York County and Poquoson in World War IIToday I am going to talk to you about York County and Poquoson during the years 1941 to 1945. These were the World War II years.
To me this was a fascinating time in our history. We pulled together for a common cause. With the exception of a few months after September 11, this is something that we really have not seen since then.
The people of this era have been called the greatest generation. That is certainly justified. These people suffered through the depression and then were called upon to make further sacrifices to win in a war against a determined and evil enemy. In short these people saved the world.
When I started collecting material for this project over two years ago, I thought I was the first person to consider a history of York County in World War II. It was just recently that I found out that I had a predecessor in taking on this task. I found that author and historian Helen Jones Campbell had began to prepare a history of this time many years ago. The York County Board of Supervisors appointed her to write the history of World War II in York County. This was to be a part of overall project by the Virginia World War II History Commission to record the war history of various cities and counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This is an example of the book written about Newport News during the war years. Mrs. Campbell did finish a manuscript and sent it in to the commission for reviewing. So far I as know it was never published. I have spoken with three of her grandchildren and they are not familiar with this work. However her papers are available in the Swem Library at the College of William and Mary. I have spent many hours looking through her notes and they have helped me greatly in preparation of this presentation. She will be kind of looking over my shoulder because of the fact I am going to often refer what she has written about a certain instance that she witnessed during the war years.
Without going into a great deal of detail, I am going to tell you a little about Helen Campbell. She was born in Iowa and educated at Iowa Normal School, which is now the University of Northern Iowa. She became a journalist and moved to Washington D.C. during World War I. It was shortly after the war when she met and married Robert Campbell. They moved to Hampton during the mid-1930s. She later moved to Williamsburg and worked as a hostess in Colonial Williamsburg. She wrote of this time in a biographical novel called "Diary of a Williamsburg Hostess." I have a copy and you are free to borrow it if you wish. Around 1940, she moved to Yorktown to a house near the Moore House that formerly belonged to the Rev. Goodwin. When I asked her grandchildren why she moved to this are, they told me it was because of the history here.
She wrote for the Daily Press, Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Williamsburg Gazette. She also wrote the William and Mary Quarterly.
During the war years Helen was involved with the Red Cross, the draft board and was in charge of the rationing board. She was also involved in helping servicemen adjust to returning home after the war ended.
While I have not seen her entire book on York County in the war years, I have seen the table of contents and for this presentation I am going to cover some of the things that she had wanted to cover and things that I thought you would find interesting. I want this presentation to be interactive. By that I mean that if I make a mistake or you want to bring up a point, let me know. I don't want you to wait until the end to talk about anything.
Pre- War York County
During the years before the war, York County was still a very rural place. Route 17 as we know of today did not exist until 1952. In 1941 the road winded and meandered through the county and included what are now Burt's Road, Grafton Drive and Old York Hampton Road. There were many small general stores that often doubled as post offices. There was Amory's and Wainwright's store on what is now Grafton Drive, Wornoms, Hunts and John Smith Charles at the Dare Cross roads and Jeff's, Moore's and Messick in Poquoson. In Grafton there was Amory Funeral Home and Amory bottling works.
The people still worked on family farms and harvesting the bay. Many people worked at local military bases and the Newport News Shipyard.
The local government was:
Trial Justice……………W.E. Hogge
Clerk of Court…………..Floyd Holloway
Treasurer………………..John F. Rollins
Commissioner of Revenue…. Alva Riggins
Deputy Treasurer…L.M. Callis and H.G.Kinde
Deputy Commissioner of Revenue..W.K. Hunt
Commonwealths Attorney…..Julian Cornick
Sheriff……………….A.S. White Sr.
Deputy Sheriff……….Harry Riley
Special Officer……….Richard Goode
Coroner………………Dr. L.O. Powell
Board of Supervisors:
John F. Smith…….Grafton
David Powers…….Bruton
Dr. E.B. White……Poquoson
A. J. Renforth……..Nelson
The biggest news of 1941 was the courthouse fire of New Years Eve, 1940. What remained of the building was torn down and the National Park Service conducted an excavation of the foundation and the courthouse grounds. The excavation was completed in September of 1941. Plans were starting to be made of the it's rebuilding. Congressman Otis Bland tried to get federal funds, but a congressman from New York shot down the bill. The courthouse was rebuilt in 1955. Court was held in the Masonic Lodge and the USO building.
