Reginald Fessenden, Pioneer Of Wireless Radio

Fessenden was not the only inventor on the Outer Banks in the early years of the century. Across Croatan Sound smoke curled up from the camp of a pair of bicycle mechanics from Ohio. At Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers' heavier-than-air flying experiments were well underway. ''While Reg and his men were making wireless history on Ronaoke Island, history of a vastly different form was being made at Kitty Hawk by the Wright brothers,'' Helen said. ''It was a companionable thought that in this element, the air, two men not so many miles away from us were achieving mastery in one form while we at Manteo were achieving mastery in another.''

The time spent on the Outer Banks was a busy one for Fessenden as he continued the brutal pace he set for himself. He traveled between his field lab and outposts, double-checking connections and trouble-shooting equipment. Meanwhile, on Roanoke Island, Helen delighted in the relaxed pace and slower tempo of island life.

''Our windows look east,'' she wrote to a friend, ''and out on a small warehouse and wharf at which, twice a week, it was joy to watch the schooner 'Manie Carlos' under Captain Johnson, swing alongside with the beautiful precision of a mathematical curve. The wharf is the habitat of the cat 'Yellow Maria,' who up to the time of our arrival had fended ably for herself. But after Reg had paid her the graceful attention of buying a mess of oysters and having them opened for her, evening and office time was the signal for her presence upstairs. Seated on the bare edge of the table beside her patron as, deep in dictation he swung and balanced in his desk chair, a yellow paw would reach out from time to time to rest on his arm, not to play, not to distract, but merely to touch.''

The wharf also brought visitors: ''On Christmas Eve [1901], a cruising motor boat tied up at our wharf and word went around that it was 'the Edison boys' [Thomas Edison's two sons]. Reg went down to call and found the party of four in their little cabin ankle deep in feathers; with all the zeal of amateurs they were tackling the job of plucking a goose. The party consisted of Tom Edison, Billy Edison and his wife, a dainty little Virginia beauty, and her sister. They were Florida-bound, cruising leisurely along inland waters, but finding at Manteo a colony that promised congenial companionship, they gradually abandoned thoughts of Florida and when we left for good in August, 1902, they were still there.''