USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume II > Part 13
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acres extending between these two creeks, from the Delaware to the King's highway.
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In 1733 a Peter Alrichs owned 127 acres opposite Reedy Island, including Port Penn and St. Augustine Landing. A strip of this land 600 feet on the river, and 600 feet deep, lying north of Alrichs Landing, was conveyed April 16, 1774, by John and Peter Alrichs to the Port Wardens of Phila- delphia, who were authorized by the State of Pennsylvania to erect piers there for the use of ships coming up the river. These piers were demolished in 1884. The Alrichs grant in- cluded some marshy land on St. Georges creek known as " Doctor's Swamp." Dr. Thomas Spry, also Attorney Spry and the first to be admitted to practice in the courts of New Castle County, had surveyed to him a tract of 160 acres called " Doctor's Commons" lying on a now dried up creek then known as " Doctor's Run," being afterwards the property of William S. Lawrence, Z. A. Pool and others. October 15, 1675, Edmund Cantwell surveyed for Patrick Carr 200 acres of land between Arenty's (St. Augustine) and St. Georges creeks and also next to "Doctor's Swamp." This land came at last into the possession of William Hill the maternal great- grandfather of Thomas F. Dilworth who was until a few years since, the owner. The house on this place was built at a very early date, and in a way that would afford protection against the Indians. Two of the original windows have been retained in the remodeled dwelling. A vault in the basement leads by a secret passage to the river probably, though having been long walled up, it has not been explored in modern times. Nearby on the Pleasanton farm are a number of oddly-shaped holes which it is thought served as hiding places or winter quarters for the Indians.
Captain John Dilworth came from North Ireland to Amer- ica shortly before the Revolutionary. War, and as a loyalist commanded the ship which led the British fleet to Phila- delphia in 1779, and was wounded when passing Fort Mifflin. He married Peter Alrichs' daughter Hannah. His son John
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Alrichs Dilworth, was born near McDonough, and lived on the Dilworth farm near Port Penn, as also later did his son John Ducha Dilworth, who married Eliza F. Gordon, of Philadelphia. Eleven of their fourteen children grew up. Thomas F. Dilworth, the fifth son of John Ducha Dilworth, added to the homestead farm and farmed this large body of land for many years, bringing it from a run-down condition up to a notable degree of productiveness, employing the latest ideas in scientific treatment of crops. He had 200 acres in peaches ; ran a large dairy, and also packed several hundred thousand cans of vegetables and fruits yearly.
Adjoining land granted to Doctor Spry, was a 300-acre tract, granted November 5, 1675, to George Whale's widow Ann. It was called "Chelsey," and was on the south side of St. Georges creek. It was forfeited for non-settlement, and next granted in 1681 to Roeleff Andries and Jacob Aertsen. A tract on the same side of that creek adjoining the Whale land, was patented November 5, 1675, to John Ogle by Gov- ernor Andros. It was called the " Hampton," and contained 300 acres. It is now owned by the William McMullen estate.
No history of St. Georges Hundred would be complete that failed to chronicle the long and useful career, equally in pri- vate and public station of Andrew Eliason. An orphan at sixteen, without means, influence or even the help of an early schooling, he nevertheless by his own energy, brains and character, achieved signal success in life. Like Garfield, he began life on the tow-path. In 1827 he was hired by James T. Bird for two years to drive teams upon the Delaware and Chesapeake canal, then nearing completion. He was thus occupied for ten months in the year; the remaining two he spent in the schoolroom, receiving thus at sixteen his first and only educational advantages. The circumstance adds a new lustre to his very creditable career. In two years he was managing a farm, and in four more renting that farm, equipped with implements and stock bought with his hard won savings ; then presently owning his own farm, and at last
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several farms, and became, moreover, one of the most useful and highly respected citizens in his Hundred and State.
Mr. Eliason was three times in the Legislature, in 1864, 1866 and 1880, and exercised great influence upon the legis- lation enacted during these periods. He is entitled to the high honor of introducing the first bill granting married women their property rights in Delaware ; and although that bill failed of immediate passage, his efforts in its behalf in chang- ing public opinion throughout the State, were so effective that at the next session of the Legislature it was enacted into a law. To him also is largely due the credit of securing the passage of the law prohibiting the sale of intoxicants on election day. A Democrat before the Civil War, he became thereafter a Re- publican, ardently supporting the Union cause. From early life a Presbyterian, he was for many years a member of the Board of Trustees of Forest Presbyterian Church of Middle- town, and a director of the People's National Bank of Middle- town. He was born April 30, 1810, and died November 20, 1890. He represents the best type of self-made American, for truly he got his own education, won his own bank account, earned his own honors, and himself made his useful life a blessing to him and his, and to his State.
