The Fanning Houses of Marshallton

The Walter Fanning House in 2012,
one day before its demise

One of the over-arching themes I've stumbled into after years of writing this blog is the idea that just about every place, no matter how unassuming it might seem, has a story to tell. This has been borne out again in the history of the Fanning Houses of Marshallton. I initially didn't know there was this much of a story when a commenter recently asked if I knew anything about the house that used to stand at 3419 Old Capitol Trail, in what's now an empty lot fronted by a beautiful stone retaining wall. I knew of it but not about it, but I did recall something from right near its end.

Back in March 2012, when he was still writing his Lower Red Clay Valley blog, Denis Hehman noticed activity at the property and talked to the owner. He learned that the house was about to be torn down (which it was, two days later!), but was able to get some information as well as a few before and after pictures. I thank Denis greatly for that, because that was the starting point for this investigation. The owner (an older woman) told him that her family moved there when her father was four, and that she herself was born in the house. He didn't mention her name, but this was Miss Eleanor B. Fanning, who sadly passed away in February 2022, on her 88th birthday. The Fannings' story, though, starts long before that.

It begins with Henry Fanning, who brought his family to America from Ireland, probably in the 1850's. I can't find them in the 1850 Census, but by 1860 Henry is working as a weaver in the cotton factory on Red Clay Creek, just below Marshallton. It was operated at the time by fellow Irishman John Wright, but in 1864 would be purchased by the Dean Woolen Company, converted from cotton manufacturing to wool, and renamed as the Kiamensi Woolen Company. Henry died in October 1861 at the age of about 50 of "consumption of the lungs" (tuberculosis), but his son George carried on working in the cotton-then-woolen mill.