Earlier this week, I covered how the Eastern Shore is unique from the rest of Maryland, and specifically talked about the disappearing watermen way of life. So it only seemed right that for this Wednesday’s Small Town History, I should cover an Eastern Shore town that echoes back to the heyday of the Chesapeake Bay.
The Hooper Islands might just be the most remote towns in all of Maryland, definitely up there. Located between the Chesapeake Bay and the Honga River in Dorchester County, the Hooper Island chain consists of three islands and three towns. Honga and Fishing Creek are on the Upper Island, while Hoopersville is located on the Middle Island. The islands are only wide enough for one road and some driveways. The community of Applegarth was located on Lower Hooper Island until the Chesapeake Bay swallowed it up in the 1920s. Now, the marshy Lower Island, which is accessible only by boat, contains ghostlike cemeteries of the past that go underwater at high tide. Combined, their population totals 441, Fishing Creek being the largest. They’re so remote, county residents call the islands “Down Under,” but isolation is the defining factor of the Islands’ history.
The Hooper Islands are Dorchester County’s oldest settlement, and one of the oldest in Maryland. Supposedly they were bought from the Yaocomico Native Americans for 5 blankets. After being surveyed by a Robert Clift in 1667, the land was granted to Henry Hooper in 1669. He and his family of 14 kids tried to set up a massive tobacco plantation on the Eastern Shore where tobacco was just starting to be grown. While tobacco defined the Eastern Shore for 150 years, it had not yet spread out of Southern Maryland where Hooper was living in Calvert County. The Hooper family name will go on to dominate Dorchester County for 200 years. But finding Southern Dorchester County’s marshes unsuitable for tobacco, Hooper sublet his land to small farmsteads. Early family names include the Chaplins, Bentleys, and Shapelys, as well as the Hoopers. The Hooper Islands contained small farms for the next 150 years; seafood hadn't been popularized yet.
The 1700s were a quiet time for the Hooper Islands. Family farms focused on wheat, corn, potatoes, and some tobacco. Piracy was rampant in the entire Chesapeake Bay, and the many descendants of Henry Hooper who populated Dorchester County’s legislature were vocal in asking for assistance from the state government.
Still today, family and community have always been central to life in the Hooper Islands. For 300 years, the Islands’ inhabitants could all be traced to 10 families, 2 of whom were indentured servants. None were more well-known than the original Hoopers. The eldest Henry Hooper had a knack for naming his kids Henry. Another Henry was a Brigadier General in the Revolutionary War, leading the Lower Eastern Shore Militia. Another Henry Hooper became a Colonel and owned an estate in Secretary, a town inland in Dorchester County. The records go cold until 1880 when there’s a record of MT Hooper, proving the family remained for centuries.
It wasn’t until the Civil War that the Hooper Islands were transformed into a seafood powerhouse. After the war, seafood was popularized as both a luxury for the upper class, and waste products like sardines a cheaper food source for workers. Baltimore specifically had high demand. The Eastern Shore, seeking a replacement for the slave tobacco industry, began to flourish, finally utilizing what John Smith described when he first explored the Bay in 1608. In 1848, the islands consisted of 24 family farms; by 1880 there were 30 dwellings, businesses, 4 churches, a school, and a post office. This is the time period where the three towns sprung up. Fishing Creek was first, later splitting into Fishing Creek and Honga, and Hoopersville followed. A ferry connected watermen in the islands to markets in Baltimore. A lighthouse went operational in 1902, and the first bridge was constructed in 1907, finally connecting Fishing Creek to the mainland. The Hooper Islands were very prosperous given their position on the shallow, calm Honga River. Almost every family made their living off the bay, oysters in particular. Although the islands remained in almost complete isolation as the rest of Dorchester County still focused on farming, they were very prosperous.
The Great Depression marked the end of the waterman’s dominance. In 1929, the ferries closed as big cities could no longer afford a luxury like seafood. With no market, dozens of family seafood companies were forced to shut down. Applegarth went under the waves, and the relative success of many Applegarth residents who moved away inspired others as well. Entering the 1950s, seafood markets still functioned in lower capacities and the watermen culture survived the Great Depression and World Wars fairly successfully, just not in the same numbers. It is like that to this day.
Today, the Hooper Islands are the best remaining example of the Chesapeake Bay Watermen way of life. Most of the houses still have crab pots in their front yards and docks stretch out into the Honga River up and down the coast. But the islands are at risk. The Bay’s stock of crabs and other seafood is unstable, hitting record lows recently. The watermen culture continues to become a thing of the past as more and more young adults move away. Traditions are dying with the elders who have lived their whole lives on the Bay. Additionally, erosion is threatening the islands. Applegarth already went underwater, and the same thing could happen to other communities. The problem is two-fold: global sea levels are rising, but the Eastern Shore is also sinking because of long-lasting geological effects from the last Ice Age.
The Hooper Islands are beautiful and so different and hidden from the state that I believe every devout Marylander should visit. There is no better way to appreciate Maryland’s diversity and uniqueness than to understand its storied history. And since Maryland is stereotypically known as the seafood state, it only makes sense to visit where it all began.
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