After World War II, there was a national trend for previous farm workers to move to more urbanized areas.  George and Rebecca Emerson were caught up in this trend. There was a strong urge to move closer to Rebecca’s employment, and moving to the Peninsula would better maintain the family ties since so many of the children had moved there.  In the 1940s, York County was still a rural area but reasonably close to the urban activities of Newport News.  York County seemed like an ideal place for the family to relocate.

Rebecca’s niece, Sarah Holland (daughter of Carrie Thruston), lived in Warwick County (now a part of Newport News) very close to the York-Warwick line.  Sarah informed George and Rebecca of a twenty acre farm owned by Mr. Graefe that was for sale.  The Graefe farm was located on Route 17 about one quarter mile from what eventually would  be the Newport News city limits.  In January 1947, George and Rebecca bought the farm and moved to York County.  Soon after moving to the Graefe farm, George and Rebecca sold half of the property to their son, Jack, who built his home on the farm, thus continuing the close relationship between the George and Jack Emerson families.

Hurricane Hazel had damaged the umbrella trees on the right side of the picture, but they grew back.

Back side of bank note: Receipt of payment

Most of the farming done in this area was the raising of vegetables to be sold in grocery stores or restaurants in Newport News.  This was the type of farming George was involved with for several years although most of his customers were people from the city coming to the farm to buy vegetables or eggs, etc. Rebecca continued her work as a seamstress in various capacities.  George’s “truck farming” did not materialize as a viable employment. He gradually shifted to raising veal, buying calves when they were two or three days old and raising them to veal stage.  The selling of veal led George to the livestock auctions in Suffolk and Smithfield where he became very astute in estimating the value of livestock    This experience eventually led to his buying livestock from surrounding farms and selling them at the Suffolk and Smithfield auctions.

 

(So named by granddaughter, Linda Eighme)
George and Rebecca in front of their York County home

Robert Carol Emerson recalls the following incident:

      One morning in the mid-1950s, Daddy, Mammy, and I were eating breakfast, and I asked Daddy, “What are you going to do today?”
     “I heard about a bull that a man in Saluda wants to sell,” he replied.  “Ernest Smith and I are going up there to see if we can make a deal.”
     “You’re going to ride all the way to Middlesex just to look at a bull?”
     “You go ahead and lay your bricks and tonight we will see who made the most money,”  Daddy replied.
     That night at the supper table, Daddy said, “Well, Boy, how much money did you make today?”
     Bricklayer’s scale was $3.25 per hour at that time; so I replied, “$26.”
     “I cleared $35 profit on the sale of that bull today,”  Daddy said with a chuckle.

Rebecca, George, and Aunt Sarah in front of the York County home, 1954
(Aunt Sarah was the wife of Willie Emerson, George’s uncle.)

George and Rebecca at their York County home.

 After moving to York County, Rebecca and the children living at home joined Bethel Baptist Church (George stopped being actively involved  in church while at Airville.).  Rebecca became very active at Bethel, teaching a Sunday school class until she was 85 years old.  The three sons still living at home went to school in Poquoson.  In September 1956, the last son living at home went away to college; George and Rebecca were alone once again.

 

Top row: Karen Cunningham holding Frank (’50), Rebecca (’46), Betty (’44), Woody (’39), Phyllis (’44), Sally (’44), Buddy (’42) behind Bobby (’42), Billy (’41)
Middle: back to camera, Franklin (’47)
Front row: Wayne (‘49), Amy (’47), Wray (’49), Jackie (’43), Celesta (’42 ), holding Kenneth (‘50), Linda (’47 ), Blanche (’49), Tommy (‘47), Brenda (‘41)
[Some identifications are not certain.]

At the close of World War II, there was a tremendous increase in the birthrate due to service men returning home and resuming normal family life.  This postwar generation has been called the Baby Boomers.  The Emerson family was no exception to this trend.  George and Rebecca’s first grandson, Woody Smith, was born in 1939. By 1950, the number of grandchildren had reached 20.

George was involved in various business deals, mostly through making minor financial loans.  One such deal was George’s giving financial backing to a proposed mulch packaging business.  This business soon collapsed, and the owner “skipped town.”  George was left holding the second mortgage on a house in Newport News; in order to protect his investment, George bought the house when the bank foreclosed.  The house was rented for several years and eventually sold at a good profit.

When George and Rebecca bought the farm, York County was very much a rural area; Route 17 was a two-lane tar and gravel road.  When Route 17 was expanded to a modern four-lane highway, the area became urbanized.  The City of Newport News incorporated with Warwick County, and York County took on the characteristics of a  suburb.  As city lifestyle encroached upon York County, property values skyrocketed.  As George was becoming advanced in years and not physically able to do the farm work, he and Rebecca sold all of their remaining property except the house and yard, again at a good profit over the original price paid for the Graefe farm.

George on his 76^th birthday, January 1, 1963

 Celebrating George’s 76^th birthday
Front row: Nelson, Sherwood, Lulie, Herbert, Hoby
Middle: George, Rebecca
Back row: Chester, Robert Carol, Jack, Frederick, Charles

 The Wives:
Seated: Nancy (not a wife at this time), Rebecca, Maxine, Carroll Ed
Standing: Ann, Betty, Susie, Nora (Ruby took the picture.)

In 1963, George and Rebecca’s son, Robert Carol, became pastor of Spring Hill Baptist Church in Mathews County.  Robert Carol asked his parents to live with him in the church parsonage; therefore, George and Rebecca lived in Mathews until June of 1965 when Robert Carol married.  On Sunday afternoons, several of the children and their families would visit George and Rebecca at the Spring Hill Parsonage.  Sometimes, ten or twelve people would remain for supper.  In August 1963, an unusually large group visited the parsonage because Buck and his family were visiting from Oklahoma.

 On the back of this picture is written “1963 at the parsonage.”

The timing of their return to the home in York County seemed very appropriate because George was becoming feeble and needed to be near doctors and the hospital in Newport News.

Soon after George and Rebecca returned to York County, Rebecca’s niece, Sarah Holland, came by for a visit; in the course of the conversation, Sarah said, “Auntie, I found an old table in the shed back of my house that has a tag on it saying, ‘Frank Emerson, Roanes, Va.'”  Rebecca responded, “That must be the new table that George had set at Crow Point when we came home from our wedding.  We stored it at Carrie’s when we left Airville.  I’ve got to have it back.”  After twenty-five years, the old family table was brought home.  For the remainder of their lives, George and Rebecca ate their meals together at the table that had grown with the family during their life together.