To be Copyrighted by the Delaware Society of the Colonial Dames of America 1911...

Dear Girls and Boys: These true stories are written just for you. They tell how once upon a time brave men and women came across the ocean and landed here in the wilderness, among the Indian tribes; how they made farms and towns and cities and formed a state; and how they fought for the freedom and the peace that Delaware now enjoys. Only thirteen out of the forty-eight states of our Union are original colonies, and Delaware is one of these famous thirteen. You are the young citizens, therefore,

This book is published by the Delaware Society of the Colonial Dames of America for the use, primarily, of the children of Delaware, in school and out. Its style and matter are therefor chosen to suit young readers. Many historical points in these stories are more or less disputed. The original sources do not always agree. In preparing these stories of Delaware for children’s reading, it has been thought best to use anecdotes and interesting traditions whenever they could be found. The result is

[1] Bancroft says, “The voyage of DeVries was the cradling of a state, and that Delaware exists as a separate commonwealth is due to the colony he brought and planted on her shore. Though the colony was swept out of existence soon after, this charter, three years before the Maryland patent was granted Lord Baltimore, preserved Delaware.” [2] Giles Hosset in this position as Director of the Colony may well be called the first Governor of Delaware. SPRING had come again. The sun shone as bright an

[1] The ships were the Key of Kalmar and the Bird Grip or Griffin . [2] A landing was made a few miles above the Hoornekill at a point between the Murderkill and Mispillion Creeks, in Kent County, but the Swedes only stopped there for a short time for rest and refreshment. The place was so beautiful that they named it Paradise Point. [3] This point of rocks marked the foot of what is now Sixth Street, in Wilmington. [4] Giving or trading fire-arms or ammunition to the Indians was afterward forbi

[1] The spot where Fort Casimir (or Trinity) once stood, is now covered with water, the Delaware flowing over it. It was a little north of where the town of New Castle now stands. A boulder with an inscription has been placed near the shore, on the road, by the Colonial Dames, to mark the vicinity of the old fort. IT WAS in the year 1682, and Delaware had seen many changes since Peter Minuit and his little band of Swedes had landed on her wild shores. During those years the Swedes had been drive

[1] About two dollars and a half. [2] In a list of creature comforts put on board a vessel leaving the Delaware, on behalf of a Quaker preacher, are enumerated:—32 fowls, 7 turkeys and 11 ducks, 2 hams, a barrel of China, oranges, a large keg of sweetmeats, ditto of rum, a pot of Tamarinds, a box of spices, ditto of dried herbs, 18 cocoanuts, a box of eggs, 6 balls of chocolate, 6 dried codfish, 5 shaddock, 6 bottles citron water, 4 bottles of Madeira, 5 dozen of good ale, 1 large keg of wine an

[1] It was not until after the Declaration of Independence that these “Counties upon the Delaware” received the name of Delaware State, and not until 1792 that it was called the “State of Delaware.” [2] Edmund Burke spoke of Penn’s Charter to his colonies of Pennsylvania and Delaware as “a noble charter of privileges, by which he made the people more free than any people on earth, and which by securing both civil and religious liberty caused the eyes of the oppressed from all parts of the world

THE little town of Lewes is on Delaware Bay, with rolling dunes of sand between it and the ocean. The winds that blow over it have the smell and taste of salt in them, and in the sky overhead, the grey seagulls soar and hover. There was a time, long ago, when pirates sailed the Delaware waters. Sometimes they landed there, and drank and plundered and put the people in fear of their lives. There is a story that Captain Kidd buried much treasure somewhere among these dunes. But that was long befor

[1] This regiment was composed of eight companies and numbered eight hundred men. Haslet has well been called the father of the first Delaware regiment. He raised it before the Declaration of Independence was declared, and drilled it himself, taking the greatest pride in it. He was a native of Ireland, but at the time of the Revolutionary War was living at Dover, where his remains now lie. [2] Haslet’s regiment, as will be hereafter seen, remained in the army only up to the battle of Princeton.

[1] Mr. Lea and Mr. Joseph Tatnall were among the mill owners of this time. Miss Montgomery, in her “Reminiscences of Wilmington” writes, “Mr. Tatnall was a true patriot. He alone dared to grind flour for the famishing army of the Revolution at the risk of the destruction of his mill. His house was the home of General Lafayette during his sojourn here. * * * General Washington and other officers received his hospitality during their residence here.” [2] Account written by Daniel Byrnes, a son of

[1] Quoted from Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra.” [2] It seemed strange that the hero of Stony Point should have been a vain man; but he was said to be vain both for himself and his regiment. At the beginning of the war he told his regiment that there would be a barber in each company to shave the soldiers and dress their hair; (their hair was to be plaited and powdered) and that any man who came on parade with a long beard, carelessly dressed, or dirty, was to be punished. He told General W

COMMODORE THOMAS MACDONOUGH was sometimes called “the Boy Commodore,” for he was the youngest Commodore in the American navy. He was born December, thirty-first, 1783, on a farm in New Castle county where his father and grandfather had lived before him. When he was seventeen he joined the navy as a Midshipman, and made his first cruise on the ship “Ganges.” He was a tall, thin, shy youth. He was never strong, but he was so brave that he was ready for any dangers or hardships. Cooper called him “

[1] The ferry landings were near the Brandywine Flour Mills on one side, and at the foot of King Street on the other. [2] Mrs. John Connel afterward went to France, and was the guest of the Lafayette family for six months. She was presented at the Court of Louis Philippe, and the King gave her a handsome lace fan, which is still preserved in the family. OF ALL the States belonging to the United States of America, there are no two that are of the same size or shape. Some are big and some are litt

[1] Now New Castle. [2] Wilmington. [3] The first settlement in Maryland. [4] The Six Nations were the tribes of Indians inhabiting that region. [5] At the time of the Civil War, 1861-65, the Mason and Dixon line was spoken of as the line dividing North and South, free and slave States from each other. When it was laid out, it was with no such idea, however, as we have seen, but to correctly mark the divisions between the properties of William Penn and Lord Baltimore. [6] In 1909, the original R