The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-05-02
Especial to The Messenger

Especial to Inc Messenger
Morehead City. April 28.-There is
every likelihood nat the election on
the End OF May will decide In favor
of issuing bonds to secure an electric
light plant for the city's own, and d
improvements. There is an electric
plant owned by the Rowland Improve
ment Company, lCssees of the Atlantic
and North Carolina Railroad, but the
generally expressed desire is for the
city TO build a plant and have a mod
ern sanitary System, also the best Of
fire protection, and sidewalks for the
town, SO that it will be made more at
tractive and up-to-date. Artesian wells
will be bored, trees planted, and the
citizens will unite in making the city
beautiful.
MOrehead City has a grand harbor
always a scene of interest, with white
winged schoOners and sharpies and
steam and naptha launches on business
and pleasure beEr. 1t is one of the
greatest fish markets in the state, the
industry causing the employment Of
hundreds Of men who never fish, but
are kept busy on the boats, in the PACK
ing houses and shipping departments.
The several firms engaged in the buy
ing, packing and shipping of sea foor
have fleets of power and sailing yes
sells, passing out and in to and from
the fish houses az different points On
the coast, and SkiffS and canoes are
darting to and fro, as If on constant
holiday.
The main street, through the center
OF which is the Atlantic and North Car
DINA track, is quite wide and very,
handsome buildings are taking the
places OF the ~antiquated and forbidding,
and the Bank of Carteret and a num-
Der of the emporium-like mercantile es-
adjustments would grace the main
street of a metropolis. Elegant and
costly homes have, within the !asc
year, beautified the ambitious city, and
others are in course of construction.
showing architectural beauty and mod
ern ideas of comfort.
With a population of nearly 1900
pull-together people, and a mayor ana
cCunci broad-guaged, patriotic n en-
ISl Ia Io1iS, MIL ClCdu SlIy Will W. '
wonderful development during the COM
ing year. 1t now has three white
churches, a handsome public school and
two private schools, unoer the auspices
of the NJ. E. Church South, and Bap-
fist denominations; it has Masoni:
and Odd Fellow lodges, and it's citizens
are decidedly democratic, being entirely
free from shoddy aristocracy.
Mnrabooa rifu in summon chinc on
average of two car loads of water pro
ducts per day, and in fall three to four
car loads per day, and in winter the
shipments of oysters are difficult to
compute. By individua;izing the Dig
.gest houses, the various kinds of sea
food shipped will be more apparent.
The biggest dealer IS Mayor G. s,
Wallace, and his largest shipments in
one week were 1,474 boxes of fresh fish,
$50 barrels of salt fish and 422 gal
Ions of oysters. He handles from d
CRAB to a t%errapin. Mayor Wallace was
born at Portsmouth, fifty miles from
Morehead, and by the sad sea waves
When Is he came here, and was a hired
hand until eleven years ago, when he
started for himself without a dollar,
He now employs about thirty men and
in the oyster season sixty directly, and
hundreds of men indirectly. His More
head packing house measures 10OX5O,
and he has eight (buying) houses at
different places and as far as fifty miles
away. His fleet includes five naptha
boats, ten sailing vessels and ten skiffs
and canoes, n he has three oil fac
tories, one being completed at Grab
Point, a mile from here, this week. At
those factories oil is extracted from
the fish, and the residue is dried and
becomes a rich fertilizer. He is also
the produce king, shipping two to three
car loads per day of cabbage and pota-
toes, also peas, beans and raddishes,
poultry and eggs.
He is president II the Carteret Trans
portation, Ice and Storage Company
with a capital of S100, 900; v~ice-presi-
lent of the Bank of Carteret, capital
$40, 900, and superintendent of the NJ. e.
South sunday school. For eight years
he has been mayor of Morehead CITY
and has wished to resign, but the pee
pie would not have it that way. His
competitors in trade are his greatesi
admirers, in fact, all the fish men
pul together for the upbuilding Of the
town.
The Wallace home, built last year
cost SIS, 900, and is a beauty in and out
and he will build a modern hotel, Witt
twenty-five rooms to be open all the
year, and be a commercial hotel proper
Energy, foresight and r principle
joined with public spirit, have made =
S. Wallace the most successful ma,
in Carteret county.
D. B. Wade & Son, established tiv,
years, ship from 25 boxes per day o.
fresh fish up to as high as 125 boxes
and about 1900 bushels of clans from
November till end of March, and tni.
having been a poor oyster season, the,
forwarded only about 1000 gallons
They ship Spanish mackerel extensive
ly and soft shell crabs to New York
Boston, Seattle, Denver and Los An
geles and other cities. Their packlns
house, measures 100x70, W stories
anJ fhau houo h<5rcoc z~ the Soma