Shep's Place Family Tree

When Thomas' father Joseph died in 1816 he divided his farm between sons James and Joseph and named them executors to his will. Thomas seems to have distanced himself from his father; perhaps literally, by moving to Bath County. By 1830 Thomas and his family had moved back to Botetourt Co. In the 1830 Census it reveals that they had 15 slaves and lived near his brother James.

Thomas' decision to return to Botetourt Co in the 1820s may have been motivated by the rise of the local iron industry which occurred at that time. The mountain land he owned there may have contained deposits of iron ore.

Thomas' will allowed his widow Sarah to remain for the rest of her life on the property he willed to his son Samuel Davis Wood. She lived for another 22 years through the civil War."