USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume II > Part 22
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Most of the Hundred is marsh land formed by tidal streams from the bay, and the early history of the Hundred is replete with efforts to reclaim the marshes and turn them into pasture lands. At various times canals were cut through the Hun- dred from Little creek to the bay. "York " was one of the
first tracts laid out in the present Hundred. This was war- ranted to William Stevens, of Maryland, in April, 1676, and contained six hundred acres. It was near the early settlement of Little Creek, and was sold to John Richardson. A portion of it has retained the name of " York Seat."
Another tract which was settled early was the "Willing- brook " tract of two thousand acres. On this tract was located the settlement called "Cowgill's Corner," near Little Creek Landing. John Richardson, who purchased the "York " tract, had " Willing Brook " surveyed to him in 1676. For several years the ownership of the tract was disputed by John Stevens, but Richardson came out victor. "Chipping Nor- ton " or "Fiddler's Neck " was another settlement north of " Willingbrook " on the tract of Samuel Irons.
" Cowgill's Corner," near Little Creek Landing, was named after the settlement established there by Henry Cowgill in 1794. Dona Landing, on Little creek, near the bay, was for a long time the port of entry for passengers by stage and boat
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line from Philadelphia to Norfolk. Passengers were landed at Dona, taken, by stage, by way of Dover, to Seaford where they re-embarked for Norfolk and the South. The stage and boat lines were abandoned upon completion of the Delaware Railroad.
Upon the road which divided what was known as the " London " and "Simpson's Choice " tracts taken up by John Stevens, of Maryland, in 1699, and William Simpson in 1680, respectively, grew up the flourishing settlement of "Little Creek Landing." John Bell opened a store, built a wharf and store-house on the west side of the road on the " London " tract land in 1837. These buildings were followed by many others, and for many years it has been one of the most flour- ishing small towns in the state. It is the center of the oyster industry and great quantities of grain and marsh hay are harvested from the marshes of the Hundred.
Leipsic, named because of its being a great shipping point for furs, was originally part of a tract of three hundred acres patented to John Hillyard in October, 1687. This tract was conveyed in 1723 to George Gano and Jacob Stout, and the latter laid out the town. It was called at first " Fast Land- ing," being the first firm land above the bay, but after a futile attempt to change the name to " Vienna," by act of assembly, the name "Leipsic" was given it on January 28, 1814. Between 1830 and 1850 the town was one of the most import- ant on the Peninsula.
About a mile above Little Creek Landing was situated the Gun Swamp Methodist Church built in 1820. The building was used as a school house in 1836. It was moved to Little Creek Landing and in 1875 was opened for service. In 1884 a new building was erected, and the church has prospered. The Muddy Branch M. E. church was established in 1800 on Muddy Branch, on an arm of Little creek, and a short dis- tance above Leipsic. In 1837 it was abandoned, and the con- gregation moved to Leipsic, where a building was erected which is one of the land-marks of the town.
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In March, 1714, the Society of Friends of Little Creek became a distinct meeting, having worshipped before with the Duck Creek Hundred Friends. A meeting-house was built in 1772, but was later abandoned, and in 1862 another meeting- house was erected, and used until 1888, when the Society of Friends became so reduced in numbers that meetings were discontinued in the Hundred. The old burying ground is still in use.
In the house of Joseph Farrow on the State road, below Little Duck creek, Bethel M. E. church was organized. A church known as Farrow's M. E. church was built in 1780. It retained that name until 1853, when the church was re- built, and the present commodious edifice completed. Sutton's chapel, now Manship's chapel, of the African M. E. church was built at Bishop's Corner in this Hundred in 1830. A new edifice was built on the old site in 1876 and the name changed from Sutton's to Manship's chapel.
A list of the influential old families of the Hundred include the Farrows, Garrisons, Smiths, Boggs, Montgomerys, Jeffer- sons, Cowgills, Bells and Fennimores. Governor Jacob Stout was for many years a very large land owner and an influential resident of the Hundred. The nature of the soil in the Hun- dred is conducive to the raising of fruit and grain, and from Little Creek Landing and Leipsic many tons of marsh hay, for ropes and packing, are shipped ; together with thousands of bushels of grain and dried and canned fruits. At Little Creek the oyster industry is in a flourishing state, and many are engaged in planting and harvesting the luscious bivalve, in the beds, near Little Creek Landing, which are under the protection of the state.
