A History of the State of Delaware

Front matter

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ACCESSION

Preface

THE author has no other apology to make for undertaking the present work, than that in the course of two hundred and thirty-eight years, (the period of time that has elapsed since the first settlement was attempted of the territory that now constitutes this State,) no other person has thought proper to write it before him. Delaware has a history that every citizen should be proud of. _It is many years older than that of her great sister, Pennsylvania. Yet how few Delawareans there are who can tell who settled or governed it, who fought its battles in the Revolution, who passed its laws, what they were, or the circumstances under which they were enacted, or the social and political changes that have from time to time occurred within their State. The want of a relation of these transactions in a book easy of reference, has made this ignorance of our State affairs a general ignorance. ‘This work is designed to remedy this, and to place it in the power of all Delawareans to obtain a knowledge of the past occurrences of their State, that may desire it. All the author aims at, is to plainly, truthfully, and succinctly, detail what has transpired,

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or may in any way relate to the history of Delaware, in a manner that- may be understood by all.

The difficulties of writing a correct History of Delaware can hardly be conceived by any who have not undertaken it. In addition to the extreme lack of historical interest in relation to their State manifested by many, even of our best citizens, no care has been taken of our records. In 1722 they were all destroyed by the burning of Major John French’s house, at New Castle. In 1777 they were captured and carried to New York by the British after the battle of Brandywine. Many of them were never returned, and what were, were stowed away in an outhouse, and afterwards nearly all burnt by a gentleman’s servants, (to light fires,) who were ignorant of their value. Others have heen lost by the carelessness of our different state and county officers. In moving the Kent county records from the State House in - Dover (where many of the officers of Kent county were) to the newly erected county buildings a few years since, a large quantity of valuable matter that would have thrown light on our State history was carted away, and cast out as rubbish. A number of valuable letters and manuscripts belonging: to Thomas M. Rodney, Esq., consisting of letters of his great uncle, the celebrated Czesar Rodney, in relation to the days of the Revolution, were stolen some few years since. Many of our former most distinguished families have now no representative left in the State, and their papers that would have thrown light on our local history are not to be found. The descendants

PREFACE. Vil of others who reside here have parted with every manuscript and letter, having in many cases presented them to New England autograph collectors, amongst whom such things are preserved and valued. No care has ever been taken in our public libraries to preserve any works in relation to this State, and every rare work, not purchasable, the author has been compelled to procure from the libraries of Philadelphia and New York. From this our readers can imagine the difficulties there will be in writing a history of our State; espepecially after its grant by the Duke of York to William Penn—a few years after which grant we first had an independent government—and our affairs ceased to be registered anywhere out of our own limits.

This State having been first discovered by the Dutch, and the first settlement ‘made by them and the Swedes, its early history must necessarily be found in those languages. These two nations inhabited the Delaware between them, and struggled for mastery, until finally the former reduced the latter to subjection. The Dutch officials on the Delaware sent a regular account to New York of every matter of interest. The New York officials sent copies of those accounts to Holland. The Swedes on the Delaware sent accounts to Sweden. These several accounts, both Dutch and Swedish, have many of them been preserved either in the original manuscripts, or by record in books, and it is from these records and cotemporary works, written by Dutch and Swedish authors, that. we are, enabled to get a minute and circumstantial account of our early history.

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The Dutch records by the liberality of the State of New York have been translated into English, by Broadhead and O’Callighan, and published in thirty ‘large volumes. Among these records are the letters of Hudde and Beekman, both of whom minutely record the occurrences on the Delaware. The correspondence of the latter, who was governor of the ter-_ ritory of the northern side of the Christiana, is especially valuable, containing, as it does, a succinet record of the events in the territory that now comprises this State from 1659 to 1664. The Swedish documents, from which we extract our principal information in relation to Swedish affairs, were furnished by Mr. Russell, our former minister to Sweden, to the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. They were translated and*published several years ago in the Register of Pennsylvania. One of the most useful (though also, in some instances, one of the most imaccurate,) of Swedish works is that entitled, “A Short Description of the Province of New Sweden, by Thomas Campanius, of Holme,” printed at Stockholm in. the year 1702, under the patronage of Charles the 12th.

