pennsylvania last of the nanticokes

THE LAST OF THE NANTICOKES

AN INDIAN LEDGEND

FROM

THE BALTIMORE REPUBLICAN

Abstract from an article printed in the Saturday, May 11, 1844 issue of the Sunbury American & Shamokin Journal

Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania

To some there is an astonishment for the waste of sympathy for the American Savage. “Lo! The Poor Indian.” “The Noble Red Man of the Forest.”

Reality paints characters of blood, heartless butcheries, committed of innocent and defenseless women and children, symphathy fades.

It is maintained by some that there is not a noble trait in an Indian character. He buries his tomahawk in the skull of an enemy, takes the infant from the mothers breast, takes scalps to sang from his trophy belt.

This is a tail of an old soldier, ten or twelve years ago, which illustrates Indian character.

Any person who has traveled along the Susquehanna river in dead of winter can tell you of the bleak and cheerless country about the Shamokin area that time of year. Before civilization came to the area many way worn traveler fell upon crusted snow and breathed his last. It was this time of year that two hardy 'pioneers' ventured to establish communities along the West Branch, the Delaware Tribe of Indians of 200 and some warriors, settled where Lewisburg now stands, because of a scarcity of provision about the main body of the Delaware River.

Here they set their lodges and made preparation for a grand buffalo hunt.

Two hundred miles up the river there were living a remnant of a fierce and reckless tribe, the Nanticokes, maybe six hundred men, women and children, who were once a powerful nation but their treachery had rendered them now as 'outlaws' with other tribes.

These Nanticokes having news that Delawares were encamped below them , destroyed their camp and marched toward the Delaware tribe, reaching the opposite side of the river, the Delaware camp, within a week. Here they build their new camp. This lawless tribe well known to the Delawares and their chiefs gave orders not to communicate whatsoever with the Nanticokes. This was a eath blow to the Nanticoke braves who had come here with the express purpose of having liaisons with the women of the Delaware tribe.

The refusal of the Delawares to smoke the peace pipe provoked the Nanticokes which calls a council to avenge the insult. After many opinions of how to best punish these neighbors, Chief Chuttawee, a noble looking, and heartless, individual arose and urged that the most satisfactory procedure to the Nanticokes and the more excruciating to the Delawares was to violate their women. This proposition as excepted and Chief Chuttawee pledged himself to bring about the opportunity.

True to his word Chief Chuttawee skulked about the Delaware camp until he met a dark eyed, dusky Delaware maid who was unable to withstand the honeyed advance of the handsome Nanticoke Chief , who wooed and won, got all the information as to their movements he desired. He found of the preparations for the great buffalo hunt, awaiting to see the trail of the herd going to buffalo valley, after which the hunting business would commence.

Chuttawee took advantage of the information and the very next night he and a select party succeeded I making an artificial buffalo track trail in the crusted snow some three or four miles up the valley . Early the next morning yells of rejoicing were heard and there was all bustle and commotion. Quivers were filled and every man who could bend a bow started on the hunt. Their voices scarcely died away and the Nanticoke's crossed the ice a began the works of destruction. By this time the hunting party had reached the end of the tracks, deception flashed upomn their minds and like a herd of deer they returned to devastation and the shrieks of the wives and daughters, it was too late. Viliany had been consummated. The Natnticoke were back in camp across the ice.

The Delaware Chiefs assembled. The council fire blazed high in the air. Each chief was depicted with anger, deep ab damning, for the tenderest chord of the savage had been severed, the determination to drink deep of the Nanticoke blood was made. Within the hour, deliberations were done, the war dance performed, with war whoops , the marched toward the Nanticoke camp, even knowing there were twice the number of warriors to contend with. The Nanticoke expected them , and by common consent, all marched to the mouth of the Chillisquaque creek, both tribes leaving the old, the wives and children, behind. At length they reached the battleground and the massacre commenced. Loud were the yells of the dying and wounded, but calm succeeds, the works completed. The Nanticokes were exterminated, and only sixth of the two hundred Delawares remained. These sixty warriors were not satisfied , tey went to the Nanticoke village, dragged all Nanticoke, aged elders, women and children , to the gory battle field , piled them with dead bodies, binding them together with pine fagots and applied the torch, next began a dance of victory, which lasted after night fall.

