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How it happened that Roanoke Islanders gave birth to
The Lost Colony in 1937
 In
the 1920s and 1930s, Roanoke Island was sparsely
populated, and until the late 1920s, isolated and
inaccessible except by boat.
In 1921, when Mabel Evans Jones convinced the North
Carolina Department of Public instruction to make a film
about the first English colonization of America,
Chicago’s Atlas Film Company and all their equipment had
to be transported to and from Roanoke Island by boat.
About ninety percent of the actors were locals, but the
few from Raleigh, Edenton and Elizabeth City hopped a
boat to the island to participate. The completed film,
distributed throughout the state, traveled further than
most of the Roanoke Islanders had in their life time.
There is no evidence of post-film wanderlust causing a
local exodus. The fledgling thespians seemed content to
perfect their acting skills in annual local pageants
that celebrated their homeland as the site of the
foundation of English America. Such isolation and
idyllic community celebrations, however, were soon to
change.
In the late 1920s, Dare County constructed a wooden toll
bridge connecting Roanoke Island to Nags Head. Shortly
thereafter, a group of Elizabeth City businessmen—most
of whom owned property and summer cottages on the
beaches—built another wooden toll bridge connecting
Point Harbor and Kitty Hawk. Roanoke Islanders were no
longer isolated.
Nor was their story about the first English settlement
in America. The Mabel Evans Jones film had shared the
story of Sir Walter Raleigh's settlements with all North
Carolinians. Other areas were soon to learn.
In the early 1930s, Frank Stick, at the helm of a Works
Progress Administration project for Roanoke Island,
designed a representative village in honor of the first
English settlers; and Skipper Bell supervised
construction of the buildings near the Old Fort Raleigh
earthworks. The palisaded Cittie of Raleigh—replete with
chapel, houses, museum and refreshment cabins—became a
public park of great interest nationwide.
With a stream of visitors traveling to the Cittie of
Raleigh, it was not a quantum leap for Roanoke Islanders
and their leaders to envision adding a thematically
relevant theatrical production to the mix—not only in
celebration of the first English settlers, but also to
bolster the sagging local economy by developing tourism.
The Roanoke Island Historical Association (RIHA) agreed.
The fledgling organization had been launched in 1932
with the primary objective to “…celebrate and
commemorate the 350th Anniversary of …the birth of
English-speaking civilization on Roanoke Island…by Sir
Walter Raleigh (sic) and his colonists in the years 1584
and 1587....”
With the active and enthusiastic support of Congressman
Lindsay Warren, of Goldsboro, the association almost
succeeded in securing $50,000 in federal aid to mount
their celebration honoring the 350th Anniversary of
Amadas and Barlowe’s 1584 ‘claiming of the land’. The
appropriation passed the Senate, but died in the House
because the depression necessitated urgent recovery
legislation.
Three years later, when 1937 rolled in, the depression
was still raging throughout the nation. RIHA had spent
the last three years planning for the 350th Anniversary
of Virginia Dare’s birth, but as time drew near,
hesitated, afraid to move forward until funding could be
secured.
 On
16 January 1937, after a heated debate at a board
meeting held at the Fort Raleigh Hotel (now the Dare
County Administrative building) on Budleigh Street in
Manteo, RIHA withdrew from sponsoring the celebration,
but pledged support if another organization would take
over the helm.
The decision seemed to be the death knell for Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright Paul Green’s proposed new drama
about the lost colonists. Tension was in the air.
Roanoke Islanders, Bradford Fearing and Victor Meekins,
who had led the debate for moving forward and producing
the event as planned, made a pointed and rapid exit from
the meeting. A few other board members quickly rose in
support and followed the duo across the street to
Fearing’s office in the courthouse. Paul Green was among
those who followed.
Legend has it that Brad Fearing turned to Paul Green and
asked if he would write a pageant for him, if he,
Bradford, could form a local sponsoring group. Green
agreed, and the two men sealed the deal with a
handshake.
Something of the sort must have happened, for two days
later, in a letter to Bradford Fearing, Paul Green
confirmed the terms they had agreed upon on the evening
of 16 January. The letter, dated 18 January 1937, was
addressed to Mr. D.B. Fearing, General Chairman of the
Roanoke Colony Memorial Association of Manteo.
