William and Eva Casper Dunlap of Kentucky
First Generation
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1. Hans Georg LÖHL. Born on May 3, 1703 in Eisingen, Wuerttemburg, Germany.
Hans Georg married Maria Elizabeth RUDES. Born on May 22, 1711 in Sternenfels, Wuerttemburg, Germany.
They had the following children:
2 i. George (1734-)
ii. Henry.
iii. Peter.
Peter married Mary.
iv. Johann Michael. Born in 1732.
v. Jenet. Born in 1739.
vi. John Peter. Born on May 14, 1742 in York County, Pennsylvania.
John Peter married Mary.
vii. Barbara. Born on June 22, 1743.
viii. John Jacob. Born about 1750.
ix. John Henry. Born about 1754 in York County, Pennsylvania.
x. William. Born about 1756 in Burke County, North Carolina.
Second Generation
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Family of Hans Georg LÖHL (1) & Maria Elizabeth RUDES
2. George LAIL. Born in 1/6/1734/35 in Sternenfels, Wuerttemburg, Germany.
The following info was gleaned and excerpted from the book, The Lagle/Lail Family in America by Margaret Lail Hopkins and James Donald Lail. This book is well researched and documented and devotes several pages to the Ruddle's Station massacre and aftermath.
LIFE OF GEORGE LAIL
CAPTURED AND RAISED BY INDIANS
Hans Georg Löhl lived in Bavaria, Germany but was evicted by the Catholics in the protestant purge of 1587. He moved his family to Wuerttemberg.
Every generation had several men named Hans Georg but the authors of the book determined that our immigrant ancestor was Hans Georg Löhl who landed in Philadelphia on the British ship Samuel on Aug. 30, 1737. On the ship's papers his name is spelled phonetically as LALE.
This Georg first settled in York County Pennsylvania where his name finds several more spellings on land and church documents. It appears as Lale, Lagel, Lael, Layle and others. There are twenty-four known spellings of this family name.
About 1755 Hans Georg LALE moved to Rowan County, NC in the area that became Davie
County. He lived next door to Squire BOONE, the father of Daniel. The Lagle/Lail book states that the first to adopt the LAIL spelling was George LEGALL, Jr. who moved to KY in 1778. He also occasionally spelled it LAELL. His will used the LAIL spelling and his descendants have stuck with that spelling. Georg Lale had six sons.
In 1778 three of them, George Jr., Henry and Peter took their families and moved to Kentucky,
settling on Hinkston's Fork near the present day town of Cynthiana in Harrison County. It was
Bourbon County then. George Jr. claimed 351 acres on Hinkston's Fork. A community grew up
around a stockade fort originally built by John HINKSTON, abandoned in 1776 and rebuilt in 1779 by Captain Isaac RUDDELL. According to Mrs. HOPKINS' book, the fort was variously
known as Hinkston's Station, Fort Licking, Fort Liberty and Ruddell's Station. Ruddell is
sometimes spelled Ruddle.
On June 22, 1780 the stockade was defended by 49 men including Peter, Henry and George LAIL.
They were all in the fort on that day due to the very wet weather. British Captain Henry BYRD with a force of six hundred troops and Indians attacked the fort. When he brought into play his
six-pounder cannons, the settlers agreed to negotiate a surrender on the condition that Capt. BYRD would restrain the Indians from their usual brutal practices.
Well, the Indians were not restrained and they killed and scalped many of the defenders, including women and children. It is believed that the Indians were Shawnees but may have included members of the Delaware tribe.
We do not know what happened to Henry LAIL and we must assume that Peter was killed. Peter's wife, Mary, and two daughters were taken prisoner and taken to Michigan. Many years later Mary wrote a letter dated Aug 7, 1822 that was delivered to Governor CASS of Michigan who in turn sent it to the editor of the Kentucky Gazette, who published it as follows:
From the Kentucky Gazette: addressed to Peter LALE, Kentucky.
"I was taken at Fort Licking, commanded by Capt. RUDDLE and was ransomed by Col. McGEE
and was brought into upper Canada near Amherstburgh, (Fort Malden) where I now live after
having been 16 years among the Indians. Your eldest sister is now living in Sandwich, but the
youngest I could never hear of.
Now, my dear son, I would be very glad to see you once more before I die, which I do not think will be long, as I am in a very bad state of health, and have been this great while.
I am married to Mr. Jacob MIRACLE for whom you can enquire.
Your affectionate mother, Mary MIRACLE."
Unfortunately, Mary never learned that the youngest daughter, of who she spoke, was safe with the brother of her husband. (George)
For some reason, George LAIL and his wife were spared, though they were taken prisoner and later released.
But their two little boys, George, aged 7 and Johnny, aged 4 and a daughter, Eva, aged 14, were
taken by the Indians. Eva was taken to Canada but was later released.
There are conflicting stories about how Johnny was released but he did get back to his parents and lived a long and productive life in Kentucky.
Little George was kept by the Indians and as they moved west, he was taken with them. This band of Indians settled in the area of Missouri where the City of Jackson now stands in Cape Girardeau County.
George was raised as an Indian. When he was an adult he returned and visited his family in Kentucky but went back to Missouri to live. Again, when he was twenty-four and married to Louisa WOLFF, he went to Kentucky and stayed for two or three years.
Two of his children, John and Robert, born 1823 and 1824 respectively were born in Kentucky.
George then took his family and returned to Missouri where he stayed and raised his family.
Robert LAIL married Lucy Ann ALLEN daughter of Andrew Vincent ALLEN from Virginia.
They had a daughter named Rosa Elvira who married Abraham WILLIAMS.
Rosa and Abraham's son, Thomas Robert, was the grandfather of this writer (Carl Phillips). Thomas
married Warneta BETTS, a Choctaw woman, in Blue (Bryan) County OK.
Warneta received her land allotment in Atoka County near Boggy Depot.
Tom built a log cabin there and my mother was born in that cabin in 1904.
George, the little boy who was raised by the Indians, was my ggg-grandfather. --
Carl in Hangtown
LAIL, GEORGE-A, 133-Wife, Margaret; son, John; to Catarinah Lail, dau. of Peter Lail, deceased, when 18; sons, George and John, the plantation after my wife's death; (if George ever comes and applies for land); rest to be divided eq. between Eliz. Franks and Margaret Simmolt and Eveleas Casner and George and John Lail (to my four above named children, if George doesn't apply. Wife and Casper Carsner and Andrew Simmolt, Extrs. July 2, 1793. No probate date. [1]
George married Mary Margaret BRYANT?, daughter of Captain BRYANT?. Born on May 5, 1736.
They had the following children:
3 i. Eveleas (1766-)
4 ii. Elizabeth (~1768-)
5 iii. George (1773-)
6 iv. John (1776-1853)
v. Margaret. Born about 1770.
7 vi. Peter (~1775-)
Third Generation
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Family of George LAIL (2) & Mary Margaret BRYANT?
