Millsboro
Millsboro is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, situated along the headwaters of the Indian River. Founded in the late eighteenth century through the industrial enterprise of local mill builders, Millsboro grew from a small milling settlement into a recognized market hub for the surrounding region. Its name evolved across several decades, reflecting successive periods of growth, consolidation, and civic organization. Today the town retains a connection to its early history while serving as a community anchor in southern Delaware.
Early History and Indigenous Peoples
Long before European settlers arrived, the land on which Millsboro now stands was home to the Nanticoke people. The Nanticoke inhabited the broader region encompassing the Indian River area, and their presence on this land dates back centuries prior to European contact. The history of the Millsboro area therefore begins not with colonists or mill builders, but with the indigenous communities that established a presence along the Indian River corridor well before the eighteenth century.[1]
When European settlers did arrive, the earliest among them were primarily second-generation colonists of English descent who had originally settled in Virginia and subsequently migrated northward into what is now Delaware.[2] This migratory pattern was common in the colonial mid-Atlantic, as land availability and economic opportunity drew families away from established Virginia settlements and into the newer frontier regions of the Delaware Peninsula.
The Indian River Hundred
To understand Millsboro's administrative and political origins, it is helpful to understand the concept of the hundred as a unit of local governance. The Indian River Hundred was created in 1706, carved out of the parent district known as the Lewes & Rehoboth Hundred. A hundred is a political subdivision of a county, originally employed by the state of Maryland for tax and judicial purposes. In practical terms, a hundred functions similarly to a modern election district within a county. The precise definition of the unit's size has been debated historically — interpretations have included an area containing one hundred families, a territory capable of raising a force of one hundred men, or land sufficient to accommodate one hundred farms.[3]
The Indian River Hundred formed the political framework within which the Millsboro settlement would eventually take shape. As the hundred developed through the early eighteenth century, it created conditions conducive to the establishment of small industries — most notably milling operations — near natural water sources.
Founding and the Rock Hole Mills
The settlement that would become Millsboro was established in 1792. Its founding is attributed primarily to the efforts of Elisha Dickerson, who recognized the industrial potential of the site and took decisive action to exploit it. Dickerson built a dam across the headwaters of the Indian River at a location known as Rock Hole, effectively harnessing the water supply necessary to power mill operations.[4]
Following the construction of the dam, Dickerson proceeded to build both a sawmill and a gristmill on the site. These two mills were among fifteen milling operations located within a four-mile radius of the settlement, a concentration that reflects how central milling was to the economic life of rural Sussex County in the late eighteenth century. The density of mills in the area, combined with the geographic reference to Rock Hole, gave the settlement its original name: Rock Hole Mills.[5]
A sawmill processed timber into lumber, supporting construction and trade, while a gristmill ground grain into flour and meal for consumption and commerce. Together, these operations made Rock Hole Mills a functional economic node for the farming communities that surrounded it, drawing trade from the broader Indian River Hundred and beyond.
Name Changes and Civic Development
The settlement's name did not remain static as the community grew. Originally known as Rock Hole Mills, the community was formally renamed "Millsborough" in 1809, a designation that acknowledged both its milling heritage and its growing civic identity.[6] The new name retained the industrial character of the original while presenting the settlement in a more formal, town-like register.
The evolution of the name continued into the following decades. By the 1840s, the entire community had come to be known by its present-day name, Millsboro — a shortened, more practical rendering of Millsborough.[7] This kind of gradual phonetic simplification was not unusual in nineteenth-century American communities, where everyday usage often wore down the more formal spellings inherited from British administrative traditions.
The town's development during this period was also shaped by its consolidation with neighboring Washington, a nearby settlement. The merging of these two communities into a single entity contributed to the growth of Millsboro as a more substantial community center. The town was subsequently incorporated in 1893, formalizing its status as an organized municipal body under Delaware law.[8]
The Railroad and Commercial Growth
The arrival of the railroad in Millsboro in the period following the American Civil War marked a significant turning point in the town's development. Given Millsboro's established role as a market hub for the surrounding agricultural region — a position reinforced by its riverside location along the Indian River — the installation of rail infrastructure represented a natural extension of the town's commercial identity.[9]
Before the railroad, goods produced in the Millsboro area had to be transported by road or water, methods that were slower and less reliable than rail. The railroad provided producers in the region with access to larger markets beyond Sussex County, enabling more efficient distribution of agricultural products and manufactured goods. Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the railroad continued to support the town's growth as a commercial and industrial center.
The riverside situation of Millsboro had always given it a degree of commercial advantage. Water was essential not only for powering mills but also for transportation and trade in the era before mechanized overland transport. As the railroad supplemented and eventually surpassed water-based commerce, Millsboro adapted to the changing landscape of regional trade.
Historical Significance and Preservation
Several sites in and around Millsboro have been recognized for their historical significance and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These designations reflect the depth of Millsboro's heritage and the importance of preserving the physical record of the town's development across three centuries.[10]
The Delaware Public Archives maintains a historical marker program that documents important places and events in Delaware's history. Millsboro is among the communities recognized through this program, with the archives preserving documentation related to the town's formal renaming and its broader development as a community.[11]
The town's history has also been examined through local oral and documentary sources, including community discussions of its heritage.[12] These efforts to document and share Millsboro's past reflect an ongoing community interest in understanding the forces that shaped the town from its earliest days as a milling settlement on the Indian River.
Geography and Setting
Millsboro is located in Sussex County, the southernmost of Delaware's three counties, in an area characterized by flat coastal plain terrain typical of the Delmarva Peninsula. The town's position along the headwaters of the Indian River was central to its founding and early economic life, as the river provided both the water power necessary for milling and a corridor for trade.
The broader Millsboro area lies within reasonable proximity to the Delaware coast, situating it within a region that has increasingly attracted residential development tied to coastal recreation and tourism. The surrounding Indian River Hundred remains an administrative reference point for the area, a distinction that connects the modern community to the political geography established in the early eighteenth century.