Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-01-25
DELAWARE'S GENCALOGlES
Where Family Traditions Are
of Much Account,
BOTH IN POLITICS AND SOCIETY
Family Realty Holdings for
Many Generations.
A Title Deed Running Back to an origi-
nal Grant by an indian ChieT--Fauily
Characteristics and Their Impress Upon
Many Communities-Pride IN Della
wares United States Senators.
Now York Sun, Jan. 81.

wares Dnlted Sthtes senator's
Now York Sun, Jan. 81.
No resident of great State such as
New York can easily guess the feeling
of lacal loyalty and of almost clannish
pride common throughout the tiny com
monwealth of Delaware. When Will
m!ngton is left out of account the re-
mainder of the State is peopled chiefly
by rural community, native to the soil
and descended from ancestors often set
tied for two centuries within the bounds
of the State. There are many families
still holding lands under seventeenth
century patents, lands that have de.
scended from father to son all those
years without the passage of title deeds.
1t is only few years since Della
wareau about to remove to the west sold
piece of land that his ancestors had
purchased from an Indian chief, as the
representative of his tribe.
Long descent in Delaware is confined
to no self-constituted upper class, but is
the boast of all sorts of people. There
are many ancient churches in Delaware,
and probably every one includes within
its congregation some families descended
from those that took part in organizing
the church. Rural communities through.
out the State are curiously immobile.
Surnames arc few, and the region from
which man comes is easily guessed
from his name. Family traditions are
jealously treasured, and family traits
reappear generation after generation.
There is numerous family in the
northern county famous from the fact
that nearly all its male members have
red heads and heavy red boards. The
characteristic is said to belong even to
distant branches of the family in the
west. Long descent, though so com.
mon, is highly priced, and even where a
family has sunk into disrepute, the fact
of respectable ancestry is held to
make is members little better than Just
everyday newcomers whose conduct is
no worse.
Neighbors in Delaware have tenacious
memories, and old family scandals are
whispered about for generations.
Genealogies are carried in the heads of
hundreds, and old ladies often know
the intricate family relationships of half
the community. According to tradition,
the du Points, who have been making
powder for century, used TO remember
with satisfaction that an early Bayard
had been halter. Every community has
local traditions of this sort, ana every
man lives with the knowledge that his
family history is known TO all who have
good memories.
Every man who is locally prominent
is known personally or by reputation
all over the State, and most men have
acquaintance from one end of the State
to the other. Delawareans after 90 years.
absence go back to Delaware and find
acquaintances everywhere. Not only
doctors, lawyers, preachers, politicians,
merchants and the like are thus known,
but young men and young women are
often widely known in what constitutes
the society of dozen villages many
miles apart. A good dancer among men
is sometimes famous over half the little
State, and the name OF a reigning belle
is known in every considerable town,
though her picture is not published in
the newspapers. The State is SO small
that the Presbyterians have but one
presbytery, the Methodists but one con-
ference, the Episcopalians but one dio.
cese. AT the meetings of all these bodies,
therefore, all parts OF the State are
represented and solidarity is promoted.
The same men that take part in eccle-
siastical gatherings are often brought
together in politics, in the State Medical
Convention, and in other stated meet
ings, so that seeing one another under
various conditions they come to have
very shrewd estimate one another's
characters.
Delaware is much ruled by tradition.
Its political traditions arc curious. Each
party endeavors to send its strongest
active politician to the Senate. No mere
rich man, no uneduoated or inexpe-
fenced man is sent to the Senate from
Delaware. The member Of Congress is
almost invariably lawyer, q business
man, or wealthy farmer. He is usually
man Of unblemished reputation, and
as rule he must not live in the same
county with either Senator. The Gov
ernor is usually well to do farmer who
has been rcputably active in politics.
bic has the appointment of the Judges
and OF many county officers, and he
always appoints men of his own party.
The three counties have the Governor,
the Congressman, and the Senators as
nearly as may be in rotation. The Con-
gresham steps down at the end of his
second term and makes way for some
one else. A Senator is usually reelected
until he is too old to serve longer or
until his party loses power. Della
warcans are fond of Boosting that her
representation in the United States Sem
ate is not only equal numerically to that
of any other State, but, on the average,
more than equal in other ways to the
representation of many greater States.
In fact, there is nothing Df which Della
ware is so proud as her record in the
United states Senate.