Notes by Dr. Clinton A. Weslager (retyped & edited by R. Terry 12/97)

This tape was made for the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians of New Jersey in 1980, based on notes taken in 1941-1942-1943 in and around Cheswold, Delaware. Notes were taken from the people known as Moors.

I should say that many of these so called Moors were aware of Indian ancestry, even though they were vague about Tribal affiliations. My own conclusion after very careful study, was that practically all of them had Indian antecedents. Of course, none of them were full blood Indians: some of them were descended from the Lenape or Delawares while others had Nanticoke Indian background, their parents or other relatives having moved to Cheswold from the Nanticoke Indian community in Indian River Hundred in Sussex County.

These notes are not organized. They represent raw material as I recorded it in my notebooks. Since I was there successively more than one time, I visited individuals more than once. I was there on different days and may repeat the same person's name more than one time. I also should say in retrospect that I could have done a much better job of collecting genealogical information. At that time this was not my objective. The genealogical information is incidental to my main objective.

My first trip to Cheswold was September 4, 1941, and the first person I met down there was Levi Mosley, the watchman at the railroad crossing, a very dark-skinned Moor. He told me that there was Indian blood on his maternal side. He told me this on my first visit. Later he gave me a great deal more information about this Indian in his family. I was also told to look up G.A. Mosley, a contractor, who was supposedly a good source of information.

September 20, 1941. I revisited Cheswold for the main purpose of meeting G.A. Mosley. Levi Mosley, the watchman chatted with me first, gave me some other persons' names to interview. I gave him the cigar that I always gave him when I went down on my trips. I interviewed and photographed John Johnson and his wife Neeley Ann Johnson. John was called Uncle John by everyone. Now, at this time he was 97 and still in excellent health. Both he and his wife Neeley Ann Johnson had Indian facial characteristics. He was light-skinned, his wife was a trifle darker. Before her marriage she was a Hansor from Frederika and Uncle John was originally from Herring Creek in Sussex County. He claimed that both of his grandfathers were fullblood Indians. Of course, Mrs. Johnson considered herself an Indian also. She showed me pictures of her mother: there's no doubt about the Indian features there. She said her mother was an Indian.

I went to see G.A. Mosley. I learned that he was in Wilmington preaching at the Adventist Church there. This was Saturday which was their Sabbath. Enroute I photographed some children from another Mosley family who had recently moved to Cheswold from Sussex County. I met Orville Seeney's wife whose appearance seemed Indian or Spanish, revealing no black characteristics whatsoever. I also talked and photographed three girls who accompanied her. They were on the way home from church. They suggested that I interview Elmer Durham, which I did, on Saturday November 22, 1941. Elmer was a descendant of the Durhams which was the oldest family of Moors in Cheswold--at least that is what he told me. He said that he didn't know of any Indian blood in the family. But to me he appeared to have very strong Indian features. He was a leading member of the Adventist Church.

There were three Churches there at the time attended by these people. One is called the Manship Church, one is called the Fork Branch Church and the other the Adventist Church. The Seventh Day Adventist Church was sort of a new religion down there. They had two Moor schools--one had two Negro pupils and the rest were Moors. The Adventist Church had a Church School which opened Labor Day, 1941. They had 27 pupils and, of course, they were all Moors and they had a West Indian Teacher, who roomed and boarded with Elmer Durham. The Moors were all formerly Methodist. As I said, the Adventists were sort of a new sect down there.

Elmer Durham was very cooperative. His features were very white, decidedly non-Negroid--very white. He gave me some names of individuals to talk to. I also saw Mrs. Elmer Durham. She was a little darker than her husband but I also sensed Indian in her background. Before leaving Cheswold this day, I walked through the Manship Church graveyard and I found many Durhams buried there, and also Deans, Mosleys, Counsellors and a few Clarks. Someone should go and double-check that graveyard, someone interested in genealogy.

