Tilghman Island: Events of Interest Happening There in 1899

The following article was first published in the Gazette, June 2, 1899. The article was contributed by Tilghman Watermen’s Museum.

GROWING CRABBING BUSINESS: Progress of this Flourishing Industry from a Small Beginning – Benefit of Steamer – Communication – Industries Started Up – Great Demand for Labor

B. C. & A. Co. Wharf. Image contributed by Tilghman Watermen’s Museum.

At Tilghman, and vicinity the crabbing season has fairly opened with the supply rather short, the demand good, and prices fair.  This industry, from a very small beginning, has grown to be of great importance to our citizens, and bids fair to be to the summer what the oyster trade is to the winter.  The large population, composed in greater part of waterman, would have very little to do in the warm season without it, and many of our people would find it hard to live without the frisky crab.

When the B. C. & A. Co., first proposed to build a wharf at Tilghman, many good people opposed it because they feared numbers of our young men might be led to meet the steamers for the sake of getting strong drink at the bars which were then open on the boats of the Company.

These fears proved groundless however, as the bars were taken from the boats shortly afterwards, while the benefits of the close connection with the city are many and lasting.

Built a Packing House

The following winter W. S. Covington and W. J. Jackson started an oyster packing house on a small scale and from that feeble beginning has grown the business enterprises that are fast making a town on piles at the B. C. & A. landing place.  After one season Covington bought Jackson’s interest and carried on the business for two or three years, and then sold it to S. R. Valliant and J. V. Harrinton.

Mr. Covington’s Enterprise

Mr. Covington then built a much larger house and this spring made a large addition to it, which gives it a capacity of seventy shuckers and hundreds of gallons of oysters daily.  He has also set up an eleven horse power steam engine and established a crab packing plant at a cost of several hundred dollars.  Mr. Covington as the pioneer in establishing industries at Tilghman deserves great credit.

Wharf Road, 1912. Image contributed by Tilghman Watermen’s Museum.

Other Industries Started Up

On the opposite side of the bridge leading to the pier Gibson & Sinclair have an oyster house employing from thirty to forty shuckers.  The house in which Covington & Jackson first began shucking, after lying idle for two years was bought last winter by W. J. Lowery, who formed a partnership with C. J. Howeth this spring.  They have enlarged the plant until they now have room for sixty shuckers.  They have also made preparations for packing crabs and have advertised for pickers, of which there is a scarcity.

Adjoining Lowery & Howeth, J. C. and S. T. Harrison have built a house that will employ fifty shuckers.  They also have put in an engine and have started a crab picking plant, but are experiencing some difficulty in getting pickers.  On Thursday night six pickers came from the city on the steamer and Friday morning they “took the road” with the avowed intention of walking to Baltimore.

The Growth of Crabbing Industry

On the opposite side of Dogwood Cove, and distant only a few hundred yards, John B. and Thomas Harrison are building a large oyster house and all these business ventures are building a large oyster house and all these business ventures have sprung in a few years from one little packing house that gave employment to a dozen shuckers at most.  The crabbing industry from half a dozen boats and men the first season has grown until it gives employment to at least fifty men and boys and as many boats, and the long summer days that were formerly a time of idleness and expense, have become a season of work, profit and thrift.

That these business enterprises were made possible by the building of the wharf, the coming of the steamers, and the close connection with the city market there can be no doubt, and some of those who most opposed its construction on account of its bad possibilities, are most earnest in praise of the good which came to the community there from.