Murder Branch Massacre


Ralph Morgan had been born in Frederick County, Virginia, and came to Kentucky with his father and uncle in 1779.  They settled at Strode's Station, largely because its builder had been their neighbor in the adjoining Virginia County of Berke (now in West Virginia).  The Morgans had gone first to Boonesborough, built by their cousin, Daniel Boone, whose mother was a sister of the father of Gen. Daniel Morgan of the Revolution.

Morgan's Station was about two miles east of Mt. Sterling on Slate Creek.  Morgan offered settlers land at one dollar an acre and the first who came unpacked their horses on February 10, 1789.  They were Tom Montgomery, Silas Hart, George Naylor, Robert Doughert, Peter and William Hanks, and a little later, James Dougles and John Holmes.

Initially, three cabins were built with each facing the others, so that they could protect their neighbor’s doorways with rifle fire against Indian attack.  They planted corn and left the area for Strode's Station, with a plan to come back on June 1st.  The settlers returned and by June 3rd had built three more cabins and then stockaded the station for protection.

The settlers had planted their corn too late, and an early Fall frost killed it, causing them all to leave save the two brothers, John and James Wade.  James was employed by Morgan as a spy or scout to keep watch for Indians.  John Luster was induced to stay with them for awhile but got uneasy about Indians and left.

Come Spring, other settlements began to spring up.  Peter Harper and his nephew George Harper and settled about four miles from Morgan's, building cabins and planting corn.  Peter was half Shawnee, his mother having been captured and compelled to live with an Indian.  The Harpers settled at Boonesborough, but Peter went to Strode's when it was first settled, and was finally killed near his station in Montgomery, some say by Indians, but othes say by Col. James McMillan, because he mistook him for an Indian.  He never married and at the time of his death had been living with his mother on Howard's Upper Creek in Clark.

A week or two before Harper moved into his station, John Wade had been fired on by Indians and his clothing, knife, and rifle hit eleven times but he was untouched and made it inside.

Fear of an Indian uprising seemed to have kept Morgan's Station left to the care of the Wade brothers.  When they went to harvest the second crop of corn that Fall, they found that the buffaloes, who would not eat the corn, had rolled much of it down by wallowing in the ground made soft by plowing and tilling.  The bears liked the sweet corn and had eaten what they buffalo had trmapled or buried.

On March 2, 1791 John Wade was killed within two or three hundred yards of the Beaver Ford, which was about a mile below. The next Sunday, a man named Reynolds was killed near Morgan's Station, being shot by a bullet from the gun which John Wade had carried when he was killed.

But that was about it, and the next year Morgan's Station's palisade/stockade had been cut down and used for firewood as the Indians had been so quiet.

A residient at Morgan's, Harry Martin, had had a run-in with a Cherokee chieftain over some matter.  The Cherokee wished Martin dead, but could not convince any of his tribe to attack the station, so he went north into Ohio to gather some assistance from the Shawnee with the promise of easy plunder.

On April 1, 1793, John Wade (Jr) had gone to Harry Martin's cabin in Morgan's Station to collect money due him for corn that Martin had bought, when the Indian Alarm was raised.  Wade ran out, followed by Martin, who had snatched up his gun from the wall.

The Becraft men and Andy Duncan had been out working in the corn fields, and were racing back for the safety of the Station.  Abraham Becraft, the father, who, being close to the woods, jumped over the fence and made his escape unnoticed by the Indians chasing the others.

Wade and Martin ran out of the gate, to give them cover fire.  Martin, seeing two or three Indians in pursuit ran past his fleeing neighbors, while the Whites took refuge in one of the three blockhouses, their having left the guns in the corn fields.

Wade Jr, ran into the nearest blockhouse and spied out the loop hole.  He saw an Indian, in advance, carrying a beautifully finished rifle in one hand, the polished brass on the butt glittering as it caught the rays of the sun, and in the other a shining tomahawk, brandishing over his head.  Suddenly he dropped to one knee and took a shot at Martin running at him.

Some 10 or 15 steps behind followed 30 or 40 Indians, all spread out in a line and making towards the Station.  Martin, startled on seeing how many there were, stopped and turned around, running with the Becrafts and Duncan.

Shots erupted from the Station, doing nothing.  The ineffective fire emboldened the Indians, who let out a yell and ran on.

Young for some reason bolted out of the blockhouse door. As he past, his wife grabbed him, and he tripped and fell, Wade thinking him shot.  But Young got up, ran out, and had his hat shot off of his head by the Indians.  He grabbed Andy Duncan and the two spritied off around the Station for help (later saying that 150-200 Indians had attacked).

Indians fired at Young and Duncan, but they escaped to Troutman's Station, and Young went to raise the alarm and gather more men, his now saying that there were only 30 Indians as the men of Troutman's were hesistant to rush out at 150-200 Indians and leave their station unprotected.

Meanwhile back at the stockadeless cabins and blockhouses at Morgan's Station, a general panic spread in seconds, and the settlers ran out, every man and woman for themselves in all directions.

As the Indians had not yet gained the unfortified Morgan's Station, settlers had a few seconds to run away.

Harry Martin ran to his cabin unharmed by Indian fire, and gathered up his family.  As they ran out of his cabin, he took out his butcher knife and cut off his wife's "petticoat" (skirt) so that she could run faster.  He snatched up his older child, pointed to the younger for his wife to snatch up, and off they ran.  An Indian ball intended for Martin struck and killed a neighbor girl, one of the Becrafts, that was running beside him.  The ball hit her in the left hip and spun her around, dropping her.  They made the hill above Slate Creek. During the night, he left his wife in the woods near Montgomery's Station while he went in and borrowed clothes for her.

