CURRITUCK, THE HAUNT OF THE WILD FOWL
Currituck County is known the country over as the sportsman's paradise.
Thither when the first sharp frost gives warning that the clear autumn
skies will soon be banked with gray snow clouds, the wild fowl from the
far North come flocking. And as the swift-winged procession skims
through the starry skies, and the hoarse cry of the aerial voyagers
resounds over head, then do the dwellers in eastern Albemarle know for a
surety that the year is far spent, and the winter days close at hand.
Guided by unerring instinct, the feathered tribes of the North pursue
"through the boundless sky their certain flight" till the shallow waters
of Currituck Sound and its reedy shores greet their eager sight. There
they find the wild celery and other aquatic plants upon which they love
to feed, growing in abundance; and there they make their winter home
"and rest and scream among their fellows," preferring the risk of death
at the hands of the sportsman to the certain starvation that would
confront them in their native Arctic clime.
Vast as are to-day the clouds of wild fowl that every year descend upon
the shores and waters of Currituck, their numbers were far greater in
years long gone, before the white man with shot and gun came roving
among the reedy marshes. Long before George Durant's advent into the
State, the Indians with that aptness for nomenclature for which they are
noted, had given to this haunt of the wild fowl the name of "Coretonk,"
or Currituck, as now called, in imitation of the cry of the feathered
visitors.
But not alone as the winter home of the winged creatures of the Northern
wilds was Currituck noted in the early days of our State. This county,
formerly much larger than it is to-day, for many years embraced the
region known as Dare County, and to Currituck belongs the distinction of
having once included within its borders the spot upon which Raleigh's
colonies tried to establish their homes.
The history of that event is too well known to bear repetition. The
story of Amadas' and Barlowe's expedition, of Ralph Lane's bold
adventures in exploration of Albemarle Sound, Chowan River and
Chesapeake Bay, of the return of his disappointed colony to England in
Drake's vessels, and the tragic fate of little Virginia Dare and of John
White's colony, have all been told in fiction, song and verse.
The failure of Raleigh's colonies to establish a permanent settlement
in the New World discouraged the English for many years from making any
further attempts to settle America. From 1590, the date of Governor
White's return to Roanoke, and of his unsuccessful search for the "lost
colony," that lovely island for many years disappears from the white
man's gaze; and save for a few scattered, unrecorded settlements in
northern Albemarle, Carolina itself was almost unknown to the world.
But in September, 1654, according to the Colonial Records, a young fur
trader from Virginia had the misfortune to lose his sloop in which he
was about to embark for the purpose of trading with the Indians in the
Albemarle country. For reasons not stated he supposed she had gone to
Roanoke, so he hired a small boat, and with three companions set out in
search of the runaway vessel. "They entered at Coratoke Inlet, ten miles
to the north of Cape Henry," so reads the ancient chronicle, "and so
went to Roanoke Island, where, or near thereabouts, they found the Great
Commander of those parts with his Indians a-hunting, who received them
civilly and showed them the ruins of Sir Walter Raleigh's fort, from
which I received a sure token of their being there."
A few months before this journey of the young fur trader, Charles II had
bestowed upon eight of his favorites all the territory in America lying
between the thirty-first and thirty-sixth parallels of latitude, a
princely gift indeed, and worthy of the loyal friends who had devoted
their lives and fortunes to the Stuart cause during the dark days when
that cause seemed hopelessly lost. This grant embraced the land adjacent
to the north shore of Albemarle Sound, and extending to Florida; but it
failed to include a strip of territory about thirty miles broad, lying
between the thirty-sixth degree and the Virginia line. In this fertile
region George Durant and other settlers had as early as 1661 established
their homes, buying from Kilcokonen, the great Chief of the Yeopims,
their right to the lands; and there these hardy pioneers were swiftly
converting the primeval wilderness into fertile and productive fields.
