Statewide County DE Archives History - Books .....Chapter I 1870
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Book Title: A History Of The State Of Delaware

CHAPTER I

The Radii from New Castle-Mason and Dixon's Line-Jurisdiction over the Delaware
for Twenty-four Miles-Latitude and Longitude-Counties of the State-Its
Hundreds-Estimated Extent of its Territory-Boundaries of Counties-Northern Part
Hilly- The Ridge-Cypress Swamp-The Forests, White, Black, Spanish Oak, the
Bark-Game-Mocking Birds-The Rivers, Harbors and Streams-Naaman's Creek,
Brandywine, Christiana, White Clay and Red Clay, Mill and Bear, Red Lion, St.
Georges, St. Augustine, Silver Run, Duck and Little Duck Creeks-Kent and
Kelley's Islands-Dona River-Port Mahon, Little Jones', Mispillion, Broadkiln and
Lewes Creek-Lewes Creek filled up- Cape Lewes-Rehoboth and Indian River
Bays-Indian River Inlet-Lewes, Middle, Herring and Guinea Creeks-Long Neck-
Burton's Island--Pepper, Vine and White Creeks-Kedging of the Shallops-Fresh
Pond--Salt Pond--Manufacture of Salt- Assawaman Bay-Fenwick's Island-Assateague
Island-Fish and Water Fowl of the State, the Crocus, the Sheephead, the Drum,
the Man-nin-nose, the King Crab, the Curlew-The Nanticoke, Broad and Pokomoke
Rivers-Rivers rising in the State flowing into the Chesapeake.

   THE boundaries of the State of Delaware are as follows: first, a circle drawn
in a radius of twelve miles from the Court-house at the centre of the town of
New Castle, commencing (we will say) at low water mark on the shore of New
Jersey, north of New Castle, thence extending over the Delaware, and following
its circumference until it again touches the shore of that State south of its
radius of twelve miles from New Castle. This circular boundary on the north
gives Delaware sole jurisdiction over the Delaware River and Bay from low water
mark on the Jersey side, over a mile north of where Naamans Creek, on the
western or Delaware side, flows into the Delaware, extending southward
twenty-four miles to a place a short distance north of where Silver Run Creek
enters the Delaware from this State, or about a mile south of where Alloway s
Creek flows into it from the Jersey side. Within these boundaries are comprised
the islands of the Pea Patch, on which is erected J* ort Delaware, and Reedy
Island. .below this circle the jurisdiction of the State extends to the middle
of the bay, as far as Cape Henlopen, where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It
then extends along the Atlantic Ocean to a point at Fenwick's Island, in about
28º 20' north latitude. The line of the State then extends westwardly
thirty-four miles, three hundred and nine perches (being exactly half the
distance between the ocean and the Chesapeake Bay). The State boundary then runs
by a right line nearly due north at a tangent until it reaches the western part
of the periphery of the circle, twelve miles from the Court-house at New Castle.
It contains within its limits 2002.6 square miles. The State is situated in
latitude from 38° 28' to 39° 47' north, and from longitude from 74° 56' to 75°
46' west from Greenwich. Its physical boundaries are as follows: on the north by
Pennsylvania and the Delaware River, on the south by Maryland, on the east by
the middle of the bay and river to twenty-four miles from the State's northern
boundary, from thence by a line of low water mark on the Jersey shore to the
radius of twelve miles north of New Castle; and on the west by Maryland, and by
Pennsylvania to the periphery of the circle from New Castle, where she connects
with the State of Maryland. This circular boundary of Delaware causes the
entrance of Pennsylvania between Delaware and Maryland in the shape of a long
narrow wedge. The length of the State is ninety-five miles. At its southern
boundary it is nearly five miles in width, which width is hardly diminished for
about twenty-six miles, or to Cape Henlopen. But from Cape Henlopen to its
northern boundary, from the Delaware flowing in a southwest course, it
diminishes in width until it reaches its narrowest part in the neighborhood of
Red Lion Creek, in New Castle county, (where its breadth is not over ten miles,)
when it again widens until it reaches the breadth of twelve miles from New
Castle Court-house. The line that divides Delaware from Maryland is a part of
the celebrated Mason and Dixon's line, run by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon
in 1762, (of which we shall speak more hereafter in its proper place,) to
separate the territories of Lord Baltimore and Thomas and Richard Penn, sons of
William Penn. This Mason and Dixon's line was popularly supposed to be the
boundaries between the free and slave states. But this was a popular error.
Slavery existed in Delaware, which is west of this line, until abolished by the
fourteenth amendment to the constitution. The mistake occurred, we suppose, from
the line when it passes the periphery of the circle from New Castle and reaches
the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, instead of running north and
south, as between Maryland and Delaware, runs due west. So that Mason and Dixon
s line was the boundary between slavery and freedom when it ran east and west,
between Pennsylvania and Maryland, but not when it ran north and south, between
Maryland and Delaware.

