USA > Virginia > City of Hampton > City of Hampton > History of Hampton and Elizabeth City County, Virginia > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Page fifty-one
five houses were left, and the citizens by thus yielding to the flames, property worth $200,000 demonstrated "their intensive devotion to the cause they had espoused and for which they considered no sacrifice too great."
At the breaking out of the war, John B. Cary, principal of the Hampton Military Institute, was commissioned by General Lee, Major of all the Hampton troops and after the battle of Bethel, in which he took part, he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel of the Thirty-second Virginia Regi- ment, commanded by Colonel Ewell, President of William and Mary College. It was on the occasion of a visit paid by Colonel Cary to General Butler under a flag of truce that the latter originated the expression "contraband," as applied to the negroes. Colonel Cary demanded the return of some negroes on the ground that they were private property, but General Butler declared that they were "contraband of war," and refused to give them up. After the war was over Colonel Cary settled in Richmond, where he was for some time superintendent of schools and amassed a fortune through his great business ability.
During the war the possession of Fort Monroe by the Federal authorities was a factor of great value to them in eventually achieving success. It became the starting point of great naval and land expeditions against the South, a great depot for prisoners and armaments, and a place of refuge from disaster. It was formidable guns of Fort Mon- roe that probably saved the Federal fleet in 1862 from entire destruction by the Merrimac. It was here that Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, was confined after one of the most gallant resistances ever put up by any peo- ple in defence of self-government. The cell in which he was shackeled, like an ordinary criminal, is pointed out, but it conveys no pleasant ideas of the magnanimity of his conquerors.
During this period the country between Fort Monroe and the present grounds of the Hampton Institute was occu- pied by a wilderness of tents called Camp Hamilton. The old Chesapeake Female Institute was used as a Hospital. This was connected by a bridge with Hampton Hospital, the great receiving place for sick and wounded soldiers of the Federal army in Virginia. This last building occupied the site of the present Hampton Institute.
Page fifty-two
The neighborhood was the refuge place of hundreds of negroes, and the burned section, where Hampton once stood, was filled with their rude shelters propped up against the brick chimneys, which survived the fire.
Hampton After the War of 1865-1910
In 1865, the war ended and the old Hampton families flocked back to the ruins of their once beautiful homes. The streets and lots were marked out again and house building commenced.
The courthouse reverted to the county authorities, and the graded school for freedmen was transferred to the Lin- coln School, which had been built of old hospital wards.
The few survivors of the congregation of the old church served more or less irregularly in the Odd Fellows Hall on Court Street, known as Patrick Henry Hall. The first regu- lar rector after the war was Rev. J. B. McCarty, who had been a chaplain in the Federal army. In less than five years the church was again restored, and it has at present a flourishing congregation. A tablet on the walls gives a short history of the edifice and its ministers followed by this quotation from the psalms: "O give thanks unto the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever."
Among the relics of the past, which are the prized pos- sessions of the church is the old vestry book to which refer- ence has been made, and a cup, chalice and patten of beauti- ful and antique work. The communion cup is by long odds the oldest church plate in the United States. It bears the hall mark of 1617, and was given by Mrs. Mary Robinson, of London, in 1619, to the "church in Smith's Hundred in Virginia," as the inscription upon it testifies. This hun- dred lay on the north side of James River between Weya- noke and Sandy Point, but was wiped out by the massacre in 1622. The name of the hundred was changed, in 1619, from "Smith's Hundred," which was its title during Sir Thomas Smith's presidency of the London Company to "Southampton Hundred," when the Earl of Southampton succeeded Smith. As Hampton was named from the same great friend of Virginia, it is properly the custodian of this elegant and unique treasure.
Among the tombstones still to be seen in the church-
Page fifty-three
yard, perhaps the most interesting are those of Captain George Wray, who died April 9, 1758, and Captain Henry Mowatt, of the British Navy, who in October, 1775, burned the town of Portland, Maine, because it refused to give him provisions.
The school comes next after the church in importance, and as soon as order was restored out of chaos, this question enlisted the attention of the people of Hampton. The old Hampton Academy building had perished in the fire of 1862, but the mortgage bonds in which its endowment fund of 10,000 had been invested were preserved by Col. J. C. Phil- lips, who took them to Richmond with him, when he re- fugeed there. A small school building was put up, this time of brick, which performed a valuable service for many years. In 1902 this building made way for the present handsome modern up-to-date structure. A tablet placed in the entrance hall proclaims the name of the school as the "Syms-Eaton Academy," thus perpetuating the memory of the two noble benefactors, who considered aright that they could find no better way of attaining true glory than edu- cating their fellow men.
In March, 1866, Captain Wilder had been succeeded by General Samuel C. Armstrong as superintendent of contra- bands and officer in charge of the Freedmen's Bureau. From the beginning he took special interest in the colored schools, having charge of those in ten counties in eastern Virginia. It was his suggestion that Hampton would be a fitting spot for a permanent training school for colored teachers.
