The eastern portion of Franklin County began to be settled about 1812, when Ohio was still a vast forested wilderness and transportation moved slowly over old Indian trails and natural waterways. In 1818 the National Road reached the Ohio River at Wheeling, Virginia, and on July 4, 1825, ground was broken in St. Clairsville, Ohio, to extend it through Ohio. By 1830 construction crews were moving west, and James Reynolds established a store to supply the road workers. While boarding with the family of John D. French, whose land lay in the path of the road, Reynolds persuaded French to lay out a village on his farmland in 1831. The National Road reached Reynoldsburg that year, and the village, named for Reynolds, was incorporated on March 16, 1839; Reynolds later served as postmaster, state representative, and militia general. The building of the National Road was the major event that led to Reynoldsburg's founding. Reynoldsburg also took part in the Underground Railroad during the most active period of the mid-1800s, when Alexander W. Livingston organized local efforts and Benjamin Patterson, Livingston's employee, used Livingston's long covered wagon, the Arc, to carry fugitive slaves northward to underground stations from Granville to Mount Vernon.