The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1957-04-19
SOUTH. ALBEMARLE
ASSOCIATION HAS
LASTED ~ YEARS
Associated Founded in 1895 Has
United Separated Areas in
Beitermenf Efforts.
(By Staff Correspondence


ton gather at Manns Harbor for
the dedication of the William B.
Unlstead Memorial Bridge which
now crosses Croatan Sound it will
be a momentous occasion for this
group of public-spirited North
Carolinians who for over 20 years
have fought for better roads and
bridges in this section of the State.
Organized at a meeting in the
Tyrrell County courthouse, at CO.
lumbia, on October 80, 1885, when
the most pressing need of this en-
tire section was a network of all
weather roads and bridges to
bring the county seats of Hyde,
Dare, Tyrrell and Washington
closer together and nearer to the
outside world, some of the men
who were the backbone of the asso-
citation are with us no more.
o. L. Williams, Dan Berry, M.
A. Matthews, P. D. Midget, and
w. w. Watson, of Hyde County;
w. L. Whitley, Vance Norman,
John w. Darden, of Washington
County; the late C. Wallace Tatem
and C. Earl Cohoon, and w. S.
Caravan of Tyrrell County are re-
membered among its earliest MEM
bers.
When the rest of North Carolina
was getting it's share of good roads
and better county seat-to-county
seat connections, the counties of
Hyde, Washington, Tyrrell and
Dare were laundering in a quag
mire of muddy roads and I'M
bridged swamps.
In fact, during the first two
years the Southern Albemarle
Association was in existence few
meetings could be held because
the roads were so bad representa-
tives of the four counties couldn't
get together.
According to Melvin R. Daniels,
of Manteo, who is serving his
fourth term as president of the
association, one very outstanding
result of the Southern Albemarle
Association has been that the peo-
pie who live throughout these four
counties have come to know each
other better and to understand
each others problems.
"Why before the Southern Able
marie Association was organized"
Mr.. Daniels says, many people who
lived here on Roanoke Island
didn't know whether they raised
goats, sheep or elephants over on
the mainland of Dare County.
And, as far as some of the people
over that way were concerned, this
section of Dare County was almost
as remote as the state capitol at
Raleigh.
1t was six years before the asso-
citation could point with pride to
any tangible results. That was in
1914 when toll charges on the fer
ries plying the waters of Alliga-
tor River and Croatan Sound were
cut in half and the Oregon Inlet
ferry toll was abolished altogether.
Fifteen miles of hard-surfaced
highway had been laid on Route
"a between Columbia and Swan
Quarter and six miles of paving
had been done on the Hyde County
end of the Engelhard-Manns Har-
Dor highway as we'll as about five
miles of paving in and around
Stumpy Point.
In addition to this through the
nnrelenting efforts of members of
the Southern Albemarle Associa-
ton the road between Manns Har-
Dor and Stumpy Point was hard
surfaced and paving begun in the
direction of Mashoes where ever
since that little community was
founded it's citizens had to use
boats to reach the mainland.
Three years earlier, April, 1888,
was the famous travelling meet
ing" of the Southern Albemarle
Association with members of the
State Highway Commission. The
associations members were all set
to present their road and bridge
building program to the entire
membership of the State Highway
& Public Works Commission, then
headed by Frank Dunlap, at a
meeting to be held at Columbia.
When the commissioners arrived
in the Tyrrell County seat for the
meeting an automobile tour of the
entire area took place instead. The
elaborate dinner which the good
ladies of the Southern Albemarle
counties had prepared for them
had to be hastily packed into boxes
and the commissioners left Coling-
ton in cloud of dust driving to
Fort Landing, East Lake, Manns
Harbor, Stumpy Point and Engel-
hard.
The highway commissioners said
they had come to the Southern AL
bemarle to look and to listen and
would say nothing as to what its
residents might expect as a result