Mr. Durham, incidentally, told me that the new insurance law required that the Moors be classified as Blacks inasmuch they were not whites, which is perfectly silly. Formerly they were classified as Moors. But with this new classification it is very shameful since they are not Negroes although they are striving to keep their blood pure. Under pressure from whites many of the young people are being forced into Negro society.

Now on Saturday November 22, 1941 I went to Cheswold again. Accompanied by Dr. Speck, a well-known anthropologist from the University of Pennsylvania. He brought along one of his students, Merril Haserwick who later became very prominent in the area of anthropology. We talked to a man name Kimmey, a very Indian-looking man. He had two corn pegs that he was making for me. I had seen him before. I gave him some gourds which he is going to carve for me. Mr. Kimmey knew many animal traps and other artifacts relating to Indian culture. Dr. Speck thought he was a splendid Indian type.

We also went to see Minous Durham who was in ill health. Now, Minous Durham didn't claim any Indian ancestry, but Dr. Speck said he could see the definite Indian in his features. During our conversation it was brought out that some of Minous's family were Hanzors. Because of the definite Indian in that family it is definite that Minous has some Indian strain. Incidentally, Minous said that as a boy he used to play with a bow arrow.

We also saw Perry Hughes and his brother, Edward. Both of them were very good Indian types. Perry had one daughter, but he said, that he had raised ten or twelve head. A number of his grandchildren were there. Perry said, his wife was crippled and couldn't get around like she used to. He was a splendid source of information. He had no education, couldn't read or write, nevertheless he had a wonderful memory and his Indian background was prominent in his appearance and his habit. He said that he had 60 cents left when he got married. That was his whole fortune at the age of twenty. Everything that he earned after that he earned himself. He owned a small farm and worked it himself. He has lived in the vicinity all his life. He knows everyone and everyone knows him.

We saw and photographed an old hominy mortar and pestle, which has been in the family as long as anyone could remember. It was made of gumwood. Perry said it was made by hollowing out the center with fire and chopping out the charred embers with a stone, which, of course, is the ancient Indian technique for making a mortar before they had metal tools. He said the mortar belonged to his maternal grandfather, Perry Cork. Who had it before then he didn't know. Perry said that he had used the mortar until 13 or 14 years ago. He gave a clear-cut description of using it and making pone, ashcakes, Johnny bread etc. This was too lengthy for notes, but later I got more of the information from him. This mortar was 51 inches in circumference, 32 inches high and 26 inches in diameter and the pestle was of wood.

Perry said that the area behind him and the highway was called the Neck and that section was called Four Hundred. He spoke of the people that occupied the Neck thought they were ritzy, he said that they were dicty, in other words a kind of uppity group. This section where Perry had his farm was known as Spring Hill. His language was very interesting. He used the word "tuck" instead of "took." He used the words "amongst them" and "oftimes" and "broke up" which means "ailing." We looked for a Doc Simmons who was recommended to us. We asked some white people about him and they said he was a "mulatto man." Well, when we finally met him he didn't look anything to me other than someone who had Indian and White background.

November 7, 1941. We witnessed a tall-story contest between Clem Carney and one of the Jacksons from Seaford, Delaware. He was Seaford Jackson's son from Seaford, Delaware. Also Robert Coker, who is a native of Cheswold. There were about 12 Moors in the audience listening to these tales, which were all remarkable and witty. Clem Carney was known to tell many, many stories. He told the story about a man in a burning skyscraper who made rubber boots and shoes in this factory that caught on fire. The man put on a pair of rubber boots and jumped out of the window to the street and he kept bouncing up and down and he bounced so much that he had to be shot to keep from starving to death. Another man jumped from a building but the building was so high that he stopped 15 minutes on the way down for lunch. He said one day there was a swarm of mosquitoes so thick down in Kent County he had to go out and shoot through them, so they could see the sun. He said the mosquitoes punctured an old hot water boiler where a young man was hiding. These mosquitoes were so powerful that they punctured the boiler that he was hiding in with their beaks. He hit their beaks with a hammer and bent them over and as he crawled out of this boiler he found he was flying way high out over the woods because the mosquitoes had flew away with the boiler.

