The Malcom-Burris-Weinstock Store

1904 receipt from G.W. & C. Malcom

This was a particularly fun little investigation that ended up being about something that was only around for about 50 years, and has been gone for more than 60. It did help uncover the beginnings of something that a few people may remember the end of. It started with a great find (not by me) that when I first saw it, I expected to go in a very different direction. It wasn't until most of the way through that the real story became apparent to me.

So, what are we talking about? Well, this all began when the keen eye of Denis Hehman came across an image of the handwritten receipt seen here, dating to February 11, 1904. On it, John Mitchell has purchased items from the establishment of G.W. & C. Malcom. What I think really caught Denis' eye was the fact that the location is listed as Marshallton. He was not familiar with the Malcoms and neither was I, so I started looking into them. However, the answers did not lead where I thought they would, and I ended up answering a question I didn't even know I had.

With the location of Marshallton and the description of "Manufacturers of and dealers in all kinds of mill feed and grain", I expected that they would be associated either with the Marshallton or maybe the Greenbank Mill. But since "Marshallton" could cover a wide area, I wasn't sure. I was pretty sure though that the Marshallton mill was out of service by 1904, so I looked more toward Greenbank, even though I'd never heard the Malcom name associated with it before. Turns out that I still haven't found this exact answer, but I did find lots of other ones.

George and Charles Malcom were brothers, born in 1878 and 1882 in Camden, DE, south of Dover. Their father, John V. Malcom, listed as a miller in the 1880 Census, died of pneumonia in 1894. The family (there were six other siblings and mother Annie) likely moved to Wilmington after that, and they're listed there in 1900. George was then a day laborer and Charles a grocery clerk. Sometime in the next few years, for some reason, the brothers made their way to Mill Creek Hundred.

Wedding announcement of Katherine Magargal
and Charles Malcom, married June 30, 1904

By at least October 1901, Charles was listed as a party guest at the home of Thompson Bailey, in what's now the development of Hyde Park near Brandywine Springs. Also at that party was Katherine Magargal, whom Charles would marry in 1904. Katie was the daughter of Orlando Magargal, and the cousin of Roy Magargal, who would ultimately be the last working miller at Greenbank in the 1960's.

It seems that whatever business the Malcom brothers had, it only lasted a short time (and existed between censuses). By the 1910 Census, George Malcom is working as a miller all the way downstate in Milton. He would later move to Smyrna, and his work as a miller leaves open the possibility that he (and maybe Charles) did work at Greenbank. However, I have not yet found any evidence of that. Although I can't shed light on the "manufacturer" part of the receipt, the "dealer" part does lead us in a fruitful direction.

Among the reasons I say that the Malcom brothers' business must have been either short-lived and/or small is the fact that I have been unable to really find any other evidence of it, other than the receipt Denis found. However, I do have a good amount of information about what may have been a successor firm. The biggest clue came with the discovery of a 1910 deed between Mary A. Welch and Katherine B. Malcom. Katie Malcom (Charles' wife) was purchasing Lot #1 of Hilltop, which was the subdivided property Harry W. Sherman, located across Newport Gap Pike from the Cedars. And specifically, Lot #1 was the triangular lot in the crook of the intersection of Newport Gap Pike and Milltown Road.

Plan for The Cedars and Hilltop. Hilltop Lot #1, sold to Katie Malcom
in 1910, is outlined in red between Milltown Road and Newport Gap Pike

This location is significant for one reason -- up until 1960, there was a small store located there, later known as Weinstock's. And while I'm still unsure as to exactly where the Malcom boys were in 1904 (or if George was even actually in the area), I do have a pretty good guess as to the beginnings of the store across from the Cedars, which would stand for 53 years. The big clue is the woman from whom Katie Malcom bought Hilltop Lot #1 -- Mary A. Welch. In the 1910 deed it states that the lot had belonged to Harry C. Welch, who had died in April 1908. That's the big clue, and its own interesting story.

Harry Welch was Mary's brother, and the family lived on New Street in Marshallton. Their father, William L. Welch, was...a grocer. Harry worked for his father in Marshallton, and when the 23 year old bought the Hilltop lot, I think it's reasonable to assume he did so to open his own store to service the growing community of the Cedars. Seems too much of a coincidence that a grocer who owned a lot where there was a store wouldn't have been the one who built it. Therefore, he would also have been responsible for the house on the same lot.

