The Sanders-Currinder Farms Part Two

Ellis Sanders' 150 acre farm

In the last post, we saw how the land roughly bounded by Kirkwood Highway, White Clay Creek, Harmony Road, and Red Mill Road passed through the Bryan, Shields, Saunders (Sanders), and Currinder families. We learned that in 1819, brothers Amos and Ellis Sanders divided the 200 acre farm, previously owned by their father John, which they had purchased jointly in 1792. We followed Amos' western 42 acres through his long lifetime, and then saw it sold to Jacob Currinder, who also added 53 acres on the western end (from miller David Eastburn). However, Currinder didn't just add those 53 acres to land he already owned. Amos' 42 acres also were an addition to an existing Currinder farm -- namely the farm formerly owned by Ellis Sanders. But to get there, we have to back up a bit.

We last left older brother Ellis Sanders after the 1819 division of their father's old farm, in which Amos got the smaller farm with the house, and Ellis got the larger, eastern portion. Ellis' farm, seen above, comprised 150 acres nestled along White Clay Creek, extending east of Harmony Road and north of what was then the Road to Stanton (or Newark), later the Telegraph Road, and finally Capitol Trail/Kirkwood Highway. I should mention that there were two slight road differences in the pre-suburban era. One was the placement of Harmony Road, now Old Harmony Road, just slightly east of the current thoroughfare. The other was the Road to Stanton, which deviated in this stretch from the modern Kirkwood Highway (to Upper Pike Creek/Old Harmony Roads)/Capitol Trail (westward to Newark). Heading west, the road dipped south through today's Green Valley, followed about where Green Valley Drive is now and crossed Pike Creek, headed straight west crossing Old Harmony Road at the bend, went behind Richardson's Garden Center, dipped down a bit again and went in front of where Shue-Medill Middle School is, then angled back up to join the current highway.

In 1789, Ellis married Edith Yarnall (of the Yarnalls living near Brandywine Springs), but she died the following December, only two weeks after the birth (and death) of their only child. Ellis remarried five years later to Hannah Mendenhall, daughter of miller Aaron Mendenhall. They had two children -- Ann (who apparently never married) and Ellis Mendenhall Sanders, who had quite the eventful life. The elder Ellis lived the remainder of his life on his farm, until passing in 1843 at the age of 77. In his will, he gave his farm to his son, but that son would not remain on it. Although born a Quaker, in 1843 Ellis M. was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He travelled to Nauvoo, IL (where the Mormons were settled at the time) in Spring 1844 and met with founder Joseph Smith. He was ordained an Elder by Joseph's brother Hyrum, and returned to Delaware. Both Smith's would die in prison at the hands of a mob in June.

Ellis M. and Rachel Sanders, and their home in Nauvoo, Il

In May 1845, Ellis and family (which included his wife, the former Rachel Broom Roberts, granddaughter of US Constitution Signer Jacob Broom) returned to Nauvoo. Ellis had a house built by his cousin and master builder William Mendenhall, which still stands in Nauvoo today (it's now a beautiful B&B). They left with the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo in 1846, and arrived in Utah in 1848. They later settled in 1862 in St. George, UT, in the southwest corner of the state, and Ellis lived there until his death in 1873. He was important enough that LDS President Brigham Young spoke at Ellis M. Sanders' funeral. Beside being very interesting in its own right, Ellis M.'s story means that he did not need his father's MCH farm, which he sold in 1844 to Sarah Fitzwater, of Abington Township, PA.

Sarah, at the time of the sale, was a 60 year old, unmarried woman, so it's unlikely that she bought the property to come down and farm herself. Her connection to the area was her brother-in-law Samuel Tyson, owner of the Hopyard Farm. Sarah died in 1848, so she didn't appear on a Census here, making it tricky to figure out what was going on. However, the 1850 Census does show John P. Derrickson and family likely living on the farm, and in 1851 Samuel Tyson (as executor to Sarah, and I think he gave her a mortgage) sold the 150 acre farm to Derrickson (who grew up just above Elsmere, west of Dupont Road).

