A Guide to Historical Salem

A Guide to Historic Salem -- Volume 5, Number 2 -- Summer 1999

Salem Orphanages Served Thousands
Letters Show USA As Land of Plenty
People in Salem History
Here's A Bibliography For Local History Buffs
1999 Marks Pro Baseball's 60th Year in Salem
The Last Voyage of Charles Peter Deyerle

Salem Orphanages Served Thousands
Both Homes Opened in Salem in 1890s
Old Orphanages Are Now Called "Family Services"
Salem has a history as the home of two of Virginia's finest homes for homeless children.

They are, or were, the Baptist and Lutheran orphanages. Both appeared on the Salem scene in the early 1890s and have played a significant role in the town's development ever since. They're no longer called orphanages; their names and purposes have changed, but they're still serving children and their families in a myriad of ways.

They came to Salem at a time when accidents and dread diseases -- like tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, and malaria &endash; robbed thousands of children of their parents. In those post Civil War years, according to one report, the number of orphans grew to "unthinkable levels," and: "Across Virginia, frightened children roamed the streets and countryside begging for handouts and mercy."

Ministers in numerous denominations called for action. Salem's two orphanages came as a result.

First in Salem was the Baptist Orphanage of Virginia, approved by the Virginia Baptist General Association in 1889 and the Virginia General Assembly a year later. It opened its doors in Salem on July 2, 1892, to its first two children, a brother and sister from Vinton, and placed them in its first building &endash; a three-story "cottage" named for Salem merchant John M. Evans. Evans had donated 16 acres as the home's original site, and, although enlarged, it remains the site today.

Four years later, in May of 1896, the Lutheran Orphan Home of the South moved to Salem, into a two-story brick home at the southeast corner of Florida Street and the Boulevard. The children's home has moved several times within Salem since then, but the brick house still stands at Florida and Boulevard in front of Kiwanis Stadium where it houses the Florida Street Center of the City Department of Recreation and Parks. .

In their more than a century of service, according to combined estimates from the two homes, they have served ten to fifteen thousand troubled Virginia children.

Opening the Baptist home in Salem came after much discussion. The Baptist Association considered offers from Fork Union, Glade Spring, Chatham and Liberty (Bedford), before selecting Salem. Once opened, however, it developed rapidly under the leadership of its first superintendent, the Rev. George J. Hobday. New buildings began appearing with regularity on the crescent shaped campus at the northern edge of town. A gift in 1897 of 87 more acres enabled the home to expand into full-scale farming.

When it came to Salem, the Lutheran Home actually was older than the Baptist. It started in 1888 when its founder, the Rev. W. S. McClanahan, at his own expense, took several orphans into his own home near Hollins. In 1893, the home moved to the David Trout property east of Salem for a three-year stint, then to the Florida Street address in Salem. That move assuredly was related to the fact that Dr. F. V. N. Painter, professor of modern languages at Roanoke College, was non-resident superintendent at the time..

It didn't stay on Florida Street long. Under the leadership of the Rev. Benjamin W. Cronk, who succeeded Painter in 1897, the Lutherans in 1899-90 bought and moved into a very elegant five-story building, formerly the Hotel Salem, on College Avenue at Fifth Street. The new building &endash; on the site of today's Andrew Lewis Middle School -- was to serve the orphanage until 1927.

Hence, by the turn of the Twentieth century, both orphanages were going full swing, occupying prominent places in the town, both physically and spiritually. Children in both homes marched in Salem's Centennial parade on June 4, 1902. Children at both orphanages participated in the ministries of the respective churches, Salem Baptist and College Lutheran. Baptists and Lutherans from distant churches made regular visitations to the orphanages. And, as years passed, alumni &endash; or "old kids" as the Baptists called them -- came back to visit their old institutions, and they still do.

The two homes became Salem landmarks. The Lutheran home thrived in the old Hotel Salem &endash; an imposing, 80-room, red-brick structure, almost castle-like in appearance, with its tower, turrets, dormers and arched windows.

A year later, the Baptists built a new administration building that, architecturally, was at least as impressive. It also had tower, turret, dormers and arched windows, and inside there were the executive offices, an assembly hall, a dining hall for 250, a kitchen to feed them, bakery, chapel, library, recreation room, and a half dozen classrooms and rooms. When it opened in 1901 on the crescent shaped campus, on each side was a string of other new buildings: an infirmary, superintendent's home, industrial shop, and another sturdy "cottage" (this one with slate roof). A new barn sat nearby, built because a gift of 87 acres in 1897 had enabled the home to expand into a full-scale farming and dairy operation.

Both homes developed strong financial bases. Salem institutions and individuals contributed generously toward their upkeep. A concerted fund drive by the Lutheran United Synod liquidated that home's building debt by 1907. The Baptist General Association and Salem churches and citizens, as well as supporters throughout the state, kept the Baptist home affluent.

Both paid heavy attention to their children's education. The Lutheran home operated a school on premises to offer the "necessary branches of learning," along with manual training for both girls and boys. The Baptist home, where children dressed in uniform-like attire, also provided formal instruction for the children. Early in their history, the two homes home began a long and difficult process of integration of the children into Salem's public schools. The professional staffs as well as their respective churches provided religious instruction in both homes.

Both homes opened job printing shops as part of their manual training, where boys helped do the institutional printing and learned a trade at the same time. Boys also did farm and garden work, while girls learned household skills and performed household chores. The homes got new fangled telephones and electric lights to replace their dangerous oil lamps.

In 1904, the Rev. John T. Crabtree, Confederate veteran, former Salem High School principal and Roanoke College professor (he had become an orphan himself at age 8), succeeded Cronk as superintendent of the Lutheran home. During his tenure, until 1922, the home housed more than 100 children and still had to turn away applicants. When Hobday's tenure as Baptist superintendent ended in 1906, the home housed 154 children, and it grew to nearly 200 by the 1920s.

