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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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HISTORY
OF THE
STATE OF DELAWARE
V.1
BY HENRY C. CONRAD
FROM THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS TO THE YEAR 1907
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOLUME I
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 1908
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ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME I.
PAGE
MAP OF DELAWARE .
Frontispiece
PORTRAIT OF AUTHOR
Frontispiece
PORTRAIT OF LORD DELAWARE
9
PORTRAIT OF DAVID PIETERSON DE VRIES ."
12
LANDING PLACE OF FIRST SETTLERS, LEWES
15
LANDING PLACE OF FIRST SWEDISH SETTLERS
20
PORTRAIT OF GOVERNOR PETER STUYVESANT.
39
PORTRAIT OF ANNEKE BAYARD STUYVESANT .
39
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM PENN
57
PORTRAIT OF THOMAS MCKEAN
101
VIEWS AT COOCH'S BRIDGE .
131
RATIFICATION OF U. S. CONSTITUTION
154
PORTRAIT OF HENRY LATIMER
157
PORTRAIT OF COLONEL SAMUEL B. DAVIS
165
PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE THOMAS MACDONOUGH.
169
MEDAL OF COMMODORE JACOB JONES
173
PORTRAIT OF ADMIRAL S. F. DUPONT
218
PORTRAIT OF ELI SAULSBURY .
225
PORTRAIT OF J. FRANK ALLEE
250
COURT HOUSE AT NEW CASTLE
286
NEW CASTLE COUNTY ALMSHOUSE
289
STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE .
291
WHIPPING-POST AND PILLORY, NEW CASTLE
294
WILMINGTON CITY HALL . 303
WILMINGTON POSTOFFICE (OLD) 303
WILMINGTON POSTOFFICE ( NEW) .
305
BRIDGE OVER BRANDYWINE .
307
REV. ERISCUS TOBIAS BIORCK AND HIS CHURCH 309
FIRST FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE, WILMINGTON . 311
ASBURY M. E. CHURCH, WILMINGTON 313
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WILMINGTON .
313
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM A. REYNOLDS 320 WILMINGTON HIGH SCHOOL . 327 PORTRAIT OF HENRY G. BANNING 344
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE W. BUSH 361
PORTRAIT OF E. TATNALL WARNER .
364
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE G. LOBDELL
374
PORTRAIT OF PETER J. FORD
388
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
PAGE
NAME AND DIMENSIONS .
1
THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES .
1
THE GEOLOGY OF THE STATE .
2
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE STATE
4
THE TIDAL STREAMS OF THE STATE
7
8
THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS, 1609 TO 1774 .
9
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 1774 TO 1783
DELAWARE AS A STATE, 1776 TO 1865 . 150
DELAWARE SINCE THE CIVIL WAR, 1865 TO 1907
220
DELAWARE CIVIL LIST
255
NEW CASTLE COUNTY, GENERAL HISTORY
286
CITY OF WILMINGTON, GENERAL HISTORY .
CHURCHES
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
313
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
323
FIRE DEPARTMENT
328
FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES 335
¥
GAS COMPANIES
336
ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANIES 337
STREET RAILWAYS . 338
BANKING INSTITUTIONS 342
BANKERS AND BROKERS
355
COMMERCIAL AFFAIRS
358
BOARD OF TRADE
365
PUBLIC PARKS .
365
SHIP AND CAR BUILDING. 368
MACHINE COMPANIES .
375
IRON AND STEEL COMPANIES
378
66
MOROCCO AND LEATHER INDUSTRIES
383
66
CARRIAGE BUILDING
393
---
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299
309
CANALS AND WATERWAYS
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE.
NAME AND DIMENSIONS.
