Delaware

History from News Journal Feb. 1-7 with bank collapse, rising inflation

Published

2 months ago

January 31, 2026

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History from News Journal Feb. 1-7 with bank collapse, rising inflation

Excerpts from The News Journal archives from Feb. 1-7 include a sea rescue with a twist in 1926.
A Delaware bank was seeking a bailout in 1976.
Inflation was hitting Delawareans hard in 2006 with hikes in housing, electricity, heating costs, groceries, gasoline and insurance.

“Pages of history” features excerpts from The News Journal archives including The Morning News and The Evening Journal. See the archives at delawareonline.com.

Feb. 2, 1926, The Evening Journal

Captain in Florida saved from ship by Delaware relative

Mrs. Fred Martin of Laurel, wife of Captain Fred Martin, master of the schooner Richmond, this morning received a telegram from her husband stating that he had rescued Captain Roland F. Quillen and wife and crew from the schooner Jacob Hook, abandoned off the coast of Vero Beach, Fla.

A strange coincidence in connection with the rescue is the fact that Captain Martin is the brother-in-law of Captain Quillen.

The Jacob Hook was lumber laden from Beaufort, N.C., to Miami, Fla., where the Quillens are to spend the winter. Mrs. Quillen insisted on making the trip with her husband.

It is supposed the Jacob Hook became disabled in the storm off Florida.

Another unusual coincidence is that Captain Martin until a few months ago was master of the Jacob Hook. When he took charge of the Richmond, he turned the Hook over to his brother-in-law.

Both Captain Martin and Captain Quillen live in Laurel.

Captain Quillen was nominated for State Treasurer on the Democratic ticket several years ago. His brother, John Quillen, is Clerk of the Peace of Sussex County.

Feb. 4, 1976, The Morning News

Farmers Bank gets 3 rescue offers

Three potential investors have expressed interest in providing badly needed capital to the financially troubled Farmers Bank of the State of Delaware.

The bank has asked the state for $10 million to $20 million to shore up its finances after sustaining a $9 million loss in 1975 – chiefly from bad loans.

In a hastily called meeting last night, directors of Farmers heard of feelers from an insurance company, another bank and a wealthy Miami Beach investor with Delaware ties. Directors declined to identify the insurance company or the interested bank. …

Gov. Sherman W. Tribbitt characterized one of the feelers as an offer, and, in a brief appearance at the directors meeting, urged the bank to accept it. It came from Victor Posner, wealthy chairman of the NVF Corp. of Yorklyn. …

Tribbitt said Posner had offered to put up $15 million of his personal funds in exchange for preferred stock in the bank. Tribbitt said the state could find another $5 million from unspent capital improvement and divestiture funds to provide the needed total of $20 million. …

The board meeting was called by eight of the nine directors who represent the state’s interest in the bank. The state already owns 49.3% of the bank’s common stock and is the bank’s largest depositor with more than $100 million currently in time and demand accounts….

Farmers Chairman A. Edwards Danforth has been under fire from legislators since last Wednesday when the bank’s difficulties first were revealed to state officials….

Tribbitt rebuked the Farmers chairman for blaming the bank’s problems on its relationship with the state. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said the major problem was the bank’s real estate loans, Tribbitt told reporters.

The governor said he continues to support divestiture of the state’s ownership in the bank.

A summary of the FDIC examination obtained by The Morning News shows the ratio of problem loans to bank assets had risen to more than double the accepted danger level. …

The bank’s $124 million portfolio of securities – stocks and bonds – was worth $11 million less than the original purchase price.

The FDIC report listed $31.3 million in capital accounts – stocks, bonds and retained earnings – and showed $4.5 million in reserves for loan losses, a total of $35.8 million.

The report showed the bank had $73.1 million in classified assets, mainly problem loans and securities losses. Classified loans amounted to $66.8 million. Of that total, $50.7 million were listed as substandard, $6.3 million as doubtful and $9.8 million as lost.

