Longview

Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County reports that there was a 2-room 2-teacher school located in Longview as early as 1908 and a 1-room 1-teacher school as early as 1900.

Longview is the area surrounding Longview Drive and Oliver Drive. It was called by this name before 1887, when a post office was opened there. John R. Brock built the large white house still standing at this intersection. It is said that Mr. Brock expected a railroad to come through the area and his house would be a stop. The post office was closed in 1909 and the mail for the Longview residents was handled in Smithfield. (4) John R. Brock is listed as the first postmaster of the Longview Post Office from 1887-1909 (5). I can remember going with my parents as a child to vote in the old building. It was being used as a store at that time but you could still see evidence that it had been a post office.

Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County by Helen Haverty King pg. 7
Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County by Helen Haverty King pg. 464
Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County by Helen Haverty pg. 316
Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County by Helen Haverty pg. 448
Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County by Helen Haverty pg. 335

We believe that the following information from Mrs. Shirley Wilson is a great overview of Longview and as a long-time resident, she is the expert. We have taken most of her comments and reprinted them here with minor changes.

Mrs. Wilson was born on January 7, 1927, in the house where she now lives. Her brother, J.W. Horne, Jr., was born February 7, 1920, on the Joel Whitley farm, later the Lowe farm on Longview Drive. Her sister, Page, was born on February 11, 1937, in the same home as Shirley. Shirley attended Chuckatuck School through the fifth grade. At the age of 8 or 9, she was given a Brownie camera for Christmas and took many pictures at school in Chuckatuck some of which the GCHF has on file. She transferred to Smithfield schools when bus service was offered. She would have had to pay $600 to remain in Nansemond County Schools. Shirley bought her family’s home place on Longview Drive in approximately 1988 and returned there in the late 1900s when her husband Paul retired.

Her mother was Eva Doris Purdie, daughter of Thomas King Purdie and Mary (“Plummie”) James Shepherd. The Shepherd farm where they lived was located on the northern end of Lankford Road at “Possum Neck”. (Supposedly the river in that location looked like a possum head, thus the name.) The Purdie family owned a large area of land between Smithfield and Carrollton. Mary James Shepherd’s mother was a Green.

Mr. Charlie Lawrence and his wife “Miss Cherry” owned the farm at Longview that J. Waverly Horne bought in 1922 for $7,000. Mr. Horne and his wife Doris moved there from her Grandmother Shepherd’s home place on “Possum Neck”. The Lawrence place had originally been part of the Brock property. When Mr. Horne bought the property the former Brock house which was built about 1840 had a living room and bedroom on the first floor and two rooms upstairs. A kitchen and dining room were separated from the bedrooms and living room by a colonnade and porch. Mr. Horne remodeled the house in 1937. After Mr. and Mrs. Horne purchased the property they operated a store which Mr. Lawrence ran in the corner of the house lot. The building at the intersection of Oliver Drive and Longview Drive was once a post office. When the Horne store closed in 1937 the remaining stock was moved into the old post office building and Oliver’s Store was opened. When Mrs. Horne was running the store near their home she would sometimes ask Mr. Jeremiah Oliver, elderly at the time, to take Shirley to Chuckatuck in his car for May Day practices. He would also take the children to get ice cream at Quincy Gilliam’s store near Benn’s Church.

In the early 1930’s Mr. Horne ran a sawmill owned by T.D. Mathews when Mr. Mathews was no longer able to run it. The sawmill was located on the Everets’ Bridge Road, now known as Longview Drive, near the path to M.D. Spivey’s home. Mr. Horne bought the sawmill, moved it to Longview, and set up his business there. The mill was located on the opposite side and towards Route 10 from the Horne home. There are three houses on the property now. The mill burned in 1941. Shirley remembered going with her father to collect some of the money that was “on the books” to have enough resources to rebuild. Shirley managed the sawmill for a while when her dad suffered a heart attack. Then her brother, J.W., was brought home from military service in the Pacific to run the mill. The mill was in operation until _____. A fire was discovered by soldiers who manned the outpost station across from the mill. United States Army soldiers were there to identify planes that flew over. The U S Army paid Doris Horne for feeding the soldiers, usually three or four, who were stationed there. Jim Britt, from Dade City, Florida, was one of these soldiers. Shirley remembers Jim and others working on the Allie Horne farm, further aiding the nation during the war. Jim Britt later bought the Rob Hodsden place near Wills’ Corner. He and his wife Charlotte lived there following the war.

