Ed. Note: The above title and this entire text on the Mud Mill Pond mills is taken,
with permission of the author, from:
“The Mills and Millers of Mud Mill Pond, Kent County, Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland: 1757 to the Present – A Documentary History” by Richard Alan Sehorn.
This very well researched book is available at the Kent County Public Library, ISPN: 338.4
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“Mud Mill Pond is located at the head of the Choptank River in the western part of North Murderkill and West Dover Hundreds, Kent County, Delaware, and on both sides of the Delaware – Maryland boundary line, part of it being in Caroline County, Maryland. It was established when this area was considered a part of Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, in 1756 for the use of a water powered gristmill. Throughout most of its history, until 1978, there had always been a grist, flour or feed mill here. At different times there was also a saw mill here powered by the small pond. The mill has had many owners over the years and has been known as Muncy’s Mill, Furtad’s Mill, Smith’s Mills, Mud Mills, Choptank Mills and Medford’s Mill.
David Marsdin – 1756 to 1759 The year that saw the beginnings of Mud Mill Pond, 1756, was the year that the British colonies became involved in a war with France for territory in the western part of the colonies, at what is now western Pennsylvania and Ohio, and became known as the French and Indian War. In February of that year David Marsdin purchased a writ of ad quod damnum from the court to build a water-powered mill at the head of the Choptank. David Marsdin was granted an 80-year lease to the twenty acres of land, ten on each side of the Choptank, for the use of and to build his mill.
We know that within a year after receiving the grant, the first mill at Mud Mill Pond was built because on 07 June 1758 David Marsdin, miller, leased half of the rights to the new mill to William Moore, also a miller from Queen Anne’s County. Before the year was out William Moore, for £65, assigned the lease to John Moore of Chester County, Pennsylvania. On 09 November 1759 David Marsdin and John Moore sold their rights to the mill to Thomas Muncy.
Thomas Muncy was a miller from Kent County, Delaware, who lived just a few miles east of the mill on a farm his father had established at least some thirty years earlier. He would own the mill for ten years and then give it to his son-in-law. While under his ownership, it was known as “Muncy’s Mill.”
Muncy’s Mill – 1759 to 1769 Not much is known about Thomas Muncy during the years that he owned the mill. Based on a later deed in which Thomas Muncey was listed as a miller, he most likely operated the mill. At some point during his ownership, his daughter Maomi married Joseph Furtad, a millwright. On 25 July 1769, Muncy gave the mill and property to his son-in-law and daughter by deed of gift. Thomas Muncy went on to live another thirty years. On 29 November 1969, he gave his home tract to his son Levi Muncy and his wife Margaret[1].
Just a short time later, on 12 February 1770 Thomas Muncy purchased another mill from John Harmison, located on what is now called McColley Pond on Brown’s Branch of the Murderkill, in Kent County, Delaware. (See my post from Dec. 24, 2021; "Mordington" and The Old Mills in Milford Hundred.)
Joseph Furtad – 1769 to 1805 The origins of Joseph Furtad are unknown. When his father-in-law gave him the mill in 1769, the deed listed him as a millwright. He may have emigrated here from England, because he did have an English servant working for him. He and his wife would have several children: Mary, Unity, Naomi, Joseph Jr. and Margaret.
The Delaware – Maryland Boundary Line
The boundary between Delaware and Maryland had long been in dispute between the proprietors of Pennsylvania and Maryland. In 1732, Lord Baltimore and the Penn family made an agreement to survey the boundaries between the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the Three Lower Counties of Pennsylvania, based on the Privy Council (the chief council appointed by the king) decision of 1685, which divided the peninsula evenly. A line was to be drawn across the peninsula from Cape Henlopen on the Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake Bay. From the middle point of this line, another straight line was to be surveyed northward to make a tangent with a 12-mile circle drawn around the town of New Castle.
In (1750) the line that was to make the southern boundary of Delaware was drawn and finished by 1752. In 1760 the line that was to form the western boundary was begun. Because local surveyors had problems running the tangent line, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two respected English surveyors, were brought in to complete the line, which was completed before the end of 1765.
