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Ashley D. Million
Folklore in Literature
November 1, 2009
The History of Buchanan County, Virginia Used in Oral History
In her novel Oral History, Lee Smith lists the source Looking Back One Hundred Years, A Brief
Story of Buchanan County and Its People by Hannibal Albert Compton as invaluable to the construction
of her book. This source was created as a centennial marking of the formation of Buchanan County,
Virginia which was formed in 1858. One hundred years later Compton consented to “put down in print a
few chronicles about this rugged area know as Buchanan County and the rugged men and women who
have made it what it is” (Foreword). Compton candidly admits that he promises few statistics, exact
dates, or even research in his story of the history of his county, and he reiterates several times
throughout the book that the county’s records and archives were destroyed by a fire long before he was
born. Therefore, this history of Buchanan County was formed by Compton’s general knowledge of the
area, having grown up there, and stories of the region passed down by his father and other long
standing inhabitants.
In “A Reader’s Guide” added to Oral History a Novel in 2003, Smith confesses, “What I wanted to
do here was to tell the truth—or a lot of truths—about the wonderful and interesting part of the
country I come from. But the thought of actually writing history terrified me because how are you ever
going to know what’s really true and what’s not?” (“A Conversation with Lee Smith”). This “terror”
probably came from reading A Brief Story of Buchanan County. Even though Compton gives descriptions
of the Buchanan County’s landscape, location, people, occupational lore, and mountain life progression
as Smith does, his writing is just that—descriptions—that are painfully lacking in heart and voice. The
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folkways and real people of Buchanan County that Compton describes seem disembodied and dry due
to his awkward attempt at constructing a formal historical account without formal evidence. Perhaps,
the most significant use of A Brief Story of Buchanan County in Oral History was to utilize it as a type of
anti-model of how not to capture the rich history of a region that Smith holds so dear to her heart.
However, a few parallels can be drawn from Compton’s history that contributed to Smith’s setting and
characters.
The most transparent of these parallels is the actual setting of the novel. The county, as
explained in A Brief Story of Buchanan County, lies in the southwestern part of Virginia. It is bounded on
the north by West Virginia on the south by Russell County ,VA, on the east by Tazewell, VA, and on
northwest by Kentucky. Smith captures this location in the sober chapter, “At the Burying Ground”, she
writes, “A steady wind rises from the gorge far below, where Big Sandy River flows through the
Breaks…the wind comes up. It blows across this grassy bald, this burial ground…a hawk circles lazily,
slowly, over Kentucky” (92). As with this description, many of the named creeks and corners found in
the novel are accurate with the true names of such places as Grassy creek, Big Rock, Sandy and Tug.
Smith may have also used A Brief Story of Buchanan County to gain further insight into the
rugged mountain way of life in its earlier years. Compton reports, “During the Civil War the people of
the County had a very hard time. The bare necessities of life were either impossible to obtain, or could
not be afforded. Wheat flour was so scarce and costly that is was dispensed with. What few biscuits they
had were made from the flour of their own wheat…” (16). He goes on to state that homes were few and
far between, and if a neighbor lived five miles away, he was considered too close. Also, the county had
“no industries [at the time of its organization] but farming, ranging stock in the woods, hunting, and
trapping and digging ginseng and other herbs” (Compton 14). Smith purposely does not give tedious
details about what type of farming, hunting, and gathering takes place in Hoot Owl Holler, but rather,
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she imbeds these inlaid ways of life into almost every scene. The characters cannot be separated from
their self-sufficient way of life—their work is their character. Smith’s descriptions of farming have a
idealistic quality, “Almarine was a-plowing with a bull-tongue plow hitched onto one of his mules…Red
Emmy walked behind him with corn in her apron…the dogwood trees were a blooming…Emmy’s red hair
all around an she was so pretty…”(51). Throughout the novel, Smith’s descriptions of farming life have a
pastoral feel —her characters seem to live in a self-contained, isolated dream.
