The Family of David and Elizabeth Eastburn

David Eastburn, Jr.

I'll start this out by saying that this is a post that was never meant to be, but I'm glad it is, as it truly does
have a reason for being. In researching the recent posts about the Eastburn Family Homestead, I found it was important to understand the Eastburn family themselves. So to that end, I decided to write a quick rundown on the first generation of Eastburn children in MCH, the offspring of David and Elizabeth Eastburn. Have you ever tried to write a "quick rundown" on 14 people? In case you haven't, I'll tell you it doesn't work, especially when the people are as well documented as the Eastburns. And so...this post.

The Eastburns are a remarkable group for several reasons, but the most important one for us is the impact they had on the area. Although, as you would expect with so many children, some of them moved away, many remained within a short distance of the home farm. This would have been especially important because David Eastburn, Sr. died in June 1824, when the oldest child was 22 years old and the youngest only 6 days old. Elizabeth Jeanes Eastburn (who never remarried) was certainly a very strong woman.

Another remarkable thing about that first generation of MCH Eastburns was their health. The child mortality rate in the US in 1815 was about 46%. That means that 46% of children born then did not make it to their fifth birthday. (When people long for "The Good Old Days", just remember facts like that.) The Eastburns, however, went fourteen for fourteen. All the children survived childhood, and most lived into what we would consider old age today. I've never seen anything that mentions it, but I strongly feel that the home of the widowed Elizabeth was always a busy place, with family members constantly visiting. The Eastburns always seemed like a strong, close family. 

As far as that family goes, many of that first generation have already appeared in the blog in one form or another. David and Elizabeth's first child, born in Pennsylvania and before the move to MCH, was Joseph Eastburn (1802-1882). He would have been 14 when the Pleasant Hill farm was purchased and probably immediately joined his father in the lime business. He was 22 when his father died, and took over as partner in the business with his Uncle Abel Jeanes.

I think it's safe to assume that Joseph also took over as the "man of the house" and helped in raising his brothers and sisters. Perhaps because of this he did not marry until he was 32, on New Years Day 1835. (Although to be fair, despite the misconception that I think many people have that folks back then always married very young, the average age at first marriage was normally in the lower 20's for women and in the upper 20's for men, so Joseph was not far out of range.) His first wife was literally the girl next door, Mary Ann Whiteman. Her family was profiled in a previous post and the house she grew up in still stands, just below Paper Mill Park. Sadly, though, Mary Ann died in July 1836 just two weeks after giving birth to the couple's first child, Franklin.

A year later he married Susan Pennock, from another family that would become prominent in MCH. Her brother Lewis bought the farm along today's Kirkwood Highway where Green valley is now (Lewis' son Pusey would later own the mill complex at Milltown). And that first son, Franklin? His son Joseph C. would later buy the Denny-Morrison Farm and be responsible for creating neighboring Eastburn Acres.

Alban and Mary Jeanes Eastburn Buckingham

The next first-generation Eastburn child was Mary Jeanes Eastburn (1804-1892), who, like her brother, was born in Pennsylvania and married a Pleasant Hill neighbor. Her husband was Alban Buckingham, and they would be the progenitors of pretty much all the later Buckinghams in the area. This included their sons, the Civil War vets David E. and Richard G. Buckingham. David Eastburn Buckingham was award the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the war, and both were mentioned in the posts about the Battle of the Mermaid (here and here). The Eastburns and Buckinghams pretty much dominated the area for many years.

It should be noted that Buckingham was actually Mary's second husband. Her first husband, Edmund Jeanes, died in 1828, the year after they were married. Yes, Jeanes. Edmund was Mary's second cousin, and the couple had no children. Mary wed Alban Buckingham when she was 35, and would still manage to have five children over the next eight years.

Mary wasn't the only Eastburn daughter to settle very near the home farm, though. Rebecca Eastburn (1805-1857), the first of the children born in Delaware, married Samuel Lloyd. Lloyd was a Pennsylvanian, but set up shop (literally) nearby in Corner Ketch -- he was a storekeeper. His shop was in the location later (and still) owned by the Dempsey family. 

Isaac Eastburn

Next child Isaac Eastburn (1806-1890) married Mary Lloyd, Samuel's sister. While it might seem a little odd now to see two marriages between the same families, it was not that unusual at the time (I guess in large part there were only so many other families in close proximity to you -- there's another now-odd marriage situation that will come up further down in the list). And like his twice-over brother-in-law, Isaac was a shopkeeper. It was he, at least at first, who ran Eastburn's Store on Pigeon Hollow Road. This was on the northern edge of the family property. After his wife Mary's death in 1860 he remarried to Rachel Weir in 1866. The couple moved to Virginia for a while before returning to Delaware in their old age.

Fifth child Amos Eastburn (1808-1853) married yet another Pleasant Hill neighbor, Mary Jane Moore. The Moores also owned land in the Corner Ketch/Pleasant Hill area, and Mary's brother Thomas was the local blacksmith. Amos bought the farm directly east of Corner Ketch and later passed it to his son William.

