Chincoteague Island
CHINCOTEAGUE, CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, VA., July 21. -- Chincoteague! Who has not heard of oysters and ponies with this prefix to qualify them? Many are the persons who think Chincoteague an uncivilized community of islanders, but where fashion has penetrated there also is civilization. The bustle is worn as large as they are elsewhere by the ladies here, who have heard of its proposed abolition, and are ready to discard it as loyal votaries of fashion. Where this prevails the notion of heathendom or primitiveness no longer holds good.
Chincoteague is a town where every man owns a boat, and every woman and boy can sail one, and where you occasionally see a lady smoke a clay pipe with the sang froid that a Spanish senorita does a cigarette. It is the true type of a seaport town. The beach would afford material for an artist's sketchbook of revels for Dicken's pen, for here are Luttles and Bunabys by the score. Men wear high-topped boots, and sou'-wester hats with the thermometer at eighty, and some go barefooted and wear just enough clothes to conform with the social law. The conversation is of boats, oysters and fish, and fish, oysters and boats, sandwiched with ponies. The noise of boat gear is always abroad, even in the stilly hours of night. The shore of the creek is a chaotic mass of craft of every rig, some rottening in the mud, others swinging at their anchors, bright in colors, while many lie high and dry on shore with their bottoms covered with seaweed, whose moisture lessens the sun's intensity.
Miles of fishermen's nets hang up to dry along the water front, and venders patrol the town with fish fresh and jumping. All folks appear contented and beggars are not to be seen. Nature has given to man his livelihood in the fish and game in the woods and waters and energy is all he need supply.
THE TOWN, BUSINESS AND MERCHANTS.
Chincoteague, Accomac county, Virginia, is a thriving town of 2,900 inhabitants without a newspaper. It is on the Chincoteague Island, a few miles south of the dividing line from Maryland. The island is about seven miles long, with a width of from one to two miles, and lies between Chincoteague bay on the west and Assateague inlet and the ocean on the east. Its beaches, creeks, inlets and marshes are frequented by game birds and the waters by wild fowl and fish. The feeding grounds are so numerous and extended that the hunter need but little coaching to find a sportsman's treasure. Captain Matthews, the host of the Atlantic Hotel, furnishes all the comforts needed for a pleasant stay. Collector Groome and other federal officials of Baltimore have engaged rooms with him for a visit in August on a gunning trip.
The main street follows the beach, with smaller avenues back. Before the town are marshes through which deep creeks ramify, and beyond on the mainland is Accomac County, with Franklin city, the railroad terminus, and Greenbackville lying along shore.
The oyster business in winter and fishing in summer are the chief kind of employment. Oyster-planting is carried on with more system and in greater proportion than in any other locality in the Union. A trip through the inland bays and creeks shows the great extent of this industry. Hundreds of acres are staked off, indicating the bounds of individual ownership, and the natural grounds also supply great quantities of oysters. No canning is done, but the bivalves are barreled or shipped to the markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Oysters are on the table all the year round, but have not now the rich flavor that especially commends the Chincoteague product in season. As the revenue from the oyster business is mostly spent here, the past years have made Chincoteague a town of more than ordinary importance. The residences of the merchants are in some instances large and beautiful, and the homes of the watermen clean and comfortable.
The merchants are D. J. Whealton, K. J. Bunting, John A. M. Whealton, M. A. Hudson & Co., H. A. Mumford & Bro., L. J. Brittingham, J. T. Kenny, W. J. Adams, Thomas Beebe, Charles Collins, J. B. Lynch & Son, W. J. Clayville, H. T. Scott; milliners Miss. I. V. Whealton, Mrs. S. M. Lewis, Miss Lottie Timmons; druggists, O. M. Jones, N. S. Smith; marine railway, S. J. Mumford; wreckers, Charles S. Babbitt & Son. John W. Bunting has an oil and fertilizer factor, employing fifty men. W. F. R. Cropper is deputy collector of customs. It is said fully $15,000 are brought annually to Chincoteague in the pay of government employes whose homes are here. They are divided among the life-saving station, lightships, lighthouses and other federal situations where maritime experience is needed. The male population comprises men who have followed the sea since childhood, and are, consequently, excellently fitted for positions requiring skilled, courageous and adventurous spirit.
