A Slice of Smithfield Fall 2021 by smithfieldtimes

Fall 2021

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

People growing together

A group of citizens starts a community garden

Changing Course A family took advantage of the pandemic and set sail

2 • Slice of Smithfield

Genuine Smithfield Sparkles for the Season! HOLIDAY EVENTS SMITHFIELD FARMERS MARKET’S

Holiday Food & Craft Markets

November 6 & 13, December 4 & 18, 9 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. These holiday specialty markets will feature baked goods, craft items, seasonal produce, specialty foods and live music.

NOVEMBER

Holiday Open House Weekend

Saturday & Sunday, November 6 & 7 at participating shops & restaurants Kick off your holiday season and enjoy fabulous sales and specials!

An Evening with St. Nick

Friday, November 19 at the Isle of Wight Museum, 5:30 - 8 p.m. Holiday refreshments, crafts and a reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Call the head elf for your child’s appointment: 757.357.0115.

Annual Holiday Tree Lighting

Friday, November 19 at 6 p.m. at the Gazebo, 228 Main Street, Smithfield Enjoy holiday music and cookies compliments of the Woman’s Club of Smithfield.

Evening Mistletoe Market

Saturday, November 20, 3 - 8 p.m. along Main Street, Smithfield Featuring hand crafted and unique gift ideas, food, live music and performances.

Carrollton Midday Christmas Market

Saturday, November 27, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Old Point National Bank lot, Carrollton Featuring holiday crafters, farm fresh foods, produce and food vendors.

DECEMBER

A Colonial Christmas in Smithfield

Saturday & Sunday, December 4 & 5 Holiday events at Windsor Castle Park, the 1750 Isle of Wight Courthouse and Christ Episcopal Church. Ticketed event. Details at ChristmasInSmithfhield.com.

Downtown Smithfield Christmas Parade

Saturday, December 11 beginning at 10:30 a.m. along Main and Grace Streets 2021 theme is "Parade of Champions." Grand Marshalls are the Smithfield High School State Title Champion Coaches for Basketball, Debate, Soccer and Track. Floats, bands, dance troupes, animals and more!

Elves Night Out

Thursday, December 16 from 5 - 7:30 p.m. at participating shops & restaurants Your favorite downtown merchants will be open late for last minute shopping!

VisitSmithfield.com

Slice of Smithfield • 3

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4 • Slice of Smithfield

EDITORIAL Tracy Agnew Editor Titus Mohler Writer Stephen Faleski Writer Jen Jaqua Photographer

PRODUCTION Troy Cooper Designer

ADVERTISING

Lindsay Richardson Regional Sales Manager Dana Snow Marketing Consultant Mitzi Lusk Marketing Consultant

ADMINISTRATION Steve Stewart Publisher

The Smithfield Times PO Box 366, Smithfield, VA 23431 www.smithfieldtimes.com 757.357.3288

Blending summer and fall As you read this fall edition of Slice of Smithfield, we hope you are surrounded by pumpkins, falling leaves and crisp air with a warm beverage in your hand. You know, if that’s your thing. If it’s not, just hunker down until spring has sprung. If warmer weather is your thing, maybe check out the stories on these pages. From gardening to boating, they bring a little bit of summer to the pages of the fall edition of Slice. One warm-weather activity that’s known to be good for the body and soul is gardening. A group of local citizens have banded together to create a community garden featuring herbs, vegetables and flowers, as well as fun items like painted rocks and decorations stressing the importance of diversity and unity. You can read all about it starting on page 12. And starting on page 16, the story of Kristen and Robert Kaplan, their four children and two pets, and how they are enjoying life on their boat. The family has traveled the East Coast and the Caribbean on their boat, but they frequently dock in Smithfield. Starting on page 6, you can read about the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Smithfield’s Great Fire, which leveled part of the commercial area on the waterfront and hastened the town’s transition from a “peanut town” to a “ham town.” We’re always looking for your submissions to help us make Slice better. We need you for story ideas, submissions, guesses for the Where Am I? challenge and any other suggestions you may have. Please contact us at news@ smithfieldtimes.com. God bless, Tracy Agnew

Inside this Issue

CHANGING COURSE The Kaplan family set sail on the high seas during the pandemic with four children, a dog and cat.

In the News

Smithfield hosted a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Great Fire of 1921.

Community Garden People in Smithfield believe in the unifying power of community gardens.

Where Am I?

