The Convoluted History of the Roseville Farm -- Part II

Eastward-looking view of the old stone farm
house (right) and 20th Century barns (left)

In the first post about the history of the Roseville Farm property, we followed the chain of ownership all  the way from Brewer Sinexon in the 1680's, through the McMechans, the Blacks, the Newbolds, Connelly, and even a Cooch (and a few others thrown in along the way). We saw that the farm had a grist and saw mill erected on it sometime prior to 1765, and a cotton factory built about 1815. It was likely about that time that the original (possibly 1735) brick farmhouse close to the main road (and mills) was complimented by a new, fieldstone house set closer to the middle of the tract. In 1843 the property was purchased by Arthur Chillas, who immediately attempted to (but ultimately did not) sell it.

I won't go too deeply into the Chillas family here, as they've already been mentioned in a previous post (you can also find good information here as well). The short version is that the Chillases were Scottish immigrants (Arthur by way of Liverpool, England) based out of Philadelphia, and Arthur was, at the time, president of the North American Coal Company. He probably bought Roseville as a business proposition, although the 1843 ad does seem to imply he was living there, at least for a short time. By 1850 Arthur was living in a boarding house in Philadelphia. He was a widower, but his second wife (who he would marry in 1851) was listed 11 lines above him in the same boarding house.

As best as I can guess by looking at the 1850 Census, the operator of the Roseville Factory might have been a man named Edward Garrigues. He's listed as a Manufacturer, and the next 15 or so families are all in the textile industry (weaver, spinner, carder, etc.). Immediately after the them is Uriah Drake, the next farmer over, who lived in the Meeteer House (now the Yasik Funeral Home). As best as I can tell, Garrigues was a pharmacist in Philadelphia, so he may have known Chillas from there and been brought in to supervise the factory.

The funeral monument of Arthur Chillas,
at White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church

The next big shake-up came in 1856, with the death of Arthur Chillas. He must have felt a connection to the area and/or moved back here, because he was interred at nearby White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church. Although Arthur was married twice, he doesn't seem to have had any children. In his will, he placed his property in a trust for the benefit of his widow Cordelia and his brother, David Chillas. David had worked with his brother for North American Coal Company from 1842 to 1852, acting as their agent in Pottsville, PA. In 1852 he removed to Philadelphia, where he worked for about six years as a lithographer. And remember Edward Garrigues? I found little more about him except for the fact that he died in 1858 -- in Pottsville. I can't prove it, but I feel like maybe he took over David Chillas' job there in 1852.

In about 1858, David Chillas and family (which at the time included wife Mary and four children, with two more soon to come) moved to Roseville. In the 1860 Census David is listed as a farmer, while Hamilton Maxwell, who was running the cotton factory, is listed immediately before him. I think it's safe to say that the Chillases were living in the stone farmhouse, while Maxwell resided in the stucco brick house closer to the mill.

While Arthur Chillas' will had created a trust to equally benefit Cordelia and David, the widow had apparently also received part of the property as a dower. In March 1857 she and David signed a 10 year lease, at $500 per year, for him to use and farm the entire tract (not bad considering she had only been married to Arthur for five years). Cordelia at first remained in Philadelphia, then later moved to Staten Island. David remained on the farm until his death in early 1880. And depending on how deeply you want to dive into it, the story of the Chillas' ownership of the property during this era is either very simple...or fairly complex.

The 1855 will of Arthur Chillas, which created a trust for his widow and brother, and which made
the next 60 years of deeds much more confusing. There are two more pages, but you get the drift

The simple version is that the Chillas family owned the Roseville farm until 1916. However, with the property still in the trust set up by Arthur in his 1856 will, it ended up being more complex than that. For one thing, in addition to the Roseville farm (which was almost completely in Mill Creek Hundred), Arthur had also purchased a 130 acre farm in White Clay Creek Hundred from Christopher Brooks, just on the other side of the creek. David sold that farm in 1860 to Thomas Lumb. The property now encompasses most of Windy Hills, and the old farmhouse is (and has been for many years) the home of Kirk's Flowers.

David Chillas also appears to have taken out a mortgage in 1862 from Frederick and Solomon Curtis (they being the owners of the nearby Curtis Paper Mill), which, like his predecessors at Roseville, he would later have difficulties repaying. Making everything more confusing is the fact that the property was still in a trust, so every indenture has more people involved (trustees). Also, after David Chillas' 1880 passing, every deed involves all six of his heirs.

One of those was son Arthur de la Roche Chillas (Arthur D. or A. D.), to whom David sold a piece of land in 1878.That land was in White Clay Creek Hundred (the acreage is never specified), along the south side of the creek. This lot, along with more land on the MCH side of the creek, was sold to the White Clay Creek Supply Company in 1903, where they constructed an electric power plant. It was not Arthur D. Chillas who sold the land, however, but Adam E. Wiegand. Wiegand was a brother-in-law, married to David's daughter Frances.

