Remembering Sussex County's Most Notorious River Crossing
Anyone who lives in coastal Delaware these days knows that the Cape May-Lewes Ferry is a short and enjoyable way of travelling from Delaware to New Jersey, and back again.
The approximately 90 minute journey is the most direct route between the two mid-Atlantic states, and the ferry transports hundreds of thousands of travellers each and every year, particularly during the busy summer months.
But while the larger ferry with the larger ships and the larger customer base gets all of the attention in the southern reaches of the nation’s First State, there’s a ferry service a few miles to the west that pre-dates the CMLF by more than two centuries.
It is one of the oldest ferries in continuous operation in the United States and harkens back to a much simpler time in the United States, a time long before “horseless carriages” and other modern conveniences of the 20th and 21st centuries.
But how much do you know about the Woodland Ferry, other than the mechanical issues that have been reported in the newspapers in recent years. The ferry has a long and storied, and uniquely colorful, history and we’re going to tell you all about it in our latest historical blog entry here on theoldfathergroup.com.
So let’s begin our look back into this unique piece of southern Delaware history:
The Woodland Ferry’s recorded history dates back to 1734, but it was likely in service for many years, possibly even decades, prior to it’s first notation in the history books.
By law, it almost certainly had to be in place before the turn of the 18th century.
You see the small town of Woodland, just outside Seaford and resting on the northern banks of the Nanticoke River, was actually a part of Maryland in the 1600s.
Why is this important? Well, a law was passed by the Maryland legislature during that time requiring that all counties in the state maintain ferry services over rivers, creeks and swamps.
The law is clear, but what isn’t clear is the date the crossing began between Woodland and Laurel. But the colorful history of the ferry, and its connection to some of the state’s most notorious characters in those early days, has certainly been well documented.
The farthest we can go back in our look into the Woodland Ferry is 1734, as that’s the first time it’s mentioned in the journals of the time. So that’s where we’ll begin.
Sometime between 1734 and 1748, the infrastructure for the Woodland Ferry was created on both sides of the Nanticoke River by members of the infamous Cannon family.
You may have heard of the family’s most famous member – the notorious slave runner Patty Cannon, who kidnapped free blacks and sold them to slave dealers in the southern United States. In fact, the ferry was connected to the slave running trade of the day, though these allegations have never been definitively proven.
But what has been proven is the reputation of the Cannon family as a whole. The entire clan was literally despised by other members of the community, perhaps because of their reputation for shady business deals and foreclosing on properties with little or no compassion for their fellow man.
The family’s operation of the ferry is a big reason for it’s colorful and storied past. Originally run by James Cannon, what was then known as Cannon’s Ferry later passed on to his son, Jacob, and eventually to Jacob’s wife, Betty, and her two sons.
It was under the operation of Isaac and Jacob, Jr., that the ferry began to turn a profit, much to the chagrin of the community.
The brothers were undoubtedly notorious businessmen who, along with their mother, were able to successfully petition the Delaware General Assembly in 1793 for exclusive ferrying rights at Cannon’s Ferry.
Essentially, they killed the competition. The Cannons were now free to charge what they pleased for crossing the Nanticoke, and they began to do just that.
Want to learn more about the historic Woodland Ferry in western Sussex County. Click HERE for the rest of the story.
