York-Poquoson History

2009-03-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

Grafton will be subject of next meeting.

The next meeting of the York County Historical Society will be a follow-up to the Daily Press ariticle about Grafton. We are going to invite all the people who were interviewed. I will be there anyway. Betty Amory Rollins will be there. It you are interested in Grafton and it's history, please try to attend our meeting on Monday April 6th at 7:00pm at Providence Church at 113 Old Dare Road. I am hoping that Peter Green and KT Smith will also be there. If you want to see the Daily Press article, go to dailypress.com/grafton

" York County Stories" in the works

My long overdue next project will be " York County Stories" This will be a collection of stories about York County history. Several of the stories will be the ones that I have written and are on this sight. I have also obtained permission from Thelma Hansford and the sons of R.E."Bob" to use some of their stories.

Nabb Center visit

In early February, I had the opportunity to visit the Nabb Center in Salisbury MD. The Nabb Center is dedicated to the research of Delmarva History and Genealogy. It is located on the campus of Salisbury State University.

I e-mailed the director with what I was interested in and the next day when I arrived, several items related to the the subject that I was reasearching that day ( 1933 August Storm) were on a table waiting for me. The staff was extremely helpful and were happy to assist me in any way.

The director himself came by to talk with me.

The center has a large collection of microfilm of records from the Eastern Shore of VA, MD and DL. With York County's genealogical connections to the Eastern Shore, the Nabb Center would be well worth a visit.

Please contact me at: jfgreen1@cox.net

2008-10-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest news for all you fans of this sight. There may be two or three of you out there.
Our next York County Historical Society meeting will be Monday December 1,2008 at Providence Church in Dare at 7:00pm.
I am planning a newsletter (that's right another one) to be called that York-Poquoson Historical Times. I am planning on doing bimonthly on months when there is no Society meeting. It will be much like this blog as it will contain the forgotten and little known aspects of York County history. I have enough material for two or three issues. I am hoping for some contributions from the readers.
My next article will be on the 1918 influenza epidemic in the Hampton Roads area.

2008-09-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday, September 28, 2008

October Meeting and Info.
The York County Historical Society will meet October 6th 2008 at Providence United Methodist Church in Dare at 7:00pm. Tim Smith will be the speaker. We are now meeting every other month. Our next meeting after October will the the first Monday in December.I am planning some sort of newsletter for the months that we do not meet. Tentively it will be called the " York-Poquoson Historical Times" Catchy title huh? I plan on including history,genealogy and anything dealing with the culture of York County and Poquoson such stories, recipes, hobbies and all. I have a enought of my own material for two or three issues. I am going to ask Thelma Hansford if I can include some of her material in future issues. I am going to need some help with this project. I am going to need material for this newsletter. Anything related to the history, genealogy or culture of York County and Poquoson would be welcome.If you want to contact me, my new e-mail address is: jfgreen1@cox.net

2008-03-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

Please note

I have noticed that some people have left comments trying to get in touch with me. The best way to do this is to e-mail me at: jfgreen@hroads.net

I really appreciate everyone who has read my stories and commented on them.

2007-10-21T06:15:00.001-07:00

Can you identify the people in these photos from the August 23, 1933 hurricane? I think they are from Poquoson.

