Truckin' on the Western Branch

Billy Hargroves Truck farmers typically shipped their harvest in barrels and baskets. Planters Manufacturing produced an array of baskets that the company marketed along the East Coast—likely including the basket outlet on the corner of Tyre Neck Road and Route 17 according to Billy Hargroves. They made wirebound crates and baskets. The crates were used for firewood when they could no longer be used for crops. Willis W. Hargroves, first cousin to my grandfather, Andrew W. Hargroves, built the company on 10 acres in Port Norfolk. The plant had large warehouses with an overhanging porch all along the side. A lot of handwork was done by workers making baskets, men and women, mostly black. It was one of the largest private employers in Portsmouth. When Granddaddy started working there, he suggested building piers at the end of Chautauqua Avenue in Port Norfolk so that farmers could bring their crops by water to meet trains once the railroad tracks were built along the piers. When Willis died in 1939, Granddaddy took over and expanded quite a bit. He sold the factory as part of a deal with Georgia Pacific. When the plant burned in early 1974, we were getting calls even though we didn’t still own it. My parents—Alice Mitchell Hargroves and Andy Hargroves—moved from Green Acres to Sterling Point when I was four years old because they wanted a neighborhood with more kids. When I was growing up, you knew someone from every neighborhood and they were your playdates. Back then getting to River Shore Road from Sterling Point was like going to the other end of the world—it was a trek. Mariana Clarke Sumner Mariana Clarke Sumner graduated from Churchland in 1946 with 59 in her class. Those were war years, and her brother, John, was in the Army. She became a teacher, and her brother, a truck farmer on The Clarke Farm. We lived in the house on High Street that now belongs to the Caddy family. During the war we had gas rationing and shoes were rationed too, only two pairs a year. There was an anti-aircraft battery on Speers’ field with a searchlight. German POWs were working at Pine Grove Dairy at the farm fertilizer plant When mother and I took the steamer to DC on the overnight run, we had to wait to get out of the harbor for the antisubmarine nets to be lifted. Mother worked at the USO and was a Gray Lady at the Naval Hospital. There were bond drives with Fred Waring coming to the Center Theater in Norfolk. I helped sell bond stamps for 25 cents to fill $18.75 books. Churchland had no library and you made your own entertainment. We danced to Glenn Miller and the other big bands on Peggy Savage’s screened porch. There was very little traffic. Children rode bikes and we skated on what is now High Street. We had a rowboat in the river to go crabbing and the old Churchland Bridge, a swing bridge, was where we went swimming. I was a Girl Scout and we hiked down Cedar Lane when it was all undeveloped. My family has never lived more than 150 miles away in either direction since 1637. My aunt Patsy was A. B. Greene’s wife, and I grew up around the Halls.

Billy Hargroves. Image by Sheally

Fleet Morgan and Mariana Clarke Sumner. Image by Sheally

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