NORTH MURDERKILL HUNDRED.
Murderkill Hundred, one of the original divisions of Kent County, included all the present territory of North and South Murderkill Hundred, part of West Dover Hundred, and the portion of East Dover Hundred lying south and west of St.
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Jones creek. By act of General Assembly passed January 28, 1823, all that portion of the original Hundred lying to the north of the present North Murderkill Hundred, except a narrow strip apportioned to West Dover Hundred, by act of January 28, 1831, was taken off to form Dover Hundred.
Murderkill Hundred as it then stood was further divided, March 2, 1855, into two election districts known as the north and south election districts, after the manner of the division of Dover Hundred. March 20, 1867, these two election districts were designated as separate and independent Hundreds with the following division lines : Beginning at Dover river, at the White Shore Landing, and running thence with the road to Locustville ; thence with the road from Locustville to Canter- bury until it reaches the forks of the said road near town ; thence by the southern road leading into said town, until it reaches the main road leading from Canterbury to Frederica ; thence with said road to White Hall ; thence with the road running past the school house, in district twenty-four, to Mount Moriah to Sandtown ; thence with the road leading from Sandtown to the Maryland line, and thence to the said state line.
The territory lying north of this divisional line was declared to be North Murderkill Hundred, and that south of it South Murderkill Hundred. The boundaries of North Murderkill Hundred are Culbreth's Ditch and Isaac's Branch separating it from West and East Dover Hundreds on the north ; St. Jones creek or Dover river separating it on the east from East Dover Hundred ; South Murderkill Hundred on the south, and the State of Maryland on the west.
" Folly Neck " was about the first tract of land taken up in North Murderkill. It was warranted by Sir Edmund Andros to Robert Bedwell the 20th day of the sixth month, 1679, and contained one thousand and fifty acres on the southwest side of Dover river between Beaver Dam Branch and Cypress Branch. "The Caroon Manor," " The Plains " and "Cypress Neck " tracts adjoined this tract on the southeast, southwest
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and northwest respectively. The road leading from Canter- bury through Woodley Town to Lowber's Landing (later White Store Landing) crosses this tract, as does also the " lower King's Road" from Dover through Frederica to Lewes. "Cypress Neck " was a tract of four hundred acres surveyed January 24, 1679-80 to Abraham Bratt on Dover river north of Cypress Branch. The Lower Kings road from Dover to Frederica crosses the western portion of this tract.
Adjoining " Cypress Neck " is the "Tidbury " tract, war- ranted to Thomas Williams by the court of Kent June 21, 1683. Williams, the following year, sold one hundred acres to Richard Levick, who gave one hundred acres of it to the use of Kent County for the laying-out of the town of Dover, it being intended that its site should be near Rising Sun, or Five Points. The "Tidbury " tract was resurveyed for John Houseman, April 18, 1746, after having been sold to him by William Coe and Thomas Williams, and was confirmed by letters patent from Thomas and Richard Penn, December 18, 1747. It was said to contain four hundred and eighty acres and was crossed by the "Lower King's Road."
Camden, known in the early days as Mifflin's Cross Roads, and also as Piccadilly, is located on the "Brecknock " tract, warranted in 1680 to Alexander Humphreys, which tract lay on Isaac's Branch and extended two miles or more to Betty Smith's Branch. In February, 1783, one hundred and twelve acres of this tract came into possession of Daniel Mifflin, the son of Daniel Mifflin, of Accomac County, Virginia. Mifflin laid out this tract into lots and between 1783 and 1788 sold a sufficient number to secure the establishment of a considerable settlement there. In 1786 the village was called " Picca- dilly," but even then was more commonly known as Mifflin's Cross Roads. December 11, 1788 is the date of the first men- tion of its present name-Camden. It appears in a deed to George Truitt and wife for a lot in the village some time " heretofore called Mifflin's Cross Roads (alias Piccadilly), but now called and known by the name of Camden."
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Prior to 1856 the trade of the town consisted largely in the shipping of large quantities of cord-wood, staves, black oak and spanish-oak børk and grain from "Forest Landing" on the Tidbury Branch of the Dover river. With the building of the Delaware railroad the town thrived and a market was created for the farm and dairy products and the fruit produced in such abundance in the vicinity. Camden was settled by members of the Society of Friends, and the descendants of the Mifflins, the Hunns, the Lowbers, the Dolbys, the Howells, the Jenkinses and the Nocks, still are to be found as prosper- ous merchants and land-owners in the vicinity of the original settlement.
