178
THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET.
Stale. It is a pity that there are so few facts recorded of our
largest interests and of the people who have given them im¬
petus and promoted them by their great skill and ability. To
sustain the statements relative to Mr. Joseph Blount Skinner
stated above, we give very respectable authority,
ю
In a
letter to the Reverend Thomas II. Skinner, a brother of Mr.
Joseph 13. Skinner, Judge II. Hash, in writing o.f Mr. Skinner
from Hillsborough, N. C., ^November 29, 1S52, stated : “To
your brother, 1 have always heard, the residents on the
Chowan and the Albemarle section are, in a great measure,
indebted for their fisheries. JSJot that he was the first to spread
the seine in their waters, but that he was the first to perceive
their great national importance, and the first, by his enterprise
and energy, who brought that knowledge to the use and bene¬
fit of tho community at large. To him the State is indebted
for having led in developing this great national interest. ” In
a. brief obituary notice by Governor Iredell, written in Janu¬
ary, 1S52, on Mr. Joseph Blount Skinner, he stated: “Mr.
Skinner also gave the first impulse to that valuable branch of
industry in that section of the State, the herring and shad
fisheries. The fisheries had been confined to the Roanoke and
Chowan Rivers and their tributary streams, and were few in
number, and of small extent. Mr. Skinner, with his charac¬
teristic energy, first ventured upon the experiment, then
deemed visionary and impractical, and launched his seines
upon the wide and oft-vexed Albemarle itself. Ills example
has been followed until the northern shore of the sound is
literally studded with fisheries, creating a new source of
wealth, and adding annually hundreds of thousands of dol¬
lars to the industrial products of the country. Such a man
may emphatically be styled a great public benefactor.
Richly did Mr. Skinner earn the distinction. Deep should
be the gratitude of the public, and ever should bis tomb be
eueircled by a garland of merit, more precious than the war¬
rior’s laurel.”
