Crane Hook on the Delaware - NC CHAP

of old <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong> Church. This fact was unknown until revealed
through research by the author of the chronology incorporated in
this volume and mentioned in the acknowledgments.
Though the marks of the earliest cultivation of this soil have
largely disappeared along with the wild life, the hay marshes and
the forest, knowing the human history made here by these early
settlers enriches our thinking of the local past.
History Committee
Delaware Swedish Colonial Society
Jeannette Eckman
H. Clay Reed
Leon devalinger, Jr., Chairman
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The foundation of this <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong> study is a chronology of
documented excerpts from sources pertaining to the <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong>
region, to land ownership, and to the church and congregation,
prepared by Jeremiah Sweeney as part of his work for the Delaware
Federal Writers Project, 1938-1940. Without the use of his
competent and scholarly work the present expanded study would
not have been undertaken.
The contribution of the late Courtland B. Springer and of Mrs.
Springer to the discovery, use, and accurate translation of original
Swedish documents, and of printed works in Swedish, employed
in this study, is their valuable and generous gift toward its preparation.
I have depended also upon the late Horace Burr's translation
of the manuscript records - The Church Books - of Holy Trinity
(Old Swedes) Church, published by the Historical Society of
Ilelaware in 1890. This work, in spite of some mis-readings of
tlre old-Swedish script and spelling, continues to be for both general
reader and student an invaluable source of contemporary
information.
The published work of Dr. Amandus Johnson, especially the
two volumes of his Swedish Settlenzerzts on the Delaware, is the
i~lclispensable authentic source for Sweden's colccizing efforts on
the Delaware and the life of its colonists here under Swedish
i'ontrol.
To Dr. H. Clay Reed, Professor of History at the University of
I)elaware, and to Hon. Leon devalinger, Jr., State Archivest, assoi
lute members of the History Committee of the Delaware Swedish
(:olonial Society, I am greatly indebted for their constructive
ctlitorial criticism; and to Mrs. J. Jesse Selinkoff for similar asklxt
v~~ce.
Recognition is owed to the staff of the Historical Society of
I)claware for cheerful and tireless assistance in the checking and
iollilti~lg of documentary sources.
Jeannette Eckman