The Burnt Mill Road House -- Part 2

The Burnt Mill Road House in 1982

In the last post we took a look at nearly a century and a half's worth of history of a house and farm 
located on Burnt Mill Road, tucked along the PA/DE state line in central Christiana Hundred. We followed it from a part of Letitia Penn's Manor of Stenning, to a 335 acre farm sold to John Cloud in 1713, to it's sale in 1726 to John Baldwin. We saw it divided in 1784 by John's son Francis, and given to his sons Levi and William. Levi had the northern half (and for a while, the southern) until his death in 1825, but his children finally sold it out of the family in 1843.

The next owner of the now 73 acre farm was 28 year old Pusey Phillips. Phillips did reside on the farm, but there's not much written about him, likely because he died relatively young (in 1855 at the age of 40) and with no children. No descendants often means no one is looking for your story. It looks like his father Evan had a farm on Old Kennett Road, near where the Greenville Country Club is today, and that they were connected to the milling Phillips family of, among other things, the Ashland and Greenbank Mills.

After sorting out the estate, Pusey's Administrator (and brother) Harvey Phillips sold the farm in 1856 to Thomas Harlan of Chester County. He was born near Centerville in 1825 to Thomas and Beulah Harlan, and just earlier in 1856 had married a recent widow named Mary Ann Martin Pyle. Her first husband, James Bayard Pyle, had died in 1852, leaving Mary Ann with three young daughters and a son. The 1860 Census shows Thomas and Mary Ann in their Burnt Mill Road farm, along with the four Pyle kids and the first three (of eventually six) Harlan children. They remained on the farm until 1868, when Harlan sold the 73 acre farm in two sections, to two different buyers.

October 1856 sale notice, with good description of the property,
from Harvey Phillips, administrator of Pusey Phillips' estate

Divided (as the original Baldwin tract was) north and south, the southern half (well, 38 acres) was sold to George W. Vernon, a Wilmington businessman, newspaperman, and Editor of the Wilmington Daily Republican. He added this to the rest of the former southern half of the Baldwin farm, which Vernon had recently acquired. The northern (just under 35 acres) portion of the farm, Thomas Harlan sold to Maris H. Fredd. Fredd was a local farmer, originally from Chester County, but with deep ties both there and in Christiana Hundred.

Among (probably) other things, Maris Fredd had previously owned a farm on Centerville Road just north of Barley Mill Road, his father Isaac owned a nearby farm that's now under Hoopes Reservoir, Maris had a farm on Kennett Pike by the Wilmington Country Club, and he had a farm in Fairville along the railroad tracks just west of Kennett Pike (near today's Mendenhall Inn, where I had my wedding reception, not that that's relevant). Later on, his son Isaac would briefly own the Foote-Pyle House near Sanford.

Maris H. Fredd

This farm tucked along the state line, however, would be the last farm Maris Fredd would own. He died in February 1869, less than a year after he had purchased the property (or bought the farm, as it were). His wife Elizabeth and children John, Olive, Isaac, and Sallie remained in the home, being listed there in the 1870 Census. In April 1873, the Chancery Court ordered the property sold (using our recent friend Victor du Pont as Trustee), which it was, to James Armstrong. This, though, was another one of those quick turn around sales, as Armstrong sold the farm the very same day to James W. Murphy. And who was James Murphy? Well, less than a month later he would be married to Sarah Jane "Sallie" Fredd, daughter of Maris and Elizabeth.

James and Sallie are listed in the home in the 1880 Census, but neither would be there too much longer. Sallie died in 1882 at the age of 29, and James sold their farm the following year. As best as I can tell, he moved back to his family's farm in Brandywine Hundred and became a veterinarian. His connection to medicine is quite appropriate, because in 1913 he and his siblings sold the old Murphy farm to Alfred I. du Pont, who made it part of his Nemours Estate. The Murphy House still stands just behind the Carillon Tower, just yards away from one of the finest children's hospitals in the world. 

The new owner was 37 year old Thomas T. Williamson, who grew up on his father Gideon's farm in Birmingham Township, PA, just northwest of Painter's Crossing (today's Rts. 1 and 202). More recently Thomas had married the former Sarah Pyle, and had been working on William Garrett's Snuff Mill Farm at Auburn (now Yorklyn). Williamson owned the farm for only four years, but several articles do indicate that he and his family did reside on the property. After selling in 1887, I think they moved to Hockessin, although Thomas and Sarah later divorced in 1893.

Pearson and Mary Emma Talley

The 34 acre Burnt Mill Road Farm, however, was next in the possession of a man with another last name you're no doubt familiar with -- and a story that ends in a way you'll never see coming. In December 1887 the farm was sold to Pearson I. Talley, a relative of the Brandywine Hundred Talleys who had grown up in nearby southern Chester County. Before moving to the Centreville area, Pearson and wife Mary Emma lived on her father Oliver Ely's farm outside of Wilmington, on the current site of the Porky Oliver Golf Course. Although Talley did work the farm here, he had long-standing health issues and did finally, in 1899, sell his farm and move to the city.  Along the way, the Talleys had adopted Hannah Edith Newlin, presumably in 1885 when she was 8 and her mother died. This is relevant to the events that transpired in 1908 in their quiet home on West Sixth Street in Wilmington.

Fortunately, despite early concerns, all the victims
did make full recoveries from their injuries

They lived there for nine years, and Pearson, a cabinet worker, took jobs at Harlan & Hollingsworth, and at American Car and Foundry. Then early on the morning of September 9, 1908, for no good reason that he could later express, Pearson Talley grabbed an axe and brutally attacked his wife, adopted daughter, and her husband (Andrew Johanson). He assaulted Emma first, striking her several times in the head, splitting open her skull. He then left her and went to the Johansons' room, hitting Edith in the head and face. Hearing the noise, Andrew awakened and began grappling with his 65 year old father-in-law. They wrestled for a while, Andrew being struck with a glancing blow to his head. Soon a neighbor, hearing the scuffle, came in to help apprehend the deranged Pearson Talley. At the time, both women were thought likely to die of their wounds.

