History of Christiana, New Castle, Delaware
HIST 317: Peg A. Ivanyo
INTRODUCTION
“The history of Delaware, settlement, colony and State, is such that every citizen born upon its
soil must take pride in its past.”1 That statement, made by James H. Hughes of the United
States Senate Committee on the Judiciary in his introduction to the “Inventory of Church
Archives of Delaware”, about says it all. If you lived in Delaware, there is a special feeling you
must take with you. Iʼve been searching for that special history, taken from Delaware soil, on
the Skidmore-Brooks families, and until recently, have come up fairly dry.
Hughes goes on to underscore the importance of Delaware church records: “For among the
existing sources of information concerning the life of the State, the activities of the churches are
fundamental.” 2 In fact, since the outset, religious life was an important part of Delaware life, a
“steadying influence” even in “support of [both] governmental and economic well-being.”3
That said, a quick glance at the listing of 56 churches quickly reveals that Christiana is missing
from the inventory even though there are at least three churches in Christiana during the time
period I have been studying. Not only were there many churches in Delaware, of a variety of
beliefs, the records either donʼt cover the right time or place, or I havenʼt found the right set of
records, by which to verify and place my ancestors on Christiana soil. Delaware soil, yes, but
Christiana? That remains to be proven.
This locality history, then, is based on the assumption that the information came from someone
who knew--most likely passed down through time in family records recorded by others closer to
the actual individuals studied. And if they said they came from Christiana, I believe them. Or
perhaps I believe that they came from that general area. You will soon seen what I mean.
Why Christiana:
Christiana is a key location relating to both family groups subject to this project. Josiah Brooks
was born in Christiana on 28 September 1805. His wife, Maria Long, returned to Christiana after
migrating west with her family, and supposedly died there on 6 December 1900. Each of their
1
Federal Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration of Delaware. Inventory of the
Church Archives of Delaware. Preprint of sections XXII Lutheran Church and XXIX Protestant Episcopal
Church. Wiilmington, Delaware (1938), introductory page by the United State Senate Committee on the
Judiciary.
2
WPA Delaware, Judiciary intro.
3
WPA Delaware, Judiciary intro.
History of Christiana
HIST 317, Final Project
Peg Ivanyo, page 2
seven children were born in Christiana, and we suspect that at least two, maybe three stayed or
died there. As to the younger generation, Harriet Brooks Skidmore was born in Christiana on 10
Aug 1851. Although her father hailed from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he and her mother,
Rachel Brooks apparently lived in Christiana briefly before returning to Philadelphia where her
mother died. What we havenʼt found yet, is evidence that each of these events occurred directly
in Christiana.
But we do have some circumstantial evidence that places people and activities in the general
area: census records that place the family in the White Clay Creek Hundred4 5 of which
Christiana is a part, a land map 6 that shows three of Josiahʼs (potential) siblings living slightly
southwest of Christiana in White Clay Creek Hundred (see image below), and extracts from the
Delaware Gazette newspaper7
8
that indicate that “all parties”, referring to Mary Brooks, David B
Way, her new husband, and Josiah Brooks, were of White Clay Creek Hundred.
4
United States 1830 Census, White Clay Creek Hundred, New Castle, Delaware
5
United States 1840 Census, White Clay Creek Hundred, New Castle, Delaware
6
D.G. Beers. Atlas of the State of Delaware: from actual surveys by and under the direction of D. G.
Beers (Philadelphia : Pomeroy & Beers), 1868, White Clay Creek Hundred map.
7
Mary Fallon Richards, and John C. RIchards. Delaware marriages and deaths from newspapers,
1729-1853. Westminster, Maryland : Family Line Publications, c1997. Volume 1: Deaths 1854-59, 61-64
(60 not available)
8
Richards, Delaware marriages and deaths, volume 3: Marriages and Deaths 1729-1853.
History of Christiana
HIST 317, Final Project
Peg Ivanyo, page 3
CHRISTIANA, DELAWARE
It was a delight to find in my locality research what was described as a “little Williamsburg, a
colonial crossroads still intact and reminding us of a quieter time in our past”.9 Christiana was
“one of the earliest colonial towns in America” 10, founded by Swedish settlers in the 17th century
near the head of the Christiana River, which was considered “an important landing point”11.
