Peninsula In Passage

He found soybeans to be the best source of organic matter and also credited his success to a close watch on business and conservative spending. Regretting his own lack of education, he served on the Nansemond County school board representing the Sleepy Hole borough and made sure his children got the best education possible. John and Annie had four children – and considered them their “finest crop.” Vernon Gaskins was born in 1896, Earl Tourtellot, in 1897, George Kittrell, in 1899 and Fred Bruce, in 1903. According to a 1915 book “Makers of America,” John George was known for his beliefs in equal treatment of people and his duty to do good to others before himself. J.G. liked being as self-sufficient as possible. He and Annie kept a brick storehouse near the house, stocked with canned fruits, vegetables, pickles, preserves, jellies, relishes and fruit beverages and baskets of potatoes, apples and root vegetables. Their son Vernon served as the chairman of the Nansemond County Board of Supervisors, vice president of the Tidewater Virginia Development Council, president of the Louise Obici Memorial Hospital, rector of the board of visitors of Virginia Tech and a director of the National Bank of Suffolk. He was also president of the canning business he and his brothers organized in Bennett’s Creek. His son, Vernon “Bumps” Eberwine, Jr. remembers – I worked in the cannery from the age of 12 – could go to jail for that now. The cannery was small, had 25 employees in the plant and lots more in the fields, but it was the biggest thing out here. The hands weren’t that much different from slaves. They worked from daybreak in the summer and followed the mules in the field all day for 75 cents a day in the 1930’s. The Depression era wasn’t the brightest time.

Vernon “Bumps” Eberwine, Jr.

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