Little Georgie Hack Dies

MILFORD,  Del.- WBOC pioneer, George Hack, passed away on Friday December 28, 2018.

Widely known as "Little Georgie Hack", the host was known through Delmarva in the 1950's and 60's on WBOC radio and television.

George hosted the Dr. Pepper Teen Dance Party live every Saturday afternoon with his wife Julie. On Saturday mornings he hosted Dr. Pepper Silver Dollar Man. During the show, he would call viewers and ask them how many Dr. Peppers would be in their fridge. George would give them a silver dollar for each soda, up to ten.

Viewers that remember the show say they would keep their fridges stocked with the soda every Saturday morning just in case they were called by Little Georgie Hack.

George was also the morning show host from 6-10A.M. In the 1950's George was mainly accompanied by WBOC personality Lanny Layton and then in the 1960's with Tom MaGuire. The radio music format was popular adult favorites.

George also hosted numerous shows on WBOC-TV including "Eastern Shore Today," a public affairs program that he created. And before his retirement, George hosted a Saturday morning show called the "Big Band Radio Show".

George was friends with world-famous host, Dick Clark. The two emceed a fundraising dance party in Salisbury many years ago.

Before WBOC, George was born on August 28, 1927 and grew up in York, Pennsylvania. After meeting his wife, George and Julie move to New Jersey. Just after having kids, the couple moved to Delaware for a short period of time before being offered the job at WBOC.

George also served in the Navy as a Seabee during World War II.

George passed away at the Delaware Veterans Home in Milford at the age of 91.

above from WBOC 

Louisa Davis Ker

Yesterday I had the privilege of looking through a shoebox full of postcards from 1902 to 1908.  They were addressed to Louisa Davis Ker (1887-1964).

Louisa would be age 17 to 22 in this time period.  She was the daughter of Henry Claude Ker and Emily Josephine Marvel.  She was born in Delmar.  Her father was a preacher for the Old School Baptist and he would live in New York state and New Jersey before returning to Delmar.

Many of the post cards were signed Ernest or just "ER".  Ernest was Ernest Remley (1885-1949) whom she would marry in July of 1909.  Ernest lived in the Orange and Nutley, NJ area so many of the cards are from this area.  Ernest would eventually become a Pharmacist.  They would have two children Robert and Emily.  In 1930 They moved to Austin,Texas where the marriage failed and they got a divorce in 1932. 

Louisa would end up back in Salisbury where she worked as a saleswoman at Hess Apparel and Benjamins.  Her daughter would marry and move to New Jersey where her mother would live with her until her death in 1964.  She is buried in Snow Hill and also Ernest is buried in Snow Hill.

Bad News For Shareholders 1932

First National Bank of Delmar Delaware

Merry Christmas

The PRR Radio Tower at Delmar

above from the 1962 Bi State Weekly newspaper at the Delmar Library
the arrow shows the tower otherwise it is about invisible in the picture.  I assume it is the same one that is there today.

An Example of A First National Bank Check

The above check was signed by Samuel N Culver, Delmar Civic, business and political leader.  The bank started in 1904 and ended in the 1940s.  Culver was making a contribution to the national headquarters of the Scottish Rite from a Free Masons account (Eastern Shore Class 1921) set up at the bank. 

1962 Arrival of Santa

above from the Dec 28 1962 Bi State Weekly from the collection at the Delmar Library

Finally

The renovated Delmar Public Library had a ribbon cutting today

after what seemed like forever the library on Bi State is operating once again

A 1970 Saying

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the miniskirt became popular and created problems for parents and their school age daughters 

Some of those daughters may remember the saying that bordered on a mantra their parents would tell them before school;

Raise your arms and then touch your toes, if anything shows go change your clothes.