With the acceptance of the boundary lines in 1775, Mud Mill Pond was now part of the Three Lower counties of Delaware, which were still considered part of the Province of Pennsylvania. Joseph Furtad first appeared on that year’s tax assessment list for Murderkill Hundred and his total property was valued at £6.[2]
In early 1776, Furtad applied to the Proprietors of Pennsylvania for 35 acres of land adjoining the mill property and a warrant was granted on 22 February 1776. On 18 June 1776, just two days after the General Assembly at New Castle passed a resolution declaring Delaware independent of British Crown, the tract was surveyed and found to contain 43 ¼ acres. The tract was called Millford.
From 1876 to the present, we know that the mill was located on the west side of the race with the water wheel or turbines on the east side of the mill. [The} plot however shows the mill house located between the race and the Choptank, with the water wheel on the west side of the mill. After obtaining the 43 ¼ acres, Furtad’s assessment had doubled to £12.
In September 1776, Delaware adopted its first constitution and became the “Delaware State” instead of being called “the Counties of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex upon Delaware.” From this day on, the mill was considered to be in the Delaware State, which became “The State of Delaware” in 1792.
Some of the colonies and/or states had passed laws that during times of war, millers were exempt from serving because of their value to the community. The Delaware State passed no such law, but there is no record of Joseph Furtad serving during the Revolution.[3] He was very successful at running the mill at Mud Mill Pond and in 1779, he began purchasing properties in the surrounding area.[4]
Joseph Furtad was a slave owner. We know this from a manumission [release from slavery] recorded in August 1803, shortly before his death. On 06 May 1784, the year that the American Revolution ended, Joseph Furtad manumitted his slaves…
A law passed on 09 February 1796, called “An ACT for the better regulation of roads in the county of Kent” mentioned Furtad’s mill. The road from the Maryland line near Furtad’s mill to Camden, with many other roads, was listed to be laid out and straightened. It was to be a state road and was to “be of the breadth of forty feet, thirty feet whereof shall be grubbed and cleared.”[5] This is part of the road now called Mud Mill Road.
Most early Delaware tax assessment listing gave very little information, usually just a name and an amount the person was being assessed. In 1797, this changed, being the first year for Delaware tax assessments to give a detailed description of the real and personal property of the person assessed.
The mill, buildings and land at this time was valued at £375, quite an increase for the £80 selling price to Thomas Muncy 38 years earlier.[6]
According to the 1800 census, Joseph Furtad was listed as living in the Cow Marsh Forest of Kent County, Murderkill Hundred and as being over 45 years old. In addition, living in his household were one male between the ages of 16 and 26, two females under 10, and two females 10 to 26, Living next to him was Joseph Parvis, who in 1798 had married Maomi Furtad, Joseph’s daughter.[7]
The 1803-1804 tax list values the “grist mill & seat 50 acres of land” at $1,000.00 and his other land in Delaware, 200 acres, at $500.00.[8]”
Joseph Furtad died early in 1804 and his will directed that his estate be sold at public auction and split equally amongst his heirs.
“Later that year Joseph Furtad Jr. died and letters of administration were granted to Benoni Harris on 28 August. Just before the end of the year, Joseph’s minor sister died and letters of administration were granted to Harris on 17 December.[9] Therefore, during the year of 1804, the name of Furtad died out in the State of Delaware forever. Between the three estates done of Joseph Sr., Joseph Jr., and Margaret Furtad, heirs listed were: Robert Davidson; Joseph Parvis; heirs of Mary Burt, Sarah and Cornlia Burt; heir of Unity Biran, James Biram, son of Samuel.
On 05 August 1805, the mill property was sold at public vendue, or auction, to satisfy the debts of Joseph Furtad. Benoni Harris sold the property to Hadden Smith for $1,361.00. Before buying the mill property Hadden Smith had purchased Furtad’s other Kent County trace containing 200 acres on 16 June 1804 at public vendue and sold it in 1806 to his younger brother John.[10]
Hadden Smith and Smith’s Mills – 1805 to 1857 Hadden Smith was a farmer and a miller and owned the mill and property from 1805 until 1824. He would reestablish the saw mill and run the mills successfully for about thirty-five years, until at least 1839. Under his ownership, the mills became known as “Smith’s Mills” and the mills remained in his family until 1857 when they were sold to his nephew, who owned them until his death in 1864.
