The Eastburn-Bell Farm

The c.1830 Joseph Eastburn Barn

When the original land grants and patents were given out for Mill Creek Hundred in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, the tracts were often fairly large -- more likely to be in the 1000 acre range than the 100 or smaller that would be more common by the 19th Century. Over time, through divisions within families and sales outside of them, these large farms were broken up. Only very occasionally were these smaller farms later remerged to form larger ones, and only in a few rare instances were very large estates formed in MCH. Usually they were done by du Pont-related people, and one of those large estates is now largely state-owned parkland.

In the late 1920's the Equitable Trust Company began buying up farms in northwest MCH, around the Corner Ketch/Milford Crossroads area, for an anonymous client. In February 1930, it sold all the properties in bulk to the now not-so-anonymous Samuel Hallock du Pont in an extensive 15 page deed that included 36 separate properties (and one other deed involving a farm partially in DE and partially in PA). S. Hallock du Pont was creating an estate he called Whiteley Farm for use for himself and his family for recreation and hunting. Some of the farms that comprised it dated back to the earliest days of English habitation in the area, while others were newer, smaller ones carved out more recently. One in particular has been mentioned in passing in a couple of prior posts, but now we'll look at it in more detail.

The farm in question is located on Pleasant Hill Road, just south of Corner Ketch Road and west of Paper Mill Road. It may have once been the site of an early 18th Century home, probably later replaced in the 19th Century, but now only a c.1830 stone barn remains of the working farm. When du Pont acquired it in 1930, the farm was about 93½ acres, but it had once been part of a larger tract which was pared down several times.

Approximate outline of the 400 acre tract purchased by Evan Riis (Evan Rice the Elder) in 1703.
Generally speaking it was divided into two sections, east and west of today's Paper Mill Road.

The earliest iteration of the farm (or at least the first one likely to have been settled) dates back to 1703, when Evan Riis (the family name later changed to Rice) purchased 400 acres of an even larger Penn grant from John Guest. Riis' tract was a roughly square parcel, centered around what's now Paper Mill Road and mostly southwest of Polly Drummond Hill/Corner Ketch Road. Upon the 1742 death of Evan Rice the Elder (he's actually referred to this way in the deeds) the farm was split into a pair of 200 acre properties willed to his son Thomas, to be held for Thomas' sons for when they came of age. There are no clear metes and bounds of these two smaller parcels listed, but they seem to generally be the eastern and western portions of the original 400 acres.

The first section (the eastern one) was given to Thomas for his son William, but William died young and with no offspring. That farm was ultimately sold by Thomas' other children in 1799 to Jacob Whiteman and would long remain in the Whiteman family. (There will be several more Whiteman connections as we go.) The western portion of Evan Rice the Elder's original 400 acre tract (which included the original homestead) was devised to Thomas for another of his sons -- Evan. Evan Rice did apparently reside on the property with his wife Elizabeth (Graham) and their seven children (one daughter and then six straight boys). It's not known exactly where this original Riis/Rice home stood, but it's very possible it was close to where a later home would be built.

After the younger Evan Rice's death in 1783, the farm was left to his widow for the remainder of her life, then it was to go equally to the six sons. One of the sons died in childhood, and in 1808 another -- Washington Rice -- bought out the shares from his other four brothers. Mother Elizabeth wouldn't pass away until 1810, so either Washington was planning ahead in consolidating ownership or perhaps the fact that Elizabeth had remarried (to Charles Springer of Milltown) took her out of the equation. In either case, Washington Rice became sole owner of the farm.

Joseph Eastburn's farm on the 1849 map, showing the house location across from the barn 

However, Washington Rice was a shopkeeper and businessman in Wilmington, so I don't think he regularly lived on the family farm. He is listed in MCH in the 1820 Census though, so he may have split his time between the two places. Whatever his situation, in 1830 the 127 year tenure of the Rice family on the property came to a close. Washington sold the 200 acre farm to a member of a family already well-known in the area -- the Eastburns. Specifically, the buyer was Joseph Eastburn, the eldest son of David and Elizabeth Eastburn.

