Piece of Sussex County, U.S. history is for sale in Milton

I’m going to begin this column with a brief thought exercise. I’d like you to take a second to think of former President George Washington. If you’re anything like me, once you get past a generic portrait, the image that comes to mind of our first president is Emanuel Leutze’s painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” It’s the one of him standing stoically at the bow of a small row boat while his crew navigates the icy waters of the Delaware River on the way from New Jersey to Pennsylvania on Christmas Day 1776.

The reason I bring this up isn’t because Christmas is just around the corner. It’s because, according to a listing from local Jack Lingo Realtor Lucius Webb, the house of the captain who piloted that boat for Washington nearly 247 years ago is up for sale in Milton.

“5BR, 2.5BA Colonial, home to Patriot Coard Hazzard who piloted Geo. Washington across the Delaware Christmas Day 1776,” reads the opening sentence. The house, built in 1792, is listed for $450,000, with an option to purchase an empty neighboring lot for an additional $185,000. 

My wife, Heather, pointed out the history of the house to me. I had seen the for sale sign in the yard, but she’s the one who was looking over the Lingo ad in the Cape Gazette that had the house listed.

Thinking it was pretty interesting, I went down and took a few photos. Hazzard’s only claim to local fame isn’t captaining that boat. According to a historical marker on the house itself, Hazzard, born Jan. 27, 1750, was Sussex County’s first sheriff after the Revolutionary War.

That means for sale right now in Milton is a piece of United States and Sussex County history that would be hard to replicate. That’s the type of gift a person who has everything would like.

Coincidentally, I have a pair of six-degrees-of-separation-type connections to Hazzard. First, my son’s birthday is Jan. 27. Second, for a few years in my late 20s, I spent some time working on boats. My first job in the industry was for a boat builder named Paul Rollins of York, Maine. The project I worked on  – and by that I mean sanding and painting for months on end, while the shipwright with the real experience did the important work – was a life-size, working replica of the boat that Washington used to cross the river for the annual reenactment held in Washington Crossing, Pa. I would never have guessed that I’d now live right up the street from the guy who captained that boat in real life.

Keep Sussex County’s roads interesting

This past summer, I took two pictures of signs related to Joe Biden. The first was Biden and his presidential motorcade passing by the huge Biden sign on the side of a barn off Route 1, north of Milton. The second, was of a Biden sign located off Harbeson Road, a few miles south of the intersection with Route 9. That sign was painted on a wooden toilet seat cover and Biden’s name was spelled BYDEN.

For whatever reason, I hadn’t had a reason to be on Harbeson Road for the past few months. A recent work assignment sent me that way and I noticed the BYDEN sign was now gone. The same thing happened about 18 months ago when I wrote about bras and thongs having been attached to some of the utility poles along Routes 1 and 9. Soon afterward, they disappeared.

People, I’m not pointing these things out so that they’re taken down. I’m pointing them out because I think they’re funny and I want to share the humor. Keep Sussex County’s roads interesting.

Joke of the Week:

According to multiple online calendars, Thursday, Dec. 9, is known as National Llama Day. I had never heard of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real, and llamas are kind of funny looking, so here’s a llama joke. As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com

Q: What did Mario say when he saw the Alpaca?

A: Don’t-a worry. It’s a false-a llama!