Will Rogers & Wiley Post arrive Alaska

The Morning News
Contributed by Harrison

Description: Wiley Post and Will Rodgers Arrive in Alaska for Vacation Trip
Date: August 7 1935

Newspaper published in: Wilmington Delaware

Source: newspapers

Juneeau, Alaska,, 7 August 1935:

After an eight hour and fifteen minute flight from Saettle, Wiley Post and Will Rogers, landed in Gastinau Bay off Juneeau, Alaska. Both Post and rogers declined to comment on where they would go next, except that they might fly into the interior of the Territory. Post said " we will stay here until we take off for some place". Post had intention of meeting his wife, at some point, who was traveling north by ship.
A large group of people lines the water front to greet the pair. Post, who had flown over and through Alaska several time before, left the red pontoon monoplane to greet the Alaskans in his shirt sleeves, with Will Rogers, in grey suit and overcoat , emerged a bit later, with a smile, telling the crowd he had enjoyed the trip immensely and he was glad the weather had been ideal for flying.
Greeted by Posts' old friend and another veteran aviator, Joe Crosson, the group were driven to the home of Governor John Troy for the evening. .

SUSSEX COUNTY CANNERIES

LATE 1800'S – EARLY 1900'S

SUSSEX COUNTY DELAWARE

CANNERIES

Starting about 1878, Sussex County, Delaware, fast became one of the most important production counties in the east for the food processing industries. A peach growers son, Walter Cuykendall, watching his fathers peach crop rot on the tree because of a market overflow and bringing a very low price in Boston, New York and Philadelphia , became concerned and investigated the new industry of canning fruits and vegetables. Young Cuykendall worked and learned the process at the Frederica cannery of W. W. Howe in nearby Kent County and soon decided to start another market for the family's crops. In a vacant building at 17 S.W. Front Street, in Milford, set up his operation. He made his own containers here during the winter and encouraged his father and other farmers to bring surplus peaches to be canned . Soon other vegetable and fruit crops, like tomatoes, then lima beans, peas and sweet corn, were made available for processing

Other growers soon followed suit as other canneries were erected.

In Bridgeville, in 1881, the Henry P. Cannon family started canning their surplus and low priced crops. Delaware State officials, seeing an opportunity, got on board with assistance, the University of Delaware, also, and in 1900 there were 23,000 acres of vegetables and 10,500 acres of fruit bringing in an income of over $2,500,000. Being a slow process at first, and in the 1900's the industry improved the machinery to hasten the output and do away with the bottleneck of hand operations.

The county was soon covered with canneries, every crossroads, village and cities had one or more. Any spot you would choose to stand on the Delmarva Penisnula, there were within a 25 mile radius, from 5 to 10 canning facrories. Some names were, Draper, Clifton's, Torsch, Bulow, Bramble, Green Giant, Stokely van Camp, Noble, Mills and

Greensbaun. Today, the food processing industry is so efficient, there are but few canning factories in operation, furnishing the world sufficient supply.

SOURCE : SALISBURY TIMES, JULY 9 1953

LEWES TO PETTIJOHNS FARM.

In 1770 the Sussex on Delaware Court House was located at Lewes, as had it been for near one hundred years, and people of Lewes were accustomed to being the center of government activities. However, during the past hundred years the interior of Sussex County expanded and caused difficult travel for it's citizens to conduct government business. Petitions had been presented to the House of Assembly to have the Court House fixed at the Cross Roads, near what is now Milton.

Lewes resident, John Rodney, a cousin of Caesar Rodney, was one against this move. He argued Lewes was a town of merchants, sailors, pilots, ship carpenters and other watermen, a thriving town, and the other county residents were farmers, seldom served in public business and were few of them fit for it. The proposal to move the court from Lewes to Cross Roads was defeated.

Then was the Revolution, Lewes and the interior area of the county continued to grow as did the animosity between coastal residents and interior residents of Sussex for a more central location of the county seat. 1791 elections found more poling places outside of Lewes and the Court House was moved a dozen miles or so to fifty acres of James Pettijohns farm, a more central location. A new court house was built, and a town soon developed around it and it was named Georgetown.

Abstract of Michael Morgan's, Delaware Diary.

