Prior to 1852 Delaware Bay watermen were accustomed to harvesting oysters year round, with no restrictions. But that year the Delaware legislature became concerned about overharvesting, and banned oyster fishing from May 1 until August 10, a Thursday. On that day, fishermen flocked to the state’s seaside docks in droves, eager to head out and…
You can thank Levin Dawson Caulk that your cavity fillings are not made of beeswax or plaster of paris. Once you hear his surname, it’s not hard to forget his contribution to dental progress. Caulk was born in 1841 in Camden, DE, where he grew up. As a young dentist, he practiced in Wilmington for…
The Rehoboth Beach boardwalk shore vacationers today know and love was first built in 1884, and stretched for one and a quarter miles. How did the builders decide where to site its beginning and end? The Delaware legislature early on understood the advantages of the site for a resort, and in 1855 incorporated the “Rehoboth…
The incident prompted Delaware to change its constitution. Economist Henry Georges had gathered a large following nationwide for his ‘single tax’ theory ever since he had outlined it in his 1879 book “Progress and Poverty.” His idea sounded simple enough: a government should tax land values as the sole source of government revenues. Period. No…
