Discover Delmarva: Coulbourne and Jewett Seafood Packing Co.
If you’ve ever bitten into a savory crab cake then you owe your seafood choice to a guy from Crisfield.
That’s right, a homegrown man named Frederick Jewett is credited with revolutionizing the seafood
industry.
“Jewett was really the entrepreneur here. He was a pretty smart businessman. What all of these seafood businesses did is they packed seafood in the winter and fruits and vegetables in the summer,” says museum curator Pete Lesher.
But Jewett, a black man living in the Jim Crow era saw a chance to create a niche for himself.
He decided to sell oysters and crab meat all year long.
Jewett teamed up with two other men to start a seafood packing plant in St. Michaels.
One partner backed out right away but William Coulbourne remained in the partnership that became Coulbourne and Jewett Seafood Packing Company.
Curator, Pete Lesher says, “In 1902 when Jewett set out on his own. One, here’s an African American who got somebody to sell him the land but also remarkably he managed to get a bank loan to start a business.”
With just a small 500 loan from a little bank in Crisfield these gentlemen were able to build a business on this parcel of land that would become St. Michaels biggest employer for nearly six decades.
“At first only the Black watermen would sell product to him , but eventually all the watermen figured out that his money is as green as anybody else’s,” recounts Lesher.
Jewett was the first person to classify the crab meat he was selling.
He broke it into categories like lump, claw, backfin, special and regular.
In doing this, the company was able to sell some of the meat at a higher premium.
The Coulbourne and Jewett Seafood Packing Company flourished and employed about 100 people year ’round.
The plant shipped impressive amounts of crab meat and oyster to cities as far away as Pittsburgh.
Its a story of breaking the mold and setting the bar.
One that volunteer docent, Lloyd Devigne, says he includes with every tour at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.
“Because its sort of the American way. You come up with an idea and you have enough energy, drive, creativity and you manage to fulfill yourself with the American dream,” says Devigne.
The company eventually closed up shop in the early 60s.
However Somerset County icon, Frederick Jewett will forever be credited with changing the game, at least in the seafood industry.
