Indian River Hundred
Indian River Hundred is a hundred located in Sussex County, in the southern portion of the state of Delaware. Established in 1706 from its parent hundred, the Lewes and Rehoboth Hundred, Indian River Hundred stands as one of the oldest formally recognized civil divisions in Delaware. It takes its name from the Indian River, the waterway whose arms border significant portions of its territory. The hundred encompasses a landscape of pine woods, coastal wetlands, and historic rural communities that have shaped the character of southern Sussex County across more than three centuries of recorded history.
Formation and Political History
Indian River Hundred was formally created in 1706, carved out of what had previously been the Lewes and Rehoboth Hundred, a larger administrative unit that had served the needs of early colonial settlers in the region.[1] The hundred system itself was an inheritance from English administrative tradition, transplanted to the American colonies as a means of organizing local governance, taxation, land records, and judicial functions below the county level.
A hundred is a political subdivision that, in the context of Delaware, has retained its formal role in government far longer than in most other American states. Delaware is, in fact, notable for being one of only a small number of states in the United States to have maintained the hundred as an active unit of local administration. In Sussex County, hundreds continue to function as meaningful geographic and administrative designations, used in property records, election districts, and other governmental contexts.
According to the inscription recorded on a historical marker committed to the site, Indian River Hundred was so named in 1706. Together with Lewes and Rehoboth, Broadkill Hundred, and Cedar Creek Hundred, Indian River Hundred formed a cluster of early hundreds that gave the early settlers of the region a structured framework for civic life.[2] These hundreds collectively represented the administrative backbone of what would become one of the more historically rich corners of Delaware.
Geography
Indian River Hundred is situated south of the central part of Sussex County and is defined in part by its relationship to the arms of the Indian River, the tidal waterway that gives the hundred its name.[3] The terrain within the hundred varies from flat coastal lowlands to stretches of pine forest, the latter of which has historically defined the visual and ecological character of interior Sussex County.
The pine woods of Indian River Hundred have long been a notable landscape feature. Historical accounts reference these pine forests specifically in connection with landmarks and communities within the hundred, including religious sites and chapels that were constructed amid the trees in earlier centuries.[4] The arms of the Indian River also provide natural boundaries and have historically influenced patterns of settlement, transportation, and land use within the hundred.
The region's proximity to the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic coastal zone has meant that Indian River Hundred shares many of the geographic characteristics of Delaware's lower coastal plain — a gently sloping, low-lying terrain marked by marshes, tidal inlets, and sandy soils that have supported both agriculture and small-scale fishing over the centuries.
Communities and Landmarks
Several communities and notable landmarks fall within the boundaries of Indian River Hundred. The town of Millsboro, for instance, is among the communities whose history is tied to the hundred and to the broader story of settlement and economic development in this part of Sussex County. The creation of the hundred in 1706 established a framework within which communities like Millsboro eventually grew and took on distinct identities.[5]
George's Chapel, situated in the pine woods of Indian River Hundred a few miles from Lewes, is another landmark with historical significance to the hundred. The chapel has served as a site of religious observance for generations of residents, and its presence in contemporaneous accounts underscores the role that religious institutions played in anchoring communities throughout the rural landscape of Sussex County.[6]
The hundred's rural and forested character historically attracted residents who valued the relative seclusion of the pine woods and the proximity to both the river and the bay. This combination of natural features and modest distance from established towns like Lewes made Indian River Hundred an appealing location for those seeking a quieter, semi-rural existence along the Delaware coast.
Historical Significance
The historical importance of Indian River Hundred extends beyond its geographic and administrative functions. The hundred's long history has made it a subject of genealogical research, historical scholarship, and civic commemoration. The American History and Genealogy Project has compiled records pertaining to Indian River Hundred, reflecting the value that researchers place on the hundred as a unit of study for understanding the social and family histories of Sussex County.[7]
Historical subjects connected to the hundred have also attracted scholarly attention. Research into the Civil War era has included investigations of figures associated with Indian River Hundred, including work examining Benjamin Burton and his participation in President Abraham Lincoln's compensated emancipation scheme — a program through which the federal government proposed to reimburse slaveholders in loyal border states and other areas as part of an effort to phase out slavery through legislative rather than military means.[8] Such scholarship situates Indian River Hundred within the broader national history of the antebellum and Civil War periods, demonstrating that even rural Delaware hundreds were touched by the defining events of American history.
The historical marker committed to Indian River Hundred serves as a physical reminder of the hundred's establishment and its role within the larger framework of Sussex County governance. The marker records the year 1706 as the date of the hundred's formal naming and places it within the context of the other early hundreds that were organized alongside it.[9]
Notable Residents
Indian River Hundred has been home to a variety of notable individuals across the centuries. Among them was Orville H. Peets, an American painter and art teacher who lived in the hundred near Lewes for approximately thirty years. Peets, who studied oil painting in France at both the Académie Julian and at other institutions, made the pine woods and coastal scenery of Indian River Hundred his home for a substantial portion of his life. He died in 1968 at the age of 84, and his long residence in the hundred reflects the kind of quiet, rural appeal that the area has long offered to artists and intellectuals seeking distance from urban centers.[10]
The presence of a trained painter who had studied at a prestigious Parisian art institution choosing to spend decades in the pine woods of Indian River Hundred speaks to the distinctive character of the place — a landscape that combined rural isolation with proximity to the scenic Delaware coast, offering a kind of environment that could support both creative and contemplative life.
The Hundred System in Delaware
To understand Indian River Hundred fully, it is useful to consider the broader context of the hundred system as it has persisted in Delaware. While hundreds were once a common feature of English and colonial American governance, most American states abandoned the unit as their administrative structures evolved in the nineteenth century. Delaware retained the hundred, however, and hundreds remain legally recognized subdivisions of Delaware's counties to this day.
In Sussex County, hundreds are used in various governmental and legal contexts, including election administration and land records. The persistence of the hundred system in Delaware has meant that Indian River Hundred, though created more than three centuries ago, continues to carry a degree of administrative relevance that its counterparts in other states lost long ago. This durability makes Delaware hundreds like Indian River not merely historical curiosities but living administrative units with ongoing functions in the governance of the state.
The formation of Indian River Hundred from the Lewes and Rehoboth Hundred in 1706 reflects the broader process by which Sussex County's administrative geography was refined and subdivided as the colonial population grew and settlement expanded inland from the original coastal communities. As new communities developed and the demands of local administration increased, existing hundreds were divided to create more manageable units. Indian River Hundred was a product of this process, and its history mirrors the broader patterns of colonial growth and administrative evolution in lower Delaware.
See Also
- Sussex County, Delaware
- Lewes and Rehoboth Hundred
- Broadkill Hundred
- Cedar Creek Hundred
- Indian River (Delaware)
- Millsboro, Delaware