There were problems. Hobday reported eight boys who ran away&endash; six on one occasion and two others who stayed away fifteen days &endash; but all were returned. The Baptist home was quarantined in 1905 when 15 cases of varioloid, a milder form of smallpox, developed among the residents, but the epidemic was brought under control. In 1910, three children died when an epidemic of amoebic dysentery broke out in the Baptist home. In the terrible Spanish flu epidemic that broke out nationally in September 1918, the Baptist Orphanage had over 60 cases; was under strict quarantine, and Mary Denton, a nurse, died Oct. 3 as a result of flu complicated by pneumonia.

The Lutherans bought a 22-acre farm in 1916 and acquired 61 more acres in 1918, land that would enable them to go into large scale farming operations. Meanwhile, they were outgrowing even their palatial hotel building on College Avenue. With strong support from the church and community, they built up $32,000 in endowments and $36,000 toward the building fund and began thinking of bigger quarters.

A tragic happenstance changed the Lutheran home's history in 1921 when fire destroyed Elizabeth College, never to reopen. The board of the Lutheran home bought the college's campus site in 1923 for $31,500. With subscriptions of over $170,000 raised by southern synods, cornerstone for new home was laid in 1925 and dedicated in 1926, and a new campus was begun.

The Lutherans built an administration building and two cottages among the stately oaks of the former Burwell-Logan plantation, known as "Sherwood," just off the Lynchburg Turnpike. The buildings were occupied Nov 4, 1926, and dedicated 5 days later. "Sherwood," a manor house on the campus that had been used for college classes, was demolished in August 1925 to make way for the orphanage facilities. This had been home of Martha Digges Burwell Logan and James T. Logan and their son, Robert Logan, and the scene of many social functions for the young and old of Salem.

By 1930, the Lutherans, still prospering, had about 126 children. With a new dairy barn and herd of cattle, they moved into big time farm work, and even that was profitable. In 1932, they added a new superintendent's home.

During these years before and after World War II, the Lutherans redesigned their living quarters to make them more like a "real" home. Open dormitory style living, with beds and footlockers in a row, gave way to cottages with double rooms, furniture, closet space and shared baths. Boys were allowed to go to the barber shop for their haircuts individually, rather than being marched down as a group after hours to a barbershop where haircuts were given GI style for 50 cents a head. In the public schools, the home children were allowed to go through the cafeteria lines individually instead of being sent through as a group.

The Baptists, too, continued to do well. When Raymond Franklin Hough Sr. was elected superintendent in 1928, he directed a plant of more than thirty buildings, barns and other structures. (His tenure continued until 1957 when he was succeeded by his son, Franklin Hough Jr., who then served until 1985.) With physical plant needs now largely met, Hough Sr. turned to programmatic matters: he eliminated the last vestiges of children's uniforms. It was a major achievement when he persuaded local school officials to accept the home's children &endash; more than 200 of them -- into Salem's public schools &endash; a process fraught with complications. He also instituted a policy and the financial structure to send qualified home children on to colleges and universities after high school graduation. And despite the Depression, he kept the home sound financially, even increasing its endowment.

Farm and dairy operations at the Baptist home were at peak levels during his tenure. (In April, 1930, responding to a special drive, Virginia Baptists around the state contributed 2,500 grown chickens to the home &endash; flooding the campus with white leghorns; the following month, the poultry yard produced 4,600 dozen fresh eggs.)

In another activity, the Baptist Orphanage's press became so well established that it was used temporarily in 1931 to print the Salem Times-Register and Sentinel when the newspaper plant was destroyed in a fire.

After World War II, the two homes experienced modest growth for a decade or more, with signs that they might continue to develop as in the past. The Lutheran home installed three walk-in refrigerators and a deep freeze in 1950 and cottaged its largest population ever -- 140 children -- in the 1950s. The Baptist Home fielded its own athletic teams with full schedules in football, basketball and baseball (mainly, some said, for boys who couldn't make the team at high school). And Hough Jr. led an aggressive program to replace a number of its old and outdated buildings.

But it was during this period that both came to grips with a new fact: orphans had largely disappeared. More and more, they found themselves dealing not with orphans, but neglected or abused children, children of broken homes and &endash; a new term &endash; "dysfunctional families." The diseases that had created orphans in the earlier years had largely been controlled. "Orphans" &endash; those lovable, innocent parentless waifs like Little Orphan Annie &endash; were getting hard to find. For some time, the homes had accepted "half-orphans," children with only one parent, and increasing numbers of non-orphans. Leonard G. Muse said when he joined the Baptist home's board in1926, "80% of the children were orphans and 20% were non-orphans." When he retired 52 years later, the ratio was 20% orphans, 80% non-orphans. By the end of the 1980s, the ratio was closer to 98% - 2%.

There were still troubled children in the post-war era &endash; more than ever &endash; but they did not need new roofs over their heads and substitutes for their mothers and dads. To the contrary, they needed families and the strengths and support families can give, and it was the families that needed help. The job at hand was to unite and strengthen the children's families and make them more supportive, not to remove the children from them and provide a substitute for them.

An early but clear sign of the change came when both homes removed references to "orphans" from their names. The Lutheran home, named the "South View Orphan Home" in 1887 and renamed the "Lutheran Orphan Home of the South" in 1894, became the "Lutheran Children's Home of the South" in 1947. The Baptist home, known as the "Baptist Orphanage of Virginia" since 1890, became the "Virginia Baptist Children's Home" in 1953. Even those names did not last.

Both homes began moving away from general on-campus residential care for children to more specialized social services for them and their families, wherever they were located. The Baptist Home retained its campus but changed its programs offered on it, while the Lutherans moved away entirely from the concept of institutional residential care.

