February 25, 2014 update: One of the great delights of maintaining this blog is the number of wonderful e-mails we receive. Just today we received the following from Leo “Jake” Murray:
I no longer live in the area but I grew up in the Highland Park neighborhood of Upper Darby in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Highland Park is the neighborhood just south of the third green, fourth, fifth and sixth holes and is visible in many of the aerial photos you have posted on the website. I frequently visit your website and always look forward to your updates. I found your January 4th update about “does Bossie’s spirit watch the golfers at Cobb’s Creek” interesting. Scott-Powell Dairies was a real dairy and many people collect the old milk bottles. Of course the land the golf course occupies was at one time farmland. “Cobb’s Creek Golf Course Uncovering a Treasure” on page 218 refers to the land as, “for the most part was undeveloped farm and woodland paralleling Cobb’s Creek”.
Your website update on January 4th made me think about some events that may have happened in the area between 1830 and the start of the Civil War. A short distance from the Cobb’s Creek Golf Course clubhouse is the Sellers Public Library at 76 South State Road. This building served as an Underground Railroad station from the 1830’s to the Civil War. John Sellers, a Quaker, was the stationmaster. After his death in 1847 his son in law, Abraham L. Pennock, took over as stationmaster. Pennock was a good friend of Edward Garrett, the brother of Wilmington stationmaster Thomas Garrett. The three worked together to help runaway slaves traveling north. Garrett, Pennock and Sellers names appear on local street signs: Garrett Road, Pennock Avenue and Sellers Avenue.
I suspect, as the runaway slaves continued on their way north with a conductor, that they would have passed through what is today the Cobb’s Creek Golf Course. I currently live in Florida and recently made a phone call to the Delaware County historical society in an attempt to confirm my suspicions. To date I have not received the information requested. I hope to receive information that would confirm that the routes taken to the next Underground Railroad station passed through what is today the Cobb’s Creek Golf Course.