Four Hundred Years Ago
In 1602, the Government of the Netherlands chartered the Dutch East India Company to protect trade in the Indian Ocean and assist in the Dutch war of independence from Spain. Seven years later, they hired Englishman Henry Hudson to look for a Northwest Passage, a hoped-for shortcut to the Pacific Ocean. He sailed into Delaware Bay and then up to what is now the Hudson River and claimed the New World for the Netherlands. The first Dutch settlers arrived five years later.
The Dutch West India Company began in 1621, primarily to conduct economic warfare against Spain and Portugal by attacking their colonies in the West Indies, South America, and the west coast of Africa. The Company was granted a monopoly of the trade with the Americas, Africa, and everything between. As the leader of the colony, a German merchant named Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from the indigenous Lenape people in 1624 and named it New Amsterdam. The entire region was named New Netherlands, and consisted of what is now western Connecticut, southeastern New York, all of New Jersey, and the eastern edge of Delaware.
Control of Delaware took a sharp turn in 1638 when a Swedish expedition, led by the same Peter Minuit, arrived and built Fort Cristina. The Dutch governor in New Amsterdam protested, but Minuit ignored him because New Amsterdam had no military presence in Delaware. It wasn’t until 1655 that the Dutch regained control. They gave Fort Christina a new name, Fort Casimir, and a year later the area was officially renamed New Amstel.
By 1664, the British had conquered the entire region and changed the name of Fort Casimir to New Castle. England would rule the colonies for the next hundred years. In 1739, the name changed again, this time to Wilmington.
At first, most of the population in Northern Delaware remained near the coast. They would go inland to hunt or to trade with the Lenape, but very few Europeans lived upstream from Fort Cristina/Fort Casimir/New Amstel/New Castle/Wilmington. Gradually, they moved up-river and up-stream, creating farms, mills, and villages.
The streams, creeks, and rivers west of Wilmington were crucial to the development of the area because before there was gas, steam, or electrical energy, it was the power of water that was harnessed for industry. The region was known for its sawmills, paper mills, flour mills, gristmills, oil mills, and cider mills. One of the main streams was ten-mile-long Mill Creek, which is why the area became known as Mill Creek Hundred. One of the towns that formed on the banks of Mill Creek is known to this day as The Village of Hockessin.
In 1777, the British Army, led by Cornwallis, marched his Redcoats north from Newark, Delaware, on their way towards Philadelphia. They destroyed farms, homes, businesses, and mills. They burned crops, slaughtered livestock, and murdered everyone who they deemed to be disloyal to the English Crown.
Some of the people tried to defend their land. Many abandoned their homes in order to survive. A few of them buried their possessions, hoping to return after the war to rebuild their lives, their homes, and their towns.
How is this real-world historical vignette relevant and why does it matter? You are about to find out when you read my debut novel, Bekker’s Burial, available on February 21, 2026 both as an ebook and a paperback.
Paul Linzey 