To All of our Faithful Readers

During the last fifteen years I have written and published more than 4,500 articles on this site celebrating Ocracoke Island history, culture, traditions, and people. It has been a labor of love for this special place. Now it is time to take a rest.

I will no longer be publishing blog posts five days per week. I may occasionally post stories or interesting island historical facts as they occur to me. To be notified when I publish a post simply add your email address in the box at the top right and click "submit."

Also, all past posts will remain in the archives. Simply click on any year in the archives to find posts that you may have missed or have forgotten about.

It has been a joy and a pleasure to share so many fascinating stories with interested visitors, Ocracoke residents, and native islanders. I extend my heartfelt thanks to all of our faithful readers. I hope this blog has enriched your understanding of Ocracoke Island, and helped connect you with the fascinating and colorful history that makes our community so special.

Be sure to follow Village Craftsmen on Facebook. Our Facebook page will continue to share island news, photos, stories, and information about storms and hurricanes as they unfold.

Richard S. Spofford

On December 27, 1894, the three-masted schooner Richard S. Spofford wrecked at Ocracoke. The 488-ton vessel was built in 1890 at Newburyport, MA. She had sailed from Boston, MA, on December 22, en route to Darien, GA, under the command of Captain Richard R. Hawes with a crew of seven.

On the day after Christmas, after passing Cape Hatteras, the Spofford encountered gale force winds that quickly increased to hurricane strength. At 3:30 a.m. the next day the ship struck on the shoals just offshore of Ocracoke village. When her centerboard became wedged in the sand, the schooner swung around like a weather vane, leaving the vessel at the mercy of the storm.

The Spofford was named for Richard S. Spofford, (1833-1888), Boston lawyer and sometime author

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.
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The Sheltering Cedar

Anne Runyon has a long and passionate connection to Ocracoke Island. Her father, Charles, discovered this special place in the 1950s, and Anne's mother, Robbie, and Charles bought an historic home some years later. They made Ocracoke their permanent home at retirement. Anne spent many pleasant times visiting her parents here.

In 2007 Anne wrote a delightful holiday children's book, The Sheltering Cedar, based on her love of Ocracoke. 

A sturdy tree shelters small animals during a storm on Christmas Eve, allowing peace and joy to reign as the tempest clears. Filled with beautiful illustrations of birds, animals, water, and sky, The Sheltering Cedar is a gift of nature, illuminating and delightful. For ages 3-7.

Eileen Heyes, author of the O'Dwyer and Grady mysteries reviewed the book: "To say The Sheltering Cedar is a lovely book doesn't do it justice. The spare, evocative text and warm, detailed watercolors bespeak Anne Runyon's love for Ocracoke Island. She knows this special place well, has studied its intricately balanced ecosystem with all her senses and now takes the rest of us there with all her heart. The quiet story of a coastal tree sheltering wildlife from a Christmas Eve storm will be bedtime favorite for toddlers, while the author's explanatory note and activities will make this a fun addition to school libraries and classrooms. 

Anne Marshall Runyon was born in Washington, DC. Quiet summers on Ocracoke Island nurtured a lifelong interest in the natural world. Anne studied printmaking at Carleton College, and design at the University of Minnesota. She and her family live in Garner, North Carolina. She belongs to the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Anne writes and illustrates articles for WILD Notebook, and the children's section of Wildlife in North Carolina magazine. Ms. Runyon's artwork is also featured throughout North Carolina, in many conservation publications, and in permanent environmental education exhibits. 

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Ocracoke's Pacific Coast

In 1524 Francis I, King of France, financed a voyage to the New World by Giovanni da Verrazzano. He explored the coast of what became North Carolina, from south of Cape Fear to Cape Hatteras, seeking “some strait to get through to the Eastern Ocean.” On the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25, 1524), he reached the area of the Outer Banks near Portsmouth and Ocracoke islands. He believed this was an isthmus separating the Atlantic Ocean from an arm of the Pacific Ocean. 