As part of their decentralization program, the Lutherans began getting rid of their physical property. In 1960, they sold their dairy herd at public auction and virtually ended their farm program. Three years later, they sold 73 acres of land across Texas Street for the Salem Civic Center, earmarking much of the money for their newly evolving ministry. In 1985, they sold 78 acres from the old Elizabeth College campus to Roanoke College, retaining only 10 acres along Idaho Street and Lynchburg Turnpike in the northwest corner of the property. They finally sold that to Hotel Roanoke in the early 1990s.

Meanwhile, the Lutherans moved aggressively to extend their program elsewhere in the state. In 1983, following extensive self-studies, the Lutheran board created the Lutheran Family Services of Virginia, an umbrella organization to administer the new group homes and services that were being created to replace the Children's Home. By the early 1990s, the agency ministered to children and their families with professionally supervised children's services in Harrisonburg, Tazewell, Wytheville, Marion, Bedford, Richmond, Portsmouth, Newport News, Roanoke and Salem. The services included a foster care program for children removed from their homes due to neglect or abuse.

In 1984, they opened two new youth homes as part of a long-range plan to decentralize and diversify the home's services, under direction of Lutheran Family Services of Virginia.

Unlike the Lutherans, the Baptist home held onto its land (reflecting the changing times, they began calling it "real estate," not "farm land"). Today, they have 70 acres on the main Salem campus and another 500 on Fort Lewis Mountain behind.

The Baptist Home also moved toward strengthening &endash; and making major revisions to &endash; the programs on the Salem campus. Whereas many children spent their entire childhood at the home in earlier years, their average stay grew shorter, and the average age of the children increased, as the home admitted more troubled teen-agers and young adults. Services offered in Salem went far beyond the traditional care of children in the home: to training of foster parents, family counseling, pregnancy counseling, adoption services, financial aid, The Baptists also moved toward more specifically directed programs at the home: separate programs for 9- to 16-year-olds; for girls who had been sexually abused; for boys needing more structured life, for older youths needing to learn independent living, and a program for adult men mentally unable to care for themselves. They also instituted an Emergency Care program providing instant responses to children's crises; many children admitted for emergency care go on later into the home's regular programs, Hough reports.

Like the Lutherans, the Baptists spread their services statewide. Beginning in 1979, the Baptist Home opened regional offices in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Newport News where trained staffs still minister the programs to children and families in their own homes. The services include foster family care programs, maternity foster care programs, and adoption services. The home also provides a "Wilderness Outdoor Opportunity and Discovery School" as a year-round wilderness-based school for boys ages 9-17 in Craig County; a "Bridge Program" in Northern Virginia for young women wishing to live independently; and a special Developmental Disabilities Ministry, with five homes around the state, for the retarded.

In 1967, Hough Jr. reported about half of the children ministered to by the home were in :"boarding homes, adoption, family aid and in training above the high school level."

Children no longer live at the Lutheran Home off the Lynchburg Turnpike, but the Lutheran presence is still there. As part of their statewide program, the Lutherans operate the Minnick Education Center, a day school for Roanoke Valley children who cannot succeed in the public schools, in a brick buildings leased back from Roanoke College.

The Baptist Home still houses 45-60 young people on its Salem campus -- most from abusive or neglectful families. They're involved in programs of emergency care, a program for severely abused and emotionally disturbed adolescents, and the traditional residential care program involving counseling, guidance and support.

The names of the two institutions continue to change. In 1985, the Baptist Home became "The Virginia Baptist Children's Home and Family Services." And the Lutheran Children's Home of the South, although still a legal entity, is now largely replaced by its creation, Lutheran Family Services of Virginia.

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Letters Show USA As Land of Plenty

In the last issue of Historic Salem, we highlighted a fascinating 1832 letter from Johann Balthasar Dingledine of Germany to his older relation of the same name, living near Salem. The writer was requesting financial assistance to emigrate to America from his poverty-stricken homeland. The account ended with a minor mystery: were these two men cousins, or father and son? The confusion results from the dubious spelling in the original German of the word "Vatter," which may be taken as either cousin (Vetter) or father (Vater). We concluded that the mystery may never be solved.

The letter evinced considerable comments from readers. Several pointed out one phrase in the translation in which "cousin" and "father" do not appear to be interchangeable: "I have to spend my life here in poverty if you withdraw the duty you owe a cousin." However, in the German, a more accurate translation might be "a Vatter's duty," leaving open the possibility that the one owing the duty could be either father or cousin.

However, the most informed commentary on the article came from John William McCauley of Salem, a grandson of Roanoke County historian William McCauley and great- great grandson of Balthasar Dingledine. Mr. McCauley feels certain that the two Dingledines were cousins, since his genealogical research, going back to his German roots, has never indicated any son of Dingledine left behind in Europe. In addition, he has uncovered other interesting bits of information about this early Salem settler.

Baltzer (as it is usually Anglicized) Dingledine was in fact married in Germany prior to emigrating to America, but his wife died giving birth to their second daughter in 1798. In 1804, he decided to take his two daughters to America; however, the youngest, then six, fell overboard in transit and drowned. Of his family of four, then, only he and his daughter Anna Elizabeth made it to the United States, where it can be happily reported that his fortunes improved.

He settled first in Rockbridge County, where he remarried in 1812, and was naturalized in 1815. About 1819, the couple moved to the outskirts of Salem, then in Botetourt County, to a farm named Dingledale (currently Lakeside Kroger property). He became one of the region's most prosperous and influential citizens.

The letter from Germany attests to Dingledine's prosperity. No one writes to a poor relation for financial help. Furthermore, Dingledine was apparently besieged by other such requests from German relatives eager to try their fortunes in the new world. John William McCauley has in his possession two other such letters, written by other relatives at about the same time as the first (perhaps all were delivered in the same mail packet).

