USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume II > Part 17
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Until 1873, the building now used as a State house retained its double function of court house and State house. The land
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originally belonged to the county. The county had built the original building, but the State defrayed most of the expense of additions and repairs. In 1795 the Legislature authorized an appropriation for a copper roof, the completion of the battlements, the erection of stone steps and the painting of the building, at a total cost of $1,066.67. In 1835 it furnished the money for enlarging the Assembly chambers and for pro- viding a library room. In 1836 it authorized the construc- tion of a two-story and basement addition. These improve- ments provided an Executive chamber, a secretary's office and library on the lower floor, committee rooms on the upper floor, and an enlargement in the representative hall. In 1873 negotiations were entered into between the Legislature and the Levy Court of Kent County for the purchase of the building by the State. The Levy Court demanded $15,000.00, and by an act of April 3, 1873, the Legislature provided for the pur- chase at that price. The preamble to this act recited the joint-ownership of the property by the county and state, that the title to the building was in trustees, all of whom were dead, and that at that time (1873) the title was in the heir of the survivor.
Jacob Stout was the surviving trustee. The estate of a trustee descends according to the law of primogeniture. At the time of this act, therefore, the legal title was in Henry Stout, eldest son of Jacob Stout. The heir of the survivor being a non-resident, it was enacted that the Attorney-General take the necessary steps, in the Court of Chancery, for a decree for the appointment of a trustee in lieu of the non-resident trustee. All the necessary steps were taken to carry out the bargain and sale of the building, and on April 30, 1873, the title was conveyed by the Register in Chancery, in accordance with a decree to that effect, to Edward Ridgely, in whom it was vested until the time of his death. From the date of this conveyance the Kent County court house became the State house.
In June of the same year, the Levy Court began the con-
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sideration of plans for the construction of a new court house. Two lots were purchased on the southeast corner of the inter- section of Main or State street and the Public Square, the east lot from Tobias B. Merritt, and the west lot from Curtis S. Watson. Conveyance of these lots was made to Edward Ridgley, trustee. By October, 1874, the new court house was completed, though not used until the following term of court, when Chief-Justice Gilphin presided over the first court held in the new building.
The court house thus finally returned to the spot in which it was originally intended to stand when Penn gave his in- structions in 1683. The first floor of the building was at first used for office purposes, mostly by lawyers, but is now prac- tically unoccupied. On the second floor is the court room proper, and the third floor was originally intended as a town hall and place for the assembling of conventions. The incon- venience of ascending so long a stairway, and the fear that the place was not as safe as it should be, combined to induce its abandonment as a hall. This particular function of the court house has been supplied by the new town hall of Dover erected in 1904.
It remains to trace the subsequent history of the old court house. In 1873, as has been already stated, this building became the State House. By the same act which provided for the purchase of the old court house by the State, it was provided that the building should be rearranged. Commis- sioners were appointed to superintend the work, and by August, 1874, it was completed at a cost of about eight thousand dollars. The refurnishing was finished by Decem- ber of the same year, and in January, 1875, Governor Cochran was inaugurated in the renovated building amid great display.
According to the rearrangement of the building, the Gov- ernor's office was in the north part of the building, the Secre- tary of State's office in the south part, and the offices of the State Treasurer and Auditor of Accounts were on the right and left of the main entrance. The second floor was devoted
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to the purposes of the Assembly, the House occupying the north side and the Senate the hall on the south side. The rear of the building was devoted to the State Library.
Starting in the year 1895, a series of improvements to the State house was begun, which resulted in an enlargement and complete rearrangement of the building. By an act of Legis- lature in 1895, a committee was appointed to superintend the construction of an addition to the State Library, by extending the east wing of the building forty feet, at a cost not exceed- ing $10,000. This extension was finished by the following session of the Legislature, and in 1897 a committee was ap- pointed "to make necessary changes, improvements and alterations in the interior arrangement of the State house and repairs to the same," at a cost not exceeding $8,000. An ad- ditional appropriation of $4,467.19 was authorized by act of March 10, 1898, for the purpose of paying the balance due on this work. In the same year provision was made for repair- ing the roof, repainting the building, and refurnishing its different offices and halls, at a cost not exceeding $3,000.
