Editing Harkers Island, North Carolina (section)

==History==
Before the arrival of European explorers and settlers, Harkers Island was inhabited by Native Americans of the [[Coree]] tribe, who likely spoke a language of the [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] family, like most coastal tribes. The nearby [[Core Sound]] and [[Core Banks, North Carolina|Core Banks]] are named after the Coree. The Coree left little in the way of evidence of permanent habitation on Harkers Island, except for a large [[midden#Shells|mound]] of oyster shells at Shell Point on the eastern end of the island. Similar shell mounds were found by Europeans on the [[Shackleford Banks]] and other islands of the Outer Banks. The exact purpose of the mounds for the Coree remains unknown, but varying cultures of [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]] in the [[Southeastern United States|Southeast]] had been building major [[earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] mounds since 3500 BCE, the [[Archaic period in North America|Middle Archaic period]], usually related to religious and ceremonial uses.

In 1584, an English expedition financed by [[Sir Walter Raleigh]] and led by Philip Amadas and [[Arthur Barlowe]] explored the North Carolina coast for a suitable site for the first English colony in North America. Two Native Americans, [[Wanchese (Native American leader)|Wanchese]] and [[Manteo (Native American leader)|Manteo]], accompanied the expedition back to England in the fall of 1584. According to local island legend, Wanchese was a Coree from Harkers Island.<ref name="murphrey">Murphrey, Kelly and Murphrey, Wanda (2006). [http://www.harkersisland.com/history.htm Harkers Island History]. Retrieved July 28, 2006.</ref> The island was first charted on the maps drawn by [[John White (colonist and artist)|John White]] during the 1584 expedition, but it was unnamed at the time. The island appears on a 1624 map of the greater Virginia coastline created by [[John Smith (explorer)|Captain John Smith]]. On that map, the island is labeled "Davers Ile", probably for Sir John Davers, one of the founders of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] in 1607.<ref name="prioli">Prioli, Carmine and Martin, Edwin (1998). ''Hope for a Good Season: The Ca'e Bankers of Harkers Island''. John F. Blair Publisher, July, 1998.</ref>

On December 20, 1707, Farnifold Green obtained the first [[land patent|patent]] for land in the Core Sound area from the lord proprietor of the Carolina colony, which had been established by the English monarch [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] in 1633.  This patent included Harkers Island, which was then known as Craney Island.<ref name="paul">Paul, Charles L. (1965). [http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hp/colonial/Nchr/Subjects/paul.htm "Colonial Beaufort"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060824035746/http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hp/colonial/Nchr/Subjects/paul.htm |date=2006-08-24 }}. The Colonial Records Project.  North Carolina Office of Archives & History. Vol. 42, pp. 139-152.</ref> On June 25, 1709, Green sold the island to William Brice for £5, who on the very same day sold it to Thomas Sparrow III (1674–1717) for £10. Sparrow soon sold the island to Thomas Pollock, who would twice be governor of North Carolina (from 1712 to 1714 and again in 1722). Pollock did not take up residence on the island, but had several farm buildings erected and then leased to settlers. The 1720 lease to a Captain Stone was £3 a year. Thomas Pollock's son George inherited the island upon his father's death on August 30, 1722.<ref name="angley">Angley, Wilson (1983). [http://www.downeasttour.com/harkers_is/hist-overview.htm A Historical Overview of Harkers Island, with special emphasis on Westmouth and Eastmouth Bays] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008192731/http://www.downeasttour.com/harkers_is/hist-overview.htm |date=October 8, 2007 }}. Raleigh, N.C.: N C. Division of Archives and History, 1983.</ref>

===Settlement of Ebenezer Harker===
George Pollock sold Craney Island to Ebenezer Harker on September 15, 1730, for £400 and "one boate twentey foot long with oars & mast". Harker had immigrated to [[Massachusetts]] from England on a ship that set sail from [[Wales]]. Living in [[Boston]], Harker had been involved in the [[whaling]] trade, and became familiar with the North Carolina coast during this time.<ref name="smithsonian">Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (2006).  [http://www.folklife.si.edu/explore/Education/Waterways/Ports_of_Call/core_sound.html Port of Call: Harkers Island, NC] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060828073713/http://www.folklife.si.edu/explore/Education/Waterways/Ports_of_Call/core_sound.html |date=2006-08-28 }}. Text adapted from "This Is Core Sound", by T. Edward Nickens in Core Sound Waterfowl Museum, 2000. Retrieved July 28, 2006.</ref> Harker had moved to [[Beaufort, North Carolina]], by 1728, where he was appointed a tax collector for the [[whale oil]] revenue generated in the area. After purchasing the island, Harker took up residence there with his family and began building a small plantation and boat yard. Harker sold half of the island to his nephew John Stevens of [[Onslow County, North Carolina|Onslow County]] on March 8, 1733, for £300, with many restrictions on its agricultural use. Prohibited from farming or ranching the land for profit, Stevens eventually sold his half of the island back to his uncle on June 9, 1737, for just £180.<ref name="lewis">Lewis, Robert G. (1999). ''Ebenezer Harker, Island Namesake'' Carteret County Historical Society, Inc., Morehead City, NC, p. 3.</ref>