Someone else told a story--I think it was Robert Coker--who talked about fishing. They had caught a fish with so many hooks in him that they had to sell the fish for scrap metal. Clem said they caught a woman-fish in the Delaware Bay. They exhibited the fish for 10 cents. She had webbed hands and legs, breast and a woman's face. This, of course, means a mermaid, which is a real tall story. Then they told one about a mountain so tall that they had to put hinges on top to let the sun go past. Then Clem talked about three girls. Someone asked who is the prettiest? Clem said they were of one prettiness.

The stories went on and on like that. Clem told me he was born in 1869. He once worked for a white farmer. The farmer had a table for the family and for the white hired hands, and then he had a table for the black hired hand and then he had a table for Clem apart from the white table. This was how he was making a distinction between these three classes and the farmer would pass the food from table to table. Clem told me that he took a horse saddle to a white family and stayed overnight. They wanted him to come inside, but he said he didn't want to. Then he said that he wasn't white. Clem looked as white as anybody you could imagine, but he knew that there was a racial admixture in him and he wasn't white. So they threw a horse blanket out to him so he could sleep on the bench.

Clem's wife said to me she had two white cousins. At the Adventist school we visited, which Elmer Durham showed us today, they have twenty desks, two small blackboards and a teacher's desk they got from the state. We also saw the new church--the Seventh Day Adventist Church--which Elmer Durham said he and his two sons had built. I see by my notes that on a later trip I went to see Salley Carney who was born a Mosley She was supposed to be one of the oldest of the Clan down there, but unfortunately she wasn't at home. I also visited Minous Durham again at his farm. I spoke with him at great length about his family. He said that his grandfather was Bennie Durham and that he was a white man.

I also went to Seven Hickories, which is a section down near Cheswold. I interviewed John Carney. John was an ex-prize fighter and then was in his 80's. He had blue eyes and a yellowish complexion. He was the uncle of Minous Durham, a brother to Minous's mother. He said there was no Indian blood in either side of his family as far as he knew, he said that his father was Martin Carney and his mother was a Songo, he said that both of his parents were Moors and that is the word he used. John said that the Carney's were an old family there, but his mother's folks were from Baltimore or Washington. He told me that the Morgan family and the Sanders had Indian blood but that the older members of his family were now all dead. He said he remembered when Jim Seeney came to Cheswold from Maryland. Prior to that there were no Seeney's in Cheswold.

G.A. Mosley, the object of my trip, this time was preaching again in an Adventist Church in Milford. So I missed him again. I had more discussion with Delores and Dalton Seeney. Delores was a young girl 14 or 15 and Dalton was 18. To all appearances they were white. They both had deep brown eyes, straight black hair. He was a very handsome lad, looked French. They were excluded from the white high schools. Dalton had graduated from the colored high school operated by the State. They both formerly lived in Detroit where they were treated as whites. I photographed them. They were curious about their ancestry and said the matter had often been discussed among them. They didn't like to associate with Blacks but were forced to do so. They had to sit with Blacks in the movie houses and were not permitted to eat in white restaurants, yet they looked to me exactly as white persons and reacted with white man's feelings. I was deeply moved by these two people. Delores had been asked for dates by Negro classmates. When she refused she was called a snob and was treated with much disdain.

On my next trip I went down to see Salley Carney again, who wasn't at home on my last visit. She was on of the oldest Mosleys. Her father was John Mosley and her mother was Elizabeth Johnson, John Johnson's sister (the old Indian Uncle John Johnson that I mentioned before). Salley had married William Carney. One of Salley's daughters married Robert Morris of Laurel, Delaware. Robert's father was Corliss Mosley. I talked to his daughter who lived with Salley. Salley was in her 80's, had a very poor memory. She knew nothing about the Indian admixture in her family but she supposed there had been some. However she had forgotten the details.

