» ASTATE

DIVIDED 1: Tidbit:

The Chesapeake & DelawareCanal is the colloquial line

between the more suburban andurban upstate and the more rural downstate.

Downstate is also known as Lower Delaware, but upstate is not called UpperDelaware (that’s a section of New York).

2: Fun fact: William H. Williams in “Man and Nature in Delaware” sug-gests Delaware can also be divided by the Christina River in Wilmington, theSmyrna River on the New Castle-Kent line and even the Mispillion River inSussex. He then quotes some historic observations about the differences. Thenorth, illustrator Howard Pyle wrote in 1879, has “the vim and progress ofmodern utilitarianism,” while below that is the “indolence peculiar to south-ern life.” In 1934, Henry Seidel Canby noted that Wilmington was “austereand northern,” while the land further south an “alien state.”

3: Really fun fact: Delaware also is divided from top to bottom bythe peninsular divide, a natural feature meaning water on the west sideflows to the Chesapeake Bay and on the east to the Delaware Bay. Beforethe 1764 Mason-Dixon line, Maryland claimed most of the western side asDurham County, according to the Delaware Genealogical Society’s “DelawareFamilies 1787-1800.”

» THE COUNTIES1: Tidbit: Delawarehas the fewest coun-ties of any state:three.

2: Funfact:Some stick-lers say that’snot true.Louisiana,which was

developed from French governmental traditions,has parishes. Alaska, with all its wide-open spaces,has boroughs. And Connecticut and Rhode Islandhave counties that were eliminated as govern-ments in 1960 and 1842, respectively.

3: Really fun fact: New Castle, Kentand Sussex started out with different namesby European settlers. New Castle was NewAmstel (Nieuw Amstel to the Dutch). Kentwas St. Jones. And Sussex was Deale. Thedownstate counties were togetherWhorekill (also spelled Hoerekill,Hoerenkil, Hoerenkill, Horekil, Horekillor Hoorekill, according to DelDOT andthe Lewes Historical Society, whichtranslates them all from the Dutch asmeaning “Harlot’s Creek.”

» BIG CITY1: Tidbit: The first Europeans tocolonize what is now Wilmingtonwere Swedes who sailed over in 1638.They named it Fort Christina, for theirqueen.

2: Fun fact: Wilmington was laidout in 1731 by Thomas Willing. Hisname lives on in Willingtown Square, adowntown block with four historic build-ings.

3: Really fun fact: Wilmingtonwas also known as Christinaham and Altenae.The latter name lives on in a band and a com-pany or two.

» STATE HOLIDAYS1: Tidbit: Delaware is known as the First State because it was thefirst to ratify the U.S. Constitution, on Dec. 7, 1787. The anniversary is cel-ebrated as Delaware Day.

2: Fun fact: Return Day is a political ritual every other year inGeorgetown. Its website (www.returnday.org/history) says the first cele-bration was maybe in 1792, following a 1791 law that moved the SussexCounty seat from Lewes. The law “required all votes to be cast in thenew county seat on election day. The same voters would ‘return’ twodays later to hear the results – hence the name Return Day.” Events nowinclude politicians burying a ceremonial hatchet, an ox roast and aparade.

3: Really fun fact: Separation Day marks the separation ofDelaware from anything else. “June 15th of the fateful year of 1776 wasa momentous date for the people of Delaware,” the city of New Castlewrites on http://newcastlecity.delaware.gov/visitors-information/all-events-listing/separation-day. “On that day the Colonial Assembly tookthe drastic step of proclaiming the little colony (the Three LowerCounties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex-upon-Delaware) separate andindependent from Great Britain and free from any ties with the propri-etary Penn family. The revolutionary measure enacted in the Old State(Court) House in New Castle paved the way for the for-mation of the new ‘Delaware state,’ first among theoriginal 13 states. … Historic New Castle celebratesSeparation Day, Delaware’s birthday, each year onthe second Saturday in June with a full dayand evening of festivities.”

» THE CHICKENINDUSTRY1: Tidbit: Sussex County has the largestchicken population of any county in thenation – “nearly twice as many as the secondleading county, Cullman County, Alabama,” thecounty says.

2: Fun fact: The modern chicken industry,with chicks raised in quantity, was revolution-

ized by Ocean View farmers Cecile andWilmer Steele in 1923. Delmarva’s broiler industry beganwith WhiteLeghorns, according to William H. Williams, in “Delmarva’s ChickenIndustry: 75 Years of Progress.” They may have been productiveegg layers, but they weren’t very meaty, so they were replaced

within a decade by the Barred Plymouth Rock and the Rock Red Cross,he writes.

3: Really fun fact: Illegal chickens were the reason theU.S. Army staffed a checkpoint on the du Pont Highway near

Dover on July 21, 1943. According to Williams, truckers head-ing north with broilers “were required to produce papers

demonstrating that the chickens had been sold to them atthe legal ceiling prices or less.” Chickens without papers

were requisitioned (and eaten?) by the Army at theOffice of Price Administration’s price.

