"These are memories of facts about our father and mother who were married March 18, 1927 in Seaford, Delaware, mother's hometown."

Milman Edward Prettyman was born September 18, 1905 in Lewes, Delaware. His parents were James Pride Prettyman and Ida Millman Prettyman. His wife, Mary Louise Eskridge, was born in Seaford, Delaware on September 13, 1907.

"Dad became ill at the age of seven and was home schooled by Ida for several months." Milman, Jr., said. "It was during that time that he dropped one of the "l"s in his first name, an event approved by Ida. From then on throughout his life, he went by the name of Milman."

Upon returning to school the next year, Milman was placed ahead one grade and thereafter was a classmate with his sister Mildred Hester Prettyman who was one year older. They were in the first class in 1922 to be graduated from the new Lewes Public School built when all of the one room classrooms were consolidated around 1919.

"Dad was a good student and played baseball and basketball in high school," Milman, Jr. said. "He enrolled at the University of Delaware in the fall of 1922. He continued his athletic career while there and added the sport of track and field all four years until graduation in 1926. He also was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity and a secret group called Skull & Bones at the university."

During the summers of 1922 through 1925, Milman worked with a cousin, Tom Martin, selling fresh seafood in Rehoboth. It was in Rehoboth that he met his future wife, Mary Louise Eskridge. Her father owned a summer cottage there on Wilmington Avenue.

She was born September 13,1907, the daughter of Mary Seward Phillips Eskridge and Captain John Roe Eskridge. Her mother and father were both from Bethel, Delaware. She was a school teacher and he a sea captain of four masted schooners. He was very wealthy and they moved to Seaford, Delaware where Louise was raised with her two sisters, Doris and Anne.

Louise later enrolled at the University of Delaware Women's College, where she and Milman courted until he graduated and took a job with the Atlantic Refining Company in Philadelphia in September. She returned to live in Seaford with her family.

In February of 1927, the Kennett Square, Pa., School Board offered Milman a position as history teacher, baseball and basketball coach which he immediately accepted. He then called Louise and they were married March 18, 1927. They moved into an apartment in Kennett Square following a very brief honeymoon in Atlantic City.

"I was born May 30, 1928 and my sister Mary Suzanne was born September 7, 1929," Milman, Jr., said. These were Ida and James Prettyman's first grandchildren. The photo below shows (from left) Sue, Ida, Louise and Milman with Ida holding one of Sue's children.

In early 1931, the family moved into a home on Sickle Street in Kennett Square, Pa., where Milman, Jr., and Sue grew up as small children. "During those years Dad got his Master's Degree in education at the University of Pennsylvania while continuing to coach baseball," Milman, Jr., said. "He was made principal of the new high school when it opened in 1931, ( I am not real sure of this date)."

"During the summers in the early years in Kennett, he drove a truck loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables for his father-in-law from Seaford to the markets in Philadelphia, New York and Scranton, Pa.

"In June, 1938, he accepted the position of Principal of the High School in Bradford, Pa.. We lived there until June of 1940. While there we all learned to ski, ice skate, and travel around western parts of Pennsylvania and New York."

"While attending the wedding of his brother James to Mariam Graham, in June 1940, he received a phone call to visit Seaford, Delaware and be interviewed for the position of Superintendent of the Seaford School District, a position that he accepted. We moved to Seaford in July of that year and he and mother remained there until 1952, at which time they returned to Kennett Square and he served as Supervising Principal until he retired."

While in Seaford, Louise became the town librarian while still busy seeing her children through their high school and college graduation. In 1953 she moved back to Kennett Square with her husband.

Having been an avid reader throughout her life, Louise took a job selling books at the Greenwood Bookstore in Wilmington, Del. A few years later she was employed by the Dupont Company, working at their Newark, Del., engineering center until she was transferred to their technical library in Wilmington until her death in 1973.

During her lifetime she became an excellent cook, an accomplished bridge player, a helpmate on her father's Seaford farms and a lover of the beaches of Rehoboth Beach, Del. She taught her children and many of their friends how to dance by rolling back the living room rug.

"He and mother enjoyed doing many things together throughout their life. The special relationships they had with their friends and family; including vacations, travel, bridge clubs, ball games, golf, horse racing, dances, their church, gardening, coaching and raising and educating Sue and I and especially visiting with and treating their grandchildren."

"After Mother passed away, he spent many days on the golf course with the men he had associated with during all the years he had lived in Kennett Square. He moved to an apartment in Newark, Delaware in early 1983 where he lived until he died.

Observations from Mary Jo Haverbeck daughter of Milman's sister Mildred Hester Prettyman, including excerpts from a letter Milman sent to her on March 3, 1982

What I recall about Uncle Milman was that he was taller than all of my other relatives from both the Prettyman and Haverbeck families. As I was growing up, he and Aunt Louise lived close enough to our home in Wilmington to see us and we also made occasional visits to Kennett Square. I also would stop into the Greenwood Book Store on 9th Street in downtown Wilmington to see Aunt Louise when she worked there.

Uncle Milman reminded me so much of Grandmother Ida Prettyman. He was quiet and conservative. Whenever he and Aunt Louise came for a visit, he was the one who determined the time they departed, something he had to emphasize on occasion. The interplay between the fun-loving Aunt Louise and the conservative Uncle Milman always amused me.

After Aunt Louise died, Uncle Milman made an effort to show me some of the important family locations in Lewes. We spent the whole day touring the town and countryside while he told me stories. That day was the longest time we ever spent together and definitely something I remember as an important personal experience.

I suspect he wanted to share with me his passion for the history of the Prettyman family and in that he has succeeded. I now have his charts and some of his papers and am the webmaster for this site which I have named "The Prettymans of Lewes." It is in his honor as well as to preserve his work that I am attempting to post material on the site in a digital format.

The following excerpt from his letter to me dated March 3, 1982, reflects his concern for accuracy in his research.

"This past winter I have spent a fair amount of time in completing my research on the 'Prettyman Family,' and my time and effort has been rewarding. I now have proof-positive that Elizabeth Prettyman (born 5-22-1809; died 6-10-1891 ... see burial plot on page 5 of enclosed material) was the wife of the missing Samuel Prettyman, my great, great grandfather and your great, great, great grandfather, and that Elizabeth's family name was 'Lank" and not 'Carson" as reported in my first report. However, the relationship between the Prettymans and Carsons is not damaged from what I reported in my first effort; it is adjusted to the missing Samuel being the brother of Elizabeth S. Prettyman Carson, rather than Elizabeth Prettyman being the sister of Alfred Carson."

Later in the letter he talks about the task of working on the Prettyman genealogy. "I have enjoyed my involvement with this project, but I am also glad the project is now completed and 'behind me.'"

In this section of the letter he again gives an indication of the influence his mother Ida, an avid vegetable gardener, had on his life. "Yesterday, I planted my onions and lettuce; a warm, gentle rain arrived this morning which is exactly what I wanted to get things growing, including the lawn."

And in this section he tells us of the love and success he has with the game of golf. "Golf is off to a good start, after a slow Jan. (2), Feb. (2), March (13)." The numbers in parentheses refer to the number of rounds he played those months. "Had a 73 on Montchanin Par 61 on Tuesday, which is a little better than 76, my age. I always celebrate when I shoot my age."

At the end of the letter he included an open invitation to stay with him and this ... "I promise a good breakfast (my specialty)."