History of Suffolk, Virginia

The area around Suffolk, Virginia, which is now an independent city in the Hampton Roads region in the southeastern part of the state, was originally inhabited by Native Americans.

[3][1][2] Despite such tensions, the fledgling colony soon began to expand, and soon settlers gained control of the area as they drove out the Nansemond— the tribe lost their last known reservation lands in 1792.

[3][8][9] During this period, Confederate General James Longstreet besieged the town with 20,000 men between April 11 and May 4, 1863 while gathering supplies for the Army of Northern Virginia.

During the siege, General George Pickett would slip away to meet with his sweetheart and soon-to-be wife LaSalle (Sallie) Ann Corbell of Nansemond County.

[10] Longstreet was ordered to disengage by General Robert E. Lee and rejoin the Army of Northern Virginia at Fredericksburg.

[9] Two months later on July 3, the Union forces abandoned the town for strategic reasons, as decided by General John Adams Dix.

[3] In 1912, Italian immigrant Amedeo Obici came from Pennsylvania and opened facilities of the Planters Nut and Chocolate Company in Suffolk.

[3] The city also became home to Planters' Mr. Peanut, a world-famous advertising icon (voted the country's third-most popular in 2004[3]).

[14] In 1924 Obici and his wife Louise settled at Bay Point Farm in Chuckatuck on a bluff overlooking the Nansemond River.

For many years, the call letters of local AM radio station WLPM stood for World's Largest Peanut Market.

As a gateway to Norfolk and Portsmouth, Suffolk became a major rail interchange point, served at one time or another by many of Virginia's railroads.