Klej Grange is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

three miles (5 km) northwest of

Stockton Stockton may refer to: Places Australia * Stockton, New South Wales * Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region New Zealand *Stockton, New Zealand United Kingdom *Stockton, Cheshire *Stockton, Norfolk *Stockton, Chirbu ...

in Worcester County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, United States. It is located at the intersection of Klej Grange, Betheden Church, and Ward Roads.

Origin of name

The

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

"Klej" was coined by

Joseph William Drexel Joseph William Drexel (January 24, 1833 – March 25, 1888) was a banker, philanthropist, and book collector. Early life Joseph William Drexel was the son of Francis Martin Drexel (1792–1863) and Catherine Hookey (1795–1870). His siblings wer ...

from the initials of the names of his four daughters (Katherine, Lucy, Elizabeth, and Josephine), and was combined with "Grange", perhaps a reference to the National Grange.

History

First known as Trap, or Traptown, then for many years in the nineteenth century as Lindseyville, the community originally arose at the crossing of the roads leading from Mattapony Landing on the

Pocomoke River The Pocomoke River stretches approximately U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 from southern Delaware through southeastern Maryland in the United States. At it ...

to Sandy Hill (later

) and from Snow Hill to Stevens Landing (now

Pocomoke City Pocomoke City, dubbed "the friendliest town on the Eastern Shore", is a city in Worcester County, Maryland, United States. Although renamed in a burst of civic enthusiasm in 1878, the city is regularly referred to by its inhabitants simply as P ...

). In 1878, Drexel purchased a substantial part of the estate of Matthias Lindsey, after whose family the crossroads had been known, to create a planned community where low cost farmland would be offered to benefit the poor. Drexel named Austin Thomas Byrne as superintendent of the project; Byrne surveyed and

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

ted Drexel's agrarian-industrial experiment.Democratic Messenger newspaper article
/ref> Drexel and his brother Anthony, the founder of

Drexel University Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...

, were sons of

Francis Martin Drexel Francis Martin Drexel (April 7, 1792 – June 5, 1863) was a Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, United States) banker and artist. He was the father of Anthony Joseph Drexel, the founder of Drexel University and the grandfather of Saint Katherine Drexe ...

, founder of the banking house of

Drexel & Co Drexel may refer to: People * Drexel (name) Places * Drexel, Missouri * Drexel, North Carolina * Drexel, Ohio * Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania Other uses * Disappearance of Brittanee Drexel * Drexel Heritage, a furniture manufacturer * Drexel Uni ...

. A "Famous Americans" biographical capsule notes of Joseph W. Drexel:

Among his philanthropic interests is a farm near New York, where persons without work are lodged, clothed, fed, and taught agriculture until places are procured for them. He owns a large tract of land Klej Grange in Maryland, which has been divided into lots, and houses, mills, etc., erected upon them. These farms are sold to poor persons at cost. About in Michigan is destined for the same purpose.

Drexel's project was cut short by his death in 1888. His widow and daughters had other interests and soon sold the property, much of it eventually deeded to the Worcester Realty Co. As with many similar projects, the community has today relapsed into the rural obscurity from which Drexel briefly roused it.

References

External links

Mattapony web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grange, Klej, Maryland Drexel family Unincorporated communities in Worcester County, Maryland Unincorporated communities in Maryland Planned communities in the United States