Historic Wilmington Mansion to be Reconstructed 1905

Description: Colonel Davis Mansion Now Known as Bayard's Delamore to be
Sold and Reconstructed
Date: July 24 1905

Newspaper published in: Baltimore

Source: newspapers collection

Wilmington, Delaware July 24 1905:

Delamore Place, home of the late Thomas F. Bayard, once known as The Colonel Davis Mansion and Delaware Place, is to be sold at settlement of the estate of the statesman Bayard. It has been known that alterations will be made that will replace the colonial architecture which very few remain here. For the past three generations Delamore has been associated with important statesmen and political events of Delaware history.
This home was built between 1813 and 1820 and purchased by Colonel Samuel Boyer Davis in 1821. Col Davis, born in Lewes and defended that village during the 1812 War.

TRUSSOM POND - LOCATION OF 1794 THOMPSON'S BEGINNNG

In 1794 Levin Thompson, born  a free man of color,  came to Sussex county from  Maryland's Eastern Shore, and established a community of free people of color near Trussum Pond in south west Little Creek Hundred on 200 acres of land he had purchased. The community was named "Thompson's Beginning".                                                                                                                                               In that period of time the free black suffered the hazard of a thicket of laws and customs which limited their 'rights', such as being sold as slaves for unpaid debt's, and needed to be aware of persons like Patty Cannon who would kidnap them, sell them to slave traders to move them to the deep south plantations.  Above and beyond these hazards,  "Thompsons Beginning " farm was a success and the black entrepreneur used the profits to buy additional land. He owned a large home, furnished with and old walnut dinning room table with Windsor chairs,  a carriage that he traveled the  roads of Sussex county in dignity and set him apart from other rural residents as a member of gentry. He also owned a firearm which was good protection from the likes of Patty Cannon.
               Eventually, Thompson  was in possession of 500 acres of farm land in Little Creek Hundred  and 136 acres of cypress timberland in Dagsboro Hundred , he also owned a grist mill and saw mill near Laurel  and a loom and spinning wheels that produced 300 yards of linen and 600 yards of woolen cloth each month.  To operate these businesses Thompson employed the free black  residents of his community which became a thriving Sussex county village of free workers as he, a wealthy free African American, one of the richest in Sussex. 
Sources: delmarvanow.com/michaelmorgan 2014 March; Willaim Williams"Slavery & Freedom in Delaware"; michael Ruane "dig at Eastern Shore" Washington Post, 25 July 2013
            

UNDERSTANDING BIRD BANDING

UNDERSTANDING BIRD BANDING

Banding is an important tool to the science of understanding wild birds and other creatures of Mother Nature. It is used by all wild life rehabilitators, such as the Geological Survey of the United States and Canada's Wildlife Service to address population, hunting impact and effects of the humans on bird habitats, gain information of longevity, migration and breeding. Through the small percent of 'returns' we have learned significant data and lessons from raptors, shorebirds, oiled birds of spills, those birds with cases of interest, such as botulism, finch eye syndrome and other diseases .

Rehabilitated birds have proved they can survive back in the wild for many years. Hatched birds show they can migrate and join into a wide flock ti south America and back. Bands have proven brown pelicans, gulls and herons from the Deepwater horizon spill are surviving today, some sixteen years later.

Source: Tri-State Rescue News Letter, Fall 2014, Newark Delaware

MEN OF LEWES, MATHEW WILSON

MATTHEW WILSON

PROFESSOR, PREACHER, PATRIOT, PHYSICIAN

FROM

LEWESTOWN ON DELAWARE

It is 1778, three years into the American Revolution, Sussex county Delaware was in the midst of control by Tories, those loyal to the British Crown, and Wilson, the pastor of the Lewes Presbyterian Church on Kings Way, also a local prominent physician, a Whig Party Member who was a leader of the Tea Tax boycott, has rallied the residents of Lewes and the coastal region, with the help of Henry fisher, and William Perry, to the Patriot's cause. In July 1778 Wilson made it known to Colonial leaders of Philadelphia of two drastic courses of action. The first plan was to divide the State of Delaware between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and, if that did not happen, to ban all Tories from holding public offices in the state for a long period of time.

Wilson also presented a clandestine effort to identify Tory office holders in Delaware by using already arrested Tories to ferret them out. He advocated to pardon some Tory or two on condition they become a true witness against the rest. On of those who was suggested was James Cooper from Sussex. It is not know if Wilson advice was followed, but the Tories in Sussex began to wane.

Source: Michael Morgan Collection, Delaware Diary, Delaware Coast News.