Verrazzano wrote, “We…found there an isthmus one mile wide and about two hundred miles long, in which we could see the eastern sea from the ship, halfway between west and north. This is doubtless the one which goes around the tip of India, China, and Cathay. We sailed along this isthmus, hoping all the time to find some strait or real promontory where the land might end to the north, and we could reach those blessed shores of Cathay.”

For about a century what we today know as Pamlico Sound was called Mare da Verrazzano, or the Sea of Verrazzano, and was considered an arm of the Pacific Ocean! 

Michael Lok May, 1582

Michael Lok May, 1582, Detail

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Chance for Tavern

The first Tolson on the Outer Banks was John Tolson who purchased lot #1 on Portsmouth Island in 1756. However, it was not until  1830 that any Tolsons (William and Thomas) appeared in the federal census of Ocracoke.

By the mid-nineteenth century Daniel Tolson (1826-1879) had become a prosperous antebellum Ocracoke merchant. In 1855 Tolson, just shy of 40 years old, was appointed postmaster. In that same year he purchased a large tract of land which later became known as Springer's Point. Daniel Tolson served as postmaster until 1866, at a weekly salary of $9.17. In 1857 he was half owner of the the five year old, 55' long schooner, Patron. During his life he had owned 22 slaves. Daniel Tolson is buried in a secluded spot at Springer's Point.

On October 8, 1856, shortly after his purchase of Springer's Point, which included a number of houses and other buildings, Daniel Tolson ran an advertisement in a Washington, NC, newspaper.

Tolson House at Springer's Point

The ad was titled,

"Chance for Tavern," and read:

"On Ocracoke, Hyde Co. N.C. I have three or four commodious and convenient buildings with necessary out houses. A garden and pasture requisite for support of a hotel for which purpose, I will rent them for a month, or any number of months -- Close at hand can be had oysters clams and fish. Here we can view the egress and regress of ships, the bar and Portsmouth, snuff the ocean's salubrious breeze which renders it highly pleasurable and pleasant, as a summer resort. WHO WILL TAKE THE OFFER?

Daniel Tolson"

Today Springer's Point is a nature preserve managed by the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.

Springer's Point

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

1837 Shipwreck and Robbery

The following letter was written by John Pike, Esq., of Ocracoke, N.C., to James Bergen, Esq., of  New York City – Published in the N.Y. Express

 

Ocracoke, Nov. 2, 1837

To the Public: -- A statement has been published throughout the United States, from a New York paper, purporting to describe circumstances relating to the wreck of the Home. The libelous slanders it contains have aroused the indignation of every person here, for there never was a more gross and wanton calumny propagated, or a greater imposition practiced upon the public, already extremely excited as to every thing relating to this unfortunate vessel. I became acquainted with Hiram Force at the wreck. His supporters I do not know, but if respectable men they are imposed upon by Force; or if they undertake by their own knowledge to endorse Mr. F’s narration, they are as unworthy of respect as he is, and have perhaps joined him in his frauds. Mr. Force was introduced to my acquaintance on the day after the wreck, under two charges, viz., -- First, for stealing a gold watch and chain from the dead body of the lady of Mr. B.B. Hussey of Charleston, S. C. The second charge was, for claiming and breaking open the trunk of a missing passenger, Mr. L. S. Benedict, and stealing therefrom part of its contents, and destroying papers to cover his villainy. He presented himself to be a gentleman passenger. The fact of stealing the watch from the body was not clearly proved; but one was seen upon the body before he approached it, and immediately after he was seen to have a gold watch, and that on the body was missing. The charge of stealing the clothes and destroying the papers was clearly proved. He could offer no defense, but stated that he was occasionally insane from once having fallen from a cherry tree, and he thought he must have been insane when he committed the larceny. Perhaps his newspaper narration was made under the same influence. At the time of his examination he was completely dressed, with the exception of a hat, in a very fashionable suit of the clothes he had stolen from the trunk, and it came out that Mr. Hiram Force was the barber of the Steamboat Home. His guilt and impostures were so glaringly apparent, that nothing but the multiplicity of business pressing at the moment, and the fact that the nearest gaol was sixty miles from the beach, saved him from a residence in the North Carolina States Prison. Some of the humane persons on the beach urged in his behalf, the miserable condition of the culprit arising from the ship wreck, and induced the magistrate to grant his release upon his giving up all the stolen property and leaving the place forthwith which he consented to do: but whether he gave up- all, is and will be a secret; but this extraordinary gentleman, culprit, barber, quickly decamped for your city to revenge himself.

