Above: Detail from Francis William Edmonds’s “The Speculator” (1852). A rural couple listens skeptically to a representative of the Building Association, identified by the paper in his coat pocket. The salesman—whose top hat, pointed shoes, and umbrella mark him as a city slicker—promises the couple a better life as he unrolls a listing of “1000…
What could be less controversial than naming your estate “Buena Vista” when in fact it does have a ‘good view’? But that’s not the reason Delaware senator John M. Clayton chose to rename the ‘Homestead’ property he purchased in 1845. His political survival had something to do with it. In 1840, Clayton joined the Whig…
Fleatown, DE was one of those towns whose only reason to exist was that it was a convenient halfway stopping point between two popular destinations. The distance as the crow flies from the heart of Milford, DE to the heart of Georgetown, DE is about 16 miles. Traveling between these two places today wouldn’t even…
I’m starting to think about how volume 2 in my Delaware history book series will emerge. Certainly one person who towers over 19th century Delaware, and must be included, is John M. Clayton. He’s one of only two Delawareans to have a marble statue in the US Capitol. He earned that statue due to his…
