Very interesting. I never lived in Adams Co but I did live in the Dayton area. We drove around a lot of southern Ohio. I wish I had read this before we had gone then. It would have made us look at the land with a new eye. Thanks for this information. Linda --- hermfagley@juno.com wrote: > The 1st roads were traces following buffalo > trails,and Indian paths. Salt > lick to salt lick,to big spring. In some > places,wagons could not follow > these traces. Zane's Trace was soon relocated thru > Bainbridge to miss > crossing a Sunfish mt. A more gradual road for > wagons was needed up > Maysville hill,. Williamsburg and Bethel were > located on the Bullskin > Trace [RT 133,in places] .It had to be relocated to > present RT 133 from > Bethel-Concord Rd. > West Union was nearly on Zane's Trace. There was no > Georgetown til > 1819,so the road between 1798 Bethel,and 1802 West > Union passed well > north of Georgetown. White Oak Valley likely. County > seats got the early > roads,as did the early grist mills and churches. > 'OLD STATE RD + rt 774 > was a road between Williamsburg,and the mills at > WHITE OAK-there was no > MT ORAB or Sardenia. > An early 'state " ' nw territory" road ran between > Cincinnati,and > williamsburg,and NEW MARKET,and Chilicothe. Soon,it > was replaced -1805 > era, by ANDERSON STATE ROAD. In Clermont,it crossed > from RT 32 TO RT 50 > about TEALTOWN Rd,and joined RT 50 NEAR RT 222. It > followed,roughly,RT > 50 TO FAYETTEVILLE, then ran about 2-3 miles norh of > RT 50 ACROSS > HIGHLAND CO. It followed RT 50 again in ROSS cO. Old > Anderson State Rd > thru Highland runs thru a deep groove,where the mud > was tracted out > several feet deep. > You can see the old roads running to grist mills on > the 1870 atlas. Many > of the connecting roads did not survivie to the > automobile era for lack > of needed bridges. Grist mills were located where > the creeks provided > water power,not necessarrily where the creeks hills > were gradual. Many > modern roads still follow the roads to mills. Many. > The 1st churches > soon found themselves at cross-roads,as road were > built to get to church. > > Getting across the Little Miami River seems a > problem for stagecoaches > running fron West Union,and Bethel,to Cincinnati. At > least at times, they > forded the river someplace well north of Milfod,and > went via Montgomery > village and Montgonery Road. [Drove twice the > miles..] > Grist mills were the 'towns" often. Stills were > there. Tanneries and > blacksmith's. A small store. But,they were dependant > on water power, > which lessened,as the swamps up-creek were drained > and farmed. Many were > not on sites that allowd more than a cluster of > houses. > MILFORD,PERINTOWN,BATAVIA,WILLIAMSBURG are towns > that survivied the loss > of water-power. Steam became the mill's power in the > 1830-40 era. > Bethel,Amelia,New Richmond,Felicity,PT ISABEL,c had > steam mills, but not > the earlier water mills. > For those of you not local, there are many places > where the Ohio River > hills,or the hills along major creeks are too steep > to be passable by > wagon. But,most often,a more gradual hill can be > found within a couple > miles. > > ___________________________________________________________________ > Get the Internet just the way you want it. > Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access > for a month! > Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. > > > ==== OHADAMS Mailing List ==== > Help Instructions at: > http://www.zoomnet.net/~chipmunk/SurnamesMail.html > or contact Betty at: chipmunk@zoomnet.net > Archives: > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?surname=OHAdams > Your gracious donations to RootsWeb makes this all > possible!! > Rootsweb: http://www.rootsweb.com/ > > _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com