Interview with Barb Bass by Les Ward October 25, 2006
GROWING UP IN HOBSON:
Barb was born Barbara Delores Pound on April 30, 1943 at the Lakeview Hospital in Suffolk Virginia. Her mother was Ella Adams from Eclipse Virginia and her father was William T. Pound from Washington D.C. Barb’s maternal grandmother was Sarah Louisa Bush of Eclipse and maternal grandfather was Charles Gray Adams of Hobson. Her paternal grandmother was Martha Jean Green and she does not remember her paternal grandfather. Barb has two younger sisters; Jacqueline Adams Pound and Sarah M. Pound, and had one younger brother – William T. Pound Jr., who is deceased. Barb also has a foster daughter, Anna Denise Starkey who lives in Chicago. Barb attended school in Chuckatuck and graduated from Chuckatuck High School in 1961. Barb worked in civil service for both the Department of Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard before retiring. She now has a part time catering business and manages a wine shop. Barb is married to Joe Bass and they reside in Hobson.
The Pound family home when Barb was born and growing up was a two story white farm house located at the current intersection of Moore’s Point Road and Cherry Point Road in Hobson. Barb told me that her parent’s property ran from the ravine near her current residence on Moore’s Point Road past the intersection of Cherry Point Road, Holly Point Road and Moore’s Point Road and down to the Chuckatuck Creek. Her mother had a large truck garden and also a truck orchard so the family had plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit. The family also had a cow for milk, horses for plowing the fields, and raised chickens. Barb told me that all the animals had names and were considered family pets by her and her siblings. One pet was a hog named Oscar, who loved to have his back scratched. Barb also remembers in the fall of the year when hogs were slaughtered and the meat was placed in the family smoke house. In addition to their home, the farm also had two barns, a wash house, corn crib, and the smoke house.
Barb told me that the Hobson she remembers while growing up was isolated and located in two sections. She lived near the Chuckatuck Creek end of Moore’s Point Road which was dirt, where a few houses were located. The other section was at the Crittenden Road end of the old Moore’s Point Road which had the rest of the houses in Hobson. There was only farm land and woods in between. The only families at her end of Hobson were the Denno’s and Wagner’s and Pound’s, and the Adams families lived at the other end of Moore’s Point Road. Friends while growing up in Hobson was her best friend Peggy Matthews (Post-Reid) and Babette Adams, Victoria Adams, Sid Denno, Charles Gray (Gray) Adams Jr., Sandra Matthews, and Raymond (Butch) Matthews.
The Adams Family in Hobson
The original Adams in Hobson was Captain Charles Adams who operated the Adams Marine Railway and sawmill and the Adams Oyster Company. Barb told me that she never knew Captain Adams and doesn’t know if he built the railway or if it was in operation before he owned it. The railway and sawmill were located at the end of and on one side of Moore’s Point Road and the oyster business was on the other side of the road. She told me that Captain Adams oyster business consisted of over 40 dead rise oyster boats which he rented out to oystermen. Captain Adams’ son, Charles Gray Adams Sr. was her grandfather. Barb’s mother Ella told her that she would accompany her father on Sunday’s when he collected rent on the boats. Barb remembers when she was young, the Adams Oyster House had a large kiln where oyster shells were heated to make lime. She also remembers a line shack located on the side of the hill overlooking the Adams oyster businesses where oystermen stayed during the week.
(((GET PICTURE OF RAILWAY???)))
Henry Bush was Barb’s great grandfather and his daughter Sarah Bush was Barb’s grandmother. Sarah married Charles Gray Adams Sr. and they lived in the old Keeling home on Dixon Drive across from the Kenneth Corson’s. Henry Bush operated the old Bush Marine Railway next to the L.L. Johnson Railway on Chuckatuck Creek in Crittenden.
Land in Hobson
Charles Gray Adams Sr., who owned all of the land in Hobson and the Sleepy Lake section of Crittenden left it to his four children. Ella Adams Pound (Barb’s mother) inherited the land from the ravine near Barb’s current residence on Moore’s Point Road past the intersection of Cherry Point Road, Holly Point Road and Moore’s Point Road and down to the Chuckatuck Creek, Lois Adams Benton inherited Breezy Point Farm, Charles Gray Adams Jr. inherited the family home and land in Hobson and the Sleepy Lake property, which he later developed, and Richard M. Adams inherited the Adams Marine Railway and oyster business property from Barb’s house to the end of Moore’s Point Road.
