Salem Avery (1831-1887) left his family and friends for Maryland while in his early 20s. He joined an exodus of Long Island waterman—including an older brother—fleeing over-fished oyster beds in search of a fresh start.
Avery came from a family of prosperous watermen and farmers. He was probably no stranger to the Chesapeake Bay before arriving in the 1850s. New York and New England oystermen had been working these waters—winter oystering—for two generations.
Avery quickly settled in. Within a decade he married a local widow, became a father, and acquired a house and waterfront property (where you are now standing). Over the next 25 years, the hard working and ambitious newcomer owned a series of oystering vessels, bought and sold property, and provided loans to neighbors.
Joining other families of black and white waterman and farmers, Salem Avery helped transform the sparsely populated “Great Swamp” into the community that was renamed “Shady Side” shortly after his death in 1887.
Lucretia Avery (1828-1900) raised seven children here while managing the household and farm property—often while pregnant. The Mayo native had already been married and widowed once before she married Salem. Lucretia gave birth to her first child, Ella, at age 29. Eight more followed over the next 14 years. Two died in infancy within 16 days of each other in July of 1864. Imagine, how very tragic.
Oystering season was especially hard for the family. Salem could be gone from home for a week at a time. As a buy boat captain, he hauled the oysters he purchased from tongers to packing houses in Crisfield, Norfolk, and Baltimore.
We don’t know much about Lucretia’s family and what support they may have provided each other. The fifth of eight children, her father, Eli Weedon, died when she was 10. Her mother, Catherine Johnson Weeden, was left with six children under the age of 16. Of Lucretia’s childhood we only know that she did not learn how to read or write. Lucretia Avery survived Salem by 13 years, dying at age 72 in 1900. Together, they created a large extended family.
“The runner (also known as the Buy Boat) will be anchored near some tonging ground, an empty basket or a small flag will be hoisted to the masthead as a signal that she is ready to receive oysters. In one or two days she will be loaded and is at once off for a market.”
— U.S. Fish report 1880
Salem Avery owned at least a dozen vessels—three sloops and nine schooners—over a 25-year period as a Maryland oysterman and buy boat captain. With few exceptions, he was both the managing owner and the master (captain of the vessel).
These records are as revealing as they are provocative. Avery owned most vessels for only a year. We don’t know why. He also went for two long stretches (1853-1859 and 1866-1875) without registering a vessel. Did he captain other waterman’s vessels? And then for five years (1877-1881) he owned two vessels.
Salem Avery was one of some 200 Marylanders licensed as a buy boat operator. Officials estimated in 1880 that captains earned $50/month and their crew of four $18/month plus board.
many Native American tribes such as the Choptank and the Piscataway had historically relied on the Bay’s bounty as ample food sources. When Captain John Smith discovered the Chesapeake Bay in the 1600s, he noted the waters were crystal clear and filled with fish thriving among the underwater grasses.
the Chesapeake Bay has played an important economic role by providing a bountiful harvest of fish, crabs, oysters, and eels and a fine living for many local residents. In the latter part of the 1800s, Captain Salem Avery relocated from Long Island in New York to Shady Side, Maryland, to take advantage of this bounty.
fewer watermen can work full-time on the Bay as development, pollution, and erosion have impacted water quality and aquatic habitats, and reduced fish, crab and oyster populations to dangerous lows.