3. Eveleas LAIL. Born in 1766 in Rowan, North Carolina.
E-mail message dated 20 Jan 1999:
I am so enjoying your history of the Lail family. I am a descendant of Evalias Lail and Casper Carsner. I do find a few discrepancies between our (Karsner) family history and yours however. According to our history which is The Karsner's of Kentucky, written by my cousin, Margaret Alice Murphy, Eva was first married to Casper and then to Mr. Dunlap. Casper was born in 1750 and died in 1797-98. They were probably married around 1786. I also have it from Margaret that Eva was born in Pennsylvania. Very confusing isn't it!!! In any event thanks for sharing your info with the world. One of these days I plan to do a web page of my own.
Linda Silvestri
circa 1788 when Eveleas was 22, she first married Caspar KARSNER, son of George KERSNER & Margaret, in Pennsylvania. Born in 1750. Caspar died in 1798-1799; he was 48.
Casper Karsner--January 11, 1780: (Cert issd for 400 fees &c pd D. D. to Jno Martin) Casper Karsner this day claimed a preempt'n of 400 Acres of land at the State price in the District of Kentucky lying on the North branch of the North fork of Elkhorn Creek including a small sinking spring on the south side of the s'd branch and about two miles up the said branch from the licking Trace a North E. course by Making an actual Settlem't in the year 1778 Satisfactory proof being made to the Court they are of Opinion that the s'd Karsner has a right to a preempt of 400 Acres of Land to include the above Location & that a Cert. issue accordingly. [2]
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The Karsners of Kentucky
History and Family Album
Volume I
by Margaret A. Karsner Murphy
1981
(p. 10)
Chapter 2
George and Margaret Kersner
This section of our history is the beginning of the facts I have found during research into our past. However, I stand to be corrected if someone finds me in error.
I made application for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. (I was approved by the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, in Washington, D.C. on 10 December 1980. My National Number is 650.665. My membership is with the Susannah Hart Shelby Chapter 4-075 Ky. at Frankfort, Kentucky.)
I knew my ancestral great grandfather, Casper, had served in the militia during the Revolution. My source was Collins' "History of Kentucky," Vol. I under Ruddles (also called Hinkston's and Licking) Fort, and Logan's (St. Asaph's) Station. He was in Captain Benjamin Logan's Company, in Lincoln County, probably in 1779.
Now to be approved by the D.A. R. everything stated had to be proven. So, when I foundCasper's will, I found the name of his mother, Margaret. About this time, I was made aware of a book, "Scotts' Papers" Kentucky Court and Other Records, which were compiled by Hattie Marshall Scott. Some of these records were Fayette County Burnt Records. I went to the Kentucky Archives in Frankfort, Ky. and went through some of the burnt records.
(p. 11)
There was found a burnt record stating that Margaret Kersner and Casper Kersner had appointed William Dunlap esquire their Attorney- in- fact, for the purpose of transacting business for them in the Commonwealth of Virginia, respecting the estate of George Kersner deceased (Burnt Record Vol. 8 - page 207) to collect monies and property due them from the estate. Now, I knew Casper's parents were George and Margaret Kersner. I soon found out that Thomas Lincoln who was executor of George's estate, was married to his daughter Elizabeth.
On the following page of the burnt record (page 208) is stated: Fayette County August Court 1796. This Letter of Attorney was produced in Court, acknowledged by Margaret Kersner and Casper, parties thereto and ordered to be recorded. Teste: Fielding L. Turner.
After contacting a researcher in Rockingham County Virginia, I was sent a copy of the Suit that was in Chancery, a land dispute (Judgement & Order Book #6 page 423, May 1801). Listed in the Chancery Suit are the descendants of George Kershner and his wife Margaret. I am sure Casper and Jacob were his sons but am not so sure about John Nicholas. There are three possibilities: John Nicholas could have been one son or two sons (John and Nicholas) or maybe even a grandson or grandsons, brother or brothers to George, Henry, and David Shaver (Shaffer). It's possible there were five grandsons. The Shaver'(Shaffer) brothers were sons of George and Margaret's daughter, Modelena Shaver, who later married Philip Rust (Bust). So, I can't say for sure how many sons George and Margaret Kershner had.
The daughters known at this time were: Elizabeth who married Thomas Lincoln, Modelena (Shaver) Rust, and Catharine Bowman. Catharine was not an inhabitant of Virginia at the time of the
(p. 12)
Chancery Suit. I believe she had come to Kentucky. Her husband was a Bowman, but which one is . Abraham and George Bowman lived in the same area as George and Margaret Kershner, according to tax lists. You might notice that on 14 Apr. 1797, in Casper's will, he selected or appointed John Parker and Abraham Bowman executors of his last will and testament.
In the book "Kentucky in Retrospect" by G. Glenn Clift, there is printed several articles about the Bowmans. The Bowmans were at Fort Harrod 1774-1775 . Draper mss. and depositions lists Col. Abraham Bowman as being there. Capt. Joseph Bowman's Company was stationed at Harrodsburg 24 Jan 1778. Located 6 miles East of Harrodsburg was Bowman's Station settled by Col. Abraham Bowman 1779. Draper mss. 13CC 170-1 gives an interview with Herman Bowman, as to the seven families who came from Virginia in the Fall of 1779. A Robert Bowman was also listed in the family groups. I have not tried to connect with the Bowmans. I included this information to help those who might be interested in the Bowman line.
More information is expected from judgement & Order Book #6, page 413, dated May 1801 and judgement & Order Book #7, Page 153, dated Sept 1802 and Page 345, dated August 1803. More time is needed on this. (Judgement and Order books reel #39 dated 1798-1804 bks. 6 & 7.)
The Chancery Suit shows Catherine Bowman and Jacob Kershner as non-residents. In the book, "The Lincolns in Virginia" by John Wayland, published in 1946, under Lincoln Chronology, page 250, you'll read: 1796 Oct 20, John Lincoln and John Berry appointed attorneys-in-fact by Jacob Carsner of
(p. 13)
Washington County, Tenn., to prosecute his claim as legatee of his father George Casner, deceased. I don't have the birth dates of George and Margaret's children, but I have speculated that Casper was born ca 1750 and Elizabeth ca 1763. I believe all their children were born in Pennsylvania. Casper's son, John, stated on the 1850 census of the United States, that he was originally from Pennsylvania. In my family, we have always been told we were originally from Pennsylvania, having come from Germany during immigration days.
George and Margaret drifted from Pennsylvania into Virginia buying land on Brock Creek in the upper Shenandoah Valley, not very far from the John Lincoln family. The Valley of the Shenandoah was at this time the western frontier of the Colony of Virginia. In order to protect the country on the east, and to prevent the encroachments of the French on the west, the government encouraged rapid settlement of this region. Religion was an inducement which accelerated the settlement of the Valley. Our Kershner family was a very devout people, so religious freedom was certainly an inducement to them to immigrate into this new territory, the lands of Virginia. Many other religious faiths looked to the valley as a haven of refuge from religious persecution. Many people came directly from Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah.
