The Family of William and Mary Eastburn

Without question, one of my favorite things about doing this whole history thing is when people are kind enough to share with us old photographs from their family's collection. We all know that there are lots of these types of pictures sitting in shoe boxes and old photo albums, in attics and basements everywhere. Most people, though, don't think anyone would be interested in their old family pictures, especially when they themselves may not know who some of the people are, or when or where they were taken. But believe me, we're interested!

The amazing picture shown here came from one of my "history friends", Ray Albanese, and it was shared with him by an extended family-member named Lois. Lois' maiden name was Jones, but her mother was from one of the most prolific of MCH families - the Eastburns. This is a picture of her grandfather Herbert S. Eastburn's family.

More accurately, it's the family of William M. and Mary (Baldwin) Eastburn, and their 10 children. They were married in November 1863 (exactly one week after the Gettysburg Address was delivered, FWIW) and had 11 kids over the next 22 years (one died young). This is their family in about 1905. That estimate comes from the fact that one of the sons (William) died in 1907.

Pictured are (in order of age): William and Mary (seated), Louis, Calvin, Annie, William, John, Clarence, Harry, Herbert, Clifton, and Irwin. Yes, you read that right - 9 boys and one girl. Annie was either the most tormented or the best protected girl in MCH. Or maybe both. God bless Edward Sharpless (her husband) when he came to court the girl with 9 brothers.

As far as the setting for the picture, I was told that it was at a house located in Milford Crossroads, at the site that later became Dupont's Louviers facility. This confused me at first, because as far as I knew, William M. Eastburn had a farm over by Corner Ketch, not at Milford Crossroads (Papermill Road and Possum Park Road). With ten grown kids in the picture, though, there were plenty of other possibilities to check out. I looked at the old maps (which were honestly a little too old to help here) started checking through the rest of the family to figure out whose house they had gathered at for the picture. In the end, I should have started with the most obvious choice, considering where the photo came from.

Mrs. Jordan's case against the phone company, December 2, 1909

Eventually I ran across the article above, relating the story of Mrs. Marianna Jordan's lawsuit against the Delaware and Atlantic Telegraph and Telephone Company. It seems that one day in 1907, workers from the phone company came around and cut some of the trees on the property, presumably to clear them from the phone lines. Mrs. Jordan did not agree to this, and claimed that the removal of the shade trees devalued her property. The details are not particularly important to us now, except for the mention of her daughter, Mrs. Ella Eastburn. Turns out that Ella Jordan Eastburn was Lois' grandmother, the wife of Herbert S. Eastburn!

Since I can't find any other links between anyone in the family and a house at Milford Crossroads, I have to assume this is where they were. Herbert and Ella even lived with her mother as of the 1910 Census. I think the house was torn down soon after the Louviers Building was constructed, and its site is now part of one of the parking lots. This is an amazing picture, and I thank Lois and Ray very much for sharing it with us.