North Carolina Newspapers

THE DARE COUNTY TIMES The Weekly Journal of the North Carolina Coastland^—Devoted to the Interests of More Than 30,000 People of the Four Southern Albemarle Counties ... I - — — — — —- IV; NO. 185 MANTEO, N. C., JANUARY 13, 1939 Single Copy 5c COAST GUARDS JOIN NAVY FOR WAR MANEUVERS OFF COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA ^ Number From Dare County in Group That ^ill Join Fleet at Norfolk to Take Part in Maneuvers; Under Confidential Orders of Trailed States War Service Act: itig under confidential orders, Gui Si'Qup of 20 or more Coast i j ';'^''(ismen from the Seventh Dis- *''ct left their stations this week to fo'*' Atlantic fleet at Norfolk the purpose of taking part in , ® ^ar maneuvers shortly to be “ South American waters. ^0 information regarding the destination or the part are to play in the maneuvers j,, ® forthcoming from Seventh ^®trict headquarters on Wednes- are under confldential ^nd have nothing to release “We ders * w.Pciblication,” said Chief War- of h Walter G. Etheridge, pjj^^®^iquarters, over the tele- Y^'^^over, from snatches of con- Gu between the Coast j,j^*'^Wen who passed through nteo Tuesday night en route to ^hat newspaper gathered MEETING TONITE ON SIDEWALKS PROJECT one a picked group consisting of diat from each station in the tho been detailed to join niB Norfolk, and that these ■ will be away from their sta- tioi nin probably as long as two They did not seem to St what ships they would be Honed or exactlv where they or exactly where they Soing, but they all were of L® impression that they were go- somewhere off the coast of America. I he j - Coast Guard service, under of Congress pgssed in 1916, m ^o-tically becomes a part of the §i States Navy in time of war. fhe maneuvers now sched- lin purpose of repel- ^8 an imaginary invasion of the Or hemisphere from Europe •'Africa, it is likely that Navy offi, thought it wise to give o Coast Guard a taste of what they at ®ay actually run~pp against the^'''?® future time and to show of ^'^®t what would be expected Wvi*' in case of war. lijj ,“Ge the men from this district 0 the idea of a Southern cruise m mid-v (jj(j^7‘'*'Winter, the married men hhe the idea of being away their families for two months. and IqJ ^°ne of them liked the idea of 8 their subsistence pay of $1 ^ J ssuosisitjuce p»y c/i V-*- tions^ "'hile away from their sta- ^OMMUNITY building SPACE IS ASSIGNED Th- the met ® hoard of directors of ®°nimunity building for considered applications ofj.'*®® of the building and assigned aoin^ ®Pace and meeting flights to ® of the applicants. ’ om No. 1, the large office on southwest corner of the build- fi p Was assigned to I. P. Davis, ^“Pnty Weifi !■ are officer, and Room Wag large adjoining room. K2 agnated as a general wait- ofg he used by Mr. Davis’ ®tate’ Health Department, the other-B ^^Pl'Oyment Service, ana others t>^ ^ West ' ^oom No. 3, on the south- Wpa was assigned to the Was .0'00’s division. Room No. 4, lUent n®" to the Health Depart- tnen>; ^?o,® No. 5 to the WPA Wo- the tj division and Room No. 6 to No Demonstration Agent. could be made for the office or the County Agent’s The final steps preliminary to the starting of work on Manteo’s street and sidewalks project are to be ta ken at a called meeting of the Town Board and interested prop erty owners at the county court house at eight o’clock tonight. At a meeting yesterday, it was reported that all but a few of the property owners on Main and County streets had either paid their assessments or signed notes covering the same, and the belief was expressed that enough others could be seen today to run the sponsors’ fund up too $2,300 or $2,400. Several, leading citizens agreed to sign a note for the de ficit, if any, so as to expedite the matter and enable them to get the poroject started. At tonight’s meeting, then, the sponsors’ part of the cost of the project will be guaranteed, the Town Board’s endorsement of the project will be obtained and a com mittee of property owners will be named to cooperate with the Town Board. Capt. Jack Nelson, county WPA project supervisor, will be asked to morrow to get the project under way as soon as possible. The pur chase of a concrete mixer and the assembling of materials may take as long as 30 days, after which time the paving work will be started. FISHERMEN LOOK FORWARD TO A GREAT SEASON Large Gains Noted at Hat- teras as Big Catches Come in HATTERAS MEN ESCAPE DEATH BY GAS FUMES Great gains among the fishermen ■have been noted this week in Hat- teras, and trout and croakers in large numbers have been brought in by sea fishermen. Something like 20,000 pounds of these fish were caught by Hatteras fishermen Tuesday and the gain had been general for several days. The mar ket on croakers has run as low