The Harker plantation and boat building facility were located at the western end of the island, near Harker Point, and grew to support an extended family with three sons, two daughters, and at least nine African slaves. Ebenezer would be the last sole landowner of the island. In 1752, he deeded approximately {{convert|10|acre}} of the island to his daughter Hepsobeth and her husband Nathan Yeomans as a wedding gift. On his death in 1762, his son Zachariah inherited the western third of the island, an adult slave woman named Vilet, and a young female slave named Daisie.

Another son, James, inherited the eastern third of the island, an adult slave woman named Hague and a young male slave named Peter. Ebenezer Jr. inherited the central third of the island, an adult male slave named Jeffrey, and a young male slave named Sutton. Hepsobeth inherited "one barrel of [[maize|corn]]", and Ebenezer's other married daughter, Sarah Freshwater, was given a female slave named Hope. The fate of an elderly female slave named Badge and a young male slave named Ben was left to the heirs to decide.<ref name="prioli"/> The will referred to "Craney Island"; the name "Harkers Island" was only adopted after Ebenezer's death.<ref name="angley"/>

The sons of Ebenezer prospered on Harkers Island. Ebenezer Jr. was elected [[Sheriff]] of Carteret County in 1758. Zachariah Harker developed a [[salt works]] on the western third of Harkers Island in 1776. In the following years, Zachariah and his brothers became supporters of the [[American Revolution]], and Zachariah was appointed one of five [[Captain (armed forces)|captains]] in the Carteret Regiment fighting against the British.<ref name="prioli"/> Harkers Island was involved in the Battle of Beaufort, North Carolina. Revolutionaries used warehouse facilities on Harkers Island to store provisions sought by British troops who had seized the nearby county seat of Beaufort. Thirteen men guarding the stores on Harkers Island, probably led by Zachariah Harker, repulsed British troops in a brief battle on April 6, 1782.<ref name="angley"/> The first national [[1790 United States census|census of 1790]] recorded 16 [[white American|white]] residents and 13 [[slavery in the United States|slaves]] on Harkers Island. By 1800, the population had expanded to 26 white residents, 16 slaves, and 7 "others", probably those of [[mixed race]] or [[freedman|freed slave]]s.<ref name="prioli"/> Ebenezer Jr., James, and Zachariah Harker died in 1803, 1814, and 1824, respectively.

===Nineteenth century===
Harkers Island remained sparsely populated until the latter part of the 19th century. The island saw no direct military conflict in the [[American Civil War]]; however, [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] warships anchored near the island to control access to [[Bogue Sound]] and Core Sound during the [[Battle of Fort Macon]]. The besieged [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] garrison at [[Fort Macon]] surrendered on April 26, 1862. Harkers Island and the surrounding area remained under Union control for the duration of the war.<ref name="angley"/> The few, if any, descendants of the Harker slaves still living on the island likely left soon after [[Emancipation Proclamation|emancipation]]. The vast majority of the freed slaves in the coastal societies of Carteret and [[Craven County, North Carolina|Craven]] counties either emigrated to other parts of the state, or moved into their own, separate communities, such as Davis Ridge, the North River Community, and Craven Corner.<ref name="cecelski">Cecelski, David (2001). [http://www.ecu.edu/history/whichard/DCecelski.htm "The Last Daughter of Davis Ridge: Slavery and Freedom in the Maritime South"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716150911/http://www.ecu.edu/history/whichard/DCecelski.htm |date=2006-07-16 }}. [[Greenville, North Carolina|Greenville]]: Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences, [[East Carolina University]].</ref>

In 1864, the first school on the island was established when Miss Jenny Bell came to Harkers Island from Boston, sponsored by the [[Methodist Episcopal Church|Northern Methodist Episcopal Church]].<ref name="coop">Harkers Island Electric Cooperative (2006). [http://www.harkersislandec.com/BeforeElectricity.html A Brief History of Harkers Island and the Dawn of Electricity] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109033924/http://www.harkersislandec.com/BeforeElectricity.html |date=2006-11-09 }}.  Retrieved July 28, 2006.</ref>  A [[fish oil]] factory was built on the island in 1865 and remained operational until 1873.<ref name="angley"/> A small [[gristmill|milling facility]] was built on the west end of the island in 1870 by Louie Larson, an immigrant from [[Norway]], but it closed before the turn of the 20th century.<ref name="murphrey"/> Most island residents continued to earn a subsistence living from boat building or fishing.

