USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume II > Part 12
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adopted country's cause. He left four sons, Jesse, Anthony, Samuel and David, and one daughter. Jesse Higgins married the niece of George Read the Signer, and after her early death, married Mary Witherspoon, daughter of Thomas Witherspoon, of Middletown, the treasurer of " Old Drawyers " Presbyterian church, and a nephew of David Witherspoon, a member of the Delaware council in 1762. Like Lawrence Higgins, both Dr. Sluyter Bouchelle and Thomas Witherspoon made patri- otic sacrifices in the cause of Independence. Jesse Higgins was born in 1763, and lived at " Damascus," a mill site on the Dragon, a creek in the southern part of the Hundred emptying into the Delaware. He was a man of great native ability, with highly cultivated mental powers, and a strong, impressive public speaker.
In settling the estate of Dr. Sluyter Bouchelle, his wife's grandfather, who lived on Bohemia manor, Jesse Higgins became necessarily deeply involved in litigation, and from that experience conceived a strong antagonism to the legal profession, after declaring that "an honest man could not be a good lawyer." He wrote a pamphlet entitled "Sampson against the Philistines," to prove, among other things, that all law suits and other business differences between men, could by settled by arbitration, a remedy at once cheaper, surer and quicker. The lawyers tried to suppress the pamphlet by buying up the edition, but it found a wide circulation in the Aurora, a publication edited and published at Washington. D. C., by William Duane. A letter dated Washington, November 18, 1804, from William Duane to Jesse Higgins, still preserved, furnishes a contemporary estimate of his abili- ties, which is doubly interesting as being the view of a Rodney, and unwittingly given. "I had a conversation with your ex- cellent Rodney yesterday : he said, ' there is an extraordinary man in our State; I am told he has sent several things on that subject to your paper ; his name is Jesse Higgins. When you want any discussion on that subject apply to him, for to my knowledge he has been, more than once, more than a match
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for Bayard'." Mr. Higgins was a warm Jeffersonian, and Bayard then the leading Federalist in the State. Mr. Higgins met and vanquished this redoubtable orator at a famous hust- ings duel held at Glasgow where these champions alternately took the stump.
His son Jesse entered the navy, and was with Commodore Porter on the famous Essex, and his diary yet preserved, gives an account of his life aboard that historic ship. With George Pearce as prize master and himself as second officer, an at- tempt was made to carry a prize of the Essex to Boston. The English sloop of war Atlantis, retook the prize, and sent Pearce and the young middy to St. Jones, New Brunswick, where after a few days' taste of prison-ship life, they were paroled, and in a few months exchanged. They thereupon bought a schooner for 400 pounds, and with a number of Americans as passen- gers, sailed for Boston. Young Higgins died a few weeks thereafter from pneumonia contracted during the voyage.
Lawrence Higgins' second son Anthony, became a leading farmer, and left an estate of 600 acres. Like his brother Jesse, he had great physical and intellectual powers, together with the strong will that seems to be a valuable family possession. He had a fine voice and much musical talent, which gave great pleasure to the guests who often formed hunting parties at his hospitable home. His son John, born 1794, devoted much time and labor to the organization of a public school system for Delaware City. He was a colonel in the militia, a member of the Legislature and a patriotic, public-spirited citi- zen, very highly esteemed. In 1790 Jesse Higgins, bought a farm near his father's, and later purchased a brick house, a grist mill and 100 acres of land called " Damascus." Upon the death of the senior Higgins, Jesse bought the home place, and engaged in farming and grazing cattle on a big scale. In 1822 he built a brick residence on the land near Delaware City, which from its location he named " Fairview." It after- wards came into the possession of his son Anthony Madison Higgins whose son John C. Higgins in turn inherited it.
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Anthony Madison Higgins, born in 1809 after graduating from Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, made a notable journey homeward on horseback through the then densely wooded wilderness, accompanied by his classmates Dr. L. P. Bush and three others. After an active farming life of over thirty years, he retired to enjoy for two decades longer a life of leisure and study at Linden Hill. Literature was his chief delight, and his reading was wide, while his fund of local knowledge was encyclopedic. He was truly a noble character, honest as the sun, and generous to a degree that seemed to ignore self altogether. Though abundantly fitted for author- ship, he wrote little, and that in the form of treatises upon farming and matters of general interest, for the Department of Agriculture at Washington. For political honors he cared nothing, though once consenting to an election to the Legisla- ture. He married Sarah C. Corbit, daughter of Pennel Corbit, a granddaughter of the heroic Captain William Clark, who at the battle of Monmouth led a company of seventy-five men (recruited between Cantwells Bridge [Odessa] and Smyrna) into the fight, forty-five of whom died on the field. Anthony M. Higgins died in 1887 leaving four sons and one daughter, Mary C., who married Daniel W. Corbit of Odessa. His sons were Pennel C., Thomas, Anthony and John C.
