University of Virginia Library

KYLES GRIFFIN ALIFF

Among the citizens of Roanoke County deserving
of special praise for what they have accomplished,
circumstances considered, there is none more
worthy of emulation
than Kyles Griffin Aliff.
What he has accomplished
in the apple
growing district of
Roanoke County but
few men would have
had the determination
and hardihood to have
attempted.

Married on November
25th, 1876, to Sarah
Parrish, daughter of O.
Parrish, of Roanoke
County, he settled on
the headwaters of the
Hayes branch of Back
Creek in a mountain
wilderness. There was
nothing but rocks and
trees and ravines, with scarcely enough level land
on which to set a house. He began life by clearing
up an old tract of mountain land containing two
hundred and seven acres. By hard work he made a
living, and a quarter of a century ago, as he cleared
the land he began planting apple trees, half pippins
and half of other commercial varieties at first. Today
he has planted in these ravines and hollows one
thousand thrifty apple trees. Four hundred are
bearing, the remaining six hundred trees are young
pippins. The land now owned by him was at one
time assessed so low that the taxes amounted to but
fifty cents. To-day the assessment yields a tax of
$52. Messrs. Bowles and Martin, expert apple
growers of Albemarle County, visited this plantation
and testified in the Roanoke County Circuit
Court that Mr. Aliff deserved to be pensioned by
the State for what he had accomplished rather than
to be exorbitantly taxed by the Government.

Kyles Griffin Aliff, a son of Jonas and Annie
(Hayes) Aliff, was born in Roanoke County in 1856,
and of three brothers and five sisters is the only
living brother, and Mrs. Elizabeth Minnix, of Roanoke,
Virginia, the only surviving sister. To his
marriage to Sarah Parrish there were born ten children,
as follows: Ballard, married to Nannie Neff;
Elias; Lee; Cora, married to Millard Bohon, of
Roanoke; Sidney; Florence, married to Leslie Bohon;
Tempie, married to Henry Grisso; Laura;
Pernie; and Vesta, all of whom are living.