Some Families of Damascus, Virginia, Part IV

by Glenn N. Holliman

This is the fourth in a series of articles on Damascus, Virginia and how one family, my great uncle and aunt, Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright, lived and contributed to the well-being of the community in the first half of the 20th Century.
  
In 1901 the Virginia-Carolina Railroad reached Damascus from Abington, Virginia.  Timber began being removed from the thick forests surrounding the cove and covering the high mountains that surrounded the isolated village.  In 1906, the Laurel Line opened to the south connecting Damascus to Mountain City,Tennessee.

Historian Louise Hall describes the Laurel Railway as a narrow gauge operation that often carried young people into the forests for picnics and then picked them up to bring them home.  Below are some photos illustrating Ms. Hall's information.

The names of the persons on this small track car are not known, but one assumes Dave Wright in on the far right and probably his young wife, Pearl Osborne Wright, is sitting in front of him.  If relatives recognize unidentified persons in this and other photographs, please email the writer at Glennhistory@gmail.com. 

As ever we are indebted for the photographs to my second cousin, Phyllis Ackers Mink, whose mother, Doris Osborne Ackers, grew up in Damascus from 1923 until her marriage to Elmer "Flea" Ackers in the 1930s.  Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright may be the couple (right picture) on the far right side of the person in the dark jacket.  The man in the dark coat may be Dave's brother, Ward Wright, who also lived in Damascus.


Railroads served Damascus until 1926 when operations ceased as the timber had been harvested.  Economically the trains could not survive with out the trees.  Later many of the privately owned forests were purchased by the U.S. Government and have become national forests.  This is another story, one of the Civilian Conservation Corps locating a camp near Damascus during the New Deal.  The CCC location would impact the lives of the Wrights and Osborne siblings.  

Photos in the Post WWII Era

by Glenn N. Holliman

Last night, July 6, Rob Adema visited Barb and me here in Newport, PA, as he was en route to business calls in Central Pennsylvania. Rob is a great great grandson of G.W. and Frankie Osborne, through their son, Bascom, a brother of my grandmother, Mayme Osborne Stansbery. Bascom is sometimes spelled with or without a 'b' on the end.

Photo above is l to r, Glenn Holliman (b 1946) and Rob Adema (b 1966) July 6, 2010 in Newport, Pennsylvania practising genealogy. Glass is of Coca-Cola, sort of. Photo by Barbara Holliman.

We sat up late examining documents and old photographs. In celebration of his visit, I am posting several photos we looked at closely as they reflect both his direct line and our over lapping families. I believe the 1945 photo is courtesy of Phyllis Ackers, and the 1954 picture, a family snapshot by my father.

A contemporary photo of Rob's parents, Bob and Gay, and his Aunt Peg Adema can be found on the Contributors page of this blog. August 20, Barb and I will be visiting Rob and his parents, Bob and Gay, outside of Buffalo, NY to look at more family memorabilia of when our ancestors lived in Southwest Virginia, East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

Now the Wilson/Osborne frontier families, under many different names, are spread across the nation.

Photo above taken approximately 1945 at the Elmer 'Flea' Akers home in Damascus, Virginia of the children and grandchildren of Bascom Wilson Osborne, one of the five son's of G.W. and Frankie Osborne. Back row, l to r - 'Flea' Akers, Doris Osborne Akers, Gladys Osborne Adema, Edith Osborne (wife of Bascom Kruger Osborne, who is kneeling). Front row, l to r - Phyllis Akers, Bobby Adema, Peg Adema, Uncle 'Bab' Bascom K. Osborne, in Navy uniform, and his daughter, 'Gini' Osborne.

Photo of Pauline Osborne Smith, daughter of Thomas 'Toby' Osborne, one of the five sons of G.W. & Frankie, in the early 1930s rowing a boat. In the photo below, she is pictured in the 1950s with her children in a visit to her first cousin, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick.

Taken in the summer of 1954 in Johnson City, Tennesse at the home of Geraldine Stansbery and her husband, Bishop Holliman. Left to right in front of the 1948 Plymouth are: Louise Stansbery Sherwood (daughter of Mayme Osborne Stansbery), Rebecca Louise Holliman Payne, then 4 years old on her aunt's knee, and standing is one of Pauline Osborne Smith's children, name unknown.

Kneeling with his Cocker Spaniel, Sandy, is the writer, Glenn Holliman, age 7. Behind standing sans shirt is Vance R. Sherwood, Jr., also age 7, now a published clinical psychologist. The tall young man is another of Pauline's children, name unknown.

Continuing left to right are Dave Wright, husband of Pearl Osborne Wright, Geraldine (Gerry) Stansbery, sister of Louise Sherwood, Pauline Osborne Smith (whose photo above is of her rowing a boat), and Pearl Osborne Wright, who is Geraldine and Louise's aunt.

Pauline and children lived in Sumner, Washington at the time. Pearl and David Wright in Damascus, and Louise and her son, Vance, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

An aside, it was Dave Wright who in 1912 gave his mother-in-law, Frankie Osborne, her first automobile ride from Damascus to Glade Valley, Virginia and back!

More family history in the next posting....