Author: Ken Pease
Captain Jacob Prickett was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in the year of 1722. He is said to have been 5’10”, and to have weighed 180 pounds. Jacob had “stiff” black hair, and black eyes, and it is noted that he was “fierce in the defense of others, but soft hearted and gentle with children.”

On May 11, 1745, Jacob wed Dorothy Springer. Dorothy was born in Evesham, Burlington County, New
Jersey. Jacob’s father filed a five-hundred dollar marriage bond for Jacob and Dorothy to wed.

In 1747, on either the 28th or the 29th of April, Jacob Prickett, David Morgan, Nathaniel Springer, John Snodgrass, and Pharoah Ryley left for the C’Cpon River to wait for news from Lawrence Washington Esq., (Lawrence was the brother of George
Washington). These men were meeting Lawrence to be informed about terms for an expedition to the Cheat River, which they were to scout lands for Lawrence Washington and Co. Nathaniel said that this group of men also explored the Tygart River, and Buckhannon River. They returned to their homes in August of 1747, where they then gave Lawrence Washington maps and other papers that they made during the expedition.

In the year 1758, Jacob served under General George Washington in Braddock’s campaign against the Indians of the Monongahela River Region. In 1759, Jacob worked an Indian trading post, at the mouth of Prickett’s Creek. There were many large Indian villages nearby this post. The Algonquin, Appalachain, and Iroquois Indians were Indian groups that he most likely traded with, however, there were many other Indian groups in the area, such as the Delaware, Shawnee, Mohawk and Senecas.

In the year 1763, King George III claimed that all lands west of the Allegheny Mountains were Indian Lands, and were not to be settle. This statement was made because of Delaware and Iroquois complaints about settlers in their lands. This is the reason why Jacob makes to claim until 1772. Also in 1772, Samuel Hanaway, a surveyor, surveyed three-hundred twenty-four acres of land on Prickett’s Creek for Jacob.

In 1774, Prickett’s Fort was built for protection from hostile Indians. It is known that Jacob’s brothers, Josiah and Isaiah, along with other settlers in the area, helped erect the fort. It is said that about eighty families were living in the fort from fear of the Indians. There were other forts and settlements around the area also, such as those at Morgantown, and Clarksburg. There were sixteen cabins located in the fort, and at first, they had only dirt floors, but some were later improved with puncheons. The cabins were separated from each other by storage bins. The walls of the fort were ten feet high, and the bastions were larger then the cabins. There were four bastions, each eight feet higher then the walls of the fort, in which there was one at each corner, and they were projected about two feet over the fort walls. The overhanging portions had slatted floors, so attacking enemies could be fired upon, directly downward. Jacob later constructed a mill near the fort, and it is assumed that it was the first mill in the area.

There was a story told about Jacob by David Morgan, about a captured Indian brave. The story claimed that David and Jacob came upon the Indian, but were out of ammunition, so Jacob loaded his weapon with a
bean. Jacob shot the Indian in the bottom, and the Indian began to “dance around',” screaming in pain. As the Indian was doing this action, Jacob hit the brave with his fist, and knocked him out. The two men tied him up and took him to Fort Rogers, where he was later returned for the Ramsey Boy, who had been living with the Indians for a year.

Jacob and David Morgan served together in the American Revolution. They both served at George Washington’s Fort Necessity, and they were both under General Edward Braddock at the march on Fort
Duquesne. Sometime during Jacob ‘s life he was a spy for the Virginia Militia, and later became Captain of the Monongalia County, Virginia troops in the Revolutionary War.
(source: www.wvpics.com/prickett.htm) Updated March 9, 2005

European settlers in what would eventually become Fairmont, West Virginia area. In February 1772, he (Jacob Prickett, Sr.) along with his family settled on the land where Prickett’s Creek joins the Monongahela River. Of course in 1772, there was no city of Fairmont, state of West Virginia, or even United States of America. The Prickett homestead was on the western frontier of the Virginia Colony.
When Prickett arrived in western Virginia, the land was dominated by trees. Tall straight trunks thrust skyward supporting a thick leafy canopy that blotted out much of the summer sunlight. European settlers and Native Americans alike considered this land to be a “hunters paradise.” White-tailed deer, black bears, gray wolves, mountain lions, elk, and even small numbers of bison lived within these forests. Local furbearing animals included beavers, river otters, fishers, mink and muskrats. Although the bison, elk, and wolves are now gone, modern visitors to Prickett’s Fort State Park might still see beavers and muskrats near the mouth of Prickett’s Creek – if they are quiet and lucky!

Within two years of Jacob’s arrival near Prickett’s Creek, trouble developed between the Virginians and some of the Shawnee and Mingo Indians. The fundamental problem was that Prickett, along with countless hundreds of other settlers, were invading land that the Shawnees and Mingos claimed as tribal
territory. Throughout the spring of 1774, the number of violent encounters between settlers and Indians gradually increased. On 30 April 1774, things came to a head when a group of frontiersmen under the leadership

of Daniel Greathouse ambushed and killed several members of the Mingo Chief Logan’s small
village. Included among the dead were his mother, brother, and sister. In addition, the Greathouse party kidnapped Logan’s infant niece. When the previously friendly Chief Logan returned home and saw what had happened, he swore vengeance on the settlers. With a party of about eight Shawnee warriors, Logan began attacking homesteads all along the western frontier.

Prickett’s Fort State Park is a day-use park that offers a number of amenities to stand as a memorial to those settlers who had lived, fought, loved, and in many cases died on the western Virginia frontier. Whether or not the present structure looks anything like the original Prickett’s Fort is impossible to say with any degree of certainty. Regardless, the important point is that the fort not only serves as a memorial, but it also functions as a valuable educational tool. By visiting the “reconstructed” fort located near Fairmont, West Virginia, modern Americans can glimpse what it may have been like to live on the colonial Virginia frontier during the 1770’s.

Chronology of Jacob Prickett, Sr.
1722 - Jacob Prickett born in West New Jersey
1745 – Prickett marries Dorothy Springer in Evesham, New Jersey (a.k.a. Eversham)
1748 – (circa) Prickett family moves to Frederick County, Virginia

1758 – Prickett serves as private in the Frederick County militia
1764 – Prickett serves as sergeant in the Frederick County militia
1766 – Prickett family moves to present Fayette County, Pennsylvania
1772 – Prickett’s settle at the mouth of Prickett’s Creek 1774 - Prickett’s Fort built and Isaiah Prickett killed by Indians
1780 – Last year of written documentation on Prickett’s Fort
1785 – Death of Dorothy (Springer) Prickett
1796 – Jacob Prickett residing in present Brown County, Ohio
1797 – Jacob Prickett dies