Hampton, Virginia

“ The trustees were in session on Wednesday, the 22d, on which day also was held the first meeting of the graduates of Hampton Institute. There were assembled in the beautiful “Whittier Chapel,” on the upper floor of Virginia Hall, a large representation of the 277 who had gone out, most of them as teachers of their race. Of that whole number, not a complaint has been made. They have become good and useful citizens, maintaining the high moral tone of Hampton, and evidencing that growth in character which is the best witness to the existence of a true life within. ”

“ The town consists of about 1,200 inhabitants, and the society in it is thought to be more extensive and more genteel at the same time than what is to be met with in any other place of its size in America. No manufactures are carried on here, and scarcely any trade.
“From Williamsburgh to Hampton the country is flat and uninteresting. From this town there is a regular ferry to Norfolk, across Hampton Roads, eighteen miles over. Norfolk would be a place of much greater trade than it is at present were it not for the impolicy of some laws which have existed in the State of Virginia. ”

“ To the students of naval history the harbor of Hampton Roads must ever possess interesting associations, for in its waters has been made history since 1607. Since Discovery Day Point Comfort has held prominent place in the annals of two worlds. As a government reservation on which Fortress Monroe stands, and two famous hotels have made record to attract the pilgrims of the James. The "dear old Hygeia" is now a memory, it was in the range of the guns of the fort and was removed by order of the U. S. Government, but it lives in many hearts to echo the voice of the past. ”

“ Jamestown, the first settlement in Virginia,—now an island with a few huts only, and two or three chimney-stacks of burnt houses,—looking as desolate as when first destroyed, at the time of Bacon’s rebellion, near two hundred years ago; Newport News below, a place with a few shanties, and a row of grinning batteries; Hampton Roads, bristling and animated with shipping,—the scene of the fight between the “Merrimac” and the “Monitor,” initiating a new era in naval warfare; Hampton away on the north, with its conspicuous square white hospital; Norfolk on the south, up the Elizabeth River ”

“ The Hampton Institute is becoming more known and appreciated in Virginia and the neighboring States. Its alumni are occupying positions of practical usefulness, and discharge the high duties of good citizens well and faithfully. [203] Virginians believe that Principal Armstrong is emphatically the right man in the right place, and that, with General Marshall, Miss Mackie and others on his staff, he will push forward the good work in which they are engaged, and will continue to merit and receive the grateful appreciation of the people of the commonwealth. ”

“ The next day April 30, they rowed to a point of land on the opposite side of Hampton Roads where they found a channel “which put us in good comfort. Therefore we named that point of land Cape Comfort (present Old Point Comfort) .” Upon the invitation of some friendly Indians to come ashore to their town called by them Kecoughtan, Captain John Smith says: “Wee coasted to their town running over a river running into the main where these savages swam over with their bowes and arrows in their mouths.” ”

“ Today, Hampton is the oldest continuous Anglo-Saxon settlement still in existence in the United States.
A short time later, Sir Thomas Dale (better known as "Marshall") arrived from England as Governor of the colony. He was considered a harsh Governor because his martial law administration was characterized by severe punishment for wrongdoing. However, he was responsible for having common property divided among the colonists and for allowing them to own their shares privately. He ordered that three acres of land be given to every man. ”

“ He had brought both broken health and fortunes out of the war; for when in 1861 the people of Hampton left the town, [1] "Its men to join the Southern army, and its women to go in exile for four long weary years, returning thence to find their homes in ashes, James Barron Hope was among the first who left their household gods behind to take up arms for their native State, and he bore his part nobly in the great conflict." ”

“ In the present age when violent storms are blowing on the ocean without, the surface of Hampton Roads is frequently dotted with the white canvas of several hundred ships of various sorts which have entered to escape the dangers of the outward voyage or to await the return of more favorable winds ”