WITH an extreme length from north to south of ninety-six miles, and a breadth varying from thirty-five miles at the widest part to less than ten at the narrowest, the territory of the State of Delaware comprises a total of 2,120 square miles, or 1,356,800 acres, bordered by Pennsylvania on the north. by Maryland on the west and south, and the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware bay and river on the east. The State is divided into three counties-New Castle, Kent and Sussex-each ex- tending from its eastern to its western boundary, and all with township subdivisions called " Hundreds." Delaware derives its name from that of its bordering river and bay which, al- though previously discovered by Hudson while in the service of the Dutch, received the final name of Delaware in honor of Lord De La Warr (Sir Thomas West) wlio, it is claimed, dis- covered the bay in 1610 while on his voyage to Virginia, of which colony he was the first governor.
THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES.
The native red men found in the State belonged to the general family known as the Lenni-Lenape or Delawares, who comprised in all about forty tribes and were so ancient and extended in range as to liave been acknowledged by other tribes as the "original people," and bore the familiar name of the "Grandfathers" of the red men. Of this great Indian family the tribe of Nanticokes, or "Tide-water people " occu- pied the lower part of Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland, and were distinctively a fishing and trapping peo-
(1)
2
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
ple rather than great hunters or warriors. Among the hills of northern Delaware dwelt kindred tribes of the same great race who were proud to own as their chief the renowned and noble Tamanand, whose most permanent residence is believed to have been in the northerly vicinity of Wilmington. Al- though the first European settlement in lower Delaware was cut off by the savages in revenge for the white man's hasty violence, subsequent dealings with the red men were peaceable and prosperous. The Swedes who settled here seven years after the massacre of the De Vries colony, anticipated Penn's just and kind treatment of the Indians and lived ever in un- broken friendship with them. All the tribes disappeared from the State during the first half of the last century, the last remnant of the Nanticokes having left the neighborhood of Laurel, in Sussex County, in the spring of 1748.
THE GEOLOGY OF THE STATE.
The geology of the State comprises Archean, Cretaceous, Tertiary and Quaternary formations with their respective divisions, the oldest Archean rocks in a general way occupy- ing all that portion of the State which lies north and west of the line of the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Rail- road, where they are overthrown and tilted in such exposed confusion as to afford an interesting field for the studious geologist. This area includes, with other rocks, hornblende and feldspar, as well as deposits of kaolin which have been utilized with good results, while throughout half of the Archean area rocks of great practical value abound, including the celebrated Brandywine granite, a beautiful dark blue stone of great density and firmness, of which vast quantities con- tinue to be quarried for use and export at Bellevue, near the Delaware, and in the vicinity of Wilmington. Immediately south of the Archean region and extending across the State the Cretaceous formation affords inexhaustible masses of plastic clay suitable for terra-cotta manufactures. This belt also contains marl beds of the several kinds, which although
3
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
practically limited to St. George's Hundred, are found there in quality and quantity promising extensive future means for the durable fertilization of the soil. South of the Cretaceous area the whole State is underlaid by the 'Tertiary of both the Miocene and Pliocene age, of which the northern portion, and including all of Kent County, is underlaid by a drab or white clay deposit of highly plastic quality, which in places abounds in fossils, but which, in its purer forms is probably well suited to the potter's varied uses ; while further south ward and under- lying the whole of Sussex County is a later deposit of the Tertiary with an uppermost layer of blue clay and an under deposit of pure white glass sand of good quality which would be of much practical value were it less deeply overlaid with gravel and loam.
Iron-ore beds have long been known to exist in New Castle and Sussex Counties, official records in the former showing references to them as early as 1661. At Iron and Chestnut Hills, abrupt elevations along the northwestern boundary of the State, mining and smelting operations were begun early in the eighteenth century and at various times have since been extensively prosecuted. As early as 1725 a forge and furnace were built at Iron Hill, which after being operated at intervals, with changes of ownership, came at length, with ad- jacent property, into possession of the proprietors of the Prin- cipio Furnace beyond the State's border in Maryland, by whom they were operated for many years.