Sadly though, if Harry Welch did build the store, he didn't get to run it very long. In what seems an unlikely turn of events, Welch was involved in a train crossing accident in Elsmere in October 1907. In this incident, the carriage he was driving was struck by a train, demolishing the carriage and throwing him and another man about 30 feet up the track. Their injuries (mostly lacerations) were serious, but not fatal. However, six months later, Welch was not so lucky.

In April 1908, he and Lillian McDugall were riding along near the B&O's Kiamensi Station, on Stanton Road. An oncoming train spooked their horse, which began to run. Their carriage struck the train platform, throwing both passengers. Harry was thrown onto the track, where he was run over by the train. He died instantly. Lillian died of her injuries eight days later.

Circling back though, I believe it's likely that when Katie Malcom bought the corner lot in 1910, Harry Welch's store was already present. Her story is almost as tragic as Welch's, albeit in a different way. I don't know why the property was purchased under only Katie's name, as she and Charles Malcom were married at the time. (It wasn't common for a wife to buy property under her own name, but it wasn't unheard of.) However, in the 1910 Census (taken three months after the purchase) she's listed as a merchant working in her own store (known as Malcom's Store), while Charles is a guard at the Work House (Greenbank). He may have helped out, but it feels like it was her store.

The Malcoms however, did not live a long happy life together. It seems that Charles suffered from alcoholism, to the point where in 1914 Katie divorced him on the grounds that he had been intoxicated "nearly every day" for the previous two years. After their separation, Charles remarried and moved to Kennett Square (where he and Katherine may have been part-time residents, also).

The Malcom-Burris-Weinstock Store in the 1920's, possibly soon
after its purchase by David L. and Bertha Weinstock

The now-again Katherine Magargal continued to run her store on The Pike (now called Magargal's Store), and in 1919 she also remarried. Her new husband (and partner in running the store) was Albion Cooper Burris, who was freshly home from serving overseas in WWI. The store now became known as Burris' Store, of course, but it wouldn't be for long. Cooper Burris passed away in March 1922 of heart disease, at the age of 31. The next year, Katherine sold the house and store to the names that a few people around may still remember -- David and Bertha Weinstock.

David Weinstock was born in Poland (then part of Russia) in 1893, but by about 1905 his family had made their way to Wilmington (via Buffalo, NY and Erie, PA). Weinstock married Bertha Derezinsky in 1917, shortly before being shipped off to serve in France in WWI. When he got back, he ran a grocery store at 12th and Heald Streets in Wilmington. After four years of that, and now with two young daughters, David and Bertha decided to move "out to the country". In what seems to be a coincidence, they bought the store and home of David's army buddy, Cooper Burris.

Weinstock's Store, shortly before it
was torn down in 1960

For the next 37 years, the Weinstocks would run their small country store, successfully straddling the era of the small general store and the modern supermarket. Although they may have initially felt somewhat out of place (Mill Creek Hundred did not have much of a Jewish community in 1923), the Weinstocks became an integral part of the community. In the early days there was a gas pump in front of the store, but it proved to be unprofitable -- and in the way. The pump was so close to both roads that it got knocked over twice, so Weinstock finally removed it. 

The store itself was always in an unusual and tight spot -- right in the sharp triangle formed by Milltown Road and Newport Gap Pike. As early as the 1930's, the threat arose of the store's removal due to road widening. In 1960 though, the Weinstocks' luck finally ran out. Planned widening of Milltown Road called for the removal of the store, as well as their home and large garage (probably built by Harry Welch for his horse and carriage). On March 24, 1960, the store was razed. The house and garage soon followed. That was the end of the store likely built by Harry Welch in 1907, later owned by Katie and Charles Malcom, by Cooper and Katherine Burris, and finally by David and Bertha Weinstock.

Weinstock's Store is gone, and the house is soon to follow

So in the end, through all this, we ended up learning the history of the store in "the triangle" and its (sometimes) ill-fated owners. I still have not yet cracked the mystery of the Malcom Brothers' establishment -- where it was or how long it operated. And in fact, the 1904 receipt continues to be the only evidence I've seen that they even had a business. There undoubtedly have been many such short-lived small businesses that have barely left a footprint in history, and more evidence of them still out there to be uncovered.