Since Mathews County only joins Gloucester County on the extreme western edge, it is a peninsula. The North River continues the western line, the Piankitank River borders the north, the Mobjack Bay fringes the southern shores and the Chesapeake Bay makes up the length of the eastern coast. It contains 84 square miles (50,400 acres) and has 210 miles of shoreline. There are 9,200 permanent residents living in the charming rural community. With no traffic lights, cars stop for pedestrians to cross the streets in the business district. Unique describes these people who care about each other. The county offers a simple lifestyle, drawing people from as far away as California to settle on its shores. Europeans also relish the quieter manner of living in the county.
When Captain John Smith’s 1608 expedition sailed south after exploring the Chesapeake Bay into Maryland, they landed at a southern point of what is now Mathews County, Virginia. Before leaving the site for Jamestown, they named it “New Point Comfort.” Thus, the point 24 miles north in Hampton, Virginia, which they first named “Point Comfort,” became “Old Point Comfort.”
Exporting timber and lumber provided many of the early settlers with cash for necessities to expand the area. Dr. Henry W. Tabb, who owned Auburn Plantation, was among the residents that profited from the timber on his property. His original deed shows 354 acres with an additional 252 acres added at a later date. He raised cattle, sheep and hogs, besides many acres of corn, oats and wheat. However, with 100 slaves, he had many of them harvest timber on portions of the 606 acres.
By the nineteenth century, Mathews County was renowned for its shipbuilding. Without the expense of importing lumber, the boat builders had oak and other timbers to use for building boats. They established shipyards along the shores of the safe harbors. Lewis Hudgins owned the county’s largest shipyard on southern shores of Milford Haven that is now known as Fitchetts, or Fitchett’s Wharf. These ships sailed by wind power. During the Civil War, Union soldiers caused havoc of all shipyards of any size in the county. When the steamboat replaced these vessels, work went to larger shipyards in the cities. However, boatyards continued to operate into the twenty first century.
The Chesapeake and Mobjack Bays, with their many creeks and rivers extended the waterways, and provided opportunity for citizens to make a living on the water. Census reports of the past gave the occupation of adult residents. “Farmer and waterman” was given most often for the male population. The majority of plantations were divided into small farms by the mid nineteenth century. Thus, the small farmer could work on the water and farm when weather wouldn’t permit fishing or oystering. More divisions were made with population growth into the twentieth century. In time, all but a few of the remaining large farms became sub-divisions.
Watermen fished in spring and summer, clammed in summer, crabbed in spring and summer, and oystered in the fall and winter. Back many years earlier and during the first half of the twentieth century, no one oystered in a month without an “R” in its spelling. Thus, the oyster season began in September and continued through April.
Doctors, dentists, lawyers, merchants and other people of the professional world helped make the county as self sufficient as possible. Still before World War II, many men worked in the Merchant Marines and were only home part time. After the war, some did menhaden fishing in Louisiana and other states.
Photos depict many of the life styles from 1875 until the 1980’s. The author attempted to use pictures that were not used in previous books, making this book unique. Church history was omitted because the history of the county’s earlier houses of worship is covered in both “Mathews County Panorama” and “History and Progress—Mathews County, Virginia,” published by the Mathews County Historical Society and still available. Few pictures are duplications from other books.
From the chapter “Industry:”
Ocean Products Research Inc
When Robert C. “Bobby” Hutson left the Merchant Marine after World War II, he soon found work with the Paxton Marine Supply Company in Norfolk selling rope and marine supplies. Hutson became intrigued with the rope that he sold others. And in short time, he left Paxton’s and became Regional Sales Manager for Samson Cordage Works, the largest braided-rope manufacturer in the United States. Mr. Paxton, owner of the Norfolk firm, encouraged his progress. In fact, he told others, who knew Hutson well, that he sold the rope that the first astronauts used when landing. He bragged about “Bobby” like a grandfather does about his grandchild.
Hutson didn’t only sell rope, but he experimented with its use. He learned what was needed for various Naval activities. Then, he proceeded to manufacture those products by trial and error.
For his testing, “Bobby” used synthetic rope, coating it with various chemicals to give it extra strength. Then, he worked on testing programs in the small space he had to work. He used two tractors and a series of blocks and tested each line for as much as 4,000 tensile pounds. The procedure allows testing to 12,000 pounds.
After testing, many sizes of rope, from the smallest to a line 10 inches in circumference used by barges from Texas to Philadelphia, were treated with a chemical solution to “Bobby” and his employees’ satisfaction. There was a large market for their rope because it outlasted others.
Hutson learned that the navy had a problem. “Helicopters were equipped with a steel apparatus that was cumbersome and dangerous…”
Later in a caption under a photo:
“Bobby” Hutson had successfully designed, spliced, and fabricated, at the request of the United States Navy, an object to use in picking up cargo by helicopters. “Bobby” believed, and news articles said, that the use of the Reach Pendant had a large part in bringing the Vietnam War to a close.