During the late war Chincoteague was strongly Unionist in its principles which created a bad feeling among the neighbors of the mainland, who were for secession. A federal gunboat was stationed here for a while to protect the unionists, many of whom afterwards entered the Union army. In politics the island is democratic. Chincoteague is a "dry" town, by virtue of the prohibitory law, but there are various "refreshments" to be obtained here whose innocent nature would disgust one not used to a joke. "Pear cider," "lime juice" and "ginger" would be too remote to suggest good cold beer and a fair sample of rye whisky. Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Protestant and Baptist churches are on the island.
VISIT TO KENDLE JESTER.
No one should visit Chincoteague without meeting Kendle Jester, who shares the patriarchal honors with Isaac Daisy. About their names cluster the history of the island for over seventy years. Jester owns the largest number of ponies of any individual in Chincoteague. A ride of three miles from the town to the north end of the island among myriads of vicious mosquitoes leaves you at the one-story house of Kendle Jester, whom we found was out at work in the cornfields comprising a portion of his farm of 668 acres. Mrs. Jester met us. Between the slaps at mosquitoes, which make a feeding ground of one's neck, we stated our business.
"Ah, you want to see Ken about the animals," said she. "Well, he'll talk to you, for he's always happy when he is with them. Yes, happier than at meeting." And the woman went off to the cornfield and soon returned with a brawny man.
Kendle Jester said he saw light on the island seventy-four years ago. When a small boy he remembers that there were but sixteen families on the island. The houses were built of logs, and a proud page in the history of the Jester family could have been written when the father of Kendle built the first frame house and brick chimney ever seen by the Chincoteaguers. A great hurricane devastated the island. Houses were blown down and several women were drowned. What Kendle thought particularly unfortunate was the loss of a number of ponies to the storm. In those early days cotton and flax were raised, which the women picked, corded and spun into clothes, but as soon as communication was established with the outside world the industry stopped, and the cultivation of cotton and flax ceased.
Kendle was nine years old when the first store was established by Captain Tim Hill, a Yankee, and Daniel Jones, a native. The first real salable article brought into circulation was smuggled West Indian rum. Kendle says that for years Chincoteague was a veritable smuggler's paradise. Barrels of sugar and juices with a layer of corn inside, found their way into Maryland and Virginia. Previous to the introduction of rum, peach and apple brandy were spirituous resources of the primitive Chincoteaguer, and they came from the stills on the mainland. Small sailboats were unknown and "cunners" were used as well by the women as the men, the former paddling to the mainland for articles not purchasable on the island.
"My father fit in the revolution," said Jester, "and during Andy Jackson's war he made salt on Assateague beach and took it to Baltimore, where he got eight dollars a bushel for it. He made the trips in a little sloop." Kendle says that Indian graves with knives, arrow-heads and other implements, have been uncovered on the island by the winds. All the graves were found on the elevations.
AN AMERICAN KING.
Chincoteague has a king, but the succession is not hereditary, the title being given by the population to the man whose wealth is computed above that of any other individual on Chincoteague. Daniel J. Whealton, merchant, is now the king of Chincoteague by universal admission. He owns three stores, a beautiful residence, is postmaster, and has a large hotel being built. His subjects do not complain of any monarchical excesses from King Whealton. They seem satisfied with his reign.
CHINCOTEAGUE PONIES.
Besides being a great point of diversion for angler and gunner, Chincoteague has obtained more than its share of fame on account of his ponies. Those animals number about 200. They have been the subject of newspaper notoriety and have been embalmed in the pictorial press. Tradition ascribes their arrival to the stranding of a vessel on Assateague beach, beyond the time of even Ken Jester's recollection. The vessel was from South America, and the ponies were thrown overboard and swam to the beach. From Assateague they got over the inlet to Chincoteague, and there have propagated. There are yet a few on Assateague. These animals belong to a number of persons, whose brands they bear. At the annual penning, which usually takes place in August, the population turns out, and the ponies are driven into pens in the rear of the Atlantic Hotel, in Chincoteague town. Then are branded the colts foaled since the last penning.
The penning frequently brings strangers from a distance who want to purchase. From $50 to $125 have been paid for the ponies. After the penning the animals are turned loose, and they dash through the town to the marshes and glades, where they remain until another penning. They are never fed in the wild state, but get sleek and fat from the natural vegetation on the island. When snow covers the ground they dig holes through it and the earth until they reach the roots of trees or bushes. They get drink by breaking the ice that forms on the glades in the centre of the island. During driving storms they huddle in droves with their tails to the storm and remain sometimes in that position during its continuance. Stallions take a position in front of each drove. They were not known to come to the town until one night this week, when, driven from their fastnesses by mosquitoes, they made a dash for the town, staying, however, only a short time.