As the blaze ascended to heaven cries of the suffers were drowned by the victorious shouts of the sixty warriors which did not stop until the heap of dead and dying was reduced to a pile of ashes, the last of the Nanticokes

NANTICOKE'S

MONGREL RACE OF DELAWARE

The Tiller And Toiler , Larned, Kansas, October 11, 1895

The Milford Delaware Herald says there is much speculation about the Moors now living in Kent and Sussex counties of Delaware, who are swarthy, black haired, black eyes, with a fair complexion. Most are farmers. They have their own schools distinct from the General Public school system. They associate mostly with neither the black nor white population.

There are two theories of their ancestry. The first is that they are ancestors of Spanish Moors which are said to have survived a ship wreck off the Cape Henlopen Coast more than a century ago. The other tradition represents them as descendant of the Nanticoke Indian Tribe.

George P. Fisher, a Delaware lawyer, and one time State Attorney General, presents satisfactory evidence on the origin of these people which he has been acquainted with all his life, one being Noke Norwood , age 75.

As the State Attorney he was called upon to prosecute one of the race, Levin Sockum, for selling guns and ammunition to another of the race, Isaiah Harmon, which in Delaware was a misdemeanor. Harmon, age 25, with Caucasian features, chestnut hair, hazel eyes, and very handsome. A kinswoman of Harmon, Lydia Clark, an old woman of Indian pure blood, testified for the state that according to family tradition , that prior to the Revolution , a white woman farm owner, an Irish by name of Regas, in Indian River Hundred , did buy of a slaver at Lewes, a shipwreck survivor , supposed to have been the Chief of a Congo tribe and a negro which she later married and had off spring which the whites did not associate with but did intermarry with the Nanticokes that still live in Sussex county about the Indian River.

SCHOONER MARY G FARR

SCHOONER MARY G. FARR

CAPTAIN JOHN CONWELL

January 1886 the Schooner Farr was off the New Jersey coast, Captain Conwell the master, when strong winds tossed her about and she caught fire from a tossed lantern it was supposed. As the flames gathered in the hold Conwell sterred the schooner toward shore in an effort to beach the burning vessel. As the fire gained, the captain ordered the crew to abandon and a long boat was launched. Surfmen at Spring Lake Life Saving Station had seen the blaze and had set out just as they saw the schooner hit a sandbar and sink and evidently loose the crew as the water washing over her put out the fire. The Life Saving Crew report “It was after 1 o'clock in the morning, all cries for help ceased” and no signs of life were seen.

The next few days the bodies of Comwe;; and others washed ashore with debris that included a woman's clothing and and a child's chair, which caused belief that the Captains wife and child had been aboard as was often the case.

However. It was found that these items were stored aboard, and the wife and children of Captain Conwell did not accompany him on the last fateful cruise of the Schooner Mary G. Farr.

Schooner Mary G. Farr , a two mast schooner, 129 feet long, slid into the Broadkill at Milton in 1863

Michael Morgan, Delaware Diary, 2016, Ships and Men of the Broadkill, 1966, 1887 Report of Life Saving Service.

1892 Nanticoke Indians - Relics seekers on Delmarva

1892 NANTICOKE INDIANS

RELICS BEING SOUGHT

The Pittsburg Headlight, a Pittsburg, Kansas newspaper, in it's Thursday, August 11, 1892 issue posted the following news item from Salisbury Maryland. Mr. Dinwiddie, from the National Bureau of Ethnology and Archeology, has been on the Maryland Eastern Shore for several days, seeking information of the long extink tribe of Indians known as the Nanticokes. He has thransversed the entire length of the Nanticoke River with local assistants, visiting the mounds and graves of the tribe. At the riverside village of Riverton there was considerable pottery found and one human skeleton unearthed which is believed to be a long departed brave. There also was the skeleton of a large huge framed dog , with savage teeth, indicating he being of a savage existence. These Nanticoke Indians are supposed to have departed these native hunting grounds about the year 1760 to move westward.

