THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605100179
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
The Fort Nelson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution celebrated its 100th anniversary Thursday at a luncheon that emphasized the group's history.
I enjoyed their birthday party, which featured music by the award-winning Churchland High School Villagers directed by Craig Robertson, a talk by Tidewater Community College Prof. William Paquette and a rundown of the chapter's history by Dot Hill, who referred to a 75-year history written in 1971 by her mother, Dorothy Monroe.
The DAR ladies sometimes get a bum rap from people who think they are just being snobbish about their ancestry. I don't remember it, but there might have been a time in my young life when I was eager to put down people who talked about the past.
But the longer I live, the more I'm convinced that without such organizations, based on history, we would know little of our heritage. We need the history-based groups to keep reminding us of this nation's illustrious past.
The Revolution, of course, was the real beginning of the greatness of this country. Many of the members of the Portsmouth group can trace their ancestry back to people who lived right here more than 200 years ago.
I told some of them at the centennial luncheon that I would like to see the organization take it upon itself to gather and organize some true stories about Portsmouth during Revolutionary times. One important reason for doing it soon is that many of those whose families go back to 18th century Portsmouth and Norfolk County are not getting any younger. We need to have them tape record whatever they have learned about their ancestors over the years.
As one of the DAR members noted, some older women remember hearing tales from their mothers or grandmothers, who heard them from their mothers and grandmothers. But this oral history will disappear if we don't record it right now because people don't sit around and talk about family and history like they used to.
When there was no television, people entertained each other by telling stories.
Because Portsmouth is so rich in Civil War naval history, we tend to forget that it has such important historical ties to the Revolution. For instance, how often do we hear about Fort Nelson, which was at the site of the Naval Hospital and was erected by Virginia for the defense of Portsmouth and Norfolk? It was named for Thomas Nelson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Portsmouth's long, rich history includes a lot of Revolutionary lore that would impress - even astonish - most newcomers and visitors. Unfortunately, we don't do a whole lot to help people know about the dramatic moments of the past except with occasional nods to the first ironclad battle of the Monitor and the Virginia.
Portsmouth is an old community and, for better or worse, it has history that differs from other places around here. For instance, as a hotbed of Tory-ism, many British sympathizers co-existed with American patriots here during the Revolutionary War in the 1770s.
The famous American traitor, Gen. Benedict Arnold, was around here for a while, and British Gen. Charles Cornwallis left from here to go to Yorktown, where he surrendered the British forces. It's said that Cornwallis wanted to stay here - and had he made that decision, Portsmouth's place in the history books might have been considerably altered.
Some bits and pieces of Revolutionary times survive, partly because Portsmouth never was burned down, while Norfolk smoldered in hot ashes across the Elizabeth River. Portsmouth's Tory sympathizers helped shield it when the British wanted to torch it.
Mainly, the stories of the Revolution are interesting to visitors and newcomers because many of them do not come from communities that are as old as this nation. Other historic cities along U.S. 17 - Yorktown, Edenton, New Bern, Wilmington, Charleston and Savannah, to name the obvious - have used their 18th century history to good advantage.
We need to do the same.
The DAR members are a good resource, and it would be a credit to their ancestors and a favor to their descendants if they would help chronicle some local history. by CNB