USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume II > Part 9
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Sometime in the first quarter of the eighteenth century the Dean woolen mills were built on White Clay creek, and after passing through many different owners, were burned in 1831. After being rebuilt they finally, in 1845, came into the posses- sion of Joseph Dean, having been previously used as grist and saw mills for the accommodation of the people of the western part of the Hundred. Mr. Dean, who had had a wide experi- ence in Philadelphia mills, remodeled the old buildings and added others, with the machinery adapted to the manufacture of woolen goods, and took his son William into partnership. Upon the death of Joseph Dean in 1861 his son formed a partnership with John Pilling. In 1863 the mill was enlarged to a three-story building 160x60, and turned out yearly $200,000 worth of woolen goods. A new mill was added in 1882 and the firm incorporated. Two more large mills were shortly erected, besides other outbuildings, till their yearly product became $400,000, and their employees numbered 175 men. The business was successfully managed and the mills continuously operated until December 25, 1886, when the entire plant was destroyed by fire. The failure to rebuild proved a severe blow to Newark where a number of the work- men dwelt.
William Dean, a highly useful and upright citizen of Dela- ware, was born in 1820 in Pennsylvania, and spent his early years in his father's mill, becoming thus thoroughly acquainted with every detail of the manufacturing business in which he was afterwards, for forty years, so successful. He was one of the promoters of the Delaware railroad and a director in the company. He held many positions of trust and honor, such as trustee of Delaware College, trustee of the poor of New Castle County, etc., and served in the Legislature in 1869 and 1879, and while chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, devised, in 1869, a revenue law under which in one year the State's bonds went from 75 per cent to par. He was a Demo- crat but repudiated the Greeley fiasco. He was also a strong advocate of the cause of temperance. Alike as business man
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and private citizen, William Dean was distinguished for the honesty and force of his character. He died in 1887, and his funeral was attended by a large number of the leading citizens from this and adjoining states.
In 1705 Col. John French, then sheriff of New Castle County, bought the four acres on which the " Buford Mills " were long afterwards built, and erected on the Christiana, between Rum Branch and Leatherman's run, a grist mill and a bolting mill. William Battell bought the mills in 1723, and conducted them for seven years. After many transfers, the mill property with about 300 acres of land was sold in 1784 by Samuel Pat- terson to John Israel, who built a three-story grist mill which afterwards was successfully operated several years by William F. Smalley, and finally in 1883 came into the possession of Emily F. Platt, who leased it to Platt and Elkinton, and the name " Buford Mills" was adopted. It was refitted with modern mill machinery and had a capacity in 1887 of fifty barrels a day. It was vacant for a number of years, but is now owned by the Delaware Water Company who will use the water supply in conjunction with the P. B. & W. Railroad Company.
About 1798 Thomas Phillips erected a saw mill and a three- story stone grist mill in the Hundred about a mile west of Newark, which in 1854 became the property of Constantine Mclaughlin who ran the grist mill until his death in 1882. His heirs still operate it, using the original building, with the addition in 1885 of modern roller mill machinery. It has a capacity of thirty barrels per diem. Many mills of various kinds once in operation in this Hundred, are now closed from a number of causes, chiefly from a failure of the water power consequent upon the deforestation of the country. The malign power of the big " trusts" which systematically seek the ruin of small competitors, has also closed many mills. Among these disused mills are the Rotheram, an old saw and grist mill built before 1739 and burned in 1877 ; the three Tweed mills in the northwest section on White Clay creek built about
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1790, and a mill near Stanton, built in 1800 and used for a number of years after 1866 by the Butterworth Company, and forming in 1873 a part of the Kiamensi woolen mills, em- ploying thirty-five men.
The " Casho Machine Company " grew out of a mill on the Christiana which William Johnson and George and Jacob Casho operated from 1853 to 1872 in the manufacture of farm implements. The company, incorporated in 1872, added steam power and in 1887 were employing thirty men, and producing yearly $75,000 worth of machinery. This business is now discontinued as are also the Chandler phosphate mill near Stanton and the Armstrong bark mill near Ogleton.
