William Bowser grew up hearing 

 the stories from his grandfather. 

 He always knew that he, too, 

 would someday be a surfman. 

 "It was in my blood that I would 

 go to Pea Island/' says Bowser. 

 "That's all we had on our minds. 



We all wanted to be 

 just like them." 



station were reportedly in the vicinity 

 of the station on the night of the fire. 

 Newcomb pursued that line of 

 investigation. 



He found it odd that the brothers, 

 who were aware of the fire as it 

 burned, did nothing to notify nearby 

 Lifesaving 

 Service 



officials. While 

 the brothers 

 were under 

 questioning, 

 their story 

 conflicted with 

 testimony of 

 other witnesses. 

 One of the 

 brothers was 

 the highest 

 ranking surfman at Bodie Island and a 

 candidate for keeper of a station; the 

 other brother and a third suspect had 

 served as substitutes but sought full- 

 time positions in the service. They had 

 interest in removing the black crew. 



In fact, the brother who held the 

 highest rank had been heard commenting 

 "[t]hat it would be an easy matter for a 

 surfman who had a falling out with his 

 Keeper, to set a station on fire, or ... 

 injure the property in such a manner as 

 to throw blame on the Keeper and cause 

 his dismissal from the Service." 



Newcomb reported to Kimball: 

 "The inference is that ... [the third 

 suspect] was employed by [the brother 

 who was only a substitute] to set the 

 station on fire, the object being, to 

 secure the removal of the present 

 colored Keeper, thus enabling [the 

 brother] to succeed him and giving [the 

 third man] a situation as surfman in the 

 station." According to Newcomb, the 

 higher ranked brother had devised the 

 scheme. 



Although Newcomb felt strongly 

 that these men were involved in burning 

 the station, Kimball chose not to pursue 

 the matter further. Kimball was aware of 

 the risk he had taken in appointing 

 Etheridge. He feared that prosecuting the 



First black station keeper Richard Etheridge was a proven leader, having joined the Union Army when it opened its ranks to 

 blacks in 1863. He fought tirelessly against mistreatment of his fellow soldiers in the 36th U.S. Colored Troops. 



8 MAY/ JUNE 1995 