Match Pad From Thompson restaurant 1939

Virginia Partners Bank, Delmar Bancorp announce merger

• By CATHY JETT THE FREE LANCE–STAR
 

A bank that got its start in a trailer in downtown Fredericksburg a decade ago has agreed to join the parent company of a bank that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1997.
Virginia Partners Bank is expected to become an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Salisbury, Md.-based Delmar Bancorp through an exchange of shares in an all-stock transaction in the second quarter of 2019.
Delmar Bancorp is the holding company for The Bank of Delmarva, which a group of businessmen and farmers opened on May 4, 1897, in the then-thriving railroad town of Delmar, Md. Today its main office is in Seaford, Del., and it has 11 branch locations in Maryland and three operating under the name Liberty Bell Bank in the South Jersey/Philadelphia metro market.
Both Delmar’s and Partners’s boards of directors have unanimously approved the merger. It is still subject to approval by Partners’ shareholders and bank regulatory authorities.
The transaction will create a partnership between Delmarva and Partners. The banks will maintain their existing names, executive management teams and boards of directors. The consolidated holding company will have, on a pro forma basis at Sept. 30, 2018, approximately $1.2 billion of assets, $947.7 million in loans and $966.6 million in deposits; and a franchise that serves markets from Philadelphia to Newport News.
Company officials said the strategic partnership will allow each bank to leverage the strength of its local community banking franchise and expand the breadth of products and services offered to its existing customer base. Additionally, the creation of a $1.2 billion asset bank holding company provides opportunities for both banks to expand their customer base and lending, and to better address community banking needs in their current and contiguous markets.
“The proposed merger of equals and multi-bank holding company structure will allow us to maintain our identity, while permitting increased efficiencies, greater visibility for our stock, a quarterly dividend for Partners shareholders, and a heightened ability to access the capital markets,” Partners President and CEO Lloyd B. Harrison III said in a news release. “This partnership will serve our shareholders, our employees, our customers and our community well.”
He said that it also sets the stage for other community banks to join a multi-bank holding company that is committed to maintaining separately chartered affiliate banks.
“This affiliate bank model preserves what is best about community banking—the identities and leadership that make them successful—while achieving scale in a rapidly consolidating industry,” Harrison said.
Harrison was one of the founders of Partners, which opened in August of 2008 out of a trailer in what was then a parking lot at 425 William St. It opened a branch a few months later in Westwood Shopping Center, which has since closed, before building its current headquarters at 410 William St.
Harrison will continue in his positions with Partners and also become chief executive officer of Delmar once the transaction is completed.
As of Sept. 30, Partners had approximately $420.1 million in assets, $325.1 million in loans and $344.5 million in deposits. Partners currently has three branches in Fredericksburg and, trading under the name Maryland Partners Bank, a branch in La Plata, Md., and a loan production office in Annapolis. Partners is also a 51 percent owner of Johnson Mortgage Co. in Newport News.
As of Sept. 30, Delmar had approximately $737.9 million in assets, $622.5 million in loans and $622.0 million in deposits. Delmarva has 11 branches located in Wicomico and Worcester counties, Maryland and Sussex County, Delaware, three branches in the South Jersey/Philadelphia metro market doing business under the name of Liberty Bell Bank, and a loan production office in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Based on the closing price of Delmar common stock on Wednesday of $7.80 per share, the transaction would have a value of $13.40 per share of Partners common stock, and an aggregate value of approximately $55.1 million, or approximately 135 percent of Partners’ tangible common equity as of Sept. 30.
Holders of Partners common stock would own an aggregate of approximately 44 percent of the outstanding shares of Delmar following completion of the share exchange.
Kenneth R. Lehman currently serves on the Board of Directors of both Partners and Delmar. Following the completion of the transaction, Board of Directors of Delmar will consist of Lehman, five current members of Delmar’s board of directors and four current members of Virginia Partners’ board of directors.

1940s ad PRR

1940s ad

The Orphan Train movement

At the Delaware State Archives in Dover on April 13 (Saturday) 2019 at 2 PM; author, Donna Aviles will speak about "The Orphan Train movement" and its significance. The Orphan Train Movement was a program that transported orphaned and homeless children from east coast cities to foster homes in the rural Midwest. The orphan trains operated between 1854 and 1929, relocating about 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, abused, or homeless children.

above children lined up on the orphan train

With 200,000 children involved in this relocation it would come as no surprise that several million descents of the orphan train children are out there today.  With families moving and relocating it should come as no surprise also that Delmar has people that connect back to the orphan train. 

Three orphan train people were Mildred A. Krauss Pilgrim (1904-1999), Mabel (1902- )  and Harold William Krauss Pilgrim (1900-1945).  The brother and sisters were adopted by William Frank Pilgrim and Anna Mae Elwick Pilgrim who at the time of adoption (1913) lived in Iowa where they had a large farm with cattle. The area suffered an epidemic of hoof and mouth disease and the family lost their cattle and had to sell the farm.  The family moved to the Jersey Road area of Delmar, Maryland about 1923.  

Mildred, Harold and Mabel were the children of Anna Cummings (1880-1908) and William Krauss (1873- )of Brooklyn, New York.  When Anna died the children were taken by a welfare society.  William Krauss who was a printer, was allegedly involved in criminal activities with a Prussian gang in New York.  For what ever reason William Krauss gave up his children and in the 1910 census they were at the Brooklyn Industrial Association and Home for Destitute Children.