Delaware, from the time of the subjugation of the Swedes, in 1655 to 1682, (when it was conveyed to Penn,) being but a swb government to New York, her history up to that time, as well under the English as under the Dutch, must be looked for mainly in the records of that State. Nicholas, Lovelace and Andross, the deputy governors under the Duke of York, (who was the proprietor of this State, and afterwards

PREFACE. 1x granted it to Penn,) had regular accounts sent on to them of the affairs on the Delaware, where they were carefully recorded. Our own records (with the exceptions of a few deeds and wills) do not extend further back than 1674, when Andross was governor. — ~ They are contained in three books in the Prothonotary’s office at New Castle, and at least one of them is a copy from the records of New York.

The author designs that this work shall contain a narrative of Delaware events from its first discovery until the end of the year 1869. ‘The plan of the work will be to give every public event, the essence of all important laws passed, the names of the governors, the legislators, and other important public officers. The different census, and the number of votes cast, and the majorities at the various elections, and the principles and objects of the various political parties that have existed in the State. With this decla-— ration of the object of the work, he issues his first volume, which is now written in hopes it will meet the approbation and patronage of the citizens of Delaware. As the second volume is not yet written, he should be pleased if any who have any letters, manuscripts, documents or books, that will. throw any light on the past history of Delaware, would loan them to him fora perusal. They will be faithfully returned.

Since the above was written the author has added two chapters to the work, more than he at first intended. The first giving an account of the boundaries of the State and its Counties, and their extent, as well as a short description of its surface, harbors, x PREFACH.

bays, rivers and creeks; the other, a description of its geological formation. He has done this, supposing that the information conveyed would cause the historical portions of the work, when they came to be read, to be better understood.

HISTORY ue “THE isis OF DELAWARE

164-05 on — CHAPTER I.

The Radii from New Castle—Mason and Dixon’s Line—Jurisdiction ; : 8 over the Delaware for Twenty-four Miles—Latitude and Longi- ag tude—Counties of the State—Its Hundreds—Estimated Extent of = its Territory—Boundaries of Counties—Northern Part Hilly— The Ridge—Cypress Swamp—The Forests, White, Black, Spanish Oak, the Bark—Game—Mocking Birds—The Rivers, Harbors and Streams—Naaman’s Creek, Brandywine, Christiana, White ae Clay and Red Clay, Mill and Bear, Red Lion, St. Georges, St. Augustine, Silver Run, Duck and Little Duck Creeks—Kent and = ___ Kelley’s Islands—Dona River—Port Mahon, Little Jones’, Mis- sa pillion, Broadkiln and Lewes Creek—Lewes Creek filled up—

Cape Lewes—Rehoboth and Indian River Bays—Indian River Inlet—Lewes, Middle, Herring and Guinea Creeks--Long Neck—

Burton’s Island—Pepper, Vine and White Creeks—Kedging of 7 the Shallops—Fresh Pond—Salt Pond—Manufacture of Salt— Assawaman Bay—Fenwick’s Island—Assateague Island—Fish

and Water Fowl of the State, the Crocus, the Sheephead, the

Drum, the Man-nin-nose, the King Crab, the Curlew—The Nan-

ticoke, Broad and Pokomoke Rivers—Rivers rising in the State

flowing into the Chesapeake.

THE boundaries of the State of Delaware are as follows: first, a circle drawn in a radius of twelve miles from the Court-house at the centre of the town of New Castle, commencing (we will say) at low water mark on the shore of New Jersey, north of New Castle, thence extending over the Delaware, and fol-

J ee hs ra) A, eae lowing its circumference until it again touches the shore of that State south of its radius-of twelve miles from New Castle. This circular boundary on the north gives Delaware sole jurisdiction over the Delaware River and Bay from low water mark onthe Jersey side, over a mile north of where Naaman’s Creek, on the western or Delaware side, flows into the Delaware, extending southward twenty-four miles to a place a short distance north of where Silver Run Creek enters the Delaware from this State, or abouta mile south of where Alloway’s Creek flows into it from the Jersey side. Within these boundaries are comprised the islands of the Pea Patch, on which is erected Fort Delaware, and Reedy Island. Below this circle the jurisdiction of the State extends to the middle of the bay, as far as Cape Henlopen, where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It then extends along the Atlantic Ocean to a point at Fenwick’s Island, in about 28° 20’ north latitude. The line of the State then extends westwardly thirty-four miles, three hundred and nine perches (being exactly half the distance between the ocean and the Chesapeake Bay). The State boundary then runs by a right line nearly due north at a tangent until it reaches the western part of the periphery of the circle, twelve miles from the Court-house at New Castle. It contains within its limits 2002-6 square miles. The State is situated in latitude from 38° 28’ to 39° 47’ north, and from longitude from 74° 56’ to 75° 46’ west from Greenwich.