John Pike

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

1837 Controversies

On November 7 of this year I wrote about Ocracoke Island resident John Pike (he is listed in the federal census in 1830, 1840, and 1850). Although a prominent citizen during his residency on the island, he seems to have been involved in several controversies. In 1837 Pike was the Notary at the Port of Ocracoke, Justice of the Peace and Wreck Master.

On March 1, 1837, Ocracoke's former Justice of the Peace, and upstanding citizen, Jacob Gaskill, was involved in an argument with his neighbor and first cousin, Willis Williams. In the ensuing altercation Jacob Gaskill shot and killed Willis Williams. It was Ocracoke's first murder. In the spring of 1837, in Hyde County, Jacob Gaskill was tried and convicted of “felonious slaying.” He was not found guilty of murder. Nevertheless, as punishment he was branded on the palm of his hand with the letter “M”. He was never sent to prison. (See https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/murder-on-ocracoke/ for more information.)

Just months later, in October, the steamboat Home wrecked on Ocracoke during "Racer's Storm" (see......). William Howard appears to have been the acting Wreck Master at that time. In a dispute with John Pike over their respective actions during rescue and salvage operations William Howard accused John Pike, “through his influence and money” of rescuing “a murderer from the gallows merely for the sake of gain.” Presumably this refers to John Pike’s involvement in the murder trial of Jacob Gaskill.

At the same time John Pike petitioned the court to have William Howard release money and personal articles found on the body of James M. Rolls who lost his life when the Home wrecked. Howard buried Rolls' body, then claimed the money and personal belongings that were recovered from Rolls' trunk as payment for "washing, dressing and giving him a decent burial."

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

At 210 feet tall, the distinctive "candy striped" black and white lighthouse at Cape Hatteras is among the tallest beacons in the United States. It was the second light tower to guard the dreaded shoals at Cape Hatteras, and was built and lit in 1870.

The present lighthouse replaced the original lighthouse at Hatteras which was first lit in 1803.

1803 Cape Hatteras Light

Capt. David D. Porter described the original beacon in an 1851 letter to the Lighthouse Board:

"Hatteras light, the most important on our coast is, without doubt, the worst light in the world. Cape Hatteras is the point made by all vessels going to the south, and also coming from that direction; the current of the Gulf Stream runs so close to the outer point of the shoals that vessels double as close round the breakers as possible, to avoid its influence. The only guide they have is the light, to tell them when up with the shoals; but I have always had so little confidence in it, that I have been guided by the lead, without the use of which, in fact, no vessel should pass Hatteras. The first nine trips I made I never saw Hatteras light at all, though frequently passing in sight of the breakers, and when I did see it, I could not tell it from a steamer's light, excepting that the steamer's lights are much brighter. It has improved much latterly, but is still a wretched light. It is all important that Hatteras should be provided with a revolving light of great intensity, and that the light be raised 15 feet (4.6 m) higher than at present. Twenty-four steamship's lights, of great brilliancy, pass this point in one month, nearly at the rate of one every night (they all pass at night) and it can be seen how easily a vessel may be deceived by taking a steamer's light for a light on shore."

Sixty feet was added to the original lighthouse in 1853.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Edward Farrow

Edward Farrow (1839 - 1878) was the son of Wilson Tilmon Farrow, Sr. (1798-1880), Ocracoke resident and member of the state legislature. Ed Farrow married Lucretia Credle Wahab (1848 - 1930). Their home was located where Berkley Manor is today. Sam Jones, owner of Berkley Machine Works in Norfolk, Virginia, bought the house more than a half century ago, and built the newer part around the old house. Edward Farrow is buried in the front yard.