1919 NANTICOKE

1919 NANTICOKE INDIAN TRIBE COLONY

Living in semi-seclusion along the Indian River area of Sussex County Delaware, between Millsboro and Oak Orchard , a summer resort, is a colony of Nanticoke Indians, prosperous, wealthy and friendly, mainly unknown to the rest of the population of Delaware. This article is first hand information of this colony, nearly 2000 acres of fertile and productive farm land of Sussex county.

These Nanticoke Indians are a separate and distinct class hen compared to the Moors, once a Sussex County people, but now centered in Kent county, in the vicinity of Cheswold. Errors in history by Delaware historians had grouped these two people together which is not the fact. The Nanticok's are descendants of an Native American Indian Tribe and the Moors proved to be of black and white intermarriages of the early American colony . It is probable that early settlers of the Indian River area did marry together and there is a admixture of red and white blood who were persecuted within both the white and black population causing many to emigrate north as far as Canada and its reservations. Still more persecutions were seen, churches and schools burned, etc., rebuilt with the notion that these Nanticoke's would maintain treatment the same as whites.

Their church, Indian Mission , is under a white denomination, Methodist Protestant, and they register in civil authority as Indians. They have their own schools instituted in 1881, once known as Moorish Schools, now called Indian Schools, and no one except a Nanticoke Indian descendant can attend.

William Russell Clark, leader of the Sussex county Indian race, has said

“We Indians of this region do not ask or call for any help from the government or the state, what we do want is to be accorded our rights and not be 'battered' in ny way whatsoever. We claim to be of different blood from the Moors, and have no relations with the blacks. Yes, there are cases of 'going astray' which are few and are boycotted and disallowed, treated harshly.”

Tribe history tells that they inhabited the region of Dorchester county Maryland, Fork District , between Chicone Creek and Nanticoke River. The tribe is known to be honest and very handy with their hands, are wheelwrights, carpenters and masters of many trades.

The last migration of the Nanticoke Indian was in 1869, about the time of the Civil War, when a group of men, women and children of the Sussex tribeand went west. The story is that this group became assimilated with whites to such a degree that no trace has been found of them in the past fifteen years. The Canadian Nanticoke Tribe were recently found by Doc Speck of the University of Pennsylvania on a reservation nd were found to be keeping with their customs as are the Indian River Nanticokes. They are now known as the six Nations, their Chief is Joshiah Hill, a Nanticoke descendant , who is hopeful for a big reunion , intending to visit this region but the war prevented that from coming about.

The last ancestor who was conversant with the language was Lydia Clark, great great, grandmother of W. Russell Clark.

Not only in farming and a financial way are the Indians of Sussex progressive but during the world war they were also patriotic to a large extent. Out of a colony of 150 a total of a dozen men were called to the colors. All served as Indians as the government recognized them, and were treated accordingly.

Two of Chief Clark's sons were in the service, Ferdinand, an excellent and bright soldier, was in an Engineer Company of the Second Division. The second son, Charles served in the Navy with a good record. The father was proud that his sons served their county when called upon.

A story that has to deal with the Harmon family was told as partly true by Chief Clark. It seems Isaacs Harmon was one of the first to harvest the great bed of crabs and ship to the cities wholesale making a fortune and became looked up to for leadership. This part is true. As such he had a rather large family, most very attractive girls . Three of his sons were Levin, Noah and William. It is told that Isaac, would give a daughter to the proper white man who presented himself and a peck of gold coins. This part of the story is incorrect as the daughter choose to marry in the tribe although she had many white men proposals.

Source: STANLEY R. PIZECK, WILMINGTON MORNING NEWS,

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 6. 1919

1926 NANTICOKE POW WOW

1926 NANTICOKE TRIBE POW-WOW

OAK ORCHARD , DELAWARE

Member of the Nanticoke Indian Tribe Association. Descendants of the Nanticoke's who for many years inhabited the shores of The Indian River of Sussex county Delaware, held their annual Thanksgiving Day pow-wow, yesterday, Thursday, November 25, 1926.

