Frontier Forts of Southwest Virginia

[hawkeye1755]

For those of you who are interessted in Frontier Forts of Southwest Virginia, i found the following article.
Here is the link.
Link
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[Tumblernotch]

Thanks! There are several similiar sites scattered around on the Internet and they are very handy. I believe many people would be quite amazed that there were so many forts and stations on our early frontier. My GGGGGG Grandfather, Lewis Tackett built one such fort on the Kanawha River here in what is now West Virginia in 1788. It was attacked and burned in 1790 by the Shawnee. His brother and some others were killed in the attack.

His son-in-law John Young carried his wife and day old son to the river and took a canoe and paddled it up river to Fort Lee during this attack and escaped. That day old boy was my GGGG Grandfather. Young's Grandfather, Hans Matheus Jung was born in what is now Germany (records I have say Evangelisch, Prussia though I can't confirm that at this time). He is recorded as one of the charter founders of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. John Young was known as an Indian "Spy" and scout. He was a captain of militia and served under Daniel Boone when he lived in Kanawha County. As a teenager, he served under General Greene as a rifleman in the Revolution.

If a person was to study their family history close enough, they may be surprised at who they are descended from. I have been fortunate to find ancestors such as those above and some more who served in Dunmore's War and the Revolution and several who were in both armies in the Civil War.

By the way, I have quite a few ancestors from Germany and I can locate some of them, principally from Wurttemburg. The problem is my map of Germany doesn't have many of the ancient small towns that records point out as their homes. That makes it tough.
:hatsoff:

 

[hawkeye1755]

Perhaps i can help to find some of your ancestors.
Send me a PM with all the dates you have.

Very interessting family story. :thumbsup:

:hatsoff:

 

[graybeard]

You are right about the ancestors. At least two branches of my family have been in this country since the middle 1600s, but I knew little about them until my sister retired and started doing research. Now I find what I thought were families of farmers and small businessmen had a lot of warriors in the clans. Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War. fascinating stuff. graybeard

 

[Tumblernotch]

Thanks! I may take you up on that! I'll have to go through my family tree book and get some names, dates and towns out. There's several, but not too many. Some other researchers found most of it and I can't be 100% sure how accurate it is though I think it's probably pretty accurate. My Dad died last week and I've been busy getting his estate settled and taking care of other affairs so I never know when I'll be on here, but I'll send you a PM as soon as I can. Thanks Undertaker!
:hatsoff:

Bob

By the way, much of the story about Tackett's Fort and Young's escape during the attack came from a book written by a very distant cousin who used to be a state senator here. A small but well written book that had much of the same genealogy information as the research that I and others had done. I also found out that one of our late US Congressmen also descended from Young. Like I said, you never know who you're kin to around here. :hmm:

 

[dlemaster]

Undertaker
Glad to see you decided to come back!

I had the opportunity to visit the site of Fort Witten, near Tazwell, last April.
They have a very nice museum with very good displays, along with some buildings representive of the early period.

Regards, Dave

 

[agill]

Thanks undertaker. I live between Bristol and Abingdon, VA and those names are familiar. I've tracked my dad's side of the family back to 1836 on Smith Creek in Washington county near the North Fork of the Holston. My wife's family is from Dickenson county and my mom's from Russel county.Drive by John Douglas wayside (where Douglas was killed by indians) alot. His grave was moved later for highway construction.

Thanks