as one cent a pound, but even this low price has been very helpful to the fishermen. A dozen boats took part in the catch. Maurice Burrus, well-known Hat teras business man says if the Hatteras people had better road fa cilities they could get two and three times as much for their fish as they bring when they are completely de pendent upon local markets. “If our people had equal advantages in competing with other sections that have roads, we would never .have any depression on Hatteras,’’ Mr. Burrus says. Fishermen at Hatteras have been handicapped somewhat by the labor problem, according to T. S. Eaton, who says that a number of fisher men have had to go to the main land to hire men to help them handle their nets. This has been due to a large extent because many of the working men at Hatteras have taken steady employment on the local WPA projects and will not relinquish these jobs for some what risky business of fishing. Leaders of the industry say, how ever, that hardly at any time have fishermen who worked steady made so little as may be earned on the relief projects. At any rate, Hatteras is in a more .hopeful mood than in many a day because of the improvement in fishing and in the prospects for a good season this spring. The continued fair weather has been helpful to the fishermen in complet ing preparations for their spring work and most all of them will Fred Stowe and Two Com panions Overcome by Leaky Exhaust Hose Three Hatteras fishermen nar rowly escaped death this week from fumes coming from a leaky exhaust pipe. Fred Stowe, Sr., Fred, Jr., age 15 and Lenis Austin were resting in the cabin when they were on their way to fishing at sea. Mylon O’Neal was steering the boat. Mr. Stowe began feeling sick at the stomach and came outside for a breath of fresh air before he discovered what was the matter. He rushed into the cabin, dragged out the two boys who were uncon scious and revived them. The men were somewhat the worse for their experience for several days. They were fishing at sea off Hat teras, and during the long run the three were taking a little rest. Fred Stowe had eaten a lot of raw oysters and thought they were making him sick. BRIG.-GEN. KROGSTEAD VISITS THE ISLAND first ^ policy of firts come, assign the board of directors each first 'Tuesday night in Second '-fi® Music Club, the Junif,,. fourth Tuesdays to the Tuesda **®Fean’s Club and the third Club ^iJr” Senior Woman’s Mrs, Elwood Inge was Mond!'* the use of the buifding onj Howell, editor of the Atlanta Con- the s,..^ Wednesday nigfl/k for j stitution. Roanoke Island had a distin guished visitor last Saturday in the person of Brigadier General Ar nold Krogstead, commander of the bombardment wing of the GHQ Air Force, at Langley Field, Va. Brigadier General Krogstead, who .has been flying .since 1916, commanded the Black Bombard ment during the air maneuvers in Eastern North Carolina last fall. At that time he met Ben Dixon MacNeill, who was doing some news features about the maneuvers, and he promised to pay MacNeill a visit as soon as he could arrange it. He paid the visit last Saturday, He had fished in Dare County on several occasions, but had never been on Roanoke Island prior to his visit here last -week end. Commander Krbgstehd was ac companied by Mrs. Krogstead and by Miss Howell, sister of Clark FRISCO WOMAN SEES HER DREAM COME TRUE THE LONG YEARS of effort of Mrs. Minnie Fulcher, postmistress of Frisco, is bearing fruit in a beautiful little church building now under construction in Frisco to re place the one destroyed by storm in 1933. Mrs. Fulcher is happy and grateful for the splendid gifts of money sent her to finance the building. People of the village were not financially able to build the church themselves, but with the help of interested friends in North Carolina and other states, they are about to have a new Methodist church far better than 'the old. While some more money will be needed to complete the building, Mrs. Fulcher is confident that it will be completed and she is proceeding with the work. It will be some time in March before the church is ready to worship in. And so, within a few months, the sound of church bells will be heard in the forest of Frisco and Mrs. Minnie Fulcher will have achieved her ambition. The people of this small community near Cape Hat teras owe Mrs. Fulcher a great debt of gratitude. have their nets in early this season and ready to go to work at the very beginning when prices of fish are at their best. CRABS MIGHT OFFER OUR FISHERMEN OPPORTUNITY TO EARN MORE MONEY Scarcity of the Blue Crab in Virginia May Suggest More Intensive Fishing For Them in North Carolina; Drastic Conservation Measures May Be Necessary adult education! No other organizations Applied for use of the BACHMANS IMPROVING seH directors