Months before the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, the Second World War affected York County.
With the quick victory German victory in France in 1940, Virginia was very concerned about its own safety in the event of an attack. The state government was aware of the potential of Langley Air Force Base, Norfolk Naval Base, the Shipyards in Newport News and the other military installations as possible targets of a German attack. The state formed the Virginia Defense Council on May 30,1940. and named Douglas Southall Freeman as its chair. This was the first state formed civil defense organization in the country. Later a special defense council was formed for the Hampton Roads area.
The first draft was held on October 16, 1940. Men between born between the dates October 17, 1909 to October 16,1919 had reported to local schools to register for the draft. The first York County man to be drafted was Frank Ferguson of Messick. His draft number was 158. His was officially inducted in May of 1942 and served in the Pacific.
Housing shortages were beginning to be noticed. Many families rented out extra rooms to military men and war workers. Temporary housing in York County took the form of trailer camps and small cottages. Some of these cottages still survive in front of Harwood Trailer court on route 17.
The Naval Mine Depot expanded and more sailors and marines were stationed there. In July of 1941, plans were approved for the building of USO on the jail sight in Yorktown.


When the Virginia National Guard was federalized on February 3,1941 the Commonwealth created what was called the Virginia Protective Force. This was essentially a state run militia. The York County based unit in this organization was called the "York Rangers" after the York based Civil War group. The Virginia Protective Force was to do the work of the National Guard while they were away. In 1944 the group changed the their name to the Virginia State Guard.

Pearl Harbor

By most accounts, the afternoon of Sunday December 7^th 1941 was bright and sunny in York County.
Hunter Fletcher was taking a ride in his car. K.T. Smith and Wallace Smith were in the front yard of the house at the Railway.
Ada Moore and a friend were on a double date with J.T. Caldwell and another sailor from the Yorktown Naval Mine warfare school.
Margaret Penzold was in a psychiatric ward in hospital in Hawaii. She was recovering from surgery and the regular war had no beds available.
At about 2:30pm, those York County citizens who have radios began to receive the earliest words about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The local radio stations were WGH, WRVA and WTAR. For those listening to WRVA, a Strauss waltz was interrupted with the word:"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special news flash. The Japanese are attacking Pearl Harbor." There were special announcements for all servicemen to get back to their bases, ships or units as soon as possible. KT and Wallace ran over to tell Major Wilson, who renting from Mr. Whitehead. Major Wilson left and they never saw him again.
Hunter Fletcher pulled into the local drug store when and there he was told of the attack.
Soon a spirit of anger and confusion settled over the county. Many young men immediately went to "join up".
A few days later Germany declared war on the United States. There was a real and genuine fear of an attack in this area.
Soon York County began to react. The governor issued a black out order for the shore communities from Virginia Beach to Willoughby Spit as well as Chinoteauge, Cape Charles, Buckroe Beach and Yorktown.
Soon the rest of Virginia was to comply.
Soldiers were sent out from Ft. Eustis and Ft. Monroe to guard local bridges, reservoirs and creeks. Anti-aircraft batteries were set up in the area. There was a battery set up at Amory’s wharf that later moved to the end of North Lawson drive.
On December 11, 1941 a civil defense meeting was held at the Swan Tavern in Yorktown. 251 people showed up. Mrs. Campbell remembered that this was well beyond the capacity of the Swan Tavern and the meeting was moved to Seaford. Later some of these people attended a meeting of the Hampton Roads Defense council in Norfolk.
On December 17, Yorktown had its first blackout. There was 100 per cent compliance. At 7:00 pm a siren sounded several short blasts and the town began to shroud itself in darkness. At 9:00pm several long shrieks of the siren signaled the all clear. One story about this black out involves a Baltimore steamer that left Gloucester for Yorktown. Gloucester was not observing the blackout, so the steamer left their dock with its lights on. When they got to midstream of the York River, the steamer cut off its lights. They docked in Yorktown by flashlight light and it was by flashlight that they discharged passengers and unloaded freight.
