Ohio State Route 772

Even though there are no vestiges of the farm left, in May 2015 I drove down Ohio State Route 772 from Chillicothe towards Waverly.  Why?  Because about fourteen miles south of Chillicothe was where James Madison Hemings had his farm.  So I set out to explore where the farm had been...

I had previously asked a local historian what she knew about the Hemings' home farm.  She knew where the farm was located because her uncle lived in a house on the property when she was a child.  Her uncle had also used another structure which had obviously been a house on that property as a barn. She had milked cows in the "barn".  She remembered standing at the foot of what remained of the stairs wondering how that house could become a barn.  Her uncle used what was left of the second floor to store hay.  It wasn't until she was an adult and did some research on the property that she discovered it had been Madison Hemings' farm.

State Route 772 (SR 772) is a north–south state highway in the south-central portion of Ohio. 

The drive was very scenic, rolling over hills, winding through townships with names I had seen in my US Federal Census research to find where and when my ancestors lived:

Background:

Madison Hemings settled in Pike County Ohio, near the border of Ross County.  Madison earned a living working as a carpenter, hired first by Joseph Sewell to build a house in Waverly, and continued in the carpentry business by building Bizzleport No. 2 and doing joiners work on a store that became known as the Emmitt House Restaurant.

Madison chose as the site for his permanent home, a hill in Huntington Township, in Ross County, where he moved his family in 1849.  In addition to a two-story house, he built a summer kitchen and a barn.  Madison planted an apple orchard on the property.  He and his wife, Mary McCoy, raised their children in that house and it was in this community that they went to school, church and joined in other community activities.  

Madison was known by his neighbors for his honest business dealings.  The Malone family, sold seed corn to Madison and their family oral tradition states that Madison's word was his bond no written receipt was needed when dealing with him.

It was widely accepted that Madison was the son of Thomas Jefferson and considered to bear a resemblance to him.  This was noted on the 1950 US Census.  Some of his neighbors called him Junior President.