In eastern Virginia, mid-twentieth-century farmers worked according to centuries-old traditions. Their forefathers had shipped a lot of tobacco and later potatoes by sail and steamboats, and then by train and trucks for most of the county’s 375 year history. But by the middle of the twentieth century, commercial farming became less profitable and by century’s end, the farm was more profitably subdivided for suburban living.
Early Farming in James City County
Farming commenced in earnest in James City County when colonial settlers discovered they could make money by marketing a sweet strain of Virginia tobacco to Europe. As more settlers came to Virginia and tobacco cultivation moved west to fresh land, the county that was home to the first permanent English settlement in America supplied grain, peas, and other food crops to Caribbean colonies where sugar was widely cultivated. Some farmers raised crops to supply the city of Williamsburg.
Farms During American Revolution and Civil Wars
Farm commerce was interrupted in the skinny eastern Virginia county between the James and York Rivers and the cities of Williamsburg and Richmond by troop movement during by two wars. During the American Revolution, troops skirmished for months as they staged and waited for George Washington prior to the conflict-ending battle at nearby Yorktown. Thousands of Continental, French, and British soldiers ate their way through tons of grain, produce, and livestock.
Eighty years later, warriors needed food and supplies during the three years that Union troops held Hampton and Williamsburg and scouted through the county to kept their sights on the Confederate capital at Richmond. James City County was once again a pass-through for troop movement. Some of the area’s most oft-told stories are about farms and farmers that supplied soldiers willingly and others caught in raids and crossfire.
Farmers See Change
In the 1940s, World War II sent George Marston back to the farm. Descended from a long line of James City County farmers dating to the early days of colonial settlement, he thought he wouldn’t have to farm. But George left his job at the Newport News Shipyard. “My father couldn’t get any help.” Laborers who had been getting a dollar a day on the farm were attracted by the 30 to 40 cents an hour wages paid by military installations the sprung up in Hampton Roads to train and supply troops.
During the war and for years to come George worked with his father to grow potatoes, watermelons, cantaloupe, and string beans. They built crates for strawberries and took them to the train station. Tractor trailers were loaded with produce for brokers and retail markets in Richmond or Philadelphia. Although they had a tractor, they kept 8 horses and mules. At that time, white potatoes were 90 percent of James City County’s commercial agricultural crop. “I don’t know of a single acre of white potatoes growing here today,” said George.
He got a better tractor after the war and went on to be a key supplier for the Lou Smith chain of nine grocery stores, delivering melons, sweet corn, and string beans twice a week. He farmed the acreage around his home place, rented other farmland in the county, and had cooperative agreements with other farmers from time to time. School boys would be hired to pick melons and he hired area women to help with weeding.
George continued to farm there until the late 1990s. “We raised four children and they all have a college education.” He still goes to a small portion of his former property to raise a garden full of potatoes, onions, beets, peppers, tomatoes, and more.
Farmers in the Marston’s parents’ and grandparents’ time saw the heyday of commercial farming in James City County. Today, most of the Marston’s ancestral land grows houses with an occasional plot of flowers or vegetables. Although Marston came close to breaking the farming tradition, he would be among the last to be deeply rooted in James City County’s commercial farming way of life.
Adapted from a story written by the author for Edible Chesapeake magazine and from her book Images of America: James City County,a collection of photos and captions from farms and crossroads compiled to illustrate the county’s past way of life.
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