QUAKERTOWN
– PRETTYMANVILLE
AND
THREE
SHANKLAND SISTERS
Residents
of the little village of Quakertown on the outskirts of Lewes were
surprised the week of November 7, 1941, by the visit of three maiden
sister, descendants of the Shankland family which founded the
original village in the late 1700's. The Misses Caroline, Helen and
Julia Shankland of Freehold, New Jersey, all retired school teachers,
stopped by and made themselves known to the “town treasurer”,
Mrs Colin McNichol. They did so since they had found the village
founded by their ancestor, Rhodes Shankland, had a treasurer but
no Treasury. Each lady contributed “three lucky pennies” as a
nucleus to the town fund.
The
original settlement of Quakertown disappeared many years ago, only
one dwelling remains, the home of Rhodes Shankland, built as early
1725, when the Society of Friends established the settlement, perhaps
of fifteen families.
The
Shankland sisters also asked of the “Mayor” James T. Lank if
there were any descendants of the family still living in the area
which Mr. Lank said there were none. They then told that an ancestor
of theirs by name of Shankland originally surveyed the town of Lewes.
The
original village was later known as Prettymanville, named in
compliment to the Prettyman family that then lived there. Later the
name was restored to Quakertown.
In
the early 1940's, in the Shankland home lived the Marshall Coverdale
family, his wife Dorothy, three daughters Ann, Joan and Lenora.
Marshall was a marine ship engineer with the Delaware Bay & River
Pilots Association who later moved to Erie, Pennsylvania to sail the
Great Lakes.
Abstract
Wilmington News Journal,Wilmington, Delaware, 7 November 1941
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