James City County

By Sara E. Lewis

Beyond museum restorations at Jamestown and neighboring Williamsburg, the history of America's first county is largely unknown to many who visit or live nearby. However, they see and read a multitude of street, neighborhood, and business names that bear silent witness to the county's history. Founded in 1634 atop ancient Algonquin Indian territory, the locality was first made up of plantations and small farms occupied by Europeans and Africans. As they spread out from "James Citie," immigrants sited themselves near rivers and creeks. Waterways provided the earliest transportation network, but interior road maintenance was key to further development of commerce and community. After the Civil War, James City County's population was concentrated along the Toano-Norge-Lightfoot corridor. Communities blossomed along an ancient footpath that followed the Virginia Peninsula's spine. In the 1880s, the railroad paralleled a portion of it, and motorcars followed, making Richmond Road the county's primary thoroughfare. Other community centers included Diascund, Croaker, Chickahominy, Centerville, and Grove.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439622957

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INTRODUCTION

James City County’s greatest claim to fame is Jamestown, the fort and island citie that was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Jamestown and then Williamsburg, which was formed from a portion of James City County and York County, were Colonial Virginia’s first and second government seats. This publication includes a few photographs of Jamestown and Williamsburg but not many, since these are available in numerous other publications. Rather, this short compilation features a sampling of the people and places that illuminate rural James City preceding its growth as a predominantly exurban area. Since the story of James City County beyond the Colonial capitals is little known to the millions who visit and to the thousands who have settled here, this publication offers them a taste of the history of the living county beyond the renowned museums.

Beginning shortly after the Jamestown outpost was founded in 1607, the surrounding land was granted to adventuring settlers who were mostly English emigrants. Some were members of the middle to minor gentry, and others had mercantile connections. However, the land that became James City County was largely populated by less well-positioned individuals who were increasingly crowded out of the Old World. Those with land paid for indentured servants and slaves who were needed to acquire more land and to labor on homesteads and in tobacco fields.

By 1634, the Virginia Company’s venture had become a royal colony with a population of approximately 5,000. Due to the necessity of governance, Virginia’s first counties were drawn up so courts would be accessible to the colonists. Virginia’s first eight counties were Accomack, Charles City, Charles River, Elizabeth River, Henrico, James City, Warwick River, and Warrosquyoake (Isle of Wight). James City County’s seat at James Citie, or Jamestown, was also the Virginia colony’s first administrative center.

Virginia’s second capital city was named Williamsburg, and it was founded in 1699. It was built at Middle Plantation, located about six miles northeast of Jamestown on a ridge midway between the James and York Rivers. Early James City County counted upon Williamsburg’s urban amenities while today’s City of Williamsburg appreciates the resources of a more populous James City County. Since the early days, government buildings, school systems, and many local services have been shared. Williamsburg has annexed portions of James City County through the centuries, with the last annexation in 1983.

From early in the 17th century until the American Revolution, James City County’s approximately 150 square miles of land included a few large plantations and many small farms. Landowners, indentured servants, and slaves lived and worked on the land that brought forth crops for subsistence and income. By the middle of the 18th century, James City County’s cropland was exhausted of nutrients as a result of tobacco cultivation, and large planters pushed west. Other farmers consolidated early land grants and remained in the area. Some slaves were freed and settled in identifiable communities.

A few descendants of James City County’s earliest settlers, black and white, still live in James City County. A legacy surrounds us in place names that have survived. For example, the Green Spring house and surrounding plantation of 17th-century governor William Berkeley has left a mark on the county. The historic site is preserved, but the names Berkeley and Green Spring on signposts, stores, and neighborhoods carry tales and spirits forward. A 19th-century owner of the house and land, William Ludwell Lee, left another legacy. This descendant of Berkeley’s second wife bequeathed freedom to his slaves at his death in 1803 and gave them a tract of his land, the Hot Water tract that is today’s Freedom Park, where they established a community. Descendants of those free blacks still live in the Centerville Road area and throughout the county.

James City County’s first families endured two wars fought on the home front. The skirmishes and the aftermath of the American Revolution and the nearby Battle of Yorktown resulted in property damage and disease. Thousands of American, French, and British soldiers camped here and moved through the area, using up large amounts of food and timber, and spreading epidemics. James City County residents who survived required more than a decade to recover from the spoil. Then, between 1861 and 1865, the Civil War once again brought soldiers and devastation. Union troops stationed in Hampton fought to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. James City County was directly in the line of fire. Union troops held the city of Williamsburg. Encampments and crisscrossing of soldiers made the populace anxious about the welfare of their homes, farms, and families. Afterward, wounds to the people, buildings, and environment required time to heal.

The devastation wrought by the American Revolution and Civil War, as well as new technology, changed the character of the county. A unique community created by the post-bellum state of affairs was Norge. Around 1896, a Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad executive and entrepreneur of Norwegian descent noticed an area of largely abandoned or cheap farmland midway along the spur of railroad line that ran southeast along the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to Newport News. He speculated that if these lands were inhabited and farmed, more people and crops would need to be transported by the railroad. He promoted the land to Midwestern families who had come to America from Norway and encouraged them to resettle in James City County, where the weather was less harsh. Today the Norge community is still occupied by many third- and fourth-generation descendants of the original Scandinavian resettlers.

Other distinct communities include Grove, originally part of the extensive plantation land of the Burwells of Carter’s Grove and Kingsmill Plantations; Croaker, a crossroads between the homesteads of independent and comfortably prosperous farmers in the northern portion of the county near the York River—where the croaker fish was plentiful; and Chickahominy, near the site of an 18th-century shipyard and a 19th-century brick-making company on the Chickahominy River, a tributary of the James River.

The photographs in this book capture images of the county beginning about 125 years ago, when photography became a useful medium. They celebrate the resilience of the people of James City County