Harkers Island is a census-designated place (CDP) in Carteret County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, Harkers Island had a population of 1,127. Harkers Island is unincorporated and receives most public services, including law enforcement and public education, from Carteret County. A membership cooperative provides the island with electric and water services. Major industries on the island include fishing, boat building, tourism, and waterfowl decoy carving.
Formerly named Davers Ile and Craney Island, Harkers Island was occupied by Native Americans of the Coree tribe when the first European explorers arrived in the 16th century. Ownership of Harkers Island was first titled to Farnifold Green, a native of the Carolina colony, by the lord proprietor in 1707. Ebenezer Harker purchased the island in 1730, settled there with his family, and built a plantation and boat yard. The island became known as Harkers Island soon after his death. A large immigration of islanders fleeing the hurricane-ravaged Outer Banks in 1899 dramatically increased the island population, which largely depended on fishing and boat building. Separated from the mainland for centuries, many Harkers Island residents speak a distinct dialect of English, earning them the nickname "Hoi toiders." History Before the arrival of European explorers and settlers, Harkers Island was inhabited by Native Americans of the Coree tribe, who likely spoke a language of the Algonquian family, like most coastal tribes. The nearby Core Sound and Core Banks are named after the Coree. The Coree left little in the way of evidence of permanent habitation on Harkers Island, except for a large mound of oyster shells at Shell Point on the eastern end of the island. Similar shell mounds were found by Europeans on the Shackleford Banks and other islands of the Outer Banks. The exact purpose of the mounds for the Coree remains unknown, but varying cultures of indigenous peoples in the Southeast had been building major earthwork mounds since 3500 BCE, the Middle Archaic period, usually related to religious and ceremonial uses.
In 1584, an English expedition financed by Sir Walter Raleigh and led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe explored the North Carolina coast for a suitable site for the first English colony in North America. Two Native Americans, Wanchese and Manteo, accompanied the expedition back to England in the fall of 1584. According to local island legend, Wanchese was a Coree from Harkers Island.Murphrey, Kelly and Murphrey, Wanda (2006). Harkers Island History. Retrieved July 28, 2006. The island was first charted on the maps drawn by John White during the 1584 expedition, but it was unnamed at the time. The island appears on a 1624 map of the greater Virginia coastline created by Captain John Smith. On that map, the island is labeled "Davers Ile", probably for Sir John Davers, one of the founders of Jamestown in 1607.Prioli, Carmine and Martin, Edwin (1998). Hope for a Good Season: The Ca'e Bankers of Harkers Island. John F. Blair Publisher, July, 1998.
On December 20, 1707, Farnifold Green obtained the first patent for land in the Core Sound area from the lord proprietor of the Carolina colony, which had been established by the English monarch Charles I in 1633. This patent included Harkers Island, which was then known as Craney Island.Paul, Charles L. (1965). "Colonial Beaufort" . The Colonial Records Project. North Carolina Office of Archives & History. Vol. 42, pp. 139-152. On June 25, 1709, Green sold the island to William Brice for £5, who on the very same day sold it to Thomas Sparrow III (1674–1717) for £10. Sparrow soon sold the island to Thomas Pollock, who would twice be governor of North Carolina (from 1712 to 1714 and again in 1722). Pollock did not take up residence on the island, but had several farm buildings erected and then leased to settlers. The 1720 lease to a Captain Stone was £3 a year. Thomas Pollock's son George inherited the island upon his father's death on August 30, 1722.Angley, Wilson (1983). A Historical Overview of Harkers Island, with special emphasis on Westmouth and Eastmouth Bays . Raleigh, N.C.: N C. Division of Archives and History, 1983.
Settlement of Ebenezer Harker George Pollock sold Craney Island to Ebenezer Harker on September 15, 1730, for £400 and "one boate twentey foot long with oars & mast". Harker had immigrated to Massachusetts from England on a ship that set sail from Wales. Living in Boston, Harker had been involved in the whaling trade, and became familiar with the North Carolina coast during this time.Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (2006). Port of Call: Harkers Island, NC . Text adapted from "This Is Core Sound", by T. Edward Nickens in Core Sound Waterfowl Museum, 2000. Retrieved July 28, 2006. Harker had moved to Beaufort, North Carolina, by 1728, where he was appointed a tax collector for the whale oil revenue generated in the area. After purchasing the island, Harker took up residence there with his family and began building a small plantation and boat yard. Harker sold half of the island to his nephew John Stevens of Onslow County on March 8, 1733, for £300, with many restrictions on its agricultural use. Prohibited from farming or ranching the land for profit, Stevens eventually sold his half of the island back to his uncle on June 9, 1737, for just £180.Lewis, Robert G. (1999). Ebenezer Harker, Island Namesake Carteret County Historical Society, Inc., Morehead City, NC, p. 3.
