The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
Photos courtesy of Allen Manning, Clfity Creek Chapter, IN SAR
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
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Author: Alan Wenzel
John Van Cleave, son of Aaron Van Cleave and Rachel Schenck, was born at Monmouth County, New Jersey, about 1739 and died at Jefferson County, Indiana, May 12, 1812. John migrated from New Jersey to Rowan County, North Carolina, with his parents, then to Kentucky with a group led by Squire Boone and Daniel Boone in 1775. His last move to Indiana was made in 1811. The name of his first wife is not known, as her name has yet to be proven by any period document. He married his second wife, Rachel (Demaree) Ryker, widow of Gerardus Ryker (killed in the battle of Floyd's Defeat), at Kentucky.
Previous to the attack on Bryant's Station, John and his family were living at the station of his brother-in-law, Squire Boone, Jr., who married Jane Van Cleave in 1765 at North Carolina. The residents of Squire Boone Station were alarmed about the Indians and decided to relocate. The party went west to Lynn’s Station for greater safety.
John’s wife was said to be carrying Nancy, one of her twin daughters, and her oldest daughter, Rachel, was carrying the other twin, Sally. During an Indian attack, Mary was killed, Nancy was carried away, and the other girls were taken prisoners. The Indians were almost ready to kill the child when a party of men from accompanying militia from Painted Stone Station attacked the Indians and rescued the prisoners. This became known as the Long Run Massacre. Nancy, who had been carried away by the Indians, was never to be seen again.
Members of the family were reunited at Painted Stone Station. It was reported Mary was buried where she was found, and that location is unknown today. John Van Cleave, Sr., and his three brothers, William, Ralph, and Benjamin settled on Bullskin Creek, and their brother, Aaron, settled on Salt Creek at Kentucky.
John is buried at Ryker’s Ridge Cemetery at Madison, Indiana. His grave is marked with a Veterans Administration headstone provided by Allan Ray Wenzel, and SAR marker. He is in the same cemetery with Patriots John Ryker and Gerardus Ryker, Jr., whose families lived at Kentucky together, and were united by blood.
Author: Alan Wenzel
John Van Cleave was born in 1739, at New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, the first of five known surviving sons of coastal ships captain Aaron Van Cleave and his wife Rachel Schenck. By 1755 Aaron had moved his family to the Forks of the Yadkin River in Rowan County, North Carolina. In 1764 Aaron purchased Squire Boone Senior’s land from his son, the famous woodsman Daniel Boone. In 1765 Aaron’s only daughter Jane married Daniel’s brother Squire Boone Junior.
Daniel Boone convinced the five Van Cleave brothers to join his westward migration to the untamed wilderness of “Caintuk”...at that time a territory of Virginia. Between 1775 and 1778 they began homesteading land in Kentucky. By 1779 most of the Van Cleave and Boone men had completed the moving of their families to their new homes.
The Indian tribes inhabiting the area did not overly welcome these pioneers, and skirmishes occurred routinely between them. By 1778 the Revolutionary War was well under way and the British easily enlisted the aid of numerous Indian tribes as their allies, and assisted by Tories (Loyalists) waged a bloody war against the Kentucky pioneers, who blocked the backdoor entrance to the rebelling American colonies.
John served as a Private in Captain Chenoweth’s Company of Jefferson County Militia. He and his brothers took part in the Siege of Boonesboro and numerous other skirmishes with British soldiers and Tories, and their Indian allies. One such skirmish is known as the Long Run Massacre. In 1781 John Van Cleave’s family was residing at Squire Boone’s Painted Stone Station, located on Clear Creek, two miles east of present day Shelbyville in Shelby County. Upon learning the existence of a large Indian war party which was heading their way, under the command of Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, British Army Captain Alexander McKee, and the Tory leader Simon Girty (all of which had been following American General Clark’s army down the Ohio River), it was determined that since there were only a few militiamen present to withstand an attack most inhabitants would leave for the protection of the larger Lynn’s Station where their combined numbers would be greater. Squire Boone was at the time recovering from an Indian inflicted gunshot wound to his shoulder and decided to stay at his station and await a returning militia force. On September 13, 1781 the gathered settlers left Boone’s Station. Twelve miles away they arrived at an area called “Long Run.” Here the Indian force attacked the pioneers. John’s wife Mary was killed outright, and one of his infant twin daughters, which Mary was holding, was carried off by an Indian, and was never seen again. John’s eldest child Rachel, who was carrying the other twin, was taken captive, but was later rescued. John’s three young teenage sons escaped the carnage. One hid in a hollowed log. The other two were able to mount horses. The pioneers were scattered. As the hours passed the survivors stumbled into Lynn’s Station. The militia, under Colonel Floyd, went to the rescue of those still not accounted for, but were also attacked, having 17 of their number killed in an engagement dubbed Floyd’s Defeat. However, during the attack a popular Huron chief was killed. This so demoralized the Indians that even with the coercing of British Captain McKee and Simon Girty they refused to go forth with an attack on Squire Boone’s Station. John took part in other militia operations before the end of the war and by the early 1790’s the hostile Indian Nations were eventually driven out of Kentucky.
After the Long Run Massacre John found the body of his wife Mary and buried her near where she fell, at Long Run, near present day Simpsonville, in Shelby County, Kentucky. As was the custom no headstone or grave location marking was done, due to the Indians digging up bodies and mutilating the remains. Mary was NOT the daughter of Captain Thomas Shepherd of Shepherdstown, (West) Virginia as has widely been claimed. Her maiden surname may have been Shepherd but her father was NOT the Shepherdstown Thomas. His daughter Mary was not married to a Van Cleave and is buried in West Virginia. She is well documented.
Widower John (with six living children) married (secondly), circa summer 1782 (estimated from several records of his movements), at the Low Dutch Station (where he was living as a member), in old Lincoln County, Kentucky Territory, the widow Rachael (Demaree) Ryker (with eight children). Her first husband, Gerardus Ryker, was among those killed the day after the Long Run Massacre during a failed rescue and body retrieval attempt, referred to as Floyd's Defeat. Rachel was born November 19, 1743, and baptized on April 1, 1744, at Hampton, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Samuel Demaree (Demarest) and Leah Demarest (cousins). Rachel died circa 1818 in Madison Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, where she was living with her son Peter Van Cleave. Between them John and Rachel produced two children, Peter and David (named for both of her Demarest grandfathers).
For the next 15 years John and Rachael lived on a farm located on Clear Creek in Shelby County before numbering amongst the early settlers to move across the Ohio River into Indiana with his brother-in-law Squire Boone. They took up residence with her eight sons and daughters on Ryker’s Ridge, above Madison, in Jefferson County, Indiana. John’s 6 children moved further north in Indiana. John died May 12, 1812, and was buried in the Ryker Family Cemetery.
John's headstone has the date of the probate of his Will instead of his actual death date. And, his surname is misspelled. His signed Will clearly has "Van Cleave." All errors committed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration after I requested a military headstone be placed for him. Van Cleave and Ryker family members placed John’s headstone, July 2, 2008.
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