Peninsula Enterprise, April 6, 1895

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Infrastructure -- Commercial - Real estateTransportation -- Water - Wharves

Capt. H. L. Crockett sold his interest in the "Shell Pile" and steamboat wharf at Tangier Island, on 26th ult, for $500.

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Migration

Representatives of the Women's Industrial League of New York are said to be looking for several thousand acres of land on the Eastern Shore of Virginia for colonization purposes.

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Watermen -- Personal injury

The bodies of William T. Birch and Charles Hudson, two of the three men drowned while attempting to cross the bay near Chincoteague January 13 last, were found Sunday afternoon, March 31.

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Tourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - Other

Domino is a favorite game in some sections in the lower part of the county, at present, and a special rivalry seems to exist between clubs at Mappsburg and Nandua. In a trial of their skill in that line of late, the publication is made by request, that, Mappsburg "got left" in 5 out of 7 games.

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Transportation -- Railroad - FreightSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : SeasideFields -- Crops - Sweet potatoes : Seed and slips

Atlantic.

Our people are hoping for another railroad down the Peninsula, as they think N. Y., P. & N. R. R. will never do them justice until opposition compels them to do it. For the present season we hope to get some boats to run our potatoes at lower figures than the railroad charges. At all events we will do all we can to secure lower freights.

Oysters are in great demand but the prices are not high.

Our farmers complain about their potato seed rotting in the beds, and express the fear that there will be a scarcity of sprouts.

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Infrastructure -- Commercial - Millineries

Belle Haven.

Mrs. Susan Holt will make elaborate improvements to her millinery store, in the way of show windows, &c.

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Infrastructure -- Commercial - Residential constructionInfrastructure -- Public : ChurchesTourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - Fraternal ordersInfrastructure -- Public : Schools

Chincoteague.

Our mechanics inform us that the building boom this year will be the largest ever known in the history of the Island. New dwellings now are in course of erection for John P. Sharpley, Crippen Bowden, Jr., and William Watson; the Union Baptist Church is soon to be rebuilt and enlarged; the Town Hall now owned by the Red Men is to be remodeled, enlarged and raised to three stories at an early day; numerous improvements are already in progress in porches, annexes to dwellings, &c -- and the boom is not fairly under the way yet.

Our public schools closed on 29th ult., and on the following Monday eight private schools were opened, and the rivalry between them was so great, that the bid for patronage resulted in a "cut in prices."

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Transportation -- Road - Maintenance

New Church.

The new road machine which has just been delivered at this place, is now attracting a great deal of attention. Everyone seems interested in the subject of good roads.

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Forests -- SawmillsForests -- Barrel factories Professionals -- Surveyors

Parksley.

Our town is greatly in need of a factory to furnish barrel and crate material, instead of paying freight from elsewhere and thereby keep our money at home.

Our townsman, Mr. A. F. Mears, is having a large barrel factory built at Bird's Nest station.

D. F. White was surveying lands in the neighborhood of Modestown last week.

Our barrel factories are running on full time and are anticipating a good spring and summer trade.

Our public schools closed last Tuesday, with appropriate exercises. The examinations showed that there had been good work done, notwithstanding the crowded condition of the school and the many disadvantages under which the teachers labored.

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Infrastructure -- Commercial - Millineries

Wachapreague.

Mrs. W. F. Hudson's new supply of Easter hats has awakened considerable interest among our female population in the approaching holiday season.

INFAMOUS SLANDER.

Moral -- Other

Vile and False Report About a Lady and Gentleman.

INTENSE INDIGNATION CREATED.

The people of Accomac were shocked by a publication in the Norfolk Pilot of March 30th, affecting the honor of Mr. L. D. T. Quinby and the wife of Rev. A. J. Reamy, pastor of the Onancock Baptist Church. It was so vilely and palpably false and so utterly unfounded, that the intense indignation and desire to avenge the wrong, which prevailed among all classes at the time the article was made public, has not subsided even now that the author of it is known. So intense was the indignation, a meeting was held on the evening of the publication of the article by the citizens of Onancock to denounce the slander and express indignation against the author and publisher of the report, at which Mr. N. W. Nock, Collector of Customs, was made chairman, and Hon. Thomas William Scott, secretary -- and after the meeting images representing the author of the report, the editor of the Pilot, and the copy of the Pilot containing the article, were burned in effigy.

