Business Directory, 1877-1878

Below are some interesting Hyde County statistics gleaned from Branson's North Carolina Business Directory for 1877 and 1878.

• Ocracoke is listed as having the following organizations & services: 
• 1 magistrate (there are 4 on the mainland)
• 1 church (10 on the mainland)
• 3 merchants (55 on the mainland)
• 1 mill (11 on the mainland)
• 1 post office (8 on the mainland)
• The mainland has the following; Ocracoke has none:
• county offices
• hotels (5 on the mainland)
• lawyers (3 on the mainland)
• physicians (12 on the mainland)
• schools (3 on the mainland; all private)*
• farmers (52 on the mainland)

 *There actually were several small private schools on Ocracoke Island between the early 1800s and 1901, at which time a school was established in the building now known as the Island Inn. Perhaps there was no school on Ocracoke in 1877-1878.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is my analysis of a sentence penned by surveyor Jonathan Price in 1795. The sentence reads, "Occacock was heretofore, and still retains the name of, an island. It is now a peninsula; a heap of sand having gradually filled up the space which divided it from the bank."  You can read my analysis here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/description-occacock-1795/.