Its physical boundaries are as follows: on the north by Pennsylvania and the Delaware River, on the south by Maryland, on the east by the middle of the bay and river to twenty-four miles from the State’s northern boundary, from thence by a line of low water mark on the Jersey shore to the radius of twelve miles north of New Castle; and on the west — by Maryland, and by Pennsylvania to the periphery of the circle from New Castle, where she connects with the State of Maryland. This circular boundary of Delaware causes the entrance of Pennsylvania between Delaware and Maryland in the shape of a long narrow wedge. The length of the State is ninety-five miles. At its southern boundary it is nearly thirty-five miles in width, which width is hardly diminished for about twenty-six miles, or to Cape Henlopen. But from Cape Henlopen to its northern boundary, from the Delaware flowing in a southwest course, it diminishes in width until it reaches its narrowest part in the neighborhood of Red Lion Creek, in New Castle county, (where its breadth is not over ten miles,) when it again widens until it reaches the breadth of twelve miles from New Castle Court-house. The line that divides Delaware from Maryland is a part of the celebrated Mason and Dixon’s line, run by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in 1762, (of which we shall speak more hereafter in its proper place,) to separate the territories of Lord Baltimore and Thomas and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn. This Mason and Dixon’s line was popularly supposed to be the boundaries between the free and slave states. But this was a popular error. Slavery existed in Delaware, which is west of this line, until abolished by the fourteenth amendment to. the constitution. The mistake occurred, we suppose, from the line when it passes the periphery of the circle from New Castle and reaches the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, instead of running north and south, as between Maryland and Delaware, runs due west. So that Mason and Dixon’s line was the boundary between slavery and freedom when it ran east and west, between Pennsylvania and Maryland, but not when it ran north and south, between Maryland and Delaware. . |

The State is divided into three counties, viz: New Castle, Kent and Sussex, and each of these counties are subdivided into hundreds. .Hundreds are the old English subdivisions of counties, and Delaware is the only State, it is alleged, in which they exist in the United States. They were supposed to have originated with Alfred the Great, one of the old Anglo- Saxon kings who ruled in England A.D. 877, or 992 years ago. But they are now known to have been in existence before his time. They derive their name from having originally, when instituted in England, contained one hundred families. New Castle county contains ten hundreds, viz.:. Brandywine, Christiana, Wilmington, (the city of Wilmington, which, by law, is a hundred in itself,) Mill Creek, White Clay Creek, Pencader, New Castle, Red Lion, St. Georges and Appoquinimink. It contains 424.02 square miles. New Castle is the county town.

Kent county contains seven hundreds, viz.: Duck Creek, Little Creek, Kenton, Dover, North Murderkill, ee i at RK

South Murderkill, Milford and Mispillion.t It contains 613-06 square miles. Dover is the county town, and capital of the State.

Sussex county contains eleven hundreds, viz. : Cedar Creek, Broadkiln, Georgetown, Nanticoke, North West Fork, Broad Creek, Little Creek, Dagsboro’, Baltimore, Indian River, and Lewes and Rehoboth. It also contains 964:08 square miles. Georgetown is the county town.