Can you spot the location of our Where Am I? challenge this edition? You’ll be entered to win a $25 gift card.

16 22

Scene in Smithfield Chris Campbell performed for families at The Smithfield Times Gazebo on Aug. 27.

6 • Slice of Smithfield

In the News

From peanuts to hams

How the 1921 Great Fire changed Smithfield Story by Stephen Faleski Photos by Stephen Faleski and historical photos submitted

“Peanut industry of Smithfield is wiped out by fire.” That was the headline that ran in the Aug. 18, 1921, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch the day after a blaze burned through two blocks of Commerce Street, destroying the old Gwaltney-Bunkley peanut factory and a number of warehouses. But was the fire truly the cause of death for Smithfield's days as the self-proclaimed “peanut capital of the world,” or was it merely the final nail in the coffin? Smithfield, according to Patrick Evans-Hylton's book, “Smithfield: Ham Capital of the World,” began as a shipping port in the early days of the 18th century, when Commerce Street consisted of a footpath leading to a public landing on the Pagan River. In 1779, Mallory Todd began shipping Smithfield hams from the site. The town continued to conduct much of its commerce See FIRE, page 7

This 1921 photo shows the devastation wrought by the Aug. 17, 1921, fire along Smithfield’s wharf. Above, the policy that insured the buildings destroyed by fire. (Submitted Photos)

Slice of Smithfield • 7 FIRE, from page 6

by water nearly a century later when Pembroke D. Gwaltney Sr., a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, “returned to his farm, penniless, from the surrender at Appomattox Court House” and “laid aside his ragged gray jacket, and took up the culture of peanuts,” writes Helen Gray in a Feb. 6, 1902, Leslie's Weekly interview with the “Peanut King,” as Gwaltney was then known. According to Helen Haverty King's “Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County,

Virginia,” Gwaltney had initially partnered with his cousin, O.G. Delk, to erect a smokehouse behind their store and warehouse on Commerce Street, using Delk's sloop, named the “Three Sisters,” to transport items via the Pagan River. Gwaltney bought out Delk's interest in 1875 and erected his first peanut cleaning plant on Commerce Street in 1880, which utilized machinery, some of which Gwaltney had designed himself. In 1891, the Gwaltney-Bunkley Peanut

Company incorporated, naming P.D. Sr. as its president. Then, in 1897, Gwaltney bought out the Independent Peanut Company of Smithfield, gaining possession of a four-story building capable of generating its own electricity. As of 1902, Gwaltney's factory employed about 300 workers, most of whom were Black men and girls “from fifteen and up,” according to Gray, and was processing about 300,000 bags of cleaned peanuts a year, equating to about $1.25 See FIRE, page 8 At top, Warren Johnson, pastor of Beaver Dam Baptist Church in Carrsville, and at bottom, Marie Miguel, a Smithfield Little Theatre volunteer, dressed in 1920s garb for the Great Fire commemoration.

8 • Slice of Smithfield FIRE, from page 7

million ($39.6 million in today's dollars). Gray described Gwaltney as belonging to “the progressive type of Southerners,” his hand “ever extended toward those less fortunate than himself,” but also notes there had been a strike among his workers about two years prior that had lasted 10 days “at the end of which time they quietly resumed work at the same wages, from forty cents to one dollar and twenty five cents a day.” By 1911, Gwaltney-Bunkley had sold out to the American Peanut Corporation, “So when the big fire came to Smithfield on the morning of August 17, 1921, the Gwaltneys lost very little; it was the American Peanut Corporation which lost its business in Smithfield,” King writes. “Fortunately, they were covered by insurance.” P.D. Sr. himself had died six years before the fire, in 1915. “P.D. Gwaltney, Jr., and F.R. Berryman [a business associate of P.D. Sr.] must have seen the handwriting on the wall as far as the peanut industry in Smithfield

was concerned,” King writes. “Although Amedeo Obici's Planters Nut and Chocolate Company had not yet moved to Suffolk, they were looking the situation over carefully and had bought a small factory there in 1913. Then, too, Smithfield lacked a railroad and Suffolk had a great network of tracks. Perhaps P.D., Jr., saw his family's future in the meat business, in which he had already become well established.” On April 6, 1920, just over a year before the Great Fire, the Old Dominion Steamship Company suddenly ceased servicing Smithfield, which a Virginian-Pilot article from that date blamed on increasing demands from organized labor. It was projected at the time that the end of the steamship line would keep $2 million ($27.6 million in today's dollars) worth of produce from going to market. According to King, the businessmen of Smithfield and farmers of northern Isle of Wight County raised enough money to buy the steamship Hampton Roads and the wharf, employing Capt. Albert Gard, who had

