 About 4.8% of families and 6.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.6% of those under age 18 and 2.5% of those age 65 or over.The history of Parksley is directly tied to the arrival of the New York, Philadelphia, and Norfolk [NYP&N] Railroad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in the mid-1880s.When the rail line connecting the lower Delmarva Peninsula to the markets of the northeast was built in 1884, several new towns were created along its route which bypassed many of the shore’s older established communities.