The railroad first touched the Eastern Shore seaside
in 1876 when a line (soon to be part of the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia
Railroad, a possession of the Pennsylvania) laid southeastward from Snow
Hill, Maryland, reached its terminus just below the Maryland-Virginia
boundary and next to the
Chincoteague
Bay oyster grounds at what became
Franklin
City. The construction in 1884 of the New York, Philadelphia and
Norfolk placed wharves all along the seaside within easy hauling distance
of the
rail depots. By opening innumerable new markets, the railroad vastly
stimulated the seaside seafood industry. The fisheries attracted hundreds
of people
to the islands and the adjoining mainland. They came with their families
from Maine, Long Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Several
of
the newcomers became leaders in the seafood trade, outside expertise
and capital playing a much larger role in the fisheries than in agriculture.
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Oystering was the most important of the seaside industries. From the
late 1870s through the mid-1890s, the watermen of
Chincoteague
Bay harvested from 110,000 to 325,000 bushels of oysters annually.
The oysters went almost exclusively to established markets in Philadelphia
and New York, half traveling by rail and half by sail. In 1890 a New
York journalist observed a dozen men dressed in the "rough clothes"
of the waterman awaiting the arrival of the mail train in Franklin City.
"They open the envelopes, which have the names of well-known wholesale
oyster dealers in New York and Philadelphia printed on the corners,
and
. . . out drop checks and statements comforting to look upon." The
journalist learned that for these men in "brown-twilled overalls
and long-legged boots, the average income is not far from $7,000 a
year."
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Sailboats also engaged in the seed oyster trade, carrying small oysters
from the Broadwater, Chesapeake Bay, and the James River for planting
in Chincoteague, Johnson’s, and Parker’s bays. Paradoxically,
they also ran
Chincoteague
Bay oysters to New Jersey and Connecticut for planting there. In 1884
a Delaware man estimated that since the coming of the railroad the number
of oysters planted in
Chincoteague
Bay had climbed from 36,000 to 300,000 bushels annually. By 1889 more
than one hundred vessels of from five to sixty-five tons and about two
hundred decked vessels of under five tons participated in the upper seaside
oyster trade. The growing commerce necessitated the construction of private
wharves on
Chincoteague
Bay at
Chincoteague
Island,
Franklin
City, and
Greenbackville
and on its tributary
Swan's
Gut Creek.
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Since 1849, individuals had claimed portions of Chincoteague Bay as private
planting ground. The Broadwater's lower bays, on the other hand, were
largely commons. Almost immediately after the coming of the railroad,
watermen began to worry that the free-for-all on the Broadwater commons
might exhaust the oyster rock. Their concerns coincided with those of
Cheasapeake Bay oystermen, and in 1892 Captain James H. Baylor of the
U.S.C.S. surveyed Virginia’s oyster grounds. Meanwhile, the General
Assembly passed legislation providing for the leasing of the barren commons
to private interests. The commons identified by Baylor as productive oyster
grounds remained in the public domain.
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Private leasing dramatically increased oyster harvests. "The development
of the shipments of shucked oysters from the planting section on the ocean
side of the peninsula has been marvelous," a correspondent told a
Richmond newspaper in 1906. "Two cars are attached to the local express
train every night to handle the receipts. Orders are received from over
a greater part of the country. Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Omaha
and many other large Western cities are large customers." When oyster
dealers learned that they could earn a higher return by shipping oysters
shucked rather than in the shell, shucking houses, including the reputed
largest in the world, opened up and down the seaside.
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The privatization of the barren commons came at a cost. For along with
greater yield, it also encouraged litigation, poaching, intimidation,
and bloodshed. "A state of warfare developed between the lease holders
protecting their property, and those called 'oyster pirates,' who believed
they had an inalienable right to anything produced by the sea," recalled
a conservationist. "In order to protect the planted oyster beds
it finally became necessary to station guards armed with rifles along
the
shore during fall and winter. Small houses were built near by for their
accommodation." Around 150 of these watch houses appeared along
the seaside from
Chincoteague
Bay to
Cape
Charles.
Oyster planters, usually wealthy, well-connected men, hauled common oystermen
into court for trespass, the sheriff of Northampton County was overpowered
by depredating oystermen and marooned on a deserted island, and, on Mockhorn
Island, a man shot and killed an old friend whom he accused of stealing
his oysters. Meanwhile, on the public commons, the natural rock was in
some places destroyed by illegal dredging, a problem exacerbated
by the
introduction of the gasoline power boat around 1905. The fierce competition
put the oyster grounds, public and private, under intense stress.
In the
1920s the strain became unbearable. Between 1920 and 1933, Eastern Shore
oyster production (seaside and bayside combined) declined by 42 per
cent,
from 4,797,821 to 2,783,806 pounds.
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Seaside watermen also made their livings from other catch. They clammed,
crabbed, and scalloped. They hauled seine and built pound nets for the
capture of several species of table fish. They caught sturgeon for express
shipment to Northern gourmands (in 1912 sturgeon roe sold on the dock
at Oyster for $1.50 per pound; a single fish might provide roe worth $100)
and supplied menhaden to factories for rendering into oil and fertilizer.
The new technologies – power boats, ice plants, improved pounds
and nets – that facilitated the harvest also hastened the decline
of the fisheries. Between 1920 and 1933, production of fish and shellfish
fell in almost every category. Only crabbing and clamming made appreciable
gains during the period.
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