After calming down, Talley could give no reason for why he had done what he did, saying there was no strife within the family and, "No two better women lived than my wife and daughter, and why I committed the awful thing I do not know. They were like angels from heaven. I was crazy. I wish someone would kill me." Wow. Powerful words from someone with obvious and serious psychological issues.

The good news is that all three victims lived -- Emma for another two years, and Andrew and Edith until 1955 and 1965, respectively. Pearson Talley was taken first to the County Workhouse at Greenbank, and then in December was tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was committed to the State Hospital at Farnhurst, where he remained until his death in 1914. But enough about that....

Back to Burnt Mill Road in 1899, the new owners were Edward and Anna Duncan of Avondale, PA. Edward was the son of Irish immigrants who had grown up near Corner Ketch, while Anna was the daughter of James Hoopes of London Grove Township, PA. They only owned the farm until 1905, at which point they apparently moved back to the Avondale/Avon Grove area (although they're described as "of the Borough of Lansdowne, County of Delaware" in the deed). They sold in 1905 to Ella Bane and her husband Samuel. 

Ella was born in 1856 to Pennock and Emaline Klair Way on their farm a little more than a half mile up Burnt Mill Road. I believe that property is now the Spar Hill Farm and Preserve. Samuel was born in 1853 to Jonathan and Susanna Bane, again just a few miles away (probably) in East Marlborough Township. Incidentally, Samuel was also a great-grandson of Thomas Pierson of Hockessin, and the Banes were attendees at the huge Pierson Family Reunions at the Pierson Home on Southwood Road. Ella was on the planning committee for several of them. The Banes are listed in Kennett Square in 1900, but must have moved down here after that, as they're "of Christiana Hundred" in the deed. It's even possible that they had been leasing the farm from the Duncans prior to purchasing it.

The Banes would reside at their Centreville farm for more than 30 years, raising daughters Anna and Dora there. It seems likely that Samuel Bane worked his farm for the rest of his life, finally passing away there in October 1935, at the age of 82. It also seems that he was the last owner to work the land, because two years later, Ella sold the property to a new owner who was certainly not a farmer. The new owner's name was Paul Leahy, and at the time he was an up-and-coming young lawyer in Wilmington.

Born in Wilmington in 1904 and proud of his Irish heritage, Leahy graduated from Wilmington High School in 1922 where he lettered in track and was involved in the theater and drama departments. He then moved on to the University of Delaware, where he was also deeply involved in the theater. In fact, as a freshman, he got rave reviews for his role, ironically as a judge, in The Magistrate. By the next year he was working as a local theater reviewer for two national publications, as well as eventually becoming editor of the school newspaper. He performed in a number of productions, both collegiately and professionally, and seemed destined for a life in the theater, even as he moved on to the University of Pennsylvania Law School after graduating from UD in 1926.

After getting his law degree from Penn and being admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1929, Leahy embarked on a career as...a journalist. He wrote literary and theatrical reviews for several Wilmington and Newark newspapers (in August 1929 he wrote a fascinating double review of the new works All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms). He soon moved, however, into his law career, while also becoming involved in Democratic politics. Throughout the 1930's, Leahy was a frequent speaker around the city, as well as becoming a prominent attorney. His next big move came when, in late 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt nominated him for an appointment as a U.S. District Court Judge. His confirmation in early 1942 at the age of 37 made him the youngest Federal judge ever in Delaware, and one of the youngest ever in the nation.

Judge Leahy eventually settled into a role specializing in complex corporate cases, as are still common in Delaware courts today. One of his biggest cases, which dragged on from 1951 through 1953, involved the federal government's suit again the Dupont Company alleging a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of cellophane. He ultimately ruled that the government failed to prove its case, and his December 1953 ruling was 561 typewritten pages long.

Having experienced various health issues through the 1950's, Judge Leahy retired from active duty on the court in 1957, taking limited duty as a senior judge. This no doubt gave him more time for one of his other passions -- dogs. He was active for years in showing and judging, especially Irish and English setters. Judge Leahy was by all accounts a well-liked and well-respected man, with a sense of humor that sometimes came out in quips from behind the bench (and I should mention that many of the plays he performed in as a young man were comedies). His presence lived on in the Centerville area even after his passing in 1966. When the current owners of the house moved in almost 30 years ago -- and more than 30 after Leahy's death, it was still known to many as the Judge Leahy House, and still is today.

A more recent photo of the house, in holiday spirit

But for our purposes, one of the important things he did very soon after acquiring the property was to break up the 34+ acre farm that had been intact since Thomas Harlan divided it in 1868. Since Leahy had no interest in farming the land, four days after purchasing it he sold almost 2/3 of it, keeping about 13 acres of it along the road -- still a very nice property as a country home. The remainder was sold to Harry W. Lunger -- financier, racehorse breeder, and husband of Alexis I. du Pont's granddaughter (c'mon -- in this area you knew there was going to be a du Pont eventually, right?). The Lungers resided at their family estate of Oberod, adjacent to the eastern edge of the original Baldwin tract, on the other side of Letitia's Manor Line.

The old house, the original section perhaps built or enlarged by Levi Baldwin when he took possession of the northern half of his father's farm in 1784, still proudly stands overlooking the PA/DE state line. After going through a few more hands, it has been in the same caring ownership for almost 30 years. Most of the old farmland has been exchanged for large lots and beautiful houses, but here and there old reminders of the past remain.