At the December 18, board of supervisors meeting, Rev. C.A, Turner of Trinity Church in Poquoson was named the county’s civil defense co-ordinator and D.A. Powers were appointed York County civil defense director. A motion was made by A.J. Renforth and seconded by John F. Smith that $300 would be appropriated for the purchase of sirens and least four telephones to be installed in York County at the direction of Rev. Turner.
Rev. Turner was given extraordinary powers in his role as York County defense coordinator. The ordinance itself stated, "It shall be unlawful to refuse or neglect to obey any order of the coordinator." It was punishable by $50.00 fine and 30 days in jail.
December 30 was set up as registration day for local civil defense and everybody of the age of 16 was expected to register.

York County goes to war

As 1941 ended and 1942 was born the realization that there was a war on came to York County. Rationing began to take effect. Among the first items to be rationed were tires. Rubber was becoming extremely scarce due the fact the 90% of America’s rubber came from areas in South East Asia that were now under Japanese control. Just how desperate the tire situation came to light when it was revealed that Virginia would only be allotted 1,745 tires for the month of January 1942. That was for the entire state.
Each city, county or large town had to set up a tire board to determine who would get the ever valuable tires. York County’s tire board met at Clayton Rollins funeral home in Poquoson. The York County tire board consisted of Floyd Holloway from Yorktown, R.W. Mahone of Marauder and Rev. J.T. Mills of Seaford.
Gasoline was also rationed. At the beginning of the war there was a real shortage in the country, especially on the East coast. This was mainly due to u-boats sinking tankers at an alarming rate. U-boat crews called this the Happy time.
As the threat subsided somewhat and pipelines were built across the country, there was enough gasoline to go around. But gas was to remain rationed for the remainder of the war. This was preserve rubber that was used in tires. If did not have enough gas to drive, you would not be wearing out tires.
The amount of gas that you were allotted depended on your occupation or you importance to the community or the war effort. You would be given an A, B, or C sticker. Actually there were other stickers, but they were extremely rare. An A sticker would entitle you to 4 gallons a week. This was the most common sticker. A B sticker would get 4 gallons plus another four gallons. These mainly for war workers and such. A C sticker would get about the gas that you needed. This was for military, police, firefighters, mail carriers, clergy and other essential persons.
Mrs. Campbell was the head of the York County ration board and she was generous with gas for farmers and their tractors.
There was a healthy black market in York County. I have heard of one place that would give a few gallons of gas for a few extra dollars. Mrs. Campbell also noted this in her writings.
Sugar was also rationed. People used such substitutes as corn syrup, molasses or beet sugar. Amory’s bottling works was forced to close due to the sugar rationing.
Many different types of food were rationed. You would have a certain amount of ration points in addition to money to buy certain foods.
A lot of times the store simply would not have what you were looking for.
Rationing and shortages were made somewhat more tolerable in York County and Poquoson due to the fact that many people had their own farm animals and grew Victory gardens before the term became popular.
Many York and Poquoson families harvested the Chesapeake Bay for food.
Planes spotting stations were set up in York County and Poquoson. There was one in Yorktown, one in Seaford where Zion Church is at today and one at in Poquoson at Claytor Rollins Funeral Home. These were probably the places where the phones that Board of Supervisors approved on December 18 were placed.
Many local teens took their turn plane spotting. Delma and Joyce Ashton from our group were planes spotters.
The late Jesse Faye Forrest told me a plane-spotting story from Poquoson. One night Jesse and another were pulling late night plane watch duty at Claytor Rollins Funeral Home. The girl began to wander around the funeral home when she spotted some empty caskets. She became shaken and quickly gathered her things and left the funeral home. She never came back to do anymore plane spotting.
Yorktown also has a USO. It was located on Ballard Street behind the present York Hall and in front of where the jail used to be.
It was authorized by the Board of Supervisors in July of 1941 and completed in February of 1942. Its official name was the "Saltwater" USO. The total cost was 28,000 dollars. The people that I have talked to remember it as being very nice with large dance floor and a library at one end.
