Some Families of Damscus, Virginia, Part XVIII

A Damascus (Virginia) Story, Part III
by Pearl Osborne Wright


This is the third and last installment of memories by my Great Aunt Pearl Osborne Wright (1890-1980) of her life in Damascus, Virginia.  In 1911, she married Dave Wright and joined him in Damascus, leaving her parents, G.W. and Frances Wilson Osborne, in Afton, Tennessee. - Glenn N. Holliman


"Our first home was a small upstairs apartment in the telephone office building. Dave continued to work for the Damascus Light and Power Company.  Later we bought and moved into the house owned by Ollie Weaver.

The Damascus Light and Power Company was bought by the Appalachian Power Company, and Dave became manager of the Damascus branch.  We bought and moved into the house presently owned by Harold 'Joe' Lamb.

Dave was always interested in anything involving electricity.  He operated the moving picture machines for years.  When radio came into being, he built a miniature house containing a speaker and hung it on a wire over the street in front of our house.  Music could be heard on the street in the lower end of town."

Above, Pearl Osborne and David Wright take their ease, ca. 1950, in front of their home by the junction of the two rivers in Damascus, Virginia.


"At the death of my sister-in-law her three children came to live with Dave and me.  The two girls, Doris (Mrs. E. F. Akers) and Gladys (Mrs. Howard Adama), lived with us until they married and moved into their own homes.  Their brother, Bascom, entered the navy, when he became of age.

Due to illness, Dave retired from the power company in late 1951.  We built more rooms to his radio  equipment. Later Hazel and Wayne McConnell lived there until they built their own home below Damascus in 1965.  When Dave passed away (1962), I sold the big house and moved into the small one. It is my home today."

Above David Wright, one of the persons who day after day keep our communities going, at his retirement party, Christmas 1951.  Below, his wife of fifty years, celebrated her 80th birthday in 1970, the year she wrote these reflections on life in a small valley town nestled in a beautiful part of the Appalachian Mountains. 

Thanks for reading the 18 articles on Dave and Pearl Osborne Wright.  My thanks to cousins Bob and Rob Adema and Phyllis Akers Mink for sharing of family photographs.