Millville is a town in Sussex County,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The population in 2020 was 1,825, It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area and lies within Baltimore Hundred.

Geography

Millville is located at (38.5495569, –75.1232391), approximately west of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and about south of

Indian River Bay Indian River Bay is a body of water in Sussex County, Delaware. It is part of Delaware's inland bay system, along with Little Assawoman Bay and Rehoboth Bay. Fed by the Indian River at its western end, the bay is connected to the Atlantic Ocea ...

. It is contiguous on the east with Ocean View, and bordered on the north, west and south by unincorporated portions of Sussex County. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the town has a total area of , in which all of it was land.

Transportation

Roads are the main means of transportation to and from Millville.

Delaware Route 26 Delaware Route 26 (DE 26) is a state highway in Sussex County, Delaware. The route's western terminus is at an intersection with Maryland Route 353 (MD 353) and DE/MD 54 at the Maryland border south of Gumboro and it ...

is the primary state highway serving the town, passing through on an east-west alignment. It heads eastward toward Bethany Beach and west to U.S. Route 113 in Dagsboro.

Delaware Route 17 Delaware Route 17 (DE 17) is a two-lane undivided state highway located in Sussex County, Delaware. The route runs in a northeast-southwest direction between DE 54 in Selbyville and DE 26 west of Millville, crossing DE ...

is the other primary highway serving Millville, heading southwestward from its junction with DE 26 just northwest of town, skimming the southwestern edge of town, then traversing rural areas until it reaches Selbyville.

Government

Elected officials

Millville has a council-manager form of government. Under the current governmental structure and electoral system, which went into effect with the election of March 3, 2001, a five-person

town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland Town Councils in the Republic of Ireland were the second ti ...

governs the town. After each election, the council elects one of its members to serve as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

. Another council member serves as deputy mayor, another as

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

, and another as

secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...

, while the fifth council member serves as a council member alone with no additional duties. Each council member serves a two-year term, and the terms are staggered so that three of the council members are elected in each odd-numbered year and two in each even-numbered year.Town of Millville, Delaware, official Web site
/ref> The Annual Municipal Election is held on the first Saturday in March. Anyone 18 years old or older registered to vote in Millville may run for the town council as long as the candidate has lived in Millville for at least 90 days before the date of that years election. If only one person runs for a particular council seat, that person takes office automatically without any election being held that year for that seat. If no one runs for a particular council seat, the

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an official, office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seek ...

automatically serves another term without any election being held that year for that seat.

Appointed officials and town operations

town manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a "Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief exec ...

oversees the day-to-day operations of the town. The

Delaware State Police The Delaware State Police (DSP) is a division of the Delaware Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security and is responsible for traffic regulation and law enforcement across the state of Delaware, especially in areas underserved by local p ...

provides police service to Millville under a contract with the Town and the Millville Volunteer Fire Company serves Millville, Ocean View, and unincorporated portions of Sussex County as far east as the

Assawoman Canal The Assawoman Canal is a canal in Sussex County, Delaware. The canal links the Indian River Bay to the north with the Little Assawoman Bay to the south. It is bordered by Bethany Beach and South Bethany to the east and Ocean View to the west. B ...

and as almost as far west as Dagsboro; it purchased its first motor-driven firefighting vehicle in 1936Town of Millville: History
/ref> and today operates 16 vehicles. Sussex County handled all

land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long h ...

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

in Millville until 1993, when Millville itself began to pass

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

ordinances to control growth.

History

The early settlement of the Millville area by

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

ans is poorly recorded, although it is known that the

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

y nature of much of the land of eastern Baltimore Hundred in southeastern Delaware when the first Europeans arrived led them to establish

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s on higher ground in the vicinity of what are now Millville, Ocean View, and Clarksville. Millville itself grew up around a

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

-powered

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

operated by

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Peter Townshend in the late 19th century, becoming a center for

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

agricultural products Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

, and

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

. For a time, the names "Dukestown" and "Dukesville" were considered for the town because of the prominence and number of members of the Dukes family who lived in the area. Eventually, the town was named Millville because of the

sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...

mills,

lumber mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s and

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

s in the area. Millville was incorporated in 1906. It had a population of 206 at the time,Meehan, p. 138 and has grown in population only very slowly since, reaching only 259 by the 2000

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

. However, the population more than doubled by the 2010 census, rising to 544 residents, the highest in the recorded history of Millville. Millville was considered the principal town of Baltimore Hundred, although this today lacks meaning because Delaware's hundreds lost their political functions long ago and now serve only as geographic points of reference.

Notes

References

Town of Millville, Delaware, official web site
*''ADC Map Book Sussex County, Delaware, 1st Edition''. Alexandria Drafting Company: Alexandria, Virginia, 2005. *Meehan, James D. ''Bethany Beach Memoirs...A Long Look Back''. Harold E. Dukes, Jr.: Bethany Beach, Delaware, 1998. .

External links

* http://millville.delaware.gov/ {{authority control Towns in Sussex County, Delaware Towns in Delaware Salisbury metropolitan area