Editing Mathews County, Virginia (section)

== History ==
During [[Virginia Colony|Virginia's colonial era]], the area that later became Mathews County was part of [[Gloucester County, Virginia|Gloucester County]]. In 1691, the [[Virginia General Assembly]] had directed that each county designate an official port-of-entry. Established around 1700, the community of Westville was located along [[Put-in Creek]], a tidal tributary of [[East River (Virginia)|Virginia's East River]] feeding into [[Mobjack Bay]], which was a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dailypress.com/news/gloucester-county/dp-nws-gloucester-mathews-20101002,0,1160200.story |title=Mathews eyes transforming Put-in Creek - tribunedigital-dailypress |publisher=Dailypress.com |date=October 2, 2010 |access-date=August 11, 2015 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1776 during the [[American Revolutionary War]], Virginia's last [[List of colonial governors of Virginia|Royal Governor]], [[John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore|Lord Dunmore]], left Virginia after pushed to the southeast to [[Gwynn's Island]] by [[General]] [[Andrew Lewis (American general)|Andrew Lewis]] and the [[Continental Army]]. General Lewis' forces bombarded Gwynn's Island from [[Fort Cricket Hill]].

In 1791, after Virginia gained its independence from [[Great Britain]], the [[Virginia General Assembly]] split Gloucester county and created Mathews County. The county was named for [[Brigadier General]] [[Thomas Mathews (politician)|Thomas Mathews]], then speaker of the [[Virginia House of Delegates]]. Westville was designated at the county seat (later it became known variously as Mathews Court House or simply Mathews).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vamathew/ |title=VAGenWeb Mathews County, VA Genealogy |publisher=Rootsweb.ancestry.com |date=November 8, 2007 |access-date=August 11, 2015}}</ref>

Seaborne commerce, fishing and oyster farming had always been important in the area and [[Old Point Comfort Light]]house was built in 1802 to guide vessels into the [[Hampton Roads]] seaport (along with the older lighthouse at Cape Henry). Two additional lighthouses were built slightly later: [[New Point Comfort Light]] and [[Smith Point Light]]. During the [[War of 1812]], British vessels anchored in Hampton Roads and raided adjacent areas.

Farming was important to the 19th century economy, and early in the century [[Edmund Ruffin]] introduced the use of limestone marl as fertilizer on fields worn out from tobacco crops.<ref>McCartney pp. 266--268</ref> Two Mathews County men implicated in [[Gabriel's Rebellion]] in 1802 were sentenced to transportation out of the Commonwealth. In a lawsuit begun in 1806, Jackey Wright of Mathews County was granted her freedom from prominent landowner Holder Hudgins due to her grandmother's Native American ancestry in one of the last cases decided by Judge [[George Wythe]], with a Virginia Supreme Court opinion by [[St. George Tucker]].<ref>McCartney pp. 223-226</ref>

During the [[American Civil War]], many men from Mathews County enlisted in the Confederate Army. Some Union sympathizers petitioned President Abraham Lincoln for help, alleging that Confederate sympathizers had harassed them.<ref>McCartney pp. 337-339</ref> Union forces by 1862 controlled the Hampton Roads area and in July 1862 a detachment of Pennsylvania cavalry arrived at Gloucester Court House, then went to Mathews to arrest Carter B. Hudgins, but were unsuccessful. Several other Union raids occurred beginning in September 1863, initially designed to disrupt Confederate salt works. However, in the October 1863 raid, Union General Wistar later reported some of his troops behaved very badly, and Sands Smith was executed after he shot a Union soldier attempting to confiscate his cow.<ref>Mathews County Historical Society, History and Progress, Mathews County, Virginia (reprints from 1949 and 1979 special editions of the Gloucester Mathews Gazette-Journal pp. 15-16</ref> His son and grandson would become prominent Mathews County officials by century's end.

In 1882–1886, complaints about out-of-state watermen dredging local oyster beds (and destroying young oysters) produced an "oyster war" during the administration of Virginia Governor [[William E. Cameron]]. Several offending boats were captured, but all but one of their watermen were from [[Eastern Shore of Virginia|Virginia's Eastern shore]] (across Chesapeake Bay) rather than from outside the Commonwealth.<ref>McCartney pp. 429-430</ref>

During World War I, Mathews County greatly exceeded its quota of volunteers. In addition to fatalities, several men were disabled by gas attacks at the battlefront, and later relayed their stories. Many Mathews county seamen also served in the Merchant Marine. The war also changed economic relations within the county, for farm laborers could get better paying jobs in Hampton Roads or nearby cities.

As the [[Great Depression]] began, voters elected [[Emma Lee Smith White]], wife of local physician Dr. Carl Clifford White, to represent them in the [[Virginia General Assembly]]. As a local insurance agent, among other jobs, she had other priorities after a hurricane and 100-year level flooding devastated Mathews County in August 1933. No woman again sat in the Virginia General Assembly for 21 years.<ref>Cynthia A. Kierner and Sandra Goia Treadway, Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times, Vol. 2 (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press 2016) p. 336</ref>

In October 2012, [[Hurricane Sandy]] also devastated Mathews County, and while rebuilding, officials decided to petition to have the town center declared a historic district. It received nomination from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Mathews/057-5415_Mathews_Downtown_HD_2016_PIF.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=April 3, 2017 |archive-date=February 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215021604/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Mathews/057-5415_Mathews_Downtown_HD_2016_PIF.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Mathews/057-5415_Mathews_Downtown_HD_photographs.htm |title=Mathews Downtown Historic District, Mathews County, #057-5415 |access-date=April 3, 2017 |archive-date=April 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404130430/http://dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Mathews/057-5415_Mathews_Downtown_HD_photographs.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[Mathews County Courthouse Square]] has been recognized as a National Historic District since 1977, and the [[Sibley's and James Store Historic District]] (consisting of two 19th-century general stores) has been recognized as a National Historic District since 2011.