Hadden Smith may have learned the art of milling from Joseph Furtad, although when he purchased the mill in August 1805 he was listed as a farmer in the deed recorded.
At some point around the time he purchased the mill, Hadden Smith married Mary Craig, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (White) Craig. When Samuel Craig died in 1789, Mary was the only heir to just over 200 acres of land located southwest of what is now the town of Magnolia, that was part of a larger tract called The Plains and this property would become known as the “Hadden Smith Farm.”
Samuel Culbreth and Joseph Batten – 1857 to 1865 The mills that had been known as Smith’s Mills for over fifty years were now partially owned by Samuel Culbreth, Hadden Smith’s nephew. While under his ownership the mills became known as the “Culbreth and Smith’s Mills,” and were being run by Joseph Batten. Culbreth and Batten owned the mill during the years leading up to and including the Civil War.
Atkinson, Horn, Day and Melvin – 1865 to 1869William A. Atkinson, Charles W. Horn, and Charles H. B. Day were not millers and they had purchased the mill property as an investment. Based on Byles 1859 map or Dover, they were all living near each other in the Town of Dover and they would only own the mill for a few months before selling it to Thomas Melvin, a miller from Caroline County. These individuals owned the mill while the nation tried to come to terms with the Civil War that had divided the nation.
Melvin only owned the mills until 1869 when the property was sold at public vendue back to Day and Isaac Jump for $2,100.00. Day and Jump had sued Thomas Melvin and Mary F., his wife in the Superior Court. A deed was made 21 June 1869. Charles H. B. Day and Mary W., his wife , sold their share of the mills to Isaac Jump just three days later for $1,500.00.[11]
Isaac Jump and the Choptank Mills – 1869 to 1886 Isaac Jump would tear down the old mill and build a new building and a new sawmill, and own the mills until his death. It was under his ownership that the mills at Mud Mill Pond became known as “Choptank Mills.” Jump purchased the property as an investment and leased the mill property out for $250.00, and later $300.00 a year. Based on the 1870 census the mill at Mud Mill Pond was most likely being run by John H. Evans, listed as a miller aged 27.[12]
Starting in 1872, Hugh E. Anderson began operating the mill for Jump and would run it for several years. In 1876 the rental was $300.00 a year.[13] In 1876 Jump decided to rebuild the mills. From a local paper, and the tax assessment above, we know that by April the new saw mill was in operation and “sawing 1,000 feet of oak plank per day” and it was announced that a new gristmill was to be built.[14] On 20 October 1876, he insured the new mill buildings and the machinery, with an assessed value of $3,300.00, against fire for $2,200.00 through the Kent County Mutual Insurance Co. From the questions asked on the application, we know that Anderson was running both the grist mill and saw mills and living on the property.