These ores are known as the "dome" variety, while bog ores of the "layer " kind abound in Sussex County near the sources of the stream flowing westwardly into the Chesapeake bay. From these large quantities of iron were produced and shipped to England prior to the war of the Revolution. Operations were arrested by the exigencies of that exhausting contest but were resumed near the beginning of the last century. In recent years nothing has been done with these ores with the decline of the visible supply, but with new dis- coveries there will probably be a resumption of operations as well as of the fair profit which formerly accrued to the State.
4
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
Overlying the several geological formations of Delaware and forming its soil is a broad surface deposit of sand, loamy gravel and elay which in New Castle County generally em- braees two layers, an upper firm elay ealled Philadelphia brick clay, and an under one of red sand and gravel. The upper layer varies from the stiffness of pure briek clay to a friable loam of great fertility which generally characterizes the cultivated surface of New Castle County.
In Kent County the surface layer of briek elay becomes more sandy in character, assuming the general nature of a sandy loam widely celebrated as the rich peach land of that region. Continuing southward, the two Quaternary gravels merge into a single deposit of a mingled sand, gravel and loamy nature which marks the soil of Southern Kent and all of that of Sussex County.
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE STATE.
The topography of Delaware may be briefly said to embrace two quite unequal areas, divided by a line following the gen- eral course of White Clay and Christiana ereeks. Northward of these winding streams long, bold hills and pasture valleys varied with wooded slopes and rocky knolls extend in pietur- esque suecession to the northern cireular boundary. South- ward of this small hilly seetion, embracing two-thirds of New Castle County and all of Kent and Sussex, the country is uni- formly level or gently undulating, nowhere elevated more than seventy feet, and attaining that altitude only on the sandy ridge of table-land passing north and south through the State. In this table-land, the water-shed of the peninsula between the two bays, most of the rivers and streams take their rise and flow eastwardly into the Delaware and west- wardly into the Chesapeake. These streams are fed by swamps and tributary brooks, and, deepening in their course to the sea on either hand, become navigable for small eraft in many places far enough inland to afford cheap and easy transportation of farm products. The land being free from
1
5
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
stones and other rugged obstacles, and the soil of a sandy nature, easily tilled, the cheap farms obtainable in the two lower counties offer rare inducements to cultivaters of small means. Indeed with a warm, quick and kindly soil adapted to every product of the temperate zone and with a climate softened by the soft-water influences of the bays on either hand, which insure early springs, this whole region, with the eastern shore of Maryland, forms a central peninsula which for all the purposes of agriculture and especially for its finer products with reference to both their ready production and consumption, affords greater facilities perhaps than those of any other equal area on the Continent.
While yielding excellent crops of wheat, corn and other products of ordinary farming, the position of this region be- tween the great markets of Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well as the conditions of its climate and soil, renders it pecu- liarly adapted to trucking and fruit growing on a large scale. Its early vegetables, its fresh strawberries and other luxuries and table delicacies find ready sale in all the surrounding cities. It has long been famous as the great peach region of the country, and it is equally noted for the quality and abund- ance of the oysters and fish and other products of the numer- ous tidal creeks and the estuaries, inlets and sheltered coves indenting its shores.
In the northerly portion of this peninsular region agricul- ture of a more general character is pursued, and many noble farms, notably in the latitude of Middletown and Delaware City, afford commendable examples of high-class farming. Southward of this vicinity the land steadily grows more level and sandy to the southern boundary of the State which runs through the noted Cypress Swamp, twelve miles long and six wide, and abounds in evergreen shrubbery and a tangled growth of trees, mostly cypress, affording a cover for game of all kinds.
The immediate bay coast is low and marshy, while further south the Atlantic coast is marked with sand beaches which
6
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
frequently enclose shallow bays or lagoons. The largest of these, Rehoboth and Indian river bays, have each a surface of twenty-five square miles with a depth of four or five feet in the latter, while the former admits vessels of six feet draft. The other topographical division is the small remainder of the State spanned by the area of its northern boundary and extending southward to the creeks Christiana and White Clay, before named as separating it from the greater alluvial region of the State below. This hilly section is free from swamps and alluvial levels, and much diversified in appearance and products. Rolling in surface and well watered by springs and streams its productive agriculture and substantial farm- buildings, as well as its landscapes and people, are similar to those of the adjoining Pennsylvania Counties of Delaware and Chester, so justly celebrated for thrifty and intelligent husbandry.
