Starting this week, Milford Live will run a weekly feature on the History of Milford, highlighting various historical stories, properties and events that shaped the town. We begin with the history of the brick granary and Rogersville, a long-gone community in our area. Thank you to Milford historian Dave Kenton for details used for this article as well as photos. If there is a particular event, property or story you would like to see highlighted, please reach out to [email protected].
Daniel Rogers left his home in Pungoteague, Virginia at the age of 21 in 1775. The young entrepreneur arrived at what was then known as a wading space on Cedar Creek. He was the son of James and Patience Rogers, considered gentry in their home state of Virginia, where the family had lived since 1665.
Upon arrival in Cedar Creek, Rogers purchased 128 acres of farmland from the heirs of Reynear Williams who were well known in the Slaughter Neck area. This was the period just before the American Revolution, major river heads in Kent and Sussex County were being settled by families who wanted to capitalize on the growing river trade to Philadelphia.
This practice was established by other businesspeople in the area, including Levin Crapper on the Mispillion, Clark Conwell along the Broadkill, Benjamin Waples in Prime Hook and Avery Draper along Cedar Creek. Grist mills, bark mills, trading stores, taverns and wharves began to appear at the headwaters that emptied into the Delaware Bay, feeding Philadelphia, New Castle, New York and Baltimore the grain, cord wood and barrel staves they needed.
Originally a 1,000-acre tract called “Little Bolton” was assigned by the Duke of York to Alexander Draper in 1675 with another 1,210-acre tract called “Draper’s Addition,” to his son, Alexander Jr. in 1719. The area was settled by friends of the Draper family who had been neighbors, first in Virginia and then in Maryland. In addition to the Drapers, Thomas Davis, Luke Watson and John Bennett brought their families to the area, all refugees from Virginia who were “dissenters from the Anglican church” and “resented the injustice of being taxed to support a church in which they had no part.”
By the time Rogers arrived in Cedar Creek along the King’s Road where it formerly crossed the creek, the trade industry was just beginning. He arrived a single man and he began trading with Crapper, who was nearly 65 at the time. Crapper owned a granary on the south bank of the Mispillion and lived just south in what is now known as the Causey Mansion. Levin passed away in 1775, leaving a son, Moulton, and five daughters as well as a grandson, Zadock. Rogers was named the executor of Crapper’s estate, becoming acquainted with Crapper’s heirs.
Moulton passed away just two years after his father and Rogers married his widow, Esther in 1778, moving into the mansion in Milford. Rogers and his wife had two sons, James and Thomas with Rogers continuing to manage the large Crapper estate as well as the brick granary on Cedar Creek. Rogers purchased several large famers on the north side of Cedar Creek and also owned a tavern at Cedar Creek which later became Swiggett’s Mill.
Rogers passed away in 1806 and the farm was purchased at sheriff’s sale by John Robinson who transferred the property to his daughter, Aracada Smith Robinson who was married to John Bennett, a fourth-generation resident of Slaughter Neck. Bennett was, for a short time, a member of the militia that defended against a naval attack during the war of 1812 in Lewes. The couple had 11 children, but only one reached adulthood.
Bennett and his wife purchased two tracts described as “130 acres with two-story dwelling home, two tenant houses, storehouses and a large brick granary thereon, joining lands of John Bennett and heirs of William Draper.” The Bennett’s lived in the home, using the brick granary farm as a trading site until Bennett left the area in 1860.
John Davis, a black man, purchased 40 acres of the farm and a small, less than an acre lot to Anthony Ingram. In 1855, the farm was sold to the Bennett’s son, John Robinson Barnett. However, none of the sons were interested in carrying on the family farm, and they slowly drifted off to other places. Around 1860, Bennett sold the land, moving he and Arcada to Philadelphia where they ran a boarding house. One of their sons became Milford’s first druggist, opening a pharmacy in 1850 on North Walnut Street.
The next owner, John W. Davidson only kept the land for two years, selling it to Henry S. Watson in 1859. He owned the land for 35 years, raising a family of eight there. The home, brick granary and a store existed there until 1953. The store was a popular location for people in the area as they traded items and exchanged local news.
Watson was in ill health by 1896, so he conveyed his farm to his children, Elias, Heneretta, Marcelena, Mary, Loeta and Josephine. All of the children conveyed their rights to Marcelena in 1900, but she was forced to pay the sheriff $1,120 to defend title to her property. A suit in Superior Court by mortgage holders on her father’s land came seeking payment as Bennett had taken out mortgages when he purchased the land, which had lain dormant until 1896. Marcelena Watson of Detroit, Michigan, purchased the land for the outstanding $1,123 debt.
The land was sold again in 1911 to George H. Hall, a real estate broker, who subdivided the property, selling 50 acres to William M. Wilkins in 1913. Wilkins willed the remaining land to his son, Luther B. “Burt” Wilkins, who lived at the brick granary farm until 1950. He sold it to Paris Johnson who raised his five children there and, upon his death, the land was passed to them. His youngest son, Marvin, kept his 13-acre parcel while the remainder was sold to Elmer and Mary Ann Fannin in 2000.
The site of the brick granary, bult at the time America was becoming a country, sits behind the Fannin home facing Cedar Creek. Their home has the center portion of the house built by Henry Watson in 1860. The original Cedar Creek channel has been cut off and shortened by a highway bridge built in 1924, which means Rogersville no longer exists. Sailing ships can no longer coast along the creek, but the history is still significant.
