Milford chronicle., 1927-03-25
FACTS ABOUT MILFORD

The dust of years has left its trace
In many a nook and hiding place.
On faded parchment brown with age
And quaint old letters, page on page,
On deeds conveying house and lands,
That turn to ashes in our hands.
Some bits and scraps of days of old,
Some stories that our fathers told,
Some fancies and perhaps a rhyme
In honor of ye olden time.
These are the times of which we
sing,
These are the treasures which we
bring,
And so we ask a little space,
To show them in the market place,
These treasures gathered near and
far
Our pack is open! Here they are!
Early Settlements
When Henry Hudson set forth on
his voyage to the new world in the
endeavor to discover a northwest
passage to the Pacific, he sailed a
sea practically unknown, and when
he touched land it was to find an
unexplored wilderness. AS most of
our readers are aware, the first body
of inland water which he explored
was the Delaware Bay. Along the
shores he saw long stretches of lev
el lands bOrdered with marshes
through which numerous streams
wound their way peacefully to the
sea. Here and there this hardy mar
iner beheld smoke lazily curling up
ward from Indian camps. There was
a village of red men on the banks
Of the Hoorn Kill (now Lewes
Creek) the eVidences-Of which still
remain. Another dotted the shore
with its wigwams near the mouth of
the AIispillion, while farther to the
north, here and there, were small
bodies camped along the shore in
tent on the fish and oysters which
abounded in the Waters. These, too,
left traces which remain to this day,
and at times, after the high tides
have cut their way into the beach,
bits of pottery are unearthed which
crumble in the hand.
But Hudson left our beautiful
stream and sailed further to the
north, where he discovered the no
BILE river which still bears his name.
It was left to other men to settle
and reclaim the country. The two
first points of settlement were at
Iewes and New Castle; the former
then called Hoorn Kill, and the lat
Ter New Amstel. These pursued a
varying fortune. The people Of the
first settlement at Lewes were mas
sacred, and both possessions passed
from the Dutch to the English; and
from the English to the Dutch again,
until they finally became English till
the date of our Revolution. The set
tIement of these places antedated
that of Pennsylvania, and when VIII
liam Penn sailed for the New World
to take possession of his somewhat
indefinite domain, he landed at New
Castle, and for a time contemplated
making it his capitol. Meanwhile
English Immigrants under the pro-
lection of Lord Baltimore had been
planting settlements along what is
now termed the Eastern Shore. And
from this starting point, they gradu-
ally spread over the western part of
this Peninsula and down into the
southern region, now part OF Vlr-
ginia. In time they invaded the
three Lower Counties" as they were
called, and became especially nu-
merous in Kent and Sussex.
Thus the early settlers of this
region came from three sources:
from the North New Castle;) from
the South Lewes;) and from the
West or eastern Shore of Mary
land and Virginia" But from the lat
ter settlements came the great ma
jority. And hence it happens that
our people bear English names;
that our town and political divisions
are called for places in the mother
country. The two lower counties IN
the early days were called st. johns
and Hoorn Kill. The former was the
English appellation, and the latter
the Dutch, After the country came
into the possession of the English,
the names of Kent and Sussex were
adopteC. Who named them we do
not know, but whoever it was must
have been dreaming of the beautiful
meadows and woodlands of these d.
visions in his own native England.
For a time there was not even
village in Kent, and only the small
settlement of Lewes in Sussex.
After a while the country became
sparsely settled. In many cases
immigrants simply took possession
of bit Of territory more or less IN
definite and subsequently laid out its
boundaries. Others purchased d.
rectly from the Indians, and gave as
consideration a few trinkets Of little
value. But they first occupied those
lands along the bay and the creeks,
and the farms were laid out in long
parallelograms, each including
strip of marsh land, the object be-
ing to allow every settler pasturage
for his cattle, and to afford water
communication.
THE life was primitive indeed. The
clothing was home made, at nrsC
consisting largely of skins, wnlch'
like the Indians, they fashioned into
garments. Later they learned to
raise flax. and from this and the
wool of their sheep, managed to
produce every article of clothing
and household linen. Transporta-
ton was largely by horseback or by
oxen drawing crude carts, which
went numbering over meadows
through woods and across streams,
till in time regular roads were form
ed. some of which are the highways
of travel for the descendants OF
these pioneers to this day. There
were no bridges, and the streams
not damned, ran their courses un-
fettered to the sea.