It was on the main thoroughfare of the time (called the Kings Road) from Philadelphia to
Baltimore; was the location of a brief battle in the Revolutionary War, the only battle in Delaware
during that war; and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Christiana is an unincorporated area in New Castle County, in the northern third of the State of
Delaware. It is part of the White Clay Creek Hundred, which was created in 1710 from the
Christiana Hundred (original, 1682). The 1868 atlas12 shows the location of the Christiana Post
Office on the eastern boundary of White Clay Creek Hundred, along the Christiana River.
To clarify, “Hundreds” are a geographic division, similar to townships, implemented by William
Penn in 1682. During the time of the Delaware General Assembly they were utilized to
determine representation. They then continued to be used for both voting districts and tax
reporting purposes until the 1960s. They are still utilized today for property tax assessment
purposes, with tax parcel numbers assigned by the hundreds. 13 It would make sense, then, that
the census records of 1830 and 1840 would be enumerated by the Hundred lived in rather than
a smaller area like Christiana that lies within the Hundred.
9
Christiana Historical Society. A Proud Past, A Bright Future: http://www.xtinahs.org/
xtinahistoricalsociety.html; accessed 12 Oct 2010.
10
Christiana Proud Past : 12 Oct 2010.
11
Christiana Proud Past : 12 Oct 2010.
12
D.G. Beers. Atlas, 1868.
13
The University of Delaware Library. “The Hundreds of Delaware” (http://larned.lib.udel.edu/subj/
genealogy/resguide/hund.htm : accessed 19 Oct 2010).
History of Christiana
HIST 317, Final Project
Peg Ivanyo, page 4
14
Settlement of the Area:
The State of Delaware is the 49th state in land mass, being only 96 miles long and from 9 to 35
miles across. It was discovered by Henry Hudson when he discovered the Delaware Bay in
1609 and settled in several stages beginning in 1631 (first permanent settlement 1638) by the
Dutch, then Swedish, then some Finnish and Mennonites. Later immigrants to the area
included Quakers, French, Irish Catholics, Germans, Jews, Poles, Italians, and a handful of
Scandinavians and eastern Europeans. It fell under British control when they took New
Amsterdam (New York) in 1664; bringing a large number of British settlers to the area from other
colonies and Europe.
Delaware remained a part of Pennsylvania until the Revolutionary War even though it had its
own assembly as early as 1704. They were the first to ratify the Constitution, becoming the first
state in the Union on December 7, 1787.
14
Christiana Historical Society, Walking Tour. http://xtinahs.org"
History of Christiana
HIST 317, Final Project
Peg Ivanyo, page 5
Delaware was a slave state; although during the Civil War they were considered a border state
in the sense that they aligned politically with the Union. 15
The Name:
“The Village was named for Queen Christina of Sweden, who reigned at the time oft hoe
Swedish settlement on t he Delaware River in the early part of the seventeenth century.”16 The
Christiana or Christina River that runs through is it really more of a creek, the larger body of
water to the east being the Delaware River.
Economic History of the Area:
“One historian recounts that by 1737, there were approximately ten houses at Christiana”. 17 It
expanded after that point in time, however, as it “began to profit from its advantageous location
at a crossroads and at the head of navigation.”18 The village “achieved some prominence by
the year 1748 when the New Castle Court ordered the Prothonotary records to be stored there.
This same source (Cooch) estimates that there were “perhaps seventy-five houses” in
Christiana by 1770. Between that time and the turn of the century, Christiana saw mansions
built, prominent individuals settle there, and hotels erected. Troops were occasionally deployed
there during the Revolutionary War as it was considered a “strategic location”.19
After the revolution, the village began to play a distinct and important role as a leading market in
New Castle County, serving as a departure point for grain harvested in the surrounding states
as well as other goods. Cooch indicates that Conetoga wagons would bring the grain to the
shipping point, where “boats of shallow draft regularly plied the Christiana”.20 Besides being an
economic center, Christiana also began to be a “frequent meeting spot” for political gatherings.
