Delaware Disappearance, A: The Riddle of Little Horace Marvin Jr.

By Brian G. Cannon

The disappearance of Horace Marvin, Jr. became a national sensation.

In early March 1907, young Horace, just a few weeks shy of his fourth birthday, was playing in the yard of his father's new farm in a sparsely populated area near Dover, Delaware. The family had just moved from Iowa and this was the first day Horace had to explore their new home. In the farmyard with Horace were his brother John and cousin Rose, all visible to neighbors helping the previous owner move off the farm. Then Horace disappeared without a trace. Within two weeks this heartbreaking event was being reported to hundreds of other families in newspapers across the country and around the world.

Horace's disappearance would be the most publicized missing child story until the Lindbergh kidnapping exactly twenty-five years later. Local author Brian G. Cannon tells the full story of this tragedy for the first time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Jan 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781439674215

Brian G. Cannon

Brian Cannon is a Delaware native with family connections back to early Dutch and English settlers. He developed his love of history while growing up hearing family stories, as well as local myths and legends. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he had a twenty-year career in fire protection and safety management in the insurance industry. Following retirement, he had the opportunity to work for the State of Delaware at the New Castle Court House Museum, retiring as the lead interpreter after twenty-two years.

Book preview

1

A STEP BACK IN TIME

It is March 1907 in the state of Delaware, and a mystery is about to unfold in Kitts Hummock. Now you may well ask, What, or where, is a Kitts Hummock? A fair question, as we are about to step back and spend a few months there. Since one hundred years later few residents of Delaware can easily locate Kitts Hummock on a map, and fewer still have ever heard of the true story you are about to read, a bit of background might be in order.

In 2007, one hundred years after our story occurs, a visitor to Kitts Hummock would have found themselves in an unincorporated rural region of Kent County, about three to four square miles in area, southeast of Dover, Delaware. The location is roughly bounded on the east by Delaware Bay, on the west by Delaware Route 9, the south by the St. Jones River and on the north by the Little Creek Wildlife Area. Ranging from a few hundred feet to a mile inland, the land comprises protected wetlands, small ponds and drainage ditches, but west of that are hundreds of acres of timber and rich farmlands, mostly cultivated by large agribusiness.

For a mile or so along the bay and the extensive wetlands of the Ted Harvey Conservation Area and the St. Jones Reserve to the west lies a narrow strip of beach a couple of hundred feet wide that runs about a mile along the shore. Located here are approximately sixty beach homes and cabins, most of which are seasonal escapes for the owners from the heat and traffic to the relatively cool, quiet breezes off the bay.

The name Kitts Hummock is grounded on the English word hummock, which dates from the mid-sixteenth century and refers to small hills or mounds along a shore. The meaning of Kitts is uncertain but is believed to have been given by an early settler, Jehu Curtis, who in 1738 claimed twenty acres of fast, or dry, land and marsh along the shore. By 1818, successive owners had erected a tavern that briefly occupied the site before being torn down. Then Kitts Hummock became known as a tenting ground for camping and picnicking.¹

Around 1846, two men named Hutchinson and McIlvaine built a beach hotel they named the Kitts Hummock Hotel; by 1859 there was a bowling saloon nearby.² Hutchinson and McIlvaine also planted seed oysters in the bay, hoping to eventually provide the delicacy to their hotel guests. Unfortunately, the oysters failed, and the property changed hands again. It wouldn’t be until the late 1860s that it was discovered that the oysters had survived and spread into the bay and commercial harvesting began.

Kitts Hummock, circa 1913. Star indicates approximate location of the Marvin Farm. Wikimedia Commons.

Kitts Hummock cottages, circa 1885. Delaware Public Archives.

In May 1881, the hotel was leased by Joseph Jeanes, who renamed it the Bay View and intended to fix it up as a first-class summer resort. The advertising stressed the fresh seafood from the bay, the world-class fishing, board of eight dollars per week, and of course, children could stay for half price. As an encouragement to those people traveling from a distance, if they would send a letter advising of their arrival day, the hotel would pick them up at the Dover train station and provide free transportation to the hotel.³

Kitts Hummock wasn’t just for visitors. The June 25, 1885 edition of the (Wilmington) Delaware Gazette and State Journal reported that the return of warm weather had brought rented carriages loaded down with ladies and gentlemen from Dover going to spend the day at Kitts Hummock until the cool of the evening set in. "The Hammock [sic] is a nice place to visit on a sultry afternoon."

