Peninsula Enterprise, December 5, 1885
Untitled
Watermen -- Watermen's organizations
The tongers from various sections of Accomac, meet at Sykes' Island to-day, to take steps to prevent aggressions upon their oyster grounds, as proposed at the meetings recently held at Hampton and elsewhere in tide-water Virginia.
Untitled
Transportation -- Railroad - Steamboats
The steamer Cape Charles has been taken off the line for repairs, and the steamer Eastern Shore now plies between Norfolk and Cape Charles City.
Untitled
Infrastructure -- Commercial - Hotels
Accomac C. H.
The Waddy hotel recently purchased by Mr. Duffield Savage, is soon to be thoroughly repaired. The proprietor also, proposes to make his table and bar more attractive, and thus merit still greater favors of the public. Hacks from the Waddy meet every train.
Untitled
Transportation -- Railroad - SteamboatsSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : SeasideSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : PricesTourists and sportsmen -- Field sports - Hunting : Waterfowl and shorebirdMoral -- FirearmsInfrastructure -- Commercial - Commercial construction
Chincoteague.
Capts. Smith and Birch left last week for Philadelphia, to bring the steam yacht Fisher to Chincoteague, which is to ply between this point and Franklin City.
New York yachts are being loaded in our channel with oyster culls and primes -- the latter at 70 cents per bushel.
Now is the time for sportsmen to visit this place, as ducks, brandt, geese and wild fowl of all kinds are abundant.
The gun of Wm. Holston bursted while he was out gunning recently, and he was severely wounded.
Mr. J. T. Kenny is having his storehouse remodeled, and when completed it will be one of the handsomest structures of the kind on Chincoteague.
Untitled
Transportation -- Railroad - FreightProfessionals -- Commission merchantsTransportation -- Railroad - Stations and sidings
Nelsonia.
Olivit Bros., commission merchants, New York, have the praise in this community and deserve it for returns made for sweets during the season. Their shippers have paid no charge for cartage since the railroad has been delivering them in that city.
The freight house, ticket office, &c., at Bloxom's station, near this place, belonging to railroad company, was burned Monday night. The building was not an expensive one. We are uninformed as to origin of fire.
A Child in Peril.
reprinted from Baltimore American, November 30.Tourists and sportsmen -- Field sports - Hunting : Bird
Mr. T. L. Northam, of the Eastern Shore Steamboat Company, reports the narrow escape of a small child from being carried off by an eagle. Wm. Foster, who at one time worked on the steamer Eastern Shore, but is now a farmer, living near Taylor's wharf, at the head of Hungar's Creek, Northampton county, Va., is the father of the child, which is about a year old. About four o'clock Thursday afternoon Mrs. Foster, the mother, wishing to get some wood from the wood yard, left the child in the yard. The eagle came swooping down, and would have caught the child had not Captain Richardson a resident of the place, who happened to be near with a gun, shot the bird. The shot disabled the eagle by breaking the left wing. It was caught by four men of the steamer Eastern Shore and taken on board, put in a chicken coop and brought to Baltimore. The eagle measured, from tip to tip of wings, seven feet and four inches.
The Oyster Question.
Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : LegislationWatermen -- Watermen's organizations
NORFOLK, VA., Nov. 59. -- The convention of Virginia oystermen met in the court house at Hampton yesterday. The object of the convention was to agree upon and recommend such Legislation as will best subserve the general interest of the oyster industry. Delegates were present from the counties of Elizabeth City, Middlesex, Accomac, Lancaster and Northumberland. As the call for the convention appeared not to have been as widely advertised as it might have been, and as only five counties of twenty which were interested in the oyster business were represented, on motion of Robert McCandlish, of Middlesex, the convention adjourned to meet in the court room at Hampton [missing text] secretary of the convention was instructed to send a copy of the resolution to every paper in Tidewater Virginia with the request that they publish the same. It is hoped and expected that every interest will be represented in the convention of the 16th, the tonger, dredger, planter, packer and canner.
OUR ROADS.
Transportation -- Road - MaintenanceArchitecture -- Courthouses
MR. EDITOR. -- The article on county roads in your issue of the 21st. is worthy of the consideration of all citizens, and if you will continue to use your paper for such good purposes, it will be regarded by the people with great favor, though it has already a very large circulation, and is justly appreciated.
No one can give this subject of county roads a thought or make any calculation on them, but are at once convinced of the benefits to all, in economy, and in greater facilities for the hauling and driving, necessary to our business and pleasure.
Horses will be enabled to do much more work than at present is required of them, and easier; vehicles will last longer, and more hauling can be done at less expense; the savings in these items will be much more than the cost of maintaining good roads.
The only thing required to have this work done at once, is the effort of our officials, either the county court or the Board of Supervisors, both have authority within their reach, to inaugurate and bestow a lasting benefit upon the people. There is no good reason why it should be put off five or ten years -- it has got to come and the quicker the better -- some of us may die and never see any improvement, and we want it during our life times -- not after we are dead. To accomplish the best results, the roads should be let to contract, and the contractors held to the mark of good roads in every respect -- smooth and dry -- for that is all there is in making and keeping good roads.