From sussex Delaware to the sagebrush desert of Idaho

Would You Migrate From Sussex County Delaware to 1872 Boise, Idaho's Sage Brush Desert Country?

In the spring of 1872, a Mr. Cramer of Drawbridge, Sussex County, Delaware, wrote the Idaho Statesman newspaper of Boise, Idaho, with the question “ what can a man do in Idaho, who is willing to work and has a good knowledge of his trade”. Evidently Creamer and several of his neighbors were contemplating a move.

With the answer he received he learned that carpenters and joiners were paid $5 a day in the city, and other mechanical labor was much the same. There was a need for blacksmiths and there was no difficulty in any one making himself useful in this country. Farming and the raising of meat stock , mining, are the principal occupations. Room and board is $10 a week.

The news told that the winters were mild, last winter the temperature did not reach more than 10 degree above zero, the average was about 35 above. The water is good.

There are daily stages which meet the railroad in two to three days as do they cross the Columbia River to the west. Idaho City is north 35 miles and Silver City is 60 miles south.

Grain cost 2-1/2 cents a pound, potatoes 2 cents a pound, butter 50 cents, egg also, beef is 6 to 8 cents per pound.

To reach here from the Atlantic States you take the railroad from Omaha to the top of Utah Territory, then the stage some 240 miles to this city along a route of sage brush desert with few stage stations but upon reaching this valley you will find inviting , well improved and very productive country.

Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho, 7 March 1872.

Farmers Daughter and the Traveling Saleman

DELAWARE ROMANCE

A Story of a Farmers Daughter and a Traveling Salesman

It is early spring 1845, before the railroad's came to the area, when a peddler drove his horse and wagon up to the farm house door of the Johnson's family farm between Milton and Georgetown. Traveling peddlers were popular and most welcome as they brought news, stories of the out side world, items needed for house keeping and farming, and just plain company. This peddler was a fine example of the trade, young, good looking, and looked honest enough to allow in the house.

Upon entering the house with his wares to sell, he immediately noticed the beautiful only daughter of the farmer and his wife, a young twenty year old, who held his attention throughout the most of his visit. It was a case of love at first sight. Before the peddler left he had the opportunity to speak with the young beautiful girl in private and told her he was William Spaudls and that her charm had drawn his attention. When the peddler proceeded on his journey he and Kitty Johnson were betrothed. It was several months before William was able to return to Kitty and after the remonstrating of the elderly mother and father, the lovers were married. During the year following the marriage the Spaudl's gave up peddling and took up the management of the family farm. William,nor Kitty, being real farmers, the farm eventually passed into other hands and Spaudls started a tin shop which barely was able to make business.

One morning in 1857, William Spaudls left Milton on a vessel bound for Philadelphia to make a semiannual trip to purchase items for his tin shop business. After a week or so the vessel returned to Milton but William Spaudls was not aboard. The ship's captain had told the family William has spent most nights on the ship in Philadelphia but he had not seen nor heard from him upon sailing on the return trip. Days, weeks, months, then years passed, Kitty waited for the footsteps of her husband, but they did not come. She became a deserted wife.

In 1867 Kitty started west with the two children and settled in Illinois where they lived comfortably and happily for years, enduring an end to her heartache. Many years later in Delaware, a broken hulk of an old man , dusty from travel, passed through the gate of his former home, asking for assistance. The local farm folk at once knew this was William Spaulds who had returned for a once more glance upon his family. He was told the story of Kitties heartbreak and leaving for the west, of her death, and news that the children now lived far away. The old man wept, bent to pick up his meager little bundle, turned and passed through the gate without a word. How and why he disappeared and what will become of him remains a mystery.

Source: 21 August 1883 San Francisco Chronicle.

CROSSING THE PLAINS IN 1865 FROM SARAH RAYMONDS DIARY AS FOUND IN THE 1880 "ROCKY MOUNTAIN HUSBANDMAN" NEWSPAPER.

12 June 1865 Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory:

 Here we stood at fort Kearney, a major way station on the trail west, looking at eleven graves of men killed by Indians last August as they were at breakfast in camp on Plum Creek. There were two women, wives of two of the party.  One man who had left camp to get water was the only survivor . The invaders killed and skalped all the men at camp, and took the two women and whatever of the provisions in the wagons, then set fire to them, and ran off with the teams and the women.  The one man who had been at the creek for water went with all haste to the way station for help. There the soldiers chased the Indians, fought them, rescued the women. These folks were from St. Joe, Missouri