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> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html