The Samuel Hanby Brown House

The Samuel H. Brown House in Talleyville

In this post we're going to travel out of Mill Creek Hundred to visit Brandywine Hundred, and more specifically, Talleyville. This story functions both as a follow-up to the posts a while back about the Taylors (here and here) and as my own little memorial. The owner of the house we'll eventually be looking at -- Samuel Hanby Brown -- was married to a member of the Taylor family. One of their grandsons happens to have been my father-in-law, who we recently lost. This story's for you, Dave.

The house in question no longer stands, but I'm sure that many of you have passed right through where it once was. And though the story will end in Talleyville (the area around Concord Pike (Rt. 202) and Silverside Road), we'll begin a few decades earlier, in Christiana Hundred. That was where, in the 1840's, the eponymous Samuel Hanby Brown's great grandfather Joseph Brown owned and worked his 85 acre farm. It was situated just north of Mt. Cuba, right where the Fieldstone Golf Course is today. Since I was curious, I decided to take a quick, simple look into when the family might have first arrived on this particular farm. The search ended up being neither quick nor simple -- but it was very informative (and I ended up possibly pushing my wife's family tree back to her 7th great grandfather).

Since these things tend to be more clear going forward in time, we'll jump back to 1750 to begin our abbreviated trip though the history of the tract. That's the earliest I've been able to prove that a man named William Kirkpatrick owned a farm in Christiana Hundred. With the help of several wonderfully detailed deeds, we know that in 1788, 150 acres of the recently deceased Kirkpatrick's land was granted to Ann Wallace (presumably his daughter). By 1792, Ann's husband Thomas Wallace had died and she sold the tract to William Johnston, who is stated to be her son (by a previous marriage?). William Johnston died in 1834 without a will, and his real estate then passed to his only child, Ann. Back around 1815 or so, Ann had married Joseph Brown.

It seems likely that the couple first lived in Chester County (closer to Joseph's family), but then probably moved to the Christiana Hundred farm after Johnston's death in 1834. There they raised 5 children, before Joseph Brown's death in 1848. In the 1850 Census Ann M. Brown is listed on the farm with four children, ages 12-18. Several households over is her eldest son William J. Brown and his family, possibly leasing a neighboring farm. William moved his family to Pennsylvania prior to 1860, and two years after his mother Ann died in 1866, he sold the 85 acre Christiana Hundred farm to Otley Vernon. Thus ended the Browns in Christiana Hundred (and yes, if you're keeping score, the land went from William to Ann to William to Ann to William). And in a wonderful coincidence, in the April 2, 1868 newspaper notice of the Brown to Vernon sale, the next sale mentioned is a 47 acre farm in Talleyville, sold to a Neal Duffy. Remember that one for later.

April 2, 1868 notice of the sale by William J. Brown of the old family
farm near Mt. Cuba. Unrelated but coincidentally, in the early 1880's his
son Pusey would buy the 47 acre farm listed directly beneath 

William J. Brown and family's first farm in Pennsylvania was in Birmingham Township, just southeast of Chadds Ford. I don't know if the name was around in Brown's time, but the farm (on Heyburn Road) was later known as Keepsake Farm. In 1876, Brown sold this 66 acre farm to William Slaughter and by 1880 is listed in Thornbury Township, which is on the east side of Rt 202, north of Rt 1.

More importantly for us, though, is the fact that in 1872 his son Joseph C. Brown married Rebecca Hanby, whose father Samuel Hanby had extensive holdings in Brandywine Hundred. They probably first lived on and farmed part of her father's land, which was centered around what was known as Hanby's Corners -- the vicinity of Naamans, Marsh, Darley, and Zebley Roads. However, on April 18, 1885, Joseph purchased from William Talley a 1½ acre lot, located on the west side of the Wilmington and Great Valley Turnpike (Concord Pike), and built a new house there. The lot was in the area even then known as Talleyville, and more specifically sat right about where the TD Bank is now. (In that now divided stretch of 202, the original road was what's now the northbound lanes.)

The reason Joseph C. Brown only needed a 1½ acre lot for his home is that he was no longer farming. In his new Talleyville location, Brown set himself up as a butcher and shopkeeper. The question though, is why he decided to move to Talleyville. It's possible that he was drawn there by his brother Pusey Brown. Back in 1881, Pusey purchased 40 acres along the turnpike from Neal Duffy. This was most of the farm (which included a frame house and stone barn) that Duffy had bought in 1868 (as mentioned a few paragraphs ago.) Then in 1884, Brown purchased the remaining seven acres from Duffy -- a parcel bounded by the turnpike, Brown's other land, and on the north by "the Road leading from Centreville to Claymont" (Silverside Road). This property also contained a frame house and a stable (which, again, we'll get back to in a moment). The Irish immigrant Duffy was now in his early 60's and probably retiring from farming. It's possible that the house on the corner was built by or for Duffy for his retirement years.

Joseph C. Brown, meanwhile, continued to work as a butcher and shopkeeper, and in 1898 was named postmaster, at which point he moved the Talleyville post office into his store. In May 1910, there was a fascinating story about Joseph and his son Pusey sitting on the porch of his store, and about what he saw in the sky -- hundreds of what were described as small balls of light of various colors floating like balloons across the sky, some seemingly close to the ground. It was described at the time as a meteor shower, and as it coincided with the arrival of Halley's Comet there was speculation that it could be related to the event. However, it doesn't sound like any meteor shower I've ever heard of. Also, it was observed about 15 minutes before sunset. Joseph was not the only one to observe the phenomenon, as neighbor Frank Talley saw it, too. A few other residents mentioned it that evening at an event the West Brandywine Grange Hall (which was built in 1886 next to Brown's Store and moved across the road in 1998).