   The State is divided into three counties, viz: New Castle, Kent and Sussex,
and each of these counties are subdivided into hundreds. Hundreds are the old
-English subdivisions of counties, and Delaware is the only State, it is
alleged, in which they exist in the United States. They were supposed to have
originated with Alfred the Great, one of the old Anglo-Saxon kings who ruled in
England A.D. 877, or 992 years ago. But they are now known to have been in
existence before his time. They derive their name from having originally, when
instituted in England, contained one hundred families. New Castle county
contains ten hundreds, viz.: Brandywine, Christiana, Wilmington, (the city of
Wilmington, which, by law, is a hundred in itself,) Mill Creek, White Clay
Creek, Pencader, New Castle, Red Lion, St. Georges and Appoquinimink. It
contains 424.02 square miles. New Castle is the county town.

   Kent county contains seven hundreds, viz.: Duck Creek, Little Creek, Kenton,
Dover, North Murderkill, South Murderkill, Milford and Mispillion. [1] It
contains 613.06 square miles. Dover is the county town, and capital of the State.

   [1] Murderkill was divided into two hundreds by Act of Legislature of March
20, 1867. Kenton hundred was formed from parts of Little Creek and Duck Creek
hundred, by Act of Legislature, February 3, 1869.


   Sussex county contains eleven hundreds, viz.: Cedar Creek, Broadkiln,
Georgetown, Nanticoke, North West Fork, Broad Creek, Little Creek, Dagsboro',
Baltimore, Indian River, and Lewes and Rehoboth. It also contains 964.08 square
miles. Georgetown is the county town.

   There are various statements published of the size of Delaware, nearly all of
which differ; but the account we have given is based on the last survey made by
D. G. Beers, for the publication of the State Atlas of Pomeroy & Beers, in 1868.
The survey of Rea & Price for the State Map in 1850 gives the area of the State
at 2,221 square miles. But they vary in their own calculation, for they give the
number of acres contained in the counties of the State 1,300,250; this, divided
by 640, the number of acres in a square mile, would make the State, according to
their estimate, consist of little over 2,031 square miles. Again, they make New
Castle county, in their statement, contain 271,490 acres, and 619 square miles.
When 271,490, divided by 640, would only bring 420, or make that county 195
square miles less by their report in acres than by their report in miles. The
American Encyclopaedia gives the area of the State at 2,160 square miles.
Huffington, of the Delaware Register, estimates it at 2,070. Mitchell's Atlas
makes it 2,120 square miles. So far there has been no official survey of the
State to verify what it contains.

   Each of the counties take up the whole breadth of the State. New Castle and
Kent are divided from each other by Duck Creek, and a line running from its
northern branch about due west to the Maryland line. Kent is divided from Sussex
by the Mispillion Creek and the Tan Trough Branch, one of its tributaries;
thence southwesterly to a small branch of the Nanticoke, down this branch to the
southward end of a beaver-dam, and thence by a line due west to the State line.

   The accounts of most of the natural features of our State will be given under
the head of its geology in the succeeding chapter. But as little mention of its
rivers, streams and bays have there been made, and as it is necessary to know
them, to comprehend the events hereafter to be related, a slight sketch is
accordingly given of them and the other geographical features of the State.

