Hillside School, Dist. #100 (aka, The Park Office) -- Part 1

The Hillside School (Park Office) today

After all these years, we may finally be covering the last of the pre-1900 schoolhouses in Mill Creek
Hundred! And unless I'm missing one (please feel free to speak up if I am), it's the last of the one-room schoolhouses built in MCH. From its inception it was always an almost ridiculously small district (but one the residents wanted) that almost immediately lost some of its tax base, and only operated for about 40 years. However, the building did survive and is even back in public use and owned by the state!

The school I'm referring to was known as the Hillside School, and designated as School District #100. The little brick school building sits on the east side of Thompson Station Road across from the eastern end of Chambers Rock Road, in the far western edge of MCH. The brick schoolhouse, since plastered over and with a few additions, now serves as the park office for White Clay Creek State Park (WCCSP). Its beginnings, however, go back more than 130 years.

Even today, if you go driving around on Thompson Station, Chambers Rock, Pleasant Hill, or Hopkins Roads, it can feel very (and in my opinion, wonderfully) empty. Even though you're only a few miles from bustling Newark and Kirkwood Highway, it seems remote. In the late 1800's it felt even more so to the relatively small number of local residents. This is one reason why, by the late 1880's, they were beginning to campaign for a new school for their children. At this point they were still part of District #31, attending the Union School all the way over on Corner Ketch Road. It was almost a mile and a half as the crow flies, but more like two or two and a half if the child walked along the road. 

The Long and Convoluted History of Sugar Loaf Hill Farm -- Part 2

My best estimation of the 147 acres
of Sugar Loaf Hill Farm

In the last post we were introduced to the property (originally four properties) later known as Sugar 
Loaf Hill Farm. We followed its story through the Nivin family (although starting out as Evans) and saw how it was acquired, then sold out of the family after William Nivins' death. It was owned for a while by John Dickinson, then sold in 1812 by Dickinson's son-in-law Albanus Logan to Joseph Johnson. It was Johnson who made some significant changes to the farm, mostly by breaking it apart.

First, in 1813, he sold 46 acres to Thomas Graves, which I think was all on the south side of Lancaster Pike, just west of today's Hercules Road. Then he sold 62 acres adjoining those to John Gray (no, not that one, Outlander fans). That got rid of most of the northern portion of the Nivin tracts. In 1814, Johnson made two sales on the same date to a pair of brothers. To John Mendenhall he sold 85 acres, which I believe was essentially all of his land between Newport Gap Pike and McKennans Church Road. Then he sold 147 acres, basically the central portion of the property, to Abraham Mendenhall. It appears that Abraham paid half of the $6000 cost upfront and mortgaged the other half from Johnson (he paid it off in October 1817). John and Abraham were sons of Aaron Mendenhall, patriarch of the Mendenhalls in MCH, and first of his family to operate their mill on Mill Creek.

While John sold his portion of the old Nivin farm just four years later (a property we can follow another day), Abraham's acquisition remained in the family a good bit longer. In fact, Abraham held it until his death in 1833. Most of his ten living children at the time were still in the area, although, notably, son William would later migrate west with the Mormons, as mentioned in a previous post about his cousin Ellis Sanders. William would become an important builder among the early Later Day Saints, and would be among the first of them to make it to Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City in 1852.

The Long and Convoluted History of Sugar Loaf Hill Farm -- Part 1

What I believe to be a close approximation 
to the original four Nivin tracts

Over the years here on the blog, we've seen that there are many different paths that the story of a 
property can take. It can go centuries being owned by just a few families, or it can change hands many times. It can start as one big tract and get broken up, or start smaller and get built up. It can be owned by people whose names you know, or by smaller and lesser-known families. In this story, we have pretty much a little bit of everything. This is a farm that has been mentioned in passing a few times before, always with the "I'll have to look more into it later" caveat. Well, it's now later.

The farm in question is often known as Sugar Loaf Hill Farm, although it's unclear when that moniker was attached and by whom. My best guess is sometime in the mid-19th Century, which will be much later in our story (in the next post). That's because the really interesting stuff took place a century or more earlier, and while I don't have every detail nailed down just yet, I think I have a pretty good idea of what happened and when. Our first question though, is where. 

This particular property was both built up, and then later broken apart. The tract lies on the north side of Hercules Road, and at its greatest extent, very generally, stretched from about McKennans Church Road on the west to about halfway down Hercules Road to Lancaster Pike. It then extended up and over Lancaster Pike, over to almost Old Wilmington Road, stepped south and west a few times, ending up on McKennans at about McKean High School. At its largest, the farm included about 420 acres, but it didn't start out that size. Quite confusingly, at the point where I had first jumped into the stream (a few sales in the late 1760's/early 1770's) the property was being sold as four separate (but presumably contiguous) parcels -- of 200, 39, 102, and 80 acres. It was unclear whether they had been acquired simultaneously or cobbled together over the years. I still haven't found all the answers, but I do have enough to piece the story together.

