The Southampton County Folklore web archive is dedicated to my grandmother, Martha McLane Beale, who shared these articles about the people, places, and events of Southampton County, VA. These articles were published in the Suffolk News-Herald under her by-line, Mrs. John E. Beale, during the early to mid 1970's.

Barnes Methodist Church.txt

Bethany Church Was Community Center.txt

Blackwater Once a Busy Highway for Boats.txt

Cap’n Jack of Southampton County.txt

Citizens Supported Library.txt

Civil War Youngsters of Southampton.txt

Confederate Memorial Dedicated in 1902.txt

Devotion, Loyalty Built Drewryville Methodist Church.txt

Early Schools.txt

Education Concerned Early Southampton.txt

Excursion Train Meets Disaster.txt

Farming Vital to S’hampton for Two Centuries.txt

First Baptist Oldest Church.txt

First Head-on Train Wreck in USA.txt

First School Supt, A Cavalry Member During Civil War.txt

First Skirmish Awakened Southeastern Virginia Troops.txt

Franklin Turns Out for Spanish-American Vets.txt

Franklin Was Baptized By Fire Feb. 26, 1881.txt

Hayden High School.txt

James Strange French and the Nat Turner Insurection.txt

Jeremiah Cobb and the Nat Turner Trial.txt

Life Of Congregational Christian.txt

Longstreet in Southampton.txt

Men and Supplies Enter War for Independence.txt

Millfield Baptist ‘Mother’ Of Two Local Churches.txt

Most Picturesque Town in Mehrrin Valley.txt

Mt. Horeb Methodist Lives To Serve Its People.txt

News Items From 1880’s Pape.txt

Newsoms Baptist Church.txt

Noted Yankee General Grew Up Near Newsoms.txt

Nottoway Parish Antedates Southampton Co..txt

Old Homes Testify To County’s Rich History.txt

On Two Low Ridges.txt

Once Part of ‘llzy White’.txt

Our Rebel Leader.txt

Pace Hardware History In Franklin Traced.txt

Peanuts Became Cash Crop 100 Years Ago.txt

Poor of Lower Parish Had Three Benefactors.txt

Rosemont Cemetery.txt

Second Civil War Veteran Succeeded Bryant as Southampton School Head.txt

Sinking of The ‘Olive’ Shocked Franklin.txt

Stories of Southampton.txt

Sycamore Baptist Was Known As Olivet.txt

The Early Schools.txt

The Franklin of Old.txt

The Insurrection.txt

The Military History.txt

The People Of Drewrysville Tell The Town’s History.txt

Thomas Baptist Church - Distinctive As Billows.txt

Town of Branchville.txt

Town of Newsoms.txt

Tucker Swamp’s Heritage.txt

Under An Arbor.txt

Union Camp Grew from Mill Started in 1856.txt

When Taxpaying was Fun.txt

Whitehead Methodist.txt

William Byrd Surveyed Va-NC Border.txt

William Mahone- Soldier, Statesman.txt

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Go to index.

These articles tell stories of people, places, and events in and around Southampton County not found in the official records.

Most files were obtained from the Virginia Chronicle, a collection of Virginia newspapers archived at the Library of Virginia (LVA). Many Virginia newspapers have been digitized and converted to text using Optical Characterer Recognition (OCR) by the LVA and are included the Virginia Chronicle.

Even the best OCR technology is prone to transcription errors and the Virginia Chronicle is no exception. The files here have been further processed by the Southampton Transcription Project (STP) and transcription errors have been greatly reduced (hopefully to zero). That said, please report any errors you find to STP using the link below.

Do you know of material that could/should be shared and included here? Please give details here.

Submit suggestion/comment/critique/error(s) to the Southampton Transcription Project by clicking the link here.