True Republican
Contributed by Harrison

Description: The Recent Delaware Election of Federalists Truit and Van Dyke

Date: December 16 1807

Newspaper published in: Connecticut

Source: newspaper/archives

Page/Column: Weekly Register of Politics and News.

Delaware closely adheres to her own partialities. At a recent election there, George Truit of Kent County, was chosen Governor, and Nicholas VanDyke representative in Congress.
They are both Federalists. Delaware is a small state ans to that circumstance I attribute the continued predominance of Federal principals among the people. In one county, the voters are as well drilled to the service of their leaders as a company of regular soldiers in the Pussian service are to the orders of their captain. I really mean no offense to the people of Sussex , but they would appear a great more respectable in the eyes of their fellow countrymen if they were to free themselves from that vassalage under which they labor, and act a little bit more independent.


From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia:

George Truit, 1756-1818, was an american farmer and politician from Muderkill Hundred in Kent county, Delaware, near Felton. He was a member of the Federalist Party who served in the Delaware General Assembly ans as governor of Delaware. He was a descendant of a George Truit who settled in Accomack county in Virginia in the 17th Century. He was married to Margaret Hodgson and had a daughter Sarah. The farm was east of Felton on the Canterbury Road and they also had a town home at 12 South Main Street in Camden. The family were Methodist. He remains are now at Barratts Cemetery.

Nicholas Van Dyke, 1738-1789, was an American Lawyer and Politician from New Castle, serving in the Delaware Assembly, a Continental Congressman and President [Governor] of Delaware. Van Dyke was born at the family home, Berwick, in St. Georges Hundred, the son of Nicholas and Rachel Alee Van Dyke. He was home educated and read law in Philadelphia, returning home to begin practice. He married twice, first to Elizabeth Nixon who died giving birth to their first child, Rachael in 1767. He then married Charlotte Stanley, and they had four children, Nancy Ann, Mary, Nicholas, and Harry. The were members of the Immanuel Episcopal Church. He died at Berwick, buried there but later his remains were buried in the New Castle Episcopal Church Yard.

ublic Advertiser
Contributed by Harrison

Description: Thomas Nelson Dies at Milton, Delaware Home of William Perry.

Date: September 23 1807

Newspaper published in: Philadelphia

Source: newspapre archives/bank

Died: On Monday the 14th September, inst., of a bilious fever, at the home of Mr. William Perry near the village of Milton, in the county of Sussex, and state of Delaware - THOMAS NELSON, a native of Ireland and one of the brave fellows who in July last, raised on the officers and crew of the British armed schooner Hornet, and freed themselves from the fangs of tyranny. Before his death, Mr. Nelson informed Mr. Perry that he had a sister married to a man of the name Robert Patterson, who lived within eleven miles of Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania and that before he was impressed into the British service he had resided for four years principally in that neighborhood. Printers in Pittsburgh and other towns in the western country will serve the cause of humanity by publishing the above two or three times.

Lewes People of Interest.

The Daily Nevada State Journal
Contributed by Harrison

Description: Dr. Rodney Hall Richardson of /Lewes, Delaware Doctoring Nevada Piutes at Pyramid Lake Reservation.

Date: October 6 1887

Source: newspapre archives

Page/Column: Town & Country Section

Nevada Agency, Nevada - Thursday Oct. 6, 1887:

Dr. Rodney Hall Richardson, of Lewes, Delaware, who was recently appointed Agency Physician of Nevada Agency, Nevada, arrived at Pyramid Lake Reservation last Sunday. The doctor is a 26 year old, a genial young man, and it is hoped that he will meet with success in his practice with the Piutes.

[ Dr. Robinson is the son of Ephraim and Eliza Landreth Hall Richardson of Lewes, Delaware. Mr. Richardson is a grocery merchant at that place, having moved there from Snow Hill Maryland where he was born, when married Eliza Hall, a daughter born in 1834, to Dr. Henry F. Hall and his wife Hester Rodney, both of Lewes. They also have a daughter, Allena. Eliza's grandfather, Joseph Hall, was also a physician at Lewes in the late 1700's. The Hall family are descendant of David Hall, a Mayflower descendant. Dr. Richardson married Penelope Plummer in 1888 in Indiana. Her parents were George Fayette Plummer of Dorchester county Maryland and Lavinia Jane Layton of Georgetown, Delaware. Rodney and Penelope had a daughter, Dorothy, born 21st February 1894 in the State of Oregon.]

About William Barkley Cooper, Governor

Description: Ex-Governor Cooper Dies at Laurel Home.

Date: May 4 1849

Newspaper published in: Philadelphia

Source: newspapre archives/bank

Page/Column: Delaware State Journal Special

Laurel, Del., May 1, 1849

Ex=Governor William B. Ccooper died suddenly on the 27th ult, at his residence near Laurel, Delaware. He was a highly esteemed gentleman in his 78th year.