In the 1880 census, Hugh E. Anderson was listed as a miller, aged 53. In addition, living in the household was a miller, Fred Lewis, aged 21. In the next household was another miller, John McKercher, aged 42. Fred F. Lewis was the grandson of William Lewis and Annie Allaband. Annie was the daughter of William Allaband who ran the Allaband Mills, which were located on Isaac Branch…
Fred F. Lewis would help run two other mills after leaving the Choptank Mills. In 1900, he was living in Wyoming and helping run the Wyoming Mills with William P. Lindale and his son Robert J.[15] This was the same mill that Isaac Jump had owned from 1852 to 1857. In 1902 Fred’s uncle, Robert H. Lewis, purchased the Dover Mills at Silver Lake and would own them until 1913 when he and his wife Francis Ann sold it to their son, Robert E. Lewis. Fred F. Lewis would help his cousin Robert E. run the mills until his death in 1925.[16]
[In the 1880 Special Schedule of Manufactures], John McKercher was operating the mill and it had a capitol investment of $7000.00. There were two males over 16 years old employed there during the year. From May to November, they worked 12-hour days and from November to May 10 hours. Skilled labor was paid on the average a dollar a day, and a laborer was paid seventy-five cents a day. For the year, Jump paid his millers a total of $370.00. For the year, starting on 01 June 1879 and ending 31 May 1880, the mill was in operation for six months, and was idle for six months. The mill had three run of stone and could produce a maximum of 150 bushels a day. The work done was all custom work, which meant that it was done for the local farmers and not produced for resale. An 8-foot fall on the Choptank drove two 4-foot wide turbines at 100 rpm, 45 hp. The mill took in 1,200 bushels of wheat valued at $12,000.00 and 10,000 bushels of other grain valued at $5,000.00, and the total of mill supplies in the mill were valued at $500.00 for a total material value of $17,500.00. From these materials, the mill produced 2,400 barrels of wheat flour, 560,000 pounds of corn meal and 168m000 pounds of feed for a total value of $21,680.00. This record states that “steam power now being put in” which included one boiler and one 35 hp engine.[17]
Dr. Isaac Jump died in August 1885 and was buried in Lakeside Cemetary next to Shakespear’s Mill Pond [Silver Lake] in Dover.[18] After his death Jump’s executors, George P. Fisher and John D. Burton sold the mills at public auction on 08 June 1886 to Joseph P. Comegys for $1,600.00.
Joseph P. Comegys and Benjamin McKnitt – 1886 to 1898 Joseph P. Comegys was a lawyer who purchased the mills as an investment. He would own them until 1891, when he sold them to Benjamin McKnitt, a miller from Milford, who only owned the mills less than four years when they were sold at sheriff’s sale to Harriet C. Comegys, Joseph’s daughter.
The year that Comegys purchased the mill was the year the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York. In 1898, America was fighting Spain for Cuba and Puerto Rico, the last remnants of Spain’s once mighty empire in the New World.
The Delaware State and Peninsula Directory from 1891 shows that in 1890 the mills were being run by C. E. Sherwood,[19] who would continue running them when they were sold the next year.
On 04 November 1891, Joseph P. Comegys sold the mill property to Benjamin McKnitt of Milford Hundred for $5,000.00
Based on the 1880 census Benjamin McKnitt was a miller who, at that time, was living on west Street in Milford just a short distance from the Milford Mills, where he was most likely working. McKnitt only owned the Choptank Mills for a short time. The mortgage was not paid and Alfred C. Dunn, sheriff, sold the mills and property at public vendue on 26 June 1894 to Harriet C. Comegys for $2,500.00.
Miss Comegys was the daughter of Joseph P. Comegys and Margaret A. Douglas. Her father, who had sold the property to McKnitt in 1891, had died in 1893.[20] She owned the mill for four years.
Charles E. Sherwood, listed as the miller of the Choptank Mills in the 1891 business directory, was a miller from Smyrna. In 1880 he was helping run the mill at what is now called Lake Como on Mill Branch of the Smyrna River. Sherwood stayed and helped run the Choptank Mills with McKnitt after he purchased them. After the sale of this mill, they both settled in Kenton Hundred and were running a mill on Little Duck Creek, or Leipsic River.
Robert Voshell, listed in The Delaware State and Peninsula Directory for 1897-98 as the proprietor of Choptank Mills, was most likely running the mill during this time.[21]
On 07 July 1898, Harriet C. Comegys sold the mill and property to John B. Medford of North Murderkill Hundred for $2,000.00[22]
Medford’s Mill – 1898 to 1987 The Medford family would own the mills at Mud Mill Pond from the horse and buggy days until the modern era. John B. Medford purchased the mills and property in 1898 and he would run the mill until his death in 1959. His sons Roy and James would later help their father run the business and keep the mill in operation until 1978, although waterpower had not been used since the late 1960s. While owned by the Medford family the mills were still called “Choptank Mills” but also became known as “Medford’s Mill” after the death of John B. Some of the information in this section is based on conversations [between author Richard A. Sehorn and] Nedra Medford, wife of James, and William C. Medford, Son of Roy.