Governor Berkeley, of Virginia, looked with covetous eye upon this fair
strip of land, and with a view to planting settlements there in order to
establish Virginia's claim to the territory, he had offered in the name
of King Charles extensive grants in this region to planters who would
bring a certain number of people into Albemarle. In 1663 Berkeley
granted to John Harvey 600 acres of land "lying in a small creek called
Curratuck (probably Indian Creek to-day), falling into the River
Kecoughtancke (now North River), which falls in the Carolina River
(known to-day as Albemarle Sound). The land was given Mr. Harvey for
bringing into the colony twelve new settlers."
Many other settlers in this region had acquired their lands by patents
from Virginia; but after the King's gift to his friends, Berkeley,
himself one of the Lords Proprietors, was no longer desirous to consider
the Albemarle region a part of the Virginia Colony; and henceforth the
grants of land were all issued in the name of the Lords Proprietors. For
several years, however, the Albemarle counties were really separate, and
to all practical purposes, independent territory. The proprietors had no
legal claim to the region, and there was nothing in Virginia's charter
to show that she could rightfully lay claim to it. Nevertheless the
proprietors did claim it, and authorized Berkeley to appoint a governor
for that region. Berkeley therefore journeyed into the settlement,
organized a government, and appointed Drummond Governor of Albemarle.
In 1665 the Lords, realizing the confusion that would arise unless their
claim to the land was made good, induced the King to include Albemarle
in their grant.
But Virginia was by no means ready to relinquish her claim to this
promising settlement, and after Berkeley's day a long struggle began
between the Royal Governors of that colony over the question as to who
should collect the rents and taxes from the inhabitants of this disputed
tract. As late as 1689 the quarrel was still going on, and the Governor
and Council of Virginia appealed to William and Mary to restrain the
Governor of North Carolina from collecting taxes in Currituck County;
and the question of the boundary line between Virginia and Carolina
still being uncertain, the sovereigns were asked to have the bounds
surveyed and settled.
Not for many years was this request regarded, though in 1711
commissioners from Virginia went to Currituck to meet those from
Carolina for the purpose of surveying the land and establishing the
boundary between the two colonies. For some reason the Carolina
commissioners failed to appear, and not till 1728 did the work of
settling the disputed boundaries really begin. In March of that year
commissioners from the two colonies met on the north shore of Currituck
Inlet, and a cedar post on the seashore was fixed as the beginning of
the line. The result of the survey was that many thousand acres and
several hundred people whom Virginia had claimed were found to be in the
Albemarle District.
This was naturally a great disappointment to Virginia, and equally a
matter of rejoicing to Carolina, not only on account of the extra
territory and inhabitants she now could lawfully claim, but because
Currituck Inlet, the only entrance from the sea north of Roanoke Island,
was thereafter indisputably thrown within her borders. This inlet, now
closed by the shifting sands that form the long sand bars on the
Carolina coast, was of great importance in the early days of the colony,
forming an entrance from the sea to the sound through which the trading
vessels could slip. So necessary was this inlet to the commerce of the
colony that in 1726 the General Assembly ordered that the powder money
accruing to the government by vessels coming into Currituck Inlet should
be appropriated for beaconing and staking out the channel at that
entrance. But by 1731, the steady beating of the waves on the coast had
deposited a bank of sand at the inlet. Governor Burrington wrote to the
Board of Trade that it was no longer possible for large vessels to enter
there, nor at Roanoke Inlet, which had also become so dangerous that no
one cared to use it, but that the vessels now were obliged to go around
by Ocracoke Inlet to make their exit and entrance from and into
Albemarle Sound. The closing of the inlet was such a serious misfortune
to the State that time and again efforts were made to reopen it, and the
Assembly of 1761 appropriated money for that purpose. But "man's
control stops with the sea"; the waves continued to drop their burden of
sand at the entrance to the inlet, and finally the attempt was
abandoned. The great Atlantic had made the entrance, and the same force
had closed it, seemingly, forever, though small sloops still slipped in
and out over the bar until 1821, when it was entirely closed. So
necessary was an outlet to the sea to the people of the Albemarle
region, that the Assembly of 1786 passed an act providing for the
digging of a canal from Currituck Sound to the head of North River; from
thence vessels could go up North River and into Elizabeth River, and on
to Norfolk, and so to the sea. This proposed plan was not carried out
until many years later; for it was not until almost 1858 that the
Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, following closely the route proposed in
1786, was dug, though long before that date the Dismal Swamp Canal had
been opened, and a flourishing traffic was carried on between Virginia
and Carolina waters.