In 1870, the old Chesapeake Female College, which had been used as a hospital during the war, was purchased for the government together with the forty acres of land owned by General B. F. Butler for $50,000, as a home for disabled soldiers. The number of buildings was increased to nearly seventy and the government purchased forty-three acres of land in addition to the original forty. Three large build- ings have been erected for hospital purposes and are sup- plied with every modern appliance for the sick. Nearly 17000 veterans have been cared for since the Home was established, and about 9000 of these rest in the National Cemetery nearby. As a result of the expenditure made by
Page fifty-four
these Federal veterans of every nationality a town between Hampton and Fort Monroe has grown up called "Phoebus," named in honor of Mr. Harrison Phoebus, a successful hotel man. Its population is over 3000.
During the war the old Hygeia Hotel was carted away, because it interfered with the training of guns in the Fort. After the war, the Hygeia was at once rebuilt on its later site close to the beach, but it was only a small building. In 1867, Mr. Phoebus purchased it, fitted it with all the modern conveniences and greatly enlarged it, till it had capacity enough to accommodate 1200 guests. It became a great resort for pleasure seekers, and Mr. Phoebus became very wealthy. Some years ago the Federal government decreed its removal, and as a substitute the splendid brick building known as the Chamberlin Hotel superseded, but unfortu- nately burned as stated elsewhere.
In keeping with the growth of the vicinity, since the war, has been the enormous development of Fort Monroe. The present fortifications embrace a parapet wall a mile and a quarter long, enclosing eighty-six acres and costing over $2,000,000. The fortress is partially washed by the waters of Hampton Roads and is separated from the main- land by a wide and deep moat. It is equipped with disap- pearing guns, which have a range of twelve miles or more. Some consider it next in strength to the celebrated fortress of Gibraltar, though probably the fortifications of Quebec from their natural advantages are more impregnable.
Fort Wool, on the Rip Raps opposite to Fort Monroe, has also been immensely strengthened. Like the other, it is equipped with immense disappearing guns and the latest machinery for defence in time of war.
Indeed, the whole region of what was known, in 1619, as "Elizabeth City Corporation" has greatly improved in the forty-five years since the war, and its appearance is a monument to the industry of the inhabitants. From the west end of Newport News to Old Point Comfort there is a population close on to 50,000 people compared with about 5000 in 1860. The population of Elizabeth City County is upwards of 26000 and that of Hampton very near 8000. The town has handsome paved streets and sidewalks, electric lights, electric cars,, fine stores and bank buildings, and is
Page fifty-five
connected with Richmond by one of the best railroad lines in the Union, while the wharf at Old Point is the stopping place of steamers to Norfolk, to Washington, and to Balti- more and New York. It is connected with Newport News, three and a half miles distant, by railroad and street rail- way service, and with Norfolk, fifteen miles distant, by a number of steamship lines and three fast ferries.
Statistics compiled by a prominent physician indicate climatic conditions in the county as equal to any found in the State. The water supply is abundant and truck farm- ing in the immediate vicinity is extensively carried on. The manufactories consist of saw mills, iron foundries, and shoe, sash and blind, oil and crab factories. The pluck of its inhabitants exhibited under so many vicissitudes of for- tune in the past has won for the town the name of the "game-cock town."
Page fifty-six
IBRAKY
THE LIBRARY CONGRESS Y A H Y Y C N
LIBXMLY
RESS
2
CONGRES AES 1 Y F CONGRES HA AESS IF LIBRARY E E HE
HIE LIBRARY 2
. S
ESS 1 . s s E C . A A E . IE L.HKAS CONGRES HA LILASES OF CONCRE. NAHY Y P HE LIBIARRV
7 CONGRESS ES CO A THE LIBRARY F THE CONGER A ४
(HE LIBRAXY OHOAES ,
TH & IXX .. RY CONGRES
e
N
RESS A CONGER 12 LIBR 197 .
CONGRESS
N THÉ K F LONGRI KONGRE 4 3 R
5
7 . 3 H
3
0 HE a F C Y H 3 OF F F CONGRES RAR> VAIH LIBRI CONGRE 2492 877 4 E LIBRARY
IRF LIBR
S
N
L
0 $ H . 8 AESS. A A CONGRE F . L TH .. OF CONGRES HE LIBRANDO A
F CONGRES E.LI
HA LIBRARY OF CONGRESS TU
STIL LIBR
A C 0 A THE y A A x HE LIPRAR HP IIBPARY AESS A A A 0 ALSS. OF CONGRES OF CONGRES THE LIBRARY "CONGRESS .
D
4 R
2
0
THE
LIERAF ES Y
S KONGRE Y THE CONGRES P
IE LIBRARY ESS A
D N
F
BRARY
KL F CON
E
COM IBRIXCA
O
2
A
.
A R < HA LIBRARY
PE LIBARY 3 MESSO
A OF CONGRESSS
E
4
A
. C
OT CONGR :32 In
x CHRARY OF CONGRESS THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0 0 F CONCEPS
H THE LIPS. AE LILAARY 2
ARY R CONGKES KONGRES.
CONSI TAS
HE LIEKANYA
f
.
R
C
CANGRE
THE LIBRARY
CONGRES.
H
C
F COM RAKS
A
OF CONGRES
S.S
ONCXTSSS THE 11
IRY OF CONGRESS,
N
18 anno8
APR 7 7
5
R
Cc
C
S 3 M
.RAS A
3
F
Y
CO
CONCR
Y
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0 014 440 000 8
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.