The USO was a one-story frame structure 72 by 94 feet. It had white asbestos shingles that were grained to resemble wood. It was a t-shaped building. It had a huge fire place in the center of the building. There was also a dance floor, reading room, refreshment bar, two restrooms, club room, office and heater room.
Mrs. Campbell believed that it might have been the first USO on the Peninsula. There is a very nice post card on the Yorktown USO in her papers. Phoebus had a USO that was identical to the Yorktown USO.
Ada Bright and Margaret Penzold were hostesses at the USO. The Yorktown USO was segregated. A separate USO for African-Americans was built in Lackey in June 1944.
The USO also operated a bathhouse on the Yorktown beach. The beach was a major attraction to the local sailors and marines. On one afternoon in the summer of 1942, it was estimated that nearly 7000 people were on the beach. Later in the war, wounded servicemen were taken to the beach as a part of their therapy.
Scrap drives began to become common. This consisted of basically four types of material: rubber rags metal and paper. Groups like Boy Scout troop #23 from Yorktown and the 4-H club of York County took part in these drives. There were times when people went from door to door to canvassing for usable scrap material.
One interesting story from York County (actually Poquoson) during the war was that of Carroll Rollins. Before the war, Carroll Rollins had joined the merchant marine. During the early war years, being a merchant mariner was a very perilous occupation. By early 1943, Rollins had had three ships already torpedoed from under him. It was not unusual for a merchant seaman to catch another available ship after his had been torpedoed.
In the middle of 1943, Carroll Rolling was in England recovering from a torpedoing when his draft number came up. The York County draft board publicized the fact that Rollins did not show up for induction. There was even talk of charging him with draft evasion. This action angered his parents who also went public. They wrote to the Daily Press telling the fact that Carroll was serving his county long before America entered the war. I was following this story in microfilmed copies of the Daily Press. I never could find the conclusion of the story. What happened to Carroll Rollins. Did the draft board actually charge him. I wanted to find this all out. I remembered seeing the name Carroll Rollins with my copy of the Smith family book by R. E. White. Through this book I was able find out that Carroll Rollins great nephew, Layne Forrest worked with me at the Sheriff’s office. He put me in touch with his grandmother, who was Carroll’s sister. She told me that the draft board ended up issuing an apology to Carroll and his family. Carroll ended up having a total of seven ships shot from under him during the war. He stayed in the merchant marine until his death in 1968.
Another story York County war story is that of Camp Peary. During one of our meetings our speaker was Les Dawson. He told of working for the Navy during the early part of the war. The Navy was looking for a place to build a base for their SeaBee battalions. He took a Navy officer to the Magruder area of the Bruton part of our county. The Navy liked what they saw and began acquiring land by eminent domain. David Powers of the Board of Supervisors was one the people who were to loose their land. They started with 4000 acres. Through a what could be best called a snafu, many families only had about two days to vacate their property before their homes were demolished. There were a few instances of demolition beginning on some of the houses while the occupants were still in them.
In an editorial in the December 25, 1942 the Virginia Gazette stated that Navy just came in ordered the citizens to vacate without any notice.
This caught the attention of Rev. Archibald Ward of the Williamsburg Baptist Church. Along with the Williamburg Ministerial Association, Rev. Ward began a letter writing campaign to officials in Washington and the Navy. This eventually did help make conditions more tolerable for the people of Magruder but it did not take away from the fact many people were left homeless. Many people were sent to the Williamsburg CCC camp. I have been in touch with Rev. Ward’s daughter and she has given me copies of her father’s correspondance.
Camp Peary was opened November 12,1942 as the Construction Battalion Center, Camp Peary Virginia. On April 12, 1944 it redesignated the U.S. Naval Training and Distribution Command. IT was at this time recruit training was taking place at Camp Peary. In January 1945, a POW Camp was opened there and housed 1700 German and Italian prisoners of war. From Ferbruary 1, 1942 to February 1 1946 339,458 enlisted and 9420 officers were trained at Camp Peary. In the book "Tidewater’s Navy" the author states that Camp Peary was the largest single military facility in Hampton Roads.
