Editing Laurel, Delaware (section)

==History==
The site of the town of Laurel was a [[Nanticoke people|Nanticoke Indian]] settlement known as Broad Creek Town during most of the eighteenth century.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} Its Nanticoke name is unknown. The Indian settlement was created on tracts known as Bachelor's Delight and Greenland in 1711 when the government of [[Maryland]], who originally claimed this part of Delaware, set aside land for the Nanticoke Indians. Nearly all the Indian settlers left within 50 years, relocating to western [[Pennsylvania]].{{citation needed|date=October 2017}} The present town was laid out along the Broad Creek in the 1790s and was named for the laurel bushes that grew alongside the creek.<ref name=fwp>{{cite book |author=Federal Writers' Project |author-link=Federal Writers' Project |title=The ocean highway: New Brunswick, New Jersey to Jacksonville, Florida|url=https://archive.org/stream/oceanhighwaynewb00federich/oceanhighwaynewb00federich_djvu.txt |access-date=April 10, 2009 | year=1938 |publisher=Modern Age Books |location=New York City|series=American Guide Series|isbn=9780403022144 }}</ref>

On March 29, 1929, the town was merged with the neighboring town of [[North Laurel, Delaware|North Laurel]] which comprised most of the current town north of Broad Creek (then known as Laurel River).<ref>{{cite news|title=North Laurel Votes In Favor Of Combine|agency=''The News Journal''(Wilmington, Delaware)|date= March 30, 1929}}</ref> This merger was not properly reported to the [[United States Census Bureau]], which resulted in the North Laurel's population not being included with the population of Laurel in the [[1930 United States Census]]. As such, the US Census Bureau did not immediately make a change to the 1930 population statistics once the error was discovered, however it acknowledged in 1940 that the correct population for Laurel in 1930 was 2,542.<ref>https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1940/population-volume-1/33973538v1ch03.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>

West Laurel is one of Delaware's oldest free black communities.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}} According to the Delaware Historical Society, West Laurel dates back to the 1790s.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}} At some point in the 1870s Captain Theodore Marsh settled in West Laurel, brought property, broke the property down into plots and sold them to his shipmates.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}} The graveyard for New Zion United Methodist church in West Laurel, which has been around since the early 1800s is the resting place of Marsh and his shipmates.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}}