Edward Farrow's epitaph reads simply, "Farewell, Ed."

Among Ed and Lucretia Farrow’s children, one son married and moved to Pennsylvania, a daughter married Ocracoke’s Methodist preacher, Rev. West, and moved to Norfolk, Virginia, and another daughter married a lawyer from New Bern, North Carolina. After Ed Farrow died his widow moved to mainland Hyde County where she met a traveling salesman, Michael Lawrence Piland (1861-1920). They moved to Ocracoke where Mr. Piland ran a store and ice cream parlor, served as choir master in the Methodist Church, founded Ocracoke's Odd Fellow's Lodge, and was appointed post master. (Read more about Michael Lawrence Piland here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/island-inn-lodge-no-194-independent-order-odd-fellows/.)

Lucretia Credle Wahab Farrow Piland moved to Washington, North Carolina, where she is buried.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Hurricane Season

The official Hurricane Season begins on June 1, and ended this past Friday, November 30. The peak of the season is mid-August to late October. Some of the most devastating storms to strike the Outer Banks were the San Cirioca Storm in 1899, the unnamed 1933 hurricane, and the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944. Recent hurricanes that brought strong winds and tidal flooding to Ocracoke were Hurricane Alex in 2004 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Tide Markers at Village Craftsmen

Although hurricanes Florence and Michael threatened Ocracoke Island in 2018, little damage occurred, and there was only insignificant tidal flooding.

I recently wondered what other major hurricanes have struck Ocracoke, and learned about the "1775 Independence Hurricane." This is what I read on Wikipedia:

"On August 27, 1775, a hurricane hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It turned northeastward and left the state on September 2, bringing heavy wind and rain to southeastern Virginia. A letter from New Bern, North Carolina, recounted, 'We had a violent hurricane...which has done a vast deal of damage here, at the Bar, and at Matamuskeet, near 150 lives being lost at the Bar, and 15 in one neighborhood at Matamuskeet.'

"The September 9, 1775, edition of The Virginia Gazette reported: 'The shocking accounts of damage done by the rains last week are numerous: Most of the mill-dams are broke, the corn laid almost level with the ground, and fodder destroyed; many ships and other vessels drove ashore and damaged, at Norfolk, Hampton, and York. In the heavy storm of wind and rain, which came on last Saturday, and continued most part of the night, the Mercury man of war was drove from her station abreast of the town of Norfolk, and stuck flat aground in shoal water.'"

Apparently Ocracoke, with fewer than 150 residents, was too remote to make the news. I wonder how much damage the Independence Hurricane did. We may never know, but we do know the community survived and flourished.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Nags Head, 1849

In 2014 I wrote a Newsletter about Steamships and Ocracoke. Because steamships facilitated travel to the Outer Banks, Nags Head began to develop as a resort area in the nineteenth century. By 1885 a significant number of well-heeled North Carolinians had discovered Ocracoke Island. However, by then Nags Head had been a favorite resort area for half a century.

David Stick has compiled several historical accounts of life on the coast of North Carolina in his 1998 book, An Outer Banks Reader. He includes excerpts from an 1849 diary recounting a tutor's time in Nags Head. The tutor, George Higby Throop, writes that "planters, merchants, and professional men" and their families make up the majority of visitors to Nags Head. Unmarried men take up residence in a large hotel. Families spend the summer in "snug cottages" outfitted with the "more common articles of household furniture" as well as "one or more horses, a cow, and such vehicles as are fitted for use on sandy roads; a buggy sometimes, but oftener a cart.... One, two, three, sometimes half a dozen servants accompany the family."

Nags Head's "Unpainted Aristocracy"

After reading that account no one has reason to cast a critical eye toward present-day visitors who arrive on the Outer Banks with trailers loaded with kayaks, bicycles, lawn chairs, and coolers of beer. I have yet to see anyone bringing a horse or a cow!

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Snow Ice Cream

It doesn't snow very often on Ocracoke, but when it does, it creates great excitement, especially for the children.