There are various statements published of the size of Delaware, nearly all of which differ; but the account we have given is based on -the last survey made by D. G. Beers, for the publication of the State Atlas of Pomeroy & Beers, in 1868. The survey of Rea & Price for the State Map in 1850 gives the area of the State at 2,221 square miles. But they vary in their ‘own calculation, for they give the number of acres contained in the counties of the State 1,300,250; this, divided by 640, the number of acres in a square mile, would make the State, according to their estimate, .

consist of little over 2,031 square miles. Again, they make New Castle county, in their statement, contain 271,490 acres, and 619 square miles. When 271,490, divided by 640, would only bring 420, or make that county 195 square miles less by their report in acres than by their report in miles. The American Encyclopzedia gives the area of the State at 2,160 square

1 Murderkill was divided into two hundreds by Act of Legislature of March 20, 1867. Kenton hundred was formed from parts of Little Creek and Duck Creek hundred, by Act of Legislature, February 3, 1869.

whe miles. Huffington, of the Delaware Register, estimates it at 2,070. Mitchell’s Atlas makes it 2,120 square miles. So far there has been no official survey of the State to verify what it contains.

Each of the counties take up the whole breadth of the State. New Castle and Kent are divided from ~ each other by Duck Creek, and a line running from | its northern branch about due west to the Maryland line. Kent is divided from Sussex by the Mispillion Creek and the Tan Trough Branch, one of its tributaries; thence southwesterly to a small branch of the Nanticoke, down this branch to the southward end of a beaver-dam, and thence by a line due west to the State line.

The accounts of most of the natural features of our State will be given under the head of its geology in the succeeding chapter. But as little mention of its rivers, streams and bays have there been made, and as it is necessary to know them, to comprehend the events hereafter to be related, a slight sketch is accordingly given of them and the other geographical features of the State.

The extreme upper portion of the State of Delaware (as will be found hereafter stated in our description of its geology) is composed of a mass of beautifully rounded hills, nowhere more than five hundred feet in height, situated on a-sub-stratum of rock. Below the White Clay Creek, a distance of about seven miles from our quadrantal boundary, the land becomes level, the rock generally ceases, and a low sandy ridge, nowhere more than seventy feet high, passes through the State. This table land abounds in swamps, in which most of the rivers and streams of the State have their source. At the southern border of the State is a great morass, called the Cypress Swamp, about twelve miles in length, the whole of which is a high level basin. It contains nearly fifty thousand acres. About one half of this great swamp lays in Sussex county, Delaware; the other half in Maryland. It contains a great variety of trees and plants, mostly cypress-trees, (called by the residents cedars,) and an immense quantity of huckleberry bushes, and is infested with wild animals. The deer and the bear, it is alleged, yet remain there. Below its surface are found immense trunks of cedar trees, the remains of giants of the forest long since gone.. The residents of the locality probe through the morass with rods, to find where they are situated, and then raise them, and turn them into _ shingles for market. This whole swamp can be readily drained and made good land. The soil of the State is fertile. It has long been celebrated for its wheat. All the small fruits that grow in the temperate zone flourish here. It appears to be the natural home of the peach. Cotton was formerly grown in - Sussex county. The noblest forests of white and ~ black oak, yellow pine, cypress or cedar, tulip poplar, Spanish oak, gum, and other magnificent trees still exist in the State, although they are being rapidly cleared away. Its white oak, it is conceded, is the finest in the United States. Trees of this description in the Blackbird, Kenton, and other forests of the 2

State, are often three feet in diameter across the stump, and from forty to sixty feet in height. Logs are often sawed from them of thirty feet long. The black oak produces the best quercitron bark in the Union, and it brings a higher price than any other in the Liverpool market. It is ground principally at Milford and Smyrna. The Delaware Spanish oak furnishes the best known bark for tanning, and its bark brings a higher price, both in the foreign and domestic market, than any other. The forests of pine are principally in Sussex county. Sumach, which is worth from $50 to $60 a ton, grows wild in immense quantities. All the ordinary game birds, such as the snipe, the partridge, the old field plover, (a bird a little larger than a partridge,) abound in the State. The mocking-bird, rarely, if ever, observed north of our boundary, can be seen in numbers in Kent and Sussex, and the lower part of New Castle counties. ,

Its principal rivers, streams, and harbors are, first, the Delaware, which, for twenty-four miles from our northern boundary, is a part of our State. It is so well known as not to necessitate any description. Naaman’s Creek, which flows into the Delaware about a mile from our northern border, is the most northern stream in the State. The Shelpot Creek, which flows into the Brandywine a short distance before it joins Christiana. The mouth of this stream is now dammed up. The Brandywine, which rises in Pennsylvania, and flowing through the State, dividing Brandywine — from Christiana hundred, enters the Christiana within