is com- 'vio W. Johnston, I. P. h4®J®Jvin R. Dam'ell, Mrs. e Nan- of the building has the floo because of work on occuni^’ the offices should be Ground February 1. Friends of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Bachman of Columbia will be glad to learn that they are both improv ing from injuries received in a re cent automobile accident near Bethel. Mr. and Mrs. Baehman are still confined to the Edgecombe General Hospital in Tarboro. Mr. Bachman is Superintendent Schoools in Tyrrell County. A hint that North Carolina fish ermen may turn to crabs to supple ment such decline in revenue as may result in the fishing industry is contained in recent news articles from Virginia that the crabbers of that State are becoming alarmed over the scarcity of the famous blue crab. Now that good roads put the en tire Pamlico Sound section of North Carolina within a few hours of Norfolk and Hampton by motor truck, it seems that proper man agement of a crab business here should prove profitable. Better still, packing houses at home should be able to operate and bring revenue to the fishermen and to local labor, and we may see such centers as Stumpy Point, Man- teo. Swan Quarter and other places, operating large crab houses. Crab meat is considered a deli cacy and the crab has never been fished for as vigorously in North Carolina as in Virginia. Modem methods should make this creature profitable. Norfolk newspapers recently car ried the following about the Vir ginia crab scarcity: The commercial catch is taking 76 per cent of the adult crabs from the water and the inadequate stock left for propagation shows the op eration of the law of diminishing returns. Chesapeake Bay crab fisheries are worth $1,500,000 per year to the fisherman. What this expands to, when crabs become salad in swanky night clubs, may be left to the imagination. 'They are a motive power which keeps many wheels turning besides fly wheels in crabbers’ boats. Small storekeepers in Tidewater towns and their more affluent brothers in Virginia cities are aware of this economic reality, and of the Virginia Fisheries Commission and the Maryland Conservation Commission have a twin headache trying to save the popular crusta cean from dropping into the “also ran” class of the Atlantic salmon and the sturgeon. A candid camera shot of the Chesapeake Bay crab fisheries fur nished by the U. S. Bureau of Fish eries shows that: Crab Catch Shrinking The crab catch in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1916 was 60,308,000 pounds. Nine years later it had fallen to 24,800,000 pounds. Slight variations upward, such as 37,028,- 000 pounds in 1935, indicates more intensive crabbing and are no sign that Mother Nature is restoring what man has despoiledT Between 1907 and 1925 the av erage catch per trot-line declined from 2,000 pounds per week to 6p0 pounds per week. Between 1908 and 1924 the average catch per week for dredge boats declined from 13,000 pounds to 2,600 pounds per boat. The wastage in produc tion of soft crabs through some JOHNNY CROWELL PLANS A DARING HANDLESS FLIGHT Charlotte Flyer Would Fly From Kill Devil Hills to California Without Use of Hands G. LESLIE HALL ENVISIONS A GREAT TOURIST TRADE FOR SOUTHERN ALBEMARLE En route to New York City on a honeymoon trip, Johnny Crowell, famous Charlotte stunt flyer, stop ped over at Manteo Sunday to chatl with acquaintances he made during! his visit to Dare County in connec-i tion with the observance of the I 36th anniversary of the birth of aviation on December 17. Crowell was married on January 2, two weeks after leaving Manteo in December. Headed for New York with his attractive bride, he said he just couldn’t resist dropping in to pay his Dare County friends a brief visit. The $15,000 Beechcraft plane he was piloting attracted considerable attention as it zoomed over Roan oke Island Sunday morning around 11 o’clock. Crowell said he made the trip over from Charlotte in about two hours. The plane has a cruising speed of 183 miles per hour. Crowell recently perfected a sys tem of flying a plane without us ing his hands and he intimated Sunday that he is thinking of fly ing across the continent in that manner, taking off from Kill Devil Hills, the birthplace of aviation, and landing somewhere in Cali fornia. He is now looking for someone to sponsor the flight but says he does not intend to tie up with any cornmercial advertising scheme. His idea is to have some one sponsor the flight as a demon stration of the ease and Norfolk Speaker Points to Section’s Possibili ties in Speech Before Hyde Chamber of Commerce at Engielhard; Four-County Home-Coming Announced OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED HOMECOMING EVENT with which a plane can be fllown today. Crowell is regarded as one of the best