Washington Iron Furnace was built by James Callaway and Jeremiah Early; its site was on what is now Main Street.

Jeremiah's son John Early represented the county (part-time) in the Virginia House of Delegates and served as sheriff.

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).

The Rocky Mount Turnpike Company incorporated in 1846 and a bank was founded shortly afterward, but neither prospered.

[4] During the Civil War, numerous planter families from the Tidewater region sought refuge in Rocky Mount.

Many brought numerous black American slaves with them, in part trying to ensure they did not escape to Union forces.

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).

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.

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.

Nathanial V. Angle, a former schoolteacher who became an entrepreneur, built the Bald Knob furniture factory in 1903.

Only the Lodge Rooms (Colored), built in 1900, remains of the former thriving black American community on West Court Street.

The furniture and textile workers needed housing, and contractors also built more elaborate (including Victorian-style) dwellings for managers and professionals.

Rocky Mount is roughly halfway between Roanoke and Martinsville, Virginia, which likewise developed furniture manufacturing and textile industries early in the 20th century.

The present Franklin County courthouse was constructed in 1909 (two years after the Norfolk and Western freight and passenger station).

In 1915, Rocky Mount appropriated $2,200 to build an eight-room brick school for white students, complete with central heating and indoor plumbing.

The same year black residents built Rocky Mount Colored School and dormitory, at their own expense, on Bald Knob outside the town limits.

In 1952 it donated 6 acres of land on which to build a modern, four-room school for black students.

It was operated until 1966, when the U.S. Supreme Court found subsidies for segregated schools (much used by the county's white schoolchildren) to be unconstitutional.

Before World War II, Rocky Mount's industries included a silk mill and a door and sash window factory, in addition to Angle's furniture company.

The library, constructed in 1940, was one of ten funded by an anonymous donor in rural Virginia counties in that era.

The county's administration building, built in 1967, is along the same street and is named for Virgil Goode Sr., former Virginia House delegate and Commonwealth's attorney.

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.