It is unclear how but someway the children ended up at the Children Aid Society in Chicago where they were put on a large stage with other children to be viewed by the audience.  It happens that Frank and Anna Pilgrim were in the audience and wanted two children.  They picked Harold and Mabel but Mildred, age 4, put up such a fit of crying they took her also. 

Little information is available about Mabel.  By 1930 she lived in Sacramento and was married to Eugene Short. Mabel and Mildred made many trips visiting one another 

above Mabel and Mildred Pilgrim.

between Delmar and California until their deaths.  

Harold, by the time the family moved to Delmar, was in the Navy.  Delmar to him was a home address used while in the Navy and a place to visit his adopted parents while on leave.  When he was discharged from the Navy he remained in Hawaii where he married Helen Alice Sanborn (1907- ) in 1925.  He worked as a welder/pipefitter civilian employee for the Navy.  He must have been at Pearl Harbor and saw the attack that happened on December 7 (today).  He died in 1945 of unstated causes and was buried at Diamond Head Memorial Park.  Harold and William had for children; Genevieve Helen (1925-2006), Wilhelmina Frances (1925-1981), William (1932- ), Richard Ronald (1938-2005).  Perhaps the names of the two girls came from his Krauss family.  Helen would later marry a Mr. Mills and in 1955 Walter Benavitz. Helen would visit the Pilgrim family over the years and bring her children with her. 

Mildred (1904-1999) would live in Delmar and marry Clarence Cooper Bradley, a railroad worker.  They would have for children; Frank L (1932-2014), Mabel Anna (1929-2018), and Clarence F (1927-1936).   Mildred would work in the pants factory in Delmar.

Mildred Krauss Pilgrim Bradley with her son Clarence (Jackie was his nickname) 

Thanks to The Mockingbird Vol III no 9 newsletter of the Double Mills and Stephanie Elliott for photographs and material

Carload Express Expands

OAKMONT, Pa. — Carload Express, Inc. today announced a second expansion of rail freight service in the Delmarva Peninsula. Carload’s Delmarva Central Railroad was selected through competitive bid to operate two rail lines owned by the State of Delaware, extending from Georgetown to near Harbeson, Delaware (the "Lewes Running Track”) and from Ellendale to near Milton, Delaware (the "Milton Industrial Track"), a total of 11.7 miles. These lines, presently operated by Delaware Coast Line Railroad, connect with Delmarva Central at Ellendale and Georgetown, respectively.

The state-owned lines will be served by DCR’s existing freight service, with connections to Norfolk Southern via DCR’s interchanges at Clayton and Tasker, Del.

“We express our gratitude to Delaware Department of Transportation for having selected Carload Express to serve the customers on their rail lines” said president Mark Rosner. “We are proud to be able to introduce seamless service to the customers in eastern Delaware and deliver the customer-centric service we have come to be known for.” 
With this addition, which takes effect on Jan., 1, 2019, Delmarva Central Railroad’s network will total 188 miles in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, serving more than 45 customers.

Carload Express Inc. operates four shortline railroads: The Allegheny Valley Railroad and Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, serving western Pennsylvania; the Ohio Terminal Railway, serving the Ohio River Valley bordering Ohio and West Virginia; and the Delmarva Central Railroad, serving Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia on the Delmarva Peninsula. The company handled 90,000 shipments last year, equating to roughly 360,000 fewer trucks on local highways, lowering congestion and road maintenance costs, while significantly reducing carbon emissions and greenhouse gases. The company and its 85 employees operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week, serving more than 100 customers on 344 route miles of track. For more information, please see: carloadexpress.com.

Dec 4, 2018

1991 Delmar Flea Market

The Locomotive Fire Ring

Since Delmar first had a fire department they have always had a fire whistle to sound the alarm.  Originally it was steam and was operated from the train yard. 

Some towns however have used a "fire ring"  that when hit with a hammer will provide the noise to alert people there is  fire.

These fire rings would be made from steam locomotive metal tires that were originally around the drive wheels of the locomotive. When the train wheel tires wore out and were replaced instead of scrapping the wheel they recycled it at the local fire department to be an alarm. 

burning the metal tire onto the wheel.

1962 Gaming Machine Raid

John Walsh was a long time Salisbury IRS manager.  The machines were picked up because the Federal tax was not paid.  The Feds of course were not enforcing local laws

The Machines were owned by Bassett and Timmons Amusements of Delmar.

Passport Nose Shapes

I recently was researching Sarah Waples Crosley (1884-1951).  Sarah was born in Accomack County Virginia and she was a nurse for the Red Cross in World War One.  She traveled across Europe and was awarded several medals.  In looking at her passport application however her nose shape was described as retrousse; meaning turned up at the end.

