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Weekly News September 24, 2012Description
Delaware: Up-State, Down-State: In recent years there have been major population changes in the United States, but historically nearly every state has its “city people” and its “country people” (including small towns and cities), with widely diverse values and opinions. Nearby states where this division is especially apparent are New York and Pennsylvania. In Delaware, this division was Wilmington and its suburbs (and Newark to a lesser extent) versus everything else, which years ago was mostly agricultural. There were farms and country people in the hills west of Wilmington, but the much larger area of the coastal plain known as “downstate” accounted for 90 percent of the state’s crops while having less than half its population. In the 1930s, city people in Delaware observed Daylight Saving Time during the summer months, but country people wanted nothing to do with it.
Up-State and Down-State was further divided by the Cheapeake and Delaware Canal, originally dug about 1845 to connect the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland with the Delaware River and Bay that separated Delaware from southern New Jersey, thereby facilitating commerce between the population centers of Philadelphia and Baltimore. This is one of the few places where a canal replaced a railroad, as usually it was the opposite, but the New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad, built in 1832, went out of business when the canal opened. This canal, greatly modernized over the years, also separated the population into “Upstaters” and “Downstaters,” even though about 1/3 of New Castle County, the northernmost of Delaware’s three counties, was south of the canal. Many say the climate is even different on opposite sides of the canal, and that storms and rainfall are affected by it.
Delaware’s boundaries, like those of many states, make little sense in today’s world. Uncharted as it was, the boundary made sense to William Penn, however, as he needed access to the sea from his landlocked Pennsylvania and persuaded his friend, the Duke of York (later King Charles, II), to take the “three lower counties on the Delaware” away from Lord Baltimore’s colony of Maryland. These counties, the boundaries of which were more accurately delineated by Mason and Dixon in the mid-18th century, were a part of Pennsylvania until they became a separate colony named Delaware about a month before the Declaration of Independence was signed. Their names could not have been more English: New Castle, Kent, and Sussex.
Tidewater rivers like the Appoquinimink, Duck Creek, the St. Jones, the Murderkill, the Mispillian, and the Broadkill were navigable for sailing vessels and early steamboats in the 18th and early 19th centuries, making it possible for farmers to get livestock and produce to the markets of Wilmington and Philadelphia, but as these shallow streams silted up over the years, lower Delaware became cut off from its retail outlets. In 1859, something happened to change this isolation forever. Watch for the “Delaware Road” in a future edition of the “News.”
Work Report: With Bob Jordan’s oversight, Ted Kamen and Jeff Pollock got the new hydraulic brake lines flared and in place and the brakes hooked up on the Model 607. Jim Personti and Geoff Fallows shimmed the throttle linkage away from the firewall and installed the new throttle with proper alignment. The suction and by-pass lines were run from the pump box to the water tank. Geoff also assessed the phone line to the ticket office. Brent McDougall cleaned Locomotive 401 after its run for the charter event on Sept. 15. The center section of the museum floor was scraped and cleaned by Art Wallace, Richard Bernard, Paul Kratunis, Tim Ward, Tim Cronin, Dave Leon and Butch Cannard, and this section was painted on Friday after the Model 76 was moved out of the museum. Art and Richard removed the steam loop from the Model 740, as a leak at the bottom of this loop prevented the car from making the trip to Hagley on September 16. It is uncertain whether the burner will have to be dropped to make the repair. Mac Taylor made a needed repair on the electric trains. Under the supervision of Jerry Lucas and Bill Schwoebel, the cars in the museum have been rearranged for the coming months, and 12 boxes containing the Smithsonian traveling exhibit were delivered on Friday for unpacking and setting up on Monday, September 24. The broken rod in the oil pump on the Model 87 has been replaced, and everything should be back together and the car moved to the museum early this week. As promised, Bill Schwoebel moved his Model H-5 Stanley to his home on Thursday to make room for all our special work. Nearby storms kept the attendance down to nine on Tuesday night, but 14 were on hand Thursday. The coming week will be devoted to preparations for the Invitational Car Show at Auburn Heights on September 29.
Delaware Children in Nature Kickoff, Oct. 1, 7:00-8:30pm
The Children in Nature Partnership invites you to join them for the Delaware Children in Nature Kickoff featuring keynote speaker, author Richard Louv. Delaware Technical and Community College Conference Center, Terry Campus, 100 Campus Drive, Dover, DE
RSVP by September 24 to Matthew Ritter, (302) 739-9187, Matthew.Ritter@state.de.us
Monet's Garden Trip
Members of Marshall Steam Museum & Friends of Auburn Heights Preserve Inc. are invited to join the 10/9/2012 excursion to MONET"S GARDEN at the New York Botanical Garden at the CCArts Member rate! Register soon. Space is limited. See http://www.ccarts.org/MonetsGardenTrip.php for full details.
