Lonnie wrote:

>According to family legend... James Johnson Brown (1819-1883) of
>Howardsville owned two passenger canal boats named "Rosa" and "Laura or
>Laurie" for his two daughters. This has never been proven, it is only family
>folklore. But, he did own and operate a local general store in Howardsville
>and he owned a lot very close to the lock at Howardsville, but did not live
>there.
>
Speaking as a trained folklorist, and paraphrasing C. S. Lewis, never
say "only ... folklore."  Folklore is what it is; that doesn't mean it's
wrong.  Your family folklore is probably reliable.

Pardon me while I rant---this isn't directed at any person in particular
. . . Another pet peeve of folklorists is the use of "myth" when the
writer means "legend," as in the "myth of Mosby."  Even worse is "myth"
as in "untruth."  As Lewis, Tillich, Campbell, and a whole host of
theologians and cultural and symbolic anthropologists have long argued,
myth (as strictly defined) is "truer" on some levels than empirical
fact.  Jesus is arguably more important, and truer, as myth than as
history.  That's why many Christian theologians discount the search for
the "historical" Jesus to be largely irrelevant to faith or theology.

Historians have a bad habit of discounting oral accounts altogether if
they can't be corroborated, or have been contradicted by more
"authoritative" sources.  Even "false" accounts have value as
ethnographic or cultural data.  The legend often says more about
community values, mores, and beliefs than the "factual" history.  This
does not, however, mean that folklorists can't tell the difference
between folklore and history.  Just that each must be evaluated
objectively on its own terms.

End of rant.  By the way, Howardsville's a lovely town, despite being
mostly washed away by Camille in '69.

--
Dr. Douglas Day
Executive Director
Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society
The McIntire Building
200 Second Street, NE
Charlottesville, Va. 22902-5245
434.296.1492
fax 434.296-4576
<albemarlehistory.org>
<charlottesvillehistory.org>

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