The Hanna-Eastburn Farm

The c. 1908 Ferris Eastburn House

In doing historical research, one of the most frustrating (at times) and exhilarating (at others) things I've run across is the seemingly randomness of what gets recorded and remembered, and what gets lost to time. Very often there's some piece of information that you figure has to be recorded somewhere, or that there's some trace of, but you just can't seem to find. But once in a while, just by chance, you'll find some mention of something that helps other pieces of the puzzle fall into place. This story has both.

The story revolves around two houses -- one likely built over 200 years ago and one erected just over a century ago. The first one we know frustratingly little about, while for the second one I've found a few small clues that seemingly tell much of its tale. This second house seemingly replaced (although maybe not at first) the older one at the same time the property was changing hands from one family to another. In fact, since a descendant still lives on the property (though not in the old house), we can say that at least part of the land has been owned by only two families since 1793!

The land we're talking about lies on the west side of Limestone Road along Ferris Drive in Eastburn Farms, just above the Pike Creek Shopping Center and the Mermaid Tavern. It was actually touched upon briefly and incompletely in a post from 2015 about the Hanna Family, as this property was previously part of a larger tract owned by the Hannas. But long before that, it started out as a portion of a 1000 acre tract laid out and granted on January 29, 1689 to John Champion, John Latham, Christopher White, and John Reynolds. They must have each had a portion, since a later deeds states that a 200 acre part of it belonged to White, and was known as Rosedale.

White then sold the 200 acres in 1702 to Richard Lewis, who sold in 1711 to John Cann. A few years later it was seized by the sheriff and sold to Patrick Reilly to settle a debt, and then Reilly sold to Christopher Sheagle in 1717. Sheagle sold the land in 1721 to William McDowell and Hugh Clark. That's a lot of names (10!) in just over 30 years, and none but the last is really relevant to us now. I can't even be sure who, or if any, of those men actually lived on the land along the Limestone Road. But in 1737, McDowell sold his half share to Hugh Clark, making Clark the sole owner of the tract.

Approximate outline of the 200 acre farm, originally known as Rosedale,
and sold several times in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries

After Hugh Clark died in the mid-1750's, the farm ended up with his daughter, Eleanor, who had married William Eddy (or Addy). There was a 45 acre portion sold to John Jordan in 1771, that was later bought back by Addy in 1786. The next big development for our story would come in 1793, when William and Eleanor Addy sold their (now) 242 acre farm to John Hanna. I'm not quite sure how, but somehow (possibly a resurvey at some point?) it had expanded so that it was by then almost as shown above, except a bit larger and with a small section of the southeast corner removed (sold to a John Fitzsimmons).

Unspoken and unknown in all this is exactly where the farmhouse was located for this property. Since the 200/242 acre farm was one property, it would seem logical that there was one main farmhouse, and to me the logical place was nearer to Limestone Road. And if that were the case, it would likely have had a British officer commandeer it for a night in September 1777, as the British Army was camped along Limestone Road just prior to the Battle of Brandywine. Although this house is now gone (its location and disposition being some of those lost details), my hunch is that it was very near where a later house would be built.

After John Hanna's death in 1818, the Orphans Court partitioned the land into several different sections, one of which was a 63 acre farm allotted for his widow, Lydia. After her death in 1833, the heirs sold this farm to son Thomas (the only one of these deeds I've found was from William, selling his 1/8 share to Thomas -- presumably there were six other identical sales). And again, it seems logical to me that the section of the property given to the widow would contain the original home, and that there wouldn't be a new home built just for her.

February 1875 report of the Hanna barn burning

When Thomas Hanna died in 1853, his will stipulated that at the death of his widow Leah, all his estate should go to his son Joseph. I can't find an exact death date for Leah McDaniel Hanna, except to say that it appears to be between 1870 (when in the Census she's living with Joseph and his wife Catherine) and 1880 (when she does not appear in the Census at all). The next sales of the farm seem to be formalities, and occur between family members. In 1888, Joseph and Catherine sold the farm to their son Abel, who immediately sold it back to Catherine. My guess is that they wanted it in her name for some reason (legal? financial?), and Joseph could not sell it directly to her. About the only other event I could find from Joseph's tenure was that his barn burned down in February 1875 (don't worry, it was insured).