The village of Christiana, at first known as Christiana Bridge, is located in the Eastern part of the Hundred at the head of tide-water navigation on the Christiana creek, and on the principal highway from Philadelphia to Baltimore, which double stragetic situation caused its early settlement over 220 years ago, though its growth was so feeble that in 1737 there were but ten houses in the place, when the effects of the Cecil county trade, thence shipped by water to Philadelphia, to- gether with the increasing local traffic, began to build up the village. The Commission appointed in 1764 to resurvey the twelve-mile circle, met there, as also two years later did the Commissioners from Maryland and Delaware to adjust the boundary line between those two provinces.
During the Revolutionary blockade of colonial ports, all the traffic between Philadelphia and Baltimore came to Christiana Bridge by water to be thence transported overland to Elkton, whence they were sent by packet boats to Balti- more. General Lafayette with 1,200 troops enroute from Trenton to Elkton landed at Christiana Bridge in 1781, and marched from there on foot to Elkton to attack Benedict Arnold, then ravaging the coasts of Chesapeake Bay.
A line of "State boats " plying between Philadelphia and Christiana Bridge was operated in 1785 by the three Hollings- worth brothers, Levi, Henry and Jacob. In those days the
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flour and grist mills on the Christiana were in full operation and their output was brought to Christiana Bridge to be shipped by water to various points. Thereafter, the shipping industry at Christiana Bridge steadily increased, so that in the first part of the last century four packets ran semi-weekly to Philadelphia, and for many years the wharves of Levi Hollingsworth, Levi Adams, Sylvester Welsh and Solomon Maxwell, presented a lively scene of commercial activity. This prosperity was at its height in 1830 when the building of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railroad, but a few miles off, began, and soon proved a deadly foe to the shipping and other interests of the place, and it suffered at last the same ill fate that befell Newport. Now, an occasional boat to or from Philadelphia at its wharf, is all that remains of its once stirring water traffic. It has two churches, a school house, a postoffice, established at least 120 years ago, two blacksmith shops, and about 400 inhabitants.
The village of Ogletown, now called Ogleton, was named after Thomas Ogle, who once owned the village site, it lies near the center of the Hundred. In 1684 George Talbot, one of the Council of Maryland, built a small fort on the land, and for two years stationed there one Murray as commander of a half dozen men to enforce the claims of Lord Baltimore to the land. Talbot was removed at the end of that period, and no further attempt of the sort was made in that region. Rural delivery through Newark has discontinued its postoffice. Mc- Clellandsville, in the northwest, takes its name from an early settler of that name on the village tract. It has a store, a church, a smithy, a postoffice and ten or twelve houses. Newark and Christiana possess the only hotels ; the old one in Ogleton, built in 1795, was closed in 1870. The Christiana hotel was probably opened before 1800. The Shannon was run after the close of the Revolution by William Shannon, a famous caterer, though it was built before the war. Tradition says General Washington shared his choice hospitality, for his culinary fame was so great that travelers would veer twenty-
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five miles out of their course for a chance to taste his good things. The Christiana Lodge No. 9, I. O. of G. T., was organized with sixteen members in 1885.
Newark is the largest and most important town in the Hundred, and its settlement, over 220 years ago, by some Welsh, Scotch and English folk, makes it also one of the oldest. The royal grant of King George II giving, April 13, 1758, corporate privileges to Newark merits quoting as a specimen of the impudent claims of kingly divine right to which our fathers so long meekly submitted : " Whereas our loving subjects James McMechan, Reynold Howell " and four others, " have humbly besought &c, &c, for our letters patent, granting to the inhabitants of said town of Newark the privi- lege of having fairs yearly, and one weekly market &c, there- fore know ye that we, being willing to encourage trade and industry among our subjects, have of our special grace, cer- tain knowledge and meer motion granted, &c, &c." An Act passed in 1772 forbade the sale of provisions anywhere but in the open market on Tuesdays and Fridays, the use of false weights, unwholesome meat or unstamped bakers' loaves. In 1811 James Tilton and five others were authorized by law to raise $4,000 to pave the main street of Newark and to repair the school house and the market house.
Just before the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, the entire British army passed through Newark, and in 1783, when General Washington moved southward towards York- town, a detachment of his troops also went through the village. Thousands of soldiers en route South during the Civil War, were transported over the railroad near Newark. The town recovered from the severe loss of population and business en- tailed by the burning on Christmas night, 1886, of the Dean woolen mills, but of late has slowly but steadily grown in pop- ulation and business. It was re-incorporated in 1887, and seven commissioners instead of five now compose the town council. Its present census (1906) shows about 1500 inhab- itants.
