Monday, December 26, 2016

PATTY CANNONS BONES 1902



PATTY CANNON'S BONES



While excavating in the east corner of the Sussex County jail lot on the 31st

of July, 1902, prisoners on special duty unearthed a skull and a number of bones

which are said to be those of Patty Cannon, notorious slave trader, who had lived

on the Maryland & Delaware state line at Johnson's Cross Roads, Sussex county.

She was located in the Sussex county Jail after being convicted of murder

in the early part of the last century. A few days before her set execution she

died, supposedly from self administered poison. There is no doubt the bones

are hers as she was the only person on record of ever being buried in the jail

yard.

The skull and bones are on exhibit in the office of Lawyer James A. Marsh

and scores of people have been attracted there to see them.





SOURCE; Wilmington Evening Journal , Friday, August 1, 1902, page 2.

Friday, December 23, 2016

SCHOONER REBECCA WALLS LOST AT SEA

THE SCHOONER REBECCA WALLS

The schooner A. B. Marts, Captain Steelman, arrived February 13 from
Apalachicola, Florida, bringing Captain Smith, one passenger, and seven of the crew of the schooner Rebecca M. Walls of Philadelphia, which was abandoned at sea, February 6, in latitude 32.25, longitude 79.

Saved with Captain Smith, were Mate James Emory of Lynn, Massachusetts , Second Mate Willett Roberts of Portland, Maine, Steward James Cole of Manilla and Seamen David Lundquist, Louis Gabrielson, Harry Olsen of Norway, Walter Harrison of England,. F. A. Phelps of New Haven, Connecticut was a passenger from Brunswick.

Captain smith reports that he left Brunswick February 1 for Philadelphia with cargo 432,000 feet of lumber for the Pennsylvania Railroad, consigned to William A. Lloyd Company.

A moderate gale blew prior to February 4 on which day at 4 am the pumps showed there was no water in the vessel but to the surprise to the crew , all of the schooner, there was four feet of water in the hold at 9 am. The whole crew manned both pumps but at noon the was six feet and water was gaining seven inches per hour up to 9 pm. The vessel than filled and waterlogged, taking a list to port. The cabin flooded and only a few hard biscuits and a little bit of water was saved as all hands took to the top of the house to await rescue.

It was not until 5 am on the 6th that a vessel was seen and Captain Smith lighted a torch and was rewarded by seeing the vessel bearing down upon the Walls, by daylight the same vessel was sighted seven full miles away and was soon out of sight to the eastward.

The Rebecca Walls crew was able to get a small canvas up on the Walls taking her on a west northwest by west course during which were seen two schooners to the eastward but too far away for signals to be seen. At 2 pm a steamer was sighted about four miles off, an ensign with the union down was raised but caught no attention. The Walls crew began to lose faith but later the day a four masted and a three masted schooner were sighted, the burgee was hoisted on the Walls and the the three master , which was the Marts, bore down on Captain Smith and took off all hands after their two days on the sinking schooner.

Later, a day or two, the Walls was reported as being off Charleston Bar, waterlogged and abandoned, then subsequently towed inside the bay for wrecking. Henry D. May, & Company of Philadelphia are owners of the Rebecca M Walls which was built in Milton, Delaware in 1879.


Source: Wilmington Delaware Evening Journal , Tuesday February 14, 1893.

EMBLEM


OLD INDIAN EMBLEM
WORN BY
INDIANS AND EARLY AMERICAN COLONIST

John Walls, a well known fish dealer of New Castle has on the lapel of his

coat a unique emblem in the shape of an Indian Head, and thirteen eagle feathers.

The design is worked on copper and is emblematic of the freedom of the

American people and is original with American Indians. It was given to a male

Indian youth as he became of warrior age and signified he was 'free' as the Eagle.


Source: Wilmington Evening Journal, 5 May 1900, page 2, Saturday.


EMBLEM


OLD INDIAN EMBLEM
WORN BY
INDIANS AND EARLY AMERICAN COLONIST

John Walls, a well known fish dealer of New Castle has on the lapel of his

coat a unique emblem in the shape of an Indian Head, and thirteen eagle feathers.

The design is worked on copper and is emblematic of the freedom of the

American people and is original with American Indians. It was given to a male

Indian youth as he became of warrior age and signified he was 'free' as the Eagle.


Source: Wilmington Evening Journal, 5 May 1900, page 2, Saturday.


Tuesday, December 6, 2016

SHINPLASTERS

SHINPLASTERS


Upon the beginning of the Civil War, Sussex county farmers began to prosper, shipyards were busy, and 'hard' money became so scarce that merchants found it necessary to use what was called 'shinplaster' for use as small change in business transactions as a circulating medium when small coins went out of circulation.

“Shinplasters”, were pieces of paper money of small denomination’s with no coin value nor bank backing. Just a slip of paper with a figure of value written on it. They were issued by private persons, merchants, and firms, as a form of fractional currency. “A small papernote uses as money, a promise to pay a small sum without legal security during the 1837 financial panic and the 1861 Civil War, when metal for minting was scarce.
These slips were a nuisance, easily counterfeited , soiled , lost or destroyed by use. After 1878 they vanished with the passage of the Bland Allison Silver Act.


Source: Wilmington Evening Journal October 1, 1915, E.J. Edwards, The Alexandria Louisiana, Town Talk, Rochester New york , Democrat & Chronicle, and Handcock's History of Sussex County