Reichelsheim, March 20, 1832

Dear Godfather:

From different emigrants who have written letters to their home have I learned that you are yet alive and that you are in good financial circumstances. My father, Georg Weber (Carpenter) of this place died about twenty tears ago, and left besides myself six children. I am married to the son of Conrad Volk, brickmason, of this place, have three children, and am very poor. Could and would you therefore in one way or another assist me, or make my passage to America possible (to which place so many people from

this neighborhood are going). If you could and would, I would be under everlasting obligation to you. I hope you will not forget me in my sad, wretched condition, and with my compliments to you and family, especially to my godfather, I remain your true godchild,

Katharina Volk, nee Weber

Weber was the maiden name of Baltzer Dingledine's late wife in Germany, so this goddaughter was likely some relative by marriage.

The second letter is from yet another Baldaser Dingledein, the third in the family with that name. It had no translation, and so the difficult task of deciphering it was turned over to Historical Society president Inez Good and Roanoke College German professor Jim Ogier. The letter was in poor shape, and the writing in places indecipherable, so the below excerpt is only fragmentary. Note also that it was a common practice to use third instead of second person in German letters.

To Mr. Baldaser Dingeldein in Ameriga:

Much loved cousin, I greet him and his wife and all other friends many thousand times. If you receive this letter in good health my heart rejoices because we are separated so far from each other, we have to report to each other with silent words. . . Our father had gotten much in arrears. His property has been sold and he has not received his bread and his children [have] no home. Our father died in 1826. Our mother still lives. He has left nothing but seven children. . . Our father was sickly for many years. I have taken care of the land for 18 years and have fulfilled all the duties of a child. . . and have not a good limb left from it.

That is very sad. I have built a little house and I have little else and have to feed myself miserably. None of us are doing well. . . Much beloved cousin, if he believes it would be for me to make the trip with my wife and children and if he wants to help me a little then I will undertake the trip and come to him. We can no longer come up with the taxes. That is why so many people emigrate from their fatherland. . . Much beloved cousin, I beg fervently that he may be so good to write to me, and the money should go to the Frankfurt exchange. I greet them all.

written the ___ April, 1832

Baldaser Dingledein in Unterostern

Like the previous letter, there is no indication of an answer, positive or negative, to these two appeals. Still, the requests help to demonstrate the view many Europeans held of America: a land of plenty where the poor become rich. In the case of Dingledines, and many of our other ancestors, the picture was an accurate one.

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People in Salem History
Nathaniel Burwell

Editor's Note: This is the first in a planned series of articles about persons well known in Salem history.

Nathaniel Burwell, unquestionably one of the most important persons in Salem's early history, continued to make headlines more than a century after his death.

Born in 1785, Burwell &endash; a planter, landowner and community leader, came to Salem not long after its founding. He came from the so-called "eastern Virginia aristocracy" but moved to this area &endash; Botetourt County actually &endash; with his mother, Martha Digges Burwell, after his father's death in 1802. They lived in "Rustic Lodge" in Botetourt, which still stands.

In 1809, he married &endash; and married well, as they say: Lucy Carter, daughter of Charles Carter of the fabled plantation "Shirley" on the James River below Richmond, and sister to Ann Hill Carter who became wife of "Lighthorse Harry" Lee and mother of Robert E. Lee.

In 1811, Burwell bought 970 acres around Salem, including the famous Andrew Lewis homeplace "Richfield." He changed its name to "Dropmore," made it his home, then added another 68 acres in 1816. The resulting estate formed a U-shaped tract with its base along the Roanoke River and its two arms extending north about where Craig Avenue on the east and Chestnut Street on the west run today.

In the ensuing years, he acquired "Glenmore," a 207-acre tract embracing today's General Electric plant site; 305 acres called "Dartmore, and still another called "Needmore" south of the Roanoke River along what is now Apperson Drive. He also acquired 1,800 acres northwest of Salem and 15,000 acres in Floyd, Carroll and Patrick Counties.

Burwell made himself known in numerous civic activities. In 1837, he was among a small group of Presbyterians who organized a lottery to raise $10,000 to finance the erection of a place of worship and an academy &endash; a building that was constructed (and later torn down) on the site of what became Academy Street School.

Burwell also donated a plot from his property on a high point of East Hill beside the Great Road; Baptists started a brick building there that was used for worship and a temporary school classroom for some years, even though never finished.

In 1838, when Roanoke County was created, Governor David Campbell named Burwell one of 18 justices of the peace, all known for their wealth, to organize the county court. Three years later he was one of three presiding justices at the inaugural session of the Roanoke County Court in the new courthouse at the northeast corner of Main and Walnut (now College Avenue).

In 1842-43, he represented Roanoke County in the Virginia General Assembly. Two years later he was a delegate to the Democratic State convention in Charlottesville that preceded the nomination and election of James K. Polk as president of the United States.

He was named to the first Board of Trustees of Roanoke College and became the board's president in 1853 &endash; a position he held until his death at 81 on July 21, 1866.

Burwell and his wife had more than 100 slaves, making him the largest slaveholder in Roanoke County. They raised corn, wheat, oats, grass and tobacco as well as livestock. During the Civil War, Burwell's slaves were sent to work on fortifications near Richmond in September 1863.

In 1869, three years after Burwell's death, some 30 citizens bought an East Hill plot and 60 acres from Burwell's Dropmore estate on a knoll at the Lynchburg Turnpike and used it to bury 22 Confederate soldiers who had died in winter quarters at Salem in 1863. This later became East Hill Cemetery. In 1871, a two-acre plot on the hillside across Main Street from that cemetery was bought for a cemetery for Afro-Americans.

After the Civil War, according to Historian Deedie Kagey, newly enfranchised African-Americans purchased plots of land from the Burwell property in the vicinity of what today is South Broad Street, where a number of African Americans continue to live. According to other reports, the African Americans took advantage of a gift of land by Burwell for the benefit of freed slaves. It is likely that both reports are true.

