Delmar Jaycees 1961

 

July 26, 1961 From Dupont Seaford Plant Newsletter

Lester Gordy Receives 25-Year Pin 1972

 

Receives 25-year pin from "The Threadline" The Dupont Seaford Plant newslettter

Delmar Fire department Pumper 1964

 

From DuPont Seaford Del. Newsletter "The Threadline" November 4 1964

DuPont employees in front of Pumper

Frank Tappan and the Aircraft Spotter Staions

 

Frank Webster Tappan (1892- 1958) was born on the Eastern Shore of Virginia to Frank M. and Elizabeth Tappan.   He worked for the Railroad in Parksley and Cape Charles as a brakeman.

He would marry in 1913  Iva Celeste Beachboard.  He would go off to War and serve in France with the 314th Field Artillery 80th Division Battery F.  He would be awarded a Purple Heart.  He would get a divorce from her in 1922.  They would have one son Harry Truitt Tappan.  He would marry next Edna Miriam Cole (1899-2003).   They would be transferred to Delmar.  Edna and Frank had two daughters, Katherine and Miriam. 

He was one of the movers and shakers in Delmar, involved in various organizations from Masons, to Church, to The American Legion.  He would retire from the railroad and live in Delmar until 1958, when he died.  His wife, Edna, would live to be 104, and she passed away in 2003.

During World War Two he was in charge of the aircraft spotter station at Wards store. There were four aircraft Spotter stations located on the Delaware side.  One was in Delmar at the High School. One was in Columbia. One was in Gumboro.  The fourth was located at Ward's Store. It is unknown what these spotter stations looked like, but they were mostly just a tiny shack or cabin on the ground not mounted on a tower.  At one point during the War, they were manned 24-hours a day.  It took great difficulty to find enough volunteers who would operate the stations for two-hour shifts.

The spotter stations in Delmar and Gumboro could be manned 24 hours a day because there was enough population for people to walk to the station and do their shift.  Out in Columbia and wards store there was more difficulty finding the people to man these stations.  The problem centered around gasoline.  A spotter who worked in Columbia or ward Store would drive to the station and they would have to use their rationed gasoline to do so.  Since gasoline was limited just for normal household/work use to subject the gasoline used to go to and from the spotter station each day would leave them very little gas.  Eventually the government decided if a spotter used gasoline that equated to 90 miles of driving a month to go to the spotter station they would receive a supplement gas ration.  Obviously the 90 mile threshold was a high threshold to meet.  The holder of an “A” ration book would receive four gallons of gas a week (16 gallons a month) and the government figured it was for 150 miles to drive to work and 90 miles of pleasure driving. This would say they were getting 15 miles to the gallon.

1955 Minton and Nichols Station

 1955 Telephone Directory ad

Washington Wooten

 

FALLS DEAD WHILE AT WORK

 

Special to The Evening Journal.

 

DELMAR, Del., Sept. I4 -  Washington Wooten, an employe at the locomotive shop, was stricken with apoplexy while at his work yesterday and died in a short time. He was about 50 year of age and leaves a widow and three children.

 

Above from the Evening Journal (Wilmington) 14 Sep 1918

 

Edward Washington Wootten (1872-1918) lived on Elizabeth Street, was married to Martha Elizabeth Truitt and they had children; Norman, Ethel (married William McCalister) and Earl.  Washington Wootten is buried in Saint Stephens cemetery

Using Google Maps To Search For Houses

 Using Google Maps To Search For Houses

A tool to use in researching houses in your town is Google Maps.  It does not go back in time very far, but is still useful. In Delmar, Houses are destroyed by fire or torn down at the rate of about 3 to 5 percent a year, so perhaps if you did not take a photo of the family home before it was destroyed you may have one more chance. 

You may have seen the Google Vehicle in Delmar going up and down streets taking their photographs.  The most current photo is the one you see in Google streetscapes.  However for Delmar the previous photographs are archived and go back to 2008. 

To use this tool go to Google Maps,   in the search block type in “1 East State Street Delmar Delaware”, this will bring a pop up window which will include a streetscape photograph and in the background will be a map of Delmar.  In the lower right corner will be an icon of an orange man that Google calls Pegman.  Drag Pegman to the location on the map that you want to look at.  For demonstration purposes drag him to the Delmar Police department.  This will show a current photograph of the Delmar Police Department. You can move around the police department and the streets on that block by following the arrows on the screen.  In the upper left hand corner of the photo will be a popup menu.  On that menu is an icon of a clock.  Click on this clock. Another popup video will appear with a timeline going back to 2008. Drag the timeline back to 2008.  Click on the plus sign to enlarge the video and the same location you had been looking at will become the image of what was there in 2008.  In this case it happens to be the “old” town hall. 

After you have maneuver around town and found the image you want you can use the Snipping tool found in the Windows Accessories package and outline the image and save it to your computer.

Because of cookies and other computer crap that makes each computer a little different you may have to play with these instructions on your computer to get them to work.