During the Revoultionary War, the soldiers from the Shanandoah Valley found plenty of action on the soil of their own state. From the beginning of the Revolution, to the surrender of Cornwallis, the militia of the Valley, as well as the remainder of Virginia, had no rest. I don't know where George and Margaret's sons served during the conflict, but they certainly answered their call to serve.
From "Augusta County Virginia Records," page 130 shows the purchase of land by George Kersner: 21 Mar 1774 Adam Hoverstick of Culpeper to George Kersncr, patent to Adam 7 July 1763 (just after the end of the French and Indian War) and conveyed by him to William Samples, 18 Aug 1770, and William Samples to George Kersner, 17 Aug 1773. Adam Hoverstick was an alien and foreigner when he conveyed to William Samples and continued so until 16 Mar 1774 when he was naturalized.
Another reference was made in the same book, "Augusta County Virginia Records," page 406: 17 Aug 1773, William Samples and Sarah to George Kersner, on Brock Creek, 235 acres Patented to Adam Hoverstick 7 Jul 1763. Teste: Henry Runyon and Obediah Muncy.
So I would say that from 17 Aug 1773, George and Margaret's family became Virginians. Just two years later, the Revolutionary War started on 19 Apr 1775 and it is assumed that all his sons joined in the conflict. No doubt Casper, John, and Jacob served and possibly Nicholas. Casper's militia record began in Virginia and ended in Kentucky.
A census and tax list taken in Rockingham County Virginia in 1784, only lists the names of the Heads of Families. From the lists taken by Anthony Rader, I found George Carsner with 2 white souls, a dwelling, and one other building. This was eleven years after he moved to Virginia. Surely all his children were grown and married by then.
Several names on the lists seem familiar to me, some are probably his sons-in-law. It shows they all lived in the same general area. There were three Bowmans: John, Benjamin (thought to be a preacher) and Jacob... this one I believe was his son-in-law but not proven. (A certified lineage specialist, Evelyn Rosemary Frantz sent me this record: On 22 May 1804 widow Catharine Bowman married Christian Fry by Rev. Benjamin Bowman.) George Shaver might have been the father of George and Margaret's grandsons, George, Henry and David Shaver. Their mother's name was Modelena. William Dunlap Esq. was the Attorney- in- fact in the settlement of George's estate. George Ruddle had been a long time friend of the family. He was probably about the age of Casper. George Ruddle's father was Isaac Ruddle and his mother was Elizabeth Bowman. More will be told about this family in the section of "Early Kentucky." I feel there was a close friendship between the Ruddle and Carsner families. Listed also was Matthias Lair who later settled in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
From the original court records of Augusta County Virginia, 1745-1800, by Lyman Chalkley, Vol.
(p. 15)
III page 545 states: 17 June, 1776 Richard Rowland and Bridgett to Conrad Hartingen, part of 190 acres patented to Richard 16 Mar 1771 on a branch of Daniel Holeman's Creek. Teste: John Thomas, George Kersner, Josiah Boone, Daniel Smith, Elizabeth Miller.
Another record in Vol. III of Chalkley book, page 543: 17 Aug 1775. Philip Nicholas, eldest son of Samuel Nicholas and John Thomas, executors of Samuel Nicholas to Jacob Brunk, of Frederick County, Maryland, on Brock's Creek, patented to William Rutledge, 20 Aug 1745 and by him conveyed to Cornelius Ruddle. Teste: Caspar Karsnar, George Ruddle.
The book "Virginia Valley Records" by John Wayland lists landowners of Rockingham County in the Year 1789. This list was compiled from original manuscripts in the county clerks office.The names listed are about the same as in 1784. The Rockingham Supplement lists Jacob Bowman, Sr., 1 tithable, 3 horses; Thos. Lincoln, 1 tithable, 3 horses; William Dunlap, 1 tithable; son William, 7 horses; Geo. Cashner
I received a record from the Rockingham Historical Society of a Survey in book A, page 168 dated 1795, the year before George died. The survey was for 6 1/2 acres of land.
(p. 18)
The first United States Census was taken in 1790. George Casner was listed there also.
The Shenandoah Valley was almost entirely settled by Pennsylvanians. George lived out the remaining 23 years of his life here in the valley. He died ca 1796. His wife, Margaret went to Kentucky and lived with her son Casper and his wife Eva one short year. Casper died in the summer of 1797. He never forgot his mother in his will. Excerpts from Casper's will states: "I do give to my mother Margaret during her life, the room in the South West end of my house, one acre of land convenient to the house and free and unobstructed passage to spring water, and priviledge of taking wood for her fire all during her life only." This was sweet, it shows a heart of love and compassion.
George and Margaret's children must have all settled there in the Shenandoah Valley, in the area around them, except Casper, Jacob, and Elizabeth. Casper came to Kentucky, followed by Jacob, who later went on to Tennessee, and Elizabeth Lincoln lived in Kentucky until Thomas died; then she went to live with her son George Lincoln in Liberty, Missouri.
I have reasons to believe our ancestral great grandfather, George knew Daniel Boone. They were from the same general area in Pennsylvania. Daniel came from an English Quaker family who first settled in Philadelphia, seeking religious freedom and a better way of life. For this same reason, George Kersner's family came from Germany.
Daniel Boone's father, whose first name was Squire, pioneered into Western Pennsylvania then took up farmlands near what is now the city of Reading, Pa. In this general area were the Kersners. (There are many, many variations of the spelling of our last name, which will be shown later.) Daniel Boone was born here on 2 Nov 1734, the sixth of eleven children. I have speculated that our George was born ca 1722. So he would have been some 12 years older than Daniel, and Casper some sixteen years younger.
In 1775 the Wilderness Trail was blazed by Daniel Boone, with Michael Stoner, through the Appalachian Mountains. This was just two years after George and family moved to Virginia, on Brock' s Creek.
I believe Casper and his brothers and sisters knew Daniel, because in 1782 Daniel Boone entered 500 acres of land for Capt. Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky. Capt. Abraham was a brother to Elizabeth Kersner's husband, Thomas.
So you see, by taking historical events, and arranging them in sequence, I can compare with the events closest to our family interest. Daniel Boone outlived both George and his son Casper. George died in 1796 and Casper, his son, in 1797.
In 1810, Daniel Boone came to Lexington, Kentucky with valuable fur pelts to pay old debts and bills. Boone was now age 76. There he met young John James Audubon, age 25, who later became a famous painter of birds in America. Audubon was in love with the wilderness as Daniel had been all his life. Boone showed his young friend how a good hunter "barks" squirrels and told him tales of the old wilderness days. Ten years later, Daniel Boone died at age 86, in 1820. Boone's body and his wife's body both rest in the Cemetery at Frankfort, Kentucky, after being moved from a burial site on a hilltop overlooking the Missouri.
