The Long and Convoluted History of Sugar Loaf Hill Farm -- Part 2

My best estimation of the 147 acres
of Sugar Loaf Hill Farm

In the last post we were introduced to the property (originally four properties) later known as Sugar 
Loaf Hill Farm. We followed its story through the Nivin family (although starting out as Evans) and saw how it was acquired, then sold out of the family after William Nivins' death. It was owned for a while by John Dickinson, then sold in 1812 by Dickinson's son-in-law Albanus Logan to Joseph Johnson. It was Johnson who made some significant changes to the farm, mostly by breaking it apart.

First, in 1813, he sold 46 acres to Thomas Graves, which I think was all on the south side of Lancaster Pike, just west of today's Hercules Road. Then he sold 62 acres adjoining those to John Gray (no, not that one, Outlander fans). That got rid of most of the northern portion of the Nivin tracts. In 1814, Johnson made two sales on the same date to a pair of brothers. To John Mendenhall he sold 85 acres, which I believe was essentially all of his land between Newport Gap Pike and McKennans Church Road. Then he sold 147 acres, basically the central portion of the property, to Abraham Mendenhall. It appears that Abraham paid half of the $6000 cost upfront and mortgaged the other half from Johnson (he paid it off in October 1817). John and Abraham were sons of Aaron Mendenhall, patriarch of the Mendenhalls in MCH, and first of his family to operate their mill on Mill Creek.

While John sold his portion of the old Nivin farm just four years later (a property we can follow another day), Abraham's acquisition remained in the family a good bit longer. In fact, Abraham held it until his death in 1833. Most of his ten living children at the time were still in the area, although, notably, son William would later migrate west with the Mormons, as mentioned in a previous post about his cousin Ellis Sanders. William would become an important builder among the early Later Day Saints, and would be among the first of them to make it to Utah, arriving in Salt Lake City in 1852.

Beginning of the 1843 deed from the soon-to-depart-to-Nauvoo 
James Mendenhall and Philadelphia's Stevenson Croasdale

However, back when his father Abraham died, he did so without a will. The farm passed to all the heirs, but by 1838 ownership had been consolidated by one of the sons, James Mendenhall. But, William was not the only Mendenhall brother to join the Mormon Church and migration. In 1843, probably in anticipation of his own departure (he was definitely in Nauvoo, IL by 1845), James sold the farm to Stevenson Croasdale of Byberry Township, PA. Croasdale was a merchant operating in Philadelphia and Newport, and normally I would assume that he only bought the farm as a rental property. However, in the deed when he sold it, he is described as being "of Mill Creek Hundred", so perhaps he did. It's hard to tell because he only owned it for a few years, and not during a census.

Interestingly, his main business seems to have been a company called Mitchell & Croasdale. I'm not sure which Mitchell he was in business with, but it seems like it's not a coincidence that when he did sell the farm in 1847 it was to a gentleman we've covered before -- John Mitchell. Mitchell, a member of the family that still owns the Woodside Farm Creamery, was featured in his own post many years ago, as well as in the one about the home he would buy 21 years later, Ocasson (or the Cox-Mitchell House). But when he purchased the Sugar Loaf Hill Farm (which he might have named), he had just married Sarah Eastburn, 12th child and next to last daughter of David and Elizabeth Eastburn. Their wedding took place eight days before the date of the deed. After Sarah's death in 1861, Mitchell would marry her younger sister Margaret.

In 1847, Croasdale sold the farm (now worth $7100) to our old friend John Mitchell

In addition to being a farmer, John Mitchell was a businessman, entrepreneur, and a bit of an early MCH real estate mogul. Over the years he bought and sold quite a few properties in the area, but one is of particular note to us now. Remember way back, four paragraphs ago, when we said that Joseph Johnson had broken up the original farm, including selling the section between Newport Gap Pike and McKennans Church Road? Well, in 1857 Mitchell bought that land back (plus a little more) at a Sheriff's sale, it having most recently been owned by John McCormick. These portions of the old Nivin tracts only stayed rejoined until 1863, when Mitchell sold it to Samuel Yearsley.

