cacakerbamakhlukpolitik

Foard's Store, Spicer's House, and "The Rock" Of all the different types of businesses and institutions around in the 1800's, one has always held a particular interest for me -- the general country store. Maybe it's because my own great-great-great grandfather ran one in the rural Bronx, or maybe it's because Mr. Oleson is my favorite "Little House" character. Either way I've generally had little luck finding much concrete information about the various stores that once served Mill Creek Hundred. Recently, though, my (our) luck changed. I was contacted by Mrs. Ruth (Ford) Smith, daughter of Edward Ford and granddaughter of Powell Ford. She forwarded to me a wonderfully descriptive paper written by either her father or grandfather, detailing one of these businesses -- Foard's Store in Marshallton. Foard's Store sat on the southwest corner of Old Capitol Trail and Newport Road, across that road from the present Big D's Pizza. As best...

I thought today I'd talk a little about creating a cover. I got a lot of questions about what I did to create the cover for my upcoming indie novella, RIPE FOR ANYTHING, while I was at RWA. The short answer is "find the right people". The long answer is, well, long. I knew that if I was going to self publish, I couldn't skimp on the cover. I had to be able to create something that would fit seamlessly with my New York covers.The image to the right is the result, and I think I managed to do what I set out to do. Now, the nitty-gritty on HOW I did that, so others can too: Costumes I'll admit I have an advantage here, being a historical re-enactor and a long-time costumer. I made a couple of "costume blanks" out of cheap cotton broadcloth. I made a dozen different trims up that could be swapped out quickly and easily so the basic gowns can be used over and over for many covers to come. Costume bits If you don't sew, or don't want to sew, you can loo...

As unlikely as it seems, I have until recently never seen a complete, pre-twentieth century photograph of an existing Corktown home. A portion of 1200 Porter Street is visible in a photo of Most Holy Trinity that appears on page 10 of Arcadia Publishing's book on Corktown , and I came across a genealogy website that contained old images of 1394 Pine Street , but those date to approximately 1907. All of the other pre-1900 photos I've found were of surviving non -residential buildings, or of homes that are no longer standing. Several days ago, however, my neighbor Scott Robichaud (co-owner/renovator of the Joseph Kingston house and author of the Redemption in Corktown blog ) came across this impressive 1895 image of 1651 Leverette Street: This house was the work of contractor Berthold L. Schwartz, who obtained the building permit from the city on May 17, 1895. The estimated cost to build the home was $2,100.00. We know this photograph was taken in 1895 because the brick terr...

Today, checking out the Washington Post, I came across this article on the subject of "white privilege."  It's a concept I've encountered before--indeed, it apparently cost me one budding friendship with a reader here when I refused to "acknowledge it."  The author of the article is a white woman who shows the effects of elite higher education, where "white privilege" has become a favorite buzzword.  She argues that white people are more likely to get a second chance if they make a mistake in life, that white people are much richer than non-whites, and that they constantly benefit from connections to other whites.   Only white people, she quotes some one as saying, can benefit from unpaid internships that lead to better jobs.  And most white are unaware of these "privileges." Now the data that she cites are valid, and white people, as a group, are the best-off ethnic group in the United States, without question.  Yet I am angry, frankl...

  My late friend Bill Strauss, who co-wrote Generations and The Fourth Turning with Neil Howe, used to argue back in the early 2000s that the break-up of the country was a genuine threat.  He thought the election of Hillary Clinton might trigger it.  In the last months of his life (in late 2007) he was excited by Barack Obama, but he turned out to be just as divisive as Hillary would have been.  (I do not think she would have been any less so, and since Obama essentially put a third Clinton Administration in place,. there's no particular reason to think that anything would have been very different ha she been elected.)   Now the Republican Party, now centered in the white South, is every bit as determined to make its dreams come true as the slaveholding South was before the Civil War, but their ideas are less controversial than slavery and they have also wisely adopted a new strategy.  Rather than try to break the country up, they are focusing on cri...

 Jabez Banks Sale Notice, 1889   A little while back I was fortunate enough to have a small cache of local history items given to me by Fran Casarino, a descendant of several long-standing Mill Creek Hundred families. Over the coming weeks, I'll slowly roll out some of the items that I think might be of interest, most of which relate to the Stanton area. The first items deal directly with one of Fran's family lines, the Banks family. This post could really be considered to be a continuation or addendum to the Jabez Banks Invitations post  of a few months ago. The items profiled in that post also came from Fran's collection. The first item, seen above, is a notice from 1889 advertising the sale of the "Stock and Farm Impliments" of Jabez Banks. The notice goes on to list in detail the items for sale, including horses, cows, pigs, chickens, carriages, harness, milk churns, pans, buckets, and "in fact, everything needed to carry on farming". Basically an...

The Anglo-American legal system has developed over many centuries.  Most Americans probably have no idea that the colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries brought English common law principles with them and that English precedents are routinely cited in US court opinions even now.  Trial by jury, the adversary process, and the presumption of innocence are all inherited from the British.  They often disappoint Americans in individual cases because they do not seem dedicated to establishing the truth.  What Americans do not understand is that the alternative to verbal combat in the courtroom is armed combat in the streets, rather like what occurs today in Russia or in many lawless neighborhoods and regions of the world.  If citizens are going to trust their fellow citizens with their property, their freedom, or even their life, they have to be free to hire lawyers who will fight as hard as they can for them.  The public expects the same of its prosecutors, wh...

