R. H. Soule at Roanoke

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Good Morning Abram,

This is an excerpt from my great-grandfather's autobiography, "Haps and
Mishaps" which mentions *Mr. R. H. Soule*.


          "Mr. [Charles] Blackwell left [the Shenandoah Valley Railway/N &
W] and went back to Canada and *Mr. R. H. Soule *was made Superintendent of
Motive Power. Things went along pretty smoothly for a time, then Mr. Soule
began to suspect that the purchase of supplies and equipment was not being
handled quite honestly. He began to keep confidential records. After some
months of quiet watching and investigating he laid some facts before the
general manager and was pooh-poohed and told to mind his own business. He
would not rest and gathered a lot of data, which he kept secret till he was
ready, then resigned and demanded a hearing before the board of directors,
got it and was sustained by the board."


Unfortunately, my g-grandfather did not use a lot of specific dates in his
auto-bio. I have spent a lot of time trying to date events he mentions and
I *think* Mr. Soule's arrival pre-dates 1891.


The Roanoke Times mentions that Mr. Soule and my g-grandfather returned to
Roanoke from business in Radford on 21 Jul 1894. During his years in
Roanoke my g-grandfather organized several chamber music groups (he played
the cello which he took up while attending engineering school in Cassell,
Germany). In the second of those groups, Mr. Soule played first violin.
[See the attached photo.] In the photo Mr. Soule is seated at our left,
then Mr. Loeb and Mr. Yeatman and my g-grandfather is standing behind them.
The trappings of "genteel society" had to be created from within in those
days in Roanoke. They also put on several of Gilbert & Sullivan's comedic
operettas besides sponsoring a variety of dances. Periodically,
professionals were brought in from outside but for the most part local
talent was used for entertainment.

I'll go back through my g-grandfather's photo albums and see if I can find
anything more on Mr. Soule.

Peter Getz


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