Chapter II : Comprising the History of the Plotting The Village and the Business Enterprise of its Citizens:
On the 29
th of October 1799,
Seaford, or that part of it which lies between the river on the south, Herring Creek on the east, West Street on the north and Market Street on the west, with a few lots on the west side of Market Street, below East Street, was plotted. Prior to this time there was a landing near the point where the creek flows into the river, called Indian Landing, and later, Hooper Landing. We infer from the name Indian Landing that
Seaford, in the remote past, was an Indian camping ground.
Tradition of the time says that
Seaford took its name from and old white horse owned by a Scotchman then living at the landing who had named his horse after his native town in Scotland. It is probable that that is fact, as the distance from the sea and the depth of the river would make fording impracticable and the name irrelevant. The Scotchman referred to was Barnard
Lidday, who was one of the first citizens of the village and who bought several lots, among them the lots owned by Capt. Benjamin
Stokely who lived there up to his death.
Lidday remained but a few years in
Seaford them moving to Baltimore where he drowned at the docks, after which his lands were sold by Sheriff Tyndale
Lidday's only child, a son, returned to the eastern shore and grew up in
Hurlock, known as Barney Letta, then became a very old and highly esteemed christian gentlemen and died in Greensboro . It has been gathered that the early first settlement of
Seaford was marked by
dissipation where drinking
intoxicant's and gambling were common
practices and the debts for which the
Lidday properties were sold came from gambling.
Captain Solomon Boston was another of
Seaford's first citizens and was a very enterprising man and was the grandfather of Mrs. Sallie Harper who now lives at the place of his old home. He was a
Virginian and a 'coaster', the master of a large vessel engaged in the coasting trade which would run up the
Nanticoke for harbor during severe winter weather and lay just below the shoals about a mile below
Seaford. Soon after the plotting of
Seaford,
Caaptain Boston was detained in harbor at
Lewistown. While there, he went to visit a party of young people near Slaughter Neck where he met Sally Hines and in due time wooed and won her hand. After their marriage
she sailed with him for some time
during which he sailed many times up the
Nanticoke to
Seaford and soon he bought property in the village and settled his family there while still continuing his coastal sailing trade.
Reccords show that he
first purchased was the mansion house of John
Hooper, December 12, 1840. It was last standing in the rear of the
Thomas Cottingham store. He
also bought several 50 X 51 lots on the west side of Market Street. The next year he bought lot #45 on North Street, near Water Street for $80. This section became the main trading center of town. His next purchase in 1809 were sixteen lots on West Street which became an
extension of the village northward in the second plotting. In 1815 he purchased 'The Island', [which it was then and until 1825 , an island] where he built a plane two story house which stood for near a half century on the site where now stands the palatial home of Mr. Thomas Harper and Mrs. Sallie Harper. A foot bridge
spaned the creek opposite the house and has been kept in good repair nearly a quarter of a century. It was thereafter the home of his wife and children and their children up to the present time and we suppose this to be the only tract, lot or plot of land about the town, except the
Protestent Methodist Cemetery, that has not changed hands in these ninety years. Thomas Harper died about 1820, after which his eldest son Solomon bought out the interest of his brothers, John and Charles, then his family lived there and after his following of the coastal trade, died there. Solomon was
married twice, first to Miss Ann Collins, the mother of Sallie Harper, and second to Miss Harriet Wallace, now Mrs. James.