Embracing Generations of Memories.

The Early Years in Virginia
The early family history of the Lee/Walker reunion starts in the early 1800s in Orange Court House, Orange County, Virginia, on the Thacker Vivion Webb plantation. Orange County is in the Piedmont area of Virginia (VA) and is approximately eighty-eight miles south of Washington DC. The Thacker V. Webb plantation is in the Somerset area of Orange County. Next door to the Webb plantation is the Montpelier plantation, owned by the 4th US President, James Madison. Thacker Webb’s property was a small farm compared to Montpelier, which enslaved over five hundred people.

Emancipation and Migration

On the 1830 Orange County, Virginia Census, on the Webb farm, there was one free white male ages 50-59 (Thacker Webb), and thirty-one slaves. On the 1840 census, there was one free white male ages 60-69 (Thacker Webb) and forty-eight slaves. Eighteen slaves were employed in agriculture, and four slaves were employed in manufacture and trade. Early crops in Virginia were corn and wheat, with tobacco being the major cash crop.

The Orange County courthouse recorded the death of Thacker V. Webb on or near August 28, 1843. Thacker Webb had committed suicide. Thacker Webb never married and had no free white male heirs. In his will, he emancipated all fifty-six slaves and all future increases (children) on his farm. Dr. Charles Webb, Thacker V Webb’s brother, was the executor of the will. In his will, $4000 was divided between the fifty-six slaves to buy land.

The Journey to Ohio

Virginia legislators passed a law in 1806 that required freed slaves to leave Virginia within one year or face re-enslavement. Dr. Charles Webb hired an agent named William Moore to take the emancipated slaves to a non-slave-owning state. My ancestors walked from Orange County, VA, through Kentucky and continued to walk the Kanawha trail to the city of Point Pleasant, West Virginia (WV), located on the Ohio River. In Point Pleasant, WV, the families crossed the Ohio River to the city of Gallipolis, OH, and onto Jackson County, OH, where they settled.

Their journey, per John Milton Lee (second generation Lee), started on September 8, 1844, in Virginia, arriving in Point Pleasant, WV, on October 18, 1844. Today, the distance from Orange County, VA, to Point Pleasant, WV, is 332 miles, or about 5 hours and 35 minutes by car. William Moore purchased their land in Franklin Township, Jackson County, from the money in the Webb will.

Ohio Underground Railroad and the Lee/Walker Family

Historically, there was one Underground Railroad route that started in Virginia and ended in southern Ohio. After crossing the Ohio River at Gallipolis, OH, the ex-slaves/runaways would have followed a trail through Mount Point Pleasant to Porter, to the Rio Grande, and then to Thurman, all in Gallia County. Continuing to Berlin Cross Roads (Berlin X Roads) in Jackson County. From Jackson County, ex-slaves or runaways crossed into Ross County and traveled through Richmond Dale (Quaker settlement) and then northeast of Chillicothe through Springfield Township and finally through Pickaway County at Dresbach Station to stations east of Columbus and then to points north where underground operators helped them.

The 56 Webb farm emancipated slaves and the Rio Grande, and then to Thurman, settled in Richmond Dale, Springfield, Chillicothe, Berlin Cross Roads, Jackson County, and other towns along the Ohio Underground Railroad. Many families had homes near the area named after their surname, called “Lee Hollow.”

Legacy of the Lee/Walker Family Reunion

The first Lee-Walker Reunion met in Urbancrest, Ohio, on September 16, 1923. The Reunion has continued to meet annually in Ohio (1983 in Alabama) in September since 1923.