Archive for the ‘frontier forts’ Category
Strolling through the Fall Festival at Pricketts Fort
Posted in Aaron Bosnick, Cordelia Spencer, Fall Festival, Greg Bray, Judy Wilson, Lee Miller, Okey Simmons, Shawnee, Tom Carson, Virginia frontier, applebutter, autumn, bear fat, blacksmithing, civilian militia, domestic life, frontier forts, frontier women, harvest, living history, powderhorn, re-enacting, wigwam on October 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Fort attacked by Shawnee war party
Posted in Fall Festival, Shawnee, Tom Carson, Virginia frontier, flintlock muskets, frontier farming, frontier forts, musket balls on October 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I participated in my first re-enactment this past weekend during the Fall Festival here at the fort. I was working outside the stockade, gleaning the field for the last few ears of corn and gourds. Some distance away, a young woman from the fort was collecting buckwheat kernels into a basket. It [...]
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance . . .
Posted in cat, frontier forts on October 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Mornings are busy times at the fort, before the first visitors arrive, with invariable chores relating to opening the cabins, driving the sheep to and from pasture, feeding & watering all the animals, etc. As a member of our staff with special surveillance skills, the cat Queen Aliquippa begins her mornings by climbing to the [...]
Backwoods Virginians and the “First Declaration of Independence”
Posted in "Intolerable Acts", Adam Stephen, American Revolution, Continental Congress, Daniel Morgan, Declaration of Independence, Fort Gower, George Rogers Clark, Lord Dunmore's War, Michael Cresap, Monongahela River, Prickett family, Shawnee, Simon Girty, Simon Kenton, Thomas Jefferson, Virginia frontier, William Crawford, Zackquill Morgan, civilian militia, frontier forts, living history on July 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There are many stories to be told of the earliest days of what is now West Virginia, and most have been told elsewhere already. But one story, which ties the origins of this region to the origins of the nation, deserves to be told more often. It involves a document which, while little known except [...]
Memorial Day observations
Posted in Lord Dunmore's War, Okey Simmons, Shawnee, Virginia frontier, civilian militia, flintlock muskets, flintlock rifles, frontier forts, re-enacting on May 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
In honor of Memorial Day here at Pricketts Fort, Okey Simmons gave a brief talk about the sacrifice made by the original militiamen and their families at Pricketts Fort during Lord Dunmore’s War and the American Revolution. After the talk he hung a memorial wreath on the front of the fort, after which the current [...]
These past two days . . .
Posted in Aaron Bosnick, Shawnee, flintlock muskets, frontier forts on May 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
These past two days have really taken it out of me. Giving talks to several hundred children from four schools, followed by a long afternoon of hauling a wagonload of mule manure from one field to another in a wheelbarrow and hoeing it into the sod. My brain is numb and every other part of me [...]
miserable, wet & cold
Posted in Aaron Bosnick, Judy Wilson, Lee Miller, Michael Ray, Monongahela River, Shawnee, Tom Carson, domestic life, flintlock muskets, frontier farming, frontier forts, frontier kitchen, frontier women, kitten, living history, sheep on May 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A cold wet miserable Saturday morning — just the sort of morning I especially enjoy at the fort, particularly after a long hectic week of school tours and crowds of children. Saturday means no field trips and a cold miserable rain means few visitors to speak of, and a chance to catch up on essential tasks. The passage [...]
Chief Logan & the birth of Pricketts Fort
Posted in Battle of Pt Pleasant, Chief Cornstalk, Chief Logan, Coleman Brown, Daniel Greathouse, Jacob Prickett, Lord Dunmore's War, Mingo, Monongahela River, Prickett family, Shawnee, Virginia frontier, William Hellen, William Robinson, civilian militia, frontier forts on April 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
On this date, in 1774, at a trading post in Baker’s Bottom, near Wheeling on the Ohio River, a peaceful band of Mingo Indians were set upon by rogue frontiersmen under Daniel Greathouse and brutally slaughtered. Among the dead were members of the family of Chief Logan, who had until this time always been a [...]
a mingling of eras
Posted in Lord Dunmore's War, Prickett family, Shawnee, Virginia frontier, civilian militia, flintlock muskets, frontier farming, frontier forts, re-enacting, tagged Daniel Boone, Shawnee, Simon Kenton, Lord Dunmore's War, Civil War, Cornstalk, Logan, militia, flint & steel, re-enactors, Appalachia on April 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
On this day, two hundred and thirty-one years ago, in 1777, when the original Pricketts Fort was only about three years old, Daniel Boone and about a dozen men were ambushed and cut off from the stockade at Boonesboro by over a hundred Shawnee warriors. In the resulting melee, Boone’s life was saved by another legendary [...]
a new season
Posted in Aaron Bosnick, Greg Bray, Judy Wilson, Okey Simmons, Virginia frontier, blacksmithing, civilian militia, flintlock muskets, frontier farming, frontier forts, frontier women, kitten, sheep, tagged 18th-century frontier, blackpowder firearms, blacksmithing, carding, cats, flax, flint & steel, flintlock rifle, ironware, knives, loom, militia, shearing, sheep, sheepdog, tomahawks, weaving, wool on April 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We just opened here at the fort a couple of days ago. The weather has been about perfect, sunny but not too warm, and with great cumulus clouds sailing slowly overhead to temper the sun. Already busloads of children are arriving, and will keep arriving nearly every day until the end of the school year. In addition to the [...]
