Lewes A Noteworthy Old Town

LEWES, A NOTEWORTHY OLD TOWN ON THE DELAWARE

It is only within a year or two past that regular communications have been open between New York City and the region of the seashore where the Delaware River flow's into the Atlantic Ocean.

By means of a line of steamers connecting with the Junction and Breakwater Railroad , this part of the country has been removed from it previously isolated status. Now, the shipment of abundant vegetables, fruit and the personal travel of it's citizens may come directly to cities in the north.

One of the earliest settlement of this coastal section of the United States is the old town of Lewes or Lewestown , whichever you prefer to call it. It lies on the southern shore of the Delaware Bay, in a cove near the point of Cape Henlopen, close to the river Hoord Kill. It is one of the 1638 settlements of the Dutch and Swedish, under guidance and patronage of the Dutchman Peter Minuit and the Swedish Chancellor Oxeustlers.

Whoever wishes to visit an old Delaware town should visit Lewes which has not changed since the start of the present century. You will leave New York in the afternoon, pass down the coast of New Jersey, view beautiful beach sights by day and village lights by night, all from the quiet loneliness of our vessel. Early morning brings in view our destination. Lying low on port side is a stretch of pure white sand beach, behind it, a line of sand dunes, and white breakers dancing upon the shore. This is Cape Henlopen, looking much as it did to Cornellis Jacobson May, except for the lighthouse, as he entered the Delaware Bay. The New Jersey Cape, thirteen miles to north, was named for him.

Into this broad entrance the waves of the Atlantic sweep in with tremendous force, especially during an easterly gale, and it was soon found the need to establish an artificial harbor. This was done by the construction of the Delaware Breakwater, some forty years ago. As our steamer approaches it you can see it is a massive, long and straight, embankment of large stone, two thirds mile in length, laying in a north by north by west direction. The outer walls are continuously buffeted by high breakers while the inside is calm and sheltered. At the northwest end of this mass of stone is the ice breaker, much shorter, laying east to west, to protect the harbor from winter ice which flows with the current down the Delaware River.

A mile south of this harbor is the town of Lewes which now has a fine 1800 foot pier into the bay, used by the steamship line to carry the Junction and Breakwater trains of travelers to vessels moored along the pier. Lewes offers no remarkable features, save for the calm and antiquity what reigns over every part of it. To one who come from the restless uproar of New York City it is like dropping back into another century. Cedar shingled houses line the silent streets with gardens of flowers, English ivy and jessamine masses. The old Presbyterian Church building is a very curious structure, built in 1725, repaired over and over, so that nothing of the original remains except for the red and black brick front section of a peculiar construction which is viewed and admired by architectural critics . The newer church, now being itself old, is built beside, both are surrounded by graves of Lewes citizens of the past. An Episcopal Church has also been built in modern style on the site of an early one, also in the midst of graves of Delaware persons of history.

There are found several old cannon, some with a crest of arms, but are unable to be read because of rusting. It is said they came during the 'War of Twelve”, however a closer look shows they have the markings of being Spanish. These cannon sit on the bank of Lewes Creek in front of the United States Hotel at Front Street. .

Anyone who inquires about schools will see there are non. The last teacher who made school left town without making expenses. Each church has their Sabbath School.

The principle industry appears to be “Croakers”. This is a fish, “Micropogon undulatus”, six to eight inches long, with mother of pearl white meat, very tasty and with few bones. Seldom do they go farther north and there are thousands a day caught here along the beach and the pier, the “Harvest of the Sea”.

The most striking geological feature one sees from the sea approach is the 'walking dune' or sand hill, produced by the action of wind from the sea and loose dry sand. It is moving inland, overwhelming everything in its path. A pine forest has been buried and the lighthouse is being undermined by this moving sand.

The day of my departure there blew in a gale. Vessels going in and out came seeking shelter in the Breakwater. Over night the storm continued and by next morning some 300 ships were at refuge. Coal schooners from Philadelphia, Chesapeake oyster boats, lumber ships from Carolina, safe in harbor. This proved the greatness of the Delaware Breakwater

Sourc: New York Herald-Tribune, August 20 1872

Description: Excitement at Lewestown, Delaware
Date: May 17 1853

Newspaper published in: Easton, Maryland

Source: newspaper collection

Lewestown, Delaware, May 17, 1853:

There was considerable excitement at Lewestown on the Delaware for several days last week due to the arrival in the harbor of a fleet of fifty some sail of fishermen from Maine and Cape Cod.
It appears that the crews, after landing, went on a lawless spree, robbed gardens, broke into business and private houses, insulted females and committed other acts of lawlessness.
The town citizens turned out and drove them off, but the following night a gang of almost 150 of them were seen returning, threatening to burn the town, but the citizens again turned out, fully armed, and met them at the Lewes Creek bridge, where a skirmish did ensue. The Fishermen were driven back with several broken heads. A cannon was procured among the citizens and was fired into them as they retreated. The pilot boats came to the aid of the towns citizens and together the pursued the fishermen until they returned to embark upon their vessel and set sail. It has been heard that this band has since been robbing residents up and down the coast.