On the Lower King's Road from Dover to Lewes, on the east side of the road. and north of the Beaver Dam Branch, on an acre of the "Folly Neck " tract, was erected a house for the use of Friends who were worshipping in monthly meet- ings as early as June 18, 1712, at the house of Widow Need- ham at Murderkill creek. The minutes of the Society of Friends of Duck creek for the tenth month 19, 1705, show this to have been a fact, and also record the appointment of Robert Porter as overseer of the weekly meetings of Murder creek. A deed for the one-acre tract, above mentioned, was made to representatives of the Society of Friends by William Jackson May 12, 1760. A meeting-house was erected but was burned in 1760, to be succeeded by a brick structure used until 1844. The Motherkill Monthly Meeting composing the Motherkill and Tidbury Meetings met here for worship. In 1828, the meeting was joined to Duck Creek, and in 1830 the name was changed to the "Camden Monthly Meeting."
The "Camden Friends Meeting " absorbed all the other Friends Meetings in Kent County, although the last to be organized. Toward the latter part of 1805, the Friends de- cided to erect a building for school and meeting-house pur- poses. A petition was circulated for contributions toward that end, and signed by twenty-three Friends, who appointed three trustees to take title to land and carry out the wishes of the
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CAMDEN FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE.
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society. July 6, 1806, Jonathan Hunn, and Patience his wife, deeded to these trustees a lot, near the village of Camden, on the main road leading to the poorhouse, for the erection of such a building. The building was erected, and the Camden Friends Meeting has continued at that place ever since. It is at present the only Friends meeting in active existence in Kent County. The graveyard marking the site of the first Murderkill meeting is still preserved, the wall surrounding the same having within the past few years been restored by some of the descendants of Warner Mifflin ; the latter being a member of the Mifflin family who became conspicuous as an abolitionist and as a preacher in the Friends denomination.
On the "Brecknock " tract on the southeast side of the public road from Camden to Dover is situated " The Camden Union Camp-ground for the Methodist Episcopal churches of Delaware and Philadelphia." "Camden Camp-meeting," as it was usually termed, was for many years a feature in Delaware religious meetings. The grove is a beautiful one, is watered by numerous springs, and bounded by Isaac's Branch. Tents of boards were erected, and for a period of ten days people tented there from the surrounding country, in some instances coming for many miles. It was not unusual at the Sunday services at Camden camp-meeting to find an attendance of ten thousand people, and the meetings were productive of much good. The association was incorporated February 3, 1859 and re-incorporated February 19, 1879. Of late years the meetings have not been held annually, and it would seem that the days for camp-meetings there are about over.
A tract of nine hundred acres adjoining " Brecknock " was surveyed to James Wells December 24, 1680. On a portion of this tract, June 1, 1856, the village of Wyoming was started. It began with the erection of a building for the offices of the Adams Express Company upon the completion of the Del- aware railroad. The dwelling-houses occupied by the owner and the miller of a grist mill, on the opposite side of Isaac's Branch, in East Dover Hundred, were the only dwellings on
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the tract at that time. In 1856 Wm. P. Lindall built a store and engaged in mercantile business there. The town was known as West Camden until 1865, and then for some time as "Camden Station," it being used largely as a freight-ship- ping point for Camden village which is one mile east of Wyoming. In 1860 Dr. Isaac Jump, of Dover, which town is three miles northeast of Wyoming. laid out the town into a respectable village. It was incorporated March 22, 1869 and again in 1888.
Lebanon, another prosperous little village of North Murder- kill Hundred, is located on the Dover river, south of the junc- tion between Tidbury Branch and Dover river. It is situated on part of the "Tidbury " tract, before described, lying three and one-half miles southeast of Dover and over two miles east of Camden. Lebanon has long been noted as the shipping and receiving port for Camden and Rising Sun. A number of coastwise trading vessels have been built at Lebanon. In 1869 the largest fruit-canning establishment in the United States was established at Lebanon by Collins, Geddes & Com- pany. In 1884 the plant was destroyed by fire and never rebuilt.
