Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Franklin County, Virginia
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== History == [[File:Franklin County Virginia historic marker.JPG|thumb|right|Franklin County historic marker, State of Virginia]] The Blue Ridge Foothills had long been inhabited by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]s. At the time of European encounter, mostly [[Siouan]]-speaking tribes lived in this area. A few colonists moved into the area before the [[American Revolutionary War]], but most settlement happened afterward, as people moved west seeking new lands. Cultivation of tobacco had exhausted soils in the eastern part of the state. The county was formed in 1785 from parts of [[Bedford County, Virginia|Bedford]] and [[Henry County, Virginia|Henry]] counties. It was named for [[Benjamin Franklin]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n130 131]}}</ref> The Piedmont and backcountry areas were largely settled by Scots-Irish, who were the last major immigrant group from the British Isles to enter the colonies before the Revolutionary War. There were also migrants from coastal areas, including [[free people of color]], who moved to the frontier to escape racial strictures associated with the slave society of Tidewater Virginia.<ref>Paul Heinegg, ''Free African Americans in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware'', 2005</ref> ===Great Moonshine Conspiracy era=== In the 20th century during [[Prohibition]], local wits named Franklin County the "[[Moonshine]] Capital of the World", as moonshine production and bootlegging drove the economy. As of 2000, the local [[chamber of commerce]] had adopted the title as a heritage identification for the area. Moonshine is still being made in the area.<ref>[http://archives.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/08/28/moonshine.ap/ "Making Illegal Liquor – and profits – in Appalachian Hills"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022041022/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/08/28/moonshine.ap/ |date=October 22, 2007 }}, [[CNN]], August 28, 2000</ref> Historians estimate that in the 1920s, 99 of every 100 Franklin County residents were in some way involved in the illegal liquor trade.<ref>''[[America: The Story of Us]]'', television documentary, 2010, [[History (U.S. TV channel)|The History Channel]]</ref> The bootleggers became involved with gangsters from Chicago and other major cities, and some local law enforcement officials were part of the criminal activities and killing of competitors.<ref name="moonshine">[http://www.blueridgeinstitute.org/moonshine/the_franklin_county_conspiracy.html ''Moonshine - Blue Ridge Style''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623224115/http://blueridgeinstitute.org/moonshine/the_franklin_county_conspiracy.html |date=June 23, 2013 }}, Blue Ridge Institute, accessed May 17, 2013</ref> "Between 1930 and 1935 local still operators and their business partners sold a volume of whiskey that would have generated $5,500,000 in excise taxes at the old 1920 tax rate."<ref name="moonshine"/> A lengthy federal investigation resulted in indictments and trials for 34 suspects in 1935 for what was called the "Great Moonshine Conspiracy," which attracted national attention. The writer [[Sherwood Anderson]] was among the many outsiders who came to cover the trial. At what was then the longest trial in state history, 31 people were convicted, but their jail sentences were relatively light (two years or less). Thirteen conspirators were sentenced only to probation.<ref name="moonshine"/> This period has recently received new attention by writers. T. Keister Greer's history ''[[The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935]]'' (2002) covered the trial and its background in the county.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060204214829/http://brtraditions.com/bkreview_moonshine.htm Review: "''The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935'' by T. Keister Greer"], ''Blue Ridge Traditions Magazine'', 2002, {{ISBN|0-9722355-1-5}} Magazine has closed down, referring to archive.org image instead.</ref> The writer [[Matt Bondurant]] had ancestors in the area, whose exploits during this period inspired his historical novel, ''[[The Wettest County in the World]]'' (2008). (The title was based on a statement by Anderson.) The book was adapted as a film, ''[[Lawless (film)|Lawless]]'', in 2012. In 2014 an historical novel with much history about the county and town came out: "Moonshine Corner, Keys to Rocky Mount," {{ISBN|9781500980115}}, by the widow of T. Keister Greer, Ibby Greer. ===Late 20th century to present=== Since the 1980s, much residential development has occurred around [[Smith Mountain Lake]]. People live there who commute to work in the urbanized areas of [[Roanoke, Virginia|Roanoke]], [[Lynchburg, Virginia|Lynchburg]], [[Martinsville, Virginia|Martinsville]], and [[Danville, Virginia|Danville]]. Retirees have also moved in, and both groups have increased the county's population.
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Franklin County, Virginia
(section)
Add topic