made the Norfolk-to-Smithfield run for the Old Dominion shipping line. The new steamship company became known as the Smithfield, Newport News and Norfolk Steamship Co. When the Great Fire destroyed Smithfield's docks the next year, the town could no longer compete with the emerging peanut market in Suffolk. The now-defunct Norfolk Post reports the blaze had been confined to a twoblock area along the town's waterfront by around 8:30 a.m. This was largely thanks to the Suffolk Fire Department, who “stopped for nothing,” according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “making the run from Suffolk to Smithfield in less than an hour.” The Suffolk unit had left at 7:20 and arrived in Smithfield by 8:15. It was record speed for the day, the firefighters having achieved it by telephoning ahead to have bridges reenforced with heavy timber to bear the weight of a “big motored pumper, with a full crew of men,” the Times-Dispatch reports. Half an hour See FIRE, page 9

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Slice of Smithfield • 9 FIRE, from page 8

later, a fire tugboat from Newport News had arrived and the two units, in less than two hours, had the blaze under control. At its Aug. 3, 2021, meeting, Smithfield’s Town Council formally thanked the Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue by presenting Battalion Chief Nick Savage with a resolution of commendation for the department’s help in extinguishing the Great Fire. William Henry Sykes Jr., a 12-year-old boy at the time of the fire, wrote in 1988 that when one of the peanut factories and warehouses burned, it “produced a large quantity of black peanut oil that floated all over the river, onto every boat hull and mooring line. The rise and fall of the tide painted the marsh grass an ugly black which remained for more than two years.” Given Smithfield's dependence at the time on the Pagan River for commerce, its docks were among the first structures to be rebuilt, but by that time “Suffolk had gotten into the act [of mass-producing peanuts],” Sykes writes. “They had railroads; we had none and that made the difference.” Smithfield's days as a river port contin-

ued a few more years. The James Adams Floating Theater, which served as the inspiration for Edna Ferber's 1926 novel “Show Boat” and the Broadway musical by the same name, used to stop in Smithfield. No one knew at the time of the fire that just seven years later, the James River Bridge would change the whole pattern of life on the south side of the river, Sykes writes. “It was just a changing evolution of things,” said Isle of Wight County Museum Director Jennifer England. About a year after the fire, P.D. Jr. discovered a smoked ham that had been hanging, undisturbed, in the rafters of one of his smokehouses for 20 years. He fashioned a brass collar for it, calling it his “pet” ham, and began taking the ham on tour as a demonstration of the preserving powers of his curing method — cementing his family's, and the town's, transition from peanuts to hams. Smithfield marked the 100th anniversary on Aug. 21, 2021, with bell tolling, re-enactments, period-dressed interpreters and more.

Albert Burckard, dressed in an early 20th century firefighter’s coat and helmet, gives a presentation on the 1921 Great Fire of Smithfield during the commemoration.

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Slice of Smithfield • 11

Where am I?

In each edition, the Slice staff provides a challenge of sorts, testing how much of Isle of Wight and Surry counties you really know. We photograph some location that is readily accessible and open to the public, and see if you can tell us where it is. If you know where this photo was taken, submit your answer, along with your name and contact information, to news@smithfieldtimes. com. If you’re right, you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift card. So, if you know where this is, let us know. If you’re right, you could be a winner. Go out and enjoy!

12 • Slice of Smithfield

Community A garden plans take root

riane Williams has seen the unifying power of community gardens before. For the past several months, the Carrollton resident has been working with a group of volunteers to start one in the city of Franklin at the Hayden Village Center, a former high school for African Americans during the days of segregation that's since been converted into affordable housing for senior citizens. It's intended to serve as a memorial to Della Hayden, the prominent early 20th century Black educator who's the namesake of the former Hayden High School. In the time it took to plan and plant that garden, she's seen more than just fruits and vegetables start to grow. “It just started to bring people together,” Williams said. She's also helped start one in Chesapeake, where she teaches. See GARDEN, page 13

Slice of Smithfield • 13

Above, a before (left) and after (right) comparison of the community garden plot. Below, Ariane Williams’ daughter, Morgan, works with Valerie Butler to dispose of the weeds in the community garden plot.