So, as our history progresses, keep in mind the families: Kersners, LincoIns, Boones, Lails, Ruddles and Dunlaps and see how their lives touched from time to time down through the years.
(p. 19)
Variations of Our Name
As you will notice' there are many different ways th6 Karsner Name has been spelled down through the centuries.
During Immigration Days the name was spelled: Kirschner, Crisner, Kirshner, Kistner, Kesner, Kastner, Korschner, Cassnar, and Casner. This is according to "Pennsylvania German Pioneers" by Strassburger and Hinke Vols. I, II and III.
Then in the "American Genealogical Biographical Index" you'll find Carsner, Casper, and Kershner.
From the Baptismal Book in 1637, in Germany, our oldest known ancestral great-grandfather was Peter Kerschner. In the 1660 marriage book when Johann andAnna Elsa Ermoldts married, the name was spelled Kirschner.
When Johann and Anna Elsa brought their son Johan Conradt in for Baptism in 1669, the name had changed to Kisher.
In "The Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlepnent in Virginia" by Lyman Chalkley, Vol. Ill on page 547, our George served as a teste: on 17 June 1776, it was then spelled Kersner.
When George and Margaret bought their land in Virginia in 1773, the name on the deed was George Kersner.
From the burnt record, the Chancery Suit, George's name is spelled Kersner in 1796. Also the same year, George's sonjacob in Tennessee was spelling it Casner. On the 1784 tax list it was George Carsner. Casper Karsnar was used, in Chalkley book, Vol. Ill page 543 as a Teste in 1775. In John Wayland's book, "Virginia Valley Records" the name is spelled Geo. Cashner, On the land survey for 6 1/2 acres in Rockingham County, his name was spelled George Casner, in 1795. On the first U.S. Census in 1790, he was listed as George Casner.
When Casper served in the Revolution at Logan's Fort here in Kentucky 1779, he was referred to as Caspar Casener and Virginia records at the same time referred to him as Caspar Casener, but the very next year 22 June 1780, when he was captured by the British and Indians, he was referred to as Casper Casner.
In 1795 when Casper with others organized a Lutheran Church in Lexington, his name was spelled Casper Kersner, but in his will and settlement of his estate, the name was Carsner in one place and Kernsner in another.
Casper's land grant signed by Patrick Henry 20 May 1785, his name was Casper Kasner. His daughter Margaret's wedding bond to Warren Wheeler on 7 Apr 180 gives her last name as Kesner.
When Casper's son John was selling his land heired from his father on 17 Aug 1819, his last name was Kisner on the record. I have a record from the Virginia State Library when Casper was paid for Military Service during the Revolution, his last name was spelled Casner, 1785. In 1791 he was signing his last narne Karsner, just 6 years before he died.
So who knows why the spelling of the name differs in so many places. I have typed this information for those who might doubt our connection with all the different spellings. It seems to me the person writing the name spelled it however it sounded to him that day.
(p. 25)
Chapter Four
Early Kentucky
This part of our history is about the KARSNERS OF KENTUCKY, a story that has never been told before, to my knowledge. The story of Immigration Days was researched by others and shared with me. For this, I am very grateful.
I trust you have already enjoyed reading about George and Margaret Kersner and their children, who settled in the Shenadoah Valley of Virginia after leaving Pennsylvania, followed by our connection with the Lincoln family. Now there are those enthralling personalities, Casper Carsner and Eva Lail who later became his wife, highlighted by Casper's militia record during the American Revolution and their capture by the British and Indians at Ruddles' Fort, near Cynthiana. Also included is the service record of Casper's and Eva's sons, John and Johnathan, during the War of 1812. There is much, much more about their lives in the story of early Kentucky.
Historical events are arranged in sequence and compared with the events closest to our family interest. Our family history is more than dates to stuff your mind. Dates come alive and stick in your memory as you read about our ancestors, men and women, portraits of past generations, their relation to events of that day and time, in the building of our great State of Kentucky.
Before your realize it, the puzzle of the history of THE KARSNERS OF KENTUCKY will begin to fit together and our past will be revealed. So, enrich your knowledge of the past, its people, places, things, and happenings that our forefathers endured, enjoyed, and loved.
I am trusting this book will stimulate the interest of future Karsner historians. The more we know, the more interested we become. I have only scratched the surface.
The dates are accurate and authentic, unless otherwise stated. Events and wars included bring you the sidelines of our history. By weaving together carefully researched facts, I have attempted to open up new windows of our past. Not only factual information is included, you'll also read a review of the origin of our country and its struggles with other nations, and how our family was a part.
Let's project our ancestors for our descendants. Everyone deserves to be remembered. There is much to be admired. We have a colorful heritage, of which each of us can bejustly proud.
When we think of early Kentucky, we immediately think of the Indians, and especially Daniel Boone, and those that followed after him.
The first settlers who came to Kentucky had to contend not only with the wild beasts of the forests, but with the equally savage Indian warriors. The first pioneers were men sent forth by the wisdom of God to found a new commonwealth.
The frontier was a land of running waters, groves, glades and primeval forests of stately trees so closely grown, a man could walk for days without stepping from under the shade.
The land was teeming with wild game. Cousin Mattie Karsner New said this was the reason why our great grandfather John and his sons Johnathan and Joseph Caspar came to Owen County. The hunting and trapping was good. The elk roamed at will and the gentle deer found seclusion. The shaggy-maned buffalo and mammoth predecessors had beated down the earth in moving from salt lick to salt lick into traces over which the settlers came into this coveted country. Birds of bright plumage flitted from tree to tree as shown by the great nature artist, John James Audubon of that day and time. Flocks of wild geese and wild turkey abounded and the land was knee-deep in grass.
The news traveled fast to Virginia and North Carolina of the beautiful land of Kentucky, and its fertile land beyond the mountain. Daniel Boone, a footloose farmer from North Carolina, lead an expedition to find a practical way through the mountains into Kentucky in 1769. Boone found a natural passage, Cumberland Gap, in the heart of the mountains and showed it to others to follow.
Daniel Boone's first view of the "Beautiful Levels of Kentucky," was June 7th, 1769. Boone tarried in Kentucky until 1771. He spent most of this time in a cave on the waters of Shawnee, now in Mercer
(p. 26)
County.
The Colonists along the eastern shores, heard about the beauty of the country described by the wandering fur traders, who ventured inland to trade with the Indians. The Colonists and Pioneers became literally obsessed with a desire to secure homes in this "paradise," as Boone called it.
Soon, they found their way over the Alleghenies and through Cumberland Gap into the land which is now Kentucky. They came in an endless procession, bringing their wives, children, slaves, livestock and all their worldly goods. They came on foot and on pack horses, women riding and carrying their babies with the smaller children packed amidst the bedding in crates of hickory withes swung across the backs of gentle horses. The older boys drove the livestock ahead, while the men with rifles ready, kept vigilant eyes out for the Indians.
