Editing Poquoson, Virginia (section)

==History==
The name of the city is a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] word which roughly translates to "great marsh." The term [[pocosin]], with its varied spellings, was a term used by the area's inhabitants to describe a low, marshy, woody place covered by water in the winter, but dry in the summer. These [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] were [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquians]], a tribal group affiliated through the [[Powhatan Confederacy]], and were defensive to the early colonizers. A petition to have the name of the parish and river changed was an attempt to rid the language of all vestiges of Indian terms.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} However, "poquoson" has survived through the centuries and has become a proper noun used to designate the present city.

The current city is a remnant of a larger area known from the first days of its settlement in the early 17th century by English colonists as the New Poquoson Parish of the [[Church of England]]. In the colonial times before [[separation of church and state]] and [[freedom of religion]] were established in Virginia and the United States, the church parish boundaries and governmental ones were often the same. In addition to the current city of Poquoson, New Poquoson Parish originally included the areas in York County known today as Poquoson, [[Tabb, Virginia|Tabb]], [[Grafton, Virginia|Grafton]], [[Dare, Virginia|Dare]] and [[Seaford, Virginia|Seaford]]. This land was opened for settlement in the year 1628 and was occupied by people from the English settlement of the [[Virginia Colony]] established at [[Kecoughtan, Virginia|Kecoughtan]] in 1610 by Sir [[Thomas Gates (governor)|Thomas Gates]] which eventually became part of the current [[Hampton, Virginia|City of Hampton]]. The first reference to Poquoson is believed to be in Colonial records of a land grant of {{convert|500|acres|abbr=on}} in New Poquoson to Christopher Calthorpe in 1631 by a court in what became the former [[Elizabeth City County, Virginia|Elizabeth City County]].<ref name="City History">{{cite web|url=http://www.poquoson-va.gov/general/history|title=History|access-date=2011-10-14|publisher=City of Poquoson|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225123917/http://www.poquoson-va.gov/general/history|archive-date=2012-02-25}}</ref> This area located just outside of the Poquoson city limits in York County is still known in the 21st century as Calthrop Neck.

In 1634, the eight original [[shires of Virginia]] were created. Poquoson was located in [[Charles River Shire]]. The name was changed to [[York County, Virginia|York County]] in 1642–43. The [[York River (Virginia)|York River]] was known earlier as the Charles River, and its name was also changed about the same time.

Poquoson grew as a close-knit rural community of York County for the next 300 years. During the [[American Revolutionary War]], independence was won at nearby Yorktown, a major tourist attraction of the [[Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia]].

One of the first land battles of the [[American Civil War]], the [[Battle of Big Bethel]] was fought nearby on June 10, 1861. In the spring of 1862, Union General [[George B. McClellan]] put together an ambitious plan known as the [[Peninsula Campaign]] to end the war by marching up the peninsula from Union held [[Fort Monroe]] and taking the Confederate capitol at [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]]. A copy of his battle plans was obtained by Confederate spy [[Thomas Nelson Conrad]] and in response Confederate forces under General [[John B. Magruder]] established three lines of defensive positions extending across the peninsula to stop McClellan's march towards Richmond. The first line of defense was anchored on the north by a redoubt on Ship Point near the mouth of the [[Poquoson River]]. After the Confederates abandoned the position in 1863 the Union Army established a supply depot and a hospital at Ship Point.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://yorkcountyhistory.blogspot.com/2007/10/ship-point-in-civil-war-by-frank-green.html|title = York-Poquoson History}}</ref> Several Poquoson residents fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War including Wesley Messick, who was a crewman on the [[CSS Virginia]] during the [[Battle of Hampton Roads]].<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oIsn_QWyGasC&q=wesley+messick+poquoson+css+virginia&pg=PA65 | title=Poquoson| isbn=9780738598352| author=Poquoson Museum (Poquoson, Va.)| year=2013| publisher=Arcadia}}</ref>

Poquoson became an [[incorporated town]] in 1952, as the citizens of the community wanted to keep their own high school open instead of having their children [[Desegregation busing|bused]] to [[York High School (Virginia)|York High School]] due to distance.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} When the town was incorporated, Poquoson's small predominantly [[African American]] community known as Cary's Chapel remained just outside the town limits in York County. The town became an independent city in 1975 in order to maintain this status. The change from incorporated town to independent city status also effectively protected Poquoson from potential annexation suits by the adjacent City of Hampton.

The changes to incorporated town and independent city were part of a wave of municipal changes in southeastern Virginia in the third quarter of the 20th century. Although Poquoson is one of the smaller of 8 independent cities extant in the Hampton Roads region in the 21st century, it is not unique in the area as a city having large areas of undeveloped land and protected wetlands.

Poquoson has long been informally known as "Bull Island" because for centuries farmers in the area let their cattle roam free in the salt marshes. Although only a few small farms remain and the herd of cattle that once grazed in the marshes are long gone, Poquoson residents still call themselves "Bull Islanders".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.virginialiving.com/travel/the-great-marsh/|title = The "Great Marsh": Poquoson|date = 22 July 2016}}</ref>

{{see also|Hampton Roads}}