Page 62 - A Narrative of the History of Roanoke Virginia

New information about the history of Roanoke
Big Lick to Roanoke from 1874-Part Fourteen

This installment deals with another new city charter, 1890 annexations and a board of
public works to oversee improvements. Additional improvements to bring the city into
the 20th century as vibrant, conscientious city that cared for its citizens and finally the
cleaning up of the cities infrastructure ills.

The city adopted another new charter in early 1892 that carved two new wards out of
the 1890 annexations and created a board of public works to oversee improvement
projects. It also abolished its board of police commissioners – created in 1884 to
manage the department – returning complete control of the force to the mayor. Work
on installing sewers started that spring, as did grading, macadamizing, and bricking
central roads and systematizing the town’s jumbled and confusing street names.

The board of health’s campaign against unclean premises continued as well, and in
the summer of 1892, council authorized the systematic inspection of all homes in
“certain districts.” Those found “unsanitary” had twelve hours to fix the problem or
face arrest. The campaign worked, according to most physicians, who by fall deemed
the sanitary condition of the city “better at present than it has been at any time.”

In the municipal elections stipulated by the new charter, voters had to fill all
government positions and elect an entirely new council. Republicans, energized by
the state GOP convention held in Roanoke a few weeks earlier, nominated a solid
Republican ticket for the Third Ward and put up a candidate for mayor for the first
time. Local party leaders had reached out to black voters in the days before the
statewide caucus, appointing a mixed delegation to the convention that included
some of the city’s most influential African Americans.

Democrats, by contrast, were widely accused of “machine” politics after party bosses
handpicked all the nominees for office. Indeed, The Roanoke Times blasted the
maneuver and called on voters to “pulverize the machine out of recognition” by
electing two independent candidates for council from the Second Ward instead of
men “who are Democrats ‘for revenue only.’”

In a reversal of its usual partisan stance, The Times also suggested that voters
ignore political affiliations and elect a council based solely on its ability to manage the
city and implement the remainder of the improvement bonds. The paper accused
Roanoke’s “Tammany-aping politicians” of already spending over $100,000 worth of
the recently approved bonds on a variety of projects that had done little to improve
the city. It also accused them of mismanaging the police force in the wake of
revelations that numerous officers had been found asleep or drunk on duty and
others had been charged with assault or embezzlement.

Republican officials speaking at the “Young Men’s Republican League, Colored”
concurred with the paper and told the two-hundred and fifty in attendance that the
Democratic machine was out of control. In the election, Henry S. Trout, the