The 40 acres sold in 1853 to John Greenwalt

Although the farm was 150 acres when Derrickson bought it, it didn't stay so for long. In 1853, he sold the easternmost 40 acres (essentially all east of (Old) Harmony Road and some north of what was then called "the Road to Roseville Factory") to John Greenwalt. The remaining 110 acres were sold the following year to George C. Simpson, also of Christiana Hundred (not far from the Derricksons). He almost certainly did live here, and Simpson sold the farm in 1855 to...and see if this name sounds familiar...Jacob Currinder. That then brings us back around to where we ended the last post, with, by 1869, Currinder owning the former Amos Sanders farm, adjoining land bought from David Eastburn, and 110 acres of the former Ellis Sanders farm.

Jacob Currinder was about 50 when he first bought Ellis' farm, and 61 and 64 when he acquired Amos' land and the Eastburn tract. The 1860 Census shows him residing here on the eastern/Ellis Sanders farm. But even this purchase, and especially the Amos/Eastburn farm, was probably done with his sons in mind. And in his 1869 will, Currinder gave the western farm to his son William, and the eastern one to sons Jacob and Washington. They received them at his death in April 1870. A year later, as the Sanders brothers had done decades earlier, the Currinder siblings divided the (eastern farm) land (this time, pretty equally) between them. Jacob took the northeast portion, while Washington (also called George W., so presumably George Washington Currinder) took the southwest part. It doesn't much matter, because in 1875 they both sold their land to Albert Wollaston (what was divided is now again whole).

Albert was the son of Joseph Wollaston, and grew up on the nearby farm where All Saints Cemetery is now. He briefly served in the 7th Infantry Regiment during the Civil War and married just after in March 1866. His wife was the former Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" McDaniel, daughter of Stanton Hotel owner Springer McDaniel (she inherited it, and Albert's brother George ran it for a time). Albert farmed his land until retiring to Newark around 1899. He also bought a farm in the 1890's, which he sold to son Charles, which was at the time south of the town. My oldest daughter currently spends most of her time on it now, because it later became the main part of the UD campus.

Albert Wollaston's 1909 will. The "farm on the Newark Road"
is the one he purchased from the Currinder brothers

In his will, Albert Wollaston gave his farm to his daughter Emily and her husband, James T. Edmanson. It appears that they had been living on and working the farm for a number years before Albert retired and moved in 1899, and died in Newark in 1911. It looks like the Edmansons kept the full property until after Emily's death in 1922, but in 1925 sold what appears to be all their land north of the highway (about 30 acres), although at least one 2 acre lot was to daughter Daisy. There were a few other small sales, and the bulk of the farm was sold for a time to an Edward F. Connor, but by 1936 was sold by another Edmanson daughter, Gertrude Spry, to Rodney Eastburn. I think he was the last person to actually farm the land, and in the early 1950's much of the property became the development of Newkirk Estates.

But that was all the eastern farm, once belonging to Ellis Sanders. The last we left the western/Amos Sanders farm, it had been inherited by William Currinder after his father Jacob's death in 1870. Although most of the property would stay in the Currinder family for another 76 years, it's not clear who actually resided on and worked the farm. It wasn't William, as he ran a hotel in Christiana, or his son Alva. It's possible it was later worked by William R. Heavellow, but I can't be sure. Ultimately the property was sold in 1946 to Francis E. B. and Naomi McCann, but they weren't farmers, either. McCann, did, however, make major changes to the property in the 1950's.

Flashback! Amos Sanders' 1839 sale of a lot to School District 36

First, in 1952, he sold about 17 acres of the farm to the Newark Special School District for the construction of what would be the Shue (later, Shue-Medill) School. It should also be noted that back in 1839, Amos Sanders had sold about a quarter acre for the District 36 White Clay Creek School, which was then on the north side of the road, now in the current school's parking lot. And that schoolhouse was later purchased in 1923 by W. Vaughn Heavellow, certainly related to William (but details are sketchy). A few years after selling the school property, McCann began selling off lots for the development of Sycamore Gardens in about 1957. The old Amos Sanders house had been spared and sold in 1954.

Today, all this land is probably thought of by most as not much more than "off of Kirkwood Highway, back behind the school and Popeye's", but as we've seen it has had a long and winding history. It's been a large farm under one owner, separate farms under different owners in the same family, different owners in different families, broken up and put back together several times -- most of that time situated between two historic mills along White Clay Creek. There have been fascinating families whose stories reach as far as the barren (but scenic) southwest of Utah, but also connect with many prominent local clans. All proving, once again, that every spot has its own interesting history.