Peninsula In Passage

Matthews Beyond the Bennett’s Creek Market and memories of the Bennett’s Creek Dairy and Restaurant, all opened by the Matthews family, lie generations of farming experience by the family who ranked among the largest landholders in the area. Jodie Matthews, manager of the Bennett’s Creek Market, says that his grandfather, J.C. “Jodie” Matthews, Sr., who was raised on a dairy farm, bought a number of surrounding farms during the depression when financially stressed farmers were unable to pay what they owed fertilizer companies. “All the farms had names,” Jodie Matthews remembers. “The Ames Farm was one that my grandfather bought and he also bought the Carney farm at the end of Bob White Lane. He put cattle in the fields to graze, cut the timber and sold both to pay for the farm in a year. He sold it in the 60s.” The Bennett’s Creek Market sits on land that Matthews bought from Ira Richardson when he also bought land on Knott’s Neck Road and College Drive, including much of the property that is now Harbour View. The Matthews family, with 15 or more employees, ran a dairy on Shoulder’s Hill Road and was known for its vast peach

Phyllis Matthews with her grandaughter Karen and her chicken salad.

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