Early in this century, Burwell's memory was revived again when former slaves and their families from his estate held reunions that attracted considerable attention.

And as recently as 1984, Burwell was in the news again, when his grave, and those of his wife and two of their children, were found in a small family cemetery near the present GE plant. When opened with considerable publicity, Burwell's cast-iron casket revealed that his remains, including his three-inch beard and a heavy suit, were remarkably well preserved. The graves were moved to East Hill Cemetery.

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Here's A Bibliography For Local History Buffs

By John Long

If you're reading this Historic Salem newspaper, chances are you have an interest in local history ranging from the passing to fanatical. You are in many ways lucky, because local history is very accessible history; a field a student can get his hands around. One can study for a lifetime and not read all there is on the Civil War or George Washington, but a command of local history is more easily obtained.

Still, frequent research requests to the Museum make it clear that many of those interested in local history have little idea where to turn for information. There is a limited pool (too limited!) of published works on the Roanoke Valley. Below is an annotated list of the most useful works available on the history of our area. Where possible, I have tried to comment on the availability of the books, and those marked with an asterisk are available at the Salem Museum gift shop. Naturally, editorial comments are my own.

As a first step, a budding local history buff should become familiar with the Virginia Room of the Roanoke Public Library. The staff there, especially Carol Tuckwiler and Brenda Finley, may be the best resources you'll find. All of the works listed below should be there (although Virginia Room books are non-circulating). You will also find a wealth of newspapers on microfilm, census records, and other primary source documents.

Let's begin with general surveys. The most recent general work on the Valley's past is Deedie Kagey's When Past is Prologue: A History of Roanoke County (*), put out in 1988 for the County's sesquicentennial. Although not without the occasional error, it is a very useful book and belongs on any local historian's reference shelf. It is also well indexed and has an excellent bibliography.

For Salem history, the definitive work is Norwood Middleton's Salem: A Virginia Chronicle (1986)(*). Not a day goes by when the staff of the museum is not reaching for a "Woody book." It is also very well indexed, with personal names in a separate listing than general terms, and has a useful bibliography. As a side benefit, I have often turned to his listing of newspapers in the bibliography to find out what papers were published for what years, where they are available, and in what form.

More has been written about the city of Roanoke. Best known is the massive History of the City of Roanoke by Raymond Barnes (1968). It is a useful and interesting book, mostly organized by year and based on the archives of the Roanoke Times. However, there are passages that some, especially minorities, may find offensive. Also, the original was rather lacking in the index department, and so in 1983 the Roanoke Valley Historical Society put out a separate, more complete index in paperback. The Barnes book is increasingly hard to find, but used book stores generally can sell you one for about $100. Barnes also used to write a periodic column on local history for the Roanoke Times, which might be a valuable resource on specific topics of interest.

Shorter, but more scholarly, is Clare White's Roanoke 1740-1982. It is very well researched and written, and at only 120 pages well worth the read. It is still available for only a few dollars in the history museum gift shop at Center in the Square.

Two picture books by Carolyn Hall Bruce are worth a look: Roanoke: A Pictorial History (1976) and the similar Roanoke Past and Present (1982). Both are generally available in used book stores.

Vinton's centennial committee sponsored publication of Vinton History 1884-1984 by Irma Moseley and Madeline Forbes. The Vinton museum still has copies available. On early Botetourt County (of which Roanoke and Salem were a part until 1838), try Robert Stoner's Seed Bed of the Republic (1962, and now available in a reprint).

A few older books are worth a mention. The WPA published Roanoke: Story of County and City in 1942. It can be found in used book stores for about $30, but use with caution: no one ever accused WPA historians of infallibility. On the colonial days in our area, see F. B. Kegley's 1938 tome Kegley's Virginia Frontier :1740-1783. There is a reprint currently available, but if you want an original copy be prepared to pay upwards of $150. Also rare and expensive today is William McCauley's 1902 History of Roanoke County. It is highly enjoyable, but very poorly indexed. Similar to this but about 6 pounds lighter and easier to find today is the 1912 book by George Jack and E. B. Jacobs with the tortuous title History of Roanoke County, History of Roanoke City, and History of the Norfolk and Western Railway. Its best features are short biographical sketches of local figures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nearly forgotten is Thomas Bruce's Southwest Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley (1891), a sort of promotional book with chapters on local communities including Salem and Roanoke. It can often be found in used book stores, but the lower quality paper is rather fragile after a century.

Books on more specialized topics abound. On the valley's earliest inhabitants, I recommend Egloff and Woodwards's First People: The Early Indians of Virginia (1992). For African American history in the region, start with Reginald Shareef's enjoyable The Roanoke Valley's African American Heritage: A Pictorial History (1996), put out by the Harrison Museum. A very good, but now dated, architectural survey was published in 1982 by W. L. Whitwell and Lee Winborne entitled The Architectural Heritage of the Roanoke Valley. For cemetery records, start with the Roanoke Valley Historical Society's Roanoke County Graveyards through 1920 (*). A problem here is the arbitrary 1920 cut off; a man who died in 1919 will be listed, his wife buried in 1921 won't be. Still, it includes virtually all local graveyards, including many which no longer exist. Larger cemeteries are not included since they have their own records, but Salem's East Hill Cemetery has a separate listing available entitled East Hill Cemetery Records (*).

The railroad was a defining industry for our valley. In addition to the Jack book listed above, E. F. Pat Striplin's The Norfolk and Western: A History is indispensable. Sure to bring back a flood of memories for longtime valley residents is Don Piedmont's Peanut Soup and Spoonbread on the Hotel Roanoke and a 1997 collaborative effort on Roanoke's American Theater (*).