About the same time as Jeanes was renovating the old hotel, approximately twenty summer cottages were built on the beach. These were primarily owned by people in Dover, built of simple frame construction of one, one and one-half and two stories, often with wide double doors for ventilation and a covered front porch.

By 1907, the hotel and bowling saloon are gone. Maybe by fire or a storm, but no mention of them appears in the recorded descriptions of Kitts Hummock in our story. It seems from the history of the area, the small local population and the distance from Dover probably served as a deterrent to patrons, and the summer visitors weren’t enough to sustain the business. In fact, one hundred years later there were still no gas stations, convenience markets or shopping centers in the immediate area.

Returning to 1907, when our story occurs, the United States is celebrating 131 years of independence and 300 years since the first English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. There are forty-five states, though Oklahoma will be admitted as number forty-six in November. The country’s population is estimated at 96 million, and 1,285,349 new immigrants will enter the United States in 1907—the highest number of immigrants to enter the country in any one year.

Immigration and internal migration have often been sources of friction between the resident and the newcomer in America. Language barriers, differences in customs and religions and often the fear of job loss to outsiders have led to violence. This most often occurred in urban areas where immigrants settled for work in manufacturing or skilled artisan jobs. In Delaware, these types of jobs were primarily located in New Castle County.⁴

In fact, in March 1907, a newspaper article mentions that the Delaware legislature was considering giving the State Board of Agriculture funding to create a marketing campaign to depict the state as a suitable place for immigrant farmers.⁵ Two months later, the regional Federal Immigration Commissioner in Baltimore, Maryland, contacted the State Board of Agriculture, stating his office could suggest immigrants settle in Delaware, but his office would have to have assurances on where they would be located and that they would be well paid and receive good treatment.⁶ It’s unknown if the Federal Immigration Commission directed any significant number of immigrants to Delaware, but the 1910 census totals remained consistent with the previous thirty years of population growth.

In 1907, the president of the United States is Theodore Roosevelt Jr. After taking office as vice president in March 1901, he assumed the presidency just six months later following the assassination of William McKinley and would serve until 1908. As a leader of the Progressive Movement, he championed domestic policies, breaking corporate monopolies, the increased regulation of railroads and improving the quality of food and drugs. Roosevelt made conservation a top priority, establishing the first national parks and forests, intended to preserve the nation’s natural resources. In foreign policy, he facilitated the construction of the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914, two years ahead of schedule. Well known as a family man, Roosevelt would have a small role in the soon-to-unfold mystery.

In Delaware, Preston Lea is the fifty-second governor and Isaac T. Parker the lieutenant governor; both would serve until 1909. Lea was a Wilmington businessman and a Republican, but he still managed to secure political support from the rural, and predominately Democratic, voters in the two lower counties of Kent and Sussex. He was a member of the Wilmington Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, his ancestors arriving in Pennsylvania with William Penn.

Religious friction was rare in Delaware. In 1906, only two denominations had more than 10 percent of the 71,251 total reported congregants: Methodists (46 percent) and Catholic (34 percent). If the Protestant-Episcopal and the Presbyterian numbers are added in, approximately 94 percent of the total number of reported church members are accounted for.⁷

Delaware has a population approaching 200,000 in 1907, divided between the three counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex. New Castle County had the largest population and includes Wilmington, the largest city in the state. Native-born Caucasians make up 76 percent of the population; foreign-born, 8 percent; and African Americans, 17 percent. At the time, 48 percent of the population live in what was considered urban areas, and most of them would be in Wilmington or New Castle County.⁸

In Kent County, where our mystery will occur, the approximately 33,000 residents would have no statistically significant change in population over the preceding twenty years. Except for the roughly 3,700 residents of Dover, the county was generally rural and agricultural in character.