It's been noted before that the bulk of the mills along the Red Clay seem to have been built on the west (Mill Creek Hundred) side of the creek, especially in the lower Red Clay Valley (Wooddale, Faulkland, Greenbank, Marshallton, Kiamensi, Stanton). I'm not sure if there's any real explanation for it, but it did work out that way. Along the other border waterway of MCH, however, the mills seem to be a little more evenly placed on either side of the power source. The mills on or near White Clay Creek show up on both sides, some in MCH (Red Mill, Roseville, Curtis) and some in White Clay Creek Hundred (Dean, Tweed). One of the oldest mills along the White Clay, long out of service, sat just south of the creek in WCCH, about midway along the southern border of MCH. The mill itself is long gone, but its memory survives through the nearly 275 year old home of its owner, and the name by which it was known throughout most of the 19th Century -- Harmony Mills. The only standing re...

photo: Raphael Coffey In their work as spies, my characters Malcolm and Suzanne often make quick changes to their appearance to suit a new role. I’m used to writing such scenes for them. I’m less used to thinking about it in terms of myself. Until last Thursday. Our modern life does not, of course, require as many wardrobe changes as that of Regency aristocrats changing two or three times a day for morning rides, afternoon calls, and balls or nights at the theatre. But modern life does entail changes as one moves from role to role. Thursday was the opening night of the Merola Opera Program’s wonderful production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia . After spending the afternoon stuffing inserts into programs, I had a quick dinner with my daughter Mélanie and a couple of colleagues and then hurried back to the theatre to meet one of Mel’s wonderful babysitters. While quickly going over details with the babysitter, I pulled a hair of feels from the toy bag and exchanged them for th...

This week my wife and I saw the German film Hannah Arendt , which focuses on her coverage of the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961-2 for The New Yorker and the heated controversy over the resulting book.  (Curiously, while some scenes appear to feature a very hostile Norman Podhoretz and Lionel Trilling, neither one is identified in the credits by their full name.)  The filmmakers did a remarkable job with a rather uncinematic topic, and they used genuine footage from the Eichmann trial effectively.  They focused, naturally,. on the most controversial part of her reporting, her criticism of the Jewish councils set up by the Nazis, whom she claimed made it much easier to send all the Jews to death camps.  I liked the film but I felt something was missing, and when I spent about an hour last night re-reading Eichmann in Jerusalem I realized what it was.  Arendt, as the very first pages of the first New Yorker article made crystal clear, approached the whole s...

The Old Stone, or Rising Son, Hotel, c.1970 I'm proud to present here the next in what I hope to be a continuing series of Mill Creek Hundred History Blog Guest Posts. Slightly different than the last one, this post is a collection of a few of one man's memories of Stanton. I was contacted a while back by Raymond Albanese, who currently resides in Conowingo, MD. But from 1962 to 1977, Raymond lived in Stanton, in Mannette Heights (between Stanton Middle School and the railroad tracks). He had some additional information about several earlier posts, and after some thought, we decided to roll them up together into one post. It's not meant to be a single narrative, but rather a collection of several separate thoughts on various topics relating to the Stanton area. I've added a few links to the original posts for reference. Below is what Raymond sent me, with just some very minor editing to convert an email into a blog post. All the memories and stories are his, and we hope...

Lea-Derickson House Take a trip sometime into Wilmington and position yourself on the north end of the Market Street Bridge over the Brandywine. In the 18th and early 19th Centuries, this was the heart of Brandywine Village, and the engine that drove Wilmington’s early economic development. As you stand at 18th Street looking north, behind you were the mills that made Wilmington a force in the colonial economy. The “Wilmington Superfine” flour produced here was known worldwide, and was generally regarded as the best produced in America. From this trade, the men who produced the flour became very wealthy. These men, Quakers mostly, chose to build their homes very near the mills. There were a few on the south side where the first mills here were constructed, but most chose to build on the north side, and created what came to be known as Brandywine Village. Not a part of Wilmington until 1869, the village was simply an unincorporated part of Brandywine Hundred. It had no off...

I love finding strange little books on Google Books. Today I thought I’d point out THE NEW BATH GUIDE; Or, Useful Pocket companion: For All Persons residing at or resorting to this Ancient City. The guide talks about the four (!) baths, tells of their temperatures, their prices, their accommodations, and assures the reader that the water for drinking is diverted BEFORE the flow reaches the baths. Also described are the Assembly Rooms, with their weekly schedule of events (Monday, Dress Ball; Tues, Card Assembly; Wed, Concert; Thurs, Fancy Ball), and what the subscription costs were (one guinea for the Dress ball, which didn’t cover tea (additional 6d.), and gave notice that the balls closed promptly at 11PM, even if the hour rang in the middle of a dance (what a great scene that would make!). Also, it has minor fashion notes (aka dress codes!). No Gentlemen in boots or half-boots to be admitted on any night! It covers the local hospitals, the churches (which are warm and which are not)...