Local colleges are well covered. Roanoke College's story is told in two excellent books: The First Hundred Years by William Eisenberg (1942, but still available in the college bookstore) and Mark Miller's Dear Old Roanoke, published for the sesquicentennial in 1992 (*). Hollins University also had a centennial history written in 1942: Hollins College 1842-1942: An Historical Sketch, by Dorothy Vickery. This was followed later by Frances J. Niederer's Hollins: An Illustrated History (1973 and 1985). In addition, Molly Meredith's MALS thesis Historical and Architectural Guide to Hollins College (1997) can be found in the university library.

The Civil War in our area deserves some more research, but a good starting point might be two books by Gary Walker: The War in Southwest Virginia (1985)(*) and Hunter's Fiery Raid in Southwest Virginia (1989)(*). For histories of specific units, look first to the Virginia Regimental History Series. Most useful for this area will probably be Nicholas and Servis, Powhatan, Salem and Henrico Artillery (1997)(*).

Favorite son Andrew Lewis has been woefully neglected by historians. Virtually the only thing available on this forgotten founding father is Patricia Givens Johnson's General Andrew Lewis of Roanoke and Greenbrier (*). Incidentally, Mrs. Johnson wrote several other books of great use to those with an interest in the New River Valley's past.

The above does not purport to be a complete list, but is certainly enough to get you started. In addition to these indispensable works, there are dozens of others, including genealogical books, histories of local churches or businesses, reference works, and others which cannot be covered here. Certainly worthy of mention is the Journal of the Roanoke Valley Historical Society, published periodically since 1965 and covering a wide range of topics. Finally, don't neglect the venerable journal Historic Salem. If you haven't archived back issues yourself, you can find the text of past articles on the Salem museum's new website (salemmuseum.org).

Spend a day in the library, turn a few pages of the books listed here, and you too will be smitten with the local history bug.

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1999 Marks Pro Baseball's 60th Year in Salem
From Friends to Rebels to Pirates to Avalanche
Salem Rebels of 1955 were among early teams to recruit African American players

Editor's Note: This, the second of two articles on the history of Salem baseball, covers the years since 1939. The first appeared in the Spring, 1999, issue of Historic Salem.

By Stewart Hill

In 1939, sixty years ago -- Salem's first pro team made its Municipal Stadium debut before more than a thousand valley fans. By season's end there was "an enthusiasm for the national pastime probably unrivaled in local history," according to a local sports writer of the day. In an era in which baseball reigned supreme, Salem had arrived.

Still, at the beginning of World War II, the Salem Friends (like most independent minor league teams of that era) were under constant pressure to meet payroll. In order to pay players the going rate of $65 a month, the team had to supplement its gate receipts by occasionally selling its better players to big league teams hungry for talent during this period of war-time draft.

In early August of 1941, six players were sold to the Boston Braves in a single deal. One player, Salemite Preston Reynolds, quit the team outright when he learned that employers in Radford would pay the princely wage of 60 cents an hour!

Life on Farm

By 1943, war rationing of gas and tires forced Salem's franchise to pull up stakes and relocate to Roanoke so that more fans could reach games on foot. This move would help initiate a new era of pro baseball in the Roanoke Valley. Not only did the club join a higher level league (the Class B Piedmont), but also the team for the first time rooted itself in the "farm system" of a major league franchise, the Boston Red Sox.

The farm system concept, conceived in the 1930s by Branch Rickey and the St. Louis Cardinals, enabled big league clubs to sign young players for a pittance and oversee their development. Players were then shuttled along a chain of affiliated "farm" teams so that their skills could be "cultivated" to fit the needs of the parent organization.

Dubbed the Roanoke Red Sox (or Rosox), the Valley's new team played for 11 seasons in old Maher Field. The club hit a high point in 1946, racking up 89 wins (a Valley record) and finishing in first place in the Piedmont League.

Player/manager Eddie Popowski won the hearts of spectators in '46 with his gutsy leadership on and off the field, and was celebrated on "Eddie Popowski Day" with a whopping $1200 check from area fans. (Eddie would later coach third base for a number of years in Boston, and still serves the Red Sox as a spring training coach at age 86. He was inducted into the Salem-Roanoke Hall of Fame this past February.)

The Rosox's new standard for wins lasted but one year, for in 1947 the club powered its way to 90 victories under the leadership of Mike "Pinky" Higgins. Higgins himself was no slouch of a player during 12 seasons in the big leagues (12 must have been his lucky number as he set a major league record in 1938 with 12 consecutive hits.)

Higgins' Rosox club finished the '47 season with bragging rights to the Piedmont, winning the League's "Shaughnessy" playoff championship (named for Frank Shaughnessy, former International League President and onetime Roanoke Tiger).

In later years, the Rosox pulled off a 3-2 upset over their parent club, then still led by Hall of Famer Ted Williams, in a Maher Field exhibition game. Many Rosox players themselves went on to see action in Boston's Fenway Park, including 1949 Piedmont League Triple Crown winner Charlie Maxwell (later a slugger for the Detroit Tigers). Maxwell is said to have often hit balls not only over Maher's 325 ft. right field wall, but across the Roanoke River!

Yet the club's fortunes (and attendance) soured with later seasons and the Rosox finally folded after 1953.However, a small group of Salem chums decided to turn lemons into lemonade for the town of Salem.

Rebels

Many fans of the old Salem Friends still begrudged their Roanoke neighbors for having swiped "Friendly Town's" franchise. Now a close knit group of Salem-born civic leaders, the newly named Salem Athletic Club, sprung at the chance to make things right.

With the encouragement of Lynchburg's team owner (who craved a nearby rival to cut down travel costs), the Salem Athletic Club in 1955 fielded its own independent team, the Salem Rebels, to compete in the old Appalachian League and play at Municipal Stadium.

Led by Jack Dame and Ralph Richardson, the franchise operated from its very beginning on a shoe string budget. In fact, Richardson often had to pay its bills from receipts of his own grocery business, the Green Market. Yet the Rebels weren't formed merely to play - they were expected to win.

