The Origins of Benge Road

Location of Benge Road, north of Hockessin

Normally when we think of traces of history around us or historical sites, what comes to mind are things like houses, churches, mills, or battlefields. However, some of the most interesting and instructive artifacts are the things we use every day, but rarely give much thought to – our roads. Most people have at least a vague notion that some roads are new, while others have been in place for a long time. This is certainly true of the roads in and around Hockessin.

Anyone familiar with the roads today would recognize many of the same ones on a map from, say, 1868. Readily visible are most of the main thoroughfares like Limestone Road, Valley Road, Lancaster Pike (although along what’s now Old Lancaster Pike which was actually the Newport and Gap Turnpike), Old Wilmington Road, Meeting House Road, and Yorklyn Road, among others. Some were very old, like Limestone Road, and likely started as Native American paths used by the earliest European settlers in the area. Some were created for a specific purpose, like Yorklyn Road’s path from Old Wilmington Road to the Garrett Snuff Mills, laid out in 1863. Once in a while we’re even lucky enough to have some of the details as to the when, why, and how of a road’s coming to be. Such is the case with Benge Road.

Hockessin area roads, 1868

Benge Road today has two distinct sections – a north/south segment terminating across Red Clay Creek at Creek Road, and an east/west segment ending just over the state line. The north/south segment is actually part of what used to be the Old Public Road, one of the early routes from Old Wilmington Road (which pre-dated the Newport and Gap Turnpike) to the mills on the Red Clay. Long since superseded in importance by Yorklyn Road, much of Old Public Road is now essentially residential, there’s a break near its southern end, and its northern section has been co-opted by Benge Road.

The section of Benge Road west of Meeting House Road is a bit newer, having been constructed sometime in the 1850’s. Our interest here though, is in the stretch between Meeting House and Old Public Roads, and the proposed section heading east. The protagonists in the story are of a group not usually thought of in relation to Hockessin – 19^th Century Irish immigrants. In March 1881, four of these Irishmen – Michael Halloran, John J. Halloran, John Dolan, and John Ryan – each purchased lots ranging from two to sixteen acres from Emily Bartholomew. (Five years later, Michael Halloran, Jr. would buy six acres from John J. Halloran.) Mrs. Bartholomew had purchased 92 acres from the estate of Joseph Heald in 1866, most of which lay on the east side of the Old Public Road. These lots sold to the Irish were on the west side of the road, and on the north side of a private lane leading to their new homes.

The reason why these emigres from the Emerald Isle settled here was simple – they all worked at the Garrett Snuff Mills. And this being the 19^th Century, of course they all walked to work. In his 1960 work 140 Years Along Old Public Road, historian C. A. Weslager described the scene this way: “The old residents viewed these newcomers with more amusement than resentment as they watched them trudge down Old Public Road, lunch pails in hand, over the wooden bridge, past the paper mill, enroute to their place of employment. The clay pipes they smoked, glowing with a strong grade of tobacco obtained in the Snuff Mill, left a stench in their wake.”

Whether or not this was a bit of poetic license on Weslager’s part, by 1888 the men had been in the area for many years and had become a part of the community (Michael Halloran would soon be one of the commissioners of the Yorklyn School District #91). They were also getting tired of walking the roundabout route to work, and in September officially petitioned the court for a new public road to help them out.

Their original request was for a road beginning at Meeting House Road and running easterly past their homes (thereby turning their private lane into a county road) and extending all the way to the “new public road”, today’s Yorklyn Road. Unfortunately, the men appointed by the court to investigate determined that the road was not in the interest of the public, and the matter was shelved.

However, the Irishmen didn’t give up, and in May 1894 they submitted another, somewhat scaled-back petition. This time they only asked for a road from Meeting House Road, northeasterly to “the old public road leading from the village at Auburn at Marshall's Lower Paper Mill to Hockessin Meeting House.” This is Old Public Road, though as you see rural roads were more likely to be referred to then by description rather than a formal name.

From the 1900 Census, showing the Halloran, Dolan,
Ryan, Touhey, and Benge families

This time the court looked upon the request more favorably, and the new road was laid out at a cost about $200. This was a steal, considering Yorklyn Road cost $1075 back in 1863 (of course that included a bridge over Red Clay Creek). Several landowners were paid compensation, although the five Irishmen far less because the road benefited them more than it damaged their properties. Somehow, though, I don’t think they minded.

The last question you might have about Benge Road is where the name came from. There were two common ways in which rural roads were named. One was for where they went, like Old Wilmington Road, Lancaster Pike, or Yorklyn Road. The other was for a prominent or long-term family along the route. McGovern, Sharpless, and Graves Roads are examples of this type – so is Benge Road.

The Benge family lived for more than 100 years in the old stone house on the corner of Benge Road and Auburn Mill Road (named for the old Auburn textile mill, later the site of the Marshall Paper Mill, later the site of NVF). John Benge worked for the Marshalls and for NVF as a millwright, machinist, and foreman for over 30 years, as did his son Leroy. Grandson John H. Benge was a physician in the Wilmington area for many years (including to my mother’s family), and the Benge family remained in the house until about 20 years ago. Although previously known as the Kaolin Road, by the early 1930’s it had been named for the family living along it. For a road that runs less than two miles, Benge Road does a lot to show how there’s history hiding in plain sight all around us.