USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume II > Part 23
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Hundred. "Dover Peere " had descended to Joseph Booth, who, on August 2, 1750, sold the tract to Benjamin Chew. Four hundred and twenty acres of marsh-land and meadow were purchased by Nathaniel Hunn prior to Booth's acquiring title to the balance. Hunn's children, August 16, 1734, sold three hundred and twenty acres of this land at " Mulberrie Point " to John Bowers, from which time it has been known as Bowers' Beach The property remained in the possession of the Bowers family until 1847, when it passed to a son-in-law Joshua Adams, husband of Elizabeth Bowers, granddaughter of the first John Bowers.
On November 7, 1727, Bowers bought a portion of the " New Seven Haven " tract, and on February 14, 1734, he also bought a portion of the "Great Geneva " and " Breck-
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nock " tracts. "Bowers," as Bower's Beach has come to be called, is now a thriving village and popular summer resort. The inhabitants are engaged in fishing and oyster dredging during the winter, while a large tourist population fills hotels and cottages from June to October.
"Big Thursday," for many years, was a day of great im- portance at this resort. This gala day was the second Thurs- day in August, and was the occasion for the assembling of many thousands of people who engaged in recreation, good cheer, and amusements of all kinds. It was the annual pic- nic day for Kent County folks, and was taken advantage 01 to renew old acquaintances and form new ones.
The origin of the festival grew out of an Act of the General Assembly of the State providing for the open season for catch- ing oysters in Delaware Bay. In the year 1852 an act was passed making it unlawful for any person to catch or take oysters in any creek or pond in the State between the first of May and the 10th of August in any year. This law remained on the statute books until 1877. The period of prohibition thus expired on the 10th of each August, and as the first year the open season began on the second Thursday, and in no year could the second Thursday be earlier than the 8th day, the oyster gatherers and their families made the second Thurs- day the gala day, and it became by custom "Big Thursday " at Bowers'.
"Caroone Manor," another of the tracts settled early, con- sisted of two tracts, "Croone," of twelve hundred acres, and " Caroone Manor," containing eight hundred acres. Joshua Barkstead received a grant for this tract between 1683 and 1689, at which later date, William Darvall was in possession of it. He mortgaged it to Richard Daughgate et al., of Lon- don. In 1694 it was sold at sheriff's sale, and purchased by William Rodney for the use of William Penn. On the Manor tract are located the two villages of " Magnolia " and " Barker's Landing."
Magnolia is located on a tract of one hundred and ten acres
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of the Caroone Manor tract, sold November 19, 1818, to James Millichop by the Rev. James Bateman and Hannah Marim, heirs of John Marim, who owned a goodly portion of the Caroone Manor tract, about eighteen hundred acres. For a long time the site of Magnolia was known as " Millichop's Woods." The town is seven miles from Dover on the State Road, between Dover and Frederica. Matthew Lowber built a brick mansion on the site of the town in 1774, and this one building was the extent of the town until 1845, when five buildings, a store, public hall, and school-house, were erected. Ten years later the town began to show substantial growth. The Methodist Episcopal Church was built there in 1855, and succeeded " Banning's Chapel," which was built on the road toward Dover over a mile from Magnolia. The Magnolia Baptist Church was built February 15, 1874. The town of Magnolia was incorporated April 3, 1885.
" Barker's Landing," sometimes called "Florence," was the other settlement on the Caroone Manor tract. Prior to 1800 it was owned by Thomas Barker, who built a warehouse, wharf and granary, on Dover River, on this tract. The tract was owned by Thomas Collins, Governor of Delaware; and Mary Collins Barker, eldest daughter of the governor, is buried in the family graveyard on a portion of the tract. The landing is used by the merchants of Magnolia for import- ing and exporting their products.
The Old Presbyterian Church at Murderkill was the first church of that denomination in Kent County and was built in South Murderkill Hundred on the road from " Barker's Land- ing" to Canterbury about four hundred yards north of the site of " Montague Mills." In 1762, two acres of land were purchased on Hudson's Branch, from the land of Bedwell Max- well. Here the second church was erected, but no signs of this now remain. The site of the first meeting house, built prior to 1762, is marked by the indecipherable tombstones and old vault in the abandoned cemetery on the Barkers-Canter- bury road. The last interment there was made in 1874. The
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church existed until some date near 1818. The Rev. Mr. Mc- Kee officiated there in 1793.