   The extreme upper portion of the State of Delaware (as will be found
hereafter stated in our description of its geology) is composed of a mass of
beautifully rounded hills, nowhere more than five hundred feet in height,
situated on a sub-stratum of rock. Below the White Clay Creek, a distance of
about seven miles from our quadrantal boundary, the land becomes level, the rock
generally ceases, and a low sandy ridge, nowhere more than seventy feet high,
passes through the State. This table land abounds in swamps, in which most of
the rivers and streams of the State have their source. At the southern border of
the State is a great morass, called the Cypress Swamp, about twelve miles in
length, the whole of which is a high level basin. It contains nearly fifty
thousand acres. About one half of this great swamp lays in Sussex county,
Delaware; the other half in Maryland. It contains a great variety of trees and
plants, mostly cypress trees, (called by the residents cedars,) and an immense
quantity of huckleberry bushes, and is infested with wild animals. The deer and
the bear, it is alleged, yet remain there. Below its surface are found immense
trunks of cedar trees, the remains of giants of the forest long since gone. The
residents of the locality probe through the morass with rods, to find where they
are situated, and then raise them, and turn them into shingles for market. This
whole swamp can be readily drained and made good land. The soil of the State is
fertile. It has long been celebrated for its wheat. All the small fruits that
grow in the temperate zone nourish here. It appears to be the natural home of
the peach. Cotton was formerly grown in Sussex county. The noblest forests of
white and black oak, yellow pine, cypress or cedar, tulip poplar, Spanish oak,
gum, and other magnificent trees still exist in the State, although they are
being rapidly cleared away. Its white oak, it is conceded, is the finest in the
United States. Trees of this description in the Blackbird, Kenton, and other
forests of the State, are often three feet in diameter across the stump, and
from forty to sixty feet in height. Logs are often sawed from them of thirty
feet long. The black oak produces the best quercitron bark in the Union, and it
brings a higher price than any other in the Liverpool market. It is ground
principally at Milford and Smyrna. The Delaware Spanish oak furnishes the best
known bark for tanning, and its bark brings a higher price, both in the foreign
and domestic market, than any other. The forests of pine are principally in
Sussex county. Sumach, which is worth from $50 to $60 a ton, grows wild in
immense quantities. All the ordinary game birds, such as the snipe, the
partridge, the old field plover, (a bird a little larger than a partridge,)
abound in the State. The mocking-bird, rarely, if ever, observed north of our
boundary, can be seen in numbers in Kent and Sussex, and the lower part of New
Castle counties.

