Lot 752, Site B
In post-Civil War Hampton, the twin pillars of the nascent seafood industry were James Sands Darling (oysters) and James McMenamin (crabs). Both men, along with many members of their families, are buried in our cemetery.
James McMenamin was born in Boston but moved to Norfolk and later to Hampton. McMenamin is credited with creating a process for steaming and preserving crabmeat so that it could be shipped and consumed all over the world. In fact, his crabmeat won prizes at international expositions in Paris and Berlin. When his first crab-processing factory burned down in 1879, he built another one. It became the largest crab-processing factory in the world—a 20,000 square foot facility that employed 350 people and contained a dock for 60 boats. As local historian Michael Cobb put it, James McMenamin “put the crab in crab town.”
The McMenamin lot also contains the gravesites of James’s wife, Lelia, and many of their children and grandchildren. Sons John and James were members of the storied VMI class of 1913. Like the majority of their classmates, John and James were “dropped from [the] rolls for taking part in a class mutiny” in 1911. John, James, and their classmates helped themselves to the superintendent’s ice cream and were accused of “setting off bombs in the Quadrangle.” The McMenamin brothers transferred to Princeton where they excelled in football.
John’s daughter, Marguerite “Daisy” McMenamin (1916-2005), is buried in the gravesite, as are her sisters: Anne and Dorothy. Many parishioners remember Daisy fondly, and how much she loved her pets. Appropriately, between Daisy’s gravesite and that of her grandfather, James, is the gravesite of Brandywine (1982-1996)—her “beloved pet”.
Originally published in St. John’s Newsletter, May 2021.