Ocracoke Lighthouse in Snow, 2015

My father was born on the island in 1911. He liked to tell me how his mother would make "snow cream." Below is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 can of condensed milk
• pinch of salt
• 4 tblsp sugar
• can of crushed pineapple or can or chopped peaches, drained
• large bowl of snow

Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until they stand in peaks. Add sugar gradually. Beat egg yolks until light. Add salt, milk, fruit, then fold in egg whites. Add snow last. Serve immediately.  

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Okok

Charles II (1630-1685), who, after the end of the Protectorate, was restored as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1660, granted a charter for Carolina to eight Lords Proprietors in 1663. The charter included all of the land between Virginia and Florida, and extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.  

In 1672 John Olgiby (1600-1676) created the "First Lords Proprietor' Map" of the Carolina territory (from Virginia to Florida; and from the Atlantic to the Appalachians).

Olgilby Map, 1672

 













The detail above shows the Outer Banks (the map is oriented with North to the right). At the bottom is Cape Hatteras. About midway on the left side of the map one island is identified as Okok. This is Ocracoke. Interestingly, it is still common today, almost 350 years later, to hear native Ocracokers refer to their island as Okok (pronounced Ocock), and themselves as Okokers (Ocockers).

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Portsmouth Island Schools

Education was an important part of community life on Portsmouth Island from soon after its first settlement. A chart of the coast of North Carolina between Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear from a survey taken in 1806 by Thomas Coles and Jonathan Price, clearly shows an "Academy" in Portsmouth village (click on the map to enlarge; the academy, a two-story building with chimneys on each end, is pictured at the bottom left).

1806 Map & Chart

Another schoolhouse was located on the "Straight Road" about half-way between Portsmouth and Sheep Island (Sheep Island is just to the west of Portsmouth village).

School on Straight Road (Cape Lookout Seashore Collection)

 The last schoolhouse stands yet today, managed by the Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Present-day Schoolhouse

In 1894 Portsmouth school students numbered 75. In 1903 there were 52 students. The school population had declined to 24 by 1916. In 1942 there were only two students. When one of the students moved off the island in 1943 the school was closed. The last residents left the island in 1971.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Maritime Infirmary

In 1828 a contract was executed for a maritime infirmary near Ocracoke Inlet.  Dr. James W. Potts was awarded the position of physician in Portsmouth village at a salary of $1,500 per year. Dr. Potts soon realized that maintaining a hospital at this remote location, even with a private practice on the side, was not worth the trouble and expense he incurred. He transferred his contract to Dr. Samuel Dudley after 18 months.

According to an 1831 letter from Potts' half-brother, Joseph Hurtow, to Joshua Taylor, Collector of Customs at Ocracoke Inlet, Dr. Dudley's "hospital" was a dismal and pitiful operation. He describes it thus: "As to the hospital at [Port] Ocracoke, a small wooden house has been rented and occupied for the purpose at $30 to $40 per year. The house stands about two feet above the level of the ocean and not to [sic] far from it's margin, upon the Portsmouth Banks and on the naked sands, without the benefit of shade. The house itself is 16 to l8 feet by 20 or 22 feet in size, without plastering or as I believe glass windows. About six cots, a pine table or two and a few benches or chairs, and the furniture of the hospital has been described."

Potts says there is "no cistern to contain fresh water" and asserts that "how sick seamen now fare in regards to dirt, cleanliness, nursing or medical assistance, I do not know...."

Potts then goes on to suggest that the hospital be re-located to Ocracoke and the contracts for "Keeper of the Hospital and Keeper of Ocracoke Light House" be united. Hurtrow then offers to assume those positions himself, and to use the lighthouse keeper's quarters for the hospital, explaining that "the house at the Beacon is at present of very little service -- because inhabited only, a great part of the time, by an old Yellow man*, left there to clean and light the Beacon and the keeper's residence...."  

Less than a month after Hurtrow's letter to Joshua Taylor, the Collector wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury that the hospital did have windows, and that the seamen were well provided for. Dudley's contract was renewed.

