110 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 4, 1911
from the Mathews Journal
The corner-stone of the new high school building at New Point will be laid by Oriental Lodge No. 20 on May 10. The program for the day will be as follows: 11:30 Speech by Governor Wm. Hodges Mann, 12:30 Dinner, 3 p.m. Corner-stone laying by Oriental Lodge No. 20.
After the corner-stone laying the following gentlemen are expected to deliver addresses: Hon. T. I. Downing, Mr. L.C. Garnett, Hon. J. Boyd Sears and Rev. George Gowen. A big day may be expected, let everybody come.
100 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 5, 1921
from the Gloucester Gazette
Owing to the time occupied by the public speaking in the Court House Monday, the mass meeting to elect a new Democratic county committee was postponed until further notice. The old committee will serve until its successors are elected.
90 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 7, 1931
from the Gloucester Gazette
“The Ware” is the name chosen for the new restaurant and rooming house, owned by Walter H. Ware, which will be opened to the public Friday, May 8.
Mrs. Alvah Mattox of Nuttall, was the lucky winner of the name contest and has received the $10 in gold offered by Mr. Ware for a name. Hundreds of names were suggested by contestants, but “The Ware” was deemed the most fitting.
The famous Simmons “Beauty-Rest” mattresses and Ace springs have been bought for the bedrooms, and equipped with these famed adjuncts to restful slumber, and with electric lights and hot and cold running water in each room, they will be exceedingly attractive to the wayfarer. A modernly appointed bathroom and a large screened porch just off the bedrooms are other desirable features of “The Ware.”
80 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 8, 1941
from the Gazette-Journal
The worst forest fire that has struck Mathews county in many years has been raging since Monday morning in the Belle Isle area near North and has already destroyed one home, that of Walter Hearn. Directed by Fire Warden W.P. Jones, men have been fighting the fire day and night since it started in a thicket near the home of Harry Nelson, at North.
The Hearn family saved practically all of their furniture and some of the windows and doors in the house before the fire caught.
Wednesday night the fire had reached the Holly Bush neighborhood and the fire warden and all the men he could round up were still fighting. W.M. Minter, Commonwealth’s Attorney, Sheriff Diggs, and Deputy Sheriff Aldrich, have been lending what aid they could. Mr. Minter was on the scene until midnight Tuesday night and when called late tonight he was again in the neighborhood of the fire.
70 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 3, 1951
from the Gazette-Journal
A fire of undetermined origin broke out at S.C. Lamberth & Bros. Mill early Friday morning and caused damage estimated at more than $5,000 before it was extinguished.
The Gloucester Volunteer Fire Department answered the alarm at about 6 a.m. but the fire was out of control when they arrived.
The fire began in the building which housed the boiler and sawmill. The planing mill and other equipment was housed in a nearby building. Close to the millshed were a number of storage sheds and the main portion of the mill’s finishing shop, where special order work is made.
60 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 4, 1961
from the Gazette-Journal
Botetourt Elementary School will present its fifth annual piano recital on Friday evening, May 5 at 7:45 in the school gymnasium. The recital is under the direction of Mrs. Robert Hutcheson and Mrs. Howard Leigh. The following students will take part: Nina Gregg, Dinah Gregg, Patsy Hudgins, Paula Smith, Frances Smith, Maria Rigau, Carolyn Sibley, Ann Sibley, Debby Dowling, Donna Dowling, Elaine Newton, Kay Rilee, Joy Leigh, Brenda Leigh, Rachel Leigh, Debbie Smith, Brenda Dutton, Jimmie Pointer, Beth Franklin, Ellen Cary Dunn, Mary Lou Ames, Rickie Bryant, Patsy Oliver, Ronnie Oliver, Jane Carter Hudgins, Freddie Hall, Eva Clements, Connie Lynn Brown, Ruth Tribby and Dottie Dame.
