By William “Skip” Deegans
Shown in this 1897 photo are teachers and students of the Blue Sulphur Springs Academy gathered next to the Blue Sulphur Springs pavilion, a remnant of the famed Blue Sulphur Springs resort. Purported to be in the photo is W. F. Richardson, a popular teacher who left Greenbrier County in 1900 to study theology. Also purported to be in the photo is a young Charles Ira (“C.I.”) Wall from Muddy Creek Mountain.
Wall went on to graduate from the Maryland Medical College in Baltimore in 1903 and returned to Greenbrier County to practice in Williamsburg. In 1910, he moved to Rainelle where he became the physician to the Meadow River Lumber Company until 1927. Afterwards, Wall and Dr. Carl C. Jackson bought the Midland Trail General Hospital in 1930, renamed it the East Rainelle General Hospital and moved it from the east end of East Rainelle to the west end. A grandson of Wall, Haven Wall, became a physician who has practiced in Fairlea.
Photo: Courtesy of the Greenbrier Historical Society.
Sources: The Greenbrier Independent, Beckley Post-Herald, Raleigh Register, Images of American Rainelle by Browning, Pendleton and Shelton.