" Barratt's Chapel " a noted landmark in the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, was built in South Murderkill Hundred upon the tract of land known as " Wil- liam's Chance " about a mile north of the town of Frederica or "Johnny Cake Landing," as it was then known; on the road leading to Dover. The land for the building of the chapel was conveyed by Philip Barratt August 17, 1780, to eight of his fellow Methodists, as trustees " to the intent and express purpose of building a preaching house or chapel there- on." It was also provided that the preacher who should use the pulpit of the said preaching house "should preach no other doctrine than is contained in the Rev. John Wesley's notes on the New Testament and Four Volumes of Sermons." The building was forty-two by forty-eight feet, two stories in height and built of bricks. It is still preserved in good con- dition.
The first quarterly meeting was held in the chapel in November, 1784, and was attended by over one thousand Methodists. The seat or wooden bench upon which Bishops Coke and Asbury and other pioneers of the church sat, is still preserved in the chapel. In 1785 Coke and Asbury were consecrated to the episcopacy, and Rev. Ezekiel Cooper was ordained to the ministry in the chapel. This was a great event in the history of the denomination, for these three men became the head of the forward movement of the church throughout the world.
The village of Frederica stands on the tract of land known as "St. Collom " on the southwest side of the northwest branch of Murderkill creek. This tract was warranted to Benoni Bishop, in 1681, and surveyed to him as a tract of fourteen hundred acres, December 10, 1684. It extended from Indian Point, the junction of northwest branch and Murderkill creek, westwardly into the country for two miles. Jonathan Emer- son purchased a portion of "St. Collom," and in 1770, laid out a town with streets and lots.
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BARRATT'S CHAPEL, A. D, 1780. THE CRADLE OF METHODISM.
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The town was called " Johnny Cake Landing " and " Indian Point " being in the strip known as " Johnny Cake Neck " and near the crossing from Frederica to Milford. The first pur- chase of lots in Frederica was made by Zachariah Goforth, February 13, 1772. The town was made a corporation by Act of General Assembly, February 9, 1826. On March 2, 1855, this was repealed and March 8, 1865, another act of incorporation was passed by the General Assembly and the limits of the town were defined, a plot ordered made, and commissioners appointed.
The first church in Frederica was erected by the Methodists in 1812, on a lot deeded for the purpose by Benjamin Dill. This building was replaced by another in 1836, and by the present handsome edifice in 1856. Frederica until 1857, was a commercial center of importance. It was the shipping port of vast quantities of produce, and wharves and warehouses ex- isted in goodly numbers. Upon the completion of the Dela- ware railroad much of this commerce was diverted, but in its place other industries developed in the town of Frederica itself. Three canneries were opened, that of Samuel W. Hall being the largest tomato cannery in the United States at the time it was built, in 1887. Fertilizers are manufactured here and plows, brushes and mattresses have been put out in large quantities from this place. Ship-building gave employment to many between 1844 and 1887.
"Plymouth " was a settlement founded by some Massachu- setts colonists in the early sixties, southwest of Canterbury. The town was laid out in 1866, and was made a station by the Delaware railroad. Baptist and congregational churches were established here in 1867, but disbanded six years later, the members joining the churches at Magnolia.
Six miles west of Frederica, on the road leading to White- leysburg, and on both sides of the Delaware railroad, is the town of Felton. The site of the town was owned by the heirs of Joseph Simpson and Alfred O. Clifton. The town was laid out August 1, 1856, with the establishment of the railroad
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and Adams express offices. Saw mills, basket and canning factories, and one of the largest greenhouses on the peninsula, form part of the industry of the pretty village. Many hand- some residences have been built there. The M. E. Church was built in 1861. The Presbyterian Church was organized November 15, 1860, and erected a frame building the follow- ing year. Felton was incorporated before 1861, the exact date being hard to determine, as the town records are in- complete.