The Surprising Tale of Herbert Singer and his Yearbook

Front of the '46/'47 UD yearbook

I want to tell a bit of a different type of story than we usually have here, and one that I recently stumbled upon quite accidentally. Most of the tale is outside of Delaware, let alone Mill Creek Hundred, but it does begin with a Delaware connection. In fact, it all began simply with me looking down and seeing the word "Hen". It's one of those stories that just kept getting more interesting the more I dug into it, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

As noted, this all began very simply, with no notion where it would ultimately lead. I was walking around one day and happened to look down in a bin of discarded items (I don't want to bore you with the specifics, but suffice it to say that the item was retrieved very legally and safely). I saw the word "Hen" on what appeared to be a book or certificate of some sort. Thinking that it might have something to do with the University of Delaware (and since my daughter currently attends there and I've recently "reconnected" with UD and Newark) I grabbed it out of curiosity. Once I did, I realized that it was a book, large and hardbound. In fact, it was a UD yearbook -- from the 1946/47 school year! I assume you all know me well enough to know I was excited.

As I looked through the book, I came across one fascinating thing after another. First in the faculty/administration section, I saw several names I recognized from the buildings later named in their honor -- Dr. Wilbur Owen Sypherd, Francis Hagar Squire, and John Fenton Daugherty. And while I didn't recognize any specific names of students, there were plenty of family names I knew -- Duncan, England, Townsend, Winchester, and Hollingsworth, among others. I also had fun identifying the buildings that were pictured. Most looked the same, but with slightly different (and generally sparser) surroundings. Only one building was named differently -- then University Hall, now Hullihen. Well, also Memorial Hall was then the Library.

The Crawford-Rankin Farm

The 200 acre Crawford-Rankin Farm

In the south-central area of Mill Creek Hundred, there lies a farm that for almost 150 years was owned by only two families (although really just one), but now is the home to several hundred. It has a history that reaches back to a colonial business venture which I hadn't (knowingly, at least) run across before, and forward to the biggest family in the state. Part of it now includes street names that wonderfully reflect the history of this region of MCH. 

The property in question lies on the east side of Polly Drummond Hill Road, mostly north of the western end of New Linden Hill Road. However, its story goes back long before the current path of New Linden Hill Road, and even generations before Mrs. Drummond graced the hill that now bears her name. The original tract we're looking at was a 300 acre parcel owned in the early 1770's by something called the Pennsylvania Land Company (PLC). The PLC was a Quaker-owned corporation which bought large swaths of land from William Penn and resold it in smaller parcels. But it was not only Quaker-owned, it was Quaker affiliated -- to the point that there seems to be a discussion among historians as to just how much it was a part of the Society of Friends. I think that most of their land was in the current Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (and I can't recall coming across them before), but they did own this 300 acre property in MCH.

The PLC was founded in 1699 by four Friends in London: Michael Russel, Tobias Collet, Daniel Quare, and Henry Gouldney. The last three of them are named in the deeds I've found relating to this tract. On March 14, 1722, they sold the 300 acres -- bounded on the east by Pike Creek (then called Peck's Creek) and extending likely just past Polly Drummond Hill Road -- to Griffith Lewis. Lewis was a weaver by trade, probably born in the early 1680's (although details about him are scarce). Four years later, in 1726, he also bought 200 acres bordering Red Clay Creek, which will be the topic of an upcoming post. Unfortunately, Griffith and wife Catherine didn't enjoy these properties together for long, as Griffith Lewis died in the early days of January 1731. He willed all his real estate and assets to Catherine (it does not appear that they had any children), and she sold the Red Clay farm in 1738.

The Sanders-Currinder Farms Part Two

Ellis Sanders' 150 acre farm

In the last post, we saw how the land roughly bounded by Kirkwood Highway, White Clay Creek, Harmony Road, and Red Mill Road passed through the Bryan, Shields, Saunders (Sanders), and Currinder families. We learned that in 1819, brothers Amos and Ellis Sanders divided the 200 acre farm, previously owned by their father John, which they had purchased jointly in 1792. We followed Amos' western 42 acres through his long lifetime, and then saw it sold to Jacob Currinder, who also added 53 acres on the western end (from miller David Eastburn). However, Currinder didn't just add those 53 acres to land he already owned. Amos' 42 acres also were an addition to an existing Currinder farm -- namely the farm formerly owned by Ellis Sanders. But to get there, we have to back up a bit.

