Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Missions of the Blue Ridge, Diocese of Virginia By The Venerable Frederick W. Neve, Archdeacon When I first came to Virginia in 1888, my attention was soon directed to the condition of the people living in the Ragged Mountains of Albemarle County. These mountains are spurs of the main Blue Ridge. The condition of these people was such as to call for attention and earnest effort on the part of the Church and, as the two parishes to which I had been called were only a few miles distant, the duty of caring for these neglected people seemed imperative. Beginning My predecessor at St. Paul's, Ivy, had been in the habit of holding a service for them in a school-house for some years, and it was through taking up the work which he had left behind him that I first became acquainted with the needs of the district. To accomplish any permanent results it seemed necessary to establish a church and build up a regular Church membership; and after about a year and a half this was accomplished and the Church of St. John Baptist was built and consecrated. Soon after the Mission Hall was also built, close beside the church, for the various meetings and classes which were soon organized and worked by faithful members of St. Paul's Church in Ivy, some six miles distant..,'';!'... 11, -.XT .-/JtiJuC; ;n::nxii/. to For some years our mountain mission was Blue confined to this one centre, but the success Ridge attending the first enterprise suggested to my mind the desirability of extending the work to the main Blue Ridge, where I knew ,,r the conditions were similar, if not worse, n'i.V'a than those which had prevailed in the Ragged Mountains.. It' was not till 1900 that ;this new venture was made but by that time, in spite of the fact that there were' no means at my disposal for carryin...