The Sirmon Organ Co., Delmar Del. 1880

The Tug "DELMAR"

When one thinks of the Railroad we think of locomotives, railcars and railroad track but on the Eastern Shore the railroad had additional equipment stationed at Cape Charles and the equipment was a small flotilla of tugboats and barges used to haul railcars across the Chesapeake Bay.   At it’s peak in World War Two the barges and floats were hauling a thousand railcars a day across the 36 miles of the Chesapeake bay.   

In 1921 the NYP&N (New York, Pennsylvania and Norfolk Railroad, referred to as the “nip” and “n”) had; 9 tug Boats, 5 harbor lighters, 4 car floats, 10 bay barges, 3 passenger ferries, 1 gasoline boat, and 2 pile drivers.  When NYP&N became PRR (Pennsylvania rail road) the equipment continued to increase.  The line had a policy of naming their tugs for towns along the rail line.  There were tugs named; Exmore Norfolk, Bloxom, Cheriton, Tasley and Delmar. 

The tug “Delmar” was built in 1900 by the T. S. Marvel Company of Newburgh, New York.  The tug was 122 ft long with a beam of 27 ft, powered by two steam engines, twin screws and carried a crew of 14.  It was steel hulled with an ice-breaker bow and could operate in the shallow waters of Thimble shoals and the entrance to Cape Charles harbor. 

Information from the book; “Cape Charles; a railroad town” by Jim Lewis and photo from the Eastern Shore library website.

Delaware Potter Fields

“Currently there are three (3) active Potter’s Fields in the State of Delaware. The Potter’s Field in New Castle County is located in New Castle behind the Baylor Women’s Correctional Center and currently has 665 indigent persons buried there. We bury an average of 26 persons a year in this cemetery. The Kent County Potter’s Field is on the grounds of the Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill in Smyrna and currently has 1,182 indigent persons buried there. We bury an average of 18 persons a year in this cemetery. The Sussex County Potter’s Field is on the grounds of the Stockley Center in Georgetown and currently has 148 indigent persons buried there. We bury an average of 14 persons a year in this cemetery. Most gravesites currently have a small marker with a number to identify the deceased” From The Delaware Division of Social Services website

In 2014 the low bidder cost to the State for an indigent adult burial in Sussex County is $1,500.00 which consists of embalming, body wrapped in a plastic sheet, opening and closing of grave, a pine particle board box in a concrete vault and a grave marker.  Infants over 350 grams in weight are buried for $723.00 and infants under 350 grams in weight are cremated for $95.00

John B. Parsons

The Genealogy Of John B. Parsons

The Lower Delmarva Genealogical Society is proud to present

JIM MORRIS

Jim will speak on the genealogy of John B. Parsons, the three old age homes he financed and the historical Lemmon Hill Lane standpipe near the John B. Parsons home.  Jim is President of The Preservation Trust of Wicomico County, Past President and Curator of the Lower Delmarva Genealogical Society, Past Vice-President of the Wicomico County Historical Society and President of The Peninsula-Delaware Conference Historical Society

This event is open to the public and is free.

 

Wednesday night at 7 PM May 28th at the Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture at Salisbury University - Wayne and Powell Street Unit #190

 

Henry G. Allen Jr in Australia 1943

1943 Daily Times

1937 Restoration of Gordy Park

From The Wicomico News (Salisbury, Md) Thursday April 8, 1937

RESTORATION OF GORDY PARK WAS BEGUN THIS WEEK

Workmen started Monday on the building of grandstands and bleachers at Gordy Park in preparartion for the opening of the Eastern Shore League baseball season here May 19.

Post Office delivers

Postal Service finally delivers a card mailed before WWII

By Ryan Pfeil / Medford Mail Tribune

Published Apr 18, 2014 at 12:01AM

BUTTE FALLS — The postcard’s message is brief, written along its edge in fading pencil: “Arrived in Portland at 8 o’clock. Having a fine time. Be home sometime Sat. — Blanche.”

But the writing on the postcard, addressed to Florence Marion of Butte Falls, isn’t its defining characteristic. The date it was sent — and the date it finally arrived — all but redefine the term “snail mail.”

Postmarked from Portland: 12:30 p.m., Feb. 20, 1940.

Arrived in Butte Falls: July 2013.

Formally delivered to Florence Marion’s great-grandson, Alan Marion of Phoenix: April 14, 2014.

“To me, it’s one of those things that must have been meant to be,” said Marion, maintenance director at the Rogue Valley Genealogical Society. “For everything to fall in place and show up at my doorstep, so to speak. I’m thrilled to have this card.”

U.S. Postal Service worker Sunny Bryant had been working at the Butte Falls Post Office only a month when the World War II-era message arrived in July 2013. The front shows a boat with a handwritten inscription underneath: “Leaving Manilla Bay. Feb. 1906. Flying Homeward Pennant.”

The postmark left Bryant scratching her head.

“I looked at it, and I’m like, ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’” Bryant said.

She began to ask around the small community, looking for a home for the long-delayed piece of mail.

“I got little clues here and there, but nothing that I could go any further on,” Bryant said.

But she was determined to find a resting place for the piece of mail. Charleen Brown of the Rogue Valley Genealogical Society helped. She had gone to the Butte Falls Post Office to deliver some books. Bryant approached Brown while she chatted with another RVGS member about genealogy.

“She said, ‘What do you think of this?’ And she showed me this postcard,” Brown said. “And I looked. I couldn’t believe the postmark said 1940.”

Because of the postmark year, Brown knew the intended recipient would show up in the U.S. Census. She started digging on www.ancestry.com and tracked down Florence Marion’s name.

“Being that Butte Falls was actually probably 350 people in that day, I knew it had to be the right one,” Brown said.

She dug deeper. Then a light bulb flickered to life over her head. She knew an Alan Marion, an RVGS member, who had once told her of some relatives who lived in Butte Falls. He confirmed Florence Marion, his great-grandmother, was among them. Brown told him about the postcard and retrieved it for him.

“Somebody’s been looking over my shoulder here, and it must have been my great-grandmother,” Marion said.

He did not know Florence, or of her, until he started his research at the Jackson County Genealogy Library. She continued to live in Jackson County after her husband, John, died in 1935. She died in 1952. Both are buried in a cemetery in New Sharon, Iowa.

Even less is known about the postcard’s author.

“We have not figured out the relationship Blanche may have had with Florence Marion,” Alan Marion said.

Why it had taken so long to be delivered remains a mystery. One possibility is that the postcard actually did make it to its address in an acceptable amount of time, was found years later in a drawer or attic, and was put back into the system a second time, USPS officials say. The “why” of the story may never be answered.

“Obviously these kinds of situations are very rare,” said Peter Hass, USPS spokesman. “It’s really difficult to determine where it might have been for those many years. The good news is it did get delivered to a relative, at least.”

Better late than never.

“I’m just happy it found a home,” Bryant said.