There were many long days of travel and sleepless nights. Many poor souls too exhausted, faltered and fell, leaving their unnamed graves by the side of the trail. Just where they lie in oblivion, is .
France had claimed the country east of the Mississippi which included Kentucky. But after the French and Indian War 1763, Great Britain gained right to this region making Great Britain the leading colonial power in the world. British citizens had paid in blood and treasure to win their great empire. So by 1763 the struggle was finally settled. France had been defeated. Peace had come at last.
It has been suggested by others that our ancestral great grandfather George fought in the French and Indian War. I have found that this is a known fact.
The skirmish near Great Meadows, Pennsylvania, marked the commencement in America of the "French and Indian War," known abroad as the "Seven Years War" and the last battle of the French and Indian War was in America in 1763.
But peace brought new problems. During the long years of colonial warfare, the American seaboard colonies had been growing away from the mother country. The people who settled these colonies had learned to think of America as their land, as a place apart from England. They learned to love the new country that had brought most of thern better lives than they or their fathers and mothers had known in the Old World. They began to think of themselves as Americans.
Daniel Boone the bold hunter, born 1734 in Pennsylvania, not far from Reading, Pa., whose desire had been for romantic adventure, was now joined by many seeking their fortune in the new country. Their love for the land was bred as a passion. Our ancestral great Grandfather Casper Carsner, born ca 1750, was one of the many who followed Daniel Boone to Kentucky. However, he was some 16 years younger than Boone.
No doubt that as Casper grew into manhood, his dream was to follow Daniel Boone's trail into Kentucky, because that's just what he did. History reveals that Casper was in Militia at Logans' Fort, in May 1779, a youngman, ca age 29 or 30, and unmarried. His father and mother, George and Margaret were still living on their homeland back on Brock Creek near Brock's Gap in the upper Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
It seems Casper's brother Jacob was also caught up in the southwestward drift. They were later followed by their sister Elizabeth, in 1792, who marriedThom Lincoln, with their family. Later Jacob ventured South. By 1796, we find him in Washington County, Tennessee. Elizabeth and Thomas stayed in Kentucky until after Tom died, ca 1819. Then Elizabeth went to live with her son George near Liberty, Missouri.
I have never found that Casper's older brothers and sisters ever came to Kentucky. Other known brothers and sisters were John, Nicholas, Modelena, Catherine and a deceased sister, who left three sons: George, Henry and David Shaver. Modelena married Philip Rust and Catherine married a Bowman.
The walls of the Cumberland Gap echoed to the sounds of Civilization…creaking wagon wheels and the crack of the driver's lash...as settlers moved into the newly opened territory. Because of Daniel
(p. 27)
Boone's curiosity as to what lay over the next hill, a populous and prosperous state was formed. Somewhere in between the Indians' "Dark and Bloody Ground" and. Boone's "Wonderful Paradise" Kentucky prospered. Achieving Statehood in 1792, Kentucky was the 15th state to join the Union. It covers 40,395 square miles and has held a prominent place in the development of America.
Daniel Boone with John Findley left his peaceful home on theYadkin in North Carolina in quest of adventure, and many other men followed.
Many courageous and gallant young men came from Virginia to make their homes in Kentucky. Honor and wealth lay before them as well as exciting pleasures of a perilous undertaking. Bounty lands were granted to many of the officers and soldiers of the Virginia troops.
Surveyors were sent to Kentucky by Virginia to mark off the land. Brothers John and Levi Todd came as surveyors around 1773. Many of the documents I have bear the signature of Levi Todd as Clerk.
Life in the wilderness was so delightful to Daniel Boone that he moved his family here in the fall of 1773, the same year George & Margaret Kershner moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia. No sooner had the Boone family arrived, their son and six others were killed by the Indians. Being so disheartened by this tragedy, they returned to their old home on the Yadkin.
The Indians knew the value of their hunting ground, the endless forest where game was plentiful, and they were prepared to resist the early pioneers permanent settlements. The Shawnee and Cherokee claimed the land. They became so hostile toward the settlers that it was dangerous for any white man to remain here.
There were several young men who came to Kentucky as surveyors. They were anxious to survey the famed lands of Kentucky. John Todd and his brother Levi Todd were followed the same
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year by a party of hunters and surveyors from Virginia. They were led by three brothers, James, George, and Robert McAfee, who later became prominent in the new country. After investigating the land, they settled on Salt River, in Mercer County. Soon thereafter the Shawnee Indians became so hostile to the new settlers, that it was dangerous for them to remain there.
Governor Dunmore of Virginia sent Daniel Boone back to Kentucky with Michael Stoner to guide the surveyors out of the wilderness.
Shortly afterward, the Shawnees entered into a treaty with Governor Dunmore of Virginia. They gave up all their title to the lands south of the Ohio River and promised not to molest the white men further. Peace now reigned for a time and the pioneers were enabled to make their homes in Kentucky. The McAfees, along with others, returned to their settlement on the Salt River, in 1775, not far from Harrodsburg.
Benjamin Logan, with a few slaves, erected a station bearing his name. He brought his family therein 1776.
Benjamin Logan must have been a friend of great grandfather George and son Casper. Several places during my period of research, I have found their names linked together before coming to Kentucky.
Boonesborough was the first military fortification in Kentucky. The fort was completed in September 1775. After completion of the fort, Boone brought his family to Kentucky again. By this time, Paul Revere had already taken his midnight ride on April 19th, to warn the settlers the British were coming. The beginning of the Revolution was 19 Apr 1775.
On 8 Aug 1778 the savages attempted to seige the Fort at Boonesborough. They came bedecked with all their war equipment and with French and British colors flying and surrounded the fort. The siege lasted nine days. Finally, the frustrated warriors took their departure.
The American Revolution was steadily progressing on the eastern seaboard. By October 1778, the plans had been made for the formation of Louisville, followed by Lexington in April 1779.
The first settlers on the frontier burned off the forest and cleared the land then built their cabin homes to form a fort, to resist the Indian attacks. All the neighbors helped each other. They adopted a type of military training and organized a militia. The militia was a group of citizens within a fort trained for military service in the case of an attack by the Indians. They were on active duty only in times of emergency. The militia drilled regularly, and in times of danger would take their turns standing guard. We find Casper Casner in 1779, at Logan's Stationbuilt by Benjamin Logan.
To be in the milita, each man had to be eighteen or older, keep a matchlock musket "not under three foot nine inches in length, a pound of gun powder, twenty bullets, and two fathom of match." This is the type of environment which influenced the lives of Casper Carsner and Eva Lail (later to become his wife).
The winter of 1779 was known as the "Hard Winter. " The unmelting snows lay deep over the land. Horses and cattle perished and even the wild animals shrunk to the bone. Life in the roughly built cabins was trying, during the mildest winters, but it was torturing during the winter of 1779. Because of the increased population at the fort, the supply of corn gave out. The only food was lean game. This was the winter our Casper spent at Logan's Fort in the Militia.