Sallie's daughter suggested that I visit Joseph Kimmey. She believed he was a good source of information. I mentioned before that I did see Mr. Kimmey and I went back to seem him and of course got more information. On each trip you can add more information as these persons became more friendly. Joseph Kimmey as the son of James Kimmey and Zippy Mosley. His family was from Indian River Hundred. James Kimmey, Joseph's father, was a half-brother to Russell Clark's wife. Joseph married Nancy Mosley. He claims that there was Indian blood on both sides of this family. In appearance he has very pronounced white increments, but you could see Indian features. He is about 80 and is crippled. Several years ago while doing carpenter work he fell and broke his back, and has done no work since. He walks on crutches. He and his wife very much resented that the Moors were classed as colored people, because he couldn't serve on a jury in Delaware while naturalized foreigners, who were not as good as he, could do so, he claimed.

Dalton Seeney and I drove to see Nepolitan Morgan. He was at one of his sons' homes. Nepolitan was 81, the oldest Morgan alive. He said that all of his father's kin, except his own children, were all deceased. His father was James Morgan and his mother was Heneritta Carter. She was a half-blood Indian and her mother was a full blood Indian from Maryland, but he wasn't sure where. He thought it might be a town called Hillsboro. He didn't know of any Indian blood on the Morgan side--it was on his mothers side. He was white in appearance: Very sharp distinctive features.

I also stopped in the Fork Branch graveyard there and looked at the stones. They are very much like the ones at the Manship Church graveyard which I mentioned. There were a number of persons buried there with the first name of Burton--for instance there was a Burton Mosley--a name which originated with a white family on Indian River. Someone who is interested in the Cheswold families should check that graveyard.

I then interviewed James Seeney. He is the oldest Seeney living and the Grand Uncle of Dalton. James is the son of James, Sr. and his mother was a Clark. James, Jr. is one of six sons: John, Samuel, Federick, William, James, and Joseph Seeney. James Sr.'s mother was Rhoda Moore before she married into the Seeney family, and was said to have been a white woman. She appears to be a relative of the white Moore family of Cheswold. James is a very patriarchal man with white silky hair, white mustache and a yellowish complexion and very religious. He has eaten no meat for 40 years as part of his faith. He is a carpenter and has worked hard all his life. He said his father and grandfather were both from the neighborhood of Cheswold and the Seeney's did not come from Maryland as I had previously heard. He said he had heard of Indian blood in his family but couldn't contribute any important information.

End of tape side one.

Side two.

James Seeney told me that his brother Federick Seeney founded the Adventist Church in Cheswold about 35 years ago (this was in 1941 when I recorded this) and that the Rev. Elder Frank, a white man, held a revival meeting in a tent in Kenton, Delaware. Seeney got religion at this meeting and brought it back to Cheswold. At first only the Seeney family were Adventist, but the faith spread to other families. The Forest Grove Adventist Church has about 36 members. This story about the origin of the Adventist Church was confirmed to me by G.A. Mosley.

We then visited Garfield A. Mosley, called Rea, the man I had tried to see originally. He was the most intelligent of the Moors that I had met. He was a large man, tall, white complexion, blue eyes, straight hair, almost bald and his features were very Indian-like. He was a contractor, employed a number of men and had made an outstanding success of business. He preaches at different Adventist Churches. Now this Garfield A. Mosley is the grandson of Wingate Mosley and Nancy. I never got her maiden name. His grandfather Wingate Mosley had come to Cheswold from Indian River. One of Wingate's sons was Charles H. Mosley, this was the father of Garfield and his mother was Annie Dean. There were twelve head by this marriage: Garfield A. Mosley was one. Garfield Mosley married one of the Durhams. I talked to her too. Her father was Robert Durham. Garfield Mosley told me he thought the Moors were a cross between Indian and Whites. He said his birth certificate was drawn up as a Nanticoke Indian. He says there was Indian on the Mosley side of his family and had heard his father say it very often.