Augustine Herman, of Bohemia Manor, in 1671 claimed title to all the lands in St. Georges Hundred under his grant from Lord Baltimore. He called the Delaware tract the " St. Augustine Manor," but this assertion of an invalid title was soon dropped, and he then proceeded to get title from the Dutch authorities at New York, to 400 acres on the Delaware between the Appoquinimink and St. Augustine creeks, Cap- tain Cantwell making the surveys in 1675. In 1713 it became the property of Hans Hanson, Johannes Vanheklin, and five others, and is now owned by Mr. Bailey and E. R. Norney, Jr. (who has a very ancient fishery there), and several other persons. A tract containing 3,209 acres near Reeden island, between St. Augustine and Appoquinimink creeks on the King's road to the west, and another tract of 858 acres south
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of St. Augustine were re-surveyed in 1686 to Casparus Her- man. He, together with Captain Cantwell, had received in 1681, 200 acres of land on both sides of Drawyer's creek, "itt being for ye use of a water mill which ye Cantwell and herman intend to erect on ye sd branch for ye public good of ye Inhab- itants." It is thought the Voshell mill, built later by John Vance, is meant.
Samuel Vance in 1707 settled upon and acquired title to a large part of the land on the Delaware and on the Appo- quinimink, and this tract yet discloses that fact by its name of Vance's Neck. Zadock A. Pool, James M. Vandegrift's heirs, and others now own the land. Adjoining Taylor's Neck on the north of Drawyer's creek were 250 acres patented to Walker Rowle in 1684, and known as " Rowle's Sepulchre." Next to it is a triangular-shaped piece of land containing sixty-one acres, called the " trap," which is the old and ever still used name for Macdonough, thus named after Commo- dore Thomas Macdonough, the hero of the great naval victory over the British on Lake Champlain in 1814. A tavern was built there before the Revolution, called the " General Knox," and is now used as a farm house by William Lofland. Com- modore Macdonough was born at the trap on this small tract of ground. Zadock A. Pool now (1906) owns the "trap," and the old Macdonough family burying place. The famous Com- modore's father James died November 30, 1793, aged eighty years, and is buried in this private cemetery. The Society of the "Daughters of the Revolution " who have shown such commendable patriotism in preserving and restoring the records and memorials of the Revolution, should get title to this Macdonough burial ground, and see to the preservation of its tombs.
In 1675 Dirck Williamson, Dirck Lawrence and Claes Kars- son, first occupied the large tract of land in the northwest part of the Hundred. Their land containing about 2,742 acres was given to Edward Green in 1656 and he sold it to John Scott after whom Scott's run is called. His son Walter
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Scott in 1707 conveyed it to Matthias Van Bebber. It came after a number of transfers, into the possession of David Thomas, who also bought of the sheriff in 1753 thirteen and one-quarter acres on which was a fulling mill, near Fiddler's bridge. It is now owned by George W. Townsend. Mrs. J. W. Osbourne, great-granddaughter of David Thomas, calls her part of the tract " Idalia Manor." The Mcwhorter's also owned some of this land for many years. "High Hook," 300 acres of upland, with marsh, was patented to Jan Sieriks in 1671 by Governor Lovelace. John W. Hyatt owned it in Revolutionary times, and was captured there by the British. Garrett Otto in 1667 received 272 acres lying be- tween the two branches of Drawyer's creek. Governor Polk owned it once, and later William Polk of Odessa. The "Strawberry Hill " farm of Isaac Wood, was surveyed for Daniel Smith in 1685. The George Houston farm includes 300 acres surveyed in 1684 by Amos Nichols. The Bohemia Manor lands in Delaware held by the Hermans, are now principally owned by the estates of ex-Governor John P. Coch- ran, Manlove D. Wilson, and George F. Brady.