A Brief Story of Buchanan County may have also been used as guide to intertwine the formation
of the coal and lumber industries into her timeline. Both “historians” give their accounts of these
formations, but the tone of each account is strikingly dissimilar. Compton’s tone seems to be one of
recognition and appreciation. He writes, “It is fitting that much attention to coal [in this book] should be
given because insofar as is now know, it is the only paying commodity which Buchanan County may offer
to the public…after the merchantable timber was all cut there remained but one commodity and that
was coal” (87). He goes on to write how the railroad played a major part in bringing a “much needed”
industry to the area. His gratitude for this hard and dangerous industry probably derives from his
knowledge of the poor inhabitants of the community. Still today, Buchanan County remains the poorest
county in Virginia and one of the top 100 poorest counties in the U.S. In 2007, 21.7 percent of Buchanan
County’s population were classified as being below poverty level (compared to the 9.9 state-wide
percentage), and the median value of housing units in 2000 was a mere $55, 400 (U.S. Census Bureau).
Smith, on the other hand, seems to have a different view of the harsh industries. When Richard
Burlage makes his nostalgic trip back to Hoot Owl Holler, we see Smith’s views of the progression that
has been make. Richard journals, “I found myself astounded by the changes along the road. Tiny ugly
frame houses…replaced the log cabins…I noted lumber stripped the and the land left, machine parts
everywhere, rusting, trash…even the creek itself looked different, brown and swollen…”(Smith 224). He
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then goes on to photograph Blackey Coal camp which occupied the entire holler where Granny Younger
used to live. He captures the ugly jumble of coal cars, makeshift offices, railroad debris, and notes, “the
air was acrid, sulfurous…smoking, always on fire” (Smith 225). The absence of the elder trees and the
presence of the blackness of the coal camps is the settings turning point. The reader cannot envision the
changes of the landscape until it is seen through the eyes of a foreigner. Up until this account of the
changing backdrop, the reader imagines a certain magical appeal of the mountain’s beauty and
ruggedness. But, like the many of the characters, charm turns to trash and beauty is raped—the
mountains are stripped away of their enchantment.
In addition to the setting of the novel, Smith may have also used the source for inspiration in
creating certain characters. For instance, Compton tells of the first schools in the area, “The only
educational institutions were the old-time subscription schools, which were usually taught in winter,
when the boys and girls were not too busy with the farm work. It was the ordinary custom for [the
school master] to board around among his patrons” (14). Having grown up in the area, I’m positive that
when Smith read about this custom, she had a humorous vision of “city folk” being put up in houses that
were far from their former residence. When Richard Burlage makes his “pilgrimage to a simpler era,” he
is unceremoniously housed with a local family. He logs, “I have no privacy at all in the Justice cabin,
where, according to long-standing custom, everyone sleeps in one room. The food there is abominable:
boiled beef, tough as brogans; think flat peas; sticky yams…and ubiquitous cornbread which appears at
every meal” (114). He becomes so unhappy with his living arrangement that he moves into the
schoolhouse he is teaching in. With this move, Smith is reiterating Richard’s inability to assimilate in this
backwards mountain community.
Another occupation that Smith may have found in A Brief Story of Buchanan County is that of
midwives. Under his section “Doctors,” Compton briefly comments that, “In the County’s very earliest
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days we had no doctors, but a few midwives, who, besides taking care of the births, administered their
herb brews, their poultices and their teas” (24). It’s through a midwife, Granny Younger, that we hear
the haunting tale of Almarine and his Red Emmy, get rich descriptions of her beloved home, and witness
the heartache that comes with living in such a rugged area. Therefore, the reader can infer what an
important part Granny Younger, and midwives in general, played in the Appalachia.
Whether as an anti-model or inspiration for the setting and characters in her book, Lee Smith
intertwines Looking Back One Hundred Years, A Brief Story of Buchanan County and Its People
seamlessly into her entrancing novel. It is hard to tell where Buchanan County ends and the “fictional”
Hoot Owl Holler begins. The voices, folklore, scenery, and real historical progression of the county are
interwoven in such a way that the reader loses sight of the fiction in order to see the truth of what it
means to be from Smith country.
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Works Cited
"Buchanan County, Virginia". U.S. Cencus Bureau. 10/ 22/ 2009
<http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51027.html>.
Compton, Hannibal. Looking Back One Hundred Years, A Brief Story of Buchanan County and Its
People. Virginia: Chamber of Commerce, 1958.
Smith, Lee. Oral History a Novel. New York: Random House , 1983.