Milford chronicle., 1958-02-07
OAR Observing American
History Month
(continued from page one,

lccntlnued from page One)
nice things that were done for
| them by their mothers, fathers and
their grandparents and so on back.
That is family history. If we re-
member the good things that were
done for us by our families, we
should also remember the good
things done by the people who gave
US our country, shouldn't we?"
Il suppose so. But who did give
us our country?"
Now, Bobby, you have really
asked a question But the answer
is simple. All of the men and wo-
men who have lived here since
America was discovered have given
us our country. The people who
settled Delaware and those who
lived here, some of them your an
cestors, have made the state what
it is. Of course, some people have
done much more than others to
give US a good land and they are
the ones we remember best. You
have studied about famous Ameri-
cans in history, l am sure"
Yes, | have, but we don't hear
much. about Delaware people"
mo, our state is so small that it
didn't have as many important
people in its history as states like
Virginia or Pennsylvania but there
were great citizens as you will
learn some day"
did Milford have any famous
men?"
"Yes, Milford had famous men.
Would you like to hear about some
of them?"
Yes, Aunt Molly, please tell me.
'All right, let's begin at the be-
ginning. Settle yourself comfort
ably because it is a long story.
Take an apple to eat while l tell
you about the early days of Mil
ford"
Milford was founded by two
men, Mr. Joseph Oliver and Rev
Mr. Sydenham Thorne. The land
where early Milford stands was
once a tract of land called "Saw
Mill Range, which had been war
ranted to Henry Bowman in 1850
in a grant of 1850 acres. When
Bowman died in 1870 "Saw Mill
Range" was left to his son, John,
who sold it later to Jacob War
rington. His son-in-law, Joseph
Oliver, bought it from him in 1878
and built his home there His house
stood about halfway between the
house where Mrs. Sarah Stanton
used to live and the river
You. must remember that the
early Milford that we are talking
about it what we call North Mil
ford, or the old part of the town
north of the river South Milford,
as we call the part of town soEth
of the river, grew up much later"
Aunt Molly, where is i river in
Milford?"
Bobby, the river in Milford is
the Mispillion River, which you and
l and everyone else who grew up
here call the creek, that runs
through the town.
ITO continue our story, Joseph
Oliver, in addition to being large
landowner, ran store and also
bought the farmers produce which
he shipped in his own vessels out
of the river. This man Oliver was
very enterprising. In 1871 he OBJ
tanned permission from the General
Assembly to construct draw
bridge at what was called 'Oliver's
Landing, now Milford. Under this
act Oliver would have been allow
ed to charge toll. The people OBJ
jected to this and in the same year
the act was repealed The two
counties of Kent and Sussex be-
came the owners of the bridge
which was located at or near the
place where the Walnut Street
Bridge spans the Mispillion So,
you see, Bobby, that even in those
early days the lawmakers recog-
nized the wishes of the people but,
of course, the lawmakers must
know what the people want now as
they did then"
What did Mr.. Thorne have to
do with Milford?"
THAT is a part of our story, too
About the close of the Revolution
ary War, the Rev. Mr. Sydenham
Thorne, a clergyman of the Church
of England. came from the eastern
shore of Virginia to take charge of