Mount Airy was filled with the sounds of cicadas in the trees and children in the yards on Saturday, June 13, 1908. Most people were headed to their evening meals and looking forward to a day of rest. It was a perfect summer day — until the fire started.
Flames had broken through the roof of the Marshall home and everyone nearby ran to help. It was the way of things.
The alarm was raised but by the time the newly formed fire department arrived neighbors had most of the household furnishings removed. Richard K. Marshall and his pregnant wife, Minnie, had taken their three children for a visit with friends. When they returned their roof and part of the second floor were a loss but the home he built in 1894-95 was saved.
The Mount Airy News reported damages were estimated about $2,000 – equivalent to about $57,000 in today’s dollars – but that the family had insurance, which was still fairly uncommon.
Marshall, child of Marion and Christina (Sparger) Marshall of White Plains, came from well-known and successful business families. He had a reputation as an “enterprising and public spirited citizen.” The family was active in the Quaker community across the region. Richard and several of his siblings were staunch Progressive Republicans, active in party politics their entire lives.
In his younger years he worked as a gauger, in charge of ensuring distilleries were properly measuring their product and collecting the duty owed on the liquor. He was the rural postal courier for White Plains in the late 1800s and was appointed postmaster of Mount Airy later. At the same time he was a busy contractor, operated a dry goods store, the Mount Airy Iron Works and Foundry and at least two saw and grist mills.
In November 1894, with a growing family, he broke ground on a beautiful home on the crest of the Pine Street hill where some of the most influential people in town were also building. The family took up residence in spring of the following year.
The next winter he was among those who pushed the proposed public waterworks that came down West Pine Street as far as his home.
He bought the patents for a window sash burglar alarm which he produced at his sawmill. The he bought a larger mill.
In August of 1912 he advertised an auction at which “I will sell to the highest bidder my household furniture, saw mill, machinery, etc.” At nearly 60 years of age, he wasn’t retiring, he moved his family to White Plains and expanded his construction company. Two years later, he was walking across the trestle bridge over Lovill’s Creek when the morning passenger train caught him unawares. He was unable to get off the bridge and the engineer was unable to stop the train in time.
John T. Moore, the manager of the Southern Express Co. office on Mount Airy’s Main Street was the high bidder. With five young children, he and his wife, Hallie, needed more room. They moved into the handsome home in October 1912 when daughter Hallie was just five months old. They would add another two babies to the family in the home that, by all accounts, they cherished.
John came to Mount Airy from Cross Creek (today’s Fayetteville) in 1892 when he was 24. As far as I can tell he was not related to Mount Airy’s extensive Moore family.
Hallie, born and raised in Mount Airy, seems to have been a strong and progressive woman. She was bookkeeper for the Southern Express Co. in a time before many women held jobs and she kept the job, not only after she married but after she began having children, something that was nearly unheard of.
Her roots run deep in Surry and Stokes counties with her parents, Minerva Jessup and Civil War veteran Marquis Lafayette Patterson, both coming from farms their respective families had worked since at least 1800.
She managed to keep her home after her husband passed. Family photos show a smiling, tight-knit family in which she was known as “Big Mama.”
The home at 359 West Pine Street was beautiful and it had been the scene of love, laughter, and loss for decades. Many were happy to see the extensive work being done to bring her back to life. I think it’s fair to say that we all feel some of the devastation the owners must feel since the fire.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com