Little Oyster and Big Oyster - Ellis and Liberty Islands and the Story of Wells Fargo

Many people outside of New York City look at Ellis Island and Liberty Island thinking that they were always there. But that wasnt always true. In the 1600's when Hudson first arrived they were just mud flats created by the accumulated silt from the Southward flow of the Hudson River to the Harbor at the tip of Manhattan Island.

They were the oyster beds where the Lenape Indians got their oysters. At that time the oysters were 10 inches long. They were also the source of the wampum used as money by the Lenape and other tribes in the surrounding area.

As late as 1800 these 2 areas were called Liitle Oyster, which became Ellis Island; and Big Oyster, which became Bedloe's and then Liberty Island. But until then they were really just mud shoals and a hazard to navigation.But they were a great source of food; namely the Oyster. At that time the area was considered the largest oyster bed in the world.

A great book on the subject is "The Big Oyster" by Mark Kurlansky. A wonderful h in story of both the delicacy and New York's harbor of the time. Yet another good book on the subject is "The Oyster Pirates."

The photo above is from 1937 and shows a pile of the shells left from lunch. Although the size of the oyster had shrunk, the pollution and over harvesting had not yet decimated the oyster beds. But it had diminished them in both quantity and size.

And lets not forget the role these oysters played in uniting the East and West in developing America.

In 1841 a man named William Harnden, considered by many to be America's the nation's first "expressman", hired Henry Wells to figure out how to deliver things quickly between New York City and Albany. The Post Office was too slow, and personal couriers too expensive. That left only a few stagecoach companies to fill the gap. But Henry Wells had him beat by offering a unique idea; delivering for multiple customers at a time laid out logistically.

Wells, along with Will Fargo, who partnered up in the 1840's, had to prove their worth to get an investor to enlarge their business westward from Buffalo. And this is where the Oyster enters the picture.

One of their best known achievements was in bringing fresh oysters up to Buffalo, the jumping off point westward on the Erie Canal, from NewYork City's oyster beds to show case their ability to deliver.

Until then overland travel was considered too slow to deliver fresh seafood far inland. The Erie Canal was the best means of East West transportation, but the Southern route to New York was still mostly rutted, muddy roads.

If they could pull this off they would be able to secure the necessary funding to go Westward to St. Louis, and from there to the later Comstock Lode of Silver and the the gold of San Francisco. In the 1840's the train was still in the stage of proving it's worth. So the timing was just right.

Here is Mr. Well's account of that event, 75 years afterwards;

"It may amuse you to hear that the oyster was a powerful agent in expediting our progress.

That very delicious shell fish was fully appreciated by the Buffalonians — and deeply they felt the sad fact that there was one occasion toward spring, no oysters in Buffalo. James Leidley, the tavern keeper, asked me why the express could not bring them.

“Bring oysters by coach over such roads!” was my astonished exclamation.

His answer was the keystone to all success in enterprise.

“If I pay for them — charge just what you will.” They were brought — opened in Albany and brought to Buffalo at the cost of $3 the hundred — and the arrival of those oysters by express at Buffalo created a sensation as great as would today the coming hither of a section of the Atlantic Telegraph."

Later, in the 1870's, after trains were well proven, Wells Fargo still had routes not yet  covered by the trains. And in 1849 the stagecoach transported much of the gold from Sutter's Hill to San Fransico.

For the names of more books on this subject you can just hit the link below to the NY Public library.  Since there are no real photos of the old mud flats which became Ellis and Liberty Islands, that is where I got the photo of the oyster shells.

So remember, the next time you shuck an oyster, or eat one fried, it's not just an oyster you're holding. It's a piece of history.

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/06/01/history-half-shell-intertwined-story-new-york-city-and-its-oysters

 "There is in every one of us a spark of the infinite goodness that created us. When we leave this Earth, we are reunited with it as a raindrop falling from heaven is at last reunited with the sea which gave it birth." 

This quote is from Somerest Maugham's "The Razor's Edge" and attributed to Sri Ramana / Ramana Maharshi. He was born Venkataraman Iyer on December 30, 1879  but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He is also known as "the liberated being."

This film is the screen version of Somerset Maugham's thinly disguised memoir. It is an unusual book in that it is more about his memories of a close friend than his own life. It is classed as a novel only because he changed the name of that friend as well as his own family members.

The friend, Larry, is played by Tyrone Power. And in seeking enlightenment he seems to inadvertently learn that what Sri Ramana has taught him is not always true. There are people who are inherently indifferent, and still others who are evil.

An outstanding film, marked by the performances of Tyrone Power as Larry, Cecil Humphreys as Sri Ramana, Clifton Webb as Elliot Templeton and both  Anne Baxter and Gene Tierney, as Sophie and Isabelle respectively. W. Somerset Maugham is played by Herbert Marshall.

The film begins just after World War One and spans the following decade. It takes place in Chicago, London, Paris and Tibet. The book is well adapted for the screen.

It is mainly the story of Larry, the most unusual man the author ever encountered, and the contrast between the spiritual life he has chosen, and the material lives of Elliot Templeton and the rest of the cast.

Written in 1944 it was well adapted for the screen only 2 years later by Darryl F. Zanuck.

John Wise - 1859

This is one of my favorite old photographs. It was taken on August 17th, 1859 and shows John Wise about to lift off from Lafeyette, Indiana with the first attempt at Air Mail in the United States. He was bound for New York City with 123 letters on his balloon named Jupiter.

Aside from carrier pigeons there had only ever been one other attempt to use balloons to carry mail. That  was on January 7th, 1785 and the goal was to carry mail from Dover, England to Calais, France. That efffort was successful. Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American Dr.John Jeffries made the first manned crossing of the English Channel by air.

But the return effort was almost a disaster. Their ballon was equipped with a rudder and even 2 oars by which they believed they could row through the air if needed. The extra weight required them to ditch everything they could, from the oars and rudder and even including their clothes. They landed clad only in their undergarments.

10 years later Monsieur Blanchard actually did cross the Atlantic successfully by ballon carrying mail, this time landing fully clothed.

By contrast, John Wise took 5 hours to travel anout 30 miles before giving up and landing in Crawfordsville, also in Indiana, where he descended and put the mail on a train. The winds had been tending to the Southwest, and even ascending to 14,000 feet he had not been able to overcome the problem.

One letter seems to have survived over the years from the first flight and is housed at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. It bears a 3 cent stamp, equivalent to 80 cents in today's currency. It is addressed to "W H Munn, No. 24 West 26 St., N York City."

One month later, in September, he tried again. This time he made it 800 miles to Hendersonville, New York. It was there that he crashed, losing all the mail in the process.

He tried several more times and failed before his attempts were interrupted by the Civil War, during which he flew Observation Ballons, which was hazardous duty. But as soon as the war ended he resumed his efforts, amassing a total of 463 fights, all of which were unsuccessful. Winds and weather always seemed to overcome him. He crashed several more times but continued; undaunted in his quest.

It was the 364th attempt in 1879 which did him in. He was last sighted sailing over Lake Michigan, blown off course and never seen again. He was 71 years young at heart, and he died a true visionary.

Finally, with the advent of the airplane, Air Mail became a reality. The first flight, carrying just 3  letters, was successful and delivered them a few miles between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, California, in February 1911. A far cry from John Wise's original goal in both capacity and distance.