Fun
For fun, Barb and her friends and siblings played, swam and crabbed in the Chuckatuck Creek. She told me that it was probably polluted from everyone’s septic and washing machine runoff and garbage being dumped into the water, but they weren’t concerned with the ecology at the time. Her family had a large crawl space under the family home where Barb and friends often played. She remembers playing soldiers and cowboys and Indians with their toy figures. Barb and friends also played football in nearby fields, but her mother made her stop playing this sport when the boys torn her skirt off one day.
Barb told me that Richard Hunt of Crittenden had his father’s (Reverend Hunt) marriage register when he was pastor at Ebenezer Methodist Church. She said she has researched past marriages in this register.
HISTORY OF THE AREA
1962 ASH WEDNESDAY STORM:
Barb was attending Frederick College during the 1962 Ash Wednesday Storm and didn’t see damage in her Hobson neighborhood. However, she told me that the water in the James River and Nansemond River almost breached the riprap wall that surrounds Frederick College.
PICTURES:
1. Barb Pound Bass next to the Pound family home with 1958 Ford station wagon taken in 1961. (See picture # 1).
2. Barb Pound, age 6, and sister Jacqueline, age 3.
3. Barb Pound, age 14 months.
4. Third Grade – Chuckatuck School picture:
a. First Row: Peggy Sanders, Chuckatuck
Earl Martin, Everett’s
Faye Butler, Reeds Ferry
Rodney Bell, Eclipse
Nancy Bell, Eclipse
Charles Mason Jr., Eclipse
Ann Bailey, Eclipse
Ernest Hazelwood, Eclipse
b. Second Row: Vernon Gayle, Chuckatuck
Gayle Bailey, Eclipse
Peggy Ashley, Chuckatuck
Unknown boy
Unknown boy
Joe Williams, Chuckatuck
Charles Mertig, Eclipse
Beverly Copeland, Chuckatuck
Lynette Brock, Teacher
c. Third Row: Jack Darden, Crittenden
Unknown boy
Jackie Goodman, Everett’s
Leonard Williams, Crittenden
Peggy Matthews, Crittenden
Barb Bass, Hobson
Unknown boy
Brenda Brock, Chuckatuck
Betty Eley, Reeds Ferry
5. Eclipse kids on large pile of oyster shells from Dixon Oyster House – mid 1930s:
(Sitting) Ella Adams, A.V. Atkinson, Jr.,
(Standing) Lois Adams, Nell Harrison, Rev. A.K. Lambdin, Teeny Bagnell.
6. Girl Scouts visiting Mattaponi Indian Reservation in late 1950s. Barb Pound, age 14, Louise Crittenden, Chief Custalow, Mattaponi Indian Tribe, Jackie Pound, Marie Crittenden, and unknown girl in front.
7. Children in 1951:
a. First Row: Wayne (Butch) Matthews, Jackie Pound.
b. Second Row: Sandra Matthews, Babette Adams, Sarah Pound, Barb Pound, and Victoria Adams.
8. Ella Adams Pound with young Barb Pound at Rivershore Beach in 1943.
9. Richard Adams Jr.’s 1947-1948 school picture (Babette and Victoria Adam’s brother).
10. Barb Pound third grade picture.
11. Three school pictures of Barb Pound – dates/grades unknown.
12. Barb Pound senior class picture – 1961.
13. Richard Adams at Grandma’s house.
14. Mildred Gray diving off Bunkley’s dock in 1940.
15. Dorothy Davis, Chuckatuck School seventh grade teacher.
16. Clinton (Bingo) Carson.
17. Laura and Bingo Carson.
18. Barb Pound, Donna Matthews, Linda Frye, and Jackie Pound.
19. Jackie Pound, Peggy Matthews, and Barb Pound at Willoughby in 1960.
20. William T. Pound church membership certificate.
21. 1987 Ebenezer Methodist Church Directory.
