Cosby's "Remembrances" and Nanci King's "Places in Time"
"...the elderly Lewis Thomson Cosby, for years a foremost layman in our church, wrote in 1910 of his remembrances as a youth just prior to the Civil War." [Hendricks, p.15]
"Mr. Cosby's paper is confined to the Corporate limits of Abingdon for 1834..." [Davis, p. 4]
Mr. Cosby explores in painstaking detail not just the residences in Abingdon as remembered from his childhood, but also the people who resided there, a remarkable achievement given that by 1880 there were "more than 300 buildings existing" as shown on the O.W.Gray and Son map. "The map is extremely accurate, both in its depiction of the size, shape and location of each building, as well as in listing the property owner for each lot." [King, "Preface"] Given the proximity of Churches along this portion of Main St.--Methodist, Episcopalean, and Presbyterian-- its not suprising that many of the houses were formerly parsonages. One such place is the Campbell House, which is across the culvert from the Episcopal Church, where Rev. George Barr of the Methodist Protestant Church resided along with his family. In his "Remembrances" Lewis Cosby states that there were "two or three carpenter shops" next to the Barr residence and beside that was the residence and workshop of Michael Shaver, a silversmith. Years later, the house that belonged to Rev. Barr burned down and the lot was sold to Judge John A. Campbell. After his death in 1866 his wife continued to live in the house he had built and took on boarders. The most illustrious (some would say infamous) of these was Elliott Roosevelt, who resided there during his brief sojourn in Southwest Virginia (1892-93).
Across Main Street from the Episcopal Church is the Rohr House. Rev. Phillip Rohr was a Methodist Protestant Minister. Lewis Thomson Cosby describes him as "peculiarly gifted in prayer. " (p.7) The house has a marker placed by the Old Abingdon Association which calls the house, built by Rev. Rohr "Marcella", saying it was "previously known as the Duke House." Nanci King states that, though originally built as a residence, "the house in the following years was used as a millinery shop, a doctor's office, and as the Town Library."
Standing alongside the Rohr House is a residence with an equally colorful history, the Valentine Baugh House. "Valentine Baugh was among the large number of Germans who formed one of Southwest Virginia's earliest settler groups." [B. White, A! Magazine]
"Valentine Baugh had nine children. His fifth son, Leonidas was born in this house in 1816. A surveyor, he was appointed by the Governor of Virginia to rerun the boundary line of 1802 between Tennessee and Virginia. In 1849 he began publication of the Abingdon Democrat newspaper, and later he served as Postmaster." [King, p. 12]
"Miss Minnie Baugh... lived her entire life in the Valentine Baugh house across from the Episcopal Church on Main Street, She opened an apothecary in an addition to the house in 1891. She also printed postcards and brochures about Abingdon's history and characters, spearheading the formation of the [Historical] Society... ." [HSWCVa Newsletter, Aug. 2021]
"The Cosby Papers," [HSWCVa, Bulletin (1971), p.3-29]
Places in Time, v.I, Preface, p 11-12; 31-32
"A History of Abingdon United Methodist Church, 1783-1985," Walter B. Hendricks
"Early Abingdon," Margaret Rogers Davis, HSWCVa Bulletin II, No. 9, 1971
"Roosevelts in Southwest Virginia," Hendrika Schuster. HSWCVa Bulletin, Sereies II, No. 35, 1998. (p. 7-15)
"Back Country Makers," Betsy White. A! Magazine for the Arts (Sept. 11, 2012)