Interestingly (at least to me), this was not the first connection between the families. Both of the prior sales were documented in the first post about Eastburn Homestead, although the Rice name was never specifically used. First, the original Eastburn home in Delaware -- the 150 acres in Milltown -- was purchased from the heirs of Thomas Springer. The land had previously been owned by his father, Charles Springer, who was the second husband of Elizabeth Rice (widow of Evan, and mother of Washington).

Secondly, the 200 acres that David Eastburn and Abel Jeanes purchased in 1816 (that included the lime kilns) was acquired from John Kinsey. Kinsey had bought it five years earlier from Mary Black, widow of Capt. James Black. Mrs. Mary Black was actually a Rice, and the land came from her father. Originally I thought she was the first child of Evan and Elizabeth (and some family trees have it this way), but the 1811 deed to Kinsey lists her as the only surviving child of an Evan Rice, but she was one of seven sisters. I now think her father may have been a much younger brother of Thomas (and son of Evan Rice the Elder). That would make her a "youthful aunt" to Washington Rice. So whatever the case, both of the Eastburn homesteads had direct connections to the Rice family.

When Joseph Eastburn bought the 200 acre Rice farm in March 1830, there was already a house and barn there, quite possibly dating back to Evan Rice the Elder in the early 1700's. My hunch is that Joseph had a new home and barn erected for himself, which took a little while to construct. In the 1830 Census (officially dated June 1), he seems to still be living in the Eastburn Family Homestead. By 1840 he's living separately, and brother David (who wouldn't build his own home until 1857) is the head of household on the home farm. The only remaining structure from Joseph Eastburn's tenure on his new farm is his c.1830 stone barn, standing on the south side of Pleasant Hill Road. His house was very likely almost directly across the road from the barn, and probably built either in 1830 or a few years later.

If Joseph moved to his new farm right away, he did so as a single man. It's also possible that he built his house and moved in closer to his wedding, on New Years Day 1835. He literally married the girl next door -- Mary Ann Whiteman, daughter of Jacob Whiteman, the man who bought the other half of the original 400 acre Rice estate in 1799. Sadly though, although they probably knew each other since 1816, Joseph and Mary Ann did not have much time together as man and wife. About two weeks after giving birth to their first child, Franklin, in July 1836, Mary Ann died.

As men often did at the time, especially with young children, Joseph remarried quickly, to Susan Pennock in May 1837. She was from another family that would become prominent in MCH. Her brother Lewis bought the farm along today's Kirkwood Highway where Green Valley is now, and Lewis' son Pusey would later own the mill complex at Milltown. Maybe not coincidentally, Susan's grandfather, Joseph Pennock, had partial ownership of the Milltown site in the 1770's. Joseph Eastburn's grandson Joseph C. (through first son, Franklin), would later buy the Denny-Morrison Farm and be responsible for creating neighboring Eastburn Acres.

Joseph, Susan, and their family probably lived on the 200 acre farm until about 1844, where he farmed and also co-ran the lime business with his Uncle Abel Jeanes. About that time Jeanes left the area and Joseph moved into his uncle's home, adjoining the Eastburn Homestead. He likely leased the old Rice farm for the next dozen or so years, until 1856 when he sold it...but not out of the family. The new owners were his sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and William Bell. 

The 1868 map showing both William Bell's home (called, at least on this map, Bellvieu),
the tenant house further south, and the A.J. Whiteman house below the new road

The Bells had lived in Philadelphia, but now moved onto their new farm at Pleasant Hill. They lived there with their four children, and over the ensuing years Bell acquired another Eastburn Farm (on the east side of Polly Drummond Hill Road below Old Coach Road) and sold off small pieces of his own farm. The largest chunk that William Bell sold was a 21 acre parcel to Henry Whiteman in 1860. This was on the southern end of the farm and I think may have been prompted by the construction of the "New Road to Wilmington", later called Smith Mill Road. I believe the 21 acres were on the south side of the new road. Henry sold the parcel four years later to his brother Andrew Jackson Whiteman, who built a home there that still stands today.