Joseph and Catherine had five children -- Abel, Anna, Eva, Ida, and Atwood. The 1890 Census would have been helpful here (recall that it was destroyed in a 1921 fire), but it seems most of the family resided on the farm through most of the 1890's. Abel did marry a Talley and moved to Brandywine Hundred (a 1914 article about a barn fire has him as the tenant at the Webster farm, in what's now Surrey Park, between Foulk, Silverside, and Shipley Roads). However, on the final day of 1897, Joseph Hanna passed away and seemingly the family moved out (there's a clue coming up that I think tells us who moved in). 

Joseph Hanna died on December 31, 1897

In the 1900 Census, youngest son Atwood is working as a farmhand near Wooddale. Catherine and Anna are boarding with the Hollett family near Brandywine Springs (also in that household was 13 year old Alice Hollett, who three years later would become Mrs. Atwood Hanna). Eva was married and living in Kennett, PA. I can't find Ida, but I think she was somewhere in MCH. Then, in July 1900 Catherine Springer Hanna died. The family held on to the farm for a couple more years, then finally sold the property. As we'll see in a moment, it appears the farm was tenanted (at least at the end) by Joseph Hanna's half-brother, Lewis Hanna.

In 1902, after 109 years in the Hanna family, the farm was sold to a member of another well-known local clan -- Joseph Eastburn. Since the Eastburns can get confusing, a bit of context. This Joseph Eastburn's father was also Joseph, eldest child of David and Elizabeth Eastburn (patriarch and matriarch of the Delaware Eastburns). Our Joseph grew up and resided in his father's home, which the elder Joseph acquired from his Uncle Able Jeanes. So, since Joseph Eastburn (who was nearly 55 when he purchased the Hanna farm) already had a home at the Abel Jeanes Mansion, why did he buy the 63 acres along Limestone Road?

March 20, 1902 mention of Joseph Eastburn's
purchase of the farm, for his son Leonard

Eastburn actually owned several properties, and it seems obvious that he purchased the Hanna farm for his son. Initially I assumed that the plan had always been for the farm to be for Joseph's youngest child, Ferris Canby Eastburn (since we know he lived there for years). However, as you can see in the second paragraph above in this March 20, 1902 clipping, the farm was bought for a different son, Leonard. (Also, it names it as "the Lewis Hanna farm". Lewis never owned his own farm, but must have been living here, presumably after Joseph's 1897 death.)

The idea of the farm being for Leonard does make sense, and although I can't prove or disprove it I have every reason to think that he did move in. In November 1903, Leonard married Clara Guest at Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church, so the farm was probably always meant as theirs. I can't be sure how long Leonard and Clara resided on the old Hanna farm, but my guess is about five years. Remember how at the top of the post I commented on how random it can be as to what gets recorded and what doesn't? A perfect example of this is the clipping below, which notes that, "Carpenters have begun work on the new house of Joseph Eastburn near Mermaid." This as almost certainly a reference to the construction of the house that still stands on Ferris Drive. (And by the way, if the entry above it about Irvin Klair and the Derickson farm sounds familiar, it's because it came up in the recent post about the Grendon Farms area on Milltown Road.)

This January 9, 1908 clipping notes the beginning
of construction on a new house, presumably the
one seen at the top of this post

Evidence seems to point to Leonard and Clara having moved away from the Hanna farm by 1908, down to the Hopkins (formerly Joseph Derickson) farm just south on Limestone Road where the neighborhood of Wood Creek is now. They would rent the farm for several years, before purchasing it in 1916. The new resident at the former Hanna farm, and for whom the new house was likely built, was Leonard's youngest sibling, Ferris Canby Eastburn. I've found no indication as to whether the old house was demolished and replaced, or if they both were used for a period of time. Judging exact locations from the census can be tricky, but it seems clear that by 1910 Leonard was on the Hopkins-Derickson farm and Ferris was on the old Hanna property.

