Before continuing with the discussion of road building, let's look at one use of Braddock's Road. The story is told by Abraham Thomas, who used the road at an early date. He was the son of Michael Thomas and an unknown wife of Culpeper County, Virginia. Michael was the son of John Thomas and Anna Maria Blankenbaker. Abraham Thomas gave this report for a newspaper in Ohio late in his life, and it has been saved among the Draper manuscripts. In Abraham's words:
"The first of my recollections go back to the time when I was a chunk of a boy, sent out by my father, in company with an older brother, from Culpeper County, Virginia, to drive a flock of sheep to land purchased by my father at the mouth of Ten Mile Creek, above old Red Stone Fort, distant about 150 miles, we remained there alone through the winter, living as best we could, principally from our own resources; some of our relations having before settled in the neighborhood. The Indians often came to our cabin, and behaved civilly enough, as we were then at peace; but I both feared and hated them, for young mind had thus early been alarmed and irritated by tales of their thieving and bloody barbarities within our frontier settlements.
"Early in the summer of 1774, that preceding the Revolutionary War, the Indians had made a new treaty at Ft. Pitt, but the settlers from their surliness of manner, dreaded some outbreak with them. In the latter month of the year 1775, being then nineteen years old, I was married and set up for myself, as at that time, this or an earlier age, was deemed suitable for this interesting connection.
"From 1776 to 1779 the Revolutionary war was raging and the frontier inhabitants were in constant apprehension from Indians and Tories.
"The whole country was now ringing from one end to the other of the beautiful Kentucky and the banks of the pleasant Ohio; those who had been there gave the most enticing accounts of its beauty, fertility and abundance of game. The Buffalo, Elk, Deer and Bear were said to be rollin fat and weary for the rifle shot. Early in the spring of 1780, forty of us prepared a flat boat and descended the Ohio to the falls, where General Clark had established a strong fort and garrison."
It would be interesting to know how old a chunk of a boy would have been. By implication, one did things at an early age. If we said a "chunk" was equal to thirteen years, then Abraham arrived about 1769. He already had relatives there, mostly likely his sister Margaret, who had married Everhard Hupp and moved from Culpeper County. Hupp had a land grant there in 1766. In this same year, George Bumgarner and Abraham Teagarden came from (lower) Virginia. Margaret Hupp, wife of Everhard Hupp, is said to have been the first known white woman west of the Monongahela River. The march to the west had begun from Culpeper County.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.