The following resolutions were unanimously adopted:

"Whereas, the Norfolk Pilot of this date (March 30th) publishes a slanderous report affecting the honor of certain members of two of the best families in Onancock, we, the citizens of this town, irrespective of religious and political affiliations, and burning with indignation at the nefarious attempt to sully the reputations of innocent persons, hereby express our high regard for the characters of the persons thus wantonly assailed, and we hereby pledge ourselves to pursue all lawful remedies for their vindication, knowing the report to be basely false, and calculated to ruin the good name of a pure and saintly woman and an honorable and upright young man.

"We hereby denounce the author of the report and the publisher of the aforesaid Pilot newspaper as wanton slanderers, deserving the contempt and detestation of all truth loving and high-minded men and women; and we desire to assure our friends and neighbors who have thus been wantonly slandered that we stand ready to render them all necessary assistance in bringing to trial before the courts of the land and the bar of public opinion, these reckless slanderers, and assassins of the reputation of an upright man and an honorable, Christian lady."

On Sunday the matter was taken up by the members of the Onancock Baptist Church and the following resolutions were adopted:

Whereas, the members of the Onancock Baptist Church, have read with disgust and profound indignation the lying and slanderous report published in the Norfolk Pilot from a correspondent at Bayview, Va., March 30th, traducing the character of a pure christian woman, the wife of our pastor, resolved,

1. That we denounce the author and publisher as malicious liars.

2. That there is no foundation whatever for said publication.

3. That we know the christian character of Mrs. A. J. Reamy to be of the purest and highest type and above reproach or suspicion.

4. That we appoint a committee to demand of Sam Small his reasons for publishing such a malicious lie and the name of his Bayview correspondent.

5. That said committee wait upon the Bayview correspondent and demand his authority for the said report published in the Norfolk Pilot as aforesaid.

6. That a copy of the resolutions be sent to the PENINSULA ENTERPRISE, Herald and Baltimore Sun, and that the religious papers in the State and all the Eastern Shore papers copy.

Done by unanimous action of the Onancock Baptist Church March 31st, 1895.

Thomas M. Scott, S. R. Nelson, W. T. Wise, Com.

In addition to the resolutions adopted above a letter from Hon. Thomas M. Scott is given below, as further evidence of the unbounded indignation which prevails over the report and the universal condemnation of it and its author by everyone:

EDITOR ENTERPRISE:

Our town for the last few days has been in a terrible state of excitement and indignation over a dastardly and cowardly attack upon one of the most intelligent, refined and lovely christian women of Onancock. This malicious, slanderous and libelous falsehood seems to have emanated from Bayview, through a correspondent of the Norfolk Pilot, and appeared in that paper March 30th, 1895. I did not suppose that there was a man in Northampton (my native county), or in any county in the State of Virginia so mean and utterly devoid of character, so reckless of truth or base at heart as to write such a communication against a pure and innocent woman, without a single fact to sustain the charge, or a single effort to inquire into its truth, and that too under the guise of a "special."

The communication to the Pilot contains several distinct and special charges, all of which are without the faintest shadow of foundation. The young man mentioned by this special correspondent does not know this lady, was never in her house or presence anywhere, and the same is equally true of the lady involved. She does not know even by sight the young man.

This being true it necessarily follows that the entire slander of the Bayview special correspondent is false in whole and in all its parts. A pure fabrication from beginning to end. Shame, shame, shame, that would be assassins of the character and purity of our wives and daughters can be found on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, proverbial for its hospitality, its gallantry towards our women, and its lofty christian sentiment. Such people are not born and raised here -- they come from foreign parts. In this case the author of this contemptible and brutish attack has been tracked, caught and condemned by a justly indignant people, who ought to demand his expulsion from Northampton county as unworthy to live or die upon her sacred soil. If such persons are suffered to remain with us, then no family is safe and no woman free from the vile insults of reckless scoundrels -- ordinary rebuke in such cases is not sufficient.

The vengeance of an outraged people and the strong arm of the law ought to be and will be invoked quickly to bring such characters who lie in wait to blast the happiness of our households, to their just desserts.

Our people are wild with excitement and profoundly indignant over the aforesaid communication to the Pilot. It was read in that paper the day of its publication, Saturday last, on the arrival of the morning mail. An earthquake or destruction of the town by fire would not have produced a worse sensation. The people flocked in crowds on the streets and to the Masonic hall and by 7 o'clock at night every seat in the building was filled and others pressed their way in, and the room filled with people burning with rage on account of the aforesaid dispatch to the Pilot.

