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Dr. Swithin Chandler, M.D. While it's true that Mill Creek Hundred doesn't boast many residents who attained a national level of fame or influence, it doesn't mean that there haven't been plenty of our sons and daughters who have been important on the state or local level. Then, as now, there have always been those special people who seem to show up everywhere and have a hand in almost every aspect of community life. One such person in the mid-to-late 19th century was Dr. Swithin Chandler, M.D. Swithin Chandler was born in 1830, the second child of Thomas Jefferson and Sarah Yarnall Chandler. The Chandlers and Yarnalls were both prominent families in the area, and among the future doctor's many relatives were his uncle Abram, who operated the old Harlin mill at Milltown, and (I think) his mother's cousin Holton Yarnall, who operated the Yarnall Tavern at Brandywine Springs. At about age seven, Swithin went to live with his grandparents, who I assume lived near

Today is the birthday of Mary Shelley, born August 30 1797, one of the icons of feminism and the Romantic age. There's a huge resource of material on Mary and her relationships with the other great names of the Romantic era, people who were friends, lovers, collaborators. You can find her works online here . The most recent book I read about Mary and her circle was Young Romantics by Daisy May, which concentrated on the relationships between the Shelleys, Byron, and figures such as the lesser known Leigh Hunt and the Cockney Poets, now coming back into scholars' radar. Mary, who lived for almost three decades after Percy's death, has had the reputation until recently of the scholarly widow who abandoned her youthful radicalism and devoted her life to the works of her late husband, thereby doing a cleanup act on him: The qualities that struck any one newly introduced to Shelley, were, first, a gentle and cordial goodness that animated his intercourse with warm affection, a

Since publishing the post on the Kiamensi Woolen Mill a few weeks ago, I've come across a few more goodies, as well as a story about the site that I think deserves telling. Finally, I want to try to clear up a related aspect of the mill history that I think I'm a bit more clear on now. First, the goodies! In response to the first Kiamensi post, I was contacted by Marshallton resident Denis Hehman, who was gracious enough to provide me with some documents, as well as the story I'll pass along in a moment. Denis has his own website, Historic Lower Red Clay Valley , that is well worth checking out. Among many other things, he has on there some present-day pictures of the mill site and the surrounding area. He also has a map , prepared by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), showing the remnants of structures that were present when they surveyed the site a few years back. The highlight, though (at least for me), was a four page History of the Mill Seat at Kiamensi  

In an ongoing effort to make the site easier to use, and to become more involved in the community, we have introduced several new pages recently here on the Mill Creek Hundred History Blog. First, there is the Index of Topics page which is an alphabetical listing of post topics covered so far. As the site grows and scrolling through old post becomes more difficult, hopefully this will make it easier to find a specific topic that one might be searching for. Secondly, there is now a Calendar of Events page listing some history-related events and special happenings in the area. I have listed as much as I can think of that might be of interest, but if anyone knows anything else that should be included, please let us know . Some hints on how to use the calendar are included on the page. The most recent addition is the Map of Historic Sites . It took me a little while but I was able to embed an interactive map showing the locations of sites that have been featured in posts. You can drag

Lynna had a great post last week where she talked about this season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and discussed their production of Pride and Prejudice . I saw the production as well (and liked it, I think, a bit better than Lynna did). Pride and Prejudice has been much on my mind lately. I recently bought an ipad, mostly because of the wonderful research books I could download (well that and because I wanted one). I've found I love reading on it. In addition to a whole library of research books for my Waterloo book, the first novel I downloaded on it is Pride and Prejudice , which I'm now re-reading. Perhaps it's the different medium, but I've been noticing new things about it (but then I always find new things when I reread Austen). Interestingly, in light of our recent discussion of book openings , Austen jumps right into the action (the action being Bingley's and Darcy's arrival at Netherfield). It's only a bit later that she stops to explain the

J. Thomas Scharf In our continuing series of "Resources for the MCH Researcher" (also known as "Things I Use a Lot to Look Stuff Up"), we look now at probably the most commonly cited piece of Delaware history out there, J. Thomas Scharf's "History of Delaware: 1609-1888". And yes, now that this is the second one (the 1868 Beers Map being the first), I can officially refer to it as a "continuing series". To be honest, when I first decided to write this post, I was just going to say a few words about what the book is, what it's good for, what it's not, link to it, and that was about it. However, after some quick research, I've found that the author himself is worthy of some digital ink, as well as his, for the time, unique methods of conducting his research. I had always assumed that Scharf was some stodgy old professor or historian who had assistants do his work, while he just sat back, edited a little, and stuck his name on the

I’m sure you’ve heard of people having a box at the theatre, or buying a season ticket for Vauxhall (or one of the other pleasure gardens), or paying to attend a charity ball. But have you ever seen the tickets that were issued for these events? Often, they were actually metal tokens which were inscribed either with a number or the owner’s name. This is a Georgian-era “ticket” for Vauxhall Garden. There’s a wonderful story from the Annual Register (1822) in which an Italian visitor, Belzoni, recounts the travails of his attempt to attend a very expensive charity performance at the Opera House (a 10 guinea ticket, so roughly a $1000+). The subscription was sold out, but he bought a ticket from a man he knew (Mr. Ebers). When Belzoni arrived at the theatre, he was told the ticket he had had a “wrong ticket” which had been recorded as “lost”, and he was arrested! After protesting, a peer he knew came over and exchanged tickets with him, allowing him to go in while the earl straightened th

