Category: Delaware

Talking About Ferries on the Delaware River

Ed Ryan on New Castle Pennsville Ferry
Ed Ryan, Jr. on duty on the New Castle Pennsville Ferry route in April 1950.

Last week, I delivered a talk titled “From Here to There: Ferries and Bridges Cross the Delaware” at the New Castle Court House Museum. Despite the stormy weather on a Thursday afternoon, an enthusiastic and sizeable crowd gathered in the historic courtroom to attend the program.

Crossing the Delaware River presented a formidable challenge in the early days, with ferryboats serving as the primary mode of conveyance for centuries. It wasn’t until August 16, 1951, with the opening of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, that the ferry era ended at New Castle.

As a speaker, I engage the audience by encouraging active conversations during a talk. Therefore, I invited the audience to share their stories, memorabilia, and recollections of the past while also asking questions.

Memories of the Ferries

At one point, two gentlemen seated together revealed that their grandfather and uncle had worked on the ferryboats. As the conversation unfolded, others chimed in, mentioning their relatives’ involvement with the ferry company.

Charlie Cobb shared that one of his family members, Captain Jack T. Wilson, commanded the DuPont Company ferry boat, Atlantic City, on its last run on Aug. 17, 1951. The Atlantic City made one round trip a day from Wilmington, taking Delaware residents to their jobs at the Chambers Works. The Morning News reported that Captain Wilson had worked the waters for thirty years.

DuPont Ferry, Atlantic City
The DuPont Company Ferry, The Atlantic City (Source: Morning News, Aug. 18, 1951)

Meanwhile, a group of ladies from Salem County offered their perspectives, reminiscing about riding the ferryboat to New Castle for Saturday matinees. This prompted a New Castle resident to remark that Delaware youngsters would also travel to Pennsville to enjoy the Riverview Beach Amusement Park. One of the courthouse guests had extensively researched the travels of one of the old New Castle ferryboats after its retirement on the Delaware.

The Conversation Continued

The conversation extended beyond the formal program as more people gathered to share stories and show photos and memorabilia they had brought along. These interactions added a lot to the program. Engaging in conversations about history creates a more fulfilling and informative experience for everyone involved.

I want to thank all the participants who generously shared their family stories and memorabilia during the program. The New Castle Court House Museum, a part of Delaware Historical and Cultural Affairs, sponsored the program.

Charles and James Cobb had relatives working ferries on the Delaware River
Charles and James Cobb had two relatives working on the Delaware River ferries. One of them was a radar operator on the ferry when that was a new innovation.
Ed Ryan, the son of the captain, holds the photo of his father working on the ferry at New Castle.

170,000 Photos of American Life During the Great Depression and World War II

During the Great Depression and World War II, the United States Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information hired photographers to document American life. The documentarians, working between 1935 and 1944, captured 170,000 pictures. This included many in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

It is described as one of the most famous documentary photography collections of the twentieth century, “creating visual evidence of government initiatives alongside scenes of everyday life during the Great Depression and World War II across the United States.”

Once the program ended, The Library of Congress became the custodian of this work. They were placed in public file cabinets where researchers could browse the prints, searching for visual clues of earlier times. In March 2011, Yale University received a grant to create an interactive web-based open soured visualization platform for these images. The free online platform, Photogrammar, allows a rapid search of the large photographic data set. Easy to use, it includes an interactive map, which facilitates locating images of interest.

If you are interested in the images of the photographers who documented America during the Great Depression and World War II check out this free resource https://photogrammar.org/maps

great depression era photo of church dorechester county md
“Dorchester County, Maryland. The congregation of this church are all waterman.”
Jack Collier, Feb. 1942. U.S. Farm Administration
homes of dorchester county great depression era photo
DORCHESTER COUNTY — “Dorchester County, Maryland. Home of an Eastern shore waterman.” Jack Collier, Feb. 1942. The U.S. Farm Administration

Wilmington Newspaper, The Sunday Star, Available on Google Archive

After Google launched an ambitious project in 2008 to digitize many local newspapers, the giant e-content provider scanned about 2,000 publications, including a Wilmington newspaper, the Sunday Morning Star.

Wilmington Sunday Star newspaper
The whole wide world in your home. Delaware’s only Sunday Newspaper.

 In the era when many dailies didn’t have Sunday editions, these periodicals functioned like newsweeklies, the broadsheet having a form distinct from the weekday news. They pulled together features and more in-depth, colorful pieces as reporters worked seven days to assemble stories for the Saturday afternoon deadline. It was this sought-after, far more leisurely reading on peaceful Sundays that made these publications unique.

Delaware’s only Sunday newspaper was first issued in 1881 by Jerome B. Bell. The second editor and publisher was Joseph H. Martin, who sold it to J. Edwin Carter in 1946. An agent for Alexis I. du Pont Bayard and Erwin M. Budner purchased the paper in 1949, and they became the controlling interest. 

The broadsheets contained robust women’s sections, news in photographs (once technology advanced), advice for modern living, entertainment coverage, history pieces, and “The Delaware Magazine,” a weekly insert.     

The last number of the 73-year-old paper rumbled off the press on April 18, 1954. It had revised its name and added new typefaces almost two years earlier to serve readers and advertisers better. But “The Star that had been such an important feature of Delaware Life since 1881 was out,” Morning News Columnist Bill Frank wrote. It is tough “to run a Sunday newspaper in Wilmington against the competition from out-of-town Sunday papers and their abundance of pages of comics.”

The Star – A Valuable Research Source

Bill Frank called the Wilmington Sunday Star a “fighting newspaper.” Often overlooked, it is a valuable source for genealogists and local history researchers. The coverage and perspective differ from what was covered in the city’s dailies.

Here are the links to the Sunday Morning Star on the Google archives, which provides free access.

Sunday Morning Star — 1881-1950

Wilmington Sunday Star — 1953-1954

Wilmington Newspaper, the Star
The Star, Wilmington, DE — “Can Wilmington keep its rum?”

“Life in the Past Lane: Delaware Roads,” a New Humanities Program

Delaware Road Maps
Delaware Roads Maps (Source: Wilmington Library)

Delaware Humanities has selected a new program I have been researching for inclusion in the speaker’s bureau and visiting scholar programs. The lecture, “Life in the Past Lane; Delaware Roads,” encourages people to get off the highway and enjoy some of the State’s most scenic, cultural and historic roads — along with the surrounding landscape and resources.

Here’s the description of the program:

With the arrival of modern, high-speed highways, many of Delaware’s scenic routes and the small hamlets and villages clustered around those old corridors are overlooked. This talk explores the character, ambiance, and history of some of these lesser-traveled roads today. These historic roadways are much more than just a line on the map. So come along for an enjoyable trip. You will hear intriguing stories about waterfront towns, agricultural communities, and country hamlets and villages, where discovery awaits you.

Come along and find your road in this talk. Along the way, we will explore science byways, old historic corridors, and the connections between the past and today.

A Delaware Road -- between Kirkwood and Tybouts Corner.
Travel was difficult in mid-March 1923 as this automobile travels along. The road connects Kirkwood and Tybouts Corner. (Source: Delaware Public Archives)
In my Merry Oldsmobile, Sheet Music
In My Memory Oldsmobile, by Edward Gus, 1905 (Source: Historic America Sheet Music, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)