Truckin' on the Western Branch

Small suburban communities began to change drastically when the interstate system dissected neighborhoods to facilitate the opening of the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel. The new I-664 sliced through old truck farms and opened the rural area to the big box and franchise fast food culture. New developments replaced melon fields and potato rows.

Sources Hallahan, John M. The Battle of Craney Island . Portsmouth, Va.: Saint Michael’s Press, 1986. Quarstein, John V. Hampton and Newport News in the Civil War . Lynchburg, Va.: H.E. Howard, Inc., 1998. Quinn, David Beers. The Lost Colonists: Their Fortune and Probable Fate . Raleigh: America’s Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee, North Carolina Dept. of Cultural Resources, 1984. Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas’s People . Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990. Trout, W. E., III, and Jeff Turner. The Blackwater, Nottoway and Meherrin River Atlas, Rediscovering River History on the Chowan River and Its Branches . [Lexington, Va.]: Virginia Canals & Navigations Society, 2006. Turner, Jeff. Water-Powered Mills . Blackwater-Nottoway Riverkeeper Program, Inc., 2012.

Manuscripts Diary of William S. Wise, Poplar Hill Farmhouse in Churchland, 1861–1865. Courtesy Reese Johnson. Unlocking the Doors to Western Branch. Collaborative Writing Project, Western Branch Elementary School, Chesapeake, Va.: 1988. Wills, Brian S. The Letters of Three Soldiers—Thesis Presentation. University of Richmond, 1981.

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had to meet their expectations.”

Bobby Bray: “Parents expected you to do something then – you

Don Comer : “People are connected to each other here with great stories and a big history.”

Reese Johnson : “Lots of people with money and influence came out of Churchland but they never forget where they came from.”

Bruce Speers: “Tryin’ to do

right is what it’s all about.”

Johnny Ellis : “The work ethic of the community bred success people did it the right way and didn’t step on one another.”

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