Here are some Delaware tidbits, fun facts and

DELAWARE
» STATE HOLIDAYS
1: Tidbit: Delaware is known as the First State because it was the
first to ratify the U.S. Constitution, on Dec. 7, 1787. The anniversary is celebrated as Delaware Day.
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STATE
DIVIDED
1: Tidbit:
The Chesapeake & Delaware
Canal is the colloquial line
between the more suburban and
urban upstate and the more rural downstate.
Downstate is also known as Lower Delaware, but upstate is not called Upper
Delaware (that’s a section of New York).
2: Fun fact: William H. Williams in “Man and Nature in Delaware” suggests Delaware can also be divided by the Christina River in Wilmington, the
Smyrna River on the New Castle-Kent line and even the Mispillion River in
Sussex. He then quotes some historic observations about the differences. The
north, illustrator Howard Pyle wrote in 1879, has “the vim and progress of
modern utilitarianism,” while below that is the “indolence peculiar to southern life.” In 1934, Henry Seidel Canby noted that Wilmington was “austere
and northern,” while the land further south an “alien state.”
3: Really fun fact: Delaware also is divided from top to bottom by
the peninsular divide, a natural feature meaning water on the west side
flows to the Chesapeake Bay and on the east to the Delaware Bay. Before
the 1764 Mason-Dixon line, Maryland claimed most of the western side as
Durham County, according to the Delaware Genealogical Society’s “Delaware
Families 1787-1800.”
» THE
COUNTIES
2: Fun
fact:
Some sticklers
say that’s not
true. Louisiana,
which was
developed from French governmental traditions,
has parishes. Alaska, with all its wide-open spaces,
has boroughs. And Connecticut and Rhode Island
have counties that were eliminated as governments in 1960 and 1842, respectively.
3
U.S. Army staffed a checkpoint on the du Pont Highway near
Dover on July 21, 1943. According to Williams, truckers heading north with broilers “were required to produce papers
demonstrating that the chickens had been sold to them at
the legal ceiling prices or less.” Chickens without papers
were requisitioned (and eaten?) by the Army at the
Office of Price Administration’s price.
» AWARDWINNING
ACTRESSES
and Sussex started out with different names
by European settlers. New Castle was New
Amstel (Nieuw Amstel to the Dutch). Kent
was St. Jones. And Sussex was Deale. The
downstate counties were together
Whorekill (also spelled Hoerekill,
Hoerenkil, Hoerenkill, Horekil, Horekill or
Hoorekill, according to DelDOT and the
Lewes Historical Society, which translates them all from the Dutch as meaning “Harlot’s Creek.”
1: Tidbit:
Delaware’s Aubrey Plaza
was named favorite movie actress in a 2012
comedy or musical by the American Latino
Media Arts competition. It was
for her first top-billed role, in
“Safety Not Guaranteed,” a story
about journalists (some of our
favorite people) investigating a
time traveler.
» BIG CITY
3: Really fun fact: Wilmington
was also known as Christinaham and
Altenae. The latter name lives on in a band
and a company or two.
1: Tidbit: Sussex County has the largest
chicken population of any county in the
nation – “nearly twice as many as the second
leading county, Cullman County, Alabama,” the
county says.
By Ken Mammarella
3: Really fun fact: Illegal chickens were the reason the
3: Really fun fact: New Castle, Kent
Wilmington was laid
out in 1731 by Thomas Willing. His name
lives on in Willingtown Square, a downtown block with four historic buildings.
» THE CHICKEN
INDUSTRY
S
with chicks raised in quantity, was revolutionized by Ocean View farmers Cecile and
Wilmer Steele in 1923. Delmarva’s broiler industry beganwith White
Leghorns, according to William H. Williams, in “Delmarva’s Chicken
Industry: 75 Years of Progress.” They may have been productive
egg layers, but they weren’t very meaty, so they were replaced
within a decade by the Barred Plymouth Rock and the Rock Red Cross,
he writes.
Delaware
has the fewest counties of any state:
three.
2: Fun fact:
3: Really fun fact: Separation Day marks the separation of
Delaware from anything else. “June 15th of the fateful year of 1776 was
a momentous date for the people of Delaware,” the city of New Castle
writes on http://newcastlecity.delaware.gov/visitors-information/allevents-listing/separation-day. “On that day the Colonial Assembly took
the drastic step of proclaiming the little colony (the Three Lower
Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex-upon-Delaware) separate and
independent from Great Britain and free from any ties with the proprietary Penn family. The revolutionary measure enacted in the Old State
(Court) House in New Castle paved the way for the formation of the new ‘Delaware state,’ first among the
original 13 states. … Historic New Castle celebrates
Separation Day, Delaware’s birthday, each year on
the second Saturday in June with a full day
and evening of festivities.”
2: Fun fact: The modern chicken industry,
1: Tidbit:
1: Tidbit: The first Europeans to
colonize what is now Wilmington
were Swedes who sailed over in 1638.
They named it Fort Christina, for their
queen.
