After crossing the New River and while traveling to Christiansburg, the Clarks were near Historic Smithfield Plantation, the ancestral home of the Preston dynasty. Col. William Preston, an Irish emigrant, and his wife Susanna Smith, moved to the Smithfield in 1774. The home was a mansion compared to the log cabins found along the Great Valley Road in the lower Shenandoah Valley. (10) Col. William Preston and Susanna Smith had twelve children (12) before his untimely death in 1783. Susanna ran the plantation successfully for the next forty (40) years. Today Historic Smithfield Plantation is an outstanding example of Colonial America life with excellent interpretation.

From Smithfield Plantation Col. William Preston served as County Surveyor for Botetourt County which covered all or part of seven (7) present-day states, including most of Kentucky. When Fincastle Co. VA was formed out of Botetourt Co.  in 1772, Col. Preston was appointed surveyor and sheriff for the new county. The massive territory required deputy surveyors trusted by Col. Preston. He appointed John Floyd who had served as a clerk in the surveyor’s office. Floyd has been commissioned as an assistant surveyor on 11 August 1772 by the College of William and Mary. Floyd surveyed for Col. Preston and other people in Kentucky and eventually moved his extended family to the Falls of the Ohio Region in 1779. (12)  Robert Clark Floyd, father of Lewis and Clark Expedition member Charles Floyd, was part of the Floyd migration from Virginia to the future state of Kentucky. Col. Preston’s office was at his Smithfield Plantation home, indirectly connecting Smithfield Plantation to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.