Although membership in Bradford’s new ad hoc
organization varied with almost every printed list or
letterhead, the principal officers were: D. Bradford
Fearing, Chair; Roy L. Davis, President; D. Victor
Meekins, Vice President; R. Bruce Etheridge, Vice
President; T.S. Meekins, Vice President; Moncie L.
Daniels, Vice President; Ike P. Davis, Vice President;
Melvin R. Daniels, Secretary; Chauncey S. Meekins,
Treasurer; R. B. Drane, Historian. All save Dr. Drane
were Roanoke Islanders; all businessmen, government
employees or elected representatives; and all believed
in the merits of Paul Green’s play and the celebration
enough to risk their own careers and personal money.
Other Roanoke Islanders, who were non-officers, but were
closely involved with Bradford’s ad hoc association and
its administration include: Martin Kellogg, Jr.; Mabel
Evans Jones; and Mabel H. Basnight.
At the time, Bradford, owner of the local Feed & Seed
Store, was also Chairman of the Dare County Chamber of
Commerce; Victor Meekins, a newspaperman, was County
Sheriff; Bruce Etheridge, the district Representative in
the state General Assembly; T.S. Meekins, a prominent
local businessman in insurance and real estate; Moncie
Daniels, another local businessman with a general store
and Esso Standard Oil distributorship; Ike Davis, a
county director of Social Services and the Veterans
Administration; Roy Davis, WPA liaison for Dare County;
Melvin Daniels, the county Register of Deeds; Chauncey
Meekins, the Clerk of Court; Martin Kellogg, a local
attorney; Mabel Evans Jones, Director of Camp Seatone, a
newspaperwoman and a former County Superintendent of
Schools; and Mabel Basnight, Bradford’s Executive
Secretary.
Dr. Drane, the non-Outer-Banker in the group was from
Edenton. He had been successively an incorporator, stock
holder, director and President of the 1894 Roanoke
Colony Memorial Association of Baltimore that had
purchased and preserved the earthworks at Old Fort
Raleigh. The organization had faded into inactivity when
RIHA was formed in 1932, and Dr. Drane became the first
person to hold the RIHA board officer position of
historian.
The local population fully supported Bradford’s
organization and its quest to create a quality dramatic
production as the centerpiece of a seasonal celebration
to commemorate Roanoke Island—the birthplace of English
America. So did Paul Green.
Bradford’s group produced the celebration and the play;
they raised and administered the money; handled
publicity; located accommodations for visitors; and kept
a sharp eye on quality as well as fiscal control. And
that is how it happened that Roanoke Islanders gave
birth to The Lost Colony in downtown Manteo, in Bradford
Fearing’s office in the courthouse on 16 January 1937.
But it was Paul Green who made the play happen
artistically. It was through his contacts with Broadway
and the Federal Theatre Project that professional actors
were employed in principal roles; through his contacts
with the Carolina Playmakers, Yale University and
Westminster Choir College, that the artistic staff,
technicians and musicians were chosen; and through his
desire that Roanoke Islanders played most of the roles
in the show.
On 4 July 1937, when the summer-long celebration opened,
almost the entire population of Roanoke Island was
involved in some capacity or other—most playing a role
in Paul Green’s The Lost Colony.
Bradford, his Roanoke Colony Memorial Association of
Manteo, Dare County residents—ably supported by RIHA
board members, Paul Green and his professional and
educational associates; and Congressman Lindsay Warren
who secured the assistance of several WPA Programs,
departments of federal government and the President
himself—succeeded in creating a phenomenal celebration
for the 350th Anniversary of Virginia Dare’s birth. The
gala event, which was attended by thousands (10,000 on
one night alone!), included boat races, art exhibits,
concerts, the world premiere of Paul Green’s The Lost
Colony, and a visit by the President of the United
States who presented a public address and attended a
performance of the outdoor drama.
Topping it off, Bradford and his group made enough money
from the 1937 gala to underwrite most of the funding
needed to produce a second season of The Lost Colony in
1938.
Now under the aegis of RIHA, the drama has been
performed every summer season since 1937—with the
exception of four years during World War II.
Bradford Fearing, the Roanoke Colony Memorial
Association of Manteo and Paul Green’s The Lost Colony
opened the door to tourism on the Outer Banks—creating
the greatest economic boom in the history of Dare
County.
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