Smyth County History

1888-1900 | 1900-1940s p;| 1950s-1980

1888-1916

With little capital, Mr. Hezekiah Love (H.L.) Bonham begins his first business venture in 1888, a sawmill. He expands twice, purchasing newer milling operations in 1890 and 1897. In 1907, the company sends two prize logs to Jamestown for use in their centennial celebration. Lumber from Smyth County is also used in building the Panama Canal.

A fifth generation American with English ancestors first arriving in the New World in 1635, Mr. Bonham eventually serves his community as a member of the Virginia General Assembly and is a champion in the fight for better local roads and schools. - Chilhowie

1890

Although the railroad is completed through the town in 1856, the Chilhowie Train Depot isn't built until 1890, 34 years later. The town is then called Greever's Switch after Robert Greever, on whose land the depot is built. Unfortunately, the depot is demolished in the 1980's and Smyth Farm Bureau presently owns the site, just walking distance from the visitor's center in the historic downtown district. -Chilhowie

1893

In 1893, the Marion and Rye Valley Railway Company builds six miles of railway to haul manganese ore from the Currin Valley area of Smyth County. With the help of its two visionaries, Dr. John S. Apperson and George W. Miles, the rail extends another six miles into Sugar Grove where it meets the Virginia-Southern line of Grayson County. It transports passengers and freight until operations cease in 1931.-Rye Valley/Sugar Grove

1893

Saltville becomes a "company town". British industrialist Thomas Mathieson purchases an existing salt production company, creating Mathieson Alkali Works, the first chemical company built in the southern United States. The plant produces soda ash from salt, coal and limestone. The company builds a hospital, homes and recreational facilities, subsidizes the local school system, and owns mercantile stores and much of the community's land - Saltville

1896

The Town of Saltville is incorporated. -Saltville

1904

The Marion Rail Depot, now a registered Virginia Landmark, is built as part of the Norfolk and Western line in 1904. The rail first comes to Marion in 1856 when the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad expands the line to serve stockyards and lumberyards throughout the mountains. - Marion

1905

Mathieson Alkali Works constructs an aerial tramway line to transport limestone from its quarry to the chemical plant. In the 1930s, this "bucket line" is extended to a new quarry and becomes the longest aerial tramway in America at the time. -Saltville

1910-1911

In 1910, Pennsylvanian W.H. Teas, is persuaded by friends to come to Smyth County for a new business venture. The Marion Extract Company, also known as the Teas Extract Company, results and begins product shipments in 1911. It becomes the second largest extract company in the world, producing turpentine and tannic acid from oak lumber to be used in tanning leather. -Teas/Sugar Grove

In 1911, Mr. H. L. Bonham, well-known farmer, lumberman, orchardist and founder of Bonham Bros. Orchards and Farms, builds the brick Colonial Revival Style home which is now the H.L. Bonham Regional Development & Tourism Center. The house still has its original interior woodwork and fireplaces.

Giving much credit to his sons, Mr. H.L. Bonham realizes good fortune as an entrepreneur. He is quoted as saying, "If I have been successful in farming and apple growing, it is because my boys have taken the lead in these enterprises. It is their foresight, efficiency, willingness to work and business ability that our orchards and farms prospered. Without them, I could have made but little headway."

A progressive thinker, Mr. Bonham applies cutting edge fertilization research advancements from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) to the orchard. He shares these successful processes with other farmers, spreading agricultural education, and the ensuing prosperity, throughout the farming community.

Beloved by family and many friends, Mr. Bonham's last words are, "All is well". As a testament to former employees' fondness for Mr. Bonham and his sons, many gather each September in reunion during the community's apple festival weekend to reminisce about their work with the Bonham brothers and the heydays of the orchards, packinghouse & cannery. (Please see Bonham Family History Room for more information).

1913

Chilhowie, said to be a Cherokee word meaning Valley of Many Deer, becomes an incorporated town. Over the years the town is a backdrop for various manufacturing and agricultural enterprises such as pottery, brick, lumber, textile, fertilizer, equipment, furniture, apple orchards and livestock farming.-Chilhowie

1914-1924

Henry C. Stuart, who grew up in Saltville, becomes Governor of Virginia. -Saltville

Robert Porterfield, founder of the nationally acclaimed state theatre of Virginia, the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, graduates from Saltville High School in 1924. He was raised in Saltville, where his father is employed by Mathieson Alkali Works.