Beyond the Horne sawmill towards Route 10 was land owned by Jim and Julia Channel Pitt. Their daughter, Marie, married Paul Davis, and is remembered by many for when she assisted in the lunchroom at Chuckatuck School. Ralph and Marilyn Oliver have renovated the old Pitt home and live there now. The next farm was the Whitehead farm purchased by Jack and Elizabeth Whitehead from Joel Brock. It was later purchased by the Hall family and is now owned by their descendants, the Duffs.

The Brock family owned much of the land from Route 10 along Oliver Drive and on Longview Drive to Christian Home Church. The Brocks came from the Mill Swamp area. The Jesse Oliver home at Longview was built by the Joel Brock family about 1900. Mr. Joel Brock had at least three children: Alec, Clinton and Mamie. Alec was the father of Lynette and Clyde, a half-brother to Lynette, a teacher at Chuckatuck. Alec was given the farm where Lynette later lived. Alec’s second marriage was to a Griffin. Mamie Brock received the area where Shirley Wilson now lives. Clinton Brock was given what was later the Oliver farm at Longview which he owned during the early depression. He became deeply in debt and lost the farm to the Royster Guano Company which rented the farmland to tenant farmers, the last of whom were the Jeremiah Oliver family. Mr. Clydefelter was the Royster Fertilizer representative. Jesse, Junie, Johnnie, Thomas, Allie, Ralph, Rae Parker, Bennie, Frank, Emma Mae, Ethel, and Lottie were the twelve Oliver children. When Mr. Oliver died Jesse, Ralph, Rae Parker and other children were still at home. Jesse took Mr. Horne’s advice and the boys kept running the farm. Jesse worked another job, but Mr. Horne encouraged him to buy the farm. He bought the farm in approx. 1937. Jesse married Ruby. Rae Parker, Ralph, and Jesse ran the farm and Bennie ran the store. Junie and Johnnie worked at Mr. Horne’s sawmill. He drove the lumber delivery truck. One of the Oliver girls, Ethel, married Jasper Sizemore, a soldier at the outpost, and lives in North Carolina.

The first Baptist church in the area was the Bethesda Church. It was once located at Vellines Store and moved to the Brock property on the Longview side of the Lowe family property. Then the church moved to Route 10 in 1877 on property donated by Mr. Whitehead. Mr. Whitehead had originally bought the property from the Brock family. Church was very important to Shirley. She especially remembered the Christmas pageants and “Sunbeam Sunday” when the children were casked to recite, perform, or sing along.

Ash Grove was the name of the black church in Longview. Christian Home Baptist Church was the other black church nearby.

Clyde and Stella Appenseler Brock inherited the Brock farm near Christian Home Church and sold it when they moved to Portsmouth to live with her mother. Their son, Clyde, married Jimmie Cutchin and lived on Meadow Lot Lane in Chuckatuck. Their daughter is Brenda Brock Flores.

The following comes from an interview with Floris Brown. She is 90 years old, has lived in the area for some 58 years having grown up on a small farm in the Longview area. Her father and mother had twelve children who all worked on the farm. The farm is what sustained them during the depression. She remembers as a child going to the ice plant to get a block of ice from which her mother would chip off a bit each night for dinner. Floris married Horace Brown and had four children. Her husband worked for Lone Star for 33 years on the dragline. Floris worked for Dr. Thomas when he first came to Chuckatuck and she purchased clothes for her children at the Pitt store. She has been a dedicated member of the Little Bethel Baptist Church since 1941 and enjoys encouraging young people with good advice.