His son Anthony Higgins is well known as one of the leaders of the bar in this State, and had a very distinguished career in the U. S. Senate from 1889 to 1895. Senator Hig- gins came to be recognized as one of the foremost members of that body, splendidly renewing the prestige that her Claytons and her Bayards once won for Delaware, and it was only because of the disorganized and demoralized condition of the Republican party resulting from the effort of Mr. Addicks to reach the Senate, that he failed of re-election to the seat that he had so highly honored during his incumbency of six years.
In 1788 Jesse Higgins while in the Legislature secured the passage of an act for dyking and draining about 3000 acres of land, marsh and cripple, in the hundreds of St. Georges
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and Red Lion, resulting in the formation of a number of very fertile farms. It was on one of these reclaimed tracts that the first peaches were grown. In 1872 a steam pump throwing 25,000 gallons a minute, was installed to insure a more per- fect drainage. A high tide in 1878 swept away the embank- ments causing damage costing $37,000 to repair.
A 1000-acre tract called the " Exchange," situated on the Delaware, south of the Red Lion creek, and extending to Dragon Swamp, was surveyed to John Moll in 1675. This tract, and another known as "Lowland," also south of Red Lion, came into the possession of Hans Hanson in 1685 ; and two other escheated tracts of 700 acres in all, were patented to his son Joseph Hanson in 1701. He devised it to his two sons Peter and Joseph, who thus became the owners of nearly the whole northeast part of the Hundred. These lands came afterwards through many hands to be principally owned by the Clarks and the Reybolds. State banks, piles, wharfs and sluices protect these lands also. In 1730 George Hadley, from New York, reputed immensely wealthy, leased 200 acres of this land, and suddenly died at Dover. Rumor had it that he secreted great treasure on the land, and it is said that the entire 200 acres were turned over in the eager search by dreamers digging for the fancied wealth, which was never found to anybody's knowledge, at any rate. About 500 acres of the Hanson land came by marriage into the Clark family, and some of it is still retained by them.
Major Philip Reybold is another name prominent in the annals of the Hundred. He came of robust Dutch ancestry, and was born May 5, 1783, in Philadelphia, where his father dressed sheep for the market. Orphaned at ten, he went pluckily to work to help support his mother and sisters. Fol- lowing the craft of his father, he was accustomed to carry his mutton to market in a hand-barrow, as the great Benjamin Franklin had done in the newspaper business in the same city some seventy-five years before. Having thus acquired some means he came to Red Lion Hundred in the year 1810, bring-
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ing his family with him. He there entered into a partnership in the purchase of 1,000 acres of land with one Worknot, which resulted disastrously, and cost him every dollar he had in the world. Resolutely facing the situation, he went into the business of raising merino sheep, and then to growing and manufacturing the castor bean, both of which enterprises proved highly profitable. In 1820 he bought his Marsh Mount land, and built a large residence there, which was his home for over twenty-five years. He had some 400-odd acres in cultivation, more than fifty acres being in castor beans, which he is said to have been the first to express cold.
In 1824 the building of the Delaware and Chesapeake canal was begun, and Mr. Reybold and John C. Clark contracted to build the portion of the canal between Delaware City and St. Georges. It was a stupendous undertaking, and needed all the courage and strength of a big six-footer like himself to manage those rough and sometimes turbulent men, swarming by the hundreds over the works. He also took charge of the portion of the work that John Randel had managed, prior to his enforced relinquishment of his contract by the company's fraud, for which they afterwards answered in a judgment for the huge sum of $231,385.84, in a suit brought against them by John M. Clayton as attorney for John Randel. Mr. Rey- bold also took the contract to victual the entire construction line from Delaware City to Chesapeake City, in itself a tre- mendous piece of labor, requiring a deal of skilful managing, and it went through successfully, as did all his undertakings indeed.