The next interview was with Garfield A. Mosley's mother. She was one of the oldest in the family. She lives in a small bungalow and is the daughter of Robert Dean and Catharine Morgan. Catharine Morgan's father was John Morgan. Robert Dean's father was Jessee Dean and his mother was Hester Dean. Annie Dean Mosley, mother of Garfield A. Mosley, was a very pleasant and seemingly intelligent woman. She was sitting on a chair on her front lawn writing a letter. She said she had heard of Indian blood in the Moors but didn't know when or how it came in. She said that her grandmother, that would be Catherine Morgan's mother, was a white woman. She said that her father and his father were both born in the Cheswold environs. She said that Annie M. Durham, then deceased, claimed to have Indian blood.

On another trip, I took Dr. Speck to see the people down there a second time. Dr. Speck, of course, had done a lot of work among the Nanticokes in Indian River Hundred, but he had never been to Cheswold before I took him there. We went to see Uncle John Johnson, but he wasn't home. We talked to his wife a little bit and Speck thinks she is a very good Indian type. We saw Perry Hughes and took his photograph. He had an old basket which he said had been in the family for a very long time. We then drove to Frederica to see the brother of Levi Mosley's wife. Levi Mosley had told me that he had married Clara Hansley from Frederica. I never asked him if this was a 1st or second wife and I don't remember meeting her. Levi told me his wife had twin brothers who lived in Frederica, Jim and George Hansley, so we decided to go and visit these two Hansleys. My notes say that we met James Hansley but I don't recall meeting George.

James Hansley's wife was born Nora Harmon. He told us his mother was a Drain born in Indian River Hundred. His wife, Mrs. Hansley, was also born in Indian River. We saw their daughter Elva who had married a Mosley. She was a very good Indian type and I recall taking her picture. Mrs. Hansley was known as the Turkey lady, because she and her husband operated a large Turkey farm. She was of light complexion with straight hair. Her husband had coppery, dark skin but had definite Indian facial characteristics.

On this trip we went to see Uncle John Johnson again. I found him sunning himself on the front porch. He was glad that I had called. We had become good friends and he was eager to talk. Now, as I said earlier, as you had successive conversations with these people you get additional information and sometimes information that will clarify earlier information. Earlier he told me he had come from Herring Creek, which he had. The conversation brought out that he was from Wyoming, Delaware, although his parents had originally come from Herring Creek, from there to Wyoming, Delaware, then to Cheswold when he was a boy. He said his paternal grandfather was Robert Johnson and his paternal grandmother was also a Johnson. And he remembers as a boy using a hominy mortar, using a wooden corn peg, and he states that there was a number of old splint basket in the family that are now lost. During his young manhood, John was a well-digger and did other such odd jobs in the neighborhood. His father was a big, strong man. Levi Mosley said that he could chop more wood from sun to sun than any man he ever knew. John's father always cut a blade of his knife short when he bought a new knife: he said he just wanted to scratch a man, he really didn't want to kill him.

We went to see Joseph Kimmey again. He looked much older that the time before we went to see him. His back had been bothering him a whole lot. I gave him a snapshot I had taken and he was glad to get it. He too told me about using a hominy mortar as a boy and had seen netting needles and had made a number of corn pegs. I asked him to make a corn peg for me which he is going to do. I learned that he had originally came from Felton, although his folks had originally came from downstate. I talked to his son-in-law, Leon Carney. Leon is very light, straight hair, traces of Indian in his features. He was the son of William Carney, who is the son of Robert Carney. The latter's Leon grandfather (great) was half Indian and half Irish he says, and that he came from Indian River. Leon's mother was Mable Durham, his grandmother was Amanda Mosley. Leon has four children, the oldest is 18. I photographed the three younger ones. Their names were Floyd, Lonnie, and Lloyd. I talked again to Levi Mosley and he referred me to a white man named Charles Hickey, who was supposed to be a good source of information. I found him deaf and very hard to talk to.

