Yorktown

By Kathleen Manley and Richard Shisler

In 1750, the deepwater port of Yorktown housed approximately 250-300 businesses, with as many as 2,000 people thriving in the small town. By 1781, the Revolutionary War's final siege had been staged, and the British were caught without resources to win the final battle against the American and Allied forces. Freedom was won for America, but Yorktown would continue to see war. In 1862, the Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War led to a monthlong battle near the site of the previous conflict. In 1917, World War I brought the embarkation of the Atlantic Fleet, and within a few decades, World War II would change Yorktown and the nation forever. These historic postcards portray the first family houses, the churches, the courthouses, the military, the battlefields, and the commemorative memorials of the area, showing the town's progression through time, from the 18th century through the present day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Mar 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781439660010

Kathleen Manley

Kathleen Manley is a third-time writer for Arcadia Publishing and a lifelong resident of Yorktown, Virginia. Richard Shisler, coauthor, is a local resident and the owner of this collection.

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Shisler

INTRODUCTION

Information is limited about the Native Americans who came to Yorktown 10,000 years before Europeans. What is known is that a group of European settlers, not starving or dying in their first years, settled enough to build homes and a church in the 1600s. They began to live on the property at a point of land where the US Coast Guard station exists today. It is not too hard to imagine the breezes on that point of land or the lush grasses and trees that grew thick enough to afford plenty of shelter. Shellfish, clams, oysters, and other fishes were abundant, along with plenty of game, deer, birds, and berries and vegetation.

Before the establishment of a village along the York River, there was a settlement of Europeans at the point of land in Ole York Village. A fort brought safety to the settlement. A church and courthouse existed as well. Later, storms made the settlement move inland. At that time, John Rolfe was sailing between his property in Jamestown and Mulberry Island, now the Fort Eustis area; in 1614, he married Pocahontas.

History recorded many details of Yorktown over the next 150 years, but important to know is that by the 1770s, this little village was filled with as many as 2,000 people and 300 buildings in close proximately to one another. The first families of America were coming into prominence in Yorktown, and some of the famous lie buried at Grace Episcopal Church. There was massive planting of tobacco in the fields that later became the battlefields of the Revolutionary War. It was said that the planter’s life was luxurious, and many of the townspeople lived with expensive items purchased in shops filled with fine English goods on Main Street. The gardens were well established, and the roads were thought superior to most of the streets in England. It would have been a most enviable life.

Then, British general Charles Cornwallis came, besieging the town in the summer of 1781 because of its deepwater port. French ally General Lafayette was surprised when Cornwallis took the town as his own and moved into and settled in the Nelson House. Not unlike Williamsburg, there were loyalists living in the town. Torn apart politically, the people of the village scattered, and the trench and redoubt building began, with the American forces and their French allies arriving in September of that year.

There are many details known about the Revolutionary War and about the town during the last days of the siege. After multiple days of shelling and fighting, many residents had evacuated. Many homes and buildings were burned down or blown apart. The signs of warfare and carnage were everywhere. It is reported that even 43 years later, upon Lafayette’s return in 1824, the town still bore the remnants of the devastation. Only 38 years later, the Civil War began. Once again, the battlefields were back in action, leaving the town with nothing but revenue derived from warfare.

Even before the depressed times of the 1860s, the tobacco crop had worn out the soil to the extent that an agrarian life was no longer possible in Yorktown. No federal government was left, having moved to Richmond many miles away for safety. Those who were left behind still had the benefits of the river. The York River was still alive with potential and life. The waterfront was swept by the fire of 1814, and an unnamed storm in 1933 left devastating effects but allowed a new beginning. Pictures show that in the 1880s, the town was left tattered. However, during the centennial celebration in Yorktown in 1881, federally allocated money was used to lay the cornerstone of the Victory Monument, completed in 1884. Massive crowds of press, military, and visitors traveling from all across the nation and around the world came to see the little village. The process of preservation had begun, and good men and women of vision stepped forward.

In the 1920s, a group of investors came to Yorktown from Philadelphia and excited the townspeople with grand ideas. There would be golf courses, daily airplane service, and a hotel resort that would take advantage of all the hunting, fishing, swimming, and relaxation that would rival any of the best resorts in America. It was also rumored that there may have been riverboats providing additional recreational activity. Yorktown was about to get city-like with all the amusements, housing, and developments available at the