The rural population of Kent County isn’t traveling much in 1907. Farmers and watermen stay close to home. There is regular steamboat passenger service on the Delaware River, south to Lewes or north to New Castle, Wilmington and Philadelphia. In the summer months, shipments of fruits, vegetables and seafood are the usual cargos, with people going on excursions to Cape May, New Jersey.

But the Delaware River is more than a local convenience; it is also a major route for international trade. In 1907, 2.3 million tons of imports entered Philadelphia, and an equal volume of cargo was exported from the river.⁹ In addition, the city of Philadelphia is a designated port of immigration, and the federal government has two immigration inspection and quarantine stations on the Delaware River: one at the entrance of the Delaware Bay at Lewes and the second on Reedy Island, about twenty-five miles north of Kitts Hummock.

And of course, there is also the railroad for those who want to travel in a more comfortable style and for farmers who need to quickly get their produce to market. The Delaware Railroad is the major line in the state. It began in Wilmington in the 1850s, where it connected to the Pennsylvania Railroad and continued south through Dover and Seaford, reaching Delmar on the southern border in 1859. Smaller branch railroads then connected to the Delaware Railroad, serving communities on the Delaware Bay and west to Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay.

By 1907, over 222,000 miles of rail lines traversed the United States, with over 333 miles in Delaware.¹⁰ They reach almost every corner of America and are the primary mover of goods in commerce. There were few citizens of the state who were not within a convenient distance from a railroad station.

For the people in our story, the train station is about a seven-mile carriage ride into Dover. The Pennsylvania Railroad timetable for January 1907 listed nine daily trains to take travelers south, down the Delmarva Peninsula, or north to Wilmington and Philadelphia. A traveler wishing to go from Dover to Jersey City, New Jersey, for example, could take the No. 40 train from Dover at 8:49 a.m. to Philadelphia and arrive at the Broad Street Station at 11:00 a.m. After a layover of an hour and a half, board the No. 74 train to New York City at 12:35 p.m., arriving at Jersey City at 2:46 p.m. All in all, it is a six-hour trip, four and a half without the layover.¹¹

Public roads in Delaware haven’t changed much since colonial times. In 1907, the state had approximately three thousand miles of public roads, of which less than 3 percent, or ninety miles, were considered improved, or paved, and most of those were in New Castle County. Dirt roads are a way of life in rural Delaware and would remain so for many years. The sight of an automobile is a rarity, especially as there are only 313 registered in the entire state in 1907.¹²

If you need to communicate with friends or family not in the immediate Kitts Hummock neighborhood, the best method is a letter. The domestic letter rate is two cents an ounce, and a postcard is only one cent. The nearest post offices are in Dover, about seven miles away, or Little Creek, about six, depending on where you live.

Of course, since you have had Rural Free Delivery (RFD) to your mailbox since 1902, and you have two mail deliveries per day, you can just put your letter out for pickup six days a week. The railroads carry the mail on special cars, allowing postal employees to sort by destination as they travel. It would be common for a Dover business to mail an order to a Wilmington company and get a same-day reply. Mail arriving in Dover would usually have been presorted in transit for the smaller communities around Dover, and letters for Kitts Hummock would be sent to the Little Creek post office for delivery by your carrier on RFD Route No. 3.

Electricity was known long before Benjamin Franklin flew his kite. The problem was finding an economical way to produce it and apply it to useful applications. Practical electric service in Delaware began in Wilmington in 1883 when a private company contracted with a few local businesses for lights on their property or adjacent streets, replacing the gas and oil lamps then in use.¹³ Eventually, it expanded to power streetcars, electric motors for industry and lighting in private homes. But extending electricity to rural areas, especially away from municipal electrical generators, required separate generators, miles of expensive wiring and hundreds of poles to support it, plus an adequate number of subscribers to pay for the service. Expansion of electric service to small communities would be made possible by the rapid improvements in generators and related electrical transmission technology. By 1900, the town of Milford in northern Sussex County had electricity, and Middletown in southern New Castle County started to light some of its streets the following year.

Dover had a city electric