On the "Tidbury " tract is also located the village of Ris- ing Sun, one mile southwest of Lebanon on the "Lower King's Road." The village was at one time called "Five Points," because of the fact that three other roads intersected the " Lower King's Road " at the village site. Until 1872, Rising Sun was but a cross-roads settlement, but that year the Farmers' Fruit Preserving Company was organized, and a large preserving and fruit-canning establishment was erected there, and as a result a village quickly sprang up.
The village of Woodside is located on a portion of the "Longacre " tract called " Exchange." A depot and station house of the Delaware railroad were established there in 1864, at which time there were two dwellings and about eight in- habitants. The town is now in the center of the peach belt of the peninsula, and noted for the quantity and quality of
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the fruit and farm products shipped from there. Two evap- orators and two canneries carry on a thriving business at Woodside, and the town is prosperous.
A warrant bearing date the 21st of the 12th month, 1681, to Robert Hudson, gave to him a large tract of land known as " Hudson's Lott." This land lay on the north side of Ban- nister's Branch, and upon both sides of the Upper King's Road, from Lewes to Dover, and contained some eight hun- dred acres. On this tract was located the village of Canter- bury. The settlement was known in 1782 as "Joseph Cald- well's Tavern," kept by one John West, innkeeper. In 1789 it was called Irish Hill. Its present name appears first, in a deed from John Gildersleeve to James Foote, for a "lot or piece of ground in the village of Canterbury, being and lying on the east side of the State Road." The stage line to Lewes passed through the village, which was the distributing center for the mail for several towns and settlements between Dover and the Chesapeake Bay.
In 1796 the first Methodist Episcopal Church at Camden was built on a tract of half an acre of land, deeded by Daniel Lowber to five trustees " for the people called Methodists" in and about the village of Camden, on the road from Dover to Canterbury. This tract was added to, April 24, 1813, by the gift of another half acre. The church edifice was called Whatcoat Chapel, Camden. The church was used for worship until 1857, when it was razed and a brick building built farther up town. The new church was dedicated July 26, 1857, and it has been enlarged and improved several times. St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, at Camden, was organ- ized July 17, 1868, but no building was erected for several years, the communicants being attached to Christ Church, Dover. The new school Baptists built a meeting-house in Camden in 1881, and a small congregation was maintained there for a few years only.
In 1853 the colored people belonging to the old side Meth- odist Episcopal Church built a church in Camden. A split
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from this congregation in 1863, built a meeting-house called "Star of the East " near " Green's Mill," and in 1883, another colored church, known as "St. James's Chapel," was built by a congregation of colored people belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. November 3, 1865, the Methodist Episcopal Plank Church of West Camden (Wyoming) was dedicated. In 1883 the old plank church was torn down and a new structure erected. Baptists worshiped at the homes of the various members of their faith, in Wyoming, until 1869, when Wyoming Collegiate Institute was purchased, and the chapel of the college building used. In 1880 the " Wyoming Baptist Church " was incorporated, and a church building was erected on a lot in the town of Camden in 1881. The lot was purchased from George Parris, of Dover, who be- queathed an annuity of three hundred dollars to the church. St. John's Reformed Church, of Wyoming, was organized July 18, 1869. June 9, 1872, the cornerstone of a meeting- house was laid. The church was dedicated April 19, 1874.
On Hudson's Branch on the "Golden Thicket " tract of land is situated the village of Viola. It is located ten miles south of Dover on the Delaware railroad. A station of the railroad was established there in 1856, and the village was then laid out. Three farm-houses and the station formed the nucleus for what has since grown to a prosperous little hamlet.
Two miles west of Viola, at Magee's Cross Roads, Magee's Chapel, or the Viola Methodist Episcopal Church, was built in 1858. In 1884 the church was remodeled to conform with the growth of the village.
Nine and a-half miles southwest of Dover, and over three miles west of Woodside, the village of Willow Grove is situ- ated. In 1798 a general merchandise business was carried on near the present town site, and tanneries and mills for the manufacture of barrel staves and ship timber were erected as early as 1824. Thomas Lockwood, who bought the Alexander Jackson mansion and tannery, on the Choptank Road, near Willow Grove, was one of the town's prominent merchants.
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In 1844 a lumber and saw-mill was erected by John Aaron and Alexander Jackson. In 1865 J. Colby Smith erected a barrel stave and head factory, and also erected a mill for the manufacture of peach baskets at Willow Grove.
