The Levi McCormick House

The Levi McCormick House

Back in 2012, I wrote a post about the Randolph Peters Nurseries, located on the western end of Mill Creek Hundred. I now want to revisit not Peters, but the house shown here and on that post, which at the time I very hesitantly said might have been his. Thanks to inquiries from the current owner of this beautiful home and much better information available this time, I can now unequivocally state that this was not Randolph Peters' home, although it was in his family for a short time.

This is what I've chosen to call the Levi McCormick House, although the history of the land (and almost certainly of the house) goes back much further than McCormick's arrival in 1879. The farm was originally part of a larger tract that extended all the way up to Possum Park Road, but was down to about 105 acres by the time Nivin Caldwell acquired it sometime before 1777. Caldwell died in 1787, and in 1795 his widow Agnes sold a tract of about 72 acres to another widow, Mary Black. The farm was approximately the shaded area seen below, located east of Newark and on the north bank of White Clay Creek.

Approximate outline of the 72 acres sold to Mary Black in 1795

Mary Black was the widow of James Black, a prominent farmer, miller, and civic personality in the area. The Caldwell and Black families were obviously close, as James was one of the witnesses to Nivin Caldwell's 1787 will. Mary Black undoubtedly rented out the farm for the 15 years she owned it, until she sold to a member of another soon-to-be prominent family. In February 1810, the 72+ acre farm was purchased by Pennsylvania-born Isaac Jeanes. Isaac was the brother of Abel Jeanes, who along with brother-in-law David Eastburn began the lime business a short distance north. Isaac and Abel's sister Elizabeth married David Eastburn, and was the matriarch of the Eastburns of Mill Creek Hundred.

Isaac farmed the property until his death in 1830, and his widow Sarah remained until her own passing in 1856. By 1864, the only heirs still in the area seemed to be the children of daughter Eliza Jeanes, who had married Thomas Bradley. The Bradley kids sold to one of their own (Francis), who sold the farm out of the family a couple months later. The identity of the next buyer brings us back to where we started, and allows me to clear up the confusion from the earlier post. The next owner of Isaac Jeanes' farm was William M. Peters, the son of Randolph Peters.

Whether the purchase was part of expanding the nursery operation, or if William was farming (or having someone farm) on his own, I don't know. What is clear, however, is that the two houses shown on the 1868 map for Randolph are noticeably west of the one owned at the time by William. (There is one more Randolph house further west which wasn't part of the confusion. Also, this map shows William's house after the bend in the road, when it should have been just before it. All other maps show it correctly.) The lower illustration below shows the location of William's home (the McCormick House) and the approximate locations of the now-lost Peters houses.

The area in 1868

Locations of two of Randolph Peters' houses, and of the Levi McCormick House

Now that that's straightened out, we can move on. And speaking of moving on, so did William Peters. But before he did, apparently his money did, too, because in March 1874 the tract was sold at a sheriff's sale to Mansel Tweed. (The debt that prompted the sale, incidentally, was to the same Francis Bradley he purchased from, so it was probably a mortgage debt.) Mansel Tweed probably used this as a rental farm, or if he didn't at first, he soon did. Mansel's father, John Tweed, died in 1875. If Mansel wasn't already running the family's mill on White Clay Creek above Newark, he soon would be. Consequently, in March 1879, Tweed sold the property to the man for whom I've decided to name the house -- Levi McCormick.

Sgt. Levi McCormick

Levi McCormick (1827-1906) was the son of Lewis and Ann Zebly McCormick, and grew up in the area around Corner Ketch. He served as a sergeant in the 4th Regiment Delaware Volunteers, Company E in the Civil War. His neighbors growing up were the Tweeds -- John's father Robert owned the farm next door. In 1853 Levi married Tamar Worrall, and the couple would have seven children, five of whom survived into adulthood. They lived first on or near Levi's home farm in Corner Ketch, then I think they lived for a time on Tamar's father Joseph's farm on Polly Drummond Hill Road. But in 1879 they moved to the farm down by the White Clay.

Inscriptions in the attic of the Levi McCormick House, both sons of former owners

There's no question that the house that stands now along Old Paper Mill Road is the house that the McCormicks moved into in '79. The photo above is of plaster on the chimney in the attic of the rear addition to the house. The inscription in the upper left is "J W M 1881". This would be Joseph Worrall McCormick, Levi's oldest child. I think it means that they built this addition just a couple years after they moved in, although it's possible that they only redid the plaster. The main fieldstone section of the house has not yet been definitively dated, but I think it's quite possible judging from the style that it could go back as far as Nivin Caldwell prior to the Revolution.

In addition to his farming, Levi McCormick kept himself involved in the community in other ways, too. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), a fraternal organization comprised of Union Army veterans. In 1881, he helped set up Post No. 9 G.A.R. at the Mermaid Tavern. He was even injured in the war, at the Battle of Globe Tavern in August 1864. He came home with a minie ball in his arm, and a family story says that years later his grandkids could feel and push the projectile around. In 1882, Levi was a candidate for Levy Court for the Greenback Labor Party. The Greenback Labor Party was an early populist and progressive party, which ran on a platform of anti-monopolism, currency reform, and labor rights. Since the newspaper article announcing their local slate is sub-headed "They Show Their Nerve by Placing a County Ticket in the Field", you can guess that he was not successful in his foray into politics.

Left to right: Deborah McCormick Hobson, Tamar Worrall McCormick,
Mary Louise McCormick Murray

After Levi's death in 1906, eldest son Joseph (and his wife and son) remained on the farm, along with Tamar. After Tamar's passing in 1913, it was time to sell the property out of the family, but not out of the area. The man listed immediately after the McCormicks in the 1910 Census was a 43-year old bank cashier named James David Jaquette, and it was to him that they sold the now 75 acre farm. Jaquette grew up on his father's farm near Milford Crossroads, on the fantastically-named Possum Hollow Road. He graduated from Delaware College (now UD) in 1889, and according to his obituary was an noted educator around the turn of the century.

Jaquette worked for a bank in Newark when he bought the McCormick Farm, but since the 1920 Census lists him as a farmer, it seems like he had a career change, at least for a while. By 1930, perhaps due to his age (63), Jaquette was back in the banking industry. James David Jaquette died in April 1949, and a year later his children sold a little more than 11 acres of the tract to Robert and Joan Woodruff. (Incidentally, the "ACJ 1925" part of the inscription shown earlier was for Amos Campbell Jaquette, the youngest of the Jaquette sons.)

Approximately the 11 acres sold to the Woodruffs, now the McCormick House and Paper Mill Falls

The Woodruffs stayed for a while, then the house was owned by the Anderson family in the 1950's and 60's. In the 1970's, when the Ayers family owned the property, they held dances and social events in the large stone barn that stood on the east side of the house. When the property was purchased by a developer in the late 1990's, the stone barn was demolished, but thankfully the house was spared. The home's current owner, Drew Pettingill, has given great care to the house, as well as doing research into its history. Interestingly enough, this is not Drew's first experience with a historic MCH home. For much of his life, his family rented the Cox-Mitchell House (Ocasson) in Hockessin, giving him a true appreciation for older houses. Research into the precise age of the house is still ongoing, but whether it turns out to be 150, 200, or 250 years old, the future of the Levi McCormick House looks bright.