TIME MACHINE ... Abandoned Island's Former Life

1892

After President-elect Grover Cleveland made a visit to the Eastern Shore of Virginia's Hog Island for a duck hunting vacation an 1892 American Press Association article was published about the island. The following information is gleaned from that article:

Hog Island was still inhabited at that time, with twenty-one families living there. Workers were oystermen, and employees of the government and a sporting clubhouse named Broadwater Clubhouse.

"Every man and every half grown boy can sail a boat, and the people are as near amphibians as they can well be without having web feet."

"The United States government has vainly essayed to give Hog Island the more euphonious name of Broadwater, but the name Hog Island sticks and the island figures thus upon the official election returns of Virginia. Hog Island cast thirty-one votes for Mr. Cleveland and none for any other candidate. That is the usual Democratic majority of the island, and the vote is so easily counted that although the ordinary method of reaching the mainland is by open sailboat the Hog Island returns are usually among the first to come in."

"Oysters, diamond backed terrapin and water fowl of many sorts swarm about Hog Island, and its neighbors. -- There is some attempt on the part of Virginia to protect the diamond backs, but restrictions upon the pursuit of game are not popular among the islands, and terrapin are caught and eaten whenever they are fit to eat. They are never cheap, even within a few miles of their feeding grounds, and they easily fetch from fifteen dollars to twenty-five dollars a dozen at Chincoteague."

"All craft at Hog Island, as along the whole coast, are flat bottoms because of shoal water.. -- The mail is ordinarily brought over to Hog Island in an open sailboat unless the owners of the clubhouse happen to be down, when the steam yacht performs the task."

"The people of the Atlantic coast islands of Virginia are as simple and kindly as any on earth. For the most part they live generation to generation upon the islands, and the only newcomers, save on populous Chincoteague, are the government employees and the sporting stranger."

Footnote: (source: Wikipedia): Hog Island.. "is a part of the Virginia Coast Reserve of The Nature Conservancy. Starting in the mid-19th century the town of Broadwater, Virginia was located on the southern end of the island, but had to be abandoned in the 1930's when rapid beach erosion made its continued existence untenable. However, many of the houses and other buildings were floated by barge to the mainland and can be found in Willis Wharf, Virginia and Oyster, Virginia."


May, 1893

(The Atlanta Constitution)

GONE TO HOG ISLAND

President Cleveland Off for a Few Days Fishing

Washington, May 30.- President Cleveland, accompanied by *L. Clark Davis of Philadelphia, left Washington for Hog Island, Virginia, over the Pennsylvania Railroad at 930 o'clock p.m. There was no other persons in the party except a porter. The president is due at Hog Island at 5'oclock tomorrow. He occupies a combination dining, sleeping, and observation car. His car will be switched off at Wilmington, Del., and will go south to Exmore, Va., where he will proceed by boat to Hog Island.

The president's determination is to return to Washington Saturday evening.

The president arrived at the station at 530 o'clock and made his way, accompanied by Mr. Davis and a valet carrying his hand satchel to his car. He was enveloped in a gray linen duster and wore a gray slouch hat pulled down almost over his eyes. Upon reaching the car, he took a seat near the door, lit a cigar and with his back to the window, sent smoke curling out of the back door of the car. Hundreds of people passed, but no one aside from the station officials and a watchful reporter seemed to be aware of the president of the United States.

Footnote: *Davis may have been associated with a group of Philadelphians who owned the sportsman's lodge on Hog Island at that time.


TIME-SNIP ... June, 1930

Four new chapters of the American Legion Auxiliary were being formed in Maryland. One was to be at Pocomoke City, attached to Worcester Post, No. 93.


TIME-SNIP ... February, 1960

Robert Frostrom and Donald Bennett of Pocomoke City were among area scouts saluted by The Salisbury Times as "Newspaperboy Scouts" on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Boy Scouts Of America. The boys were members of Pocomoke's Explorer Scout Troop143.


ACROSS THE USA

May, 1941

THANKSGIVING DAY CHANGE ABANDONED AFTER THIS YEAR

Washington, May 20-(AP)- President Roosevelt declared today that the experiment of moving up the day of Thanksgiving Day by a week to improve retail business had not worked and that next year Thanksgiving would be on the customary last Thursday in November.

This year, however, it will fall on the next to the last Thursday by presidential proclamation.



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