| Southern Appalachia in the late 1800s enjoyed a vital, stable, relatively homogeneous society as close to the Jeffersonian yeoman ideal as anywhere in rural America. In the last generation of the 19th and the first of the 20th century it felt the effect of both internal and external pressures. Demographic change from natural increase made farm land increasingly difficult to obtain. At the same time, outside capitalist forces penetrated the region in search of cheap natural resources. Commercial development required cost-efficient transportation.;Railroads brought with them outside capital, resource exploitation, limited industrialization, a town building boom, and a significant loss of economic and political autonomy. Town building and town persistence provides one of the best available insights into the turn of the century upheaval. This study examines eight towns in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia in and around Carroll and Grayson Counties roughly between 1880 and 1920. They include two county seats, Hillsville and Independence, two timber towns, Damascus and Troutdale, two iron towns, Ivanhoe and Sylvatus, and two manufacturing towns, Fries and Galax.;Three factors predicted the growth and persistence of these towns. They needed suitable transportation. Complex economic activity increased the likelihood of survival. Persistence was inversely related to how far away the investment capital came from. These elements bolster the internal colonial model of Appalachian history. Finally, social and cultural change was less than expected. |
