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DELAWARE » STATE HOLIDAYS 1: Tidbit: Delaware is known as the First State because it was the first to ratify the U.S. Constitution, on Dec. 7, 1787. The anniversary is cel- ebrated as Delaware Day. by the al 2: Fun fact: Return Day is a political ritual every other year in an Georgetown. Its website (www.returnday.org/history) says the first cele- D C C & bration was maybe in 1792, following a 1791 law that moved the Sussex Here are some » A County seat from Lewes. The law “required all votes to be cast in the new county seat on election day. The same voters would ‘return’ two STATE days later to hear the results – hence the name Return Day.” Events now DIVIDED include politicians burying a ceremonial hatchet, an ox roast and a parade. S Delaware tidbits, 1: Tidbit: 3: Really fun fact: Separation Day marks the separation of The Chesapeake & Delaware Delaware from anything else. “June 15th of the fateful year of 1776 was Canal is the colloquial line a momentous date for the people of Delaware,” the city of New Castle between the more suburban and writes on http://newcastlecity.delaware.gov/visitors-information/all- urban upstate and the more rural downstate. events-listing/separation-day. “On that day the Colonial Assembly took fun facts and Downstate is also known as Lower Delaware, but upstate is not called Upper the drastic step of proclaiming the little colony (the Three Lower Delaware (that’s a section of New York). Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex-upon-Delaware) separate and 2: Fun fact: William H. Williams in “Man and Nature in Delaware” sug- independent from Great Britain and free from any ties with the propri- gests Delaware can also be divided by the Christina River in Wilmington, the etary Penn family. The revolutionary measure enacted in the Old State Smyrna River on the New Castle-Kent line and even the Mispillion River in (Court) House in New Castle paved the way for the for- really fun facts Sussex. He then quotes some historic observations about the differences. The mation of the new ‘Delaware state,’ first among the north, illustrator Howard Pyle wrote in 1879, has “the vim and progress of original 13 states. … Historic New Castle celebrates modern utilitarianism,” while below that is the “indolence peculiar to south- Separation Day, Delaware’s birthday, each year on ern life.” In 1934, Henry Seidel Canby noted that Wilmington was “austere the second Saturday in June with a full day By Ken Mammarella and northern,” while the land further south an “alien state.” and evening of festivities.” on some stately 3: Really fun fact: Delaware also is divided from top to bottom by the peninsular divide, a natural feature meaning water on the west side flows to the Chesapeake Bay and on the east to the Delaware Bay. Before » THE CHICKEN the 1764 Mason-Dixon line, Maryland claimed most of the western side as INDUSTRY Durham County, according to the Delaware Genealogical Society’s “Delaware subjects. Families 1787-1800.” 1: Tidbit: Sussex County has the largest chicken population of any county in the nation – “nearly twice as many as the second » THE leading county, Cullman County, Alabama,” the county says. COUNTIES 2: Fun fact: The modern chicken industry, 3: Really fun fact: In 1919, 1: Tidbit: Delaware with chicks raised in quantity, was revolution- Pierre du Pont bought the Kennett Pike for has the fewest coun- ized by Ocean View farmers Cecile and $70,000 to ease his commute between ties of any state: Wilmer Steele in 1923. Delmarva’s broiler industry beganwith White DuPont offices and his home near Kennett three. Leghorns, according to William H. Williams, in “Delmarva’s Chicken Square, Pennsylvania (now Longwood Industry: 75 Years of Progress.” They may have been productive Gardens). Carol Hoffecker, in “Corporate 2: Fun egg layers, but they weren’t very meaty, so they were replaced Capital,” says the DuPont Engineering Co. fact: within a decade by the Barred Plymouth Rock and the Rock Red Cross, modernized the road and turned it over to he writes. 