The Harker plantation and boat building facility were located at the western end of the island, near Harker Point, and grew to support an extended family with three sons, two daughters, and at least nine African slaves. Ebenezer would be the last sole landowner of the island. In 1752, he deeded approximately of the island to his daughter Hepsobeth and her husband Nathan Yeomans as a wedding gift. On his death in 1762, his son Zachariah inherited the western third of the island, an adult slave woman named Vilet, and a young female slave named Daisie.
Another son, James, inherited the eastern third of the island, an adult slave woman named Hague and a young male slave named Peter. Ebenezer Jr. inherited the central third of the island, an adult male slave named Jeffrey, and a young male slave named Sutton. Hepsobeth inherited "one barrel of corn", and Ebenezer's other married daughter, Sarah Freshwater, was given a female slave named Hope. The fate of an elderly female slave named Badge and a young male slave named Ben was left to the heirs to decide. The will referred to "Craney Island"; the name "Harkers Island" was only adopted after Ebenezer's death.
The sons of Ebenezer prospered on Harkers Island. Ebenezer Jr. was elected Sheriff of Carteret County in 1758. Zachariah Harker developed a salt works on the western third of Harkers Island in 1776. In the following years, Zachariah and his brothers became supporters of the American Revolution, and Zachariah was appointed one of five captains in the Carteret Regiment fighting against the British. Harkers Island was involved in the Battle of Beaufort, North Carolina. Revolutionaries used warehouse facilities on Harkers Island to store provisions sought by British troops who had seized the nearby county seat of Beaufort. Thirteen men guarding the stores on Harkers Island, probably led by Zachariah Harker, repulsed British troops in a brief battle on April 6, 1782. The first national census of 1790 recorded 16 white residents and 13 slaves on Harkers Island. By 1800, the population had expanded to 26 white residents, 16 slaves, and 7 "others", probably those of mixed race or freed slaves. Ebenezer Jr., James, and Zachariah Harker died in 1803, 1814, and 1824, respectively.
Nineteenth century Harkers Island remained sparsely populated until the latter part of the 19th century. The island saw no direct military conflict in the American Civil War; however, Union warships anchored near the island to control access to Bogue Sound and Core Sound during the Battle of Fort Macon. The besieged Confederate garrison at Fort Macon surrendered on April 26, 1862. Harkers Island and the surrounding area remained under Union control for the duration of the war. The few, if any, descendants of the Harker slaves still living on the island likely left soon after emancipation. The vast majority of the freed slaves in the coastal societies of Carteret and Craven counties either emigrated to other parts of the state, or moved into their own, separate communities, such as Davis Ridge, the North River Community, and Craven Corner.Cecelski, David (2001). "The Last Daughter of Davis Ridge: Slavery and Freedom in the Maritime South" . Greenville: Department of History, College of Arts and Sciences, East Carolina University.
In 1864, the first school on the island was established when Miss Jenny Bell came to Harkers Island from Boston, sponsored by the Northern Methodist Episcopal Church.Harkers Island Electric Cooperative (2006). A Brief History of Harkers Island and the Dawn of Electricity . Retrieved July 28, 2006. A fish oil factory was built on the island in 1865 and remained operational until 1873. A small milling facility was built on the west end of the island in 1870 by Louie Larson, an immigrant from Norway, but it closed before the turn of the 20th century. Most island residents continued to earn a subsistence living from boat building or fishing.
The Hurricane of 1899 Harkers Island saw an influx of new residents after hurricanes in 1896 and 1899 devastated the communities established on the nearby Core Banks and Shackleford Banks. Mostly fishermen and whalers, the people of the Outer Banks began openly debating the merits of moving after the Hurricane of 1896. William Henry Guthrie of Diamond City was one of the first to relocate, buying of land on Harkers Island in 1897. Some others moved to more sheltered locations on the coast, but most Shackleford residents remained on the Banks. Diamond City was by far the largest town in that area of the coast, with over 700 inhabitants.
Three years later, another hurricane hit the Carolina coast, and this time the disaster for the residents of the Shackleford Banks was total. Diamond City was completely destroyed by the August 17 Hurricane of 1899. The storm ravaged the Banks' protective sand dunes, and washed away nearly all of the top soil. Orchards and maritime forest on the Banks soon began dying from the salt left behind by the storm surge. Homes were ripped from their foundations, shattered, or submerged. Even graves in the local cemeteries were uprooted and disturbed. A botanist who visited the Banks after the storm described the landscape as completely devastated.
Many families used boats to move what was left of their houses, plank by plank, from the Outer Banks to Harkers Island where they could rebuild. Some settled on the Guthrie property, which he began to subdivide. Others purchased or leased land on the island anywhere they could. Some emigrated to Morehead City, on the mainland, where they built a new neighborhood soon nicknamed "The Promised Land". The last resident had left Diamond City by 1902. In the five years between 1895 and 1900, the population of Harkers Island expanded fourfold from just 13 extended families to over 1,000 residents. The island had gone from being one of the smallest communities in Carteret County to one of the largest.