The ceremonial took place at Riverdale Park, the reservation of Chief Wyniaco , William Russell Clarke. There were thirty tribe members and a large number of visiting Chiefs, plus hundreds of interested spectators from Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

The afternoon program started when the Chief and tribesmen, visiting Chiefs and Braves and their guest, marched from the rivers edge to the pow-wow clearing of the reservation where they danced through a hundred dances entertaining the hundreds of spectators. A council fire was lighted as soon as all were seated and was kept burning throughout the ceremonies.

Robert E. Clark , Mawwit, son of the Chief of the Nanticokes, probably his successor, dressed in a handsome costume such as befitted the son of the head of the tribe, offered a prayer to the Sun God and the Great Spirit, then passed 'the pipe of peace' around after which Chief Wyniaco extended greetings.

The welcome dance followed, then the green corn dance, and others such as the war dance, the scalp dance and many snake dances, given during the afternoon while the tom tom's were beaten.

Doctor Frank G. Speck of the Pennsylvania University Department of Anthopology and other University guest, were present. The University has taken an interest in the history of the Nanticoke Tribe.

Visiting Chiefs and distinguished Indian's of different tribes who were gusts and who took part in the pow-wow were; Miss Tadman, Mable Knight of Boston Omaha Tribe; Princess Gladys Tantequidgeon, Julian Harris, Bunnell Fielding of the Mohican Tribe; Chief Strongwolf and Chief Little Feather of the Canadian Objibway Tribe; John Whistler Keskikosh, his wife, of the Omaha's ; Chief

Naniacusus [ O. W. Atkins] of the Chicahominy Tribe and high Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy , George Jones and other braves of the Chicahominy's; Chief Wahanhanoche of the Hansemond Tribe from the Dismal Swamp of Virginia; Otho Nelson, Chief Tahhacope of the Rappahannock and his squaw, Susan Nelson, secretary of the Confereracy and the tribe; Chief George Gutalow of the Virginia Mattiponi Tribe; Chief James Johnson , Rappahannok's; Chief Dorelix Amaf, Cherokee Tribe, who is a descendant of Chief Great Bear; Chief Pahamencoot, of the Pamunkey Tribe of Virginia.

Princess Tantequidgeon is a descendant of Indian Chief Uncas who assisted the Puritans in the 17^th century and ate at the first Thanksgiving feast, is the guest of Princess Madacanna of the Nanticokes, a descendant of the chiefs who ruled under Powhatan.

The Nanticoke Indian Association which organized in 1921 under the Delaware Charter Laws has a membership of about thirty, and was brought together through efforts of Chief Wyniaco during the past twenty or so years.

Later this afternoon the council will meet, this evening is the racoon hunt along the shore of the Indian River, known as the 'Happy Hunting Grounds' of their foreparents. The next day boating , fishing , hunting quail and rabbit will take place.

A great farewell dance will take place in the Council Hall at Riverdale.

dewey beach delaware

CAPTAIN JOHN T. WAPLES

DEWEY BEACH RESIDENT

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware July 24, 1957.

Captain John T. Waples, age 71, a colorful recluse and ex sailor who lived alone in a small shack at edge of Rehoboth Bay in Dewey Beach, died Sunday night in the Governor Bacon Health Center, Delaware City.

A retired tugboat skipper, fisherman and familiar character to watermen of Sussex county, occupied a small shack he built himself, with the only companions a blind dog and a cat. His Dewey neighbors kept a 'look out' for him in his later years.

Captain Johnny was a native of the section , living here all his life. He had no known survivors. He is buried in Rehoboth Methodist Epworth Cemetery beside his parents by Melson Funeral Home , conducted by Rev A. E. Dougherty. Pastor of Bethel Methodist Church, Lewes.

LEWES COAST GUARD STATION VFW

1884 LEWES COAST GUARD STATION

RETIRED IN 1938 IS NOW BACK IN SERVICE AS

REHOBOTH BEACH VFW POST 7447 IN 1949.