Mrs. Bertram T. Smith and Mrs. Alvin Newton are planning the decorations. Mrs. Ellis Hall and Mrs. J. E. Bryant will provide the refreshments. Families and friends of the students are looking forward to the recital and the public is most cordially invited. There is no charge.
50 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 6, 1971
from the Gazette-Journal
The coronation of Miss Elaine Diggs Jones, May Queen of Mathews High School for 1971, will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the school.
Miss Darlene Olethia Hudgins will be maid of honor, and other members of the court and their escorts, are as follows: Miss Deborah Lynn Mullis, Dale Keith Sutton; Miss Sylvia Geraldine Ward, Charles Henry Clark Jr.; Miss Joanne Bernice Smith, Ronald Edward Diggs; Miss Janice Elizabeth Armistead, John Wesley Wroten Jr.; Miss Janet Ruth Diggs, Donald Lynn Diggs; Miss Mary Margaret Hudgins, Edgar Irving Maxwell; Miss Jeanne Foster Brooks, Samuel Ryan Hunley; and Miss Mary Jo Callis, Wilford Clyde Morgan Jr.
Angela Michelle Davenport and Andra Jackson Taylor will be flower girls; Vincent Scott Jones, crown bearer, and Shepherd Francis White and C. Andra Kelly, pages.
The annual May Day activities will begin at 3:30 p.m., with a baseball game between Mathews and Middlesex.
40 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 7, 1981
from the Gazette-Journal
Fishing season is underway and watermen are singing the blues: bluefish are the one species being caught in their nets, and the more marketable croaker, trout, herring and spot haven’t shown up on schedule or in usual quantities.
“In all my 60 years of fishing on the Chesapeake Bay I‘ve never seen nothing like it,” Swanson Hudgins of New Point said recently. A couple of weeks ago he said there hadn’t been enough fish caught in Mathews to feed 12 families.
Fish dealer Shelton Rowe of Gwynn’s Island said, “There have been no fish at all. It’s worse that I’ve ever seen. I can’t catch enough to retail.”
Tuesday morning, the Donna Gale pulled up at Everett Owens’s dock on Davis Creek, Bavon with a huge load of blues, about 20,000 pounds, caught off New Point. Fishermen at the dock said blues are bringing very poor prices.
Only one highly desirable trout was in the net, and the Donna Gale’s crew cut that up and fried it for breakfast.
30 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 9, 1991
from the Gazette-Journal
Mildred T. Hurst and other members of the American Legion Auxiliary Mathews Unit #83 have been recognized by Military Mail Call for sending the most Christmas cards to U.S. servicemen and women in 1990.
The auxiliary sent 1,589 cards last Christmas, more than any other group in Virginia. Those who participated included Mrs. Hurst, president; Norma H. Ashburn, Anne Ashburn, Mary Anna Cannon, Mary C. Haislip, Louise H. Leigh, Margaret T. Williams, Rachel Morgan and Elizabeth Loving.
Mrs. Hurst was the individual to send the most Christmas cards in Virginia last year. She said that her strategy included starting early and writing cards ahead whenever she had extra time.
Mrs. Hurst has received letters in return from many of the military personnel who have gotten her cards through the mail. She thinks that the cards are well appreciated.
20 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 3, 2001
from the Gazette-Journal
Gloucester teenagers Drew Dougherty, Katie Latta, Heather Robbins and De’von Taliaferro competed in the National Cheerleading Competition held April 29 in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
The four teens, all students at Gloucester High School, competed as members of the Virginia Elite All-Stars competition team based in Newport News. The 18-member squad placed fifth in the Senior Co-ed All-Star Division at the national event. It qualified for the competition by posting high scores in preliminary contests held last October through this past March.
10 YEARS AGO
Thursday, May 5, 2011
from the Gazette-Journal
Harvey B. Morgan, the second longest serving member of Virginia’s House of Delegates, will be stepping down from his seat at the end of this year.