===The Hurricane of 1899===
Harkers Island saw an influx of new residents after hurricanes in 1896 and 1899 devastated the communities established on the nearby Core Banks and Shackleford Banks. Mostly fishermen and whalers, the people of the Outer Banks began openly debating the merits of moving after the Hurricane of 1896. William Henry Guthrie of [[Diamond City, North Carolina|Diamond City]] was one of the first to relocate, buying {{convert|64.5|acre}} of land on Harkers Island in 1897.<ref name="prioli"/> Some others moved to more sheltered locations on the coast, but most Shackleford residents remained on the Banks. Diamond City was by far the largest town in that area of the coast, with over 700 inhabitants.

Three years later, another hurricane hit the Carolina coast, and this time the disaster for the residents of the Shackleford Banks was total. Diamond City was completely destroyed by the August 17 [[1899 San Ciriaco hurricane|Hurricane of 1899]]. The storm ravaged the Banks' protective sand [[dune]]s, and washed away nearly all of the top soil. Orchards and maritime forest on the Banks soon began dying from the salt left behind by the [[storm surge]]. Homes were ripped from their foundations, shattered, or submerged. Even graves in the local cemeteries were uprooted and disturbed. A botanist who visited the Banks after the storm described the landscape as completely devastated.<ref name="prioli"/>

Many families used boats to move what was left of their houses, plank by plank, from the Outer Banks to Harkers Island where they could rebuild. Some settled on the Guthrie property, which he began to subdivide. Others purchased or leased land on the island anywhere they could. Some emigrated to [[Morehead City, North Carolina|Morehead City]], on the mainland, where they built a new neighborhood soon nicknamed "The Promised Land". The last resident had left Diamond City by 1902.<ref name="prioli"/> In the five years between 1895 and 1900, the population of Harkers Island expanded fourfold from just 13 extended families to over 1,000 residents. The island had gone from being one of the smallest communities in Carteret County to one of the largest.<ref name="murphrey"/>

Elders of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) proselytized extensively on Harkers Island after the hurricanes. Many of the refugees from Diamond City, uprooted physically and emotionally by the devastating hurricanes, converted to the Latter Day Saints, and soon outnumbered the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which had been founded on the island in 1875. A national wave of [[anti-Mormon]] sentiment was sparked by the [[Smoot Hearings]] in 1904, fueling fears that Mormons secretly continued to practice [[polygamy]]. The relationship between the Mormons on Harkers Island and their neighbors deteriorated.

Residents threw rocks and oyster shells through the windows of the LDS [[meetinghouse]] and fired at least one gunshot into the building. In 1906, arsonists burned the meetinghouse to the ground. Organized Mormon religious services did not resume on Harkers Island until 1909. A new LDS meetinghouse was constructed on the island in the 1930s.<ref name="rees">Rees, Franceine Perry, "Joel Hancock," ''ECU Report,'' Summer 1989, Volume 20, No. 1.</ref> Despite these difficult beginnings, Harker's Island has one of the highest percentages of residents as members of the Latter-day Saints of any locality in North Carolina.<ref name="lds_ward">[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/tools/stake-and-ward-websites?lang=eng "Harkers Island NC Ward"]. [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] official website.  Retrieved Sep. 19, 2007.</ref>

===Twentieth century===
Harkers Island gradually became more connected to North Carolina and the world at large early in the 20th century. With the influx of new residents from the Outer Banks, a post office was opened in 1904. The first public road to extend the length of the island, Harkers Island Drive, was built in 1926 when a footpath was widened and paved with the oyster shells from the Coree mound at Shell Point. The road was hard paved by the county in 1936. The road and the post office were connected to the mainland by a ferry service until the Earl C. Davis Memorial Bridge was built in 1941.

