The Mill Creek Hundred History Blog

The Robinson-Murray House

2012-02-09T15:50:00.001-05:00

The Robinson-Murray House, 1958

Generally speaking, as far as post subjects are concerned, I usually prefer to move around as much as I can, geographically and topically, to give as much variety as possible. In this case, though, I decided to stick very close to the last post -- for a reason -- and I'm glad I did. I chose to look at the Robinson-Murray House now because of a specific connection to the Lynam (or Springer) Log House (one that had me kind of confused for a while), and because otherwise it might have been quite a while before I would have written about it. In and of itself, the Robinson-Murray House was not particularly significant, except that part of it survived for over 200 years. It (well, almost all of it) was demolished in 1958, but prior to its razing, a Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) report was made on it, preserving a few pictures of the house, and uncovering a bit about its history.

The house sat on the east side of Limestone Road, south of Milltown Road. As best as I can tell, it appears to have been right about where the third house is south of the Mealey Funeral Home. It was built in two phases, about 30 years apart. The oldest section, a two-story, gambrel-roofed log house (later stuccoed), was built in 1741, according to an inscription in the chimney. A two and a half story stone section was built onto the west end sometime between 1768 and 1781. Beside the facts that they were both 18th Century homes and less than a half mile apart, the connection between the Robinson-Murray and Lynam Houses came after their removals, which occurred within a few months of each other. Since fires years ago had damaged portions of the interior of the Lynam House, sections of the wood paneling from the Robinson-Murray House were removed from it and installed in the Lynam House when it was reassembled at the Smithsonian.

This last fact was what had me confused for a little while, mostly because I never read it closely. I had already known about this house, but thought it was the one taken to DC. When I then learned of the Lynam House and found out that it was "The Delaware Log House", I thought there might be two. It didn't help my confusion that the picture of the Lynam House used at the top of that post was actually included in the HABS report for this one. After reading it again, I realized that only the woodwork (seen below) was taken from the Robinson-Murray House, not the whole thing.

Wood paneling taken from the Robinson-Murray House,
while on display at the Smithsonian Institution

Despite the fact that it was torn down over 50 years ago, the early history of the house and property does give a useful and informative insight into the goings-on in colonial-era Mill Creek Hundred. The tract on which the house sat was first patented in 1702 to James Robinson (1667-1726), a member of an obviously well-connected Irish family. (His brother George married the daughter of Valentine Hollingsworth, who owned much of Brandywine Hundred, and George built the first section of what's now Lombardy Hall on Concord Pike.) James' tract covered 921 acres, and stretched from Mill Creek to Calf Run. He soon erected a mill along Mill Creek*, probably just about where the Harlan-Chandler Mill stands now. He also acquired several other properties: one on Bread and Cheese Island southeast of Stanton, and another along Mill Creek further south. From this second tract he donated the ten acres on which St. James' Church was built.

Even before becoming the benefactor for St. James', Robinson served as a warden of Immanuel Church in New Castle, and secularly served in 1716 as a member of the Assembly of New Castle County. In 1691, he had married Englishwoman Catherine Howell, and the couple would have 12 children. Many of these children would end up moving to Virginia, but several did stick around until about mid-century.

It seems that after James' death in 1726, his mill may not have been upkept all that well. There was a flurry of transactions in the 1740's between some of the siblings and a few outsiders. Eight of the children had been granted equal portions of a tract that included the mill property. Their mother, Catherine Robinson, died in 1750, but I don't know if this was related in any way to the real estate transactions and the emigration of several of the children to Virginia -- all within a few years' time. There was an agreement made for two of the sons -- Joseph and John -- to fix up the mill that was by that time in a poor state of repair. By then, it was "commonly known as" Robinson's Mill, but it's not clear if any of James Robinson's children intended to operate his mill themselves, or if they were repairing it for resale. In any case, by the late 1740's the mill property was mostly (if not completely) out of the family.

Interestingly, if the chimney inscription is accurate, it was within this timeframe that the log house across Limestone Road was constructed. By and for whom it was built is anyone's guess. James' 1726 will gives the house in which he was living to his wife. The HABS report lists the next change in ownership (after James' 1702 purchase) of the house property as being 1750, when it went to William and Priscilla (Robinson) Graham. It seems obvious that Priscilla and her husband got the house after the death of her mother that year. That would imply that Catherine had been living in it. If it was built in 1741, perhaps this was a replacement for their original home at the site. Other possibilities are that the house was older, and the chimney was replaced in 1741; or that the house was built by one of the children and their mother moved into it.

Whatever the case, William and Priscilla sold the house within a few years of Catherine's death, which is not surprising considering that they may already have been living in Virginia at the time. It apparently went to a James McAferson (maybe, MacPherson?), who in turn sold it in 1753 to William Johnson. The lot at that time included 71-1/2 acres. There's nothing written specifically about who William Johnson was, but I have what I think is a pretty good guess. There is only one William Johnson in the area at the time who I can find any mention of, and I believe he's also related to another historic site already covered on this blog.

My hypothesis is that this William Johnson is the older brother of Robert Johnson, whose son Joshua built the original section of the Johnson-Morris House. Like them, William is as often listed as "Johnston" as "Johnson". What is deserving of further research is the distinct possibility that he may also be the same person as the William Johnston documented as being a cabinetmaker and joiner in the area at the time. The Winterthur Library has a portion of Johnston's diary, and as this page shows, many of the names referenced are prominent in this part of MCH. We see names like Ball, Crossan, Hersey, McKennan, Montgomery, Robinson, Springer, and Walker. He wasn't living in the house when the diary was written in 1785-86, but he couldn't have moved very far away.

Johnson must have been fairly successful at whatever he was doing, because before selling the property in 1781, he added the stone section that about doubled the size of the house. We know he was the one responsible for this addition, because the deed transfering the property in 1781 to Thomas Montgomery specifically states as much. Montgomery -- who I assume was related to Alexander Montgomery (co-owner of the mill) and William Montgomery (soon to build his house just north of the mill) -- sold it again two years later to a Thomas Wallace. In 1790, the property was siezed from Wallace and sold to Joseph Ball in order to pay Wallace's debts.

Over the next 13 years the property changed hands another 4 or five times, until being purchased in 1803 by James Ball (the Ball family is a tangled web to be straightened out another time, but it seems James was Joseph's son). On the 1849 Rea & Price map, the house is shown by the name J. McNight. This was almost certainly John McKnight, who was the brother of James Ball's wife, Isabella. The Balls lived just north of Milltown, and probably leased the property to McKnight, who died in 1851. In 1862, the property, which had since passed to James and Isabella's son James W. Ball, was sold at auction to satisfy his debts, but it still remained in the family. It was purchased by Samuel D. Newlin, whose wife Hannah was James W. Ball's sister. "S.D. Newlin" is how the house is shown on the 1868 Beers map.

After Samuel's death, the house passed to his son Alonzo, who sold it around 1910 to the Murray family. They would own the house until its razing in 1958, presumably for the construction of the Limestone Gardens housing development behind it. Even though the Robinson-Murray House has been nothing but a memory for more than half a century, its history serves as a convenient gateway into several of the families important to the early history of the area. And thanks to the HABS report about, we have at least a slightly better grasp on what was happening in the Milltown area two and three centuries ago.

*Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

I haven't been able to nail down exactly when Mill Creek first began to be referred to by that name. It was originally called either Fresh or Rum Creek, but obviously got its new name from a mill, or several mills, along it. The references I've seen to Robinson's 1702 patent mention Mill Creek, but I haven't seen the original (or a direct transcription), so I'm not sure what it was called then. If it was still Rum Creek in 1702, perhaps Robinson's mill helped name the creek.
The HABS report notes that in 1768, William Johnson leased two acres from James Guthrie for use as a "starch yard". The only thing I've found about this is that a starch yard is used for drying starch out of some kind of liquified corn. I know starch can be used in glue, so was Johnson the cabinetmaker maybe making his own glue?

The Lynam Log House

2012-02-04T13:37:00.001-05:00

Lynam House at the Smithsonian

As you can plainly see by reading the pages of this blog -- or, if you want to shell out the big bucks, by actually driving around -- there are many historic houses all around Mill Creek Hundred. Probably far more than most people realize. But, did you know there is one historic MCH house not in MCH? For most of forty years*, the Lynam Log House was on display to the world at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, in exhibits about the early years of the country. Its significance to the nation laid in its archetypal form for the era. Its significance for us, in addition to that, lies in its connections to several of the oldest families in the state, as well as a brief but important link to one of the most prominent in the area.

The house that would eventually bear the Lynam name was first occupied by a member of another of the old Swedish families in Delaware, the Springers. In 1762, a tract of land on the west side of Milltown, part of which is now occupied by John Dickinson High School, was bought by Charles Springer (1728-1814), whose grandfather had come to Delaware in 1685*. Charles married Ann Ogle in 1752, and the couple had five children. He was born in Christiana Hundred, but presumably they moved to Milltown in 1762 when he bought the land along Mill Creek. By 1785, at least part of this tract was likely being worked by Charles' youngest son, Thomas Springer (1763-1804), as he appears in tax records for that year.

In 1787, Charles remarried (presumably, Ann had died), to Elizabeth Rice, the widow of prominent landowner and attorney Evan Rice. It seems that Charles may have gone to live in Elizabeth's larger house, because in 1788, Thomas bought several smaller pieces of land adjoining his own. In 1790, Charles sold a portion of his tract (I believe this was the part south of Milltown Road, later to be owned by the Lindells) to a millwright, and two years later sold the remainder to Thomas. In the 1792 deed, it's noted that Thomas was already living on the property.

There is nothing on or in the small 20 foot x 23 foot log house that indicates when it was built, but the prevailing opinion is that it was erected by Thomas Springer, sometime between 1785 and 1792. I suppose it's possible that it was built earlier by Charles, but Thomas is usually credited with its construction. Thomas remained in the house until his death in 1804. He had only two minor daughters, so after his death his belongings (including four slaves) were divided up and much of it was sold. The following year, the property (148 acres) and the house were sold at auction for $4658 to a 32-year old Quaker from Pennsylvania -- David Eastburn.

In most accounts of the history of the Eastburns, David's tenure at Milltown is usually glossed over pretty quickly, as he only spent about ten years (maybe less) here before purchasing a farm adjacent to his brother-in-law near Pike Creek. Almost never (at least that I could find), is it clarified exactly where he settled for that decade. Luckily, local researcher and Eastburn descendant Donna Peters happened to note one throw-away line in a book that mentioned that it was the Thomas Springer property that was, in fact, purchased by David Eastburn. Now we know that before heading over to start his lime-burning business, the Eastburns settled here, in Thomas Springer's house. In fact, going by the dates, it seems that five or six of their fourteen children were probably born here.

1817 newspaper ad for Eastburn's Milltown property

Eventually, though, the Eastburns did move out, sometime around 1815. It seems that for several years, Eastburn retained ownership of the property, renting it out to a tenant farmer. In the book Donna found, it states that after buying the property, "Within a few years, he rented it out to a tenant farmer." This could mean one of two things. It could mean that the Eastburns did only live here a few years, and lived somewhere else between here and Pike Creek. Or, as I think, the "few years" refers to the full decade or so they were in MCH before moving to the Lime Kiln District. In this scenario, they did still leave the farm at least three or four years before they sold it. The above ad from 1817 shows they were attempting to sell it by then.*

Eastburn did finally sell the house and land in 1819, to a man named Francis Denny. Although he owned the property for almost thirty years, I'm unable to find very much about him. I don't even know for sure whether he lived there or not. The only other references I can find, show that he (or someone of the same name) owned the lot on the southwest corner of the crossroads in Stanton. I think it's very possible that he used the Milltown farm as a rental property. Denny died sometime prior to 1847, and in 1848 the little house and its farm were sold again. This time, it would remain in the same family for the next 110 years.

The new owners of the property in 1848 were Robert Thomas Lynam (1822-1888?) and his young wife, Mary Jane (Medill) Lynam (1832-1916). Although the Lynams (like the Springers, members of one of the old Swedish families) may have lived in the old log house for a time after they first bought the farm, they probably didn't live there for long. They soon built (I'm not sure exactly when) a larger home for themselves, and used the older house for their farm laborers. The newer, brick Lynam House still stands on Milltown Road, just west of the entrance to Dickinson High School.

The log house underwent several upgrades over the years, enlarging it from its original one room, one story configuration. Robert Lynam added an upstairs bedroom, as well as a kitchen. Later, his son and grandson would add electricity and plumbing. In addition to enlarging the old log house, Lynam also enlarged his holdings. In the late 1870's, he purchased the property south of Milltown Road, which would later be sold to the Lindells, probably for the use of his older son, Robinson. Interestingly, in doing this, he more or less reformed the original tract of Charles Springer.

Lynam Log House, as it was being disassembled in 1958

The property north of the the road eventually went to Robert's second son, Lewis H. Lynam (1855-1938). Again, Lewis, and later his son, Henry Clifford Lynam used the old house as a tenant property, but it was inhabited up until the land was sold in 1958. That year, H.C. Lynam sold his farm to the Conrad School District for the construction of a new high school. When crews arrived to begin building John Dickinson High School, they found the little old log house. Someone contacted the Smithsonian, and in late 1958 it was dismantled and sent to Washington for use in the museum.

Page from the Feb 1959 issue of the Conrad HS newsletter

There is never any mention made of the exact location of the log house, but I believe I have a pretty good guess. Maps, going back to 1849, show what is presumably this house as being right along Milltown Road. The aerial view below shows the area in 1937. The brick Lynam House can be seen just above the words "Montclaire Dr". I think the old log house is located just up the road from that, near the clump of trees above the "Rd" of Milltown Rd. Today, this spot has a row of trees located between the road and the Dickinson tennis courts. Specifically, it sits just about across from the long driveway that comes up on the other side, just before you get to the school driveway (if you're coming from Limestone Road).

Aerial view, 1937

All in all, the Lynam Log House is really not very different from the hundreds of other similar houses built over the years in Mill Creek Hundred. But then again, that was the reason it was taken by the Smithsonian. It was not significant or unique architecturally, nor was it associated with a significant person (with the local exception of the Eastburns). What was somewhat unique about it was that it survived until the mid 20th Century. A far more common fate would have been for it to have been torn down, or possibly built onto, sometime in the first half of the 19th Century. Very few of the many houses used by farm tenants in the 1800's survived, as they were normally the smaller, older houses on their property. When there were no more tenants, they were usually demolished (if they didn't fall down by themselves). In this house, we at least get a glimpse of the kind of construction once commonplace across MCH.

*Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

As best as I can tell, the house first went on display in 1964, then was used as a centerpiece in another exhibit than ran from 1985 until 2002. I'm not sure what happened to it then, but I think it was taken out of public display then.
Charles Springer's grandfather, also Charles, has his own interesting story. A Swede, he was visiting London in 1678 when he was kidnapped and shipped to America. He landed in Virginia, where he was sold, apparently as an indentured servant. After serving his seven years there, he moved to Wilmington, where he had heard there was a Swedish community. Here, he became an important part of the that community, among other things being one of the founders of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church.
Thomas Springer was apparently good friends with Joshua Johnson, who was named as the guardian for his daughters in his will. Thomas' first wife, Elizabeth, died in 1801, and he remarried to 22-year old Margaret Wells. I assume this explains why Johnson was named guardian.
For those interested in a more in-depth look into the life of Thomas Springer, here is a page with links to the inventory of his property taken in 1804. You can see the original document, as well as a transcription that may be a bit easier to read.
The 1817 Eastburn real estate ad also mentions a 20 acre plot along Newport-Gap Pike near "the yellow springs". That would be what would be called about ten years later, Brandywine Springs. I don't know what piece of land this is. The Madison Factory listed in the ad, by the way, is the Greenbank Mill, which John Phillips owned and operated at the time.
I had known a little about this house for a while, but had never looked closely into it until I was sent some more information, mostly about the Springers, by Donna Peters and Rich Morrison. Thank you to both of you for filling in a lot of the blanks.

Randolph Peters and His Nurseries

2012-01-31T12:00:00.000-05:00

Possibly Randolph Peters' House

There has always been something on the 1868 Beers map that intrigued me, but about which I had never found any information (although that could be due, in large part, to the fact that I never really tried all that hard). Down in the very lower, left-hand corner, just north of White Clay Creek and between the Roseville and Curtis Mills, is something that says "Fruitland Nursery". I had tried in the past to look up the Fruitland Nursery, but with little (OK, no) success. It wasn't until I attacked it from a different angle that I learned what this was, and found that it was only a part of a larger operation that extended far beyond the borders of Mill Creek Hundred.

I had actually intended to do a post about the house seen above, which is located on the south side of Old Paper Mill Road, about a half mile east of Paper Mill Road. Old Paper Mill Road once connected all the way over to Possum Park Road, right where Old Possum Park Road now joins up with the rerouted road. Although this house certainly dates to at least the early 1800's, I wasn't able to find much about it in a quick search -- at least not before I was sidetracked into a different direction. Once I looked through the census and discovered who the "R. Peters" was who was listed below the Fruitland Nursery, it all fell into place.

The name on the map was Randolph Peters (1822-1885), who was born in Pennsylvania, but moved from New Jersey to the Newark area in 1857. He, along with his wife, Sarah, and four children, settled on a farm east of the Curtis Paper Mill and began the cultivation of fruit. It's not clear which house they lived in, although the one above was certainly there at the time and appears to be the only one close that's included on both the 1849 and 1868 maps. By 1868, there are three houses listed for Randolph, and one for his son William. (Presumably, two, or probably by that time, all three of Randolph's, were used by workers in the orchards.) By this time, though, Peters had greatly expanded his business operation.

After only four apparently peachy years (sorry) of growing fruit trees (specializing in pear and peach trees), Randolph Peters bought another property a couple miles south of Wilmington, where in 1861 he established the Great Northern and Southern Garden and Nursery. I'm not quite as familiar with the area over there in New Castle Hundred, but as best as I can tell, Peters' nursery was in Minquadale, about where Gracelawn Cemetery is now. He moved his family over there after buying the property, and the Minquadale location seems to be his primary location after that.

However, he did retain possession of the MCH orchards, and these ads from 1867 all list Newark as his address. In this article, it's stated that Peters had ten thousand pear trees growing on the slope of the hill -- a hill that likely included all of what is today the community of Nonantum Mills as well as the Newark Reservoir. Since I can't seem to find any other references to "Fruitland Nursery", it's not clear whether this was the original name of Peters' business, or if this was a name given after the Great Northern and Southern was founded. Whatever it was, it seems to have been highly regarded and produced very high quality trees. On this page you can find a farmer in California bragging about selling peach trees from "the celebrated nursery of Randolph Peters, of Delaware."

Peters continued to grow his business until his death in 1885. After that, his family held on to the nursery for a few years, but by the late 1890's the New Castle Hundred property had been sold to a man named Paul Gillis. As to the MCH property, the 1893 map shows the house on the south side of the road as belonging to what looks like L. McCormack. The property north of the road appears to say "Estate S.C. Peters". Presumably this means Randolph's widow Sarah A. C. Peters, and the estate must refer to him, since she was very much alive. In 1900, Sarah was living in Cheswold, Kent County with her youngest daughter Georgie and son-in-law Joseph Smith.

The only other mentions I can find to this property are several like this one, which notes that the estate was used by the University of Delaware in the late 1880's and early 1890's for experiments in different crop treatments. Oddly, these list it as belonging to the Randolph Peters Nursery Company, but these are the only references to that business name I could find. One report specifically states that it has, "one of the oldest, largest, and best pear orchards in the state." Interesting to know that such an orchard once sat right outside of Newark, in the far corner of Mill Creek Hundred.

Joshua T. Heald

2012-01-27T08:54:00.001-05:00

Joshua T. Heald

It is, admittedly, true that Mill Creek Hundred does not boast much in the way of sons or daughters who have made a lasting or visible impact on the national or global level. However, if we step down a notch to the state/local level, we do find some residents who did make significant impacts on the development of the region. One such MCH native was a 19th Century businessman, son of an 18th Century farmer, but with a decidedly 20th Century vision. His name was Joshua T. Heald (1821-1887), and of him Scharf said, "...it is probably not an exaggeration to say that he did more to enhance the interests of Wilmington than any other one man."

When he was born in northern MCH, it seemed he was destined to live as a farmer like his father and most of his neighbors. However, an unfortunate accident for him turned out to be a stroke of good luck for the city of Wilmington and the surrounding area, including his home region. Heald would instead turn his attention to the business world, and in the process he would help the region transition into the new, modern world. His vision was one that would benefit everyone, from the most powerful industrialists to the lowliest immigrants. He also quite literally changed the map of Wilmington and beyond.

Joshua Taylor Heald was born on May 26, 1821 to Joseph and Hannah (Mendenhall) Heald. Joseph and Hannah originally hailed from Chester County, but moved to MCH in about 1805. They had ten or eleven children, the youngest being Joshua. Young Joshua grew up in a stone house (still standing) just east of Benge Road, north of Old Public Road. He never knew his father, who died just shy of Joshua's first birthday, and the boy probably attended the Friends school just down the road. His life took a fateful turn when he was about 12 or 13, when he was accidentally cut by a knife while cutting Indian corn, and lamed for life. Now, with a life of farmwork no longer an option, Joshua turned toward education.

Joshua Heald's boyhood home

He moved away from the family homestead and attended several schools in Pennsylvania, even teaching briefly in one before moving to Wilmington in 1838 at the age of 17. He began working as a bookkeeper for the manufacturing firm of Betts, Pusey, and Harlan (soon after to become Harlan and Hollingsworth), where he quickly impressed with his hard work and business acumen. After only five years, he left to join Edwin A. Wilson in the book and stationary business, forming Wilson & Heald. He would soon be running the business on his own, and under his own name, and would become one of the leading booksellers and binders in the city.

While working his first job, it seems that Samuel Pusey (of Betts, Pusey and Harlan) was not the only member of that family he impressed. In 1844, Joshua married Hannah Pusey, who I believe was Samuel's niece. They moved in with her father Jonas Pusey, an attorney, and started a family that would eventually number eight children, two of whom died in infancy. With a family and a thriving business, Joshua's thoughts soon turned to other, grander business ventures. Sometime around 1850, Joshua T. Heald turned his attention to two very related fields: transportation and real estate. His success in these areas would make him one of the most powerful and influential men in the city.

The 1850's saw Heald start to build his fortune, power, and influence through his real estate and banking transactions. By 1859 his standing was such that he was named one of the directors of the newly-formed Mechanics Bank. That same year, he also became the first president of the Wilmington Institute -- the organization that still operates the free library on Rodney Square. It wasn't until five years later, however, that Heald would commence the undertakings that would have the greatest impact on his adopted city. They were a near-perfect synchronicity of transportation and real estate.

In early 1864, the state legislature approved the charter of the Wilmington City Railway Company, and Joshua T. Heald was elected its first president. It was his vision that powered the construction of the first trolley line in Wilmington (although it was horses that powered the actual trolleys). The first horse-drawn cars began service in June 1864, on the line that ran from the train station (different station, but in the same place as today's), along Front St, up Market St, then west along 10th St and Delaware Avenue to the new car barns and office on the north side of Delaware Avenue between Clayton and DuPont Sts (where the Trolley Square Shopping Center is now).

One of the reasons (if not the main reason) why Heald's trolley line ran out in this direction stemmed from a move several years earlier when the city of Wilmington expanded its limits westward to Union Street. Although much of this area was still farmland, J.T. Heald the entrepreneur saw its potential. About the same time that the trolley line was being laid, Heald purchased a plot of land along Delaware Avenue (and the trolley line) with the intention of developing it for residential use. This plot, 40 acres in size, would come to be know as the neighborhood of Forty Acres.

Although his new development was technically within the city, it really was suburban living that Heald was trying to promote to his working-class clientele. Since the trolley line had been extended out to Rising Sun Lane, giving it easy access to the DuPont powder mills on the Brandywine, many of the new residents were Irish immigrants working for the DuPonts. Still today, Forty Acres has a distinctly Irish feel. Through Heald's work, many working-class families were able to move out of "the city", and into what really could be thought of as the first trolley suburb in Delaware, and probably one of the first in the nation.

And what about the area that generally is considered to be Wilmington's first trolley suburb -- Elsmere? That was Joshua Heald's work, too. In 1886, just before he died, Heald began developing the area west of the city, near the B&O's Elsmere Junction. Just as with Forty Acres, the developer urged people to move out of the crowded, dirty city and into the suburbs. It would actually be another 10 years, though, before trolley service would come to Elsmere.

Another effect of Heald's Delaware Avenue trolley line was that it made that street into a showcase. Still today, when you drive along Delaware Avenue, you can see many of the homes of late 19th Century Wilmington's most influential people, including Joshua T. Heald. His house, seen below in an 1873 etching (with trolley tracks visible) and today, is on the corner of Delaware Avenue and Broome Street. By the 1880's, Delaware Avenue had become a showplace for the homes of the powerful, while just a bit further along their workers could afford their own homes, all thanks to Heald's vision.

It wasn't just to the north and west that he envisioned the expansion of the city, though. Heald also served as the president of the Christiana River Improvement Company, an organization that lobbied for the development of the area to the south and east of the city. Although the city never really stretched all the way to the Delaware as some thought it would, their work did lead to much of the industrial development along the Christina and in South Wilmington in the late 1800's.

For all the work he did improving the city of Wilmington, Heald did have one more venture that greatly benefited his home area of MCH. As early as the the early 1860's, businessmen were looking for another route along which to build a railroad into Wilmington. Although the Civil War pushed the project back, by the late 1860's it was back on again. Eventually, a route along the Red Clay Creek was agreed upon, and funding was sought for the new line. The man in charge of securing the funding for the new Wilmington and Western Railroad was Joshua T. Heald. He turned the first shovel of dirt near the Fell Spice Mill in 1871 when work began on the line, and Heald was named as the first president of the railroad.

Unfortunately, when the railroad suffered almost immediate financial difficulty due to a nationwide economic crisis, Heald lost much of his personal fortune, which he had invested into the line. This didn't stop him, though, and he soon formed the banking and real estate finance firm of Heald and Company, which he ran until his death. Joshua Taylor Heald passed away on July 22, 1887, at the age of 66, of typhoid fever.

From his humble beginnings in the hills above Hockessin, Heald went on to become one of the most influential and respected men in Wilmington, and in the state. His vision and civic-mindedness helped him become possibly the most important figure in the late 19th Century growth of the city and the county.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

The Mechanics Bank that Heald was a Director of in 1859 closed after only a few years. To take its place, the First National Bank of Wilmington was formed in 1864, with Heald named a Director of that as well.
Another proof of Heald's position in the city: when President Grant visited the city in 1873, just before being inaugurated for his second term, his reception was hosted by Heald at his home.
In 1870, Heald was nominated on the Republican ticket to run for the US House of Representatives, but lost in a close race.
After being involved in its first incarnation, Heald helped to reorganize the Wilmington Board of Trade in 1868, after it had been idle for a number of years. The Board eventually became the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.

The Walkers of Little Baltimore

2012-01-20T14:36:00.005-05:00

I always like it when one historical investigation leads me naturally into another one, rather than having to look around and decide what to dive into next. While trying to figure out the later history of the Aaron Klair House, I found that it had passed into the Walker family. These Walkers were the same ones that owned the Mermaid Tavern at the time, and had several properties in the immediate vicinity. I also noticed that there were Walkers farther north, between Corner Ketch and Hockessin, and I assumed that they were all related. I soon realized that this was not the case. Then, in researching this northerly family of Walkers, I found that there were several old houses related to them still standing up in that region. I also came across the explanation and origin for the odd-sounding road they're on, which took its name from an old name for the area.

The Walkers we'll be focusing on here trace their lineage back to Alexander Walker, who married Mary McIntire in 1770. The McIntires (or McIntyres) were prominent landowners just across the state line in New Garden Township, Chester County. Alexander and Mary had three sons: Andrew, John, and Alexander. When the boys were young, sometime before 1780, their father died; Mary moved back into her family's home, but soon remarried to Thomas Moore. Moore purchased three farms from the estate of Samuel Young, who had died in 1781. All three properties were along the road that ran westward from Limestone Road to New Garden, PA -- two on the north side and one on the south side.

Sometime not long after 1800, presumably as the boys were coming of age, Thomas Moore sold the farms to two of his step-sons, John and Andrew Walker (I thought I saw that Alexander moved away, but I can't confirm that now). John Walker (1773-1860) purchased the two western-most farms, one north of the road and one south. The eastern property went to Andrew. Since there were already Walkers established nearby at Mermaid, the locals needed a way to distinguish the new Walkers from the old ones (they apparently were not related). Although their father Alexander came from Chester County, it seems that either he or his father had lived for a time in Baltimore. Therefore, John and Andrew became "The Baltimore Walkers". Consequently, the area around their farms came to be called "Little Baltimore". The road going through it, of course, acquired the name of Little Baltimore Road.

