[4] The Piedmont and backcountry areas were largely settled by Scots-Irish, who were the last major immigrant group from the British Isles to enter the colonies before the Revolutionary War.

There were also migrants from coastal areas, including free people of color, who moved to the frontier to escape racial strictures associated with the slave society of Virginia.

[6] Historians estimate that in the 1920s, 99 of every 100 Franklin County residents were in some way involved in the illegal liquor trade.

[7] The bootleggers became involved with gangsters from Chicago and other major cities, and some local law enforcement officials were part of the criminal activities and killing of competitors.

"[8] A lengthy federal investigation resulted in indictments and trials for 34 suspects in 1935 for what was called the "Great Moonshine Conspiracy," which attracted national attention.

At what was then the longest trial in state history, 31 people were convicted, but their jail sentences were relatively light (two years or less).

[9] The writer Matt Bondurant had ancestors in the area, whose exploits during this period inspired his historical novel, The Wettest County in the World (2008).

People live there who commute to work in the urbanized areas of Roanoke, Lynchburg, Martinsville, and Danville.

The county is divided into supervisor districts; a few are: Blackwater, Blue Ridge, Boones Mill, Gills Creek, Rocky Mount, Snow Creek, Union Hall, Ferrum, Glade Hill, Penhook, and Callaway As of the census[17] of 2000, there were 47,286 people, 18,963 households, and 13,918 families residing in the county.

Franklin is represented by Republicans David Suetterlein and Bill Stanley in the Virginia Senate, Republicans Wren Williams and Kathy Byron in the Virginia House of Delegates, and Morgan Griffith in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The school has now become a church parish, Center for Lifelong Learning and summer camp operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia.