Middletown, Delaware
Middletown, Delaware, located about 24 miles south of Wilmington, is an early crossroads town, one of the old Delaware towns not on a navigable waterway. It was originally a tavern stop about half-way on the old cart road that extends across the peninsula between Appoquinimink Creek in Odessa and Bohemia Landing on the eastern branch of the Bohemia River in Maryland; thus the name, “Middletown.” Oxen pulled carts loaded with produce and materials between the ports of Cantwell’s Bridge (Odessa) and Bohemia Landing. This was the shortest route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Chesapeake Bay before the construction of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. In 1675, Adam Peterson took on warrants for the land which later became the town of Middletown, the first survey being made in 1678. Later, his widow married David Witherspoon, a native of Londonderry, Ireland, and they settled upon the King’s Highway at the crossroads, first known as Mrs....