Friday, March 17, 2017

1941 QUAKERTOWN


QUAKERTOWN

BY

VIRGINIA CULLEN

Quakertown, one of the oldest settlements of colonial America is on the western edge of the town of Lewes, Sussex County, On The Delaware. It was founded by fifteen Quaker families of the Society of Friends, as early as 1725, thought to be before Lewestowne was laid out as a village. There are records of elections, court actions, etc., and there stood a pillory and a whipping post.

Quakertown took in the area what is known now as Westcoats Corners as well as the Quakertown of today. The road through the settlement was named ' Shankland's Lane' , named after Rhodes Shankland who had surveyed the settlements of the area, as well as having 'laid out' the town of Lewes., and one of the oldest families of colonial Lewes. There is one house, a wood frame structure, built by Rhodes Shankland, still being occupied. It is dated back to 1767 and the Marshall Coverdale family, he a marine engineer, his wife and three daughters, live there.
Within the last few years , as the area has began to grow again, families living in Quakertown and surrounding area, have taken rein to revive it as a community. Delving into old records they have learned of ancient “Quakertowne” . These families have gathered at the home of James T. Lank, a former magistrate of Lewes, and elected him mayor and call his home 'Town Hall”. Secretary & Treasurer has been handed to Mrs. Helen Short Quillen, wife of Coast Guard Surfman, John Quillen.
Everything is entirely of an unofficial procedure, but the community expects to get a lot of pleasure and fun out of their own little individual town.
Kenneth Givens, resident, whose wife is the Mayors daughter, Dorothy, and owner and operator of the Sequoia Inn there in the village, has been named 'Historian'.
After 1791, after the county seat was moved to Georgetown, sixteen miles west, Quqakertown was called Prettymanville, for the family of Gideon Prettyman. , large land owner, whose home was built on the site of the whipping post and court yard. Early on, colonial times, there is the name of Shanklandville in this area, near by the Methodist Church , Ebenezaer., the grave yard still there, stones and all.
Who lives there now; Rev. Howard Davis, retired minster, George Marsh, carpenter, William 'Zip' Rice, service station operator, Colin McNichol, plant nursery and florist, Frank Tharp, mechanic, Baily Maull, farmer, Alton Brittingham, Lewes official, John Quillen, Coast Guard Lighthouse Keeper, Ken Givens, surveyor, Marshall Coverdale and Lank.

Abstract of Tuesday, January 14, 1941, Wilmington New Journal news article by Virginia F. Cullen.

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