The rest of his land along Hyde Run, however, he held on to much longer. As noted, John Mitchell acquired a number of farms in MCH, some of which he resold quickly, some of which he kept as rental properties. Sugar Loaf Hill was his primary residence until he moved to Ocasson in Hockessin in 1868, but he either liked this farm or it was profitable (or both), as he kept it the rest of his life. When Mitchell died without a will in 1897, his holdings went equally to his heirs. They held them for varying amounts of time, but Sugar Loaf Hill in particular they sold in March 1905 to recent Kennett Square resident and German immigrant Charles A. Becker.

I don't know if Charles ever found his money, or if
that's why he sold the farm a few months later -- 5/28/1906

I think Becker moved in with the intention of settling into the farm and working it, but if so, his mind changed fairly quickly. I don't know if it has anything to do with the story seen here about his losing $400 (which would equal around $14,000 today), but for some reason at the end of the 1906 farming season, he decided to quit farming. He sold the farm and bought a home (actually a bunch of lots, which he resold) just down the road in the Cedars and became a carpenter. The new owner of the farm was John J. Woodward, who just so happened to be Becker's son-in-law. And in an expanded edition of Everybody's Related, John J. Woodward was the son of Frederick Klair Woodward and Hannah Mary Mitchell Woodward -- Hannah was John Mitchell's niece.

We won't however, delve too deeply into the Woodwards at this point, because John J. Woodward died just two years later in 1909, at the age of 33.The next year his widow Mary Becker Woodward sold the farm to William A. Crossan. Mary moved with her two young children into a house in the Cedars, which they probably got from her father. Later, by 1930, she would be living with her father Charles. However, for a few years in the interim, she was briefly remarried -- to William Augustus Crossan. William was a local boy, having been raised on his father's farm on Mill Creek Road just west of McKennans. He and Mary must have gotten to know each other, presumably after John Woodward's death since they wed five years later.

A very public description of the private
difficulties in the Crosson marriage

Unfortunately, though, it was not a match destined to last. William and Mary were married in 1914, but by 1917 she and the children had moved out. They each sued for divorce in early 1920 for the usual reasons -- she said he was abusive to her and the children, and that he argued about money she had inherited. He said she abandoned him and she said that he didn't like her cooking. These kinds of proceedings were very public then. It took a little while, but the divorce was eventually granted.

Although Mary had left, William Crossan stayed on his farm and continued to work it until the early 1940's. Beginning in 1941, he slowly sold off portions of the farm, mostly parcels of between one and eleven acres along Hercules Road. He kept most of the property, but in 1949 he purchased a home on Newport Gap Pike in Cranston Heights. It was then 305 Newport Gap Pike, but is now numbered as 1904, where Ramones Flowers occupies currently. And incidentally, his former, short-term father-in-law Charles A. Becker lived across the street at 304. That had to have been awkward.

In the 1950 Census, Crossan has a family of lodgers with him -- Martin Zickefoose, his wife Williard, and their daughter Mary Jo, originally from West Virginia. Martin is listed as a welder, and his obituary in 2005 says he worked for Dupont. After William Crossan died in 1951 (with no heirs), his brother Joseph sold 1904 NGP to Zickefoose, but that wasn't all. The next year, Joseph sold the remainder of Sugar Loaf Hill Farm to Martin Zickefoose. They kind of did it the lazy way in the deed, just using the old metes and bounds of the full 144 acres, then saying "excepting such lands and premises as have heretofore been conveyed...". So, the whole think minus whatever we already sold.

The final sale of Sugar Loaf Hill Farm,
in 1958 to developer Emilio Capaldi

I don't think the Zickefooses (that's fun to say) ever lived on the farm, and only owned it for a few years. In 1958, they sold it (now listed as 103 acres, which seems right) to developer Emilio Capaldi, on which he built the development of Westminster. Thankfully the old house was saved, and has remained a beautiful private residence to this day, settled in the middle of the gorgeously wooded neighborhood.