LEWES NATIVE DOES LINCOLN SCULPTURE

LEWES NATIVE

SARAH FISHER CLAMPITT

DOES LINCOLN

Sara Clampitt was born in Lewes 13 August 1817, her father being a river pilot on the Delaware. Her brother John, also a Lewes native, was a carpenter and after the Civil War became a surfman for the Life Saving Service. After moviing with her father to Philadelphia Sara married the portrait artist Joseph Alexander Ames of Massachusetts 9 September 1845 and the newly weds made a year visit to Italy where her husband painted a portrait of Pope Pius IX. Returning to America in the 1850's Sara was active in the anti slave crusade where she met Abraham Lincoln.

During the Civil War she was a nurse at a hospital in the Capitol Buildiing in Washington and was an occasional visitor to the White House on duties and had suggested to the President to have her do a sculpture of him which required a photograph of him for her to work from. This photograph was made by Alexander Gardener in his studio at 7th & D Streets and a photo of Lincoln staring directly into the camera was the one chosen for the model. This photo was observed as the most interesting ever taken of Lincoln, it's rugged homeliness, the deep attraction of suffering and sympathy showing Lincoln's true picture for his bust. Daniel Chester French used the Gardner photograph as a model for the statue in the Lincoln Memorial. The Clampitt bust of Lincoln was purchased by the Federal government in 1868 and placed in the Capitol , third floor east corridor of the Senate Wing. Copies are in the Massachusetts statehouse, three museums in Massachusetts and the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia. Sara died 8 March 1901 in Washington, D.C. She and her husband were parents of Emily Girdlestone Ames, Emma Ames, Josephine Ames, Robert Fisher Ames and Sophia Marguerite Ames, all being descendents of Major John Whistler, a British soldier in the American Revolution, who returned to America to enlist in the U. S. Army duriing War of 1812 and served in the American west against the native Indians.

Abstract from Delaware Coast News, Delaware Diary by Michael Morgan

1663 ARRIVAL OF PLOCKHIY TO CAPE HENLOPEN

PLOCKHOY TO CAPE HENLOPEN

1663

Pierer Cornelisz Plockhoy was born a Mennonite around 1625 in Zierikzee, a Dutch province of Zeeland. Plockhoy was an Idealists, not all that much knowledgeable of the hard nose political reality of a strict social economic class that goverened the European people for centuries. He advocated a society where there are no classes , no disperity between rich and poor, an egalitarian colony in new America.

Sometime between 1658 and 1660 he obtained financial backing by the City of Amsterdam to support a colony and set about to recruit the desired colonists, farmers, fishermen and craftsmen. In the month of May 1663, he and about 40 followers set sail for America on the ship Saint Jacob, which arrived off Cape Henlopen in July 1663, and Plockhoy led the colonists, bag and bagage and farm utensils, ashore.

The Dutch and England were at war and two years after this settlement was established , after Dutch Peter Stutvesant surrendered New Amsterdam, the English sent Sir Robert Carr to Delaware where he had little difficulty subduing the dutch settlements, including the Plockhoy settlement. The Duke of York ordered Carr that the Dutch Colonists in Delaware were to be treated with humanity and gentalness, however, Carr boasted that he destroyed the 'Quaking society of Plockhoy to a nail', and Plockhoy just vanished.

Abstract of Delaware Diary of Michael Morgan in the Delaware Coast Press, Wednesday May 4, 2016.

CHERRYSTONE EXPEDITION

CONFERERATE CAPTAIN FITZHUGH

AND

THE CHERRYSTONE EXPEDITION

The account following was abstracted from the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper issue of Sunday, December 1 1912, and appears to have been first printed in the Norfolk Ledger Dispatch at an unknown date. It evidently is a printing of a letter from Captain T. Fitzhugh, Co. F. Fifth Virginia Cavalry, Kansas City, Kansas, on February 10, 1910, to Mr. W. H. Frenger, Cape Charles, Virginia. Capt. Fitzhugh tells that time has allowed him to forget the actual dates but civil War Records of his activities are published by Congress for 1864.

