A good way to get information about
early days on Bogue Banks is to talk with people whose ancestors were here. We
are fortunate to be able to talk with several generations of Salter Path’s
residents. One of those conversations took place at Willis Seafood Market in Salter
Path on November 7, 2014.
Initially,
Beverly Strickland, Alberta Willis Smith (Beverly's mother) and Beverly’s Aunt June
Smith Willis were present to talk about early days on Bogue Banks, Alice
Hoffman and the Roosevelts. I recorded the conversation and spoke most directly
to Alberta. June and Beverly were sitting behind the counter; Alberta was
sitting next to me on the customer side of the counter. June left early. Later,
after I had turned off the recorder, Vesta and Wade Willis arrived and joined
the conversation. They presented two new perspectives on topics we were
discussing.
Alberta Willis Smith on left. Wade and Vesta Willis on right
All present,
except Vesta, had lived in Salter Path all their lives.[i]
They had ancestors who were among the 23 named in “The Judgment,” in which
Alice Hoffman gave up ownership of, what they said, was one mile of her
property. Alberta was the oldest present and said she was 77. Vesta and Wade,
who entered the conversation later, were 73 and 75 respectively. June may have
been somewhat younger and seemed to remember less. (It was difficult to follow
what those behind the counter were saying, especially since there was
overlapping talk.)
When I
asked Alberta how her family came to Salter Path, she said her granddaddy and daddy
came from the mainland to fish and settled here. They used the path Riley Salter
had made and called it Salter’s Path. That’s how the village got its name. Others
came after the 1899 hurricane drove them from Shakleford Banks. (Alberta at
this point and several times later said all of this is in books already. It’s
in Jack Dudley’s book. I said I knew that book, but was interested in her
perspective.)
When I
asked if they used horses to pull nets when fishing on the beach, a task they
now use tractors for, she said that they had no horses on the island. The men
did it all by hand.
At top is a vintage photo of how the men of Salter Path fished from the ocean. Photo from Salter Path History Museum website. Below men from Salter Path, following
the traditions of their ancestors, use stop nets to fish
for mullet from the beach in the fall of 2011. Photo from Lonnie Webster’s
YouTube video.[ii]
Alberta
proceeded to tell me she recalled when there were no roads here, just some
narrow paths through the maritime forest. She remembered how dark it used to be
outside at night and put her hand up to her face, suggesting she couldn’t see
further than her hand.[iii]
She recalled her family’s getting electricity when she was about ten years old,
which would have been around 1947. Vesta later recalled that Alberta’s daddy
wired others’ homes as well, and Wade recalled helping him and getting some
good shocks doing so. Beverly added that Ervin Smith had the first telephone,
and she thought her family was the first to have indoor plumbing.
Alberta
said that mostly they grew their own crops, had everything homegrown and
natural. They also kept cattle and pigs. And, of course, they fished. June
recalled that her daddy had a store. Later, Vesta said David John Willis had
the first grocery store, and it was hard when people were hungry and didn’t
have money. He couldn’t give too much away, or he wouldn’t be able to afford to
replenish his stock.
Alberta did
not remember anything about John Royall, but said her grandfather would have
known about him, and she knew he had owned land on the island. In fact, she
said he had bought four acres of island property, but did not specify where.
When I
later asked about the Aibonito people, who came through the Intracoastal
Waterway to fish and hunt here, she had never heard of them and said there were
no roads, so we didn’t have any way of knowing.
She did, of
course, know about Alice Hoffman. She knew people who worked for Alice and said
20 or more worked for her. She had everything done for her, and only those
people who either worked for her or were invited could go on her property.
Alberta was invited one time to sing with the church choir. She said Mrs.
Hoffman was feeble and was in bed but so enjoyed the choir she donated $500 to
the church.
Alberta
remembered what she thought was a wooden bridge leading up to Alice Hoffman’s
house. She wondered if it was still there, and I said there are remnants of a
wooden walkway in the back of the current house, leading toward the sound.
When Wade
Willis came in, he recalled seeing Salter Path people who worked for Alice on a
dock on the sound, and sometimes Alice would sit there. He was crabbing in the
area and would see her.
Alberta
said Alice was a very private person and never recalled her coming to the
village, but did know that Alice and Gabby spoke French to one another, so no
one understood them.
Alberta thought
Alice was from France and thought her husband must have been from New York.
When I explained Alice was from New York as well, Alberta asked how Alice got
to France. I said as a young woman she travelled to Europe with friends and then rented a place in France.
Alberta and
Beverly wondered why Alice Hoffman came here. Alberta, rather proudly, said I
heard she went to Beaufort first and didn’t like it there. I briefly summarized
the story as Alice told it in her autobiography, emphasizing her love of nature
and how she seemed to fall in love with the island on first sight. I then said
I thought the breakout of World War I also played a role in Alice’s decision to
buy property here. France was becoming a battleground, and she wanted a place
she thought would be safe from enemy bombs.
Alberta
recalled Alice loved flowers and trees and did not want any trees cut down, and
she felt the Roosevelts honored her wishes and Pine Knoll Shores still does
today. Later, someone said as part of “The Judgment” giving the people of
Salter Path rights to their property, Alice designated an area west of Salter
Path in what is now Indian Beach where they could cut trees for firewood.
