St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-26
SLIGHTLY MIXED.
An Old Section of the Country Where
Families Have lntermarrled for
More Than "a Century,.

more nan a century,
| The spectacle of a man who is his own
grandfather is rare. but when this man Is
also his own brother-in-law he becomes
very interesting example of the eccentrici-
! ties that may be developed in family rela-
tionship, writes Wilmington, Del, cor
respondent of the New YORK. World. That
| a human being can get into such paradox
| ical relation to his own family appears
| singular to people who have never lived in
| the peninsula and who know nothing of tue
habits of the inhabitants of that long-set-
! tied and highly -respectable tract of country
! living between the Delaware and the Chesa-
peake bays. I
| The jewellers in this sock-shaped country
| have intermarried among themselves to
much greater extent than have the people
! in any of the New England states. Della
ware and the eastern shore of Maryland
! have contributed less to westward emigra-
| ton than any other states. An inhntesl-
NAL proportion of the natives of the penin-
sula have gone to nearby cities to seek
| their fortunes; the great remainder live and
die where they Were born. Curious in
stances of the results of protracted inter-
marriages are constantly coming up.
The most striking example is furnished
by respectable family of farmers, bearing
| the old name of Smith, living near Bar
nard's Wharf, on the road leading to Cam
bridge Barnard's Wharf is stopping
place for the Ericsson propellers that ply
/ between Baltimore and Philadelphia,
through the Delaware and Chesapeake ca
nal. The present head of the family. Mark
Smith, is the father of a half-dozen of boys.
Mark Smith. his father, Jonathan Smith,
who came from England. and Mark Smiths
h, SONS, Tedrick and Samuel, all married sis
ters The women were the daughters of
George Hurlbut, who formerly lived near
Barnard's Wharf, but who now resides near
Chestertown, on the road to Colchester
Beach. Mark Smiths wife died ten years
ago. leaving no children. Mark theh mar
ried his fathers widow. She had been his
fathers second wife. and was only Marks
| step-mother. She had daughter by Will
lam L. Tilghman. After she had borne
Smith a child he was divorced from her,
whereupon she was welded to Hurlbut, the
father of Smiths first wife. She has had
child by Hurlbut To further complicate
matters, Samuel Smiths wife died. and he
married Tilghman's sister, who was sister
to HurlbutS wife. The climax was reached
| when Tedrick Smiths son, Jonathan, mar
ried the daughter that his grandfather'S
second wife had previously borne by Will
lam l.. Tilghman. Was there ever more
mixed up family?
The most conspicuous instance, socially,
of long series of intermarriages is that of
the great powder manufacturers, the Du
Pont de Nemours family. The family, of
Huguenot extraction, has been settled in
and around Washington for generation.
| Collectively the Du Pont de Nemours
family owns $40. 900, 600 worth of prop
erty. Much of these vast possessions are
held in common, and upon the death of
member what he used as his share is divided
I'D among the rest. In marriage. as in
money making, the Du Points are close
corporation Rarely have they gone fur
Their away from the blood than cousin for
wife. and the Du Pont strain is as pure
as that of a. Kentucky thoroughbred. 1t
would take profound thought on the part
of skilled genealogist to figure out the
exact relation that the present generation
of Du Points bear to one another. OF late
| years, however, the young women OF the
family have manifested disposition to go
outside for husbands.
The intermarrying has been carried on on
| a systematic scale at the lower end Of the
peninsula. The Dashiell family and the
Handy family and the Jones family. in
Somerset county, Maryland, are so mixed
up that their family trees are absolutely in
decipherable. All three families are So
cially. distinguished and have contributed
many men of mark to the professions.
Judge Handy is member of the Maryland
court of appeals. John H. Handy is PROM
nent lawyer of Baltimore, and every Meth
odist in the country will remember Rev. DR..
Dashell, the late church dedicator, who
was as great as Chaplain McCabe in his
way. The Younger members OF the Jones
and Dashiell families are more mixed than
the Handys. There is one of the Dashiells,
a lawyer who is his own first cousin. as
we'll as his own brother-in-law.
Another of the Dashiells is his
fathers half brother, while another
is his wife's brother-in-law. One
of the youthful scions of the house of
Jones, who lives in Baltimore, has been
figured out to be his own father. The adj
vantage of being ones own father will be
Immediately apparent to every reader.
Another curious case Is that of the
Moore and Bowen families, in Kent county,
by the marriage into both families of lady
named Rash. She had two daughters,
who were also first cousins. How delight
full is to have a first cousin for sister.
A third daughter of this lady is all aunt to
one of her sisters and cousin to the
other. while her two sisters are aunts as
well as cousins to her own child. This
married sister, whose maiden name was
Moore, married her cousin. She is. there
fore. her childs aunt as well as its mother.
| Her Cousins wife was also her cousin.
PULPIT a HGUGNTS.