Mystery of the Stone Troughs...Solved!

A Wilmington Fountain Society water trough

I don't consider myself to be a great researcher or writer, or even have particularly brilliant insights into the information I gather and pass along here. However, one 'Added Value" I can contribute is being able to piece together disparate pieces of information that I've come across over the years. Yes, get to the point, Scott. Six long years ago (although, honestly, February feels like six long years ago), it was brought to my attention that there were five stone troughs (that's what we guessed they were) located at Delcastle Golf Course, the former Delcastle Farm for the New Castle County Workhouse at Greenbank. They all had dates inscribed on them -- two with 1902, one each from 1903, 1905, and 1912. Later, we learned there were several other similar troughs scattered around New Castle County, in places like Canby Park, Granogue, and Hockessin.

There were stories that they were made by prisoners at the workhouse or at the farm, but no proof of either. From the style we figured all these stone troughs were related and connected somehow, but no one knew from whence they came. Then, this morning, thanks to one word I saw in a Facebook post (thanks for sharing, Robin Brown!), it all clicked. Then, I even discovered who was responsible for the existence of the troughs at Delcastle. It turns out, these lithic beauties were the work of a 19th Century philanthropic group -- The Wilmington Fountain Society. Founded in 1870 by Ferris Bringhurst, the group erected drinking fountains around the city for the benefit of city dwellers. More importantly for us, they also placed troughs for the benefit of the city dwellers' horses and dogs. In fact the Wilmington Fountain Society is considered a precursor to today's Delaware SPCA. The troughs were said to be hollowed out of large pieces of granite.

The Samuel Tyson House, aka The Hopyard Farm

In the early years of Mill Creek Hundred, many of the large plantations were given names by their new owners -- names that would have been well-known in the area in their day. Over the years, most of these monikers -- ones like New Design, Wedgebury, and Cuba Rock -- have fallen out of use and been largely forgotten. However, at least one name in the northwestern corner of MCH, dating back to the 17th Century, has remained attached to a particular house on this tract, being used as recently as this year in a real estate ad. Much of the original Hopyard Tract is now part of White Clay Creek State Park. In fact, the Samuel Tyson House, which came to be known as Hopyard Farm, is one of the few private residences now standing on what was once a tract as large as 1000 acres. Most of the rest of the (much newer) homes stand on land sold by its last "historic" owners.

The early history of the Hopyard Tract dates back to the 17th Century and is, quite frankly, pretty confusing. For our purposes here we'll jump ahead to 1720, when John Chambers purchased 664 acres referred to as the Hopyard. He devised the land to his son William in 1730, and William almost immediately sold 430 acres of it to Joseph Chambers, most likely his brother. Joseph, in turn, sold 221 acres of his land to Henry Geddes in 1738.

Geddes seems to have lived out the rest of his days here, passing in about 1756. In his will he left his property equally to his widow and four children, with ownership eventually being consolidated by his son, William Geddes. In 1763, Geddes (through his brother-in-law James Latimer) sold the tract to David Montgomery, of Lancaster County. Although David was again listed as being of Lancaster County when he sold it in 1802 to William Montgomery (presumably his son), there is evidence that he did live here, at least for a time. David Montgomery served in the Revolutionary War, and was commissioned as Captain of a Delaware regiment in September 1778. Perhaps he moved back to Pennsylvania at a later date. Whether or not Montgomery leased the farm at some point, some of the language used in earlier deeds implies that the Hopyard was leased prior to the Chambers era. However, beginning in 1803, all that would change.

Myrtle Emma -- Easter and The Seasons (Spring)

Myrtle Emma and oldest sister Mary

In a quick turnaround, here are two more excerpts from Myrtle Emma, the collected memoirs of Mill Creek Hundred native Myrtle Emma Morris White. In these uncertain times, and on the eve of the most unusual Easter in pretty much anyone's memory and the beginning of an extraordinary Spring, we'll look at Myrtle's recollections of both of these events from her childhood.

I don't have too much to add to these particular stories, so I'll pretty much just let them speak for themselves. I did try to figure out who the Mrs. Bain was in the Easter story, without much success. I'm guessing she was a fancy friend of the family's. Also, I assume the creek they walked down to would have been Pike Creek, just a short walk to the east. And maybe you already knew this (I didn't), but rusks are a type of hard biscuit or twice-baked bread. Biscotte and zweiback (literally, "twice baked") are types of rusks.