[ William Barkley Cooper was born December 16, 1771 to Isaac and Comfort Barkley Townsend Cooper at Laurel, Sussex county, Delaware. He was the 32nd Governor of Delaware, serving one term, 1841 until 1847. He was a member of the Whig political party of Delaware and had held political seats in the county and state since 1797. His maternal grandfather, Barkley Townsend, originally from Dorchester county Maryland, was a large property owner in the lower part of Delaware. His father and a brother, Thomas, also held political positions in the state. Nancy Jones was his first wife and they had one son, William T. After Nancy's death, he remarried twice, to Nelly Warren in 1816 and last to Jane Townsend Palmer, in 1828 but had no more children.
William Barkley Cooper was a Methodist and lived in Laurel at the corner of 4th and King streets. His military service was with the Delaware Militia as Captain of the 3ed Brigade of the Troop of Horse. It is known that he was a good conversationalist, but with a high temper and was in the habit of hard swearing when angry.
The son, William T., left Delaware for the South during the Civil War and fought with the Confederates, being captured and held in the Fort Delaware prison camp.]

CAVIARE FROM THE DELAWARE RIVER

Chapter VIII History of Seaford by Hazzard

Tragic Event During First Half of 1800:


Seaford, small and quiet as it was, had it's tragic events, the first one took place eight years before my birth nd has been told to me by my mother. Shadrack Cannon lived on the Magee Farm, now the site of Nanticoke City. He went tp his home after shopping at some of the Seaford groceries in a state of intoxication and attempted to pull his dog whice was rabid from under his house and was bitten. In a few days he was a terriable madman and some friends and the physician thought necessary and humane to put him out of his misery. Some of Seafords best citizens were selected to smother him to death between two bed mattresses.

Next, when I was eight years old and on the street one day, I heard the report of a pistol and ran quickly in the direction from which it came and I was by the bed of William Nichols who had just shot himself and died in a few moments. He was a good citizen, a merchant, very gentlemanly, had a fine home for that time, married to a young wife, the daughter of Joseph Vickers. But, under some terrible mental strain or depression, he did this terrible deed.

Drownings:
Often we were startled with a report that someone was drowned, some promising little boy or young man would while bathing be swept off by the swift tide of the river and drown before aid could reach him. Or, in the cold hard winters we had then, with two to five feet of snow and below zero temperatures, the railroad closed, the river and creeks frozen shut, some would fall through the ice and perish.

The drowning of Cain Brown, a young married man, promising citizen, rode one day to Laurel on a blind mule. I remember this day as he passed by me on the road. Upon his return later that night he failed to arouse the ferryman and made an attempt to ford the river. His cries of distress were heard by people living along the river but were too late for anyone to rescue him.

One bright spring morning and loud report shocked the citizens of Seaford village. Joseph, a son of Joseph Wright, was born. A colored man, George, who belonged to the Wrights was ordered to fire a swivel which was sitting near Wrights Wharf, as a salute for the event. George was ramming the powder down the gun and asked Henry Hudson to hold his hand over the touch hole. The gun went off, ruining George, he lost his eyes, hands and his body was dreadfully scarred. Henry was rendered unconscious, lost a hand and finger from the other hand. My father took him to his home, more dead that alive, and Doctor Morran amputated his arm with a carpenters tenant saw without the use of any anesthetic. Both of these boys lived to be old men. George was taken to Dorchester to live with Turpin Wright until he was freed, then died in the Dorchester County Alms House. Henry Cannon prepared for teaching, made this his lifes work and died in Caroline county.

Then there was dare devil Stansbury Mezzick, a young man who had imbibed too freely , was showing his friend how he could craw from one mast of a schooner to the other on the main stay. He lost his balance, hung to the stay as long as he could, then fell to the deck. Both legs went through the two inch decking.

A very exciting thing occurred in Seaford, around 1830, that may not come under the character of tragic, perhaps ridiculous is better called for it. It had to do with slavery and what may have been what is called, the Nat Turner insurrection, a fear of such caused many to flee north with their money, mothers taking the children north to what would be a safe haven, one being the Pea Liquor Farm of the Cannon family. A look out had spotted thousands of blacks along the shore of the river which turned out to be burnt tree stumps on the farm of Silas Boyce called Bunker Hill.

End History of Seaford, by Robert Boyce Hazzard, [1824-1901]

History of Seaford Continued

Public Buildings: The academy building became old and too small, also too far off for the new Seaford. Citizens interested in education, built a large and commodius school building in the new part of town. That one burned and was replaced with a more commodious one.
Transportation: The citizens of Seaford and the country around it became interested in better transportation to the distant cities. Business suffered, people lost time and money because of tedious travel conditions and farmers had to haul grain up to 20 miles to ship it, even by boat.
There had been , for a short time, a Norfolk Line steamer between that city and Seaford, thence from Seaford to New Castle and Wilmington by stage. About 1832 a path for a railroad was cut from the foot of of North Street in Seaford at the wharf , north across Pea Liquor farm and on up the peninsula but it lay unused until 1856.
After William Ross, later the states governor, moved near Seaford and began to develop the resources of his farm, he and other farmers following his systems of farming, became more interested in transportation systems. Ross is given credit for the building of the railroad with its terminal at Seaford, which was completed in December 1856. the service was but one train out and in each day for several years.