It was after the Seven Days fight around richmond. Fitzhugh was on the staff of Major General Ripley who had been ordered the send a select detail of men, a reliable officer, to a headquarters at Matthews courthouse, on Chesepeake Bay. Their duty was to report to the Confederate War Department the daily movement of McCellans transports on the Chesapeake Bay. McCellans headquarters were then at Harrison Landing on the James River.

While at Matthews Headquarters Fithugh received reports from persons from the Eastern Shore, of the military situation at Cherrystone and Eastville, Northampton County, Virginia's eastern shore. A report that the Gunboat G. B. McClellen lay off Cherrystone with a small cavalry guard and that General Lockwood had headquarters in the Kerr house at Eastville with a infantry detachment camped at Fishers Farm on the sea side. This at once caught the Captains attention and he made a plan where the Confererates would cross the bay at night, capture the gunboat and its guards, use the cavalry horses to hasten to Eastville, capture the Union General Lockwood and imprison them on the gunboat and lay it up the bay, opposite Eastville. This expedition was reported to General Stuart for the needed permission and refused with his statement that he would need to arrange another expeditoion to release the men and Capt. Fitzhugh from the Union prison at Point Lookout.

1864 REMOUNT AND RECRUIT

Remount and recruit time was given the Fitfh Virginia Cavalry in 1864 and while at home Capt Fitzhugh asked of General Lomax for permission to go on a raid but did not mention 'the plan' with him or anyone else. Permission was granted so off to Matthews Courthouse the captain and his troops went. There were hand picked were ten men, a Lieutenant Howlett and a Sergeant Merchant. The detachment left out oe evening about dusk, arriving the Eastern Shore before dawn, landing at 'Devils Hole' a small creek below Cherrystone. Finding no assistance of the locals who were too much alarmed at the situation, a good scout was sent to gather information of Cherrystone and Eastville. The scout foundthere were fourteen cavalrymen, with a sergeant in command at Cherrystone. At Eastville was Major White and a company of cavalery on guard of a large lot of commissary supplies. The first plan of attack was to go up Cherrystone Creek , land at the wharf and hit the guards from land side. However, the pilot who brought the troop across the bay, a northampton native, deserted, foiled this plan with fear he would alert the enemy. Plans were changed, Capt. Fitzhugh took the raiders across field and woods to Cape Charles road, up this road to Cherrystone road, and during the march capturing a sentry asleep, who assisted us to the soldiers quarters and the telegraph office of the Federal forces which were then easily taken prisoners. The telegraphic communication with Fortress Monroe were destroyed. Out in the creek was found a large sidewheel steamer, the captain of which was spending the night on shore in the Eastville Hotel and so he was easily taken prisoner and agreed to submit to orders so as to save his boat from destruction.

Capt Fitzhugh, with the ship captain, and three men, wearing the top coats of the captured Federals so as to receive a cordial reception, , went on board, took the crew prisoner, escorted all below deck and put under guard. All of these actions were done so quietly a qroup of oystermen working within ear shot did not observe the Confederate's.

It was learned that the Federal ship, Titan, was due to arrive at 9 o'clock, and arrangement were made for her capture, which was easily done. All of the Federal prisoners were then placed on board the Titan, under guard, and the confederate 's proceeded to destroy all Federal property in sight. The commissary stores were burned, the telegraph cable destroyed, and there were 49 prisoners in excess of the confederate force, which some were , upon oath, liberated.

Now aboard the Titan, the Cherrystone expedition succesfully completed, moving out and away the wharf, shots were heard, and it was found they were from Captain Duval's men who were making a bold attack from ambush about a mile away. This bold attack was silenced when the confederats returned fire and Duvals men fell back double time, with two wounded and one fataily.

The Confederates took the Titan across the Chesapeake Bay to the Plankatank River, going as far as possible, grounded her, removed all of value, prisoners sent to Richmond, and set afire. Next morning the Federals sent seven gunboats up the river, shelling both shores as they proceeded.

.

FENWICKS ISLAND HISTORY

EASTERN SHORE HISTORY

FENWICK'S ISLAND

It's name , it's owners

&

it's people who played a part

in making of the nation.