The Medford family had been milling in the Choptank for three centuries. Roy and James were at least forth generation millers, tracing their ancestry directly back to their great grandfather, William Wagonmon Medford, who had been milling since the first half of the nineteenth century. He was most likely a descendent of William or Robert Medford who had been milling in Dorchester County on Cabin Creek in 1766.
John B. Medford and Medford’s Mill – 1898 to 1978 On 12 April 1898, a short time after the death of his father and just before he purchased the mills at Mud Mill Pond, John P. Medford of Henderson, Maryland, married Cora Dill of Denton.[23] On 07 July 1898, the same day he purchased the Choptank Mills, John B. Medford and Cora D. Medford mortgaged the properties to Harriet C. Comegys for $1,500.00.[24]
Based on the 1900 census, John was running the mill alone. In 1904, John b. Medford, with Robert Jarrell, purchased another mill property, this one located in Caroline county, for $1,300.00.[25] This millpond, located southeast of Goldsboro and at the confluence of Oldtown and Broadway Branches of the Choptank, is now called Lake Bonnie[26]
Sometime after the purchase of the Lake Bonnie property, John B. Medford sold all his rights to the property to Jarrell, but a deed was not recorded. In 1910, they both sold all their rights to the mill to George H. Russell of Caroline County for $2,400.00[27] the property sold for almost double the purchase price, so they must have made vast improvements. Lake Bonnie is currently privately owned and the surrounding property is used as a camping site.
On 16 December 1912, the mortgage for the Choptank Mill property was paid off.
In 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was passed prohibiting the manufacture, sale, import, or export of liquor in the United States. There [were] unconfirmed rumors that there was a large still used for the distillation of liquor located on the Mud Mill property.
In 1926, the three-story mill house that was built by Isaac Jump fifty years earlier caught fire and burnt down. Mr. Medford immediately started a new mill building. According to [personal interviews with] Nedra Medford, she believes that the sawmill was still in operation and used to cut the lumber used in the mill building. This is the mill building that is still standing today.
In the new mill most of the gearing and shafting was installed under the main floor. On the main floor were installed three sets of Wolf company rollers, one set of millstones and a mixer. The rollers were used for flour and grinding feed, the millstones were used for making white corn meal. The second story contained the bolters and sifters. The attic and all floors contained belts, pulleys, and shafts that powered the milling equipment.
At the time the new building was being built, Roy was 18 and he was working full time at the mill. James had just turned 16 and he had quit school and started driving the truck and delivering feed and also worked at the Henderson store. Roy ran the mill at Mud Mill with his father and would eventually take over, as his father got older. James would act as both a driver and a salesperson. He would take orders from various stores and farmers one day, and deliver the feed, flour or meal the next day.
In 1932, James Medford married Nedra Gooden. She grew up on a farm about a half mile away just over the Maryland line. As a child, she used to come to the mill with her sisters and father to get feed. She would crawl under the mill to get corncobs to use for kindling to start the fire in their wood stove. Before they were married, she used to “hang around” the Henderson store when James was working there.
She moved into the Medford house and lived there with her husband, his mother and father, and his two brothers. She would live in the house and on the mill property for almost 50 years.
While under the Medford’s ownership, a large part of the business was to custom grind feed for livestock. The local farmers would bring their grain, which would be mixed with salt, minerals, and sometimes hay, or whatever they wanted. Each farmer had their own particular needs for their livestock. The mill used rollers to custom grind feed and the feed would then go into a big. mixer. They also mixed and sold their own animal feeds. The rollers also made flour and buckwheat flour.
There was one set of millstones at the mill. When necessary, Mr. Medford would spend many hours, usually at night with a lantern, dressing the millstones. The millstones were only used to make white corn meal, usually made from white corn he grew himself.