“ He served with credit during the French and Indian war, and in the autumn of 1775, on the assembling of the Virginia troops at Williamsburg, was chosen colonel of the 2d Vir- ginia regiment. At Hampton Roads, the first bat- tle of the Revolution in Virginia, he was engaged in preventing the destruction of the town of Hampton by Lord Dunmore, and sank five of his vessels. ”

“ Hampton’s wife, the guardian angel of many black folk, wrought and ruled with wisdom and with sweetness unsoured by reverses. South Carolina offered Hampton a home, as Virginia and then Washington College offered Lee, but Hampton, almost in want, refused.
This is the plight in which General M. C. Butler, Hampton’s aide, came out of the war: “Twenty-nine years old, with one leg gone, a wife and three children to support, seventy slaves emancipated, a debt of $15,000, and, in his pocket, $1.75 in cash.” That was the situation of thousands. It took manhood to make something of it. ”

“ In 1698, a judgment was secured by Major William Wilson of Hampton against Thomas Walton in the sum of fifty-two pounds and ten shillings sterling. In the same year, a vessel from New York ran aground near Hampton, and her cargo was seriously damaged. [143]
There are evidences that the commercial intercourse between Virginia and New England began at an early date. In 1640, the General Court sitting at New Haven laid clown the scale of prices to be used in the purchase of commodities from the Southern Colony. [144] The trade with this community increased in volume with the progress of time. ”

“ There are thirty-two independent cities: Alexandria, Bristol, Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Clifton Forge, Colonial Heights, Covington, Danville, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Galax, Hampton (formerly, a second class city; now combined with the town of Phoebus and Elizabeth City County into a first class city since 1952) , Harrisonburg, Hopewell, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Newport News, Norfolk, Norton, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Radford, Richmond, Roanoke, South Boston, South Norfolk, Staunton, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Waynesboro, Williamsburg and Winchester. ”

“ The total population of the state increased by 18% during the decade 1950-1960. However, during the same decade, Virginia changed in population rank from the fifteenth place among the forty-eight states to the sixteenth place among the fifty states. The ten most populated cities in Virginia are Norfolk, Richmond, Newport News, Portsmouth, Roanoke, Alexandria, Hampton, Lynchburg, Danville and Petersburg. During the past decade, the population of three cities has been materially increased through annexation. ”

“ By walking, begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some way, after a number of days, I reached the city of Richmond, Virginia, about eighty-two miles from Hampton. When I reached there, tired, hungry, and dirty, it was late in the night. I had never been in a large city, and this rather added to my misery. When I reached Richmond, I was completely out of money. ”

“ Vagrants, whether white or black, should be treated as vagrants; and I thought it would have been a wholesome measure for the Bureau to make contracts for those freedmen who refused to make contracts for themselves, and were without any visible means of support.
There are in Virginia half a million negroes. Those appear most thriving and happy who are at work for themselves. I have described the freedmen’s farms about Hampton. In other portions of Southeast Virginia, where the Federal influence has been longest felt, they are equally industrious and prosperous. ”

“ When it ended he did not return to Hampton, or to the practice of his profession. Instead of the law he embarked in journalism in Norfolk, Virginia, and, despite its lack of entire congeniality, made therefrom a career as brilliant as it was fearless and unsullied.
[Footnote: A: "They themselves applying the torch to their own homes under the patriotic, but mistaken idea that they would thus arrest the march of the Invaders." ("Col. Cary's address at unveiling of monument to Captain Hope.") ]
Introduction. ”

“ Opposite Craney Island, ten miles away on the north shore of James River, stood the village of Hampton, a place of no importance either military or commercial. Four or five hundred Virginia militia were camped there, covering a heavy battery on the water’s edge. The battery and its defenders invited attack, but Admiral Warren could have no military object to gain by attacking them. ”

“ Such a home is a beacon-light in the community to diffuse intelligence and the spirit of order and progress. That is what Hampton is doing. It is building homes and schools all through the South. What a cloud of witnesses we should have, could we summon those seven hundred graduates, each one bringing the implements of his trade—the carpenter with his saw, the blacksmith with his hammer, the harnessmaker with his knife, the farmer with his hoe! What a long line there would be of the graduates alone! ”