2: Fun fact: Return Day is a political ritual every other year in
Georgetown. Its website (www.returnday.org/history) says the first celebration was maybe in 1792, following a 1791 law that moved the Sussex
County seat from Lewes. The law “required all votes to be cast in the
new county seat on election day. The same voters would ‘return’ two
days later to hear the results – hence the name Return Day.” Events now
include politicians burying a ceremonial hatchet, an ox roast and a
parade.
by the
Delaware
native and
actress
Estelle
Taylor
2: Fun fact: Barbara Bel
Geddes summered in Delaware
while her second husband,
Windsor Lewis, produced shows
at what is now the New
Candlelight in Ardetown. Her
awards include the Clarence
Derwent and Donaldson for
Aubrey Plaza
Broadway and Emmy, Golden
Globe and Golden Camera as Miss Ellie on TV’s original “Dallas.”
3: Really fun fact: Delaware native Estelle Taylor has a star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her credits includes the silent version of “The
Ten Commandments” in 1923 and the Oscar-winning “Cimarron” in 1931.
Her second husband was boxing champion Jack Dempsey, and they
appeared on Broadway in 1928 in a play based upon Dempsey’s life.
A “Merlino” sheep
» DU
PONTS
AND
THEIR
ANIMALS
1: Tidbit: The du Ponts made
their fortune with black powder. Their second business was wool, from a
famous flock of sheep, called Merinos. For centuries, Spain had closely guarded its renowned Merino flocks, noted for the finest fleeces in the world.
Several Americans were able to pry a few Merinos out of Europe. Robert
Livingston in New York, David Humphreys in Connecticut, and the du Ponts in
Delaware were particularly active in promoting the breed.
2: Fun fact:
When Don Pedro (the lead Merino sheep) died, the family
received condolences from across the country, including a letter from Thomas
Jefferson. That’s according to Winterthur, the former du Pont estate that in
2007 reintroduced sheep, thanks to a breeding program by Greenbank Mill.
3: Really fun fact: A Holstein cow named Winterthur Boast
Ormsby Ganne set a world record in 1933, for producing 1,004.2 pounds of
butterfat. Her daily average was eight gallons of milk.
OF AIR, WATER AND LAND
1: Tidbit: ILG is the code for New Castle Airport in airline systems.
2: Fun fact: When Delaware became the first state, America’s largest
concentration of flour mills was on the Brandywine and Red Clay creeks,
according to Greenbank Mill, which recreates life of the early republic, 17901830, from holdings near Prices Corner. These creeks also provided free
power for other mills, like du Pont’s gunpowder works. That’s why many
roads have “mill” in their name.
Here are some
Delaware tidbits,
fun facts and
really fun facts
on some stately
subjects.
3: Really fun fact: In 1919,
Pierre du Pont bought the Kennett Pike for
$70,000 to ease his commute between
DuPont offices and his home near Kennett
Square, Pennsylvania (now Longwood
Gardens). Carol Hoffecker, in “Corporate
Capital,” says the DuPont Engineering Co.
modernized the road and turned it over to
the state the next year, “on the condition
that it prohibit the laying of trolley rails or
the erection of billboards.” Other Delaware
(turn)pikes were named for the tolls they
once charged.
Kennett Pike
TALL TALES, LIES & FICTION
1: Tidbit: The first U.S. bathing beauty pageant took place in Rehoboth
Beach in 1880 with inventor Thomas Alva Edison as a judge. Sorry, despite
what you can see online, it’s a myth. Patrick Robertson, in “Robertson’s Book
of Firsts,” says Rehoboth wasn’t even a resort with bathing beauties then (it had been founded in 1872 as a Methodist camp
meeting) and that Edison was “tinkering in his laboratory”
on the dates in question. Rich Barnett, on
www.rehobothgocup.com, tracks it down to a history
of the Miss America pageant by Frank Deford that
quotes a sometimes-sloppy antiquarian. “Recent
scholars have been unable to find solid evidence of
such a pageant,” Barnett concludes.
2: Fun fact: “Fight Club” is set in
Wilmington. We’re going to break the first rule and
say that’s not true about the 1999 classic. It was too
much of a hassle, director David Fincher says on the
“Fight Club”
DVD. “We wanted to make the film to take place in
Wilmington, Delaware, but there’s some kind of clearance issues if it’s a specific town. But our homage to
Wilmington is that the, I believe the Delaware state motto
is ‘Delaware: a place to be somebody.’ So, we decided to
put, on the Pearson Towers, their little logo on the brass sign is
“a place to be somebody.” Fincher is off on his Delawareness: the
motto is Wilmington’s. The novel the film is based on is also not exact on the
location. Of course, nearby cities are mentioned, and there’s a telltale ZIP
code, but the only surefire Wilmington-ness is that some scenes were shot in
Wilmington, California.
3: Really fun fact: When the DuPont Co. started selling nylon
stockings, some women lied to acquire the coveted fashion. Their lies are the
truth. Sales – three pairs per woman – needed a Wilmington address, so some
got hotel rooms to qualify, Adrian Kinnane writes in “DuPont: From the
Banks of the Brandywine to Miracles of Science.”
Design by Dan Garrow/The News Journal
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