The old system is a failure from top to bottom, and it is useless to look to that source for any good.
The Board of Supervisors, you say, meet early in December, in the new court-house, that they have provided for the lawyers and court officials (they are the ones that use this building constantly and regularly, a few of the people only, occasionally at each term of the court;) let them now give us something new "for the people," a new and efficient system of making and maintaining the county roads. Is there any good reason why such beneficial work cannot be done at once? "None!" A snivelling granddaddy excuse may be given, that the good old way was good enough for the past, and ought to do for the present generation, or a lack, either of will or courage may prevent it, nothing else.
The roads if let to contract at once, can be drained, the water will run off as well at this season of the year as at any other; and if kept dry, a big stride forward will have been made.
Some persons may object to the expense of contracting for the roads, the answer is, "we spend one dollar on the road to save five or ten in wear, tear, inconvenience and annoyance to men, horses and vehicles" -- men, horses and vehicles cost money to hire, buy and to maintain -- everybody knows it, then why should we be wasteful and extravagant with them. Is it not economy to repair the roads? Is it not sensible to spend one dollar to save five?
Not one dollar will be taken from the county, it will be spent in our midst, and everyone, man or woman, white or black, rich or poor can have the benefit, and use it daily for their purposes; how much greater good will this be to all, than the court-house? The roads ought to have come first on the list of improvements, but we will be satisfied and say nothing more about it if we can have them now.
PRO BONO PUBLICO.
November 24th, 1885.
A Tonger's Protest.
Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : BaysideSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : DredgingSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : LegislationSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Tonging
MR. EDITOR -- In your last issue you publish from the Baltimore Sun an article headed "Oyster beds of Virginia." The writer evidently does not know the facts. Any man who will go to the oyster rocks in Pocomoke sound any fair day will find hundreds of tongers at work -- and it is in fact the principal place for tongers of the Eastern Shore, and the sole means of support of many hundreds of people. All the oyster rocks in Pocomoke sound from a line from the south end of big Watt's island to the mouth of Chesconnessix creek and including the mouth of Pocomoke and Tangier rocks are tonging rocks ranging in depth from 10 to 24 feet, and are scarce of oysters. Yet the dredgers howl for them. The lines have been laid down by Lieut. Bates and Capt. George D. Wise, commencing at Sandy Bar on the east, and little Watts' Island on the west, with an entrance by a channel 3 1/2 miles wide and 9 fathoms of water. The General Assembly in 1883 settled the point, giving the best rocks to the dredgers, until now tonging grounds are barely sufficient to make mere bread. It has almost been impossible to keep the dredgers off the tonging grounds. Ask Capt. Browne to tell you what work he had when in command of the "Tangier" to preserve these grounds. They actually dredge when a vessel drawing 7 feet of water will ground at low tide -- and the rocks be bared. They dredge at night and in the absence of the inspector, and the rights of tongers are entirely disregarded. Give a dredger an inch and he will take ten miles. They have already eaten all the pie in the oven and now howl for the scraps in the plate. Something must be done for the protection of the tonger, and we call on you to aid us. Our Legislators must be up and doing, or there will be squalls. We are gnawing the bone now, but we won't be driven to it only.
TONGER.
Accomac, Dec. 1st, 1885.
OUR OYSTER NAVY.
Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : BaysideSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Law enforcement
MR. EDITOR -- The people of Accomac met with a severe loss at our late county fair, by means few know. The Board on the Chesapeake and its tributaries built as you are aware an ocean steamer for shoal water navigation. The Governor and his special chum of the Board, Mr. Barksdale, went to Norfolk and boarded this Leviathan of the deep and essayed with all the munitions to cheer the inner man to reach this county. Off Tangier she "let go killick," and waited for a pilot to enter Pungoteague creek, no pilot came, and the ship feared the attempt so we lost a glimpse at Mahone's Governor and his chum.
KEGOTANK.
Dec. 3rd, 1885.
The Oyster Industry.
Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : LegislationSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Planting
It is a question involving the safety of capital invested and the actual sustenance of many hundreds of people. Few people understand it. Still fewer there are who do not claim to know all about it. From year to year it is a weight in all the political contests -- and many a man has secured political honors by catering to false sentiment and dickering with its important interests. The time has come when State lines of property in the "Oyster Fundum" must be explicitly and clearly settled, and laws governing dredging and tonging -- and above all oyster farming in its truest sense -- must be passed of value to all concerned and on a basis of liberality to all parties and safety for increase to the bivalve, without bias in any way. We commend to our immediate legislators the propriety of thorough information on this subject -- else heads and baskets may meet early. In this connection we shall soon publish a series of articles relating to the oyster farming which has so developed the oyster interests of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Farmer's Meeting.
Farmers -- Farmers' organizations
There will be a meeting of the farmers of Accomac C. H., December 16th, 1885, at 1 p.m. The subject for discussion will be, "What are the best crops for the farmers to grow on the Eastern Shore". Come all and give your views.
ORRIS A. BROWNE, Chairman of the County Assembly.