History of Seaford -1799-1856 by Robert Boyce Hazzard /Chapter 3 Continnued

CHAPTER VII - AN ACCOUNT OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FIFTH DECADE:

Additional town plots"

In 1809 Solomon Boston bought sixteen lots on West Street and put another street to the village, extending it a square further north than the Methodist Church. .

A third plot was what is now High Street from from Market to Pine on both sides by william Conwell in 1815. The field between those lots and West Street was cultivated many years after that survey.

In 1856, the heirs of Levin Cannon, had the land between Pine Street and the railroad , called Cannon's Division, plotted and put on the market.

The fourth plotting, between High and Second and Pine and Market streets, except that previously plotted by James Cannon, was made in 1853

The first bridge over the river at Seaford was built in 1834 by a Georgetown contractor , Henry Foster. There was a ferry before that, we suppose. This bridge was first owned by Captain Hugh Martin until 1883 when Levy court bought it, had it rebuilt in 1884, then made it a free bridge.

The first mill was built in 1835 by solomon Boston, that is the second Solomon and I remember see the first grist run through it. Before this mill was built the Seaford citizens utilized mill's at Concord and Ross'. I remember it well as I was but ten years old and paddles a barge every week or two in the summer to Robert Boyer's mill near Concord and in the winter by horseback to ross', now Hearn Mill.

In the lower part of Sussex there was not enough wheat raised to supply the village of Seaford.

When the pond was made to run Boston's Mill the village changed fromn a very healthy place to a distressingly sickly place, causeing every family to have someone down with arue and fever. That was the cause of my fathers illness, which ran into diabetes and broke him down physically and financially for the next three years. He left a large family , helpless and dependent, but a precious memory.

For many years no public building was erected except a school, which soon after it was built, burned, then rebuilt.