Excerpted from the Beacon Flashes column:

• Harry COOPER, colored, captured a small shart at the mouth of the Roanoke river on Saturday last, while fishing with a net.  It was about seven feet long and when brought to town created much excitement.  This makes the second shark caught in these waters of late.

Source: Roanoke Beacon,  20 September 1889.  Available online at digitalnc.org.