In that time period passport applications had a feature description section giving complexion, face shape, chin shape, eyes, mouth shape, hair color, forehead, and stature.  Of interest the application did not ask which sex the person was nor did it ask their weight.  A brief survey of nose shapes showed descriptions of Big, regular, aquiline, small, pointed, short, flat and long.

Sarah description beside nose; Age - 33, Stature - 5 ft 7 1/2 in, Forehead - Broad, Eyes - Brown, Mouth - Medium, Chin - Round, Hair - dark brown, Complexion - fair, face - round and full

The Pullman Car

I recently finished a book called "Westward By Rail" by William Fraser Rae.  The book is the outcome of a series of articles written for English  newspapers in about 1869.  Rae was an Englishman who came to America to write about the rail service across America.  The First Transcontinental railroad had just been completed and he wanted to write about what a rail ride across America was like.  Generally the book is of minor interest but what did impress me was out of a book of about 400 pages, 20 pages were devoted to singing the praises of the Pullman cars he traveled on.  "No Royal personage can be more comfortably housed than the occupant of a Pullman Car, provided the car be an hotel one."  On his trip when he arrived at Promontory Summit and had to change from the Union Pacific Railway to the Central Pacific Railway he found they did not use Pullman Cars instead they used 'Silver Palace cars" a travel car he found greatly inferior to Pullman plus the porters and attendants in those cars were not up to the standard of Pullman Cars. Of interest and not mentioned in the book but Silver Palace Cars were manufactured by two Wilmington Delaware rail car companies; the Jackson and Sharpe Co and the Harlan and Hollingworth Co for T T Woodruff and the Knight Sleeping car company (called the Central Transportation Company of Philadelphia).

above Woodruff's Silver Palace Sleeping Car (standard gauge) for the Central Pacific. Harlan & Hollingsworth, Wilmington, Delaware, 1869.

from https://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/CandS/dsp-passenger/bowers-durecars.htm

I know little of Pullman Cars but the Eastern Shore Railroad Museum in Parksley, Virginia did have one that I viewed.  It was lengthy car that had about fourteen sleeping rooms and a lounge area at one end.  

In a small booklet that was in the car 

The sleeping rooms were described as roomettes 

The rooms were quite small about 4ft by 6ft but they did have a number of fold away items and were for a single person.

Wilcher Park

Wilcher Park is east of Holloway Town and North of the Elementary school.  It is located in Delmar Maryland.  The development is located on the 200/300 block of Popular Street and Spruce Street and most of it is outside of Delmar, Maryland town limits.  The original 1958 Plat called for 28 houses. Wilcher is a combination of the son and daughter names of the developer J. William Gordy.  Most of the homes are the “rancher” style from the 1960’s  and in fact most were built in the 1960’s.  As was the thing for developments of that era there are not sidewalks in the development, with the exception of those lots bordering Second Street which are in the town limits.  The rest of the lots are out of the town limits with the exception of four lots that are split between being part in town and part out of town.   The development was owned by J. William Gordy Fuel Co and was developed by J. William Gordy.  The lot sizes are generally about a quarter acre (85 ft by 140 ft) .  Due to the lot size Wicomico County would not allow them to drill a well and have a sewage system on the each lot.  There was an agreement signed that the town of Delmar would provide sewage to the lot owner when they built on their lot and the owner of the lot would provide a well of their own.  

1935 Esslingers Ale

1935
Esslinger Brewing was in business from 1873-1920 and again after Prohibition from 1933 to 1964.  One of several large regional breweries that operated in Philadelphia in the 1940s and 1950s it used the little Esslinger waiter on its logo for many years .

Locked in Box Car 1914

Boy Locked in Box Car

Ernest Henderson, eighteen years of age, was saved from death from starvation at Seaford Thursday morning.  Car Inspector O. O. Ellis was making a trip through the freight yard, when he was attracted by faint cries from a refrigerator car, and found the young man helpless from cold and lack of food.

After partly regaining his strength the young man told his rescuers that he had boarded a freight train in Wilmington about a week, ago, With the intention of beating his way to Delmar to visit his step-father, and fearing detection on the open cars, he crawled into the refrigerator car, the doors of which he supposed were closed by a brakeman.

As soon as the lad regained sufficient strength he was sent to Delmar on a passenger train.

Above from The Middletown Transcript Jan 17 1914

1904 Store Front Ad Southern Foundry Co

1904 ad from the Delmar News Newspaper

Paregoric

Paregoric was a great drug for stomach problems and making a cranky baby happy.  It contained a small amount of opium so in the 1936/1937 period most states made it a prescription drug due to the abuse of the drug, Delaware and Maryland included.  However Virginia continued to sell it as an over the counter drug until 1972 when the Federal government forced the state to join the other states in requiring a prescription.  Prescriptions were not hard to obtain.