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Newark is Delaware's honored Oxford, the classic seat of the Muses ; and surely the sisters nine could not have chosen a more lovely spot. Its academy was the oldest institution of learning in the State, while its college, of which fuller mention is elsewhere made, with its many modern improvements, ample buildings, and a large corps of able professors, under the wise leadership of its president, Dr. George A. Harter, is now highly prosperous, having in 1906 134 students. In the chapter on " Educational Institutions " the college is described at greater length, together with the early history of the old Newark academy prior to its merger into the college.
The Methodists, who were the first to hold religious ser- vices in Newark, met in private houses before 1812, and in that year organized a society and built a church which was replaced in 1851 by a new building. This burned in 1861, and a third edifice of brick, two stories high, was erected at a cost of $10,000. The denomination has flourished and now (1906) has 169 members, and a Sunday-school of 260 scholars ; later improvements have increased the value of the church building to $13,000, and a parsonage valued at $3000 has also been built. Rev. Wilbur F. Corkran is their present pastor.
The first Presbyterian church was of the New School, and was organized in 1835, and a building put up in 1843. Rev. Dr. E. W. Gilbert, president of Delaware College, was their first pastor, and under his charge, and that of Rev. Dr. J. P. Wilson and Rev. George Foot, the church greatly prospered, and many members were added. In 1839 an Old School church was organized by members formerly worshiping at Head of Christiana and White Clay Creek churches, but it did not prosper. In 1870, the church building having been sold to the Catholics, the two Schools united, and in 1872 dedi- cated a new church. It is now (1906) in fine condition, having 158 members and 116 Sunday-school scholars, with Rev. Wm. J. Rowan, Ph. D. as pastor.
St. Patrick's, a Roman Catholic Church, was organized in
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1866 and their building dedicated in that year by Bishop ()'Hara. Their congregation under Rev. Wm. Blake, num- bered 300, and later Rev. John A. Lyons was their minister. The present pastor is Rev. George L. Ott. Protestant Episco- pal church worship was first held in 1842, and in 1845 St. Thomas P. E. Church, costing $4000 was dedicated by Rev. Al- fred Lee, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of the Diocese. Rev. Walter E. Franklin was their rector. The church now (1905) has 115 members, and Rev. H. B. Phelps is their rector. The St. John's A. U. M. P. Church built a log church in 1845, and in 1867 a new structure costing $1,100. They number about fifty members.
Newark has two hotels, the oldest, St. Patrick's Inn, was in 1750 owned and kept by John Pritchard, and it remained in that family for almost 100 years. In 1851 James S. Martin tore the ancient inn down, and built the present Deer Park Hotel, a fine four-story brick building, 40x60 feet. The old Newark Hotel is of early origin also, having been licensed at least as far back as 1797. Tradition says General Washington was once its guest during the Revolutionary War. The Exchange building occupies its site. The Washington Hotel was built in 1825, and remodeled in 1838. The Newark Building and Loan Association was formed in 1867 and is run on the usual serial plan of those institutions. It has been very successful, and has greatly aided the upbuilding of the town. The Newark Library Association was organized in 1878 with eighty mem- bers, and had acquired in ten years a library of 600 volumes, which has since been largely augmented.
The Newark National Bank was first chartered as a state bank with $50,000 capital, and in 1864 was made a national bank. It had in 1904 a surplus of $32,000, and $2,500 un- divided profits. James Hossinger is president and Joseph H. Hossinger cashier. "Lodge No. 96" of Masons is mentioned in the minutes of the old Newark Academy, but nothing else is known of it. Hiram Lodge No. 3, was instituted in 1806, and continued until 1823. In 1870 Hiram Lodge No. 25,
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A. F. and A. M., was instituted, and by 1887 had grown to fifty-two members. It now (1905) has sixty-one members, R. S. Gallaher is Master; E. Clifford Wilson, Senior Warden ; A. L. Beals, Junior Warden ; C. C. King, Secretary, and H. G. M. Kollock, Treasurer. Oriental Lodge No. 12, I. O. of O. F., was organized February 11, 1847, with five members, and has constantly increased, having ninety-two members in 1887. Osceola Lodge No. 5, K. of P. was formed June 5, 1868, with sixteen members, and is now in a flourishing con- dition. Newark Grange, No. 5, P. cf H., was formed April 6, 1874, and at once opened a co-operative store which has been successfully managed up to the present time. Barnes Lodge No. 1682, G. U. O. of O. F., was organized July 19, 1875, by forty-one colored folks. Mt. Carmel Lodge No. 14, A. F. A. Y. M., also colored, was instituted August 7, 1875, with forty- two members. Newark Lodge No. 3, I. O. G. T., was formed March 8, 1883. In 1885 a lodge of the I. O. of R. M. was instituted with sixteen members and has grown from year to year.
