Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Floyd County, VA
Floyd County is a county located in the U.S. state — officially, “Commonwealth” — of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 13,874. Its county seat is Floyd[1].
via Floyd County, Virginia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
My discovery of Floyd County came about through the online presence of Fred First and his blog Fragments From Floyd. It was during the winter of 2003 as I was looking for images and stories of the Blue Ridge Mountains that I followed a link from Marie Freeman’s Blue Ridge Blog that led to Fred. After reading and lurking at Fred’s blog for a while I started to leave comments, then exchange emails which all led to a meeting in the fall of 2007 as my wife and I visited the Virginia mountains for our anniversary. Fred and Ann were nice enough to invite us into their home and take us on a hike to enjoy their place on Goose Creek.
In the years since that initial discovery I have become blog friends with others in the Floyd blog community. Colleen at Loose Leaf Notes was first and is an everyday read. Doug’s Blue Ridge Muse was the next Floyd blogger to be added to my daily reader list. Doug’s adding my daily musing to his front page has made me feel like a long-distant member of the community. I have followed David’s settling into Floyd County living at his Ripples blog…
As we continue our plans for a move to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Floyd County and Southwest Virginia continue to be a promising area for our relocation from the Texas Gulf coast.
History
On January 15, 1831, the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act creating the present county of Floyd out of the county Montgomery. The new county was named for the then Governor of Virginia, John Floyd. The new county’s courthouse was completed in 1834. In 1870 a portion of Franklin County was added to Floyd County. The first Commonwealth’s Attorney was William Ballard Preston, a nephew of John Floyd, who would later serve as Secretary of the United States Navy. Preston was followed in later years by Jubal Early, who would later serve as a general for the Confederate Army.
The county seat of Floyd County was first called Jacksonville for Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States (1829-1837). Jacksonville was first incorporated in 1858 and then re-incorporated on February 19, 1892 to expand the town boundaries. On January 23, 1896, the General Assembly passed an Act officially changing the name of the Town of Jacksonville to the town of Floyd.
The county became a destination for those involved in the counterculture during the 1960s and 1970s particularly those who wanted to live in closer contact with nature. In the late 1990s, the Rivendell community was established by a group of Christians so they could practice a lifestyle consistent with their Reformed Churches interpretations of the Bible and also, in part, to be better isolated from possible societal disruptions caused by the Y2K computer problem. Nonetheless, the county’s location directly adjacent to both the Roanoke and the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Metropolitan Statistical Areas have contributed to modest population growth in contrast to most rural counties in Southwest Virginia. Several bloggers live in the county and frequently post observations about the community and its rural setting.
via Floyd County, Virginia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Download a longer history here. You must have Adobe Acrobat or other PDF software to view.
Populated Places
- Alum Ridge
- Burks Fork (c 1880-1930)
- Carthage
- Check
- Conners Grove
- Copper Hill
- Court House (c 1900-1920)
- Duncan
- Floyd
- Haycock
- Hemlock
- Huffville
- Indian Valley
- Laurel Branch
- Little River (c 1880-1930)
- Locust Valley (c 1900-1930)
- Mabry Mill
- Pizarro
- Poff
- Shelors Mill
- Simpsons
- Smart
- Sowers
- Terrys Fork
- Turtle Rock
- Union
- Willis
Floyd Links
Recent Posts: