H. du Pont, daughter of William Kemble du Pont. Ross had a great love of horseracing and, with his brother-in-law William du Pont, Jr. built Delaware Park. He also bought up several farms along Limestone Road in the early 1930's and created a large estate for himself which he called -- you guessed it -- Renappi Farm. Renappi was the Swedish term for the local Native Americans, what we would now call Lenni Lenapi. The farm was full of horses, both for public riding and for higher level training. The 1962 Preakness Stakes champion Greek Money was trained at Renappi.

Donald P. Ross died in 1973 and the many acres of the Ross Farm were slowly sold off to developers. In 1977, the DiSabatino Company bought sections of the Ross Farm that included the old Springer properties, and in early 1978 the first homes of Mendenhall Village were on the market. Thankfully for us, the two old Huston-Springer homes were spared the wrecking ball and continue to serve as beautiful family homes today, easily more than 200 years after they first overlooked the Mill Creek Valley.