The Delaware State Police 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 and as almost as far west as Dagsboro; it purchased its first motor-driven firefighting vehicle in 1936 and today operates 16 vehicles. Sussex County handled all land use regulation in Millville until 1993, when Millville itself began to pass zoning ordinances to control growth. History The early settlement of the Millville area by Europeans is poorly recorded, although it is known that the swampy, marshy nature of much of the land of eastern Baltimore Hundred in southeastern Delaware when the first Europeans arrived led them to establish plantations on higher ground in the vicinity of what are now Millville, Ocean View, and Clarksville. Millville itself grew up around a steam-powered sawmill operated by Captain Peter Townshend in the late 19th century, becoming a center for lumber, agricultural products, and commercial fishing. 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 mills, lumber mills and grist mills in the area. Millville was incorporated in 1906. It had a population of 206 at the time, and has grown in population only very slowly since, reaching only 259 by the 2000 census. 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/ Towns in Sussex County, Delaware Towns in Delaware Salisbury metropolitan area