When completed, an act was passed, June 1, 1898, " assign- ing the rooms in the State house to certain public officers." By this act the second and third floors were reserved for the exclusive use of the Legislature, the two rooms at the north- west corner for the Governor, the room on the north side ad- joining the Governor's offices to the State Treasurer, the three rooms and fire-proof vault at the southwest corner to the Sec- retary of State, the room on the south side adjoining the offices of Secretary of State to the Auditor of Accounts, the next room on the south side adjoining the office of Auditor of Accounts, to the Judiciary of the State, the room on the south side ad- joining the Judiciary Chamber, on the east to the State Librarian, and the east wing, as extended, to the State Library. At the present writing this assignment of rooms remains unchanged.
Originally the county goal and county offices were located in the same building. This building was made of brick,
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about twenty by thirty-six feet, and stood on lot No. 33 of the town plot made in 1740, the site of the present county building.
By Act of Assembly passed in 25 George II (1753), recital is made of the fact that the "inhabitants of Kent County are raising and levying a sum of money for the erecting a new prison in the town of Dover, in the said county, and that the lot whereon the old goal now stands, is not conveniently situ- ated for such purpose," and commissioners were appointed to sell the goal and goal lot. The goal itself was, it appears, never sold, for it was a part of the office building. But the goal lot was sold to Nicholas Ridgely, November 15, 1754, and is still owned by his heirs. By 1775 the people of the county had raised enough money to buy lot No. 27 for the site of their new goal, and on this lot the goal was erected and stands to-day. The date of the construction of the building is unknown. Its material was brick, in size about forty by fifty feet, and it stood partly on the site of the rear of the present stone part of the goal building. On the night of October 27, 1827, one William Greenly, serving sentence for horse-stealing, set fire to the prison. Pending its repair, the prisoners were removed to the old goal building, that is, to the county office building, in which were still the old cells, relics of the time when the building was a goal as well.
About 1870 agitation for a new goal was begun, and in the next year the Levy Court appointed a committee to devise plans for its construction. The work was completed in May, 1872, at a cost of $40,241.90. The goal proper was built of stone, and comprises the north section of the building, while the south section was built of brick and serves as a residence for the sheriff of the county.
The county office building remains to-day where it was originally built, namely, on lot No. 33. In 1858, this old building, which had served the double purpose of gaol and offices, was ordered torn down, and a committee was appointed by the Levy Court "to cause to be erected a new fire-proof county building." On February 8, 1859, the new building
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was completed and soon after occupied. In this building are the offices of the Register of Wills, Recorder of Deeds, Clerk of the Orphans' Court and Register in Chancery, Prothonotary, Sheriff, Clerk of the Peace, County Treasurer, and a room for the use of the Levy Court. In the year 1903-4, owing to the cramped condition of the Recorder's office, a two-story addi- tion was built on the east side, by which the Recorder's office on the first floor, and the Levy Court room on the second floor were spaciously enlarged. In the same year a steam- heating plant was installed, the pipes being attached to the boilers in the gaol.
In matters of religion, the people of Kent County, in their early history, were not unlike the people of other sections of our country, in that, as soon as convenience would permit, the gospel followed close upon the heels of the immigrant. Owing to the exceeding sparseness of its population and the manner in which its people were scattered, Kent County did not, in its earliest history, maintain churches nor even support itinerant preachers.
