The Hunters Shack

In 1984 The Hunters Shack opened in Delmar.  It was owned by Jim Spicer, a retired Delaware State Trooper. 

It was located next to the Railroad Cafe.  It was a very good store for guns, fishing supplies etc.  

In 1993 the Walmart store opened in North Salisbury.  At that time Walmart was the largest seller of fishing equipment and guns in the United States.  Walmart had its effect on a number of small stores in the area.  I remember Jim saying he couldn't buy fishing rods for resell as cheap as Walmart was selling them.   In 1997  he closed up shop.

Delmar January 18 1929

Delmar News State Register January 18 1929

Mrs. Chas. Smith of Baltimore, Mrs. W. T. Smith of Cape Charles, Na., and daughter of Ellis College, Philadelphia, Prof. W. A. Bowland of McDonogh School Baltimore, with wife and daughter, were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Parker and family on Sunday.

Delmar Lodge, No. 582, Loyal Order of Moose has adorned its lodge room with a beautiful mounted moose head 54 inches across the antlers.  This added attraction was purchased from a trapper in Alaska a few weeks ago.  It necessitated the removal of a window before its installation could be made.  The head is placed over the dictator chair and has received much comment.

Our town still has many cases of flu.  The Delaware school reported over a hundred scholars absent last week.  Local physicians claim there are equally as many patients as during the epidemic of 1918.

Russell Barrell, a member of the crew of the battleship Utah is spending sometime with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Barrell.

Miss Kathrine Spry, a senior in the Delaware High School, while playing basket ball at Bishopville, Md, last Tuesday night fell striking her head on the floor knocking her unconscious and a state in which she remained for several hours.  She was rushed to Salisbury hospital for treatment and where she remained until Friday when she was brought to her home.  It is reported she is slowly improving.

Lloyd Hudson of this town, but who has been working for the Pennsylvania railroad Co, at Jersey City for sometime met with a painful accident a few days ago while on duty at that place.  It appears that Hudson was between two cars when other cars rolled up and struck them which resulted in breaking his right foot in two places.    He was rushed to a hospital for treatment where he still remains but will be brought to his home in Delmar as soon as his condition permits. 

Thomas Booker and Mrs Mary J Culver 1882

Above from the Daily Gazette Wilmington Delaware 10 March 1882
Thomas Booker and Mrs Mary J Culver
Mrs Mary J Culver was Mary J Gillis

Thomas Booker would drop dead of a heart attack in Jan 1906

Delmar Motors The Kaiser Frazer Dealership

1949 ad Kaiser Frazer Delmar Motors

1927 Vernia Jones

Ad from 1927 Vernia Jones

Vernia George Jones and his wife Wenona “Nonia” Jones came to Delmar in 1924.  Vernia had purchased a lot in Delmar on the corner of Railroad Avenue and Grove street from David Lynch.  There he established his store.  Both were over the age of 50 when they moved from Princess Anne to Delmar.  In the process of moving Nonia had a stroke and was in poor health after that.  She was active in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Delmar.  Their store was often mentioned in the newspaper as being a place Organizations and school classes would have bake sales in front of.   The couple lived on Delaware avenue. 

In 1929 Nonie passed away.  Her body was returned to Princess Anne where she is buried in the Presbyterian cemetery.  Wenona was the daughter of Jacob Robert Jones and Susan Bloodsworth Jones.  Her father was a ship carpenter and she was born in the Mt Vernon area of Somerset count in 1873. Vernia and Wenona did not have any children.

 above March 23 1929 Marylander and Herald newspaper Princess Anne

Vernia George Jones was born in 1865 to James and Mary Jones in the Hungry Neck area of Somerset County.  His brothers and sisters were; Annie Elizabeth, Minnie L, Ida Mae, and Frederick C. Jones.  On March 26 1879 in Worcester county Vernia married Wenona.  They had a large farm in Princess Anne.  In 1920 he sold the farm and purchased the Manokin Creamery Company and shortly afterwards started a grocery store with Ray Gibbons, know as Jones and Gibbons.  The couple lived in the Somerset Heights section of Princess Anne.  In 1924 he again sold all and moved to Delmar.  In 1936 he died and his body was returned to Princess Anne where he is buried in the Presbyterian cemetery.

 above from the Marylander and Herald newspaper October 1936 Princess Anne Md

1928 Charlie Truitt's Sunoco

1928

The WCTU and Anna Lee Waller

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Ohio in 1874.  At its peak it had about 400,000 members.  Today it is down to less than five thousand.  The WCTU came from the period when Carry Nation and other woman armed themselves with Bibles and marched into Saloons to stop the sale of liquor.  It’s name speaks of its primary goal; prohibition of alcohol.  The name also spells out “Woman’s” rather than “Women’s Christian Temperance union.  Because it is the individual woman who takes the temperance pledge.

However it has never been a one issue organization.  It has been involved in educating and working legally to correct women labor laws, abstinence from tobacco, Public health, gambling, abortion, sanitation, prostitution, dress reform, and a range of other woman’s related issues

In Delaware the WCTU begin in Wilmington in 1874.  This grew into a number of local unions forming the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Delaware in 1880.  The membership reached its peak in about 1923.

above 1930

The WCTU and Delmar were often mentioned from the 1920s to the 1940s due to Mrs. Anna Lee Waller (1871-1944).  She was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Delaware for 15 years, ceasing to be President only because of her death in 1944. The Delmar union of the WCTU was formed sometime in the 1920s.  Anna Lee Rickard Waller was born in Harrington, Delaware to William H. and Mary Jones Rickard.  She married Harlan Mark Waller a railroad man in 1889.  They lived at 701 Jewell St in Delmar.  She had two sons; Herbert Lee and John Mark.  Both grew to adulthood, married and had children but both died in 1919 from the Spanish influenza.  Her husband died in 1933 of a heart attack with 38 years with the Railroad.  The family is buried in St Stephens cemetery.  Mrs. Waller was a clubwoman and officer of a number of organizations and Sunday school. 

above 1924  Note; photo from Ellis Studio (William Shewell Ellis) which was a Wilmington/Philadelphia/Baltimore  photography studio

The Delmar Union continued on well into the 1950s.  It sponsored a number of state WCTU conventions in Delmar.