Excerpt: Politics in Smoke Hole
"Notwithstanding the comparative isolation from daily events, the Smoke Hole resident takes a keen interest in governmental affairs and goes to some lengths to express his political convictions at the polls.
"Along with occasional Saturday night jaunts to Petersburg or Franklin, one of his choicest entertainments consists of gathering in jeans-clad groups on Saturday and Sunday afternoons in Shreve's store, there to discuss crops, hunting, and politics. The political situation in the Smoke Hole is certainly unusual; until a few years ago it was said the Smoke Hole had 'only one Democrat and lightnin' killed him,' but recently there has been some swing of political allegiances. There are 113 registered voters in the Smoke Hole, and of these 81 are members of one of seven families, all early settlers, the Alts, Ayres, Judys, Kimbles, Selfs, Shreves, and Shirks, with the Kimble clan alone boasting 29 votes."
Source: Smoke Hole and Its People, West Virginia Writers' Project (1940).
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