The Spring section is another excerpt from a longer chapter entitled, The Seasons. We saw the Fall and Winter part of it a few months back, just before Christmas. Seems like another world now. (If you're reading this at some time in the future, beyond 2020, you still should know why. If you're reading this far in the future, ask your parents.) We'll finish with the Summer portion a bit later. In describing the Spring, Myrtle again recounts the excitement of Easter morning, although interestingly there is no mention of coloring or hunting for eggs. The tradition was certainly around then, but it may not have been as ubiquitous as it is now.

Although I know everyone in the family worked hard and the life was certainly different than what I experienced around here 50 years later, it sounds like it was a magical place to grow up. I did the same buttercup thing as a kid, as do my daughters today. Also, I had no idea that you could find wild asparagus! So, enjoy these pieces, and have a Happy Easter. And here's to a better rest of the Spring.

Myrtle Emma -- School and Bumps & Bruises

Union School, 1926

I realized that it had been a while since we'd seen another installment from Myrtle Emma, the memoirs of Mill Creek Hundred-raised Myrtle Emma Morris White. In light of the trying times in which we all find ourselves these days, I've selected two chapters that seem appropriate in their own ways. With children all over the country currently receiving their education at home and not in their schools, the first segment sees Myrtle recounting her memories of attending the small, mid-19th Century schoolhouse that stood just up the road from her home. In the second chapter, we have her writing about things that I'm sure many antsy kids are getting at home -- Bumps and Bruises. As a special "bonus", she even mentions the "Q word."

The school Myrtle attended was the Union School, District 31. A few years back it shared with another school a post which gave the general outlines of the school's history, as far as it's known. The problem is...the history's not known all that well. The school stood a couple hundred feet west of Corner Ketch Road, just south of today's Estates of Corner Ketch neighborhood. The datestone on the two-story schoolhouse was inscribed 1850, but it's said that this date was for the addition of the second story. Supposedly the original structure was a log schoolhouse built in 1780, replaced by the first story of the stone school in 1811. I don't have any particular reason to doubt this story, but I can't confirm it either.

The Stephen Mitchell House, aka North Star Farm

The Stephen Mitchell House

There are several different ways in which an old home can be considered "Historically Significant". It can be particularly old. It can be unique to its area, or very typical. It can have an association with important people or events. Sometimes, though, you find a house that ticks multiple boxes. Such is the case with a beautiful stuccoed stone house on North Star Road, just south of the Woodside Creamery. The Stephen Mitchell House, or North Star Farm, is definitely one of the older homes in the area, dating to at least the early 1800s, and probably quite a bit earlier than that. The house and property are in the unique position of having been associated with one of the biggest family names in the area from each of the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st Centuries. On top of that, in the mid-20th Century the property was involved in what I believe was a unique experiment in home ownership.

The origins of the property along North Star Road go back to the early 1700's. When and with whom, exactly, I'm not quite sure. There are several tracts in this area and few good landmarks to use in identifying their precise location. The "large white oaks" and "dead black oaks" used as markers are not exactly helpful nearly three hundred years later. However, I do know that a Scotch-Irish immigrant named Archibald McDonald did buy land in what would become the North Star area. The McDonalds were the first of the major families associated with the house, and I've come to understand them a bit more now. I had been familiar with Bryan McDonald, who had purchased land in the Brandywine Springs area as early as 1689. I also knew that the McDaniel family eventually owned land in the Paper Mill Road/North Star area. I had a pretty good idea -- since McDonald was alternately spelled as McDonnell, McDannell, and McDaniel in various documents -- that those McDaniels were connected with the earlier McDonalds. I assumed, as it turns out incorrectly, they were descendants of Bryan McDonald.

What I didn't know at the time is that there was another McDonald in the area early on -- Archibald McDonald. I have no direct evidence, but it appears that Bryan McDonald, Sr. and Archibald, Sr. were brothers. It was Bryan, Sr. who originally bought the land at Brandywine Springs, then left it to his son, Bryan. The younger Bryan and his siblings seem to have eventually left the area. Archibald, Sr. appears to have lived in MCH, but I'm unsure where. The first land purchase I can find is for Archibald, Jr. in 1737, when he purchased 150 acres from William Thomas. When Archibald died in 1749, the property passed to his son Thomas.