The Wednesday, August 16, 1899 issue of the Wilmington Evening Journal , Wilmington, Delaware published the following abstract of data which tells of characters and events during the colonial period apart from the monopoly of New England's history. Southern settlements may have been minimized or untold altogether. Stories like the founding of St. Mary's, the Annopolis Tea Party, or the exploits of the “Maryland Line” have been less heard of. This abstract hopes to correct this.

Men Who Made History

There are some Maryland sons 'as it is writ” were failed to receive the importance due them. Among them is Thomas Fenwick, whose name ws given to Fenwick's Island. He was one of the restless, adventurous men who emigrated from England to Maryland during the latter part of the 17^th century. Fenwick took up a grant of land between Little Assawoman Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, a narrow strip of land fringing the ocean cut by three inlets. Nothhernmost was Little Assawoman Inlet, southernmost was Green River Inlet and midway between these was Sineapuxent Inlet which evidently were all filled in by high tides and drifting sands as the island was gradually rising. The Fenwick Island Lighthouse stands near the center of this grant secured by Thomas Fenwick.

Thomas Fenwick was prominent in local affairs of both Sussex County, Delaware to the north and Worcester County, Maryland, to the south, disputed ownership by Lord Baltimore and William Penn. Under William Penn, Fenwick held positions of sheriff, notary public and other minor positions. During the late part of his life he made residence in Lewestown, On Delaware, where he died and is buried. At his death his daughter Mary took possession. When she married William Fassett about 1735 , the Fassett Family took over Fenwick Island.

William Fassett was a bold seafaring man and on one of his coastal sailing ventures was captured by pirates which infested the coastal waters just off Fenwick and was made to “walk the plank. Being close to shore and being an able swimmer, Fassett made shore alive and well. It is tradition that when Fassett landed he made a vow he would somehow find a way to take possession of this hosipitable beach upon which he had beed cast.

This vow became real when he married Mary Fenwick. The Fassetts kept possession for a very long time, at least three generations, passed to John, James and James, then to Mary, daughter of the last James. This Mary married James Hall of Berlin, Maryland who left the Island to his son, John C. Hall, who was killed wrecking a sunken barge loaded with ships mast. Sold at auction in Berlin to John Burch, who deeded it to Samuel Bennett who passed it on to the Gunn family, locally well known.

It was from the Gunn family that a stock company headed by Willard Saulsbury [Salisbury] and Captain John Long bougth the Island.

1831 TIDAL WAVE

“A GREAT STORM”

John C. Halls death date, 1831, calls to mind the great tidal wave of that year. One of John Halls best friends was Jacob Breasure,

a well know character of the Island gave verbal account of the storm. Jacob Breasure was born 1817 and living on the island in 1831. His father , James Breasure, lived on the island during the Revolutionary War. There were three homes on the island in 1831, all owned by James Fassett. James lived in one, Fassett lived in another and an old man. Joshua Morris, lived in the third. The young Breasure son, age 14, his older brothers, attended school on the mainland. Today was Friday, cold in January, with a strong northeast wind, but the boys were at school being well accustomed to sever weather. Evening brought on the fury of the storm prevented them from returning home for a week, but the father was on the island throughout its continuance and when looking out to sea noticed a great wave in the distance, coming along with great velocity, increasing in fury as it came until it struck the beach and swept entirely over the island. Joshua's house was washed from its foundation and the first floor swept away leaving the elderly Morris' stranded on the second floor. Brasure, at the risk of his life rescued the old man and his wife, carring them to his house. Three hundred head of cattle were lost, several people at Indian River Bay were killed including a man named Druley. The name of the storm was given “Druley Tide” for its future reference.

THE MONEY BANKS

Ner the center of the island is a portion of the sandy beach which the island people called the “mony banks” due to the fact that many Spanish silver coins are washed up on the beach by the tides. Islanders were able to rake large sums of these coins and visitors came from afar to join in.

Now in 1899 there are several small truck farms and some cattle is being raised in the marshes. There were also ten to fifteen salt houses, the salt being shipped to Philadelphia and New York.

On the mailand not far from the island , at Sineapuxent, Maryland, was born , 1779, and reared Stephen Decatur a great American Commodore. In Delaware near Dagsborough, called “Blackfoot Town” John Middleton Clayton, was born in 1776.