NEW CASTLE HUNDRED.
South and east of Christiana creek, and extending along the Delaware from the city limits of Wilmington to Red Lion creek, lies the low plain of land some six miles wide and a dozen long which forms New Castle Hundred. In the north the land is a trifle rolling, and its natural fertility has been enhanced by cultivation and made accessible by good roads and the railroads that traverse it.
The Hundred lands were granted to the first Swedish and Dutch settlers in large tracts, which after the custom of the time received local names, many still retained, such as " Craine Hook," "Swanwyck " and "Alrichs," on the Delaware; "Long Hook," "Jacquetts," "Swart Nutten's Island," on the Chris- tiana ; the " Commons," "Tom's Land " and "Pigeon Run Lands," on the south ; but the great size of these tracts, cou- pled with their sparse population, retarded the advancement
OLD COURT HOUSE AT NEW CASTLE.
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of husbandry. Swanwyck, on the Delaware, about a mile above New Castle, has a history that largely mingles with that of the town. Magnus Kling, the royal surveyor of Sweden, built his home fronting on the river on the Craine Hook tract in 1640, though he soon returned to Sweden. Other Swedes settling there, a church was built on the land and title thereto acquired, although much dispute and litigation arose over this property after the church's decline in 1698. Finally, as a result of the court's ruling, all these Craine Hook lands passed into other hands, some of them over two hundred years ago. The lots into which the tract was divided commonly faced upon the Delaware, and ran back to the timbered highland in the rear.
Among the oldest owners may be named the Alrichs family. Peter Alrichs, an officer under the Dutch until 1674, and a magistrate under the English between 1676 and 1683, re- claimed a piece of land in 1677 on the south side of Christiana creek which had been bought from the Indians. The house is still standing in which one of his descendants, Peter Sig- friedus Alrichs, lived. After his death, in 1764, his property passed by his will to his two sons, Lucas and Sigfriedus, who divided it in 1780, Lucas taking one hundred and ten acres on the Delaware river and on the Christiana creek, and Sig- friedus seventy-seven acres, including the homestead, where in 1785 he built a brick addition to the wooden structure said to be a century older. His son, Peter S. Alrichs, succeeded him, and died in 1861. His executors, twenty years there- after, sold the land, one hundred and twenty acres of it being bought in 1881 by the Lobdell Car Wheel Company, of Wil- mington, after having been in the possession of the Alrichs family for over two hundred years.
The three hundred and eighty acres of land on Long Hook were surveyed by Ephraim Herman on a warrant dated March 30, 1681, and adjoined the tract of Jean Paul Jacquett, containing two hundred and ninety acres, upon which he lived in 1684. In 1667 Governor Nichols granted to John
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Erskin, Thomas Brown and Martin Garretson, a tract of five hundred acres between Fire Hook and Swart Nutten's Island. called the " Bank Lots." This land was sold in 1681 to John Watkins and Charles Rumsey. Eight patents for land on Fire Hook or Firme Hook and Christiana Kill (or Creek) were issued March 21, 1769, to John Erickson and seven other Swedes, each piece fronting twenty rods on the creek and extending six hundred rods into the woods. Six of these tracts, some six hundred acres on the south side of the Chris- tiana creek, were afterwards bought by Arnoldus DeLagrange, and a patent therefor given by William Penn in 1683. They at last came into the possession of Sarah Williams Neering, a daughter of Johannes De Haes.
