Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1901-07-25

NO Other State Retains the Ancient
Institution sThe Hundred.
Relic Of OLD Angle-Saxen Days
corfssDendtng 10 the Town
ship Of Early New
EnGlaaa.

Delaware is the only state in til
union to retain that ancient Teutoni
institution, 1.-The hundred"
There are, to be sure, hundreds sc
down here and there on the map O
Maryland, but they are not true pc
litical entities, for the lowest subdivi
sion of the county in Maryland is tn
| district
Even in Delaware the hundred ha
lost many of the powers and function
that belong to the hundreds of England
in Anglo-Saxon days, but it is still
local division of unusual interest.
If there is no longer hundred cour
there are hundred assessors and roa,
commissioners, and within the sub
division a large survival Of local self
government.
Inc Delaware hundred correspond.
as nearly as may be to the New Eng
land township, though there is no hun
dred meeting like the town meeting
for pure democracy has died out OF
Delaware save in the school district
where there is an annual school meet
ing, at which the people may enact
school laws, levy school taxes, and cleo,
school officers.
Even here, however, pure democracy
makes a poor showing, for in many
school districts only handful Of per-
sons attend, and the school officers have
to elect themselves over again year
after year.
The hundred differs from the town.
ship in another respect, and that is in
being district Of large area--from IS
to 40 square miles.
Political activity in the hundred
shows no sign Of decreasing, but the
Importance Of the hundred has been
somewhat lessened by some provisions
OF the new constitution.
Before the adoption of this consti-
tuition each county elected its delega-
ton to the legislature on a general
ticket, the French scrutin de liste. but
party custom required that in making
nominations the party managers
should see to it that candidates were
equitably distributed among the hun
dreds. Now, however, the counties
have been divided into representative
and senatorial election districts, and
these districts are not hundred. What.
ever party custom may do in the mat
ter, representatives will stand, not for
hundreds but for districts, and so SEN
ators.
Hundred names in Delaware are in
terestirg and significant. Many hun
dreds are named for their bounding
creeks, as Mill Creek, White Clay
Creek, Duck Creek, North West Fork,
Murderkill.
This last is merely the corrupted
form of a Dutch name, meaning mother
stream, but legend has been invented
TO explain the name in its corrupted
English form--a legend to the effect
that white settlers on the creek per-
suaded number of Indians to get in
line in front of cannon and then
touched it off, with the result that
much savage blood was shed. and the
water of the creek was Redeemed.
Some hundreds are named from old
post road taverns, about which vii
lagos grew up, as Red Lion, Black Bird
and probably st. Georges. Most OF
the hundreds have English names.
One. however, has Swedish name.
Christiana, in honor of the Swedish
queen who ruled when the Swedes es-
tablished their first settlement in Della
ware, in 1888. At least one is Indian,
Aphoquinnimink. One or two are
Dutch; one, Rehoboth, is Hebrew.
though the accent has been improperly
from the first to the second
and one is Welsh.
This last is the hundred of Pencader,
more accurately. Pencade. the name
"the great HILL" was given TO
the region by Welsh settlers who came
IN the first decade of the Eighteenth
century and established themselves
within the shadow of Iron Hill, which
they naturally enough called Pen
rodor, as it is the most notable emf
hence within sight
Several of the hundreds of Delaware
nave we'll recognized social peculiari.
'ies, inherited from the settlers Of the
and eighteenth centuries.
ihe lands in Pencader hundred are
sun occupied in considerable part by
persons bearing Welsh names. Chris
Iiana hundred and its neighbor, VIII
mington, still contain many descend
.nts of the original Swedish settlers
Press.