Julian Walker's article, "Oldest incorporated town is in Va. Try Bermuda
Hundred in Chesterfield County," in the Richmond Times-Dispatch for
yesterday is, indeed, a very interesting article on a community and its
recent history.

It is a pity, though, that nobody thought to research the early history.
Bermuda Hundred was never an incorporated town, period.
But that newspaper headline will undoubtedly result in reference
librarians in the future being badgered for information on the
incorporation and by people searching for similar non-events about other
places. Any reference librarian or good historian is aware of numerous
instances in which such ill-informed publications generate myths or
misstatements of fact that work like just so much kudzu, clogging up
understanding of the past and leading future readers astray.

It's like the "Do you still beat your wife?" questions that muddy the
waters rather than illuminate the past.

PS: Twenty or thirty years ago there was a sign on the north end of the
James River Bridge Tunnel where you emerged from underneath the water
and entered Newport News and Hampton. The sign read something like:
"Welcome to the oldest continuously inhabited English-speaking town in
the western hemisphere." Now: That was true, and I'm sorry that the sign
isn't there, any more.

$0.02 worth from

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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