Assateague

Chronology
From Lillian Mears Rew

1656 Waskawampe, the Emperor of Assateague, made his will and signed it before he died.

1656 The chief, Kegotank, ruled Assateague.

1671 Indian tools which have been unearthed on Assateague indicate that farming and food gathering provided vegetables and that wildlife was abundant.

1676 Horses were brought to Assateague.

1676 Daniel Jenffer secured a very large tract of land on Assateague. Four men took care of his stock.

1683 Assateague was separated from Chincoteague by a narrow gut-

1687 The last joint signature for a deed of sale by Ann and Daniel Jenffer before his death in 1693.

1688 First settlement made on Assateague.

1688 Four men, John Free, Henry Parker, Richard St. Loo and John Perkins were transported from Chincoteague to Assateague.

1833 The first Lighthouse was completed, but was insufficient after a study in 1852.

1865-67 Another lighthouse was erected after the Civil War ended in 1865.

1867 The first light from the Lighthouse was beamed to the ships.

1867 Kerosene lamps were in use.

1874 Winter Quarter Lightship was established.

1875-1876 Beginning of Lifesaving Stations - and soon the Coast Guard.

1881 On August 10, Pony Penning was held on Assateague.

1881 Stock raising was carried on.

1883 July 4, Sheep Penning was held on Assateague-

1884 Samuel E. Quillen, the first Assistant Keeper of Assateague Lighthouse.

1888 The first borers for an artesian well on Assateague have struck rock bottom and cannot go any farther. Latter part of 1888, the artesian well was finally completed by the U.S. Government. Depth of it was 263 ft. and 70 gallons flow from it every hour.

1889 The fish factory of Captain John W. Bunting was opened.

1889 Mr. George Elliott died on the 10th after a long illness of consumption.

1889 July 13, the buoy tender, Lizarrea, 163 ft. long, recently built in Baltimore, Maryland, brought supplies to Assateague and Killock Shoal Lighthouse.

1889 Bush meetings were well attended by visitors from the mainland and by the people of the neighborhood.

1890 The Lightship broke loose. (See copy of it on other pages)

1890 Accomack County built a one room school about this time. One teacher was employed to teach grades 1-6. The school was used also for a place of Worship until 1919.

1890 A teacher on Assateague was John W. Field.

1892 Miss Jennie Whealton was principal and teacher of the school.

1894 July 4, Mr. John Anderton, Keeper of Assateague Lighthouse, was the guest of Captain Stant last Monday.

1896 Schooner Sunbeam, Captain Stiles, loaded with oysters from Wachapreague, for New Jersey, went ashore Friday morning, the 8th of January, about a mile from Assateague Lifesaving Station. Captain Tracey and crew responded promptly to their signal of distress, but did not get very far before they were surrounded by ice and unable to move one way or the other. One crew left at the station, seeing their peril, called for a volunteer crew from Assateague Island, and twelve brave men, namely: J.B. Jones, Howard Jones, William Lewis, William Scott, William Jones, William Cherrix, John L. Anderton, Samuel Quillen, Edgar Hopkins, Emory Elliott, and George Mosseft (surfman), promptly responded to the call. After beating around and pulling through the ice for about four hours, they succeeded in getting dose enough for Captain Anderton to throw a line to the icebound crew and in pulling them out of the ice in which they had been imprisoned about six hours. The lifesaving crew, with some of the volunteer crew, then went to the rescue of the Sunbeam, and after a hard struggle, succeeded in making the Life Station, where they were kindly cared for by Captain Tracey. Many ships were lost - and many were rescued by the faithful Lifesaving crews in that day and time. Today great rescues, etc., are being done by our Coast Guard Station by the men of Assateague and Chincoteague.

1897 The storehouse and dwelling of William T. Scott was destroyed by fire. The friends of Chincoteague raised $200. Only pieces of furniture were saved.

1898 During the Spanish-American War, the Lighthouse service installed a telephone and then telephone connections were made with the various Assateague Island Lifesaving Stations.

1900 Sheep Penning was well attended.

1901 E.L. Denickson examined as surfman on Assateague.

1903 November 21, Captain Joe M. Feddman and crew of Assateague Lifesaving Station floated down a fishing smack last week which had dragged ashore on the beach.

