Isle of Wight County Virginia USGenWeb Archives History.....Isle of Wight Co., 1928 

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HISTORY OF ISLE OF WIGHT 

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY 1608-1927 

  Isle of Wight county is one of the oldest counties in America.  It was the 
first to be settled by the Pilgrims.  When they arrived many of them first 
built their houses in Isle of Wight county.  When they were discussing a name 
for that particular spot of land they immediately looked back to England and 
gave it the name Isle of Wight. 

  The government of the county today is similar to all types of county 
government, especially that of Virginia.  The judge presides over the county 
in case of interference with the law.  There is a sheriff elected by the 
people to enforce the laws and the other numerous officers as the people deem 
wise for the betterment of the county. 

  The present set of officers consist of judge, sheriff, commonwealth 
attorney, clerk and recorder of deeds, commissioner of revenue, county game 
warden, jailer and a board of supervisors.  Connected with this in the 
maintainance of education is a county school board consisting of one man from 
each of the three school districts and the county superintendent of schools. 

  There are many little progressing towns and villages that add a great deal 
of interest, and are very helpful to the farmers in disposing of their 
products. 

  Isle of Wight is also famous in her military history.  During Bacon's 
Rebellion, the first fight for constitutional liberty, Isle of Wight 
undoubtedly bore her full part. 

  In the second war with Great Britain, (1812) Isle of Wight county was 
ready with her money and her men to do her part.  No sooner than war had been 
declared the raising of companies by voluntary enlistment went on actively. 
During the war between the States (1861-1865) Isle of Wight county was there 
to aid anything that might arise. 

  Isle of Wight is the mother of the oldest church now standing with its 
original walls in Ameriea and today as she has done in the past, is still 
the place of worship for her people.  This county is upholding a wonderful 
system of churches for her citizens to worship at their own free will. 

  Today she has a splendid system of education consisting of number of 
primary, elementary, and high schools.  Isle of Wight is inhabited mostly 
by farmers, who have fertile farms and who are advancing in the farming 
enterprise.  For the shipping of the produce she has waterways, railways 
and highways.  There are some industries, of which the meat packing houses 
in Smithfield are the most important.  They are known the nation over as the 
packers of the famous "Smithfield Ham." 

Industrial and Agriculture 

  There are a number of large farms in the county that are used principally 
for dairy farms.  Around the town of Smithfield we find them.  Here the herds 
of cattle are cared for with the utmost care.  Newport News, just across the 
James river, is supplied daily with milk from this county.  The greatest 
majority of the farmers are engaged in the raising of peanuts and cotton, 
with only enough corn to use themselves.  Being located in the peanut belt 
there are enormous amounts of them raised. 

  Cotton has not been a principal crop but only for a short time.  This is due 
to the fact that Isle of Wight county is free from the boll weevil, which is a 
menace to the cotton crops of the cotton belt.  The agriculture in the county 
has greatly improved in the past twenty-five years.  No longer is the steer 
used to till the soil but heavy mules and horses aided by the great invention 
of the tractor.  No longer do people go in the field and pick peanuts by the 
hand but with the peanut picker, which has been invaluable to the people of 
Isle of Wight county. 

  Scattered throughout the county, we find a number of small but progressing 
industries.  In Smithfield and Zuni we find the peanut factories that clean 
the peanuts.  There we find the buyers which are working somewhat against each 
other in prices thereby enabling the farmers to get the most for their crop. 
There are also buyers stationed at other towns in the county representing 
other firms outside the county.  Windsor and Carrsville ship more peanuts in 
a single year than do all other factories in the county. 

  All over the county we find cotton gins, [in] Windsor, Smithfield, Walters, 
Zuni, and Carrsville we find them located to extract the seed and thereby make 
it ready for the spinning factories. 

  One of the most important industries we find in Isle of Wight, with 
Smithfield as its center, is the "Smithfield Meat Packers," who are known the 
world over for the famous Smithfield Ham.  In the fall the farmers will 
butcher their hogs and sell them in Smithfield.  There they are cured with old 
hickory smoke which have won the country in meats.  Thousands and thousands of 
pounds of meat are cured here every year and the demand is so great that they 
are completely exhausted by the last of March or the first of April. 

  There are several ponds in the county that have been dammed and the water 
put into use.  These ponds are mostly used for the grinding of corn into meal. 

