Bev, I believe Licking County was laid out as a Military Tract and lands granted as you described; however, that was earlier. Stephen bought up a large portion of land from someone who had gotten it through a Military grant much earlier. Stephen had sold a large portion of land in Frederick Co., Va in 1834/35 and paid several thousands of dollars for the land he purchased outright in Ohio in 1837. When the railroad came through St. Louisville he left some of his sons their to farm the land and moved to McLean County, Illinois in the 1850s returning to St. Louisville sometime after the war. Some his children stayed in Illinois. This leaves many questions as to why when they seemed to have enough money to buy all this property for cash. Even more curious, is that Stephen and Mary Ritter were in their early 40's when they left Virginia. They owned a lot of land with quite a number of buildings on it. They paid a lot of taxes on their holdings and it seems they had ample room for their children. I wonder if their was another reason? Chocy