Rocky Mount is a town in and the county seat of Franklin County, Virginia, United States. The town is part of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area, and had a population of 4,903 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the Roanoke Region of Virginia.
History
Robert Hill built a block house (fortified residence and trading post) in the 1740s, for trading with Native Americans. English settlers did not arrive until 1760. They named Rocky Mount for a steep cliff near the town. The area originally consisted of two adjacent villages, Rocky Mount and Mount Pleasant.
Washington Iron Furnace was built by James Callaway and Jeremiah Early; its site was on what is now Main Street. It was operated by Callaway's heirs and Peter Saunders until 1850, when it was damaged by a flood. Repairs and rebuilding were stopped by the breakout of Civil War.
The first court session was held at Rocky Mount in 1786 following the Revolutionary War. It was held in Callaway's home until he deeded land to the town on which to build the courthouse. The first was made of logs. Rocky Mount was assigned a post office in 1795.
The town was divided into lots in 1804. Jeremiah's son John Early represented the county (part-time) in the Virginia House of Delegates and served as sheriff. He operated a plantation nearby. The courthouse was replaced in 1831.
By 1836 the iron furnace employed 100 people. The town had about 275 residents; it had 30 houses and several businesses, including three grocery stores and a newspaper/printing office. The oldest dwelling is "Mount Pleasant", built overlooking the courthouse in 1829 for Caleb Tate (the court clerk for nearly 40 years, from 1797-1835). Its detached brick kitchen, built circa 1820, is the oldest building in town. The Rocky Mount Turnpike Company incorporated in 1846 and a bank was founded shortly afterward, but neither prospered.
During the Civil War, numerous planter families from the Tidewater region sought refuge in Rocky Mount. Many brought numerous African American slaves with them, in part trying to ensure they did not escape to Union forces. Among these were the immediate past governor, Henry A. Wise, who settled his family here from his plantation on the Elizabeth River before he started serving as a Confederate general. Jubal Anderson Early, who became a Confederate general during the war, was born on a plantation nearby. Before the war, he served one term representing Franklin County in the Virginia House of Delegates and more than a decade as Commonwealth's attorney (prosecutor). After the war, he resumed his legal practice here and in Lynchburg, Virginia. His office building in Rocky Mount was demolished in 1937.
The only building constructed in that era that survives today was built for Dr. Thomas Greer in 1861. Two other buildings constructed in 1850-1854 and used as law offices still survive.
The town's clerk, Robert A. Scott, issued scrip to assist families of Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. The Confederate government requisitioned slaves from various planters in the county to work on Richmond's defenses. Rocky Mount had no battles, although Union Gen. George Stoneman and troops passed through the county in the war's final days.
In 1867, the Freedmen's Bureau under William F. DeKnight opened a Sunday school in Rocky Mount; about a third of the residents were African American freedmen. No day school was established for freedmen's children until much later. Booker Taliaferro Washington was born enslaved in Franklin County. After the war, his mother moved with him to the free state of West Virginia for his education. He later studied at the Hampton Institute, established in eastern Virginia for the education of blacks.
The area's major cash crop both before and after the Civil War was tobacco. In 1873, Rocky Mount incorporated as a town and absorbed the smaller village of Mount Pleasant, establishing its present boundaries. Former court clerk Robert Scott was elected as the first mayor.
Rocky Mount's population was about 400 people in 1870, 600 in 1897, and about 1100 in 1920. In 1880, the Franklin and Pittsylvania Railroad connected Rocky Mount to Danville and Lynchburg via Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Most of the buildings in town burned in a destructive fire in 1889.
Another railroad was constructed through town about 1892, and stimulated industrial and commercial development. The railroad (known as the Norfolk and Western Railway) was nicknamed the "Pumpkin Vine" because of its route between Roanoke, Virginia and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Canadawas y Mills (a gristmill and box factory) was built in 1898.