The years 1870 to 1935 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia were so fraught with change that the flights of time preceding and following seem in comparison only prologue and epilogue. Beginning immediately after the Civil War, the steamboat and then the railroad and motor truck opened new markets for the produce of Eastern Shore farmers and watermen. Industries in lumbering and tourism emerged. Prosperity spurred population growth. The landscape itself was dramatically altered as new towns grew up along the railroad and a network of new roads emanated from the towns. Modern styles of architecture appeared and telephone and power lines webbed the countryside. The changes were as lasting as they were profound. The houses in which people now live, the roads on which they travel, the towns in which they work and shop, almost all date from these sixty years.
In the early twentieth century Accomack and Northampton became the richest agricultural counties in the United States. Opportunity kept young people on the peninsula and attracted new settlers. Between 1870 and 1910 the combined population of the two counties grew by 87 percent. Under the pressure of expanding population, the number of farms increased while their acreage declined. The people of the Eastern Shore gathered tremendous harvests of potatoes and other crops through mechanization and the use of fertilizers and pesticides. They established new businesses and built new stores and houses. They improved health and educational facilities. They bought telephones, radios, pianos, and automobiles, equipped their homes with indoor plumbing, and sent their children to college. They traveled widely on business and for pleasure. They attended fairs, chautauquas, horse races, and baseball games, and they joined fraternal orders and civic organizations.