LOGAN'S (ST. ASAPH'S) STATION
Settled by Colonel Benjamin Logan, 1773, one mile west of Stanford, Lincoln County, William Hudson was killed by Indians at Logan's; John Kennedy wounded; Burr Harrison killed; David Logan thought killed on way to station; Ambrose Grissom killed; Jonas Menefee and Samuel Ingram wounded. John Logan in 1778 set out from Logan's in company with John Kennedy, Alexander Barnet, Alexander Montgomery, Jared Menefee to explore Indian country, joined Boone's Party at Blue Licks to number of eighteen. Simon Kenton was guide. Wm. Ryburn, Hugh Ross, Benj. Pettit, Joseph Kennedy, George Clarke, Wm. Miller, John
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McKinney, Archibald McKinney, David Logan (nephew of Benjamin) and probably Samuel Hite and Wm. Paton. Circuit Court Records Fayette County, by Staples, Kentucky Historical Register and Draper mss.
Captain Benjamin Logan's Company (in Lincoln County, at or near Logan's Station, probably in 1779:
Ben/. Logan, Capt.
John Logan, Lieut.
James Brown
John Canterbury
Cavpar Casener
Wm. Casey
Ogden Devers
Benj. Drake
Wm. Grimes
Jacob Gunn
David Hawkins
Jacob Herman
John Jones
John Kennedy
John Martin
Joseph Martin
Samuel Martin
James Mason
David Mitchell
Wm. Mitchell
Alex. Sinclair
George Scott
John Story
John Summers
this is a partial listing of the men in Logan's Company as found in Collins History, Vol. I.
The sufferings of the travelers who had been overtaken by the storms on their way to Kentucky were even greater, than we can imagine. The pioneers who were already settled, opened their cabin homes, and shared with the new settlers. They managed to amuse themselves for the time, and hope for the future. They turned their attention toward the education of their children. This could not be neglected. Smooth boards of wood were used for paper, and oak balls for ink. The children learned to write and work examples set for them by their parents. They learned to read from the Bible and Hymn books.These books had been carried along the pioneer trail, that lead to Kentucky.
During research, it has been so difficult to locate the various counties the Karsners settled in during the years between 1779 and 1855. So, I'll give you a little county history, to help other family historians.
Three Counties were 200 year old, 1 Nov 1980. They were established in 1780 as a result of an act of the Virginia legislature. At one time, all Kentucky was included in the three counties. Fayette, Lincoln and Jefferson were counties of Virginia, which at one time had title to all land west to the Pacific Ocean.
Kentucky, which did not become a state until 1792, was originally part of Augusta Count y, a Virginia County that was created in 1738. Administration by horseback or on foot proved impossible in so large a county. So, in 1770 Augusta was divided and Kentucky became part of Botetourt county.
Botetourt was divided in 1772, making Kentucky part of Fincastle County. Then in 1776, Fincastle was dissolved and Kentucky County, still part of Virginia, was created.
Kentucky County lasted four years, until Fayette, Lincoln and Jefferson were created. The name "Kentucky" for a governmental unit disappeared entirely for two years - from Nov 1780 to Aug 1782. But the name retained a magical ring for immigrants obsessed with "Kentucky fever." Many streamed west through Cumberland Gap or down the Ohio River, only to find the best land already claimed.
When Casper was at Logan's Station, Harrodsburg was the County Seat for Kentucky County, beginning in 1777. Then in 1780, after the massacre at Ruddles' Fort, Fayette County was created, Lexington became the seat of government in Fayette County and has remained so ever since.
To finish the history of our counties, I will add, by 1792 Kentucky became a separate state, the three original counties had been subdivided into nine. By 1818, Kentucky had 59 counties; by 1855, it had 103. In 1912, the state acquired the present total, 120 counties.
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Chapter 5
The Revolutionary War and Casper Casner
A new way of life was developing in America. It was now about 150 years since the first English settlers had come to America. The people of the Old World and the New were finding it increasingly difficult to understand each other. The German immigration had begun around 1684.
The gap was wide indeed in 1763 when Great Britain decided to adopt a new policy and to make the colonies obey the laws which had been passed in London. Step by step, between 1763 and 1775 England, the mother country, and its colonies moved further and further apart. Reconciliation never came. It was up to the colonists to win their freedom and independence on the battlefield. Finally Bri tish-American differences broke out in open war. The early settlers, the Patriots, in Boston were watching the British closely. They knew something was brewing. They had already made arrangements to warn the surrounding countryside if and when the British troops should march.
Great Britain's efforts to retain her empire in the new world antagonized the colonists. By 1775, the Colonists had plunged into a Revolutionary War with the Mother Country, England.
As early as 1763, Colonists were beginning to resent the economic, political, and social restrictions imposed by Britain. In that year the English Parliament placed a tax on sugar and other commodities and virtually closed the frontier to further settlement. The Colonists protested against taxation without representation.
The restrictions made by Britain was the factor in spurring the Colonists to act as a United America in dealing with them. Soon the two countries met in conflict at Lexington and Concord. The Minuteman or militia soldier was ready at a moment's notice to defend his town. They were famous for their spirited resistance to the British regulars at the beginning of the American Revolution. The struggle at Lexington and Concord laid the foundations of civil and religious liberty in America.
The Colonists were fighting for freedom of spirit, mind, and soul. They wanted more than freedom from tyranny; they wanted freedom to build a nation where men could pursue their individual destinites. They had a vision, and that's what carried them through seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
King George III, of Great Britain wanted to prevent the westward growth of the American Colonies. He wanted to exterminate the pioneer forts and force the western frontier back to the Allegheny Mountains.
Late at night on 18 Apr 1775, along the banks of the Charles River across from the sleeping city of Boston, a man paced restlessly in the darkness. Suddenly the feeble rays of a lantern shone from a window in the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston. This restless man who saw the flickering light was none other than the great patriot Paul Revere. He leaped into the saddle of his waiting horse and galloped off into the darkness to warn, the British were coming...and into the pages of history.
Our Casper Casner was about 25, born ca 1750 in Pennsylvania, living with his parents, George and Margaret, and brothers and sisters on Brock Creek, in Augusta County, Virginia in 1775. It had only been two years since they left Pennsylvania. I know he went into the militia and he could have been one of the "Minutemen" in the area where he lived.
The "Minutemen," members of the militia who had promised to be ready for action at a minute's notice, were there before them, gathered in ranks on the village green. Major Pitcairn, commander of the British patrol, ordered the Colonists to drop their guns and leave the green. The Colonists kept their guns but started to leave when someone fired a shot. Immediately, without waiting for orders, the British troops fired several volleys. When the smoke cleared away, eight Colonists lay dead and ten
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others were wounded.
