Mystery of the Stone Troughs...Solved!

A Wilmington Fountain Society water trough

I don't consider myself to be a great researcher or writer, or even have particularly brilliant insights into the information I gather and pass along here. However, one 'Added Value" I can contribute is being able to piece together disparate pieces of information that I've come across over the years. Yes, get to the point, Scott. Six long years ago (although, honestly, February feels like six long years ago), it was brought to my attention that there were five stone troughs (that's what we guessed they were) located at Delcastle Golf Course, the former Delcastle Farm for the New Castle County Workhouse at Greenbank. They all had dates inscribed on them -- two with 1902, one each from 1903, 1905, and 1912. Later, we learned there were several other similar troughs scattered around New Castle County, in places like Canby Park, Granogue, and Hockessin.

There were stories that they were made by prisoners at the workhouse or at the farm, but no proof of either. From the style we figured all these stone troughs were related and connected somehow, but no one knew from whence they came. Then, this morning, thanks to one word I saw in a Facebook post (thanks for sharing, Robin Brown!), it all clicked. Then, I even discovered who was responsible for the existence of the troughs at Delcastle. It turns out, these lithic beauties were the work of a 19th Century philanthropic group -- The Wilmington Fountain Society. Founded in 1870 by Ferris Bringhurst, the group erected drinking fountains around the city for the benefit of city dwellers. More importantly for us, they also placed troughs for the benefit of the city dwellers' horses and dogs. In fact the Wilmington Fountain Society is considered a precursor to today's Delaware SPCA. The troughs were said to be hollowed out of large pieces of granite.

So, after reading all this, I was pretty sure that this was, indeed, the origin of the stone troughs at Delcastle and elsewhere. But how and when did the five troughs get to Delcastle? And who was responsible? The article below, from the Wilmington Morning News, April 16, 1979, gives us the answer. By the 1950's, the troughs were disappearing from the city streets, no longer needed and now in the way. One day, W. W. "Chick" Laird, a du Pont descendant and a director of the Dupont Company, saw several of the troughs from the window of a train. He decided to save some of them.

Laird then arranged for the five troughs at Delcastle to be delivered, as well as one to Centreville, "near Buckley's Tavern." As you can see in the screenshot below, this one remains as well! It sits just south of Buckley's, where countless pedestrians and motorists have passed it, never knowing its true origin. I assume that the other troughs scattered around were also saved by people at some point, and moved out of the city to safety. The article states that the society had about 35 horse troughs throughout the city. We've now identified nine of them. I wonder how many others are still out there??

Wilmington Fountain Society trough in Centreville