Pilot Boat Tunnell and 1889 Great Coastal Storm

SEPTEMBER 1889 GREAT COASTAL STORM

AND

THE PILOT BOAT TUNNELL

Lewes, Delaware September 14, 1889

During the past few days since the Great September East Coast Storm, excitement in Lewes has it's citizens busy doing what needs to be done to assist those that are in need of assistance and many gathering around the Virden House in downtown listening to stories and the news going the rounds.

One of those stories is of the Pilot Boat Tunnel, under the charge of Pilot John M. Barnes, which has been listed as missing. All of the prayers and hopes of the pilots dear ones involved were answered this morning as the sun, which has been shut out so long by the storm clouds rose in all it's glory over the sand dune which is occupied by the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse, here comes the missing Tunnell, full speed under full sail, into the harbor.

The account of the perilous cruise was offered by Pilot Barnes. “ We took the gale in it's full force at 8 in the morning, Tuesday, ten miles off the Capes, and made doubled reefed sails all around. Then the gale winds increased to a hurricane. The main sail was blown from it's ropes as we headed out to sea some twenty miles before the winds. Eventually they got the storm-try sail on her with great difficulty , and hove to, laying easy but working off shore. The gale winds increased until Wednesday about ten in night.

During the height of the gale, the oil bags were brought out on deck and gave some relief to the cross wind and heavy seas. Wednesday night, after the wind veered to north and lulled a little, the double reefed foresail was lofted and we headed for shore. From two hundred and fifty miles off land we made slow headway toward the capes until Thursday morning when more sail was made and we made one hundred and two miles. Thursday evening was when we sighted hog Island and the Tunnell arrived at the Breakwater this morning at three o'clock.

Tuesday during the winds she skipped a heavy sea, upsetting the cook stove and utensils , etc. Pilot Barnes, one of the Tunnell owners, gave credit to the sea going qualities of the boat, and said if it were not for these they would have been lost. As he was also out during the 1888 March blizzard he felt the late storm was more severe.

A young friend of Barnes, Harry Hickman, who was on board, has abandoned his desire to make a voyage across the Atlantic when his school days are over, feeling sure that Lewes Creek will be as far as he cares to navigate.

Source: The Monday, September 16^th 1889 issue of Wilkes Barre Record newspaper of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Newspapers.com

Delawares First Constitution Presented in September

Delaware Constitution Convention was held from August 27 to September 21 , 1776 and there drafted the first state constitution in the United States written by a body of men elected  for that purpose.

FIRST DELAWARE RAILROAD LINE

New Castle, Delaware,  1 September 1832:

The first trip by a locomotive train occurred in Delaware as the New Castle to Frenchtown Railroad, the first railroad in Delaware the first State and one of the first in the United States which opened in 1831.  This first year the train was pulled by a horse team, switching to a steam locomotive in 1832. The railroad originally meandered southwest from New Castle, Delaware to Frenchtown, Cecil county, Maryland

1890 SEVERE ATLANTIC COAST STORM.

SEVERE STORM OF SEPTEMBER 1890

ATLANTIC COAST

At Ocean City, Maryland the damage and destruction wrought by this storm is great. The porches of most of the ocean front cottages and hotels were washed away, doors and windows broken, furniture is seen floating about the beach. The seas were breaking into the second story of the Atlantic Hotel and Congress Hall and running six feet deep throughout the hotels leaving the furnishings floating about the rooms. .

A railroad train was sent last night to rescue the beach dwellers and a large number of men were seen joining hands and wading through waist deep water to bring the women, one by one, to the cars seated on their joined hands.

In New York City Port , nine authority pilots were carried to sea on steamers they were guiding as they could not find pilot boats to bring them ashore and will need to take involuntary trips to Europe and other southern ports.

Incoming steamships arriving today from the east and south report passing through a storm of almost unexampled severity.

New Jersey shore reports the steamer trip from Somers Point to Atlantic City was abandoned due to the storm. Postmaster Chester of Sea Isle City reaching the mainland today told of that place being in very bad shape, the sea walls being destroyed and fifteen house washed away, including the New Land, The Star and the Shakespeake hotels. The Continental, the larges hotel there, is safe and no lives were lost. West Jersey Railroad has reestablished communications with Atlantic City this afternoon and the fire reported there proved to have consumed only a half dozen shanties of small value at the south end of the island.

