Suffolk [High] School

Suffolk [High] School

Suffolk [High] School, Suffolk, Virginia

This is the school my mother Alice Wingfield Whitley Watson said she attended. This was the red-brick school before the building of Jefferson. I remember going there when it was some sort of city office building. It was on the south-east corner of Saratoga Street.

For a fuller "history," or chronology of Education and Schools in Suffolk, See:"A History of Education in Suffolk and Nansemond County, Virginia," a Master's Thesis from 1957 by Robert Bell Moore.

Keeping down the dust...

The Water Wagon in Suffolk was like this one from St. Croix Historical Society

"And then we...living on Pinner Street at that time. Seems to me the number was three hundred and nine Pinner Street. And it was right across the street from old John, John B. Pinner. He was the peanut man and his son John F. Pinner built a house, built his home right down on the corner which is still standing today-- the corner of Finney Avenue and Pinner Street. And ah, I used to play with Dick Hume. (Hume?) Dick Hume. Richard Hume his name was. H-U-M-E, uh-huh. Edward Everett , Jack Pinner. And Jack Pinner down there... that was...he and Edward Everett, they were somethin'. They had ponies and we didn't have any! (Where did they keep them?) I don't know. They kept them somewhere around there. I don't know just where they kept them. But they rode 'em every day. (They kept them in town?) Right! Sure did! Pinner Street didn't always have that roadway like you see it now. It sure didn't! I'll tell you now crude it was. Ah, this is long before your time.... The water wagon used to come down Pinner Street and ah, a great big water tank you see. And it had like a cup on either side. And the whole spout was shooting down just like it hit into a saucer and that threw the water as you do it like today with a water spigot. They watered the street to keep the dust down (It was dirt?) It was a dirt road! (I'll be damned!) Yes sir! It shore was! (Pinner Street?!) That's a long time ago id'n't it? And, and that how we could ride out there on those horses, so, I had... I guess I rode Edward Everett's horse, pony, and Jack Pinner's almost as much as they did. Because they were the kids I was playing with you see."  ---S. Burch Watson,  from an interview June 9, 1979 about growing up in Suffolk about 1915. 

The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party

October 5, 1953

208 Katherine Street, Suffolk, Virginia

This was the birthday of Dolly Watson Carr, daughter of Dolly Bell Watson and Charles Brosia Carr, Jr. My Train Table in the Background, a portrait by Fred Hamlin of my Sister, Dolly Bell Watson in the background. My Mother Alice Whitley Watson had made the Cake. I am the second from the left, below me is Doug Johnson? Dolly's cousin. Larry Martin who lived just behind us on Highland Avenue is in the pointed Hat. "Miss Dolly" is blowing out the candles. The Hurley sisters are behind "Miss Dolly." There were three Dollys in the immediate family: Dolly Ann Bell Whitley who was my grandmother, my sister Dolly named for her, and of course Dolly my niece named for her mother. So, we came up with "Miss" Dolly for her! I just noticed the Jamestown Exposition Commemorative Plate of 1907 on the wall in the background. I have spoken of this in a previous post. 

George Mason School

Hmmmm.... 'been a while.... Going through an old scrapbook which I had taken apart and put the old pictures in files, I discovered these from 1951-1953. Most were friends I played with in Kingsboro during the third grade. MISS [which was stressed at the time for all unmarried teachers (as there were no men teachers at the time)] Roxie Dunning was our Teacher. Help me remember who they are...

Sandra Hewitt

she lived in the house next to the Kingsboro Bridge on the Katherine Street side of the road.

Brenda Askew

she lived in a brick house around the corner from us on Highland Ave.

Robert Lee Turner

Martha Lupton

MISS Roxie Dunning,

Third Grade Teacher,

George Mason School

Gloria Ann Farrenkoff

Oh yeah. Me.

Local History, World Events: Jamestown Exposition Plates of Pocahontas

Jamestown Exposition Plate of Pocahontas

As far back as I remember, we had this plate hanging in our home. When my parents died, my sister kept it hanging in her home, and at her death, I received it an d it now hangs in my home. I love it because my father used to say with a twinkle in his eye, "I went to the Jamestown Exposition in 1907. We always said "My Daddy took me and my Mama brought me home!" Recently, I got the matching plate of Captain John Smith. I went to the Jamestown Festival of 1957. I am sorry that I did not get to the one in 2007. I hope someone in the family did. We did have ancestors at Jamestown on May 13, 1607. They very soon moved to Surry and were there til my grandfather moved to Suffolk, so I feel a special connection.