Wade Jr and Baker ran out of the blockhouse, a step or two in the lead.  The leading Indians were but ten steps off, and poured a fire at them, Wade later counting nine in a stump he passed by.  With Whites scattering everywhere, the Indians split off and chased after their own prey, two turnng to pursuit Wade and Baker, but being outdistanced, turned and ran back. Baker was a "big fat Dutchman," but outpaced the two warriors.  Little did they know that a ball had struck his leg, glancing upwards, and tearing and ripping flesh at it went, then shattered his knee.

By 8 o'clock or so, the next morning, April 2, the militia had been assembled to the tune of 150 men, and under the command of Captain Enoch Smith, rode off toward Morgan's.  When they had gotten to about five miles, just above the head of Little Slate Creek, they found Mrs. Becraft and her baby of 6 or 8 months old tomahawked and dead.  The Indians had stripped her down to her shift to make her walk faster.  But they had pushed her too hard the night before and in the morning when she could not keep the pace, she was killed a quater of mile past the Indians night camp.

About seven miles father on, on Beaver Creek, they had killed a son of Robert Craig, four or five years old.  The next nine Whites were about 5 miles farther.  Two of them that were tomahawked, scalped, and left for dead survived: Mrs. Robert Craig who lived for seven days, and Betty Becraft, daughter of the woman first killed, who recovered entirely.  The other seven that were killed were Mrs. Craig's infant boy, a little boy of Joe Young's, two children of Baker's, and the remaining three children of Abraham Becraft, between the girl killed at the Station and the infant killed with his wife.

After about 25 miles of pursuit, the Indians appeared to be gaining and going so fast that Enoch Smith said it was not worth while to go any farther.  They had carried off all the moveable plunder such as furniture, beds, clothing, bed-ticks, etc.  And every horse except Wade's.

What was awkward, the Indians merely cut loose and dumped.  And to confuse pursuers, five warriors had each taken a female prisoner and had headed off for the Ohio River by a different route, their to rendezvous and meet up later on the other side. The women taken were Clarinda Allington, Baker's wife, a sister of Apsey Robinson, Baker's daughter, Joe Young's wife, and Rachael Becraft. The women were kept on Little Sandy 32 days before they were carried over the Ohio, the Indians waiting to catch horses that were running loose in the mountains.
 
Besides the women, there was only one other prisoner, Ben, a son of Abraham Becraft, about 14 years of age, who went on with the Indians.  They carried him with themselves on a horse and took him almost directly to Detroit, scarcely stopping at their towns.  There they sold him to a Scotchman, who put him in a store, gave him a pretty good slight at writing, and made such an improvement on him as you never saw put on anyone.  He had been gone only about 20 months when at Wayne's Treaty, they had to go get him and dress him up.  He came back with no Indian paint and he was nicely dressed.  But he soon got to be a Becraft again.

At Wayne's Treaty they could get no Indian who could give any account of such a girl as Baker's daughter and she never returned. All the others were then given up except Clarinda Allington and they said her husband would have to gie her up, as she was in the Cherokee Nation. Before Wayne's Treaty Joe Young had hunted everywhere for his wife. Clarinda Allington stayed with the Cherokees six or seven years and until she had three children, John, Sally, and William, when she got permission to come and see her brothers. Her husband, a Cherokee chieftain named Tuscarigo, sent a little negro boy along, 16 or 17 years old, to take care of the children. She had promised to return to her Cherokee home, but refused, and left her children with he brothe Jacob and gave him the little negro boy to pay for raising them. She again married, soon after she returned, a great deal worse husband than the Indian had made. He moved to Ohio and there died; and she then married a more trifling man, if possible, than ever, so her brother David told me.

"She said her chief was not all Indian.  He had been in charge of the attack.  Sometime after this an Indian came to Mr. Sterling and was about there drinking and reveling.  He said the Cherokee had died.  Clarinda was his only wife, and that John, as eldest son, was heir to his office as chief and to all that he had, and wanted to take him home with him.  But the Allingtons wouldn't consent to it.  This was while John was at William McCormick's, where he had been bound out to learn the tanning business.  His sister Sally had married a very good looking young man, a tanner, and when John had served his time out, he joined with his brother-in-law and they moved and set themselves up in the tanning business on the Big Sandy. John later went south to wind up his father's business, and I cannot find whether he remained with the Cherokees or not.

"William was bound to Col. Tom Dye Owings to learn the black-smith business and worked here at the Furnace, but ran away before his time was out and went to his brother's on the Big Sandy.  He complained that he wasn't learning anything at his trade and only made to do drudgery or other work."

In a statement given Shane by a Mrs. Pierce (who came as a child to Cutwright's Station in Clark, in the corner of that county where it joins Bourbon and Fayette), she says that seven Indians came to Mr. Sterling at the time of an election, and, that when they saw one of Clarissa Allington's Indian sons they called out, "Cherokee John."  (You will notice that she calls her Clarissa.) Mrs. Pierce was the daughter of John Reid, who first built a mill where Thatcher's Mill stood until recently, on Stoner, in Bourbon just over the Clark line.


   

Home | More Pictures of S C Rangers | Schedule Of Events | Links To Event Locations | Merchants