Norfolk Virginian, January 9, 1891
Untitled
Moral -- AlcoholInfrastructure -- Commercial - BanksInfrastructure -- Commercial - DrugstoresFields -- Crops - Other vegetablesArchitecture -- Historic preservationMoral -- Other violent crime
Onancock.
It is learned from a very reliable source that a special grand jury will be summoned for the January term of the County Court, ostensibly to deal with the case of Henry Watson and Luke Savage for housebreaking and attempted murder, but really for the purpose of waging bitter war upon a number of prominent liquor sellers in the county. The matter is being kept very quiet, and few know anything of it.
A prominent gentleman here is making a strong effort to establish a bank, which promises successful fruition, most all of our capitalists expressing a willingness to take stock.
It is announced that Dr. G. P. Moore, whose sensational intimacy with Miss Brickhouse caused such a furore, the denoument of which was a marriage, will shortly open a drug store at Cape Charles [City].
Immense quantities of kale are being shipped from the Hollywood farm, netting good prices.
The quarterly meeting of the Eastern Shore Historical Society will take place at Eastville February court day.
Hon. John W. H. Parker, of Onancock, will deliver an address on the "Ancient and Modern History of these two counties."
Henry Watson, the negro desperado, incarcerated in the county jail for attempted murder and house breaking, attacked the jailer, Samuel Melson, last night, but was overpowered and ironed before doing any damage.
Untitled
Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : BaysideSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : LegislationSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Planting
ONANCOCK, Va., January 8th.
Editor of The Virginian.
An interview with Governor McKinney in the Richmond State, reproduced in your columns, has fallen under my observation, and in view of the discussion now going on concerning that vexatious question of the luscious bivalve, which was the subject of the interview, I desire the privilege of making a few observations on the same subject.
In the interview alluded to and in the utterances of every prominent legislator and newspaper in the great Southwestern part of the State, and in fact the opinions accredited to would be settlers of this question, from the entire section of the State, where oyster growth does not prevail, and of which there are persons who know no more than the toothsomeness of the delicacy is to be found the mainspring of the discussion in the amount of revenue to be derived by the State from this industry of Tidewater alone.
To deal more explicitly with the aforementioned interview, I quote from the comments of the paper:
"Had Mr. Lewis rented the Pocomoke grounds upon the terms he offered, it would have given the State a larger revenue in five years from its oyster interest than she has received in the past two centuries." Yes, and had this heinous wrong been perpetrated, the lives of thousands of men, women and defenseless babes would have been the bloody mark imprinted upon the sum thus derived.
Is it possible that such has become the thirst and greed for money that leading men of the Old Dominion so far forget their inherited humaneness and chivalry as to overlook the wrongs and heartbreakings, the desolated homes and starving inmates, which would be the result of a policy like that proposed?
The aspect of the oyster question makes it appear that way, but I take a charitable view of it and ascribe this seeming inhumanity to a lack of knowledge of the subject on the part of these mountaineers, who know more about their minerals, their tobacco, their stock and their other products than they do concerning the oyster. To specify: Thousands of men -- citizens of Tidewater Virginia -- engaged regularly in the oyster business, the main field of their operations being in Pocomoke Sound.
Dependent upon the result of the labor of these men are, usually a family, say of from three to ten persons, of an average of about five persons to each family.
The great majority of these men are ignorant of any other occupation, and too far advanced in life to embark in another field of labor.
Had Mr. Lewis been rented the Pocomoke grounds, he, according to his own statement, would have only employed five hundred men to labor there. What would have become of those not employed by him?
This place is where the oyster is most plentiful, and if those in the habit of frequenting these grounds and not in Mr. Lewis' employ, go to other grounds, a double force is at once at work on the latter grounds, composed of those usually having headquarters there and those driven from Pocomoke grounds. And at the rapid rate of destruction the oyster is alleged to be undergoing, this double work on any particular, or all the grounds would soon consummate the destruction already in full swing. But indeed, if this policy of leaving the grounds, as advocated by the sturdy mountaineer, who has so many opportunities of an intimate knowledge of the mollusk, prevails, the outlook is not as cheering as the foregoing, for then the poor man -- and these fellows are usually poor -- owing probably a small boat and making enough from one season's work to keep themselves and family until the next season begins, is driven entirely from employment, not being able to leave the grounds and cultivate the bivalve himself, and the employees of the lessees not equaling the number engaged therein now, calculated upon the ratio of the number Mr. Lewis proposed employing.
Something must be done. The present law every one agrees in admitting are totally infeasible and unsatisfactory, but what is the remedy?
Surely, if Tidewater men cannot agree upon the subject, of which they have had a life-long, personal knowledge, the mountaineer is not capable of settling it. It would be good or practicable to send a delegation of Southwesterners, versed in mineralogy over on the Eastern Shore, and to instruct the farmers here how to raise sweet or Irish potatoes, or an Eastern Shoreman to the Southwest to settle a dispute concerning the presence or not of iron ore in the soil of a certain plantation. I think the Governor's idea of appointing a commission of leading business men of the State (the majority of whom, however, it not all, composed of Tidewater citizens), to take charge of the survey of the grounds and go over all the questions and details of the vexed matter, a good one.
One important thing the Legislature should not fail to do, is to enact a "culling law."
Hoping you will find a place for this in your columns, I am,
Your very truly,
L. P. B.