We went to see Will Sammons. He looks exactly like a white man and Dalton told me Will's son was in the white regiment in the Army. He was not a very good source of information, but recommended his eldest brother who we went to see next. Now the elder brother Sammons told me he was born in 1875, his name was Armwell, but everybody calls him Duck, he was very Indian-like and has no black characteristics of any kind. He claims there is nothing in his background except white and Indian, and that all Moors are white and Indian and the ones that aren't should not call themselves Moors. His grandfather was from France. He has a brother, James, living in Pennsville and his mother was a Munce or Muncey.

I also saw Mrs. Sammons. I think her name was Rachel Sammons. She showed me a picture of her grandmother, who was born a Hughes--splendid looking women. The Sammons had five daughters, all of them married white men, according to Duck. I saw their pictures: they were splendid looking children. I talked to Elmer Durham, again. This time he told me his father was George Durham, and his grandfather was Joel Durham and Joel had a brother Isaac Durham. Elder's sons were Horace, Clarence and Agustus. Mrs. Durham was Anna Carney, her father was James Carney and her grandfather was William Carney. She had many Indian traits, despite a darkish skin. I saw Clem Carney again. Clem, of course, is very light--he looks Irish if one were trying to characterize him. He is an expert maker of nets, he makes nets with a wooden netting needle, according to the old Indian Style.

On this trip I went first to see Joseph Kimmey again. I found his grandchildren driving a goat in the streets. Another one of his grandsons, who lived in Milford Neck, Milford, Delaware, came to see him while I was there. Kimmey gave the corn pegs and miniature suckering cane, a gourd dipper and two bird traps he cut out for me and also gave me some information about herb medicines which I noted elsewhere. He tells me that they buried their potatoes each fall through the winter by piling dirt on them to keep them from freezing. He also tells me that they used to do the same thing with apples and turnips. He said the artichokes were the Indian potatoes--this is of interest. Dr. Speck had mentioned in an article on the Rappahannock Indians mentions the same thing.

Joseph Kimmey said many Moors have gone to Bridgeton, New Jersey and if you go there on a Saturday night, you can see them. Isn't that interesting. That's about all he had to say about that. He said that Uncle John Johnson's father was Burton Johnson, he said that he was a fighting man. Joseph Kimmey said that he was 78 years of age, his mother made corn pones, ash cakes, johnny bread on special boards, they also made their own lye by boiling ashes and this lye was used for cleaning purposes. He made some reference to Perry Hughes' father: He said that Perry Hughes worked himself out working, and that his father was so big and strong that he had to have his hoes that he used in the garden made by a blacksmith so he could get a big heavy one.

I had a good time talking to Levi Mosley, gave him the cigar I always took to him. He carved several things from gourds for me. He introduced me to George Carter whose father was a herb doctor. George was on his way to cut down a tree but he paused to talk. I understand that he is Ida Carter's grandfather. He is very white. Levi says that his mother was very white too. There is a suggestion of Indian in his face.

I stopped to pick up Dalton Seeney--photographed Dalton and his mother. Dalton says that Ruben Seeney, his father's Uncle, that's a brother of Jim Seeney, claims that his father was part Indian. We went to see James Dean, an excellent Indian type, the best Indian I've seen on this peninsula. He says that one of the Durhams way back married an Indian and that the Munceys were Indian. Durhams had come over from England. The Indians that they married were not wild Indians, but he guesses they just lived there. He was very vague in his background story.

Stopped in to see John Carney again and he told me he was Clem Carney's uncle. He resembles Clem very strongly. He too confirmed that Will Sammons' wife was a Songo, which was his mother's name. I don't know if we can put all that together. This trip we made December 20, 1941. I saw Fraizer Carney, this is the husband of Nora Carney. Both claim to be a mixture of white and Indian. They had two daughters. One married a Moor from Cheswold and is living there, the other married a man from Newark. I saw the daughters' pictures. They both looked very white. Nora is going to make a brush broom for me. This is a broom made from tree branches tied to a tree limb handle that the old Indians used to use to clean up their camps and she knew how to make one. She subsequently did.

