Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 10, 1995                   TAG: 9507100111
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOOK DETAILS 200 YEARS OF FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORY

So's Booker T. Washington.

And so's just about everyone else from G.W. Abell to Michael Zeigler.

``Franklin County, Virginia 1786-1986: A Bicentennial History'' is a 552-page account - with pictures - of the people, places and happenings that make the county unique.

The comprehensive history was the idea - and centerpiece project - of a county Bicentennial Commission that was formed to shape Franklin's 200th birthday celebration nine years ago.

The commission contracted the husband-and-wife team of John S. and Emily J. Salmon of Richmond to write the book. John Salmon is the staff historian at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. His wife is a historian and editor at the Virginia State Library and Archives.

Since it was published in 1993, the Salmons' book has won several awards.

The most recent was a certificate of commendation from the American Association for State and Local History - an award established in 1945 to recognize historical preservation and interpretation.

Ervin L. Jordan, author of ``Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia,'' recently read the county's history and praised it for its handling of slave and race issues, according to Francis Amos of Rocky Mount, who wrote the book's forward.

Gary Gallagher, chairman of the history department at Penn State and a nationally known Civil War historian, said it was one of the best local histories he had read, according to Morris Law, who is responsible for the marketing and sales of the publication.

Law said 4,000 copies of the book were initially printed and 2,275 have been sold.

The book can be purchased for $31 at the county treasurer's office inside the Franklin County courthouse.

G.W. Abell, by the way, was a pastor at Snow Creek Christian Church before the Civil War. And Michael Zeigler owned the only sawmill in Franklin County in 1850.