NOTE: See Mitsswokett site, “Indians? What Indians? for a discussion on concepts of persons self-identifying as “Negro”, “Black”, “Mulatto”, or “FCP” INSTEAD of “Indian.”

Cheswold: Two Losses, One Ground

Delaware — Handsor/Sammons Beginnings

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Cheswold, Delaware is the small Duck Creek Hundred community my Handsor family left behind sometime in the 1840s or 50s, bound for Canada. For years it existed for me mostly as a name on records — until I began to visit it, and to photograph what was still standing. What I found, and then lost, taught me something about how fragile the physical evidence of a family’s beginnings really is.

The Durham-Shores House

In the spring of 2014, I stood in front of a small house in Fork Branch/Jolly’s Neck, just outside Cheswold — the homestead of Benjamin Durham and Sarah Ann “Sally” Hanzer Durham, built about 1789. Known as the Durham-Shores House, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it sat exactly where it had been built over two centuries earlier, just a short walk from Little Union Church and Fork Branch Cemetery.

I found it fenced in, the property up for sale. I remember standing there imagining my ancestors and relatives stepping through that doorway two hundred years before — and hoping, quietly, that someone would come along to care for it.

No one did. In September 2017, word reached me that the State of Delaware had the house torn down. I confirmed it with the University of Delaware, with help from the Kent County Department of Parks & Recreation: Benjamin Durham’s house had been demolished in mid-July of that year, after 228 years standing.

I’ve gone back to that ground since, and stood where the house used to be. I found myself wondering how many Durham/Handsor “homes” it had held over that long span — babies born, children playing in the yard, neighbors visiting, tears shed for loved ones gone, comfort and encouragement passed between loving arms. Standing there, I let myself imagine that the ancestors surrounded and welcomed me, just as the house had welcomed so many others across its 228 years.

Little Union Church

A short walk from where the Durham-Shores House once stood is Little Union Church. I photographed it in 2010, with no idea at the time that the Durham-Shores House was practically around the corner on the same street — two pieces of the same Handsor departure story, standing within sight of each other, and I didn’t yet know to connect them.

In 2018, Little Union Church was destroyed in a catastrophic fire. Where a white clapboard church once stood, only a collapsed frame and a scorched steeple remained.

What’s left today is quieter: grass, and a scattering of headstones marking the church’s old cemetery — among them a distant Handsor relative. The building is gone, but that small patch of ground still holds the family’s name.

Read more about the loss of Little Union Church: Delaware Public Media, “Enlighten Me: Losing Little Union Church”

Why This Belongs Here

I hold onto these two stories together because they are, in the end, one story. Both structures stood within walking distance of each other in the same small Delaware community my Handsor ancestors left for Canada generations ago. Both were still standing when I found them — and both were gone within a year of each other’s fate becoming known to me, one by demolition, one by fire.

What survives is not the buildings, but the ground: a cemetery with headstones still legible, a family name still readable in stone, and the photographs I happened to take before either was lost. I’m grateful, and more than a little sobered, that I had the chance to see both while they still stood.

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Photographs: Durham-Shores House (2014); Little Union Church exterior (2010), post-fire ruins, and the cemetery site as it appears today.

FB Post 2014:This is the homestead of Benjamin Durham and Sarah Ann “Sally” Hanzer Durham, built about 1789 and located in Fork Branch/Jolly’s Neck, Cheswold, DE. Known as the Durham-Shores House, the home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it’s just a short walk from Little Union Church & Fork Branch Cemetery – it sits where it was originally built. [Kaersten Woodruff](https://www.facebook.com/kaersten.woodruff?__cft__[0]=AZgK7XNu8fGnQ4o1Er-ps-qdOQTg3Q-d97Puz7ZDQkRXU8-DUe-cOukrFW4-MsKR2AwiDoNUL3ZMuC5D_2jne8vO3V2OGDFG0WUAN2CaV58PQ-kmdv9O8qtKax7DSpAzlsJc23fbtaxHKrbZX7ahlE6QvfEkle4XwY3XHpu64sowAI7YLELkSdtG6GNjZ-M8tLYUuNb2pgjyKA&__tn__=-]K-y-R) posted a wonderful picture of the home a few months ago. I had an opportunity to visit yesterday – found it completely fenced in and the property up for sale. I can imagine my ancestors and relatives stepping into this house 200 years ago – certainly hope it finds a new owner to care for it.

Reshare FB Post Sept 7, 2017: Durham-Shores House, Kent County, Delaware With all the devastating destruction following the many natural disasters across the world, it probably seems anticlimactic to note the (possible) passing of one little house, but note it I will. This post is from 2014 – it was my first visit to this little house; I wondered if my Canadian Handsor and Sammons ancestors visited its occupants before leaving their ancestral home in Duck Creek Hundred for Canada in the 1840’s/50’s. In 2001 the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but this morning I heard that the State of Delaware had the house torn down. Do any of you know if this is true? Not sure what would prompt the destruction of a historic building. Very sad if true. Just confirmed with the University of Delaware (with help from Kent County Dept. of Parks & Recreation) that Benjamin Durham’s house was, in fact, demolished in mid-July 2017.

Reshare FB Post Sept 7, 2020: More Than An Old Wooden House So glad I had a chance to walk with the ancestors at this Durham/Han(z)dsor house in Cheswold, DE. The house was built by Benjamin Durham and Sarah Ann “Sally” Hanzer Durham about 1789 and was demolished in 2017. Standing on the ground in front of the house, I wondered how many Durham/Handsor “homes” it held …… babies born, children playing in the yard, neighbors visiting, tears shed for loved ones gone …… comfort and encouragement from loving arms. I imagined that as I stood there, the ancestors surrounded and welcomed me just as they welcomed so many others throughout the house’s 228-year history. —————- The three posts popped up on my FB memory feed today, and I’m so glad they did. This little house needs a place in the Delaware/Handsor-Sammons family section of Beginnings on A Northern Diaspora. I am forever thrilled and thankful that I learned of this house before it was gone, and that I had an opportunity to get this picture, even with the fence surrounding it!

Updated memory

That’s a hard set of images to sit with — the pristine white church in 2010, then the fire wreckage with the tape still up, then just grass and a scattering of headstones. And you’d photographed it not even knowing the Durham-Shores House was practically around the corner. Two structures tied to the same Handsor departure from Cheswold, both gone within a year of each other’s loss becoming known to you.

A few thoughts on pulling this together with the Durham-Shores material:

• The “I didn’t know” detail is worth keeping in the text itself — it’s a small but real thing, discovering after the fact that two pieces of your family’s built history were neighbors.
• Pairing them makes a natural preservation argument on its own, without you having to state it outright: two structures, two fires/demolitions, both erased within roughly a year of each other, both tied to the same migration story.
• The surviving headstones are a strong closing note for the page — something of the place does remain, even if the buildings don’t.

Want me to draft the actual page text pairing the Durham-Shores House and Little Union Church for the Delaware Beginnings page, working in both FB post threads and the church history?


This pairs both structures under one framing — same community, same migration story, both lost within a year of your discovering their loss. Feel free to trim, retitle, or split it back into two pages if that fits the site’s structure better; I kept it as one piece since the “two losses, one ground” thread felt like the strongest way to hold them together.