41 
ground. We began in the morning and tonged up until the 
lunch hour and we got about a half-dozen marketable oysters. 
As I took Mr. Jones ashore to get his lunch I met Mr. C. D. 
Insley. I asked him if he would go out with me and show 
me where those oysters were on my brother’s plot, as Mr. 
Insley had been claiming that this ground had a good catch 
of oysters on it. He tonged there with me until late supper 
time and we didn’t catch over a peck of oysters the whole day. 
These 1,100 bushels planted on the plot of J. B. Spedden were 
brought from the Eastern Shore by Captain Wallace, Captain 
Phillips and Captain Parker and purchased by me for my 
brother’s account and the 700 bushels planted on my own 
tract were brought from the Potomac River by Captain Lewis 
and Captain Gatton and purchased by me. 
During the summer season of 1913 the Calvert County oyster- 
men made visits to our county and persuaded our people to 
join an Oystermen’s Protective Association and also to con- 
tribute to the fund to maintain this Association. I met Mr. 
Horseman, of Broome’s Island, on Sotterley wharf. We were 
discussing oyster leasing and he asked me: “What would you 
do if we came up on your ground and went to oystering?” 
I told him if it was to be one boat for a test case he would 
be treated as a gentleman and that I would do everything in 
the world if he was imprisoned to get him out of trouble, be- 
cause the planters would gladly accept a test case of that kind, 
but not to come as a raid. He said to me: “ if we 
come we don’t know whether we are looking for that kind of 
treatment or not.” 
I then went to Hollywood and met several friends of mine 
on the road who were discussing the oyster question and the 
meetings that were being held in that neighborhood. I told 
them that I would accept a test case gladly on the conditions 
that I have just above stated; so I got a message from them 
that they were not going to raid my ground, as I had held it 
over twelve months in peaceful possession and had seeded it, 
which was sufficient to give me title under the old law. To my 
surprise, a few days later twenty-nine or thirty boats, all but 
two from Calvert County, raided my brother’s ground and re- 
moved, as nearly as I can determine, about 1,000 bushels of 
oysters. ; 
