More About the McDaniel-Peach House

McDaniel-Peach House, 1910's

A while back I did a couple of posts about a pair of related houses -- the John McDaniel House and the McDaniel-Peach House. I had a few scraps of information about the John McDaniel House, but for the older McDaniel-Peach House I was left with little more than an old story and a heap of educated guesses. Recently (OK, my version of "recently" is "within the past few months"), however, I've been fortunate enough to have been contacted by several people with family connections to the McDaniel-Peach House. And while we still don't have all the answers, they were able to fill in a few blanks along the way. In the process -- in regard to the original post -- I managed to confirm one thing I wrote and refute another. And while we're here, we'll take a quick look at the industry that flourished for a time on the property.

First, to quickly get everyone up to speed and recap the original post, the McDaniel-Peach House is located just north of Paper Mill Road, about half way between North Star Road and Limestone Road in the development of Chestnut Valley. I had speculated that it was built sometime before 1777 by James McDaniel, who may have been a descendant of Bryan McDonald, an early MCH settler in the area near Brandywine Springs. The 1777 date sprung from a story related by Francis Cooch in the 1930's, and later compiled in the book Little Known History of Newark, Delaware and Its Environs. (I'm happy to say I found the original version of  Cooch's article, printed October 16, 1932.) I believe that a few of the items graciously forwarded to me to share can shed some light on the construction of this home overlooking the Pike Creek Valley.

The Guthrie Tract Along Limestone Road

1886 Dennison House, site of the 1822 Guthrie House

At first I wasn't sure what to title this post, or exactly how to approach writing it. In it, we'll look at two properties along Limestone Road that were associated with a family that's been mentioned before, but never directly featured -- the Guthries. What's a little odd about the houses we'll focus on is that neither was the family's home for the bulk of their tenure in the area. One was built by the subsequent owner of much of the original farm, and the other was built for the widow of the last Guthrie to farm in the area. What ties the sites together is the family, whose ties to the area stretch back into the mists of the 18th Century.

The Guthrie family in Mill Creek Hundred is, depending on when and where you look, either fairly easy or very frustrating to try to follow. Thankfully for the purposes of this post, the branch that resided along Limestone Road is pretty easy to trace. The other main branch in MCH lived in the Milford Crossroads area near Paper Mill Road and Possum Park Road. This is the family that has been mentioned in connection with Ebenezer Methodist Church. The two are certainly connected, most likely with the Limestone Road line breaking off during the days of the Early Republic. At some point I hope to have more information about the Milford Crossroads Guthries, and a better understanding of how the two fit together. But like with some other families, the Guthries are challenging to trace partially because of reused names. In this case, the name is Alexander.

More About William Morgan

Marriage Bond of William Morgan and Martha Williams

Last year I did a post about the William Morgan Farm, a beautiful gray stone house and barn along Doe Run Road in Corner Ketch. At the time, I lamented the fact that there was little information I could find about the farm's builder and namesake, William Morgan. Several weeks ago, though, I was contacted by Marcia Healy, a Morgan descendant who does happen to have more about him and his family. In graciously providing this information about her family (she's actually a descendant of one of William's sisters, if I understand it correctly), she managed to both confirm and refute some of the assumptions I had made about Morgan. But thanks to her, we'll now have a more complete (and accurate!) picture of who William Morgan was.

First the part I got right -- The William Morgan buried at Pencader Presbyterian Church in Glasgow is the correct one. He was born in Pencader Hundred in about 1762 to John Morgan, also likely a native of that hundred. The Morgans were probably of Welsh origin, as were many of the early 18th Century immigrants to that area (the word "Pencader" itself is a Welsh term meaning "chief chair" or "highest seat"). Although William's resting place is included in the "Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots", we haven't yet found any other concrete evidence that he served in the Revolution. However, he would have been about the right age, turning 18 in about 1780, right in the middle of the war. Since there must be some evidence somewhere to explain his inclusion on the list, I would assume that he in fact probably did serve in one of the Delaware regiments.

The Walter Craig House

Largest standing wall of the Craig Barn

For (I think) fairly obvious reasons, most of the structures profiled on this blog are, or recently were, still standing. Occasionally we'll look at a house, school, or mill that disappeared long ago, but in those cases there's usually nothing at all left of the building. In this area, that's normally because the land that the historic building stood on has since been developed. Once in a while, though, you can find the ruins of an old house in an area that hasn't been developed, if you know where to look. I didn't know where to look, but I was contacted recently by someone who does. He was kind enough to take me on a hike one morning and show me what he had found, which was A) the remains of some old structures, and B) a fascinating example of just how fast a landscape can change.

