January 11, 1907

In all cases of inflation or stimuli there must be a corresponding depression or reaction. Such now confronts Milton, The excitement of the holidays is over, the visitors who have made life gay, are gone, and a quietness, not unlike the “Solitude of the Arctic,” has settled over the town. Occasionally, however, a little breeze spurts up, and the ennui is relieved. Altogether, we are happy and contented, and looking on the optimistic side of life.

J. P. Davidson has contracted with Captain Potter, of Fall River, Mass., to build a vessel, 110 feet length overall, 23½ feet beam, and 8 feet hold. Mr. Davidson has the model made and the draft laid down, and is now at work on the moulds. The work will be begun as soon as a place on which to build her can be located, and the lumber gotten on the yard.

At the little town of Heavaloe[i] in the suburbs of Milton, there is being erected a U. A. M. E. Church under the supervision of Joseph Heavaloe, et al. The frame is up, and the floor laid, and the building is being weather boarded.

It would appear that some people like the [effluvium] of ordure. Our thoughts are drawn to this matter by the quantity of that material that has been thrown around the yards and on the lawns of many of the front yards of town. Perhaps this intended as a fertilizer or a protection to the grass, or both; but the perfume, when first thrown out, is by no means agreeable to many olfactories.

There is a family on the R. F. D. route whom, the neighbors say, never had a clothesline, and clothes have seldom, or never been seen drying around the house; and the members of the family are generally cleanly dressed. They cannot account for it.

Joseph Gray, R. F. D. carrier, has traded himself into an automobile.

Parties who are hauling and dumping rubbish on the left-hand side of Lavinia Street, should remember this is a sidewalk and within the corporate limits of town.

Captain James Scull is preparing a large quantity of hickory for automobile work from the hickory of a woods nearby. It will be shipped to Philadelphia.

Leon Black has been engaged as assistant trust officer at the S. S. T. T. & Co. Bank.

Mr. Edwin Science, of New York, a friend of the deceased, came to Milton with the corps and attended the funeral. The remainder of the time he was here was put in waiting on his best girl.

A lamp has been placed on Magnolia Street. Midway between Union and Mulberry Streets.

Vara M., infant child of Mr. and Mrs. Willie D. Burton, of Long Neck, died on Thursday, aged 15 days. Interment at St. George’s Chapel on Friday by S. J. Wilson.[ii]

Howard Camper, a former resident of Broadkiln Hundred, died at the Lebanon Hospital, N. J., on Friday morning, of typhoid fever, aged 31 years. The remains were transmitted to Ellendale on Saturday evening and conveyed to the residence of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Garrison Reed by S. J. Wilson, undertaker. On Monday afternoon the funeral services were held at Zion M. E. Church by the Rev. Coursey, and interment made in cemetery nearby by the above-mentioned undertaker.

The extra meetings at the M. E. Church still continue. Last week meetings were held in the afternoons as well as in the evenings. There were three ministers present most of the time. Rev. N. W. Conoway, pastor of the M. E. Church at Salem, Md., was here on a visit.

Revival services are now in progress at the M. P. Church.

Martin Chandler has his new dwelling enclosed on Lavinia Street.

Bailiff Dickerson’s horse turned around quickly and broke his buggy a few days ago while he was filling the street lamps.

John Coulter, lately moved into town, has been suffering for over a week with an abscess in the throat, and has neither eaten anything nor laid down during the time. He is reported to be better today (Tuesday).

A large band of gypsies is encamped to the north of town, and are engaged at their well-known business.

Mrs. Avarilla Behringer, wife of the Rev. C. A. Behringer, a former rector of Milton, but now of Tuckahoe, N. Y., has been visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. King. She started on her return home on Thursday, taking her youngest sister, Miss Elsie, with her.

The shirt and overall factory resumed operation on Monday.

Evangelist Taylor, from New York, has been engaged for over two weeks in holding revival services at the M. E. Church. During this time he is reported to have used language that many people consider unbecoming the pulpit, and consequently has had the ill-will of that portion of the community. (The Milton girls, ladies, or women—all the same—are neither Magdalenes, profligates, nor visitors of bawdy houses; neither are all of the “[….] whose moneyers,” or “rapes”; and the husbands and brothers don’t like for their wives and sisters to be called by such indecent names. No, not even from the pulpit!) On Monday evening he meeting lasted until 2.30 o’clock on Tuesday morning; and there was a little rumpus kicked up in the church at that time. On going from the church to the parsonage Mr. Coursey became separated from Mr. Taylor; and as the latter stepped upon the parsonage porch, eggs commenced flying at him. The door being locked, and Mr. Taylor finding himself a good target for the eggs, jumped over the porch baristers [sic] and retreated to the back yard. One egg is said to have hit him, and the next morning the front of the parsonage and the porch were besmeared with that delicacy.

This is a deplorable occurrence for the town, and we are sorry it has happened. On Tuesday morning excitement ran high, yet almost every one, while expressing the opinion that the provocation deserved the remedy, deplored the act as injurious to the fair fame of the town. If persons do not wish to hear Mr. Taylor, they are not obliged to do so. Mr. Taylor is reported as saying on his talk at church on Tuesday evening, he was smeared over with eggs, and would give one hundred dollars to know who did it.

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[i] This is probably Heavaloe’s Landing. Carter Dick, in the Eastern Shore Word Book, speaks of an old expression for someone having passed away, once used in the Milton, Delaware, area: “he’s gone to Heavaloe’s.” This referred to a point on the Broadkill River known as Heavaloe’s Landing where a large family cemetery was located.

[ii] The cause of death was once again cholera infantum.