The next destination on my Virtual Hike was Ross County, Ohio.

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

You can see here that the route goes through the middle of Dayton.

Going through the city was the most direct route, especially as there are more bridges to cross the Great Miami River than there are in rural areas.

I usually try not to route the virtual hike through a city, but here the route goes by skyscrapers in downtown Dayton.

After passing through Dayton part of the route was on a hiking path.

The route continued through rural areas as it headed down toward Chillicothe which is the county seat of Ross County. I have several connections to Ross County, but the one I focused on was in Jefferson Township which is in the southern part of the county. It was here that my 3rd Great Grandfather, Lewis Beck, was born in 1830. He lived there until the early 1860’s before moving west to Indiana and then to Missouri.

Lewis Beck married Eliza Reynolds in 1854. The marriage took place in Pike County. The Reynolds family was from Jackson County which is just to the south of Ross County. Pike, Ross and Jackson all come together near Jefferson Township.

I am still trying to find out more about the Beck and Reynolds families. I know that they came to Ohio from Virginia, but would like to know more. If you have more information, please let me know.

I have another branch of my family that went through Ross County, but their time there was fleeting.

My next few stops will take me down into Kentucky. Some of the stops will have family connections as well as connections to early Restoration Movement History. I am still working on the route as I learn a lot more about how migration routes changed as the frontier pressed further west.

Steven

Images in this post are from Google Maps and Street View

WWRI – Written With Real Intelligence