President Letter
Bethel is a small, well-preserved 19th century shipbuilding and trading community, located on Broad Creek in western Sussex County between Seaford and Laurel. Wooden sailing vessels were constructed by Bethel’s skilled ship carpenters until the early -20th century. The most significant class of Bethel craft were the Chesapeake sailing rams, which originated from this Broad Creek port.
The Town of Bethel was formerly known as both Lewis’ Wharf and Lewisville. The site was originally part of five hundred acres granted by the province of Maryland to James Caldwell in 1728. In 1795, Kendall Lewis, the founder of Bethel, acquired much of James Caldwell’s original grant as well as a smaller tract on Broad Creek. Here he established a landing that grew to become a prosperous trading center. In the 1840’s, Lewis’ Wharf developed into a thriving community known as Lewisville.
Within the next 20 years, Lewisville was to become an important shipbuilding center. The extensive forests along the Nanticoke provided abundant supplies of virgin pine, oak and cypress. Between 1871 and 1918, as many as thirty rams were built in Lewisville shipyards.
This class of sailing vessel was designed as an economical, flat-bottom, three masted schooner and it operation required only a small crew. Rams were used for coastal freight primarily on the Chesapeake Bay. In 1880, when the village applied for a post office, its name was changed to Bethel, since another Lewisville, DE post office already existed.
Today Bethel is part of western Sussex County’s active agricultural economy. Bethel residents treasure Bethel’s rich, maritime past and look forward to the future.
Vernon Proctor, President
Bethel Town Council
Welcome to the Town of Bethel
The beginning of recorded history about Bethel goes back to 1683 when the Maryland Colony granted approximately 500 acres of land on the east side of the Nanticoke River and on the banks of Broad Creek to John Caldwell. This land and adjacent tracts went by many names; some of which were “Job’s Lot”, “Mitchell’s Harbor”, “Manlove’s Grove”, “Cedar Lot” and others.
In June 1795, George Mitchell sold parts of “Manlove’s Grove”, “Jobs Lots”, and “Mitchell’s Harbor” to Kendal Major Lewis, which is now the site of Bethel, Delaware. Kendal Major Lewis is the man looked upon as the founder of the town now known as Bethel, Delaware, originally called Lewis’ Wharf or Lewis’ Landing, then later, Lewisville.
Kendal Major Lewis sold to Bayard Moore about 40 acres in 1842, but excluded one-quarter acre for his family graveyard.(The Lewis Family graves are to be found today in the present Bethel M.E. Church Yard.)
Bayard Moore was the son of Mathias Moore who had a large family of children, grandchildren and great grand-children. This industrious family (his sons Bayard and Jonathon, his grandson J.M.C. Moore, his great-grandsons, John M.C., Moore and Capt. Orlando Moore) had a great deal to do with making Bethel a permanent settlement, especially in the ship building industry. Many other descendants currently remain in the area.
Information compiled by R.B.H., 2000
