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Describes early history of the Methodist Church in Damascus. Photo of the Methodist Church, built in 1903.

The Damascus Enterprise Company, of which General Imboden was head, helped to organize the Abingdon Coal and Iron Railway Company with the purpose of bringing a railroad from Abingdon to the lumber lands near Damascus.

About 1912, people who came to Thayer Company, Smethport Extract Co., and Damascus Lumber Co., and others went on a picnic up the Laurel via the narrow gauge train.

"Before 1900 there was only one store in Damascus, a general store opened about 1893 by Mack Wright on the lot where the N.S.Wright store stands now."

"About the time the war ended children in this section were attending the old Laurel school, just started in a one room log house that stood where the Kestner house is built west of the Lincoln plant. This school was also a subscription school."

"The first Virginia-Carolina locomotive reached Damascus on January 25, 1901, and the way for hauling out timber was opened. Whiting's sawmlll in Abingdon began receiving its supply of lumber from Damascus at once."

"In 1902 the Thayer Company Dimension Plant was established by T.W.Thayer, head of the Thayer Company in New York state. Mr. Thayer never lived in Damascus and the Damascus plant was a branch plant manufacturing material for sashes, doors, and table…

"Northern capital rushed in with an eye on millions to be made from virgin oak, chestnut, pine, and poplar. Trees were cut ruthlessly without regard for future growth. White Top and Cat Face stand as lasting memorials to the denuding of mountains.…

"As the railway came through, industrial and business developments were easily forseen and banking facilities for Damascus became necessary."

"The first factory to be established in Damascus aside from the lumber industries was the Beaver Chemical Company. The plant received its charter on January 19, 1919, with a capital stock of $50,000, and proceeded to manufacture dyes."