A Woman of Courage on the West Virginia Frontier (12 page)

Almost immediately, the militia company set about erecting a stockade fort. The precise location of the fort has long been the subject of conjecture, but most sources agree that it stood on a hill overlooking the Monongahela, about one thousand feet from the river and some five hundred feet from Prickett’s Creek. Furthermore, Job Prickett, a descendant of Jacob, remembered having seen the ruins of the old fort, and before his death, he pointed out the remains of a chimney on that location as belonging to the fort.
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Unfortunately, little information regarding the fort’s physical description survived the passage of time. The fort that can be visited today in Prickett’s Fort State Park is essentially an accurate but composite representation of the large stockade-style forts of the time.

Luckily, one reasonably good description of the fort was handed down from generation to generation in the Prickett family. J. Miles Prickett, the great-great-grandson of Jacob Prickett, wrote that Prickett’s Fort was, indeed, a stockade fort with a ten- to twelve-foot-high log wall. The stockade wall was constructed of logs that were sharpened at one end, set side by side in an upright position and then driven deeply into the ground. Heavy wooden gates were built into the wall to provide access. Inside this barrier, there stood a large, two-story double log building with a passageway, or dogtrot, in between. Although he did not mention the existence of corner blockhouses or bastions, he did say that loopholes were cut into the second-story walls of the main building, which allowed the defenders to fire their rifles out and over the stockade.
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The main gate at the modern re-creation of Prickett’s Fort at Prickett’s Fort State Park, West Virginia.
Photo by the author
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There also is no exact information as to how many families used Prickett’s Fort as a refuge. However, it is known that about fifty families lived within a five-mile radius of the fort. Therefore, if each family included 4 to 5 members, there were probably 200–250 settlers who used the fort during periods of Indian raiding.
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Following the tumultuous years of the American Revolution, Prickett’s Fort seems to have faded into historical obscurity. Although the war did not end until 1781 and Indian raids continued into the 1790s, the last written historical record that mentions the fort was documented in 1780, the same year that Thomas and Phebe were married there. As a result, there have been numerous rumors and much speculation regarding the fort’s eventual fate over the centuries since 1780, none of which can be confirmed via documentation. One tale says that the fort fell into disrepair and local settlers dismantled it in 1789, while another maintains this did not occur until 1799. Still yet another story says the fort survived until 1825, when it finally burnt down, and one more version of the fort’s history says that Job Prickett lived in one of the fort’s cabins as late as 1861.
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T
ERROR AND
T
RAGEDY

In the years following Phebe and Thomas’s wedding, new settlers continued making the trek over the Alleghenies to the upper Monongahela Valley. By 1782, the population of Monongalia County included 385 households, totaling 2,169 settlers,
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and in 1784, the county’s population had grown sufficiently that the state designated the southern half as the new entity of Harrison County. By this time, Thomas and Edward Cunningham had left their lands along Ten Mile Creek and moved north to new acreage bordering the left fork of Bingamon Creek, which eventually bore the family name and became known as Cunningham’s Run. They first show up on Harrison County census records in 1785 under Benjamin Robinson’s list of “tithables,” which covered an area from the county line up the west side of the West Fork River to Limestone Creek.
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Here, the two families erected two cabins a few yards apart and then cleared and began farming the land in what was a small, beautiful valley. Nestled between steep hills on all sides, the valley was no more than two miles long and about a mile wide, with gently rolling land along its floor punctuated with dense forest. Here, they also built the first primitive gristmill in Harrison County by constructing a dam in the creek, which drove a piston over a beam with an iron wedge in the tip, which was subsequently worked to strike a rock, grinding corn into a fine powder in the process.
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Since their marriage in April 1780, Phebe and Thomas had started a large family, and their brood included four children. Henry had been born in 1781, and he was followed by Lydia and Walter in 1782, while their youngest child, Thomas Jr., was born in 1785. Meanwhile, Edward and Sarah’s family had grown to eight children, four boys and four girls, ranging from age three to fourteen. However, the lives of the two families had been far from idyllic, and the reality of Indian warfare had already visited them twice.

Thomas was the first of the Cunningham family involved in an incident related to an Indian attack, which occurred in 1777, three years before he wed Phebe. On the afternoon of September 13, Thomas and his friend Enoch James were walking down a road that passed by Coon’s Fort, another of the local refuge forts, which was located only about five miles below Prickett’s Fort. As they passed the fort, they came upon one of Mr. Coon’s daughters, sixteen-year-old Maudline, who was lifting some hemp in one of her father’s fields near the fort. Thomas and Enoch stopped and chatted with her for a few minutes, and then said farewell and continued walking down the road. Unknown to any of them, two Indian warriors were lurking in the woods a few yards away. Apparently, they had been observing the activities around the fort for some time, seeking an opportunity to seize an appropriate captive, most likely a woman or child. They had been watching Maudline carefully, waiting for the right moment to leap from the cover of the forest, grab her and get away before anyone knew she was missing.

When Thomas and James were almost out of sight, they made their move, running out from the shadows of the trees, leaping a fence and racing toward the teenage girl. Unfortunately, she turned, saw them coming at her and immediately raced toward the safety of the fort. Realizing that they would not be able to catch her, one of the warriors quickly raised his rifle and shot her down.

