Voices of Franklin County

Books about regional history have been popular at Mountain Spirits since its beginning. For the Oct. 4, 2014, "Meet the Authors" event in the Franklin County, genealogist and local historian Beverly Merritt will have her new book, Voices from Franklin County 1861–1865.

The book is a collection of snippets of area Civil War history gleamed from private letters, newspaper articles, court records, and other sources. In the introduction, the authors state: " This book is an attempt to tell the story of the impact the Civil War had on families in Franklin County, Virginia. It is not meant to be a reference book but a guide for future research." Because the index contains numerous names of county residents, the book could be very helpful to those researching their families.

 The back of the book:

Especially interesting are the letters written by individuals to members of their family.

Franklin County was spared destruction during the Civil War, but rumors abounded nonetheless. On page 116, a June 20, 1864, letter from Mary A. Angle of Union Hall to "Stumpy Angle" in Henry addresses some of the rumors about Yankee destruction in the area.

While Voices of Franklin County, Virginia is a book that you'll want to look at, Beverly Merritt will have several other books, too.

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Down Home Cook Books 2012

Visitors to the 2012 authors' tent will find some interesting down-home cookbooks available. Two cookbook authors returning from last year will be Libby Bondurant and Peggy Shifflett.

Libby will have copies of her popular Grazing Along the Crooked Road, a collection of recipes and the stories behind them from along the 253-mile long SW Virginia's music heritage trail, the Crooked Road. A sample recipe is here. UPDATE: Libby will be unable to attend because of another commitment.

Peggy will have copies of Mom's Family Pie: Memories of Food Traditions and Family in Appalachia (as well as her other two books). Peggy's book is a collection of family recipes and the stories behind them. This year, Peggy's sister-in-law Hilda will join her. Hilda will be selling some of her baked goods featured in the book.

Even though Charles Lytton's memoir, The New River: bonnets, apple butter, and moonshine, isn't exactly a cookbook, it has plenty of down-home recipes. Plus, he'll have his new book, The Cool Side of the Pillow, with him.

Charles Lytton at the 2012 Galax festival

Another book with both stories and recipes is Franklin County True Stories, Letters, and Recipes from the Grapevine, by Edith Sigmon and Beverly Merritt. Folks who enjoy local history should find this book interesting.

New to this year's festival will be the Sweet Potatoes ladies from Winston-Salem, NC, with their cookbook, Well, Shut My Mouth! UPDATE: The Sweet Potatoes will be unable to attend because of family illness.

These authors of the cookbook, who have a restaurant in Winston-Salem, were also at Galax.

They were a big hit at Galax, where did a cooking demo and had samples of their sweet potato biscuits. 

A few more cookbooks might also be available at the festival. Y'all stop by on September 29 and have a taste of what's available.

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Regional History

Several books dealing with regional history be available at the Mountain Spirits Arts Festival. Among them are two books about Franklin County history by the late T. Keister Greer.

You can read more about The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935 in this 1991 Roanoke Times article.

The Franklin County Historical Society will have two tables of a selection of its Franklin County books (which are also on sale at the Historical Society headquarters).

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