About one-half mile from Felton, on the southeastern corner of a tract known as the " Bear Garden," on the road from Felton to Whiteleysburg, is " Berrytown," a very old settlement. In 1766 Peter Lowber kept an ordinary there. In 1767 Preston Berry bought half an acre of ground there, and built a house and shop. In 1774 Timothy Caldwell kept store there. As late as 1811, one William Anderson was keeping a hotel there. Up to the time Felton was created, Berrytown was a thriving hamlet, but with the establishment of the Felton railroad station, all the industrial plants moved to Felton.
" Murderkill Neck " is the southeastern end of South Mur- derkill Hundred. It is that strip of territory included between Dover river, Montague Mill stream, Murderkill creek and Delaware Bay. In this neck of land lived and died early settlers whose names stand for influence, culture, thrift and in- dustry in the affairs of the Hundred. Among the family names of the inhabitants of these neck lands are those of War- ren, Barratt, Nowell, Sipple, Gray, Chambers, Van Natti, Neill, Walton, Darnell, Cramer, Montague, Boone, Lockwood, Edmunds, Hewston, Fisher, Cole, Lindale, Smith, Anderson. Smithers, Wilson, George, Manlove, Bowers, Reed, Grier, Clark, Harper, Melvin, Burchenal, Hirons, Vickery, Williams, West, Baker, and Emory.
Three of Delaware's Governors have been chosen from South Murderkill Hundred. George Truitt, elected Governor in 1807, was a leading farmer of the Hundred, and lived be-
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tween Felton and Canterbury. He had the fullest respect of the people, and occupied many prominent public positions. John W. Hall who became Governor in 1879 was for almost his whole life a resident of Frederica, where he rose from a clerk in a store to be one of the wealthy men of the State, and won by honesty, industry and frugality, an honored name among Delawareans. Robert J. Reynolds, who served as Governor from 1891 to 1895, is still living on his broad acres near Petersburg and is now one of the oldest representatives of the Reynolds family, a family that for generations has con- tributed good citizens to the agricultural, mercantile and pro- fessional life of this and adjoining States.
MISPILLION HUNDRED.
The largest of the Hundreds of Kent County, as well as the largest of the original Hundreds, is Mispillion Hundred. As originally constituted, it comprised all the territory now in- cluded in its present area, as well as the area of Milford Hun- dred, and extended from the Delaware Bay to the Maryland line, and from the boundary line of the original Murderkill Hundred to the northern line of Sussex County. On January 28, 1830, by Act of Assembly, the Hundred was divided in such a manner that all the territory lying west of the road leading from the South Murderkill Hundred southern bound- ary, to Williamsville, once used and occupied by the Phila- delphia, Dover and Norfolk Steamboat and Transportation Company, should be known as Mispillion Hundred, and all territory east of the said road should be known as Milford Hundred.
Mispillion Hundred, as now constituted, therefore, is bounded on the north by South Murderkill, on the east by the road to Williamsville, on the south by Sussex County, and on the west by the State of Maryland. Mispillion, because of its vast forests of oak and pine, was early designated in all land grants as "the forest of Mispillion." Most of these grand forests have disappeared before the axes of the early
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settlers, and vanished into lumber before the saw mills of the settlements. Vast tracts of Mispillion are under a state of rich cultivation, and in many parts where once grand oaks and pines covered the land, peach orchards and other fruit trees yield abundant harvest.
Murderkill and Mispillion creeks, and their branches, afford facilities for irrigation, and Marshy Hope Ditch and its many tributaries water the Hundred bountifully. In the western part of the Hundred, Ingram's Branch of the Choptank river opened up a rich iron-cre region, which was early exhausted, but which, until 1838, kept furnaces in Milford and Baltimore well supplied with ore. Two railroads furnish transportation facilities for the products of the Hundred, the main line of the Delaware railroad passing through the eastern part of the Hundred, and the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia making the western central portion of the Hundred its northern terminus.
Most of the early settlements in the Hundred were made in the northeastern part, on tracts now in Milford Hundred. In most instances these were on patents granted by Lord Balti- more, who claimed the greater part of the present Hundred. Luke Watson, of Lewes, received the first grant of land within the present Hundred. The tract was called " Hunting Quar- ter " and was fifteen hundred acres in area, but five hundred of which were in the present Mispillion territory. "Fair- field " a thousand-acre tract on the south side of Brown's branch was the next taken up, and was warranted to William D. Durrell and William Clark, November first, 1684.
