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.

Sunday Dinner At Shoney's

Shoney's in Salisbury was a franchise operation run by H & F Hospitality out of Nashville, Tenn.  It operated from about 1994 to the end of 1999.  A number of Delmar people worked there.  Shoney's shut down about 200 restaurants in 1998 and 1999 as it struggled to stay alive and Salisbury was one of them. It had at the time over 1300 restaurants nationwide.  In 2000 Shoneys filed for bankruptcy protection.

Above when it opened in 1994.  Today the building is the Tokyo Steakhouse.

The land may have been part of the older plan of "Victory Gardens" development from 1944.

What Is It?

It's a hammer for installing slate on Slate roofs.  Many different versions of them.  They will usually always have a pointy end for making a nail hole in the slate, a lip that is really a nail puller, a beveled edge on the handle for trimming slate and of course the hammer end. 

1862 Watch night Services

Date: Wed, 1862-12-31

*On This date in 1862 the first Watch Night Services were celebrated by free and enslaved African Americans all across America.

The Watch Night service can be traced back to gatherings also known as “Freedom’s Eve.” On September 22 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, in which he declared that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in states in rebellion against the Union "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

On the night of December 31,1862. Black slaves and free blacks came together in churches and private homes all across the nation awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law. At the stroke of midnight, it was January 1, 1863; all slaves in the Confederate States were declared legally free. When the news was received, there were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as many people fell to their knees and thanked God.

Now today: African Americans continue to gather in churches annually on New Year's Eve, praising God for bringing us safely through another year. It’s been over a century since the first Freedom’s Eve and tradition still brings us together at this time every year to celebrate “how we got over.” This celebration takes many African American decendants of slaves into a new year with praise and worship.

From Eastern Shore Network for Change Facebook Page