Georgetown, Delaware, July 30, 1888:

Georgetown is the county seat of Sussex county Delaware located at the junction of the former Junction and Breakwater and the Breakwater and Franklin Railroads, now the Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania. In 1880 it had 710 inhabitants and in 1887 there were 1600, a lot to do with the locating of the C. H. Treat Company, maker of peach baskets and other wood products which employed over 100 people. also there was the Sussex Manufacturing Company which made wood work items for the building business, such as windows, doors, etc. There are three food canning houses, an evaporator of fruit and several smaller business to keep the population working. Georgetown, named for George Mitchell, one of a committee appointed to locate it in 1791. The county seat was moved from Lewes for a more convenient location to the county.

The oldest religious edifice is the St. Paul's Episcopal Church that was originally built in 1794 with money raised by a lottery authorized by the State of Delaware Legislature. Several more lotteries were necessary in the early 1800's to complete it and build a Masonic Hall and Academy There is also a Presbyterian and Methodist church and Catholic's occasionally meet in the Court House.

Georgetown is laid off from a center square with wide shaded streets running at right angles. The court house, the Eagle and the Brick hotel's front on this square. The town has two newspapers, The Sussex Journal, editor McKendree Downham and The Delaware Democrat, editor E. F. Paynter, both newsy weekly journals.

Georgetown has one old custom it has kept for years, Return Day, following elections in November to which Sussex county people flock to the town center to hear the results of election read from the court house door at noon.

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Philadelphia, Inquirer
Contributed by Harrison

Description: Delaware's youngest Bride at Age 13 Years.
Date: December 7 1909

Newspaper published in: Philadelphia

Source: GBank

Bayard, Delaware, December 7, 1909:

Richard Banks, 18 years old of Williamsville in Sussex county Delaware, a son of James A and Ann Banks, took to himself a "child wife", supposed to be the youngest girl ever married in Delaware, when he was married to Miss Orma Hickman, age 13, daughter of the late Theodore and Maggie Hickman, who have during the past ten years moved to Bayard from Cape May county in New Jersey. The wedding was held with the full consent of her mother and was solemnized at the home of her widowed mother. The young girl is well developed for her age d easily passes for sixteen years old. She is perfectly happy with her new husband telling friends she found the one she loved. The bride was born and bred in this country but has seen very little of life outside of her family farm home. she and the husband will reside at the farm which her mother owns.

Richard Warren Banks lived until June 1967 before he died near Bishop, Worcester county, Maryland. Orma died in 1978. both are buried in Carey's Cemetery at Frankford, Delaware.  Sometime after 1921 the family moved to St. Martins Neck in Worcester county where Richard became a carpenter, giving up a short span of farming. They had five children, daughter Edna born 1912, daughter Zenia born 1916, son's Arthur born 1919, Clifton born 1921, all in Delaware and their last son Richard Warren Banks Jr., born 1927 in Worcester Maryland.

DELAWARE RIVER BRIDGES

LACKAWAXEN BRIDGE

The bridge across thr Delaware river at Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania to Yulan, New York is known today as the Roebling Bridge, named after its builder-designer, John August Roebling,  built in 1848 as an aqueduct , 535 feet in length, 20 feet wide with 8 feet of water depth, to carry coal barges pulled by mules,  from Pennsylvania's anthracite mines across the Delaware on the Delaware and Hudson Canal  to the Hudson River bound for NewYork City. There was a wooden plank walkway for the mules on the edge of the waterway. Today it carries vehicles with a one-way, yield to oncoming traffic, road with scenic views. The Lackawaxen Bridge was open to wagon and auto traffic in 1900.  It was the largest one of four built by Roebling for the canal. Roebling also was the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City but died before it was completed  by his son, Washington Roebling.

Due to the rapid construction of a railroad system to transport coal to New York City  the Delaware and Hudson Canal ceased operation. Lackawaxen Bridge was for sale.  Railroads were offered the structure, however, the Cornell Steamboat Line  purchased it, hoping to sell for a railroad which never happened. 