3 the state the next year, “on the condition Some sticklers say that’s not 3: Really fun fact: Illegal chickens were the reason the that it prohibit the laying of trolley rails or true. Louisiana, U.S. Army staffed a checkpoint on the du Pont Highway near the erection of billboards.” Other Delaware which was Dover on July 21, 1943. According to Williams, truckers head- (turn)pikes were named for the tolls they developed from French governmental traditions, ing north with broilers “were required to produce papers once charged. has parishes. Alaska, with all its wide-open spaces, demonstrating that the chickens had been sold to them at » DU Kennett Pike has boroughs. And Connecticut and Rhode Island the legal ceiling prices or less.” Chickens without papers have counties that were eliminated as govern- were requisitioned (and eaten?) by the Army at the PONTS ments in 1960 and 1842, respectively. Office of Price Administration’s price. TALL TALES, LIES & FICTION 3: Really fun fact: New Castle, Kent AND 1: Tidbit: The first U.S. bathing beauty pageant took place in Rehoboth and Sussex started out with different names » AWARD- Beach in 1880 with inventor Thomas Alva Edison as a judge. Sorry, despite by European settlers. New Castle was New THEIR what you can see online, it’s a myth. Patrick Robertson, in “Robertson’s Book Amstel (Nieuw Amstel to the Dutch). Kent WINNING of Firsts,” says Rehoboth wasn’t even a resort with bathing beau- was St. Jones. And Sussex was Deale. The A “Merlino” sheep ANIMALS ties then (it had been founded in 1872 as a Methodist camp downstate counties were together ACTRESSES 1: Tidbit: The du Ponts made meeting) and that Edison was “tinkering in his laboratory” Whorekill (also spelled Hoerekill, on the dates in question. Rich Barnett, on Delaware’s Aubrey Plaza their fortune with black powder. Their second business was wool, from a Hoerenkil, Hoerenkill, Horekil, Horekill or 1: Tidbit: www.rehobothgocup.com, tracks it down to a history was named favorite movie actress in a 2012 famous flock of sheep, called Merinos. For centuries, Spain had closely guard- Hoorekill, according to DelDOT and the of the Miss America pageant by Frank Deford that comedy or musical by the American Latino ed its renowned Merino flocks, noted for the finest fleeces in the world. Lewes Historical Society, which trans- quotes a sometimes-sloppy antiquarian. “Recent Media Arts competition. It was Several Americans were able to pry a few Merinos out of Europe. Robert lates them all from the Dutch as mean- scholars have been unable to find solid evidence of for her first top-billed role, in Livingston in New York, David Humphreys in Connecticut, and the du Ponts in ing “Harlot’s Creek.” such a pageant,” Barnett concludes. “Safety Not Guaranteed,” a story Delaware were particularly active in promoting the breed. about journalists (some of our 2: Fun fact: When Don Pedro (the lead Merino sheep) died, the family 2: Fun fact: “Fight Club” is set in » BIG CITY favorite people) investigating a received condolences from across the country, including a letter from Thomas Wilmington. We’re going to break the first rule and time traveler. Jefferson. That’s according to Winterthur, the former du Pont estate that in say that’s not true about the 1999 classic. It was too 1: Tidbit: The first Europeans to 2007 reintroduced sheep, thanks to a breeding program by Greenbank Mill. much of a hassle, director David Fincher says on the colonize what is now Wilmington 2: Fun fact: Barbara Bel DVD. “We wanted to make the film to take place in “Fight Club” were Swedes who sailed over in 1638. Geddes summered in Delaware 3: Really fun fact: A Holstein cow named Winterthur Boast Wilmington, Delaware, but there’s some kind of clear- They named it Fort Christina, for their while her second husband, Ormsby Ganne set a world record in 1933, for producing 1,004.2 pounds of ance issues if it’s a specific town. But our homage to queen. Delaware Windsor Lewis, produced shows butterfat. Her daily average was eight gallons of milk. Wilmington is that the, I believe the Delaware state motto native and at what is now the New is ‘Delaware: a place to be somebody.’ So, we decided to 2: Fun fact: Wilmington was laid actress Candlelight in Ardetown. Her put, on the Pearson Towers, their little logo on the brass sign is out in 1731 by Thomas Willing. His name Estelle awards include the Clarence “a place to be somebody.” Fincher is off on his Delawareness: the lives on in Willingtown Square, a down- Taylor Derwent and Donaldson for OF AIR, WATER AND LAND Aubrey Plaza motto is Wilmington’s. The novel the film is based on is also not exact on the town block with four historic buildings. Broadway and Emmy, Golden 1: Tidbit: ILG is the code for New Castle Airport in airline systems. location. Of course, nearby cities are mentioned, and there’s a telltale ZIP Globe and Golden Camera as Miss Ellie on TV’s original “Dallas.” 3: Really fun fact: Wilmington 2: Fun fact: When Delaware became the first state, America’s largest code, but the only surefire Wilmington-ness is that some scenes were shot in was also known as Christinaham and 3: Really fun fact: Delaware native Estelle Taylor has a star on concentration of flour mills was on the Brandywine and Red Clay creeks, Wilmington, California.

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