Spent some more time with Uncle John Johnson and Aunt Neeley Ann and got some information about herbs. I took Uncle John to see Clem Carney who had just returned from the hospital. He had just had an operation. While we visited him, I noticed that his wife Amanda, who had Indian features, was using a turkey wing broom on her stove. Now that is real old Indian custom. I asked her if I could buy that turkey wing broom. I guess she thought I was crazy wanting to buy something like that. She laughed and said I could have it, she could easily get another one.

While we were there her daughter from Milford drove in. It was a very profitable and enjoyable trip. Met a lot of people. I was amazed at how these people take in children of their own kind and raise them, one woman who had none of her own, was known to have raised 30 head. The orphans were always taken in by friends or relatives when the parents died, which is a very interesting comment and certainly a very Indian-like custom. Mrs. Nora Carney went to the Orphans Home and wanted to adopt a child of their color. She said that the authorities said that they never receive any orphans from the yellow people. The orphans were always taken in by friends or relatives when the parents died.

This trip was made January 24, 1942 and I visited another Johnson family and I didn't get this particular Johnson's first name it was very negligent of me. They lived in a frame house near the railroad, he was employed in an orchard. They had four children, all fine looking children who could all easily pass for white. The mother was a Carey before her marriage and her home was in Berlin, Maryland. His mother was Jennie Ridgeway, and he was the son by the first marriage. Next we went to see Frazier Carney and Nora Carney again, she was a Jackson before her marriage and lived near Seaford. Her people were Nanticoke descendants. We talked with Clem Carney and photographed him making a net. Then we went to Felton to see Andrew Mosley. We learned that Andrew Mosley was one of the last basket makers and lived in Felton. We met him and talked to him. He agreed to make a basket for me, which he did and I later presented it to the Museum of the American Indian in New York.

I referred earlier to a Robert Coker, and I'm not sure that name should be Croker or Coker, because when we were in Cheswold on one of our trips we went to visit Calvin Clark of Dover (Calvin is a brother to Charles Clark, son of Chief Russell Clark--Calvin was an undertaker in Dover) said that he had married a Coker. So that could be the proper name. Matter of fact as I review my notes again I notice that Clem Carney's wife Amanda told me she was a Coker before her marriage to Clem. Of course you folks must be aware that I was getting a lot of other useful information at this time. My notes are full of herb cures and folklore and weather signs and other things like that I was primarily interested in, and also getting a lot of artifacts made the way they made them in the past.

I also met a Benjamin Mosley who is the father of eight head, and also Joe Mosley who is a brother to Andrew Mosley, the man who made the basket for me. We photographed Ardella Mae Johnson, aged about 10, and Lola Ridgeway, aged about 9. My notes don't explain who their parents were. I also learned on that trip that Perry Hughes had a son named Fred Hughes.

And here is some Johnson information--someone was interested in the Johnson's. My notes say that Whittington Johnson was Arthur Johnson's father. His wife Ann Johnson lived to be 87. Now, they lived down in Indian River One Hundred. She never owned a stove, she would bake pones all night by putting them in the fireplace in the house. In the house there were mortar, boards, baskets and other utensils, also dried herbs in the attic that they used in the event of illness. Whittington and Ann had a son Authur who married a woman named Patience. They had a son Howard Johnson who married Liza Ann Harmon. When Dr. Speck first visited Indian River in 1912, he went by train to Georgetown and then by two seated surrey to Millsboro and then somebody took him out to meet the Nanticokes and he stayed overnight with Howard Johnson and his wife Liza Ann Johnson that I just mentioned. They invited him to share their home and Dr. Speck said that they had these children, Issac, Mabel, Lilly, Barnard, and Leon.

So that gives you some Johnson genealogy information. Of course Lilly Johnson is still living. She married Bud Davis and I believe that they had five children and I believe William Davis's son is still active in the Nanticoke Association as are his sisters Sylvia and Doris. On one of my earlier trips, I stayed overnight at their home. My notes also say that Barnard Johnson married Mamie Mosley. He is of course Lilly's brother; their daughter Edith married a Richard Sylvester Norwood and they had, at the time I took the notes, three children. That concludes the notes that I have at the present time.