Belgreen natives pen book on county history
Three Franklin County natives have teamed up to pen a local comedy book entitled “Tall Tales and Legends of Franklin County.”
The book is currently available in digital format for Kindle on Amazon.com.
Daniel Horton, along with his wife Sharla, and best friend Bryan Rogers, decided to write the book after hearing tales and stories from their grandparents.
“We’ve heard these stories floating around for years, and thought it might be great to try to put at least some of them together in one book,” Horton said.
He also warns potential readers that this isn’t a standard history book.
“It’s a parody, but if we did a good job, it might sometimes be hard to pick out what’s true and what’s not!”
Rogers, who previously lived near the allegedly haunted Moses Hollow, said he’s heard local folklore his entire life.
“Growing up around Belgreen and Spruce Pine; I’ve heard all sorts of tales and thought it would be interesting to write down some of the stories.”
Horton said he was also very interested in digital publishing.
“There are many local books in print, but hardly any in digital form. We wanted to try out digital publishing that makes distributing these kinds of unique small books a lot easier.”
Readers who don’t have a Kindle can still download a free Kindle Reader on a Windows PC or a Mac. “We’re also going to have a version of the book available on the Barnes & Noble Nook sometime before Christmas. If it’s popular enough, we may even have a few copies printed traditionally for anyone who would like to read it that way.”
As for future projects, Horton said he is definitely open to writing more.
“My wife Sharla and I have been working on an illustrated kid’s book that tells the story of our cat who was born in Belgreen and grew up to be a successful business cat; I’d like to publish that digitally sometime next year. Sometime I’d also like to do a short book that tells the story of everything that happened to Bryan during April of this year when his house was destroyed by the Hackleburg tornado.”
Sharla Horton graduated from Belgreen High School in 2001, while Rogers and Daniel Horton graduated in 2002. The Hortons currently reside in Harvest, while Rogers resides with his wife, Lindsay, in Hamilton.
Below is an excerpt from the book:
While riding with Andrew Jackson on his trek to New Orleans, Major William Russell came across an expanse of land in Franklin County that he found fit to settle. After travelling around with Jackson on his adventures, Major Russell would return to the land to begin a settlement there. It here in 1819 that he incorporated the town and also founded Ye’ Olde Wal-Mart Supercentre.