Notice of the 1890 Sheriff's Sale of the
Chillas property

Back in 1886, Arthur D. had sold to Wiegand the White Clay Creek Hundred tract, along with his interest in the Roseville lands in MCH. A few years later there were several transactions that I think I mostly understand, but maybe not completely. It seems that the 1862 mortgage to the Curtises finally came due, and although I thought Arthur D. Chillas was out of the picture the properties were seized and sold at a Sheriff's sale in November 1890. The purchaser was Richard McMurtrie, who was actually the Curtis' assignee. McMurtie turned around and almost immediately sold everything to Wiegand.

So by the time the White Clay Creek Supply Company came along in 1903, Wiegand was (more or less) the sole owner of the property -- at least the portions sold off. I think there was a bunch of legal wrangling and clean-up done at that time to make everything legal. For one, that 1886 sale from Arthur D. to Wiegand was not filed and recorded until 1903. Also, there were about 20 pages of sales from Wiegand to WCCSC, which might have had to to with the Chillas trust, which was still around and complicating matters.

All this came to an end in January 1916, possibly instigated by the 1915 passing of Adam E. Wiegand, and possibly by a fire at the old, stone farmhouse. After 73 years of Chillas family ownership, the Roseville property was sold to Thomas R. Claringbold of Newark, in one of the more long and drawn-out indentures I've seen. With the trust and the heirs to Arthur D. Chillas and Adam E. Wiegand, there were 13 parties-of-the-first-part, and seven full pages of background explanation as to the previous ownership of the property (and you thought I dragged this out). 

Report of the December 1914 fire at the stone farmhouse
in Roseville. It may have never been occupied again.

The mill and factory had been out of operation for several decades by this point (the electric plant was in its place), and even back in the 1880's the remains of the factory's worker housing was dilapidated and used by squatters (and for a time by Italians building the railroad). As the newspaper article above states, there had been a fire in the "old stone dwelling house" in December 1914 that did a good bit of damage, including to the roof. This was the stone farmhouse, and though it stood for another 75 years or so, it was probably never occupied again. The Claringbolds took up residency in the older brick house by the highway, and though the article below says he planned to raze the stone house, he didn't. In addition to farming, Thomas Claringbold owned a liquor store on Main Street in Newark as well as running a construction firm, mostly building roads for the state (he also did some excavation work for the Women's College buildings in Newark). 

1916 notice of Thomas Claringbold's
purchase of the Chillas farm

In December 1945, Claringbold (perhaps entering the retirement phase of his life) sold off almost all the old Roseville property. He and wife Ada retained "All that certain lot or parcel of land, with a two and one-half story stucco house and a two car garage thereon erected", totaling 0.81 acres. This was the house along the highway in which they had been living, and which was damaged in a fire earlier this year (2023). They only had a few years with their pared-down property, though, as Ada Claringbold was killed in a car accident in 1949, and Thomas passed away two years later.

The new owners of the Roseville property were August and Agnes Stopyra, Polish immigrants who had lived in New Jersey from the mid-teens until 1929. That year they purchased what had been the old Denny farm on the north bank of White Clay Creek, west of Stanton. They resided there until 1945, when they sold it to the Delaware Steeplechase and Racing Association, and it became the western end of the Delaware Park property. Still looking to farm, though, the Stopyras moved their family to Roseville.

They worked their Roseville farm for several decades, even as the Kirkwood Highway corridor continued to be developed around them. August Stopyra passed away in 1965, but the family remained. One of the first signs of things to come came in 1974, when a King of Prussia-based developer proposed to build "The Newark Mall" on the site. The proposal was fiercely opposed by many in the area, and ultimately shot down in court. 

The Stopyra Farm stood even then as one of the last working farms along the Kirkwood Highway corridor, when the family finally sold to developer Frank Acierno in the mid-1980's. Acierno attempted to get approval for a shopping center on the site, but various issues with water, sewer service, traffic flow, and his attempt to get the City of Newark to annex the property hindered the project and eventually kept it from coming to fruition. About ten years ago there was another push by Acierno to develop the property, but that attempt failed as well.

The March 2023 fire that damaged the old house along the highway

Now the Roseville-Chillas-Stopyra property sits as one of the last large, undeveloped and agricultural sites along the Rt. 2/Kirkwood Highway corridor. Sadly, a fire in March 2023 damaged the possibly almost 300 year old house on Capitol Trail. It still stands as the only remaining historic structure on the property, a property which once hosted dozens of structures. Nowadays if anyone knows the name "Roseville", it's likely for the nearby development of Roseville Park, which has it's own notable history, but was not even on the historic Roseville property. That property, as we've seen, has a rich history dating back almost 350 years, with farmers, millers, textile workers, migrant immigrant workers, a long line of families, and a whole lot of financial and legal dealings. Now (for the moment), it sits as a quiet oasis between the bustling town of Newark and the encroaching suburbs of Wilmington.