He was not alone, though. By that point Ferris had two children (four more would ultimately follow) with his wife Clara Eastburn, whom he had married in 1905. That was her maiden name...and her married name. So not only was it confusing to realize that there were two Clara Eastburns living within a mile of each other (Leonard's wife and Ferris'), I also had to sort out Clara. The short version is that the Eastburns are a large family, and that Ferris and Clara were second cousins once removed. Although they were less than three and a half years different in age, they were of different generations in the family. Their closest common ancestor was the patriarch of the Delaware Eastburns, David (1773-1824).

As best as I can figure, this is the approximate outline of the 63 acre
Hanna-Eastburn Farm, first laid out for Lydia Hanna in 1818

Another bit of information submitted without judgement from me (although I would imagine some judged them then)-- Ferris and Clara were married on November 8, 1905. Their first child, Ferris Dunham Eastburn, was born on November 12, 1905. The union certainly stuck, though, as Ferris and Clara would have 57 more years and five more children together. They did not, however, spend all of that time residing in the new, Limestone Road home that Ferris' father had built for them.

They do seem to be living there in the 1910 and 1920 Censuses, however, there are several newspaper mentions in the summer of 1917 of them living on the Victor du Pont farm at Guyencourt (near Thompsons Bridge Road (Rt 92) and Adams Dam Road (Rt 100) by Brandywine Creek State Park). It's hard to tell for sure, but they may have only been there that one summer. Then, after returning to Limestone Road, they moved to New Garden Township, PA and were there by at least March 1923, as daughter Gladys was born there.

A July 1917 mention of Ferris and family living on the
du Pont estate at Guyencourt (near Brandywine Creek SP)

It's not clear why they moved around like they did, but it wasn't uncommon for leasing farm families to move from farm to farm, and remember that Ferris did not own the Limestone Road farm. That sort of changed in 1934 when his father Joseph, who did own the farm, passed away. Ownership passed to Ferris and his siblings (although there were disputes about the estate), and it seems that it was probably about then that he, Clara, and the family moved back (they were definitely there by October 1935). They remained there, but it wasn't until 1946 that ownership of the property was finally settled.

In November 1946 the estate was settled, and a trustee sold the farm to Harrison Emerson Eastburn. H. Emerson Eastburn was Clara's brother, and I assume this was another legal maneuver because seven months later, he sold it back to Ferris and Clara. Finally, after having lived there on and off for nearly forty years, Ferris Eastburn now owned the former Hanna farm. He did continue to work the farm, but in the mid-1950's created and sold several lots near the house for new homes. In the early 1960's more homes were built, creating the community of Eastburn Farms. Ferris, meanwhile, had worked for Donald P. Ross for a time, presumably helping him with some of the nearly 2000 acres Ross had acquired along the Limestone Road corridor.

As for the rest of the family, there were many references to Clara being involved with several social organizations, including the Harmony Grange. There were also mentions of her being a singer, but the catch is that I can't really be sure which Clara Eastburn of Limestone Road they're referring to -- her or her sister-in-law Mrs. Leonard Eastburn. The children all married and moved away, and we won't go through all of them, but a few interesting notes.

Daughter Dorothy married Norman Dempsey and moved to the Dempsey farm at Corner Ketch. Joseph married Clara (yes, another Clara in the family) Hanby and lived for a time at or near Winterthur. And speaking of recycling names, Theodore married Barbara Hanna. Yes, of the same Hanna family. Her great grandfather Thomas was the brother of Lewis Hanna, the last of the Hannas to work the farm. Theodore was a WWII vet who fought in multiple places in Europe. Gladys was married for a time to Howard J. Hollingsworth, of the Marshallton lumber company Hollingsworths.

Ferris C. Eastburn's April 1962
obituary

Ferris C. Eastburn passed away in 1962, and Clara passed in 1979. More land in the rear of the property was sold in the late 1980's for a housing development, but a dispute over the use of Ferris Drive (then, and still, a private road) for access delayed construction for about ten years. More recently, the new St. Philips Lutheran Church was constructed along Limestone Road, leaving only some open land behind it and some woods at the very rear of the property as the only undeveloped parts of the former Hanna and Eastburn farm. And as a grandchild of Ferris and Clara Eastburn still resides in Eastburn Farms, there is to this day a direct connection to the two families who have lived the for more than 230 years.