2007-10-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

Ship Point in the Civil War
By
Frank Green
One of the most fascinating things about researching local history is finding out about historical events that occurred in your home community. In growing up in Dare, I was familiar with such Civil War related sights such as the five unidentified graves at Providence Church that are only marked with a Southern Cross and the earthworks at Ship Point. There were also many stories that were passed on from one generation to another.
One day many years ago I was going through some Hampton Monitor articles from May 1907 when I noticed one about a memorial celebration at Providence Church to honor the soldiers who were buried in the church yard. The article stated that they were from the "Louisiana Tigers" and were camped at Ship Point. I had remembered seeing a book in one of our local libraries about Louisiana troops in the Army of Northern Virginia called Lee's Tigers. I found the book and looked in the index for any mention of Ship Point. Ship Point was indeed mentioned. In fact the passage that I read gave a good account of Ship Point during the Confederate occupation. The passage was footnoted and these indicated that the Ship Point information was from some letters written home to family and friends by Lt. Robert Miller of the 14th Louisiana Infantry. I found the full letters in an old copy of Virginia History and Biography. The letters gave a detailed look at life at Ship Point during the Civil War. This began many years of doing off and on again research on Ship Point's role in the Civil War. The time has come to stop researching and start writing. This is what I have found out about Ship Point and Dare during the Civil War.
In the spring of 1862, Union General George B. McClellan put together a plan to end the war early by marching up the peninsula and taking Richmond. General John Bankhead Magruder and the Army of the Peninsula were charged with attempting to stop McClellan.
Magruder's plan was to have three lines of defense stretched across the Peninsula. The first line went from Ship Point to Young's Mill in Warwick County and was anchored in the center by earthworks in the Howard's Mill area. This line was not meant to completely stop the Union soldiers, but to stall them long enough for other fortifications to be built and further reinforcements to arrive. The second line went from Yorktown to Mulberry Island. The third consisted of a series of redoubts in the Williamsburg area.
Why was Ship Point important to the Confederates? The main reason was its location. It is located on the eastern end of the Fish Neck peninsula on the Chesapeake Bay. The Poquoson River and Chisman's Creek meet at Ship Point. Ship Point also had a landing where supplies could be brought in by water. The Confederates were also worried about the Union Army going around the first defense line and attacking from the rear or flank.
The name Ship Point is found in York County land records as far back as the middle 1700s. It was originally a part of the Chisman land grant in the mid1600s.
In the early 1840s Ship Point was purchased by Thomas Hudgins of Mathews County. The Hudgins were one of three Mathews families who would play a prominent role in Dare history. The others were the Davis family and the Smith family.
In 1861, Mr. Hudgins had had a farm at Ship Point and also did a business at the landing. During the late summer of 1861 Confederate units began settling at Ship Point. For this writing I am going tell of three of these units: 32nd Virginia Infantry, 1st North Carolina Infantry and 14th Louisiana Infantry.
Probably the first military personnel were units from the 32nd Virginia Infantry. This was the local Peninsula unit. At the time they first reported to Ship Point they were still known at the 115th Virginia Militia. They would enter into the Confederate Army while at Ship Point. Most of the men from the 32nd at Ship Point were from the Lee Guards and the Washington Artillery from Hampton.
By the time the Washington Artillery had arrived at Ship Point, they had received three guns. However the guns had no carriages and they had to be "homemade'. It is also interesting to note that at this time the Washington Artillery was in blue uniforms. The Washington Artillery was later transferred to the new First Peninsula Artillery.
In August 1861, another Confederate unit arrived at Ship Point. This was the First North Carolina Infantry. They were known as the Bethel Regiment as they had participated in battle of Big Bethel.
The regiment had been camped in Yorktown and they found that the living conditions were terrible. Disease and other maladies were rampant and the regiment needed another "home." General D. H. Hill went to Richmond in order to obtain permission to move the unit.
Finally he received permission to move the 1st North Carolina to Ship Point. They were of the understanding that it would be a healthier location than Yorktown. They were soon disappointed. One soldier called the area "the sickliest place on top of the earth, the water was awful". Even today much of the Dare well water is not very good tasting. As cooler weather approached the Carolinians found Ship Point more to their liking. The fresh fish that they were able to pull from the river did much to supplement their diets.
The 14th Louisiana Infantry arrived in Ship Point after a long and perilous journey from that state. This regiment was commanded by Colonel Valery Sulakowski. Sulakowski was a Polish immigrant and had served in the Austrian Army. After arriving in Louisiana he was made engineer of the City of New Orleans. The 14th Louisiana was hastily put together and there was not enough time to instill military bearing on the raw troops. This probably forced Col. Sulakowski to rule with an iron hand. During the trip from Louisiana to Virginia he actually shot some soldiers who had attacked him or other soldiers.
Upon arrival in Ship Point, the Louisiana troops shared the Carolina troop's low opinion of the place. Lt. Miller wrote that he thought it was the "muddiest, most miserable place".
Sulakowski began to take control of conditions at the Ship Point. He was probably the ranking officer in the area. He created a small village of log huts and as Lt. Miller wrote "had all the convenience of civilized life. There was even an opera house". Miller describes the opera house at being built in the "simplest of architecture, of pine logs, and a shingle roof with no ceiling. It is large enough to accommodate all that wish to go and will suffice to amuse us very well. The regimental band compose the troop of performers. When we get under full head way I will give an account of one night's performance." Being as Sulakowski was an engineer; he probably supervised to construction of the earthworks at Ship Point. Many of these still exist today.
As conditions improved some of the soldiers began to have a better opinion of Ship Point. Lt. Miller actually grew to have a fondness for the area. He enjoyed the sea and wrote that he would set for hours on the front battery gazing at it. He often would go sailing in the bay. In one letter home he writes" The men, all afflicted with spring fever brought on by the genial rays of the sun of today are lounging about lazily in the parade ground in fatigue uniform. The soft sea breeze, unmilitary appearance of things (except when the sentry walks in front of my door) the altogether rural look of things makes it the loveliest scene that I have beheld in a long time." In a later letter he even said that he would like to return and live in the Ship Point area after the war. Lt. Robert Miller never was to return to Ship Point. In one of the ironies of war, he was killed at the Second Battle of Manassas.
The North Carolina troops suffered from boredom. This, combined with news from home of victories by General Burnside the Eastern part of the state and the Outer Banks, made life miserable for them. They had requested and were denied permission to return to North Carolina to fight. They were starting to get tired of sitting and waiting. One night a group of them commandeered some boats and went to destroy a lighthouse on the very tip of the peninsula about six miles from Ft. Monroe. Lewis Warlick volunteered for the raid and the following is his account of the expedition: "We started three hours before sundown (twenty three in all) in small boats and was gone the whole night and did not return until daylight. I was traveling all the time, had no way of lying down to rest, being exposed the whole while to the night air. After all our trouble and danger to which we were exposed, we only succeeded in part …..We arrested the lighthouse keeper and brought him prisoner to Ship Point. The lighthouse, we could not burn or blow it up as it was solid masonry from the base for forty feet. Therefore we had to leave that fine piece of property to benefit only the Yankees". I have found no record as to what happened to the lighthouse keeper.
On March 21, 1862 General Magruder gave the order for the troops on the Young's Mill-Harwood's Mill line to fall back to the Warwick Line. This would essentially leave Ship Point behind Union lines. Lt. Miller stated that his regiment was driven away from Ship Point and was ordered to fall back the line that went from Yorktown to the James River. This was the second of General Magruder's three lines of defense across the Peninsula.
It seems that the evacuation of Ship Point had taken place in great haste. In his book on the 32nd Virginia Infantry, Les Jensen writes that the Lee Guards barely got out of Ship Point without being captured. Enoch Cox, Samuel Lively and Burcher were among several men left behind and believed captured.
Thomas Hudgins' farm was free of soldiers, but not for long.
On April 4,1863 Colonel William Averill and his 3rd PA Calvary were sent to reconnoiter Ship Point’s garrison and defenses. When he returned that evening and reported that the place was abandoned and there was enough barracks for 3000 soldiers.
General McClellan had particular interest on Ship Point. It is apparent from reading his reports that he was going to probably attempt to take Ship Point had it not been abandoned. In his April 5th report he mentioned that Ship Point had been turned and was in control of his calvary.
He ordered General O.O. Howard’s brigade to Ship Point. The first Union soldiers to arrive were the 5th New Hampshire, who came in at 10:00 in the morning of April 6th. Other regiments in Howard’s brigade were 61st New York Infantry, 64th New York, and the 81st Pennsylvania Infantry.
Ship Point was to serve the Union army in three ways. . They used it as a supply depot, a point of debarkation and as a hospital. It was to figure highly in the General McClellan's plan to seize Yorktown. Troops would go by ship from Alexandria to Ft. Monroe then on to Ship Point where they would be marched to the lines in Yorktown.
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One of the first things the Union Army did at Ship Point was to establish a supply depot. This was done by order of General McClellan through Quartermaster General Stuart Van Vliet. There was another supply depot on Chisman’s Creek about a mile from Ship Point and a smaller one on Back Creek. The depot at Ship Point was used exclusively for subsistence provisions such as food. The order was carried out by General Howard. He had made a personal reconnaissance of the Poquoson River and found that the Ship Point was the most practical place to receive supplies from the water.
A major problem for Van Vliet was the condition of the roads on the Peninsula in 1862. The winter and spring of 1862 was very wet and the primitive road system became extremely muddy and almost impassable. The first Union troops at the Ship Point were put to work building corduroy roads for there to Yorktown. This was done by cutting down trees and putting them across the roads and filling the spaces with dirt. It was estimated that the Union Army built twenty miles of corduroy roads in York County during the Civil War.
The Union occupation of Ship Point was a time of extreme hardship for the Hudgins family. The family was forced to give there own food and provisions for the troops.
Thomas Hudgins was taken prisoner by the Union soldiers in hopes that he would give information on the Confederate troops. Mr. Hudgins' wife, Lucina was sick the whole during the time of the Union occupation. General Howard ordered that " old lady not be disturbed".
The Union Army had put together a string of telegraph stations across the Peninsula. One of these was in the attic of the Hudgins house. Twelve year old Theophilus Hudgins ( son of Thomas) would throw sticks that the window of telegraph office. When the telegrapher found out who was making the noise, he came to the window and shouted" Get away from there you little rebel!"
The war had another tragedy for the Hudgins family. One of the brothers, Humphrey Hudgins, was killed.
General Howard made the Pumphrey house his headquarters. Mr. Pumphrey had married one of Mr. Hudgins' daughters. In his autobiography Howard wrote that Mr. Pumphrey was very happy that he chose his house as a headquarters. He stated that soldiers, camp followers and wagoneers
had came through constantly night and day shooting cows, killing chickens, stealing eggs and stealing nearly the entire "winter's supply. General Howard did not think well of that and wondered what his mother would have thought if this happened to her.
A few days later General Israel Richardson's First division of the Second Corps arrived in Ship Point. One of the brigades in the unit was General Meagher's Irish brigade. They were to become well known later in the war for their courage and tenacity under fire.
When they arrived had Ship Point, bad weather had prevent to ship from coming close in. Some of the soldiers came in small boats, while others waded ashore in chest deep water. General Meagher sent an officer to inquire as whose command was already ashore and if they could get any assistance. He made contact with General Howard, who ordered his men to share their huts, fires and rations with the Irishmen. Howard's men did this willingly.
They soon bivouacked and a headquarters hut was set up. The only thing that distinguished it as a headquarters was a sentry walking up and down and their famous green flag.
This story from the Irish Brigade's time in Ship Point is given is David Power Conyngham's history of the brigade.
"General Richardson was a plain, rather slovenly in dress, generally wearing the blue pants and overcoat of a private, without any insignia of his rank. On one occasion, he walking through camp when he met an Irish soldier staggering home.
"Who do you belong to?" he asked the soldier.
" What do belong to, is it? Arrah now, that's a good one comrade; faix and sure I belong to the Irish brigade: and what if a body may ask ax do you belong to?'
"Oh, I belong to General Richardson's command"
" You do? I don't know the ‘ould fellow; they say he is a rum one; Dirty Dick they call him."
" Indeed, how do ye like him?"
" Oh very well, I hear the boys saying he is a brave ould fellow, all the boys like Dirty Dick well enough but wouldn't you like to have a drink?"
" I thought there was no whisky to be go in camp now."
" Isn’t there indeed, come along ould chap" and Pat took the General by the arm.
It happened that a Mrs._____ , who accompanied the brigade in the confidential capacity of supernumerary quartermaster or commissary assistant or something of the kind, always kept on hand a generous supply of bottled commissary which she retailed on the sly for three dollars a bottle.
She was now doing a decent business on one of the shanties , when Paddy Doran staggered in with his friend.
" I say Mrs. Let me have another bottle of that fire water of yours"
" You have enough Paddy" said Mrs. _____ from the back part of the shanty, where she was putting in a little water to qualify the commissary, for fear it would be too strong and hurt the boys.
" No, I want a bottle; I have a friend wid me."
Mrs. ____ was in the act of handing the bottle to Paddy, when she seemed very much taken with the appearance of his friend who she recognized as General Richardson.
"Paddy Doran, you villain, may curse light on you. You have desaved me" and she aimed the bottle at Paddy's head. But he dodged it. And in doing so knocked against his friend, upsetting him.
"Oh, General Richardson dear" exclaimed she running to raise him up. " Don't mind that that villain, that_____"
Whatever she was going to say remained unsaid. For Paddy Doran hearing who his friend was made a dart for the door. It so happened that Mrs.____ was between him and the door, so Paddy in his fright knocked against her, completely rolling her over on the General . He do not wait to see the result, but made a bee-line straight to the camp.
Whether the General thought the affair too ludicrous to make any noise about it or that he enjoyed it, he let the matter drop and made no noise about it, much to Paddy Doran's relief"
The Civil War was General Israel Richardson's third war. He was respected by his men. He was killed September 17, 1862 at Sharpsburg. The Irish brigade served heroically for the remainder of the war. They were nearly destroyed during the Battle of Fredricksburg where made charge after charge against Confederate troops behind a stonewall at Maryre's Heights.
General Oliver Otis Howard lost an arm at one of the Seven Day's Battles. He later commanded a corps at Chancellorsville and was on the receiving end of Stonewall Jackson's famous flanking maneuver in that battle. After the war General Howard founded Howard University.
On April 9 1864, General McClellan came to Ship Point. He briefly visited General Howard's headquarters and had a longer visit with General Richardson. He have visited his brother, Dr. Robert McClellan who was working at the hospital at Ship Point.
The Ship Point hospital has been described as a large log building. It may have been the old Confederate Opera house that Lt. Miller described. One other letter tell of another smaller hospital there. Local tradition places the hospital near the intersection of Anchor Drive and Ship Point Road.
The Ship Point hospital was mainly used as a Civil War version of an evac hospital. Patients were taken from the field to the hospital and then embarked on a ship for Alexandria. The trip to Ship Point must have been agony for the wounded and sick men as they traversed the newly built corduroy roads. War records reveal that many men died while at the Ship Point hospital.
Steamers that had been converted to hospital ships were anchored in Chisman's Creek. They were outfitted and operated by the United States Sanitary Commission. This organization was founded in 1861 by Clara Barton and was a forerunner to the American Red Cross. The commission provided nurses, orderlies and medical supplies and provisions to the Army. Two of the hospital ships anchored off Ship Point were the Daniel Webster I and Daniel Webster II. They had previously been used as troop transports and were later outfitted as hospital ships. The Wilson Small was a smaller ship that was used to transport patients from the rivers and creeks that the larger ships could not get through.
On May 4th Yorktown feel and Ship Point was no longer needed as a supply depot or embarkation sight. The hospital continued operation until late May.
Ship Point and York County were to remain behind Union lines for the remainder of the war. During the war, Fish Neck residents had heard of many churches being desecrated and torn down. This was the fate of Zion Church in Seaford and Bethel Church. The people approached General Eramus Keyes and requested the Providence Church be spared this fate. General Keyes issued an order that the church not be molested in any way.
During the 1990s an archaeological survey was done at Ship Point and the results showed very little artifacts in the area. Civil War relics have been found at Smith's Railway, the old Pumphrey house and in various fields in Dare. Smith Railway was opened by my g-g-g-grandfather John P. Smith in 1842 and is still operated by the Smith family. The only time that it was closed was during the Civil War.
There were at least two Fish Neck men killed in the war. Arthur B. White died at Sharpsburg and George Washington Smith was killed at Gettysburg.
After the Civil War, Ship Point was to become peaceful again. The Hudgins family eventually sold the farm. The area is now still heavily wooded but the there are small subdivisions popping up throughout the area. Some of the gun emplacements are still visible and are in a private yard and are well taken care of. Most of the trench line is still intact and appears in good shape. The Pumphrey house is still standing and has been remodeled several times I wish to thank its currently owner, Ross Jernigan, for letting me photograph it.
In August 1933 and September 2003, Ship Point was to back in the news again. The reason was not war, but hurricanes. The August Storm of 1933 caused a quick evacuation of Ship Point. Some had to flee the quickly rising tide in the middle of the storm. The homes of Dr. Blackwell and Doctor Hodges were washed from their foundations and they had retrieve many household article from up in trees. But that is another story. Hurricane Isabel also destroyed many homes in Ship Point. Hurricanes and nor'easters pose the biggest threat to the gun emplacements.. The gun emplacements are in danger of erosion and Hurricane Isabel washed away large chunks of it.

