THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509080262
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
THERE'S A CERTAIN lure that draws us back to Chuckatuck.
On a recent day, with the high temperature only about 80, daughter Sandi and I set out to see what we could see. It was a good day for walking, and walk we did as we explored the area with a knowledgeable guide. More about that later.
This time, we came from Driver, on Route 125. Driver has its own sights - from horse farms to an array of broadcast and microwave antennas, sprouting like mutant corn stalks from surrounding fields.
Driver is home to Glebe Church, built in 1738. The Episcopal parish to which it belongs dates from 1642. A sign notes that, in 1775, the parish minister, Parson Agnew, was driven from the church for preaching loyalty to the Crown.
Glebe Church still has a glebe. Once common but now rare, a glebe is cultivated land yielding revenue to a parish church.
Continuing along Kings Highway, we crossed the Nansemond River on the narrow, two-lane drawspan and arrived in Chuckatuck. Before reaching downtown, we passed Lone Star Lakes Park, with boating, fishing and hiking amid picturesque surroundings.
Our first stop was Village Mill Designs Inc., a gift shop in an old grist mill. The mill had been grinding corn as recently as 1962; earlier this century, the waterwheel also generated Chuckatuck's electricity. The waterwheel is still visible, though rusted and deteriorated, beside the spillway that received the water from the millpond across the road, via an aquaduct.
In addition to the gift shop, the mill has living quarters upstairs and additional commercial space for rent in what was the corn crib, now renovated.
Scott Saunders, 67, the unofficial village historian, can frequently be found in Village Drugs. Peggy Chapman and Betty Snow, whom we had met during our visit two weeks earlier, phoned him; he said he'd be right over.
While waiting, we walked to the corner to visit the green ``watermelon bus,'' where Richard Gayle has been selling watermelons for 12 years. Gayle, who says he is known as the ``watermelon king,'' and another farmer raise the melons.
By the time we'd loaded a watermelon into the car, Saunders arrived. Born on Everets Road, he described a creek that used to run nearby. Sailboats could come up. It was replaced, he said, by the reservoirs, which also replaced some woods and ``some nice old homes.''
Saunders recalled that B.W. Godwin, who had died in an auto accident when Saunders was about 10 years old, had owned the grist mill, an ice plant and a lumber mill in town. At the grist mill, he would grind a farmer's corn for a portion of the corn, rather than cash.
Chuckatuck has been home to a number of successful politicians, including Suffolk's current Mayor S. Chris Jones and former State Del. Samuel Glasscock. But the most famous is former Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr. Saunders pointed out the home where Godwin was raised and, across the street, the home he built and moved into after marrying Katherine Beale.
We stopped at the G.L. Gwaltney store, a general store now run by G.L. Gwaltney III. A pool table now sits where the pot-bellied stove used to be. According to Gwaltney, the store is a meeting place on Friday nights, when locals gather to shoot pool.
Saunders pointed out the home of the late Dr. L.L. Eley, a general practitioner in Chuckatuck for 63 years. During the Depression, said Saunders, he would make house calls in a horse and buggy. Eley's daughter, Eugenia Stroup, 87, lives there now.
Saunders showed off his watermelon patch, and the ``36- or 37-year-old International Harvester diesel tractor made in England'' he uses to tend it. When the steering gear went out, he removed the steering wheel and installed a hydraulic ram that he controls by a lever on the floorboard. He said it drives people crazy trying to figure out how he operates it with the steering wheel visibly missing.
We could have stayed much longer; Saunders was still describing places and events that we had yet to see. But evening was approaching, so we loaded our second watermelon in the car and bade farewell again to Chuckatuck.
It was good to know that so much remained to be explored. It'll give us an excuse to return to this enchanting community on the banks of the Nansemond River, where routes 10, 32 and 125 intersect. MEMO: Your comments are welcome. Call Dawson Mills at 489-9547.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos by DAWSON MILLS
The boyhood home of the former Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr. is located
in Chuckatuck.
Karla Hatfield models a ``Downtown Chuckatuck'' hat sold in Village
Drugs.
by CNB