As with many small villages reliant on methodologies of old, Christianaʼs importance began to
be impeded with the opening of new transportation methods: the Chesapeake and Delaware
Canal in 1829, New Castle-Frenchtown Railroad in 1832, and the Philadelphia, Wilmington and
15
Wikipedia. “Border states (American Civil War)”. http://en.wikipedia.org : accessed 14 Oct
2010.
16
Cooch, Richard Rodney. A History of Christiana, Delaware (Christiana Bicentennial Commission), 1976.
17
Delaware - A Guide to the First State, Federal Writerʼs Project (New York, New York, 1938), p. 483 as
cited by Cooch, A History of...
18
Cooch, A History of...p9
19
Cooch, A History of...p11
20
Cooch, A History of...p16
History of Christiana
HIST 317, Final Project
Peg Ivanyo, page 6
Baltimore Railroad in 1837. “By 1870, the towns of Newark, Wilmington, Newport, and New
Castle out-distanced Christiana in importance.”21
It is within this historical setting...a thriving Christiana followed by a declining Christiana, that
Josiah Brooks was born (1805), grew up, married (1828), and started his family (last child born
in 1851). In the event that he was a captain of a riverboat, as opposed to the military, it may be
the very reason that the family eventually migrated west.
Churches:
An online digital walking tour on the Christiana Historical Society website provides historical
background about this quaint little town, along with photos and a map of the town.22 From this
information we learn that there were three churches in Christiana in the 1800ʼs--the Christiana
Methodist Church, organized as the result of community response to Methodist missionaries
from England in 1807; the Christiana Presbyterian Church, organized in 1732; and the Old Fort
African Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1894 to serve a large free black community.
As “most of the colonists came to the New World for religious as well as material or financial
purposes”, churches were “among the first buildings erected” 23 when a new community was
established, each group of immigrants bringing their own cultural and religious preferences with
them.
Education:
A school was built in Christiana in 1769, however formal education did not begin until 1829.
Even then that was for the “white children”; it began later for blacks. The two races studied
separately until desegregation in the 1950ʼs.24
Distance to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
It is particularly interesting to note that Christiana, being near the northern end of Delaware, is
what we presently would consider a short distance from Philadelphia, where the Skidmore
family came from. Current maps indicate that the present trip from Christiana to Philadelphia
21
Cooch, A History of...p20
22
Christiana Historical Society. Digital Walking Tour: http://xtinahs.org/Digitaltour/walkingtour.html;
accessed 12 Oct 2010.
23
George B. Everton, editor. The Handy Book for Genealogists (Logan, Utah : Everton Publishers), 1981,
44.
24
Christiana Proud Past : 12 Oct 2010.
History of Christiana
HIST 317, Final Project
Peg Ivanyo, page 7
follows the Delaware river in a northeasterly direction, a trip of about 38 miles.25 Historical maps
of the original route are also available, which show the route the early settlers would have taken
and the terrain they would have covered run in a similar path.
The following map shows the northern part of Delaware with it numerous waterways, and most
prominent path to Philadelphia, the Delaware River.
In the study of this family, I have continued to wonder about the “how” of Harriet Brooks and
Henry Brett Skidmore meeting. Knowing the history of the area I can still only conjecture upon a
few theories: 1) through the waterways, with Josiah Brooks as a captain shipping the goods of
the Disston Saw Company that Henry worked for, 2) through the church, of which Rachel was a
member as early as 1843, although family narratives indicate that it was Rachel that introduced
Henry to the church, so the fact that they were both in the Eastern States Mission area might be
coincidental, having met first through other means.
This leaves us with something to think about. The transportation and movement of the church
members in the area, the research on the title of “Captain”, of military or other means, and the
migration patterns of the family, both the ones shown remaining in 1868 maps and the ones who
already departed the area. The answers partially lie in this sweet little village called Christiana. I
25
Google.com. Google Maps, “Driving directions from Christiana, DE to Philadelphia, PA”. (http://
maps.google.com/ : accessed 14 Oct 2010).
History of Christiana
HIST 317, Final Project
Peg Ivanyo, page 8
truly hope to be able to visit it in person one day and savor the feeling, feel the Delaware soil
under my feet, and as Hughes indicates, feel of the “pride of the past”.