At Lewes, Delaware, on the 11^th, the pilot boat, Thomas A. Bayard, dragged her anchors and came ashore with her keel gone, but the eleven man crew was safe. A schooner, J & L Byron, Captain L. L. Risley master, with cargo of coal from Philadelphia went to pieces on fourteen Foot Bank last night. Here, the crew came ashore on pieces of the wreck, with four members evidently lost.

The Lewes Life Saving Station was partly washed away and the Breakwater fog bell was found washed ashore at Lewes. The beach between Lewes and Rehoboth is strewn with wreckage and it is thought that at least fifty lives were lost on Delaware Bay. Men were seen clinging to the top rigging, calling for help which the life saving crews were powerless to provide owing to the fury of the gale and many of their bodies were washed ashore and buried in the sands along the water.

Damages may reach well over $5,000,000 to vessel property at the Breakwater as reported by the Decatur Daily Dispatch of Illinois , Friday, 12 September 1890..

TAYLORS AND CARYS IN LEWES DELAWARE DURING 1690'S

Lewestown on Delaware:

Thomas Cary, arrived America from England and was wealthy and educated.  He had two brothers,  Edward and John, his parents and other siblings who lived in Somerset County Maryland and owned land south of the Crouch and Gardey families land.  John Cary was a young and wildman, often in trouble and early court records show he was charged with public intoxication, cursing in public,  and twice with lewd behavior with another man wife.  He was accused of running away with the wife of one James Ingram. Needless to say,  John Cary was a bounder and no doubt a source of expense and worry to his parents.  It is thought the behavior of John was one of the reasons that he, Edward and Thomas left Somerset and relocated in Sussex county, Lewes-Rehoboth Hundred,  Delaware, where the family owned land in addition to land on Assateague Island.  Once they were settled in Lewestown they became prosperous  purchasing and selling land.  John Cary became a jurist on the Sussex County Court, which was held in Lewes.  Qualifications for this post were that one needed to be a male, literate and a land owner. John met those very well.
It is known that both the Cary family and the Taylor family lived in Lewes after 1694. Now for several assumption, corroborated by land and court records.  At appears that around 1699 Rose Taylor had two children she claims were fathered by her sisters brother in law, John Cary.  A court record confirms that "two bastard children" were born to Rose Taylor , and said to be Peter and Moses, sons of John Cary.  
Source Ancestry Memoirs :   Rose  Rosamund Rozanna CrouchL

The Cliffs in Philadelphia Pennsylvania Built By Joshua Fisher of Lewes.

The Cilffs is a Registered Historic Place near 33rd and Oxford Streets , East Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia. built in 1753 by Philadelphia merchant Joshua Fisher who lived 107 to 1783, the great grandfather of joseph Wharton. It overlooks the Schuylkill River from the east.  It is acountry house in the Georgian style, constructed in stone, two stories and basement, heated by double fireplaces on both floor and basement. The estate included a farm. During the Revolution War, Ben Franklin daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache and her sewing group made clothing and bandages for continental soldiers.

Joshua Fisher had settled in Lewes Delaware, marrying Sarah Rodman , and had started a hat making business using locally plentiful animal skins and became wealthy.  In 1746 he moved his family to downtown Philadelphia and built the cliffs as a country getaway where he brought the family in the summer .  The house remained in the Fisher family over 100 years. . 1868 it was purchased by Fairmount Park, was rented and maintained until 1960's.  In 1960's it was maintained and repaired by the Shackamaxon Society then became vacan when money to keep it up became scarce.  It burned in 1986 and today is a shell of masonry . 

GOLDSBOROUGH ESCAPE 1869

THE ESCAPE FROM SUSSEX COUNTY

OF

ROBERT H. GOLDSBOROUGH

NOVEMBER 1869

Robert H. Goldsborough, the convicted murder of Charles Marsh, and sentenced to hang on 10 December 1869, is reported to have escaped . The “Commercial” newspaper of Wilmington has let the following account:

We have received the following particulars as to the manner in which he accomplished his escape and they leave no room to doubt that he had outside assistance in getting away. He had evidently been furnished with an instrument with which he sawed off the bolt of the leg irons and this left him manacled. He then was able to saw an eighteen inch hole through the floorboards of his cell to the outside wall, dig a hole beneath the outside wall which allowed him to get into the outside yard, also enclosed by a concrete wall where he removed an earthen drain and enlarged this hole to craw through to the street where a carriage was waiting to carry him off toward Lewes and the east.

A Goldsborough relative had visited a short time ago and left a jar of beach plum preserves which is believed to have contained the sawing instrument concealed. Goldsborough is connected to a wealthy and highly respected Maryland family and it is supposed sufficient means have been been place at his disposal to make his freedom.