  Its principal rivers, streams, and harbors are, first, the Delaware, which,
for twenty-four miles from our northern boundary, is a part of our State. It is
so well known as not to necessitate any description. Naaman's Creek, which flows
into the Delaware about a mile from our northern border, is the most northern
stream in the State. The Shelpot Creek, which flows into the Brandywine a short
distance before it joins Christiana. The mouth of this stream is now dammed up.
The Brandywine, which rises in Pennsylvania, and flowing through the State,
dividing Brandywine from Christiana hundred, enters the Christiana within the
limits of the city of Wilmington, about a mile and a half from where that river
enters the Delaware. The Brandywine is navigable for about two miles from its
mouth for sloops and schooners. From the termination of its navigation to the
Pennsylvania line, it is mostly rocky, with several falls, which affords
magnificent water power, from the city of Wilmington to the Pennsylvania border.
Its banks are lined on both sides with mills and factories. The Christiana,
which flows through the State in a northeast course from Maryland, and empties
into the Delaware at Wilmington. This river is of sufficient depth to be
navigated by vessels drawing 14 feet to the city of Wilmington, and sloops to
the village of Christiana, about ten miles further. Red Clay Creek, Mill Creek,
and Bear Creek, are large streams flowing into the White Clay Creek (a confluent
of the Christiana) from the northern hundreds. They were once navigable, but are
now valuable, mainly, for their water power. Red Lion Creek, formerly navigable,
is now dammed up. St. George's Creek is now turned into the Delaware and
Chesapeake Canal, except a portion of it which empties into the bay partially
through a new channel. St. Augustine's and Silver Run are small creeks which
flow into the bay in St. George's hundred, below Reedy Island. Appoquinimink is
an important creek, and is navigable for sloops to Odessa, about seven miles
from its mouth, and for steamboats to Thomas' Landing, about two miles and a
half from its mouth. Blackbird is a navigable creek, which flows due east and
north until it empties in the bay. Duck Creek, is an important creek, which
divides New Castle from Kent county. It is navigable for seven or eight miles to
within a mile of the important town of Smyrna, for whose exports it is the
outlet. It is also navigable for several miles for steamboats, having water from
twelve to fourteen feet to Hay Point Landing. It flows into the bay north of
Bombay Hook, through a made channel called the Thoroughfare. Little Duck Creek
is a creek navigable for sloops for several miles from its mouth to the town of
Leipsic, the commerce of which it bears upon its waters. Dona River is a small
river, the head of which connects with Little Duck Creek. For about three miles
it flows with a broad channel, and enters the bay below Little Bombay Hook
Island. This river and Little Duck Creek forms Kent Island, a large marshy
island several miles in extent. It is navigable for steamboats for about two
miles to Dona Landing. It was the place originally intended for the terminus of
the Delaware Railroad. About two miles before Dona River reaches the bay, it is
divided into two channels, one of which, (called Mahon River,) tearing itself a
passage through the yielding marsh, and flowing southerly for about four miles,
forms itself into a bay or harbor, and enters the Delaware. In conjunction with
Dona, it forms Kelley's Island, another large marshy island, in which there are
several ponds. This bay or harbor is called Port Mahon, and is esteemed the best
harbor for coasters on the Delaware. Little Creek is a small creek, navigable
for about three miles from its mouth for sloops and small schooners. It is the
channel for the commerce for the town of Dover, the capital of the State, which
hauls its exports four miles to a place upon it, called Little Creek Landing. It
flows into the Delaware about a mile below the mouth of Port Mahon. Jones Creek,
which runs back of the town of Dover, is navigable for small sloops and
schooners to Forrest Landing, about nine miles from its mouth. Forrest Landing
is where the produce of the town of Camden is shipped. This creek is about
twenty miles long, and flows in a southeasterly direction until it reaches the
bay. Murderkill is a navigable creek, which flows in a northeast direction until
it enters the bay about a mile below the mouth of Jones Creek. Sloops and
schooners can go up to the town of Frederica about ten or twelve miles from its
mouth. Mispillion is a large creek, upon which the town of Milford is situated.
It is navigable to Milford for large sloops and schooners, and steamboats have
ascended it. It is the outlet for the commerce of that town. Mispillion is also
the boundary between the counties of Kent and Sussex. Cedar Creek is a small
navigable creek, flowing into the Delaware. It has also an artificial outlet
into the Mispillion. Draper's, Slaughter's and Primehook Creeks are small
unimportant streams flowing into the bay at various distances between the mouths
of Mispillion and Broadkiln and Lewes Creeks. Broadkiln Creek is a stream
navigable for sloops and schooners to the town of Milton, a distance of about
twelve miles from its mouth. It flows in an easterly course, and enters the
estuary of Lewes Creek about two miles from its junction with the Delaware Bay.
Lewes Creek, from where it flows to the Delaware, to the town of Lewes, a
distance of about six miles, is separated, from the bay by Cape Lewes, a cape
about six miles long, and varying from an eighth to three quarters of a mile in
width. Large coasters used to sail up the creek, but it is now only navigable
for boats. Its navigation was destroyed by what is known as the "Great Storm."
The waters of the bay washed over the narrow cape, and filled the bed of the
stream with sand. The navigation of Lewes is now through a canal from a small
creek, called Canary Creek, to Miff Creek, and from there to Broadkiln Creek.
Two small creeks, called Wolfe Creek and Old Creek, flow into it from the
neighborhood of Lewes.

