110 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 16, 1912
from the Mathews Journal
The Lobsters defeated the High School boys (Shrimps) in a baseball game marked by heavy batting on last Thursday. The final score was 17 to 15. Features of the game: triple play, double play by Blake unassisted. Batteries Treakle and Treakle for the Shrimps, Hoskins and Blake, Forrest and Minter for the Lobsters.
The Mobjack team defeated the Glebeites for the second time on the Mathews diamond on Saturday. The winning team outplayed their opponents in the field and won the game by a score of 12 to 7. Batteries Treakle and Treakle, Hopkins and White.
Notice: It being imperatively necessary that I go to the hospital for an operation, I am taking this method of notifying those indebted to me that their accounts must be payed in the next week or ten days. If they are not payed I will be forced to collect them. Please give the matter your immediate attention. B.E. Clements, North, Va.
100 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 18, 1922
from the Gloucester Gazette
An outrageous piece of wholesale vandalism was perpetuated in this county Tuesday night when some persons unknown cut down all the advertising signs along the state road between Gloucester Point and Gloucester C.H.
The party (there was evidently more than one person) traveled in an automobile, starting from Gloucester Point, and finished their work of destruction at the Cox homestead, below the village, where the last big sign was cut down. Axes were used on some, while others were cut with a cross-cut saw. The signs destroyed included the large ones recently erected by the Merchants Association of Newport News and the Portsmouth Lumber Corporation, but smaller signs of individual merchants were not overlooked, and even the Tidewater Trail sign-posts were not spared.
90 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 19, 1932
from the Mathews Journal
The shad season in Virginia has been extended from May 31 to June 10, conditionally, to permit fishermen 10 days additional fishing during which they hope to offset recent losses due to storms, poor catches and low prices. The action was taken at a meeting held in Newport News Tuesday, and was in response to requests of a large group of fishermen from several counties in Tidewater, headed by L.W. Hudgins, of this county.
80 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 21, 1942
from the Gazette-Journal
Filling stations in Gloucester and Mathews did a rushing business last week, up to Thursday night. It is safe to say that almost every automobile tank contained every drop it would hold when the stations closed Thursday.
Some patriotic citizens, if they thought at all about the local boys sleeping in their clothes on oil tankers running the submarine gauntlet, quieted their consciences with a Japanese “so sorry” and filled every available container in order to have a reserve supply at home.
One filling station operator said he sold more gas this year up to Thursday night than he formerly sold up to the first of July.
70 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 15, 1952
from the Gazette-Journal
Fire damaged approximately $8,000 worth of sawmill equipment belonging to Forrest McGinnis, of White Marsh, last Friday evening around 6:30 p.m.
According to Brown Farinholt, fire chief of Gloucester Fire Company, it has been reported that the blaze originated from a leakage in a fuel oil line, ignited by sparks from a battery. Both fire companies in Gloucester County, the Abingdon Volunteer Fire Department and the Gloucester Fire Company, were called to the scene. After two hours the firemen controlled the flames, preventing spread and further damage. Auxiliary pumps were used to supply water from a nearby swamp. It was reported that the loss was not covered by insurance.
60 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 17, 1962
from the Gazette-Journal
The queen of the Mathews County Spring Festival, who is Miss Mary Kathryn Burton, will have for her court, Miss Jean Edwards, first runner-up of the queen’s contest, as maid of honor.
Three of her princesses will be Misses Louise Hudgins, Ann Thompson and Shirley Hudgins, who were second, third and fourth runners-up in the queen’s contest.
The remaining three princesses will be Miss Kathleen Viccellio, of Yorktown, Miss Carolyn Weekley, of Gloucester, and Miss Thomassina Cusimano, of Urbanna.
50 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 18, 1972
from the Gazette-Journal
A&P presented a new food retailing concept to this area Monday at the grand opening of the W.E.O. Store (Where Economy Originates) in Gloucester and Mathews.
“W.E.O. stands for extra low prices without compromise in quality and reaffirms A&P’s century-old reputation as the place ‘Where Economy Originates,’” according to Ralph H. Saquella, vice president of the Company’s Richmond Division, servicing this area.
“The W.E.O. Stores, formerly traditional A&P Supermarkets, will offer area consumers continuing opportunities to make substantial savings on their food purchases,” Saquella said.
“The new approach to food retailing concentrates more on faster-moving items,” he said. “The stores are stocked and equipped to do a greater volume of sale, thus enabling us to offer food at lower retail prices.”
The local W.E.O. stores have six major departments: meat, produce, grocery, frozen food, dairy, and bakery.
40 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 20, 1982
from the Gazette-Journal
It seemed like Walter Reed Memorial Hospital’s proposed 20-bed expansion was rolling along toward final approval, until State Health Commissioner James B. Kenley vetoed the hospital’s certificate of need to expand last Tuesday.
Walter Reed officials are now considering an appeal to try to get the necessary expansion certification.
At a February public hearing in Gloucester, those in attendance spoke out unanimously for the hospital expansion plan.
30 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 21, 1992
from the Gazette-Journal
A large contingent of Gloucester Point residents turned out for the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday night to demonstrate opposition to a plan that would run parallel corridors to Route 17 through their neighborhoods.
Approximately 75 adults, some with children in tow, applauded generously comments their spokesman Jason Laros made against constructing parallel roads on either side of Route 17 north of the George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge. “We are requesting that, prior to any other business, you pass a resolution rescinding the connecting roads from the Route 17 Corridor Plan before the state approves the plan as it stands and wastes money on the engineering study of a proposal that the residents don’t want,” Laros said.
20 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 16, 2002
from the Gazette-Journal
The Gloucester High School girls’ varsity soccer team won its fifth consecutive Peninsula District title, and has been undefeated in the district regular season now for the last five years. The Lady Dukes finalized their triumph last week in their dominating defeats over Bethel and Phoebus, winning 9-0 and 16-0, respectively. The Lady Dukes had a combined 72 shots between both of the games.
The Mathews High School girls’ tennis team defeated West Point on Monday night to claim the Tidewater District title. Playing at Gloucester High School, the Lady Devils rebounded after losing at first-seed singles to sweep the rest of the matches, winning 8-1.
10 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 17, 2012
from the Gazette-Journal
Instead of shutting the doors on three post offices in Mathews County and one in Gloucester, the newest plan to save the U.S. Postal Service calls locally for reducing the hours of service of 18 post offices in the two counties.
According to the website of the USPS, if the plan were to go into effect, Gloucester post offices at Achilles, Ordinary, Ware Neck and Woods Cross Roads would all be cut back to four hours a day, while the Bena, Dutton and Wicomico post offices would each be open six hours daily. The post office at Schley in Gloucester would see the deepest reduction in services under the proposed plan; it would open only two hours per day.
In Mathews, eight post offices could be reduced to four hours a day—Foster, Grimstead, Gwynn, Hallieford, Moon, New Point, Onemo and Susan—while the post offices at Hudgins and Port Haywood would be cut back to six hours per day.