Oversee Farm and Shangri-La

I'm proud to present another guest post, this time from Robert Wilhelm. It's about two properties -- Oversee Farm, (mostly) in Christiana Hundred and now part of Auburn Valley State Park, and Shangri-La in New Garden Township, Chester County. It's a fascinating look at a property that will hopefully become more well-known, and I thank Bob for his work.

Oversee Farm property in 2020 with trails indicated
Note the meadows in 1937 (below) now wooded

--Written by Robert E. Wilhelm, Jr.

Israel Way Marshall and his brother Ellwood would never have guessed their rag papermaking business expansion in 1890 would eventually create the world’s largest vulcanized fibre manufacturer producing more than 75% of the world’s fibre during much of the 20th century. They might have thought it improbable that in the 21st century, the then 19th century burned-out Auburn Factory, and hundreds of acres of property surrounding the soon-to-become paper mill, would be donated by Israel’s great-grandchildren forming the core of a 600+ acre Delaware state park.

Throughout much of the 18th and 19th centuries, what would eventually become the 121.8-acre Oversee Farm property was owned by generations of the Chandler, Green, and Sharpless families. The earliest tax and planning maps of the area, dated 1849, show Samuel M. Green as owner. Handed down through generations, the Ellwood Green property would eventually be purchased by Henry Doud while the nearby Sharpless farm transferred to the Kane family. These properties would further be subdivided into smaller parcels to be owned by the Cloud, Cross, Davis, Mullin, Murray, and Wilkinson families among others. In 1927 Urey W. Conway began purchasing those smaller land parcels belonging to Chandler, Doud, and other families in the acreage bounded by Ashland-Clinton School, Center Mill, Snuff Mill, and Creek roads. By 1939 Conway had purchased fourteen land parcels totaling approximately 175-acres. Four additional parcels were added over the ensuing years bringing Conway’s total ownership to more than 200 acres.

When Urey W. Conway passed away on July 1, 1951 (born 1890), his last will and testament decreed his collection of contiguous Yorklyn properties go to his cousin, Adele Conway Mills of Tulsa, Oklahoma with Wilmington Trust Company serving as executor. Eleanor Annette Marshall (January 8, 1924 – August 25, 1999) was well acquainted with Urey’s property. Urey’s property was located on the opposite bank of the Red Clay Creek which was a common border with J. Warren Marshall’s (1881-1953) Woodcrest property; her father’s home where she grew up. Preferring the name Bonnie, Marshall bought the 206.48-acre property at auction for $80,000 on May 29, 1952 with financial assistance from her mother, Bertha T. Lamborn Marshall (1883-1962). Bonnie’s intent was to see the untouched stretches of forest, freshwater marshes, open fields, a free-flowing Red Clay tributary, and scenic views of Red Clay Creek preserved for future generations’ enjoyment. Bonnie moved into the former Greene family stone farmhouse that Conway once occupied. Bonnie promptly named her large property ‘Oversee Farm’.

Oversee Farm in 1937. 10 years earlier Urey W. Conway began
purchasing parcels within the areas outlined in red

A thirteen-page deed transferred the aggregate of land parcels from Mills to Marshall. Included were boundary descriptions for 18 land tracts providing for an interesting read. Within the footprint of the acreage being transferred to Marshall, 26-acres belonging to Gertrude Spies and 4.3-acres belong to Henry Kane were excluded from the transfer. Such clauses as “to a post/stone/(wood species specified) stake/iron pin”, and “to a fence/stone wall/(species specified) tree” are prevalent in the descriptions. Units of distance are detailed in feet or in perches, chains, and links. Roads were simply identified as a “public road” without a specific name and some described roads no longer exist.

The Conway/Mills deed included several restrictions including a 6-chains and 20-links (409.19 feet) by 2-person wide access corridor across one of the parcels for David Brown to “access, maintain, and service his spring water pipe supplying water to his barn for livestock”. A provision permitted the fording of Red Clay Creek at Sharpless Road. The 60-foot-wide right-of-way of the Baltimore & Ohio’s Landenberg Branch tracks were detailed crossing the property. While most of the property occupied Christiana Hundred, less than a half-acre was in Mill Creek Hundred. 

On April 18, 1953, Bonnie sold 56.67 acres to developer John Alexander. Bonnie specified in the deed’s restrictions that Alexander could construct up to ten private dwellings with free-standing garages and storage buildings on subdivision properties of 2.5 acres or more. The deed excluded any trade or commercial use on any of the subdivided properties and prohibited the practicing of any professional or commercial business. Interestingly the deed permitted Alexander to operate his private photographic studio but he was not permitted to advertise his publicly nor have employee(s). On December 16, 1953 Konstanty Olewnik, an adjoining property owner, purchased 0.522 acres wanting to square off a corner of his property.

Stone farmhouse at Oversee Farm

Stone bank barn at Oversee Farm. Both the house and barn date to the 1700's

Shortly after buying the property, Bonnie met Benjamin Joseph Reynolds (January 29, 1927 – August 25, 1976), a West Grove, PA native whom she married on January 2, 1960. Having moved from Oversee Farm to the Reynold’s family farm in New Garden Township after their marriage, Bonnie leased the Oversee farmhouse to Richard and Kathy Viggars into the early 1980s and to other tenants in later years. The Reynolds family harvested Oversee’s meadows of grass to feed their dairy livestock during the winter. 

