Monday

I am traveling to Virgina by road, mainly on US 50, one of the roads of the age old path from Virginia to Ohio.

I wonder if any of my ancestors made this trip?

It seems so.

There are so many markers alond this path, cemeteries to businesses that have been here for a long time. The native American's who lived here for many years left some good indicators of what life was like then but I have never read a really good history on it.

I am sure there is one out there and I ought to find it and read it. My friend Fred Shaw, Shawnee nation story teller is a good start.

I have heard Fred speak many times but there are so many missing parts of the history of this country. They were in the business of surviving, not writing and preserving the history they were making.

It is interesting who stayed in Virginia or wherever on the east coast and who moved on. I guess we have seen that in agriculture.

Very few sons stayed on to farm in my time of the late 1960's forward as mechinization had taken a bigger role in producing food and not as many family memmbers were needed to run a farm. That happened even earlier as my dad stayed on to farm after WWII but my uncle Roy had to find a different career.

It's been an interesting journey from Heinrich Winkle's move from Europe to Virginia and from his sons to mine here in southwest Ohio. I would imagine very few if any of a farm families children went on to farm from their arrival in America until today.

Ed