The British troops went on to Concord, where they cut down a liberty pole, set fire to the courthouse and destroyed several gun carriages and a few tools. After encountering armed Patriot forces at Concord's North Bridge, the British started back towards Boston. But the country was swarming with angry Colonists. From behind stone walls and the shelter of buildings, the Colonists fired steadily upon the redcoats as they made their death march down the long road back to the safety of Boston. During that march the British casualties amounted to 73 killed, 174 wounded and 26 missing.
The redcoats reached Boston late in the day. Curious townspeople saw haggard faces, bloody bandages, and men in tattered uniforms stumbling under the weight of wounded comrades. When night fell, the lights of numerous campfires twinkled like fireflies around the rim of the city. These were the fires of rebellion, fed by a goodly number of the 16,000 minutemen from the surrounding countryside. So began the American Revolution.
There were six terrible years of warfare from the battle at Lexington 1775, to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown 1781. By the summer of 1776, the thirteen original colonies had become separate and independent states.
The vague and unsatisfactory nature of the estimates of the number of Virginia troops in the Revolutionary War is largely due to the fragmentary condition of the records. It has been so difficult to get factual information on Casper's service record during the Revolution.
An interest in one's ancestry is in essence an inquiry into history. So the search begins.
In the John Fox Jr. Library in Paris, Ky. I found the book "Virginia State Library, List of the Revolutionary Soldiers of Virginia" (Special Report of the Department of Archives and History for 1911). By H.J. Eckenrode, Archivist. On page 89 it stated CASNER, GASPER Militia Service Aud. Acct. XXVII A, Entry for 10 Dec 1785. I wrote to the Virginia State Library and got a copy of this ledger sheet as shown on page 32.
This is one of the principal sources showing Casper's Militia Service. He was paid 314 pounds, 15 shilling and 4 pence on Saturday 10 Dec 1785. This was back pay for militia duty, four years after the war ended. Casper was age ca. 35 and still unmarried.
Another proof of Casper Casner's service record is a grant of land by Patrick Henry. More information on this will be included later in this history. He served three or more years in a military capacity.
The branch of the military service which was impossible to analyze was the militia and their records are almost impossible to find. In 1780-1781, the forces of the militia reached its maximum. The chief sources of information are the Auditor's books of the Revolutionary period, which record the payment of the services of many individual militiamen. This is where Casper Casner's record was found, in Virginia. No doubt his three brothers: John, Jacob, and Nicholas served at one time or another.
We are indeed fortunate to find Casper's record because most generally the payments were put down as having been paid to some officer for himself and his company as a whole, without including a list of the company. Thus the names of company commanders survive, while the great mass of the privates are .
On 17 Aug 1775 Casper Casner and George Ruddle witnessed a deed on Brock Creek, in Augusta County Virginia, in the case of Samuel Nicholas. I assume he was still with his parents.
This same year 1775 in October, Col. Robert Patterson and six other young men, with John McClellan and family left Pennsylvania for Kentucky in canoes. At Salt Creek, Lewis County, Patterson and three of the men started into the interior. They met Simon Kenton and Thomas William, when they all proceeded across the Licking and several branches of Elkhorn to Leestown; then on to Royal Springs, now Georgetown, where McClellan joined them, building a Fort or Station, which was named after McClellan.
The following year, 1776 Leestown was established, one mile below Frankfort. Of course we're all
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familiar with the story about the capture of the two Callaway sisters and Daniel Boone's daughter by the Indians. This happened 7 July 1776 Collins "History of Kentucky" states. They were recaptured by their fathers the following day about 20 miles away from Boonesborough, uninjured. I am remindin you of these stories of early Kentucky in order to show you about the time Casper Carsner came to Kentucky. During the year 1777, the Forts McClellans at Georgetown, Harrodsburg, Boonesborough and Logans were attacked by the Indians time after time. So disastrous were the Indian hostilities that it discouraged immigration into Kentucky. Three settlements proved permanent, Boonesborough with 22 men, Harrodsburg with 65 men and St. Asaph's, or Logan's Fort with only 15 men, exclusive of the occasional militia sent out from Virginia. This is probably the time when Casper Casner first appeared on the scene in what is now Kentucky. His land title was in dispute, since it was unpatented land. The Certificate Book of the Virginia Land Commission 1779-1780 states:
"Cert issued for 400 fees &c pd. D. D. to Jno Martin) Casper Karsner this day claimed a preempt of 400 acres of land at the State price in the District of Kentucky lying on the North branch of the North fork of Elkhorn Creek including a small sinking spring on the south side of the s'd branch and about two miles up the said branch from the Licking Trace a North E. course by making an actual Settlem't in the year 1778. Satisfactory proof being made to the Court they are of Opinion that the s'd Karsner has a right to a Preempt of 400 acres of land to include the above location and that a Cert. issue accordingly."
This proves to me that Casper Karsner owned land in what is now Kentucky, two years before he was captured at Ruddle's Fort, by the British and Indians. Up to 1779, land was acquired without money and practically without price. When no patent existed, all surveys were made before 1 Jan 1778, by any county surveyor commissioned by William and Mary College and founded upon any warrants from a colonial governor for military services, etc., were to be good; all other surveys were null and void.
Those who had actually settled, as Casper Carsner did, or caused, at their cost, others to settle on unappropriated lands, before 1 Jan 1778, were to have 400 acres or less, as they pleased, for every family so settled, paying $2.25 for each hundred acres. For those who had settlement rights, was also given right to pre-emption more land, adjoining their settlement, at 40 cents an acre.
Many of the earliest settlers in Kentucky were attracted to the farming area surrounding Lexington. Considerable numbers of Virginians packed up their belongings, their horses and slaves, and set out for the Bluegrass. It contained the best lands available within the confines of Virginia. Most of the newcomers found it necessary to purchase tracts from speculators who had preceded them. The Bluegrass country was never a poor man's frontier.
Other groups from Pennsylvania and Maryland were also drawn to the rich lands of Central Kentucky. They augmented the English stock from Virginia with Scotch, Irish, French, and German blood. The pioneer log cabins were fast abandoned for the more stately brick mansions which were characteristic of the well-to-do planters of Kentucky.
Many lost their land because it wasn't surveyed and deed recorded. By the unskilled hands of the pioneers, entries, surveys and patents were filed upon each other, crossing each other's lines in confusion. All entries were accepted for record, but when any was found to conflict, the claimants were referred to the courts, thus countless unhappy lawsuits followed.
When flaws were discovered in the titles, unscrupulous men immediately took advantage of the legal defects and ejected the settlers, whose labors had reclaimed the land from its original wild condition. Now our Casper had his problems also. Printed in "The Kentucky Gazette," the first newspaper printed in Kentucky, in Vol. IV, 16 July 1791 was an article written by Casper, which stated: "Whereas I purchased a bond given byJames M'Connell to Andrew Gatewood, for the
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conveyance of one hundred and ninety acres of land, and have a deed executed to me by the said M'Connel for the farm, which deed was not recorded as the law directs, for want of Mrs. M'Connel relinquishing her right of dower, (that which is given or bestowed, that Part of a husband's property which his widow enjoys during her life) Now as I am informed that the said M'Connell is offering said land for sale again. I hereby forewarn all persons from purchasing the farm, as they cannot expect to obtain it. I am living on the land."