exhibition flyers in the coun try today, having invented or origi nated several daring aerial stunts. In November he broke the world’s record for outside loops in a min ute or less when he made four such loops in 65 seconds. One of his most daring stunts is putting ■a plane into a snap roll and a half and stopping it upside down, and then, after flying upside down for some distance, doing another snap roll and a half from that position and coming out right side up. He says he can do every stunt he has ever heard described besides a few that are exclusive with him. JOHN W. DARDEN, Washington County civic leader, officially launched the four-county home- safety coming that is being sponsored by the Southern Albemarle Assiocia- tion this year in a speech at the quarterly meeting of the Hyde County Chamber of Commerce at Engelhard Monday night. Mr. Darden’s speech, which was greeted with acclamation, was the opening gun in a campaign' which is ex pected to atlsract thousands of for mer natives back to heir old homes in Dare, Hyde, Washingon and Tyrrell Counties. NEW PHONE LINE BOON TO HATTERAS Direct Connection With Outside World For Stores or Homes Practically the entire Hatteras Banks section is brought into closer contact with the outside world by the recently completed phone line direct front Manteo to Hatteras. From the stores of Dan Oden, An drew Austin, Hatteras Hotel, Hat teras Light Plant; in Buxton the stores of H. J. Gray, E. R. Midgett; in Avon, E. F. Scarborough’s store; in Rodanthe Asa Gray’s store, one may pick up the receiver and talk direct to the Manteo central and with any point in the country. Heretofore the citizens of these communities were obliged to travel a consideraable distance to nearest Coast Guard station in or der to communicate with the out side world. The phone line just installed by the Norfolk & Carolina Telegraph & Telephone Company of Elizabeth City now ,gives these people the advantages of city tele phone service. COMMITTEES FOR BIRTHDAY BALL ARE ANNOUNCED To Be Held at Community Building Jan. 30; Tickets Now on Sale Arrangements have been com pleted for Dare County’s fourth an nual President’s Birthday Ball, ac cording to I. P. Davis, county chair man of the Birthday Ball Commit tee. The ^all is to be held in the com munity building on the night of January 30, President Roosevelt’s birthday, from nine till one o’clock. Music will be provided by Bob Gor man’s Seven Aces. Tickets went on sale this week, and the price of admission is $1,00 per couple and 60 cents for each extra or unescorted lady. A record crowd is expected to attend. Fifty per cent of the proceeds the; from this year’s ball will remain in Dare County to be used in aiding local infantile paralysis victims. After January 30, a permanent or ganization to administer the money thus raised is to be set up in this NEW INLET PROJECT HELPS BEACH TRAVEL Bridging Croatan Sound and pav ing the Manns Harbor-Engelhard road would bring a million dollars a year into the Southern Albemarle G. Leslie Hall, top-flight Norfolk business man and that town’s Num ber One public speaker, told the quarterly meeting of the Hyde County Chamber of Commerce af ter its dinner in Engelhard Mon day night. Nor was Mr. Hall just talking. He had figures to prove that and some other ^statements he made about the section’s possibilities. He, as president of the Tidewater Auto mobile Association, has for long years observed closely the habits and customs of tourists, and among other things that he knows about them is that they spend $150,000,- 000 annually looking at Virginia. More than a hundred members and guests sat down to the dinner, which was staged in the new gym nasium of the Engelhard High School. Ladies of the Methodist church, marshalled by Mrs. Frank Gibbs, fixed and served the dinner, which is about all that need be said about the dinner. This time they started off with Far Creek oysters. Mr. Hall suggested fixing the Southern Albemarle so tourists could get in here with their money and leave some of it, but John W. Darden of Plymouth, speaking on behalf of the Southern Albemarle Association, announced th *rgan- ization’s plan to sta.ge : '^cTjen- dous home-coming of dis; , na tives next August, when ..