GARDEN, from page 12

Now, she's hoping to do the same for Isle of Wight County, a community she sees as becoming increasingly polarized over race relations and the coronavirus pandemic. “With all the things that we see going on in the news … we see so much division,” she said. The site she's picked for the Isle of Wight garden is one Smithfield Middle School students started some years ago but abandoned in 2020 in Windsor Castle Park near the kayak launch. According to Lynn Briggs, spokeswoman for Isle of Wight County's school system, the students were unable to maintain the space due to the COVID-19 pandemic as they had in previous years. Amy Novak, director of the town of Smithfield's department of parks and recreation, then contacted Williams to ask if another group could maintain the garden site. “My goal is to build a generation of planters within our community as a form of therapy,” Williams said. “I want to bring a positive, diverse change to Smithfield; a place where people can come together and plant change in a creative way.” See GARDEN, page 14

14 • Slice of Smithfield

Above, Ariane Williams and Jeremiah Williams pick through the remaining weeds in a bed. Below, Valerie Butler rakes through the remaining weeds in a tilled bed.

Slice of Smithfield • 15 GARDEN, from page 13

Her plan is for the garden to depict quotes on diversity and unity, with herbs, vegetables, painted rocks and flowers. The morning of Aug. 23, Williams and a group of volunteers — among them Smithfield Town Councilwoman Valerie Butler, who also leads the county's local NAACP chapter — were on site pulling weeds and tilling the soil in the planting beds. Assisting the group that morning was Michael Drewry, a farmer from Surry County who also serves on that locality's Board of Supervisors. He brought along gas-powered tillers and what's known as a “flamer” for weeding. The propane-powered tool is essentially a blowtorch that kills weeds by spraying fire across the ground. It's more environmentally friendly than using herbicides, particularly if you intend to grow produce, Drewry said. The group has been trying to schedule the work day for several months. It's been canceled due to weather forecasts on more than one occasion, and earlier this year, the group had to cut its plans for the day short when one of the children volunteering was stung after she unearthed a hidden beehive. “They came out of the ground,” Butler said. But the bees have since disappeared. “I don't know if tilling the soil, you know, caused them to leave or what happened,” Butler said. This time, Williams brought her daughters Morgan and Journey along to help. “It's really going to be a teaching lesson for children,” Butler said. “I mean, they go into the grocery store and they see fruits and vegetables already there, so this garden, when we get ready to plant, our game plan is to get them involved with that … so they can see how seeds pollinate and vegetables grow, how they go from farm to the grocery store. And we're hoping that some of their families, that they can actually take some of their vegetables home.” The group hasn't announced a date yet for planting.

16 • Slice of Smithfield

CHANGING COURSE

Slice of Smithfield • 17

Story by Phyllis Speidell Photos by John H. Sheally II

iving aboard a yacht, cruising as your whim suggests, may seem a farfetched dream — but the Kaplan family made that dream a reality this year. A spontaneous pandemic decision? Not really when you add two working parents, four school-age children, a dog and a cat to the adventure. This bucket-list item required planning, organization and a bit of luck for the family to leave a 6,400-square-foot home in Midlothian to live

aboard a 1986 70-foot Hatteras Long Range Cruiser and travel the East Coast and the Caribbean. Kristen and Robert “Rob/Kap” Kaplan both grew up with boats, with Rob becoming an avid fisherman. They were working in Washington, D.C., when they met and married but moved to the suburbs to raise their family. Rob also curtailed his favorite long-distance fishing trips in favor of fatherhood and a 33-foot fishing boat. Later, they upscaled See COURSE, page 18