Finally, an 1842 act of Congress appropriated $8,500 to build a dedicated marine hospital on Portsmouth Island. A lengthy process of legal contortions over title to the land, planning, bidding, contracting, inspecting, and provisioning delayed opening of the hospital until 1847. This was a very substantial two-story structure, built on piers, with a fireplace in each room, primitive running water, spacious “piazzas” (porches), and separate quarters for the hospital physician, and at times, a “medical student.”

You can read an account of the hospital here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/north-carolinas-first-hospital/.

*"Yellow man" is an offensive  term, typically used to belittle people of Asian descent. I have no evidence that Anson Harker (b. 1780 - d. 1847), the first person of record listed as Keeper of the Ocracoke Lighthouse, was Asian. Harker served 1829-1846.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Wreck of the Steamboat Home

Ocracoke Island was the scene of one of the most horrific shipwrecks ever on the North Carolina Coast. In October, 1837, the steamboat Home ran aground during "Racer's Storm" in gale force winds. Ninety people, mostly well-heeled residents of New York City and Charleston, South Carolina, lost their lives as the steamboat broke apart in a raging surf.

This month's Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about that terrible wreck. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.

Blackbeard's Final Battle

Today is not only Thanksgiving Day...it is also the 300th anniversary of the Battle at Ocracoke. In 1718 Lt. Robert Maynard of the British Royal Navy, with his sailors, defeated the pirate Blackbeard just off shore of Springer's Point on Ocracoke Island.

For the very first time Ocracoke Island, with sponsorship of the Ocracoke Preservation Society and the Ocracoke Civic and Business Association, is celebrating this historic battle and the British sailors who had a major role in ending "The Golden Age of Piracy." For more information go to the OPS web site: https://ocracokepreservation.org/300th-anniversary-of-the-battle-at-ocracoke/

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lachlan Howard's essay about the Fresnel Lens and its use in theater, solar ovens, cameras, and industry, as well as lighthouse illumination. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-fresnel-lens/.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know we are one day early...but all of the folks at Village Craftsmen join me in wishing our readers a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

Village Craftsmen will be closed Thanksgiving Day, not only to celebrate the holiday with family and friends...but also to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Ocracoke between Lt. Robert Maynard of the British Royal Navy and Blackbeard the pirate and his crew.

A ceremony will be held tomorrow at 10 am at Springer's Point to remember the battle and the sailors who lost their lives November 22, 1718. For more information about the event click here: https://ocracokepreservation.org/300th-anniversary-of-the-battle-at-ocracoke/.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lachlan Howard's essay about the Fresnel Lens and its use in theater, solar ovens, cameras, and industry, as well as lighthouse illumination. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-fresnel-lens/.

The "Best" Story

Ellen Marie Cloud (1940-2016) compiled a small book documenting eighteen historic Ocracoke family names. One of the more colorful chapters is titled "The 'Best' Story."

Capt. James Best (1791-1846) appears to have been born at Davis Island, NC (in Carteret County). About 1820 Capt. Best married Ocracoke native Nancy Howard (1801-1857). Presumably the couple met when Capt. Best was sailing to the Port of Ocracoke. They made their home on Ocracoke in the vicinity of Pamlico Sound, at North Pond.

When he was 28 years old Capt. Best purchased a 54 ton schooner, "Louisa." In 1844 he and his father-in-law, William Howard, purchased a schooner named "Little John."

Although the Bests never had any children, all indications indicate that Nancy Best longed for children. The Bests, however, were sufficiently well-to-do to have a housekeeper, a young woman who did the laundry, scrubbed the floors, and polished the silverware. Her name was Ann Scarborough, and she was fourteen years younger than Capt. Best. As sometimes happens, the man of the family and the hired help found themselves attracted to each other. In 1838 Ann Scarborough gave birth to a son, Capt. Best's only child.  Ann named him Thaddeus Constantine Scarborough.