I have had a delightful time over the last year reading the posts and responses of folks on the "I was Raised in Suffolk" Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/suffolkva/.

I am most amazed at how the same event or place or person or thing or even time is remembered by different people in different ways. I find this delightful, not disturbing. My niece and I were raised in the same house at the same time with the same people and ninety nine times out of a hundred, the way we remember and event is so different you wonderful if we were really raised together. I have been posting to the Facebook page recently, photos and thoughts that I should have been posting here, so I thought I would begin again adding pictures and thoughts and ephemera here again. Let's see....

Ah, Broad Street, Suffolk. I have two associations with this street. I went to Mrs. "Monk" Churn's First Grade on this street, on the north west side of the street very close to the Bridge over to Constance Road. The other associations is that my sister and her husband bought and lived in Dr. J. E. Rawls's home at 204 South Broad, two doors down from St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. Huge house. Rawls built it so that he could keep an eye on the Lakeview Sanitarium where he was a doctor.

204 South Broad Street.

"Japheth Edward Rawls, M. D. Suffolk, the capital of Nansemond county, Virginia, with its railroads, peanut factories, saw mills, car shops, iron and brass works, knitting mills, etc., is a point demanding the ablest surgical skill to cope with the many mechanical appliances that constantly menace the persons of those employed in their operation. Since the year 1900 Dr. Rawls has been specializing in surgery at Suffolk, and during the fifteen years that have since elapsed, has ministered with firm touch and unfailing skill to many of these accidental cases, in addition to a large practice in general surgery and medicine. His reputation has spread far beyond local confines and his name is a familiar one in the medical world, through high official position in medical societies and frequent articles in medical journals.

   Dr. Rawls is a grandson of Elisha and Margarett ("Peggy") (Jones) Rawls, of Holy Neck, Virginia, whose sons, Japheth and Luther, served in the Confederate army and both received wounds in battle. Luther Rawls, father of Dr. Rawls, was born at Holy Neck, Virginia, June 2, 1835. He spent his active life there, engaged in farming, and yet sojourns on the old farm, rounding out a long, eventful and useful life. He was a private and flag bearer in Company K, Forty-first Regiment Virginia Infantry, was severely wounded in the shoulder, but after recovery returned to the army, serving until the close of the war. He married, May 30, 1867, Mary Elizabeth Darden, born at Holy Neck, Virginia, November 16, 1839, daughter of William and Nancy (Langston) Darden. Her brother, Dempsey Darden, was also a Confederate soldier, serving in the Forty-first Regiment Virginia Infantry. Children of Luther and Mary E. Rawls: 1. Jesse P., born June 28, 1868; a cotton broker of Enterprise, Alabama; married Maggie Jones; five children. 2. Rosa M., born June 19, 1870; married E. S. Norfleet, farmer, of Holland, Virginia. 3. Willie Nancy Darden, born September 8, 1872; married J. Vivian Gatling, farmer, of Gates county, North Carolina; two children. 4. Japheth Edward, of whom further. 5. Mary Sue, born March 11, 1877; married Ernest H. Williams. of Smithfield, Virginia; an attorney; two children. 6. David Luther, born July 5, 1879 ; physician, associated with his brother, Japheth E. Rawls; a graduate of the University Medical College of Richmond, 1908. Dr. Japheth Edward Rawls was born at Holy Neck, Nansemond County, Virginia, February 15, 1875. After preparatory courses in the public schools, he entered Elon College, at Elon, North Carolina, in the fall of 1889, and was graduated there from with the degree of A. B., with high honor in the class of 1896. He then took thorough courses in medicine and surgery in the best colleges in the country, receiving his degree of M. D. from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, in 1899. He began practice in Suffolk, Virginia, January 15, 1900 and has been in continuous practice there until the present date (1915). His post-graduate study included a special course at the Lying-in-Hospital of New York, the Polyclinic Medical College of New York City, the Post Graduate Medical School of Chicago, and the Illinois School of Electro Therapeutics. Thus thoroughly equipped, Dr. Rawls ministers to a large clientele, specializing in surgery, a branch of his profession in which he is most skillful.