2007-02-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

Plans for New Book
The York County Historical Society is planning an Arcadia book on the Dare and Grafton sections of York County. Arcadia is a leading publisher of books on local history.
With very exceptions, almost every book on York County is about Yorktown. In fact almost every other history organization is centered around Yorktown. It is important to remember that York County is made up of other communities besides Yorktown.
The book will contain chapters on Dare-Grafton families, businesses, people and landmarks. I plan of including the Green, Wainwright, Smith, White, Presson, Wornom, Wilson,Amory, Rowe and many other area families.
We plan to include the stores at the corner of Dare and Lakeside,Smith Railway, Green's Barber Shop, Amory Funeral Home,Dare Instrument,Grafton Garage among many others.
Providence Methodist Church and Grafton Christian Church as well as the other Dare and Grafton Churches will be featured.
If you want to help contact me at: jfgreen@hoads.net or yorkcountyhistory@yahoo.com
This ought to be a fun and worthwhile project.

2006-06-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

Remembering Helen Jones Campbell By
Frank Green

A couple of years ago I began researching York County during the World War II years. I had thought that I was the first one interested in this particular subject. I found out that Helen Jones Campbell had taken on this exact subject sixty years ago. I found out that she had a written manuscript on York's World War II history. I knew that I had to see this document and set out to find it. Through the magic of the Internet I was able to locate Helen Campbell's grandchildren.
I was able to contact Chuck, Robert and Rev. Marguerite Alley. They were not familiar with the manuscript that I sought, but they gave me an idea of just how remarkable a woman Helen Jones Campbell was. Here is a brief biography of Mrs. Campbell.
Helen Jones was born in 1894 in Bluegrass Iowa. She was educated at Iowa Normal School, which is now the University of Northern Iowa. After graduation, she became a journalist. She moved to Washington D.C. during World War I. She was one of the few female journalists in the area at the time.
After the war, she met a returning soldier named Robert Campbell. They married and lived in Hagerstown Maryland. In 1926, Robert and Helen had their only child, Mary Janet.
Helen and Robert were deeply interesting in history and that was one the reasons that they were drawn to the Peninsula. They moved to Hampton in the mid-1930s.
While in Hampton, she helped found the Hampton Little Theater and was the first president of this group. She also wrote a series of articles for the William and Mary Quarterly entitled " First History of Free School System in Virginia" and "The Sims-Eaton Schools and Their Successor".
It was while she was in Hampton when she made the acquaintance of Mrs. Edward Semple. Mrs. Semple told Helen many stories of her late husband Captain Edward Semple.
Captain Semple was a Confederate prisoner in the old Capitol Prison the same time that Mary Surratt and her daughter were imprisoned there.
Mary Surratt was one of those implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. She was found guilty and executed.
Helen Campbell became interested in Mrs. Surratt's story and spent many years trying to prove her innocence. Helen later wrote " The Case for Mary Surratt" in 1943. In this book, Helen states the case that Mary Surratt is indeed not guilty.
Helen moved to Williamsburg and lived in the restored section. She worked as a hostess for Colonial Williamsburg and her experiences there served as the basis of her first book. " Diary of a Williamsburg Hostess".
In the early 1940s, Robert and Helen buy a house in Yorktown near the Moore House.
While living in Yorktown, Helen wrote for the Daily Press. She also wrote for the Richmond Times- Dispatch and the Williamsburg Gazette.
She has also written for radio.
It was at this time, World War II began. Helen got involved in York County's war effort. She served as president of county's ration board and later clerk of the York County Selective Service Board.
Helen Campbell was active in the York County Red Cross. She served as a caseworker and assistant to the Executive Secretary.
In 1945, she received specialized training in helping servicemen adjust to returning home.
After the war, Virginia formed the Virginia World War II History Commission. Helen Jones Campbell was chosen to write York County's World War II history.
She spent many hours doing research on York County's World War II years. She collected many documents and statistics about this time in our history. Included in these records were a complete list of York County men who served in the war and what branch of service in which they served. She also had a Gold Star list of York men who died in the war.
These documents as well as the rest of Helen Jones Campbell’s material are in the Swem Library at the College of William and Mary. For some reason the book was never published.
Helen Campbell loved York County history and much research of this history. She spent many hours searching for the seal of the Borough of York. She sent many inquiries of various museums, libraries and colleges across the nation.
She also had put together lists of York County residents who were served in the various wars from the Revolution to World War II.
In 1964, she wrote another book, “Confederate Courier”. This was about another member of the Surratt family who served in the Confederate Signal Corps.

She continued to live in Yorktown until the mid-seventies when she moved in with her daughter in Chester Virginia. She passed away in February of 1979.
Frank Green will be giving a program on York County and Poquoson during the World War II years at the March meeting of the York County Historical Society. The meeting will be on the first Monday of that month at Providence Methodist Church at 113 Old Dare Road at 7:00pm and can be reached at jfgreen@hroads.net

2006-06-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

July 2006 Meeting of the York County Historical Society
The York County Historical Society will meet on Monday,July 2,2006 at Providence United Methodist Church at 113 Old Dare Road at 7:00pm. Our speaker will be Cynthia Colonna. She will talk about her family and the five generations that lived in Dare.
Her great grandfather served on the C.S.S Virginia (Merrimac). Her family moved to the Dare area of York County in 1941. I am hoping to see you all there.

2006-06-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hurricanes and other storms in the Hampton Roads Area
This is the text of the speech that I gave at the June 2006 meeting of the York County Historical Society

This evening I am going to talk about hurricanes and other storms in the Hampton Roads area and when I can I am going concentrate on York County and Poquoson.
Because of our geographical location we are susceptible to hurricanes and winter storms, these being mostly in the form of nor'easters.
During this presentation I would encourage any questions or memories to be brought up at anytime. If I don't get something right or you remember something differently, please let me know. Most of what I have put together for you is from reading, the Internet and speaking with people. Many of you may actually have memories of the instances that I am talking about.
What I am going to tell you is going to be more anecdotes and history rather than a scientific lecture. I am going to tell the basics of the storm and its effect on our area and any stories that may go along with it.
I have always been interested storms and have collected stories about them for past several years. I am been researching to August 23, 1933 hurricane off and on for the past 13 years. In fact I am a real hurricane buff. I am one who stays glued to the Weather Channel during a storm anywhere in the country.
My earliest memory is of my mother, father, brother and me sleeping on a single mattress in front of our fireplace during the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962. That was a very powerful nor'easter that I will talk about in a few minutes. On the same note, my uncle Billy told me that his earliest memory was of the August 1933 hurricane. In fact I have talked to many people about the '33 storm and despite the fact that it occurred over 70 years ago, their memories of it are quite clear. I gave a lecture on that storm back in 2000 and will talk about it again tonight. A lot of that will be in comparison with Hurricane Isabel.
Due to our topography, we are very susceptible to tides and storm surges that are brought about by hurricanes and nor'easters. In the majority of the storms I am going to tell you about there is a local common theme. That is Seaford, Dare, Poquoson, Dandy, Messicka and the Yorktown waterfront.
These are almost always flooded is various degrees of severity. Living near Messick, my house has a built in storm surge meter. It is called my front window. In the fifteen years that I lived down there, my house has been surrounded by water three times. Two from nor'easters and the other from Hurricane Isabel.
First I am going to talk about two phenomena that occur in this area. They happen with more frequently that we might think. They are earthquakes and tornados.
Virginia has had over 160 earthquakes since 1977 of which 16% were felt. This equates to an average of one earthquake occurring every month with two felt each year. The earliest recorded earthquake in Virginia was in 1774. The largest earthquake to occur in Virginia is the 1897 magnitude 5.8 Giles County earthquake. This earthquake is the third largest in the eastern US in the last 200 years and was felt in twelve states. The most powerful shock from an earthquake felt in Virginia was from the 1886 Charleston South Carolina earthquake. In Norfolk several buildings were damaged. There was a panic in the Norfolk opera house. Williamsburg had several reports of plaster damage. On August 3,1995 a magnitude (mbLg) 2.9 shock occurred near York River State Park. Most people did not feel the quake or mistook it for a nearby truck. The quake was felt in Camp Peary and portions of Gloucester County.
Tornados have been more common in this area than I originally thought. Most are usually spawned by hurricanes. There have been several reports of tornadoes in York County and Poquoson throughout the years.
A local preacher name Cyrus James kept a weather diary for thirty years, from the early 1830s to the mid 1860s. He wrote that on August 24, 1850 a tornado tore down the houses of Mrs. Hudgins, Holloway and Thomas killing Mrs. Hudgins' daughter and John Holloway's wife. This particular tornado may be an example of one that was spawned by hurricane as the remnants of a Gulf Coast originated storm was over Virginia on that date. In 1951 a tornado cut a path through Colonial National Park causing $5000 worth of damage. In the 1930s a tornado damaged several houses in the Hornsbyville area. More recently a tornado touched down in August 2003 near the Running Man subdivision and torn down several trees and damaged a brick fence.

