Wilderness Road/Logan’s Station

Lincoln County, KY
Marker Number 2177

Marker Text: Benjamin Logan left Boone’s Road, April 15, 1775, following trace that became the final segment of “Wilderness Road.” Logan’s path ran along an obscure trail from this area to Harrodsburg, then to Falls of the Ohio. The intersection of the trails became known as Hazel Patch, a junction 8 miles north of present-day London, Ky.

(Reverse side) Logan’s Station established May 1, 1775. Also known as St. Asaph, the fort quickly became an important frontier settlement. In May 1775, residents sent representatives to Boonesborough to assist in the formation of the proprietary government of Transylvania. Logan’s Fort later became the town of Stanford.

Location: On Main Street, U.S. Route 150, at intersection with Lancaster Street at northwest corner of the Lincoln County Courthouse in Stanford, KY. Presented by the Lincoln Co. Historical Soc. and erected by the Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky Department of Highways in 2005.

Marker is at the corner of the location of the Lincoln Co. Courthouse in the background.  Logan Station text on opposite side.  Click any photo to enlarge.

  As you read historical road markers, you come to realize that most communities exist today due to factors related to transportation or defense. The site selection of a community was decided based on an early road, canal, railroad, river or need for defense. Today's marker addresses two of those factors, the Wilderness Road which helped in the settlement of Kentucky and one of the forts for protection along that road.

  With the Appalachian Mountains reaching roughly north and south formed a natural barrier making travel east–west difficult. Settlers from Pennsylvania tended to migrate south along the Great Wagon Road through the Great Appalachian Valley and Shenandoah Valley. Daniel Boone was from Pennsylvania and migrated south with his family along this road.

Fort Upper Tract

Pendleton County, WV

Marker Text: Site of Fort Upper Tract, one of the forts erected under Washington's orders to guard the settlements. In 1758, Indians captured and burned it. Captain James Dunlap and 21 others were killed. No one escaped.

Location: On U.S. Route 220 on the northbound side of the road in Upper Tract, WV, about half way between Petersburg to the north and Franklin to the south.

  Today's marker is related to my prior post on Fort Loudoun in present day Winchester, VA. In 1755, George Washington arrived in Winchester to supervise the construction of Fort Loudoun and other frontier forts along the western frontier in Virginia during the French and Indian War. In present day, West Virginia there are several state historic markers indicating the location of these early forts.

Photo taken looking south on U.S. Route 220, south branch of the Potomac would be on the left of the photo.  Click any photo to enlarge.

  According documents left by George Washington, Fort Upper Tract was built between August 21 and November 9, 1756, by a Lieutenant Lomax and 20 soldiers probably aided by local settlers. Washington directed the fort's construction from wood in a quadrangular shape with walls 60 feet long and bastions in all four corners. The fort was to have barracks, a powder magazine, and other necessary buildings all built within the walls. The actual completed form of the fort is unknown.

  According to documents left by William Preston, the fort was destroyed in an Indian attack on April 27, 1758 and eighteen militiamen were killed at the fort. A letter in the Augusta County court records, written following the attack on the fort indicated some of the militiamen killed at the fort were reinforcement sent to Fort Upper Tract from Hog’s Fort in Brock Gap, about 22 miles to the east. Captain Dunlap, himself killed in the battle, had requested help upon spotting Indians in the area. The reinforcements arrived just before the fort was attacked. Local settlers Ludwick Fulk and William Elliot, their wives, and one stranger died with the militiamen.

Dick Pointer

Greenbrier County, WV

Marker Text: Enslaved African, noted for bravery in defense of Fort Donnally during Shawnee attack May 29, 1778. He was granted his freedom by James Rodgers in 1801. Land granted to other defenders; his 1795 pension petition, supported locally, denied. Reportedly, citizens built cabin for Pointer, who died in 1827. Buried with military honors in the African-American cemetery on Church St.

Location: On Church Street, Lewisburg, across from the Old Stone Presbyterian Church and Cemetery, within the boundaries of an old African-American cemetery. Erected by the WV Celebration 2000 – West Virginia Division of Archives and History in 2003.

  Dick Pointer was described as a large powerful man with very black skin, he was the slave of Colonel Andrew Donnally. Dick Pointer was credited with saving more than seventy human beings, the greater number being women and children from the tomahawk and scalping knife of the Indians.

The Dick Pointer marker and to the left is a stone monument dedicated to Pointer as well.  Photo of the brass plaque is below.  Click any photo to enlarge.