   Rehoboth Bay and Indian River Bay are two large shallow bays, which are
separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow ridge of sand, which is from a
quarter to haft a mile in width, and about nine miles m length. Through this
ridge the waters of the two bays have united, and torn a passage, called Indian
River Inlet. This inlet rarely ever contains more than three feet water, and
after a great easterly storm its mouth is generally stopped up by sand washed
into it from the workings of the ocean; after which the waters of the bays again
tear themselves a passage, and wash the sand which has filled up the inlet into
the ocean. These large bays, each, contain about twenty-five square miles of
surface, and at their deepest part do not exceed five feet. Their general depth
is from three to five feet. Rehoboth, the most northerly of these bays, is
nearly square in shape, and extends parallel with the ocean, separated from it
by the ridge before mentioned for about six miles. It is probably six miles long
by about five broad. Love Creek, Middle Creek, Herring Creek, and Guinea Creek
flow into it. All of them shallow streams. It is separated from Indian River Bay
by a neck of land called Long Neck, and several marshy islands, (now called
Burtons,) but in the old maps called Staten Islands, where it is mentioned as
abounding in oysters and terrapins. It is at this time, however, too salt for
oysters to live in, and consequently none can be found there. Indian River Bay
is about eight miles long, and from two to four broad. It only fronts about
three miles on the Atlantic, from which it is separated by the narrow ridge
before described. It extends lengthwise nearly due west into the State. Indian
River, on which is situated the town of Milsboro', a broad shallow stream
flowing due east, and of which it is a continuation, enters it. Pepper Creek,
Vine Creek, and White Creek, streams of no importance, (although making a great
show in the map,) now into it. On Pepper Creek is situated the town of Dagsboro,
and on White Creek that of Frankford. The small depth of water at the mouth of
Indian River Inlet creates the necessity of forcing the shallops over the bar by
kedging. This causes a thumping of the vessel's keel on the sand, which drives
the bilge water into the hold, and spoils much of the grain, which is the
general cargo of these vessels.

   Fresh Pond and Salt Pond are the names of two remarkable ponds in Baltimore
hundred, situated on the Atlantic coast, a few miles south of Indian River Bay.
Fresh Pond is about half a mile long by one or two hundred yards wide, and about
twenty-five or thirty feet deep. It has no outlet, and apparently no streams
flowing into it. It contains beautiful fresh water, and a few fish. The ridge of
sand between it and the Atlantic is not more than an eighth of a mile wide.
Great storms sometimes wash away a portion of this ridge, and let the salt water
into the pond. But the ocean again forms the ridge, and restores things to the
condition they were in before.

   Salt Pond is another body of water about the size of Fresh Pond, and situated
within about three miles to the south of it. It is probably one-half of a mile
further from the ocean than Fresh Pond, and the Atlantic does not break through
its banks and encroach on its waters, as in the case of Fresh Pond. It, like
Fresh Pond, has no outlet. Its waters are very salt, far more so than those of
the ocean from which it is separated by such a slight barrier. Indeed, it is so
salt that no fish can live in it. Salt works were once erected on its banks, and
a great deal of salt extracted from it. Salt is still manufactured from its
waters by the citizens of the neighborhood for their own use.

   Assawaman Bay is the last body of water in Delaware. The head of it is formed
by Jefferson Creek, which flows into it from the north. It is a long shallow bay
about seven miles long from one to one-half a mile broad, and from four to five
feet deep, navigable only for boats. It is separated from the Atlantic by a long
narrow ridge of land, from a mile to three quarters of a mile wide, called
Fenwick's Island. It flows into St. Martin's Bay, in the State of Maryland,
which is about fifteen miles long, and which has its outlet in the Atlantic
through an inlet formed by the termination of Fenwick s Island and the Island of
Assateague. After passing Fenwick's Island it takes the name of Sinepuxent Bay.
Williams' Creek, a shallow stream, flows into Assawaman Bay. Fenwick's Island is
not an island, but a long narrow cape and ridge of land, generally from half a
mile to a mile wide, and about twenty-three miles long, covered with oak,
scrub-oak and pine, about one-third in Delaware, and the other two-thirds in
Maryland. It, with the islands of Assateague, Chincoteague, Wallop's, and other
islands form a series of shallow sounds stretching from the southern boundary of
our State to Cape Charles, at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. On this island, at
the Atlantic, the southern boundary line of the State of Delaware commences.
Hence the saying of Delawareans when they wish to express the utmost limits of
the State, from Naaman's Creek to Fenwick's Island, similar to the expression of
the Israelites, of from Dan to Beersheba, or that of the Britons, from Land's
End to John O'Groats.