Winter Storms
For what most consider a Southern state, Virginia gets its share of nasty winter weather. Virginiaemergency.com tells us that Virginia's biggest winter storms are the great "Nor'easters". At times, Nor'easters have become so strong that they have been labeled the "White Hurricane". In order for these storms to form, several things need to occur. High pressure builds over New England. Arctic air flows south from the high center into Virginia. The colder and drier the air is, the denser and heavier it becomes. This cold, dry air is unable to move west over the Appalachian Mountains. Instead, it remains trapped to the east side, funneling down the valleys and along the coastal plain toward North Carolina. To the east of the arctic air is the warm water of the Gulf Stream. The contrast of cold air sinking into the Carolinas and the warm air sitting over the Gulf Stream creates a breeding ground for storms. Combine this with the right meteorological conditions such as the position of the jet stream, and storm development may become "explosive" (sudden, rapid intensification; dramatic drop in the central pressure of the storm).
For a good Nor'easter to develop, the jet stream entering the West Coast of the United States splits. The northern branch crosses the northern Rockies and Canada while the southern branch dips to cross the Gulf Coast states, where it picks up a disturbance that it carries northeast across Virginia to rejoin the northern branch over Newfoundland. The northern branch of the jet supports the southward sinking cold air. When the disturbance interacts with the temperature boundary formed by the warm Gulf Stream waters and the arctic air mass inland, a low-pressure system forms that intensifies into a Nor'easter. The strong wind from the northeast gives the storm its name, Nor'easter. Wind blowing counter-clockwise around the storm center carries warm, moist air from the Gulf Stream up and over the cold inland air. The warm air rises and cools, and snow begins. The storm's speed and exact track to the north become critical in properly forecasting and warning for heavy snow across Virginia. It is quite common for the rain-snow line to fall right over Petersburg, Richmond or Fredericksburg. Many times the snow-line runs to the east bringing heavy snow, sleet and ice to the Hampton Roads area.Nor’easters also have storm surges similar to what if found in a hurricane. Again I would like to thank vaemergency.com for that definition of a nor'easter. I could not have thought is up myself.
There are other types of winter storms other than nor'easters. One example is an Alberta Clipper.This is a fast moving storm or cold front that comes this way from the Albert Canada region. They generally do not cause anymore than 1-4 inches of snow to narrow 50 to 60 mile band. Sometimes the high pressure and cold artic air that follow a clipper can help form a nor'easter.
Here are some of the memorable winter storms in Virginia history.
On January 28 1772 a snowstorm dumped 30-36 inches of snow in the central part of the state. This is still an unofficial state record. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson made mention of the storm in their diaries. On February 14, 1798 the western shore of the bay suffered a large amount of snow due to "lake effect" conditions over the Chesapeake Bay. There was no snow twenty five miles inland from the coast This is similar to the large snowfalls expericianced in Buffalo New York from winds blowing across Lake Erie.
We are going to move forward to 1846. That was the year that Edward Davis and his family moved from Mathews County to Fish Neck. Right here in Dare. In fact this church is located on used to be a tract of Mr. Davis' property. During their first few months here, thier life can be best described as miserable. The weather had a lot to do with their misery. 1846 was on the worst weather years in our region's history. In Robert E. White’s book on the Ancestry and Descendents of John French White and Martha Cowles tells the this story: On the second day of March 1846, Mrs. Davis had taken sick. Ralph, a trusted servant crossed the creek to go to Mr. Chapmans to see if he could get a nurse to look after Mrs. Davis. The tide had rose to such a depth that he could not get to his boat. Someone else had started in a gig to get a doctor, but a tree had blown across the road. The snow started falling at a very fast rate. The doctor had to come in a sleigh. Cyrus James remembers that storm as such a gust of wind and tide that the oldest person among us had never seen before. The water six feet above common tide. William S. Forrest in his book " Historical and Desriptive Sketches of Norfolk and Vicinity" describes the storm as: The snow was several inches deep, and rain began to fall during the day, which continued until noon on Monday, March 2nd, when the rain gave place to hail, which fell rapidly, the wind continued with unabated violence 'til midnight when it increased to a terrific hurricane, which tore off roofs of buildings, uprooted trees and demolished fences. The tide rose to an extraordinary height. Never since 1825 had it risen so high. Wide Water Street and the streets, lanes, and wharves below were completely inundated and very large quantities of merchandise...were destroyed."
The Great Blizzard and Freeze, Jan. 18-19, 1857: More than a foot of snow fell with temperatures below 20°F across the state. Strong winds caused structural damage on land, wrecked ships at sea and great drifts that blocked transportation through the state. The cold was so extreme that all Virginia rivers were frozen over. The Chesapeake Bay was solid ice a 1 ½ miles out from its coast. At Cape Henry, one could walk out 100 yards from the lighthouse on the frozen ocean. Mr. James said that this storm came in cold and freezing. A snowstorm came in on the night of the 17th and continued to the night of the 19th. It covered the earth with snow about a foot deep and blew up in banks about 5-6 feet deep. Sunday was thought to be the coldest day ever in this climate. The creeks and rivers were blocked with ice. Wood was able to be hauled across Chisman's Creek by a tumbler. He also that people could walk from Hampton to Norfolk on the ice.
The winter of 1935-36 was another terrible year. The Chesapeake Bay was frozen up so bad that food had to be air dropped to Tangier Island.
April 11, 1956: A severe Nor'easter gave gale winds (40 mph +) and unusually high tides to the Tidewater Virginia area. At Norfolk, the strongest gust was 70 mph. The strong northeast winds blew for almost 30 hours and pushed up the tide, which reached 4.6 feet above normal in Hampton Roads. Thousands of homes were flooded by the wind-driven high water and damages were large. Two ships were driven aground. Waterfront fires were fanned by the high winds. The flooded streets made access to firefighters very difficult, which added to the losses. Many parts of Poquoson were cut off by flood waters and had to be evacuated by military vehicles. Poquoson Police Chief Cochrane described the situation as "severe". Ft. Eustis contributed vehicles. The Naval Weapons Station gave cots and electric generators and Langley AFB sent life rafts to help with evacuating stranded people in the Messick area. Heavy surf battered the Yorktown waterfront and some parts of Dandy were cut off the eighteen inches of water. While this storm was bad enough, an even worse nor'easter hit us in March of 1962.
March 5-9, 1962, The "Ash Wednesday Storm": The storm hit Virginia during "Spring Tide" (sun and moon phase to produce a higher than normal tide). The storm moved north off the coast past Virginia Beach and then reversed its course moving again to the south and bringing with it higher tides and higher waves which battered the coast for several days. The storm's center was 500 miles off the Virginia Capes when water reached nine feet at Norfolk and 7 feet on the coast. Huge waves toppled houses into the ocean and broke through Virginia Beach's concrete boardwalk and sea wall. Houses on the Bay side also saw extensive tidal flooding and wave damage. The beaches and shorefront had severe erosion. Locals felt the damage from this storm was worst in Virginia Beach than that of the 1933 Hurricane. The islands of Chincoteague and Assateague were completely underwater. Again the Messick area of Poquoson had to be evacuated by military vehicles. A shelter was set up in Poquoson High School and housed over 200 people. Many people had 2-3 foot of water in their ho uses. In Yorktown, mail had to transported back and forth from the post office by rowboat. Many waterfront businesses were flooded. The Buckroe area of Hampton was particularly devastated. Several shops, restaurants and cottages were destroyed.
I have one more winter storm to tell you all about before I get to hurricanes and tropical storms. That was the Blizzard of March 1980. I was in Naples Italy at the time and my mother had wrote me and told about this storm. It was hard to believe that we had had a snowstorm of that magnitude.
On January 4 and 5, a heavy wet snow fell over eastern Virginia with as much as 18 inches reported at Williamsburg. A second storm hit on February 6 that dumped 6 inches in Williamsburg and as much as 20 inches at Virginia Beach. Over a foot of snow fell in Norfolk. This was topped on March 1. Once again, arctic air had settled over Virginia and temperatures were in the teens. More than a foot (13.7 inches) of snow fell in Norfolk. The heavy snow combined with strong winds created blizzard conditions. Norfolk's total for the season came to a record 41.9 inches making this the snowiest winter ever for eastern Virginia. Governor Darden was forced to declare a state on emergency. The City of Norfolk had ordered everyone off the streets. This came at a bad time for the nearly 2300 people attending the circus in the Scope. The snow was coming down so quickly and with such force that the second half of the 3:00 pm performance had be cancelled. People arriving early for the 7:00 pm show were stranded. Over 2000 people were forced to spend the night in the Scope. The City of Norfolk provided blankets and paid for concession food for the people.
Edward R. Murrow once said "In the eye of a hurricane, you learn things other than that of a scientific nature. You feel the puniness of man and his works. If the true definition of humility is ever written it may well be written in the eye of a hurricane"
Hurricanes are no stranger to this area. Since 1851, over thirty hurricanes have come within 25 nautical miles of the peninsula.
Events of the last few years have proven just how vulnerable this area is to a hurricane or tropical storm. Past history has shown that in the past hurricanes have been a regular visitor to this area at appears we are entering this cycle again.
There are three ways that a hurricane can hurt you and cause damage. They are: High Winds, Heavy Rain and Storm Surge. All hurricanes have these three things occur. But no two storms are alike. Some storms have heavy rains are predominate. An example of this would be Hurricane Floyd and Tropical Storm Gaston. In some storms extreme winds are the main feature. An example of this would be Hurricane Hazel. An finally some storms the storm surge is worst part. In fact the storm surge is the most dangerous part of a hurricane or tropical storm. Two prime examples of this kind of storm are the August 23, 1933 hurricane and Hurricane Isabel.
Hurricanes are divided into five categories depending on wind speed and barometric pressure. There have been only three category five hurricanes to have struck to United States. They were the Labor Day storm in the Florida Keys in 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. I think that the San Felipe-Okeechobee of 1928 may one day be listed as a category 5. A storm does not have to be a five to be devastating. The Galveston Storm of 1900 was a category 3. Hurricane Hugo was a category 3. Katrina was between a category 3 and 4 by the time it made landfall. Landfall is when the eye of the hurricane reaches the shore. Hurricanes are dangerous long before it actually makes landfall.
Generally we won't get a category 5 storm in this area because the water isn't warm enough to sustain a storm of that enormous strength. There may be exceptions and one of them may the first storm I am going to tell you about. That is the storm of September 6th 1667. This storm is considered on of the most severe to strike Virginia. This hurricane was thought to have a track similar to the August 1933 storm. Approximately 10,000 houses were blown over. Area corn and tobacco crops were blown to the ground. Many cattle drowned in area rivers and bays by a 12 foot tidal surge. This caused many people to flee. The graveyard of the first Lynnhaven Church tumbled into the bay and the storm caused the widening of the Lynhaven Bay.
October 19, 1749: A tremendous hurricane tracked offshore Virginia, northeast to Cape Cod. At 1:00 a.m. at Norfolk, winds became violent from the northeast. The fury of the storm peaked between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.. In Williamsburg, one family drowned as flood waters carried their house away. At Hampton, water rose to four feet deep in the streets; many trees were uprooted or snapped in two. Torrents of rain flooded northern Virginia and Maryland. The Bay rose to fifteen feet above normal...destroying waterfront buildings. Commandore James Barron leaves us this account of the storm: The wind increased which soon brought the rain. As the hours wore on the wind and rain increased in fury. Sometimes the downpour slackened. One could hear the sand picked up by the wind from the beach outside and blasted against every object that still withstood the gale. All the while the rising tide was rapidly being piled up to a height never seen before in that area. The waves were pounding on the shore, finally to the very foot of the outside wall at Fort George. A large tree crashed over on its side with its roots in the air and was driven against the land side of the Fort. With the impact the wall yawned and broke. Shortly afterwards the seawall lurched and sank at the point where it was exposed to the wave fury of the storm. Finally the outside wall of the fort gave way, and the filling of sand poured out, leaving the inner wall exposed to the blast without support. When this too fell apart and collapsed, the barracks took the full force of the wind. About sundown, the storm slackened and in another hour the rain and wind had diminished to such a degree that it was clearly spent. This was the storm that helped create Willoughby Spit.
On September 2-3 1821 another powerful storm hit this area. The Norfolk Herald gives this description: From half past 11:00 until half past 12:00, so great the fury of the elements, that they seemed to threaten a general demolition of everything within their reach. During that period the scene was awful. There was the deafening roar of the storm, with the mingled crashing of windows and falling of chimneys, while the rapid rise of the tide threatened to inundate the town. The continuous cataracts of rain swept impetuously along darkening the expanse of vision and apparently confounding the heaven, earth and seas in a general chaos; together with now and then a glimpse caught through the gloom, of shipping forced from their moorings and driven with rapidity, as the mind might well conjecture in such a circumstance to inevitable destruction.