He manufactured brick upon a gigantic scale, and filled big contracts for Philadelphia and New York builders, the sales amounting to millions of dollars. His peach orchards were unequaled in size and excellence, and won for him the sobriquet of " Peach King." He built a new home about 1845 which he christened " Lexington " upon the suggestion of Henry Clay whom he greatly admired, and who, accom- panied by John M. Clayton and other public personages,
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visited him there and inspected his large orchards. Mr. Rey- bold was unquestionably built upon big lines. His executive ability was very great, and he possessed to an eminent degree the wide practical wisdom which men of vast experience and superior judgment acquire of doing anything they see fit to attempt. To this day a steamer of his line, bearing his name the " Major Reybold," plies between Delaware City and Philadelphia. Himself and the faithful wife who largely contributed to her husband's success were members of the Presbyterian Church. This remarkable man died February 28, 1854, and truly in the language of the Scripture his " works live after him."
Henry Vanderberg, a large land-owner in the Hundred, called the 604 acres, "above ye bridge adjoining Dragon Swamp," granted to him in 1683, " New Utrecht," in 1684 he received from John Harins 440 acres more. Assessor John Thompson returned 127 taxable persons and estates in Red Lion Hundred, November 27, 1787. A few private schools antedated the public school system in this Hundred, among which may be named the Randel Hall and the Franklin school. Save for a few summer tomato and corn canning establishments, and a few creameries, there are no manufac- turing industries in Red Lion Hundred. Two or three small saw and grist mills were operated for a while, a number of years ago, but are now closed. From 1820 to 1832 Mr. Reybold made annually 2,500,000 bricks in this Hundred.
Quinquernium was the original Indian name of the Welsh congregation and town of St. Georges, though when it was first settled and how long that name endured, is not known. John Gill, Thomas Griffith, Jacob Van Bibber and others, owned lots there in 1730. The old house of John Sutton, who settled at St. Georges before 1750, is the most ancient in the town. In 1762 the King's highway was built through the place. In 1825 it was incorporated as a town. The opening of the Delaware and Chesapeake canal in 1829, brought valuable shipping facilities. St. Georges was re-incorporated in 1877,
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and a number of public improvements have since been made. Unfortunately the Delaware Railroad is two miles distant. Its schools, dating back to 1804, are good. A new schoolhouse costing $2500 was built some years ago. It has a population of about 600. There are two churches, the St. Georges Pres- byterian and the M. E. Church of the same name.
The Presbyterian is a very old organization, a rafter in the original church inscribed with the figures "1698," are de- clared as grounds for so early an origin. The learned divine Rev. George Foot, whose antiquarian researches make him an authority, says a split in 1742 in "Old Drawyers" was its beginning. The Rev. James C. How, its pastor from 1831 to 1855, holds to the other view. Certain it is, however, that Mrs. Magdalen Cox conveyed over a half acre of ground in the village to Isaac Cannon and seven others as trustees for the congregation, and subscribed towards a Presbyterian meeting- house there, and that in 1743 a brick church was built on the lot, and the Rev. William Robinson, the son of a wealthy Friend, called as their pastor. He was followed three years later by the Rev. Samuel Davies, born near there, who after- wards became the president of Princeton College. The Rev. John Rogers succeeded him in 1749 as minister of the "St. Georges brick meeting-house." In 1765 Mr. Rogers, who was the moderator of the first general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, was called to a church in Wall street, New York City. It thus appears that St. Georges has furnished some distinguished divines for that denomination.
A striking commentary upon the customs of the time, is afforded by the fact that at a meeting of the Sessions in 1798 " The Sessions, lamenting the wickedness and immorality aris- ing from the use of strong drink at funerals, and the prevalence of this custom," solemnly agreed to disuse and discountenance the practice. The church now (1906) has seventy-one mem- bers, and Rev. Joseph R. Milligan is their minister. There was an old Welsh Episcopal Church organized prior to 1707, about which but little is known, though Rev. Evan Evans in
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that year writes of "a Welsh settlement between New Castle and Appoquinimy, to whom Rev. George Ross used to preach." William Penn granted them twenty-five acres for a church ground. In digging the canal in 1829 several bodies were ex- humed, and a few tombstones destroyed. With the passing of these melancholy relics, naught remains but a dim memory of the little church and its God's-acre. St. George's M. E. Church was built in 1852. A $3,000 brick edifice followed in 1880, together with a commodious parsonage. Rev. J. A. Brewington is their pastor, and they now (1906) number 127 members, and their entire church property is valued at $7,200.