The Delaware Governor has offered a meager $1000 reward for his capture.

The schooner John Gilprin

SAILING SCHOONER JOHN GILPRIN

MARYLAND

1831 TO 1845

The schooner John Gilprin was begun in 1826 at St. Michael's and launched in 1831 , sent to sea the

year following. Most of it's voyages were with the China Tea trade. The John Gilprin was a two

master brig 104 feet in length and is said to be the last large ship to be launched at St. Michael's. Ar

Michael's was at the hub of the Eastern Shore, once having the material ready for building such vessels,

such as live oak, locusts and cedar, carpenters with the knowledge of the use of hand tools necessary to

construct such a ship. It could take several years to complete these vessel's said to be a link between

the early Baltimore Clipper Ships and the larger clipper ships of a later era. The ship sank off

Newfoundland sometime around 1845, having traveled some 228,533 miles during the 144,323 days

she was afloat. She held a record of a 56 day, 4 hour run, from Callao , Peru to Lintin, China in 1837

which she held until 1843 when the record was broken by the Helena, a larger ship.

A model of the John Gilprin rest in the Chesapeake Bay Museum built by the historian R. Hamiton

Gibson.

Source: Dick Moore, Salisbury Daily Times, 30 March , 1977

Pilot Boat Tunnell

SEPTEMBER 1889 GREAT COASTAL STORM

AND

THE PILOT BOAT TUNNELL

Lewes, Delaware September 14, 1889

During the past few days since the Great September East Coast Storm, excitement in Lewes has it's citizens busy doing what needs to be done to assist those that are in need of assistance and many gathering around the Virden House in downtown listening to stories and the news going the rounds.

One of those stories is of the Pilot Boat Tunnel, under the charge of Pilot John M. Barnes, which has been listed as missing. All of the prayers and hopes of the pilots dear ones involved were answered this morning as the sun, which has been shut out so long by the storm clouds rose in all it's glory over the sand dune which is occupied by the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse, here comes the missing Tunnell, full speed under full sail, into the harbor.

The account of the perilous cruise was offered by Pilot Barnes. “ We took the gale in it's full force at 8 in the morning, Tuesday, ten miles off the Capes, and made doubled reefed sails all around. Then the gale winds increased to a hurricane. The main sail was blown from it's ropes as we headed out to sea some twenty miles before the winds. Eventually they got the storm-try sail on her with great difficulty , and hove to, laying easy but working off shore. The gale winds increased until Wednesday about ten in night.

During the height of the gale, the oil bags were brought out on deck and gave some relief to the cross wind and heavy seas. Wednesday night, after the wind veered to north and lulled a little, the double reefed foresail was lofted and we headed for shore. From two hundred and fifty miles off land we made slow headway toward the capes until Thursday morning when more sail was made and we made one hundred and two miles. Thursday evening was when we sighted hog Island and the Tunnell arrived at the Breakwater this morning at three o'clock.

Tuesday during the winds she skipped a heavy sea, upsetting the cook stove and utensils , etc. Pilot Barnes, one of the Tunnell owners, gave credit to the sea going qualities of the boat, and said if it were not for these they would have been lost. As he was also out during the 1888 March blizzard he felt the late storm was more severe.

A young friend of Barnes, Harry Hickman, who was on board, has abandoned his desire to make a voyage across the Atlantic when his school days are over, feeling sure that Lewes Creek will be as far as he cares to navigate.

Source: The Monday, September 16^th 1889 issue of Wilkes Barre Record newspaper of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Newspapers.com

BROADKILN RIVER

SUSSEX COUNTY BROADKILLN RIVER

WHATS IN A NAME

Abstract from the Friday, October 16, 1891 Salina Daily Republican, Salina, Kansas.

The name “Murderkill” applied to an important stream in Delaware is explained in proper tradition by a curious story that is told of early settlers. According to the legend the stream took the name from the fact that an early European Explorer, having landed on the bank of the creek, persuaded a dozen natives to drag his ship cannon by a rope tied to the muzzle and then when they were all in line touched off the gun with murderous results. The name. Of course, is merely a corruption of the Dutch Motherkill, meaning another stream, because it is a large creek with many tributaries.

There is elsewhere in Delaware a Broadkill, which has become to be spelled with a final 'n', applied because the English settlers took its last syllable to be the same with the last syllable of limekiln.