Now we are going to Fish Neck in September of 1846. Edward Davis had promised his family that he would move back to Mathews County. Before he could do so, he passed away. Mrs. Davis had hired a boat to take Mr. Davis' body back to Mathews in be buried in the family plot. However hurricane struck and Mrs. Davis was force to inter Mr. Davis on the Fish Neck farm. Mrs. Davis decided to remain in Fish Neck and had many descendants who are here to this day and are in this room.
As for the hurricane, it came on September 8, 1846 and created Oregon and Hatteras Inlets.
Cyrus James stated that there were five gusts that year. Hurricanes and nor'easters were commonly known as gusts back in those days.
October 23, 1878 (Gale of '78): One of the most severe hurricanes to affect eastern Virginia in the latter half of the 19th century struck on October 23, 1878. This hurricane moved rapidly northward from the Bahamas on October 22nd and struck the North Carolina coast late that same day moving at a forward speed of 40 to 50 mph. The storm continued northward passing through east central Virginia... Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania. Damage from this hurricane was widespread along the East Coast. Many of Virginia's life saving stations were damaged, with one lifted from its foundation and moved half a mile. The Norfolk Landmark provided an account of the storm’s effects in the Norfolk area. “.... Only strong willed people could sleep while dwellings so violently oscillated with the ravings of the tempest Tuesday night (22nd). At an early hour a severe gale sprung up from the northeast and by 9 o'clock old Boreas was knocking things around town in a lively style. The rain came down in torrents and the streets at times were a driving sheet of water. Yesterday morning (23rd), after the abatement of the storm it was found that considerable damage and loss was involved in the destruction of various sorts of property around the city and vicinity. The maddening fury of the elements will long be remembered as making one of the most severe storms in the annals of our city's experience...."
During a hurricane that occurred on September 15-17 1903 resulted in a very unusual event. As the storm passed northeast of Old Point Comfort, a shower of dead with most of their feathers plucked off by the wind fell from the sky. Hundreds of birds about the size of wren were downed around Point Comfort.
In 1928 the remnants of the infamous San Felipe- Okeechobee Hurricane reached this area bringing rain and high winds. This hurricane killed nearly 2000 people in Florida.
On August 23, 1933 the worst hurricane in over 100 years hit this area. The National Weather Service calls it the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane; most locals just call it the August Storm. I have gathered information on this storm the past 13 or so years and gave lecture on it in 2000 for this society. A ship first noted the storm at sea on August 17, 1933. It eventually grew to a category 3 storm. It made landfall near Nags Head and then turned north. Among its first victims was the G.A. Kohler. The Kohler was one the last of the four-masted schooners. The captain had picked that voyage to bring his wife and son along. The storm drove the ship ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina near the village of Avon. Once grounded the ship was in danger of being beaten to bits by the hurricane tossed waves. The Coast Guard responded and lifted the crew off by a breeches bouy. This is but one of the many stories I have collected about this storm. For the sake of brevity I am going to just give the highlights.
The storm caused record flooding the entire Chesapeake Bay area. Eighteen people died in Virginia from the storm, with three being killed on the Peninsula. Two in Hampton and one in James City County. One of the sources that I used for this presentation lists a fourth casualty in York County. This source is the Peninsula Multi jurisdictional Natural Disaster Plan. Of all the sources that I have read over the years to include newspapers and government documents, I have only been able to find the two in Hampton (Chester Laird and Mrs. Matlin) and one in James City ( Mr.Canady).
They may have been thinking of John Kemp Charles who is buried in this churchyard. He had a massive heart attack while walking a cow through the floodwaters on August 23 1933. This leaves us with a skeleton that was unearthed in Yorktown while excavating the old Nick’s parking lot. It was said to be from the 1930s. In my opinion this person was not from York County during the August Storm.
I will give you some a few stories and facts about the storms affect on York County and Poquoson. The Yorktown waterfront was practically destroyed. Many buildings were beaten down by the storm surge or just simply floated away. The storm surge came in so fast that Mr. Wyatt, who delivered newspapers for the Daily Press was forced from his automobile on Water Street and had to swim to the drugstore. His car floated away and was never seen again. The wave action from the storm surge battered a hole in the side of Bristow’s Drugstore. Two doctors from Richmond named Blackwell and Hodges had a couple of cottages at Ship Point. As the storm intensified Dr. Hodges make the decision to leave. As he began to get his family together and get a few belongs, the water was knee high. In the short time it took to accomplish this, the water had gotten shoulder high. It was at this point he left and made his way to John Wornom’s house, which was about a mile away. Angelo Jennings lived a short distance Dr. Hodges. As the waters began to rise, he and his family decided to evacuate. They went through chest deep water to higher land. One man in Dandy had to take his family to the roof of his house. The house began to be lifted from its foundation by the flood water and floated a mile and half down Back Creek to the Seaford side. One of the more amazing stories was that of Nancy Insley. She was well over a hundred years old and lived in a small house in Messick near the present day Ridge Road. The storm surge soon began to flood her home. The water got higher and higher and she began to fear for her life. A pound pole came crashing through her door and she grabbed a hold of that and with one hand and held her pet cat in air with her other hand. Her grandson, who rowed to her house with a bateau, rescued her. She lived for another seven years. Nineteen people took refuge in one the few two stories houses in the Messick area. The tides came so high, that the people were forced to the second story. An old photo shows the waterline just below the second story of the house. One final anecdote from this storm takes place in Virginia Beach. Back in the 20s and 30s flagpole sitting was one of the fads. Prior to the storm a woman was atop a flagpole in Virginia Beach. As it became apparent that a large storm was coming, town officials tried to get her to come down but she kept refusing. Finally the fire department was forced to go up and bring her down. This got so much attention, that the incident was re-enacted several times after the storm.
Here area a couple of more items about the August 23,1933 hurricane. The Yorktown waterfront was essentially placed under martial law. A pass had to be obtained from Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Crockett in order to enter the waterfront. Marines from the Naval Mine Depot were “deputized” and patrolled the area. Sheriff Lawson was turned away from the waterfront as he did have a pass. A committee of county officials and park service officials was set up to address the problem. The Board of Supervisors had an emergency session. They voted to allocate money to help with the removal of the many workboats that had floated a nearly a mile inland. Working the water was one of York County’s main industries and the boats were these people’s livelihoods. The Red Cross was in charge of emergency relief. They sit up in the courthouse in Yorktown, in Seaford and in Poquoson. Congressman Otis Bland made arrangement for federal help.
Being as the memories of Hurricane Isabel is still fresh in our minds, I am not going to talk much about it tonight. What I am going to do is try to answer the question of which was the worst storm, Isabel or the August storm. Tonight I am going to briefly make the case that the August 23, 1933 storm was the worst storm. First of all the statistics are in favor of the ’33 storm. The barometric pressure for Isabel was 29.24 inches while the ’33 storm was 28.68 inches. Sustained winds in Isabel was in the mid 50’s while they were about 70 for the ’33 storm. The tidal surge was 7.8 feet in Isabel while they were 9.8 feet in the ’33 storm.
Many people remember the tide as being higher in Isabel than in the ’33 storm. One reason is that it was undoubtedly higher in some places. Another reason is that in 2003 the water level in the Chesapeake Bay was a foot higher than is 1933. I get this information from a lecture on hurricanes that Delma and I attended at VIMS a couple of years ago. Another reason is we had a hurricane in 1933 that was very similar to Isabel, but in 1933 we had no satellites, no Doppler radar, hurricane hunter aircraft and no Weather Channel watching the storm from its birth. Any evacuation was done during the height of the storm.
On September 16, 1933 another hurricane came through our area. This must have added more stress to an area that was still trying get over the storm three weeks earlier. While not nearly strong as the previous storm, it was rather nasty in its own right. When word of another storm reached here some people simply left. This time precautions were taken. The Red Cross had already set up. The Messick area had flooded again about 35 families took shelter in Trinity Church. Seaford and Dandy had minor flooding. The Yorktown waterfront was flooded from the ice factory to White’s Restaurant. Overall the flooding was 3-4 feet higher that the August storm.
With the help of the CCC workers, many people had moved there belongings to higher ground.
On September 18,1936 another hurricane visited our area. This time we were prepared. When it became evident that a storm was coming, trucks from the Ice House and Hornsby Oil trucks were parked on higher land. A sudden change in the course of the storm saved Yorktown from heavy damage. A car was crushed by a falling limb on Church Street and Hogge’s restaurant was flooded with two foot of water.
One of the memorable hurricanes to come here was Hurricane Hazel on October 15,1954. Hazel made landfall in South Carolina as a possible Category 4. It maintained its hurricane strength as it followed the coast northward. While it had rain and storm surge, Hazel is primarily remembered for its high winds. An anometer in Hampton recorded a gust of 130 miles per hour before being destroyed. During the storm George Amory was attempting to put his horse in the barn, but it refused to go. The horse was still outside the barn when it blew down. It blew the roof off my family’s barn and it came to rest on an apple tree several yards away.
Our area did have some fatalities. One boy was killed in Mathews County when his house collapsed over him. The four man crew of a tug boat died when their boat sank in the James River. There was one fatality on the Peninsula. That happened on Weston Road about a mile from here. A limb fell from a tree and hit him and he died a few days later.
The 1950s were a busy time for hurricanes in this are with Diane and Connie coming through within a week of each other. We also had Ione, and Donna.
In we felt the affects of Hurricane Camille. Camille did horrendous damage to Nelson County, when moisture that it had sucked from the Gulf of Mexico ran into a cold front and dumped record amounts of rain in a very short time. The land was already soaked from previous rains. The floods washed out many roads and bridges and killed 159 people in that county alone. This included 22 members of one family. After it passed through Virginia to the Atlantic Ocean, it attempted to reform before it finally died out over cooler water.
The 1970s was a slow time for hurricanes in this area. In 1972 Agnes gave us a lot of rain and in 1979 Tropical Storm David spawned a large tornado in Newport News.
In October of 1985 Hurricane Gloria threatened this area. It was a Category 3 storm as it sat off of Virginia Beach. Fortunately the storm veered out to sea. I worked during that storm. My brother was riding with me and we on patrol. We had stopped on Ft. Eustis Blvd. Some Virginia Power linemen had called for us to come over to talk with them. As we approached there truck a tree fell down right where we were standing.
As the 1990s approached the incidence of tropical storms and hurricanes in this area became more frequent. Many storms such as Bonnie and Fran came ashore in the Outer Banks and did a lot of damage there before coming here in a weakened state.
In the late summer of 1999 Hurricane Dennis came through here and dumped large amounts of rain saturating the ground. In September Hurricane Floyd hit us bringing a deluge of rain. While there was not a large amount wind or storm, the rain caused flooding to many low lying areas. Many homes were flooded in the newer subdivisions that were built what was low swampy areas that had been filled in such as Running Man, Lakes of Dare, Kiln Creek and Edgehill. Floyd caused heavy damage to North Carolina and flooded the entire City of Franklin.
In September 2003, we began to take notice of a storm in the Atlantic that was rapidly strengthening and seemed to be headed this way. The storm actually got to category 5 status before weakening as it began to head for the east coast. I e-mailed Hugh Cobb with the National Hurricane Center and asked his opinion of this storm. His reply was if we have not yet taken precautions we need to do so immediately and that this storm was serious and appeared to be taking a tract similar to the ’33 storm. The storm came ashore in the lower Outer Banks of North Carolina and turned north. It left heavy devastation in its path. Thousands of trees were uprooted. The entire area was left without power. The storm surge damaged homes and businesses in Poquoson, Dare, Seaford, Dandy and Yorktown. Many homes were damaged so bad, they were deemed uninhabitable. I could probably give a whole program just in this storm. Hurricane Isabel has now been ranked as the worst natural disaster in the modern history of Virginia and with that I will close this presentation.