The earliest settlers in Mill Creek Hundred were a mix of Swedes who had moved inland from the settlements at Fort Christina (Wilmington) and, briefly, Fort Trinity (New Castle), and English who arrived after they took control of the area in 1664. Whether Swedish or English, the one thing all these early inhabitants had in common was their religious zeal. It seems hard to comprehend in today's rapid-transit world, but if these early Swedish Lutheran or Anglican residents wanted to worship, they had to travel either to Old Swedes Church in Wilmington, or Immanuel Church in New Castle. Not surprisingly, they started exploring options a bit closer to home. The church that stands today at the corner of Old Capitol Trail and St. James Church Road was built in 1822, but the history of the site goes back over a century further. In a will dated 1701 , Arient Jansen Vanderburg, the first European owner of the land, gave a portion of his estate to Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church. Sometime i

The best of plays, the . . . I recently returned from my summer trip to Ashland, Oregon, for the Shakespeare Festival. Ashland is always a pleasant place to be, with great places to hang out (Lithia Park and the coffee shop above the bookstore) and fascinating theatrical works to enjoy. This season was no exception. HAMLET. This was the piece de resistance of the entire festival, in my opinion. The play, directed by Bill Rauch, was innovative, surprising, and memorable: the best production of Hamlet I have ever seen. To begin with, it was set in “modern” times, which lent an eerie resonance to the underlying political plot: a good leader is assassinated by a reactionary dictator who then takes over the country. Consequently, Hamlet’s (played by Dan Donohue) moral dilemma is deeper than just personal revenge against his father’s murderer; it poses a universal question about what a person does when confronted with a moral evil, as in a power-mad leader. Nuances of expression bro

The History Hoydens are thrilled to welcome Katharine Ashe. A professor of European history, Katharine has made her home in California, Italy, France, and the northern US, all excellent training for a debut historical romance that RT Book Reviews awarded a “TOP PICK!” review, calling Swept Away by a Kiss “a page-turner and a keeper.” Katharine was kind enough to take the time out from her busy round of writing to talk to us today about love and war (in which, as we know, all is fair). So, without further ado, over to Katharine.... Romancing Revolution What do love and war have in common? We could easily imagine them polar opposites. Consider: Passion. Here’s what the Oxford English Dictionary says about passion: “any controlling or overpowering emotion, as desire, hate, fear, etc.; an intense feeling or impulse.” Hmm , I ponder. That sounds about right to me . But here’s the thing—love, even sex, only appears in eighth place upon the list of sub-definitions. “8. Strong affection; l

“It is at the movies that the only absolutely modern mystery is celebrated.” - André Breton, 1896-1966 Okay, I admit I love to do research. In fact, one of the biggest problems for me is always figuring out when to stop the research and start writing the book. While it’s always lovely to delve into volumes of delicious text about days gone by and ogle fabulous drawings and paintings of those intriguing people and their times, today I’d like to talk about a little more modern way of investigating their worlds – the movies. Or, to be more precise, places like YouTube where historic aficionados like ourselves can upload snippets from movies and videos with all sorts of fascinating information. I truly enjoy hunting for images that I can’t find between the pages of a book, like how skirts whisk across the floor during a fast dance or the way people extend greetings differently, simply because their clothing is cut differently. Here are two videos, one from a Jane Austen evening in Pas

In previous posts, we have covered things like houses, mills, factories, places of worship, farms, and even a hospital. Probably the most important community building not yet covered here is the schoolhouse. In the early days of Mill Creek Hundred, schools were few and far between. There may have been a few church schools and a number of short-lived private schools (really not much more than a teacher instructing a few kids), but most education was done in the home, or not at all. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries there were a few attempts in Delaware at passing school laws, with little success. (Although one early law did lead to the incorporation in 1808 of a school near St. James Church .) Real public schools in the state didn't get started until after the passage of the "Free School Act" in 1829. [It's a rather long PDF, but here is a very good account of the history of school districts in Delaware.] This law set up school districts in the state, each wi

I'd been working on the paper forever, it felt like -- the rather formidably titled "The Queer Theory of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick at the Edges of the Popular Romance Genre," to be delivered at the second annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance, to be held in Brussels, Belgium, Thursday August 5 through Saturday August 7. And it was a pretty sensible plan, I thought, to show up in Brussels on Wednesday, to shake off my jet lag, make some final, fussy, changes to the paper and get the thing slimmed down at long last, to the 20 minute length the conference organizers had asked for, before I delivered it at at the 11:00 am panel on Friday, the conference's second day. A sensible, even a good plan. But a plan, alas, that required the cooperation of American Airlines and the weather (as in no thunderstorms in Chicago in August). So instead, I and my husband Michael found ourselves dragging our wheelies into the Paleis der Academiën