As the boys got older, they became more involved in the business. They would get into the business of selling dog food. Their father was not too happy about it and said that he had “never heard of such a thing. Buying dog feed for your dogs. Feed ‘em table scraps.” The boys proved him wrong and the dog feed became a very successful part of the Choptank Mills business.
The father and sons ran the business at Mud Mill Pond successfully for many years until John b. Medford died on 07 April 1959 at the age of 87 years.[28] His wife Cora Medford had died the year before.[29]
Nedra Medford said that Mr. Medford was a kind man that loved his children and grandchildren and that anyone could get along with him. He always had a cigar in his mouth and did not like having his picture taken. When he was a boy, his father used to hire him out to local farmers and would keep the money for himself, which was not uncommon in the time.
William C. Medford fondly remembers his grandfather as being a good story teller and that he had only one eye. He always wore a gray flannel suit and was a good salesperson. He said he remembers having a green 1949 Packard and whenever he backed the car up , he never looked back.[30] Nedra Medford confirmed that he did only have one eye and when he got older, he got cataracts in his good eye and had to have it operated on. She said that he never could see that well after that and should not have been driving.
According to Nedra Medford, after the death of her father-in-law she had a heating system and indoor plumbing installed in the house. All these years the home had been heated by wood in the cooking stove and by what she called a “chunk stove.”
After the death of their father, his sons continued to run the business. One of the first things they did, in honor of their father, was to start using the name of “Medford Mill,” while still using “Choptank Mills” for the business. They expanded the dog-feed business, selling Purina, Wayne, Kennel-Ration and Red Rose. They would purchase the feed already bagged up. The business stayed successful up to the end. They carried horse feed, cow feed, chicken feed and dairy feed in hundred-pound bags. They also continued custom grinding of animal feed for customers and produced their own animal feeds and to produce flour and cornmeal.
During the late 1960s the Choptank Mills stopped using waterpower. Although they still custom ground animal feed at the mill, with the newly installed hammer mill powered by an International 548 cubic-inch gasoline engine.
In 1978, after two hundred and twenty-one years of operation, the mill at Mud Mill Pond closed down. Its last years were spent grinding mostly dairy feed, horse feed, chicken feed and dog food. When the Medford’s closed the mill down, it was the last family operated mill in business in Kent County. The only other mill that originally started as a water powered mill still custom grinding feed in Kent County was Wyoming Mills at Wyoming Lake, and it closed down in the early 1980s.
After the mill closed down, instead of letting the equipment rust and rot into decay like most old mills, the Medford family donated most of the equipment in the mill to the Delaware Agricultural Museum. It was donated under the name of “John Medford” in honor of the father.
[Ed. Note: I’ll cover the “Silver Lake Mill” in detail in my next posting.]
The Medford family had tried for many years to sell the millpond to the State but they would not buy it. They wanted the pond reestablished to make it easier to sell the property. So on 19 February 1982 after several years of negotiations, Nedra G. Medford, widow of Paul James Medford, deceased, and Verona L. Webb, Nancy B. Ori, and John Roy Medford and Eileen, his wife, gave the millpond, for $1.00, to the State of Delaware.
The State of Delaware and Mud Mill Pond – 1982 to the Present
The State of Delaware now owns and manages the old millpond originally established by David Marsdin in 1757 for the use of a gristmill. After the bridge had washed out in 1976, several years of negotiations ensued between the state of Delaware and the Medford’s for the reestablishment of the pond.
In 1981, before the State purchased the pond, the Delaware division of Fish and Wildlife made an application to the Department of the Army Corps of Engineers to:
emplace approximately 500 cu. yds. Of riprap adjacent to the downstream side of a water control structure (i.e. a weir). The riprap will cover an area of the stream bottom that is approximately 75 ft. wide by 112 ft. long and will be at least 1 ½ ft. in thickness. The purpose of this proposed riprap is to lessen the erosion effects of the weir over-flow on the stream bottom. . . .
After the purchase of the former millpond, the spillway was installed and the millpond reestablished. The small recreation area for launching boats has been designated as the “John Medford Tract” instead of “Medford Pond” as stipulated in the deed when the State purchased the pond from the Medfords.
