Delaware

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

one of the original thirteen states. It lies on the west shore of Delaware Bay. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York are its neighbors. Area, 2,050 square miles. It is intermediate in size between Rhode Island and Connecticut. By the twelfth census the population was reported at 168,493. The state consists of three counties--Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex. The capital is Dover, situated near the central part of the state. Wilmington, the metropolis, is a manufacturing city. It has an excellent harbor. It has long been noted as a shipbuilding center. The first iron sailing vessel built in this country left the docks of Wilmington in 1854. The style of making printers' paper in large rolls instead of sheets was introduced here in 1817. The greatest powder works in America, those of the Du Ponts, are located near Wilmington. Large canning works, flour mills, boiler factories, car shops, and tanneries are among the manufacturing industries. Morocco leather is dressed in large quantities. The northern county is rough or rolling. Granite, kaolin, suitable for porcelain, and brick and terra cotta clays are among the most prominent mineral productions. The shipbuilding industry has about exhausted the white oak of the region. Valuable cypress is still found around the edges of the swamps, in which wild fowls abound. Delaware is the most decidedly agricultural state in the Union. The three counties represent roughly quite distinct physical regions. The farther south, the more level the surface and the sandier the soil. Eighty per cent of the entire state is included in farms. Sixty per cent is under actual cultivation, a greater proportion than in any other state of the Union. Grain raising and general farming are carried on to some extent in Newcastle County, but the greater part of the state is devoted to gardening and raising of fruit for the markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. In some years as many as 4,000,000 baskets of peaches are marketed, with other orchard fruits, as pears, apples, and plums in proportion. Immense quantities of blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are raised. Tomatoes and sweet corn are put up by the million cans. The dairy interests of the state are also important. The first settlement in Delaware was made by the Dutch in 1631. In 1638 the Swedes colonized this region, the only attempt made by them to gain a footing in the New World. An old Swede church built in 1698 still stands in Wilmington. In 1655 Governor Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam, now New York, required the Swedes to submit to Dutch control. In 1682 the colony passed with New Amsterdam under English rule. In 1683, in order to control the Delaware River, William Penn bought the colony. It was a part of Pennsylvania until the time of the Revolutionary War. Delaware was the first state to ratify the national Constitution. At the outbreak of the Civil War it was a slave-holding state, but, being under Northern rather than Southern influence, did not secede. The state is represented in Congress by one representative and, of course, two senators. The name is derived from that of the river and bay, which were named for Lord de la Warr. STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources: Land area, square miles 1,960 Population 197,000 Wilmington 88,000 Dover 3,500 No. counties 3 Members of state senate 17 Representatives 35 Salary of governor $4,000 U. S. representatives 1 Presidential electors 3 Assessed valuation of property $76,000,000 Bonded indebtedness $816,785 Acres under plow 754,010 Agricultural Products-- Corn, bushels 5,000,000 Wheat, bushels 1,800,000 Oats, bushels 131,000 Barley, bushels 40 Tobacco, pounds 2,000 Fruits, sales $961,000 Butter, pounds 2,000,000 Eggs, dozen 35,000,000 Domestic Animals-- Horses 35,000 Mules 5,000 Cattle 55,000 Sheep 12,000 Swine 46,000 Goats 143 Peach trees 2,500,000 Tomatoes, acres 16,000 Miles of railway 335 Manufacturing establishments 1,417 Capital invested $50,000,000 Operatives 20,567 Wages $9,000,000 Raw material $24,000,000 Output of manufactured goods $41,000,000 Output of leather $10,000,000 Lumber products $250,000 Output of minerals $431,000 Teachers in public schools 822 Pupils enrolled 35,239 Percentage of male teachers 17.4 Average monthly salary of men teachers $72.82 Average monthly salary of women teachers $40.22 Average annual expenditure per pupil $17.93