The Foote-Pyle House

The Foote-Pyle House today

In the last post, we focused on the portion of John Huey's 1725 tract that became the Mendenhall-Pierson farm. Its early 18th Century house (the county lists it as 1734) still stands on the south side of Graves Road. But just north of the Mendenhall-Pierson House, part way up Sawin Lane, is a house that the county says was built in 1729. This is the smaller of the two homes, but it could very well be the older of the two. And, as best as I can tell, it was part of the same tract purchased by John Huey in 1725. One possible explanation for the two homes is that this northern one was built first, by John, Sr., and the southern one a few years later either by or for his son.

I've done my best to trace the land under this northern house, to varying degrees of success. It may have been part of land that John Wat bought in 1762, or it might not have been. Bolstering that idea is the fact that there is a connection to John McBeath, the man who ultimately inherited Wat's land. In 1810, McBeath's son Robert sold 107½ acres to William Foote, who in 1840 sold it to his son William. The next place I lose track of it is where it intersects with the land of another family mentioned in the Mendenhall-Pierson post-- the Pyles.

In 1861, William Foote, Jr. sold 30 acres (that may or may not be the same tract we'll follow) to Cyrus Pyle. Cyrus Pyle was a leather manufacturer from Wilmington, and the son of Isaac Pyle, who owned land directly north of where we're talking about. Cyrus was also the brother of William Pyle, who was the father of artists Howard and Katherine (Katherine was the mother of Ellen Pyle Lawrence, previously mentioned as a later owner of the Mendenhall-Pierson House). In 1868, Cyrus Pyle sold 77 acres to James C. Jackson, the owner of the Dixon-Jackson House in Hockessin. The main takeaway from this is that I don't believe any of these men lived in the old, small house. The tract was almost certainly leased to a tenant farmer.

That may have changed, though, in 1872. In February of that year, Jackson sold a bit more than 31 acres (that had been part of the 77 he bought in '68) to an Irish immigrant named Michael Donohoe (or Donohue). There were a few Michael Donohues around, but I think this one was a laborer from Wilmington. He may have lived in MCH, but he was listed in Wilmington in the 1880 Census. The 1872 deed specifically stated that the property included the messuage, or house, so we can be confident that this is the correct tract. Also, Donahue is shown on the 1881 map, marking the first time that all three houses (Peoples, Pierson, and now Donahue) are shown.

1881 map showing all three (Peoples, Pierson, Donahue) houses

Whether or not Michael Donahoe farmed his MCH property, he owned it for for a dozen years, selling it in 1884 to Isaac S. Fredd. Fredd apparently came upon hard times a few years later, as the farm was sold in a sheriff's sale in 1889 to Frederick Pyle. Yes, Pyle. Frederick was the son of Cyrus Pyle, who had owned the land some 20 odd years earlier. (Also, Isaac Fredd's mother was Elizabeth Jane Pyle, but I've been unable to connect her to the other Pyles that keep popping up.) Frederick Pyle had succeeded his father as head of the family leather factory in Wilmington, so, again, I'm pretty sure the farm would have been rented out.

It was at this point that I was about to admit defeat and just rattle off the names of the last few residents of the house. Frederick Pyle bought and sold a lot of properties around that time, and there are literally hundreds of land transfers listed under his name. I don't have the time or energy to do the grunt work of plowing through them all to see when he sold the property, especially since I thought he might have been the one to split it up (meaning there would have been multiple sales). But Dick Joyce had told me that an older woman named Satterthwait had lived there in the 50's, so I decided to give it one last shot. (No pun below intended.) Much more information was to follow.

Bob Joyce shooting skeet in his backyard in 1957,
with the Foote-Pyle House in the background

At first I thought she might have been related to the Satterthwaits who lived in Stanton, but that didn't turn out to be the case. I couldn't find any deeds in the area under the name Satterthwait, so as a last resort I looked at the 1940 Census. There, just above William Peoples, C. Paul Rigdon (who owned the 38 acres north of Graves Road sold off by Taylor Pierson), and John Whiteside (who was farming the Mendenhall-Pierson farm for his brother William), were Donald and Ann Satterthwait. She was 44 in 1940, which would have made her an "old woman" to a kid 15 years later. They were listed as renters, which explained why I could find no deed for them. And another document, a first of its kind for me, explains who they rented from.

1940 Census showing the residents along Graves Road

When Dick Joyce told me about Mrs. Satterthwait, he also said he remembered her working at the neighboring Sanford Preparatory School. Therefore, he guessed that the house might have been owned by the Sawin family, owners of the school. Turns out he was right! I found a 20 year lease between Philip Q. and Dorothy M. Sawin and Donald and Ann Satterthwait from 1937, the first time I've ever run across a lease in the state records. Upon further review and finding other documents, I now think this lease was actually for another old Foote house down closer to Mill Creek Road. The Sawins sold the tract (over 66 acres) that included the Satterthwait's house to Edward Mellon in 1941. My guess is that the Satterthwaits moved to the Foote-Pyle House soon thereafter. And incidentally, Donald Satterthwait was a Yale-educated engineer who also served in the Army in World War I. And in true Mill Creek Hundred fashion, he has a "connection". It turns out, his mother, Lucy, was the daughter of Joshua T. Heald, Hockessin native and Wilmington real estate magnate.

But after getting the Sawin connection, I was able to then go back and fill in what had been the "missing" years of the 31+ acre tract. Last we saw of it, it was owned by Frederick Pyle, Wilmington leather manufacturer. I was able to find that he sold our 31 acres, along with two other adjoining tracts of 47 and 45 acres to his son Henry in 1902. Henry Pyle then sold all three of them to Elwood J. Sharpe, a Wilmington bricklayer, in 1906. Sharpe sold the same tracts two months later to William C. Matthews.

William C. Matthews was an engineer with (as several later area residents would be) DuPont. The Matthews' primary home was the Belvedere Apartments on Delaware Avenue in Wilmington (across from the New Century Club, now the Delaware Children's Theater), but as the clipping above from 1912 shows, they did use their farm as a summer home. They did this, in fact, up until Mr. Matthews' death at Pine Glen in 1928. And if you scroll back up a bit and look again at the 1881 map, you'll see Pine Glen shown as the residence of George Van Fleet. This is the same property previously owned by Isaac and then Cyrus Pyle, and reunited with our 31 acre lot by Frederick Pyle. And if you know the area and/or have been paying attention, you know where this is going next.

In 1929, William Matthews' estate sold the Pine Glen Farm, along with the 31 acres and the old stone house on its southern end, to Ellen and Sanford Sawin for use as their new Sunny Hills school. It seems that the Sawins used the property as housing for school employees, first with the Satterthwaits and then, sometime in the early 60's, for the family of Bill Wingerd. Wingerd was a member of the school's administration from 1955 until 1966. The Sawins referred to the house as "The Haven", but I don't know if that was their invention or if the name was used previously. Sanford has sold off much of their surrounding properties over the years, presumably because the encroaching suburbs have made their dedicated housing unnecessary. The Foote-Pyle House may have been sold off sometime in the early 1970's, and appears to have been under loving care ever since.

This relatively small, fairly out-of-the-way area of Mill Creek Hundred along Graves Road is not one that most people probably give much thought to. But as you can see, even places like this can have fascinating stories of their own once you start looking for them.