Founding and Early Years (1924-1934)
One hundred years is an achievement by any standards, and the Cape Charles Rotary Club achieves that venerable age when it celebrates its charter on May 15, 2024. This is the story of how it began.
On February 13,1924, at the urging of Rotary Club International, and with the sponsorship of Hampton Rotary Club, fifteen prominent businessmen and professionals from Cape Charles met at the Farmer’s and Merchant Bank offices to discuss organizing a Cape Charles Rotary Club. In April of the same year, they elected their first set of officers, and, with the support of the Hampton Rotary Club secretary John Waymouth, their application was submitted to Frank Lanz, the President of Newport News Rotary Club who was then the Area District Governor. Cape
Charles Rotary Club’s application was then forwarded to Rotary International which issued the Rotary International Rotary Club Charter # 1772 to Cape Charles Rotary Club on May 15, 1924.
At its inaugural Dinner celebration the following month, held on Friday June 13, 1924, at the Athletic Club Room of the Pennsylvania & Norfolk Railroad, fifteen charter members were inducted as well as its slate of officers, with Guy L Webster as its first President and David W Peters the first Secretary. The other charter members were Porter Allen, W D Williams, J Warren Topping, Otto Lowe, J R Parsons, James W Wilson, James M Lynch, John T Borum, Frank C Fitzhugh, Roscoe Jones, George P Smith, Mallory H Taylor, and Upshur Wilson. These founding members, driven by a sense of responsibility to their community, embarked on a journey that would focus on community welfare, local projects, and fostering international goodwill.
If the date of the Club’s inauguration on Friday, the 13th of June, is considered a bad omen by some, the club’s existence as the oldest Rotary Club on the Eastern Shore has proven the fallacy of such beliefs. The induction ceremony was witnessed by hundreds of Rotarians who came aboard a special ferry for the occasion. They arrived at 4 pm the day before the ceremony and made the return trip across the bay at 10 pm the following evening. It was the biggest event held by the Club in Cape Charles with guests coming from Rotary Clubs in Hampton, Newport News,
Norfolk, and Portsmouth.
After its inception, the club’s unique meeting place every Friday was shipboard on the ferry PRR Pennsylvania as it docked at noon at Cape Charles Harbor. The time it took to make the turnaround for its return trip to Old Point and Norfolk was sufficient for the members to have a fine lunch in its elegant dining room, conduct its program, and enjoy some fellowship. Their invited speakers often were distinguished members of the community such as the governor of Virginia.
In December 1924, the Rotary Club, through its President Guy L Webster along with J L Restein, Trainmaster of the PRR and N Railroad, negotiated on behalf of Northampton County to obtain the Eastern Shore Baseball League franchise to bring baseball to the Patton Field in Cape Charles.
The next year it held its annual induction of officers at the dining room of the Eastville Inn, a stag affair which inducted Porter Allen as President.
The following year, the club hosted its most brilliant affair yet in the Annual Ladies Ball, with covers laid out for 150 guests at the Athletic Club room of the PRR and N Railroad and music from a 5-piece band and entertainment from a Negro Quartet with party favors for everyone prepared by the hosts, Rotary president W D Williams, and various officers.
In May 1927, three years after its formation, it held a big organizing meeting to give birth to two new Charters simultaneously. It inducted 30 new members to form the Exmore Rotary Club serving the Lower Northampton areas of Belle Haven, Franktown, Willis Wharf, Nassawadox, and Exmore, and the Onancock Rotary Club serving Parksley, Onley, Onancock, and Accomac. The Cape Charles Rotary Club membership expanded to fifty members.
The club installation dinner at the Chesapeake Hotel in 1937 of J L Restein as President for 1937-1938 was notable in the fact that the speaker invited by outgoing President Frank Parsons, Jr. was Thomas Dixon, of Raleigh, NC, nationally known author, lecturer and playwright, and a former resident of Cape Charles. He had become famous for his book, The Clansman, which became a best seller in 1905.
He lived in Cape Charles for only two years, in 1894-1896, but he was promptly elected to become a member of the Town Council for 2 years, and he became part-owner of the town newspaper “The Headlight”. He lived at the Honeysuckle Lodge, 629 Tazewell Ave, which was the former residence of successive train superintendents, and he commuted on the trains every week to deliver his sermon as a minister in New York. He adapted his book, The Clansman, onto the stage, and it played to a packed audience in Cape Charles in 1908. It required a special run of the trains to transport the audience from all over the Eastern Shore. Later, it became the basis of the blockbuster silent movie, Birth of a Nation, by D W Griffith, which held its Eastern Shore premiere at the Strand Theater in Nassawadox in 1917. The book and the movie glorified the Ku Klux Clan, and many of his writings expressed his belief in White Supremacy. When he returned to Cape Charles in 1933, he was already a well-known lecturer. It was standing room only at the high school when he gave his lecture, “This Country of Ours”.
The club's commitment to service endured even in the face of challenges posed by the tumultuous events of the mid-20th century. The Rotary Club of Cape Charles continued its mission then, adapting to wartime restrictions and economic fluctuations. Dr. Raymond Pinchbeck, dean of the University of Richmond, was the principal speaker at one of its regular meetings, at that time held after dinner at the Beach Casino tearoom on Friday evenings. Dr. Pinchbeck spoke about “The Economic Effect of War.”
In 1949 the Club celebrated its 25th Silver anniversary at the Chesapeake Hotel in Cape Charles, where it inducted Willis S Parsons as its president. The spirit of resilience that defined this era would lay the groundwork for decades of impactful service.