Resolutions were passed without a dissenting voice, denouncing this fabrication of lies, and telegraphed immediately to the Associated Press. Several speeches were made giving vent to the deep feeling of the entire population of the town. The crowd adjourned to the street and burnt in effigy Sam Small, the Pilot and the Bayview correspondent, now know to be the Rev. W. C. Lindsey, of Bayview, Virginia.

Had either Small or Lindsey been here and Lindsey known then as now to be guilty, or could have been found on Saturday night they would undoubtedly been lynched by the enraged people. Churches of the town took action Sunday morning, and very large congregations of worshipers passed resolutions in answer to this wicked, abominable, villainous and detestably vile slander and libel -- denouncing Small and Bayview correspondent -- not then known to be the Rev. W. C. Lindsey, in bitter and unmeasured terms. Everybody feels hurt and are determined justice shall be done.

But the end is not yet, and the people of this town and the counties of Accomack and Northampton will surely see to it that the innocent shall be protected and the guilty punished.

As indicated by the letter of Mr. Scott, the author of the article was Rev. William C. Lindsay, pastor of Holmes Presbyterian Church, Bayview, Va., and Mr. Lindsay has since given to the public the following statement:

Concerning the report made to The Pilot on Friday last from Bay View, Va., of rumors affecting the characters of Mrs. Reamy and Mr. L. T. D. Quinby, I desire to make the following statement:

I sent the report to The Pilot and gave them permission to use the same upon my thorough understanding that the matter was of common report in the community, and was being talked about by many persons. The circumstances as I stated them were reported to me by one of the most prominent men in our community. Believing that the matter was as stated, and that the alleged proceedings for divorce would bring the whole matter openly before the public, I hastily wrote down and sent the statement made to The Pilot.

Looking back over the transaction now, I am amazed at myself for thus violating what has been the constant practice of my life, not to repeat such current rumors, but I confess that in remembrance of a promise to advise The Pilot of passing events in my vicinity I was mislead from my usual course and wrongfully, thoughtlessly, permitted myself to become the vehicle of doing a grievous injury to the good and reputable parties whose names were involved.

I sincerely mourn the miserable affair, and taking to myself all proper blame in the matter, state frankly that what I did, however inconsiderate and uncalled for by the true state of the facts, was without the slightest malice toward the parties concerned, and that I stand ready to do everything in my power that an honorable man can do to show my deep contrition and to repair the injury to the fullest extent. It will be a constant source of sorrow to me throughout my whole life that I have thus done a hurt to a brother minister, to his estimable and innocent wife, to a young gentleman of standing and character, and to The Pilot by the misinformation which I conveyed to it.

I make the above statement solely in an earnest endeavor to undo as far as it is in my power the injury that I have unwittingly done to the parties named, and this statement is not made trough fear to myself of bodily harm or civil damages, nor is it an effort to avert either. The great agony which both myself and wife have experienced since the publication of the article can only be equalled by the pain and agony which the innocent parties have suffered, and it is in their interest alone that I endeavor to correct it.

With this frank and sorrowful statement to a just and I trust generous public,

I am very humbly,

W. C. LINDSAY.

The Pilot in its issue of Tuesday, seeks to explain how it "became the innocent cause on Saturday of a grievous and scandalous wrong to the estimable wife of Rev. A. J. Reamy, of Onancock, Va., and to Mr. L. T. D. Quinby, a reputable young gentleman of the same town," and offers by way of relieving the Pilot and its editor, Sam Small, of the odium which attaches to them, that the article of Mr. Lindsay to the editor was marked O.K.; but the explanations, so grievous has been the wrong committed, do not suffice, either in the opinion of Messrs. Reamy and Quinby or the people, and a suit has already been instituted by Mr. Reamy as appears from the following from the Pilot of Thursday:

Messrs. Neely, Seldner & Warrington, as attorneys, entered a damage suit in the court of law and chancery yesterday against The Pilot. The following entry in the clerk's office explains itself:

Adoniram J. Reamy and Mattie Reamy, his wife, the said Adoniram suing in the right and the benefit of his said wife, vs. the Pilot Publishing company, a corporation chartered, organized and doing business under the laws of the state of Virginia, Samuel W. Small and William C. Lindsay, trespass; damages, $10,000.

A suit will be entered by Mr. Quinby, it is stated, in a few days.