22. Picture of two unknown girls.
23. Peggy Matthews (Tim Matthews sister) sitting in boat.
24. Arlene Matthews, Frances Atkinson, Ella Adams, and Norma Dixon.
25. Everett Newman, Alese Newman, Bertram Hazelwood – 1932.
26. Ella Adams.
27. Frances Atkinson and unknown girl.
28. Katherine Murphy Adams (Charles Gray Adams Jr.’s wife).
29. Ella Adams.
30. Tilley Adams (Babette’s mother).
31. Atkinson rose garden.
32. Katheryn Murphy.
33. B. Bush and Lois Adams.
34. Local kids on boat “Silver Spray:” Myra Bright (Matthews), Peggy Matthews, and Barbara Pound, with Raymond (Butch) Matthews and unknown boy.
35. Local girls at Yorktown: Unknown girl, Frances Atkinson, Alese Bailey, Arlene Gray, and Millie Gray.
36. Charles Gray Adams Jr. holding Glenda Adams, Sarah Bush Adams, and Henry Bush in late 1930s at Sara Bush Adams house.
37. Charles (Sparky) Mason, Ward Matthews, Teeny Bagnell, Frances Atkinson, Lois Adams and Nell Harrison.
38. Uncle John Benton and Lois Adams at Sarah Bush Adams House before getting married.
39. Early picture of Crittenden Bridge.
40. Old Mt. Zion Christian Church.
41. Ella Adams Pound membership card in Methodist Church.
42. Two pictures of Girl Scouts at Boy Scout Camp Waters: George Denno – Boy Scout leader, Jackie Pound, Marie Crittenden in 1957.
43. Girl Scouts at Camp Waters: Louise Crittenden and Marie Crittenden on beach of James River.
44. Nell Harrison, Ella Adams and Lois Adams.
45. Charles (Sparky) Mason, Ed Mertig, John Staley Newman, Frances Atkinson, unknown girl, and Ward Matthews in James River at Rivershore Beach.
46. Ice sledding on Chuckatuck Creek in 1936:
a. 1st Row: Teeny Bagnell, Lois Adams, Thelma Adams, Nell Harrison, Virginia Lambdin behind Nell.
b. 2nd Row: Unknown, Ed Mertig, unknown, Alese Newman and Bertram Hazelwood.
47. Sarah Adams House: Unknown girl, Lois Adams, Frances Atkinson, and unknown girl.
48. Local kids on Bunkley’s dock:
a. 1st Row: Lois Adams, Etta Mae Pierce, Ella Adams
b. 2nd Row: Catherine Post, boy cousin from NC, Mary Hamilton
c. 3rd Row: Charles (Sparky) Mason, Parker Proctor, Frances Higgins.
49. Painting of Adams Oyster Company in Crittenden Virginia.
50. Chuckatuck School 3rd Grade Class:
a. 1st Row: Unknown girl, Nancy Bell (Eclipse), Betty Ashley (Chuckatuck), Unknown boy, Faye Butler (Reeds Ferry), Ann Bailey (Eclipse), Rodney Bell (Eclipse), Charles Mason Jr. (Eclipse).
b. 2nd Row: Brenda Brock (Chuckatuck), Peggy Matthews (Crittenden), Charles Mertig (Eclipse), Willie Anne Rittinghouse (Magnolia), Betty Eley (Reeds Ferry), Barbara Pound (Hobson), Vernon Gayle (Chuckatuck), Jackie Goodman (Everett).
c. 3rd Row: Leonard Williams (Crittenden), Unknown girl, Gayle Bailey (Eclipse), Peggy Sanders (Chuckatuck), Earl Martin (Everett), Unknown boy, Joe Willman (Everett), Unknown boy, and Jack Darden (Crittenden).
51. 1961 Chuckatuck High School Senior Class Portrait of senior pictures.
52. Barbara Pound’s Certificate of receiving a Chuckatuck High School Letter in Basketball for the 1958-1959 school year.
53. Barbara Pound’s Certificate of Baptism, April 1943, at Ebenezer Methodist Church.
54. June 1947 Vacation Bible School certificate to Barbara Pound.
55. Certificate of Promotion from Nursery Department to Beginner Department for Barbara Pound at Ebenezer Methodist Church, October 1947.
56. Adams Family Tree (1638 to present).