The next destination on my Virtual Hike was Clay Township, Ohio.

The previous destination on my virtual hike was Scioto Township, Ohio

You can see here that Clay Township is just northwest of Dayton.

The route from Scioto followed two lane highways with fields along the side.

There were some more populated areas, especially just above Dayton, but mostly it was through rural areas.

Clay Township is in Montgomery County, Ohio and one of the small towns in the township is Phillipsburg. Some of my Thomas ancestors lived to the west of this small town. The image above is of the Phillipsburg Christian Cemetery which was by what was the original Phillipsburg Christian Church. Some of the members of the Thomas family are buried in the cemetery.

The Phillipsburg Christian Church was organized in 1842 by Elisha Ashby and Elijah Williamson. Today the building above houses a Baptist church. This building was a second building which was built in the 1870’s.

My 4th Great Grandmother’s nephew Caleb Thomas helped build the current building, and was a member of the Christian Church. When he was a young man he had lived near his uncle Absalom Leeper in Iowa who was one of the first Restoration Movement preachers in Iowa.

Here is a field that is near where the Thomas family lived in Clay Township.

My 4th Great Grandfather Absalom Leeper married Mary Elizabeth Thomas there in 1823. The Thomas family were Quakers, and had come from South Carolina to the area. Absalom was born in Pennsylvania and had lived in Osnaburg, Ohio.

Shortly after 1830 they moved to South Bend, Indiana for a short time before continuing on to Iowa in 1836.

In 1836 Absolom Leeper helped organize the Pleasant Hill Church of Christ near Washington, Iowa. He was the preacher there for many years. Today the congregation is known as the Pleasant Hill Christian Church and is the oldest existing Restoration Movement Congregation in Iowa.

My next few stops will have family connections. I have been working on the route so that I can include as many family locations as possible along the way. Of course, I am also finding new research opportunities as I go and am learning more about migration routes as the frontier pressed further west.

Steven

Images in this post are from Google Maps and Street View

WWRI – Written With Real Intelligence