   This finishes our list of creeks and harbors on the Delaware River and Bay.
This noble bay, which, with the Atlantic, forms our eastern boundary, abounds
with fish and fowl. Outside of the capes, on the Atlantic, milletts are caught
in immense quantities by angling. Within the Assawaman, Indian River, and
Rehoboth Bays fish and terrapins abound; the fish are mostly rock, bounders,
perch and eels. Around the Breakwater are caught immense quantities of
black-fish and lobsters. Within the bay are taken the perch, the trout, the
alewive, the sea crocus, (better known by the name of the spot,) the sheepshead,
as well as the drum and the eel. Terrapins abound on the shore, and oysters are
found in immense quantities in various portions of the bay, and in Mispillion,
Broadkiln, Port Mahon, and other rivers and harbors of the State. Shad and
herring are found in the bay, river, and all the principal streams. The
man-nin-nose, a delicious shell fish, (shaped something like a clam, only with a
soft shell,) is dug up from under the sand.*  The kingcrab is cast up in untold
numbers every tide by the waters of the bay, and although not fit for food,
serves a valuable purpose by being fed to hogs, and ground up into what is now
called "cancerine," and placed upon the land, where it has proved a most
valuable fertilizer. The crocus, (or spot,) the sheepshead, and the drum are
particularly plenty, and are by some thought to be peculiar to the Delaware. The
crocus, or "spot," derives its name from a little black spot on each side of its
head about as big as a five-cent piece. The sheepshead have a mouth and teeth
exactly like a sheep, and are nearly as broad as long. The drum fish are caught
principally on Mispillion (generally called by the residents Mushmellon) Flats,
in the bay opposite the mouth of the Mispillion. They get their name from, when
swimming under water, making a noise like a drum. They are caught with a hook
and line, and often weigh twenty pounds. From their weight there is often
difficulty in hauling them in. In addition to wild ducks and geese, the curlew
and crane frequent the shores of our State. There are but few of the latter,
however, to be seen.


  * I do not know whether the name of this fish is spelt correctly. I have never
seen it either written or printed, and never heard of it out of Delaware.
   


   Although several streams flowing into the Chesapeake Bay have their rise in
Delaware, yet the only three of any importance are the Nanticoke, the Broad
Creek and the Pokomoke. The Nanticoke is navigable for large schooners and
steamboats to the important town of Seaford. The Broad Creek, to a village of a
few houses, named Portsville, about three miles from the town of Laurel. The
Broad Creek flows into the Nanticoke eight or nine miles below the town of
Laurel, and about the same distance from the town of Seaford. The Pokomoke
River, which flows through and past the Cypress Swamp in a southerly direction,
is navigable for small vessels. The principal streams which take their rise on
the ridge in this State, and flow into the Chesapeake, are the Back Creek, the
Bohemia, and the Sassafras, in New Castle county. The Chester, the Choptank, and
the Marshy Hope, in Kent county, and the Wicomico, in Sussex county. The Marshy
Hope derives its principal importance from being deepened and arranged as a
drain for the celebrated marsh of that name in Kent county. All the above
mentioned streams expand when they reach Maryland into large and important rivers.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE,
FROM 
Its First Settlement until the Present Time,
CONTAINING A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST DUTCH AND SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS,
A DESCRIPTION OF ITS GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

BY
FRANCIS VINCENT,
WILMINGTON, DEL.

PHILADELPHIA: JOHN CAMPBELL, NO. 740 SANSOM STREET.
1870.


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
FRANCIS VINCENT,
in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.


HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER,
1102 & 1104 Sansom Street, Philadelphia.


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