A traveler in eastern Carolina, writing for _Harper's Magazine_ in 1858,
an account of his journeyings in the Albemarle region, gives a most
interesting description of his trip on the Albemarle and Chesapeake
Canal. The Calypso was the first steamer to go through the canal, and on
her maiden journey from Norfolk to Currituck County in 1858, she was
the observed of all observers. Furthermore, continues Mr. Bruce, the
writer of the article, who stopped at Currituck Courthouse for several
days, "We must say that for average culture, intelligence and physical
vigor, the people of this 'kingdom by the sea' will hold their own with
most other communities, North or South."
Currituck being the sea frontier of Albemarle, her waterways were
naturally of prime importance to the State; but other matters of as
great importance are found in reading the annals of this wind-blown,
wave-washed county. In religious affairs we find that she early begins
to make history. In 1708 Governor Glover wrote to the Bishop of London:
"Pasquotank and Currituck are now under the care of Rev. James Adams, to
their general satisfaction, to whom they have presented the small
provision of 30 pounds a year." In 1710 Rev. James Adams informed the
S.P.G.A. that he had been living for over a year in the home of a Mr.
Richard Saunderson, a former member of the Governor's Council, who had
made a will in which, after his own and his wife's death, he had left
considerable legacy for the encouragement of a minister in Currituck
Parish, where he lived, namely: "A good plantation with all the houses
and furniture, slaves, and their increase, and stock of cows, sheep and
horses and hogs, with their increase forever." This was later declared
void by the courts on account of Sanderson's incapacity.
So acceptable did Mr. Adams prove to the parish, that in 1710 the vestry
wrote a letter of thanks to Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, thanking
him for sending this godly clergyman of the Church of England to the
parish. In 1712, on the death of Mr. Adams, the Rev. Mr. Rainsford was
sent to take his place. He wrote back to England that on reaching
Currituck he found a small chapel at Indian Town, and there in June of
that year he "preached to vast crowds" that came to hear him.
In 1715 a legally appointed vestry was organized for the parish of
Currituck, among the most prominent of whose members were Richard
Saunderson, Colonel William Reed, Foster Jarvis, William Swann, and
William Williams. The services of the Church of England were conducted
in the county during those early days with as much regularity as the
scattered congregations and the lack of facilities for traveling in that
water-bound region permitted. In 1774 the General Assembly passed an act
to establish St. Martin's chapel at Belleville, and Isaac Gregory, Peter
Dauge and a Mr. Ferebee were appointed to take this matter in charge. In
educational matters Currituck was wonderfully alert in colonial days
for a county so inaccessible from the rest of the State. Probably the
most noted of her schools was the Indian Town Academy built in 1761 by
William Ferebee, one of the most prominent men in North Carolina, on his
plantation, called by the Indians "Culong," and by the whites, "Indian
Town." Many of the students at this academy were in later days to be
counted among the State's most famous and useful men. William Ferebee's
family alone furnished six members of the Legislature, three
Revolutionary officers, and one Colonel in the Confederacy in the War of
Secession. For a hundred years this famous old school kept up its career
of usefulness, but in the so-called "negro raid" of 1863 it met the fate
that befell so many of the South's cherished institutions during the
dark days of 1861-1865, and was reduced to ashes by the incendiary's
torch.
Another well known school in Indian Town, the most prominent settlement
in Currituck in colonial days, was the Currituck Seminary of Learning,
which was built in 1789, and which numbered among its trustees Isaac
Gregory, Peter Dauge, and William Ferebee. This building served the
triple purpose of school, church and Masons' Hall, the upper story being
used for holding church service, and by the Masons for their meetings,
and the lower for the school. The principal of this school was called
the provost, a high-sounding title which must have made even the most
insignificant of pedagogues feel proud and important. Among the teachers
employed at this institution during the later years of its existence was
Ezekiel Gilman, of Massachusetts, a graduate of Harvard, who came to
Currituck in 1840 and who taught in Currituck and Camden fifty
consecutive years. Mr. Gilman is still well and affectionately
remembered by citizens of these counties, who as lads were fortunate
enough to be his pupils. Though somewhat eccentric in manner and dress,
he was a man of deep learning, whose kindness of heart was proverbial
throughout the counties which were the scene of his labors.