Five years later, in 1843, Ann Scarborough, who never married, died. In her will she designated James Best guardian of their son. James and Nancy Best willingly accepted care of young Thaddeus. Unfortunately, Capt. Best died three years later. Nancy Best continued in her role as mother to eleven-year-old Thaddeus.

Nancy Howard Best's tombstone reads, "She was, but words are wanting to say what. Think what a wife should be: She was that."

Descendants of Constantine Thaddeus Scarborough (and, thus, of Capt. Best) continue to live on Ocracoke today. 

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lachlan Howard's essay about the Fresnel Lens and its use in theater, solar ovens, cameras, and industry, as well as lighthouse illumination. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-fresnel-lens/. 

Religion on the Outer Banks

In 1710, the Reverend John Irmstone [or Urmstone, a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which was established in 1701 by the Church of England] of Bath wrote in a letter to his superior about people from Hatteras and Ocracoke who came to get baptized.  He gives no surnames, but says, 'these persons, half indian [sic] and half English, are an offense to my own and I gravely doubt the Kingdom of Heaven was designed to accomodate [sic] such.  They stunk and their condition was not improved by the amounts of sacramental wine they lapped up nor by sprinkling with baptismal waters."

In the summer of 1753 the Rev. Alexander Stewart assumed the position of minister at St. Thomas parish (Anglican) in Bath, North Carolina. The next year he was entered on the rolls of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as a missionary to St. Thomas parish.

The first record of a minister of the Gospel actually visiting the Outer Banks is October 7, 1766, when Rev. Stewart, who was plagued with bad health, went to Portsmouth "for the bathing in the salt water." On that visit he baptized twenty-seven children from Portsmouth and Ocracoke. There is no indication that Rev. Stewart ever returned to the Outer Banks. He died in 1771.

In 1772 a Reverend Mr. Reed visited the "Sea Coast" and experienced "some Benefit from the Sea air", but found "the people sickly, & poor accommodations," so he "soon returned" to the mainland.


By the nineteenth century Methodists had begun proselytizing on the Outer Banks. In 1828 the Ocracoke-Portsmouth Circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church was established. A "preaching house" was soon constructed.



This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lachlan Howard's essay about the Fresnel Lens and its use in theater, solar ovens, cameras, and industry, as well as lighthouse illumination. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-fresnel-lens/. 

Tavern on Portsmouth

What may have been the very first tavern on the Outer Banks was established by Valentine Wade in 1757. In 1753 the North Carolina Colonial Assembly had passed a bill "appointing and laying out a Town on Core Banks, near Ocacock [Ocracoke] Inlet, in Carteret County." In 1756 Wade purchased lot number 21 in Portsmouth village. He was soon named Justice of the Peace, but in 1759 a number of citizens of Portsmouth and Ocracoke were disturbed by the influence of the tavern. John Bragg, an inlet pilot operating from Ocracoke, and Joseph Ryall, a soldier stationed at Fort Granville on Portsmouth (see yesterday's blog post) filed a formal complaint against Wade.

The complaint charged that "Valentine Wade, one of his Majestys Justices of the Peace for the county of Carteret, and who keeps a Tavern in the Town of Porstmouth in said county, Permits, suffers and encourages disorderly persons to dance and play at cards and dice in his house upon the Lords Day."

1700s Tavern Scene

Wade was ordered to appear before the Council and explain his conduct in view of his official position, but he failed to show up to defend himself, and was "struck out of the Commission of the Peace."

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lachlan Howard's essay about the Fresnel Lens and its use in theater, solar ovens, cameras, and industry, as well as lighthouse illumination. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-fresnel-lens/.

Fort Granville

In 1755 North Carolina Governor Arthur Dobbs visited Ocracoke Inlet, and ordered that Fort Granville, which had been authorized for Portsmouth Island but never constructed, be finally built. Portsmouth was designated as the site of the fort because it was "a Maratime Town, far distant from the bulk of the Inhabitants of this Province, and liable to the Depredations of an Enemy in Time of War, and Insults from Pirates and other rude People in Time of Peace."