John and Andrew Walker's farms in Little Baltimore, 1849

There are two historic Walker homes still standing in Little Baltimore, although to be honest, I'm not sure exactly how old either of them is. One of them is the brick house pictured at the top of the post, which sits on the eastern farm owned by Andrew Walker (1780-1866). Andrew originally worked as a carpenter, before settling down on his farm. He married Esther Crawford, daughter of Robert Crawford (probably the same man who owned the Bartley-Tweed Farm at the time), and according to Runks built a barn and a large brick house. It's quite possible that the house that stands there today is the one that Andrew built, albeit possibly with a few later changes.

After Andrew's death (probably in 1866), the farm went to his youngest son, Robert. Robert Walker (1813-1896) grew up on his father's farm, then moved out for a time to work on his own farm. Judging from the old maps, Robert's farm may have been located east of Polly Drummond Hill Road, where the development of Deacon's Walk is now. Robert married Sarah Whiteman (1828-1855), daughter of Jacob Whiteman, and this farm is later owned by Charles Whiteman, who may have been Sarah's brother. Eventually Robert moved back to Little Baltimore and took over his father's farm. Robert and Sarah had two boys: Alfred W. who married Mansell Tweed's daughter Louise and moved to Wilmington, and Henry C. who had become a doctor and lived in Philadelphia.

Upon Robert's death in 1896, Henry moved back to MCH and took over the house and farm. According to Francis Cooch in 1932, the farm was owned at that time by Clarence Jester. I do believe the house may date to Andrew's tenure in the early 1800's, but the barn that stands nearby is almost certainly a 20th Century addition. However, there do appear to be remains of the foundation next to it, likely the original barn.

A few hundred yard west of the Andrew Walker House is a simple, three bay frame house, the last remnant of one of his brother's farms. Again, I'm unsure of the age of the house, but it's certainly 19th Century. Here, too, there are stone foundations that were likely the base of John Walker's barn. This house could be John's, or it could have been built later by his son. Cooch, however, writing in the 1930's, seems to speak as if these are the original houses. John Walker (1773-1860), like his brother, was not initially a farmer. He trained as a carpenter, but also worked as a shopkeeper. Runks states that he ran a store at Ewart's Corner in Chester County (no idea where that is), and later in Little Baltimore. I've also seen mention that he may also have had one near Hockessin. Eventually, though, he settled on his property here. He was married twice, first to Elizabeth Ewart, then to Edith Sharpless. Unusually for the time, it does seem he and Elizabeth were divorced.

With his second wife, John had five children, two of whom would eventually occupy his farms. John's farm on the north side of the road, with the house shown above, was taken over by William Hicks Walker (1828-1913). This property actually extended into Chester County, PA, and also included a house in its northwestern part. After the DE-PA state line was resurveyed in 1892, I believe this house ended up being located in Pennsylvania. I don't think it's survived, and the portion of Doe Run Road that used to extend up to it north of Little Baltimore Road is long gone. I don't know if there were other owners after William, but in 1932 this farm was owned by Mahlon P. Lee.

The last of the three Walker farms is the only one not to have a Walker-era house on it. This is the other of John's farms, located on the south side of Little Baltimore Road. John's son Thomas Moore Walker (1822-1906) took possesion of this farm after his 1847 marriage to Mary A. McCabe (1819-1895). Mary was the daughter of Dr. Robert McCabe, a prominent local physician who lived a short distance east, between Limestone Road and the Mitchell's Woodside Farm. (The McCabe House is still there, although it appears to have been heavily altered by later owners.) Thomas and Mary had seven children. Two of their sons, John M. and Thomas H., operated a kaolin clay mining company, the Walker Bros. Kaolin Company. I don't know if they did any of their mining on their own property, but they did lease other properties on which to mine, too.

Perhaps the most locally-notable child of Thomas and Mary was their oldest (in every sense), Francis M. Walker (1848-1950). Francis grew up on his father's farm, and later recalled seeing soldiers marching up Limestone Road in the summer of 1863. A few days later, he heard the rumbling of cannonfire from the Battle of Gettysburg. He studied law, and became a prominent lawyer in Wilmington. He continued to live in the Hockessin area his whole life, commuting by train to his office from 1872 to 1931. In fact, he was the only person to ride both the first Wilmington & Western train in 1872, and the last passenger train on the line in 1931. Here is a newspaper article on the occasion of his 101st birthday. He passed away in September of the following year, just shy of 102.

The original Thomas. M Walker House that Francis grew up in burned down around 1912 while owned by Roland Thompson, and was replaced with a new house. That house, owned in 1932 by Frank E. Hitchens, is no longer standing either, but it would have stood on the south side of Little Baltimore Road, between the Andrew and John Walker Houses. Taken together, these three homes and their owners gave the area its unlikely name of Little Baltimore, a moniker I'm sure still confuses people today.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

Information on the McIntires is a bit thin, but Mary is certainly related to the McIntires who purchased the Simon Hadley estate adjoining this area. What exactly her relationship was I have not yet determined.
William H. Walker was married to Anna P. Shortlidge (1834-1869), sister of Evan G. Shortlidge. Evan was a doctor in Wilmington, served a term as mayor, and was an important advocate for the public schools there. Shortlidge Elementary (now the Shortlidge Academy) was named for him.
The Walkers were always involved in their community. John Walker and his nephew Robert each served terms on the New Castle County Levy Court. Thomas was a school commisioner, presumably for the nearby District 30 North Star School.

Aaron F. Klair and Family

2012-01-09T11:28:00.000-05:00

The Aaron Klair House

In the last post, we took a look at Prohibition Era Delaware, and Delaware's own heatedly contentious anti-liquor statute, the Klair Law. While all that was interesting in its own right (although possibly only to me), besides the fact that the law did apply to Mill Creek Hundred, the main connection to our area was the name of the law and its legislative sponsor, Aaron F. Klair. In this post, we'll turn our attention to Rep. Klair and his family, which I believe has been under-represented so far in this blog. Aaron Klair was a life-long resident of MCH, and his family has a rich history here dating back two full centuries. Also, on a personal note, I happen to have a couple of personal connections to the family, which I'll throw in at the end. And to top it all off, I came across a historic house that I imagine few people are aware of.

The Klair family story in MCH began in 1810, when farmer Frederick Klair (1771-1857) moved down from Pennsylvania and purchased a farm along Limestone Road. As outlined in the post about the McKennan-Klair House, Frederick Klair would reside in the house for the rest of his life, doubling its size in 1818 with a stone addition. Frederick and his wife, Hannah (Supplee) Klair (1772-1829), had eight children, but the one we'll focus on now is their third child (and second son), Aaron. He would be the grandfather of our prohibitionist legislator, Aaron Francis Klair.

Aaron Klair (1802-1874) was born in Pennsylvania, and moved to MCH with his family at the age of seven or eight. He grew up in the McKennan-Klair House, and in 1824 married Hannah Stidham, a descendant of Dr. Timen Stiddem, one of the original Swedish colonists who arrived on the Kalmar Nyckel in 1638. Aaron and Hannah probably moved out on their own soon after being married. Knowing where they would end up, I was expecting to find them in the 1830 census in the house shown above. However, after searching the census, I found Aaron listed directly between James Buckingham and Jacob Derrickson. At that time, Buckingham operated the old Hersey grist mill (later site of the Marshall Iron Mill), and Derrickson lived on Stanton Road near Kiamensi Road. This was at a time when the Springer-Cranston House was "between owners", so it's unclear who, if anyone, lived there. Either way, it looks like Aaron and family lived in the Marshallton area, before it was Marshallton.

Frustratingly, Aaron does not appear in the 1840 census (at least not in MCH), but he reappears on the 1849 Rea and Price Map. By that point, he and his family were living on the east side of Pike Creek, a bit southwest of the Mermaid Tavern. His house is still standing on what was, until recently, Three Little Bakers (Pike Creek) Golf Course. I had a chance recently to go over and take a look at it, and it appears to be in decent shape. It's a four bay, fieldstone house, with what looks like two doors on the front. (I assume the front to be the side shown above, which faces out towards Pike Creek and Pike Creek Road.) I was hoping to find a datestone on it somewhere, but no such luck. From its style, though, it certainly dates to at least the first half of the 19th Century. Whether Aaron built it in the 1830's or 40's, or whether it was built earlier by someone else, I'm not sure.

By 1849, Aaron and Hannah had seven children at home (three others had died in infancy), the eldest being Egbert. Egbert Klair (1826-1915) was probably born either at his grandfather's home on Limestone Road, or possibly at the house in Not-Yet-Marshallton. When Frederick Klair passed away in 1857, he left the McKennan-Klair House to Aaron, who moved in to it then. Aaron, in turn, left his home to Egbert, who in 1859 married Elizabeth Cranston (1832-1907), daughter of Joseph Cranston. Egbert and Elizabeth (who apparently had a thing for vowels), had five children in their home overlooking Pike Creek: Evalina, Aaron, Adeline, Ella, and Evan. Aaron was, of course, the future author of the despised Klair Law.

Presumably the rear of Aaron Klair's house

Egbert continued to farm the land around his house until sometime in the 1870's, when the family moved to the Stanton area. I don't know this for a fact yet (I can't find any solid information on it), but I believe Egbert and Elizabeth may have moved in about 1872, because that's when her father died. I think they moved into her father's large white home on Limestone Road just north of Stanton. This house, the Cranston-Klair House, stood until about 2001 when it was torn down for the Commerce bank (now TD Bank). If this is correct, then this is where Aaron F. Klair grew up.

The Cranston-Klair House, soon before demolition

On the topic of Aaron F. Klair's formative years, it's interesting to note that the Cranstons were Friends, and several members of the family are specifically mentioned as being active in the temperance movement. Perhaps this is where Rep. Klair's views on drink originated. After coming of age, Aaron married Annie Armor in 1889. The couple had two children, Sarah Edith and Norman. By 1900 Aaron was farming his own land, somewhere just west of Stanton, I believe. (I find the later the census, the harder it is to figure out exactly where anyone is.) In 1910, he appears to be living just south of the Cedars, although it's possible that the census list is jumbled at that point.

In both the 1920 and 1930 censuses, Aaron (or Frank, as he is on the 1930), is listed on Lincoln Highway in Marshallton. Since to the best of my knowledge this would be what we'd call Old Capitol Trail, it appears he may have lived somewhere on OCT west of Marshallton. Both of his children lived next to him. Edith had married Kemper B. Pierson, and Norman wed Helen Pryor. Although his name stirred debate for over a decade, Aaron served only one two-year term in the state House (1919-1921). His cousin Irvin G. Klair served two sessions later, as did several other relatives at other times. Aaron finally passed away in 1939, at the age of 76, and was buried with many of his family members at Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church. Since he doesn't show up in any of the newpaper pieces I read, we can only guess at what his opinion of his legacy was.

Personal Side Note: I happened to grow up in Klair Estates, which was part of the property associated with the Cranston-Klair House. The house eventually went to Evan Klair, Aaron F.'s brother. While my wife and I were dating, we found out that in the 1930's, her grandfather came to the area from Maryland and befriended Evan's son, Howard "Pete" Klair. He actually worked for a time on the farm that included the land I would later be raised on. Pete Klair later built for himself the brick house on OCT at Farrand Drive, where for a time, I delivered newspapers to. I always remember him as a very nice old man.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

Sadly, Frederick and Hannah Klair's eighth child, Hiram, died in infancy. The other seven, though, as a whole, were remarkably long-lived. Aaron had the shortest lifespan, at 72, while Jesse, the eldest died at 78. The other five all lived to be 90 or more, with George topping out at an even 100.
That Klair blood was pretty strong, because several of Aaron's children lived to an old age, too. Three of his sons lived to be 83 or older, and daughter Emily beat them all, living to the ripe old age of 98.
In another instance of those odd family relationships, Aaron Klair's brother Jesse married Hannah Stidham's sister Ann.
Mostly due to not really having the time for it, I haven't gotten much into active historic preservation activism yet. However, the Aaron Klair House seems like it would be a good one to keep an eye on. It seems to be (at least from the outside) in decent structural shape. If anyone knows if there are any plans for it, I'd love to know about it.
The "barn" next to the Aaron Klair House is a mid 20th Century structure (I figured that out from the "1950" inscription. Brilliant, huh?) Most of it is metal and concrete, except for the foundation of one section of a raised patio-like area. This foundation is clearly much older, being made of fieldstone similar to the house. My assumption is that it's the remains of the foundation of Aaron Klair's barn.
Presumably, Annie Armor is somehow related to Howard Armor, who married Aaron F.'s cousin Bertha Klair. Bertha was Jonas Klair's daughter, and a cousin of Aaron F.'s. Jonas had inherited the McKennan-Klair House, which eventually passed to Bertha's son Merritt K. Armor.
In another interesting area Prohibition connection, the Federal Prohibition Director for the State of Delaware was W. Truxton Boyce. Boyce resided in the Hale-Byrnes House south of Stanton. Boyce didn't have to worry about the Klair Law, though, as he was tasked with enforcing only federal Prohibition laws. In a few of the newspaper articles I read, Boyce almost seemed to be irked at the further-reaching state law.

The Klair Law

2012-01-04T16:16:00.001-05:00

Rolling advertisement for Prohibition Repeal, Wilmington 1930

New Years has just passed, which always brings to mind two things (OK, it may mean other things to other people, but I'm picking these two): alcohol and new laws. If you're thinking historically, the convergence of intoxicating beverages and legislation can mean only one thing -- Prohibition. But the Eighteenth Amendment (which prohibited the production, sale and transport of "intoxicating liquors") and the Volstead Act (which filled in the details as to what was and was not allowed, and provided penalties for violating it) were really the culmination of the Dry Movement (about as fun as it sounds), not the beginning. Anti-alcohol forces had been hard at work since at least the beginnings of the Temperance Movement in the late 1700's, to varying degrees of success.

The two major pieces of national legislation that went into effect in 1920 were by no means the only such laws on the books in the US. Many jurisdictions enacted Dry Laws prior to National Prohibition, and some of these laws went further than did the federal ones. Here in Delaware, pioneers that we are, we had both. At the time, the state was divided into four "local option units", which seems to mean regions that can have laws pertaining to them (I'm not a lawyer) -- the three counties and Wilmington. In 1907, Kent and Sussex Counties voted to go "no-license", which meant that saloons would no longer be permitted to sell alcohol (I think that meant that no one could get a license to sell, but I'm not sure if it affected possession). After defeating the measure several times, New Castle County finally followed suit in 1917, leaving Wilmington as the only wet area in the state.

In addition to the no-license mandates, Delaware had two statewide laws that went into effect before National Prohibition did, and went beyond the federal statutes -- the "Loose Law" and the "Klair Law". (The Klair Law may have technically been an amendment to the Loose law, but it was usually treated as a separate law.) The Loose law dealt mainly with the transport of liquor, and seems to have stayed more of less within the boundaries (or at least the spirit, no pun intended) of the Volstead Act. The Klair Law, however, was a different story. It seems to have been one of the most controversial, most discussed and most disliked laws of the Prohibition Era in Delaware. And it was introduced by, and named for, a Mill Creek Hundred resident -- Aaron F. Klair.

The Klair Law (we'll eventually get to its namesake), which went into effect March 21, 1919, not only beat the Volstead Act to the (non-spiked) punch, it also went further than did the National Prohibition Law. There seems to have been two major aspects of the Klair Law's draconian reach that inspired the most ire. First, under the Volstead Act, it was not actually illegal to possess alcohol -- it was only illegal to manufacture, transport, or sell it. This led to fights elsewhere over the legality of "Private Stock" -- stores of liquor that people had bought legally before Prohibition, then stored away. Not so in Delaware. Here, the Klair Law made it illegal for anyone to possess more than one quart of intoxicating liquor.

In addition to the one quart limit, there was one other piece of the Klair Law that in many people's opinion went too far -- the prohibition on medicinal use. The Volstead Act provided for several exceptions to the alcohol ban, including the use of alcohol in manufacturing, for religious sacramental use, and for medicinal use. At the time, it was still common for doctors to prescribe liquor for a variety of ailments. The Klair Law removed the medicinal exception, making it illegal for even doctors to dispense alcohol for therapeutic purposes. Many saw this ban as being dangerous, and endangering lives.

While Prohibition in general faced opposition throughout its 13 year reign, in Delaware, the Klair Law in particular was the target of almost constant, passionate attacks. Almost immediately after its enactment, groups began lobbying for its repeal. Eventually, groups like this one banded together to make coordinated attempts at repealing the dry laws. If you look closely at the ad run by the Delaware Division of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, you'll notice their headquarters are located in the DuPont Building. This is no coincidence, since the most powerful and outspoken opponent of the Klair Law was none other than Pierre S. DuPont. In fact, in 1930, DuPont went so far as to send out a questionnaire to every adult in the state, about 112,000 of them, asking whether they supported the law or not.

The Klair Law was finally repealed in January 1933 to the delight of almost all, except for those like the Anti-Saloon League, whose president literally wrote the Volstead Act. In December 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th, officially ending Prohibition in the US. For 13 years, though, the name "Klair" was on everybody's lips, mostly because it helped keep off of their lips what they really wanted -- a legal alcoholic drink. In the next post, we'll take a quick look at the man whose name was given to the hated law, Aaron Francis Klair. If nothing else, it'll be a good excuse to spotlight an important local family which has been almost absent from this site.

The Bartley-Tweed Farm

2011-12-27T16:16:00.001-05:00

Bartley-Tweed House

Tucked away on a bend on what I always thought of as a "cut-through" road (on the back way to Newark), sits a brick house with a few surprises, and an interesting story. The house, which turns out to be quite a bit older than I thought it was, is flanked by a somewhat newer (but still historic) carriage house/granary. And until recently a barn stood across (and unnervingly close to) the road from the house, all making up what is known as the Bartley-Tweed Farm.

The house sits on the north side of Fox Den Road, a few hundred yards west of Polly Drummond Hill Road (across from the Polly Drummond Shopping Center and McGlynn's). From the construction of the earliest remaining part until the late 19th Century, the property was owned by at least 5 different families. Unfortunately, not much is known about most of the owners except for one, and he's more closely connected with another site -- even though he owned this one for almost thirty years. The property itself is notable for two reasons: 1) it was the site of several undertakings not common elsewhere in the area, and 2) in several instances some of the construction here was a bit ahead of its time.

The oldest part of the Bartley-Tweed House is the smaller section on the west, or left, end. Although it's covered on two sides by stucco and one side by brick, this original house is actually made of stone. The exact construction date is unknown, but it was definitely built sometime prior to 1798, when it first appears in the historical record. According to its short write-up for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) (it was included in the "Agricultural Buildings and Complexes in Mill Creek Hundred, 1800-1840" submission), the house's first mention was in the 1798 tax assessment, where it was listed as part of "the John Bartley estate". From this wording, I assume both that John Bartley built the house, and that he had recently died. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find any more information about Bartley, who must have been fairly well-off for the area and time. The assessment also lists a log barn and a log house (which may have either been an older family home or a tenant house), but the main house was stone, at a time when there were very few stone houses around.

If, in fact, John Bartley did die around 1798, it appears his property was purchased next by a man I believe may have been a neighbor -- Robert Crawford, Jr. It is under Crawford's ownership that we first have proof of industry on the property. Although there doesn't seem to be any mention of it, it's possible that there may have been a mill earlier, during Bartley's tenure. However, the 1809 ad below clearly shows that by that time, Robert Crawford had a tanyard, bark mill, and saw mill in operation. The ad also states that Crawford lived "near the premises", which may have meant that he lived on a neighboring farm, or it might have meant that the things listed were near this house, which he lived in. Note that the ad does not make mention of a house for rent.

Of the four (or more likely, three) things mentioned in the ad, the farm and the saw mill are pretty straightforward (the mill was probably a combined saw and bark mill). The other two -- the tanyard and the bark mill -- are things we've not yet mentioned in this blog. Those familiar with Wilmington history know that the tanning (or leathermaking) industry was an important one there in the later 19th and early 20th Centuries. Prior to the rise of the large, urban tanneries in the later 1800's, most leathermaking was done in small, rural tanyards like this one. The bark mill was part of the same process. The "good black and Spanish oak bark" mentioned in the ad was harvested and ground in the mill. The ground bark was then used to make the liquid mixture in which the hides were tanned (by tannin, an acidic substance in the bark) to make leather.

It's not clear if Crawford ever ran the tannery and mills himself, or whether he only leased them. The idea that he did live in the house, however, is strengthened by what he did around 1825 -- he greatly enlarged the house. The old 18 x 18 foot stone house was joined then by a much larger brick wing, which now towers over the older section and makes it look as if it were the addition. To help them have a more uniform look, the old house was given a brick facade to match the new three-bay, centered door section. (A little bit more info about the house, but not much more, can be found in the NRHP report.) Whether Robert Crawford operated the tanyard and mill, or just ran the farm, I find it unlikely that he would have put as much effort into enlarging the house as he did if he didn't live in it himself.

The Bartley-Tweed House, 1986

It's interesting to note a couple things about the sections of the house, while we're at it. I mentioned at the top of the post that the house was ahead of its time in a few respects. First, the stone house, although small and only a one room design, was built of that material in the 18th Century. Most of the stone houses still standing were built several decades later, during the rebuilding phase in the hundred during the 1800-1830 period. Secondly, the idea of enlarging a home by adding a newer section and keeping the older part was much more prevalent during the second half of the 19th Century. When Crawford did his remodeling in 1825, the usual procedure was to tear down the old home and rebuild a new one, which explains why we see lots of early 19th Century houses around, but not many 18th Century ones.

Across the road from the house stood, until just a couple of years ago, a frame barn with a stone foundation. The barn, built about 1835, also represents changing times in the area. The NRHP report has more about the construction of the barn, but the gist of it is that the barn is kind of a transitional structure, having elements common in older barns, as well as newer elements that would appear more frequently in later designs. Tucked tightly between the barn and the road was a metal silo, erected in 1954.

Barn and Carriage House/Granary in 1986

Silo and Barn, shortly before demolition

The report doesn't specifically state who built the barn, but if the 1835 date is accurate, it was done by the property's next owner, James Dixon. Dixon owned the property for only three years, 1834-1837, and he may have purchased it after Robert Crawford's death (I haven't been able to determine when Crawford died, but he doesn't seem to be in the 1840 census). According to the report, Dixon operated a different kind of mill at the site -- a plaster mill. There doesn't seem to be much information about plaster mills in the area, but in general, plaster mills ground gypsum for use either as a fertilizer or for plaster. It seems that Dixon might have been a short-lived competitor to Joseph Eastburn and Abel Jeanes, as these were the same uses as the product of their lime kilns.

Dixon, though, only ran his plaster mill until 1837, when he sold the property to John Tweed (1810-1875). The Tweed family is another one that calls for further investigation, and hopefully its own post one day. What we do know is that Tweed owned the property from 1837 until 1866, but how he used it takes some digging, and a little guesswork. It's stated that he operated a bark mill here, so if that's all he did, it seems the tanyard was never reopened. Tweed himself, though, may not have actually run the mill, as the 1850 census lists a James Steward here as a "Bark Grinder". The next name listed is John Tweed, farmer. The assumption is that Tweed farmed the land, and leased the mill to Steward (or Stuart, as he's listed in 1860 in Newark as a laborer).

Tweed didn't reside here much longer, though, because in 1855 he purchased the old Rankin Mills (later, known as the Tweed Mills) on White Clay Creek, north of Newark. John Tweed likely moved there when he bought it, leaving the Bartley-Tweed Farm to his son Mansel. Scharf states that the bark mill ceased operation about 1860, and sure enough, the 1860 census lists Mansel Tweed here as a farmer (a "farm tenant", actually), but there is no miller listed. It appears that sometime between 1855 and 1860, the mill (which sat, incidentally, on the south side of Fox Den Road, west of the barn) did shut down.

Carriage House/Granary

In 1866, John Tweed sold the property to James Little (Mansel would eventually take over the White Clay Creek mills). James Little, the grandfather of educator Lora Little, would reside here until his death in 1892. The third historic structure on the site, the red-roofed Carriage House/Granary, may have been built by Little. The NRHP report states only that it is a "late nineteenth century" structure, but my hunch is that it was erected by James Little.

I am unable to discern what happened to the property after Little's death in 1892, as this area is difficult to follow in the succeeding censuses. Regardless, in a little more than one hundred years' time, the Bartley-Tweed Farm had an interesting history. With its tannery, bark mill, and plaster mill, the site was home to industries seen few other places in the immediate area. With the early stone house, brick addition, and transitional barn, it was often one step ahead of building trends in the area. Now off the "beaten path" and hidden away, the farm only hints at its unusual past.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

There are two reasons why I say that Robert Crawford may have been a neighbor of John Bartley. First, a Robert Crawford (not noted whether it's junior or senior) sold water rights on Pike Creek, directly east of here, in 1796. Second, the 1849 map shows an E. Crawford in a house on the east side of Polly Drummond Hill Road, where the Village of Meeting House Hill is now. This may be Elizabeth Crawford, who may be Robert's widow. However, finding anything about this family is tough.
The NRHP report mentions that the old, stone section of the house had a deep basement, and four steps leading down from that. At the bottom is an arched opening in the wall leading to "an intact stone-lined well". I don't know how common something like this is (I can't recall reading about anything like this elsewhere), but it sounds pretty cool.
There seems to be a close connection between the Crawford, Rankin, and Tweed families. The Rankin/Tweed Mills were owned by all three families at different times. Also, what I believe was the old Crawford farm (either Robert Sr. or Jr.) east of Polly Drummond Hill Road was later owned by Robert T. Rankin. If I'm able to find more info about the Crawfords or Tweeds, I'd be very surprised if there isn't some intermarriage between them and the Rankins.

The Cedars

2011-12-19T11:20:00.000-05:00

Ad promoting the sale of lots in The Cedars

If asked to describe Mill Creek Hundred today, I think the word near the top of most people's list would be "suburban". Obviously, this was not always the case, and the transition from a rural area with a few interspersed villages to full-blown suburbia had to start somewhere. For the most part, the suburbanization of MCH took place after World War II, when all those returning servicemen (and women) wanted to move out of the cities and have room to spread out to raise their generation of Baby Boomers. I happen to live in a house that was part of that first wave of post-WWII building (it was first sold in March 1947).

However, even my neighborhood was not even close to being the first planned housing development in the hundred. A full 45 years prior, streets were laid down and lots drawn up for a housing development right next to one of the busiest places in the area. This was not a coincidence, for while the post-war flight to the suburbs was made possible by the automobile, this earlier wave was enabled by that great turn of the century aid to commuting -- the trolley. The development of The Cedars, located on Newport-Gap Pike and backing up to Brandywine Springs Park, was an example (though not a prototypical one) of what was called a trolley (or streetcar) suburb.

Trolley suburbs generally began in about the 1880's, when newly-electrified trolley lines made it possible and economical for workers to live outside the city, while still working in it. They were usually not very far outside the city, in places like Elsmere (the first trolley suburb of Wilmington, started in 1886 by MCH native Joshua T. Heald), Bellefonte, or Richardson Park. The Cedars was a little different, in that it wasn't created by "developers". As mentioned before, it was no coincidence that The Cedars was located next to Brandywine Springs Amusement Park -- it was owned by the same men who owned the park, lead by president Richard Crook. Access between the development and Wilmington was provided by the Peoples Trolley line, also owned by the same people. Crook and his group (which also included Dr. L. Heisler Ball, then a Congressman and later US Senator) were quite busy around the turn of the century, to be sure.

The 85 acres on which The Cedars would be built had been owned by David Justis until 1855, when it was sold to John Robinson. It went through another couple hands before being sold in 1900 to the newly-formed Cedars Land and Improvement Company. This company, lead by president Richard W. Crook, laid out a few streets, divided the tract into 229 lots, and began selling them in 1901. Although a few were larger, most lots were about 58 by 125 feet. And what the company was selling was just that -- lots. It was up to the new owners to build their own houses, which they did either by hiring a contractor, or by building it themselves. This, I think, is what gives The Cedars its distinctive feel. If you drive through there, you'll see a wide variety of styles that you just won't find in later housing developments, where every house is one of a handful of set plans.