Farmers Bank acknowledged last night that the bank is in technical default on $9 million it borrowed in recent years to buttress its capital. But Farmers President Edward W. Hagemeyer said the two New York banks that hold the capital notes are not pressing for immediate payment and are allowing Farmers to continue making interest payments.

Feb. 5, 2006, Sunday News Journal

The rising cost of everything: Expect to spend hundreds more a month

When retiree Charles Kolodjeski moved into his Little Heaven manufactured home south of Dover in 1986, his monthly expenses totaled $500.

He estimates he now spends $2,500 to $3,000 a month on food, land rent, gasoline, health care, insurance, utilities and incidentals. …

Like residents across the state, Kolodjeski, 74, is facing even greater cost-of-living increases this year. From gasoline prices and heating bills to health care and housing costs, many Delawareans are going to be shelling out hundreds of dollars more each month.

The extra cost can mean real trouble for many in a state the U.S. Census Bureau estimates had a median income of $50,315 in 2004, with 79,682 of the state’s 830,364 people living below the federal poverty line.

And other increases could be coming soon. Property tax hikes loom in New Castle County, and many school districts are facing shortfalls. State officials are talking about higher tolls and fees for driver’s licenses and car registrations.

Come May, Delmarva Power electricity customers will begin paying nearly 60% more to keep the air conditioning humming.

“No matter how you turn, they get you,” Kolodjeski said. …

Like most, Kolodjeski’s income hasn’t kept pace with rising expenses.

Civilian workers’ wages and benefits rose 3.1% in 2005, the smallest increase in nine years, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Meanwhile, inflation was at 3.5%.

Patricia Parsons, 58, is one of the many not seeing income increase as expenses mount. The Long Neck retiree said her lot rent for her manufactured home rose this year by 37% to $6,200. Neighbors with waterfront lots had 70% hikes, she said.

“A lot of people have walked away. They’ve abandoned their homes,” said Parsons, who supports a bill in the General Assembly to force land owners to justify increases above inflation….

Here are examples of how Delawareans are being squeezed by increasing costs this year compared to one year ago:

Cost of median home, $230,600, up 19% from $193,800
Home insurance, $442, up 13% from $390
Monthly rent, two-bedroom apartment, $804, up 5% from $765
Natural gas, Delmarva Power, $1.58 a cubit foot, up 20% from $1.26
Heating oil, $2.53 a gallon, up 21% from $2.05
Electricity, Delmarva Power, 14 cents a kilowatt hour, up 59% from 9 cents
Automobile insurance, $2,262, up 8% from $2,092
Gasoline, regular unleaded, $2.34 a gallon, up 31% from $1.79
White bread, $1.05 a loaf, up 8% from 97 cents
Milk, $3.29 a gallon, up 0.2% from $3.21
Ground beef, $2.61 a pound, up 5.6% from $2.47
Dozen eggs, grade A large, $1.35 a dozen, up 12.5% from $1.20
Health insurance, premiums up 9.2%

Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.

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Delaware

Delaware history in The News Journal archives, March 29 to April 4

Published

7 hours ago

March 28, 2026

Press Room

Delaware history in The News Journal archives, March 29 to April 4

Excerpts from The News Journal archives from March 29 to April 4 include Wilmington’s national champion swimmers in 1926.
A new plaque in 1976 commemorates Delaware’s role in the Underground Railroad.
“Runaway development overwhelming Delaware” in 2006.

The Delaware history column features excerpts from The News Journal archives including The Morning News and The Evening Journal. See the archives at delawareonline.com.

March 29, 1926, The Evening Journal

Acclaim for high school national champion swim team

A self-appointed committee has started a movement to publicly honor the Wilmington High School swimming team, winner of the national inter-scholastic championship on Saturday at Northwestern University, Evansville, Ill., with a banquet in the Hotel duPont on Tuesday, April 6.

