Delmar has had a number
of bakeries over the years but there have only been two that tried to service
an area larger than just Delmar. The
more recent is the William Freihofer Baking Company that in 1949 built their
new bakery on Bi-State Boulevard. The
Freihofer Bakery was originally in the old Delmar Steam Bakery building off
North Second Street between State Street and Grove Street. The Delmar Steam Bakery seems to have caused
it many owners trouble and woe.
Located in an odd
location that seemed to have been the backyard of two separate building lots,
it was torn down in the 1950s. In the
photo above is the empty back lot it stood on.
The above Sanborn fire insurance map shows it (shaded building indicating masonry construction) was a one story
building the main part of it was brick with frame porches and loading docks.
Throughout the many
sales of the bakery the house in front of it on Second Street was always included. It seems to date back to 1910 or so.
The building for the
bakery was originally built about 1910 by Herman Oelrich (a baker in Seaford) and
it was immediately sold at a sheriff sale to the Doody brothers of Salisbury
who sold it to Isaac Watson and Joseph Ellis in 1912. So after a rugged start it was in operation
as a bakery, a steam bakery, at the time it was built the term “steam bakery”
was used often it usually meant that the ovens were heated by steam
pipes to 500 degrees, and that it was more sanitary then a coal or wood oven of
that time.
Isaac Watson (1850-1923)
was a baker and he had over his 70 years of life managed and owned bakeries
from Bridgeville to Delmar. At the time
he purchased the Oelrich bakery in Delmar he also purchased the Oelrich bakery
in Laurel and sold it to Harry Raake. When he purchased the Delmar bakery he
was running a grocery store in Delmar that he also sold. His house was burnt in the Delmar fire of
1892. In 1895 he had a small bakery in
Delmar and made the news by being attacked by Levin Hastings a merchant in
Delmar with an axe handle. He was severely
beat about the head and there was concern he might not live. In 1900 his son, Harry, was shot in the foot by
Orin J. Willey in Bridgeville and Isaac went to Bridgeville with a gun where he
was arrested for threatening to shoot Willey.
After he went bankrupt with the Delmar bakery he would move to Seaford
about 1919 to run another bakery and would die in 1923 at age 76 of Brights disease. He was the son of George Watson and Mary Jane
Rust Watson. He was twice married; his first
wife was Lizzie P. Watson (1851-1889). His second wife was Sarah Elizabeth
Ellis ( -1940). Isaac and Sarah had as
children; Lelia who in 1910 eloped with Hoyt Wainwright and Jessie, the
youngest, who would marry Hugh Thomas Morrow.
Children by Isaac and Lizzie were; Their son Harry (1883- 1970) married
in 1924 in Washington State to Alice Estella Sanders. He would stay in Washington
State. Other children of Isaac and Lizzie were Lizzie
P (1889-1889), Frank J (1885-1888), Clifford (1876- ), Edwin W. (1886-1887), and
Rachel (1897-1966 )
Isaac Watson would go
bankrupt and lose the Delmar steam bakery.
Next Samuel Frederick
Krause (1879-1925) would run the bakery. Mr. Krause had lived in Delmar since
about 1900 after he moved here from Princess Anne where he had another bakery. He
purchased the Bakery for $4,000 in 1919. After his wife died in 1923 he became
despondent about raising his son and two daughters and it reached a head in
1925 when he cut his wrist and inhaled illuminating gas, killing himself. His brother, Clinton Krause was a business man in Salisbury and in 1908 Clinton owned the Salisbury Baking Company. It would later be named the Sweetheart Bakeries and be located on Olive Street in Salisbury. His other brother Albert was a miller at the Cohn and Block mills in Princess Anne.
He was the son of Owen
and Rosa German Krause. He was born in Pennsylvania. Samuel’s wife was Annie Parker (1883-1923).
They married in 1907. They had as
children; Aline (1908-1986), Albert Samuel (1910-1991), and Nancy Ellen
(1916-1988). All would become successful people in Salisbury, where they were
taken to live with their uncle Clinton D. Krause after their father’s death. Aline
would become a school teacher and marry Charles S. Hayman and after his death
she married harry L. Harcum. Nancy would
marry Boyd McLernon. Albert “Dutch”
Krause would become a barber in Salisbury.
Next in 1925, Eugene “Gene” Raleigh Wilson (1900-1975) would
buy the building and equipment from the estate of Sam Krause for $9,000. He had worked at the bakery. He would run the
bakery until 1932 when he filed for bankruptcy with liabilities of $19,997 and
assets of $12,918. He was the son of
George Edgar Wilson and Pauline Verdin Messick Wilson. His father would die in a railroad accident
in 1930. He would marry Madelyn
Phillips. He would serve in the Navy in
WW2. His work career after the bakery would include being a men’s clothing
salesman, running the Red Apple Restaurant in North Carolina and working for
the Maryland Department of Employment Security.
Charles H. Wahl, an
employee at the bakery, would die in 1929 at age 70.
In 1930 the Scaler of
Weights and Measures for Sussex County, Dallas M. Rogers, had a Delmar Steam
Bakery truck stopped and it’s loafs of bread weighed. They were found to be less than 16 ounces per
loaf. Earl Smith, the driver of the
truck, was arrested as the representative of the Delmar Steam Bakery.
Next, in 1932, Edward Levin
Hitchens (1885-1962) and Earl “Benny” Wootten bought the building. They had at the time a small bakery in the Whayland Building
on Railroad Avenue. Most of the Wilson equipment had been sold off in the bankruptcy auction. They started to operate it but for whatever
reason sold to Carroll Elliott in late 1932. E. L. Hitchens worked for the
railroad and I would guess he put up the money and Benny Wootten was the baker.
Benny would go on to be a baker at other bakeries and end up running a grocery
store with his wife, Mildred Anne Phillips Wootten, in Fenwick Island.
Carroll Martin Elliott (1894-1950)
ran the bakery from 1932 till 1939. He
would expand it with more routes for his bread sales and make improvements to
the machinery. Again they seem to have routes that went to Pocomoke, Seaford
and bay to Ocean. About nine men work for the bakery, which included the
delivery men. Mr. Elliott health started
to fail and he sold the bakery in 1939 to Mr. Rugeriis. He would remain in poor health for the next
11 years and would die in 1950. He was
the son of Elijah Martin Elliott and Bertha Elliott. He was married to Anne
Belle Otwell. They would have two
daughters; Annabelle Otwell Elliott and Glennella Elliott.
Next, In 1939, Guiseppe
De Rugeriis of Philadelphia would buy it.
The name would become The Delmar Baking Co. He would build a the new
bakery on Bi-State. He would employed 12
men. The bakery was owned by Guiseppe De
Rugeriis, with Antonia De Rugeriis,
Joseph Bellefonte, all of Philadelphia and Larry Horseman of Delmar. The Rugeriis and Bellefonte were indicted for
price fixing in 1943 with 11 other Philadelphia bakery officials. Guiseppe De Rugeriis and Carmello Bellefonte
ran the A. B. C. Baking Company started in 1919.
Mr. Rugeriis was sold the
bakery in 1943 to Freihofer Bakery of Philadelphia