Lewes And Rehoboth Life Saving Service Crews Save 194 Lives During The 1889 Great Storm

On October 13, 1889, from Washington, D.C. the General Superintendent of the Life Saving Service, S. J. Kimball, wrote letters to John A. Clampitt, Keeper of Lewes Station, Theodore Salmons, Keeper of Cape Henlopen Station, and Thomas J. Traxton, Keeper of Rehoboth Beach Station,  in which he said:
  The splendid conduct shown by yourselves and the crews under your command during the great storm of September10th to the 27th last,  has been noted by this office.  Upon that occasion , notwithstanding an unusually high tide that flooded the beach so as to embarrass your crews you gave efficient aid o no less that 22 vessels, taking off by boat 39 persons,  and by line apparatus  155, at total of 194 persons, not a life being lost from any vessel that came within the scope of your actions. In this successful work you showed a zeal and discretion and an ingenuity in availing yourselves of the resources at your command worthy of the highest praise.  Undaunated by the perils you encountered you and your crews manfully worked throughout each day and night without food  enduring extreme fatigue. Such service as this does honor to the Life Saving Service and the country.
  It is the desire of the Secretary of the Treasury to recognize as far as is in his power the worth of your achievements and he has accordingly directed that the pay of each of you be increased to the maximum amount allowed by existing law  to officers of your grade, namely $800 per year.
It is a matter of deepest regret that no means existfor recompensing in a similar manner the brave surfmen of your crews on that occasion since, by law, they receive already the maximum salary.
                                                                                    Respectfully yours,
                                                                                   S. J. Kimball, General Superintendent

EARLY AMERICAN INDIANS CUSTOMS

The Comanche Indian Nation do not have a written language and during World War One,  also World War Two, Comanche Indian, U. S.  Army soldiers ,  were used to transmit messages over radio and phone which were stranger to the enemy than any code the American's ever had.

POST ESTABLISHED A NEW ROUTE KENNET SQUARE & NEWARK

On Wednesday, February 4, 1795, the Wilmington newspaper, Delaware and Eastern Shore Advertiser,  beg leave to acquaint the Public,  that a post rider has now started from the office on a route thru' Kennet's Square, New London Cross Roads,  round by the Susquehanna to Peach Bottom, and return to the main road by the Brick Meeting House,  Fairhill, Newark and New Garden, &c, making a circuit of nearly One Hundred Miles, made every week. This will give the gentlemen along this route the opportunity to receive the Advertiser regularly and connect the post of this area a quicker connection to Philadelphia and Baltimore.

CUSTOMS OF EARLY AMERICAN INDIANS

November 2, 1826 Wilmington & Delaware Advertiser
INDIAN CUSTOMS:
It was a few year since, and probably is now, a custom of the Mohawk Indians along Delaware, to bury their dead in a sitting posture with faces to the east. Tradition was that at some future day a "Great Man" would appear in the East and call all dead to Judgement nd facing East would see the Great Man the moment he would appear and be quick to rise being in a sitting position.
A suicide would be buried with his head bowed downward, facing West, which reminded him that he was the murderer of himself.

DECEMBER 1826 GROCERY'S & TAVERNS & HOTELS WILMINGTON, DE

GROCERY STORES:
Joseph Mendenhall at corner of King and Second Streets
Joseph C. Gilpin, 46 Market Street
James & Samuel Brown, 8 High Street
Clement & Gorden, corner Market and Kennet Streets
Peter Horn  corner King and Front Street
John Rice   Brandywine, south of bridge
Samuel Stroud, corner of Front and Orange
George Williamson,  10 HighStreet
George Winslow,  179 Market Street
Jonh Wright , corner Front and Market Streets
Perry Steward, Market Street opposite Academy

HOTELS & TAVERNS:
James Plumley's Washington Inn, at 39 Market Street.
Joshua Hutton's  Queen of Otaheite, corner of Market and Queen Streets.
William C. Dorsey Tavern, west Front near Shipley
John M. Smith 's Indian King, corner of Market and High Streets.

RICHARD A SHIELDS, DEATH, LEWES SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

Lewes, Delaware August 13, 1959 :
Professor Richard A Shields, age 76, a former superintendent of the Lewes Special School District for almost 20 years, died at his Washington Street home in his sleep early yesterday. His wife found him when he did not rise at his usual time and Doctor Tormet said he had been dead a few hours. He died of a chronic heart ailment but had been in apparent good health when retiring the night before.
Mr. Shields and his family had come to Lewes in 1929 when he was hired as superintendent of Lewes School, where he held a job until 1948. After his retirement he worked for The Antrim Bureau of Philadelphia which furnished educational programs throughout the East and Mid West. He also did research for a national publication, The World Book.
He was born in Allport, Clearfield county, north central Pennsylvania, in 1883, to Alexander and Susan Dale Shields. His father was born in Scotland and mother in Pennsylvania.
He received his early education at Perkiomen School and was a graduate of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1912.
Mr. Shields is survived by his widow, former Mary Ann Moyer of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and three children, Richard, born 1916, Lois, born 1918, and Samuel, born 1921. He was born to a family of six sisters and a brother, survived by two sisters, Mrs Carrie Plikington of St Petersburg, Florida and Mrs Roy Detwiler of Detroit.
Richard A Shields is buried in Bethel Cemetery, Lewes, Delaware.