Hardly less famous is this region for its pastoral sylvan and romantic scenery. The wooded highlands skirting the Delaware river in the northeast afford openings of cultured fields alternating with luxuriant groves and grassy slopes so charming as to have long ago become the chosen abode of successful artists and other lovers of the beautiful. Further inland the country is moulded in longer undulations, and while in the absence of mountains the State has scarcely the element of grandeur in its scenery, its landscapes near the westerly end of its circular northern boundary are both nobly and quaintly picturesque.
Majestic elevations at places reaching a height of over 500 feet and crowned with stately woods, terminate graceful up- ward slopes checkered with groves, grain fields and orchards, wherein nestle farm-houses overlooking sunny brooks meander- ing through valleys dotted with brushy copse and pasturing cattle, altogether forming pictures of both near and distant beauty. This section embraces the somewhat noted Hockessin valley, and the charming features of the neighborhood have been vividly depicted in the graceful verse of Bayard Taylor,
1
7
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
whose residence was a few miles distant. This highland quarter is crossed and watered by a succession of swiftly flowing streams with rocky beds and wooded banks. Mill and Pike creeks, White and Red Clay creeks and other streams, besides the historic Brandywine-which with lesser runs and rills afford views of picturesque charm, while the larger streams in addition afford water-power for numerous manufacturing establishments on their banks. Further east, ward are other streams with rugged beds and romantic features, among which are Naamans and Quarryville creeks entering the Delaware in the Northeasterly corner of the State, and the rocky Shellpot with its rustic branches, enter- ing the Brandywine at Wilmington.
THE TIDAL, STREAMS OF THE STATE.
The largest stream in the State aside from the Delaware river is its tributary, the Christiana, which is navigable for vessels of eighteen feet to central Wilmington, three miles, and for smaller vessels three miles further to Newport, while still lesser craft ascend about four miles beyond to the head of tide at Christiana, from which place flour was once largely shipped by water, while Newport was an ancient and extensive ship- ping port for breadstuffs hauled from distant inland mills.
The Brandywine, from its entrance into the Christiana, is navigable for about two miles for sloops and schooners, by means of which extensive foreign and domestic shipments used to be made of breadstuffs manufactured at the large flouring mills at the head of tide, which were of world-wide reputation and of such vital importance that Washington ordered the removal of their stones to prevent grinding flour for the supply of the British army while occupying Philadel- phia during the war of the Revolution.
Appoquinimink creek is navigable for about seven miles from the Delaware, steamboats ascending as far as Odessa, formerly Cantwell's Bridge, which was once the shipping centre of a large and productive farming country whose pro-
.
8
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
ducts have since found speedier transit by rail. Duck Creek, which divides New Castle and Kent Counties, is navigable to Smyrna, in all about eight miles, reaching the bay through Thoroughfare channel. Blackbird, Little Duck, Murderkill and Broadkiln Creeks are each navigable for small craft for various distances not exceeding ten miles. Mispillion Creek admits steamboats, schooners, and large sloops ten or twelve miles to Milford, while St. Jones Creek is navigable for steam- boats and vessels of two hundred tonnage through its tortuous course of twelve miles to Dover the capital of the State. Other streams flowing into the bay, some of them more or less navig- able, are Cedar, Drapers, Slaughters, Primehook, and Lewes Creeks.
Line, Middle, Herring, and Guinea Creeks flow into Reho- both bay, Pepper, Vine and White into Indian river and bay, and many other small streams, as well as ponds, marshes and other water deposits take an easterly course more or less di- rectly to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic, while water com- munication from Seaford and other points is found through the Nanticoke River and its tributaries westwardly into the Chesapeake Bay. The Pocomoke River rising in the State flows southward into Cypress Swamp, while further north the Wicomico in Sussex County, the Chester, Choptank and Marshy Hope in Kent, and Back Creek, the Bohemia and Sassafras Rivers in New Castle, all have their source in the sandy, swampy table-land along the western boundary of Delaware, most of which streams are navigable far enough inland to afford additional facilities for the transportation of Delaware products.
