Woods Gap

My 6X ggrandfather Michael Woods was born in Meath County, Ireland, in 1684.  He immigrated with his family to Pennsylvania in 1724.  Pushing west, he made his way from Pennsylvania across the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Shenandoah Valley and Albemarle County, Virginia,  in 1734.  The pass he found became known as Woods Gap, officially named by the Virginia Legislature in 1757.

Later, Woods Gap was renamed Jarman's Gap after the family that owned the land in the 1800's.

Settling in Albemarle County, Virginia, Michael Woods established a plantation known as Mountain Plains (3300 acres).  After he died in 1762, Mountain Plains was sold to Thomas Adams, tobacco agent for Thomas Jefferson.  Adams bequeathed the property to John Blair, Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, after whom it was renamed Blair Park.

Michael's son, William, having received land grants for service in the American War for Independence, moved on to Greenbrier County, Virginia.  William's children in turn migrated to Kentucky (1781), Tennessee (1809), and Missouri (1819).