The earliest sect, it appears, that attempted anything like an organized religious movement, was the Society of Friends. The beginnings of Episcopal worship were almost as early, and the Presbyterians seem to have followed close upon the Episcopalians. The next church to make its appearance was the Baptist. Then came the Methodist Episcopal. Through- out the county at present, in addition to these, are to be found Baptists of the new school, Methodist Protestant, Roman Catholic and Dutch Reformed. The Friends, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, down to certain dates in their histories, were so organized that all the churches in their respective denominations were closely identified. The center for the Friends Society was Duck Creek, the center for the Episco- palians and for the Presbyterians was Dover. Around these places, more or less, revolved the early religious history of the county. In treating the history of the Friends, we shall carry all their meetings together and treat their history as the
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history of one, down to the time of their separation from each other. And similarly, we shall trace the history of the Epis- copalians and Presbyterians.
The distinction of having been the first to hold a religious service in the county of Kent belongs to the Society of Friends, derisively called Quakers. A number of these plain simple folk had emigrated to Kent County at an early date and set- tled for the most part in what is now Duck Creek Hundred. There are no statistics showing their strength in the early days of Kent history, the earliest estimate being that of Rev. Arthur Usher, an Episcopal missionary, who is authority for the state- ment that in 1741, in his parish in Kent County, there were 109 Quakers. The next year, 1742, he says in the whole county there were sixty Quakers ; a rather odd discrepancy in numbers that discredits the Rev. Usher's estimate. How- ever that be, the Friends made much of a showing in Duck Creek, Little Creek, Mispillion and Murderkill Hundreds. But with the advance of time and the innovations that attend it, the Friends began to decline in their influence until now, the only meeting-house that is in use in the county is the one at Camden, and the whole membership of the denomination in Kent County has dwindled to about fifty.
Duck Creek was the parent of the various meeting-houses established in the Hundreds above named. It was the center of influence of the Friends, as Dover was of Episcopal influ- ence, but its position was eventually usurped by Camden. Probably as early as 1790, Duck Creek had lost its control, or at least had ceased to be aggressive, for in that year convey- ance of land for a meeting-house, near Milford, was made to the trustees of Murderkill Meeting (the predecessor of Camden Friends), which fact would seem to indicate that at that time the Murderkill Meeting had assumed the position of leader, and already had overshadowed the Duck Creek Friends so far as active work was concerned.
In the year 1705, December 19th, first mention is made of the " monthly meeting of Friends at Duck Creek " (Old Duck
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Creek, now Salisbury), " by order of the people called Quakers at Chester County, Pennsylvania." This date, therefore, marks the entrance of the Quakers into Kent County. The minutes about a month later of their next meeting show that they had a meeting-house, for it was resolved that " the meet- ing-house be floored, and the graveyard made." From the report of this same meeting it would seem that Friends from other parts of the county, even at this early date, were in touch with the Duck Creek Friends, for it is recorded that " none appeared for George's Creek, neither any from the lower parts." The meeting-house must have been built originally on ground not owned by the Friends, for it was not until the year 1769, sixty-four or sixty-five years after the house had been erected, that they received a deed for the land.
The old meeting-house constructed on this land was used uninterruptedly down to the year 1800, after which date it went rapidly to ruin, and by 1831, had entirely disappeared. It was built of stone, and its dimensions were about thirty by twenty-five feet. In addition to this meeting-house, the Friends of Duck Creek also built a school-house, which like- wise has disappeared, and nothing now remains of this ancient place of Quaker meetings but the old graveyard, a melancholy monument of departed days.
The first mention of Mispillion Friends occurs on the 19th day of the third month, 1707, when, according to the minutes of the Duck Creek meeting, " Joseph Booth and Mark Man- love appeared for Mushmillion " (Mispillion). Mispillion, at that time, it must be remembered, included the present limits of Milford Hundred. Friends in that vicinity, the lower part of Mispillion, in these early years, were holding their meetings under the direction of Duck Creek Friends, first at the house of Matthew Manlove, and then at the house of Reynear Wil- liams. The first mention of their meeting-house is in 1790, when on the thirteenth of November, five acres of land were conveyed to the trustees of Murderkill Meeting for the erect- ing and supporting a meeting-house and school-house. This
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meeting-house was used for many years, but has now entirely disappeared.
