The original town of High Pine was burned in an Indian uprising in 1836, but the survivors rebuilt, and in 1840 changed the name to Chulafinee, probably to appease the Indians, but changed the name again in 1842 to Roanoke because that was the name of John Randolph’s plantation in Virginia. The first store in Roanoke was owned and operated by J. M. Baker and Wiley McClendon and was located where the Handley High School gym now stands. The second store was Jim Furlow’s and was where Louina Street begins. The first industry was Waller’s Mill located near what is now the Roanoke Water Works on the Wadley Highway. Roanoke grew little before the War Between the States, and at the end of the war, 2 stores and a post office made up the business part of town. There was some growth between 1865 and 1867, hut it received a boost in t 887 when the Central of Georgia Railroad came to Roanoke, but that’s as far as it went. Schuessler and Company built one of the largest cotton warehouses in the state adjacent to the railroad, and that was really the beginning of prosperity for Roanoke. 20 years later, a Roanoke businessman, Carter Wright expanded the prosperity. By education and previous experience, he was a civil engineer, a land surveyor, and surveyed and established, with the financial aid of Capt. W. A. Handley, another railroad named the A B & A, which came from South Georgia through Roanoke to Wadley and Talladega and on to Birmingham. This was a boon to the farmers of Randolph County because it brought the market to them. Randolph County was primarily agricultural, and prior to the coming of the railroads, there was no way to get the produce to market except by mule and wagon. A remarkable group of men in Roanoke began to look beyond the horizon. In 2 years they saw the town almost double in population – from 350 in 1888 to 631 in 1890. By 1900 they saw it almost double again to 1,155. And 1900 was the year that 5 Roanoke men, W. A. Handley, Z. J. Wright, Henry Knight, R. L. Schuessler and Major Schuessler incorporated the W. A. Handley Manufacturing Co., which became Roanoke’s principal industry for more than 70 years. There were other industries that boosted the economy of Roanoke such as the Roanoke Guano Company, the Cotton Seed Oil Mill, the Ice Plant, and the Goodall Company that made garments. They are all gone now – victims of changing times. But other industries have come, and Roanoke continues to prosper.