We last left older brother Ellis Sanders after the 1819 division of their father's old farm, in which Amos got the smaller farm with the house, and Ellis got the larger, eastern portion. Ellis' farm, seen above, comprised 150 acres nestled along White Clay Creek, extending east of Harmony Road and north of what was then the Road to Stanton (or Newark), later the Telegraph Road, and finally Capitol Trail/Kirkwood Highway. I should mention that there were two slight road differences in the pre-suburban era. One was the placement of Harmony Road, now Old Harmony Road, just slightly east of the current thoroughfare. The other was the Road to Stanton, which deviated in this stretch from the modern Kirkwood Highway (to Upper Pike Creek/Old Harmony Roads)/Capitol Trail (westward to Newark). Heading west, the road dipped south through today's Green Valley, followed about where Green Valley Drive is now and crossed Pike Creek, headed straight west crossing Old Harmony Road at the bend, went behind Richardson's Garden Center, dipped down a bit again and went in front of where Shue-Medill Middle School is, then angled back up to join the current highway.

In 1789, Ellis married Edith Yarnall (of the Yarnalls living near Brandywine Springs), but she died the following December, only two weeks after the birth (and death) of their only child. Ellis remarried five years later to Hannah Mendenhall, daughter of miller Aaron Mendenhall. They had two children -- Ann (who apparently never married) and Ellis Mendenhall Sanders, who had quite the eventful life. The elder Ellis lived the remainder of his life on his farm, until passing in 1843 at the age of 77. In his will, he gave his farm to his son, but that son would not remain on it. Although born a Quaker, in 1843 Ellis M. was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He travelled to Nauvoo, IL (where the Mormons were settled at the time) in Spring 1844 and met with founder Joseph Smith. He was ordained an Elder by Joseph's brother Hyrum, and returned to Delaware. Both Smith's would die in prison at the hands of a mob in June.

The Saunders-Currinder Farms -- Part One

Nathaniel Bryan's 200 acres, sold in 1776 to Thomas
Shields, later owned by the Saunders and Currinders

Across today's landscape, the features we think most about and use most to describe locations would be our roads. However, throughout most of history and well into the 19th Century the vital features were the waterways. In this post we'll look at farms that today I'd describe as being (mostly) just south of the highway, but in their day would probably be described as being "along the creek" instead. It may not be an area most people think much about -- unless you happen to live there. But this area has taken an interesting journey over the past 300 or more years -- it began as a larger tract, was divided and broken up, then later much of it was re-combined into a large property again, but under a different family.

The property we're looking at this time is located on the south side of Kirkwood Highway (mostly), roughly (although not exactly) bordered by the highway, White Clay Creek, Harmony Road, and Red Mill Road. The earliest deed I have found for this land, then at 200 acres, is a sale in November 1776 from Nathaniel Bryan to Thomas Shields. Unfortunately, this deed does not give any information on when and from whom Nathaniel acquired the land. As best as I can tell, the Bryan family seems to have been primarily from Pencader Hundred, although in 1735 Nathaniel purchased 212 acres from his father John, land which sat just across on the south side of White Clay Creek.

It's unclear if that is in any way related to the 200 acres on the north side. Nathaniel could have acquired the Mill Creek Hundred farm soon after, or not until later. When he sold it in 1776 (about a year before he died) he was described in the deed as being "of Mill Creek Hundred" -- and the sale was for "All that Messuage Plantation and Tract of Land" -- all of which implies that he was living on the property at the time of sale. I'm even more certain that the next owner, Thomas Shields, did not live here. He resided and plied his trade in Philadelphia -- described in the newspapers as a goldsmith, and in these deeds as a silversmith. His shop (and presumably his home) was on Front Street near Dock Street, in the area now known as Penn's Landing.

The Jordan-Graves-Hoopes Farm

Location of the 108-acre farm
on the 1868 Beers map

This time we'll take a look at a farm property that you've probably never thought about before, and that might not even seem like it was once one tract. There are three old houses (and at least two lost ones) on what was the original tract, but they were long ago separated into different lots. The main part that we'll detail here was owned so evenly by so many families that there was no obvious name to give it, so I went with what you see at the top. But still, we'll try to break down the history of this 108 and later 59 acre farm in northeastern Mill Creek Hundred.

To get more specific, the land we'll be looking at is located in the area known as Loveville, and is bordered on the east by Loveville Road, the northeast by Old Wilmington Road, and the southwest by Lancaster Pike. The smaller farm we'll look at was originally a part of a larger, 200 acre rectangular lot (seen below) sold to James Jordan by Letitia Aubrey (William Penn's daughter) in 1720's. I have not found the original deed, but a later 1797 document I think has the date incompletely filled in. According to this indenture, which is between Aubrey's heir Christiana Gulielma Gaskell and Jordan's sons William and John, James Jordan's 1754 will bequeathed the land to these sons. In 1797, Gaskell was looking for full payment apparently never made by James back in the 20's. (Could you imagine someone now coming to you, saying your Dad hadn't fully paid for his land 70 some years ago, and wanting payment?)