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Tangier Island History Tangier Island enjoys a rich history. Before colonial times it was a native American fishing ground. Arrowheads can still be found there ocasionally. The first European explorer was apparently John Smith in 1608, who stopped there during his tour of the Chesapeake Bay. The British staged an attack on Baltimore from its shores in the War of 1812. During the Civil War, because of the strong Methodism there, the island refused to go along with the rest of Virginia on the issue of slavery. This apparently led to a skirmish with those from the Eastern Shore who held a different viewpoint. Many people from Tangier have served in the armed forces. During WWII the Tangier is thought to have had a higher percentage of able-bodied men in the armed services than any other town in Virginia. In 2005 there were 14 people from Tangier in the armed forces. John Crockett settled the island in 1686. However, Parks is the most common name on the island with 103 residents by that name. Crockett and Pruitt are also very common names. There are a total of 53 last names on the island. The population of Tangier was 79 in the 1800 census. By 1900 there were 1064 inhabitants. Now there are about 590 people living on the island. The British placed 1200 troops on the island during the war of 1812. It was then that Tangier Pastor Joshua Thomas preached a sermon to the British warning them that their attack on Ft. McHenry in Baltimore would fail. It did. This sermon is commemorated with a historical plaque at the Swain Memorial Methodist Church on Tangier. This Methodist congregation was established in 1835. The present-day Swain Memorial United Methodist Church building has been in use since 1897 and is central to the life of the island with a congregation of about 340 members. The New Testament Church is a Christian, non-denominational church with about 60 members. Long ago, deceased family members were buried in their home yards. Only a few open family plots are left. Now even the Church cemetaries are getting full so increasingly, burial occurs off the island. Traditional religious values predominate on the island. Two thirds of all the islanders are church members. Islanders once refused to allow a Kevin Costner/Paul Newman movie, Message in a Bottle, to be filmed there because there was sex and swearing in the script. Martha's Vineyard, another island community also turned the movie down but only because the movie company wanted to build a 3000 sq. ft. temporary house in the dunes. The movie, which was eventually made elsewhere, was not a big hit. In 1998 58 watermen signed a pledge at the Methodist Church promising to be good stewards of the Bay. Alcohol can't be legally sold on the island. Two recent hurricanes, Isabel (2003) and Ernesto (2006) flooded much of the island. A few houses have been abandoned while others are being elevated on new foundations. The most common way of making a living on Tangier is by crabbing and oystering. Currently 87 men on the island are employed as watermen. However, as it becomes increasingly difficult to make a living from the watermen, more and more Tangiermen are getting Coast Guard licenses and going to work for tugboat companies. There are now 56 men employed by that industry. Generally these men work on the tugs as far away as the Gulf of Mexico for two weeks and then are home for two weeks. There are now a few vacation homes on the island but most homes are owned by natives, whose family ties to the island go back generations. Much of the current information about the island came from a booklet done by the Tangier PTA as a fund raiser. It booklet is: Tangier Facts: Past to the Present Day. By Faith Charnock and Edited by Donna Crockett. It is available in most of the Island gift shops.
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