Early Settlers on the Kanawha: True Tales of Southern WV Settlers

ESCAPE FROM FORT TACKETT

Copyright 2023 Don Dean. All rights reserved.

Subscriber Don Dean has written a narrative based on the facts of his ancestors’ experience. You’ll enjoy this . . . Listen here.

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On August 26, 1790, Mary Keziah Tackett Townsend Young gave birth to a son, Jacob, at Fort Tackett near present day Saint Albans, West Virginia. Her second husband, John Young, was understandably proud of his first-born son.

Map showing St. Albans:

The next day, Mary Keziah’s brother, Christopher Tackett, was watching his children play on the banks of the Kanawha River. Suddenly, gunshots rang out from the fort, followed by “such horrible screaming”. Christopher gathered the children and made a mad dash to the gate of Fort Tackett. The Indians arrived at the gate just as Christopher was attempting to close it. Once inside, the Indians shot and then tomahawked Christopher. The children were also tomahawked and left in the yard.

Representative art from Pinterest

Inside the main cabin of the fort were a dozen or so who were quick enough to outrun the attacking Indians. One, John McElhaney, had three of his fingers shot off as he was closing the heavy door. Inside were John McElhaney, his wife, and his mother, Christopher Tackett’s wife, Hannah, and some children. One of these children was Mary Townsend, Mary Keziah’s daughter from her deceased first husband. The Indians promised protection if they would surrender. Having little hope, unarmed, against the attackers, the door was opened. The Indians ran in and tied up all of the settlers. With the exception of Mary Keziah’s sister-in-law, Hannah Tackett, none of the others were ever heard from again.

In another cabin not far away was another group of settlers preparing for the expected attack from the Indians. Men, women and children all crowded in a very hot cabin, including John and Mary Keziah Young and their day old son, Jacob. As darkness fell, despair overtook the trapped settlers. Greatly outnumbered, with very few guns and burdened with many children, the situation was hopeless.

Knowing the attack would come at daylight, John Young made the decision that if he had to die, it “didn’t matter if it was tomorrow or tonight”. None of the others thought it was worth the risk, so they refused to follow John’s lead. Carrying Mary Keziah and their newborn son, John made a mad dash to the river. Shots rang out. They had been discovered! After the one hundred yard-or-so dash, they reached a canoe tied up onshore.

As he was frantically paddling to make his escape, bullets began to strike the water all around them. They made it to the other side of the Kanawha and turned south up the Kanawha River towards Fort Lee, near present day Charleston. They were deluged with the heaviest rainstorm John could ever remember. The canoe began to fill with water, slowing their progress. The next morning, John and his family reached the safety of Fort Lee, where the occupants by then had been warned of the Indian attacks and were well prepared.

None of the settlers that remained in the second cabin were ever heard from again.

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HERE IS ONE OF SEVERAL SEQUELS TO THE ABOVE NARRATIVE

A Letter from William Larck

Copyright 2023 William Larck, All rights reserved.

I was adopted as an infant. My true bloodline is Shaffer; my ancestor Paulus Shaver came to Pennsylvania in 1733 from Germany and then settled on the South Branch of the Potomac River. Later generations migrated across the state settling in the Charleston area. The well-known Petter Shaver of Gandy was my 4th great uncle. My paternal great grandmother was Ellen Agnes Vance; she was a descendant of Johann Adam Wentz of Monroe County, (W) Virginia. I'm telling you this to show my connection to the state. I didn't mention my maternal line because she was from the South East coastal area.

My 3rd great grandmother was Mary Townsend; no one knew who her parents were or where she came from. Mary married John Roy in 1812, and they had a daughter named Mary Roy who married Paul Shaver, my 2nd great grandfather. Early this year I started seeing people connecting me to Keziah Tackett, so I started looking into why and how. Then I read the story of the destruction of Tackett's Fort in 1790 and how Keziah with her newborn son and her new husband, John Young, escaped up the Kanawha River to Fort Lee, where Charleston now stands.

Keziah's first husband was John Townsend; they were married a short time before John died. They had one daughter, Mary Townsend. Many years later, Keziah, at the age of 80, was interviewed by a reporter from Cincinnati and told her version of the massacre at Tackett's Fort. Because of Keziah giving birth to her new son, she and John Young had been staying at a cabin on Coal River. Someone at the fort was taking care of two-year-old Mary Townsend when the fort was attacked by Indians. They could hear the attack from their cabin. The attackers got in before the gate could be closed, and everyone one was killed or captured—the fort burnt. John saw there was nothing anyone could do to help the people there. In the dark of night they made their escape. Keziah said little Mary Townsend was either killed or taken, and then added that she was never seen again. After a lot of searching and writing to people, I was not really getting anywhere. I did feel that this was my Mary Townsend; the DNA suggested so, but I needed more.

So one day I was searching Facebook, and joined a West Virginia genealogy page, and then posted my story asking for help. I was contacted by a Tackett descendant and invited to a Tackett family genealogy group. After about a week of checking for other family connections and running my DNA, the result was a full match to at least three Tackett descendants. So now we know my 4th great grandmother was Keziah Tackett. Until now, it was believed that Mary Townsend died in 1790. I'm proof she did not.

Now there are more questions. Why was Mary's return never recorded? How is it that she used her proper name? There is an account in a Kanawha Valley history book of a young woman showing up in the Elk River area. It said she was believed to be a survivor of Fort Tackett. She couldn't speak English, and no name was given.

Mary Townsend and John Roy lived on Elk River. Many children taken by Indians that returned home as young adults were unrecognizable and unable to speak English. I wonder if Keziah and the Tackett family knew about Mary and just couldn't accept her having returned after believing her dead for so many years.

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STAY TUNED FOR MORE ABOUT THIS EXCITING STORY. . .