A Library Association was organized in 1872, by a number of leading citizens ; they have an excellent library which has proved a blessing to the community. The St. George's Ceme- tery, incorporated in 1871 holds within its inclosure many of the oldest graves in the vicinity. For many years a hotel was kept at St. Georges, but of late years there has been none. The National Lodge No. 32, I. O. O. F., was organized May 5, 1865, with eight members. In 1875 a three-story brick hall 34x52 feet was built costing $6,000. The first floor forms three stores, the second a good public hall, and the third gives quarters for the lodge which has steadily increased numeri -. cally.
Delaware City, the most important town in the Hundred, occupies part of a tract of land called " Reeden's Point," and lying between Dragon and St. Georges creeks. It was granted in 1675 to Henry Ward, an early justice of the peace, by Governor Andros. The entire body of 2000 acres vested in Henry W. Pierce, his grandson, by his daughter Margaret, and at length, about 1801, the portion comprising the present town site came to be owned by John Newbold, of New Jersey. The Newbolds thought the canal would make "Newbold's Landing," as it was at first styled, an important place ; and in 1826 John's sons Daniel and William Newbold planned a town which they named "Delaware City." Manuel Eyre, who owned other land in the Hundred, bought the Newbolds'
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interests, and began the sale of lots. By July, 1827, ten houses had been built, and a grand celebration was held with military companies participating under the command of Major John Jones. An immense table in the street a full block long, feasted the big crowds. Dr. C. H. Black was the first physician, and had a large practice, much of which was eleemosynary one would fancy from the tartly waggish in- scription on the first page of his day-book : "This book, like the head of a modern belle, contains a great quantity of mat- ter, yet when sifted through the screens of wisdom and reality, it will be found nearly all chaff. Black."
Delaware City was incorporated in 1851. Its limits were extended by the Legislature in 1871, and the town authorized to subscribe $30,000 to the stock of the Delaware and Penn- sylvania R. R. Co., which was done. It was incorporated as a city in 1875, to be controlled by a mayor and three commis- sioners. February 8, 1887, a fire destroyed eleven buildings valued at $20,000. The town lies forty miles below Philadel- phia, on the Delaware river and Delaware and Chesapeake canal, which afford excellent shipping facilities, the river be- ing open to navigation at all seasons. A steamer, the Major Reybold, runs daily to Philadelphia and intermediate points ; and during the summer months the large boat, " Thomas Clyde," stops there. The Ericsson line of steamers, via the canal, make daily trips between Philadelphia and Baltimore ; and another line between New York and Baltimore, both stop- ping at Delaware City. A branch line connects the town with the main line of the Delaware railroad, and eight daily trains are run.
Delaware City, though offering peculiar advantages for manufactories, has never been largely engaged therein. With a view to encourage the location of such industries, the legisla- ture in 1887 exempted any manufacturing company, occupy- ing five acres or less, from payment of all taxes, state, county or town, for ten years from date of location. Charles W. Pan- coast runs a canning factory in the summer and packs from
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ten to twelve thousand cases. The United States Gov- ernment has a reservation of 300 acres at Delaware City, known as Fort DuPont, which together with Fort Delaware, situated off the town, in the river, gives the town some impor- tance as a military station. Jackson Lodge No. 19, A. F. A. M., was instituted June 27, 1857, with four members, and now numbers sixty-five members. Patrick Henry Lodge No. 11, I. O. O. F., was instituted February 22, 1847, with six mem- bers, and now has eighty-five members. There is a lodge of Knights of the Golden Eagle, numbering forty members ; and one of the Modern Workmen of America, with twenty-five members ; and one lodge of the Independent Order of Hepta- sophs, numbering twenty-four members. The Junior Order of United American Mechanics have a flourishing lodge of 160 members.
The Presbyterians under Rev. Samuel Bell were the earliest denomination in Delaware City. In 1833, on a tract deeded by Manuel Eyre, they built a brick church, and Rev. James C. How became the minister for this church and St. Georges, until 1846, when they separated. September 4, 1846, the First Presbyterian Church was organized with forty-seven members, and a chapel built for a Sunday-school. Rev. William R. Durmett was their minister. For nearly fifty years, until his death, February 9, 1887, William D. Clark as superintendent, conducted a flourishing Sunday-school of 114 members, hav- ing a fine library. The church then had 137 members, though now (1906) they have but ninety-two, under the pas- torate of Rev. Greer A. Foote.
