Peninsula In Passage

City of Nansemond - Shortest Lived Independent City in Virginia History In the 1950s residents of Nansemond County knew that the neighboring cities of Portsmouth and Suffolk were both looking with interest at the county’s 400+ square miles of land as a means of expanding the cities’ somewhat landlocked positions. Both Portsmouth and Suffolk each posed an annexation threat in the post-World War II era when a wave of consolidations swept through southeast Virginia. Judge James C. Godwin, retired senior circuit court judge, was intimately involved with the city/county questions and doubts that Portsmouth could have been successful in annexing Nansemond County. He saw Suffolk and Nansemond County sharing a rural life style while Portsmouth and its residents were more urban. In addition the Nansemond County courthouse and governing offices were already located within the 10 square mile City of Suffolk. Cities then were legally prohibited from annexing other cities and Godwin says that the county board of supervisors realized that unless they incorporated, they could lose the northern end of Nansemond County in an annexation. In 1966 voters rejected a referendum to merge the City of Suffolk and Nansemond County, combine many governing services and allow the city to annex enough county land to double its size. But the pressure wasn’t off as two years later the City of Suffolk filed an annexation suit to gain 17 square miles of Nansemond County, including the town of Holland. Portsmouth might renew its interest in the northern part of the county as well. “The county could not afford to lose that area,” Godwin says. “They knew the value of it and had already taken steps to create a county police department with John Eberwine as one of the commissioners.” In 1972 Godwin ruled that all the legalities had been satisfied for the county and its two towns, Holland and Whaleyville, to become an

independent city on July 1 of that year without the need for a charter granted by the General Assembly. DeWitte “D. J.” Mangum, the former chairman of the county board of supervisors, became the first mayor of the new City of Nansemond. His tenure would be record setting as the only mayor of the shortest lived independent city in Virginia history. Moses Riddick was the vice-mayor and Howard L. Munford, John W. Nelms, Jr., and Joseph A. Savage were councilmen. As Nansemond City was organizing, the City of Suffolk was still in court pushing for annexation. The court gave the two cities 45 days to work out a consolidation compromise. A score of citizens from each city met, often working, locals remember, around the clock to hammer out an agreement to meet the August, 1972, court deadline. They designated taxing districts, merged school systems and developed a joint budget. “It was controversial,” Godwin remembers. “Nansemond and Suffolk, while they worked together, always had a little bit of a rivalry.”

In November, voters in both cities passed the merger agreement and the cities officially merged at midnight, January 1, 1974 as the current City of Suffolk, and geographically the largest city in Virginia. Mangum became vice-mayor and James Hope of Suffolk became mayor of the newly combined city. “I thought it was inevitable that the area would be merged with Suffolk and North Suffolk would grow,” Godwin says. “People from Portsmouth and Norfolk were moving our way and businesses would follow.”

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