The old Lewes original Coast Guard Station, tired and retired, has been drafted back into service by another service branch this time, The Veterans of Foreign Wars, at it's third site.

The Rehoboth VFW Post 7447 recently purchased the ancient structure that first housed the Lewes Coast Guard back in 1884, and have moved it to Rehoboth Beach. It is now getting a face lift and will be the home of the local VFW.

This is the second time the old station as had it's beam loaded up and moved over the highway. First trip was in 1938 when the handsome new Coast Guard Station was built at Lewes Beach, purchased by Stephen Pierce who moved it to the 'Point of Capes' and made it into a 'Gentleman’s Club' sort of night club affair.

During the World War Two period when Fort Miles was built around it, it was used as the Officers Club and other military offices, it again served its purpose to the country.

In 1949, standing in an abandoned state since the wars end, it reverted to government surplus status , purchased by the Rehoboth VFW , cut in half and drug seven miles to Rehoboth Avenue and State Road. The old cupola, that once served as a look out tower of the original life saving crew, was discarded and the new 1949 look made it difficult to recognize.

The post commander , John 'Jack' Martin had the finest structural material seen in the area for some time, fine maple flooring, heavy oak beams and such utilized within the interior remodeling. The first floor became a large hall to be used for community meetings, post activities and dances, etc. There are smaller meeting rooms, locker room, rest rooms, kitchen and dinning hall, and a basement. The construction program was headed by Charles Nyburn of Rehoboth, a contractor.

The property it sits on , a grove of sturdy pine trees, overlooking the Country Club, was donated by the City of Rehoboth .

Rehoboth VFW is one of the newest post in the state, organized three years ago. The first commander was William Henning, John Roberts, the second and Alton Townsend the third. The officers today are Commander, Martin, senior vice, William Williams, junior vice, Edward Chedd, secretary, George 'Bugs' Thoroughgood, and Robert Lynch, treasurer.

WWII CAP BASE TWO REHOBOTH

CIVIL AIR PATROL WWII

PATROL BASE 2

REHOBOTH AIR FIELD

March 5^th 1942 the first flight of Civil Air Patrol, Base 2 took off from the sod runways of Rehoboth Airport in single engine airplanes, maintaining daily patrols of the Delaware coast. They were searching for enemy submarines, survivors of ships being sunk and to fly cover for merchant ships leaving Cape Henlopen. Early flight's only reported suspicious vessels which had no problem to escape the Dover Army Air Station due to timing, so General Hap Arnold, the Army Air Force commander ordered the CAP to be armed. Although no Base 2 fliers were able to sink any German Subs it was later known the they had order to dive and run away when they sighted a CAP air flight. During the war CAP lost 90 aircraft and 26 pilots, two from Base 2, Rehoboth.

Source: America Homefront Air War, Roger Thiel, Michael Morgan, Delaware Diary, Delaware Coast Press, September 21, 2016.

duPont gift

ALEXIS FELIX duPONT HOUSE

GIFT TO

EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF DELAWARE

The Right Reverend Arthur R. McKinstry , Bishop of the Delaware Episcopal Diocese,

announced the gift of the Alexis Felix duPont house by Mrs duPont as a memorial to her husband to be

used by the church for church purposes.

The large commodious summer home sits at the edge of the Pines on a lagoon on the north side

of Rehoboth Beach proper. The diocese intends to use the home as a conference center, also a retreat

for members of the Episcopal clergy. There is a large living room and library on the first floor. A

glassed in heated sun porch runs the length of the rear over looking the lagoon. Just off the porch is a

well lighted dinning room and a modern kitchen , nine rooms on the second floor where up to thirty

people can be accommodated.

The Bishop will have a room for his personal use and the large attic can be converted into a

dormitory by adding windows. Except for kitchen equipment the house will need to be furnished.

Those charged with the furnishing are Mrs. Ernest May, Mrs. Paul Turner and Mrs Ellason Dowbs.

The cost is expected to reach up to $5000 minimum.

It is the wish of the Bishop to have it operational by Easter and a schedule made for its use.

