Cooperative Living November/December 2019 - 32
Crossroads |
Story and photos by Audrey T. Hingley,
Contributing Writer
Keeping
It Simple
in Newsoms
It took a bloody Civil War battle to put Newsoms, Virginia,
on the map forever.
n an area rich in history, General
George H. Thomas illustrated the
national divide during the Civil War.
He was born in 1816 at the Thomaston
home, east of Newsoms in Southampton
County near the Virginia-North Carolina
border.
General George
H. Thomas
Thomas lived in Newsoms until his
appointment to the U.S. Military
Academy in West Point, New York. He
had married a woman from upstate New
York and chose to stay in the Union army
when the Civil War erupted in 1861.
Nicknamed the " Rock of Chickamauga, "
Thomas rallied troops
to hold their position
at Georgia's Battle of
Chickamauga, generally
considered the secondbloodiest
engagement
of the Civil War with
34,000 casualties; only
Gettysburg with 51,000
casualties was deadlier.
I
" His sisters turned his picture to the
wall, " John Skeeters says about the
family rift that followed Thomas'
decision to remain loyal to the Union.
Skeeters lives at Thomaston with wife
Lisa, a teacher and Newsoms native
who grew up across the road from the
historic residence.
Vanless Worrell, a former member
of the Southampton County School
Board and the town's mayor since 2016,
observes, " General Thomas was, for
his day, ahead of the times. "
No wonder a main road through
Newsoms is named the General
Thomas Highway.
Otherwise, this sleepy community
of about 300, incorporated in 1946, is
a picture of small-town America, with
churches, community organizations
and a smattering of businesses.
Agriculture remains the top industry,
unsurprising in a town that proclaims
itself " home of the jumbo peanut, " as
30 | Cooperative Living | November-December 2019
Worrell well knows.
" I was born 1 mile from where
I now live to a sharecropper family.
I worked as a farm produce truck driver
when I was in high school and helped
haul peanuts, " he recalls.
After high school graduation,
Worrell had a long career in the U.S.
Army, traveling in the United States and
Europe. Now 81, he says Newsoms'
biggest challenge is " to continue to
exist as a town.
" I don't see more development
inside the corporate limits and the
population continues to drop off, " he
explains. " We had a grant for 15 miles
of water and sewer along General
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Cooperative Living November/December 2019
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living November/December 2019
Cooperative Living November/December 2019 - 1
Cooperative Living November/December 2019 - 2
Cooperative Living November/December 2019 - 3
Cooperative Living November/December 2019 - 4
Cooperative Living November/December 2019 - 5
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