I believe at one point it was. Nice people down there, beautiful scenery, lots of recreation opportunities, esp. if you like boating, hiking, camping. Nice place to rear children or retire. Decent weather-you get a winter, but it’s not severe. Rocky Mount, VA is a nice old fashioned town. Close enough to Roanoke for medical needs or big time shopping, but still rural. Blue Ridge Parkway is close.
Very beautiful area, Blue Ridge Mountains. I was looking for some ancestral graves (my people left there in the 1830s for less scenic places where they had a better shot at making a living)...the guy who told me that about Franklin County was some kind of distant cousin whom I happened to run into (hadn’t met before but could tell by his surname). I don’t know how practical it is to move there if you aren’t retired and need to make a living.