While the Cedars Land and Improvement Company did not build the houses for the residents, they did service their own mortgages. Above are two pages from the mortgage booklet belonging to Joseph L. Bennett, who purchased lot number 23 (the images are courtesy of Mike Ciosek, and the Friends of Brandywine Springs). One unusual clause you might notice in the contract is that once Mr. Bennett pays off his $200 (in monthly payments of not less than $5), he will receive a deed that contains a provision that "said lots shall not at any time be used for the purpose of maintaining thereon a saloon or other place for the sale or gift of intoxicating liquors of any kind." This is not too surprising, given that Richard Crook was a supporter of the temperance movement, and neighboring Brandywine Springs was a "dry park". (Although we have found quite a few period beer and liquor bottles when excavating there -- they must have been brought in by accident.)

Newspaper ad from July 1902

Even if it couldn't sell "the good stuff", the new community would still need a small local store to service it. As it so happens, the store was run by Joseph Bennett's father, John W. Bennett. Bennett's Store, seen below, sits on the corner of Jackson Ave. and Newport Gap Pike. The store is still there (across from the Shell station), long since converted into a dwelling. Bennett's Store, incidentally, was on lot #24, and the family may have lived in a house across Jackson Ave., where the Shell station is now (lot#33). Joseph's lot was next to the store, followed, I believe, by the O'Rourke family in the larger blue house that faces Newport Gap Pike. Thomas O'Rourke was the chief carpenter for the amusement park, and many of his children can be seen in the Brandywine Springs School picture from 1905.

John W. Bennett's Store

Like Mr. O'Rourke, some of the residents of the Cedars worked in the amusement park, but by no means did all of them. The 1910 census lists about 45 separate households in the Cedars (it's actually designated as such on the census), with most of the working residents employed in various trades, or as laborers. I assume that many worked in Wilmington, commuting back and forth via the Peoples Trolley line. I do know, however, that some park workers rented houses in The Cedars during the summer, while keeping their primary residence in the city. Even if they were living in The Cedars during the summer, they likely would have appeared on the census at their primary residence, not here. Therefore, there were probably more people in the neighborhood (at least during the park season) than the census would indicate.

It's not quite clear what Richard Crook's original intent was for The Cedars -- whether it was meant as a summer cottage community, a living space for park workers, or as an independent neighborhood. Whatever the intent, it filled up fast. In addition to the lots sold initially, there were about 68 land transactions in the decade between 1903 and 1913. Judging by the present location of homes, I surmise that many people purchased two adjoining lots, to give themselves room for their house and a yard (that would create an almost square lot of 116 x 125 feet). And remember, since the company was only selling lots, not houses, it wouldn't have affected them financially if there was only a house on every other lot.

Map of The Cedars, 1912

The general store was not the only community-oriented building in the neighborhood, though. In 1908, lots 107 and 108 at the corner of Maple and Harrison Avenues were purchased by the community, and a small church was erected. It was originally a non-denominational church, but in 1911 the congregation voted to become a Methodist church. The Cedars Community Church then became the Cedars Methodist Church, which is still going strong today.

One other structure that deserves mention is the largest house in The Cedars, formerly called Spring Hill, but more recently known as the White House Bed and Breakfast. This large home south of Washington Avenue was built in 1902 by Richard Crook, and covered 24 lots. It sits right about where the old Justis-Robinson House was (which may have been razed by Crook), and will be profiled in depth in a future post.

Sales of lots in The Cedars continued until well into the 1920's, and the community continued to thrive. Of all of Richard Crook's business ventures in the area, this one has been by far the longest-lasting. The amusement park closed in 1923, and the trolley line ceased operation shortly thereafter. By that time, though, the automobile was beginning to make outlying communities like The Cedars more and more practical. Once the Great Depression and World War II had passed, many more people, and many more housing developments, would pop up in Mill Creek Hundred. The Cedars still remains as an early indicator of what the area would eventually become.

R. R. Banks: MCH's Automotive Pioneer

2011-12-14T11:15:00.002-05:00

Richard R. Banks' Wilmington Automobile Company

As we've seen in numerous previous posts, there has been a wide range of different industries active at one time or another in Mill Creek Hundred. One industry I'm willing to bet that you haven't associated with the area is the automotive industry (although, to be fair there are/were/will be auto plants in two neighboring hundreds). No, I'm not going to tell you that there was once an automotive plant in MCH, but there is a local connection to the early days of the automotive age. It seems there is good evidence that the first automobile to be built in Delaware was constructed right here in MCH. And the men involved were pioneers in the field, at a time when many thought the car was just a passing fad.

The man at the center of this story is Richard Robert Banks (1860-1952), who started his career in Stanton. He was the son of Jabez and Jane Banks, natives of Yorkshire, England who settled in Mill Creek Hundred sometime in the 1840's. Richard was the sixth of twelve Banks children. For most of his childhood, I believe the Banks family may have been working a farm owned by the Wollastons, in the vicinity of where All Saints Cemetery is now. Eventually, Richard moved off of the farm and closer to Stanton, where he opened up shop as a carriage maker. The frustratingly lost 1890 census would have been a big help here, but going by the 1900, my best guess as to the location of his shop was somewhere near St. James Church, either on Telegraph Road or St. James Church Road. (That's also assuming the shop was close to his residence, which is not guaranteed. It could have been in Stanton itself somewhere.)

I first found out about Banks through an old newspaper clipping (found online here) sent to me by Ken Copeland (Thanks again, Ken). It's from 1938, and recounts Banks' early days, and how he built his first auto. In poking around, I found this article from 1935, which I think the later story was based on. The earlier article also includes an interview with Banks, who was living in Wilmington at the time. According to his story, in 1898 he was working as a carriage maker in Stanton with one of his brothers. It doesn't state which brother he was working with, but my guess is either Jabez (who was living in the area, and whose occupation on the 1900 census is illegible) or Edwin. Edwin was mentioned in an 1884 lawsuit against Richard, and his occupation in 1900 was listed as "Teamster and Livery Stable", somewhere near Newport.

In any case, it seems that in 1898 Richard got bitten by the car bug, and so he decided to build one. He custom-crafted a chassis, and ordered an engine from a New York company. To give you an idea of where the state of technology stood at the time, the engine Banks installed into his first car was a whopping 4 1/2 horsepower. That's not even a particularly strong lawnmower engine now. And, it was a four-cylinder engine, so it was surely a good bit larger, too. According to Banks' story, the only way he could cool his engine was to place a 400 pound block of ice on top of it, and let the melting ice drip down and cool the cylinders. He could only drive, which he did on the roads all around Stanton, until his block of ice melted. Thankfully, better cooling systems were soon developed. As primitive as it was, this car is thought to have been the first successful gas-powered automobile operated in Delaware, and the first to be built here.

It didn't take long before Richard decided that the automotive business looked like a good one to get into. In 1902 he quit his carriage business and moved to Wilmington, setting up shop in a stable on Tatnall Street, above Eighth. While there, he began selling cars for Oldsmobile, the first mass-producer of cars in the US, and the leading seller from 1901-1904. Ransom Eli Olds was the first to introduce the assembly line to auto manufacturing, not Henry Ford (Ford pioneered the moving assembly line.) Banks stayed in his first shop for only a short time, before moving to a larger space at 829 Orange Street.

1903 Olds Curved Dash -- What Banks would have sold

While at his Orange Street location, Richard Banks was involved in another "first" -- he became the first man to hang a "Garage" sign in Wilmington. The article is a bit confusing on how long he remained here, but it seems that it was while on Orange Street that Banks incorporated and formed the Wilmington Automobile Company. Soon after, Banks moved again to a location on Tenth Street, at Delaware Avenue (where the Nemours Building is now). It is this location that is shown in the picture at the top of the post. The Wilmington Automobile Co. was one of the major dealerships in Wilmington for over 30 years, and its prominence is on display in the photograph. The man sitting in the car is Alfred I. DuPont, who was probably the first person in Delaware to purchase a car, and the first to drive in Wilmington. Standing to the right of him, with the tie, is Richard Banks.

A later view of the Tenth Street location, possibly around 1920

Banks' company moved on to selling Fords for a while, then eventually General Motors products. Richard Banks sold his interest in the company in 1918, and retired to his home in Wilmington. The Wilmington Automobile Company liquidated its assets in 1935, and later that year the DuPont Company announced plans to build the Nemours Building in its place. Banks lived the rest of his life in Wilmington, dying in 1952 at the ripe old age of 92.

There is, though, one more player in the story not yet mentioned. John S. Taylor (1879-1928) was another Stanton native, son of Robert and Francine Taylor. According to old maps, he may have grown up on Limestone Road, just a couple houses up from Main Street. I don't know if this was a cause or an effect of his job, but in 1906 Taylor married Richard Banks' daughter Nellie. In the marriage records, Taylor is listed as an "Automobilist". This would seem to indicate that he may have already been working for Banks, and he followed him to Wilmington, as he and Nellie lived with her parents there (according to the 1910 census). Sadly, though, Nellie died of a brain tumor later in 1910 (Christmas Eve, in fact). Taylor remarried, but according to his obituary he continued to work for the Wilmington Automobile Company for several more years, before starting his own garage (he probably left when Banks sold in 1918). Taylor retired in 1924, and lived near Marshallton and Greenbank, probably on Greenbank Road, maybe north of where Kirkwood Highway is now.

Although we don't usually think of automotive history and Mill Creek Hundred together, the story of Richard R. Banks shows that maybe we should. The next time you're driving near Stanton, take a moment and imagine what it must have been like in 1898, seeing Richard Banks puttering over the dirt roads, massive block of ice melting on his engine, scaring the daylights out of horses wherever he went.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

One of the things that first drew me to this story was the name "Banks". I was already familiar with Richard's older brother Jabez, through my connection with Brandywine Springs. In the later days of the park, Jabez managed the "Old Hotel", which by that time was primarily a boarding house for seasonal park workers. I don't know the exact dates, but by 1910 he is listed as a park worker, and I think he stayed there until the park closed in 1923. The Friends of Brandywine Springs has several pictures of Jabez and his family, as well as information about them through a descendant.
Banks, at various times, is recorded as Richard R., R. Robert, or R. R. Banks. For the sake of clarity and the preservation of my remaining sanity, I'll just call him Richard in this post.
This would take more time than I have to straighten out, but it appears that after Banks sold the Wilmington Automobile Company, it was restructured around 1922 as the Wilmington Auto Company by John J. Raskob. Raskob was a top executive with DuPont, and it seems as if the WAC was owned either by him, DuPont, or a combination. Therefore, it's not surprising that DuPont bought the property for their new building after WAC went out of business.

The Stanton and Brandywine Springs Schools

2011-12-06T11:09:00.001-05:00

Stanton School, 1926

By the mid to late 19th Century, Mill Creek Hundred contained all or part of at least 17 separate school districts. Each district contained one school, and at least 13 of those schools were situated within the boundaries of the hundred. We've already looked at a few of them (Harmony, Fairview, Mt. Pleasant and Union), and even at a few of the teachers. As the 20th Century progressed, these old districts and schools were eventually consolidated into larger ones, and many of the schoolhouses lost. In this post, we'll focus on two more of these schools, each representing old districts -- the Stanton School (District #38) and the Brandywine Springs School (District #33). Both of these today have "descendant" schools still in operation, and one of these old schools (although not the first one at the site) is still serving its community, albeit in another capacity.

The District #38 school in Stanton was undoubtedly one of the longest-serving schools in our area. It was your classic one-room schoolhouse, made of stone, and measuring about 30x27 feet. It had two outhouses (which sometimes needed to be emptied, as this 1886 report shows), and stood on the north side of Main Street, west of Limestone Road, about halfway between the Friends Meeting House and Telegraph Road (about where the Goodeals is now). Exactly when it was built is a bit of a mystery. The number "38" does appear on the 1849 Rea & Price map (although, oddly, there is no "S.H." as there is by the other school houses), so it was surely built by then. Scharf claims that it was the first public school in Mill Creek Hundred, which would probably put its erection sometime around 1829, when the first real public school act in the state was passed. Writing in 1888, to Scharf it was already the "old stone school-house".

Teachers and students of Stanton School, c.1908

The best description we have of the school comes when it was likely about 90 years old. In 1919, the "General Report on School Buildings and Grounds in Delaware, 1919" was released, and consisted of pretty much what the title said. There are short write-ups of a few schools in different categories (one room, two room, more than two rooms, and in each county), and luckily for us, the Stanton School was one of them. The report doesn't help us with the age of the school, only saying it's of "unknown age". Despite the school's great age (or, more accurately, because of it), the report includes the following glowing remarks about the old schoolhouse:

The outside of this building conforms very closely to that of a large number of like buildings in New Castle County, but the interior of the building stands out in striking contrast to the exterior and in striking contrast, also, to the interior of the majority of buildings like it. It was a pleasant surprise on entering this building to discover that this old cave of a house had been made into a bright, cheerful, livable sort of a schoolroom in which one would not feel adverse to having his own child attend school. Through the individual efforts of a heroically courageous teacher of unusual initiative and ability, this class room has been thus converted: the walls were beautifully tinted, bordered and decorated. Good, attractive pictures were on the walls; the floors were clean and well kept; new single desks were provided for every child in the room and a generous amount of equipment of the type possible in this building was at hand. Too much cannot be said in recognition of the kind of energy displayed in making this building come as close to being livable as possible. Such energy should be rewarded by a new and modern school building so located as to bring together enough pupils to make possible the development of an adequate school program.

Unfortunately, I don't know for sure who that "heroically courageous teacher of unusual initiative and ability" was, who made the old stone school so attractive. The only teacher I can find in the area on the 1920 census is Gertrude Cranston, daughter of William B. Cranston. However, they lived on Stanton Road, so she just as easily could have been teaching in Marshallton. The one woman I don't think it was, was Lora Little (profiled here, complete with a newly posted photo of her from 1924). In 1920, she was still living in the Corner Ketch area, although she would be teaching in Stanton by 1922.

In 1929, the hope in the 1919 report would be fulfilled, as a new, much larger, modern building was built. The new Stanton Elementary School was quite a step up from the century-old, one-room schoolhouse. In addition to the Stanton students, the new school also included students from the recently merged and closed Forest Oak School #35 (located near Milltown Road and St. James Church Road) and the Sunnyside School #95 (located at Route 7 and Churchman's Road, where the Christiana Hilton is). What happened to the old schoolhouse after it closed is unclear, but the new school hosted countless area kids (including at least a few readers of this site) for many years.

Brandywine Springs School, c.1905

Another of the 19th Century school districts whose name carries on today was the Brandywine Springs School (District #33). Like Stanton, Brandywine Springs may have been one of the original districts created as a result of the 1829 public school law. The school, which also appears on the 1849 map, was located on the west side of Duncan Road, between Faulkland Road and McKennans Church Road. A school, but not the one shown in the picture above, is still there -- but that's getting ahead of the story.

The school that is shown in the picture is likely the original school for the district, and appears very similar to the Stanton School. It appears to have been a stuccoed, stone building, almost certainly one room, and close to Stanton's dimensions of 30x27 feet. Not much is known about this first school, even though it may have stood for nearly 90 years. And although it looks to be in pretty good shape in the c.1905 photo, the old stone #33 school would only stand for a little over ten more years. Where the 1919 school report stated how nice the Stanton School was for its age, it appears the Brandywine Springs School had not held up so well.

The New Brandywine Springs School, 1919

Sometime in the late teens, the old school was torn down, and a new brick structure was built. As luck would have it, that 1919 report also includes a review of the new school, which is the building that still stands on the site today. It was described as a two-room building then, although I have information showing that within a few years, it would be converted into a three-room school. According to Paul Jenkins (who was born in 1913, and attended the school from 1920 to 1925), the first and second graders had a room in the front left of the building. Grades 3-5 were taught in a room extending the depth of the right side, and grades 6-8 had a larger room in the rear.

Mr. Jenkins, a wonderfully nice man who passed away in January 2009, also stated that the janitor at the school was a Mr. Yearsley. I would guess this was probably Frank Yearsley, mentioned in the post about his family, whose daughter Ruth was a teacher -- probably beginning at Brandywine Springs. She didn't teach at this school very long, though. Even though the school was only about eleven or twelve years old, as this article shows, its days were numbered by 1930. The proposed merger of the Brandywine Springs and Marshallton School Districts did take place, leading to the 1932 construction of the big, new Marshallton Consolidated School. When this happened, the little school on Duncan Road was closed and sold off.

The little brick schoolhouse, though sold, was saved. It now (as far as I know) serves as a community-based mini-station for the New Castle County Police. (I'm sure that's a relatively new function. Does anyone recall what the building was used for, for the bulk of the time since 1932?) As such, the Brandwine Springs School is one of only two historic schools in MCH, along with the Hockessin School (Lamborn Library), that stills serves as a community building. With the nearby elementary school being one of the most desirable in the district, the names of Brandywine Springs and Stanton are still key to the education of MCH's youth.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

The 1886 health report (the one with the full outhouses) states that the schoolhouse is brick, whereas every other source says it was stone. From the picture, I just can't tell, but since most sources say stone, I'm willing to believe that the health inspector was more concerned with the outhouses than with the schoolhouse, and maybe was fooled by the whitewash or stucco that appears to have covered it.
On the 1910 census, a Lydia Dockety is listed as a teacher, and living on Main Street in Stanton. She's not shown as a teacher in 1920, though. On a related note, I've always thought a good thing to do would be to go through the censuses and pull out the names of the teachers. For the most part, you could probably figure out where they taught.
The 1905 Brandywine Springs School picture almost doubles as a family shot for the O'Rourkes. There are 6 O'Rourke children in the picture, ranging in age from 7 to 15. Their father, Thomas O'Rourke, was a carpenter who built many of the structures at the Brandywine Springs Amusement Park. The mother, Mary O'Rourke, was the station master and postmistress at the Wilmington & Western's Faulkland Station, near Faulkland Road. The teacher in the picture is Emily Pennington, about whom I have not yet found anything.
I didn't think about this until I was writing, but the Brandywine Springs School was awfully close to the Delcastle Farm. There was farmland on this side of the road, too. I know that we've heard stories about how the inmates were pretty well-behaved, and interacted with the local residents, but I find it hard to believe that any kind of prison facility would be built that close to an elementary school these days.
What a difference a decade makes. Look at the difference in the "new" school from c.1919, as compared to about ten years later. Think of how much the area (or at least, the thinking in school configuration) changed from the small Brandywine Springs school, to the huge Stanton Elementary and Marshallton Consolidated Schools. They don't even look like they're from the same century.

The David E. Eastburn Farm

2011-11-29T15:19:00.001-05:00

David Eastburn House

It's been a while since we've focused directly on the Eastburn family (although it's hard to stay more than two or three steps away from them), so we'll now return to northern Mill Creek Hundred and take a look at a farm anchored by a mid-19th Century home, but with elements a good deal older than that. I started thinking about this property while revisiting the Josiah Hulett House recently. While there are not too many examples in the area of the mid-century architectural styles that featured square-shaped houses, the David E. Eastburn house is a good one. Located on the northeast side of Corner Ketch Road, partway between Paper Mill Road and Doe Run Road, the farm dates back to the time when the Eastburns were the preeminent family in the area.

Although there are older structures extant on the property, the Italianate Style (as best as I can determine) house was built in the mid 1850's by David E. Eastburn (1811-1899), probably at the time of his marriage in 1857. David was the seventh child (of fourteen!) of David and Elizabeth Jeanes Eastburn. The elder David was, along with brother-in-law Abel Jeanes, the co-founder of the Eastburn-Jeanes Lime Kiln business. After the younger David's father died when he was only 13, he, like most of his siblings, stayed in the area to help run the family business and farm the surrounding land.

For more than half his life, it appears that David kept the family home on Paper Mill Road as his primary residence. He did own some other properties, including the England (Red) Mill from 1836 until 1870 as well as another house further up Polly Drummond Hill Road, but both the 1840 and 1850 censuses list him in the family home with his mother. One reason why it was sensible for him to remain "at home" was that he was a bachelor during this time. That changed in April 1857, when David married Tacy J. Hallowell at the Abington Meeting near her home in Montgomery County, PA. Although the two married fairly late in life (he was 46 and she 44), they would remain together for the rest of their lives, and would enjoy almost 35 years together. Not surprisingly, they had no children.

David E. Eastburn, probably prior to marriage

Now that he was married, it was time for David to find a new home for himself and his bride. As a successful man in a successful family, he had the resources to construct a fine house, and he certainly did so. His three story stuccoed stone house has a symmetrical four-bay front, with a pair of centered doors. A square belvedere tops its pyramidal roof. Somewhat surprisingly for a man from a solid Quaker family, he had his home built in the latest style of the time. I'm sure his new home stood out from those of his neighbors, and proclaimed him to be the man of means that he was.

The house in 1986, before front addition

While the facts of the construction of the house are fairly straightforward, the history of the property is a bit more hazy. According to the farm's section in the National Register entry of Agricultural Buildings and Complexes in Mill Creek Hundred 1800-1840, there are two structures on the property that predate David's occupation of the farm. One is the large frame and stone bank barn that stood just to the southeast of the house. Only the stone foundation and a few walls remain today, but as of 1986 (when the National Register form was submitted) the barn was intact, and the farm was still active. The farm was sold and the land behind it developed about 1990, and the barn reportedly burned in 1992 after being struck by lightning.

The barn in 1986, part of a working farm

What remains of the barn today

According to the National Register report, the barn was built circa 1825. The authors, though, don't state why they give this date for the barn. Since they don't mention anything like a datestone or inscription, I assume they're dating it by the construction style. Since I'm no expert at dating barns (frankly, I was never much good at dating, period), I'll have to take their word for it. However, if there was a barn present in the 1820's, it stands to reason that there was a farmhouse of some kind, also. While the 1849 Rea & Price map doesn't show a house at this location, the Register report mentions an earlier log barn and a brick house. Unfortunately, I think the authors are confusing this property with the Abel Jeanes property (previously the James Black property) to the south. For one thing, they do also confuse David, Sr. and David, Jr. in the report, not seeming to realize there were two different men. Nevertheless, if the barn predated David's house, there must have been something there.

18th Century Tenant House

This then leads us to what is certainly the oldest remaining structure on the site -- the one and a half story stone tenant house that sits about 200 feet southeast of the barn. Little is known about this house, except that it almost certainly dates to at least the 18th Century. In fact, this Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) entry states that the left end of the house may date back as far as the 17th Century. If so, that would make it one of the oldest remaining structures in Mill Creek Hundred. Clearly, more research is needed to illuminate the early history of this property.

An older David E. Eastburn

As for the later history of the farm, while the National Register report doesn't go into it (outside of naming the then-current owner), I believe I may have uncovered a likely chain of ownership. David lived out the rest of his life in his house, until his death in 1899 (wife Tacy had passed eight years before). As for who owned the farm next, I think I found that answer when I happened upon this obituary from 1941. The fourth entry down is for Wilmer E. Fell, who "lived on the David Eastburn farm for 70 years". Sure enough, the 1880 census does show 18 year old Wilmer living with David and Tacy and working on their farm.

Wilmer was the son of Samuel and Rachel Elizabeth Eastburn Fell. His mother, who went by Elizabeth, was the daughter of Amos Eastburn, David's brother. Censuses from 1900-1930 all show Wilmer living in the area, so it seems he did stay on David's farm. Since David and Tacy had no children of their own, it makes sense that the property would go next to a family member who was intimately familiar with it. Although it's possible that ownership went to someone else in the family, and that Wilmer stayed as a tenant farmer, my guess is that it passed from David to him. Either way, Wilmer remained there until his death in 1941.

It's likely that the next owner was the man who is listed as such in the 1986 National register report -- Harry Emerson Eastburn. Emerson, as he was known, was the great-grandson of Isaac Eastburn, another of David's brothers. It seems though that Emerson didn't actually live on the farm -- he lived near Mt. Cuba. The David Eastburn farm was a pretty long hold-out against the encroaching suburbia. It was a working farm up until the late 1980's, when Emerson finally sold it to a developer. The main house, tenant house, barn foundation, and a few late 19th/early 20th Century farm buildings were saved, but the rest of the property was developed. Thankfully, at least some of this historic property remains to remind us of the days when the Eastburns dominated this part of Mill Creek Hundred.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

While the 1850 census clearly shows David in the same household with his mother and other family, the 1840 is a little tougher, since it was the last to list only the head of household by name. However, David is listed as the head of a household with well over ten people, including a woman in the 50-60 age group that has to be his mother Elizabeth.
The Quaker influence on architecture in the area is something I've thought about before. I've always thought that that's the reason why there were so few big, flashy houses in the Wilmington and New Castle County area. Many of the older houses are beautiful, but it's not until the Quaker influence starts to wane a bit in the later 1800's that some of the homes start to seem a bit showier.
I just have to say that I love the house-matching birdhouse seen in the picture of the barn ruins. Classic
At some point I hope to be able to learn more about the early history of the property, and about the tenant house specifically. Judging by the style, I have no doubt it dates to before 1800. The asymmetry of the windows suggests that it may have been built in more than one phase, which the HABS report agrees with. And though the HABS report has more detailed info about the layout and construction of the house, it doesn't have anything more than guesses about it's history.
In case you didn't notice, or for those who can't follow the link, Wilmer Fell's obit was published on Sunday, December 7, 1941. On page 5 there's a story titled "Firm US Stand Seen Averting Pacific Conflict: Senators Claim Japs Will Not Force Issue". So I guess everything worked out OK, huh?
Thanks go out to Donna Peters for the pictures of David Eastburn. I don't always have a lot of pictures to use in posts, especially not of individuals, so I wanted to use a lot in this one.

The Stanton Hotel

2011-11-25T11:28:00.000-05:00

The Stanton Hotel, c. 1900

A while back, we looked at the hotel that, during its time, was usually looked upon as the "main" hotel in Stanton -- The Riseing Sun. And while it was likely the site of the first hotel/tavern/inn in Stanton, it was not the only one in town. Across the street from the Riseing Sun, operating for almost 100 years, was another hotel, whose memory -- and whose very name -- has almost been lost to history. Whereas there's been a decent bit written about the Riseing Sun, the Stanton Hotel has been nearly forgotten. To be honest, I wasn't really able to find to much more than some basic facts, and a long list of probable proprietors.

The hotel (or much more likely, hotels) sat on the northeast corner of Limestone Road and Main Street in Stanton, next to where the palm reader is now. I believe it was probably centered right about where the sign is in the grass on the corner. Although this fact is only ever alluded to as far as I can tell, it seems as if there were two different structures that served as the hotel over the years, and only vague references as to when the old one was razed and the new one built. It's not even clear who actually owned the property. And to make things even more confusing, for much of its history the hotel seems to have been operated by a long list of different proprietors. Seriously -- everywhere I look, there is a different list of operators, with almost no overlap of names.

In one of the earlier mentions of the hotel, Scharf gives it all of two sentences. According to him, the structure that served as the first hotel was built in 1808 by James Stroud. Stroud seems to have been a major landowner in the area at the time (and a noteworthy figure in his own right, see AFART below) and the operator of one of the mills in the Stanton area. Whether Stroud built it for himself or as a rental property is not noted, but he didn't use it as a hotel. That phase began about 1830 with another prominent local figure, Abraham Boys (1790-1873). Boys (or sometimes, Boyes) began operating the hotel at that time, but for how long is unclear. The next proprietor was in place by at least 1850, and maybe earlier. Whether he ran the hotel full time, and what he did prior to 1830, I've not been able to find. However, in addition to whatever else he did, Abraham Boys was also involved in public service. Between 1837 and 1861, he alternated between the State House and the State Senate, serving two terms in each. In the middle, he served as New Castle County Sheriff from 1842-44.

Stanton, Delaware -- 1860

The next man to run the Stanton Hotel was another local resident, Springer McDaniel. Like Stroud, McDaniel was also a miller by trade (the 1832 McLane Report lists him as establishing a mill in 1829). Exactly when and why he began operating the hotel is unknown, but a DelDOT report seems to indicate that he was in place by 1843. McDaniel was certainly operating it by 1850, as that census (and the 1860 one) lists him as such. The map above from 1860 also shows him as the proprietor, and is one of the few places I actually found a name for the hotel. Between Boys and McDaniel, the Stanton Hotel had two proprietors over a period of more than thirty years. This would end by 1868, as the map below shows, and would usher in a new era of many short-term hoteliers.

Stanton, Delaware -- 1868

McDaniel did remain in Stanton, and was the postmaster as late as 1874, but in 1868 George E. Wollaston was the proprietor of the Stanton Hotel. This move from long-term to short-term operators may not have been the only change taking place at this time. According to the newspaper article from which the picture at the top of the post was taken (article was from about 1960), "It is believed the front part of the structure was built just after the Civil War days." By "the front part" I assume they mean the hotel itself, as opposed to the stables in the rear, since the building seems to be one structure. From the looks of it, the style is consistent with the 1860's. Abraham Boys' structure would have been about 60 years old by then. My hypothesis is that after Springer McDaniel retired from the hotel game, a new owner, maybe Wollaston, came in and built a new, probably larger hotel. This new hotel was made of brick, and had 22 rooms.