®^four counties take a week at the time to get their folks back home to what’s happening. Mr. Darden’s announcement was received with acclaim. The plan is to organize each county, -with a house-to-house campaign to dis cover the names and present ad dresses of any members of the family that have gone away. With that list in hand, the Association will send a personal invitation to each one of them to come home in August. Dare County will have that week which has the 18th of August in it, and that particular day is planned as a great day of concentration on Roanoke Island. This meeting of the Hyde Cham ber of Commerce outdid any other that they have had, and Engelhard, in the way of entertainment, out did itself, which is a good deal. P. D. Gallop, the president, presided and the Rev. Mr. Turner said the invocation. J. M. Long was dele gated to introduce the guests, which he did by letting each guest find out the name of the person on his right and so present him. John Darden spoke and then Chester Morris, newly-elected so licitor of the district, spoke briefly. He paid, after his appreciation of Hyde and the Southern Albemarle, tribute to Governor Clyde R. Hoey, which was roundly applauded. P. D. Midgett, the Wanchese boy who came down to Hyde and started putting up electric light poles and see which I has put them up until they are al most within sight of Wanchese, delegated to present Mr. Hall. inlet bridges is nearing completion in a WPA project that has been under way a considerable while. A , dirt fill connecting the three shedder floats ran as high as 70 i bridges and raising the level of The per cent. I road so that only extreme stormy Briefly, the blue crab of Chesa- ■ weather will interfere with travel peake Bay, which became a food is proving a great boon to the article of commercial importance travelling public. Because of the beyond his Tidewater home about low ground, ordinary high tides 1873, has been exploited to such an extent, observers say, that within a generation the profitable busi ness he carries on his back faces destruction. Economists are getting the jit ters trying to answer the question: “What becomes of our thousands of men and their families whose livelihood depends upon the crab, when the crab has followed the diamondback terrapin into the realm of gastronomic legend?” Observers say the answer lies in drastic conservation measures in and every other county , - stages a President’s Birthday | most within sight of Wanchese, was The general arrangements com-| This Norfolk optometrist and mittee for Dare County is com-1 biggest merchant of photographic posed of f. P. Davis, county chair- j material in three states, or mayr man; Martin Kellogg, Jr., Manteo |be six states, is also a past-master * . • ^ to the new chairman, and Robert H .Atkinson,!m the art of after dinner speaking. A great improvement to the new, gggj.g^ary4reasurer. > i He has a peculiar gift of being .able The decorations committee is as {to get his audience off balance with follows. Mesdames Anges Mid-1 a jest and then smacking them gett, Jere Parker, Ernest Meekins,! with a fact. He did that for the Sophie Evans and Lucetta Willis..'space of half .an hour, speaking The ticket sales committee is I mostly about the possibilities of composed of Sybil Daniels. | thi.s section as an attraction for Keith Saunders and Fred Howard' tourists who are spending about will handle the publicity. (five billion dollars a year in the ; country. The opening of a through high- often delayed traffic for hours, but I the new fill is two feet higher than the former roadway and will make travel possible practically all the time. This is one of the greatest projects yet undertaken by DARE DEMOCRATS GO WELL OVER THE TOP WPA on the banks and has met with public approval to a large de gree. With a quota of six plates a' . $25 each. Dare County sent tbe I check for $200 to State Senator new store AT BUXTON Baxter Jennette of Buxton is building a new store building for his son, Isaac Jennette, formerly Virginia and Maryland if the two of the Coast Guard who is now at John D. Larkins, Jr., chairman of the Jackson Day Dinner committee for North Carolina, and thus for the second consecutive year did Dare lead the_ State in oversub scribing its quota per capita. With eight plates paid for. Dare Democrats filled that quota, too, the Dare delegates being: C. S. Meek ins, Keith ^’earing,. Dewey Wise, R. way coming down from Norfolk, by way of the Wright Memorial, the ilatteras National Seashore, Roan oke Island and across Croatan to the mainland again and down through Engelhard and Southward —and the same road would get them coming north—would mean the salvation of this area—that was h's thesis. Others who spoke included W. S. I Niamey, secretary of the Norfolk Advertising Board, and Edmund Harding of Washington. Nat Meekins also had some pleasant words handy, and W. C. Bateman, States hope to have their crabs and j home. The store, which is to^ be a j Bruce Etheridge, Roy L. Davis, D. I an expajriat^ native who went off yet put more crabs into circulation grocery and confectionery business, Bradford Fearing, Mward Baum to Texas and has now repatriated and more men into employment. ' will be ready by spring. and Alma Meekins. j (Please turn to page eight) *1 li I'i tlWii ! .•n it; ill|r w I .m !:l(t I 111 «(': 'V.