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CONVERSATIONS WITH THE NEIGHBORS: THE FOLKS WHO GREW UP HERE
Hampstead was once little more than a wide spot in the road, a collection of small stores, a couple of gas stations, fish houses and peanut processing facilities. And now change is coming, dramatic and swift. An appreciation of the past aids in understanding the present and sets the foundation for the future. From the beginning our area has always offered hope for a better way of life to the people who come here. But now 'old' Hampstead is being overtaken and enclosed by residential neighborhoods full of newcomers, an extension of suburban Wilmington. Old Hampstead is disappearing quickly. With this in mind I set out with a video camera to find old Hampstead and the fishing and farming families who supported the township in its early days.
There's
no better place to start this project than A History of Hampstead
by Jack Howard. It's in the Hampstead Library and a good bit of it is on
this website. Jack's story has its own page, with lots of pictures. Jack's
History follows the arrival of the First Families of Hampstead,
those early settlers whose descendants populate the phone book with
familiar names and whose activities hold the clue to some of the street
names and the neighborhoods around Hampstead from Baptista Ashe and
Sloop Point, Howard's Landing, Factory Road, Hoover Road, Grovedere,
King's Landing, Peanut Road and more.
D. F. Weir had a store in this building on the corner of Factory Road. The family lived upstairs and the store downstairs carried general merchandise. It had two unique features in its early history. It was the first electrified building in Hampstead. A Delco generator out back provided the power, with a room on the rear of the building that housed storage batteries. And, during the early days of WW II, the coast watch headquarters was located here probably because it had one of the few telephones.
This is what was once the second Methodist Church in Hampstead. It is now the Revelatory Family Worship Center. A steam-powered saw mill on nearby land was operated by Mrs. Simmons' husband, William B. Simmons. In cooperation with the Duck Lake Lumber Company, a small wooden building was erected with lumber produced at this saw mill. This first Methodist Church building was heated by a pot-bellied wood-burning stove, and candlelight was used for illumination. Sunday school classes assembled in the corners of the sanctuary, since there were no separate rooms for this purpose. However, the arrangement probably worked quite well for the small membership at the time. From about 1922 for several years, Harold (Buddy) Howard and his sister, Nellie Howard, taught Sunday school classes regularly. Nellie played the piano and organ. Harold served as Sunday school superintendent for many years. The first building served as a place of worship for the Hampstead United Methodist Church until 1930 when a severe wind storm damaged the structure and it had to be razed. A new church was erected in 1930 on the same site with the assistance of the Duke Endowment Fund. The new building was about as long as the original structure, but much wider. During its early years and for several decades, Hampstead United Methodist was served by itinerant pastors on a circuit, which also included Scotts Hill, Union Chapel (Harrison Creek), Sneads Ferry, Verona, and Seagate. The parsonage was in Scotts Hill, so services at the Hampstead Church were led by Rev. J. T. Stafford (the church's first circuit pastor 1907-1908) every three weeks. However, Sunday school was held every Sunday. A later itinerant clergyman, Rev. R. N. Fitts who served the church in 1914-1915, walked back and forth between Scotts Hill and Hampstead since he had neither a horse and buggy nor an automobile. |
