Salem

Salem, a town and the county-seat (since 1838) of Roanoke (disambiguation)|Roanoke county, Virginia, U.S.A., on the Roanoke river, about 60 m. W. by S. of Lynchburg. Pop. (1900), 3412, including 798 negroes; (1910) 3849. It is served by the Norfolk & Western and the Virginian railways, and has electric railway connexion with Roanoke, about 6 m. E. The town is a summer resort about r000 ft. above the sea, surrounded by the Alleghany and Blue Ridge mountains. There are chalybeate and sulphur springs in the vicinity. Salem is the seat of a Lutheran Orphan Home (1888), of the Baptist Orphanage of Virginia (1892) and of Roanoke College (co-educational; Lutheran; chartered, 1853). The town is in a dairying, agricultural and fruit-growing region. The Roanoke river provides water-power. The water supply is obtained from a spring within the town limits, from which there flows about 576,000 gallons a day, and from an artesian well. This part of Roanoke county was granted in 1767 to General Andrew Lewis, to whom there is a monument in East Hill Cemetery, where he is buried. Salem, laid out in 1802, was incorporated as a town in 1813.