One of the oldest families in the Hundred is the Van Dykes. They bought land in " Dutch Neck " known as Berwick about the year 1715 ; also 200 acres on "Doctor's Swamp" in 1719, then owned by John Vanhekle, being land patented in 1675 to Ann Whale. Nicholas Van Dyke was born at " Berwick " in 1740. After being many years in the family, it is now owned by Arthur Colburn's descendants. Another old and numerous family is that of the Vandegrifts. Leonard Vande- grift, an elder in the Drawyers Presbyterian Church, in 1711, is probably the ancestor of the family in this Hundred. It is plainly of Dutch origin, and moreover, Hazard in his " Annals of Pennsylvania and Delaware," says that in 1660 Director Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam sent certain men, among them Paulus Lindert Van De Graft, an old Amsterdam burgo- master, to New Amstel to inquire into the murder of some Indians on the South river. The records show a patent from
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Thomas and William Penn of 179 acres to Leonard Vande- grift, which also recites that 600 acres in St. Georges were granted in 1708 to Jacob Vandegrift, Daniel Cormick and Albertus Vansant.
In the Register of Wills' office there is fled a will of one Jacob Vandegrift, dated April 12, 1753, whose maker, an " old man," bequeathes, among other things his silver buttons to be divided equally between his two sons Leonard and Jacob, and to his daughter Christiana Atkinson, "as much striped Hol- land as would make her a complete gown." The 179 acres patented to Leonard Vandegrift now called the Biddle's Corner farm, have been owned ever since by that family, being now in the Thomas J. Craven family, his mother being a Vande- grift. Many of the most substantial farmers in the Hundred have been, and are, members of this excellent old Dutch family.
Four hundred acres on Appoquinimink creek called " Wal- nut Landing." were conveyed June 22, 1676, by Joseph Chew to Johannes De Haes, and afterwards to Thomas Noxon. The land is now owned by Mrs. Clark. The assessor's list for 1804 shows 578 taxable persons and estates in St. Georges Hundred. The oldest road in the Hundred ran from Bohemia Manor to the Appoquinimink, and was laid out in 1660 and known as Herman's cart road. It is long since closed up. The upper and lower King's roads were laid out in 1764 ; and March 31, 1764, an Act of the General Assembly was passed regulating its location, building and care, etc. The Act forms Chapter CLXXXIV of Volume I, of the Laws of Delaware. The upper King's highway passes through Middletown, the lower through Odessa. The German Professor, Ebeling, in his "History of America " 1799 says, " A stage coach goes three times a week from Philadelphia by Wilmington and Middle- town to Warwick and Chestertown, Maryland, returning by the same route ; and there is a stage coach from the landing point on Appoquinimy creek to that on Bohemia creek."
The Levy Court was petitioned in 1785 for a road from Port Penn and one from Augustine Landing to the county
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line. The first road went past the Hickory Grove Quaker Meeting House, and the other through McDonough, the two roads finally uniting, and crossing the old Choptank road, which formed the eastern boundary of the Bohemia Manor. The grist roller mill, now operated by James T. Shallcross, was first built in 1759 by Samuel Vance. William Vande- grift erected a new mill in 1800. It is a three and one-half- story building 30x40 feet, and has a daily capacity of about forty barrels. The old Murphy mill is now run by W. H. Voshell, and has a capacity of about thirty barrels daily.
The public school system was inaugurated throughout St. George's Hundred in 1829, and a number of new school-houses built and private ones turned over to public uses. The dis- tricts since formed are so arranged as to afford to every rural community in the Hundred excellent facilities for instruction, and in the larger towns of Middletown and Odessa good acad- emies are found. Mount Pleasant is a station on the Delaware Railroad, and contains a postoffice, two shops, two stores and about two dozen houses. It lies in the northwest part of the Hundred, exactly on the water-shed between the two bays. At McDonough there were once three hotels, but at present only a postoffice, a store, two shops and a dozen houses. St. Augustine Pier has long been a summer resort and picnic ground. Its hotel was built in 1814 and enlarged in 1868, one hundred bath-houses being built and a dancing pavilion and a wharf erected. The steamer "Thomas Clyde," from Philadelphia, makes daily trips thither in summer, during which season it is largely patronized, both within the State and from cities without.