A wooden structure, the bridge connected the northwestern end of Harkers Island to the small town of Straits directly to the north. The location of the bridge was a matter of some local controversy at the time. Most islanders would have preferred a bridge to the west, connecting the island directly to the city of Beaufort with its commercial infrastructure and the county hospital. Local politics and the shorter distance to Straits likely dictated the final location of the bridge. A local political effort to relocate the bridge during its renovation to a steel structure in 1966 also failed.<ref name="prioli"/>

The [[1933 Outer Banks Hurricane]] which made landfall on September 15 would forever change the economy of Harkers Island. The storm was blamed for at least 21 fatalities in North Carolina (although none on Harkers Island) and an estimated US$1&nbsp;million of damage. The [[storm surge]] damaged fisheries and inland waterways, but there was one unexpected beneficial result. Retreating storm surge and heavy rainfall combined to carve out a new channel in the Banks, separating the Core Banks from the Shackleford Banks near the [[Cape Lookout Lighthouse]]. This new channel gave Harkers Island fishermen a new, direct access route to offshore fishing grounds.  The new channel was named Barden Inlet after US Senator [[Graham Barden]], who sponsored legislation to require that the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] use dredging equipment to maintain the new channel.<ref name="prioli"/>

More economic opportunity for Harkers Island came as the country began pulling itself out of the [[Great Depression]]. Electrification came to the island in 1939. The Harkers Island Rural Electric Authority was the first [[electrical cooperative]] in the United States to supply power to members through a submarine cable system.<ref name="roses">Roses's Vacation Rentals (2002). [http://www.rosesvacationrentals.com/history.html Island History: Harkers Island, NC]. Retrieved July 28, 2006.</ref> In November 1941, the construction of a new [[United States Marine Corps]] Air Station at [[Cherry Point, North Carolina|Cherry Point]], {{convert|30|mi}} to the northwest of Harkers Island, brought more wage-earning jobs to the local economy. When the United States entered [[World War II]], Harkers Island was on the front lines. [[U-boat|German submarines]] patrolled the North Carolina coast and sank merchant shipping traffic, especially oil tankers. Island residents could watch the tankers burning offshore at night.<ref name="prioli"/> Further improvements in the island's utility services would have to wait until after the war. Telephone service finally arrived in 1948.<ref name="roses"/>

===The National Seashore===
The [[Shackleford Banks]] played an important economic role for the people of Harkers Island throughout much of the 20th century. Islanders continued to use the Banks for livestock grazing, including sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. Harkers Island fishermen first built seasonal camps and later cottages on the Banks. A herd of [[wild horse]]s on the Shackleford Banks provided new colts every spring to those from Harkers Island who rounded them up. The islanders viewed the improvements of cottages, horse [[pen (enclosure)|corrals]], and campsites as an extension of their economic livelihood on Harkers Island.<ref name="prioli"/>

All of that would change with the government determination to acquire the barrier islands for public park land. The state of North Carolina began purchasing land on the Core Banks and Shackleford Banks in 1959 with the intention of creating a state park. The federal government became interested a few years later, and envisioned the Outer Banks of North Carolina being included in a string of national seashores stretching the length of the United States Atlantic coast. After negotiations between the state of North Carolina and the [[United States Department of the Interior]], the [[United States Congress]] passed a law authorizing the creation of a [[Cape Lookout National Seashore]], which was signed into law by President [[Lyndon Baines Johnson]] on March 10, 1966.<ref name="calo">National Park Service (2007). [http://www.nps.gov/calo/ Cape Lookout National Seashore]. Retrieved Mar. 20, 2007.</ref>

Conversion of the Banks to a national park brought much turmoil to Harkers Island. Many Harkers Island fishermen discovered that cottages and other improvements they had made on the Banks were on land that would be [[eminent domain|condemned]]. Many land [[deed]]s had recording errors, some had been poorly surveyed, and natural changes to the shorelines affected many claims. Few of the cottages that had been built were on land that the builders owned. Legal eviction and condemnation proceedings lasted into the 1980s. The creation of the park also ended the open grazing of livestock on the Banks by December 31, 1985. A herd of wild horses, allegedly descended from Spanish horses that swam to shore from [[shipwreck]]s in the 16th century, was allowed to remain on the Banks. In late December of that year, a series of arson fires destroyed most of the major structures on the Shackleford Banks, including a recently constructed park visitor center. An inquiry by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] failed to discover the arsonists.<ref name="prioli"/>

The creation of the National Seashore marked the end of a lifestyle practiced by many Harkers Island residents. Fishing and boat building remain important components of the community's economy, but are increasingly augmented with [[tourism]]. Visitors arrive at Harkers Island seeking access to the National Seashore, for [[sport fishing]] opportunities, and to experience the local cultural heritage of the islands.