Limestone -- The du Pont Carousel Estate

A. Felix and Marka du Pont in Virginia, 1949

Most of the stories we see here take place primarily in the 18th and 19th Centuries. However, there are some more recent interesting tales, some recent enough that I know there are those who remember them and their aftermath firsthand. One of those is the story of Limestone, the estate of Mr. and Mrs. A Felix du Pont, Jr., which stood in the middle of what's now Carousel Park. I had heard stories from people in the past (and very recently) about the old stone house that stood there, which by the 1970's was a burned-out wreck. I never knew the story of the house before, but I do now, and it's ready to be told.

The story begins in 1939, when du Pont made two purchases from the Klair family -- a bit over 16 acres from Irvin and almost 53 from Willard (another 40 acres in 1964 from a different source would round out his his local holdings). Felix planned on building a home that, unlike some of the other MCH du Pont country estates, would actually be his primary residence. But who was this member of Delaware's First Family who wished to move his family to the rolling hills above Milltown?

Alexis Felix du Pont, Jr. was born in Wilmington in 1905, the son of A. Felix, Sr. and Mary Chichester du Pont. The elder Felix was a vice president and director of the Dupont Company. In 1929, he founded the St. Andrews School in Middletown (on the board of which his children and grandchildren would later serve). Senior's father, Francis Gurney du Pont, is credited as being the creator of smokeless gunpowder, and was the one who wished to sell the company out of the family in 1902, when cousins Alfred I., Pierre S. and T. Coleman gained control.

A New Old Photo of Marshallton

Our "newest" photo of historic Marshallton

Frequent readers of the blog will know that something I really enjoy is coming across "new" or "lost" old photographs of the area. In the decade or so I've been doing this I feel that I've seen most of the historic pictures out there, but once in a while I'll find (or more likely, as in this case, someone will send me) something I've never seen before. (Of course, like the "New World", these are only new because I was unfamiliar with them.) A recent example of this is an old postcard bearing a photograph of Marshallton, which is both very similar to others we've seen and at the same time, different. As a bonus, I've been able to piece together the very sad story of the recipient of the card.

First, though, we'll start with the picture itself. Like several others we've seen, it was taken on the NW side of Red Clay Creek, near the intersection of Greenbank and Duncan/Newport Roads. The photographer was looking up Duncan Road toward where Kirkwood Highway is now. Greenbank Road runs right/left, the wall you see is the small bridge over Ham Run, and the bridge over Red Clay would be behind you. Below is a current view from approximately the same place. The house on the left in the modern view was around for the old picture, but is obscured by the now-lost house that stood on the corner. The Bellew-Cain House further up Duncan Road can be seen in the old shot (bright white in the middle), but is obscured by trees in the new. Everything else visible in each shot is not now or was not then standing.

The Eden School

Eden School marker stone

We've covered quite a few, if not most, of the old, 19th Century schools of Mill Creek Hundred. These schools sat one to a district, and the districts (as they were in 1868) can be seen in the colorful map in the upper right-hand side of the page. The first of these districts were created as a result of the Free School Act of 1829, which was the first real attempt to make education available for Delaware children. The districts were each designed to hold about 35 students, with a small schoolhouse in which they would receive their rudimentary education. The funding to build the school and pay the teacher (from what I can tell there usually was only one per school) was derived from a school tax paid by the residents of said district.

However, as you can imagine, education in Delaware and in Mill Creek Hundred specifically did not begin in 1829. Although fewer in number than in later years, there were schools prior to the Free School Act. An earlier attempt at school funding created a fund for schools for poor children, with the money coming from marriage and tavern taxes. (Maybe because marriage and drinking are the two most common causes of children??) However, this was A) underfunded, and B) parents were reluctant to send their children there, in the process admitting they were indigent. If there was such a school in MCH, I am unaware of it.

Another, more common type of school was the subscription school. It was sort of like a local private school, with families paying a monthly tuition to the teacher. In reality, I don't think it was much of a transition into the public school system, with the school tax being just a mandatory "tuition", and the school board commissioners acting as middlemen. (And it should be noted that all these were, of course, only for white children.) The only such subscription school I had been aware of was the one founded in 1808 near Old St. James Church, west of Stanton. However, the story of another old school was recently brought to my attention.