Spells Death to Edible Fish. . . His Nets Set End to End Would Measure 16 Miles or More
Thousands of readers of this newspaper will instantly recognize the above photo as an excellent likeness of Dare County’s greatest fisherman. Hailed thruout his county as Cap’n Zeke and known in fishing circles over the whole Atlantic Seaboard as the largest independent purveyor of fishing materials in North Carolina, his career is as equally interesting as his picture is familiar.
E.R. Daniels started out more than 40 years ago, a boatman and fisherman, making his first break for himself by buying a few hundred dollars worth of fish. He freighted fish in a small schooner of which he was master, invested the proceeds in a small mercantile business, and today it’s owner’s assets are reckoned by rumor at more than a half million dollars. Mr. Daniels is president of the Globe Fish Company of Elizabeth city, which last year did a $251,000 business by handling fish, and operating a line of freight and passenger crude-oil steamers between this city and the fishing centers of Dare County.
In addition, he superintends the fishing of about 125 pound nets, the combined length of which, if set in a line would stretch for more than eight miles, and enough gill nets to reach a similar distance, the operation of which requires during the season the entire time of upwards of a hundred of Roanoke Island’s huskiest fishermen. Althou having just passed the 65th milestone, he still remains the vim and vigor of a man of 45 and can be seen in oilskins and boots with his men, many times during the fishing season.
At the age of 23 he married Miss Eugenia Pugh of Wanchese, who died about three years ago. By this union was reared seven sons and one daughter of which children all are married but one son. Four of the sons left the island, engaging in business for themselves, and three are operating the father’s store at Wanchese, which in volume of business is rated the second largest country store in the state. These three brothers married three daughters of a neighboring family.
Mr. Daniels was once an owner in the ice plant at Manteo, and was president of the Daniels’ Roanoke River line, which operated freight and passenger steamers on the river several years. He is a director in the First & Citizens National Bank of this city, having been identified with the bank at its beginning when he purchased $1,000 worth of stock as a starter. Mr. Daniels says that was a big investment for him in those days.
Before his business interests claimed so much of his time he was an active man in politics and for several years was a Republican leader in this county. He is a member of the Methodist church and several charitable and fraternal organizations. Altho a busy man of affairs, he takes time to read The Independent every week, having been an interested subscriber for several years. To quote his words: “I like that paper and just couldn’t get along without it.” Photo by W.H. Zoeller.
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Nov. 4, 1921
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