Some Families of Damascus, Virginia, Part III

by Glenn N. Holliman

This is the third of a series of stories with photographs of  Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright and their many years of life in Damascus, Virginia.

Robert David Wright was a descendant of the 18th Century family that founded this village which snuggles between two mountain ranges.  According to historian Louise F. Hall, there were hopes in the late 19th Century to develop an iron industry, but the deposits were only on the surface and not commercially viable.  Lumber companies did discover the timber and by the middle 1920s had decimated the surrounding forests.

This picture was probably made around 1912 of Dave Wright at the Backbone, a ridge line on southwest of town.  The rail road in the early 1900s blasted a tunnel through the ridge.  The dramatic escarpment of a solid jagged rock formation became a popular recreation point for young people.

Above, Dave and his young wife, Pearl Osborne Wright, operate a foot driven rail car, probably enjoying a day out at the Backbone.


In September 2011, my second cousin, Bob Adema and other family members, visited Damascus and the Backbone, now as a century later, a National Forest Recreational Park.

Bob Adema's mother, Gladys Osborne Adema, was raised by Pearl and Dave Wright in Damascus after her mother died in 1923.  The Wrights never had children of their own, but raised Gladys, her sister Doris and her brother Bascomb Osborne at their home in Damascus.  The Wrights are the great uncle and aunt of both Bob Adema and this writer.

More on the Backbone and early photographs of Damascus in the next posting....