ed General Andrew Lewis and became the mother of
Major Andrew Lewis and Thomas Lewis.

Later on, as more settlers came into the valley, quite a village grew up
around "Big Lick" and in 1874 it was incorporated with John Trout as
Mayor. Then in 1881 the village woke up. Saws and hammers were heard
from dawn 'til dusk. The Roanoke Machine Works were being built. Nearby,
stores and houses were springing up, warehouses and boarding-houses.
Surveyors were laying off lots and laying out streets. Contractors and
engineers, artisans and mechanics were coming in every day. The men who
sold supplies for all of these were indeed busy. The Norfolk and Western
Railroad had come to Roanoke!

Old folks can still remember when rabbits ran over the grounds where
stands the Hotel Roanoke. Small boys picked up Indian arrow-heads where
now the beautiful grounds sweep down to the Station itself. They still
tell how Salem Avenue was once a marsh and was later filled in for the
fast growing town. Then came the union of the Norfolk and Western and
the Shenandoah Valley Railroads. From that day to this, Roanoke has been
the "Magic City." It was as if some magic wand had been waved over the
one-time little village. But actually it was due to the industry and
vision of the city planners who had built for the future. Commercial,
manufacturing and industrial activities kept a pace ahead of the fast
growing town. Among the first of these were the American Bridge Works
and the rolling mills, iron works, West End Furnaces and the Virginia
Brewing Company.

Long ago "Big Lick" was known to a few. It was situated in the Blue
Ridge Mountains, surrounded by rolling valleys and watered by springs of
crystal clear waters. Other streams made it an ideal place for the
herds of buffalo and elk which roamed up and down the Valley of the
Great Spirit. Indians came, too, to hunt them and thousands of smaller
fur-bearing animals and birds for their feasts.

When the sturdy settlers from Ireland and Scotland came to seek a new
home in the wilderness, they chose to follow the Great Road which later
was known as the Wilderness Road. This led them along the beautiful
valleys and across the mountains; soon tiny cabins, churches and crude
taverns were being built.

Near where Fincastle stands today, there came a man years ago from
Ireland, Thomas King. He had left behind his second wife, Easter, three
children by his first wife, and several younger ones by Easter.