Cary Williams

Cary Williams has lived in Lewis County his entire life. But if not for the hospital, he wouldn't be there today. Like many, his ancestors were stone masons, who came to the area to help build the Weston State Hospital over a century ago. His family came in 1845 from Call Pepper County. Francine, Cary's great great great grandmother brought her four sons, James Alexander, Walter, Joseph, and Cornelius, who were all stone masons to Lewis County to work on the hospital. Three of them died during the Civil War or shortly after, but Cary's great great grandfather, James Alexander, survived.

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Cary also had other family members work in the hospital. His aunt worked several years in laundry and his wife worked "on a summer program in the laundry when she was going to school."

As a teenager, Cary played baseball there. "There was a skating rink and dance hall at Roanoke and they sponsored us as a softball team. We played a lot of evenings at the state hospital.

Cary remembers sometimes the patients would get out of the hospital. One time a man who had killed his parents escaped and lived on a hill near where Cary lived for about three months before neighbors caught him. He survived by taking food from people's cellars all summer, but it was starting to get cold when they came and got him. "He seemed like a normal person."

Like everyone in Weston, Cary expressed sadness at the years of deterioration. "You go down into Virginia, places like Lexington, and see these old buildings, built at the same time, and how well they are preserved."

To Cary, the building is important because so many people's ancestors helped to build it and because of the appearance. For Cary, knowing what it takes to build a building today, it is truly amazing that those men could handle a feat such as that so many years ago without power tools.