Tuesday, February 26, 2019

My great-grandfather's nostalgia road trips, Part 1

I'm not the only one in my family who likes/liked road trips to places we used to live (see the Montoursville 2018 series).

In the neverending sorting through the Family Things, I came across a little golden envelope filled with snapshots of places in Delaware linked to the life of my great-grandfather, Howard Horsey “Ted” Adams (1892-1985). The first batch is dated February 20, 1965 — a Saturday almost exactly 54 years ago. He was in his early 70s then, and I'm guessing he took the trip with his daughter, Helen Chandler Adams Ingham (1919-2003), and possibly his wife, Greta Miriam Chandler Adams (1894-1988).

Of course, he didn't have a blog, Facebook or Instagram for the posting of these images (although BASIC and the ASR-33 Teletype had been introduced the year before). So captions were written on the black-and-white photographs, and they were placed inside an envelope, where they would remain for decades. I can't tell who wrote the captions on the photographs. They're actually legible, so it might have been Howard himself who wrote them.

I'll present them here in a few batches, along with the captions on the back and whatever else I know.

"Home of Charles R. Horsey at time of his death (1906)"
(Charles was my great-grandfather's grandfather, on his mother's side.)

"6th St. Laurel, Del. Front of C.N. Adams House"
(Charles Newton Adams was my great-grandfather's father.
He lived from 1854 to 1944.)

"St. Paul's M.P. Church near Hearns Crossroads"
(M.P. stood for Methodist Protestant.
The little church is still there. It's now St. Paul's United Methodist Church.
Its address is 32827 Old Stage Road, Laurel, Delaware.
Here's a closer look at the sign from the 1965 photo.)


"Sharps School near Hearns Crossroads.
Attended by Howard Horsey Adams prior to 1900."
(Sharp's school was a one-room schoolhouse where the Maryland Conference
of the Methodist Protestant Church met prior to the establishment of the aforementioned St. Paul's Methodist Protestant Church in 1871.
It's less than a half mile from the church.)

"Old Christ Church, Broad Creek"
(This church was built in 1772 and still stands today. It's nicknamed "Old Lightwood." We have more ephemera about this church, so stay tuned.
For now, read more about it on Wikipedia.)

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