After William Bell's death in the early 1870's the Orphans Court put the remainder of his land up for sale, and it was purchased by his son David E. Bell in 1874. I don't think David bought it for his own farming use, because as of 1880 he's listed in the Census as a carpenter, living probably between Ashland and Brackenville. With no use for the old family farm, he did sell it off in several pieces. Sometime prior to 1860, his father had built a tenant house on the southeast corner of the farm, on the northwest corner of Paper Mill and Smith Mill Roads. David sold that house and 12 acres to John Robinson in 1875. He then sold 90 acres -- what I think was essentially the southwest half of the farm -- to William and Sarah Armstrong. This was another of those "in the family" sales, as Sarah was David's sister.

The 1881 map, showing David Bell now owning the main farm, his brother-in-law
William Armstrong now with 90 acres, and John Robinson owning the tenant house

The end of the Bell name on the property finally came in 1881, when David Bell sold the remaining 93 acres (and the house and barn) to Stephen Davis of Wilmington. Davis was also a carpenter, so perhaps he and Bell knew each other professionally. It does appear that Davis moved himself and his family out and became a farmer, but the way I know that is tragic. To put it bluntly, Davis bought the farm in February, and "bought the farm" in October. He died of typhoid fever, but was listed as a farmer in Pleasant Hill on the death record. With the timing and the absence of the 1890 Census, it's unclear to me if the family remained on the farm for a while or if the moved back to Wilmington right away. In either case, Stephen's widow Edith sold the farm in 1891 to Harley A. Mousley.

Mousley was originally from Brandywine Hundred, and I think grew up in a house that may still stand on Carr Road near Silverside Road. In 1880 he was single and working on a farm near Centreville, but in July 1889 he married Ida Petitdemange (who happened to be his first cousin -- her mother Catherine Mousley Petitdemange was Harley's aunt). Two years later he purchased the farm from Edith Davis and 1892 saw the arrival of the Mousley's first daughter, Catherine (Katie). Katie would live her whole life in the Pleasant Hill/Corner Ketch area, marrying neighbor Clarence Dempsey in 1916. Second daughter Sarah (1899) would stay with her parents until her own marriage in 1936 to Norris Thornbury.

And finally the 1893 map with Harley Mousley in place. The Newark China Clay
site would be due east of the house, just across Muddy (Middle) Run

The Mousleys would live on and work their farm for nearly 40 years, becoming active members of the community. Among other things, they were active at Ebenezer Methodist Church and Harley was a member of the Red Men, whose hall was at Corner Ketch next to Dempsey's Store. Perhaps one of the more interesting developments in the area came in 1912, when Mousley sold four acres of the northeastern end of his farm to Victor Ullman, who then set up the Newark China Clay Company there. Mousley also leased some of the surrounding fields for clay-digging purposes, and received a payout on the clay removed. 

The Mousleys remained on the farm until 1929, when they sold it to the Equitable Trust Company. As noted at the top of the post, Equitable Trust was buying up farms for S. Hallock du Pont, who officially acquired the property (and at least 36 others) in 1930. It appears that Joseph Eastburn's old house was likely torn down soon afterwards. The land became part of du Pont's massive Whitely Farms estate, which he used and enjoyed until his death in 1974. By the early 1990's Hallock's heirs were looking to sell a very large chunk of it -- about half of the 2000 total acres -- for financial and tax reasons. The initial plan was to develop much of the area with housing, retail space, and quite a bit of office space. So much space in fact, that had the plan been carried out it would have equaled one eighth of the existing office space in New Castle County at the time.

The 1992 plan for the development of Whitely Farms

Although the du Ponts worked closely with local civic groups and politicians, and had their eventual support, none of the retail or commercial spaces were ever built. The only development that was done was the residential subdivision of Middle Run Crossing, on the east side of Paper Mill Road. The land directly north of it was eventually sold to NCC and became Paper Mill Park. The land on the west side of Paper Mill Road was sold through the 1990's in several parcels to the state, and now is part of White Clay Creek State Park.

The park is a fantastic oasis of over 3600 undeveloped acres, crisscrossed with more than 37 miles of trails. There are many tales to be told of the numerous former farms that comprise the parkland and many historical treasures hidden within it. The Eastburn-Bell Farm is just a small part of the long history of this beautiful area, and one that began as part of a large tract, got broken up, then ultimately ended up as part of an even larger private, then public conglomeration.