An American Odyssey

Beckham Reunion (1919)

Our Clontz family, melded with members of the Long, Beckham, and White families, came from Europe to North America and settled, ultimately, in the Carolinas.

It's not quite that simple, of course—some migrated to the Shenandoah Valley and from there came further south. Many subsequently moved westward into the frontier that was Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and states formed from the Louisiana Purchase. For me and my mother, we hold firm to the red clay of south-central North Carolina and north-central South Carolina, even though Virginia is home today.