To continue the previous note, Abraham Thomas married Susannah Smith, the daughter of Adam Smith. Since Adam's mother was Anna Magdalena Thomas, Abraham and Susanna were first cousins once removed. Abraham's comments in the previous note can loosely be construed that the marriage of Abraham and Susannah took place at Ten Mile Creek, in present day Pennsylvania. Susannah's father, Adam, and his brothers, Zachariah and John, were all early residents of Kentucky. It appears that the Smiths went to Kentucky by first going to the vicinity of Fort Pitt, and then later down the Ohio River. There are no records after 1777 in Culpeper County, Virginia, for the three Smith men. Many members of the Thomas family also went to Kentucky.
Another early person in Kentucky was Jacob Holtzclaw, son of the 1714 immigrant Jacob Holtzclaw, who had married Susannah Thomas, the daughter of John Thomas. John Thomas was the son of the immigrant John Thomas and his wife Anna Maria Blankenbaker. Thus, Susannah Thomas, Abraham Thomas, and Susannah Smith had ancestors in common; or broadly speaking, they were fairly close cousins. Taken together, all of these related people were acting upon a common theme of first relocating to "Fort Pitt", and then moving on to Kentucky.
There is another point which shows that these people were early in considering Kentucky as a future home. Jacob Holtzclaw testified that he raised a crop of corn in Kentucky in 1775, a claim that was made by Zachariah Smith also. Zachariah's (first) wife is said to be Anne Elizabeth Fishback, who was the granddaughter of the 1714 Jacob Holtzclaw. Thus, these early immigrants to Kentucky had multiple relationships to each other.
The evidence, though scanty, says these people went to Fort Pitt, traveling a good part of the trip over Braddock's Road. Beyond Fort Pitt, there were no roads yet and the journey continued by river.
At this same time, other men were seeking to exploit the fabled treasures of the Kentucky region. A better method of travel was needed. The Transylvania Company sent Daniel Boone and a party of woodsmen in 1774 to mark out a road through southern Virginia. The work was successfully completed, at least to the extent that a trail was made. It was not until 1796 that a road existed which a team and wagon could use. This trail or road led to the vicinity of Boonesboro, Lexington, and Harrodsburg. The route became known as the Wilderness Road. Its eastern terminus was Big Lick, now known as Roanoke, on the Great Valley, or Great Wagon, Road in Virginia. At Big Lick, one could branch toward Salem, North Carolina. By taking the Wilderness Road from Big Lick, one had the option at Bristol of choosing between Tennessee or Kentucky. (Though I name states and cities in these early days, they were not always in existence yet.)
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.