Roger Suro has been hiking the woods northwest of Corner Ketch for about thirty years now, always with an eye toward nature and history. Among the treasures he's come across on (and a good bit off) the trails in what's now a part of the White Clay Creek Preserve are the ruins of several structures just north of Thompson Station Road. The stone remains sit west of a road that used to run south from Corner Ketch Road to Thompson Station Road, crossing over Turkey Run just prior to its (the old road's) southern terminus. The road seems to have been passable by automobile as late as the 1950's, but now it remains only as a footpath, in some places only one person wide.

The Hattie Milliken House

This is a bit of an odd post for several reasons. First, the site is slightly outside of Mill Creek Hundred, but only very slightly. Second, the house in question, although built in an old style, dates only to the mid 1930's. Finally, the topic grew completely out of comments on another post. It's actually because of one comment in particular that I've decided to give the subject its own post. I thought the story was interesting enough that I didn't want this comment (which is almost a post in itself) lost in the shuffle.

It all started last November, with a question in a comment on the post about the Josiah G. Hulett House. Bill Harris asked if I knew anything about a nearby stone house that overlooked Lancaster Pike. It sits on the south side of the road, on the left just before you cross Red Clay Creek and the railroad tracks if you're coming from Centerville Road or 141. It's made of fieldstone, and at first glance looks as if it could be 18th or 19th Century. I didn't really know anything about it at first, and some quick research gave me only the barest of facts. County information stated it was built in 1936, on land purchased the previous year by Hattie and Mahlon Milliken. An anonymous commenter stated that he/she cared for the Millikens late in their lives, and that they called the house "Beech Bower".

Reverend Thomas Love

Rev. Thomas Love

Nineteenth Century Mill Creek Hundred, like the rest of the country, was a highly religious place. The smattering of small, country churches helped to define and unite the communities, and in doing so the leaders of those churches (especially ones who remained for an extended period of time) became influential and well-known in the community. In the mid-1800's, few men were more respected in this area than the Presbyterian minister Rev. Thomas Love. He preached at local churches for over 35 years, taking several struggling congregations and building them into strong churches. He also managed to be a gentleman farmer in eastern MCH for more than 55 years, joining his ministerial predecessor in leaving his name on the map even today.

Thomas Love was born on March 22, 1796 in Faggs Manor, PA (near the present-day towns of Avondale and Cochranville). His parents were James and Mary Love, and his grandfather, also Thomas Love, was a soldier in both the French and Indian War as well as the Revolution. It was this elder Thomas' grandfather who first emigrated from Ireland to America. The family was likely Scotch-Irish and devoutly Presbyterian, like the MCH residents to the south to whom the younger Thomas would ultimately minister.

Zoomable 1868 Beers Map Overlay

First of all, at the risk of disappointing anyone who misread the title the same way I did an email subject line, this post is not about Zombie Beers. For better or worse, it's just not. What it's actually about is a cool new tool, made specifically for us, by the creator of one of my other favorite resources. If you've had the ... we'll say "pleasure" ... OK, "experience"... of reading a few posts on this blog, you've no doubt seen me reference the 1849 Rea & Price Map of New Castle County. Originally, like several of the other maps, I could only find little bits and pieces of the Rea & Price map. Eventually, to my great delight, I came across a complete, color, high-quality, zoomable version of the map.

This high-quality, zoomable (meaning you can zoom in and out) version was created by Jim Meeks, and hosted at his website -- New Castle Community History and Archaeology Program (NC-CHAP). This is a fantastic website devoted to the history of the town of New Castle, the oldest town in the county named for it. Well, Jim's at it again. This time he's taken on my other favorite map, and he's made an awesome version of it specially for us.

The Joseph Ball House -- Epilogue

Ball House, July 2007

I wasn't really planning on doing a third post (after Part 1 and Part 2) about this house, but there just ended up being a few things that either I didn't get to, or that came up after the other posts were put up. Mostly, they deal with the 20th and 21st Century history of the house, which for the most part consists of conjecture and reminiscences. However, since those reminiscences we've gotten seem to have some good information, I thought I'd put this all together in one last post.

The first thing I wanted to touch on was the physical structure of the house itself. As was pointed out in Denis' comment on the first post, the house as it is now is strictly a fieldstone structure. However, until recently there was a frame addition situated on the east end of the house (the right side as you're looking at the front). I haven't seen a picture of this addition, nor do I really know any more about it, such as who might have built it and when. It was apparently removed some time between five and ten years ago, presumably for structural/safety reasons. The picture above comes from Google Street View, and shows the house with the addition removed. The picture is shown to have been taken in July 2007, which gives a timeframe for its removal. The house apparently remained open like this for several years, before modern siding was used to cover the end of the house.