The Washington herald., 1922-10-15
Old Delaware Was Loyal
To King, Documents Show
Ancient Archives at Dover Form Reservoir of
Antiquarian Treasure.

grant or lease Cor 10000 years. given
by the Duke of York to William
Penn for the twelve-mile circle to
Cape Penlopen.
Beside the safe, carefully pre-
served. is the old bell that was In
the State house in 1883. or the court
house. as Il was then called. They
still have the hanger. too. This Is
a matter OF pride to all Delawsreans
that they have their old town bell.
The old grants in the safe were
presented to the State Of Delaware
by Mrs. Sarah Wistar Miller, of
Media, Pa. Mrs. Miller is a de-
scendant OF william Penn The
presentation of these old documents
was made in 1909. There is end
less fancy scroilwork around the
first one.
For the Revolutionary War and
the war OF 1912 they have in the
State house all the original papers,
r'ustor roll. etc. These are now
all published in the Delaware
archives
In one OF the side cases there is
shown a Bible printed in 1882. on
which the governors of Delaware
made oath. 1t is all in Latin, and
there is an engraving on the front,
in the quaint and sad old style
of that time. 1t Is an immense old
volume. very much mended in the
cover and inside. 1t is indeed very
solemn looking.
There are many documents with
the old seal OF State Everything
is in handwriting. some good and
some bad, but mostly very good
and much clearer than the ordinary
handwriting of today.
There is an order to build the
Kent County court house. in 1881.
Then there is a sealed notice OF =
lottery for building the Delaware
State court house" There are 5000
tickets offered at 81 each. or $4,000,
subject to a discount of 25 per cent,
$1,000 is the highest prize to be
gained, and the other prizes run
down to So. Each person pays $3.50
and the other $3.50 is made up from
the prizes of IS and more.'
Many old maps and plans of the
state and city are found in the
cases. In one holder are old land
grants of Delaware from the year
1850. There are also many old ac-
counts with the State. many of them
oddly worded. These alone make
fascinating reading.
Some of these old documents have
envelopes attached to them, evil
IDENTIFY forming part of the docu-
ment. The letter was evidently
folded up and the flaps turned
around the other way and pasted.
This is an idea for someone who
has not an envelope handy. II is
like we used to 90 as children
make our letter the envelope. too.
We would mark off the parts that
would form the outside and. by ar
rows. indicate that we must not
write in these sections. Then we
would write the rest of the sheet
Of paper full and sometimes inclose
another sheet. closely written. This
is being done largely by European
countries Ia-ely. evidently to save
the weight Of the envelope in the
postage charge.
Barretts Chapel. near Dover. Is
said to be the Oldest Methodist
church in the world. Delaware
boasts several very old churches.
Of which the best-known is the Old
Swedes Church. in Wilmington.
one old building of which every
one tells you is the Logan farm,
between Dover and the bay. The first
legislature met in this old building
It has an attic. In which are. or
used to be, many relics of the old
time
In Dover itself Is the old Cow
gill house. called the Haunted
House. This ippears in the story
Of 'Tha Entailed Hat" but l am
afraid they have juse naturally
driven all the ghosts out by putting
on new-fangled porches and actually
painting the house,
In hunting up old art and antiqui-
ties in Dover I came across a curious
old print that is privately owned by
Mr. Samuel Carson. of Division street
and Delaware avenue. At the top is
the inscription:
"A view of part of the town of
Boston, in New England. and the
british ships of war landing their
troops. J76S."
This print was engraved. printed
and sold by Paul Revere, Boston
'who has since become famous
through his supposed exciting ride),
at time when he was extremely