John Townsend received a warrant for a tract of five hun- dred acres on the south side of the main branch of Murderkill creek, December third, 1693. This tract was called "John's Purchase " and was resurveyed to Hugh Durborrow, August 19, 1737. A tract of two hundred acres on the south side of Murderkill creek was warranted October 30, 1817, to James Thistlewood. The tract was known as Salisbury Plains, and upon it a mill was built by Thistlewood.
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In August, 1735, John Randolph Bundelin received two hundred acres of land by warrant on the south side of Marshy Hope, adjoining Cowland. Bundelin held many tracts in this and Murderkill Hundred and sold some of his land to Peter Gallaway whose descendants, now called Callaways, are still in possession of some of the original "Mispillion Forest" grant. "Coon's Den," "Wolfpit Ridge," "Turkey Point," " Merritt's Adventure," "Mill's Purchase," "McKimmey's Outlet," " Boyer's Adventure," and " Rejected Bundle " were tracts of land warranted to early settlers in Mispillion Forest, 1700 and 1776, and were important tracts, in that some por- tion of the original grant has descended to members of the family of the original settlers.
In the centre of the Hundred was the only town in the Hundred for many years. It was called "Vincent's Cause- way," from an old man named Joshua Vincent, who settled there in 1780, opened a store, and built a boardwalk along the front of his property. Shortly prior to 1814 the name was changed to Vernon, for in that year, on Thursday of each week, two justices of the peace would hold court in Vernon, and the village assumed considerable importance by the large attendance of lawyers and suitors from Dover and Georgetown who were interested in the business before the justices. In 1830 a store was built a short distance out of Vernon by Reuben Anderson, and the place was named Greenville. Political rivalry kept the postoffice alternating between this point and Vernon until 1864, at which time Greenville ceased to exist. The entire vote of the original Hundred of Mispil- lion was cast at Vernon until the division of the Hundred was made. With the growth of Harrington, Vernon rapidly lost its importance and influence, and to-day is nothing more than a corner store.
Farmington is located on a tract of land granted to William Fleming, who came to Mispillion Hundred from Scotland in 1739. The grant included some four hundred acres, and the town site is on the extreme eastern portion of the tract. The
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town practically arose from a railroad station built on the Delaware railroad at that place and called " Flatiron." This was erected in 1855. Three years later a postoffice was estab- lished, and the village, which had come with the completion of the railroad, was named Farmington. The town supports several industries, two canning factories, an evaporator, a saw- mill and a lumber yard.
Harrington, formerly called Clark's Corner, grew from a corner store to a fair-sized town within practically thirty years. Benjamin Clark patented the land on which the town is located in 1760. This land lay on the eastern and western sides of the present town, and that of Benjamin Harrington on the north and south of it. Clark erected a hotel in 1810, and the place took the name of Clark's Corner. In 1856, with the building of the Delaware railroad, the town began to boom. Matthew J. Clark laid out a number of lots, in a town. site, and by 1860 a good-sized village was in evidence. In 1862 the name was changed from Clark's Corner to Harring- ton by the Legislature, in honor of Samuel M. Harrington, then Chancellor of the State. Seven years later Harrington was incorporated.
With the growth of the town industrially came a large material growth ; many well-to-do farm-owners in the Hun- dred erected handsome homes in Harrington and contributed to its substantial prosperity. When the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia railroad, formerly the Junction & Breakwater railroad, made the town its northern terminus, an added impetus was given to it. The large saw mill and spoke fac- tory of Ezekiel Fleming, the canning and evaporating works of James C. Reed, the basket factory of William H. and Omer J. Franklin, and the Harrington Chemical Works, conducted by S. S. Harrington, constitute industries employing several hundred hands and representing the investment of many thousands of dollars in capital in this pretty town.
Mispillion Hundred figures conspicuously in the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the State of Delaware.
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At the home of Thomas White, then a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Kent County, the meeting of the First Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, was held in 1780. Meetings were held in Judge White's home in 1777, and in April, 1778, the judge was arrested by Revolutionary soldiers and confined in jail on the charge of being a Methodist. In 1780 White's Chapel was built on the White farm, and during the troublous days for Methodism in Delaware, Bishop Asbury sought refuge with the judge and made his home there for two years. The present White's Chapel occupies an entirely different location.