BROADKILL NECK CCC MARKER

MOSQUITO CONTROL MARKER

BROADKILL NECK

1935

The second anniversary of the inception of mosquito control work in Delaware by the Civilian

Conservation Corps is to be commemorated Thursday, December 5, 1935 with the erection of a sod

monument along the east side of the Broadkill Beach Road, overlooking the marshes where ditching

was commenced, on December 5 1933.

The monument will take the shape of a concentrically spiraled cone, built with patches of sod

from various parts of Kent and Sussex marshes which were ditched by the four CCC mosquito control

companies with each company member placing a sod piece in position on the commemorative pile.

The total strength of the four companies is to be present, each member to bring a sod piece.

Lewes and slaughter Beach camps with a strength of 412 will bring 824 sods. Magnolia and Leipsic

camps, active a shorter time, will being 394 sods between them.

A sturdy cedar pole is to be erected on the tract of land contributed by Mrs. George Hall as a

permanent location. It is expected that this sod monument will be twelve or more feet in diameter and

at least eight feet high . Each anniversary year it is planned that similar amounts of sods will be added.

There is to be a sign affixed which will dedicate the monument to the CCC workers who made the

mosquito control a success, also a cornerstone copper box of records built into the monument.

The First Engineer Band of Fort duPont will furnish the music for the occasion.

Abstract Wilmington New Journal , December 4 1935:

1937 NANTICOKE'S AT PENNSYLVANIA FOLK FESTIVAL

INDIAN RIVER SUSSEX COUNTY

NANTICOLE INDIAN TRIBE

Pennsylvania Indians To Greet Nanticke People. Nanticoke, Pennsylvania and the surrounding territory, once a center for the sorcery and black arts of the Red Men when the Nanticoke Indians roamed Wyoming Valley Pennsylvania, will welcome descendants of the Nanticoke Tribe at the Pennsylvania Folk Festival at Lewisburg Pennsylvania, July 30 to 31, announced director George Korson today. The Indians will be greeted by Mayor Stanley Ostroski of Lewisburg, . The Governors George Earle of Pennsylvania and George McMullen of Delaware have been invited to attend.

The appearance of the Nanticokes who live on the Indian River of Sussex County Delaware re sponsored by the Greater Nanticoke Board of Commerce.

This news item from the Danville Morning News, July 31 1937

Five Indians of the Nanticoke Tribe enroute to Lewisburg , Pennsylvania by automobile yesterday morning escaped with slight injuries in an accident at elizabethtown when their car was forced off the highway by a truck going in the opposite direction. In the car were Chief Little Olw, Red fox, Running Bear, White Eagle and Mawett. Only one was slightly hurt but the entire party came on to Lewisburg. They had left the Colony of the Indian River Tribe in Sussex County Delaware on their first tribal trip into Central Pennsylvania since the Nanticoke were driven out by white settlers in 1753.

This news item from the Danville Morning News of Danville, Pa 31 July 1937

A group of Nanticoke Indians came here yesterday to adopt Edward C. Pendergast, secretary to Governor Earl as a member of their tribe. The Indians who live in Sussex County Delaware stopped in Harrisburg on their way to the Pennsylvania folk Festival at Lewisburg. While waiting the members of the group were taken on a tour of the Capital building.

This news item from the Harrisburg Evening News, 30 July 1937.

QUEEN ANNE'S BANQUET

QUEEN ANNE'S RAILROAD

LEWES BANQUET

FEBURARY 18, 1898

A banquet on Friday, February 18^th last, given at the Virden Hotel in Lewes, to celebrate the completion, after two and a half years, of the Queen Anne's Railroad, was a most enjoyable event with an elaborate menu served.

There were no set toast but members of The Board of Trade of Lewes took occasion to felicitate the promoters of the road on its completion and to congratulate the people of the Eastern Shore upon the fact they at last have direct communication with the Baltimore metropolis of Maryland, a natural market for their farms and orchards and the logical base of supplies for merchandise and supplies for the farmers and merchants who are convenient to the railroad.

