Sunday, March 29, 2015

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.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

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.

Monday, March 2, 2015

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.