Mispillion River

Mispillion River
River
The Mispillion River in Milford in 2006
Country	United States
State	Delaware
Source
- location	near Milford
- coordinates	38°52′53″N 75°30′00″W / 38.88139°N 75.50000°W / 38.88139; -75.50000 [1]
Mouth	Delaware Bay
- elevation	3 ft (1 m) [1]
- coordinates	38°57′05″N 75°18′48″W / 38.95139°N 75.31333°W / 38.95139; -75.31333Coordinates: 38°57′05″N 75°18′48″W / 38.95139°N 75.31333°W / 38.95139; -75.31333 [1]
Length	15 mi (24 km) approximately[2]
Basin	76 sq mi (197 km2) [3]
Location of the mouth of the Mispillion River

The Mispillion River is a river flowing to Delaware Bay in southern Delaware in the United States. It is approximately 15 miles (24 km) long and drains an area of 76 square miles (197 km²) on the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

It rises in northern Sussex County, approximately 3 miles (5 km) southwest of Milford, and flows generally east-northeastwardly, defining the boundary between Sussex and Kent counties; it passes through the center of Milford on its course to its mouth at Delaware Bay, 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Cape Henlopen.^[2][4] The lower 12 miles (19 km) of the river are considered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to be navigable.^[5]

A boardwalk known as the Mispillion Riverwalk follows the river in Milford. As of 2003, an effort was underway to preserve a greenway along the river upstream and downstream of Milford.^[6]

Variant names and spellings

According to the Geographic Names Information System, the Mispillion River has also been known historically as:^[1]

Name origin

The name of the river has evolved over the years, but the current name is believed to come from the story of Miss Annis “Ann” Pinion, Entrepreneur/Tavern Owner 1669 -1693.

One day in May of 1677, a young girl was found floating alone on a skiff in the river in what is now the city of Milford, Delaware. She was dehydrated, dirty and looked to be in shock. A kindly local Innkeeper and his wife were on the banks and pulled the girl to safety. They took her in as their own, and introduced her as their “niece” to any inquisitive local. The girl never spoke of why she was alone, yet she was able to recall her young age of 8 and her name: Annis Pinion.

Over the years, she worked at the Inn cleaning, preparing meals, and learning to brew ales and make wine. She led a prosperous, uneventful life until the year of her 20th birthday. A guest at the inn belligerently killed both the innkeeper and his wife. As the patron began to leave, Annis shot him in the back, wounding him, then followed him into the street, and shot and killed him at close range. From that point on, people had a new appreciation for the strength of the new Inn Keeper, Miss Pinion.

Over the next few years of business, Annis struggled to maintain the inn on her own, so she included a tavern with a brothel upstairs, occupying the former guest rooms.

Things became very prosperous for Annis and the ladies of the house. But as word spread south about the witches in Massachusetts, the town’s local clergy had a change in attitude towards the business. One cool November evening in 1693, locals approached the tavern, confronted Miss Pinion with accusations of witchcraft and devilry and demanded she close down the establishment. During their confrontation, a lantern was knocked over, and quickly igniting the alcohol and engulfing the entire structure in flames. As the argument between Annis and the clergy moved outside, and the angry crowd antagonized Annis, finally pushing her into the river. In the still, dark night, with the glow of the burning tavern, Miss Pinion drowned in the same river in which she arrived a mere 16 years ago.

Elders in town rarely spoke of that incident in public, but behind closed doors people would retell the events involving Miss Pinion and the tavern, and frequently referred to the river as Miss Pinion River, a variation of its current name, Mispering Creek. This new moniker stuck as it was passed through the generations, until it was ultimately known as the Mispillion River.

The history of Annis Pinion was found in the winter of 2016 when a resident in Oklahoma purchased boxes of journals at an estate sale. The journals were written by a woman who was a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma. The journals detailed her families’ history, how they had been forced from the East Coast, and relocated in Oklahoma. It detailed her family tree, people’s jobs, children, and stories. The new owner of the journals found several entries about Annis Pinion and her connection to her family when they lived in what is now the state of Delaware. One entry stated that Annis had met a Native American man one day when she was walking the out skirts of town, picking berries to add to her wine. He knew English from trading with settlers. They became lovers, and it is believed Annis had a child with him, at his village, when she was supposedly spending three months away from town purchasing goods for the tavern at the ports in Philadelphia. The town folks never knew of this child, and she never mentioned him, as she believed it would be bad for business. The child they had together was an ancestor of the author of the journals.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mispillion River.

• List of Delaware rivers
• Mispillion Light
• USS Mispillion (AO-105)
• USNS Mispillion (T-AO-105)

References