The Methodist Episcopal Church at this place was organ- ized from a group of the followers of that society which met until 1824, in the home of Thomas Lockwood, and for one year after that in the home of William J. Needles. August 2, 1824, Thomas Jackson conveyed a tract of land to seven trus- tees in trust for the erection of a meeting-house for " the peo- ple called Methodists." A church building was erected, but in 1850 torn down, the lot added to, and a more commodious edifice erected. Thirty-three years later this was succeeded by the present structure. Ferdinand Griffith, who was en- gaged in the mercantile business in Willow Grove, was the first preacher mentioned in the early account of services held in the church. He delivered sermons to the congregation in 1829.
Two miles west of Willow Grove is the " Cooper Cemetery," which has been used for more than a century as a burial ground by the inhabitants within a radius of four miles of Willow Grove. On the road to " Greensboro," two miles southwest of Willow Grove, is the small hamlet of Peters- burg. In 1840 it was called Meredith's Shops, after Peter Meredith, a Baptist preacher, who had a smith and wheel- wright shop there. In 1872 the name was changed to Peters- burg, from the number of descendants of Peter Lowber, owners of the tracts near the village.
Mount Moriah, a small village, which has passed through the successive stages of religious community and sporting rendezvous is located about five miles southwest of Willow Grove on the road to Greensboro. The fourth Baptist meeting in Delaware was organized at this place, July 18, 1781, and was known as the Baptist Meeting at Cow Marsh. The organi- zation was the outcome of a series of meetings conducted by the pastors of the Welsh Tract Meeting, held between 1770 and 1781.
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Between 1781 and 1791 services were held at the house of Job Meredith, Sr., and the charge was connected with the meeting at Duck creek. December 10, 1791, Joseph Hood was licensed by the church to preach. November 10, 1792, the church decided to build a meeting-house and appointed trustees to hold the property. Two acres of land were accord- ingly donated by Job Meredith September 7, 1793, for that purpose, and by the following year the building was erected. In June, 1796, it was called the " Baptist Meeting at Mount Moriah " in deeds of that date. The old building was re- placed in 1872 by a new edifice. As early as 1802 the church had a total membership of one hundred and sixteen.
For some years Mount Moriah became a resort for members of the sporting fraternity of three states, and horse racing, gaming, the chase, and all kinds of conviviality were indulged in, in the neighborhood of this quiet village.
SOUTH MURDERKILL HUNDRED.
South Murderkill Hundred extends in a westerly direction from the Delaware Bay to the Delaware and Maryland line, a distance of about eighteen miles and varies in width from three to five miles. By Act of the General Assembly passed at Dover, March 20, 1867, South Murderkill, which from March 2, 1855, until then had been known as the South Murderkill election district, was made a Hundred. The history of the division into election districts of the original Hundred of Murderkill, of which it formed the southern part, is found under the sketch of North Murderkill.
South Murderkill is bounded on the north by North Murder- kill Hundred ; northeast by St. Jones's creek, or Dover river, which divides it from East Dover Hundred ; east, by Dela- ware Bay ; southeast and south by Murderkill creek, and the road leading from Felton to Whitelysburg, this road separat- ing the Hundred from Milford and Mispillion Hundreds ; and on the west, by the State of Maryland.
Two navigable streams traverse the Hundred, viz., St. Jones
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creek, or Dover river, navigable to Dover, a distance of thirty miles from its mouth, and Murderkill creek navigable for a distance of twenty-five miles, from its mouth to three miles above Frederica. These two streams on the northeastern and southeastern portions of the Hundred, respectively, and their numerous tributaries, or branches, together with the Chop- tank river, and its branches, in the western part of the Hun- dred, afford excellent drainage, and provide abundant water power for numerous industries in the Hundred.
The first tract of land in South Murderkill Hundred to be settled was " Whitwell's Delight," located and taken up by Francis Whitwell under warrant from Governor Edmund Andros in 1675. It comprised the tract lying between the Dover river and Murderkill creek and is now known as Bowers' Beach. This tract was assigned by Whitwell, in 1685, to William Frampton and patented to him January 5, 1686, as " Dover Peere." It contained one thousand three hundred and seventy-four acres. Frampton did an extensive business in the Hundred from 1683 to 1686. Upon his death in 1686, his executors sold the property to William Bassett. This strip of land was opposite "Towne Point " where the county courts were held at the time of his residence in this
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