Some information about the WOLFTOWN, GRAVES MILL, and JONES MOUNTAIN area in the 1700's in Culpeper, now Madison County. There's an on-line copy of an application to make GRAVES MILL a National Historical Site. It gives interesting background history of the grist mill and the community surrounding it beginning in the 1700's. http://state.vipnet.org/dhr/registers/Counties/Madison/056-0015_GravesMill_NRdraft_2006.pdf GRAVES Mill was originally called JONES Mill, built by David and Elizabeth JONES in the 1740's. The land is at the southeastern foot of JONES Mountain. Thomas STANTON built the first mill in the area in the 1720's. Other early settlers were John EDDINS, John BUSH, George SIMMONS, Francis CONWAY, and Francis KIRTLEY--I'm thinking "KIRTLEY ROAD" might have been named for him. (These names are from the book mentioned below.) Some family names that I recognized from the 1700's were still there 100 years later on a Civil War era map showing names of the property owners. These included GRAVES, EDDINS, JARRELL, EARLY, SIMPSON, BERRY, GOODALL, WALKER, and CONWAY. (The map is at http://rs6.loc.gov/ - enter search for "Madison County, VA" and choose first map.) GRAVES Mill is about 5 miles north of Wolftown up State Road 662. The first settlers used old Indian trails that led from that region up over JONES Mountain and present-day Shenandoah National Park. There's an very fine book about the early settlement of this area called "Lost Trails and Forgotten People: The Story of JONES Mountain" by Tom Floyd. It's published by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) and can be ordered from them at http://www.patc.net/store/PC230.htm I've found that CAVES FORD was on the Rapidan River at the boundary of present-day Madison and Orange County just below Madison Mills, VA. (It is clearly marked on the Civil War map mentioned above--it's where the river looks like an inverted "V" in the southeast portion of the county.) I welcome additional information and/or corrections about the people and places in this area. Thanks -- Joan Joan Horsley <[email protected]> wrote: I have a 1775 Culpeper County deed for my ancestor Benjamin Davis of Bromfield Parish. I'd like to know more about the roads and people mentioned in the deed. The description is: In the fork of the Robinson and Rapid Ann (Rapidan) Rivers On the "ROAD that led from the mountains to CAVES FORD on the Rapid Ann River" Bounded by Thomas TERRY, John SIMPSON, Thomas SAMPSON, and John FORRESTER On KIRTLEY's ROAD Purchased 1775 from William WALKER and wife Anne Sold 1790 by Benjamin DAVIS & wife Mary (possibly BUSH) to Joel GRAVES. (I think the land was near Graves Mill which had a sawmill nearby--Benjamin was a carpenter.). In addition to the names above, does anyone have other ancestors who lived in this area? Thanks for your help. -- Joan ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message