Adam Peterson in 1678 took on warrants the land forming the town site of Middletown. Eight years later he obtained a warrant for 200 acres near the headwaters of Drawyers creek, about two miles northeast of the town. This tract, or neck, was called " New Wells." In 1742 the property was divided between his two sons Adam and Andrew and a daughter Hermania, who married a Van Bibber. David Witherspoon
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married Adam Peterson's widow and settled upon the King's highway where it passes through the center of what is now the town of Middletown. He built there in 1761 the old tavern, and ran it till his death two years later. While keep- ing this old inn, Witherspoon killed James Knight, a noto- rious duelist. Knight entered the bar-room when drunk and asked for liquor, and being refused drew his pistol and several times sought to kill Witherspoon but his pistol missed fire, whereupon Witherspoon took down a horse-pistol from above the bar and shot Knight fatally. Pursuant to a petition in 1761 to the Court at New Castle, signed by David Wither- spoon, Isaac VanDyke, Jacob Peterson, Richard Cantwell and twenty-five more leading land-owners, a road was laid out from the Trap past Vance's mill. Again, in 1771, the owner of the Noxontown grist mill on the Appoquinimink asked that "a road to Middletown" which Benjamin Noxon had closed be reopened. This petition of Jonas Preston is the first official recognition of Middletown on record.
Thomas Witherspoon, nephew of David Witherspoon, re- ceived his uncle's estate, and ran the old Peterson tannery at Middletown. He married Susanna, the daughter of Dr. Sluy- ter Bouchell, who lived at Middletown, and owned a great part of the neighboring land. In 1790 the Doctor sold the Thomas Witherspoon land to Jesse Higgins, then living at " Damascus." There were only a few houses at the Middle- town cross-roads in 1816, but by 1850 the inhabitants num- bered 368, and to-day it is the largest town in the Hundred. Robert A. Cochran bought and improved the Middletown hotel in 1837, and it is now owned by his daughter, Mrs. William A. Comegys. After 1855 the town grew fast, being incorporated in 1861 with five commissioners having the usual powers of making municipal laws, improvements, etc. A severe fire in 1882 destroyed the carriage shops of J. M. Cox & Bro., the new P. E. church and other buildings, and but for the coming of five fire-engines from Wilmington might have wiped the town out.
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Middletown has now about, 1800 inhabitants. Ebeling says: " Middletown, a little village of about 120 inhabitants, lies on an arm of the Appoquinimink, which here turns several mills. The people are Presbyterians." It is an important station on the Delaware Railroad, and is also connected by trolley with Odessa. It has a system of water works and an electric light plant, both owned by the town. It is the center of an exceed- ingly fertile and highly cultivated farming district. Farms for miles around were once valued, with their fine barns and handsome residences, at $100 an acre, and will at no very distant day again reach that figure. There are several manu- facturing industries. Joseph C. Parker & Son Co. is an incor- porated company engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of harness goods and in the sale of carriages. W. Reese Parker is president and Joseph C. Parker treasurer and secretary. They have a capital of $75,000, and manufacture $100,000 worth of harness goods yearly, and do a carriage business of the same amount. They employ twenty-five men. The Parker & Son Co.'s harness has won a high reputation for superior quality and honest workmanship, which explains the handsome growth that the business has shown. Twenty-five years ago Mr. Joseph C. Parker began manufacturing harness in a small way, and has seen his business, which is still expand- ing, reach its present magnitude.
Mr. J. Franklin Diggs is engaged in manufacturing shirts, and employs about twenty-five persons. There are two cream- eries. The Farmers' Creamery, established two years ago, is a co-operative enterprise of a number of farmers in the neigh- borhood, and is a growing business. The older and larger creamery is that known as the Brady Creamery, and was established in 1878 by Charles H. Cook and Frederick Brady. They have a capital of $30,000, and do a yearly business of $150,000. Mr. Fred. Brady is the manager of the Middletown creamery and of the fourteen branches distributed throughout the county. They employ thirty-five men. Their entire plant at Middletown was burned August 16, 1906, but they
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are about to rebuild upon a much larger scale, and purpose adding a ten-ton ice plant capable of supplying the town and vicinity with artificial ice, as well as cooling their cream and butter. Their building is to be stone and concrete throughout, with massive walls and partitions, and as near fire-proof as modern science can make it.
J. B. Baker has a corn-canning factory where he yearly packs about 33,000 cases of canned corn, employing during the season of about five weeks one hundred persons. He uses the brand which his father, "G. W. Baker," made famous forty years ago at his establishment in Aberdeen, Maryland. The firm of Preston Brothers canned this year 12,000 cases of tomatoes, employing about forty persons. They expect to increase their output next season. Middletown is a good trade center, and has a number of excellent stores and shops, fifty-two in all. There are two large hotels. The upper one on the old Witherspoon Inn site, is kept by John P. McIntyre, the National Hotel, facing the railroad, is owned and kept by Walter W. Aiken. Both are fine, large hotels.
