Ferrum

Ferrum (Latin for iron) developed ca. 1892 along the new Roanoke and Southern Railway linking Roanoke, VA, and Winston-Salem, NC, known as the “Punkin Vine” line. The village became a regional shipping hub early in the 20th century. St. James Methodist Church (ca. 1896) is Ferrum’s oldest brick building. The Virginia Methodist Conference, at the initiative of its Woman’s Missionary Society, established Ferrum Training School in 1913 to educate mountain children. The school grew into Ferrum College and the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum. During Prohibition, a number of Ferrum residents were involved in a lucrative illegal whiskey conspiracy that ended in one of the longest trials in VA history.