September 28, 1906

“Leaves have their time to fall
And flowers to wither at the north wind’s […] blast,
And Stars to set; but all the seasons,
Hast thou for thine own—O, Death!”[i]

Whither Mrs. Hemans, when she wrote the above, was inspired or not, makes but little difference. It is enough for us to know that the leaves of the poplar in town are turning yellow and falling; and those of the hickory in the woods are putting on their carmine and gold. The September sun is hot. It appears to be hotter that the sun of July or August. Perhaps the humidity has something to do with it.

Captain George E. Megee, one of Milton’s most estimable citizens, was injured on Thursday, while engaged in “fitting out” his new steam barge. Captain Megee was cut across the right wrist and a “hank” of flesh torn out besides. There appeared to be no physicians available at the time, and he was taken to the drug store of J. B. Welch for medical aid. Subsequently Dr. McFerran appeared and dressed the wound. Captain Megee told the writer, while was being driven home, he didn’t think it was serious.

Eva Elizabeth Abbott, infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ainswell Abbott, died on Thursday, aged four months. The funeral services were held at the home in Ellendale on Friday, and interment made in the Avery Clendaniel cemetery. Rev. H. E. Truitt performed the last sad rites, and S. J. Wilson & Son inhumed the body.

The Palmer Hotel is being repainted. William Smith & Sons are making a good job of the work.

It is supposed there may be a mother steamboat line put on between here and Philadelphia. Mr. Fredericks, Sr., who engineered the Mary M. Vinyard (financially), has been in town the past week, probably to that and.

Mrs. Anson Raught left on Thursday to visit her brother, Dr. Edmund Jones in New York City.

Rev. C. A. Behringer, of Tuckahoe, N. J., late of Milton, with his young bride and a retinue of friends and acquaintances, rusticated on the banks of the Broadkiln on Thursday. Mr. and Mrs. Behringer return to their home on Saturday.

The prohibition convention met at Georgetown on Wednesday and nominated a ticket. Most of the candidates from the 10th district are from Milton.

Eph Darby, an employee in the Anderson cannery, slipped and fell last week, in consequence of which he is off duty for a few days.

The late storm of ten days ago has developed a feeling that makes us “wondrous kind.” Some say “I am not afraid of lightning or thunder.” I believe I have heard two men say they though nothing about it when the storm was raging. I schedule that these men as two fools. We are consciously aware that it is no use to get scared, but when the lightning flashes and the thunder rolls, there’s something in my heart that goes “pit-a-pat” and “Zekiel.”

The negotiations that have been going on between Mrs. Priscilla Stockley and Captain George Hunter in regard to the purchase of the former’s property on Federal Street by the latter, have culminated.

William H. Warren will remove at the beginning of the New Year to the Waples property on Broad Street.

Andrew Conaway has rented a part of the property and Carey’s Landing, and will remove from Mount Ararat on the first day of January, 1907.

The Anderson cannery closed last week.

This week a culvert of heavy filling was put in to drain the water from Federal Street, across the property in tenure of James Martin, and into the Mill Race.

The teachers who will “teach the young idea how to shoot” and Milton are expected on Friday and Saturday. The schools will open next Monday

The primary meeting, preceding the county convention, was held on Saturday. There are many candidates for office. Elisha Campbell and N. W. White were selected as delegates.

Joseph Walls has purchased the old store house, formerly occupied by L. B. Chandler as a justice of the peace and notary public office, and a portion of the ground attached thereto. Mr. Walls will move the old building and build a residence. Work is commenced.

Dr. R. B. Hopkins has bought an automobile.[ii]

On account of the illness of his wife, J. B. Welch, superintendent of the Milton M. E. Sunday school, was not at his post on Sunday afternoon. This is a very unusual thing. But these are things that cannot be helped.

Thomas Douglass is having his property in tenure of John Megee on Union Street, north, repainted.

Will Conwell, who has been the solitary occupant of Lavinia camp ground, when the meeting was not in session, has built a small house near the colored burial ground, where he will make his future home, to be near the departed.

“The Slave of the Nanticoke” is another column now being written by J. B. Welch.[iii] It is a history of “Patty Cannon’s time,” and much of the material may be found in the “Entailed Hat” by “Gath” (George Alfred Townsend).[iv]

Business in the constabulary line is so dull since Pete Donovan has been adjudged by a jury to de lunatico inquirendo[v], a candidate for Farnhurst[vi], that Constable Barsuglia has gone to hauling clay.

Mr. Krebs, who came to Milton a year ago and engaged in hatching chickens by the incubation process, has again returned from Atlantic City. His wife accompanied him.

Miss Estella Davidson and Miss Laura M. Conner have been chosen as delegates to attend the general convention of the Epworth League, which meets at Federalsburg, Md., October 10th to 12th.

William McDaniel, of Atlantic City, has been the guest of the Hart House a portion of the past week.

Farmers are beginning to sell wheat.

James Jester, “bus” driver, express agent, mail carrier, et al, had a case on his hands last week in the shape of a very large woman. In trying to get into the bus, she exclaimed “I can’t get in!” “Git in sideways,” said Jester. “I’ve got no sideways!” she roared. She was helped in.

On Tuesday morning the Bohemians and Poles, engaged in the cannery at Harbeson, went on a strike, and packed their effects, preparatory to leaving. Their boxes and other paraphernalia were so very weighty that the proprietors of the cannery supposed there were some of theirs packed therein. The sprightly Barsuglia was sent for and armed with a “search warrant” he went. As this is the day of the Georgetown Republican Convention, Constable Barsuglia will take Georgetown in en route, and we cannot get a later news for this publication.

James Tarr, of Harbeson, is about to lose a valuable horse by being foundered.

Burton M. R. Robinson and wife leave on Friday morning to spend the fall and winter with their daughter at Kensington, Md.

John L. Warrington has opened an oyster saloon in the eight property of Curtis Reed on Front Street.

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[i] The corrected first verse of Felicia Hemans’ poem is:
“Leaves have their time to fall
And flowers to wither at the north wind’s breath,
And Stars to set; but all,
Thou hast all seasons for thine own—O, Death!”
Conner may have been quoting from memory and got some of the words wrong.

[ii] Joana S. Donovan, in her illustrated history of Milton It Began With A River, states that Dr. R. B. Hopkins was the first Milton resident to own an automobile.

[iii] For the complete text of the poem Slave of Nanticoke, see the article on J. B. Welch and his poems. The historical basis for the poem and Townsend’s novel, Martha “Patty” Cannon (1760 – 1829) was the infamous leader of the Cannon-Johnson gang operating in Delaware and Maryland; the gang kidnapped slaves and free blacks in the peninsula and transported and sold them to plantation owners in the southern states. In 1829, after the discovery of four skeletal remains by a tenant farmer on her property, she was arrested, tried, and convicted on multiple counts of murder. She committed suicide by poison while awaiting her execution by hanging.

[iv] The Entailed Hat, Or, Patty Cannon’s Times, by George Alfred Townsend, included fictional material. Its popularity resulted in numerous hardback editions; it was reissued in 1890, 1912, 1955 and 1969. A paperback edition was issued in March 2007.

[v] A writ directing an inquiry as to whether a person named in the writ is insane

[vi] The reference her is to the Delaware State Hospital at Farnhurst, which was created as a local institution in 1891, then transferred to the State in 1899. It was intended primarily as a hospital for the insane, but grew in scope to include a facility for tuberculosis patients. It is still in operation today. In the early part of the twentieth century, brutal practices in the care of the insane resulted in state-mandated reforms, but the practice of involuntary sterilization of the mentally ill continued from 1923 to 1963.