Volume 7 (2004) of The Journal of The Lewes Historical Society. Cover art by Steve Rogers.

The Lewes Historical Society is pleased to announce the publication of the 2004 issue of the Journal, the seventh in a series of annual local history books. Researched, edited, and illustrated by volunteers, they have become popular with residents of the area and visitors alike, who are interested in learning more about the history of Lewes.

Hot off the presses, this newest issue focuses attention on “Notable Lewes People” of the past. Some of the people featured were from the relatively recent past of the middle of the last century, so reading about them will stir memories for some local readers. Trenny Elliott gives a delightful portrait of her father, James Edward Marvil, the first president of the Lewes Historical Society. Former Lewes fire department chief, the much admired Louis A. Rickards, left a manuscript-in-progress at his untimely death in 2002, in which he reminisced about his family’s grocery business. The editors of the Journal are pleased that the Rickards family allowed these childhood memories to be published as an article called “Grubbing Them Fishboats.”

Other figures who made unique contributions to the local community are featured: “Ruth Chambers Stewart” by Ruth Mankin, “Frederick Douglas Thomas” by Barbara Vaughan, “Marjorie Virden: A Lewes Lady” by Judith Atkins Roberts, “Lest We Forget: Virginia Cullen” by Hazel Brittingham, and “Mayor William E. Walsh” by Gary Grunder. Readers will probably be surprised to learn that the discoverer of the use of iodized salt to prevent thyroid disease was an amateur archeologist in Lewes, Dr. David Marine, described in an article by Warren MacDonald.

Reaching back in time, Hazel Brittingham recorded “Groome Church: 100 Years” and “Eliza Ann Marshall,” who was born in Lewes during the War of 1812. E. D. Bryan wrote a history of drug stores and various druggists in Lewes from the early 1800s through most of the 20th century; and Judith Atkins Roberts researched the renowned Civil War general, Nelson Appleton Miles, for whom Fort Miles was named.

How many people know who Sara Fisher Clampitt Ames was? Readers can find out in an article by Robert G. Stewart about this Lewes native, who became a well-regarded sculptress with a famous subject in the mid-1800s. Another intriguing artistic figure of Lewes in the early 1700s is described by Betty Grunder in “Henry Brooke: Colonial Poet.” Robert G. Stewart also explores the mystery of an obscure Lewes man, born in Mali and presumably brought to America as a slave.

Michael DiPaolo, the executive director of the Lewes Historical Society, contributed an article about Ryves Holt, who was an important figure in Lewes in the early 1700s and for whom a house on Second Street is named. Finally, the earliest Lewes resident whose life in the 1600s is recalled in the Journal is “Pieter Cornelius Plockhoy” by Warren MacDonald.

This newest issue of the Journal also contains many interesting old photographs and some original artwork by local marine artist, Steve Rogers.

Copies of this 64-page publication are available, along with former volumes issued in 2001 through 2003, for five dollars each at Books By the Bay, Stepping Stone, and Saxon Swan, all located in downtown Lewes. Current members of the Society receive as a benefit of membership one copy per household, and these will be available at the October 15th meeting held at the Presbyterian Church Hall on Kings Highway.

©2002-2005 The Lewes Historical Society