For a proven winner to head the squad, the club knew to look no further than Salemite Jack Crosswhite (star of Salem High's 1930 state champs, a former Rosox player and longtime minor league manager). Crosswhite, then turned to Salem native and experienced pro Paul Johnston as a pitching ace to anchor his team.

To fill out his club, Crosswhite scoured the state and other teams' rosters for talent. Spurning social convention for the sake of winning, he signed several African American players, forming one of the earliest inter-racial pro teams in this area. Yet, by the end of the year, one of these men (Charlie Weatherspoon) was named the fan's most popular player.

Led by Johnston's 20 victories and a blistering offense (Allen Barbee hit .422 and drove in 67 runs in only half a season), the team won the league with 84 wins. (As a side note, a number of local women won husbands as well, marrying Rebel players).

The Rebels' success soon attracted major league interest, leading to affiliations with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1957, the S. F. Giants in the early '60s, and then again Pittsburgh. In 1968, the Rebels not only began Salem's long standing association with the Carolina League, but also finished in first place under manager Don Hoak.

Among the better known players to grace the rosters of the Salem Rebels were Art Howe, Don Money, Bob Moose, Rennie Stennet, and Kent Tekulve, who went on to play 16 seasons in the Majors setting the all time record for most relief innings pitched (1436).

However, the most renowned veteran of the Rebels was Orlando Cepeda, a member of the 1999 class of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Cepeda in fact began his American pro career in Salem in 1955 (though the death of his father in Puerto Rico cut his season short). Cepeda's power swing would later lead the St. Louis Cardinals to the 1967 World Series title.

Pirates Prosper

In 1972, the Salem club retired the name Rebels and became the Pirates, to show a closer link with their major league affiliate Pittsburgh. The name change must have been lucky because, despite a slow start, Salem won the Carolina League that year with a 79-58 record.

Future star Dave Parker's batting average was less than his weight in April, as one reporter commented, but he came on to win the League MVP (just one homer shy of the triple crown). Doug Bair was the League's top pitcher, and Jim Minshall set a record with 16 straight wins. Ed Ott, Larry Smith, and Ron Mitchell rounded out a solid lineup, and with skipper Tim Murtaugh, combined to make the '72 Pirates a team many consider the most talented in Salem history (though aficionados of the '55 Rebels still argue the point).

The Pirates of 1974 also deserve consideration as perhaps Salem's best pro team. Under manager Johnny Lipon, these Pirates won both halves of the season (87 wins total) and were Carolina League Champs. Miguel Dilone was named League MVP after he hit .333 and stole 85 bases (a feat he would later match in the majors). Future big league stars John Candelaria and Rick Langford led the pitching staff, and Mitchell Page provided power hitting (a skill which later brought him big league fame as American League Rookie of the Year).

Dave Parker would later become a major league star, finishing his career with two NL batting titles, one MVP, three Gold Glove Awards, and over 2900 hits. Other Salem Pirate players who went on to leave their mark on the big leagues include Tony Pena, Omar Moreno, Steve Nicosia, Junior Ortiz, Mario "The Mendoza Line" Mendoza, and the valley's own Al Holland (who now coaches baseball at William Fleming). Many of the stars of the old Salem Pirates (and Rebels) would later help Pittsburgh secure the 1979 World Series Championship.

Birdmania

In 1980, following a trend toward sagging attendance and waning enthusiasm, Salem severed ties with the Pirates and sponsored a contest to rename the team. A local boy won with the suggestion "Redbirds." Affiliated initially with the San Diego Padres, the Redbirds in 1983 began a shared arrangement with the Padres and Texas Rangers. The Rangers would later become the sole parent club.

Remembered for the 1982 team that lost over 100 games (a dubious valley record), the Redbirds also had one of the better teams in Salem history in 1980 (79-60) under manager John Lipon, and made the playoffs in 1981. The Redbird of greatest distinction, Kenny Rogers - not the singer, but the current Oakland A's pitcher - threw a perfect game for Texas in 1994.

The San Diego affiliation occasionally brought to town the immensely popular San Diego Chicken, which always sold extra tickets to the games. Redbird manager Mike Bucci once traded an autographed picture of the Chicken to a boy for two grocery bags of foul balls hit out of Municipal Stadium - a move Bucci called the best trade he ever made in baseball.

Pirates Return

After several losing seasons affiliated with the Padres and Rangers, many Salem fans longed for the glory days as a Pirates farm team. Most breathed a sigh of relief in 1987 when the Redbirds reestablished ties with Pittsburgh, renaming themselves the Buccaneers.

The 1987 season seemed a good portent for the club's future. Under manager Steve Demeter (who had managed the Salem Pirates three times in the '70's) the Bucs went on to win the Carolina League pennant with an 80-59 record. 1988 was another good year, but after that a winning season became as rare as a triple play for Salem. Still, a number of talented players passed through the club, including Tony Womack, Kevin Young, Moises Alou, Jeff King, and Tim Wakefield.

With over 10 consecutive years of increasing attendance, the Bucs rode the crest of a national renaissance in minor league baseball which brought families back to local ballparks in search of affordable family fun.

Avalanche

By the 1990's, it was clear that Old Municipal Field was woefully lacking as a home for professional baseball. Visiting teams and managers hated the stuffy, cramped locker rooms. Pitchers, and neighboring homeowners, hated the short walls allowing 310 foot homers.

For more than 60 years, Municipal Field had been a beloved home to thousands of fans whiling away summer nights. Yet, under the threat of losing the franchise, plans were made in 1994 to build a new field for a new day.

At a final cost of $10.1 million, Salem Memorial Stadium was designed as a state-of -the-art baseball facility for the newly renamed Salem Avalanche, affiliated with the recent expansion Colorado Rockies franchise. Now in its fifth season, the Avalanche have set a new standard for professional baseball as family entertainment in the valley.

