Some Families of Damascus, Virginia, Part VII

by Glenn N. Holliman


This is the seventh in a series of stories with photographs of  my great uncle and aunt, Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright and their many years of life in Damascus, Virginia.  Pearl is the grand daughter of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson of Ashe County, North Carolina. As ever I am grateful to Phyllis Mink, daughter of Doris Osborne Akers,  Bob and Rob Adema, descendants of Gladys Osborne Adema and Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick, a niece of Pearl Osborne Wright and this writer's mother, for making many of the historical photographs available.

Please check the names of Dave Wright, Pearl Osborne and Bob Adema on Ancestry.com for additional stories.

In previous posts, I have written of Dave Wright as the indispensable man, perhaps not unusual for small towns in rural American a century ago.  He played in the town band, ran the movie projector at the local theatre, helped his wife check guests into the Damascus Inn and kept the town electric generators going.


 Below, front row on the far left, Dave took some time to enjoy friendships.  The friends, all formally dressed, seem to be in front of some type of gazebo.  Did Damascus have a town bandstand?

Dave also provided the town taxi service beginning in 1912.  One of the first persons to whom he gave a ride was his mother-in-law, my great grandmother Frances Wilson Osborne of Afton, Tennessee at the time.  In her diary, she wrote that her first automobile ride was provided by Dave Wright up and down the Glade Valley Road.

Right, Dave and his wife, Pearl Osborne Wright, stand in front of what may be the town taxi.  The cow does not seem impressed.


Of course, being a mechanic came in handy for Dave.  Here he changes a tire, a common occurrence a century ago.

Dave Wright seemed to have considerable advice on how to change the tire.  Punctures were common on unpaved roads.
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