1915-1943

In 1916 the classic-style brick building locally called The Herb House is constructed by R.T. Greer & Co. to house a budding botanical drug business, which began the year before. The company pioneers the collection and distribution of pollen for use in making antigen. The building is a registered Virginia Landmark and is planned for renovation as part of Marion's downtown revitalization efforts. -Marion

1920s-1930s

U. S. Route 11 (Lee Highway) becomes a part of the newly established U.S. highway system. Prior to the numbering system, Lee Highway is part of an informal network of marked routes or "auto trails" that existed during the early days of the automobile and is promoted as the "Main Street of the Nation" extending from the United States' Capitol on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., to San Diego, California. The roadway is replaced with newer highways through the years, although its earlier route can still be traced through a series of U.S. primary and interstate road segments. -America

1927

Acclaimed author Sherwood Anderson is said to have moved to Marion, Virginia, because he "had grown tired of city life and wanted the quiet intimacy of life in a smaller place…."

Anderson buys a farm in neighboring Grayson County. Once a resident, the cosmopolitan Anderson purchases both local newspapers, the Marion Democrat and The Smyth County News. In 1927, he moves into the Town of Marion, maintaining his farm, Ripshin, as a country retreat. Through an editorial column, Anderson creates the persona of Buck Fever, through whom he reflects on the daily small town life, culture and attitudes surrounding him. His son, Robert Lane Anderson, later edits both papers.

While he appreciates the country life, Anderson runs in exciting and creative circles around the globe. He counts many writers and people of the arts as friends, and critics have noted the mutual impact. He is credited today as a major influence on numerous literary giants such as Faulkner, Hemingway, Wolfe, and Steinbeck among others.

After swallowing a toothpick stateside, Anderson dies in 1941 of peritonitis in Panama. He takes ill aboard the SS Santa Lucia while en route from the United States to Valparaiso, Chile, He was embarking on an unofficial ambassador trip to learn and write about the working people in South America. Anderson's unique headstone, created by his friend, sculptor and artist Wharton Esherick, stands in Marion's Round Hill Cemetery and reads: "Life, not death, is the great adventure." -America

1930s

Prominent local Lincoln family descendents, John D. and Charles Jr., having developed an interest in airplanes and having inherited the family business, Look and Lincoln Company, built a defense plant in Marion, which continues the same line of business today, although not owned by the family. John D. explored radome development through the use of composite materials, contributing to the early NASA space program. -Marion

1933

The White Top Folk Festival, originally organized by Annabel Morris Buchanan, is held annually from 1931 to 1939 (except 1937) on Whitetop Mountain-the second highest peak in Virginia at 5,520 feet. The event features banjo players, fiddlers, string bands and ballad singers, as well as storytelling, clog dancing, Morris (Olde English style) and sword dancing and theatrical presentations. Thousands, including many nationally known folklorists, art critics, composers and other creative-minded folk, attend the festival each year, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933. Due to heavy rains in 1940, the festival is cancelled and has yet to be resumed.

After meeting with First Lady Roosevelt, musicians and Saltville natives Hobart "Hobe" Smith and his sister, Texas Gladden, are invited to play at the White House for President Roosevelt. Hobe, referred to in the press as the "Amazing Mountain Music Man," has a unique performing style and plays a remarkable range of musical instruments. Once called the "King of Folk Music," Hobe dies in 1965 just prior to a scheduled performance for the Queen of England. -Smyth County

1936

John D. Lincoln and his brother, Charles, are instrumental in securing the establishment of Hungry Mother State Park, greatly enlarging and making public the recreational facility once known as Lake Forest. Approximately 1,881 acres of land are donated for the park's creation.

As part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps created a new state park, originally planned to be named Forest Lake State Park. Local lore favored a name change and carries on the legend of Molly Marley: Her husband murdered, Molly is allegedly taken captive, along with her toddler, by Indians across the mountain and into what is now Tazewell County. Escaping to return with her child, she braves the elements, wandering starved and without supplies. Collapsing at the foot of what is now known as Molly's Knob, she does not survive, but her child finds local settlers and conveys his mother's plight: "Hungry mother!" They find Molly beside a creek, which becomes known as Hungry Mother Creek.

One of the original six state parks in Virginia, Hungry Mother State Park continues to be one of Smyth County's most beautiful nature reserves, drawing tourists and vacationers from across the nation. Today, the park reportedly hosts a growing average of 200,000 visitors per year who enjoy its amenities and secluded natural setting.