“ The ancient city of Hampton and its Theological Seminary are well known. To the wanderer under the elms of the quaint old town there is imparted an impression of cleanliness and a serene complacency, derived, doubtless, from the countenances of the many who, clad in sombre vesture and clean linen, pass and repass in the quiet streets. No man can be long in Hampton without feeling the theological influence; unconsciously the wayfarer adopts the prevailing manner, becomes deliberate in his walk and grave of aspect ”

“ When the tumult had quieted a little, and Marie had partially recovered, Hugh managed to escape from the crush of excited people, and drove rapidly homeward.
The crowd, now thoroughly good-natured, drifted back into the streets of Meade, and then celebrated, in various ways, the noted event. Every man in the vast throng inquired of his neighbor, over and over, where he supposed Major Hampton was. ”

“ Here they smoked the calumet of peace with an Indian tribe. To the neighboring promontory, where they found good anchorage and hospitality, they gave the name of Point Comfort, which it still bears. Hampton, though a settlement was commenced there in 1610, did not become a town until 1705. ”

“ I resolved at once to go to that school, although I had no idea where it was, or how many miles away, or how I was going to reach it; I remembered only that I was on fire constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to Hampton. This thought was with me day and night.
After hearing of the Hampton Institute, I continued to work for a few months longer in the coal-mine. While at work there, I heard of a vacant position in the household of General Lewis Ruffner, the owner of the salt-furnace and coal-mine. Mrs. Viola Ruffner, the wife of General Ruffner, was a "Yankee" woman from Vermont. ”

“ The effect of the whole, threaded by winding roads, shaded by trees, and interspersed with gardens and shrubs, is picturesque and practically convenient. The main value of Hampton, however, is found in what is done within these buildings—the teaching, the industries, the making of character. ”

“ Hampton, slender yet firmly knit, his movements quick like those of a watchful tiger, his shoulders set square, his body held erect as though trained to the profession of arms, his gray eyes marking every movement about him with a suspicion born of continual exposure to peril, his features finely chiselled, with threads of gray hair beginning to show conspicuously about the temples. One would glance twice at him anywhere, for in chin, mouth, and eyes were plainly pictured the signs of strength, evidences that he had fought stern battles, and was no craven. ”

“ The old town, extending from Poplar to Hammersmith, will be the nucleus, and the various railway lines will be the projecting rays.
There are still, however, some few nooks within reach of the metropolis which have not been be-villaged and be-terraced out of all look of rural charm, and the little village of Hampton, with its old-fashioned country inn, and its bright, quiet, grassy river, is one of them, in spite of the triple metropolitan waterworks on the one side, and the close vicinity on the other of Hampton Court, that well-loved resort of cockneydom. ”

“ In speaking of East Hampton and the habitudes of its people, the late President Dwight said, emphatically: "A general air of equality, simplicity, and quiet is visible here in a degree perhaps singular. Sequestered in a great measure from the busy world, the people exhibit not the same activity and haste, which meet the eye in some other places. ”

“ George Murray, D.D., Bishop of Rochester, by whom he has issue living one son, the Hon. Herbert Perrott Murray Pakington, born in 1848; thirdly, in 1851, Augusta, daughter of Thomas Champion de Crespigny, Esq., and widow of Colonel Davis, M.P., of Elmley Park, Worcestershire, by whom he has no issue.
Lord Hampton is by no means entirely, or even mainly, indebted for renown to the high positions he has occupied, although they are among the very highest. There have been, of late years, few projects designed and calculated to benefit mankind to which he has not been, in some way, a contributor ”

“ Hampton scarcely noted this marvellous change; to him it was no uncommon spectacle. He pushed his way through the noisy throng with eyes ever watchful for the faces. His every motion was that of a man who had fully decided upon his course. Through the widely opened doors of the Occidental streams of blue and red shirted men were constantly flowing in and out ”