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