1930s Cir

The first Rich Valley Fair and Horse Show commences a decades-long tradition in the 1930s and lives on today as a week-long celebration of the rural way of life. -Rich Valley

1949

University of Tennessee conducts archaeological research in the Saltville Valley. -Saltville

1940s-1950s

Celebrating our checkered past of moonshine running to the beginning of NASCAR. The "greatest driver ever," according to late National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) founder Bill France, is legendary Virginia native Curtis Turner (1924-1970). Turner races in Smyth County after World War II. NASCAR names him one of their 50 Greatest Drivers and he becomes the motorsports industry's first professional driver to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1968. The magazine dubs Turner the "Babe Ruth of NASCAR". His unparalleled driving skills are developed on blue mountain ridges, allegedly running moonshine for his daddy, Morton. There is no doubt a moonshine history runs in the motorsports family. Another NASCAR great, Junior Johnson, is rumored to run 'shine when he was as young as 15 years old. Johnson , who becomes one of the best and most recognized names in the motorsports industry, is quoted as saying, "I really think the fastest car I ever drove was a bootlegging car".

Turner's bootlegging ability to turn a car 180 degrees on a dime in order to outrun the law is used as material for Burt Reynolds' lead character in the movie Smokey and the Bandit. Turner is an initial contributor in building the Charlotte Motor Speedway (renamed Lowe's Motor Speedway) and wins more than 350 stockcar races, although not all are NASCAR-sanctioned.

Smyth County's Southwest Virginia Speedway opens to a crowd of 5,000 in 1947 hosting the first postwar race on the first Virginia track built specifically for stock cars. With a bit more thoughtful planning, the track may have lasted more than its brief year as an attraction. Due to its placement and design, however, race fans realized they didn't have to spring for admission--they could sit on the surrounding hillsides looking down on the track and watch the race for free, which they did.

Turner and his best friend, Marion, Virginia, native Gayle Warren (1922-1968) partner to create a high performance driving school in the 1960s at the Charlotte, NC, race track. Warren, who also runs moonshine through Smyth County and Southwest Virginia, begins racing in 1946. He runs his first NASCAR race at the old Charlotte Raceway in July 1950 and later that year competes in the first super speedway race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. Warren's best career finish is in 1950 at North Wilkesboro, NC, where he finishes fifth.

Ironically, both Warren and Turner die tragically while piloting their own aircrafts, Warren in 1968 and Turner in 1970. Warren is said to have just left Turner's home in Roanoke onto his fateful flight. Turner was once overheard saying he "lived fast, loved hard, and wanted to die young". He is represented in three halls of fame: The Hall of Legends (California), the National Motorsports Hall of Fame (Darlington, South Carolina) and The International Motorsports Hall of Fame (Talladega, Alabama) and his legend lives on. -Smyth County

1952

The first annual Community Apple Festival is held in Chilhowie in 1952. In celebration of the apple's economic and agricultural significance in the community, thousands continue to attend the week-long event each year for food, music, arts, crafts and fun. -Chilhowie

1954

Mathieson Chemical Corporation, formerly Mathieson Alkali Works, merges with Olin Chemical Corporation. The company is a major employer of approximately 2,000 workers.-Saltville

1954-1956

Herondon, the former Wilderness Road Stage Coach Tavern, is home to Lucy Herndon Crockett, author of The Magnificent Bastards, (1954), adapted for the big screen in 1956 into The Proud and the Profane, and for which the legendary Hollywood fashion designer Edith Head receives an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design (Black and White). -Seven Mile Ford

1961

Marion resident Bill Jones reformulates a lemon-lime soft drink concentration, which becomes today's multi-million-dollar Pepsi-Co product, Mountain Dew. The product name, slang for moonshine among the hills of the tri-state area of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, is handed over from a bottler in Johnson City, Tennessee, as is the original soda recipe. At the Tip Corporation on Main Street in Marion, Virginia, Jones taste-tests experimental new formulas on locals until he derives just the right mix for this successful drink. The Tip Corporation building still stands at 517 N. Main St., Marion.

1965

Nolan Ryan plays for the Marion Mets in 1965, a minor league baseball team, which is part of Appalachian League Baseball.-Marion

1966

Mount Rogers National Recreation Area (NRA) is established through legislation introduced by local Congressman William Pat Jennings, Sr. The mountain is named to honor Virginia's first state geologist, Dr. William Barton Rogers. At 5,729 feet, scenic Mount Rogers, is the tallest peak in the Commonwealth of Virginia. -Marion

1966-1967

The Smithsonian Institution sponsors a research excavation in Saltville with project implementation by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

Mammoth, mastodon, giant sloth, musk ox, stag moose and plant remains from the late Ice Age are found in the Saltville Valley. -Saltville