Another important part of wartime life in York County was the Red Cross. After the war began, the Red Cross was charged with making bandages for front line use. At fist this was done in private homes. The effort became so large that another place was needed. They moved to the Swan Tavern and worked there for a short time,. But the Park Service needed the building for tourism purposes. Mrs. Chenowith, the president of the Comte deGrasse Chapter of the DAR offered use of the second of floor to Mrs. Katherine Blow. Mrs. Blow was in charge of the York Red Cross’s Surgical Dressing unit. Mrs, Chenowith asked Mrs. Blow when she planned to move in, Mrs.Blow answered "instantly"
From 1940 to 1945, the York County Red Cross worked 48,771 volunteer hours.
They put together 1,739 garments, 576 kit bags and made 295,039 surgical dressings.
Towards the end of the war the Red Cross sent Mrs. Campbell to a school in Alexandria that specialized in taking care of returning servicemen and helping them adjust to being back home. The Red Cross also assisted soldiers who were coming home on emergency leave due to illness, death of some other catastrophe. A board of physicians were set to advise the them. These doctors were; Dr. E.B. White, Dr.L.O. Powell and Dr. N. F. McNorton.
Perhaps the most memorable event of the World War II years in York County happened just after Midnight on Novemeber 16, 1943. It was at this time that a tremendous explosion occurred at Plant #2. This plant was handling the explosive Torpex. Torpex was new to the United States and the Naval Mine Depot was the only place in the country handling this particular explosive.
The plant killed seven workers and injured twenty five others. It was felt as far away as Portsmouth and Princess Anne County. Mrs. Campbell noted that nearly all the glass on the Yorktown waterfront was shattered. The damage was worse at the plate glass at Oliver’s Garage, Hornsby Oil Company and DeNeuville’s mercantile establishment. The blast set off the Park Service siren leaving many people to believe that they were under an air raid.
York County residents reported seeing a reddish yellow flash and explosion that was nearly 200 feet high. The explosion was of such strength that it unlocked locked doors and rocked the Norfolk-Newport News ferry. Many people were knocked out of their beds. It caused severe damage to the Naval Mine Depot and Cheatham Annex. It broke windows as far away as Mathews County.
Mrs. A.V. Dillon of 26^th Street in Newport News reported that her house rocked, rattled and shook terribly. Then there was "awful cracking sounds as if it was going to tumble down or the roof being blown off.
On November 21,1943, at memorial service was held for those killed in the explosion. In inquiry was held find out what caused the explosion and in October 1944 it was determined that the loading ports of the torpedo warheads were left uncovered and as the warheads were cooling and bieng handled. This left them more exposed to impact than if they were covered. The loading holes should have been closed prior to handling. On January 12, 1946, a monument was dedicated to honor those that were killed.
On August 15, 1945, the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II. When the news of the surrender reached York County, Helen Campbell was at the Yorktown USO. She made the following observations: Five sirens blew for ¾ of an hour. 500 enlisted men crowded into the USO where a regularly scheduled dance was taking place. Some British sailors ran back and forth in the streets ringing cowbells. The town was very noisy, but not objectively so.
On August 20^th 1945, a war weary Helen Jones wrote the following:
" It won’t be long now. Comes the end of the war and the return to a peacetime basis. It won’t be long until the customers will always be right and welcome. The won’t be regarded as a necessary evil.
Restuarants will furnish a big piece of meat instead of a little one and the overworked statement" we can’t get any butter" will come to an end. Buying shorts, hankerchiefs and other little necessaties will no longer be a major project. Service be available without an act of Congress. Material for that extra room will be available along with electric irons and refrigerators and the like. Ration tickets will be something for your memory books. You won’t have wait for someone else who knows someone else to get what you need. There will be room for everybody to sit down on the bus. Housewives will remind those who used to say " Don’t you know there is a war on" by saying " Don’t you know its over" The speed limit will be back to 55 miles per hour instead of 35 miles per hour. Vacations will be taken without a since of guilt. We will settle down again to making a better living and enjoying life. It’s over"
York County was to get back to normal. The courthouse was eventually rebuilt, the statue was put back on top of the Victory Monument to replace the one knocked off by lightening in July of 1942 and the bridge crossing the York River was completed in 1952. It was supposed to have been started in the fall of 1942. The war years brought about the boom decade of the 1950s. but that is a different story and I will end there.