  Donnally owned the valley, or at least a large part of it, where he erected the stockade to protect the settlers from Indian forays. The fort was a single log house, two stories high, and a kitchen one and a half story high, with a passage way of eight feet between them. The stockade was eight feet high made of split logs. The fort stood on the east side of Raders creek, in Williamsburg District, ten miles north of Lewisburg. According to a newspaper article in 1969, it is reported that the door from the old Fort Donnally may be seen in the State museum in the Capitol at Charleston.

Fort Loudoun

City of Winchester, Virginia
Marker No. Q-4k

Marker Text: Here in May 1756, overlooking the frontier town of Winchester, construction began on Fort Loudoun during the period of the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War in Europe). The fort, named for John Campbell, earl of Loudoun, was a square fortification with four bastions constructed of earth, wood, and stone. Col. George Washington, commander of the Virginia Regiment, designed the fort and supervised its construction until 1758. It served as Washington's command center for a series of forts authorized by the Virginia House of Burgesses and built on the frontier that extended from the Potomac River to North Carolina. A well, dug through limestone bedrock, survives.

Location: At the intersection of Loudoun Street and Peyton Street, about 200 feet north of the intersection, near 419 Loudoun Street, Winchester. Erected by the Department of Historic Resources in 2006.

Photo taken looking toward downtown Winchester.  The fort sat on this hill overlooking the small frontier town. (Click any photo to  enlarge)

  Today, it is difficult for the traveller to imagine that this location in Winchester, VA was once at the crossroads of the western U.S. Today, we clearly view Winchester in the eastern U.S., but it one time it was on the frontier of the west. At the time Winchester, founded in 1752, was the first and only English-speaking settlement west of the Blue Ridge Mountains and nothing more than a frontier town with four cross streets during fort’s construction.

  This state historical marker at 419 N. Loudoun Street marks the spot where ground was broken for the fort’s construction on May 18, 1756. There is also a brass marker pictured below placed by The French and Indian War Foundation in 2006.

Fort Lee

Kanawha County, WV

Marker Text: A western frontier outpost, guarding settlers against the Indians. Built here in 1788 and named for Gen. Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, one of Washington's most trusted officers. Later Lee was governor of Virginia.

Location: 1100 block of Kanawha Boulevard, near junction with Brooks Street, Charleston, West Virginia next to the Kanawha river. Erected by the West Virginia Department of Archives and History in 1974.

  Today's marker mentions an early frontier fort that once stood here at the intersection of Kanawha Boulevard and Brooks Street in Charleston, West Virginia.

Photo taken looking west on Kanawha Boulevard and Brooks Street is to the right.  Another marker in the background is called First Gas Well. (Click any photo to enlarge)

  Early settlers of the Virginia frontier, now West Virginia, began moving south of the Potomac River about 1719. The Native American Indians had misgivings about the early settlers, but since their arrival was gradual and in small numbers, they at first had a degree of tolerance. For the first thirty years the settlers and Indians lived to some extent in peace and tolerance of one another, often trading.

Logan's Station or St. Asaph

Lincoln County, KY
Marker Number 56

Marker Text: Colonel Benjamine Logan settled here after leaving party of Colonel Henderson at Hazel Patch because of settlement plans. Scene of courageous rescue of fallen companion by Logan in Indian attack (1777).

Location:  At Danville Road (U.S. Route 159) and Water Street (Martin Luther King Blvd). Actual site is west beyond creek and past former ice plant. Erected by the Kentucky Department of Highways.

  Before the creation of the town of Stanford, Kentucky was the settlement established by Col. Benjamin Logan. Due to the threat of native Indian attacks, Col. Logan needed to establish a fort to protect his family and others moving to the area to develop their land.

  Col. Benjamin Logan's Fort or Station which existed from 1777 to 1790 is located one mile west of the Stanford courthouse or about 0.5 miles west from this marker. Logan's Fort set on a slight elevation about fifty yards west of the smaller spring at St. Asaph. The fort was constructed of logs and was 150 feet by 90 feet with blockhouses at three corners and a single cabin at the fourth corner. Gates were located at each end and were raised and lowered by leather thongs. The main gate faced east. Three cabins each formed the north and south walls, which were occupied by William Menniffee, William Whitley and the James Mason families. There were four cabins adjoining occupied by George Clark, Benjamin Logan, Benjamin Pettit and Samuel Coburn.