When the storm of the Revolutionary War broke over the American
Colonies, the men of Currituck came gallantly to the front, and with
comrade soldiers from the other colonies doggedly and persistently
fought the foe till the last British trooper was driven from the land,
and independence was not only declared, but won. Few counties in the
State gave more freely of her sons than did this county by the sea. Few
can show a longer list of brave and gallant officers. Among the most
noted of these were the three sons of William Ferebee, of Culong
Plantation, Joseph, William and Samuel. Joseph was a Lieutenant in
Colonel Jarvis' Tenth North Carolina Militia, and was at Valley Forge
during the terrible winter of 1777-'78. There is a family tradition that
he killed General Fordyce, of the British Army, at the Battle of Great
Bridge, near Norfolk. William was appointed Captain in the Seventh
Regiment of Continentals from North Carolina, and was later a member of
the Convention of 1789, which ratified the Federal Constitution. Samuel
Ferebee served as sergeant and ensign in the companies of Captain
William Russell and Colonel Samuel Jarvis. He volunteered in Captain
Joseph Ferebee's company, was ensign under Captain James Phillips, and
was commissioned lieutenant, and collected troops by order of General
Gregory for Baron Von Steuben. Samuel Ferebee was also the last
surviving member of the Fayetteville Convention, which ratified the
Federal Constitution. He was married three times, and as the family
chronicle quaintly puts it, "was always married on Sunday and on the
fourteenth day of the month."
Among the prominent families of Currituck during the colonial and
Revolutionary days, as well as in our own times, was the Jarvis family,
whose members have been men of note in the State since her history
began.
At the two conventions, called at New Bern by John Harvey, in 1774-'75,
Samuel Jarvis represented his county, and he also figured prominently in
the Halifax Convention that framed our State Constitution. In 1775 he
was appointed Colonel of the Minute Men from Currituck, in 1777 he was
the recruiting officer from his county, and in 1779 he received his
commission as Colonel of the militia, by the advice of the Governor's
Council, in place of Colonel Perkins, who had recently died. During this
year Jarvis wrote to Governor Ashe, asking that he would grant the
petition of the men living on the "Banks," who had asked to be excused
from enlisting. The dwellers on the coast were exposed to attacks from
the enemy, and should the husbands and fathers of that section of the
county be forced to the field, their homes would be defenceless. How
great the danger was had been realized a few days before Jarvis wrote
this letter, for a British ship had entered the inlet, burned two
vessels belonging to the patriots, and killed the cattle in the nearby
marshes. The Governor granted the petition, and seeing the peril to
which the dwellers on the "Banks" were exposed, he ordered ammunition
and food to be sent to Jarvis for their use and protection.
The names of Thomas Jarvis, Judge of the Admiralty Court of Currituck,
and later Lieutenant Colonel in Samuel Jarvis' regiment, and of John
Jarvis, First Lieutenant in an independent company stationed between
Currituck and Roanoke inlets for the safeguard of the coast section, are
also familiar to students of the Revolutionary history of our State;
while in recent times ex-Governor Thomas Jarvis, in his services to the
South during the War between the States, his educational campaign while
Governor of North Carolina, his distinguished career as Minister to
Brazil and as one of the most prominent members of the State Bar, has
added further distinction to the honored name he bears.
Throughout the Revolution, from the Battle of Great Bridge, where her
men fought gallantly in repelling Lord Dunmore's invasion, through the
siege of Charleston, in the long and dreary winter at Valley Forge, on
the fatal field of Camden, and in many other important crises of the
war, the soldiers of Currituck were found in the front ranks of the
American army, lustily shouting the "battle-cry of freedom." And not
until the last British trooper had left our shores did they lay down
their arms and return to their long neglected and deserted fields and
farms.