» AWARD-WINNINGACTRESSES1: Tidbit: Delaware’s Aubrey Plaza

was named favorite movie actress in a 2012comedy or musical by the American Latino

Media Arts competition. It wasfor her first top-billed role, in“Safety Not Guaranteed,” a storyabout journalists (some of ourfavorite people) investigating atime traveler.

2: Fun fact: Barbara BelGeddes summered in Delawarewhile her second husband,Windsor Lewis, produced showsat what is now the NewCandlelight in Ardetown. Herawards include the ClarenceDerwent and Donaldson for

Broadway and Emmy, GoldenGlobe and Golden Camera as Miss Ellie on TV’s original “Dallas.”

3: Really fun fact: Delaware native Estelle Taylor has a star onthe Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her credits includes the silent version of “TheTen Commandments” in 1923 and the Oscar-winning “Cimarron” in 1931.Her second husband was boxing champion Jack Dempsey, and theyappeared on Broadway in 1928 in a play based upon Dempsey’s life.

» DUPONTSANDTHEIR ANIMALS

1: Tidbit: The du Ponts madetheir fortune with black powder. Their second business was wool, from afamous flock of sheep, called Merinos. For centuries, Spain had closely guard-ed its renowned Merino flocks, noted for the finest fleeces in the world.Several Americans were able to pry a few Merinos out of Europe. RobertLivingston in New York, David Humphreys in Connecticut, and the du Ponts inDelaware were particularly active in promoting the breed.

2: Fun fact: When Don Pedro (the lead Merino sheep) died, the familyreceived condolences from across the country, including a letter from ThomasJefferson. That’s according to Winterthur, the former du Pont estate that in2007 reintroduced sheep, thanks to a breeding program by Greenbank Mill.

3: Really fun fact: A Holstein cow named Winterthur BoastOrmsby Ganne set a world record in 1933, for producing 1,004.2 pounds ofbutterfat. Her daily average was eight gallons of milk.

OF AIR, WATER AND LAND1: Tidbit: ILG is the code for New Castle Airport in airline systems.

2: Fun fact: When Delaware became the first state, America’s largestconcentration of flour mills was on the Brandywine and Red Clay creeks,according to Greenbank Mill, which recreates life of the early republic, 1790-1830, from holdings near Prices Corner. These creeks also provided freepower for other mills, like du Pont’s gunpowder works. That’s why manyroads have “mill” in their name.

3: Really fun fact: In 1919,Pierre du Pont bought the Kennett Pike for$70,000 to ease his commute betweenDuPont offices and his home near KennettSquare, Pennsylvania (now LongwoodGardens). Carol Hoffecker, in “CorporateCapital,” says the DuPont Engineering Co.modernized the road and turned it over tothe state the next year, “on the conditionthat it prohibit the laying of trolley rails orthe erection of billboards.” Other Delaware(turn)pikes were named for the tolls theyonce charged.

TALL TALES, LIES & FICTION1: Tidbit: The first U.S. bathing beauty pageant took place in RehobothBeach in 1880 with inventor Thomas Alva Edison as a judge. Sorry, despitewhat you can see online, it’s a myth. Patrick Robertson, in “Robertson’s Bookof Firsts,” says Rehoboth wasn’t even a resort with bathing beau-ties then (it had been founded in 1872 as a Methodist campmeeting) and that Edison was “tinkering in his laboratory”on the dates in question. Rich Barnett, onwww.rehobothgocup.com, tracks it down to a historyof the Miss America pageant by Frank Deford thatquotes a sometimes-sloppy antiquarian. “Recentscholars have been unable to find solid evidence ofsuch a pageant,” Barnett concludes.

2: Fun fact: “Fight Club” is set inWilmington. We’re going to break the first rule andsay that’s not true about the 1999 classic. It was toomuch of a hassle, director David Fincher says on theDVD. “We wanted to make the film to take place inWilmington, Delaware, but there’s some kind of clear-ance issues if it’s a specific town. But our homage toWilmington is that the, I believe the Delaware state mottois ‘Delaware: a place to be somebody.’ So, we decided toput, on the Pearson Towers, their little logo on the brass sign is“a place to be somebody.” Fincher is off on his Delawareness: themotto is Wilmington’s. The novel the film is based on is also not exact on thelocation. Of course, nearby cities are mentioned, and there’s a telltale ZIPcode, but the only surefire Wilmington-ness is that some scenes were shot inWilmington, California.

3: Really fun fact: When the DuPont Co. started selling nylonstockings, some women lied to acquire the coveted fashion. Their lies are thetruth. Sales – three pairs per woman – needed a Wilmington address, so somegot hotel rooms to qualify, Adrian Kinnane writes in “DuPont: From theBanks of the Brandywine to Miracles of Science.”

NEXT WEEK: A preview of the upcoming November electionONLINE QUIZ AND INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC Test how much you’ve learned about DELAWARE TRIVIA at delawareonline.com/didyouknow

DELAWARE

Aubrey Plaza

Kennett Pike

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Delawarenative andactressEstelleTaylor

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Design by Dan Garrow/The News Journal

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By Ken Mammarella