Methodist services were held in the town in 1827, and after a revival in 1834 a class was formed. In 1836 a $1,500 church was built on a lot given by Manuel Eyre. They built a new church in 1878. In 1887 they numbered 175, but now (1906) have but 100 members. Their total church property is valued at $13,000, and Rev. E. C. White is their minister. Christ's P. E. Church was organized in 1848 and an edifice costing $5,000 consecrated in 1857 by Rt. Rev. Alfred Lee. In 1870
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the building was greatly improved and a $4,000 rectory built. Their total church holdings amount to $13,600, and Rev. W. J. Hamilton is their rector. They have sixty communicants (1905). Roman Catholic services were held in Delaware City before 1852 in Mrs. O'Neill's house. A church valued at $2,- 200 was dedicated in 1853, and a much larger church has been built in recent years. The town has a fine public school. The academy projected at great cost in 1856, was very success- ful for twenty years, but was closed in 1876. The Delaware City National Bank was founded in 1865 with a capital of $60,000 and was the successor of the Old State Bank of the same name founded in 1849. John C. Clark, William J. Hur- lock, Anthony M. Higgins and a dozen others took most of the stock. Henry Cleaver is their president and Francis Mc- Intire their cashier. They report September, 1904, a surplus of $20,000 with $10,000 undivided profits.
SAINT GEORGES HUNDRED.
St. Georges creek on the north, and Appoquinimink on the south, the Delaware River on the east and Maryland on the west, form the boundaries of the largest Hundred in the County. Practically all the land is tillable, and its good natural quality has been brought by long and careful cultiva- tion to a high state of fertility and productiveness. During the Civil War, and for ten years after, when the peach was in its heyday, the Hundred farms were largely devoted to that crop, and raised in exquisite perfection, enormous quantities of all the best known varieties. After the lapse of a quarter of a century, the peach culture is again being attempted more largely, though now the careful spraying of orchards is necessary to secure a crop, and the fruit, moreover, has not yet regained that perfection of size, flavor and thorough ripening that made the " Delaware peaches " famous in by- gone years. New insect and other plant foes are present, and new conditions prevail which have not as yet been fully met, though they doubtless will be.
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On the north and south its creeks, and on the cast the Delaware river, and in the central and western portions the Delaware railroad, gives the Hundred transportation facilities. The Hundred is divided into two divisions, known as East and West St. Georges Hundred. Since 1683, when it had but fifty taxable inhabitants, it has become well settled and tilled in every part. The names of the early settlers commonly betoken their nationality ; thus, the Petersons and Andersons are Swedish ; the Alrichs, Van Dykes, Vandegrifts, Vances and Hansons, Dutch ; the Dushanes, Naudains, Bayards and Seays, French ; while the Crawfords, Taylors and Fosters are English. Many of these early names, held often by descend- ants of the first settlers, are yet found in the Hundred, though some few have quite disappeared.
The Dutch Governor, William Kieft, in 1646 made to Abraham Planck, John Andriesen and two others, the first grant of land within the Hundred, 200 acres to each, of land on South (Delaware) river near Bird (Reedy) island. Settle- ment was to be made within a year, and more land was promised if the settlers maintained their homes on the land. Only Andriesen actually settled on the land granted, and the other tracts were given to Caspar Herman and Peter Alrichs, nephew of the Vice-Director Jacob Alrichs. Peter Alrichs came over with his uncle, and entering into public affairs, became a prominent figure in early Colonial times, being Commander of the Whorekill under both the Dutch and English governments, and magistrate for many years. Some of his Dutch locations were confiscated, but from the English he received lands, part of which are still in the family's pos- session. He obtained, besides his holdings in Christiana Hundred, a big tract between St. Augustine and St. Georges creeks in the northeast part of this Hundred. He died in New Castle in 1659. Of his St. Georges Hundred lands, 1027 acres on the Delaware, between Great and St. Augustine creeks, were surveyed to his son, Hermanus, in 1682, and in 1702, to his three sons, Sigfriedus, Wessels and Jacobus, 2048
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