The Friends of Little Creek Hundred soon took steps look- ing to the establishment of a meeting of their own, for the records show, that as early as 1710, a request was received from the Friends of Little Creek (Hundred), that they have the privilege of " a meeting of worship every first day among themselves." This request was granted, and in 1714 they were accorded the right to maintain "a meeting of worship distinct from Duck Creek, of which it (they) hath hitherto been a part." A meeting-house was built in 1771, but subse- quently abandoned for the present meeting-house, which was erected on land sold in 1802 by Jabez Jenkins, "in trust for the people called Quakers." This old meeting-house still stands near Little Creek, its original location. Since 1865 it has ceased to be used for religious purposes. In 1888 it passed out of the hands of the Friends. Its old graveyard is yet used for purposes of interment.
In the year 1712 the Duck Creek Friends went into Mur- derkill Hundred and held a Monthly Meeting at the house of the widow Needham at Murder Creek. At this meeting one Robert Porter was appointed overseer of the weekly meetings at Murder Creek. Thus a meeting was established there under the supervision of Duck Creek. Their house was erected on the road from Dover to Magnolia, where their old graveyard now is. Their deed was dated May 17, 1760, and the land is described as being a part of the tract "Folly Neck," comprising one acre, "by the Branch at the going over of the Kings Road." This house was burned in 1760. In 1759, Ezekiel Nock and others, had put in a request, which was duly granted by the Duck Creek Friends, that they might hold a meeting during the winter season at a certain house near Tidbury. Now that the Murderkill house had been burned (it was located not far from Tidbury), these Friends who had had the privilege of a meeting near Tidbury during the winter season, further petitioned for another meet-
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ing, and stated "that the members being few, some of them inclined to have a house built that might accommodate them and their friends settled about Tidbury, who lye remote from any meeting." The petition was granted, and after some dis- cussion as to the location of the new meeting-house, a com- mittee finally decided upon the old site. A brick structure was thereon erected. This building was used until 1844, when Henry McIlvaine purchased it and razed it to the ground. The old graveyard remains, and has recently been neatly enclosed by a substantial fence.
The last meeting of Friends to be established in Kent County was that at Camden. In 1805 or 1806 a building was erected which was intended to serve the double purpose of a meeting-house and a school-house. It stands to-day on the road from Camden to Wyoming, and was described in the original deed as "lying in or near the village of Camden, on the main road leading from said village to the Poor-house." In 1828 Murderkill Meeting was united to Duck Creek, and in 1830 both these were united to Camden. Under the name " Camden Monthly Meeting," meetings were held alternately at Camden and Little Creek. At present Camden is the sole survivor of the Friends congregations in Kent County, all the others having passed with the passing years.
The Episcopalians were close rivals with the Quakers for the honor of having been the first to plant a church in the county of Kent. The venture was purely a missionary under- taking inaugurated by the venerable "Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." For a period of about three-quarters of a century, the Episcopalians of Kent County were under the spiritual care of one clergyman, or rather one missionary. Strictly speaking, Dover was his residence, and Kent County his parish. In the year 1781 Christ Church at Milford became detached from the Dover rector's parish, but the other churches, Dover and Duck Creek, continued their union until the year 1831.
The first mention of religious work by this denomination in
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Kent County appears in the form of " a memorial to the Bishop of London, signed by twenty-two inhabitants of Dover, repre- senting the increase of sin and crimes and the consequent great want of a minister of the gospel, and their willingness to contribute as far as they are able to his maintenance," recorded in 1703. The next year subscriptions to the amount of £55 17s. were raised by the Dover people, and Col. Robert French donated the globe for the embryonic church. At this date (1704) Dover had not been laid out, though its location was to all intents and purposes fixed upon. The glebe, a por- tion of the tract, " Porter's Lodge," consisted of one hundred and ten acres, and lay on the east side of Jones' creek, about a mile and a half below the present town of Dover. Just where on the glebe the church was built, is uncertain. " Tradition has it," says the Rev. L. W. Gibson, "at the southwestern corner, near the creek, and beside the road which then ran along the bank of the creek." The exact date of its construction is also unknown, though it seems to have been about the year 1707, for in 1708 Rev. Thomas Crawford men- tions preaching in " the church," and of its being "near finished."