CANALS.
The waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays are con- nected by a capacious canal extending from Delaware City on the river Delaware to Chesapeake City on Back Creek, a navig- able branch of Elk river flowing into Chesapeake bay, in Maryland. The canal is thirteen and a half miles long,
LORD DELAWARE.
9
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE STATE.
sixty-six feet wide at the top and ten feet deep, allowing the passage of large coasting vessels and steamers from bay to bay. Through the highest dividing ridge which is four miles wide there is a cut of ninety feet, and the canal is provided with two tide and two left locks. The work was completed in 1828 at a total cost of $2,250,000, and has been of great value in enlarging the practical outlet of both States to the markets of the large cities. Its gross annual receipts are about $160,000. There is a prospect that the work will soon be so enlarged as to admit the passage of ocean ships of large dimensions.
An inland water-way has been begun to extend seventy-five miles from Lewes to Chincoteague Bay on the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, which by producing a current through connecting waters is expected, besides promoting navigation, to make available seventy five square miles of oyster grounds, capable of adding to the present capacity of the oyster plant products estimated now to be worth $20,000,- 000. As connected with the promotion of commercial naviga- tion the State has a friendly interest in the Government Breakwater and accompanying works on the coast near Lewes, where vast quantities of stone from Delaware quarries and large sums of money continue to be employed in perfecting studied plans for the protection of life and property.
THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
It is claimed that so far back as 1524 Verrazano, the Flor- entine, touched land somewhere about the latitude of Wil- mington, but this is a matter of antiquarian rather than his- torical interest. More to the purpose is it that Hudson in 1609 entered Delaware Bay, although the claim of discovery was afterwards made for Lord De la Warr. Hudson's reports of the New World led the Amsterdam merchants to hope for a rich trade, although the agricultural possibilities of the country were scarcely noticed.
This is not surprising. A trading post can be defended by a few armed men, while a sloop-of-war in the offing may warn
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COL C
10
GENERAL, HISTORY OF THE STATE.
pirates to keep their distance. Settlers who press their way inward beyond the sight of the coast, beyond the signals of friendly ships, incur greater risks than the merchants on the shore. Retreat is practically impossible, the perils from the savages increase, and the dangers from wild beasts become more serious with every league.
At all events merchants and speculators in London and Amsterdam expected to draw great stores of wealth from across the ocean. Sailors knew there was a large river which the Indians called Poutaxat, Chichohockee, Mariskitten, Moherish- kitten and Lenape Whittuck; Dutch writers spoke of the Nassau River, Prince Hendrick's River, Charles River, and the Zuydt or South River; New Swedeland Stream tells of another origin, and Arasapha, once famous, is as dead as any of Jefferson's pet names for Western States. Newport and Godyn's Bay are also known to antiquaries, but the English tongue is in the ascendant, the bay and river bear the name of Delaware, and that name will apparently remain.
The London and Plymouth Companies enjoyed the favor of King James the First, and received large grants of American territory. North Virginia extended from the forty-first to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; South Virginia from the thirty-fourth to the thirty-eighth degree. The Plymouth Company was lord of North Virginia, the London Company of South Virginia, but the intervening district, from the thirty-eighth to the forty-first degree, was open to settlement by both companies, provided neither came within one hun- dred miles of the other. In other words, all of Delaware and Maryland, the main part of Pennsylvania, nearly all of New Jersey, Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and the greater part of Long Island, was common ground for the two English cor- porations. As maps were poor, boundaries uncertain and In- dians still more uncertain, this opened all sorts of possibilities to commerce and combat. The royal grants were made before anybody in England knew that the Delaware River existed, and those who know anything about the wranglings of mod-
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