Hearing the loud report of a shot being fired, Thomas and James whirled about and saw the two Indians, who were now running toward Maudline’s prostrate body, one carrying a rifle as the other brandished his tomahawk and knife, clearly intending to finish off their victim if they could not take her prisoner. James tried to load his rifle and get off a shot, but it was too late. The second warrior proceeded to bludgeon the young woman with his tomahawk and then hurriedly took her scalp with his knife. As the two warriors now ran headlong for the woods, James raised his rifle and fired, but the distance was too great, and he missed his intended target. Thomas and James then ran to where Maudline lay bleeding in the field, but as they knelt next to her, they discovered she was already dead. By now, the alarm was raised in the fort, and an armed party of men quickly left in pursuit. However, it was too late, and the warriors made good their escape.
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Six months later, the lives of the Cunningham family would again be touched by the violence of an Indian raid. This time, it would be Edward and Sarah who would be confronted with the terror and loss it could bring.

In February 1778, all signs pointed to an earlier than normal resumption of Indian activity in the upper Monongahela Valley, leading several families to take shelter at a refuge fort known as Harbert’s Fort, with Edward and Sarah’s family among them. Located on Jones’ Creek near present-day Lumberport, West Virginia, this fort was not a complex stockade structure like Prickett’s Fort but rather a simple two-story reinforced log blockhouse, with loopholes in its walls for firing. Although large enough to hold a few families, its limited space could prove very claustrophobic if one stayed longer than a few days. As a result, after a couple of weeks inside the blockhouse with no sign of any Indians, the families decided to let their guard down for a few hours. They opened the front door, allowing their children to go out and some much needed fresh air to come in. The children were soon running about the yard, burning off excess energy, and a few of them, including Edward and Sarah’s oldest son, seven-year-old Joe, played in a clay hole with a crippled crow they had found. After a few minutes of this carefree activity, the children looked up to see a raiding party of Shawnee warriors emerge from the woods and then sprint toward the blockhouse and its open door.

As this 1939 photo of the original Harbert’s Fort blockhouse shows, refuge forts were often small, unsophisticated structures.
Courtesy Brian Harbert
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Most of the children ran for the blockhouse, while Joe headed straight for an old loom house nearby, where he slipped down through a treadle hole and hid under the floor. Meanwhile, the other children burst through the blockhouse door screaming that Indians were coming. In fact, they were in very close pursuit. One of the men inside, John Murphy, went to the door to see if the children were telling the truth or playing a game. As he stepped outside, one of the Shawnee came around the corner of the building, raised his rifle and fired, killing Murphy, whose lifeless body fell back inside the blockhouse.

The other adults sprang into action, with men trying to grab weapons as the women either hid the children or moved to close the open door. However, they were not fast enough, as the warrior who had shot Murphy burst through the door, where he was immediately confronted by Thomas Harbert. The two men grappled with one another and fell to the floor as Harbert repeatedly struck his assailant with a tomahawk. A shot then came from outside, wounding Harbert. He continued his struggle, but seconds later, another shot was fired, hitting Harbert in the head and killing him instantly.

As Harbert’s attacker retreated out the door, another warrior entered. By this time, Edward Cunningham had managed to reach his rifle, but as he raised it, the weapon misfired. The warrior, armed with a tomahawk that had a long spike in the end, leapt at Edward, and the two men fought hand to hand. Both were young and strong, and neither could get an advantage over the other. As they crashed about the room, locked in a deadly wrestling match, Edward was able to wrench the tomahawk from the Shawnee’s hand and land a crippling blow, sinking the spike into the warrior’s back. Despite this wound, the Shawnee would not give up the struggle and continued to fight. At that moment, Sarah, who had been standing nearby, came to her husband’s aid. Grabbing an axe, she hurried forward, took a swing at the warrior and struck a severe but glancing blow on the side of his face. Crying out in severe pain, the Shawnee finally let loose his death grip on Edward, turned away and ran from the room.

As Edward and the second warrior fought, a third Shawnee pushed inside past the women who were anxiously trying to close and barricade the door. Wearing the unshorn front of a buffalo on his head, with ears and horns still attached, this man presented a most warlike appearance. He immediately moved toward a teenage girl, raising his tomahawk to strike her. Her father, who had been cowering in a nearby corner throughout the fighting, jumped up and tried to intervene but was too late to stop the first blow. Before the Shawnee could strike her again, her father grabbed the warrior’s arm and deflected the blow but was immediately tossed to the ground by the much-stronger Indian attacker. As the warrior was about to crush the settler’s skull, Edward ran across the room and, before the warrior could strike, sunk his own tomahawk deep into the Indian’s head, killing him.

During the fighting, the other women had finally managed to push the door closed against the combined weight of the remaining warriors trying to force it open. Unfortunately, several children had not made it to the safety of the blockhouse, and the warriors now killed and scalped those they did not see fit to carry away to captivity. One of those taken away was Joe Cunningham. A warrior had apparently seen him enter the loom house, followed him and discovered the little boy’s hiding place. Reaching down into the hole beneath the floor, the Shawnee grabbed his new captive by the collar, pulled him up and made him join the other prisoners, who were now being marched away to the Shawnee’s home village.