In 1667 Swart Nutten's Island, originally held by Vice- Director Hinijossa, came finally into the ownership of John Ogle who lived there some time, but in 1678 conveyed it for fourteen thousand pounds of tobacco, and cash to John Darby of Maryland. October 1, 1669, a patent was issued to Sergeant Thomas Wollaston for a piece of land "on ye South syde of Swarte Nutten island, being a hook of land called Bellye." In 1729 Edward Blake and Jonathan Houston sold the island and " Bellye " to John Lewden who was living on the island at his death in 1744. His sons John and Josiah received this and other land by will, John building a large brick house on his land in 1770, opposite the Christiana bridge, and living there till his death. His son Jeremiah also lived there, and dying in 1840, left the homestead to his sons Josiah and John, who continued to occupy the old mansion and two hundred and fifty acres until about 1900. The original building was enlarged in 1815, and is now owned by John C. Singles. The elder Josiah Lewden lived opposite Newport where he built a big hip-roof house which is still standing. This Lewden tract is one of the few in the Hun- dred, whose possession in the family dates from the seven- teenth century.
Pursuant to an order from the Court at New Castle, obtained
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November 21, 1681, by John Ogle for his two sons, Thomas and John, Surveyor Ephraim Herman on December 27, 1681, located four hundred and thirty-five acres, called the "Fishing Place," on the southeast side of the south main branch of the Christiana. A large tract on the Delaware near New Castle, containing two thousand acres, was granted to Garrett Von Sweringer by Alexander D. Hinijossa, " on behalf of the Right Lord Burgomaster of Amsterdam," " signed Hinijossa at the forte Nieu Amstell, third of July, 1664." This land became the property of John Carr, and was sold " at public outcry " March 5, 1679, in four lots, three of which were bought by Peter Alrichs and the fourth by Anthony Bryant. In 1683 Peter Alrichs had a further tract of fourteen hundred and seventy-three acres between Tom's Run and King's Road, warranted to him.
In 1701 a body of land containing thirteen hundred and seventy-seven acres, lying below the town of New Castle, and partly on the Delaware, was re-surveyed for Jasper Yeates of Chester, and in 1705 eleven hundred acres on Pigeon run and Red Lion creek were re-surveyed by George Deakyne. A tract on Pigeon run, called "Poplar Neck," was owned in 1739 by William Rhodes, and in 1760 John Elliott obtained one hundred and fifty acres of this land, "an old meeting-house and half an acre of land being excluded." The land passed to Dr. Couper of New Castle, whose descendants yet own it. The original Red Lion Inn mentioned in a deed from Rhodes was near here. The family died out many years ago, and part of their estate belongs to Albert H. Silver. A parallelo- gram-shaped Indian mound, about an acre in extent, rising to a considerable height, and clothed with trees and verdure, is still to be seen on this farm. A mineral spring of good quality is near it, and Indian relics in great quantities have been found in the locality.
A brick house in good condition, built in 1746, is on the old Alexander Porter farm, once a part of an estate of eight farms. George B. Rodney, Esq., received this estate from
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General Foreman of Maryland Although many changes in the ownership of lands in this section have taken place, the family of Silver bas continued one of the largest holders since 1820. John Read, Esq., the ancestor of the Read family, owned a large estate in the Hundred, and lived here awhile. A farm of one hundred and eighty acres adjoining the Christi- ana bridge, formed a part of the estate, on which were a large brick house, a store-house and a wharf from which a large business was carried on with Philadelphia. Before 1766, Hon. George Read owned a large tract of land called " Stonum," fronting on the Delaware, and extending nearly to the south- west boundary of the Hundred. Repeated freshets destroying the costly embankments erected by him, he sold the land in 1789.
On November 11, 1787, one hundred and eighty-eight taxable inhabitants and forty-six estates in New Castle Hun- dred, were returned by Joseph Tatlow, assessor. Few interests other than those of farming have occupied the attention of the residents in this Hundred, and even these have lacked their proper development, owing to the fact that many tracts of land are owned by non-residents, and their tenants feeling in- secure in their tenures, naturally take less interest in the lands. Absenteeism in America in its baleful effects upon agriculture in nowise differs from that in Ireland! Then the Hundred's nearness to Wilmington and New Castle has tended to retard the growth of the usual rural villages and hamlets with all their attendant business and social life which have so largely aided in the development of other hundreds in the State. For the reason given above there are none of these minor commu- nities in the hundreds.
Hare's Corner, so called after an early settler of that name, an important cross-roads a few miles from New Castle, has the oldest tavern in the Hundred. It was known in 1820 as Quinn's Hotel, but was soon thereafter styled, "Green Tree Inn " from a sign with that object painted upon it, though the old name yet clings to the locality. For a number of years
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