Over the next 50+ years after 1868, culled from various sources, we have the names of no less than 10 more men who, at one time or another, ran the Stanton Hotel. For one thing, each census has a different hotel keeper listed: 1870-George A. Garrett, 1880-James Pierson, 1900-W.H. Saxton, 1910-Lewis Dickey. Scharf says the successors to McDaniel were John Moore and Jacob Hyatt, with Hyatt being current in 1888. In the 1880 census, it appears Hyatt is running a hotel in Newport.

The 1874 State Directory shows James Barr as the hotel keeper. The newspaper article previously mentioned lists a Mr. Simpler and a John Armstrong as operators, too. If this all seems pretty disjointed, it's because it is. Outside of the censuses, it's hard to put any dates with the tenures of anyone. Another thing that might be confusing things occurred to me while reading one other newspaper article sent to me by Ken Copeland, who also is to be credited for the the other article and the picture below. This article may also help explain the demise of the hotel (but not yet the building).

In December 1920, a fire raged through Stanton, damaging the hotel, then owned by C. P. Major. In reading the word "owned", I realized that it's possible that some of the sources could be confusing owning the hotel with running it. Between Abraham Boys and C. P. Major, there is never a concrete statement as to who actually owned the hotel. I assume that Springer McDaniel did, but that's only a guess. I also know that it was not uncommon for hotel managers to move around frequently, which no doubt explains the long list of proprietors. So basically, after the 1860's I have no idea who actually owned the property, until, that is, 1920.

Two years later, in 1922, we have another ownership change when the hotel was purchased by Harry (Dutch) Boulden, and "With the advent of the motorcar, better roads, and, later, Prohibition, the hotel lost much of its patronage, and gradually was converted to a grocery store and apartments." My guess is that damage from the 1920 fire may have been a factor in the sale, too.

The Stanton Hotel, shortly before demolition, c1958

So it seems that the Stanton Hotel ceased operating as a hotel sometime in the 1920's, but the structure remained for another 35 years or so. As the article states, the hotel rooms were converted to apartments, and a grocery store was opened in the basement. The last grocer to operate there was F. Kenneth Davis, who ran the store when the above picture was taken in 1958. About two years later, when Limestone Road was undergoing one of its many widenings, the (probably, maybe?) nearly 100 year old hotel was demolished, taking with it the memories of countless proprietors and guests of the Stanton Hotel.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

At some point, I may have to look into James Stroud a bit more. His name came up on other deeds for lots around the Limestone Road-Main Street intersection in the early 19th Century. He served at least three terms in the State House of Representatives between 1797 and 1804. He was a miller by trade, whose son married into the Richardson and Tatnall families. More interestingly, he served as a witness for Oliver Evans in what I think is a patent lawsuit in 1812 regarding Evans' automatic milling system. This will require further research someday.
Although I don't think Springer McDaniel ever held elective office, he was surely a well-respected member of the community. In 1860, he was appointed by the Levy Court to a commission charged with determining if a new road and bridge were needed in northeastern MCH. They decided it was not, but were overruled by another panel, and the old Yorklyn covered bridge was built.
Lewis Dickey, operator of the hotel in 1910, was the son of Benjamin Dickey and the cousin of Hettie Dickey. He was also the only hotel keeper after Springer McDaniel who I know was actually a resident and native of Stanton.

Josiah G. Hulett's House -- Found

2011-11-17T15:59:00.001-05:00

Josiah Hulett's old house, 1939

Over the summer, I did a post about Josiah G. Hulett which included information about a house that he and his family resided in for about ten or fifteen years. Thanks to Josiah's great-granddaughter, Jeanne Jackson Dell’Acqua, we knew a little about the house, but not everything. Jeanne was fairly sure that the house stood somewhere near (or most likely, on) the Hercules property off of Lancaster Pike and Hercules Road, but we didn't know for sure exactly what its location was. Now, we do. It was exactly where I thought it was -- I just couldn't find any proof until now.

The picture above is a close-up of an aerial photo taken in 1939 by the Dallin Aerial Survey Company, many of whose pictures can be found on the Hagley Museum website. Luckily for us, probably due to its connection with the DuPont Company, the site includes several pictures of the Hercules property dating to the late 1930's. Luckily, again, the pictures are of a fairly high resolution, which allows you to zoom in pretty tight. To refresh your memory, the picture below was the one of the house provided by Jeanne, and taken about 1920.

Here is one other close-up of a 1939 aerial shot.

The left one of the 1920 pictures is the front of the house, which faced towards the barn, and towards Lancaster Pike. The righthand picture is of the far side of the house (from the perspective of the aerials). To the left of the front view, you can see the side porch. If you want to explore the aerial pictures yourself, you can find them here and here.

And just to give a bit of perspective as to where the house actually sat, below is a modern aerial shot showing Lancaster Pike, Hercules Road, and the golf course. The blue outline indicates the former site of the house. The barn still stands (as far as I know) just above it.

In my mind, these pictures are pretty definitive in placing the Josiah G. Hulett House (or the R. Smithurst or John Peoples House, as it appears on the 1868 and the 1881 and 1893 maps) in the middle of what was the Hercules, and then for a time, the Delaware National, golf course. Since the house is still shown with the name John Peoples during and after the Huletts' living there, it seems likely that they rented the house from Peoples. This also fits, as Josiah's only surviving son was named Byron Carlton Peoples Hulett. All in all, and considering that this style of house doesn't seem too common in this area, I'm confident that the house shown in the aerial photos is the same as the one in the 1920 photos. It just took the luck of stumbling across the pictures to prove it.

Brandywine Springs Video

2011-11-15T19:36:00.001-05:00

Over on DelawareOnline, there is a nice little video piece focusing on the Brandywine Springs Amusement Park. You can find the video here. The two men featured in the video, Mark Lawlor and Mike Ciosek, are without a doubt the two foremost experts on the park and its history. Lawlor is the author of the book Brandywine Springs Amusement Park: Echoes of the Past 1886-1923, which is the only comprehensive work on the history of the park (and an invaluable resource). In the early 1990's, spurred on by his research, Lawlor co-founded the Friends of Brandywine Springs with Mike Ciosek, who has served as its president for nearly 20 years. (Mike has also served, among other things, as the lead in all the archaeological digs at the park, and certainly knows more about how it was built than anyone else alive.)

I happen to know a good deal about the park myself, so if you have any questions about anything mentioned in the video (which can also be found after the jump), or about any of the wonderful pictures used, feel free to ask. Other than that, enjoy!

The Curtis Paper Mill -- The Curtis Years

2011-11-10T11:37:00.000-05:00

Curtis Paper Mill, 1880

In the last post, we took a look at the early years of the paper mill on White Clay Creek just east of Newark, and followed it from its beginnings around 1789 to the departure of the Meeteer family in 1843. However, only those well-steeped in local lore are likely to know the site as Meeteer's Mill, or the Milford Paper Mill. That's because even though the mill seems to have been all but falling down in 1848, after the brief ownership of Joseph Perry, the site was far from finished. In fact, under the name of the new owners, the Curtis family, the site would continue to manufacture high-quality paper for almost another 150 years.

It's not known what drew Solomon Minot and George B. Curtis to Delaware, but the brothers from Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts must have seen the potential in the old Meeteer mill. If anyone could, it would be them. Minot (as he was known) and George were two of nine Curtis brothers in the papermaking business, all following their father. When they arrived, the brothers borrowed $7500 from their new Newark neighbors to purchase the mill at a sheriff's sale and almost completely rebuild it. The only salvageable pieces were the waterwheel and the papermaking machine. The following year, they borrowed another $3067 from a Philadelphia firm to install a more advanced papermaking machine. The brothers obviously knew their business, because within 10 years they had repaid their entire debt, an occasion they celebrated by throwing a dinner for their former creditors at the Washington House Hotel in Newark (later the site of the Stone Balloon, where I'm sure at least a few readers have also "celebrated", and now the Washington House Condos ).

The new firm of Curtis & Bro., as it was known, also renamed their new mill, calling it the Nonantum Paper Mill. Nonantum was the Native American name for the Newton area from which the Curtises hailed. Meanwhile, in 1850, the "Brother" in the company named had changed, as George returned to Massachusetts,replaced by his brother Frederick A. Curtis. By that time, according to a history from a paper industry site, "The mill employed 9 men and 6 women and was powered by water and steam. Annual production was 430,000 pounds of book paper at a value of 60,000 dollars. [...] By 1860 production had increased to 500,000 pounds of paper per year. The mill now employed 10 men and 4 women at monthly wages of 28 dollars for men and 15 dollars for women." The lower number of employees as compared to 30 years earlier under the Meeteers almost certainly is due to a higher level of automation, as evidenced by the use of steam power in addition to the water wheel.

During the Civil War, the Curtises remained staunchly pro-Union, a stance that put them in conflict with some of their Newark neighbors. There was apparently a strong Southern sentiment in the Newark area at the time, and one group of Confederate sympathizers even threatened to burn the mill if the Stars and Stripes were raised over it. They were, but no harm was done. Possibly because of this loyalty, Curtis & Bro. was awarded many government contracts during the war and afterwards.

For the next twenty-odd years, the Nonantum Mill continued to produce high-quality paper, specializing in specialty paper like cards, envelopes,magazine and book paper. In 1884 Frederick Curtis died, and three years later Minot retired. The business was then handed over to their sons, Walter C., Alfred A., and F. William Curtis. As their father and/or Uncles did almost 40 years prior, the cousins' first order of business was to rebuild and upgrade the mill. Whereas the 1848 mill was a wood frame structure, the new mill would be made of brick. Although the floorspace of the mill was enlarged, the layout stayed almost identical to the old mill. The drawing at the top of the page -- done in 1880 by an insurance company and the only known image of the first Curtis Mill -- really doesn't look all that different from the picture included in the last post. It even looks like the stable and carriage house remained the same.

The "rag room ladies", c. late 1910's

Additions and upgrades continued over the years, including workers' houses and a superintendent's house (all still standing) across the road, newer and larger papermaking machinery, and in 1896, the iconic brick smokestack, now the only remaining structure from the mill. The mill remained in the hands of the Curtis family until Alfred A. Curtis retired in 1926. At that time, the company was sold to a group of outside investors who kept the Curtis and Bro. name. A few years later, during the height of the Depression, the company went into receivership and was reorganized as the Curtis Paper Company in 1932.

The Curtis Paper Company would be sold again in the 1950's, but remained an independent entity until 1977, when it was sold to the James River Company of Richmond, Virginia. The old Nonantum Mill changed hands one more time in 1995, before shutting down for good in December 1997. At that time, it was the oldest operating paper mill in the United States.

In 1999, the mill property was purchased by the city of Newark, and converted into Curtis Mill Park. Some of the structure was torn down in 2002, and the remainder was demolished in late 2007. The only part of the mill that was left standing was the four-sided brick smokestack with the Curtis name on it. The settling ponds (which helped to clean the mill's wastewater before returning it to White Clay Creek) and the millrace are now used by the city as part of a water treatment plant. In these ways, this property that has served its community for well over 200 years will continue to be of service for many years to come.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

The paper at the Milford and Nonantum Mills, like most paper until the late 1800's, was made from cotton cloth, not wood pulp as most is today. Cloth rags were used as the raw material for the paper. Workers like the "rag room ladies" in the picture above had to remove buttons and any other non-cloth materials from the rags prior to processing.
In the "rag room ladies" picture, the third woman from the right is Clara Wilmer Henderson, grandmother of the wife of reader (and picture contributor) Ken Copeland. Clara, it seems, was not the only one in the family making money at the mill site. Her son Oliver at some point discovered that there were large muskrats living in the settling ponds, and went about trapping them for a time until others caught on, too.
Paper from the Curtis Paper Company was used to make the official Instrument of Surrender signed by representatives of the Japanese government aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, officially ending World War II.
Some relevant links: The Curtis Paper Mill Story, Curtis Paper Mill Historic American Engineering Record

The Curtis Paper Mill -- The Meeteer Years

2011-11-06T17:23:00.001-05:00

Curtis Paper Mill, c.1915

Way back, in one of the first posts on this site, we looked at the Meeteer House on Kirkwood Highway, just east of Newark. Now, we'll focus on the source of the Meeteer's wealth, briefly mentioned in the earlier post -- their paper mill. First built during the early years of our nation, rebuilt twice and upgraded numerous times over the years, high-quality paper was produced at this site almost continuously for over two hundred years. When production finally ceased here in 1997, the Curtis mill was the oldest operating paper mill in the country -- and that was the one built halfway through the site's history!

Although the final years of the mill are well-documented and remembered, the details of its beginnings are a bit hazier. What we do know is that in 1789, Thomas Meeteer of Birmingham Township, PA purchased land on the east and north sides of White Clay Creek from Samuel Painter, Jr. Though there are no direct references to a paper mill being present then, the deed does apparently reference "Edward Meter's mill dam". What Edward's relationship to Thomas was and kind of a mill he had are unclear. Assuming there was not one there already, Thomas Meeteer likely erected his paper mill very soon after acquiring the site, although the first known reference to it wasn't until 1798.

Somewhere along the line, Thomas Meeteer was joined in the business by two of his sons, Samuel and William. It seems that at one point, the Meeteers may have been looking to leave the area, as the property was put up for sale in 1805. Included in the listing was 300 acres along White Clay Creek, the paper mill, a saw mill (possibly the older Edward Meter mill), a brick house, a large frame house, five tenements (three for the mill, two for the farm), and a log and frame barn. Either they couldn't sell it or they changed their minds, because the family did hold on to their property and their mill, then known as the Milford Mill. I don't know if it has anything to do with whatever was happening at the time, but in 1804 the mill was listed as being owned by "John Armstrong, Thomas Meeteer and Company". I've yet to find any other information about John Armstrong.

Soon after not selling the mill, in 1808 Thomas built a new storehouse a few hundred feet north of it. This storehouse, now used as a garage, is the only remaining structure on the site from the Meeteer period. Four years later, Thomas Meeteer died, leaving the business to Samuel and William (other son George B. may have been involved then, but later operated another mill producing flour, plaster, bark, and lumber). Whereas Joshua Gilpin's paper mill on the Brandywine sold primarily to Philadelphia, the Meeteer's focus was southward toward Baltimore, where they owned a bookstore and warehouse. After their father's death, William moved to Baltimore to run the store, while Samuel stayed here to oversee the mill.

William's response in the 1832 McLane Report

The Milford Paper Mill was a sizable operation for its day. In 1820, the mill employed 56 people -- 21 men, 28 women, and 7 children. By 1832, though, there were 34 employees, only 8 of which were men. Above is William's response included in the 1832 McLane Report, a nationwide survey of manufacturing in the US. The decrease in manpower is almost certainly the result of the addition of automated paper-making machinery, possibly one designed by Wilmington's Joshua Gilpin.

Samuel continued to run the paper mill until 1838, when he died. The family carried on for three more years before selling the property in 1841. It was sold to a man named Joseph E. Perry, about whom I can find no information. It's not even clear whether he even kept the mill operating or not. If he did, he didn't do a very good job of running or maintaining the mill. Perry soon found himself deep in debt, and in January 1848 the now dilapidated Milford Mill was purchased by a pair of brothers from Newton, MA -- Solomon and George Curtis. This would kick off the second era of paper-making at the site, which we will look at in part two of the post.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

Again, we have a situation where there are multiple spellings of a name. "Meeteer" is also found as "Meteer" and "Meter" in various sources. Since "Meeteer" seems to be the spelling used in the oldest sources, that's the one I've chosen to use. I just like to throw that out there in case anyone does any research on their own, that they know to check all the different forms of the name.
Thomas Meeteer was, in 1799, one of the founders of what became Newark United Methodist Church. From then until 1812 when they purchased their first chapel, the fledgling congregation met either in Meeteer's house or in the paper mill itself.
Although I don't think it has been established for certain, prevailing thought seems to be that the area of Milford Crossroads derived its name from that of the Meeteer's Milford Paper Mill.

Ambrose Reed

2011-10-29T17:40:00.000-04:00

Ambrose Reed

In reading this site or through research of your own, you've no doubt realized that the history (and for the most part, the present) of Mill Creek Hundred is, not to put too fine a point on it, rather white. That's not to say that there were no non-white residents in the hundred, however. For example, in 1800 there were 85 free blacks and 82 slaves (for comparison, there were 2,027 white residents), and in 1840 there were 311 free blacks and 43 slaves (2,789 white). After the Civil War and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, there continued to be free black residents in the hundred, mostly working as hired farm labor, although some did own their own properties. And while it's difficult to find much information on most of the area's black residents, there is one man we do know a little about, although not as much as I had hoped.

In his excellent 1976 book Hockessin: A Pictorial History, author Joseph Lake briefly mentions the story of Ambrose Reed in the chapter dealing with the kaolin clay mining industry in the region. When I saw the name in the book, I remembered having been asked about him by a commenter earlier this year, and I recalled having found some information about Reed. I also remembered that some of the information didn't seem to line up exactly right. As it so happened, things only got more confusing as I dug further.

To make things even worse, it turns out that the Ambrose Reed I had first traced, all the way from Mill Creek Hundred to Media, PA, was not the right one. I now think he was the uncle of our Ambrose, and no doubt who he was named for. The story that Lake tells (in only a few sentences) is that Ambrose Reed was the son of a slave, and that, "At the age of one, he had been placed in the care of Mrs. James Dennison and raised and educated in the Quaker tradition." By the mid-1890's, Reed had become the first engineer at the Peach Kaolin Company, and was, "probably the first Negro to achieve a management position in any of the industries in the Hockessin area". While I have no reason to doubt this story, it is frustratingly short on details.

The first things to try to determine are when Ambrose Reed was born, and to whom. These both fall in the category of "Easier Said Than Done". As for Reed's date of birth, almost every public record I find has something different. He doesn't appear to be in the 1880 census, but is included in 1900, 1910, and 1920 (the 1890 census for Delaware was destroyed). In 1900, he was listed as 22 years old (but no month or year of birth shown). In 1910, it looks like 36. In 1920, he's 41, but the count was done earlier in the year, so this agrees with the 1900 number. If you assume the 1910 age to be a mistake, it puts his birth year as about 1878. This puts him in his mid to late teens when he likely began working for the Peach family in their clay business, which began in 1893.

The one document that throws everything for a loop is the death certificate shown below. The problem, obviously, is that it shows Ambrose Reed's DOB as being February 28, 1884. This is about 6 years later than the censuses indicate, and makes him only about 10 when the Peach Kaolin Company begins operations -- pretty young for an engineer even then, even if "engineer" may only have meant he was supervising a few workers and some machinery. The caveat, of course, is, "Is this the same Ambrose Reed?" Well, the 41 year old of the same name in the 1920 census was a laborer in a boat yard, and lived on the east side of Wilmington, where Pusey & Jones was located. He lived as a boarder with no family, so it's hard to tell for sure. Frustratingly, there is no mother's name listed on the death certificate, but there is a father's name -- Jerry Reed.

Remember when I mentioned that I had originally tracked another Ambrose Reed, one who turned out to be a different, older man? Well, that Ambrose -- whose family appears to have lived just northeast of Loveville, between Old Wilmington Road and Barley Mill Road -- had an older brother named Jerry. I'm unable to find Jerry Reed in the census after 1860, but I wonder how many black laborers were missed by the census at the time.

The only other possible census-related lead I could find was a Hannah Reed, listed in 1880 in the house of her father, Charles B. Brown. She is shown as married, but there is no husband in the household. She does have four children, one of which is a two year old boy named Jeremiah. It's admittedly a bit of a stretch, but this Jeremiah could be our Ambrose (with that as a middle name), named for his father (Jerry -- Jeremiah). Another problem with this is that Hannah (Brown) Reed was born in Pennsylvania in 1855, which means she could not have been born a slave, as slavery in PA was completely abolished by 1847.

The first time Ambrose Reed does, for sure, appear in the census record is in 1900, in the household of Abraham Dennison and his widowed sister Elizabeth Moore. Abraham and Elizabeth were, indeed, the children of James and Elizabeth Dennison, which does put Ambrose in the house Lake claims (James Dennison died in 1893, and his wife in 1899). The 1900 census lists Ambrose Reed as a laborer, but Levi B. Moore, Elizabeth's son, is shown as a clay worker, as are four other men on the same page. The Dennisons (James was the brother of Samuel Dennison) lived off of Limestone Road, just south of Paper Mill Road. The Peach clay pits were practically in their backyard. Here is a 1921 newspaper article about the Peach Kaolin Company.

By 1910, Ambrose was married 8 years to Emma Massey (note the marriage license above was signed by John Peach), had three children, and was still working in the clay yard, this time shown as so on the census. Assuming the man in the 1920 census was the same one, Ambrose left the Peach Kaolin Company sometime between 1910 and 1920. In 1916, the Peach family sold their business to a Philadelphia company which kept the Peach name. It's very possible that Ambrose left (or was forced out) at this time. There is really not much else that I was able to find.

Among the unanswered questions are:

Are my guesses about Ambrose and his family correct?
Was his mother really born a slave, or was this a later embellishment?
Why was he taken in by the Dennisons?
How much of an education did Ambrose receive?
Did he actually attend a Quaker school, and how unusual was this (for a black child to attend)?
What exactly did he do for the kaolin company?

Whether or not we ever find these answers, the story of Ambrose Reed is still an interesting and unusual one. It's also a good reminder that there was a fair bit of diversity in Mill Creek Hundred, even if some groups' stories are sometimes overlooked.

The Robinson-Highfield House

2011-10-24T16:23:00.002-04:00

Once in a while, we get really lucky and we'll have a great deal of information about a particular site -- who built it and when, who lived there, and a nice pile of background information about the residents. This ain't one of those sites. The Robinson-Highfield House (AFART note below), located on the northwest corner of Lancaster Pike and Loveville Road, has several very frustrating holes and ambiguities in its story. Instead of continuing to bang my head against this particular wall, I'll just lay out what I have been able to figure out about it, as well as what I haven't. And while we do know a good bit about this property, this is one of those instances where I'll have to accept that this is just a starting point for investigation into the house and its owners, and not a comprehensive history.

The first of the mysteries surrounding the Robinson-Highfield House is also the most basic -- When was it built? A 1999 DelDOT survey, which included information from earlier work in the area, states that the house was constructed in about 1850. While this is very possible, there are a couple of things that call this into question, although none of them are anything close to definitive. The first is that New Castle County Land Use records list the construction date of the house as 1820. I know that these records are notoriously inaccurate (as far as I know, they just list what someone tells them), but it makes me wonder if the owners have a specific reason for putting the date that early.

The second anomaly is that the 1849 Rea & Price map appears to show a house in the same location. Granted, this could be explained easily by the "about" part of "about 1850", but combined with the fact that someone thinks the house is several decades older than that at least raises the possibility that it is. Another odd thing about the 1849 map is that it does not have a name by the house. My guess is that it's because ownership of the property was in flux at the time the map was drawn. If the house was being built at this time, we do know by whom -- Aaron Robinson. Robinson also happens to be the next mystery in the story.

Loveville area in 1849. Arrow points to house site

Aaron Robinson (1787-1860) was 63 when he either built his new house or moved into an existing one. From the 1850 census, we also know that he lived there with his sister and brother-in-law, Rebecca and James McClellan, and their children Jacob and Margaret. Also in the household was 18 year old Nathan Chandler, a shoemaker like James McClellan, and probably an apprentice to him. There was known to have been a shoemaker's shop somewhere on the property, probably in the form of what was called a "ten footer". These were small shoe shops, usually about 10 feet by 10 feet, with everything more or less within arm's reach for the cobbler. No archaeological evidence was found for the location of the shop, but there are two main possibilities. It may have been located where a newer workshop now sits in the backyard (this would place it about where the 1868 Beers map shows it), or it could have been closer to Loveville Road, where its location would have been destroyed by the widening of the road.

As for Aaron Robinson himself, he's a bit of an enigma. Reminiscent of Thomas Justis and William Montgomery, while Aaron Robinson almost certainly is part of a well established local family, I can't seem to figure out exactly where he fits in. I've been unable to come up with any other information about him, even whether or not he was ever married or had a family. Even his occupation is not quite clear. The 1850 census lists him simply as a "Labourer", while the 1860 census (done months before his death) shows him as a "Fence maker". The only other thing we know for sure about him was that for about 10 years, he served as the postmaster for the Loveville Post Office, taking over in 1851 for the hamlet's namesake, Rev. Thomas Love. Except for what was probably a brief, emergency stint as postmistress by his niece Margaret McClellan, the next postmaster was also the next resident in the house -- Calvin W. Highfield.

In many frustrating ways, Calvin Highfield is much like his predecessor in the house. There are extensive histories of the Highfield family, but none of them seem to include Calvin. I was even sent a letter last year written in 1850 by a local member of the Highfields, sent from Loveville, but whose family's connection to Calvin's is unclear. In 1860, Calvin, a plasterer by trade, appears to be living in Marshallton, as two names down from his is Caleb Marshall, co-owner of the Marshall Iron Works. However, the 1850 census shows him and his family living near Loveville, probably on Old Wilmington Road. In 1862, they returned to this area, purchasing Aaron Robinson's home from his heirs. Soon after moving in, Calvin also took over as postmaster.

Although Calvin was not a shoemaker, the 1868 Beers map continues to show a shoe shop on the property. The 1870 census does, however, list a "boot & shoe maker" named Charles Culder (at least that's what it looks like) in the next household, so he may have been using it then. By 1880, Calvin's son Harlan was working as a harness maker. I don't know enough about the trade to say with any certainty, but it's at least possible that he may have used the old shoe shop for his work before he eventually moved to Hockessin.

According to one source, the Loveville Post Office was discontinued in 1872, with an Eva Highfield as postmistress. This probably refers to Ellen (or Elenor), Calvin's daughter, who presumably took over for her father at some point. These two were the last of the Highfields to reside in the house, and it was likely Ellen who was the daughter who sold the house in 1906, following Calvin's death, to William L. Shakespeare (not the writer). Five years later, Shakespeare sold the property to Harry Archer, and the Archer family still owns it today, although now it is a rental property.

The Robinson-Highfield House certainly has its share of mysteries to go along with its long past. Not even mentioned earlier, the Archers seem to have believed that the house may even have served as a tavern at one point, an idea probably linked with their earlier construction date for the house. Although there was an inn along the turnpike at least by 1820, it seems to have been a bit north of this property. Having said that, the possible early history of this house, much like several of its residents, has many holes yet to be filled in. I hope that over time, some of them can be added to this post.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

The DelDOT report refers to this property as the Loveville Post Office, but I don't think that's the best name for it. It only served as a PO for about 20 years, but the Highfields owned it much longer than that. Its function as a PO was always secondary to its much longer use as a residence.
The writers of the DelDOT report must not have ever looked at the 1850 census, because they seem to not know who the resident shoemaker was, and James McClellan's name is never mentioned (although his children's are).
The more I think about it, the more I think it's likely that Aaron Robinson didn't ever have children, and may never have married. The fact that he is absent from any Robinson family trees I've seen probably is a result of having no descendants to place him there. Sometimes only our children keep us from slipping into historical anonymity. Now, go hug your child or grandchild.
The stone wall in front of the house was built in the 1930's, when Lancaster Pike was widened.

Origins of the Name "Kiamensi"

2011-10-14T14:31:00.002-04:00

This won't be a particularly long post, but I figured I'd address the subject now, since Bill Harris' recent comment got me thinking about it. There have already been two separate sites featured on this blog that contain the name "Kiamensi" -- the Kiamensi Woolen Mill and the Kiamensi Spring Water Company. On top of that, Kiamensi was adopted as the name of the community that sprung up around the woolen mill, as well as the B&O Railroad depot nearby. And of course, it survives today as the name of the road that goes through the area, and in the name of several neighborhoods. But where did this sometimes tricky to spell and pronounce word come from?

If you said, "From the Indians," you'd be right. It does in fact derive from a Native American word, one of the few still to be found in Mill Creek Hundred ("Hockessin" being another). However, like much associated with the region's first inhabitants, some of the details are not quite clear, and there is some overly-romanticized myth thrown in for good measure.

The myth, which you may or may not be familiar with, is that Kiamensi was the name of a lovelorn Indian maiden (or princess) who threw herself into Red Clay Creek from a rock at "Lover's Leap". Why she did this and where exactly this "Lover's Leap" was, as far as I know, was not recorded. I think it's fair to say that the likelihood of this story being true is not particularly great. It does, however, probably explain the Native American girl on the Kiamensi Springs postcard seen on that post (I guess she's supposed to be Kiamensi).