18 • Slice of Smithfield COURSE, from page 17

to a 45-foot boat that they docked at the Smithfield Station Marina, ready for a one- or two-week family cruise whenever they could. “Smithfield always felt like home,” Kristen said. The family cruises grew into a full July on the water and then into plans for a three-month cruise. That plan changed and grew, however, with the COVID-19 pandemic. Kristen, who works full time in corporate philanthropy, and Rob, a lawyer and managing partner at Kaplan Voekler Cunningham & Frank, PLC, began working remotely. They found a curriculum that matched with the Chesterfield schools and began homeschooling the children. They sold their boat and made an offer on the 70-footer. While awaiting an answer from the boat broker, they put their house on the market and began downsizing, selling their furniture and non-essentials online. The two older daughters, Caroline, 11, and Daisy, 8, helped sort through closets, deciding what to keep. Caroline had to have her favorite blanket; Cora, 4, her ukulele; and Will, 13, his Xbox. Daisy hesitantly agreed to leave her two guinea pigs “vacationing” with a landbound friend. In March, with the house and both cars sold and their offer on the boat accepted, the family packed the U-Haul and drove to south Florida to pick up their new home. “We only made one stop, in Savannah, because not many places welcome a family with a large U-Haul, four kids, a dog and a cat,” Kristen said. They were already in their Florida Airbnb when the boat deal almost fell through. “But it did come through and we moved right from the U-Haul onto the boat,” she said. They broke tradition and renamed the boat “Changing Course.” “It seemed appropriate for two Type A people who chose this lifestyle where plans can change five times in two hours,” Kristen explained. “Changing Course” is a fully oceanic

Kristen, Will, Cora, Rob, Daisy and Caroline Kaplan with Jaeger, the dog, on their boat.

cruising vessel equipped with redundant systems and Garmin radar that provides multiple weather and wave condition reports as well as ample warning to find safe shelter in inclement weather. Rob and Kristen completed a 12-day course with a professional training captain. A few instructors offered to certify them in a day or two, but as Kristen said, “We have four children on the boat. I want to know what I am doing.” The couple are now working toward

their 100-ton captain’s license. Once certified, they launched their family cruise up the East Coast, stopping in Wilmington, North Carolina, for a month before cruising back to Smithfield. They don’t plan to dock long in any one place and when they cruise, they plan to anchor, not dock. “We want to see places you wouldn’t ordinarily see,” Rob said. A boat that big requires a team effort, and the young Kaplan crew was ready. See COURSE, page 19

Slice of Smithfield • 19 COURSE, from page 18

Rob Kaplan gives a fun salute at the controls of his 1986 70-foot Hatteras Long Range Cruiser.

Will and Caroline are the eyes on deck when the boat docks and deal with often much older dockmasters. Five months into the adventure, their future itinerary includes cruising south along the East Coast, arriving in Florida for the Christmas holidays, then on to the Bahamas before returning to South Florida. The Kaplans said that many people envision life aboard as cocktails on the afterdeck, not realizing the flexibility required when the weather turns, an engine fails or the gas tanks are empty. They’ve learned to plan two or three days ahead and then develop plans B, C, and D to cope with the unexpected — such as the time all the gas gauges failed, and they ran out of gas thinking they were at half capacity. Still, “You have to love boating,” Kristen said — and there are the starry nights, the peace and quiet, the adventure of new places, the family closeness. But what is the reality of daily life aboard? The three girls love living aboard, but

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Caroline and Daisy Kaplan give a wave. COURSE, from page 19

miss their friends and land activities. Daisy still misses her guinea pigs. Will doesn’t like living aboard, misses his friends and his travel soccer team, but has become a budding chef, with sushi his specialty. The Kaplans hope to hire a nanny to help with the homeschooling. Jaeger, the lab mix, and Meister, the black cat, who was potty trained, have adjusted to life aboard. Jaeger, however, still misses grass and remains dubious about the AstroTurf mat brought along for him. The family grocery shops on foot or on the four bikes and a scooter they brought along, so they try to buy in bulk when possible. Rob and Kristen coordinate their business travel and when a trip comes up for either one, find a marina near an airport. “You have to balance the costs and the sacrifices,” Rob said. “This is truly a unique time that could not have happened before the pandemic, as our careers would not allow that. I’m almost 51, and soon Will enters high school, so we thought if we don’t take this trip with the family now, we never will.”

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22 • Slice of Smithfield

Slice Scene

Puppets at the gazebo

Chris Campbell, a singer and ventriloquist, entertained at The Smithfield Times Gazebo on Aug. 27.

Lisa and William Morrisette with their granddaughter, Emma Morrisette.

Gloria Robertson and Willie Giles

Chris Campbell entertains the crowd with one of his puppets.

14 • Slice of Smithfield

Where am I?

Heath and Candice Entwisle with their children Kiera Hornbeck and Maggie Entwisle.

Last edition’s Where Am I? Mary Kayaselcuk had a good eye while reading our magazine and exploring Smithfield. The wooden crab featured in our last edition was in a planter in front of the Beyond Main store on North Main Street, just adjacent to Hayden’s Lane. Keep exploring Isle of Wight and Surry counties, and check page 11 for this edition’s challenge.

Slice of Smithfield • 23

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