The fort was designed as "a fascine* Battery secured by piles, with 2 faces; one to Secure the passage in coming down a Narrow Channel to this Harbour, and the other to play across the Channel where it is not above 300 yards wide."

Fascines

By 1757 Fort Granville was finally manned with a small company. The next year 53 officers and men were stationed at the the fort. By 1762 less that half that number served at Fort Granville. The next year only five soldiers were stationed at Portsmouth, and the garrison was decommissioned with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1764, which ended the French and Indian War.

*fascine: a bundle of rods or sticks bound together, often used in military operations.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lachlan Howard's essay about the Fresnel Lens and its use in theater, solar ovens, cameras, and industry, as well as lighthouse illumination. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-fresnel-lens/. 

Remembering Lt. Maynard

As anyone familiar with Ocracoke knows, the legend of Blackbeard the pirate has been a dominant and persistent theme on Ocracoke, even today, 300 years after his defeat by Lt. Robert Maynard and the British Royal Navy.

Lt. Robert Maynard

Several years ago Ruth Toth, vice president of the Ocracoke Preservation Society, decided that Lt. Maynard and his crew should be recognized and celebrated on the 300th anniversary of the final battle. The Executive Committee of OPS agreed, so Ruth and a small committee have been working to make it happen. OPS will host a three day event at Ocracoke (November 21, 22, and 23) to commemorate the historic battle.

Invitations have been extended to officers and midshipmen from the Royal Navy officer training unit who train aboard the HMS Ranger, named for Maynard’s ship. This unit typically holds their most formal dinner of the year on November 22^nd, to celebrate Maynard’s defeat of Blackbeard.

The event begins with an Oyster Roast on Wednesday, November 21 (this is a ticketed event with limited seating). At 10 am the next morning (November 22...Thanksgiving Day) the public is invited to a memorial ceremony at Springer’s Point Nature Preserve, the closest land to the site of the battle. Immediately following the ceremony, all are invited to an English Tea in the Barn at the Berkley Manor (served in fine china tea cups).

For more information go to the OPS web site: https://ocracokepreservation.org/300th-anniversary-of-the-battle-at-ocracoke/.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lachlan Howard's essay about the Fresnel Lens and its use in theater, solar ovens, cameras, and industry, as well as lighthouse illumination. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-fresnel-lens/.

Spanish Invasion

The coast of North Carolina was periodically invaded by Spaniards beginning in April, 1741, when two privateers with about 100 sailors arrived at the Outer Banks. The Spaniards erected a tent camp on Ocracoke with the goal of controlling shipping through Ocracoke Inlet. In August North Carolina merchants and residents in two ships drove the Spaniards from Ocracoke. The Spaniards returned again in 1747, landing on Ocracoke and capturing the port of Beaufort before abandoning the town a few days later. The final invasion occurred in 1748 when the Spaniards attacked the town of Brunswick. A prisoner exchange ended the seven year cycle of Spanish invasions. 

However, the threat of  Spanish invasions returned 150 years later during the Spanish-American War (April, 1898-August, 1898). In July, 1898, the Daily Journal of New Bern, NC printed this brief article:

"An official of the Government, high in authority, whose business it is to organize the people of the coast into a battalion auxiliary to the navy for home protection, passed through this section [Dare County] last week on his way south. In a general conversation he informed the writer that the auxiliary gunboat "Kemp" is now being fitted out for coast patrol duty. She will be stationed at Teach's Hole, at Ocracoke, and will make frequent cruises between Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout. Commodore S. Barsey Casey, Retired, will be in command of the Kemp, and after enlisting a sufficient number of the patriotic young men of Ocracoke to man his ship he will organize and arm those who are left to patrol and guard the coast. It is now to be hoped that the good people of Ocracoke may 'Worship under their own vine and fig tree' where no Spaniard comes to molest or 'Don' makes them afraid...."

Spanish Vessel, Alfonso XIII

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lachlan Howard's essay about the Fresnel Lens and its use in theater, solar ovens, cameras, and industry, as well as lighthouse illumination. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-fresnel-lens/.