Woodside Trainstation 2
In the early to mid-1800's the lower Delaware Peninsula was dotted with small towns, villages and farms. The people who lived in these areas engaged in subsistence farming, raising fruits, vegetables and livestock primarily for their own consumption. They sold, or used as barter, what little surplus corn or wheat they grew.
“Just prior to the American Civil War
and in the decades that followed, the construction of railroad lines into the very heart of the Peninsula and downward to Cape Charles offered an opportunity for farmers to grow and transport perishable fruits and vegetables to markets in Wilmington, Philadelphia and New York.
By 1884, the Delaware Peninsula was criss-crossed with feeder lines that offered almost every town and village access to a rail network that stretched as far north as eastern Canada.”(3) Read more...
3. (Williams, William H., (1988). Delmarva’s Chicken Industry: 75 Years of Progress. Publisher: Delmarva Poultry Industry)