Marshallton School, District #77

Marshallton School #77, 99, 99½ in 1930

Over the years, I think we've covered just about every old schoolhouse that does or did once stand in Mill Creek Hundred. However, there's one schoolhouse we've mentioned only in passing, which technically stands in Christiana Hundred, but which served many MCH schoolchildren during its tenure. And because it looks very different from all the other area schools of its day, it's likely that many of you who have seen it may not have even realized that it was a school, let alone its age. I guess you can say that its design was very forward-looking, since to me it looks like a small office building that could have been built at just about any time in the second half of the 20th Century. It is, however, a product of the late 19th Century.

The schoolhouse in question stands in Marshallton, and it's the second of three that have served the children of the village and surrounding area. It's not surprising that the first school didn't come around until a little later, because the Village of Marshallton itself didn't exist until about the 1830's, when the Marshall brothers built the first iron mill there. Originally, any children living in what would become the Marshallton area would have walk up the road to the District #33 Brandywine Springs School, located on Duncan Road just south of McKennans Church Road. I haven't found any direct documentation for when the Marshallton School opened, but I have a pretty big clue.

On July 15, 1854, James and Eleana Cranston sold one acre of land at "the forks of the old New Port Road with another road leading towards Wilmington" for $100 to School District Number Seventy-seven. This, of course, today, would be the southeast corner of Newport Road and Old Capitol Trail. If we assume the schoolhouse was simple and quickly-built, it likely opened for classes in September 1854. It was also likely a small, one-room schoolhouse, probably of frame construction. I've never found a photo that states it was this school, but I have a hunch about one we'll get back to later. This was the primary schoolhouse in the area for the next 40 years.

The Saga of William Bell

"William! William! William Bell! Are you here?" The erudite-looking 25 year old walked in and out of the wards, up and down the aisles, calling out for the man he had known all his life. There were over 1,600 vagrants currently lounging on benches in the Kings County Almshouse in Brooklyn, on this January day in 1899. The searcher and his target were both far from home, and Horace Greely Eastburn walked into a 50 x 30 foot room packed with benches. On the benches were sleeping "tramps", and Horace went to each one of them, lifting their hats, checking to see if it was the missing man he sought.

Finally he found a man with eyes he thought he recognized. "William, is that you?", Horace asked, shaking the man awake.

"Hello, Horace!", replied the man on the bench. It was impressive that he was even recognized. The last time that young Horace G. Eastburn had seen William Bell (several years before), the older man had had his long, curly hair styled in the pompadour fashion, and wore a full beard. Now he was clean-shaven with short hair, and his gentlemanly outfit had been replaced by shabby clothes. He looked like a physical wreck.

Eastburn asked Bell a few more questions, to make sure he knew who he was. "Of course I know you, Horace. You're Samuel's nephew -- Oliver's son -- from Pleasant Hill.", replied Bell.