The Middletown Academy was at first a private school, but in 1876 became a graded public school, one of the best in the State. It is now highly successful, and under the skillful direction of the talented principal, Miss Ida V. Howell, and an able corps of teachers, has even eclipsed its previous creditable record under Prof. A. S. Wright and family. The Academy is graded into four departments and employs five teachers. The present enrollment is one hundred and eighty to two hundred scholars. The high character of the Acad- emy's instruction since Miss Howell assumed its management, is attracting an increasing number of pupils outside of Middle- town school district. The Academy was erected from the pro- ceeds of a lottery authorized by an Act of the Assembly in 1824. The lottery was sold to three persons for $10,000, and the building, substantial brick of two stories, built at a total cost of $6,150 for ground, edifice and bell. For fifty years it was managed as a private institution under a succession of
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principals, and upon its devotion to public uses, additional buildings were added.
The people of Middletown and vicinage worshiped at Old Drawyers prior to 1742. The historic division between the Old and New Schools, occurring in that year, the adherents of the New School withdrew from Old Drawyers, and formed the St. George's and Forest congregations, which finally united in one church, the Forest, whose edifice, built in 1751, was one mile north of Middletown. Rev. Dr. John Rodgers was their pastor. He had been a chaplain in Heath's Brigade in the Revolutionary War. Under Rev. Cheally, because of scandals affecting his private character, their numbers fell away, and the glebe was lost. Falling into decay the old church was removed in 18-10, and in 1851, through the efforts of the Rev. Dr. Handy, the present handsome structure of brick was built in Middletown. A parsonage was erected in 1857. The church has been several times improved, once at a cost of $8,000. A large town clock has just been placed in its tower, the gift of Mrs. Frances E. Comegys, in memory of her father, Robert A. Cochran. It cost $500, and its bell, striking the hours, is audible for a mile or more around.
The church now numbers 141 members, under the pastoral charge of Rev. Frank H. Moore, D. D., who has been very generous in aiding the church in various ways. The present edifice is built upon the old Peterson private burying ground, and four tombs yet remain in the front of the church, those of David Witherspoon ; Andrew Peterson and his wife; Dr. Jacob Peterson and a daughter of Dr. Peterson. The Bethesda M. E. church was organized in 1822. Their present brick building, the third, was put up in 1880, and seats about 500 people in its fine auditorium. Among its notable pastors may be named the sixty-year veteran, Rev. Benjamin F. Price, lately deceased, Rev. Lucius C. Matlack, the scholarly gentleman, and the lamented Rev. Nicholas M. Browne. The church now has 314 members, with a flourishing Sunday- school of 225 scholars, under the faithful superintendency of
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Alfred G. Cox, who has held that position for about twenty- two years. Rev. Alberi W. Lightbourne is their minister (1906). St. Joseph's Catholic Church was dedicated in 1884 by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Becker, when Father Gaffney was the pastor of this and the Bohemia Manor church. St. Joseph's Church has 200 communicants, and Father Crowley is in charge of the two churches.
St. Anne's P. E. Church, one of the pioneer churches in Delaware, will be found described in the Chapter on Religious Denominations. Among the carly rectors were Revs. Sewell, Crawford, Ross, father of George Ross, the Signer, Merry, Pugh and Reading. The last was a loyalist. and resigned shortly before the breach with the mother country in 1776. He died in 1778, and his tomb near the entrance to the old St. Anne's church, is the oldest in the churchyard, save that of Hester Van Bebber, 1765. Rev. William J. Wilkie was rector for eleven years, and was greatly beloved by all in the com- munity. By reason of his wife's health he resigned in 1905, and was succeeded by Rev. A. E. Clay. The church now numbers 194 communicants. There are two colored churches in Middletown. The M. E. church, which is under the white bishops, has 120 members and a church building valued at $2,750, with a parsonage worth $1,200. Rev. W. E. Waters is their pastor. The other colored church belongs to the old- est and largest colored denomination in the United States, viz., the African Methodist Episcopal Church. They have a total membership of 800,000, and in the State of Delaware, chiefly in the two lower counties, thirty-five churches and 19,949 members. These churches are governed by bishops of their own race, chosen by themselves, for many reasons the better system, both for the church and the race which is its beneficiary. This Middletown church has (1906) 125 mem- bers, and a building valued at $1,200. It was organized twenty-five years ago, and is prospering.
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