This talk explores stories about getting hitched in a hurry in days gone by.
Eloping couples once came to Wilmington for a licenses and a quick ceremony, but just before World War I, Delaware passed more restrictive laws. A city newspaper, proclaiming that Wilmington was no longer a “mecca” for marriages, remarked that “Wilmington’s Days as a Gretna Green has gone glimmering.”
Since the “honeymoon express” was no longer able to deliver cupid’s hurried business to the City, passenger trains steamed on down the tracks, stopping at the first county seat beyond the Mason Dixon Line.
There the marrying parsons picked up the trade as the marrying parsons worked overtime completing a ceremony every 15 minutes. Quirky marrying parsons, humorous occurrences, and an international incident involving Iran, are part of this colorful narrative.
The program will also sketch out marriage practices and customs and how they have changed over the longer period.
The lecture was offered by the Friends of Old Dover in for Valentine’s Day 2017. Here is the post, they shared for that talk.
Wilmington was the place for elopements and quick marriages.
McLear & Kendall Carriage Factory, French Street, Wilmington, by the Hexamer General Survey. Source: Philadelphia Free Library
While digging up some historical records on a Delaware property earlier this week, I discovered a large body of helpful online maps published by the Philadelphia Free Library. This urban institution has substantial online collections, including a large holding of maps.
The resources that helped with my investigation was the Hexamer General Survey collection. Between 1866 and 1895, Ernest Hexamer sketched out detailed plates on nearly 3,000 industrial and commercial properties in the Greater Philadelphia area. These meticulous illustrations included breweries, textile mills, printers, car works, dye and chemical plants, planning mills, and much more. The renderings were created for fire insurance underwriters and are similar to the Sanborn Maps, which are available for many Delmarva communities.
Hexamer was a German immigrant, according to the blog, Hexamer Redux. “He began his career creating insurance maps in New York City. In 1856, he moved to Philadelphia and established the fire insurance map business in the city.”
For researchers on the upper part of the Delmarva Peninsula, there are a many industrial plates from Wilmington, as well as New Castle and Cecil counties. The Star Bone Phosphate Works at Rothwell Landing is the only one for Kent County, DE. Companies such as the Jackson & Sharp’s Delaware Car Works, Bancroft and lots of others are represented in the records.
In addition to floor plans similar to architectural drawings lots of additional details are provided. There are notes about the construction, fire protection, occupancy, and other elements of interest to an insurance carrier. Many include perspective sketches of the actual building, which is great.
This will be a valuable resource for many Delmarva researchers. Thank you Philadelphia Free Library for providing this excellent resource.
Providence MIll, Wm. M. Singerly, 1890 by Hexamer General Survey; Source: Philadelphia Free Library.New Castle Mills, New Castle, DE., 1887 by Hexamer Surveys. Source: Philadelphia Free Library
Jackson and Sharp Rail Works, 1872, by Hexamer General Survey. Source: Philadelphia Free Library
The Stanton Railroad Station, From the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Guide via Hathi Trust http:hathitrust.org
When we hit the road these days for a trip to some unfamiliar destination, we often consult travel directories and guidebooks. These handy sources, whether online or on the printed page, are packed with information about a place, providing details for sightseeing and accommodations
They were there in the 19th century too, filling the need of itinerant types for information to orient them to things on their journey to unfamiliar places. While there are a number of works available from the 1800s for the Delmarva Peninsula, I recently worked with two as I prepared for a Delaware Humanities forum talk for the Newark Historical Society.
My talk was about the social history of railroading in Delaware and I was reorienting it to matters more of interest to the heritage group’s members. So I surfed over to the Digital Library of America, an excellent portal for starting online searches. That search yielded the sought after reference, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Guide published in 1856 by Charles Dare. This little volume was designed, the author said, to communicate information that was most interesting to passengers over the route. Dare updated his first publication with a second issue in 1877.
The handy guide described for the traveler the route from Philadelphia to Baltimore, providing pages of details about the destinations on the upper Delmarva Peninsula, such as Claymont, Bellevue, Wilmington, Newport, Stanton, Newark, Elkton, North East, Charlestown and the Susquehanna River crossing. As the miles rolled by on those long ago journeys the guide described items of interest for sightseers and provided practical destination information on local accommodations.
There are also plenty of sketches. The author offered a special thanks to D. C. Baxter for his work, the transformation of “photographs of scenery upon the route into well-executed wood engravings.” The maps were done by J. E. Larkin.
Just as this guide was handy to people living in the 19th century, the modern day researcher will find it helpful for understanding places along the road. Fortunately these rare books have been digitized by academic libraries and are now readily available for on demand use. I purchased a copy of the original work from a rare book dealer in New England probably 30 years ago. Otherwise it would have taken a time consuming trip to a special collections or large academic library.
But as digitization expands our easy contact with heritage-related materials, it helps advance our understanding and appreciation of our past as practically everyone has the ability to conveniently access rare materials. The physical copy of the e-resource I was using is located at the Harvard University Library.
Proposed railroad bridge between Perryville and Havre de Grace. Source: Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Guide, via www.hathitrust.orgThe Newark Train Station. Source: Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Guide, via www.hathitrust.org
Joseph Scott’s Geographical Description of the State of Maryland and Delaware. Source: Hathi Trust via the Digital Public Library of America
In the decades before state directories and similar resources appeared, there were gazetteers or geographical dictionaries. These valuable titles, many over 200 years old, focused on geography as they examined an area in detail, presenting information about a community, its landscape, political economy, business enterprise, population, and natural resources.
Today genealogists and local historians will find these works helpful as they offer detailed insights into a county, town, or village. Since hard-to-find details, such as social statistics, are contained in the works, I often consult the volumes when trying to understand the changes that have taken place in an area over the centuries.
In this region, “A Geographical Description of the States of Maryland and Delaware,” published by Joseph Scott in 1807, is helpful. As its nearly 200 pages focus on this region, it contains a large amount of productive information. In addition to details on most of the towns and villages of any size on Delmarva, there is lots of text discussing the states and each county.
This title was once hard to access. I purchased one from an antiquarian bookstore in New England decades ago to have it instantly available for my needs. Before that, I had to travel to a distant special collections library.
But now, thanks to the Digital Public Library of America and other public domain e-content providers, we all have instant access to this and many more titles.
Delaware Social Statistics showing the population in 1800 by hundred for free persons and slaves, along with the start of the description of New Castle. Source: Hathi Trust, via the Digital Public Library of AmericaThe Delaware map in Joseph Scott’s 1807 Geographical Description of Maryland and Delaware: Source: Hathi Trust via the Digital Public Library of America
