History of Fenwick Island...
Fishing Harbor
The beginning of modern Fenwick Island may be traced from a specific date - March 23, 1680, the day that Lord Baltimore granted a tract of land called “Fishing Harbor” to Col. Williams Stevens. In 1692, Fishing Harbor was conveyed to Thomas Fenwick.
Thomas Fenwick was a wealthy York planter who originally settled in Maryland, but never lived at the island named for him. Fenwick’s rights to the land at Fenwick Island came through a grant from Lord Baltimore in 1682. Fenwick lived in Sussex County for many years. He served as a Justice of the Peace, Sheriff, and Register of Wills. He died in Lewes in May 1708.
The legend that Thomas Fenwick was thrown overboard from a pirate ship and swam to Fenwick Island is not widely accepted. The more likely story is that William Fassett, Fenwick’s future son-in-law, did indeed swim ashore, landing at Fenwick. Fassett later married Fenwick’s daughter Mary and claimed Fenwick Island for himself.
The Trans-Peninsular Line
The Trans-Peninsular Line, surveyed in 1750-1751, begins in Fenwick. The marker at the Lighthouse displays the coat of arms of Lord Baltimore and the Calvert family of Maryland on the south side, and on the north side it shows the coat of arms of the Penn family and is “the oldest standing man-made object on the coast between Indian River and Ocean City." Like the lighthouse, the stone marker has been well preserved on its elevated site.
The line goes 69 miles due west across Delmarva to Taylor’s Island. The first stone set out by the surveyors sits squarely in the center of the southern edge of the tract purchased for the lighthouse. Markers were placed every five miles, except for the one marker, which should have been placed in the Pocomoke River. The markers were probably the same at the time of their placement but today are in varying degrees of decay. Besides the one at the Lighthouse, there are markers five miles west of Fenwick, in Selbyville, in Gumboro and in Delmar. In Delmar the southwest corner of the Trans-Peninsular Line meets the north-south line surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in 1760. The Trans-Peninsular Line represents the southern boundary, which was disputed by the Penns and the Calverts for a hundred years.
While the Penns and the Calverts were disputing ownership of the land in the Fenwick region, pirates were contesting property rights on the sea. In Delaware, pirates were not just storybook characters. They were real live plunderers who made life miserable for the local sea captains between 1650 and 1750. The pirates are said to have used Cedar Island, small and now shrinking, in Little Assawoman Bay as headquarters.
The Lighthouse
Increasing numbers of wrecks near the Shoals six miles east of Fenwick caused the U. S. Lighthouse Board to recommend the construction of a lighthouse. Neither the storm of 1962 nor 1992 carried enough water to flood the ridge as a result the federal government purchased a ten acre tract here in 1858, for the grand total of $50 to build the coastal lighthouse. The Congress authorized construction of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse in 1856. The site chosen for the lighthouse measured approximately 660 square feet with its southern edge running along the Maryland and Delaware line.
A construction crew under the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building the 87 foot tall lighthouse and a two-story keeper's dwelling alongside in 1858. They finished the frame and shingle house that same year. The crew finished work on the lighthouse early in 1859. Total cost for the project, including the lighthouse, dwelling, a few outbuildings and the land, came to $23,748.96.
On August 1,
1859, the Fenwick Island Lighthouse cast its first shaft of light out over the
dangerous shoals. Magnified by a Paris-built Fresnel lens, the 15,000
candlepower of light on clear nights could be seen from 15 miles out at sea.
The top of the lighthouse, reached by a cast iron spiral staircase, contains the
watch room and the lamp room. At first the light burned whale oil, then mineral
oil before being electrified in 1899.
John Smith was the first lighthouse keeper. Life for the keepers was basic. In addition to tending to the light, they raised vegetables and canned for winter. Pigs were a necessity and fish supplemented the pork diet. The keepers were paid from $400.00 to $600.00 a year until 1899, when the salary was increased to $825.00.
