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Attack On Squire Boone's Station
From the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, #47 (1949) pp241-2:
Extracts from Ashby family letters - Account of the attack on Squire Boone's
Station, written in 1901 by Thompson Van Meter Ashby, as told him by his
grandmother, LETITIA VAN METER: "In the year 1781 or near that time the
scouts brought in word that the Indians 400 strong under Simon Girty, a white
man, were coming to attack Boone Station. After a hasty consultation it
was
determined that the garrison was not strong enough to defend itself against
such a force. The thing to do was to move to Louisville about 40 miles
distant. The plan was adopted and the garrison moved out as soon as they
could get their valuable packets and the women and children and the goods on
horseback. However, the Indians overtook them at a Creek called Long Run
some 16 miles from Louisville. A running fight ensued in which the whites
lost all their goods and valuable papers and our folks lost all the evidence
of their property in the old country. I here give a few incidents about
grandmother during the battle as I have heard her relate them. The first
thing that she remembered was running by a man standing behind a tree. He
reached out his hand and pulled her behind the tree and said, "Stand here,
honey." He then immediately fired and run she following him.
The next thing
she remembered was seeing a young man trying to pull a woman off a horse that
he might ride it. A man by the name of Blain Ballard cursed him and told
him
that if he touched another woman he would blow a hole through him. The
next
thing she saw of that young man he was trying to ride a wild colt without
either bridle or saddle. The colt threw him in the air heels over head.
The
young fellow seemed frantic or scared to death. The next thing she remembered
was being nearly drowned in Long Run. In strangling her mother heard her
and
thought it was an Indian and wheeled around just in time to see Lettie's head
pop out of the water. She reached in and caught her by the hair of the
head
and drew her out. They arrived safely at Louisville that evening. The men
at
the Fort turned out to fight the Indians if necessary and to bury their dead,
and to save what property they could, but they secured little. The Indians
had destroyed all they could, ripping their beds open and emptying them on
the ground, destroying books and valuable papers. Grandmother's Bible was
found near a dead woman with an Indian's bloody foot track on it and a spear
hole through it."
This Letitia must be the daughter of (2.)Abraham & Elizabeth (Kline) Van Meter;
b.02 Apr 1772 (Greene Co., PA?) d.08 Sep 1845 Montgomery Co., IN m.08 Feb
1791 Hardin Co., KY Thompson Ashby - to Ind. 1828. From: Who Was Who IN
Hardin Co.
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