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Accomack County

Holly Wreath Memories in Virginia Featured Photos
The Holly-Wreath Traditon: Memories from Atlantic, Va. CharactersWay Back Machine

The Holly-Wreath Traditon: Memories from Atlantic, Va.

Back in 2004 the writer Brice Stump made the most of a priceless opportunity. While working for the Salisbury Daily Times, he got to join a pair of elderly siblings from Atlantic, Va. as they relived old family memories by sitting around the kitchen table and making a holly wreath in the old-school way. Norman Davis, then 85, and Leuvenia Watson, then 84, had spent…
November 25, 2020
Saxis on Saturday Night Featured Photo
Saxis on a Saturday Night! Scenes from Days Gone By MiscellanyQuote of the DayWay Back Machine

Saxis on a Saturday Night! Scenes from Days Gone By

Those of you who've been there know that Saxis is a remote, real-deal watermen community on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. I visited there while working on my book, Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. It's a quiet place nowadays, with one fun restaurant, one tiki bar, and a local history museum being the main attractions for visitors outside of the…
August 2, 2020
Sunset atBlackwater 2013 Featured Image
When Accomac, Va. Put the Baptist in Jail, 1778 CharactersDelmarva WisdomWay Back Machine

When Accomac, Va. Put the Baptist in Jail, 1778

This excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva comes from a trip centered on Accomac, the seat of Accomack County, Va. The town played an important role in the life of the preacher Elijah Baker (1742 to 1798), who helped get the then-fledgling Baptist faith off the ground and spreading through America. The most famous structure on the square…
May 30, 2020
TV Appearance Television
On WBOC-TV, Secrets of the Eastern Shore talks about the Prohibition Era The Newsroom

On WBOC-TV, Secrets of the Eastern Shore talks about the Prohibition Era

Secrets co-founder Jim Duffy recently went on WBOC-TV’s Good Day Delmarva to tell stories about the era of Prohibition on the Delmarva Peninsula. The 100th anniversary of Prohibition taking effect landed on Jan. 17, 1920. Have you heard the one about the guy in Wachapreague who set up a secret compartment under his kitchen floorboards so that booze would pour out of one of his…
January 16, 2020
WAY BACK MACHINE: The Rough & Tumble Preachers in Revolutionary Times From the BooksWay Back Machine

WAY BACK MACHINE: The Rough & Tumble Preachers in Revolutionary Times

This excerpt from Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva is one brief part of a chapter focused on history-laden Accomac, Va., which has a gorgeous old town square and side street full of sweet old houses and beautiful gardens. When the Revolutionary War broke out, most Methodist ministers fled back to England, fearing for their safety. Francis Asbury was not the fleeing…
August 8, 2019
Featured: Thomas Downing of Chincoteague, Virginia
Chincoteague Character of the Day: Thomas Downing, the ‘Oyster King’ of NYC CharactersWay Back Machine

Chincoteague Character of the Day: Thomas Downing, the ‘Oyster King’ of NYC

Growing up in Chincoteague, Va. in the 1790s and the first decade of the 1800s, Thomas Downing spent much of his time fishing, oystering, digging up clams, and catching terrapins. He must have spent a good bit of time around the kitchen as well, considering the way he grew up to become one of the most famous restaurateurs in New York City—the “Oyster King of…
February 9, 2019
QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Know Nothing Election of 1855 in Onancock, Virginia Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Know Nothing Election of 1855 in Onancock, Virginia

Election day is coming up on Tuesday, and folks seem to be pretty excited and upset on both sides of the aisle. It was like that back during the Know Nothing election of 1855, too. John Sergeant Wise was a child then, living along Onancock Creek on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He would have been 11 or 12 during that gubernatorial election campaign, which…
October 28, 2018
Onancock Creek on Virginia's Eastern Shore
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “No more beautiful spot for a dwelling can be found anywhere,” 1860s Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “No more beautiful spot for a dwelling can be found anywhere,” 1860s

John Sergeant Wise spent much of his 19th-century childhood along Onancock Creek on the Eastern Shore, in Accomack County, Virginia. Later, he would grow up and become a politician, lawyer, and writer whose work took him to Richmond, Washington, D.C., and New York City, among other places. This is from his 1899 memoir, The End of an Era. Wise was born in 1844, and the…
December 3, 2017
Grover Cleveland Fishing
CHARACTER OF THE DAY: The President Who Shot Ducks (and Marbles) on Hog Island Characters

CHARACTER OF THE DAY: The President Who Shot Ducks (and Marbles) on Hog Island

After Grover Cleveland made history in November of 1892, the first thing he did was reward himself with a trip to Hog Island, just off of his beloved Eastern Shore. Cleveland had just become the first person to win non-consecutive terms in the White House. He had won the election of 1884, and he had lost the one in 1888. (Donald Trump became the second…
April 25, 2017
Secrets of the Eastern Shore Christmas
The Secrets Christmas Agenda 2016! The Newsroom

The Secrets Christmas Agenda 2016!

We are going to be busy little elves this holiday season! On top of filling customer orders for Eastern Shore-themed greeting cards and photo prints available here on our website, there is all of this coming up: • SIGNING #1: On Black Friday, Nov. 25, Secrets founder Jim Duffy will be at Sundial Books in Chincoteague, signing copies of the new Secrets guidebook, "Eastern Shore Road…
November 21, 2016