December 17, 1909

The local option movement[i] in our county has thrown out of employment a few sleek, well-fed individuals but its good effects are apparent all around us, and persons living twenty years hence will look back on a liquor saloon as we now look back on an extinguished slave trade[ii].

The great fire of Aug. 13 in Milton, disastrous we thought, yet out of those ruins will emerge, is already […], a grander business part of Milton. A part of the work is now in its inefficiency and uncouth, and forbidding in aspect, but when finished and complete, it will bear as great a contrast to the old Milton, as do the Crown Jewels of England, to the pebbles along the shores of the Mersey, or the Clyde. Shakespeare wrote, “There’s a divinity that shapes our end, rough hew it as we may[iii].” Let us be optimistic.

The ladies of the M. P. Church will hold a bazaar and supper in the lower room of Masonic Temple on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings of the present week. There will be offered for sale, various articles, both ornamental and useful, as Christmas gifts. There will also be a supply of confectionary, ice cream, etc. The proceeds will be devoted to the M. P. Church. All are invited.

The extra meetings that were scheduled to commence at Reynolds M. P. Church have been postponed until the beginning of the New Year.

Letters of administration on the estate of James K. Craig, deceased, have been granted to William S. Craig.

Prof. W. G. Fearing has completed papering and painting the inside of Reynolds Church.

S. J. Wilson & Son have contracted with Elliott & Son to make and lay the concrete blocks to be used in the building of their new business establishment: corner Front and Federal Streets. The work of making the blocks will begin at an early day. The building will not be commenced until the spring.

Mrs. Lizzie L. Chandler has gone to Scranton, Pa., to spend the winter with her son, W. H. Chandler.

Mrs. Smith of Harrington, mother of the Rev. J. D. Smith, is the guest of himself and family, at the M. P. Parsonage.

Zere Ellingsworth of Philadelphia, is visiting his mother, and will be her guest during the winter.

Caleb E. Burchanel, Esq., of Wilmington, an officer of the State Temperance Leagues, will occupy the pulpit at the M. P. Church on Sunday evening next, the 19th inst.

The Third Quarterly Conference of this Conference year will be held at the M. P. Church on Monday the 20th inst.

Otis Goodwin and wife have returned from a visit in Maine and Massachusetts.

Robert Blockson and wife of Magnolia have been visiting Josiah Carey and wife, who have both been quite ill for some time. They were reported to be improving.

Rev. Perry of Georgetown, presided at the M. P. Church in the service on Sunday evening, in the interest of building another church at the county seat.

The ladies of the M. P. Church will render a play, “Topsy Turvy,” in the School Hall on Christmas night.

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper will be administered at the M. P. Church on next Sunday morning.

New buildings on Union Street, ca. 1910
C. A. Conner’s new building on Union Street, ca. 1910. His name is on the plate glass window of his own store, and his tenant’s name, Central Cigar & Tobacco Store, is to the right. The building no longer exists, but the two on the left (with the fancy entablature across the top) are today occupied by the Irish Eyes Restaurant (courtesy Fred Pepper).

On Friday morning August 13th, the big fire occurred that devastated the business part of Milton. On September the 27th, C. A. Conner commenced the work of rebuilding by buying of James Ponder a piece  of ground in the burnt district 14 ft. x 50 ft., and on September 29th contracted with Pepper and Davidson to erect a building covering that piece of ground. On September 30th the constructors […] a pump, and commenced excavating the […] foundation of the building. On Monday, October 17th, they began laying the foundation, and on Tuesday December 7th Mr. Conner commenced to remove into his new store house. Thus, in a little less than four months, from the time of the fire he is doing business again on the site that one of his store houses formerly occupied. The remaining lower portion of the building is occupied by the Central cigar and tobacco store, and the real estate and insurance agency of Markel & Jones. These gentlemen opened for business on Saturday and presented a five cent cigar to each and every man who called. The large hall, on the upper floor, is occupied by William Warren’s moving picture show; the telephone exchange will remove into one of the upper rooms this week. The other on is not yet rented. Now, as this building is completed, and nearly all of it tenanted, we will shelve it for the present.

The cold weather of last week stopped for a time the mason work and carpentry being done, except the carpenters of I. W. Nailor, who went through the cold spat without ceasing. The Lake was frozen over on Saturday morning, and the universal opinion was, “It is cold!” This opinion was because we hadn’t been used to any hyperborean breezes. The cold of Sunday moderated and the threatened snow of that day developed into rain at night, and Monday was a regular southeaster. Tuesday morning was clear and fair and the workmen on two buildings went at work, putting in the time advantageously.

Mrs. C. E. Jones is convalescing from a long spell of intestinal troubles.

James Clark died at the home of Levi Moseley on Saturday, aged 80 years. The funeral services were held at the A. M. E. Church, in north Milton, on Sunday afternoon, by the Rev. David Simpler, assisted by the Rev. Peter Hazzard, and burial made in the colored cemetery, near town, by S. J. Wilson & Son.

The shirt and overall factory closed on Monday evening for a couple of days.

Post office inspector Maxwell visited the Milton office on Tuesday.

Rev. George R. McCready of Laurel, will preach at Reynold’s Church next Sabbath morning at 10.30 o’clock, Rev. J. D. Smith of Milton at Weigand’s Chapel, at 3 p. m., and Rev. W. C. Mumford of the Georgetown Circuit, at Beaver Dam at 8 p. m.

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[i] “Local option” gave the three counties of Delaware and the city of Wilmington the right to choose whether to implement a ban on saloons and liquor sales in their jurisdictions. In 1907, New Castle county and the city of Wilmington remained “wet,” and Kent and Sussex Counties went “dry.”

[ii] Nation Prohibition was in effect in 1927, but was one of the most widely flouted laws in our history until its repeal, abetting the rise of organized crime to supply bootleg liquor to an insatiable public.

[iii] Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2