The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1960-12-30
WlNDMlLLS
Continued from Page One)

Bateman Miller and whether it was
himself or his son who was reef
ing the sail that day when the
wheels inadvertently started to ro-
tating. And some dozens more,
enough to fill small book if there
were need of any more books in the
world The past of seven decades
ago had come to life.
Home from Sea.
But this was not all, not by any
means. took the picture briefly
to George O'Neal. Mr.. O'Neal is
one of my favorite Kinnakeeters
and how l could wish they would
change of the name of the village
back from rather meaningless Avon
to its original Kinnakeet-and GER
tainly one of its most remarkable
citizens. Mr.. O'Neal followed the
sea from childhood until little
while back when he came ashore
and opened a small store. When
he is not bothered with customers
or Mrs. O'Neal has not been able
to find something for him to do
around the house, way that the
wives of returned mariners, long
without a servicable handyman
around the house have - he has
built perfect scale models of every
ship he was ever on. They range
from sail skiffs and skip-jacks to
four-masters, more than score of
them that take up space that Mrs.
O'Neal sometimes reminds him
might be more profitably devoted
to salable merchandise.
Without being very hopeful
about it, 1 wondered if sometime
Mr.. O'Neal might be persuaded to
make me a model of the windmill,
if I would get him an enlarged
picture to go by. He said, and I
must have missed the CLEAN that
was in his eye, that he might try it
if he could get the stuff to make
it out of. And with that took off
to write John Lockhead note ask
ing for the loan of the negative so
/ could get an enlargement for
Mr.. ONeal to go by.
When I got back two weeks later
with the enlarged picture Mr..
O'Neal had completed the model
from memory. It is "a inches tall
and in perfect scale down to the
minutest detail The wheel turns,
the sails can be reefed. It even
creaks appropriately when it turns
and l just sit and look at it and
wonder which of the two versions
of the Bateman Miller story to ad-
here to. Certainly one or the other
of them got himself rotated and I
almost wish that Mr.. O'Neal had
included the figure of a man being
rotated. He might have even NAM
ed him. believe he adheres to the
version where it was the elder Mil
Ter who was reefing the sail.
Factor of Importance.
But the point here is that the
windmill was a factor of tremen-
dous Importance in these villages
in the two centuries before the in
vention of the internal combustion
engine which has replaced the
windmill, the sail boat and the OK
as motive power around here. Lit
tie grain was raised on these Is
lands. The Islanders would take a
load of salt fish across the sound
to Hyde County, or some other
county on the western shore of the
Sounds, and swap it for corn. Then
they fetched the corn or wheat
home and carried it to the mill.
The Windmill.
There are precious few records
of life as it was lived on these
islands. Written records, that is.
And it is no use to go and search
for them. Ask for them and nobody
remembers but just wait, with pa
thence, and somebody will fetch
you something that you didn't even
hope existed.
Like Jim Gray, another Kinna-
keeter, and his great-grandfather's
cheese box. One day Jim Gray came
in about dinner-time and he had an
old-fashioned cheese box tied with
a very fragile piece Of string. He
said that these were his great
grandfather's papers and that he
didn't know what was in the box
but if 1 wanted to I could look
through what was in it. The string
had not been united in, I should
Judge, about IS years.
Great-grandfather Cyrus Hooper
had been, in his day, the Islands
principal merchant, and his father
Ezekiel before him. When Cyrus
died his business was closed out
and all the papers stuffed into a
cheese box. They were still there.
Ezekieps will, dated in 1924 and
the sale of his goods and chattels
on January 8, 1856, every item
catalougued and priced and with
the name of the purchaser. The list
included slaves, houses, two boats,
s,,r aav,1n