HISTORY OF STHE TATE OF DELAWARE. abs)

the limits of the city of Wilmington, about a mile and a half from where that river enters the Delaware. The Brandywine is navigable for about two miles from its mouth for sloops and schooners. From the termination of its navigation to the Pennsylvania line, it is mostly rocky, with several falls, which affords magnificent water power, from the city of Wilmington to the Pennsylvania border. Its banks are lined on both sides with mills and factories. The Christiana, which flows through the State in a northeast course from Maryland, and empties into the Delaware at Wilmington. This river is of sufficient depth to be navigated by vessels drawing 14 feet to the city of Wilmington, and sloops to the village of Christiana, about ten miles further. Red Clay Creek, Mill Creek, and Bear Creek, are large streams flowing into the White Clay Creek (a confluent of the Christiana) from the northern hundreds. They were once navigable, but are now valuable, mainly, for their water power. Red Lion Creek, formerly navigable, is now dammed up. St. George’s Creek is now turned into the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, except a portion of it which empties into the bay partially through anew channel. St. Augustine’s and Silver Run are small creeks which flow into the bay in St- George’s hundred, below Reedy Island. Appoquinimink is an important creek, and is navigable for sloops to Odessa, about seven miles from its mouth, and for steamboats to Thomas’ Landing, about two miles and a half from its mouth.

Blackbird is a navigable creek, which flows due east and north until it empties in the bay. Duck Creek, is an important ereek, which divides New Castle from Kent county. It is navigable for seven or eight miles to within a mile of the important town of Smyrna, for whose exports it is the outlet. It is also navigable for several miles for steamboats, having water from twelve to fourteen feet to Hay Point Landing. It flows into the bay north of Bombay Hook, through a made channel called the Thoroughfare. Little Duck Creek is a creek navigable for sloops for several miles from its mouth to the town of Leipsic, the commerce of which it bears upon its waters. Dona River is a small river, the head of which connects with Little Duck Creek. For about three miles it flows with a broad channel, and enters the bay below Little Bombay Hook Island. This river and Little Duck Creek forms Kent Island, a large marshy island several miles in extent. It is navigable for steamboats for about two miles to Dona Landing. It was the place originally intended for the terminus of the Delaware Railroad. About two miles before Dona River reaches the bay, it is divided into two channels, one of which, (called Mahon River,) tearing itself a passage through the yielding marsh, and flowing southerly for about four miles, forms itself into a bay or harbor, and enters the Delaware. In conjunction with Dona, it forms Kelley’s Island, another large marshy island, in which there are several ponds. This bay or harbor is called Port Mahon, and is esteemed the best harbor for coasters on the Delaware. Little Creek is a small creek, navigable for about three miles from its mouth for sloops and small schooners. It is the channel for the commerce for the town of Dover, the capital of the State, which hauls its exports four miles to a place upon it, called Little Creek Landing. It flows into the Dela- | ware about a mile below the mouth of Port Mahon. Jones’ Creek, which runs back of the town of Dover, is navigable for small sloops and schooners to Forrest Landing, about nine miles from its mouth. Forrest Landing is where the produce of the town of Camden is shipped. This creek is about twenty miles long, and flows in a southeasterly direction until it reaches the bay. Murderkill is a navigable creek, which flows in a northeast direction until it enters the bay about a mile below the mouth of Jones’ Creek. Sloops and schooners can go up to the town of Frederica about ten or twelve miles from its mouth. Mispillion is a large creek, upon which the town of Milford is situated. It is navigable to Milford for large sloops and schooners, and steamboats have ascended it. It is the outlet for the commerce of that town. Mispillion is also the boundary between the counties of Kent and Sussex. Cedar Creek is a small navigable creek, flowing into the Delaware. It has also an artificial outlet into the Mispillion. Draper’s, Slaughter’s and Primehook Creeks are small unimportant streams

- flowing into the bay at various distances between the _ mouths of Mispillion and Broadkiln and Lewes Creeks. ‘Broadkiln Creek is a stream navigable for sloops and schooners to the town of Milton, a distance of about twelve miles from its mouth. It flows in an easterly course, and enters the estuary of Lewes Creek about a

