In my last post, I began a series on a small village, a little over 1,000 persons in 2010, nestled between two mountain ranges, the Iron and Holston, and joined at the edge of the downtown by two small rivers, the Laurel and the Beaver. Damascus, Washington County, Virginia lies next to the upper East Tennessee border and welcomes trekkers from both the Virginia Creeper and Appalachian trails. It remains an eclectic community of B and Bs, cafes, bike shops and a good local library. In the winter, the sunshine sometimes has difficulty reaching the United Methodist Church, so deep is this recessed cove at the south edge of town.
What interests me is that my great aunt and uncle and several second cousins spent their lives, whole or in part, contributing to this community, assisting its economic base and leading its renaissance after the collapse of the iron and timber industry in the early 1900s.
Guiding in this process is "A History of Damascus, 1793-1950", well-written by the late local historian of Damascus, Louise Fortune Hall. My historical tidbits are from her excellent work (below). I purchased my copy last autumn at the library.
Louise Hall relates that in 1785 a father and son, Jacob and John Wright, a Revoluntionary War veteran, settled along what is now Glade Spring Road, now a state highway that leads northwest to I-81. A descendant of these Wrights, David Wright, my great uncle and his brother, Ward, were born in Damascus in the late 1800s. Dave married by great aunt Pearl Osborne Wright in 1911. Pearl had lived in Damascus from 1908 to 1910 when her paarents (my great grandparents), George Washington and Frances Wilson Osborne ran a general store and boarding house.
Below is a photograph from approximately 1910 showing the Osborne boarding house and store on what is now main street Damascus. G.W. and Frankie Osborne are surrounded by some of their children. The tall woman in the centre is Pearl O. Wright and next to her is my grandmother, Mayme T. Osborne Stansbery. This picture has been in the possession of Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick, my mother.
When my wanderlust great grandfather, G.W. Osborne, still looking for his elusive forture, moved the family to Afton, Tennessee in 1910, Dave Wright followed and asked the hand of Pearl in marriage. From 1911 until his death in 1962, Damascus was their home.
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