When we think of pioneers on the Allegheny frontier, and how it was that they passed the long winter months, our imaginations may have been influenced by having seen too many old-fashioned paintings of frontier life, such as the famous one by Eastman Johnson showing a young Abe Lincoln reading by firelight, or too many [...]
Archive for the ‘Virginia frontier’ Category
Winter on the frontier: what they lived in
Posted in frontier winter, half-face shelter, hollow tree, Pringle brothers, Virginia frontier on February 10, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Strolling through the Fall Festival at Pricketts Fort
Posted in Aaron Bosnick, applebutter, autumn, bear fat, blacksmithing, civilian militia, Cordelia Spencer, domestic life, Fall Festival, frontier forts, frontier women, Greg Bray, harvest, Judy Wilson, Lee Miller, living history, Okey Simmons, powderhorn, re-enacting, Shawnee, Tom Carson, Virginia frontier, wigwam on October 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Fort attacked by Shawnee war party
Posted in Fall Festival, flintlock muskets, frontier farming, frontier forts, musket balls, Shawnee, Tom Carson, Virginia frontier 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 was hot, and [...]
Backwoods Virginians and the “First Declaration of Independence”
Posted in "Intolerable Acts", Adam Stephen, American Revolution, civilian militia, Continental Congress, Daniel Morgan, Declaration of Independence, Fort Gower, frontier forts, George Rogers Clark, living history, Lord Dunmore's War, Michael Cresap, Monongahela River, Prickett family, Shawnee, Simon Girty, Simon Kenton, Thomas Jefferson, Virginia frontier, William Crawford, Zackquill Morgan 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 [...]
beyond the fort walls, a wigwam takes shape
Posted in Aaron Bosnick, Joe Candillo, living history, Michael Ray, Shawnee, Virginia frontier, wigwam on June 10, 2008 | 2 Comments »
In recent days a new structure has appeared in a grove of trees within sight of Pricketts Fort, an Eastern Woodlands Indian wigwam. Constructed by Joe Candillo and his father John, members of the Pascua Yaqui tribe, with help from Pricketts Fort staffers Michael Ray (potter & militiaman) and Aaron Bosnick (native interpreter), the work gets [...]
Memorial Day observations
Posted in civilian militia, flintlock muskets, flintlock rifles, frontier forts, Lord Dunmore's War, Okey Simmons, re-enacting, Shawnee, Virginia frontier 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 [...]
Chief Logan & the birth of Pricketts Fort
Posted in Battle of Pt Pleasant, Chief Cornstalk, Chief Logan, civilian militia, Coleman Brown, Daniel Greathouse, frontier forts, Jacob Prickett, Lord Dunmore's War, Mingo, Monongahela River, Prickett family, Shawnee, Virginia frontier, William Hellen, William Robinson 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 civilian militia, flintlock muskets, frontier farming, frontier forts, Lord Dunmore's War, Prickett family, re-enacting, Shawnee, Virginia frontier, tagged Appalachia, Civil War, Cornstalk, Daniel Boone, flint & steel, Logan, Lord Dunmore's War, militia, re-enactors, Shawnee, Simon Kenton 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, blacksmithing, civilian militia, flintlock muskets, frontier farming, frontier forts, frontier women, Greg Bray, Judy Wilson, kitten, Okey Simmons, sheep, Virginia frontier, 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 [...]
Forthcoming Events
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Recent Posts
- Fairmont State students write original production about Prickett Cemetery
- 2012 School of the Longhunter comes to Pricketts Fort, April 12-15
- Settling the Western Virginia Backcountry, Part Two
- Scenes from the 18th-century Muzzleloading & Accoutrements Trade Show
- Settling the western Virginia backcountry: part 1
- 18th century Muzzleloading & Accoutrements Trade Show coming to Pricketts Fort, Feb 24-26
- Annual 18th century Christmas Market to run from Fri, Dec 9 to Sun, Dec 11
- Fall Festival & Antiques Fair this weekend at Pricketts Fort, Oct 8 & 9
- A paragon of the old frontier work ethic
- A tale of two cats
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Recent Comments
- Daryle Geyer on Tales of the Early Pricketts
- matthew d, smith on School of the Longhunter: scenes from the encampment
- Lauren Prickett on School of the Longhunter: scenes from the encampment
- bj omanson on Recruiter for General Hand to be at Pricketts Fort, July 4
- Rick Greathouse on Recruiter for General Hand to be at Pricketts Fort, July 4
- bj omanson on Recruiter for General Hand to be at Pricketts Fort, July 4
- Rick Greathouse on Recruiter for General Hand to be at Pricketts Fort, July 4
- Bob Metell on School of the Longhunter: scenes from the encampment
- Doug Wood on The Shawnee: their septs, their chiefs & their women
- Longknife (Mel Stafford) on At recent School of the Longhunter, local farmers answer to beat of recruiter’s drum
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