Thomas Hill

Hill was a retired Navy Shipyard wood worker who was 69 at the time of the interview. He was interviewed by Edith C. Skinner who lived at 1107 Cambridge Or. Norfolk, on February 24, 1939. This was part of the Social Ethnic Studies By The Federal Writers' Project.

(Interview transcription)

Thomas Hill was born on a farm near Lewiston, North Carolina, not more than fifty miles from the Virginia State line. His father had bought a plantation right in the forest or you might say the back woods. He cleared away a little space and built a home for his family. Before he could do any farming the trees had to be cut down and the underbrush cleared out on a part of the farm. Each year a larger space was opened for cultivation, until after many years the whole land was under cultivation. To provide a living for his large family, consisting of himself, his wife and mine or ten children, it was necessary for all hands to help. Tom went to work pushing the plow when he was such a tiny follow that you might more correctly say that the plow pulled him instead of that he pushed the plow. He has worked with his "brawn and muscles" all of his life.

Thomas Hill came to Norfolk to live in 1892. At first he worked as a laborer, but in 1904 he went to work in the United States Navy Yard of Norfolk. His job was that of a helper in wood work and he first received $11.28 a day. In three weeks the wage was raised to $1.58 a day. He received increases in pay from time to time, until finally his pay rate was $4.52 a day or a little over $27.00 a week. He stayed in the Navy Yard a few months over twenty five years, when he was sixty two years of age. During the World War, there was so much work to be done that the workers were compelled to work overtime, but there was also overtime pay, which helped finances a great deal. The regular day's work consisted of eight hours.

Seven years ago, Tom was retired with a pension. But this man who had been a busy worker all of his life was not satisfied to sit at home and be idle, so be conjured his brain for something to do, finally solving the problem by buying some vacant lots near his home and starting a Vegetable garden. He still spends a great deal of his time working in the cultivation of these crops. He also raises chickens. However, he had bad luck with these fowl last spring, for rats raided his hen houses from time to time and caught a large number of his broilers. He was so discouraged that he has not yet replaced the number lost. The vegetables and chickens help to out down the cost of food, not only for his own family, but also for his friends and neighbors, for what Is not, needed for home consumption, he sells at a very cheap rate to them. Since his object in cultivating the garden is employment and recreation, he is satisfied with not making much money on the sale of his extra supply.

Tom was married in 1904 to a girl whose family had come to Berkley from Emporia., Virginia. Two, children were born of this union, but in 1908, when the second child was just twelve months old, the mother died. The older child died near the same time. In 1912, Tom married a second time, but there were no other children. The daughter, Rose, does not remember her own mother and has not realized the real meaning of the less of a mother to some children, because her stepmother has been so good to her, and before the second marriage of her father, her grandmother took the mother's place. Rose is now thirty two years old. She was married in 1933 and had one child who did not live after birth. In 1937, she was divorced from her husband and went back to her father's home to live. Here she has a great many comforts. She is usually employed, doing cooking or general housework. For the last six months, she has been employed as a cook for at dietician in a school lunchroom. Her wages are only six dollars a week, but she only works five days a week from nine to two o'clock, so she has a lot of free time for other things.

Since all the members of the Hill family had to work on the farm as much as possible, there was very little time for education. Tom went to school for only two months In the year, January and August, although the regular time for school at that place was three months in winter and three months in summer. He has often wished since he has worked for himself that he had more schooling. Her daughter finished at the Abraham Lincoln Grammar School in Berkley, then went to the Virginia State High School and College at Petersburg, but she only completed three years of the high school course. Rose's mother, however, was a graduate of the Lawrenceville High and Normal School, which is located near Petersburg.

The family live in a very nice home, built of brown shingles, which the father purchased twenty seven years ago. It is two stories and has seven rooms and a front porch across the width of the house. The front door gives entrance into a hall with an archway on the left into the living room and the stairway on the right to the second floor. The house is heated by a heatrola in the dining room and is lighted by electricity. Since there are no gas pipes along this street, the fuel for the cooking stove is supplied by oil and the range has been fitted with oil burners to take the place of the coal and wood that would otherwise be necessary. The living room is very attractive and furnished with a suite of black walnut parlor furniture, consisting of a sofa and four cushioned chairs. Three of these chairs are straight, only one has arms; the fourth is a rocking chair, with arms, which rocks on a stand. An upright piano and a radio show that the family can enjoy music or other programs when it wishes. There is one large fancy picture on the wall, depicting a snow scene; then there are three or four large portraits of members of the family. In prominent places at the ends of the mantel are large photographs of Tom's father and mother, which show that they lived long past the allotted three score and ten years.

The members of this family are active members of a Baptist Church in Berkley.

Tom likes to go to baseball games during the season, and before he became too stiff he enjoyed playing an amateur game with his friends. One of his favorite delights is to visit a fair and watch the horse races. He also likes to visit the various exhibits at the fair. The only quiet game that appeals to him at all is checkers, which he will occasionally indulge in.

Thomas Hill, Transcript, interviewed on February 24, 1939, WPA Life Histories: Virginia Writers Project (Richmond, VA: Library of Virginia, 1939), 1-4.