Historic Marker of the Mason-Dixon Line

Marker stones, called Crown stones, carved with the Baltimore coat of arms on side, and the Penn coat of arms on the other, were set up every 500 feet to mark the dividing line. This project kept surveyers rich for a long time.  I got some photos of a Crown stone, but because of the age, and all the vegetation around it, including poison ivy, not much can be seen from it.

Centerville Community of Free Blacks: With more contemporary siding now, and it had been linked to the electrcity grid, the house is deserted. C O'D says that this was typical design for these houses in Kent County's free black communities, both before and after the Civil War. The family slept in the loft right up under the roof. One room, plus what as used as a kitchen under the lower part.

You can see more of these in the Kent County Historical Museum publication, Historic Houses of Kent County: An Architectural history, 1642-1860 (1996).

Upper Chester River: Clear, clean, a wonderful place to canoe or kyack. Also a good place for fisherman. I took this photo from the spot where anglers exercise their skills.

So, that's a bit from my Delmarva Sunday Excursion yesterday. couldn't have had a nicer day for this. I couldn't have been provided with better guidance. I also got taken into all these rooms that the general public doesn't get to enter. This is the nicest Sunday afternoon I've had in years. My only regret is that I didn't take more photos. But I was so busy listening and looking. There was much more to the day, that was seen and experienced, than can be blogged.

Maybe the best part were the rural drives to Odessa and then the one back to Chestertown. There are a variety of rural landscapes in just this small area. Horses! Bald Eagles (there's also a wildlife reserve within this little area). I had such a good time.

I watched the end of season one of A Good Wife. V made me dinner -- well warmed up leftovers. Then we went to make fun of the ducks, er widgeon, and have a good night glass of wine at the Fish Whistle. I retired to bed with computer to finish transcribing my notes on William Claiborn.

Odessa underlines yet again, that those who could own slaves and have indentured servants, tended to stay wealthy, influential and powerful generation after generation, as they intermarried. These people still help run Delaware with the Duponts.

Corbit-Sharp House (1774): Odessa, Del. Continued

This stone building is behind the Corbit-Sharp House, looking from the river and the gardens. Perhaps this is where the to-become-very-wealthy Quaker, Corbit, lived after he got his tannery on its feet, but before he built the Philadelphia-style Georgian mansion.

He had four wives, with children by them all. At one time there were 13 children in all living in the house from early 20's to infant. His fourth wife, 16 years younger than he, outlived him for 20 years. Mary was a wealthy heiress from the sophisticated, cosmopolitan Philadelphia, very well educated, and au courant with all the modes. So William improved and expanded the original mansion and grounds according to her wishes. This included moving the kitchen from the basement to the ground floor, with windows.

All Purpose Room, Including Office, Corbit-Sharpe House: This is a true mansion (makes our house look puny), owned by Quakers or not, and it is huge. It hosted many large parties, as well as long-staying relatives from Pennsylvania and Virginia.

In those days people hadn't yet separated certain functions into separate rooms. This one seems to have been a room in which the family ate, but where the Master also conducted business. That desk-bookcase, was made locally, and is a museum-quality piece. I lust-yearn to possess it myself.

The wall paper is not period.

Upstairs there is the 'entertaining room" with chandeliers, mirrors, much satin brocade and a spinnet. Except for the instrument, all of that is the restorer Sharp's idea, and is not right for a Quaker's home of that period, no matter how wealthy.

Hiding Runaway Slave Sam in the Corbit-Sharp House: 1830's. Era of the Fugitive Slave Laws.


Sam had run away from his owner in Maryland, evidently for harsh treatment. Mary Wilson-Corbit was home alone with her daughter Molly, who was about 8 - 9. Sam, who had been chased over the Eastern Shore of Maryland by the slave catchers, came to the House's door, begging for help. The slave catchers were right on his heels. Mary was liable for all kinds of punishment for helping him. She had to make her decisions very quickly. She decided to hide him.

Fortunately the slavecatchers didn't have dogs.
From the Corbit-Sharp House Sam was smuggled to Philadelphia, and from there up to Canada. He got word back to Philadelphia that he had made it --Illiterate, he couldn't write the message; the message of his safety was then sent back to Mrs. Corbit . No one knew about this except Molly, until she told the story to organization of Colonial Dames after the Civil War. Her account is recorded in the group's Minutes.

17th C Appoquinimink, 18th C Cantwell's Bridge, 19th C Odessa

Appoquinimink was named for the Appoquinimink River; it became Cantwell's Corners; in the 19th C, as Cantwell's Corners's economy declined, was re-branded / re-named Odessa, after the great Ukraine grain growing, grain market, grain distribution center that provided for so much of Europe.  (This didn't help.)
This, perhaps the smallest Quaker meeting house in the U.S., the Appoquinimink Friends Meeting House (1785) Odessa, Delaware -- was a stop on the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Line. Runaway slaves would hide in the Meeting House loft.
This Meeting House is still in use, with a meeting every second Tuesday. Typical of the Quakers, my guide K O'D, says, is how well kept up everything is. The gates and paling fences in the brick had just been repainted. The cemeteries had just been re-mowed.

Most of the buildings that make up the Historic Preservation district of Odessa, Delaware, were put up when it was still called Cantwell's Bridge (on the Appoquinimink River), growing up around a tavern, that currently is not open as it is being re-fitted to be an historic foods restaurant. From what I was told by the staff it sounds as though this will be worth visiting all on its own, in order to eat. I felt as though I knew what I needed to know about the Cantwell Tavern though, from my time at the Fraunces Tavern Museum.



Collins-Sharp House (1700): One of Delaware’s oldest residences. It is two separate log and frame houses, joined, one older than the other, a common practice in the Delmarva region up to the Civil War. This is the color it was painted, according to the professionals who determine such things, many of them at the University of Delaware.

Garden for the Collins-Sharp House: The cold frames are out of period, according to the historic gardeners. Glass was too rare and expensive in the 17th c - early 18th c to use this way.  There are hanging bee hives on the porch columns from where the photo was shot. There are traditional standing 'hive' hives scattered about also, made of plaited straw.