The Morning News from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 10

2 Dec. 1, 1982 DELMARVA CROSSROADS Wholesome new uses given Cannon legend i laughed the personable Rose Messick, who makes some of the hand-painted crafts the shop features. "We thought for awhile we'd have to make up a few ghost stories. Everyone seems disappointed when I tell them there aren't any ghosts here." She and her husband are originally from Maryland's Eastern Shore. John Messick retired this year a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, and they have come home to put down roots.

"I've moved 19 times in 20 years. It was fun for the first 10 years," Rose Messick said. "This house suits us. I enjoy it when people stop and ask us about it. And Jack enjoys learning about the history of the place.

Some of the timbers and beams are hand-hewn, and the floorboards in the attic are old. We think they are part of the original tavern. Their sons, Chris, 7, and Jason, 5, like to tell people they're not scared of the Cannon house, she says. "I was concerned the first day we moved here. The boys and I were walking aross the street to the store and some boys said to us 'You don't live there, do you? We wouldn't sleep there one Since then, she said, Chris and Jason's new friends stay overnight in the house and the only noises the children complain of, she says, come from trucks clattering down the road.

Continued from Page 1 river is where she's supposed to have killed two slaves. I have nothing authoritative about it. This is the way the stories go." He decided to use Patty's na.me for his property after talking with a neighbor whose family's land-holdings date back to the time when Patty Cannon lived. "We talked about it and we came up with the name Patty Cannon Estates," he said. "She was the Al Capone of this area.

I've often wondered why no one made a movie of her." The ferry over the Nanticoke River, which you reach on the road Patty Cannon used, was formerly called Cannon's Ferry, named for the family of Patty's husband. The state changed the name to Woodland after Patty sullied the good name of Cannon. Cross over the free ferry and it's a four-mile drive to the hamlet of Reliance, which straddles the Delaware-Maryland border. There, just about a hundred yards over the Maryland line, sits the infamous tavern that served as headquarters for the Johnson-Cannon kidnapping forays. A state historical sign marks "Patty Cannon's House." Its location, just over the state line, enabled the gang to dodge Delaware authorities.

The bodies were found on her farm on the Delaware side. Some sources say she was lured over to Deaware and arrested. Others say she gave herself up. Reliance was originally called Johnson's Cross Roads, after the tavern, but it was changed "for respectability's sake," according to a publication of the federal government. Scharf's "History of Delaware" in 1888 claimed the tavern was "the most celebrated kidnapper's tavern along the whole border and contained a prison whose miseries rivaled those of the Black Hole of Calcutta." On Nov.

1, Delmarva's answer to the Black Hole of Calcutta became a cheerful gift shop, featuring handmade crafts such as calico cat pillows and wooden toys. A wooden silhouette of a duck points the way to "Cannon Craft House," as the attractive sage-green house is now called. The shop is an addition to the main part of the tavern, which was entirely rebuilt in 1885, and extensively renovated several times, the last by the previous owner. The present owners, John and Rose Messick, bought the notorious tavern in January, despite claims by the owner that the place was haunted and subject to all kinds of nasty surprises, including screams, blinking lights, demonic vibrations and chains dragging across the attic floor. Is it haunted? "Everybody asks me that," Staff photos by Susan L.

Gregg handcrafts at the house made famous by Patty Cannon. I IMMWM I U1WIMW II W.JI. Il illUIIOI. ITg At Jack and Rose Messick now sell The previous owner gave guided fours of the house, complete with shackled mannequins, but the Mes-sicks won't continue that practice, she said. They have found pottery shards under the house and a hand-stitched bodice in the shaft of an unused chimney, which they hope to date.

Meanwhile, a litter of kittens, two guinea pigs, a frisky Scottish terrier, a pink plastic swing hang-ing from a tree, and calico roosters and other handcrafted Americana lend a somewhat frivolous air to the lair of the wicked Patty Cannon. Patty, whose skull resides in the Dover Public Library, must be horrified. ESTATES 1 Js If Corp. notorious but the development that the American dream. court backlog 1 FSA 'Porter Realty Patty Cannon may have been bears her name is just a piece log of criminal cases in Kent County? The state Supreme Court named a task force to deal with the problem.

The attorney general called it a "crisis." And Superior Court Judge William G. Bush III scheduled a murder trial a month for five months in an unprece- of Judge disputes claims of dented move aimed at clearing up the logjam. But his fellow jurist and the county's resident judge, George Wright, doesn't know what all the" fuss is about. "We've never been i better shape," Wright says. "It's just a tempest in a teapot." The restored Patty Cannon House in the rear.

MIDDLETOWN SHOPPING CENTER invites you to see Santa at the Middletown Chamber of Commerce Annual Christmas Parade 11 A.M., SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4th (Rain Date Dec. 11) Gifts for the Kids Bargains for the Adults. Continued from Page 1 and created the position of county administrator. Messina vigorously opposed the move, but couldn't break up the bloc of four. What's all this talk about a back From Middletown Shopping Center 378-4744 in Reliance, now has a gift shop and TRAVEL SERVICES William O'Neal.

Branch Manager Mildred H. O'Neal, Prop. SEASON'S GREETINGS COMPLETE BANKING. TRUST emcc? THE INCOME TAX PEOPLE 10 W. Main St.

Middletown, Del. 19709 Telephone: 302-378-8931 Middletown Office 378-4441 429-1141 MILLIE'S BEAUTY SALON niDDLETOWN 17MES SPIRITS "71IBDLET0WM 378-951 2T378T5 13 Rossel Stover Candies Medical Equipment Wishes yMERRY CHRISTMAS We're getting ready for Let us help you, we have a great Oxygen Supplies 'Braces support hose Phone 378-9352 MIDDLETOWN SHOPPING CENTER Middletown, Delaware 19709 Men's Hair Styling Thursday F.ve. stuffers and handsomely boxed liquors, as well as many Holiday SpectalS. We re located in the Middletown Shopping Center 20 OFF ALL GREETING CARDS You A HAPPY NEW YEAR the holidays, are you? assortment of gift items, stocking" SPECIAL ORDERS ACCEPTED AL'S CARPET SERVICE Shopping Center 834-0145 Middletown, DE 370-8851 Surface Cleaning is a thing of, the past Sears Center, Middletown, Del. 74 Free Monogram or on Any Purchase Now thru Middletown Shopping 378-4810 Hand Painting With This Ad Dec.

10 Eagle's Eye i You can count on Sears Catalog of Holiday Values and Convenience. Ken and Pat Angle 378-9541 20 OFF TIMEX WATCHES Authorized CATALOG SALES MERCHANT 378-4700 Bin bio GIFT WRAPPING THE PIZZA GALLERY No. 2 MIDDLETOWN SHOPPING CENTER, Middletown, DE 19709 sptlaliiing in Authentic Sicilian and Neapolitan Pizza WESTERN AUT 378-2994 Open 7 Days a Week AUTO PARTS HOME HARDWARE SUPPLIES D57E Complete Supermarket FEATURING: Bakery-Deli Decorated Cakes Party Platters Rolls Bread Salads Call and Pick Up for Beit and Fatt Service 378-44 10-11 OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK Monday thru Thursday 11-10 Friday and Saturday 1 1-1 Sunday 1 1 -1 1 Middletown Shopping Center.