LONG NECK TRAILERS

LONG NECK, MODEL T FORDS, WOOLSEY BURTON & TRAILERS.

THE WHITE HOUSE FARM

Woolsey Burton built a fine brick home in early 1700's on the family

farm off the calm waters of Indian River Bay on a peninsula that ended

just a mile short of the barrier islands. This peninsula was Long Neck.

Woolsey's father and mother , William and Ann Burton, had sailed into

the bay around 1677, settled on the peninsula's high ground with a

good stand of timber, fertile soils far enough from the sea spray to be

productive farm land. William and Ann had set sail northward from

Virginia Eastern Shore along the isolated wind swept barrier islands until

they were off Fenwick Island and could see the broad expanse of the

coastal bays.

In 1677 the coastal region had attracted only a few colonist, a small town

of Lewestowne had perhaps a dozen families and hardly any had gone

south of the Henlopen capes.

William and Ann Burton born 11 sons and the Burton family name

became ingrained in the coastal region.

Woolsey, one of these sons who had built the brick house that became a

best known feature of Long Neck, had the brick home whitewashed, after

which, became known as the 'white house farm' . Long Neck remained

isolated many years, up into the early 1900's since there were no roads

to travel there.

It was 1954 that the 'trailers' appeared. John Robert Hitchens a farmer

on Long Neck was asked to rent a small plot of land , on the water, to

place a small house trailer for the summer. He did so, got $65 a year

for a twenty year lease for a small plot unsuitable for farming, weeds and all. This was better than farming. Soon Long Neck was full of

summer vacationers in trailers.

Abstract: Harrison H., from Michael Morgan's Sussex Journal in the

Delaware Coast Press, 10/03/18 for www.delmarhistory.blogspot.com