What I think is far more likely to be the real etymology of "Kiamensi" deals more with native words than names. And instead of being the name of one person, it was actually the name of the entire creek, and possibly a settlement. There seems to be agreement and good documentation on the origin of the word, even if there's a slight disagreement on one of the details. The original Algonquian (or Delaware, or Leni Lenape, or Unami, depending on how precise you care to be) word was Hwiskakimensi. The Native Americans in the area referred to the Red Clay Creek as the Hwiskakimensi Sippus, "Sippus" meaning creek, or stream. The name Hwiskakimensi can be seen on this map by Swede Peter Lindestrom, printed in 1691, but probably drawn in about 1654 (the name is near the top, just under and before the "R" in "Revier").

Hwiskakimensi is made up of two Unami words, the second of which, mensi, means "tree". There seems to be two differing opinions, though, on the first part of the word. Usually the name is translated as "young tree", apparently from weski, meaning "young". This source, however, has a different etymology for it. I won't go through all the variations, but they translate it as "grape vine tree", so named for the abundance of grapes in the area. (Now, "the area" could mean anywhere in the vicinity of the creek, not necessarily in the Marshallton/Brandywine Springs region.)

I can't seem to find it again, but I believe I saw one reference to Hwiskakimensi as also being the possible name of a Native American settlement somewhere in the area. This would make sense if Hwiskakimensi was used to describe the general area. Also, as a final side note, this source states that another old name for Red Clay Creek was "Rodlers Creek". I had never heard that name before, and I can't seem to find anything about with a cursory search. If I ever do uncover more about this name, I'll be sure to pass it along. As usual, it seems every answered question raises at least one more unanswered one.

The Kiamensi Spring Water Company

2011-10-12T16:13:00.000-04:00

Kiamensi Spring Water Bottling Plant, 1908

One of the most heavily mocked (at least, by me) business models of the past few decades was bottled water. Only in late 20th Century America, so I thought, could a company expect people to pay good money for something they can get almost free at home. As it turns out though, bottled water is now a nearly $10 billion industry in the US alone (although sales have sagged a bit the last few years). It also turns out that it was far from a new idea -- our area was ahead of the curve by almost a century. In 1907, a new company was formed -- The Kiamensi Spring Water Company -- and began shipping its product from its source on the east bank of Red Clay Creek.

As one might expect, there are, in the vicinity of Brandywine Springs Park, quite a few natural springs. One, a chalybeate spring, was the impetus for a resort hotel, and later, an amusement park. Most of the springs in the area, though, are clear, clean, and fresh (or at least, they were a century ago). In 1907, while the amusement park was at the height of its popularity, several of its officers (including owner Richard Crook and VP L. Heisler Ball (in between stints as US Senator from Delaware)) decided to capitalize on one of these clear springs and market its waters directly to consumers. Considering the rather questionable state of municipal water supplies at the time, in conjunction with a public newly-aware of the dangers of germs and contamination, bottled spring water and beverages made from it were hot sellers.

The particular spring from which the Kiamensi Spring Water Company drew its product was located on the east side of Red Clay creek (ok, technically not in Mill Creek Hundred, but close enough for inclusion here), just south of where Hyde Run empties into it. The spring itself is down near the creek, at the base of an approximately 80 foot hillside. Down at the source of the spring, the company constructed a 15,000 gallon concrete reservoir with a 10x14 foot arched roof (as seen below in the postcard printed by George A. Wolf). This was meant to protect the purity of the water by keeping out surface drainage water and other airborne contaminants. Nearby, a pumphouse (seen just above the reservoir) equipped with a two-horsepower gasoline engine pumped the water up the hillside to the bottling plant above.

The bottling plant (seen in the picture at the top of the page) at the top of the hill had a sealed wooden vat with a capacity of 10,000 gallons, and the plant could bottle that much in a day. The water was originally sold in containers of one-half, one, two, and five gallons. Later it would also be sold in individual 8 ounce and one quart bottles. The company prided itself on the thoroughness of the cleaning and sterilization process for the bottles and jugs, and often featured it in its newspaper ads. The reason for the bottling plant to be built up above the spring was twofold: 1) The way Red Clay Creek floods, building right along it was no better an idea then than it is now, and 2) More importantly, that's where the trolley tracks were.

Less than ten years before, the Peoples Railway, after a decade-long court battle, finally began service from Wilmington to Brandywine Springs Amusement Park. Before entering the park, the trolley tracks ran along the top of the hillside on the east side of the creek (behind Faulkland Heights and Spice Mill Lane), and right above the spring. With the aid of a special freight car, Kiamensi Spring Water was transported via the trolley line into Wilmington where it was sold. Here is an ad from July 1907, soon after they started shipping, touting the cleanliness of the water and inviting the public to tour the bottling plant themselves. This article from the same 1907 newspaper details a special trolley trip earlier that week, organized by the Kiamensi Company, in which press, businessmen, and physicians were given a tour of the plant.

It didn't take long though, before the trolley line was no longer sufficient to carry the spring water to market. Within a few years, a larger loading platform was built along the Wilmington & Western (by then, the Landenberg Branch of the B&O) railroad tracks on the west side of the creek. In order to transport the cases of water from the bottling plant across the Red Clay to the train platform, an overhead cable system was installed.

On a recent visit to this part of the site (which sits between the railroad tracks and the creek), I believe I (and a friend) found the large footers for the west end of the cable system. Additionally, there were many (maybe 15-20) smaller concrete footers that must have been for the loading platform. What this structure looked like I don't know, but the footers suggested some sort of an "L"-shaped layout. The ground in the footprint of the structure was almost literally covered in broken bottles. The shards (there was not one whole bottle that we could find) were obviously from the 8-ounce bottles -- some green, some brown. Neither kind appeared to have anything on the front, but the brown bottles were embossed with "Kiamensi Water" on the bottom, as seen below [I'll try to get a better picture when I can].

By 1914, the Kiamensi brand name had become well established -- so well established, in fact, that the company was purchased by a larger corporation, the National Table Waters Company. This new parent company continued to sell the water under the same name, even broadening its market (as seen in this 1915 ad from The Pittsburgh Press). Clear spring water continued to be gathered and bottled here until around 1925, about which time operations ceased at the Kiamensi spring. Why exactly it was shut down is unclear, but it's possible that the bottled water market may have been in decline at the time. Now, all that remains are a few ruins on either side of Red Clay Creek. And a lot of broken glass.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

The corporate synergy between the amusement park, trolley line, and spring water company is not all that surprising when you realize they were all owned and operated by the same group of men.
If you doubt the effectiveness at the time of advertising the health benefits of a product, check out the Hartmann & Fehrenbach beer ad next to the 1907 Kiamensi ad. It must have been effective, because even though Brandywine Springs was a "dry park", in our archaeological digs there we've uncovered many Hartmann & Fehrenbach bottles. You can't argue with science.
The Dr. Albert Robin who made a speech during the 1907 press tour seems to be the same man who was in charge of the Brandywine Sanatarium, soon to move to MCH and later become Emily Bissell Hospital.
Here are a couple more Kiamensi newspaper ads: a large one from 1909 complete with testimonial from a doctor who was on the 1907 trip, one from 1911 noting that their offices had moved, and one from 1912 touting its purity (and incidentally, from the day the Titanic began to sink).
A larger (maybe one gallon?) Kiamensi Water jug is on display at the HRCV Visitor's Center at the WWRR's Greenbank Station.

The Adventurous Hettie Dickey

2011-10-06T16:32:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I think we develop this picture of Victorians as being very staid, never-step-out-of-line, do-what-they're-told kind of people, especially Victorian women (the occasional Lizzie Borden notwithstanding). And while that certainly was not always the case, it probably was more often than not, which is what makes a story like Hettie Dickey's newsworthy at the time, whereas now she would just be that weird cousin that no one wants to talk about.

The first time I ran across Hettie Dickey was this newspaper article from 1895, which details the young Stanton woman's trek halfway across the country to Chicago earlier in the year. You can read the article in its entirety, but I'll try to briefly summarize it here. In the early afternoon of March 24, the 26 year old Hettie donned her brother's suit (which she had stowed away in the woodshed), and walked from her house in Stanton towards the B&O station at Kiamensi. From there, she walked westward along the tracks, then across some fields until she arrived in Newark. In Newark, she boarded a train to Baltimore, then another to Chicago.

By the time she reached Chicago, she had almost no money, and ended up sleeping in a lumber yard and in a vacant boxcar. After several weeks of being outside in Chicago in April -- and passing herself off as a man the entire time -- she fell ill and ended up being taken to Cook County Hospital. There, after having her brother's ill-fitting shoes (along with a good bit of skin) removed from her feet, the doctors unsurprisingly made the discovery that she was a woman. After finally admitting her true identity, her family was notified, and five months later she returned home.

Until I started looking into this again, I had figured that this was pretty much the entire story -- Girl looks for adventure, runs away from home, then returns after realizing how tough the world is. (The exception being the cryptic sentence, "It appears that for years she has had an overwhelming desire to be a man".) However, I soon learned that not only was this but one chapter in the story, it was a middle chapter, to boot. This article here, from October 1899, shows that Hettie's Chicago trip was far from an isolated incident. It was, in fact, the second of six such journeys she undertook in as many years.

While there are a few discrepancies between the accounts, by taking them all into consideration (including this one, a fuller account of the Chicago trip, found about 2/3 of the way down the page) we can get a bit of a better insight into what drove Miss Dickey to roam about the country -- and roam she did. Her first sojourn (which the article states was in 1893, but was probably a year later, as we know the Chicago trip was in 1895) was to Norfolk, Virginia, and its purpose was not just to "see the world as a man". Actually, it was to see a man. And at this point, we need to go back and say a few things about our protagonist.

Hettie Dickey was born in Stanton in 1869 to Charles Hayes (1833-1902) and Elizabeth (1833-1900) Dickey. Her father was a cooper, and probably fashioned barrels for the grist mill in Stanton (and maybe others in the area, too). As shown on the map below (an inset from the 1868 Beers map), they lived on the north side of Main Street, a few houses down from Charles' (who often went by Hayes) brother, Benjamin. In 1882, Charles left the coopering trade to open a mercantile store, possibly going into business with Benjamin, who had been a shopkeeper in Stanton for years.

Stanton -- 1868

Although several of the newspaper stories state that the Dickeys were Methodist, it seems clear that they were actually Presbyterian. In 1888, both Charles and Benjamin were officers of the Stanton Presbyterian Church, and many are buried at White Clay Creek Presbyterian. Hettie, though, actually did have a conversion, and it seems to have been at least one of the driving forces behind her escapades. In 1894 (or possibly, '93), she was introduced to the Seventh-day Adventists.

She seems to have taken to the Adventist message, and more specifically, to an Adventist minister. It was he for whom she was looking in Norfolk on her first trip away from home in 1894. Her next trip was the Chicago one, which also included a stay in an insane asylum. Next up after that (in either 1896 or 1897) was a tour of Philadelphia, Boston, and New York, which concluded with another hospital stay, this time New York's Bellevue Hospital.

After returning home and reading about the conditions for steelworkers, Hettie decided to visit Pittsburgh (still masquerading as a man). In 1898, she "made a tour of all the prominent seaside resorts of the Atlantic coast", including three weeks in Atlantic City. Her final road trip (at least as of 1899) was of the Southern states, including a stay in New Orleans.

The true reason behind her travels is never quite clear. She talks about wanting to see the world as a man, and did in fact travel as a man. (Not a new concept, to be sure. There are plenty of stories of women serving in the army during the Civil War, often not discovered until being wounded.) However, I don't see any way that her affinity for the Seventh-day Adventists doesn't play into it somehow. Several of the articles make mention of it, including the one below, which dates from just after she left home on the Chicago trip. And though the 1899 article makes it sound like she's ready to settle into a "normal" life, I found a 1903 Adventist newsletter (page 6) that lists Hettie Dickey as having donated items to a school, so we know she retained her ties for at least a few more years.

Frustratingly, I was unable to find any record of her after that. I don't know when or where she died, or if she ever made any more trips about the country. We'll probably never know exactly drove Hettie Dickey to don her brother's clothes and set out alone on her (at least) six separate journeys. Whatever it was, it certainly made her one of the more colorful residents to ever to call Stanton home.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

I'm not even sure exactly what Hettie's given first name is. In the 1870 census, the one year old is listed as Ester. In Runks, she's listed as Harriet.
What ever happened to the Stanton Presbyterian Church? As of 1888, Scharf states there were only ten communicants, so I assume it closed sometime not long after.
If anyone finds anything more about Hettie Dickey, please let us know. I'd love to know what became of her.

Rea and Price 1849 Map

2011-09-29T16:19:00.000-04:00

I recently ran across something on the interwebs that was just too cool not to pass along -- at least in my own odd sense of the word "cool". A while back, I did a post about the 1868 Beers map, which is probably the historical map I use the most in my research. Besides the fact that it's a very fine map (and colorful, too!), one of the reasons I use it so much is the simple fact that I have all of it in one place. For all the other maps, I only had various bits and pieces of them culled from different places -- some totalling more or less the entire area, some with gaps. Now, however, I've found a full version of my second favorite map, the 1849 Rea and Price map.

I don't know when they put it up, but sometime recently the New Castle Community History and Archaeology Program (NC-CHAP) posted a full-sized, high resolution, zoomable version of the map. You can find this version here. To be honest, since even the best copies I had seen of the map were in black and white, I didn't even know that the original was in color. It's actually a beautiful map, in its own way.

Like the 1868 Beers map, this one also shows the locations of the major landowners' houses, which is certainly the most useful feature of these maps. Additionally, it shows other points of interest, like schools, churches, mills, inns, and even a few stores. And of course, this one is a generation earlier than the Beers map. The version on the NC-CHAP site is fabulous in that it's complete (the whole county), a high resolution scan, and zoomable.

Besides showing all the hundreds of New Castle County, the map also has an inset of Wilmington. One interesting note about the Wilmington inset ties in with a point raised recently in comments about the NCC Bus Route Map. If you look on the west side of the city, there is a little section called Washington Village that sits on the south side of Delaware Avenue. This was a proposed housing tract that was talked about for years, but ultimately never built. Including it on this map seems to have been a bit of wishful thinking.

All in all, I don't really have much else to say about the map, except that this is a fantastic version of the oldest detailed map of MCH (there's an 1820 map that I've seen, but it contains only a fraction of the information of this one). My gratitude goes to NC-CHAP for making this map available -- I've already ~~wasted~~ spent lots of time wandering through it. And if you're interested in any aspect of the history of Old New Castle, check out their site. There's a lot good stuff there.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

I think "zoomable" is now my new favorite word
The red squares around the schools were done by NC-CHAP, and were not part of the original map.
If you look in the upper righthand corner of the map, there's a table with demographic information broken down by hundred, as well as a key to some of the abbreviations used on the map.

Samuel Dennison House

2011-09-27T19:48:00.001-04:00

The Samuel Dennison House in 1986

A lot of the historic houses and locations of Mill Creek Hundred featured on this site lately have been in quiet, secluded, out-of-the-way places. That doesn't mean that all of them are, of course, and Limestone Road, being one of the oldest roads in the area, has more than a few old homes still lining its path north to the farmland of Pennsylvania. Several of these sites have already been featured, like the Harmony School, the Mermaid Tavern, the Aquilla Derrickson House, and the McKennan-Klair House. This time, we'll take a look at a house a slight bit younger than these, but still no youngster at 135 years old -- the Samuel Dennison House.

The Dennison House is located just north of Papermill Road, about 130 feet back from the west side of Limestone Road (it once sat closer to the road, until Limestone Rd. was widened and realigned in 1964). It's a 2 1/2 story, five-bay house built of local fieldstone, although it is plastered everywhere except the front. It was built in the "Georgian I" style, with one large room on either side of a central stairhall. An ell protrudes from the north half of the rear of the house, and was probably built at or about the same time as the house, which was erected in the centennial year of 1876. The builder of the house, Samuel Dennison, was by no means a newcomer to the property. In fact, he and his family had lived there for more than 50 years before he upgraded to his big, new, stone home.

The original Dennison owner of the property was Samuel's father, Robert Dennison (c1787-1845). Robert grew up and began farming in Chester County, before moving to Mill Creek Hundred sometime around 1820. After spending several years leasing various farms, Robert purchased a 96 acre tract from Richard Chambers in 1824. Robert (along with wife Lydia and children Mary, Samuel, James, Rachel, and John) was a bit of a minority in MCH at the time -- he was a Baptist. After their passings in 1845 and 1868 respectively, Robert and Lydia were buried at what must have been their home church, London Tract Baptist in Chester County (I don't believe there was a Baptist church in MCH at the time).

Upon Robert's death, the family farm was briefly sold, but then quickly re-acquired by his son Samuel Dennison (1812-1899), who had lived on it since the age of 12. When purchased by Samuel and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Harlan, the property contained a log house and a frame barn, probably built by Robert soon after arriving in 1824. In this log house, Samuel and Elizabeth raised six children -- five boys and one girl. It wasn't until until most of the boys had reached manhood that Samuel went about replacing the (at least) 50 year old log home of his father. In 1876 (commemorated by a datestone in the gable), he erected the stone house we see today, presumably removing the log house.

Aerial view of the house today

It doesn't seem, though, that Samuel put off building his new home because of any prior lack of financial success. In fact, he seems to have done quite well, purchasing several other tracts in the area. One property just north of his (which he had owned for at least 20 years), on the west side of Limestone Road south of Brackenville Road, was sold in 1888 to his son Robert P. Dennison. It also seems likely that Samuel purchased the old Simon Hadley farm for son Harlan.

In 1894, the 82 year old Samuel finally sold the family farm to his son John W. Dennison (1847-1900), who, like Samuel, remained there the rest of his life. When John died in 1900, the house and farm went next to his son Frank G. Dennison (1880-1955). The last Dennisons to work the land, Frank G.'s sons Frank, Jr. and Howard, continued to operate it as a poultry farm, as established by their father. The property was finally sold out of the family in 1977.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

While there's no way to prove it one way or the other, it's at least within the realm of possibility that this property could have been part of the Walter Thetford property mentioned in a previous post. Robert Dennison bought the land from Richard Chambers, whose family was based to the west in the area of White Clay Creek State Park. The Chambers' also owned land just to the south of Dennisons.
This National Register of Historic Places nomination form has some more detailed information, especially concerning the architecture of the house, as well as more photographs. The form was completed in the mid 1980's in conjunction with roadwork being done by DelDOT. To the best of my knowledge, the house was never accepted by the National Register.
Runks has more information about the Dennison family.

New Castle County Bus Map

2011-09-22T11:26:00.000-04:00

Circa 1940 Bus Route Map (photo by Mike Ciosek)

You know how sometimes when you're not even thinking about a problem and BAM!, out of nowhere, a flash of inspiration comes to you? That's what happened to me a week or two ago when I (belatedly) realized I might have a resource to answer some questions raised by a few previous posts. This goes back again to the discussion about trolley and bus service in Mill Creek Hundred, triggered by the picture on this post, which then spawned this one. The resource I finally thought of dates to the time just after tracked trolley service ended, but while trolley coaches (or trackless trolleys) still plied the roads along with gasoline buses. What it is specifically is a map showing the routes of those services in New Castle County.

The large, wall-mounted map (probably about 4ft x 5ft) is located in the back video room at the Red Clay Valley Visitor's Center, at the Wilmington & Western Railroad's Greenbank Station. The map, while not exactly hidden, is not in a position where it is viewed by most who visit the museum. It's also somewhat unique in the collection in that it's one of the few bus-related items. That being said, I think it's a fascinating piece, and one that I've spent quite a bit of time just staring at.

Unfortunately, there is no date on the map, but I can narrow it down to about a 6 or 7 year span. There are no tracked trolley routes shown on the map, and the last of these, the Maryland Ave line to Silview, was converted to a trolley coach line in 1940, so it's no older than that. On the ether end, my house was built in 1946-7, and my street and neighborhood are not present on the map. In the bottom right corner there are four rusted thumbtacks that probably once held a card with more information about the map, but the card is long gone. There is no other identification on the map that would indicate who made it, where it was originally displayed, or when it was created.

Section showing Stanton and Marshallton (photo by Mike Ciosek)

Although the whole map is full of interesting things, the section most relevant to our purposes is the part shown above. For one thing, it shows the descendant of the Stanton trolley line, which by this time was a combination trolley coach line (from the city to Silview) and a gasoline bus line (that also included a stretch of Newport Gap Pike and Boxwood Rd). The bus route to Stanton terminated at the bridge over White Clay Creek, which right in this era (1942, to be exact) was being rebuilt as the concrete rainbow bridge.

In addition to the Stanton line, there was another bus route that more or less followed Kirkwood Highway from Wilmington to Newark. On its way, the bus passed through Marshallton via Old Capitol Trail, instead of taking the newly-built section of Kirkwood Highway. In this area, there was a branch that took Greenbank Road, and even a loop up to the Cedars. South of Marshallton, there was a short spur that went down Stanton Road, turning around just before the railroad tracks and the old Kiamensi Station (which probably was not there/in operation by then, but I don't know the exact date it was taken out of service).

All this only scratches the surface of what's on this map. If you want to see it in person, the Visitor's Center museum is open from 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM any day that the trains are running. Check the Wilmington & Western's website for schedules. If anyone knows anything more about this map, or can remember seeing anything like it before, let us know. Feel free to chime in with any other questions or comments about anything else you find interesting about it, too. There's certainly plenty to look at.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

I might be able to narrow the date of the map a year or two more. The airport is identified as the "New Castle County Airbase", which may imply that it was made sometime during WWII, but I don't know enough to state that for certain.
This page at OldWilmington.net has lots of good pictures of trolleys, trolley coaches, and buses.
There are a number of white circles with holes in them on the map, which appear to have been thumbtacks. I have no idea what they might have been for. They could have been marking specific locations (although I don't see a pattern), or they could have (with some string) marked some other sort of routes.
Thanks to Mike Ciosek for ~~playing with his new toy~~ taking the pictures of the map.
With a hat tip to Donna Peters, here is an ad placed by the Delaware Coach Company in the December 3, 1944 edition of The Sunday Morning Star (roughly about the same time the map was produced). It gives a brief history of public transportation in Wilmington from 1864 to 1944. The Delaware Coach Co. was the descendant of the Wilmington City Railway Co. and the Wilmington and Philadelphia Traction Co. It was formed in the 1930's when the trolley companies were forced by FDR's New Deal legislation to divest themselves from their power holdings. Before that, because the trolleys were electric, many trolley comapnies also produced electricity.

The Lost Village of Roaringtown?

2011-09-20T13:48:00.000-04:00

From frequent contributor of helpful, interesting, and sometimes frustrating information Donna Peters, comes this excerpt from the April 12, 1753 edition of The Pennsylvania Gazette:

BY virtue of his majestywrit of venditioni exponas to me directed, on Saturday, the 28th inst. will be sold, by publick vendue, at Roaringtown, in Mill creek hundred, New Castle county, A tract of land, containing upwards of 300 acres, divided into 2 plantations; each plantation has valuable improvements, and is situated on the publick road which leads from Conestogo to Newport, and White clay creek landings, being convenient for either store or tavern, and is but 4 miles distant from divers places of Divine Worship (or from said landing) and lies commodious to sundry merchant mills, is in a very healthy part of the country, well water, and has many other good conveniences. Also on said day will be sold, A house and lot of ground, containing one acre, near White clay creek landing; the whole being the property of Walter Thetford; taken in execution at the suit of sundry creditors, and to be sold at ten a clock on said day, as per conditions to be exhibited, by GEORGE MONRO, Sheriff.

There are a few things I can make a bit more clear from this public notice (I'll get to those in a moment), but rising far above all those is this: Roaringtown? Over the past few years, I've read a fair amount about the history of Mill Creek Hundred and of Delaware in general -- not as much as some, but more than most. In all that I've read, I can honestly say I've never seen so much as a passing mention to a "Roaringtown". Has anyone else? I can't even think of anything remotely close that this could be an alternate spelling for. Is it possible that this is some sort of lost community of the mid-18th Century, whose name all but vanished from the historical record? I did a cursory search for the name, and the only Roaringtown that comes up was an old village in Cumberland County, PA, just north of Harrisburg. Nothing else.

There are a couple of other possibilities that come to mind that could explain this. One is that it could have been a briefly-used name for a hamlet we're familiar with, like Milltown, Stanton (Cuckoldstown/Cocclestown), or Milford Crossroads. If it is, it's one I've never run across. Just about the only other thing I can come up with is that, even though the very name would imply otherwise, "Roaringtown" might have been a specific place, like an estate or a tavern, rather than an actual town. This, though, doesn't feel right, either.

I don't know whether it'll help or not, but I can fill in a few holes in the rest of the ad. The man whose property is being sold by the Sheriff (likely due to bankruptcy) was Walter Thetford, and I may have a little on him. If this is the same man, a Walter Thetford married Rebecca Rammage in Philadelphia, in 1733. She was probably from Philadelphia, but it's unclear where Thetford lived. In any case, the excerpt below, also from The Philadelphia Gazette, establishes that he lived in Delaware by at least 1744, the date of the notice:

Run away on the 30th of May, from Walter THETFORD, of Newcastle County, a servant man, named Henry RADMONT, fair hair, whitish complexion. Had on when he went away, a blue jacket, and another huckaback double breasted, drawers of the same, half peak toe'd shoes. There went away with him a Freeman, called Patrick SILVER, native Irish; he deluded him away, and it is thought took some goods with him that was not his own. Had on a brown coat of broad cloth, a jacket of the same of the others and same fashion both jacket and drawers.

Any person that takes up said servant, and brings him to Joseph RAMAGE, or secures them so that they may be had, shall have three pounds, and reasonable charges, paid by Walter THETFORD.

Joseph Ramage is likely Walter's father-in-law or brother-in-law. I can find no other references to Thetford in Delaware, or to his properties here. Of those properties being sold off in 1753, one is a house and one acre lot near "White Clay Creek Landing", which was a wharf located behind the Hale-Byrnes House southwest of Stanton. The other, larger tract was along Limestone Road about four miles north, which would put it (very roughly) in the area between Stoney Batter Road and Paper Mill Road.

After having his property seized by the Sheriff, Thetford moved south to Orange County, North Carolina, to roughly the same area where members of other MCH families (like the Hadleys, Dixons, and Brackens) were headed in about the same period. There, in 1767 -- surrounded by a family that also included children Josias, William, Simon, and Deborah -- Walter Thetford died. Apart from his will (he apparently rebuilt his estate, as he willed several large tracts to his children), I can find nothing else about Walter Thetford.

All of that, though, is pretty much just an aside to the main question -- What was Roaringtown? It could be anything from a lost community to a misprint in an 18th Century newspaper. As I said, I've never heard of it before. I'm hoping that someone else has, or maybe someday someone will run across another mention of it that will shed some more light. If anyone has an ideas or theories, the floor's open....

Another Blaze at the Fr. Kenny Farm

2011-09-16T11:30:00.000-04:00

I would be remiss if I didn't call attention to this story from last weekend, in case anyone missed it. In what is now becoming a disturbing pattern, there was yet another fire at the abandoned Mundy Farm, also known as the Rev. Patrick Kenny Farm. This time, the fire was located in the large, stone barn that looms over the site where Fr. Kenny's house once stood. The historic 1812 house was destroyed in a fire on February 10, 2010. That blaze was determined to have been arson, and in September 2010, two teenage boys were convicted of setting the fire.

This most recent fire occurred last Sunday, September 11, as many of the firefighters were preparing for a memorial service at the Delcastle Recreation Area in remembrance of the 343 firefighters lost in the 9/11 attacks. The fire was extinguished in about a half an hour, but did "significant damage" to the structure. The barn, the original part of which was constructed by Rev. Kenny soon after he took up residence in his new home and which was expanded several times over the years, was thankfully still standing after the ordeal. The only question is, for how long?

It's been well documented that the owners of the property would like to develop the site, and now with the house gone and the barn heavily damaged, I wouldn't put much money on the long-term survivability of the site. Thankfully, the adjacent cemetery and site of the first Coffee Run Mission is a separate parcel, still owned by the Catholic Church. Again, to me, this is another reminder that these historic structures we have are not guaranteed to always be here, and that we need to study and appreciate them while we can.

Update 10/13/2011:

The News Journal is reporting today that "Two Hockessin-area boys, ages 15 and 16, have been charged with arson and conspiracy in a Sept. 11 fire that burned a vacant barn...". Where have I heard this before?

