Harman Station and Fort Vancouver Although the Indians used the Big Sandy Valley as a hunting-ground, they frequently came into the region and situated themselves in a more or less per- manent camp for varying periods while engaged in their hunting and warring expeditions. The Shawnee Warpath led up out of the Little Sandy Valley across the southwestern portion of Law- rence County into Johnson County over Mud Lick. At the confluence of Little Mud Lick and Big Mud Lick, north of main Paint Creek, the Shawnees had an old village. Here in the bottomlands many Indian implements have been found. At an early day there were painted on the cliffted sandstones of the creek gorge at this place a number of odd figures of buffalo and deer done in red and black colors. All of these primitive mural decorations have become entirely obliterated through natural weathering processes in the course of the last twenty-five or thirty years. In the vicinity of main Paint Creek early settlers found many of the large trees skinned of their bark with draw- ings of birds and animals done in red and black on the smooth under trunk of the tree. About the lower waters of Paint Creek situated generally on the higher hills there have been found a number of Indian graves, and a little farther down the Levisa Fork about seven or eight miles above the juncture with the Tug River, there existed in early times an old Indian town on a small creek which entered the Big Sandy River from the west. With the cun- ning and understanding of woodcraft which his race possessed, the Indian gen- erally located his camps on the Big Sandy near the natural salt licks where the buffalo, deer, and other animals might be easily stalked. This was the case on Mud Lick Creek, where an old salt lick which gave the creek its name existed a short distance above the old encampment. Other salt licks known and frequented by the Indians were located along the Big Sandy from its forks to the Ohio River, on the Tug Fork near Warfield, and on Middle Creek and on Beaver Creek. Blockhouse Bottom (Harman Station) was in Floyd County then, but now Harman’s Station is in Johnson County Ky. However, this can be explained by the fact that in 1792 when James Roark died fighting the Indians at “Harman Station,” Johnson County had not yet been formed. Thus, Floyd County would be the county of the station’s location. In 1755, the Harman,Skaggs and others from the first white settlement in Virginia “established a hunting station and built a large cabin of logs, prior to the Big Sandy Creek Voyage, on the identical spot which afterwards became the site of their blockhouse”. Since white settlements were few and far between, Harman’s Station became a gathering place for hunters, traders, and other whites who passed through the region. An article hosted by Rootsweb, refers to the location as “Harmon Station in Historic Block House Bottom. Harman’s Station is well known for its part in the 1789 captivity narrative of Jenny Wiley. Mrs. Wiley, while her husband was away, was attacked by Indians who slaughtered her children and took her into captivity. After eleven months, Mrs. Wiley managed to escape from the Indians and is said to have clung to (or straddled) a sizable tree branch as it floated down the river with Henry Skaggs( brother- in- law- to Mathias Harman). At Harman’s Station, which was on John’s Creek, she was rescued by Henry Skaggs, but not without a fight between her rescuers and the Indians who were pursuing her. “Block house built by Harman ,Skaggs and others.” It is east and across the river from Paintsville, Kentucky. Seven hundred feet east of the Lawrence County courthouse lawn was established in 1789 the first settlement in this section. Called Vancouvers Fort (or the Big Sandy Blockhouse), the establishment survived only a year. It would take two more attempts before the lands could be permanently settled in what would become Louisa. Charles Vancouver of London, England was issued a patent for a 2,000 acre tract of land which contained the present site of Louisa, the county seat, by the British government in 1772. The survey of this grant was made by George Washington during the late 1760s. Vancouver came to the newly formed United States and settled at the Forks of the Big Sandy in 1789. He erected a fort, built a few cabins and did some farming. However, he abandoned the area because Indians of several tribes used this area as their hunting grounds — until finally forced out by settlers. Frederic Moore migrated west to Lawrence County in 1815 and established a trading center at Louisa. Soon after that, the framework for a community began to take shape. Lawrence County was named for James Lawrence, a distinguished American naval officer of the Tripolitan War. Louisa was established in 1822. It was named for the Louisa (Levisa) Fork of the Big Sandy River which had been named by Dr. Thomas Walker in honor of the wife of the Duke of Cumberland. One of Vancouvers Land Grants Charles Vancouver, originally of London, England, acquired two land grants for a combined 15,000 acres along the Big Sandy River where the Tug and Levisa forks meet. At the time, this section was the easternmost reaches of Fayette County, Virginia - part of Virginias Kentucky District. The lands are reputed to have been surveyed by George Washington himself. With his grants, Vancouver sought to secure the men necessary to establish a fort through advertisements in the Kentucky Gazette. Little record of Fort Vancouver existed for several years after the advertisements ceased. Then in 1838, the sworn story of John Hanks was taken and recorded for posterity providing a record for what happened to Vancouvers Fort. As quoted in Judge Charles Kerrs History of Kentucky: I was employed by Charles Vancouver in the month of February, 1789, along with several other men, to go to the forks of Big Sandy River, for the purpose of settling, clearing and improving the Vancouver tract, situated on the point formed by the junction of the Tug and Levisa Forks, and near where the town of Louisa now stands. In March, 1789, shortly after Vancouver and his men settled on said point, the Indians stole all their horses but one, which they killed. We all, about ten in number, except three or four of Vancouvers men, remained there during the year, and left the next March, except three or four men to hold possession. But they were driven off in April, 1790, by the Indians. Vancouver went East in May, 1789, for a stock of goods, and returned in the fall of the same year. We had to go to the mouth of the Kanawha River, a distance of eightyseven miles, for corn, and no one was settled near us, probably the nearest was a fort about thirty or forty miles away, and this was built maybe early in 1790. The fort we built consisted of three cabins and some pens made of logs, like corn cribs, and reaching from one cabin to the other. We raised some vegetables and deadened several acres of ground, say about eighteen, on the point, but the horses being stolen, we were unable to raise a crop. The Fort Vancouver blockhouse survived but a year, suffering from both Indian raids and the difficulties of farming. The settlement was replaced a few years later by another short-lived settlement called Balclutha. A Philadelphian, Frederick Moore, laid out a town at the confluence of the Tug and Levisa forks in 1815. By 1818, the community was deemed substantialand would become the seat of the newly formed Lawrence County in 1822.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 21:24:40 +0000
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