2006-05-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

I hope to soon be adding more stories about York County/Poquoson history and genealogy. I still have several stories and articles to post and am thinking up new ideas for the this blog. I am a little stale at this and have to get back in the hang of things.
Look for stories on York County and Poquoson in World War II and Hurricanes and Storms in York County.
Thanks
Frank

2005-11-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

Mary Rooksland Shield
This is a photo of a painting of Mary Rooksland Shield. I got it several years ago from my cousin Evelyn Shields. Mary was my 5th great-grandmother. She was born about 1800 and died in the 1870s. She was married at least four times. She either was born in Baltimore or moved there as a young child. She married Jesse Huffington there and later moved to York County. She is the link to her descendant's linages to George Reade and Nicolas Martiau. She also descends from English royalty.
Mary Rooksland Shield was said have been a medicine woman. She would make up herbal cures for various ailments that struck the local people.
In 1965, Dolly Vick wrote a book on the ancestors and decsendants of Mary Rooksland Shield. It was through looking in this book that I was able find out about my great-mother Green's ( Diana Hopkins (Todd)ancestry and my many cousins in the Poquoson area.

2005-11-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

The Story of Carroll Rollins
by
Frank Green

While going through microfilmed copies of old newspapers, I found a very interesting story about a Poquoson native named Carroll Rollins.
It seemed that he was the only one who did not answer when his draft number came up. His parents Floyd and Margaret Rollins explained that he was a merchant seaman and his ship had sunk by German U-boat and was not in even in the country at the time.
For some reason the name Carroll Rollins seemed familiar to me. I found the name in the book on the Smith family by the late Robert E. White. I also found that his grandnephew, Lane Forrest, worked with me at the sheriff’s office. Lane told me that Carroll’s sister (Lane’s grandmother) Margaret Carmines was still living and gave me her phone number. I contacted her and she gave me the story of her brother.
Carroll Jennings Rollins was born in Poquoson on June 14,1915. He married while still a teenager but it did not work out. Shortly afterwards joined the Merchant Marine. This was in the mid-1930s. It was a job that he loved and planned on making it a career.
After World War II began, the life of a merchant seaman was to become a perilous one. German U-boats and surface raiders were sinking freighters and tankers with alarming regularity.
Carroll “Buddy” Rollins was to right in the middle of it. By early 1942, he had already had two ship torpedoed from under him. It was during this time that the ships he was on were involved in transporting goods from England to Russia. They would land in the Russian port on Murmansk and the journey was called the Murmansk run. These runs were often considered nearly suicidal due to submarines and land based aircraft. They were constantly in danger of being torpedoed or bombed.
Carroll Rollins was in Russia after one of his ships was sunk when his draft number came up. Because he was there, he could not answer when his draft number was called. This was carried in the local newspapers, much to the anger and embarrassment of his parents. The draft board’s thinking was that being his ship was sunk and he was no longer attached to a vessel, then he was eligible for the draft. Mr. and Mrs. Rollins wrote a letter to the Daily Press. They state that when his draft number came up, he was on a raft with five other shipmates after his ship “had been blown to bits and 48 other crew members were killed or drowned.” It was also pointed out that he had been on ships that had been torpedoed before the United States even entered the war and was serving his country.
Mrs. Carmines told me that the draft board dropped the charges against her brother and apologized to the family.
All total Carroll Rollins was on seven ships that were sank in World War II. He stayed in the Merchant Marines for the rest of his life and died in New Orleans on January 22,1968.

2005-11-12T17:55:00.000-08:00

John Kemp Green and Diana Hopkins Todd Green
This photo is of my great great parents John Kemp Green and Diana Hopkins Green.
My grandfather Coleman Green is also in the photo. John K. Green was the son of Peter Green and Vandelia Davis. Diana Hopkins was the daughter of Charles Hopkins and Zelica Constance Wilson. Peter Green was the son of Lewis and Mary Green. Vandelia Davis was the daughter of Thomas Davis Jr. and Sandelia Miller of Mathews County.
Zelica Wilson was the daughter of Wilton Wilson and Amanda Huffington. Charles Hopkins was the son of James Hopkins and Diana Hunt.

2005-11-07T22:32:00.000-08:00

The Story of Jesse Huffington
By Frank Green
Most people interested in Poquoson history and genealogy are familiar with story of Mary Rooksland Shield. She was married many times and many hundred descendants in York County and Poquoson. She is a lineal descendant of Nicolas Maritiau and his son-in-law, George Reade. It is through her Reade ancestry that she probably had royal blood and though Martiau, she was related to such people as George Washington, Thomas Nelson and Meriweather Lewis.
Mary's story is told in the late Dolly Hughes Vick book" The Ancestry and Descendants of Mary Rooksland Shield" This books tells of Mary going to Baltimore as a young child and marrying Jesse Huffington. They came back to York County to recover some land.
Mary's story has been told, but here is the story of her first husband, Jesse Huffington.
It was through the miracle of the Internet that I was able come up with the information on Jesse Huffington. One day I was reading the posts on Lower Delmarva Roots message board. I noted that one was from a woman who listed her maiden name as Huffington. I took a chance and e-mailed her and asked if she was familiar with Jesse Huffington and Mary Rookland Shield. She replied that Jesse was a several times great uncle of hers and she knew about her marriage to Mary and their moving to Poquoson. She even had done some research on them. She sent me some well documented information on the life and times of Jesse Huffington.
Jesse Joseph Huffington was born in the Barren Springs area of Somerset County Maryland about 1792. He was the son of John Huffington and Sarah Weatherly. It should be noted that the Weatherly family ties into the Hopkins family before they moved to Poquoson in the early 1800s.
The Huffington family moved from England to Accomack County Virginia in the late 1600s. They then moved to Somerset County Maryland in the early 1700s.
Jesse first married Mary Guiteer. She probably died not after they married.
As Jesse got older, he began to answer the call of the sea. The Huffington family history states that "Jesse Huffington was a courageous seagoing man whose life story would have made a good novel." This also gives credence to Dolly Vick's description of him as being a seaman and often sailing overseas to Europe and England.
Jesse had many adventures in the War of 1812. He was a close confidant of Admiral Joshua Barney.
In 1814 the British marched on Washington D.C. Jesse stayed behind with Barney after the latter sent his men to retreat from the area. Both Jesse and Barney were captured.
The British showed every courtesy to Huffington and Barney.
The Federal Gazette of October 13, 1814 listed " Jesse Huffington, sailing master" as a prisoner of war. He was later exchanged. This was a common practice at the time.
He returned to the Naval Service as a privateer. In the 1820's He participated in the wars between Spain and it's rebellious
South American colonies.
It is thought that he married Mary Rooksland Shield sometime around 1815. She was around 15 years old around that time.
She probably married in order to save her family's property in York County. They moved to the what was then the Poquoson area of York County. Jesse and Mary had two daughters. One of these daughters, Amanda Huffington, is the great-great-great grandmother of the author of this article.
Jesse died November 5,1835 in York County. Mary married four more times. Her story is told in the Dolly Hughes Vick's book "Mary Rooksland Shield-A Virginia Genealogy"