They said Alice
went to court to keep animals belonging to the people of Salter Path from
trampling her property. This led to a discussion of “The Judgment” giving 23
people of Salter Path and their descendants one mile of property. Alberta said
she had a copy of “The Judgment” at home, a judge had signed it and it was
notarized. She said the terms of the agreement included restrictions on their
animals running loose and specified they had to keep their animals penned up. The latter detail was an issue in an earlier suit.
"The Judgment" and "subsequent transactions" in which the Roosevelts transferred deeds to Salter Path Property as summarized in State of North Carolina, Plaintiff v. Donald Willis and Telena Gay
Willis, Defendants. This case was based on the 1923 Salter Path Judgment and on 1979 court actions.[iv]
Beverly and
June suggested that because there were deeds, people could sell their property
and could borrow money to make improvements. The other side of it was that they
now had to pay taxes on the property.
When I said
I believed the county seized the property because Alice Hoffman was not paying
taxes, Alberta said Alice’s money was stolen from her and suggested the
Roosevelts were at fault. Beverly added that Alice’s wishes as expressed in her
will were not followed either. Again, I sensed the blame was on the Roosevelts.
Without
arguing the point, I tried to explain briefly that Alice had lost her money. I
didn’t go so far as to say that sadly Alice, in her will, was giving people
property she no longer owned and money she no longer had. I did, however,
suggest the Roosevelts stepped in before Alice died and set up a trust to save
her property here. I added that I was pleased to get a local perspective on
these subjects.
A lengthy
discussion of “The Judgment” ensued, and Vesta presented a very different
perspective. She said five men were selected to represent the community and
work with the lawyers: Wayne Thompson, James Wesley Smith, Stephen Guthrie, Eugene
Willis and Charlie Smith. Unfortunately, she felt they did a better job
representing their own best interests than they did representing the best
interests of the community. She described some of the prime properties,
including 600 feet of oceanfront land they got deeds to and, in some cases,
sold or put trailers on for monetary gain. For instance, John Wesley sold to
Wayne Thompson.
Vesta did
not think getting deeds to the property was a bad thing. The problem was the
way it was done. Vesta did not put any blame on the Roosevelts and just shook
her head when Alberta repeated her daddy’s perspective as she recalled it.
When I
changed the subject and asked about Alice’s Teahouse. No one present seemed to
have any knowledge of it, but, then, they did recall oceanfront fishing camps
with one named Red Bird, another Blue Bird and another down the beach closer to
Alice’s house, called the Teahouse. The other two were tents, but the teahouse
was a wooden structure. The men would camp out when the fish were running, and
the women would go there to cook and wash the men's clothes. But, no one knew what had happened to the
Teahouse.
On the porch of the Teahouse from Phyllis Gentry's Salter Path Album
When I told
the story I had heard about it washing up during a hurricane and being brought
to Salter Path. They had never heard that story and had no idea where it would
be. I thought fishing nets were kept in it. They said Hedden’s house is where
the nets were kept. They thought a hurricane must have destroyed the Teahouse.
We ended
the conversation at this point. I thanked them for talking so frankly with me.
They also recommended we talk with Connie Willis since her mom worked for Alice
Hoffman, and after Alice died, Gabby gave Connie’s mom some of Ms. Hoffman’s
household belongings.
Author: Phyllis Makuck
Note: Vesta
Willis proofread this transcript on November 10, 2014, and made some
corrections and additions to the story. See notes below.
[i] Vesta Willis later explained that she was a Guthrie and grew up in Swansboro even though she did have ancestors who were from Salter Path. She did not come to Salter Path until 1957. She also said that some who lived here all of their lives were born with the aid of midwives on the island, but Wade Willis was born in Morehead City in the hospital.
[ii] http://www.salterpath.org/historyofsalterpath.html and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fww78j9txPU Lonnie Webster documents Salter Path tradition of fishing from the beach.
[iv]
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/nc-court-of-appeals/1016832.html
State v. Willis, Case Law, No. COA03-681.
[ii] http://www.salterpath.org/historyofsalterpath.html and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fww78j9txPU Lonnie Webster documents Salter Path tradition of fishing from the beach.
[iii]Vesta explained that treetops overlapped and created a thick canopy, and the briars were also thick. She heard stories about the maritime forest being so thick that when walking through it, you could not see the sky. This explanation led to a story about how children used to swing on the briars over the treetops. There were high ridges, one was known as Yellow Hill and another as Second Hill. Wade and Lynn remembered swinging on a rope from those hills and jumping in the water. Vesta said when doing this Wade and his friends were naked. She said Yellow Hill was where St. Francis by the Sea Church was built. She recalled that a young girl, not from Salter Path, tried swinging on the rope, fell and died. After that, the rope was cut.
Briar swinging memories led to a story about how strong and athletic Wade was. He played baseball with a local group. He became a renowned pitcher, who could throw a ball so fast base runners did not have much of a chance. The Baltimore Orioles were in town to play an exhibition game and saw Wade and his friends playing. They tried in vain to recruit Wade and Jerry Pittman, but neither Wade nor Jerry wanted to leave Salter Path. Vesta explained that for Wade, baseball was play. It was not work, not something you did for money. Fishing was work.
Decided: April 6, 2004