Nanticoke City was an unincorporated community in western Sussex County, Delaware, United States that existed from 1856 until 1910. The community was laid out by Rev. Thomas B. Bradford, consisting of 100 lots built around the newly opened rail depot of the Delaware Railroad just west of the then town limits of Seaford. [1] [2] Additional lots were added, bringing the community to 179 properties. On October 8, 1907, a storm of reported "near hurricane strength" struck the community, causing injuries and destroying homes. [3] In 1910, the community was formally annexed into the municipal limits of Seaford and is that part of the city west of the railroad tracks, south of Poplar Street, east of Shipley Street, and extending southward to the Nanticoke River and Nanticoke Avenue. [4]
Delaware is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states region of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey to its northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state's name derives from the adjacent Delaware Bay, which in turn was named after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Colony of Virginia's first colonial-era governor.
The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Cheswold is a town in Kent County in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,923 in 2020.
Harrington is a city in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover metropolitan statistical area. Harrington hosts the annual Delaware State Fair each July. The population was 3,774 in 2020.
Kenton is a town in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover metropolitan statistical area. The population was 215 in 2020.
Bridgeville is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2020 census, the population is 2,568. It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Laurel is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. The population was 3,708 at the time of the 2010 census. Laurel is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. It once hosted the Laurel Blue Hens of the Eastern Shore Baseball League.
Seaford is a city located along the Nanticoke River in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 Census Bureau figures, the population of the city is 6,928, an increase of 3.4% from the 2000 census. It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Baltimore and Delaware Bay Railroad, originally part of the Central Railroad of New Jersey's route from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland via central Delaware, was later part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system.
The Nanticoke River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on the Delmarva Peninsula. It rises in southern Kent County, Delaware, flows through Sussex County, Delaware, and forms the boundary between Dorchester County, Maryland and Wicomico County, Maryland. The tidal river course proceeds southwest into the Tangier Sound, Chesapeake Bay. The river is 64.3 miles (103.5 km) long. A 26-mile ecotourism water trail running along the River was set aside in July 2011 by Delaware state and federal officials, contiguous with a 37-mile water-trail extending through Maryland to the Chesapeake Bay.
Delaware Route 20 (DE 20) is an east–west state highway in Sussex County, Delaware. Its western terminus is the Maryland state line in Reliance, where the road continues as Maryland Route 392 (MD 392). Its eastern terminus is DE 54 west of Fenwick Island. The route runs through rural areas of Sussex County and passes through the towns of Seaford, Millsboro, and Dagsboro. DE 20 intersects U.S. Route 13 (US 13) in Seaford, US 9 in Hardscrabble, US 113 and DE 24 in Millsboro, DE 26 in Dagsboro, and DE 17 in Roxana. DE 20 was originally created by 1936 to run from the Maryland border east to US 113 in Millsboro. By 1970, it was realigned to bypass Seaford. The route was extended east to DE 1 in Fenwick Island by 1994; however, the eastern terminus was cut back to DE 54 in 2005 to avoid the concurrency with that route.
Delaware Route 9 (DE 9) is a 57.83-mile (93.07 km) state highway that runs from DE 1 near Dover Air Force Base in Kent County north to DE 2 in the city of Wilmington in New Castle County. DE 9 is a designated scenic highway known as the Delaware Bayshore Byway south of New Castle, running through mostly rural areas to the west of the Delaware Bay and the Delaware River as a two-lane undivided road. Between New Castle and Wilmington, DE 9 is a four-lane road that runs through urban and suburban areas. DE 9 passes through several cities and towns including Little Creek, Leipsic, Port Penn, Delaware City, and New Castle. DE 9 has an auxiliary route, DE 9A, that provides access to the Port of Wilmington. In addition, it has a truck route, DE 9 Truck, located to the south of New Castle.
U.S. Route 13 (US 13) is a U.S. highway running from Fayetteville, North Carolina, north to Morrisville, Pennsylvania. In the U.S. state of Delaware, the route runs for 103.33 mi (166.29 km). It traverses the entire north–south length of the state from the Maryland state line in Delmar, Sussex County, north to the Pennsylvania state line in Claymont, New Castle County. US 13 connects many important cities and towns in Delaware, including Seaford, Dover, and Wilmington. The entire length of US 13 in Delaware is a multilane divided highway with the exceptions of the segment through Wilmington and parts of the route in Claymont. Between the Maryland state line and Dover, US 13 serves as one of the main north–south routes across the Delmarva Peninsula. From Dover north to Tybouts Corner, the route is followed by the controlled-access Delaware Route 1 (DE 1) toll road, which crosses the route multiple times and has multiple interchanges with it. US 13 bypasses downtown Wilmington to the east before it heads northeast of the city parallel to Interstate 495 (I-495) and the Delaware River to Claymont. US 13 is the longest numbered highway in the state of Delaware.
St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, was founded November 23, 1913, as a Roman Catholic Church on the East Side of Wilmington to serve the needs of a growing Polish immigrant community. The Church was a part of the Diocese of Wilmington, until its closure on February 15, 2009.
Nanticoke Wildlife Area is a state wildlife area located in Sussex County, Delaware, along the Nanticoke River and Broad Creek, near to Seaford, Delaware, and Bethel, Delaware. There is a monument commemorating Captain John Smith's journey into the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries at Phillips Landing along Broad Creek, a tributary of the Nanticoke River in Delaware. It is made up of three large land tracts totaling 4,510 acres (1,825 ha), it is managed by Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), Division of Fish and Wildlife. The area also holds one of the few Delmarva fox squirrel populations within Delaware, along with controlled populations in Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge and Assawoman Wildlife Area.
The Delaware Railroad was the major railroad in the US state of Delaware, traversing almost the entire state north to south from the mid-1850's until 1976. It began in Porter and was extended south through Dover andSeaford before reaching Delmar on the border of Maryland in 1859. Although operated independently, in 1857 it was leased by and under the financial control of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, which was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1881. In 1891, it was extended north approximately 14 miles (23 km) with the purchase of existing track to New Castle and Wilmington. It remained a part of the PRR system and then Penn Central until 1976 when Penn Central went bankrupt at which point it was absorbed into Conrail.
The Tilly Escape occurred in October 1856 when an enslaved woman, Tilly, was led by Harriet Tubman from slavery in Baltimore to safety in Philadelphia. Historians who have studied Tubman consider it "one of her most complicated and clever escape attempts." It was a risky trip because Tubman and Tilly would not have been able to travel directly from Baltimore to Philadelphia without proof that they were free women. In addition, local slave traders would have recognized strangers. Tubman sought to evade capture by going south, before heading north, and using different modes of transportation over water and land.
William Brinkley was a conductor on the Underground Railroad who helped more than 100 people achieve freedom by traveling from Camden, Delaware, past the "notoriously dangerous" towns of Dover and Smyrna north to Blackbird and sometimes as far as Wilmington, which was also very dangerous for runaway enslaved people. Some of his key rescues include the Tilly Escape of 1856, the Dover Eight in the spring of 1857, and the rescue of 28 people, more than half of which were children, from Dorchester County, Maryland. He had a number of pathways that he would take to various destinations, aided by his brother Nathaniel and Abraham Gibbs, other conductors on the railroad.