Some Families of Damascus, Virginia, Part XI

by Glenn N. Holliman


This is the eleventh 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.

The stories and others can be found in Ancestry.com under names found in this article.

The decades slipped by as Dave and Peale Osborne ran their boarding house and maintained the electrical service to the community.  Photographs of family and friends were taken, and unfortunately not all the names are known of those posing.  Here are a few and perhaps one can spot a grandparent or two in them.  Below are some Red Cross ladies, perhaps from World War I.

The African-American population of this mountain valley community was and is small. Does anyone recognize this child on the left?





Below three women dressed in the style of the 1910s stop and pause for the camera.  The tall one on the right may be Pearl Osborne Wright.

Another young lady on the right is walking the tracks and appears to be carrying an umbrella.  All the photos in this group appear to be from the 1910s or early 1920s.