2005-11-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

Our Eastern Virginia Dialect

By
Frank Green

While the study of dates, people and events are important, if one really wants to know about a certain area is to learn its cultural history. In other words find out what made us what we are.
For us natives and residents of York County and Poquoson, one of these historical cultural icons would be our Tidewater dialect. This is sometimes referred to as Elizabethan English or even Shakespearean English.
In a recent interview with Robert McNeil was asked if the dialect of Senator John Warner was Elizabethan English, he said that is probably was not. McNeil had just written a book on "speaking American" The Virginia dialect may not be Elizabethan or Shakespean but it certainly is a direct derivative of it.
What is the Tidewater dialect? It is the way of speaking that goes from Eastern Maryland down the east coast to the islands of Georgia. It is very easy to pick out. The word "out" is pronounced "oat" The word "about" is pronounced "aboat"
A "house" is a "hoose" The "r" at the end of most words in not even pronounced. In fact some one syllable words are stretched to two syllables. The word "there" is pronounce "they-ya"
This dialect is rapidly dying out. This is very unfortunate. Our dialect had a particular character that made us stand apart from other regional dialects.
In our area, there are even dialects of our dialect. One example is the almost Cockney sounding speech that is found in the Guinea area of Gloucester County and the unusual speech patterns on Tangier and Smith Islands in the Chesapeake Bay. The dropped "r" is still found in the speech of Poquoson natives and older York County natives.
Where did the Tidewater dialect originate? It came to our country with our earliest ancestors when they came over from England. The Eastern Virginia area was mainly settled my people from the Southwest area of England. According to Dr. David Hackett Fischer's book "Albion's Seed", the Eastern part of our country was settled by people who came from four distinct areas of Great Britain to four areas of this country. These areas included Virginia, the Delaware Valley, New England and the Back Country. These different settlers brought their culture and language with them. This ended p up being one country made on many cultures.
In fact Virginia can be found under the "Virginia" chapter for her settlement form Southwest England and under the "Back Country" chapter, which covers Scotch-Irish settlement in Virginia's western counties. I found both of these chapters very interesting and informative as I have a parent from both Eastern Virginia and the Back Country Scots-Irish.
Dr. Bennett W. Green (no relation) did meticulous study of Eastern Virginia speech patterns and colloquialisms. He put these together is his book "Word Book of Virginia Folk Speech" (Richmond 1899). Dr. Green was able to trace many well known local words and terms back to their British origin. One example is many local people use the term "chimley" for chimney. This pronunciation can be traced back to Hampshire County England. Wiltshire County gave us "preserve" for "preserve". Cornwall County gave us "half" pronounced as "haalf", "care" is pronounced "keer". Words ending is "g" have that letter being silent. An example of this is: "goin'" for the word going. Some of our word pronunciations come from Middle English. An example of this is the letter "L" is charged to "R" The word walnut is pronounced "warnut"
There are almost no foreign words in Tidewater English. The only exception to this is the inclusion of many local Indian words into our language. Some examples of Indian words in every day Virginia language are: persimmon, skunk, Accomack and Poquoson.
One interesting quality of the Tidewater dialect is that some proper names are pronounced differently than they were spelled. The name "Chisman" is pronounced "Cheeseman". "Botetourt" is "Bote-tot". "DeNeuville" was "Donevill" "Hayward" is pronounced "How'ard" "James" is "Jeames". "Fourteen" is Fo' teen". "Salett" are any greens such as collards, it should not be confused with salad.
Some local pronunciations that I have personally noted is that some people change the "N" at the end of a word to "M". An example would be "seem" for "seven". Another example when someone says "are-ra" for the letter "R".
It is truly a shame that our local dialect seems to be disappearing with each on going generation. It still shows up in the media every so often. The movie "Gods and Generals" give Robert E. Lee and other Virginians a Tidewater accent as opposed to a Deep South dialect that most movies and television shows give them.
Sadly, our local dialect is being replaced with replaced with the colorless language that is seen in the movies and television. It seems that people whose parents speak with the "Virginia accent" grow up to have no accent at all.

2005-11-04T22:59:00.000-08:00

This is the text of a presentation that I gave at the Green family reunion in August of 2003.
Thomas Davis of Mathews and York Counties
Today I am going to talk to you about our Mathews County and Davis ancestry. Everybody here who descends from the Green family also comes from the Davises.
I also want to tell you that the information that I am giving you is based on research by Thelma Hansford and she has graciously let me use it for my own research.
We are going to start with Thomas Davis Sr. He was born in Abington Parish in Gloucester County in 1740’s He was the son of Thomas Davis and Elizabeth Brown. He married Lucretia Lewis at Kingston Parish on August 17, 1769. I have not been able to find much on the ancestry of Lucretia.
It seems to have been two Lucretia Lewises in Mathews County during this time period with our Lucretia being the older of the two. Doing research in Gloucester and Mathews in made difficult by the fact that most of their court records were destroyed in the Civil War. It is possible that Luctretia may be tied into the Lewis family of Warner Hall in Gloucester. The explorer Meriweather Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame descended from this family.
Kingston Parish is the present day Mathews County.
Gloucester County Revolution records indicate that Thomas Davis served with the county militia during the Revolutionary War.
Thomas and Lucretia had four children. They were:
Elizabeth Davis, Christopher Davis, Lucretia Davis and Thomas Davis. Lucretia Lewis Davis died sometime in the mid-1790’s and Thomas Davis remarried Catherine Armistead. She was the descendant of Robert Armistead, who came from England to the Mathews area in the 1650s. Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Benjamin Harrison also descended from Robert Armistead.
Thomas and Catherine had five children. One of these was Catherine Davis. Catherine Davis married Peter B. Smith and they moved to Fish Neck and are now the ancestors of the Smith family of Dare.
Thomas Davis Jr. married Sandelia Miller September 20, 1815. Sandelia was the daughter of Gabriel Miller of Mathews County and again I have not been able to find too much about her ancestry.
Thomas and Sandelia moved to York County and bought land at what is now the end of Winsome Haven Road in Seaford. There were several Mathews County families that moved to York County during this time period. These include the Forrests, the Whites, the Hudginses and the Edward Davis family that founded this church. Thomas and Sandelia had the following children:
Polly (Mary) Cary Davis in 1816. She later married William Stroud and after he died she married Thomas Dawson.
Their next child was John Burgess Davis. They had several children.
There next child was Elizabeth Jane Davis. She married James Burcher.
There next child was Seth Shepard Davis.
The next child was Hester Davis. She married Kemp Charles and they lived at what is now Charles Road. Kemp and Hester Charles were my g-g-g-grandparents. They had a daughter Buena Vista who married Hardy Wornom and they have several descendants in the area. One was John Wornom who ran the store and post office at the corner of Dare and Railway for many years.
Thomas and Sandelia’s next child was Thomas Francis Davis. There is not much information on him. There was information in the York County death records of the 1850’s that indicate a Thomas Davis dying as the result of being thrown off of a horse.
There next child was Sarah Frances Davis. She married Benedict Hudgins and they had two children. Benedict Hudgins was killed at the Battle of Sharpsburg in the Civil War and his name in of York County’s war memorial.
There eighth child was Sedelia Davis. She was born on August 25, 1931 and died six days later. Hardy and Hester Wornom had a daughter named Sedilia Wornom. She later marred Harry Spencer and they were Julia Myer’s parents.
Thomas and Sandelia’s ninth child was Larkin Wesley Davis.
He married Elizabeth Powell and they had several children. They had a grand daughter Rosa Davis who married Robert Olson. I knew them.
Their 10th child was Virginia Davis. She married John Green. They had one child Hester Green. John died as the result of wounds suffered at Sharpsburg. Peter Green lost both his brother John Green and brother-in-law as the result of this b battle. Hester married William Provoo and they move from the area. She is buried in Isle of Wight county.
There 11th child was Susan Francis Davis. She was born on Jan. 21st 1838 and died Feb. 3rd 1838.
Thomas and Sandelia Davis’s 12th and last child was Vandelia Davis. Vandelia was born Jan.1 1840 and died Oct.6, 1915. She married Peter Green and they are our common ancestors.
It is safe to say that Thomas Davis Sr. may well be the father of Seaford and Dare as so many of us descend from him.

2005-11-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

This is a 1909 photo of Providence Methodist Church in the Dare area of York County.
The church was first built in the 1840s on land donated by the family of Edward Davis. During the majority of the Civil War,York County was under the occupation of the Union Army. These troops would dececrate local churches, often using them for stables and later tearing them down. Many York County churches had to be rebuilt from the ground up. The people of Fish Neck (as Dare was called in those days) approached the Union general Erasmus Keyes and asked their church be spared the fate of other York County churches and not be destroyed or vandalized. General Keyes issued in order that Providence Church not be molested in any manner. The church is this photo is the second church building.