Samuel P. Dixon House

2011-09-14T15:48:00.001-04:00

Samuel P. Dixon House, 1986

Sitting very close to Barley Mill Road, just south of Brackenville Road, is what was, until recently, a simple, four-bay fieldstone house. Along with a large stone barn and a springhouse, it represents yet another relic from what was once one of the most prominent families in the northeastern part of Mill Creek Hundred -- the Dixons. Along with the Dixon-Jackson House and the Dixon-Wilson House (both in Hockessin), the Samuel P. Dixon House dates from the time when the descendants of Irishman William Dixon owned large tracts of land in the area.

Although from the front (not including the new large addition on the far side, not shown in the picture above) the house looks like one uniform structure, it was actually built in two stages, probably in succeeding generations. The original section (the left half in the picture above) was built about 1791, and was a two-bay, single room plan common among Quakers of the time. Several decades later, likely by the son of the original builder, the western addition was added, effectively doubling the size of the house.

Originally, the two first floor center bays were doorways, but at some point the left one was partially filled and converted into a window. Besides the fact that the windows are not evenly spaced across the front, the divide between the sections is also apparent from the slightly different colored stones used. Much more recently, in the 1990's, a large perpendicular addition was built on the east end of the house (away from the road). Great care was apparently given in having the new section blend with the older house. The stone used blends seamlessly from the old sections to the new. Frankly, if there were not an older (pre-addition) picture, I would wonder why the National Register of Historic Places form from 1986 never mentioned it.

Newer view of the front of the house

As stated, the house was built by, and for many years owned by, members of the Dixon family, whose presence in the area dates to about 1730. There seems to be a slight bit of confusion about the early history of the family, but it appears that for the most part all the Dixons remaining in MCH were descended from John Dixon, the builder of the Dixon-Wilson House, and then through his son, Isaac. While Isaac's son John remained in the house on Valley Road, another of his sons, Jehu Dixon (1755-1807), purchased land on the eastern end of the hundred and erected a fine stone house for himself and his family.

So it was Jehu Dixon who built the original section of the house, which according to Runk's Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware, he did in 1791. I don't know that this date is corroborated archaeologically, but the style of the house is consistent with that era. After Jehu's death in 1807, his wife, Mary Taylor Dixon, continued to work the farm, presumably with the help of family or hired farm hands. Jehu and Mary's only living son, Samuel P. Dixon (1800-1879), eventually took over the farm, and lived there the rest of his life.

Samuel P. Dixon's c.1830 stone barn

Samuel P. Dixon, it seems likely, was the one responsible for the first addition to the house, probably in the later 1820's. It was also at about this same time that Samuel erected the beautiful stone barn that still graces the property. And not only was he a successful farmer, but he was politically involved in the community, too, serving two terms on the Levy Court of New Castle County. (The Levy Court was an elected body charged with raising and disbursing tax money in the county -- somewhat of a forerunner of the County Counsel.) Sometime around 1822, Samuel married Mary Beeson, with whom he would have nine children. Their seventh child, and first son, was Samuel C., born in 1837.

Samuel C. Dixon (1837-1910) was born on the family farm and would eventually die there, but for most of a thirty year stretch in between he would venture out of Mill Creek Hundred. In 1859, Samuel C. moved to Coatesville, PA to join his brother William in business making farm implements. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he enlisted in the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, with whom he would remain until nearly six months after the end of the war, in 1865. He was wounded several times, captured once, and promoted all the way to Captain. His regiment took part in numerous major battles, as well as accompanying Gen. Sherman on his march to Atlanta. Runks has an even more detailed account of Dixon's service, which seems to be enough to make a movie out of.

After leaving the army, Samuel C. returned home for a couple of years to work the family's farm along with his father. In 1867 he moved to North Carolina to run a lumber business in which he had heavily invested, and which three years later folded, taking with it his entire fortune. He then came back north, and took work in Kennett Square as a carpenter, later moving to Wilmington to work for Jackson and Sharp, presumably doing carpentry on railroad cars. In 1888, Samuel finally came home to Ashland to run the family farm again, which his three sisters had been doing for the previous nine years following Samuel P.'s death.

Samuel C. Dixon remained on the farm after his wife Ella passed away in 1892. In 1900, Samuel was still running the farm, along with the help of several of his children. By the 1910 census (completed just months before his death), it appears that he's still on the farm, but his son-in-law Samuel Way (married to daughter Mary) is the Head of Household. I couldn't find the Ways in 1920, but in 1930 they lived just to the east in Christiana Hundred, on Owls Nest Road. It seem that the the old house, built by Samuel C. Dixon's grandfather Jehu, may have passed out of the family's hand upon his death in 1910. By the look of it now, the subsequent owners took excellent care of the property, up to and including the recent addition. The circa 1791 house and 1830 stone barn look as great today as they did generations ago when the Dixons worked the land.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

There doesn't seem to be a consensus about the facts relating to Isaac Dixon. To me, it makes more sense that he's the son of John Dixon of Hockessin, but Runks states that he was born in New Castle, and lived in Christiana Hundred. However, I know there are readers of this site who have access to more Friends records and/or have distant connections to the Dixons. Maybe we can finally settle this for certain.
The Dixons were all Friends up through Samuel P.'s generation, and were buried at the Hockessin Meeting House. Samuel C., however, was a Presbyterian and is intered with his wife at the Union Hill Cemetery in Kennett Square, her hometown.

The Trolley Comes to Stanton

2011-09-06T16:29:00.001-04:00

Since the picture at the right seems to have generated a good bit of interest, I thought I'd share a few quick notes on the trolley shown travelling down Main Street (today's Route 4). This image is one of only two I know of showing the trolley in Stanton (if I ever find the other one again, I'll post it). There were, at one time, three different trolley lines serving various parts of Mill Creek Hundred. Two were somewhat related, but we'll focus here on the third, and southernmost, line in the hundred.

The first two trolley lines to be run into MCH -- the West Chester, Kennett and Wilmington (AKA, the Kennett Trolley) and the Peoples Trolley -- were both created more or less from scratch to serve the Brandywine Springs Amusement Park. The third line, which just barely made it into the southeastern portion of the hundred, can trace its lineage back to the early 1890's, when the Wilmington City Railway Co. built a new route that included part of Maryland Avenue. At first it went only as far as Linden St. (where I-95 now passes overhead), but within a year it was extended to Beech, and then as far as 6th Ave. It wasn't until 10 years later, in 1901, that the line would be extended out of the city.

On September 16, 1901, regular service began to Newport on the Maryland Ave. line, with every third car continuing down Maryland Ave./Route 4 to Newport. The other cars terminated at 9th Ave, at the Wilmington city line. The line did very well (it would be the Wilmington City Railway's only successful suburban line), and was soon separated from the Maryland Ave. line. Over the the next few months, the line would be slowly extended westward -- to the middle of Newport by October 29, and to the far end of town by November 19. The next extension -- to Red Clay Creek east of Stanton -- opened for business on December 23, 1901.

What would turn out to be the final extension of the line -- through Stanton -- saw its regular service commence on April 18 or 19, 1902. The track continued westward along the Wilmington and Christiana Turnpike (Rt 4) from the Red Clay Creek bridge, along Main Street through Stanton, and finally terminated at Telegraph Road. In the spring of 1902 there were rumors that the line would be extended to Newark, but that was never done. By this point, cars were running out to Stanton from 4th and Market Streets in Wilmington, taking about 30 minutes to complete the trip.

In late 1910, this line also began servicing the new neighborhood of Richardson Park, located at Maryland Ave. and Dupont Road. 10-minute service was provided from Richardson Park to Wilmington, with every third car continuing to Stanton. 10-minute service was extended to Newport by 1915, at least during rush hours. This particular suburban trolley line was fairly profitable in its day, but the days of the suburban trolleys were numbered. By the 1920's, trolley companies knew that they would not be able to keep expanding suburban and interurban lines.

I have been unable to find an exact date for the termination of trolley service from Wilmington to Stanton. Service was discontinued between Newport and Silview (just west of Newport) in 1932 or 1933, but the implication is that service further west was already stopped by that point. It may be that service to Stanton was terminated around the same time that the Wilmington and Philadelphia Traction Co (now the owner of the trolley line) organized the Delaware Bus Co. as a subsidiary. The first bus line, running from Wilmington to Newark, began service on May 1, 1925. It's quite possible that this bus route took over the furthest reaches of the trolley line since, even though I can't find its exact route, it probably would have run through Stanton.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

The trolley cars that operated on the line to Stanton, at least for the first few years, were equipped with two headlights to try to avoid hitting wayward cows on the tracks during dark hours.
At the time the picture above was likely taken, the trolley car probably would have had some sort of an orange/yellow/cream color scheme.
With a hat tip to Donna Peters, here is an ad placed by the Delaware Coach Company in the December 3, 1944 edition of The Sunday Morning Star (Wilmington). It gives a brief history of public transportation in Wilmington from 1864 to 1944. The Delaware Coach Co. was the descendant of the Wilmington City Railway Co. and the Wilmington and Philadelphia Traction Co. It was formed in the 1930's when the trolley companies were forced by FDR's New Deal legislation to divest themselves from their power holdings. Before that, because the trolleys were electric, many trolley comapnies also produced electricity.

Historical Floodings of the Red Clay and White Clay

2011-09-02T15:14:00.000-04:00

Flooding in Marshallton, 1938 -- courtesy LRCV Blog

After seeing Red Clay Creek jump its banks yet again last weekend, this time thanks to Hurricane Irene*, I thought I'd take this opportunity to highlight a few other instances from the historical record of flooding in the area. It certainly seems like there have been quite a few major floods in the past dozen years or so, but flooding in the Red Clay Valley is not anything new. There may be more of them now, but living and working along the creek has always been a risky proposition. This post is by no means a comprehensive list, just a few examples I could find documentation for.

* -- The Lower Red Clay Valley blog has some great pictures and videos of the August 27-28 flooding in Marshallton. You can find them here and here.

The first one took place on January 25-26, 1839, and was one of the most violent floods seen in the area at the time. This article in a Baltimore newspaper a week later gives some of the details. The Brandywine seems to have been the hardest hit by the freshet, no doubt fueled by heavy rain and melting snow. Among other damage in Wilmington, the first covered bridge over the Brandywine on North Market Street, built only a few years prior, was washed away. Of more interest to us, though, is the mention, however brief, of flooding along the Red and White Clay Creeks. More specifically, it makes mention of two railroad bridges affected by the raging waters. At first this had me a bit confused, but then after looking at some old maps, I think I know what the article is referring to.

The railroad in question is the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore (PW&B), whose history was briefly outlined in a previous post. The Delaware section of the line opened only 18 months prior to this flooding. What's confusing is that it mentions bridges over the White Clay and the Red Clay. The White Clay bridge is likely the covered railroad bridge mentioned in the other post, and located in the same place where the Amtrak line currently crosses the creek. (The article even references the bridge's "wooden superstructure", presumably meaning the covered enclosure.) However, the line does not at any point cross Red Clay Creek.

After looking at some old maps (including the 1849 map below), I realized that what they're actually talking about is a small tributary called "Old Red Clay Creek", not the main creek itself. This creek is still there (it starts up around Delcastle High School), but it seems it was probably larger then than it is now. Apparently it was large enough to wash away a railroad bridge less than two years old. As a side note, you can also see on the map S(amuel) Baily, whose mill was noted in the article. At the time, Baily owned the old Stanton mill first erected in 1679.

Southeast MCH, 1849

The other flood we'll look at took place six months shy of a century later, on July 23, 1938. Unlike our recent flooding, this one was not the result of a single, 24-hour event, but the culmination of a week's worth of rain, capped off by some torrential downpours. And unlike the 1838 event, in this one Wilmington was mostly spared, while the worst flooding was along the White Clay and Red Clay Creeks. This article from the Sunday Morning Star recounts the flood, which seems to match anything we've had recently. Red Clay Creek seems to have gotten the worst of it (probably due to its having a narrower valley than White Clay), with property and infrastructure damage, and near loss of life from Yorklyn all the way down to Marshallton.

Mt. Cuba Covered Bridge, destroyed 1938

Among the damage reported was the loss of one of three covered bridges left spanning Red Clay at the time. The Mt. Cuba Covered Bridge (sometimes called the Old Ashland Bridge, and pictured above in 1921), which carried Mt. Cuba Rd. over the creek, was washed away in the flooding. This left only the Ashland and Wooddale Covered Bridges remaining -- at least until the original Wooddale bridge was destroyed in 2003. Another bridge mentioned in the paper, Newark's Paper Mill Road Covered Bridge, was feared for, but survived as the rising waters stopped just short of its deck.

Marshallton, too, was severely affected by the late July flooding, as evidenced by the photo at the top of this page. If you look closely at the top of the water, just to the right of center, you can see the top of the steel truss bridge that carried Newport Road across Red Clay Creek (the Lower Red Clay Valley blog has a few other pictures related to this flooding, and a bit more explanation). The news article also tells of several people who had to be rescued from the raging waters, including one man who had been helping someone else. It sounds as if this flood was on the same magnitude as the 2003 flooding that put an end to industrial operations at the Marshallton millseat site.

And speaking of the 2003 flood, I came across one other interesting, if meaningless, fact while looking into this topic. As anyone who watched the news coverage of Irene surely heard numerous times, the last hurricane to make a direct hit on the state of New Jersey was way back in 1903. That storm, also known as the Vagabond Hurricane, made landfall on September 16, 1903. I was unable to find any reports of flooding in Delaware, but I assume there were effects from the storm. As luck would have it, the 2003 flooding, a result of the remnants of Tropical Storm Henri, occurred one day short of exactly 100 years later, on September 15, 2003. So I guess we'll have to warn our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to watch out in mid-September 2103.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

I have no idea whether Old Red Clay Creek ever connected with its namesake or not, or why it was called what it was. For that matter, even though the creek still exists in a smaller form, I don't even know if it has a name anymore.
The 1938 article mentions the Mullin apartments, which seem to be in Marshallton. Does anyone know where this apartment house was located?

New MCH Nostalgia Page

2011-08-31T14:12:00.001-04:00

This is something I had been thinking of doing for quite some time, but now the time seems right. Spurred on by a few recent comments and some fascinating emails, I've decided to launch the MCH Nostalgia Forum. It's a stand-alone page on the blog here (accessible from the tabs above), designed to be an outlet for stories and memories of a more recent nature than are usually covered on the blog. Here is what I put as a lead-in to the page (because yes, I am that lazy):

"Nostalgia is what you can remember. History is what your grandparents remember." -- I don't know if any wise man ever said that, but someone should have. Obviously, the general scope of this blog is the older history of Mill Creek Hundred -- from the late 17th Century up until the early 20th Century. Of course, the region didn't stop then, though. There are many stories to be told from the last 75 years or so of the area's history, too. This page is an open forum for anyone wishing to share any stories, recollections, reminiscences, or questions relating to the later history of Mill Creek Hundred. This can be anything from a full-blown story, to "Does anyone remember the old store on the corner?" Who knows -- maybe you'll jog a long-buried childhood memory for someone, or they'll do the same for you.

As we go along, I'll try to post some random pictures here showing sights from MCH in the 20th Century. (And if anyone has any of their own they'd like to share, you can email them to me.) After all, these pictures and stories are the history of Mill Creek Hundred, to. By sharing them here, maybe we can make it easier for the historians of the future to piece together our story. (That, and I hope it'll be fun, too!)

One of the reasons I didn't do this earlier was that I wasn't sure if there would be enough people interested in participating in something like this, but now I think there are. This should be a great way for all of us to learn (or remember) a thing or two, too. You'd be surprised how much easier it is to find information about the area for 1850 than for 1950. My own reminiscences only go back so far, but I'll add my own to the mix, too. If this page takes off well enough and generates enough momentum, I could see potentially spinning it off into its own site one day, but we'll see.

I hope to have fun with the pictures, too. Every once in a while I see a newer picture that's really cool, but doesn't quite fit in with this site. Now I have a place to post them. As always, I'm always happy to take submissions, too. I hope everyone enjoys this!

White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church

2011-08-30T15:03:00.000-04:00

White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church

In the early days of Mill Creek Hundred, two religious groups played major roles in the development of the area -- the English Quakers and the predominantly Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. By the early 1720's, the latter group had established two bases of worship in the hundred -- Red Clay Creek Church in the east and White Clay in the west. Since I've been slowly posting pictures of headstones from the White Clay Creek cemetery, I thought it was a good time to look at this 300 year old congregation, currently in its fourth church and second location.

White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church sits on the north side of Kirkwood Highway, at the base of Polly Drummond Hill Road. Before it was known as Polly Drummond Hill, though, the high ground to the north was called Meeting House Hill. The meeting house for which it was named was not where the present church is, but about a mile up the road, on Old Coach Road (actually, it's on an old section of the road now called Coach Hill Drive). As early as 1708, residents near White Clay Creek petitioned the Presbytery to be allowed to set up their own meeting house, but the New Castle church objected, not wanting their congregation to be split.

Finally, in about 1721, the local worshippers were allowed to form their own congregation, and they soon erected a small meeting house near the top of the hill, on land owned by Jonathan Evans. The exact date is unknown, but there is a reference to it being in place in June 1723. The first regular pastor at the church was Thomas Craighead, installed in September 1724. Rev. Craighead remained at White Clay until 1733, when he moved on to a church in Pennsylvania. His son Thomas, Jr. remained in the area, and shortly before his death in 1735, a second, larger meeting house was built on land donated by him. This second church, said to have been 25 by 40 feet in size and built to accommodate the growing congregation, was probably on the south side of the road, directly across from the wooded plot (still owned by the church) that contains the original cemetery.

The next full-time pastor was Rev. Charles Tennent, called to White Clay in 1737. Charles was the son of William Tennent, whose Log College in Bucks County, PA was somewhat of a predecessor of Princeton University. Tennent preached at White Clay for 26 years, and oversaw several major events during his tenure. The first of these events was possibly the largest single gathering in the hundred at the time, when in 1739 evangelist George Whitfield held a revival attended by up to ten thousand people. That estimate, of course, was Whitfield's own, but even if the real attendance was half that, it's still a staggering number for the area at the time.

The next event was a theological one within the Presbyterian Church, and was known as The Old Side-New Side Controversy. Rev. Tennent was on the New Side in the debate, not surprising considering that his father and brother were very much at the center of the New Side split. It was during this schism, which lasted from 1741-1758, that the last major event occurred. In May of 1752, Joseph England (who owned a mill just to the south) gave a plot of land to the supporters of Rev. Tennent for the construction of a new meeting house. This new church, as Scharf tells us, was a simple structure, 36 feet wide by 60 feet long, but would serve the congregation for over 100 years. In 1785, the plastered stone wall around the north and east sides of the lot was added.

The 1752 Meeting House, by Newark College professor Seth C. Brace, 1844

The next pastor at the church was Rev. John McCrery, who served from 1769-1800. The White Clay congregation seems to have declined for a time in the early 1800's, only to rebound by mid-century. Several pastors came and went, until in 1853 Rev. James Vallandigham was called to serve both White Clay Creek and Head of Christiana churches. Early in Rev. Vallandigham's tenure, which lasted until 1875, the congregation again outgrew their old meeting house. In 1855, the 103 year-old church was replaced with the larger, two-story brick structure we see today. It is not that much larger in footprint than the structure it replaced, only 45' x 63', but has the upper story that the old one lacked.

The church in 1958, before the addition of the steeple/elevator

The simple church has served its congregation for over 155 years now, and has seen many of the residents of western MCH and the Newark area worship inside it. Unlike many other churches of its time, this one has had only one relatively minor addition made to it in the past century and a half. In 1996, the tower and steeple were added to the south end of the building, primarily to house an elevator allowing easier access to the church's second floor balcony. With any luck, White Clay Creek Presbyterian's fourth church will continue to serve its community for many more years.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

The Old Coach Road on which the first church sat was the original east-west route through western Mill Creek Hundred, pre-dating the "Road from Newark to Cuckoldstown (Stanton)" commissioned in 1768. This road would be laid out approximately where today's Kirkwood Highway/Old Capitol Trail is, and was positioned to go by the recently-built church.
I couldn't find anything that stated it specifically, but I got the impression that an Old Side congregation may have remained in the old meeting house after the new one was built in 1752. In fact, it seems that this is when Rev. William McKennan preached here. McKennan may have been the last to preach at the old meeting house up the hill. The "Old Siders" would have then rejoined their neighbors in the new church in 1759, after the reunification.
Oddly, like his predecessor Tennent, James Vallandigham also had a very controversial brother. Clement Vallandigham was one of the leaders of the Copperhead movement during the Civil War, and was an outspoken opponent of Lincoln and the war itself. He was eventually arrested for and convicted of "uttering disloyal sentiments". He was first sent to a military prison, then sent to the Confederacy. After his death in 1871 (and you have to read about that to believe it), his brother, Rev. James Vallandigham, wrote a very sympathetic biography of him.
The rather brief National Register of Historic Places form for the church states that there were two earlier churches on the present site -- one in 1752 and one in 1785. I've not seen that stated anywhere else, and I think they may have been confused by the stone wall, which was built in 1785.

The First Name of the First Town in MCH

2011-08-19T14:17:00.000-04:00

Main Street in Stanton, courtesy Ken Copeland

There are, of course, countless unknowns and mysteries surrounding many aspects of the history of Mill Creek Hundred. There are plenty of names, dates, and places that are either lost to time, or frustratingly unclear in the historical record. One of these mysteries though, in my mind stands out above the rest. It dates back to the very beginnings of MCH, and has been frustrating historians for at least 120-some years, and I would imagine probably a good bit longer than that. It has to do with the early history of the first community established in what would become Mill Creek Hundred -- Stanton. More specifically, it has to do with the origins of the odd-sounding name by which Stanton was known before it was renamed "Stanton".

It is well-documented in the historical record (and recently brought up by a commenter on another post) that in the 18th Century, the village near the confluence of the Red Clay and White Clay Creeks was known as "Cuckoldstown". Not surprisingly, this indelicate moniker has raised quite a few questions over the years, but no answers -- until now. After a surprisingly brief bit of research, I believe I have finally figured out where the name came from, and in the process discovered another surprising fact -- Cuckoldstown was not the village's original name. Now, after at least two and a quarter centuries, we can finally restore to MCH's first town, its first name.

The discovery of an earlier name for Stanton is actually not just an interesting side-note to the story, it's the reason that no one was ever able to determine the origin of "Cuckoldstown" before. Everyone got too held-up on the oddness and salaciousness of the name, and kept looking for a juicy story to explain it. (For anyone unfamiliar with the word, a cuckold is "A man whose wife has committed adultery, often regarded as an object of scorn".) Because of this, I think people were expecting to find some tale about an early family in the area, or possibly the existence of a local inn with a less-than-upstanding reputation. My theory holds that none of these things ever existed, and that the name's origin is much less soap opera-y than that (which does make me a little sad -- I like a good story as much as anyone).

The key to unlocking this particular mystery came when I discovered that in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, there was at least one other village in the colonies with the name of "Cuckoldstown". It was located on Staten Island in New York, and was later renamed Richmondtown. Unlike with Stanton, the origin of Richmondtown's early name has been preserved, and I think there is a very good chance that our village came upon its name in the same way. The trick is that it has nothing whatsoever to do with the word "cuckold", except that over time, the original pronunciation of the name changed to sound like it.

And now for the unveiling .... I believe that, like Richmondtown, NY, Stanton's real original name was Cocclestown (or, Cocklestown). And like the Staten Island town, the name was likely derived from the presence in the area of an abundance of cockles, a type of clam. With several creeks and a large marshy area nearby, it's reasonable to think that the early settlers in the region would have harvested clams in the area (they may or may not have been actual cockles, but that's what they would have been familiar with from back home in Great Britain). Another possibility hinted at in New York is that the first Europeans here may have seen evidence of cockle shells discarded previously by Native American inhabitants (there are several known Native American settlements in the Stanton area).

The First Namesake of Stanton?

Whatever the exact reason was for initially choosing Cocclestown as the name for the settlement near the grist mill erected in the 1670's on Red Clay Creek, the name slowly began to change. Over the course of a few decades, through a linguistic process called "corruption", the name of "Cocclestown" slowly became "Cuckoldstown". It's surprising sometimes how quickly a name can change and the old one can be lost, and I believe that this is what happened here. By the time the first generation or two of European settlers had passed, the name had become Cuckoldstown and the original form had been forgotten. It's possible that by the time the name was changed to "Stanton" in the late 1700's (in honor of Stephen Stanton, a large landowner in the area), there may have been very few people who remembered the original name of their settlement.

Now, I admit that at this point, this is all speculation. Just because this happened in another location doesn't necessarily mean that that's what happened here. Probably the only way to verify this theory would be to find some written record from the period that refers to "Cocclestown". Or at the very least, we'd need to find the earliest reference we can to "Cuckoldstown". I don't think there has been anything produced so far dating from before the 1740's showing a name for the village. As tenuous as this theory is, it sounds to me to be much more plausible than people naming their town after after someone with a "friendly" wife. I hope that someday we're able to definitively prove or disprove the Cocclestown theory, and finally know for certain the first name of the first town in Mill Creek Hundred.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

I should note that there seems to have been one other, closer Cuckoldstown/Cocklestown, with a slightly different story attached to its name. An area near Berwyn, PA was once known by those names, but the people there think the name came from the corncockle plant, once a common weed in wheat fields. While it's possible this is accurate for Berwyn, I still think the bivalve cockle is the more likely inspiration for MCH's Cocclestown.

George A. Wolf -- Publisher and Artist

2011-08-17T10:21:00.000-04:00

George A. Wolf postcard of the old Marshallton Mill

I think anyone who does historical research would agree that one of the most enjoyable experiences associated with the task is when you run across a connection or a fact that makes you sit back and say, "Wow, I did not see that coming!" I had just such an experience recently while doing what I figured would be some quick, mostly fruitless research. It dealt with a man who wasn't born in, nor did he live in, Mill Creek Hundred, yet some of what we know of the area a century ago is because of him. He's probably not well-known to most these days, however some detail-oriented people who enjoy old pictures and postcards may be somewhat familiar with the name of George A. Wolf. His name is on many of the picture postcards of Wilmington and the surrounding area that date from the first decade of the 20th Century.

Because his name appears on many of the pictures I've seen of Wilmington and vicinity (especially Brandywine Springs Amusement Park, where he was the "official" publisher of postcards), I had always assumed that George A. Wolf was a photographer. The more I started to uncover, however, the more I realized that this was not the case. The key was the postcards, not necessarily the photographs on them. It turns out, Wolf was actually a publisher in Wilmington. "Publisher", though, doesn't quite cover all of it. He was also more of what I'd call a graphic artist, a fact we'll return to shortly.

George Aloys Wolf was born in Camden, NJ in 1862, and moved to Wilmington sometime around 1890. Whether this was a cause or a consequence of the move, I don't know, but in 1891 he married Rebecca George France here in Wilmington. By at least 1893, Wolf had set up shop in the Equitable Building at Ninth and Market in Wilmington (the building, although heavily altered in the mid-20th Century, still stands). As you can see in the ad below, Wolf advertised "Designing, Illustrating, Engraving", and his ad urged businesses to use woodcuts in their advertisements (we'll see an example of his work in a moment).

Wolf didn't only print advertisements, calendars, and postcards, though. He also printed a number of books -- seemingly mostly local histories and travel guide-type books, the sorts of things that would have lots of illustrations and pictures in them. At the Historic Red Clay Valley Visitor's Center Museum located at the Wilmington & Western's Greenbank Station, we have a copy of a marketing booklet printed by Wolf that was a joint publication between the Wilson Line steamboat company and Brandywine Springs Park. It's filled with pictures documenting the trip from Philadelphia to the park, via the steamboat and trolley. It's not clear whether or not Wolf actually took the pictures he published, but my guess would be no. Although it's possible that he was the photographer, my thought is that he either had photographers on staff, or bought the images from other photographers (the "Ye Old Mill" picture above, for example, was taken by Ed Herbener of Newark). That answer, though, is yet to be found.

The 1900 census shows that George and Rebecca (or Rebekah) lived on N. Van Buren St. in Wilmington, on the block that's now between I-95 and the condo tower (formerly the hospital, Memorial, I believe). By 1910, they had moved out of the city to the Hillcrest area in Brandywine Hundred, next to Bellefonte. It appears that Wolf may have gotten out of the printing business in 1911, as this note in a trade magazine states that he was leasing his printing plant to Harrison W. Barnes. In the 1920 census, George and Rebecca are listed as living on Concord Pike, and George's occupation is now "Farmer", not "Publisher" as it had been. This seems to be what happened, as I've never run across a Wolf postcard from later than about 1910.