Reservations at $3 a plate can be made by sending a check for that amount to Herbert B. Mearns at Wilmington Trust Company, 10th and Market streets. Frank Ford Palmer, president of the Wilmington Swimming Association, and Councilman Alexander R. Abrahams, are the other members of the committee. …

Today is a holiday at Wilmington High School in celebration of the swimming team’s honor.

For several hours, the student body, headed by the school band as an escort to the championship team, paraded on Market and other streets of the city. …

The parade was the second within 24 hours, the boys having also paraded about the city upon the arrival of the team late last night.

Members of the team faced one of life’s proudest moments at the school this morning, when before their enthusiastic and cheering fellow students, they were eulogized by school teachers and officials for their achievements as mermen. …

The team includes Coach Leroy F. Sparks, Manager C.C. Gerow Jr., Captain Frank Holt, “Bus” Palmer, Sam Reese, Jim Frazer, Jack Spargo, Leon Syfrit, Charles Hartman, Bill Brown and Bill Briggs.

March 31, 1976, The Morning News

Wilmington plaque to honor slave escape route

A plaque to commemorate Delaware’s role in the Underground Railroad during slavery will be erected late this spring in the Peter Spencer Plaza on French Street, between 8th and 9th streets.

The two-foot-by three-foot bronze emblem will have pictures of Thomas Garrett, who helped more than 2,700 slaves escape, and of Harriet Tubman, who led hundreds of slaves from the south to their freedom.

The project is sponsored by the Wilmington branch of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History through a $5,000 grant from the Delaware Bicentennial Commission.

The plaque will be erected about 25 feet from the Father and Son Statue honoring Peter Spencer. The plaza was named after Spencer in 1974 to commemorate the site of the church he founded in 1813 that was the first in the country entirely controlled by blacks.

The plaza was selected as the site for “The Underground Railroad” memorial “to permanently commemorate the spirit of freedom, self-determination and camaraderie,” according to a resolution passed by the Wilmington City Council earlier this month.

Delaware became an important link in the Underground Railroad because it was usually the “last stop before freedom” for slaves on their way to Philadelphia and other northern cities. The chain of safe homes stretched from the South into the North and Canada before the Civil War. As they moved north to freedom, blacks fleeing slavery could be hidden in the houses of antislavery whites.

April 2, 2006, Sunday News Journal

Runaway development overwhelming Delaware

Look around Delaware. Tens of thousands of people have poured in from other states, enticed by an affordable suburban lifestyle in neighborhoods framed by farms and woods – all just a short drive to the beach.

But now, look-alike houses stretch from Bear to Rehoboth Beach, every year consuming an area of land larger than Wilmington. Kent County has so many new homes that Boyd White of Magnolia can’t tell where one town starts and another ends: “The charm is disappearing.”

In old farming communities, newcomers found a peaceful rural refuge. But now, that influx has forced Middletown High School to put students in trailers. …

Vacationers and retirees from all over the East Coast have migrated to the Delaware beaches to escape metropolitan life. But now, traffic is so bad on the two-lane road to Fenwick Island that retiree Jack Weston would “rather go out in a boat than a car.”

Indian River Bay, a magnet for boaters and fishermen, is so clouded by pollutants that if Stephen Callanen goes sailing, “You can’t see the bottom when there’s a lot of toilets flushing.”

Fifteen years of growth that has outpaced Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania – in fact most of America – has forever changed much of rural Delaware. Since 1990, about 84,000 new homes have been built statewide.

But with about 100,000 more homes planned, experts fear that unless government leaders do a better job controlling land use, the prosperity and qualities that make Delaware so appealing might be lost.