Among the speakers were Delaware Congressman L. Irving Handy, Dr. W. J. Hearn of Philadelphia and Dr. H. R. Burton of Lewes. Responses were made by William h. Bosley, president of the road, Archibald Taylor and Bartlett Johnson and others. Lewes Mayor and President of the Lewes Board of Trade, Alfred Burton, presided and also made an address. The guest of honor came to Lewes on a special train from Queenstown, Maryland . They had left Baltimore at 3 pm on the Chesapeake Bay steamer , B. S. Ford . In this party were Bosley, Johnson, Baker, Taylor, Frank Ehlen, Francis Burns, Dr. Tilghman, Phillip Cannon, Henry Lewis, , I. W. Troxel, Wilmer Emory, H. P. Cannon and E. H. Maull. Joinng this group at Queenstown were Edwin Brown, Scott Roberts and Dr. Conklin of Centerville and at Ellendale L L. Layton and Joe Truxton boarded the train .

The railroad company has future plans to build a Lewes pier to connect by steamer to Cape May, New Jersey and also intend to continue by a spur to Rehoboth Beach.

Also recognized by the chairman for the services he rendered was Mr. Wilmer Emory who had worked unceasingly for the railroad from start to finish and three cheers from the many people present clearly showed great appreciation given him.

Source: February 27. 1898 issue, Denton Journal of Denton, Marlyand.

Brandywine

THE BATTLE OF THR BRANDYWINE

SEPTEMBER 11 1777

During the early morning of September 11 the British army was at Kennett Square , marched

east and divided , a fourth of the army marched toward Chadd;s Ford and resulted in the scrimmages at

Longwood and Hammerton. When noon time came all of the Americans had been driven to the east

side of the Brandywine.

Up to this time General Washington was sure he had the entire British in front of him but soon

found that the bulk of the British were behind him. The divisions of Sterling, Sullivan and Stevens

were sent towards the Birminghan Meeting House and there became involved in the hottest fighting on

Battle Hill which is just south of the Birmingham Meeting House.

From there the Americans retreated to another knoll where General LaFayette fell with wounds.

Washington ordered up his reserves under General Greens who held the British in check for over an

hour before the American were chased off the battlefield and after dark marched towards Chester. The

British remained encamped here at Brandywine for three to four days.

Sanderson in the Wilmington Morning News , Saturday September 27, 1930

Snyders At Rehoboth

FOREST H. SNYDER OF REHOBOTH

OWNER

SNYDERS ICE CREAM, NEWS STAND, BUS TERMINAL

Mr. Snyder, civic leader, owner and operator of the Rehoboth Ice Cream Parlor, newstand and bus terminal in the Snyder Building at 22 Rehoboth Avenue, died Sunday morning, April 19^th, 1953, in his apartment in the Snyder Building of coronary thrombosis. He was 58 year of age. He had become ill during the night and a physician had attended him but after he arose as was feeling better, died at 11 am of the fatal attack.

He was a director of the Rehoboth Trust Company, president of the Chamber of Commerce, owner and operator of Synders Place, a combined newspaper, magazine agency, bus terminal and confectionery store and also a mecca and gathering place for Rehoboth school kids.

Mr. Snyder was , a sportsman, was a big stockholder of the Rehoboth Pirates Baseball team and the Rehoboth Ball Park. He made annual trips to Pennsylvania to hunt dear and bear.

Mr. Snyder came to Rehoboth as a bridge builder in the 1920;s and constructed bridges between Rehoboth and Milford. He opened his store, purchased from James S. Boyd, in 1936. The bus terminal was served by the Short Line, Red Star, and Greyhound.

Surviving are his widow , the former Jennie Richardson of Berea, Kentucky, his mother Mrs Barbara Wolaber Snyder, a brother Albert, a sister Clara, of Covington, Ohio. His father, was the late Nathan Calvin Snyder, of Newberry Township , Miami County, Ohio.

Atkins Funeral Home in Lewes was in charge of burial in the Rehoboth Epworth Cemetery. Source: Wilmington News Journal

20 July 1953