Near the county line of Sussex, in the home of Levin Todd, meetings were held by the Methodists in 1800. Land was donated by Olive Jump for a chapel, and in 1808 Todd's Chapel was built. It continued in use until replaced May 30, 1858, by the present structure. The third Methodist chapel in the Hundred was Asbury, built on the road leading from Harrington to Felton, on land conveyed April 14, 1814, for the purpose, by William Masten. The building was about a mile and a half from Masten's Corner, and was the begin- ning of Asbury Church, rebuilt several years ago.
The Farmington M. E. Church was originally located a mile from the town on a site where a chapel known as Salem M. E. Chapel was erected in 1816. The land was given by Thomas Davis, and bears date May 21, 1817. The pre- sent church building was erected on the new site, in Farming- ton, in 1873. Manship's M. E. Church, or the old Black Swamp Church, stood at Whitaker's Gate early in the century. When Manship's Church was built, a few miles east of Hol- landsville, the Black Swamp building was abandoned. The new Manship's was dedicated December 2, 1855, and took its name from the Rev. Andrew Manship.
Isaac Graham, of Vernon, donated the ground east of that village for the erection of Prospect M. E. Church which was built in 1834. In 1877 the present edifice was erected on the
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site of the old chapel. At Masten's Corner, in 1873, was built Masten's M. E. Church. The donor of the ground was Joseph A. Masten. One of the first Methodist Protestant churches built in this country, was erected in 1830, about three miles northeast of Marshy Hope Bridge. The original building was torn down in 1871, to give place to the present structure.
The Farmington Presbyterian Church, was built near Farm- ington on the land of W. H. Powell in 1840. The present site and building in Farmington were dedicated in 1863. The Vernon Baptist Church, now known as Zion Church, Harring- ton, was formed from the Independent Methodists, and was organized March 28, 1871, and the present building was dedicated in November of that year. In October, 1765, on land conveyed for the purpose by John Reed, was erected St. Paul's P. E. Church. That year a building was erected, no vestige of which appears at present. Prior to 1836, the con- gregation had become extinct and the building had gone to decay.
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The Harrington M. E. Church building was erected in 1870 as the outcome of meetings, and a Sunday-school held by Dr. F. J. Owens in the school house, during the ten years prior to 1870. A Sunday-school was organized by the Rev. Samuel Murdick, in the old school house in Harrington, in the winter of 1871. This led to the organization of the Harrington Presbyterian Church. Two years later the present church was erected and dedicated. In 1880 the Methodist Protestant Church of Harrington was organized. A building was erected in 1881. Ministers from Bethel held services here. St. Anne's P. E. Church was built at Harrington in 1876. Ser- vices were held until 1887 when the church disintegrated.
Mispillion Hundred contributed one of its influential citi- zens to the list of Delaware's Governors, William Tharp of Farmington. William Tharp, Governor of Delaware from 1847 to 1851, was the oldest son of James Tharp, and Eunice Tharp nee Fleming, of Mispillion Hundred. His grandfather Beniah Tharp was an influential citizen and large land holder
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in the Hundred. The family came into possession of a great portion of the Luff and Anderson lands near Farmington and Harrington. These lands were surveyed for Henry Golds- borough in 1730, and afterwards granted to Nathaniel Luff in 1769, and James Anderson in 1750. William Tharp was born November 27, 1803, and died January 1, 1865. He and his brothers and sisters, of whom he had eleven, left honored names in the Hundred and State where their descendants now rank as influential land holders and citizens. Governor Wil- liam Tharp Watson, who became Acting Governor in March, 1895, by the death of Governor Marvil, and who served in that high office until January, 1897, is a grandson of Gover- nor William Tharp.
MILFORD HUNDRED.
This Hundred was, prior to July 28, 1830, part of the original Hundred of Mispillion, but by Act of Legislature, on the above-mentioned date, the road leading from the boundary line between Murderkill and Mispillion Hundreds to Williams- ville was made the dividing line of the two Hundreds. All land west of the Williamsville road was henceforth to be known as Mispillion Hundred, and all east of the road was called Milford Hundred. Milford Hundred therefore has for its eastern boundary, Delaware bay; its southern, Mispillion creek; its western, Mispillion Hundred; and its northern, Murderkill creek.
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