Page 14 - A Narrative of the History of Roanoke Virginia

New information about the history of Roanoke
Big Lick to Roanoke from 1874-part Four

By Richard Mundy
Sources:refer to New Research Sources-previously posted

This was the ending of part Three…
There is some debate about what happened next…
So these topics will be similar to “The midnight ride of Paul Revere” re-titled “The Ride that
made Roanoke” as well as a shocking episode that almost caused the whole promising
future to come tumbling down…and the topic of this post.

Big Lick merchant Peyton Terry happened to be in Salem when the negotiations there fell
apart. The news, he informed other businessmen at a meeting the next night, meant they
had a window of opportunity to push even harder for the junction.

There is some debate about what happened next, but it is likely that John Moomaw, on his
way back to Lexington to confer with the Committee on Construction, advised the
businessmen gathered that a $10,000 “cash bonus” to secure right-of-ways from Cloverdale
to Big Lick and tax incentives would make the town attractive as the logical site for the
headquarters of the N&W rail line. On a deadline to meet with the railroad officials the next
morning, Moomaw left but agreed to wait at a halfway point in Botetourt County for a
decision from Big Lick. In an earlier post I detailed the pledging of ‘incentive” funds and the
pony-express ride undertaken to take the message to the decision makers to bring the
terminus to Big Lick.

Written accounts of why the railroad chose Big Lick vary on sequence, in details, and in what
the town pledged. Nevertheless, it is possible to piece together at least a semblance of the
event from researched reports.

Lick would boast a population of over five thousand residents. The village, nevertheless,
could hardly have impressed the Philadelphians. At the time, according to one resident, Big
Lick was “set down in the midst of wheat and corn fields and meadow lands and wood lands
that came to the edge of town. (see earlier picture posted recently).

In the course of the next few hours, business owners pledged subscriptions for the entire
amount and likely convinced the municipal government to grant the railroad an acre of land
and tax exclusion. Moomaw delivered their offer, and although the railroad did not
immediately make public its intentions, in early April 1881, it moved its entire survey team to
Big Lick. Townspeople assumed their village was to be the terminus, but did not know for
sure until Frederick Kimball made the decision official in May.

Over the next few days, the railroad officials toured the area to inspect suitable sites for a