Delaware - Day 23 - Methodists and Milford

Trap Pond State Park
Wednesday, 23 January 2019

During our second walk just before leaving Killens Pond, I took some photos of some trees I'd seen

but something happened to split off one of the trees

it probably once looked like this

Those conjoined trees are pretty common but I've wondered whether they're actually just one tree or 2 trees that grew so close together that they joined during their growth.  The pair on the right above make it look like they were 2 trees, but I still can't tell for sure.  At a campground a few months ago, I saw a tree that had lost half itself to lightning (the owner told me) and that split looked about as dramatic as this one.

today's route

Killens Pond is only about 15-20 minutes away from Barratt's Chapel which I've been wanting to visit, so since I'll be spending the rest of the month farther south I stopped by today.

Barratt's Chapel, the Cradle of American Methodism
John and Charles Wesley, brothers in 18th century England, founded a movement to change the Church of England by emphasizing personal faith and moral responsibility as Christians.  At first their changes were within the Anglican faith, but eventually they founded the Wesleyan Methodist Church - people who followed the methods of the Wesleys.  (Methods - Methodists - get it?)

Their beliefs gained followers in the American colonies and Methodist societies were formed here and there.  One of those places was about halfway between Dover and Milford where, in 1780, the first church specifically for a Methodist Society was built: Barratt's Chapel (named for the landowner).

Barratt's Chapel - still used for occasional services and weddings

These historical markers give some of the details of these early days.

Next to the chapel is a museum, built in 1964, that has a number of artifacts of the early days of Methodism in Delaware, including items used by the circuit riders 150 years ago.

The docent at the museum was a long-lost twin sister: she and I were born in the same year, graduated high school the same year, grew up as Methodists, had fathers who were Masons - but when I went off to college, she got married.  Still, it was interesting to talk to her.

I asked her where the name of the Cokesbury Hymnal that I grew up with came from, and she said nobody knows for sure now.  A man named Ezekiel Cooper (1763-1847) was at Barratt's Chapel when Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury met; he was a leader in Methodism and later branched into publishing.  His Cokesbury Publishing Co. became a very profitable arm of the church.  Presumably he combined the names of the 2 men, but they don't have any information to confirm it at Barratt's Chapel.

Now, get ready for some convolutions, or skip down 3 paragraphs.  The church established here in America in the 1760s and '70s was originally called the Methodist Episcopal Church.  In 1830 a variation called the Methodist Protestant Church was established.  In 1939 they joined together as the Methodist Church.

Meanwhile, rising from the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, in 1800 the Church of the United Brethren in Christ was formed and, in 1803 the Evangelical Association was formed.  These were originally German-speaking churches, closely related to Methodists.  In 1922 the Evangelical Association merged with the United Evangelical Church (an upstart dating only from 1891) to form the Evangelical Church.  This then merged with the United Brethren in 1946 to become the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

Finally in 1968 the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to become the United Methodist Church.  Which is what it is today.  (Whew.  And people expect world peace to be possible.)

There's a lot more at the chapel site, including a cemetery that was used by the original church and is still being used today.  The museum has many old books, some furniture and communion sets - lots of stuff once used in the church.

The docent also showed me inside the chapel and described the changes that had been made over the years as folks transitioned from a fireplace to woodburning stoves to central heating, and from candles to electric lights.  It's a pleasant place and I can see why people might want to have their weddings there, though there aren't any cushions on the narrow wooden seats.

Although the outside looks dilapidated, the inside's not at all.  That photo I took is the way it looked when I visited, and as you might be able to tell, some of the windows aren't there these days.  That's likely at least in part due to limited funding for this site, but also partly due to utilities - it's cold in Delaware at least as much as it's hot, and a lot of glass windows makes for heat transfer.  Inside it's a very pleasant, though somewhat dim, place.  I know the woman told me they've installed any original windows they could find, on the left side of the chapel (sadly, invisible in my photo).  It's still not a bright and sunny place inside, though.

Milford
Milford is less than 10 miles from the chapel, and I wanted to go back to take some photos I couldn't take last Sunday because of the weather.  So I went.

Milford dates back to the 1700s and was likely an agricultural center at first.  But from the late 1700s until just after WWII, the ship-building industry took hold.  The Mispillion River runs right through town and a number of shipyards located themselves on the river, even in the center of town.  milfordlive.com/history-of-shipyard

The gingerbread on the house in the photo is common throughout town, as are much larger porches than this one.

The Salvation Army has a series of murals on the side of its downtown building, showing pieces of local history.  That's where I took these photos.

pea crop processing

Methodist church

I had to stare for a long time at the drawing of the pea crop before I could see that, what looked like bushes planted along the street were actually carts that were overloaded with plants - pea plants waiting their turn to be processed.

Old Calvary Church, as shown in the drawing on the right, burned down in 1951 and was rebuilt in the same location, which is about 2 blocks from this drawing.  The 1957 rebuild just doesn't have the same charm the original had.

ship launch

riverwalk

The mural on the left shows a 1900 launch of a locally-built ship.

The photo on the right shows one of the less picturesque sections of the town's riverwalk.  Most of it runs through town, which is now very spiffed up and full of art galleries and restaurants and theaters.  I wanted to take a picture of part of that but couldn't get any kind of vantage point on it.

Milford seems small but actually has about 10,000 residents and is growing quickly, being quite near the beaches and the highways and the capitol, but not actually part of any of it.  It sounds to me like it's given up on being an industrial center for anything and going all out for tourism dollars instead.  They've got 2-hour free parking downtown, so they can't be bad.

And then ...
I took the dogs down to their day care, where Dexter predictably was overjoyed and Gracie was pretty pleased, and watched them race around and have some fun being back.  And then I left them for a couple of nights, figuring we could all use the change.

I saw that I was already back down to less than ¼ tank of propane and, never mind that the temperature tonight was predicted to be the same as during the day tomorrow - in the 50s - I figured I'd better fill back up.  I went back to the Liberty station a couple miles from the campground, where I've been before and will doubtless be again before the month is out.

Then Lily and I went to Trap Pond and got "my" campsite back, and I booked in for the rest of the month, my same friendly campground office person being on duty to squeeze me in.  There's a whole extra camper besides me here - that makes 2 paying guests.