  Isle of Wight is noted its thriving little towns and villages.  There are 
several scattered over the county which are very convenient to the farmers. 
Smithfield was first made a town by law in 1752.  It is eighty miles southeast 
of Richmond and two hundred and four miles from the capital of the Nation.  It 
is on the south side of Pagan creek, five miles from the James river and about 
fifteen miles from Hampton Roads.  It is remarkably located for health, being 
on a hill about twenty five feet above the water of the creek with a good 
drainage.  In the early times the main stage coach, from Norfolk to Richmond 
would stop here and change horses.  Today it is connecting point of the 
Norfolk Richmond bus.  Before the building of railroads and highways it was 
the principal port of the county, with a large export and a coast-wide trade, 
one of the greatest cargo being Smithfield Bacon.  In 1906 the annual shipment 
of Smithfield Hams was about fourty thousand pounds, while today it is about 
seventy-five thousand pounds.  It was the county seat until 1800 when it was 
moved to the present site.  The Masonic hall has been used by the Masons for 
one hundred and twenty-one years and is the oldest house of its kind in 
Virginia with the exception of the Masonic temple in Richmond, which is three 
years older.  It has ten or fifteen stores, three churches (Episcopal, 
Baptist, and Methodist), three barber shops, three hotels, four auto dealers, 
two drugs stores, one accredited high school and five meat packing houses. 
It also has two peanut factories and paved streets. 

  The town of Windsor is a thriving town located on the Norfolk & Western 
Railroad about eight miles west of Isle of Wight county seat and thirty-four 
miles west of Norfolk.  It has long been the most important depot for 
discrimination of miles in the county.  It was incorporated as a town in 1902. 
It shipped more peanuts annually than any other town in the county.  It has 
four general stores, one millinery, one hardware and one clothing.  Also two 
barber shops, one hotel, one eating house, one cafe, blacksmith shop, one 
planing mill, meat packing house, and three filling stations.  It has a 
population of over five hundred, with three churches, Baptist, Methodist, and 
Christian. 

  The village of Carrsville is located on the Seaboard Railroad thirty-one 
miles from Portsmouth.  It has several stores and is a great shipping point 
for peanuts.  It is especially noted for its moral and religious homes. 

  The village of Rescue is located on the James river and has a population 
of about two hundred and [sic].  Its chief enterprise is fishing and 
oystering. 

  A small settlement at the mouth of Pagan creek known as Battery Park is one 
of Isle of Wight county's most valuable villages in oyetering and fishing. 
The steamer ploughing from Smithfield to Newport News and Norfolk stops for 
the shipping of garden peas and potatoes.  It has a Baptist church, school, 
three general stores, one oyster house, one blacksmith shop and three marine 
railways, several builders of small boats and owners of six hundred acres of 
oyster planting grounds. 

  The small town of Zuni lies on the Norfolk & Western seven miles west of 
Windsor on the Blackwater river, and is the dividing line of Isle of Wight 
and Sounthampton counties.  It has several general stores and has recently 
become famous as a peanut market due to the fact a branch of the Columbia 
Peanut Company is there. 

  The small town of Walters has recently sprung up in the southwest end of the 
county on the Virginian railroad.  It has a cotton gin, three general stores, 
one filling station, and one hardware store. 

  The courthouse is a small village of about seventy-five inhabitants, about 
half way from Windsor to Smithfield on the highway no. 108.  It has a 
cornmill, one hotel, court house, clerk's office, and one filling station. 

  About three miles west of Smithfield on the James river is a summer resort 
known as Morgart's Beach.  It was founded by Mr. Conklin, the inventor of the 
Conklin Fountain Pen.  It is a widely known place and is well attended in the 
summer. 

  The county is well connected by telephones, Smithfield being the office of 
the Home Telephone Co.  Through this company communication can be made to all 
parts of the world.  Windsor, Smithfield, and Walters also have a Western 
Union Telegraph station. 

Religious Facilities 

  During the early colonization of America there were those who were seekers 
of religion and religious freedom.  In setting up this great continent of ours 
they immediately began to organize churches and worship God.  Isle of Wight 
county played an important part in that.  There stands within her boundary 
lines the oldest church encased in its original walls in America.  Today that 
church can be seen at will.  It is just a few miles south of Smithfield on the 
state highway, number ten, from Richmond to Norfolk.  It is commonly called 
and known as "Old Brick Church" but the real name is "St. Luke."  The building 
of this church was hegun in 1632 by Joseph Bridger, son of [a member of] the 
King's council of the colony of Virginia.  This structure is in a remarkable 
state of preservation.  It is built of brick and clay of the very finest 
quality found in our vicinity.  It is put together with a mortar made from 
well-burnt shell lime and building sand, both of which can be found on the 
hills on which the building stands.  There are beautiful stained glass windows 
and many old tablets brought from England.  It is of the Episcopal faith and 
is only used as a memorial to the pioneering spirit of the early church folk. 

  Another church of considerable mention is Burleigh, the first Baptist church 
in Virginia.  It was established by Rev. Robert Wooden in 1727.  Mill Swamp 
now stands near the site of this place. 