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[1] Kent County Deed Book S1:239. [2] Joseph Furtad entry, 1775 Murderkill Hundred, Kent County Assessments; microfilm, roll 003; frame 0249
[3] Public Archives Commission of Delaware, Delaware Archives, Military, 5 volumes, (Wilmington: various publishers, 1911-1919 [4] Kent County Deed book W1: 184; and Caroline County Deed Book A1: 642 and 755. [5] “An ACT for the better regulation of roads in the county of Kent,” Laws of the State of Delaware, Volume II (New Castle, Delaware: Samuel and John Adams, 1797), chapter XCIX: 1263-1276. [6] Joseph Furtad entry, 1797 Murderkill Hundred, Kent County Assessments; microfilm, roll 005: 0211. [7] Joseph Furtad household and Joseph Pervis household, 1800 U.S. census, Murderkill Hundred, Cow Marsh Forest, Kent County, Delaware, page 102; National Archives microfilm M32, roll 4; and DPA Marriage Index Cards.
[8] Joseph Furtad entry, 1803-1804 Murderkill Hundred, Kent county Assessments; microfilm, roll 008: 0487. [9] Joseph Furtad Jr. Probate (1804-1806) and Margaret Furtad Probate (1804-1806), Kent County Probates. [10] Kent County Deed Book 12: 94 and 292.
[11] Kent County Deed Book 15: 375 and 377. [12] Various households, 1870 U. S. census, North Murderkill Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, page 174; National Archives microfilm M593, roll 119. [13] Isaac Jump Dr. entry, 11876 North Murderkill Hundred, Kent County Assessments; microfilm, roll 038: 0240 [14] The State Sentinel, Dover, Delaware, 22 April 1876, vol. II, no. 50. [15] Various Households, 1900 U. S. census, North Murderkill Hundred, Wyoming Town, Kent County, Delaware, Enumeration District 78, sheet 18, National Archives microfilm T623, roll 154. [16] KC Seed Books Q8: 300 and H10: 437; Delaware State News, April 11, 1999, pp. 17-18; and Dill, 1: 650.
[17] John McKercher entry, 1880 U. S. census, Special Schedule of Manufactures, North Murderkill Hundred, Kent County, Delaware; microfilm. [18] Dill, 1: 442 [19] Kent County Deed Books Y3: 221 and K5: 476.
[20] Conrad, 3: 966. [21] The Delaware State and Peninsula Directory for 1897-98 (Wilmington: Homer Barry, 1897), 329. [22] Kent County Deed Book B8: 445 [23] Caroline County, Marriage Record of Marriages Book CWH No. 2 – 1897 to 1911. [24] Kent County Deed Book N2: 139.
[25] Caroling County Deed Book TLD69:82. [26] This information is based on a deed dated 16 June 1937, which gives a complete title chain to the property, from 1831 to 1937 (Caroline County Deed Bk. TCH96: 101). It also mentions a plot recorded of the division of the property of Thomas Goldsboro, deceased in 1827 (Caroline County Commission Records Book JRD: 115). [27] Caroline County Deed Book TLD73: 198.
[28] Kent County Inheritance & succession docket No. 9: 398. [29] Beneath These Stones, 1: 95 [30] Phone conversation with William C. Medford, 08 September 2002.
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I would like to express my appreciation to Richard Alan Sehorn, author of
“The Mills and Millers of Mud Mill Pond, Kent County, Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland: 1757 to the Present – A Documentary History”
It is obvious that he has spent a great deal of time researching the history of the mills on Mud Mill Pond and he has put them together in a very readable manner. For this blog I have tried to include, primarily, information pertaining to the mills, and I have had to leave out a great deal of supporting information. My readers can borrow the 150-page book at The Kent County Public Library in Longacre Village, on South DuPont Highway,
just north of Woodside, DE. - ISPN: 338.4
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For my next post I'll visit the "Silver Lake Mill" at the Delaware Ag Museum in Dover and we'll take a close look at the Grist Mill, as well as the Saw Mill. Both are in the same building. See you in two weeks. SC