Thomas Crawford was sent over as a missionary to the peo- ple of Dover in the year 1705. Under his influence the church grew rapidly, for in addition to building the church at Dover, he increased the number of his congregation, having baptized in his own church in three years two hundred and twenty or two hundred and thirty persons. His work was not confined to Dover. He preached at stated intervals at both the upper and lower end of the county, and even went down into Sussex, preaching the word. For all of this work he complains that he " had not had £20 Pennsylvania money per annum." Under the Rev. Crawford's charge, the begin- nings of St. Peter's church of Smyrna were made, for he vis- ited the people of that vicinity then known as Duck Creek, in the performance of his ministerial duties, though their church was not permanently established until about 1740,
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when it was known as the Duck Creek Church. In the lower end of the county the Rev. Mr. Crawford preached in Mis- pillion, about three miles west of the present town of Milford. The precise spot is unknown, but he laid the foundation of what became Christ Church, Milford. This church had no building of its own, no building at least of which there is ac- curate knowledge, until about the year 1745.
Mr. Crawford returned to England in the year 1711, and in that same year his successor, the Rev. Mr. Henderson, came over to minister to the spiritual wants of the people of Kent. Upon the arrival of Mr. Henderson, it became apparent that the Presbyterians had gained considerable strength in Dover, the center of Episcopalian activity, for a Mr. Medstone of the Presbyterian persuasion protested against the coming of Mr. Henderson, alleging that the ground on which the Episco- palians had erected their primitive little church had been given by a gentleman of the Presbyterian faith, and that, by the terms of the deed granting it, any orthodox minister could preach there, that the greatest number of the people were Presbyterians, and, therefore, Mr. Henderson should be re- jected, and in his stead a minister should be secured who was reared in the doctrines of Presbyterianism. Mr. Henderson, however, remained, but only for a short time, leaving prob- ably the same year.
Soon after his departure, it seems that the people were about ready to receive a Presbyterian minister in their church, for, in 1715, the missionary at New Castle wrote " that design was entirely ruined by my preaching amongst them, that every Sunday the Dissenters were to take possession of our own pul- pits." From this letter it would appear that after the de- parture of Mr. Henderson, the Dover Church was occasionally visited by the missionary at New Castle, and possibly was under his supervision.
In 1717 the church was in danger of decay because of the inroads made by the Dissenters. A long vacancy in the post of missionary was the opportunity for its opponents, both
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ecclesiastical and secular, to check its growth, and in 1722 a petition from Thomas French and one hundred and twenty- five others, from Kent County, requesting that an orthodox minister be sent among them, set forth the destitute condition of the church and the dangers which threatened its existence in Kent County. It states, "We have, since 1711, been wholly destitute. A great number of our people are by this means gone over to the Presbyterians and Quakers; our house, built for religious worship, is empty, meeting-houses are full; enthusiasts abound ; the Sabbath is profaned ; the interest which the Church of England once had here is in great danger to be entirely lost, and we have no opportunity to worship God publically in a manner agreeable to the word of God and our Consciences." Petition followed upon peti- tion, and finally, in 1733, the Rev. George Frazier was sent to the Dover church.
Shortly after his arrival, a subscription was begun for the purpose of building a new brick church at Dover, the old one along the creek having fallen into a state of ruin. This new building was begun; but was not sufficiently completed for the purposes of use until after the arrival of the Rev. Arthur Usher in 1740. Under the Rev. Usher's ministry two chapels were begun and completed. Both of these chapels were within the territory under the care of the Dover rector. One of them built by the Duck Creek congregation between 1740 and 1744 ; the other one was built by the Mispillion congregation, near Milford, and was completed before 1745. Much delay was encountered in completing the brick church at Dover owing to the poverty of its communicants.
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