The Reynolds family owned a large dairy farm along Penn Green Road between Baltimore Pike (Route 1) and Gap-Newport Pike (Route 41) outside of Avondale that had been purchased in 1904. Ben and Bonnie inherited the property on January 27, 1961 and soon were raising two sons, Warren E. and John M., on the Reynolds dairy farm now named Green Valley Farm. The property included a stone farmhouse which the couple restored that had been constructed in 1740 by John Miller an original settler in New Garden Township. Miller paid £20 an acre ($25 in 2021) for the 1,013 acres in 1713.

Reynolds, a republican, was elected a supervisor of New Garden Township, Chester County, PA in 1960, the same year he married Bonnie. Elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1964, Reynolds served until 1972. Reynolds was also a member and chair of the Chester County Republican Committee and served as president of the Kennett Square Chamber of Commerce in 1964.

In 1966 Reynolds began developing two large tracts of land west of the Delaware-Pennsylvania state line encompassing Broad Run valley. In the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, rich veins of Kaolin and limestone had been discovered on the Andrew McIntire and the John and Isaac Jackson properties. Discovered along a stream known as Broad Run, a tributary of White Clay Creek in New Garden Township, Chester County, the deposits were high quality and near water needed for processing. Mined by the American Kaolin Company for nearly a half century, operations closed down in the early 1900s when open-pit mining of the rich Kaolin vein was no longer profitable. The mining site was abandoned and the land sat idle.

Dotted with quarry pits full of ground water and mounds of tailings from the mining operation, Reynolds began development of a self-contained resort community to be called Shangri-La. Broad Run Creek’s valley made an ideal formation for creating a lake. By forming a lake, Reynolds could eliminate the many open mining pits to either side of the creek. Reynolds created an earthen dam from tailings material across the southern end of Broad Run valley between 1969-’70. He named the 28-acre lake that took several years to fill, Shangri-La Reservoir, today known as Somerset Lake. Reynolds would never complete his project as he committed suicide for undisclosed reasons in early 1977. Photos of the area in 1961, in 1968 with Shangri-La Reservoir under construction (blue crosshatch area), and today as Somerset Lake in 1992 and 2020 are below.

Ten years after Ben’s passing, Bonnie sold 350 acres of the Shangri-La property, including Shangri-La Reservoir, to Ernest DiSabatino & Sons (now EDiS Company) and Bellevue Holding Company (now Bellevue Companies) for the development of 477 homes. Additional property was sold to St. Anthony’s Church in Wilmington for development of a summer retreat. From 1987 to 1994 Broad Run valley was transformed at cost of $115 million into today’s Somerset Lake developments with the St. Anthony’s parcel purchased by New Garden Township in 2018 for a public park area. 

Bonnie was a birthright Quaker and maintained a dedication to Quakerism throughout her life by serving on numerous Quaker organizations and committees. She received diplomas from Oberlin College, University of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Reynolds dedicated her life to social service work, world peace, and preserving and protecting the environment. Her love of travel included her first cruise at age 13 and climbing the Himalayas at age 73. Her love of photography resulted in the winning of awards in various national and international competitions. She cultivated gardens at Green Valley and Oversee farms and was active in numerous non-profit organizations.

Upon Eleanor’s death in 1999, Oversee Farm was held by Wilmington Trust Company while the former banking institution settled the Marshall-Reynolds Trust. Today the Marshall-Reynolds Foundation gifts millions of dollars annually supporting local non-profit environmental, preservation, and educational efforts. To settle Eleanor’s estate, the 121.8 acre Oversee Farm was sold to the Nature Conservancy on December 1, 2003. Subsequently on December 1, 2006 the land was transferred at cost plus expenses to the State of Delaware Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control (DNREC) and added to the administration of Auburn Heights Preserve, now Auburn Valley State Park.

Oversee Farm is approximately 74% forested and 20% grass pasture land. The hilly forested property rises from the creek’s elevation of 155-feet above sea level to a pair of flat-topped hills near Snuff Mill Road peaking 210-feet higher than the creek. Underground springs feed a 1-3/4-acre pond shaped similar to reading glasses. The Oversee Pond is part of a Red Clay Creek tributary and includes a small waterfall separating the two ponds. An 1800s stone bank barn and matching stone farm house remain on the property. Delaware State Parks maintains the property and has routed 1.2-miles of paved trail, in a multiple loop configuration, through the lush piedmont meadows and wooded areas. Named Oversee Farm Trail, it has gained a reputation for being not only beautiful to walk but also the hilliest of all Auburn Valley State Park trails constructed thus far. The two ponds are richly stocked for catch-and-throw-back fishing for the children’s fishing program. As funds allow, State Parks envisions Oversee Farm Trail connected to Yorklyn Bridge Trail by additional trails and an iron truss bridge spanning the Red Clay Creek and Creek Roads (Rt. 82) near Sharpless Road.

Oversee Farm Lower Pond, with waterfall in the background

Oversee Farm Lower Pond