1903 According to the latest, sick with the smallpox were five on Assateague. One person, Carolyn Birch, died with this terrible disease.

1904 A Spanish Ship, which sank off Winter Quarter Shoal in 1901, was blown up with dynamite last week. The old hulk was the home of all kinds of fish, twenty barrels of which were scooped up when she was blown to pieces or atoms and brought to Assateague.

1904 Leon Anderson was Assistant Engineer on Winter Quarter Lightship.

1904 Pony Penning dates back before this date.

1904 Walter J. Wescott has been appointed Keeper of Assateague Light in place of H.J. Jones who resigned.

1905 November 18, Bill Scott gave on Sunday his annual oyster roast for his friends and traveling men from Chincoteague.

1905 Edward Hopkins, second Assistant Keeper of Assateague Lighthouse, died at the age of 41, on April 20.

1905 Annual Sheep Penning was held in June. The stockholders have decided to discontinue Sheep Penning affairs.

1905 Assateague Pony Penning was held.

1905 Assateague Beach Lifesaving Station was built.

1908 The Assateague school was opened another year with two teachers. They were Miss Mary Waterfield and Miss Jessie Scott.

1908 In 1908, Mr. Thomas Mears of Chincoteague, Va., has been awarded contract to repair and rebuild Assateague Lifesaving Station.

1910 A government superintendent of construction, assisted by local merchants, is rushing the $60 buoy law for Keeper Collins of Assateague.

1914 Sheep Penning and the pruning of sheep.

1915 One fishing camp.

1915 First fishing factory on Assateague employed about 50 men.

1915 Bill Scott operated the last grocery store. Mr. Fflmore Taylor discontinued his store business before Mr. scoff.

1919 First and only small Baptist Church was built on the Island.

1919 Assateague school was dosed.

1920 Virginia part of Assateague was owned mostly by one man, Mr. Samuel Field. The other owners were forced to leave the Island village when the land was sold for government purpose.

1920 Wm. Parker served a short time as Keeper of Lighthouse but later was sent to Killock Shoal.

1922 Population was about 225 before the people began moving from Assateague in the last part of the year.

1924 Chincoteague volunteers of Fire Company round-up ponies on last Wednesday and Thursday in July on Assateague.

1925 The factory and equipment owned by the Chincoteague Fertilizer Company, sold at public auction on May 8 by Mr. Ben T. Gunter and Ernest Ruediger, was purchased by Jim J. Highfield of Wilmington, Delaware. The purchase price was $17,350.00. This factory was built several years ago at the cost of more than $500,000.00.

1932 Electric power replaced the kerosene lamp in the lighthouse.

1933 Since 1933 the light has been electrically lighted.

1933 The great storm did much damage to the coast south of Assateague, which was divided into 2 parts. It also divided Fenwick to the North. Yet, no lives were lost.

1942 Assateague Beach is reported sold by Mrs. W.M. Burwell, sister of Sam Fields, to the Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C., formerly called the biological survey. The twelve acres run from about the lighthouse to the southern tip of Assateague. It has quickly become known as one of the most beautiful unspoiled locations on the east coast.

1948 Ballard Reynolds was Captain of the Winter Quarter Lighthouse.

1954 A bridge connecting Chincoteague with Assateague has been approved by the Wildlife Service of the Interior Department. Engineers are now making a survey of the proposed project. A survey and findings will be reported within 30 days. It is estimated the bridge would cost between $225,000.00 and $250,000.00.

1962 Winter Quarter lightship was discontinued in 1961-62.

1962 Bridge connecting Chincoteague with Assateague was built by Wyle Maddox after the Federal Government granted permission for a bridge to be built to the Wildlife Refuge and for a road to cross it to the Beach in 1956.

1962 After the terrible storm of 1962, today at the ocean's edge is a forest of large Cedar stumps.

1965 September 21, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill providing for the creation of Assateague Island, a National Seashore Park, where hundreds from far and near visit each year.

1966 Assateague National Seashore is proving popular with surfmen who come to fish for channel bass drum, and other surf species.