115 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 6, 1908
from the Mathews Journal
Hearn & Miller, carriage painting and repairing. Wagons and carts of all kinds made in a neat manner. We pride ourselves on our work and we solicit your patronage; also horseshoeing, and while we wear no medals, we claim we do as good work as ever has been done in Mathews or elsewhere. We are located at Clements’ shop at North, Va.
Go to Atherton’s shop at Blakes, Va., and have your horse shod by the professional shoer. Wes Buchannon. Price 80 cents.
L. Gwynn, dealer in fancy groceries at the old Rockets of Mr. W.H. Miller. He will sell his groceries cheap, and also oysters as fat as butter. Give him a call.
110 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 6, 1913
from the Mathews Journal
Messrs. Hartley White and Joseph Auld, both well-known young men of this place, have rented a portion of the lower floor of the bank, formerly occupied by Dr. Hoskins and Mr. J.J. Burke, and will start a tailoring business therein at an early date.
100 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 8, 1923
from the Gloucester Gazette
News from Naxera Graded School is that the examinations at Naxera are over, and the results “for better or for worse” have been registered, and now our pupils have gone to work with a will, either to make up lost ground, or to be prepared to reach a higher level on the next examination.
But the examinations have been taken amidst coughs, groans and sneezes; the prevalence of the “flu” has turned every sneeze into an evil open, and every ache and pain seems to possess a sinister meaning; each one is wondering who will be the next victim? The “just before the battle” feeling pervades the school, lessening as the Flu wears itself out, but a single sneeze coming from the midst of a group of children is equivalent to the leper cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” and it is funny to see them scatter. Surely experience is the best teacher and, in this case, certainly children have found out that its penalties are sure.
from the Mathews Journal
Mrs. P.E. Collier, who has been sick for several days, is improving.
Mr. Norman Hudgins has accepted a position up the James River.
Mrs. James Callis, of Beaverlette, has been quite sick.
Mr. Luther Jarvis has been busy during the last two weeks getting a coat of tar off his car.
Mr. J.V. Cecil has purchased a Ford runabout and Mr. Vincent Dennis a Ford truck from the Mathews Garage.
Mr. Clifford G. Hudgins, who was recently operated upon for appendicitis, is reported to be improving.
Miss A.W. Hudgins, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Hudgins, Elbert Owens and Norman Hudgins motored to Camp Eustis last week.
90 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 9, 1933
from the Gloucester Gazette
Holland R. Wilkinson, radio singer in the “Sunshine Hour,” will sing at Singleton’s M.E. Church at Ware Neck next Sunday morning. The regular preaching service will be held at night.
The Singleton’s Missionary Society met last Tuesday afternoon at the home of Mrs. James Hogge at Schley. Officers were elected for 1933 as follows: Pres., Mrs. Frank B. Dutton; Vice. Pres., Mrs. J.C. Brown; Treas., Mrs. E.B. Brown; Sec., Mrs. Jeff Robins.
from the Mathews Journal
Fire broke out at the home of Capt. and Mrs. A.V. Simmons of Foster last Sunday. No damage was done, as it was soon discovered that it was only a collection of soot in the chimney.
According to tradition the groundhog or woodchuck must have seen his shadow on Candlemas Day, as we have had so much rain and snow, but we trust it may not continue like this for six weeks.
80 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 11, 1943
from the Gazette-Journal
Trooper O.G. Robertson last week reported to the Gloucester Board 15 persons suspected of violating the pleasure-driving law. Robertson also has a list to be reported to the Mathews Board this week.
A representative of the Ground Observers’ Section Air Warfare Service will be held in Gloucester County, Friday, Feb. 12, at 8 o’clock at Botetourt High School to discuss fully the necessity and operation of Aircraft Warning Posts. All persons interested in serving in this capacity are urged to attend, also all the regular observers are expected to be present. —F.A. Clements, Sub-Director, Dist. 83.