1971 ad for Wilmington DE drugs store, a 120cc bottle of Paregoric sold for $1.39.

The large "X" shows it is a exempt narcotic and could be sold without a prescription.

The 1938 Case Against W Frank Pilgrim

In December of 1938, 66 year-old Justice of the Peace for Delmar, Wicomico county, W Frank Pilgrim, was found guilty by People Court Judge Marion A. Humphry of four criminal charges and sentenced to six months in jail and a ten dollar fine.  He was convicted of two charges of assault and two charges of indecent exposure.  The charges were filed by two sisters; Mrs Alice Whaley and Mrs Grace Hearn. 

The two sisters were the daughters of Charles Marvel Wilson (1870-1957) and Eva D. Conoway Wilson (1877-1957).    Alice Conoway Whaley (1899-1973) was married to Harley Benjamin Whaley (1898-1952) and Grace Laura Hearn (1908-1978) was married to Clifford George Marvel Hearn (1904-1976).

William Frank Pilgim (1875-1943) was born in Iowa, the son of Charles and Nancy Boyer Pilgrim.  In 1901 he married Anna Mae Elwick (1875-1947).  While living in Iowa they adopted Mildred A. Krauss (1904- ).  Mildred would marry Clarence Cooper Bradley and their offsprings would reside in Delmar until their death.  They also adopted Harold William Krauss (1900-1945).  Harold would marry Helen Alice Sanborn and they would live in Honolulu Hawaii.  By 1920 the family had moved to Punge, Princess Anne County Virginia where he continued to farm.  About 1923 the family arrived in Delmar, Maryland to farm and being strong Republicans they became active in the Republicans party in Wicomico County.  While in Delmar He accumulated a few properties he rented out. 

The fourth player in this trial was Judge Marion A. Humphry.  Marion A Humphreys  (1875-1942) lived in the Tony Tank part of Salisbury.  He started work at Jackson Brothers lumber company and William P Jackson took him under his wing to bring him into Republican politics and in the Jackson Bros Lumber business. He ruled the Republican party in Wicomico county and was a classic party hack.  He was postmaster in Salisbury from 1900 to 1912.   He was appointed Judge to the People’s Court in 1935.  He set on the board of numerous businesses in Salisbury. 

In the trial it developed that on Oct 12^th,  Alice Whaley went to Pilgrims office to discuss renting a house in Delmar from him.  At that time she was working for Feldman and sons a pants manufacturer in Delmar.   Pilgrim discussed the rental, then propositioned her and made an indecent exposure.

Mrs.  Grace Hearn was renting from Pilgrim and was $83 in arrears on her rent.  Both Grace and Alice had borrowed $20 from him and he was holding a bad check from Alice’s husband, Harley B Whaley.    Grace Hearn’s husband, Clifford G Hearn, had been indicted for Larceny of machine parts from the Salisbury Brick Company in June of 1937 and it is assumed he was in jail at the time.   Alice’s husband Hartley Whaley in 1925 had been damaged in a cement mixer accident and had his arm mangled limiting his work ability. Pilgrim said the charges were brought by the women “Out of Spite” after he refused twice to loan them anymore money.

The public, in general, likes it anytime charges are brought against an elected or appointed official so the courtroom was overflowing with over three hundred spectators lined up three deep to watch the show.   Early on in the trial it became obvious Judge Humphry had decided Pilgrim was guilty so the outcome of the trial was not that much of a surprise.  Pilgrim by way of his attorney, Edgar Porter, filed an appeal . 

The appeal took until April of 1939 and a jury found Pilgrim not guilty of all charges.  While the appeal was going on charges were brought against Judge Humphry for acting in a disorderly manner in the Wicomico courthouse.  His case was heard by Justice of Peace W Frank Pilgrim who of course found him guilty.  Chief Justice Benjamin A Johnson and Associate Judge Sangston T Insley granted motions in April to squash the proceeding against Humphry  due to a number of mistakes made in the trial by Pilgrim.

In April of 1939 W Frank Pilgrim was replaced as Justice of the Peace by Harry Hudson, a Democrat and Marion Humphry was replaced by E Sheldon Jones.   Humphry would die in 1942 and Pilgrim would die in 1943.

In 1939 Grace Hearn gave birth to Joyce Ann Hearn. Shortly after that her marriage to Clifford Hearn broke up and she married Lester Nibblett a few years later.

A & P Pilgrim Turkey 1935

1953 RPO Mail Sack Label

1953 Railroad Post Office Mail Sack Label with Christmas message

1938 football