115 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 1, 1910
from the Mathews Journal
We are sorry to report the illness of Dr. Thomas B. Lane, who left on the steamer for treatment.
Mr. Herman Hollerith and family, are spending the month of September at their home “Brighton,” on East River.
Midshipman Jenifer Garnett will arrive home this week from the summer cruise up the Mediterranean, and will spend the month at “Poplar Grove.”
100 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 2, 1925
from the Mathews Journal
Laban correspondent reports: The good old harvesting time has come again. In spite of all the dry weather the crops around here are fine.
We all are in sympathy with Mr. C.D. Hudgins who lost his store last Friday night by fire. The origin is not known. We are in hopes he will soon rebuild.
The community was saddened by the death of Mr. Martellus Hudgins on Saturday. Although he had been sick for some time, he was going about when death came.
90 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 5, 1935
from the Gloucester Gazette
A U.S. army plane from Langley field made a forced landing near Zanoni early last Friday morning. No damage was done to the airplane save a small tear in the fabric of one of the wings and the plane returned to Langley Field on its own power later in the day. The East Coast Telephones and Utilities suffered considerable damage to wires and poles torn down by the plane in landing.
from the Mathews Journal
Mathews County has been given a tentative allocation of $35,304 for road improvements this year under the secondary and farm-to-market road program of the Works Progress Administration, according to an announcement issued by William A. Smith, State Director.
80 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 6, 1945
from the Gazette-Journal
There will be a small amount, approximately four pounds per person, available for second allotments of canning sugar to anyone who has fruit to can. Applications may be made by attaching a list of fruits canned or preserved, with sugar previously received this year for canning, to the slip to which the first coupons were attached when received from the mailing center, and mailing to the War Price and Rationing Board No. 48-1, Gloucester, Va.
70 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 1, 1955
from the Gazette-Journal
At the first indication of enemy bombers approaching the United States, all television and FM radio stations will go off the air. All standard (AM) stations will likewise go silent. The Conelrad stations, 640 or 1240, are your surest and fastest means of getting emergency civil defense information and instructions. Mark those numbers on your radio set – now!
60 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 2, 1965
from the Gazette-Journal
Mathews County public schools are scheduled to open tomorrow, Sept. 3, one-half day for registration and the 1965-66 school session will begin on Tuesday Sept. 7. The number of pupils expected to enroll this year is 1,361. Enrollment at each of the schools is estimated as follows: Cobbs Creek elementary, 95; New Point elementary, 69; Lee-Jackson elementary, 395; Mathews High school, 360; and Thomas Hunter school, 442.
Total enrollment last year was 1,329.
50 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 4, 1975
from the Gazette-Journal
Whoever it was praying for rain got plenty of action over the weekend. The rain which started gradually throughout the state on Sunday, turned into a real “gullywasher” on Monday and marred the last portion of the Labor Day weekend, particularly for vacationers in the area.
The tide rose a foot and a half above normal and Gloucester weatherman Samuel A. Janney, whose “Roaring Springs” road was completely covered by the water from Beaverdam Creek, reported that his rain gauge overflowed at five inches by early Monday afternoon.
Water which collected on the roof of the Grant City Shopping Center caused the ceiling to collapse above the stockroom causing an estimated $6,000-$7,000 damage.
40 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 5, 1985
from the Gazette-Journal
From the first to second day of public school in Gloucester County, 86 pupils were added to its enrollment.
By Wednesday afternoon, Gloucester had 4,600 students attending its six public schools. That figure is up 233 students from the second day of school in 1984.
Gloucester High School saw the greatest increase in enrollment with a total of 1,383 students versus last year’s second day enrollment of 1,285. Botetourt Elementary School, however, came in a close second with 76 more students than last year’s 694 student population. A total of 770 students attended the primary school Wednesday.
Only one school, Gloucester Intermediate, saw a decrease in enrollment and that was by only six students. There were 734 students at the school on its second day of operation compared to the 740 that attended last year.
30 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 7, 1995
from the Gazette-Journal
The state Department of Motor Vehicles is now giving persons renewing their driver’s licenses the option of replacing their social security number on the license with a computer-generated identification number.
Customers must still, however, submit their social security number to DMV. The agency uses the social security number to maintain accurate driving records and to exchange information with law enforcement, other states, and courts.
20 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005
from the Gazette-Journal
Even before Hurricane Katrina’s flood waters had started receding from the shores of the Gulf Coast, men and women from Gloucester and Mathews and throughout Virginia were already volunteering to lend a hand. As of Tuesday, church members, rescue workers, and utility employees had either left the state or were making plans to leave and wend their way to the site of one of the worst natural disasters ever to strike the United States.
10 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015
from the Gazette-Journal
About 5,300 children are expected to show up at Gloucester County Public Schools when the 2015-2016 school session begins on Tuesday. Of those, about 656 sixth, seventh and eighth graders will be the first students to attend the new Page Middle School.
For the past four years, Peasley Middle School has been packed with the county’s sixth and seventh grade population, while eighth graders attended school in clusters of mobile classrooms located on the Gloucester High School campus.