But though the county gave freely of her sons to the American ranks,
there were some within her borders who deserted the cause, and either
openly or secretly sympathized with the enemy. The most noted of these
Tories was Thomas McKnight, who showed his colors early in the struggle.
McKnight was a prominent citizen of Indian Town. This colonial
settlement was built on land reserved by the Lords Proprietors in 1704
to Yeopim Indians, whose chief town was called by them "Culong." In 1774
these Indians, with permission of the General Assembly, sold their
lands, and with their king, John Durant, left the State. The lands were
bought by Thomas McKnight, Gideon Lamb, Peter Dauge, Major Taylor Jones,
John Humphries, William Ferebee, and Thomas Pool Williams, all
Revolutionary soldiers or members of the legislative bodies before or
after the war.
A white settlement grew up on the site of ancient "Culong," and the name
of the red man's village was changed to Indian Town, in memory of its
former inhabitants.
McKnight represented Currituck at the New Bern Convention of 1775, and
there refusing to sign the document approving the Continental Congress
at Philadelphia, and withdrawing from the Convention, he was accused of
being a Tory by the House and denounced as a traitor to his country.
Though in an open letter to Joseph Jones, of Pasquotank, McKnight
indignantly denied the charges against his loyalty to America, the
Halifax Convention of 1770 ordered his estate to be confiscated and
rented out for benefit of the State, by Isaac Gregory, William Ferebee,
and Abram Harrison. An amusing story is told of how McKnight acquired
one of his plantations in Currituck. John Durant, the Chief of the
Yeopims, had very astutely made it known to his own braves, as well as
to his white neighbors, that the visions that visited him in his
somnolent hours must somehow, somewhere, if within the range of
possibility, materialize into visible, tangible realities, and that
those who could, and did not help in their materialization, would incur
the anger of the great chief. Now it was the habit of the wily red man,
whenever he greatly desired to acquire a new possession, to dream that
the owner of the coveted article had presented it to him. Having dwelt
near the paleface for a number of years, the old chief adopted the white
man's mode of dress to a certain extent. Needing, or coveting, a new
coat, he very conveniently dreamed that McKnight, who had kept a trading
store on Indian Ridge, gave him a bolt of bright cloth which appealed
strongly to his innate love of bright colors. Presenting himself at the
trader's store, he related his dream to the owner of the cloth; and
McKnight not daring to incur the enmity of the Indian by refusing to let
him have the coveted article, presented it to him forthwith; but
McKnight, equally as shrewd as the chief, soon did some dreaming on his
own account, and in his vision he saw himself the owner of some four
hundred acres of land in Indian Ridge, the property of John Durant. So
with due ceremony he approached the chief and solemnly related his
dream; and the old Indian, realizing that in the Anglo-Saxon he had met
his match--nay, his superior in cunning--made over to McKnight the land.
This plantation was afterwards bought by Doctor Marchant, a prominent
citizen of Currituck, the friend and patron of Colonel Henry Shaw, whose
gallant, though unsuccessful defense of Roanoke Island during the War
between the States, brought honor and distinction to his native county.
Currituck in the past has played well her part in making the history of
the Old North State, and that a bright and prosperous future awaits her
may easily be seen by all who can read the signs of the times. Though
nature on the one hand has placed many obstacles in the way of her
progress by barring her coast to incoming vessels, and by surrounding
her with barren shores and impenetrable marshes, on the other hand she
has been abundantly generous to the ancient district. Where her marshes
are drained, as in the region around Moyock, the richest corn land in
the world is found. Her vast forests supply the great lumber mills of
the Albemarle region; her sound and reedy shores provide her children
with an abundance of fish and game, and with the completion of the
Inland Waterway, which in Carolina follows the course of the old
Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, Currituck will be placed in closer touch
with the great world from which she has so long been in a measure
isolated. Material prosperity, far in excess of the homely comforts
which her people have always enjoyed, will inevitably be the heritage of
her children.