State Treasures - Delaware

The Neub Treasure
NEW CASTLE COUNTY – According to renowned treasure hunter, researcher and author, Michael Paul Henson, in 1843 a man only remembered as “Thomas” appeared in Newark, Delaware, and rented a farmhouse about five miles south of town. Though friendly, Thomas never spoke of his business.
Several months’ later local residents were keeping a close eye on their new neighbor.
It was clear he was no farmer, and several folks reported seeing him hiking through the nearby countryside as if he were looking for something.
Several months after moving into his rented farmhouse, Thomas decided to confide in one local farmer he’d developed a friendship with.
Thomas approached his neighbor, whose name is lost to time, and told him he was searching for a large rock with a symbol etched into it supposed to be in the immediate vicinity.
He explained that the rock marked the site of a pirate’s buried treasure.
Thomas then presented an old parchment map of the Newark-Glasgow area depicting the vicinity of Thomas’ rented farmhouse, which was located just north of present-day Glasgow, 5.4 miles south of Newark as the crow flies.
Directions to the treasure, which appeared on the map, said the cache was buried by a large rock with an anchor and cable carved into it.
No explanation was offered as to how Thomas had come into possession of the map, but his neighbor sat listening intently as Thomas explained the treasure had belonged to a pirate named William Neub, who lived on a farm in the vicinity 115 years earlier.
William Neub, (or Nueb) does not appear in history, but he is portrayed as being highly intelligent and behaves like a man following a pre-determined course.
Henson writes, “This cache had been made in 1728 by a pirate named William Neub, after a pirate foray in which considerable loot had been acquired.”
Once Neub gets his share of the booty, instead of going ashore to get liquored up with the crew, he separates himself from his shipmates.
Believing his fate to be that of a pirate - to be caught, shot, hung, run-threw, or tossed into prison, Neub seems to entertain the idea of a full life with an early retirement.
With more money then he ever dreamed possible and still unknown as a pirate, Neub sees his future far inland away from the sea where he could be recognized.
He travels inland, putting his recent past and as many miles as he can between him and the Atlantic.
Neub is unknown in the Delaware interior and hopes to live out a quiet life in rural sparsely populated farm country where folks asked few questions.
And so it was.
Neub settled on a farm located near present-day Glasgow and began living the dream.
During Neub’s residency, his neighbors took note that he took no interest in farming, seemed to have plenty of money, and could not ride a horse.
Though Neub appears to have gotten along with his neighbors, he became a sort of curiosity to them.
One day a nearby farmer, while visiting New Castle, contacted the authorities and inquired about his new neighbor, Mr. Neub.
Though Neub wasn’t suspected of any crime, authorities aggressively sought anyone suspected of being a pirate or having been a pirate and decided to question him at his farm.
Hearing neighborhood scuttlebutt about the farmer’s trip to New Castle, and that officers wanted to question him, it wasn’t long before Neub was tipped off.
If identified or caught holding any treasure, Neub knew he’d swing from the hangman’s noose.
He quickly packed some necessities and travel money, then buried the treasure on his farm near a large rock where he carved an anchor and cable into the stone. The end of the cable is said to point to the buried hoard.
It’s reported that Neub escaped safely, but never returned to his farm. As for Thomas, he failed to locate the engraved stone and eventually left the area.
According to Henson, this story originated from an old, undated newspaper clipping.
If there is any truth to it, local research may help identify where the Neub farm was located.
In 1699, Nicolas Webb of New Castle, Delaware, wrote to the Board of Trade in London stating, “Many pirates have recently arrived in New Castle with riches from Madagascar and their booty is astonishing.”
Many believe much awaits discovery in Delaware.Treasure Hunting
“The Wedge”
NEW CASTLE COUNTY – The English named it “The Wedge,” which described a tiny tract of land resembling a slice of cake barely over one square mile (3 km²) in size, located along the present-day state lines of Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
This geopolitical anomaly was inadvertently created by English surveyors, who, from 1632-1680, set out to precisely chart the colonial boundaries of the Province of Maryland, the Province of Pennsylvania, and the Colony of Delaware.
These colonial surveyors employed two different methods; Pennsylvania and Maryland used the old standard Tangent Line to establish its borders.
But Delaware surveyors had to comply with King Charles II’s 1664 decree that determined that all land within 12 miles (19 km) of New Castle, including that to the south along the Delaware Bay, should be separate from Pennsylvania and Maryland and administered as a new colony.
In order to fix its northern and western boundaries, Delaware surveyors employed a renowned technique still known as the “Twelve-Mile Circle” (around New Castle) method.
This application almost worked perfectly, except where the curvature of Delaware’s northwestern border failed to incorporate roughly 800 acres of land that abuts with the borders of Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The problem wasn’t discovered until William Penn received his charter for Pennsylvania in 1681 granting him all land west of the Delaware River and north of the 40th parallel.
Attempting to locate the boundary lines separating the three colonies failed.
Surveyors could not determine the exact, or even the approximate, location of the boundary lines, thus launching a lively border dispute.
Even after the United States won its independence from England, this small sliver of land belonged to no state.
The dispute was finally settled in 1921 when The Wedge became part of New Castle County, Delaware.
Once it was realized that this 800-acre wedge of land was essentially a No-man’s land, where no lawman and no court had official jurisdiction, The Wedge became infested with fugitives, deserters, road agents, and other similar ilk.
It was the perfect place for them to hide out indefinitely, safely beyond the reach of the long arm of the law.
Old outlaw hideouts of history make superb hunting grounds for treasure and relic hunters today.
Local historic accounts may reveal much about who frequented this location and what may be hidden here.
The Wedge can be found just northwest of Newark, Delaware, where New London Road intersects with Hopkins Road.
Everything north and west of this junction compromised much of The Wedge.Lost and Forgotten
Sites in Delaware
Ghost Town: Woodland – (SUSSEX COUNTY) Founded in 1734 by James Cannon on a tract of land known as Cannon’s Regulation, Woodland was a farming community where, as early as 1743(?), Cannon started operating a ferry to cross the Nanticoke River.
During the 1820’s, Woodland developed into an agricultural center with a town, but decades later, after the ferry closed, its population declined.
Today about 20 residents remain in Woodland and the ferry has re-opened and is operated by the state.
A church, several homes, old foundations and the cemetery remain. Woodland is located on the west bank of the Nanticoke River about 3.6 miles southwest of Seaford.Ghost Town: New Market – (SUSSEX COUNTY) Not much is known of New Market. It was once a small town at the junction of Holly Tree Road and Reynolds Pond Road, between Ellendale and Milton.
Nothing remains except the cemetery that was once located in the churchyard.Fort: Naaman Blockhouse – (NEW CASTLE COUNTY) Built in 1654, the Naaman Blockhouse was a two-story stone fortress built by Swedish authorities to protect the farms and mills on Naaman Creek.
It was captured in 1655 by the Dutch, and attacked by Indians in 1777.
Thought to have been located adjacent to the Robinson House Tavern, built in 1723, recent archaeological evidence indicates that the stone structure built there is not the blockhouse of historical documents.
Its location is unknown.Sources:
Henson, Michael Paul, America’s Lost Treasures, 1984, South Bend, IN, Jayco Publishing Company, p. 160
Treasures in Delaware, http://www.gwizit.com/treasures/delawar
e.php
Wikipedia research: “Wedge” (border). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_%28border%29
Woodland Ferry research: http://www.deldot.gov/archaeology/woodland_ferry/pdf/woodland_ferry_broc...
Woodland: http://www.ghosttow
ns.com/states/de/woodland.html
New Market research: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/de/newmarket.html
Wikipedia research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Market,_Delaware