Two families occupied the first keeper’s house, just east of the lighthouse. The keeper and his family lived downstairs and the assistant keeper lived upstairs. As in Bermuda, the rain was collected from the roof and kept in a cistern in the basement. Life at the lighthouse was a life of isolation because there was no bridge connecting Fenwick with the mainland.
A second dwelling house was added to the lighthouse complex in 1881 and from that point on, it was reserved for the principal keeper and his family. The assistant keeper's family lived in the older house.
According to a history of the lighthouse written by the late Dorothy Pepper of Selbyville, the design of the lighthouse is somewhat unusual. It is actually two brick towers instead of one. The outer tower is conical - that is, 27" thick at the base and 18" thick at the top, giving it a cone-shape look. The inner tower walls are 7 inches thick and cylindrical, the same diameter from top to bottom. The interior diameter of the tower is 8 feet, 6 inches. A spiral staircase of cast iron rises through the building to the watch room, the gallery, and the lantern.
Mr. Pepper, whose grandfather, Edward G. Pepper, was an assistant keeper of the light at one time, served as first president of the Friends of the Lighthouse, Inc. The Friends group formed after 1978 when the Coast Guard decommissioned the light. Donations from nearly one hundred members are gathered annually to care for and maintain the light in an historical but non-navigational role.
The group also sells some mementos during the summer to raise funds for keeping up the lighthouse property now owned by Delaware and leased to the Friends group. " The first time we fixed it up and painted it, it cost us $ 14,000," said Mr. Pepper. " Three years ago it cost us $ 20,000. We try to keep trimming up as we go along. It gets expensive."
The federal government sold a good bit of the lighthouse property in 1940 after advances in automation allowed operation by fewer persons. Charles L. Gray, the last keeper of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, was living in the newer house at that time, and on October 21, 1940, he purchased the older home and roughly one-third of the original plot including the eastern edge of 660 feet. He paid approximately $1,600 for the property. Today, that property is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Fryer, who are summer residents of Fenwick Island.
Oliver Cropper is part owner of the property including the newer keeper's dwelling. He lives there year round and is also active in keeping up the lighthouse property. That property now constitutes a piece of ground about 60 feet square, according to Mr. Pepper, and hosts numerous visitors in the summer.
Despite the fact that ownership of the complex is divided, the owners cooperate to keep the site looking much as it did prior to 1940 when it performed an important navigational role and formed the heart of an isolated Delaware coastal community.
Life in Fenwick Island
Residents built the first bridge over the “ditch” to the mainland in 1880, but it did not survive the strong currents. In 1892 a new wooden pile drawbridge was built, a third built in 1934 and the current bridge in 1958.
By the 1930’s, the early cottages were very simple with no heating or plumbing and no electricity. They were all similar in construction—a porch on the front, kitchen on the back, living /dining combination and one big room upstairs. Water came from the ground, ice for the ice box came from the mainland and kerosene lights glowed at night. The inconvenience of primitive living were more than compensated for by the uncrowded wide beaches, leisurely pace and excellent fishing.
The State of Delaware noticed the significant number homes on state land. In September of 1941, after months of meetings, the State notified the “squatters” that it would sell them lots, $200 for beachfront and $100 for street lots. All home owners were told they had to be on purchased property prior to January 1942 or remove their house.
The Town of Fenwick Island
In the early 1950’s concerns began to mount over the increasing development and creeping commercialism. The residents of Fenwick Island feared that the Town could become “another Ocean City” and sought protection through incorporation. The land south of Atlantic Street, referred as “Delaware Beach” was privately owned and refused incorporation with the rest of Fenwick Island. The Act to Incorporate the Town passed in July 1953.
The residential area of the Town doubled when Fenwick annexed the land on the west side of Coastal Highway. Modern upgrades like a sewer system and city water have helped make Fenwick Island a year round town. The year round population has reached 300 with an active Woman’s Club, a Lion’s Club and a Yacht Club.
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Many thanks to Town resident Mary Pat Kyle for her generous permission to reprint information from her book. Read more about Fenwick Island...
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