Rehoboth Beach Early History

In 1872, the Reverend Robert W. Todd, of St. Paul's M. E. Church in Wilmington, being very feeble from weeks of camp meeting services, visited Ocean Grove Camp Meeting on the Jersey Shore. Returning to St. Paul's, greatly restored in health and spirit, he told of his experiences in a sermon, using as his text the words, "And the sea hath spoken."

Soon he found himself inspired and consumed with the idea of having a Christian sea-side resort for this Peninsula, and regions adjoining and beyond; thus, it must be on the sea coast somewhere between Cape Henlopen at the mouth of the Delaware Bay and Cape Charles at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Mr. Todd knew that some years earlier there had been an effort made to establish a "watering place" near Rehoboth Bay along what is now Dewey Beach, so he began to look for land in that neighborhood which would be suitable for his purpose.
 
His obsession with this desire to establish a camp meeting resort became so intense that his waking thoughts were transferred to the region of DREAMS; and, WHILE SLEEPING, he "visited" the location (afterwards purchased as it was suited to his purpose). Strange as it may seem, when he actually visited the site, the topography he found along the sea shore corresponded exactly with that "seen" in his dream, even though his dream site proved to be a mile north of the Rehoboth Bay area. So it came to be that, on January 27, 1873, "The Rehoboth Beach Camp Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church" established its grounds here with the intended purpose of presenting religious "camp meetings" in the summer months. The grounds of the Camp Meeting Association extended to the town which was laid out in a fan shape design with wide streets, parks and spacious lots. These land plats were recorded in Georgetown and so marked the "Birth of Rehoboth." The name, of course, had been taken from Rehoboth Bay which had been so named in the 17th century by early English explorers from the Virginia colony, while searching for a passage west. The unknown Captain who discovered the bay took the name from the Bible, Genesis, xxvi: 22. (In early Hebrew, Rehoboth meant "broad places.")