THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 24, 1995 TAG: 9511240082
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIS WHARF LENGTH: Long : 136 lines
Before the Atlantic washed away her town, Mae Bowen lived in Broadwater, a thriving community on Hog Island.
Then came the big storms of the '30s, when the sea moved in to claim the island. Bowen and her neighbors picked up their homes, put them on barges and took them to the mainland. She never returned.
``I want to remember it as it was,'' said Bowen.
But remembering life on the barrier islands is becoming more difficult. As former residents pass away, their possessions are being snatched up by private collectors.
Artifacts are disappearing so quickly that some of the Eastern Shore's most respected citizens have united to form the Barrier Island Center, an organization for gathering, preserving and sharing a vital part of the region's history.
For now, the Barrier Island Center doesn't have a building of its own. But Center members have put together their first exhibit, which is being shown at Kerr Place, a museum in Onancock, until Dec. 22. The pieces range from photos, decoys, guns, quilts and watermen's tools to a harp from the Cobb Island Hotel. They were lent to the center by local collectors. Thelma Peterson, one of the founders of the Barrier Island Center, hopes many others will follow their example.
``We want people to recognize what we're trying to do in preserving that part of our heritage,'' said Peterson.
Mae Bowen can tell you the names of half the people in the exhibit's photographs. She said one of them, Tom Doughty - an old man with a bushy white beard - proposed to her when she was 11 years old.
``I was a good housekeeper,'' said Bowen of his reasons for proposing. Doughty gave her an ornate handkerchief box that she still has in her home at Willis Wharf. But Bowen didn't marry him. He was too old and ``ugly,'' she said.
``I had better sense (than) to get mixed up with him,'' she said, more vibrant at 82 than many teens.
Bowen's stories, and those of the rapidly dwindling number of former Hog Islanders, are part of the treasure that the Barrier Island Center wants to preserve. She tells of a lifestyle of hard work and simple pleasures. It was a world of feather beds, union suits and taffy pulls on the Fourth of July.
The first of nine children, Mae Bowen quit school in the fifth grade to help her mother ``raise the young'uns'' and keep house. Her youngest sister was the first family member to graduate from high school. They lived without a bathroom or hot running water.
``We didn't know no better, so we didn't miss it,'' Bowen said.
Life was simple. The island had no theaters or doctors, and only a few cars toward the end. It was the only place in the state where residents didn't have to pay a gas tax, because there were no state-maintained roads. And there were no restaurants.
``Not many married on the island,'' said Bowen, remembering her own wedding in Pocomoke, Md. ``About the only time they got to a restaurant was when they got married.''
When the children finished their chores and went looking for fun, they headed out to a patch of sand under a cedar tree. There, she said, they pushed the sand into the shape of a boat and decorated it with shells. The next day they would do it again.
``We had the biggest time,'' said Bowen, smiling. One neighborhood boy liked to knock their ``boats'' apart, until they discovered he was afraid of crabs.
``We found a live crab every day to keep that boy from tearing our boats up,'' she said. Bowen wouldn't name the child because he's still living.
Ask Mae Bowen to describe a typical island day, and she talks about Monday mornings - wash day. They got up early, heated the water, took out the wash tubs and washboards and set to work.
``To watch her wash something by hand is a work of art,'' said her sister. Her mother was strict, and kept the girls busy embroidering and crocheting. When Mae was 20 years old and engaged, her mother wouldn't let her go to the post office after dark with her fiance.
Eight days after Mae married Wendell Bowen, the famous storm of '33 changed island life forever. Bowen piled her wedding presents on her new bed - a bed she still has in her Willis Wharf home - as the tide rose to her chest.
``We were so busy trying to save what we could keep, we didn't have time to get scared,'' said Bowen. She remembers two pregnant friends whose houses broke loose and floated on the tide before they were rescued. Another islander, deaf and dumb, tied himself to a pole until the Coast Guard rescued him. Bowen's grandfather, who was guarding his oyster beds in a ``watch-house,'' died.
``I never saw the tide in anybody's yard until the '33 storm,'' said Bowen. ``But once they started coming, they just kept coming.''
That was when the Hog Islanders realized they had to move, she said. Between 1933 and the early 40s, many of them put their homes on barges and moved to the mainland. Many ended up in Willis Wharf.
Bowen's home in Willis Wharf is part of the one she and her husband bought for $400 on Hog Island. It's filled with treasures of island life.
A few months ago, Thelma Peterson found out just how rare it is for so many barrier island artifacts to still be in one place. A friend called her to say she was putting her aunt in a nursing home, and asked if Peterson knew anyone who wanted to buy island memorabilia. Peterson said no, but a few days later went anyway.
``Just about everything she had was gone,'' said Peterson. That's when Peterson first realized that barrier island artifacts were highly sought-after, and that many were being bought by collectors off the Eastern Shore.
``I was emotional about these thing going,'' said Peterson. So she made a list of people who might also have an interest in the islands, and brought them together. From that beginning, the Barrier Island Center was born.
But Peterson didn't want to wait until they had a facility before getting to work. The Eastern Shore Historical Society backs the Barrier Island Center, and can accept, protect and store artifacts that collectors would like to lend or donate to the center. If they are successful, said Peterson, an important slice of Virginia's history will be preserved for future generations. ``We want to keep it alive,'' she said. MEMO: To contact the Barrier Island Center write to P.O. Box R, Melfa, Va.
23410 or call (804) 787-2460
ILLUSTRATION: MAP
VP
TAMARA VONINSKI
The Virginian-Pilot
Mae Bowen, 82, can tell you the names of half the people in the
Barrier Island Center photo exhibit. One, Tom Doughty - an old man
with a bushy white beard - proposed to her when she was 11. ``I was
a good housekeeper,'' said Bowen of his reasons for proposing.
TAMARA VONINSKI
The Virginian-Pilot
Eight days after Mae Bowen married, the famous storm of '33 hit Hog
Island and changed their lives forever. She piled her wedding
presents on a bed as the tide rose to her chest. Bowen holds
pictures of the Eastern Shore barrier island.
by CNB