Isaiah Eastburn (1810-1891) lived in the stone house next to the Eastburn Store on Pigeon Hollow Road, the house later occupied by Myrtle Emma Morris and family. He likely operated the store after brother Isaac moved to Virginia after the Civil War. 

David Eastburn, Jr

David Eastburn, Jr. (1811-1899) owned several properties at times and has appeared multiple times in the blog in the past, including the time he was almost swindled. Although he resided at the home farm until later in life, he for a time owned the farm opposite the Judge Morris Estate on Polly Drummond Hill Road and also owned the Red (or England) Mill on White Clay Creek. However, after about 1857 he lived in his new home just south of Corner Ketch. David became one of the most revered men in Mill Creek Hundred, serving (among other positions) as a Director and President of the Newport National Bank and as a State Legislator.

After the run of four boys came three girls. Elizabeth Eastburn (1813-1871) married William Bell of Philadelphia, and in 1850 the couple was living in the Northern Liberties section of that city. In 1856 they purchased the 200 acre farm along Pleasant Hill Road from her brother Joseph (it's their barn you see along the road there). Joseph had purchased it in 1830 and I believe lived there for close to 15 years before moving to the Abel Jeanes property. And as a side note, I find it interesting that right in the middle of the Eastburn family, children numbers seven and eight (although they wouldn't have known it would be the middle), come the two named for their parents.

Next daughter Hannah Eastburn (1815-1883) married Harlan Baker of Chatham, Chester County (north of Avondale). They lived there, on his farm just south of Route 41, and raised an impressive family of nine children. Sometime in the 1870's, after the children were grown (although four still remained with them), they moved to Loudoun County, Virginia, northwest of Washington, DC. Hannah was the only one of the Eastburn children never to have lived any of her married years in MCH.

The tenth child, Ruth Eastburn (1817-1833), was the only one not to survive into full adulthood. She died on August 16, 1833, at the age of just sixteen. I've yet been unable to find anything indicating her cause of death.

Samuel Eastburn (1818-1906) would eventually end up with ownership of the home farm, and he will be profiled in more detail in Part 2 of The Eastburn Homestead posts.

We're headed down the homestretch now with penultimate daughter Sarah Eastburn(1820-1861). In March 1847 she married John Mitchell, who has come up several times on the blog. They made their home on his farm at Newport Gap Pike and Hercules Road. On the farm they called Sugar Loaf, the couple was in the process of raising six children. In 1859, a seven child (Mary) died at two months of age. Tragically, two years later Sarah died as well, leaving John with children ranging in age from 13 to 3. This was not a time when a single father was a normal occurrence, so John needed to find a new wife. Remember earlier when I said there would be another marriage arrangement that would seem unusual to us?

John and Margaret Eastburn Mitchell

It took another three years, but he didn't have to look far. In November 1864, John Mitchell married Margaret Eastburn (1822-1887). My hunch is that Margaret probably took over the role of mother to her nieces and nephews soon after Sarah's death. It would have been easier, since I'm sure she knew them well. Perhaps the pair just wanted to formalize the arrangement or maybe they truly fell in love, but after the 42 year old Margaret married Mitchell they did have two more children of their own. 

John and Margaret purchased the historic Hockessin farm of Ocasson in 1868 and would reside there the rest of their lives. In 1869, when Margaret was 46 years old, she gave birth to their second child, John C. Mitchell. He was the father of Gertrude Mitchell Bell, who passed away only 6 years ago at the age of 103. Her daughter (and son, I didn't forget you Pete) still owns the home purchased by Mitchell (and Eastburn) 154 years ago. 

Oliver Wilson Eastburn

And now we've arrived at the fourteenth and final child of David and Elizabeth Eastburn, Oliver Wilson Eastburn (1824-1903). While several of the children probably had no memories of their father, Oliver certainly didn't -- David Eastburn, Sr. died six days after Oliver was born. Oliver first lived on a farm along Paper Mill Road, just north of Newark. It was a farm his mother had purchased in 1836 and which he had moved to sometime in the 1840's, perhaps around the time of his marriage in 1850 to Anna Eliza Shakespeare. Oliver and Anna would have a good Eastburn-like 13 children, with only one passing in childhood.

Oliver was granted the farm in 1864 when his mother died, and in 1867 sold it to William Morrison. The couple packed up their by-then 9 children and moved to Spotsylvania County, Virginia, where Oliver became a prominent citizen, serving as a Justice of the Peace for 30 years. There seem to be multiple connections between the family of Oliver Eastburn and the Morrisons (both in MCH and in VA), but I'll leave it to people like friend of the blog Rich Morrison (a descendant) to sort out.

I hope you've enjoyed this trip through the family of David and Elizabeth Eastburn. As you can see, the Eastburn family left a very large imprint on the area, both on their own and through their intertwinings with other prominent families. In my mind this all serves to make the Eastburn Homestead, already a historic home in its own right, even more important to the history and overall story of the area.