70 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 12, 1953
from the Gazette-Journal
A new principal for Gloucester’s consolidated high school, now under construction, will be selected from outside of the present county school system, it was learned last week. The board said its decision was reached with regret, but with the feeling that it is to the best interest of successful consolidation that the principal of the new school not come from either of the two schools to be consolidated in the move to the new location, expected to be made before the next fall term.
High regard for Achilles principal, F.N. Postlethwait, and Harold Secord, Botetourt principal, was expressed by the board who decided to eliminate their positions.
60 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 7, 1963
from the Gazette-Journal
Many seats have been vacated in schools throughout Mathews County this week due to the influenza outbreak. County doctors have been too busy on both day and night calls and their regular office hours to take an actual count as yet, the local health department said yesterday.
The highest absenteeism reported at Mathews High School was on Monday when 74 students were out as a result of the flu. The enrollment is 374. Monday was the largest day at Lee-Jackson when 80 students out of 345 were out. New Point Elementary School reported that 13 students were out on Wednesday. Enrollment is 66. Tuesday was the biggest day for the flu at Cobbs Creek when 23 out of 87 students were out of school. Gwynn’s Island’s largest day was on Jan. 28 when 15 were out. The enrollment is 52. The Thomas Hunter school principal said their largest day in the outbreak was on Tuesday when 101 out of 402 students were absent.
50 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 8, 1973
from the Gazette-Journal
The gas and oil shortage which kept part of the country shivering during January has left most of the local oil distributors in Gloucester and Mathews with their fingers crossed. “I am worried about February. If the weather gets cold, it will be bad,” said L.F. Phillips of Gloucester Point, who expressed the consensus of opinion among local fuel dealers.
“There is definitely an oil shortage especially in the Norfolk area,” H.C. Shackelford of Shackelford & Son Oil Company in Gloucester. “We’ve been fortunate so far and have not had to curtail deliveries to customers. But a severe February may be a problem. It sounds unusual for an oil dealer to wish for warm weather, but that’s how the situation is.”
40 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 10, 1983
from the Gazette-Journal
Groundbreaking ceremonies have been set for 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Hayes Stores Shopping Center site of the latest in a chain of stores for Roses Stores Inc. of Henderson, North Carolina.
The 40,500-square-foot store set on a one-acre site on the north side of the Hayes center, will follow a new proto-type for the general merchandise discount chain. The one-story white brick and brown trim store will feature an earth tones décor and a racetrack merchandising concept with wide shopping aisles.
30 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 11, 1993
from the Gazette-Journal
Construction of a wider George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge seems assured, along with a toll, following favorable action in both houses of the General Assembly on Tuesday on a $38.1 million revenue bond measure.
But thousands of commuters who have written and shown up at meetings locally and in Richmond to oppose the tolls may get some satisfaction in knowing that a much lower toll than originally suggested is in the offing about 3½ years from now. Instead of a 60¢ toll, as suggested by an earlier consultant’s report, the more recent 50¢ toll proposal has been dropped substantially, first to 30¢ and all the way down to 25¢ per car or light truck under the bill passed in the General Assembly. Regular one-way crossing fare will be $1 per car, with a whole series of other rates to cover larger trucks and buses.
20 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003
from the Gazette-Journal
New population estimates from the University of Virginia indicate that Mathews County is growing twice as fast as Gloucester, but that neither locality is growing as fast as Virginia.
Surprisingly, all of Gloucester’s growth was attributed to the county’s having more births than deaths, and none to people moving into the community.
A surplus of deaths over births is all that held down the growth rate in Mathews, where the number of newcomers accounted for all the change found in the estimates.
Andrea Ambrose, a planner for Gloucester County, said, “I have no idea” how the state has estimated no growth by people moving here.
Ambrose pointed out that new homes are being built by the hundreds each year. “Gloucester is developing awfully quickly,” she said. “We’ve seen 289 housing starts in the last year, from January through December.”
10 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013
from the Gazette-Journal
Brandon Conroy, a graduate student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, recently planted the Peasley Middle School flag in Antarctica. Conroy works with Peasley science teachers and their students through the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 PERFECT program. He is currently serving as a field assistant focusing on zooplankton along Western Antarctic Peninsula but will soon return his work at Peasley.