Local author Nelson Harris spent a couple of years showing up at the Back Creek Fire Station, Bent Mountain Library, community stores, churches, schools and other places, asking people for their memories.
He scanned more than 400 photographs on the spot and gathered hundreds of tales which he winnowed down at his publisher’s directive into 100 images that illustrate “A History of Back Creek: Bent Mountain, Poages Mill, Cave Spring and Starkey.”
On March 19, he held a standing-room-only audience spellbound at the Salem Museum. He talked about valley and mountain communities, apple orchards, horse-and-buggy doctor and one-room schoolhouses and even NASCAR racing at the Starkey track in Southwest Roanoke County which are fading into time.
This is the 13th book for Harris, who has been the minister of Heights Community Church in Raleigh Court – formerly Virginia Heights Baptist Church – since 1999. He also served as mayor of Roanoke.
“On my mother’s side of the family, all the paternal ancestors were from Back Creek, Poages Mill and Bent Mountain area,” he explained to his audience of 70 people.
Harris started the history with 1740 when Robert Poage and John Mason were granted property by the King of England. Salem’s Gen. Andrew Lewis’ son, Col. Andrew Lewis, was another significant land grant holder in the Back Creek area, Harris confirmed.
During the Civil War the Back Creek area was “a hotbed of Union sympathy,” Harris said. “Toward the end of the war there was an effort to track down Confederate deserters,” he said, “and one was shot through the chest and killed. The killer was hung in Salem.”
Apple orchards begun after the Civil War contributed to the growth and recognition of the area southwest of Starkey, with apples from here that were renown in New York City and Europe.
“The ‘Richmond Times-Dispatch’ called this area the best apple region in Virginia,” Harris said. The Starkey Depot of the Roanoke and Southern Railroad gave orchardists access to shipping. The Fruit Growers Telephone Exchange was the first in Southwest Roanoke County, he added.
Route 221was built by state convicts during the Great Depression and completed in 1932. A number of the photos show country stores and churches that predate the construction.
Social life revolved around churches, women’s organizations, hunting clubs and swimming in Finnell’s Pool or Brook Cliff.
“I swam in that pool with my cousins in the 1970s,” said Harris. “There’s nothing better than swimming in ice cold water,” he added.There was even a Back Creek Baseball Team, organized by Ralph Henry in 1948. One of the red-and-white uniforms – complete with matching socks – that is part of the Salem Museum’s collection for members of the audience to admire after the talk.
“I like to put photos of houses people actually lived in, and photos of people in family life,” not standing stiffly for portraits. One of those slices of life shows Mollie Poage making apple butter, another taken in 1945 shows marble players.
“There was a city-county marble tournament, with winners going on to state, then national in New Jersey,” Harris said. One of those winners from Bent Mountain was named in a “New York Times” article.
Auto racing was held at the Starkey Speedway, including four NASCAR races with such famous drivers as Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson and Wendell Scott, Harris mentioned.
Many in the audience recognized shots of the Roanoke Look Out Gift Shop that used to be at the top of Bent Mountain. Harris said the portion on the left remains as a private residence. A number of the houses shown are still standing and can be located in the Back Creek and Bent Mountain communities, he said.
Burials and funerals were social occasions, because of how much involvement was needed from friends, neighbors and the community to prepare the deceased, sit up with the body, and give him/her a proper send-off and provide food for the family. One photo shows a burial of Martins Creek Road in 1910.
There is an entire chapter devoted to “Murder and Mayhem” which Harris said he knows many people will turn to right away. It’s not all murders, but contains a reference to “the odd, the unusual and the tragic,” he added. One of the murderers was hung “where Oakey’s Field in Salem is now. It was the last public hanging in the county,” Harris said.
In 1929, he said, Freda Bolt was boyfriend on the side of Bent Mountain. “The Carter family made a ballad out of that in 1938,” he added.
He was fascinated by the roles that the Lunatic Commissions played in 1890-1900. “The commission was made up of three well-respected men, usually justices of the peace, which if you had someone with age-related dementia or other behaviors they did an assessment. Most of the time they committed the person to the state asylum in Marion,” he said, and the visits were written up in detail in the newspaper. “It’s just the way things worked.”
Poage Store, circa 1910, is in photos, as well as Rierson’s Grocery – where County Way Store is now. The original Rierson’s Store was where Back Creek Elementary School is today, Harris said.
Dozens of churches are in the book, including the original Cave Spring Baptist Church stood where the Cave Spring Lions Club building is today. It was raised in 1962, Harris said.
Harris credited historical society members Connie Stone and other “ladies of the library” with pulling together specific research he wanted to see for his book from the historical society’s Logan Research Library located on the top floor of the museum. It is open on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Nelson Harris’ book retails for $21.99 from the publisher, Arcadia Publishing and History Press. The Salem Museum’s gift shop sold out of Harris’ book Monday night.