Customs of Early American Indians and Eskimos

The native Indians and Eskimos of early  North America often killed off their old and superfluous, sometimes set out from the tribes to starve or be taken  by the wild creatures.  It was often that the old were tired of life and would beg to be dispatched.   Barbarism shows in the treatment of the dead. Some of the favorite's were buried but others were dragged a distance from the village and abandoned to the dogs and wild animals. There were no marriage  regulations and women were thought of as a chattel.  A male could have as many female's as he was able to manage. It is possible that there was very little polygamy amongst them.
From the collection of the Chicago Tribune in 1890.

WHAT THEY EAT IN TIMBUCTOO

The population of Timbuctoo live very comfortably and there is seen very few signs of poverty or begging among them.
They have three meals a day. The first at 9 in the morning is of small new baked wheat loaves which when eaten are dipped into honey and melted butter,
A main meal is served at mid afternoon, about three o'clock, and consist of two or three courses of kuskus, vegetables and a meat, usually mutton, beef, or a poultry, sometimes pigeon, very tastefully prepared.    What are kuskus?   They are made of the flour of wheat, barley, maize or negro millet, which is moistened , finger picked, let to dry in the sun.  Next they are steamed, strewn over with saffron sauce and the vegetables and meat of choice.
The third meal taken late in the evening,   nine or ten,  is almost always rice mixed with small chunks of meat.
There are no spirituous liquors drunk, the meal washed down with water from the calabashes.

From the collections of the Exchange publication.

Historic Wilmington Mansion to be Reconstructed 1905

Description: Colonel Davis Mansion Now Known as Bayard's Delamore to be
Sold and Reconstructed
Date: July 24 1905

Newspaper published in: Baltimore

Source: newspapers collection

Wilmington, Delaware July 24 1905:

Delamore Place, home of the late Thomas F. Bayard, once known as The Colonel Davis Mansion and Delaware Place, is to be sold at settlement of the estate of the statesman Bayard. It has been known that alterations will be made that will replace the colonial architecture which very few remain here. For the past three generations Delamore has been associated with important statesmen and political events of Delaware history.
This home was built between 1813 and 1820 and purchased by Colonel Samuel Boyer Davis in 1821. Col Davis, born in Lewes and defended that village during the 1812 War.

TRUSSOM POND - LOCATION OF 1794 THOMPSON'S BEGINNNG

In 1794 Levin Thompson, born  a free man of color,  came to Sussex county from  Maryland's Eastern Shore, and established a community of free people of color near Trussum Pond in south west Little Creek Hundred on 200 acres of land he had purchased. The community was named "Thompson's Beginning".                                                                                                                                               In that period of time the free black suffered the hazard of a thicket of laws and customs which limited their 'rights', such as being sold as slaves for unpaid debt's, and needed to be aware of persons like Patty Cannon who would kidnap them, sell them to slave traders to move them to the deep south plantations.  Above and beyond these hazards,  "Thompsons Beginning " farm was a success and the black entrepreneur used the profits to buy additional land. He owned a large home, furnished with and old walnut dinning room table with Windsor chairs,  a carriage that he traveled the  roads of Sussex county in dignity and set him apart from other rural residents as a member of gentry. He also owned a firearm which was good protection from the likes of Patty Cannon.
               Eventually, Thompson  was in possession of 500 acres of farm land in Little Creek Hundred  and 136 acres of cypress timberland in Dagsboro Hundred , he also owned a grist mill and saw mill near Laurel  and a loom and spinning wheels that produced 300 yards of linen and 600 yards of woolen cloth each month.  To operate these businesses Thompson employed the free black  residents of his community which became a thriving Sussex county village of free workers as he, a wealthy free African American, one of the richest in Sussex. 
Sources: delmarvanow.com/michaelmorgan 2014 March; Willaim Williams"Slavery & Freedom in Delaware"; michael Ruane "dig at Eastern Shore" Washington Post, 25 July 2013