Now, finally we get to the "Wow" discovery I had alluded to at the beginning. As stated, George A. Wolf did advertising work and woodcuts as a part of his business. At least in the 1890's, and possibly later, Wolf's office was in the Equitable Building in Wilmington. In 1906, another Delaware company housed its headquarters in the Equitable Building, at least until they erected their own building a block north two years later. In 1906, the company was looking for a new logo, and they turned to George A. Wolf to design it. What he came up with was probably the most iconic logo in Delaware in the 20th Century. The original woodcut, seen below, is on display at the company's old headquarters at Hagley.

Yes, the same George A. Wolf who printed many of the postcards that show us how our region appeared a century ago also designed the DuPont Oval. His original design had a banner with "Established 1802" weaving through the letters, but this proved too difficult to use on much of the packaging, so the design was simplified for general use. Wolf's full design was still used for some printed pieces, though, including gracing the cover of the company's annual reports until 1955. Stories about the origin of the logo describe Wolf as being part of the company's advertising department, but I think it's much more likely that he regularly did work for them as a freelancer, rather than being an actual employee. Here is another DuPont ad from 1906 done by Wolf, although without the logo (they didn't actually start using it until about a year later).

Needless to say, this was all much more information than I was expecting to find about George A. Wolf. I can also say that I'll never look at the DuPont Oval quite the same way again.

The Stanton "Covered" Bridge

2011-08-15T14:52:00.001-04:00

The Stanton "Covered" Bridge

It's understandable if the title of this post may be a bit confusing in a couple of different ways. First, you might be saying, "I've never heard of a covered bridge in Stanton." Secondly, you might be asking, "What's the deal with the quotes around "covered"?" As it so happens, both of these items are connected, and they led me on a journey to what I think is a very interesting lost bit of local history. Then, as a bonus, the answers I found helped me make sense of another picture that had kind of bugged me for a while now. And in the process, I was exposed to a type of structure that I didn't even know existed, let alone existed right here in our area.

My guide on this journey was Will Truax, a bridgewright from New England (here's his blog) who repairs, restores, and rebuilds covered bridges for a living. His expertise was crucial in figuring out just what it was I was looking at in the picture above, sent to me by Ken Copeland. At first, I thought it might be the railroad bridge mentioned in the Stanton Station post (also spurred by a photo from Ken), but Will assured me that this was definitely not a railroad bridge. Instead, this was a type of bridge that was not uncommon at one time in the 19th Century, but because of its lack of durability, is almost unknown today. This bridge was what is known as a Boxed Pony Truss, and this one specifically was a Queen Post type. It spanned White Clay Creek southwest of Stanton, where the concrete arched bridge is now. In fact, I believe the picture of the Boxed Pony bridge was taken from that spot of land between Mill Creek (to the right in the picture below) and White Clay Creek -- just about where today's Route 7 passes overhead.

This type of bridge, the boxed pony truss, is what I'd describe as a semi-covered bridge. As noted in a previous post, the purpose behind covering a bridge is to protect the timbers of its wooden frame from the elements, thereby greatly extending its lifespan. Usually, in a classical covered bridge, this is done by covering the entire bridge with siding and a roof across the entire span. However, doing that was rather expensive. Another option was to only cover, or box, the trusses (the support structures on either side). This was done by cladding them in siding, and placing a small roof-ette over top. In the top picture, if you look closely at the left side of the "V" in the middle, you can see a bit of the roof-ette of the far truss. This method could be used on pony truss bridges which, unlike through trusses, have no overhead connecting structures between the two sides.

The queen post designation refers to the truss design, which gives the bridge what I call an "up-across-down" look. The Stanton bridge in particular was a two span structure, which was apparently not very common. As stated, the main reason for building a boxed pony as opposed to a "true" covered bridge was financial. Although fully covering the bridge would extend the life of the support timbers beneath the road deck, it was significantly more costly to do so. Even in a "true" covered bridge, the flooring itself would occasionally have to be replaced, but the support timbers below would require less frequent inspection and replacement. It really seems to be a decision about upfront construction costs as compared to longterm maintenance costs. Those longterm costs appear to eventually have caught up with most of the 19th Century boxed pony bridges -- there are only a relative handful of them in existence today.

The 1904 Steel Truss bridge, shown in 1921

Records indicate that the end came for the Stanton boxed pony bridge in 1904, when it was replaced with a 102' long steel truss bridge, shown above. This bridge stood for 38 years, until it was replaced by the concrete rainbow arch bridge we see today. This link here has more information about the concrete bridge, including the fact that it was the first, and maybe only, one of its type in the state. Now, of course, it is used only for pedestrian traffic, having been bypassed by the new, elevated section of Route 7 in the late 1980's.

While researching and thinking about the Stanton bridge, I happened to recall another picture of a bridge that I had seen, but couldn't make complete sense out of. It came from the same place as the picture of the Stanton steel truss bridge -- a 1921 inventory of New Castle County bridges conducted by the State Highway Department. The only information attached to the shot was that it was "Near St. James Church". In looking at it, I had always thought that it kind of looked like a very short, oddly shaped covered bridge. After learning about boxed pony bridges, and after consulting again with Will Truax, the Official Bridge Consultant of the Mill Creek Hundred History Blog (now there's something for his resume), I now know I was mostly right.

This bridge, which I believe spanned Mill Creek on Old Capitol Trail (near where Telegraph Road merges with it) is also a boxed pony truss bridge. It's a different style of truss, but still a boxed pony. This page has pictures of a similar bridge in Pennsylvania, to give you a better idea of what it might have looked like. The only clue to its construction date is this mention in the "Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware" which shows an appropriation in 1858 of $375 for "Rebuilding bridge over Mill Creek above Stanton". It's very possible that this refers to this bridge. I don't know when this bridge was replaced, but it seems that at one time, the Stanton area was a relative hotbed for this almost-vanished type of bridge, the boxed pony truss.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

Here is a link to the DELDOT page that contains the 1921 bridge inventory mentioned in the post. There are also some old annual reports that have some interesting pictures, too. A lot of cool stuff, if you have the time to go through it.

The William Morgan Farm

2011-08-11T15:42:00.001-04:00

The 1813 William Morgan House

About two hundred yards north of Corner Ketch, straddling Doe Run Road, sits a beautiful matching set of a house and barn. The pair of two-century-old fieldstone structures (and a slightly newer frame one) make up the William Morgan Farm, and they're just another example of the quiet history sitting all around us here in Mill Creek Hundred.

The story begins, not surprisingly, with William Morgan, who purchased 235 acres of land north of Corner Ketch in 1797. The National Register of Historic Places (to which it was added in 1987 as part of a group of MCH sites) nomination form states that Morgan bought the land from an agent of the Penn family, although it seems a bit late for that to me. In any case, I've not been able to find very much definitive information about William Morgan. He probably came from Pennsylvania, since later on his daughter is listed as having been born there in 1777. There is a William Morgan, Revolutionary War veteran, buried in the Pencader Cemetery in Glasgow, but I don't know if this is the same person (the death date of 1833 is about right).

For the first 16 years of their residency at the site, Morgan and his family lived in a log house (possibly built by Morgan himself) and had a log barn. It's an interesting window into their priorities to see that it was the barn, not the house, that was first upgraded from log to stone. In 1809, commemorated by a datestone in its west gable, Morgan erected a large stone barn on the east side of the road. The NRHP form has many more details, but architecturally speaking, the Morgan Barn seems to be somewhat of a transitional structure. It's one of the oldest dated stone barns in the area, and has features both of the older, 18th Century barns, as well as later 19th Century ones. The wooden additions, a straw shed and a combination corn crib-wagon shed, were added later in the 19th Century as dairy farming came to dominate the area.

Morgan Barn, built 1809

Four years after raising his new barn, Wiliam Morgan got around to upgrading his home, too. The old log home gave way to a new, rather large, fieldstone house in 1813 (again, documented with a "WM M 1813" datestone). The house is a three bay, centered door design, with the interior arranged in a double pile, center hall configuration. What's somewhat unusual about this house is that it seems the rear ell was original - it was built at the same time as the main block. Because of this, the house was large enough that unlike most other homes of the era, there was never any need to expand it with additional wings later in the century.

William Morgan lived on his farm until his death in about 1833, at which point the property went to his daughter, Mary Morgan. Presumably by this point Morgan was a widower and either had no other living children, or at least had none in the area. Mary lived in the home until 1857 when, at the age of 80, she sold it to Milton Michener, a Quaker farmer from Londonderry Township, Chester County.

Michener, who was about 30 when he purchased the farm with his wife Esther, only occupied the house for about ten years. The small Quaker headstones for Milton and Esther that lie up the road at the Mill Creek Meeting House are tricky to read, but it looks as if they may have died in 1867 and 1868. They also had a daughter, Anna, born in 1862, but I haven't been able to find what became of her. By the time of the next record I have of the property, an 1881 map, it's shown as being owned by Samuel Eastburn. The post on the Eastburn Store has a little background on the two Samuel Eastburns, but my assumption is that the house was purchased by the older Samuel Eastburn (1818-1906) after Michener's death, and used as a rental property. Samuel himself resided in his father's old house on the south side of Paper Mill Road.

Although I can't confirm it for sure, Eastburn descendant Donna Peters recalls being told that her Great-Great Grandfather, Oliver Wilson Eastburn lived in the house. This sounds probable for two reasons (besides the fact that I have no reason to doubt her): 1) Oliver W. Eastburn was Samuel's nephew, and the Eastburns seemed to always be a pretty close-knit family, and 2) census data does show that Oliver resided in the area. Of course the census pages then didn't have addresses, so it's difficult to nail down exact locations.

Oliver remained in the house until the early 1920's, at which time he moved to Upper Darby, PA. (His first wife, Sarah, had died in 1917, and he remarried in 1921.) Oliver had obviously purchased the property outright at some point, because he then sold it to the Dempsey family, possibly to George R. Dempsey. The house and barn remain in the Dempsey family to this day. This means that in almost 215 years, the property has only been owned by four families, and one of those was for only about a decade. It's not surprising then, that the stone house and barn erected by William Morgan two centuries ago are still in the wonderful shape they are today.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

On the 1850 census, Mary Morgan is shown to be living with three women - Jane, Margaret, and Sarah Hollan (at least that's what it looks like). They are probably sisters, as they are 19, 34, and 27 years of age. I don't know who they are, but would guess they are relatives of some sort.
The Micheners also had a son named Lewis who died at nine months old, possibly in 1861.

Wilmington & Western's Summerfest 2011

2011-08-09T14:55:00.000-04:00

If anyone happens to be in the area this coming Saturday, August 13, 2011, and is looking for something fun to do, the Wilmington & Western Railroad will be having its now-annual Summerfest. In addition to three trains running that day (all pulled by one of the WWRR's steam locomotives), there will be a number of other events and attractions taking place at the Greenbank Station on Newport Gap Pike, just down the hill from Kirkwood Highway.

Trains will depart from Greenbank at 10:30, 12:30, and 2:30, all headed for the Mt. Cuba Picnic Grove on the banks of the Red Clay Creek. After a half-hour layover at the picnic grove, the train will return to the station where there will be lots going on. For those of you who like to eat, there will be food available provided by Backyard Louie's BBQ, and ice cream from Woodside Farm Creamery. There will also be magicians and musicians roaming around, as well as facepainting for the kids.

But don't worry, us grown-ups won't be left out of the cool stuff, either. Stanley Steamers will be on display, courtesy of the Marshall Steam Museum at Auburn Heights. There will also be displays from the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester, and antique fire equipment from Cranston Heights Fire Company. Plus, and this is in no way meant to be an "attraction", I'll be there working in the Historic Red Clay Valley Visitor's Center and Museum, located in the old W&W Yorklyn Station next to the main station. It should be a fun day, and with any luck we'll have some nice weather. So if you're interested, stop on by this Saturday!

The P W & B's Stanton Station

2011-08-04T16:21:00.001-04:00

There are three main railroad lines that, historically, have serviced Mill Creek Hundred (or at least, close to it). All three are still in service today, although in different forms. The Wilmington & Western (now a tourist line) and the Baltimore & Ohio (currently the CSX freight line) are the relative newcomers to the area, having been built in the 1870's and 1880s. Decades before that, though, some of the first tracks in the state were laid just south of MCH (and technically, through a small part of it). This track, constructed in 1836-37, is now the Amtrak line that winds south from Claymont, through Wilmington, past Newport, Stanton, and Newark, and on through to Maryland. Thanks to a wonderful picture forwarded to me by local resident Ken Copeland, we have, to the best of my knowledge, the first glimpse of one of the local stations serving that line in the 1800's. I had known where the station was, but I had never seen a picture of it before.

To give just a quick backstory, the railroad that ran just south of White Clay Creek was known during the 19th Century as the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (PW&B). It was formed in the early 1830's, originally consisting of four companies with connecting lines reaching from Philadelphia to Baltimore. The Delaware portion of the line was called the Wilmington and Susquehanna, but by early 1838 the separate companies had merged to form the PW&B. It's first president, Matthew Newkirk, was also the owner of the Brandywine Chalybeate Springs Hotel. He may even have bought the resort with the hope that his railroad would increase business, although it didn't really seem to.

Until the early 1880's, the PW&B would be the only artery through Delaware, carrying traffic for larger companies like the B&O and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). The stretch of track was important, of course, because it formed an important chunk of the Washington-New York corridor. In 1880, a battle broke out between the two for control of the PW&B, with the PRR eventually prevailing. The B&O's failure to purchase the PW&B forced them to build their own line through the region. This track did run through MCH, and is now owned by CSX.

After being purchased by the PRR, the PW&B continued to operate under it's own name until 1902, when it merged with the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and was renamed the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad (PB&W). So yes, quite confusingly for us now, the PW&B became the PB&W. (Sadly, at no point did it become the PB&J.) The PB&W continued to operate as a separate entity even after its parent company, the Pennsylvania RR, merged with the New York Central in 1968 to form the Penn Central. In 1976, six years after filing for bankruptcy, the PB&W's track between Philadelphia and Washington was sold to the recently-formed Amtrak.

Heading back to 19th Century Stanton now, the PW&B did have a station located here to serve the village -- the only station between Newark and Newport. It sat on the south side of the track along Stanton-Christiana Road, across from where Shone's Lumber is now. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see the brick building behind it that still stands today as apartments. The bridge in the picture is what was known as the Stanton Underpass (although local residents may not recognize it without three feet of water covering it).

I've not found a record stating exactly when the station was built, but I do have one clue that puts its construction fairly early. The 1856 "Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Guide" mentions the Stanton station, but does not have an illustration of it. It does, however, contain an illustration of the next station north, in Newport. If you compare the two stations, they seem almost identical except for the cupola topping the Stanton station. This, however, may have been a later addition. Since the Stanton station in the picture was almost certainly in place by 1856, it's not much of a stretch to think it may have been built along with the railroad in 1836.

I've not yet been able to determine when the station was torn down, or when passenger service to Stanton was discontinued. If anyone has any information regarding this, feel free to speak up.* One other interesting note from the 1856 guide appears in the same sentence that mentions the station. It states that, "A short distance from the Stanton Station, the railroad crosses White Clay Creek by a covered truss bridge, 240 feet long." I hadn't realized that there were such things as railroad covered bridges, but it turns out that they were not too uncommon. And it appears that one sat over White Clay Creek, just south of Stanton, presumably in about the same place that the Amtrak line now traverses the creek. That's a bridge I'd love to see a photograph of.

* -- Over the weekend, the original submitter of the station picture, Ken Copeland, came through for us again. He sent me the newspaper clipping shown below, which gives us a good bit of further information about the station. For one thing, the station agent's name at the time was Clarence E. McVey, who lived in the station with his wife, Carrie. There is no date on the clipping, but McVey is shown as the station agent in both the 1920 and 1930 censuses. He held the position for at least 27 years, as his 1947 death certificate lists his home as Stanton, and his occupation as being an agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad. This, of course, means that passenger service, and the station, were still in place at least as late as 1947.

One other detail we can make out from the side view of the station is that the cupola is no longer present. This re-enforces my supposition that it was a later addition to the building. It kind of reminds me of Old Town Hall in Wilmington, which had its simple, 18th Century cupola replaced with a larger, fancier one late in the 19th Century. Then, sometime in the 1910's if I recall, it was removed and the smaller one rebuilt. I still don't know when service to the station was halted, or exactly when the structure was removed, but we now know it was after 1947. Very likely, the station was razed when the two additional tracks were added to the original one (there are currently three sets of tracks present). The widening of the tracks would have meant the end of the building, if it was still standing by then.

Josiah G. Hulett

2011-08-02T11:25:00.000-04:00

Josiah G. Hulett

This is another one of those posts that I originally had no intention of writing, but I eventually was given and came across so much information -- and interesting information -- that now I feel I have to. This is very much related to the post about the Bailey family, and most of the information for it came from Jeanne Jackson Dell'Acqua, a descendant of both families (Josiah is her great-grandfather). She's been researching her ancestry for almost 30 years, and has found quite a bit of fascinating information, much of which directly relates to the history of Mill Creek Hundred. She's been kind enough to share her findings with us, and through them, will allow us here to get to know a little about a very interesting 19th Century resident of the hundred, Josiah G. Hulett.

Josiah Garrett Hulett was born on April 9, 1839 to William Hulett (1790-1850) and Martha Bailey Hulett (1805-1877). Martha was the sister of John and James Bailey, and the daughter of Amor Bailey. Although it's hard to pin down the exact location, census records hint that William Hulett's farm may have been on Yorklyn road, not far east of the Hockessin Friends Meeting House. William and Martha had five children before William's death in 1850. After his death, Martha was unable to keep the farm, having only small children. As many do, she turned to her family for help. The Huletts went then to live with Martha's brothers, the Baileys. They split between the brothers, and Josiah ended up with James Bailey. (Although to be fair, they were on neighboring farms, so the family wasn't actually very "split up". The arrangement was probably just more practical from a living space standpoint.)

Sometime during the 1860’s, Martha and her family got back on their feet, and purchased a farm on Old Wilmington Road, near Loveville. This house (shown on the 1868 map just above “Loveville P.O.”, listed as Mrs. Hewlett) still stands, and is located adjacent to Cokesbury Village retirement community. Around this same time, Josiah was attending the Media Classical Institute, a private Presbyterian school in Media, PA. In addition to studying the classics like Greek, it seems that Josiah also became interested in the field of education. At some point, very possibly about 1857, he began teaching at the Oak Hill School, located in Christiana Hundred on Lancaster Pike (Jeanne has the gavel and hand-held bell he used while there). The exact dates of his tenure at Oak Hill are unknown, but it may have even overlapped with the next exciting, albeit short-lived, chapter in Josiah Hulett’s life.

In the summer of 1864, Confederate Gen. Jubal Early led a series of raids into Union-held Maryland, even reaching the outskirts of Washington, DC. In response to this, and the fear of more raids deeper into the North, a number of emergency units were formed to defend northern Maryland. One of these was the 2nd DE Cavalry, commonly known as Milligan’s Independent Cavalry. In mid-July, Josiah and his horse, Phil, enlisted for a 30 day stint in the cavalry. They saw no combat, but did patrol a wide area, ranging from Wilmington, to Baltimore, to Westminster, MD. After mustering out in August, Josiah and Phil returned home, and in a few years, he would start a family of his own (Josiah, not Phil. Maybe Phil did, too – I don’t know).

Margaret Stotsenburg Hulett

In 1870, Josiah married Margaret Bailey Stotsenburg (1853-1921), who after being orphaned in 1866 had become a ward of Samuel A. Bailey, living in the same house where Josiah had lived after his own father had died. On the 1870 census, Josiah and Margaret are shown on their own farm, on or near Limestone Road between Brackenville Road and Valley Road. By 1880, though, they had moved, and thus brings us to the biggest unsolved mystery in the story. Although he is not listed on the 1881 map, the 1880 census seems to indicate that Josiah, Margaret, and their family were living on a farm in the vicinity of the Bailey family, and the present-day Hercules property. It has been passed down in Jeanne’s family that the farm was eventually sold to Hercules, and that it was near the Baileys, so this seems to fit. We even have a picture of the house in 1920, but it’s unknown exactly where the house was located, or when it was torn down. If any older reader recalls seeing this house near the Hercules/Lancaster Pike area, please let us know.

Josiah Hulett's House near Wooddale, 1920

While living in the area, both Josiah and Margaret were actively involved with Red Clay Presbyterian Church – he was the director of the choir, and she was the organist. About 1887, Josiah retired from farming and moved his family to Wilmington, where he worked first as a bookkeeper, and later as a salesman selling farm implements. He continued to work closely with his new churches in the city, first with Hanover Presbyterian and later with Olivet, where he eventually became an elder. According to a family story, Josiah went to services without an overcoat one particularly warm December day in 1919, contracted pneumonia, and passed away a short time later. He was interred at Red Clay Presbyterian, as is most of his family.

Josiah Garrett Hulett

Josiah G. Hulett is not someone you’re likely to come across in any history book, but it was people like him and his family that are the real story of Mill Creek Hundred. And thanks to Jeanne Jackson Dell’Acqua, her family, and her years of research, we have an opportunity to get to know them a bit. I’ll also mention again that if anyone has any idea where the house shown in the picture above was located, Jeanne would be very happy to know. Her grandmother, Josiah’s daughter Ethel, though whom much of the information and artifacts came, was born in this house in 1881. I hope someday we are able to pin down the location of the home of this farmer, educator, cavalryman, salesman, and family man.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

William Hulett was obviously a Quaker, since he is buried in the cemetery at the Hockessin Friends Meeting. Martha's family, the Baileys, were Presbyterian.
I can't verify it, but Cokesbury Village may actually sit on land once owned by Martha Hulett.
It's interesting that both William and Josiah married women much younger than themselves -- 15 and 14 years.
Margaret Stotsenburg became a ward of Samuel Bailey because he was her cousin. Their mothers were sisters.
Another story in Jeanne's family states that there is a family house that was lost beneath Hoopes Reservoir. While it’s possible, I don’t think that it was this house.

What's the "Hundred" in Mill Creek Hundred?

2011-07-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago I was talking to a friend who lives out of state, and he asked me what seems like it should be a fairly simple question: "What does "Hundred" mean, in "Mill Creek Hundred"? For those of us who have lived for an extended time in Delaware (especially New Castle County), we're probably used to hearing "Mill Creek Hundred", or "Brandywine Hundred", but we may not think much about where the term comes from. I've actually sidestepped this post for this long because there really isn't a good, simple answer to the question. Or, there is a simple answer, but it's not good enough. Or, there's several good answers, but none of them are exactly right ... but none of them are completely wrong. Sometimes, thinking too hard about a word only serves to confuse things. But, I've come this far, and never let it be said that I'm not willing to try to confuse things even more.

We'll start with what should be the simple answer to the question of "What is a Hundred?" -- It's an old English political unit, smaller than a county or shire. Even this, though, is not quite exactly accurate. Besides England, equivalents to hundreds have been used in parts of Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Australia. Their use in England dates back to at least the 900's, but were probably in use long before that. The ultimate origin of the term may date back almost 2000 years to Teutonic armies, and their custom of dividing their armies into groups of 100 men from a given area. When Teutonic tribes invaded England in the 5th and 6th Centuries, the division of land and the invader's settling patterns may have been influenced by these "hundreds" of warriors.

This story, as difficult as it is to verify, seems to get to the heart of the two most common explanations usually given for the meaning of the term "Hundred", when inquiring minds want more than "an old English political unit". Many sources claim that a hundred was the area from which 100 soldiers could be mustered in times of war. Others state that it was an area inhabited by 100 families. Odds are, that at times, the term meant both of these in different places. My feeling is that it was originally probably roughly an area containing 100 families, as the designation seems to have been used mostly for governing and taxation purposes. Over the years, its meaning became less of a literal designation, and more of a generic term for an area of the same size -- just as a "county" is no longer a region ruled over by a Count.

Naturally, when the English began to colonize North America, they brought their customs and political designations with them. At one time, there were hundreds in parts of Virginia, Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and of course, Delaware. Hundreds were first set up in Delaware in 1682, by order of new proprietor William Penn. Though I have not found the original quote, its reported that they were set up to roughly include 100 families. There were five hundreds established in New Castle County in 1682: Brandywine, Christiana, New Castle, Appoquinimink, and St. Georges. There were five hundreds in Kent County also, and two in Sussex. As the population grew, more hundreds were formed from the originals, including Mill Creek Hundred, which was carved out of Christiana Hundred in 1710. By the 1870's, there were 33 hundreds in the state.

By then, though, their practical use was on the decline. All other states had long since abandoned the hundred as a sub-county division, preferring to use things like towns, townships, and boroughs. Even England moved away from them the 19th Century. Only in Delaware did hundreds continue to be used, among other things serving as voting districts up until the 1960's. Until the 1870's, there was usually only one polling place for the entire hundred. Nowadays, the only thing they're used for officially is in real estate transactions. All land parcels are assigned numbers based on their hundred.

As you can see, the exact origin of the term is clouded in the mists of time, but the general gist of it is fairly easy to see. Now, hundreds are most often used in historical discussions, and it really seems like each hundred has its own character. Personally, I like the hundred as a regional designation, and I like the uniqueness of it. Somehow, it's just very Delaware.

The Bailey Family

2011-07-21T16:18:00.001-04:00

Samuel A. Bailey

Sometimes the most enjoyable research is the stuff that comes out of the blue, and ends up somewhere you never thought it would go. A few days ago, commenter M.S. left a few stories and a few questions over on the Forum, so I decided to take what I thought would be a quick look and give a quick answer. The innocent question that sent me off involved an old woman named "Miz Bailey", who the commenter's brother remembered as living in an old house in the woods near Hercules Road and Newport Gap Pike. I figured that if I was lucky, I might be able to find her in a census and uncover her full name. I didn't expect, however, to be digging back over 200 years, and clearing up a few questions about some old maps along the way.

To get right to the answer to the question first, "Miz Bailey" was in fact Margaret Mabel Bailey, who died unmarried in 1953. The house in which she lived her entire life, and which never had electricity, was located a few hundred yards east of Newport Gap Pike, and south of Hercules Road. I can't be sure exactly what house she was residing in, but it's likely that it was one that had been in her family for well over 100 years by the time of her death. The Bailey family's history in Mill Creek Hundred goes back even further, at least three generations prior to Mabel and 150 years before her passing.

The first Bailey I can pin into MCH is Amor Bailey, who shows up first on the 1804 tax assessment of the hundred. While (as you would figure) I found him in the 1810 census, I could not locate Amor in 1800 in MCH. This means either I or the enumerator missed him, or more likely he first arrived in MCH sometime between 1800 and 1804. He and his wife Joanna had at least two children (and probably more), beginning not long after 1804. Although I haven't found any marriage information for them, my guess is that they wed and moved somewhere in this 1800-1804 timeframe. Trying to figure out exactly where people were using early census data is tricky at best, but in 1810 and 1820 Amor and his wife Joanna seem to be farther west in the hundred, possibly somewhere between Corner Ketch and Milford Crossroads (this however, is about as clear as the lyrics to Louie, Louie). In 1830, though, it appears that he may have moved into the area north of Brandywine Springs.

Among the other children in the Bailey household, there were at least two sons -- James and John. These sons would carry on the Bailey name in the area for years to come. James Bailey (1806-1863) married Margaret Peeky (daughter of another local family) in 1832 and had several children. One of those was Samuel Amor Bailey (1839-1919), the man in the photo above, and the father of Mabel Bailey. The other son, John Bailey (1808-1896), also married and remained in the area. Where they lived can be deduced by looking at the old maps, and it seems to imply that what might have been Amor's original house is still standing (I don't have a death date for him, but he seems to have died between 1830 and 1840).

Faulkland Area, 1849

Faulkland Area, 1868

Since James married first, it would make sense that he would move out of the family home and erect his own, while John, who probably didn't marry until after his father's death, would remain in the older house. The maps seem to bear this out. Unfortunately, the 1849 map gives only first initials, making it impossible to distinguish between James and John. By 1868, though, James has died, and his son Samuel is shown on the map in a house to the east of Hyde Run, near the Woolen Factory of Henry Clark. John is shown in a house to the west of Newport Gap Pike, presumably one built by, or at least bought by, his father Amor Bailey. This house still stands on Wordsworth Dr. in the development of Hyde Park. Samuel's house, possibly the one Mabel Bailey lived in until the '50s, has been lost.* See "New Find" below.

Margaret Peeky Bailey, wife of James Bailey

After John's death in 1896, and his wife Elizabeth's the same year, it appears that the house and farm may have been taken over by their son Thompson (1863-1941). In later censuses, the unmarried Thompson is shown living with his widowed sister Virginia Garrett, his sister Sarah Brackin, her husband Watson, and their children. Who lived in the house after Thompson's death, I don't know.