And although the team quipped in a recent ad, "We even pay our players like its 1923," the economics of the game have greatly improved for team members, today paid almost 20 times more than the Salem Friends.

From Friends to Pirates, from Rebels to Redbirds, and now Avalanche - Salem and Valley fans have seen their local team evolve from a bush league labor of love to a major league talent farm, and now a modern franchise. Yet the love of the game remains evident, and a sixty year Salem tradition lives on.

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The Last Voyage of Charles Peter Deyerle
Coffin Carried from California in 1850s
The Story of Charles Deyerle And His Last Voyage Home

By John Long

Among the many illustrious sons of Salem, Major Charles Peter Deyerle (1820-53) holds a unique place of distinction. In a day when few Salemites ever traveled much beyond the rim of the valley, Charles went as far as Mexico and California. Even more amazing were his post-mortem adventures: after his death in California, he was buried three times, nearly buried at sea, and traveled thousands of miles in an epic journey to be interred in his home town.

Charles was the eldest son of the prominent local couple Joseph and Annie Crawford Deyerle. He was raised west of Salem near Dixie Caverns, and was a member of the first graduating class of Virginia Military Institute (and the first career military officer to come out of that school). He proceeded then to study medicine, and by the outbreak of the Mexican War he was an army surgeon under General Winfield Scott, taking part in the invasion of Vera Cruz and the march to Mexico City. During the war he got to know, among others, Franklin Pierce, who would become president in 1853.

After the war, he was posted to Benicia, in the new American territory of California, as chief surgeon of the base. His voyage to California took him around the tip of South America, perhaps the first Salemite to venture so far. It was in California, in his thirty-third year, that he died on Oct. 30, 1853 of gastritis, and was buried for his first time.

For most men that would be the end of his story. But Deyerle's family wished him interred at home, and so arranged for his remains to be transported some 6000 miles back to Salem. We know of this voyage because chosen to accompany the body was David A. Carter, a local newspaper man. In 1855 Carter would write a serialized account of the journey for the Salem Weekly Register. The series attracted a wide readership not only for the unusual purpose of the trip, but for the colorful descriptions of far off places.

Carter's journey from Salem began Jan. 11, 1854, soon after the family received word of Charles' death. He and James Deyerle, brother of the deceased, traveled by a tortuous combination of rail, stage, and riverboat through Lynchburg, Farmville, Richmond, and Washington DC, stopping there to secure the necessary military permission for exhuming and transporting the late major. From there they trekked to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and finally New York, where they arranged passage on a steamship.

Carter recounts for his readers anecdotes of visits to Cape Hatteras, Cuba, and Jamaica, and finally to the city of Aspinwall in modern day Panama. "It was a relief," wrote Carter, "to again feel the touch of earth, and a happy reflection, that we had crossed one ocean."

A Panama Canal at that time was nothing more than a distant dream, and so the party had to cross the malarial isthmus by rail, and when the rails ended, by mule. Finally, however, they reached to other side and saw the Pacific Ocean, where another steamer awaited (although a three mile trip in rowboats was necessary to reach the ship). From there, the ship crept along the coast of Central America to Mexico.

At that point there is a gap in the story due to the absence of Carter's third installment, April 19, 1855, which has apparently been lost. Presumably the missing chapter recounts visits to Mexico and their arrival in California, probably in some detail since the entire serial is entitled "Sketches of a Trip to California." That state had only recently joined the Union, and was a target of considerable interest among East Coast Americans. It was reputed to be a land of great beauty and productivity, as well as hidden gold, and Carter certainly included a running commentary on his impressions of these far away lands.

When the surviving narrative resumes, the party is in Benicia where they visit the unmarked grave of Charles Deyerle. "We stood by the grave, more than six thousand miles from home . . . and we could not check the unbidden tear." Soon, the body was exhumed, and they started their homeward journey. The account of the trip back is not nearly as lengthy as that of the first half, but Carter includes some fascinating anecdotes, including one about an over eager sea captain who nearly rendered the entire voyage futile.

Arriving back at the Pacific Coast of Panama, "we were then placed in one of the most trying situations of our life. When the baggage was brought up on deck, the corpse was discovered, and the determination expressed by the captain of the vessel to cast it overboard. To this we remonstrated, with an appeal to his generosity. It seemed to be in vain, and when steps were taken to carry his threat into execution, we resolved to 'conquer or die,' for we had told the mother of the deceased, if we ever returned, we would bring back the remains of her son." Fortunately, the captain relented, after the intercession of forty or fifty other passengers who favored Carter's party.

Their trials were not over, because they quickly discovered that there was no way to transport a coffin across the Isthmus of Panama-- very likely it had never been done before. "The express companies refused to take our charge in hand, and we were thrown entirely upon our own resources. Before daylight in the morning, with two mules, and two natives bearing the body of the deceased, we were on our way." After a perilous crossing (clearly Carter's least favorite segment of the trip), they arrived back on the Atlantic side and booked passage on the steamer United States for New Orleans, by way of Havana. Carter only briefly summarizes the last legs of the journey up the Mississippi, eventually back to Washington, to Lynchburg, and eventually back to Salem on April 13, more than two months after their departure. "We carried the body and placed it in the arms of the stricken and bereaved family, and turned away with a conscious pride of having discharged our duty, and with emotions of mingled rejoicing and sadness."

A funeral followed in the family plot, which Carter recounts in some detail. He closes his account with his own epitaph for Dr. Deyerle: "He died far from home . . . Across two oceans we bring his body to rest it in its native vale. Here where he was born, it is fit that he should repose."

Ironically, even that was not the end of the travels of Dr. Deyerle. In 1902, the graves in the Deyerle family cemetery near Glenvar were removed to East Hill Cemetery, where they lie today in the center circle. If all goes as planned, that will be his final resting place, but with an adventurous man like Maj. Charles Peter Deyerle, one can never be certain.

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