In 1908, a Scranton lumber dealer, Charles Spunks,, purchased the bridge and the roads leading to it in order to transport lumber from New York State to his Scranton business. So it soon became a toll bridge for wheeled vehicles and pedestrians which continued to about 1933 when most of the bridge woodwork was destroyed by a fire, perhaps started by locals in order to have a toll free bridge built.  Until May 1980 the Lackawaxen Bridge had several new owners and many problems, finally it became more of a tourist attraction, was then purchased by National Park Service for $75,000.00 , repairs for traffic and opened again in 1987.

Other tourist attractions near are the home of the Western Cowboy writer, Zane Grey and the site of the 1779 Battle of Minisink Ford, the only major battle of the Revolutionary War fought on the Delaware River. 

1671 DELAWARE RIVER CENSUS

THE SETTLEMENTS AND THEIR PEOPLE;

WHOREKILL 1671:

Whorekill is Dutch,, horren kill,  aka, Whore Creek, now known as Lewes.  In 1659 they had built a fort, then in 1663 a settlement was established by forty Mennonites from Amsterdam on the ship St. Jacob, the leader being Peter Cornelisen Plockhoy. In 1664 the English in Maryland plundered these settlement and by 1671 the communities were a mix of dutch and English residents. The settlements were claimed by both the Maryland Governor and the Duke of York of New York and the governor of New York established a Court there naming  Helmanus Wiiltbank sheriff and chief justice, Sander Molleston, Otto Wollgast, and William Clasen as justices. This took place 28 February 1670 and on the third of October 1670, Maryland  took action and surveyed six tracts of land for residents which included all four of the New York appointees.
1673 the dutch retook the Delaware and New Castle, changing the Maryland policy toward Whorekill and that same year A Maryland Milita Troop of forty men led by Capt Thomas Howell seized the settlement, burned the houses, boats and took all weapons from the residents.. However, the community lived on. 
A census was made 8 May 1671 by the sheriff Wilrbank, entitled, " list of persons, young and old, who are here at Whorekill , aka, Sekonnessinck".
The Census:  Helmanus Fredricks Wiltbanck, his wife, two sons and one servant, (5);  Sander Moelsteen, his wife, two sons, one servant, (5); Otto Wolgast, his wife, one son, a servant (4); William Clasen, two daughters, one child (4); Jan Kipshaven , his wife, one daughter (3);  James Weedon, his wife, one daughter, one son, four servants (8);  Jon Rods, his wife, three sons, two daughters (7); John Brun, his wife, one partner, John Colleson, (3);  Jan Michiels, Antony Pieters, Abraham Pieters, Pieter Hansz (4); Peter Gronendick Antony Hansen, Herman Cornelissen, (3); Hendrick Drochstraeten (1) for a total of 47 souls.
Sheriff wiltbanck also gave numbers to the homes from 166 to 176. He also reported the five occupants of the ship Betfort of Capt. Martyn Cregier and two Crew of  Pieter  Alrich's  boat of New Castle, both anchored at Whorekill in the bay Delaware.

THAT BOY  FROM MONTANA ON THE SNOW BIKE

Than boy from Montana, Mike Potter,  from Whitefish, Montana, on his big wheeled bike on a tour of the United States, by name Four Corners Tour, was at the Village of five Points Arenas Coffee shop Friday, the first of February, a cold day for here, in his shorts but with a wool watch cap. Somewhat appropriate I guess. See his blog a www.relaxedchaos.com.  He is a talker for sure and has an interesting story, both coming and going,, talks  my language, "plain talk, easy understood".   An Army veteran  where he became assigned a 'journalist', because he was one of his group that could write a complete sentence. Any way he is here in Lewes, right now helping  Abrakas with a internet web site for his art business.  Hudson's are allowing him to stay in the Spaceship, at Eagle Crest.  So far he has been across the top of the country to Portland, Maine, down the coast through New Jersey and  tool  Cape-May Lewes Ferry ans Lewes. 

I have not made much way on his family genealogy but think his grandfather was Harry Potter, born in Montana and grandmother was. Allena, born in Missouri. Both were living in Whitefish in the 1930 census. Anyway, Joe Hudson and I enjoyed his visit at Arenas Friday morning.  Check out Whitefish on google maps. It has a railroad museum and the Great Northern Brewery.                                                           You may say this article is from the Arenas Express Press, a short lived news journal, which may come in play in the future.

HAEEISON