¥ heen aT S i pe two miles from its junction with the Delaware Bay. Lewes Creek, from where it flows to the Delaware, to the town of Lewes, a distance of about six miles, is separated from the bay by Cape Lewes, a cape about six miles long, and varying from an eighth to three quarters of a mile in width. Large coasters used to sail up the creek, but it is now only navigable for boats. Its navigation was destroyed by what is

\’ known as the “Great Storm.” The waters of the bay washed over the narrow cape, and filled the bed of the stream with sand. The navigation of Lewes is now through a canal froma small creek, called Canary Creek, to Mill Creek, and from there to Broadkiln Creek. Two small creeks, called Wolfe Creek and — Old Creek, flow into it from the neighborhood of Lewes.

Rehoboth Bay and Indian River Bay are two large shallow bays, which are separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow ridge of sand, which is from a quarter to half a mile in width, and about nine miles in length. Through this ridge the waters of the two bays have united, and torn a passage, called Indian River Inlet. This inlet rarely ever contains more than three feet water, and after a great easterly storm its mouth is generally stopped up by sand washed into it from the workings of the ocean; after which the waters of the bays again tear themselves a passage, and wash the sand which has filled up the: inlet into the ocean. These large bays, each, contain about twenty-five square miles of surface, and at their deepest part do not exceed five feet. Their general depth is from three to five feet. Rehoboth, the most northerly of these bays, is nearly square in shape, and extends parallel with the ocean, separated from it by the ridge before mentioned for about six miles. It is probably six miles long by about five broad. Love Creek, Middle Creek, Herring Creek, and Guinea Creek flow into it. All of them shallow streams. It is separated from Indian River Bay by a neck of land called Long Neck, and several marshy islands, (now called Burtons,) but-in the old maps called Staten Islands, where it is mentioned as abounding in oysters and terrapins. It is at this time, however, too salt for oysters to live in, and consequently none can be found there. Indian River Bay is about eight miles long, and from two to four broad. It only fronts about three miles on the Atlantic, from which it is separated by the narrow ridge before described. It extends lengthwise nearly due west into the State. Indian River, on which is situated the town of Milsboro’, a broad shallow stream flowing due east, and of which it is a continuation, enters it. Pepper Creek, Vine Creek, and White Creek, streams of no importance, (although making a great show in the map,) flow into it. On Pepper Creek is situated the town of Dagsboro, and on White Creek that of Frankford. The small depth of water at the mouth of Indian River Inlet creates the necessity of forcing the shallops over the bar by kedging. This causes a thumping of the vessel’s keel on the sand, which drives the bilge water into the hold, and spoils much of the grain, which is the general cargo of these vessels.

\ Fresh Pond and Salt Pond are the names of two remarkable ponds in Baltimore hundred, situated — on the Atlantic coast, a few miles south of Indian River Bay. Fresh Pond is about half a mile long by one or two hundred yards wide, and about twenty-five or thirty feet deep. It has no outlet, and apparently no streams flowing into it. It contains beautiful fresh water, and a few fish. The ridge of sand between it and the Atlantic is not more than an eighth of a mile wide. Great storms sometimes wash away a portion of this ridge, and let the salt water into the pond. But the ocean again forms the ridge, and restores things to the condition they were in _before. \ Salt Pond is another body of water about the size of Fresh Pond, and situated within about three miles to the south of it. It is probably one-half of a mile further from the ocean than Fresh Pond, and the Atlantic does not break through its banks and encroach on its waters, as in the case of Fresh Pond. It, like Fresh Pond, has no outlet. Its waters are very-salt, far more so than those of the ocean from which it is separated by sucha slight barrier. Indeed, it is so salt that no fish can live in it. Salt works were once erected on its banks, and a great deal of salt extracted from it. Salt is still manufactured from its waters by the citizens of the neighborhood for their own use. Assawaman Bay is the last body of water in Delaware. The head of it is formed by Jefferson Creek, which flows into it from the north. It is a long shallow bay about seven miles long from one to one-half a mile broad, and from four to five feet deep, navigable only for boats. It is separated from the Atlantic by _@ long narrow ridge of land, from a mile to three