The final leg in our story follows not Joseph's son Pusey, but eldest son Samuel Hanby Brown. Samuel followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a butcher, and in April 1900 married Florence Heyburn Talley. In the 1900 Census (taken in June), Samuel and Florence are living in Talleyville, near but not with his father. My guess is that they're living in the house on the seven acre lot purchased by his Uncle Pusey in 1884 (Samuel is listed as renting his home). However, in June 1904 Samuel bought the house (and slaughterhouse behind it) from his uncle. He did not buy the whole seven acres, though -- the sale included only about ⅔ of an acre. Samuel and Florence had six children together, but Samuel was thrice beset by tragedy.

Sale ad for Samuel H. Brown's Elam, PA home. This
was in June 1912, after first wife Florence had died.

Sometime prior to 1910, the family moved from their Talleyville home (which they then rented out) a short distance north to Elam, Pennsylvania. The new home was on Smithbridge Road, I believe across from Elam Methodist Church. In 1910, their six year old son Gilbert died of spinal meningitis. (A family story says he was hit in the head by a baseball at recess, causing the illness.) Then in September 1911, wife Florence died from Bright's Disease (now called nephritis), an inflammation of the kidneys. After that, Samuel sold the Elam home and moved back to Talleyville.

In addition to selling his butchered products (which included sausages and scrapple he made himself) in Talleyville, Samuel Hanby Brown also had a stall in the Madison Street farmer's market in Wilmington. It was there that he met a young lady named Margaret Flaville Taylor. By that time, Margaret and her family were living at the Chadds Ford farm known as Horseshoe Farm, or Big Bend. Their story was told in a previous post. I find it interesting that the David Taylor House, built by Margaret's grandfather, was only about a mile and a half as the crow flies from the Browns' Christiana Hundred farm. Margaret's and Samuel's fathers would have been young boys only two farms away from each other. I don't know if the families knew each other well or kept in touch in the intervening years.

Samuel Hanby and Margaret Flaville Taylor Brown,
at the time of their wedding in 1913.

Samuel and Margaret were married in 1913 and had two children together, the last of whom was May Taylor Brown, my wife's Grandmom. However, tragedy struck the family for the third time, when in January 1914, eleven year old son Elihu drowned in the Brandywine River while ice skating. The Browns lived in their Talleyville home on the corner of the pike and Silverside Road (we'll get to the exact location in a moment) at least until about 1924. In that year, Samuel and Margaret purchased the home at 507 Madison Street in Wilmington, I believe where Samuel had operated his market stall. This is located where the William "Hicks" Anderson Community Center is now. In several deeds the next few years, the Browns are described as being "of Wilmington".

Part of the plan for Wilmont, 1925

The reason for those deeds (they bought and sold a lot adjacent to their property) is that Talleyville was changing around them, in large part due to Samuel's Uncle Pusey. In 1924, Pusey Brown sold most of his farm to Samuel Klein, who set out to develop Wilmont. It was to be a residential development similar to McDaniel Heights just to the south, which had recently been built. As you can sort of see above (this was the only section imaged), Wilmont was to span from Concord Pike, down several blocks, and back all the way through what's now Colonial Woods. It never really materialized, but some of the roads (Brandywine Blvd., Lee Terrace, Washington Ave., Brookfield Lane) survive in some form. A fair number of lots were sold around 1925-1926, but almost no houses were actually built (this was still in the era when the developer sold you the lot, and you had the house built). 

Obituary for Samuel Hanby Brown,
January 31, 1930

The family must have resided at both the Madison Street home and still in Talleyville (or have moved back), because when Samuel Hanby Brown died in January 1930, he did so in his Talleyville home. The family continued to reside there, and seemingly only there, as when they finally sold the Madison Street home in 1936 the deed specifically stated that the premises was "in a state of disrepair, fast deteriorating and yielding no income". Soon after Samuel's passing, Margaret got a job running the cafeteria at the newly-opened Alfred I. duPont School nearby. She survived her husband only by about a decade, passing away in April 1939 at the age of 46.

With Margaret's passing and all the children settled into their own lives (even youngest child May would marry the following year, with my father-in-law arriving the year after that), the family sold the house on the corner -- but even then not completely out of the family. The next owners were William and Anna Umflet. They were not strangers, as William's sister was married to Margaret's brother. The Umflets were there until 1957, when "progress" again came knocking.

Approximate footprints of the Samuel H. Brown House (upper right)
and the Joseph C. Brown House and store (lower left)

The state was looking to widen Silverside Road, and Samuel H. Brown's old home was in their way. The state bought the property, then did offer to sell the house and garage at auction to anyone wanted to move them. There were no takers, so in February 1958 the house was torn down. With the new roadwork complete, the footprint of the old house now lay in the eastbound lanes of the widened Silverside Road. Across the road, Joseph C. Brown's old home and store site (after for years being the site of a commercial building (a ski shop if I recall?)), now sits in the parking lot of the TD Bank. 

The area of Talleyville has certainly changed a lot from what it was in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, turning from a small community into an area of dense roadside commerce. But to this day, descendants of the Browns are proud of the part their ancestors played in the life of that long-gone community.