Jennie Bailey (kneeling), with cousin Margaret Stotsenburg Hulett

On the other side of the road, Samuel Bailey continued to work his farm until his death in 1919. In 1920, his widow Jennie Bailey (1845-1921) is presumably living in the same house with her daughter Margaret Mabel. Mabel remained in the house after her mother's death the following year, and stayed until her own passing in 1953. Later maps show Samuel as also owning a house slightly to the northeast of the one on the above maps. Maybe M.S. remembers whether Mabel lived in this house or the older one deeper in the woods. Presumably, any carriage house found in those woods would have been built either by James or Samuel Bailey, or by Henry Clarke, depending on where exactly it was. (Clarke's woolen mill will hopefully be the subject of a future post, too.)

I want to thank M.S. for starting me on this investigation, and exposing me to a family I had yet to delve into. I think it's a fascinating link from the old MCH to the new. In the 1950's, well into the era of suburbanization in the region, you had a woman whose father was born in 1839 living in a secluded house in the woods with no electricity. It's always fun to see where one little vague memory can take us. And I hope that gives you a little insight into who old Miz Bailey was.

New Find (11/29/11):

It didn't quite seem enough to justify a whole new post, but a picture I found (you can zoom out with the buttons on the upper left) on the Hagley website seems to show the Bailey house in 1939. The picture is of the Brandywine Sanitarium (Emily Bissell Hospital), and looks east across Newport Gap Pike. Amongst the trees on the far side of the road you can see a white house. I'm fairly certain that this is the house owned by James and Samuel Bailey, and at the time of the picture occupied by Mabel.

Bailey House, 1939. Newport Gap Pike in foreground.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

James Bailey was a mechanic in Henry Clarke's woolen mill.
The Baileys, Peekys, and Huletts were all members of Red Clay Presbyterian Church, and many of them are buried there, including almost everyone mentioned in the post.
I haven't been able to verify it, but I think the land for Emily Bissell Hospital may have been purchased from the Bailey family (either them or the Yearsleys). On the other hand, when the first TB sanitarium was built, the Baileys were apparently concerned about the possibility of infection spreading through Hyde Run and into their cattle, who drank from the creek.
Samuel Bailey attended the Media Classical Institute, a Presbyterian-affiliated school in Pennsylvania.
The description of Mabel Bailey as "an old woman living in the woods without electricity or running water" may tend to imply that she was "out of touch" and uneducated. Neither is true. She was educated (as were the Baileys in general -- see above) and enjoyed opera. Mabel had a battery-powered radio with which she listened to the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday afternoons.
Mabel was offered good money to sell her property (presumably from Hercules), but refused to part with her family home.

Early History of the Mendenhall House

2011-07-18T16:19:00.000-04:00

I feel I need to apologize in advance for the possibility that this post will read as being a bit disjointed and rushed. Frankly, I need to just write it before I get too frustrated and give up. When I write a post, I generally like to answer more questions than I raise, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. This is one of those times. Two previous posts (here and here) have looked at the Mendenhall family and their holdings along Mill Creek, but since the writing of the recent post, new information has been presented to me regarding the house overlooking the Mendenhall Mill/Mill Creek Road intersection. There are tantalizing clues as to the early history of the house, but unfortunately few concrete answers. What I'll do here is present what we know, what we believe to be true, and the questions that have yet to be answered. My hope is that someone else out there may have the key to unlocking this mystery.

The information sent to me came from Stephen Ruszkowski, a local artist, many of whose works depict the historic structures of northern New Castle County. Oh yeah -- and he grew up in the Mendenhall House. (One of his depictions of the house can be seen below.) Stephen's information made a few things very clear, allowed reasonable guesses for others, and left at least one big mystery. One thing that is very clear to me now is that contrary to what I wrote in the first post (and in line with what I vaguely corrected in the second), the house was not built by James Mendenhall, c.1783. It now seems certain it was not built by a Mendenhall at all. In fact, it likely is a good bit older.

Mill House #1 by Stephen Ruszkowski

If you look at the photo at the top of the post, you can clearly see that the main block of the house was built in two stages. Stephen surmises (and I agree, for what it's worth) that the left side was the original section, and it appears to conform to the Quaker (or, Penn) Plan common in the 18th Century. The right section was built slightly later, and there may be a clue as to when. Hidden behind a downspout on a stone near the end of the "newer" section, is inscribed "RG 1780". Inscribed on a nearby stone are the initials "JP". Here comes the mystery -- I think Stephen discovered who "JP" is, but the identity of "RG" is still unknown.

The "JP" in question seems, most likely, to be James Philips. Stephen found record of a sale of 150 acres from James Philips to William Philips, in 1763. It is noted that James Philips had purchased the land from Joseph Buckingham (although I wonder if that's not supposed to be John) in 1753. Philips also purchased a smaller lot that specifically stated it was "whereon the mill stands". Although the Philips family is one of those with multiple lines with many of the same names, we're probably dealing with James Philips (1676-1772) and his son, William (1710-1790). I know that they were a family of millers, as William's son Robert (1746-1828) purchased the Greenbank Mill in 1773.

As for the identity of "RG", I am, for the moment, stumped. I have combed through everything I could find (as has Stephen) about any "G" family that might have been in the area in 1780. Among others, I've checked Guthrie, Gregg, Garrett, Graves, Grimes, and Griffin. So far, not a single male with an R name anywhere near 1780. Since both sets of initials are on the "newer" section, my guess is that this addition was built by "RG" in 1780, and the "JP" is either an older stone from a dismantled wall, or simply a commemoration of the original builder of the house. Since I've come up with nothing yet, RG may be from a family I have not checked, or may be a member who was not included on the lists I found. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to throw in any guesses.

Since we know that the early mill in the area was jointly owned by several men, this leaves plenty of room for the Philips family, the Mendenhalls, and the "G"s. And as Aaron Mendenhall moved to this area in 1763, we know this was not the original Mendenhall House (which one was is unclear, but there's a house down the road that is a possibility). It may be that not long after RG added on to his house, he sold it to James A. Mendenhall, who may have consolidated ownership of the mill and millseat. James then operated the mill for a number of years, until razing the old mill and replacing it with a new one in 1826. This idea is supported by the caption to the wide-angle picture of the property that appears on the first Mendenhall post. The caption reads, "Built 1826 by JEM replaced log structure owned by Philips during the revolution." This picture, I believe, was from about 1895.

As you see, the history of this house and surrounding land, tucked into the Mill Creek Valley, continues to be revealed. If anyone has any other information about this house, or any of the surrounding properties, I would love hear it. Eventually, I hope we can uncover the whole story of this section of the stream for which Mill Creek Hundred was named.

Mendenhall House and Mill Revisited -- Additions and Corrections

2011-07-14T14:59:00.000-04:00

James Mendenhall's 1826 Mill

A while back, I did a post about the Mendenhall House and Mill located around the intersection of Mill Creek Road and Mendenhall Mill Road. While I still think that most of what is in the post is correct, and it was all written with the best information I had at the time, I have come across new information that sheds new light on the early history of the area, and a little on the later history. One of the reasons I started writing this blog originally was to document my own journey of exploration through the history of the Mill Creek Hundred area. And like many journeys, this one sometimes heads the wrong way. I want to use this post to clear up some of the things that I now know I got wrong, and to add some more information to the story.

The first place to start, I guess, is at the beginning of the Mendenhall story, and to state that I now know that it wasn't really the beginning. In the previous post, I had written that Aaron Mendenhall, Jr. (1729-1813) moved to Delaware about 1763, and settled first on a property known as Sugar Loaf Farm near Brandywine Springs. Then, about 20 years later, his son James A. Mendenhall (1763-1839) moved to the Mill Creek area and erected the first mill there. With the new information that I've found and was refocused to (thanks, Walt C.), I can now see that almost none of that is accurate. Contrary to what my wife thinks, I actually can admit when I'm wrong.

The biggest (and most confusing) piece of the puzzle comes from a DelDOT archaeological report that's mostly about the Stoney Batter/Mill Creek Road intersection to the south. If you scroll about halfway through this PDF, you come to 14 pages worth of deed information and chain-of-title. The data seems to deal with more than just the immediate intersection, and appears to encompass land all the way up to the Mendenhall Mill. (Wade through it at your ~~own risk~~ leisure.) While it's difficult parse out (or parcel out) exactly what land is being referred to in each transaction, a general picture does emerge of the early history of the area. Much of this is open to interpretation, and feel free to chime in if you read it differently, but here is my interpretation (picked through to deal with just the Mendenhalls and their land, for now).

The land in question was first purchased from Lecitia (Penn) Aubrey in 1726 by William McMechen. In 1727 and 1729, McMechen sold parcels to William Emmitt, who in turn sold them in 1744 to John Buckingham. Up until this point, there seems to be no mention of any mill. However, when Buckingham sells in 1751 to Daniel Nichols, he sells 196 acres and part interest in a mill, mill house, dam, and race. I'm not sure if it's correct about the interest in the house, but I know it was not uncommon for mills at the time to be owned jointly by several residents. It's also not clear exactly where this mill was, or which is the house in question. It may be the house at the end of Mendenhall Mill Rd and a mill nearby, but we can't be sure.

It's only at this point in the story that the Mendenhall family makes it appearance, when in 1763 Aaron buys 196 acres and a grist mill from Nichols. The deed quoted here seems to imply that Aaron only had a quarter share of the mill, so he may have bought out the rest later. It also seems to state that John Buckingham (whose brother James was the founder of the Buckinghams in the Corner Ketch area) was the builder of the mill. Finally, it describes Aaron Mendenhall as being "of the same place", meaning Mill Creek Hundred, which would imply that he had already moved from Pennsylvania.

Although it's hard to follow, the Mendenhalls spent the next 60 years or so expanding their holdings in the area. I don't want to get too into the details at this point, except to tease that there is at least one other extant house whose past can be partly traced through this, and which I'll get to in another post sometime. The last early point I want to clear up is Sugar Loaf Farm. This house, north of Faulkland Road near Brandywine Springs, was owned by a Mendenhall, but probably not by Aaron. It was Aaron's third son, Abraham, who moved here, possibly around 1814 when he sold 49 acres on Mill Creek to his brother John. Again, I'll get into more details when we someday focus on Sugar Loaf Farm and its history.

Finally, to wrap up this post of corrections and additions, a few notes about the mill itself. The mill in the picture above was built by James Mendenhall in 1826, presumably to replace the earlier, mid-18th Century mill. The two semicircles visible (one over the door, one near the gable) were apparently halves of a millstone. The upper one had the date of 1826 and the initials "JM"; it's possible that they came out of John Buckingham's 1740's mill. As for the new information I found, the first piece corroborates what "Stephen" had written in the comments on the last post. Indeed, grinding was done on the second floor of the mill, while logs were cut on the lower floor. Logs and grain weren't the only things processed here, either -- at some point, the Mendenhalls used it to press cider in the autumns, after the grain harvest had all been ground.

Mendenhall men operated the mill until 1898, when it was leased to Elmer Malin, Sr., who did custom work until 1911. William Taylor did occasional work by special request for about another decade after that. For the next half century, the old mill stood idle, until being torn down in 1970.

I hope this post has done more to clear things up than to muddy the waters. With the scarcity and dubious nature of some of the information available about historic Mill Creek Hundred, errors like this are almost inevitable. As I've always said, if anyone ever has any information contradicting anything I write, please let me know. Whether someone else points it out to me or if I stumble across it myself, I'll always try my best to correct any errors I find. There's always new information out there to find -- just one of the things that makes this journey so enjoyable.

Paper Mill and Faulkland Road Covered Bridges

2011-07-10T08:00:00.002-04:00

Postcard showing the Paper Mill Covered Bridge

I don't think it would shock anyone if I said that Mill Creek Hundred is chock full of creeks, streams, runs, and all manner of moving water (c'mon, "Creek" is right there in the name). And while these were certainly a blessing for millers and manufacturers, they sometimes got in the way when you were trying to get from one place to another. Very early in our history, there were no bridges on what passed for roads in the area -- you just forded the streams at a shallow spot. Later, bridges did begin to be built, but they were usually small, wooden, and in need of frequent maintenance and repair. In the early part of the 19th Century, a new type of bridge began to appear, one that would last longer and require less maintenance than earlier ones -- the covered bridge. At one time, MCH was dotted with at least a dozen or more covered bridges. Here, we'll look at two of them -- one of the longest, and probably the shortest.

The first bridge we'll look at was one of the last in the county to be intentionally taken out of service, and was to my eyes one of the most beautiful -- the Paper Mill Bridge east of Newark. The history of this bridge, not surprisingly, is closely tied to the nearby Meeteer (later, Curtis) Paper Mill. When the mill began operations in the late 1700's, there was no bridge here -- only a nearby ford, called Tyson's Ford. In 1817, the first bridge carrying what we now call Paper Mill Road over White Clay Creek was built. The cost was $1771.83 for the wooden, non-covered bridge. This bridge sufficed for the next 44 years, until it was replaced in 1861 by a 96 ft. Town lattice truss covered bridge ("Town lattice truss" was the style of bridge, the most common, especially in rural areas, since it could be built without metal fasteners).

It's very possible that construction of the new bridge was prompted by the outbreak of war, and an increase in production at the paper mill due to government contracts. I'm not sure if the rectangular "nameplate" seen in the postcard above was original, but it was definitely in place by about the turn of the century. It may be a bit difficult to see, but it says, "1861 Paper Mill Bridge". The plate is still visible in the first picture below, which was taken in 1921, but by the time of the second picture, which may date to the early 1940's, it was gone. There were apparently plans to replace the aging bridge as early as the early 1930's, but lack of funds and then World War II saved it for almost 20 years. The Paper Mill Covered Bridge was finally replaced by a modern, concrete span in 1949, just in time to handle the increased automobile traffic generated by a growing Newark and burgeoning suburbia.

Before we move on to the second bridge, located on the other side of the hundred, a quick note about covered bridges in general. I could be wrong, but I think many people misunderstand the reason behind building a covered bridge. I remember being told as a child that covered bridges were built so that horses would not get spooked while traversing fast-moving streams. This is not the case. The real reason goes back what was mentioned in the first paragraph -- maintenance. The exposed planks in a regular wooden bridge tend to rot and deteriorate fairly quickly. This necessitates constant repairs, and lots of money. The reason for building a covered bridge is simply to protect the lumber of the decking from the elements.

From a large, exposed, heavily-travelled bridge, we now move to a location where many people may not even know a bridge exists, let alone that there was once a covered bridge. Faulkland Road, as it descends westward from Newport Gap Pike, crosses the Red Clay Creek tributary of Hyde Run before rising again to Duncan Road. For about 60 years, this was the site of one of the odder covered bridges in the area, and one of my favorites. Very little is known about this bridge, and only one photograph is known to exist. It was likely a Town lattice truss bridge, and was probably built in the 1850's or 1860's. *See notes below The concrete girder bridge that eventually replaced it was only 27 feet long, so the covered bridge was probably smaller than that.

Faulkand Covered Bridge 1921

Like the much larger Paper Mill Bridge, the Faulkand Bridge had solid sides with no windows or vents. Unlike the Paper Mill Bridge, this one looks like someone plopped a shed on top of a creek. At least, that's what it looks like to me. YMMV. By the time of the picture above in 1921, the old bridge was showing its age. The following year, it was torn down and replaced with a concrete bridge, which I believe is still there. Built in the age of horse-drawn travel, both the Paper Mill and Faulkland Covered Bridges eventually succumbed to the Age of the Automobile. Small wooden bridges were no longer sufficient to carry the increased traffic and weight that cars brought. With their demise went one more remnant of MCH's rural past.

Additional Facts and Related Thoughts:

In the 1858 "Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware", there is an appropriation of $400 for "building new bridge over Hyde Run, near Brandywine Springs" (near the bottom of page 42). I can't verify for sure that this refers to the construction of the covered bridge in the picture, but the date does fit with what was estimated for it.

Eastburn Store

2011-07-06T21:55:00.001-04:00

Isaac Eastburn (1806-1890)

In this blog, we've looked at a variety of different sites from life in Mill Creek Hundred in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th Centuries. We've seen houses, mills, hotels, churches, and even a resort and amusement park. There's one important community building of the time that we've yet to focus on, though, mostly because precious little survives of these outposts. I don't know if it comes from watching too many Little House on the Prairie episodes with my daughter and wondering how Mr. Oleson gets all his supplies and who he sells them to, but I've been interested recently in the small general stores that once served rural residents like those in MCH. Now, thanks to prompting from a question from a reader and local resident (thanks, Robin S), we'll take a quick look at one of those stores, owned by a member of a very prominent local family -- the Eastburns. As with most things, it seems, we don't have a complete picture of what went on, but we do have enough to get a general idea.

Just south of Corner Ketch, and north of the Paper Mill Road/Polly Drummond Hill Road intersection, there's a small little stub of a street called Pigeon Hollow Road. There are only about three or four houses on the street, but two of them are survivors from the era when the Eastburns controlled the region. There is a two-story stone house, with a large, newer addition on the rear; next to it is a longer, 1 1/2 story frame house. This second house, for much of the second half of the 1800's, was the site of the Eastburn Store (I don't know that that was what it was called, but that's how I'll refer to it).

As best as we can tell (much of the information comes from Eastburn descendant Donna Peters), the first proprietor of the store was Isaac Eastburn (1806-1890), a son of David Eastburn, co-founder of the Eastburn-Jeanes Lime Kilns. When he first opened his shop is unclear, except that by the 1860 census he was listed as a store keeper. (I couldn't find Isaac in the 1850 census.) Since it appears that the stone house may be older than the store (now also a house), Isaac likely farmed his portion of the family land for a while before becoming a store keeper, and may have even continued doing both. Interestingly, the proprietor of the store just up the road at Corner Ketch was Samuel Lloyd. Isaac and Samuel were brothers-in-law twice over -- Isaac was married to Mary Lloyd, and Samuel's wife was Rebecca Eastburn. I wonder whether Isaac opened his store to compete with his brother-in-law, or whether there was cooperation between the shops?

Front of Eastburn's Store

Sometime before 1860, Mary L. Eastburn, Isaac's wife, died. Isaac eventually met Rachel Wier, and it seems one or both of them had the idea to move to Virginia. In late 1865, Isaac sold a little more than three acres of land (presumably including both buildings) to Samuel Eastburn. The next year, Isaac and Rachel married and moved to Fredricksburg, VA. He seems to have lived the life of a farmer down there, and later returned to Delaware shortly before his death.

One of the biggest mysteries in this story seems to be, just exactly who did buy Isaac's land? There are two possibilities, and each makes sense in its own way. The prevailing wisdom was that it was Isaac's son, Samuel L. Eastburn (1834-1900). Sounds logical that he would sell to his son, but if so, Samuel didn't stick around long. The 1870 and 1880 censuses both show Samuel L. in Wilmington, first as a store clerk, then as a liveryman. An 1874 directory lists him as having a livery stable on French Street. Whether or not it was he who bought his father's land, Samuel L. Eastburn almost certainly did not operate the store -- at least not for long.

Samuel L. Eastburn

The other possibility was that the Samuel Eastburn in question was Isaac's brother. This Samuel Eastburn (1818-1906) was the son of David Eastburn who eventually inherited his father's house, now on Paper Mill Road, after the death of his mother Elizabeth. In its own way, this makes sense, too -- Isaac selling his lot (for $1575, not a small amount) to his brother, in order to consolidated the family's holdings. Bear in mind also that Paper Mill Road as it is in this area today did not exist until the 20th Century. At the time, Pigeon Hollow Road was the main road east to Limestone Road, although it did merge with the present road not too far away. The relevant point being that all this land (Isaac's and Samuel's) was on the same side of the main road, not separated as it is today. Also, one part of the deed from Isaac to Samuel (which Donna has seen and scanned) seems to indicate (to me, at least) that the plot is being sold to the same Samuel Eastburn who owns the adjoining land -- this would be the elder Samuel.

Regardless of who bought the land, it seems obvious that neither one actually ran the store. So, who did? My best guess, based on the evidence I've seen, is that the man who operated the store after Isaac's departure was another of his brothers -- Isaiah Eastburn (1810-1891). As a younger man, Isaiah owned a farm farther south on Polly Drummond Hill Road, near Old Coach Road. By 1860, he was living near the rest of his family, and was listed as a shoemaker in the 1860 census, and as a bootmaker in 1870. In 1880, his occupation was listed as storekeeper. What seems likely is that Isaiah moved onto Isaac's former property after 1865, and worked both as a shoemaker and as a storekeeper. In fact, the 1874 state directory does list Isaiah as both, as shown below.

I've yet to find out how long the store operated, or if anyone ran it after the passing of Isaiah Eastburn in 1891. Whenever it closed, the old homes on the once-busy Pigeon Hollow Road stand as two more reminders of the time when the Eastburns dominated this region of Mill Creek Hundred.

The Dixon-Wilson House

2011-06-30T16:05:00.000-04:00

I think it's been a while since we've been in the Hockessin area, so I thought we'd take a quick look at one of Mill Creek Hundred's historic houses hiding in Hockessin (also, it seems to be Alliteration Day). Sitting on the north side of Valley Road, about half way between Limestone Road and Lancaster Pike, is the Dixon-Wilson House, one of the oldest in the area. Sometimes, I think, people tend to think of Hockessin as a bit of a newer area, relatively speaking. There is some truth to this, since Hockessin as an organized town didn't really take off until later in the 19th Century, well behind such earlier centers as Stanton, Marshallton, Milltown, or Brackenville. It got its economic steam from the kaolin mining industry, and has even been likened to a western boom town in the late 1800's. However, the roots of settlement in the area go back much further, back to the beginnings of English occupation of what would be Mill Creek Hundred.

One of the original families to settle in the Hockessin area was the Dixons, who purchased a large tract from the Penns around 1730. The family consisted of a widow, and her four sons. One of the sons, Henry, built a home along what's now Lancaster Pike. His brother, John Dixon (1702-1740), received a portion of the homestead a bit farther west, and built his own home on Valley Road. Although it appears to have been added to extensively over the years, Dixon's house still stands. It's quite possible that the inscription on the datestone -- "I & J Dixon - 1732" -- reflects the construction date of the earliest section. The "I" in the inscription refers to John's son Isaac, to whom the house went after John Dixon's untimely death.

Isaac Dixon (1722?-1766) lived in the house and worked the surrounding land until his own passing in 1766, when the family home came to his son John. The Dixons of this era seem to have been cursed, either by genetics or by fate, as John also died young, leaving the estate to his only son, Isaac (1779-?). (Yes, they seemed to really like those names.) The next to own the land and home was Isaac's eldest son, Jesher H. Dixon (1800 -1871). It was during Jesher's tenure that the house passed out of Dixon hands, and into the possession of another family that was busy buying up land from some of the original families. After receiving his education both in Hockessin and in Wilmington, Jesher left his ancestral home and built his own in 1832. His house, located just to the north on Southwood Road, still stands as well. In addition to farming, Jesher H. Dixon was involved in politics, serving a term in the State House of Representatives, as well as being a commissioner for the county Levy Court.

There seems to be some confusion as to when exactly John Dixon's old home was sold. In Hockessin: A Pictorial History, Joseph Lake gives the date as 1860 (unless I'm misunderstanding -- always a possibility). However, the 1849 Rea and Price map clearly shows the house as already belonging to J. Wilson. Again, unless I'm confusing houses in Lake's narrative, I believe the Dixon house was not purchased by Stephen Wilson in 1860, but by Jonathan Wilson (1798-1850) sometime prior to 1849, possibly much earlier if Jesher Dixon sold it to build his own home. The Wilsons were not newcomers to the area -- they were descended from Christopher Wilson, who first settled in the area in 1718, and helped found the Hockessin Friends Meeting. Jonathan was his great-grandson, and was part of a drive by the Wilsons in the first half of the 1800's to buy up much of the land formerly owned by the Dixons and Springers.

While the 1849 map shows Jonathan as the owner, the 1850 census, taken after his death in February of that year, shows his widow Sarah living in the house with five of their children. One of those children, Ephraim Wilson (1836-1879), would be its next owner. Sometime in the 1860's, Sarah moved to a nearby house, likely the other "E.W." house on Valley Rd on the 1868 map. After the 1879 death of Ephraim, who had served as the clerk for Hockessin's school district (#29), it appears that his widow Mary sold the house, as she and their three children were living in Wilmington in 1880. It may have taken a while to sell the house, since an 1881 map lists the property as "Est. of E. Wilson".

I've yet to figure out what happen to the house after that, since I don't have that section of the 1893 map, and the 1880 census is almost illegible. Even if this home left the Wilson family, the family did not leave the area. The original Wilson house (which I'm sure will be a topic one day), built in 1741, still stands just to the south and was still in the Wilson family at least into the 1970's. It, like the Dixon-Wilson House, is just one of the many hidden treasures that testify to Hockessin's long and storied history.

Fell Spice Bottle

2011-06-27T15:37:00.000-04:00

Prompted by the recent comment on the Fell Spice Mill post by a descendant of several workers at the mill, blog reader and occasional information-provider Donna Peters decided to do a little electronic digging, and she came up with a few things that I thought were rather interesting. I don't think I have too much to say about them, but I'll share them with everyone here.

The first, and to me, the most interesting, is the bottle shown on the right. It is a full, unopened bottle of "Borneo Ginger" from CJ Fell and Bros. I've seen empty Fell's bottles online a few times, but I had never seen a full one before. I'm not sure if there's any way to be certain that the contents of this bottle were ground at the mill at Faulkland, but I assume that that's the likely scenario. If so, there's even a chance that they were processed by Leonard, George, or James Woodward, the ancestors of the commenter. For what it's worth, according to "The Grocer's Encyclopedia" from 1911, "Borneo Ginger" was just a trade name for some white ginger, none of which was actually from Borneo. Below are a few other views of the Fell ginger bottle.

In addition to this, Donna also came across a few newspaper articles mentioning the company, including the advertisements below. The first is from 1840, the second from 1855.

Although it's interesting to see a lot of their products listed, I personally find the chocolate the most interesting. First, there's the fact that one of the brands is named "Courtland", after Courtland J. Fell, the "C.J." in "C.J. Fell and Brother". (One of the eight different brands, if I'm reading it correctly.) Second, another brand is called "Homeopathic". Apparently, chocolate was used to cure all sorts of things in the 19th Century. Honestly, it probably didn't work any worse than the other "medicines" of the day. Of course, now they say dark chocolate is supposed to be good for you. And there's always chocolate's timeless use for self-medicating depression...

A New Page on the Blog -- Cemetery Pics

2011-06-22T10:30:00.002-04:00

As some of you may have noticed, a new page went up on the Mill Creek Hundred History Blog yesterday (I think that's what they call a "soft opening".) It's something that I've been wanting to do (or at least start) for quite a while now -- cemetery pictures. Here's what I wrote as a quick intro on the page:

One of the greatest resources we have for researching history and genealogy, or just for feeling a tangible link to the past, is cemeteries. Here in Mill Creek Hundred, we're fortunate to have several cemeteries that contain burials dating back to the 1700's, and which hold the final resting places of a large portion of the hundred's 18th and 19th Century residents. This page contains links to photos of many of their headstones. This is by no means a comprehensive catalog, and will be a work in progress for quite some time. If you have any corrections or additions to this collection, feel free to chime in on the Forum or email me directly.

I've used pictures of headstones several times in a few different posts, sometimes because it's about all I had, but sometimes because it's a very real, physical link to a historical figure -- sometimes the only one we have. I've always thought that it would be neat, and very useful, to have a database of a lot of the historical gravesites in the area. What I plan on doing is going out and photographing as many old headstones as I can, so that I can post them for everyone to access. So far, I have a virtual stack of shots from White Clay Creek Presbyterian and a few from Red Clay. Over time, I'd like to get more from each of these, as well as from places like Ebenezer Methodist, St. James Episcopal, Stanton, Mill Creek and Hockessin Friends, Coffee Run, and a bunch more.

As I said, this here is just the start. This page will be kept as an ongoing project, with me adding new pictures whenever I can. And while I might expand it down the road, for now I plan on documenting only "historical" graves, meaning those of people who lived primarily in the 1700's and 1800's. The links are listed alphabetically, but grouped by cemetery for a little bit of order. If anyone has or takes any pictures of their own that they'd like to contribute to the project, I'd be more than happy to include them. I think a page like this will be useful not only to us as people interested in our local history, but also to folks near and far researching their own family's history. So, if you'd like, feel free to take a virtual stroll through the historic cemeteries of Mill Creek Hundred, and meet many of the residents featured on this site.