  Isle of Wight county affords an excellent religious facility, there being 
five denominations and twenty-two churches.  The Baptists outnumber the rest 
in both the number of buildings and membership.  There are eight Baptist 
Churches located in all sections of the county.  They are: Mill Swamp, 
Smithfield, Windsor, Colosse, Beaver Dam, Central Hill, Whitehead's Grove, 
and Battery Park.  Central Hill is the largest in membership, with Colosse 
coming next. 

  Ranking next to the Baptist are the Methodist who number seven and are also 
scattered over the county.  They are: Benn's. Smithfield, Uzzell's, Bethel, 
Bethany, Windsor (Shiloh), of these perhaps Benn's is the largest and Woodland 
next. 

  The Christian also are well represented with four building and a very good 
membership.  The third oldest church in the county was called Isle of Wight 
Chapel, and was of the Christian [sic; Episcopal] denomination.  It is about 
eighteen miles northwest of Smithfield and was first erected about 1850 [sic; 
1750].  In 1820 it was burned down.  It then became in full possession of the 
O'Kellyites or Christian and is now known as Antioch.  Other churches of this 
denomination are Windsor, Mt. Carmel, and Courthouse (Isle of Wight). 

  The oldest denomination is represented by two churches, one active now and 
the other disbanded, they are of the Episcopal faith and are Smithfield, and 
St. Luke (Old Brick Church). 

  During the year of nineteen hundred and twenty-four under the capable 
leadership of Rev. S.K. Emurian, a Presbyterian church was organized in the 
village of Zuni and since that time it has been growing and prospering. 

  The people of Isle, of Wight county are church-going people and has many 
capable ministers of all denominations to carry on its works. 

Educational Facilities 

  There is today greater than ever before a demand for trained men and women. 
The people of Isle of Wight county have awoke to that fact and have realized 
that they must provide an educational system for their children.  About ten 
or fifteen years ago there were several little one-room schools scattered 
throughout the county.  These schools could not give the proper training 
because of the conditions under which they were working.  Today those little 
schools have been consolidated, and now there are four accredited high schools 
with the best teachers and the best conditions possible.  They are located in 
equal parts of the county and the children are brought to them by means of 
buses.  The high schools are located at Windsor, Isle of Wight Courthouse, 
Carrsville and Smithfield.  They have from ten to twenty teachers each, and 
the courses are similar to our city high schools.  The department which was 
introduced by the state was the department of agriculture in the high school 
at Windsor and Carrsville.  This affords the boys an opportunity to learn the 
art of agriculture early in life. 

  Then there are four elementary schools that prepare them for the high 
schools.  These schools are scattered over the county to the convenience of 
the children.  They are: Carleton [sic; Carrollton], Zuni, Walters, Comet and 
Mill Swamp.  Isle of Wight is now adequately supplied with school buildings, 
as the four high schools are of the modern type and are comparatively new. 
The system of education is one of the best types, however, not as good as it 
could be.  It has the superintendent of schools and associated with him is a 
man from each of the districts making the county school board.  Almost all 
the children of age are in these schools and a good number are turned out each 
year to enter college. 

Transportation, Railways, Highways and Waterways 

  Isle of Wight has a splendid transportation, both of rail and water. The 
[Norfok & Western Railroad] through Windsor and Zuni affords a splendid 
shipping service, as well as four regular passenger trains. 

  Carrsville located on the Seaboard Air Line Railway with several daily 
passenger and freight trains daily also affords a good service.  The Virginian 
runs through the upper end of the county, thus affording the citizens of that 
section to ship their produce without delay from Walters. 

  State highway No. 10 runs across the lower end of the county, which is the 
highway from Richmond to Norfolk, thus affording its citizens a quiet, 
comfortable tour to the principal cities of the state.  Highway No. 108 
connects Richmond and Norfolk through Smithfield and Franklin.  Pagan creek 
connecting with the James and Hampton Roads affords a low rate of shipping 
from Smithfleld and Battery Park to all parts of the world. 

Colored Condition 

  Isle of Wight being one of the first counties to have slavery naturally has 
a race problem.  There are many inhabitants of the black race here.  This race 
with the aid of the whites have established schools and churches.  They have a 
system of education controlled by the white officials for the betterment of 
their children.  They also have a large number of churches, most of which are 
of the Baptist denomination.  A greater percent of the negroes of Isle of 
Wight county are engaged in religious activities that [sic; tnan] the whites 
[that] have taught them. 

       By G. H. LAWRENCE 


"Smithfield (VA) Times," Vol. 8, No. 20, Thurs., Oct. 18, 1928, p. 4 

The author may be identical with identical with Rev. George Holland LAWRENCE 
   (1908 - 1970), buried in Mt. Hermon Baptist Church Cemetery, Chesterfield 
   Co. (D.Cert. 70-004260; Find a Grave Memorial #47127571)  He was an Isle 
   of Wight Co. native.  (WW-II draft registration) 


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