“It’s a rush to destruction,” said John Hughes, Secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

Beyond the loss of scenic vistas, growth has created unprecedented traffic jams and air and water pollution, crammed classrooms and created a pressing need for public safety services. …

That is the legacy of decades of politicians promising strong land use reform but delivering weak policies that were often ignored. As a result, hundreds of farms have been transformed into one of the region’s top housing bargains. …

Maynard Esender, a cabinetmaker who has lived for nearly 20 years in the Sussex County town of Frankford, has watched growth steadily envelop the nearby beach areas. But last year, he was stunned after nearby Millville, which has about 270 people, approved a 2,700-home subdivision – the largest in state history.

“Soon the entire Delmarva Peninsula will be paved,” Esender said. …

When nurse practitioner Maltide Cruze moved to Middletown with her husband and two sons five years ago, they envisioned rural bliss. …

Both Maltilde, who commutes to Dover, and her husband Luis, who works at Christiana Hospital, now endure rush-hour backups as Middletown’s population has doubled to 12,000.

Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.

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Delaware

Supreme Court says local elections board must hear residency challenge

Published

19 hours ago

March 27, 2026

Press Room

Supreme Court says local elections board must hear residency challenge

The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered the Delaware County Board of Elections to hold a hearing on a residency challenge.
The challenge questions whether board member Melanie Leneghan, who is running for reelection on the state GOP central committee, lives in Ohio.
A previous hearing could not proceed after three of the four board members, including Leneghan, recused themselves.

In the latest development in the ongoing challenge over where a Delaware County Board of Elections member actually lives, the Ohio Supreme Court has weighed in.

On March 27, the state’s high court ruled that the Delaware County elections board must hold a hearing about the challenge to Melanie Leneghan’s residency. Leneghan is running for reelection to the position of District 19 women’s representative for the Republican State Central Committee seat in the May 5 primary.

A March 5 elections board hearing could not proceed after the two Democrat members recused themselves, along with Leneghan, a Republican, and the board could not reach a quorum. After that meeting, Velva Dunn, a Delaware County Republican Party Central Committee member, asked the Ohio Supreme Court to force the board to act.

Democrat elections board members Ed Helvey and Peg Watkins both recused themselves from the March 5 decision, citing concerns that any action they took could be perceived as partisan. Leneghan also recused herself.

Dunn challenged Leneghan’s ability to vote in Ohio, claiming Leneghan lives in South Carolina. Leneghan has denied the allegations, saying she lives in Ohio but travels out of state for work and to visit her daughter, who attends college in South Carolina. Leneghan owns two homes there.

She sold her Delaware County home in 2025 and is registered to vote at a house in Galena, of which she became a listed co-owner March 12 through a deed transfer that involved no monetary exchange, records from the county auditor’s office show.

Ohio does not have any known requirements about the amount of time a person needs to live in Ohio to be considered a resident. Voters must be a resident for at least 30 days before the election to be eligible to vote.

Ohio also does not have a process outlined in law for how recusals of elections board members should be handled. Those boards each comprise two Democrats and two Republicans.

In its ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court said Helvey, Watkins and Republican Steve Cuckler, the fourth board member, must hold a hearing about Leneghan’s challenge “forthwith.” It was not immediately clear when that meeting would take place.

Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@dispatch.com.

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Delaware

50 boys outdoor track and field athletes to watch in Delaware in 2026

Published

1 day ago

March 27, 2026

Press Room

50 boys outdoor track and field athletes to watch in Delaware in 2026

Since the start of 2025, Delaware boys track and field athletes have set 11 state records between the indoor and outdoor seasons.

After a winter season in which 17 performances reached the top five on the state all-time list, Delaware appears poised for another strong spring.

Our list of track and field athletes to watch (presented alphabetically) features athletes from 24 schools who compete in sprints, distance races, throws and jumps. They are the athletes we expect to be among the state’s leaders at the DIAA Championships at Dover High on May 15-16 although many new names could emerge by then.

After defending its indoor track and field state title, Middletown is in search of its second straight Division I championship. Saint Mark’s enters the season as the Division II winner in three of the past four seasons.