2005-11-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

The Early Days of the Board of Supervisors
By
Frank Green
For as long as most people can remember, York County has been governed by an elected board of supervisors. No one really knew when this governing body actually began. I sometimes wondered about this myself. I often looked over old court records and found out that before the Civil War, York County was ruled by a court and a selected group of jurors. So, when was the board of supervisors born?
Here is how I found out. My grandfather served on the York County Board of Supervisors from 1952 when he took over John Smith’s unfinished term to his death in December 1963. He had just been defeated in the November 1963 election. I was curious about what issues he might have considered and voted on in his term on the board.
I was interested in what records of the Board of Supervisors were available and just how far back they went. I asked former supervisor Jim Funk who referred me to Ellen Simmons of the county administrator’s office.
Mrs. Simmons was very helpful and allowed me to view several volumes of the minutes of the Board of Supervisors. As of this writing, I have spent several hours reading these records and still have not gotten to what my Grandfather did.
Here is the story of the early days of the York County Board of Supervisors taken from their minutes.
First, I want to give a little background on why York County went to this particular form of government.
In 1870, Virginia adopted a new state constitution. This was the time of the end of reconstruction and Virginia was ready to re-enter the Union. The state basically had to start over from nothing.
After the end of the Civil War, Virginia’s governor was Francis Peirpont. He was the governor of the Western counties of Virginia that had remained loyal to the Union during the war. In reality, a Union general governed Virginia named John M. Schofield. Virginia was part of the First Military District. .
In 1868, it Virginia was allowed to vote on whether or not to adopt a new constitution. The voters overwhelmingly voted in the affirmative. The new constitution took affect in 1870. One of the things that the 1870 Constitution called for was a revamping of county governments. Instead of being ruled by a court of selected jurors, Virginia’s counties were to be governed by an elected board of supervisors.
The York County Board of Supervisors first met on October 3, 1870. The members were:
Samuel Wornom of Poquoson
William Ware of Grafton
Washington Fields of Nelson
H.M. Waller of Bruton
This was to be the organizational meeting of the new board. Mr. Wornom made a motion nominating Mr. Waller as the chairman and he was duly elected. One interesting note about this first board was that Washington Fields; the Nelson district supervisor was an African-American. He owned a great deal of property around the Yorktown area, including a large tract near the Moore House.
One of the first things that the board had to consider was the lack of boundaries in Yorktown. Many of the land boundary lines were wiped out by the erection of earthworks during the early days of the war. At that time, the Board of Trustees governed most of Yorktown. In 1870, only two Trustees remained. The others either moved away or died. The Board of Supervisors had to give a list of names for the state General Assembly to consider. One of these names was that of Washington Fields.
Another early consideration of this first board was the building of government buildings in Yorktown. The York County Courthouse was destroyed in an explosion on December 16, 1863. The county was fortunate that the records were stored in an icehouse in West Point during the war and did not suffer the fate of records of other counties that stored their records in Richmond. When Richmond burned during the Confederate evacuation, most county records burned with it.
It was decided to build three buildings. First was going to be County Court clerks office, next a courthouse and finally a jail.
The new clerks’ office was to be sturdy and “fireproof”. Money was raised for this construction by selling timber from county owned property near the Poorhouse. The Poorhouse tract was located between what are now Ella Taylor Road and Showalter Road. The remaining buildings had to be financed by tax levy. The board was deadlocked two to two over whether or not to have this early tax hike. . It was agreed that the York County Circuit Court judge be given a “ special” deciding vote. He voted in the affirmative and the tax issue passed. A courthouse was built on the same property that had the York County Courthouse since colonial times. This courthouse remained in use until New Years Eve, 1940 when it burned. A jail was built behind the courthouse that remained in use until the late 1930s, when it was razed and a USO building was built in its place.
The early Board of Supervisors also had many other accounts to consider. Some of these were:
Major Moore for work on roads 9.00
Thomas Amory –Constable… 1.60 for arresting a man for lunacy and summonsing a doctor and witness.
Edward Blair received 64.50 for “cutting down Fort McClelland”
J.W. Smith received 5.00 for acting as Justice of the Peace and acting coroner and holding an inquest on the body of William Scott.
These early Board of Supervisors records also give a window on the history of York County. One example of this was that on March 1, 1872 the board granted William Halstead the sum of 29.36 for the construction of a small pox hospital. William Carter received 26.93 for the construction of coffins for small pox victims who were paupers. This shows that during this time period there was a small pox epidemic among the poor people of York County. The area of part of what is now the Naval Weapons Station was known as Halstead’s Point. The disease also showed up further down the county as Dr. R.H. Power received a sum of money for treating victims in the Grafton area.
Another interesting point is that on June 8, 1871, they highly recommended that the special police were no longer needed as the court had already appointed a group of constables and they “ were duly qualified for the discharge of their office”. I have yet to find any information on these “ special police. Until the late 1890s, constables handled law enforcement. During the early 1900s, the county sheriff began to take over law enforcement duties. Before that, the sheriff only handled court duties.
I have found that that these records are very interesting, especially during emergencies. Just after the 1933 hurricane, the Board of Supervisors held several special meetings to deal with the damage. I look forward to reading these records and looking through this particular window into York County history.

2005-11-02T23:24:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of Delma Presson and Billy Green. Billy is my Uncle and Delma is a member of the York County Historical Society. I think she said it was Billy. If it is not, I am sure I will hear about it.

2005-11-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

The 1924 Bus Crash-Poquoson’s Most Tragic Day.
By Frank Green
On the afternoon of November 3, 1924 several citizens of the Messick area of Poquoson met a bus at Amory’s store for a ride to the city of Hampton.
It was supposed to be an exciting experience for some of the women as they were going to pick out a wedding gown. It was going to be a sad event for David Hopkins because he was going to Dixie Hospital to be with his father dying father, William Hopkins, during his final hours.
The bus was owned and driven by Mortimer Rand. Rand was a former Army sergeant from Hartford Connecticut who had been stationed at Langley Field. He married a local Poquoson girl named Missouri Bunting and left the Army to settle in this area.
The bus service was a convenience for the long winding trip from Poquoson, most of which took place on the Back River Road.
At approximately 2:40pm the bus was struck by a C&O train at the Back River Crossing. The train was coming from Newport News and was estimated to have been traveling about 45 miles per hour.
Eleven Messick citizens were killed. This may have been the single largest loss of life at one time on the Peninsula since the Civil War. The victims were William Forrest and his son Essie, Gilbert Insley and his son Floyd, Albert and Waverly Firman. David J. Hopkins, Miss Mary Elizabeth Dixon and her two little nieces Nannie Mae Dixon age 5 and Virginia Wade age 4. Joseph Huggett was seriously injured and died at Dixie Hospital a few days later. Mrs. William Dixon and Mr. Rand were also seriously injured. Two year old Alice Frances Dixon escaped with only minor bruise and cuts. Alice is alive to this day. This was to be a fateful day for her. She was originally in back with Nannie and Virginia, but was ordered to the front of the bus by her mother just before the bus arrived at Back River Crossing.
Eight of the victims died instantly. The little Dixon girl died while on the way to the hospital and David Hopkins and J. F. Firman passed away shortly after arriving at the hospital.
The force of the crash totally destroyed the bus. Newspaper accounts of the time told of bodies strewn about area and crash debris for many yards past the crash scene. Mrs. Dixon was found on the cow catcher tightly holding onto Alice. She told rescuers to be careful with her and they pried Alice from her hands. Mrs. Dixon became unconscious after her daughter was removed. She survived the incident, but was hospitalized at Dixie Hospital for the next six months.
Because of the fact that the only survivors were in the front of bus, the train must have hit is just to the rear of center.
The Elizabeth City County Coroner, Dr.George Vanderslice, convened two coroner’s courts. The first one met at the scene and interviewed several witnesses. They all stated that Rand did not stop at the intersection with the railroad tracks. Dr. Vanderslice interviewed Mr. Huggett in his hospital room and he stated that that Mr. Rand did stop at the crossing. He stated Rand looked towards Hampton, but did not look towards Newport News, the direction in which the train was coming. Huggett remembered telling Rand that he had better “step on it”. It was undetermined whether or not the bus stalled on the tracks or Rand just “froze”.
Dr. Vanderslice had the bodies removed to Harry Cunningham's funeral parlor. Mr. Cunningham had to call in extra embalmers to help prepare the bodies.
Soon family members starting arriving for the sad chore of identifying their loved ones. The Rev. Charles McAllister of St. Johns Church and Rev. Charles Friend of Hampton Presbyterian Church soon arrived at the funeral home to give comfort to grieving family members.
A second coroner's court ruled that the incident was a tragic accident and actions should be taken to make the railroad intersections safer. Six people had already died at railroad crossings that year in Elizabeth City County.
William Hopkins died a couple of days later without ever knowing that his son David had died at the railroad crossing. Joseph Huggett died after doctors tried desperately to save him.
Gilbert Insley left a wife and four children. Essie Forrest left a wife and four children and was taking care of two other children. William Forrest left his wife and three children. J. F. Firman left a wife of less than one year.
Within the next few days, the victims of the bus crash were removed to Poquoson for burial. The services were attended by several thousand people from both York County and Elizabeth City County.
Hundreds of businesses in Hampton closed their doors for business from 12:00 to 1:00pm on the day of the funeral in honor of the crash victims. Elizabeth City County Sheriff Curtis brought several deputies to assist York County Sheriff Lawson with traffic and crowd control. Many Hampton civic organizations passed special resolutions in sympathy for the crash victims and their families.
Services for four of the dead were held at Forrest home, after this was over the crowd went to the Insley home, then to the Firman home. At each home the caskets were placed in the front yards and were covered with flowers. The services were conducted by Rev. Burke of Trinity Church. He was assisted by Rev. Cunningham of the Hampton Church of Christ and Rev. W.W. Beasley of Central Methodist Church in Hampton. A quartet consisting of H. S. Cunningham, William Martin, A. Tyler Hull Sr. and Joe Gardner sang "Someday you will Understand, Nearer My God to Thee" and other hymns.
The graves of the Forrests and one of the Firman brothers are at the Weston Cemetery. The other Firman brother is buried at the Eastern Cemetery. The little girls, Nannie Mae Dixon and Virginia Wade, are buried at the Phillips Cemetery off of Wrenn's Road. The author of this article has been able to find the graves of all the victims except William and David Hopkins.
The Merchants Bank of Hampton later gave $45.00 to each of the victim's orphans for Christmas. The Peninsula communities later combined to raise $5000.00 for the families of those who perished in the crash.

2005-11-02T17:42:00.000-08:00

I am finally entering the world of blogs. This seems to be a very effective way of getting information out to the public.
This blog will contain information on the history, geneaology and culture on York County Virginia and the City of Poquoson Virginia. There will be stories about historical subjects that relate to York County and Poquoson. I will also include information about the York County Historical Society.
This blog will contain my opinions of issues that deal with York/Poquoson history. I have opinions on other subjects as well, but that will have to wait for another blog.
For those people that are not local, I will tell a little about myself. My name is Frank Green. I am president of the York County Historical Society. I am also member of the Poquoson Historical Society, the York County Historical Museum Board, associate member of the York County Historical Committee and the West Virginia Genealogical Society. Even though I was not born in York County or Virginia, I am a twelfth generation York County native through my father's family. Our lines go back to 1633. I have been working for the York/Poquoson Sheriff's office for almost 24 years and Weymouth Funeral Home in Newport News Virginia for the past five years. Aside from local history I am World War II buff. I am an amateur radio operator and a Strat-o-Matic player. I am interested in all history but I am especially interested in post-antebelllum history to about 1970. I have written one book on the Green family and am working on a second book that will contain short stories of York County and Poquoson history.
I am in my third and last term as President of the York County Historical Society.
Our society meets at the first of the month at Providence Methodist Church at 113 Old Dare Road in Dare Virginia. We usually have a short business meeting then a program on a historical, genealogical or cultural related subject.
The York County Historical Society now has possesion of Thelma Hansford's collect of genealogical related material. This collection contains about 90 books, several unpublished books, about two hundred folders on various York County families and a file of abstracts of York County court records that are put together by family name. These records have been indexed.
This is available to veiwed by appointment. These records are housed in the York County Historical Museum. The museum is located on the lower level of York Hall. York Hall is a the intersection of Ballard Street and Main Street in Yorktown. We hope to get some more collections of genealogical related material in the future.
I hope to include stories about York/Poquoson History in this blog. I would like to include some photos also. I am also hoping to set up a Web-site in the new future.
Our next meeting of the York County Historical Society will meet on the first Monday in November. The speaker will be Leo Forrest and the program will be on the Naval Weapons Station.
If you have any suggestions for this blog or any information that you would like to pass on, please let me know in the comments section of this blog or e-mail me at jfgreen@hroads.net
Thanks
Frank Green