Lakeview Sanitarium

   Dr. Rawls was one of the founders of Lake View Hospital Sanitarium (Inc.) at Suffolk, 1905, and has been surgeon to that institution since its foundation.
    He was city physician of Suffolk for six years, and is physician and surgeon to the Nansemond County Alms House. He is the assistant local surgeon of the Seaboard Railway at Suffolk. Notwithstanding the heavy demands of his private and public practice, Dr. Rawls devotes a share of his time to the general interests of his profession, holding membership in the Seaboard Air Line Railway Surgical, Virginia Medical, Southern Medical, American Medical, Seaboard Medical, and Virginia South Side Medical societies; has been president of the two latter named and interested in the work of all. His contributions to the literature of his profession are highly valuable articles that from time to time appear in the leading medical journals, attracting widespread attention. He is a member of the Christian church (O'Kelly) and serves on the music committee of the church. In political faith he is a Democrat, but the constant demands of his profession preclude all active political interest. Dr. Rawls married, November 24, 1908, Emma Copeland Holland, born at Holy Neck, Virginia, September 3, 1882, daughter of Charles E. and Sue (Jones) Holland, and niece of Congressman E. E. Holland. Children, all born in Suffolk, Virginia: Ann Pretlow, born November 9, 1909; Mary Sue, born September 19, 1911; Japheth Edward Jr., born April 13, 1914." ---Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography Lewis Historical Publishing, New York, 1915, Volume V, Pages 679 & 680

The Lakeview Sanitarium was later to become the Lakeview Hospital.

"The Square" as we used to call it...

"The Square" we used to call it. And there is the Farmer's Bank just after Sears. I always thought the ceiling in it was the most beautiful in all of Suffolk. This is fairly modern as Sears is in the picture and United Dollar Store too. . Hotel Elliot in the Background and City Hall on the right center with the Towers. This is after the Walk/Don't Walk Signs. I remember when the went up we used to corss and wail and cross and wait over and over just to try them out! On the Right is the American Bank, then Nansemond Drug, then Leggett's,.... what else?

The Veteran Four and Hamblin's Studio

The Veteran Four, Suffolk, Virginia, March 24, 1951.

Anyone remember who they are? Can anyone tell us their story?

    The story goes that one day Fred Hamblin of Hamblin Studio in Suffolk happened to be in the Bank and saw my grandfather George Whitley, and said, "George, come on down to the studio and let me take a picture of you, if you died we'd need one for the paper," or something to that effect. Well, they and two other fellows were all best friends and used to hang out downtown in front of the Nansemond Drugstore next door to the American Bank, and so Mr. Hamblin took photos of each and then gave each a tri-folding frame of each of the others. It remained on my grandfather's dresser 'til after his death.

     Hamblin Studio as I remember was a very small brick structure, colonial-ish, right next door to Russell's Drug Store on North Main Street in downtown Suffolk. There was a central door and on either side was a window that displayed the lastest portraits taken of various folks in Suffolk over the last few weeks--- brides, babies, anniversary pictures, portraits etc. I used to love to stop by Russell's on the way home from Jefferson Junior High or Suffolk High School, get a coke and check out the windows of Hamblin's to see who was new.

    The portrait above of "The Veteran Four" from March 24, 1951 is very much like most of Mr. Hamblin's very professional and "classy" work, utilizing the same sort of backdrops he usually used.
My sister's (Dolly Bell Watson, later Carr) Suffolk High School graduation portrait hung inside the shop for years, at least a copy of it, which Mr. Hamblin enlarged to life size and colored with oils. It is still in the family after all these years. Most of all I remember the smell of the photography shop-- like the heavy pungent smell chemical-egg yolk-sulphur smell of tarnished silver, perhaps from the chemicals he used for developing?

    Most of Mr. Hamblin's photos and negatives are gone. Some have been saved and are housed at the Suffolk Public Library in Suffolk, and may be seen online via the Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection at the Virginia State Library.Check it out. You can spend hours checking out the pictures, even one of the 1953 cafeteria of Booker T. Washington High School I think. Lots of High School Class photos also!

 

This was taken in the back yard of 329 Cedar Street, Suffolk, Virginia about 1957. From left to right, Shelley Burch Watson, Jr.; Claude Clifford Lilly, III, John Henry Marshall, Sammy Powell, and George Hunter Marshall. 

We are seated on a fish pool which in my memory was about 100 feet by 100 feet. Seems a little smaller now. 

John and George Marshall lived just down the street and Sammy Powell lived behind 329 Cedar on South Main Street. 

My cousin Cliff Lilly was visiting with his parents, our Grandparents George and Dolly Whitley at their home at 329. At the time, I was living at 208 Katherine Street. We soon moved to 339 Cedar Street.

When my grandfather died in 1961, I went to live with my grandmother at 329.