Casper Karsner
July 15, 1791.
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Casper certainly had "Kentucky Fever. " He came to the western frontier without any of his family. Being unmarried at the time, he didn't have the worries the other men had regarding their security and food for the table. I have never found the month and day date when he acquired his land in 1778. He must have. began clearing his land immediately and constructing a cabin, in which to live. The neighbor men would come and help raise the cabin. This was an occasion when no one waited for an invitation.
Casper, like other settlers, farmed his land under the watchful eyes of the Indians. When an Indian attack was expected, the settlers were notified to go to the fort for protection. Many never had time to get to the fort.
A man's service for his country becomes a dramatic part of American history not soon forgotten.
In 1779 Casper was in the Militia at Logan Fort. His name was on the militia lists shown in the chapter Early Kentucky. He probably spent the winter at the fort, as this was sometimes the custom. They all helped to protect each other. Springtime took him back to his land, to prepare for sowing his crops.
October brought the settlement of three new stations. Bryant's Station, five miles northeast of Lexington, Ruddle's and Martin's Stations on the south fork of the Licking River.
The year 1780 on 22 June, that tragic day when the massacre took place at Ruddles' Station will never be forgotten by historians and descendants of the people who were there. Our Casper Casner (Karsner) was there, with many of his friends. He wasn't listed in the militia at Ruddles'Station, so must have come in for protection, as the Indians were on the warpath. Capt. Isaac Ruddle, and his sons, Stephen, James and George, Casper's friend, were there in the militia. George Loyl (Lail), his wife Margaret, daughters, Eva, Elizabeth and Margaret and sons George and Johnny were there.* He and his half brothers, Henry and Peter were in the militia.
I guess this is the appropriate time to write about the destruction of Ruddle's and Martin's Forts in the Revolutionary War from the Maude Ward Lafferty book.
*See "Kentucky z'n Retrospect " by Glenn Clift (UnderRuddle's Fort).
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Chapter 6
Ruddles Fort Massacre
We must know that Casper Casner and Eva Lail with her parents, George and Margaret Lail and family did not find Eden in the west, but there must have been satisfaction of a job well done in the building of the frontier. We could say that they were Kentucky Portraits, and Human Docurnents of our Karsner History. By our research, we have had a part in reviving the forgotten story of our ancestors.
Those that made it to Central Kentucky built strong wooden forts, pre-empted their lands as did Eva Lail's father, George Lail and Casper, later to become her husband. Each year they cleared a little more land so they could plant more crops.
Life within Ruddles Fort was not bad. Friends and neighbors bonded together in preempting land and building cabin homes. Love affair s developed, and the itinerant preachers had many knots to tie as he traveled the circuit. Many marriages were never recorded or the records were destroyed or burned when the forts were attacked by the savages. I have never been able to find the marriage record of George and Margaret Kersner (Casner) or Casper and Eva Lail Casner. However, I have several documents that prove they were husband and wife, by wills and such.
Women at the fort milked the cows, prepared the food, spun and wove material for garments, household linens, "kivers" or quilts and rag carpets. When the Indians attacked the fort, the women took their own portholes for the defense of the fort. Also, when boys reached the age of twelve, they were given their porthole to defend in time of attack.
During the intermittent periods of peace, when the Indians were not on the war path, there were good times in the fort. There was excitement in corn huskings, the sugarings, quiltings, log-rollings and house warmings for new neighbors. Sometimes if a fiddler found his way into the wilderness fort, there would be gala nights when young folk reveled in dancing the Virginia Reel.
When danger threatened, a messenger was sent from cabin to cabin and station to station to warn the settlers to gather their families and necessities together and go to the fort. They were warned not to light a candle or stir the fire. Even the dogs were trained to silence lest his bark betray his master's whereabouts to the Indians.
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Such was the life of our ancestors. The Lail Family and Casper Casner with many others were at Ruddle's Fort on that tragic day.
Ruddles Fort was in Fayette County at the time of its destruction. Now the Historic area is in Bourbon County, being formed in 1785, five years after the massacre by the Indians. Bourbon County is one of the nine counties organized by the Virginia legislature before Kentucky became an independent state. Paris is the prmcipal town and county seat, and was the first known as Hopewell, when Casper and Eve Carsner lived there. There is a Nursing Home there today in 1980, named the Hopewell Nursing Home and is owned and operated by a Lail descendant.
Bourbon County was certainly Indian land. On all the principal water courses in the county, Indian graves were found, sometimes single, but most frequently, several grouped together. Rude stone walls were erected over them which have fallen in with the passing of time. In proof of this, the vestiges of a large Indian town are still perceptible near where Ruddles Mill is today, 1980.
This draft represents an ancient circular fortification with embrasures at the cardinal points, near the junction of Stoner's and Hinkston's forks of the Licking River, six miles north of Paris, near to the village of Ruddell's station, now Ruddles Mill. While we were visiting the area of the old fort, Jimmy Jordan, our guide, told us about the Indian village, while showing us his conservation map, which clearly showed the embrasuras made by the foot prints of the Indian ponies as they circled their village over two hundred years ago. This seems unbelievable, but I saw this myself, from a picture of an air view of the land in this area, which included his farms.
Collins' "History of Kentucky" states the centre of the site is distinguished by three small mounds ranged in a line; and flanked on either side bv the remains of double rows of lodges or huts; and the distance of about one hundred rods to the eastward, on a bluff of Stoner Creek, was their regular burial ground. At the western extremity of the village, on a slight elevation of black earth or mound, the bones of almost every species of wild animal were found, those of the buffalo, the bear and the deer being the most common.
A small distance from this, on a similar elevation, was the funeral pyre, for the purpose of torturing prisoners to death. From all evidence found, this Indians village had a tragic end. In every direction the bones and teeth of its unfortunate inhabitants, corresponding to every age, have been discovered just beneath the surface of the soil; sometimes lying across each other within the foundation of their huts, but most numerously in the bottom below the site of the viliage, where perhaps the tide of the battle rolled, and the devoted inhabitants met their fate at the hands of some hostile band.
Five miles below Paris, on Stoner Creek, a cave was discovered, containing a number of skeletons in a good state of preservation. The crania was of Indian conformation, and one of them appeared to have been pierced by a rifle ball. It is highly probable that these were some of the hostile Indians that were killed in the siege of Hinkston's Station, which later became Ruddles' Fort. The British and Indians encamped in. this vicinity after the reduction of Hinkston's Station, while on their march to attack Martin's Station, which was located on Stoner Creek, about three miles below Paris.
At a period when there were but few settlers in the county before 1780, a band of Indians, numbering about twenty, ventured into a camp of hunters for the purpose of stealing horses. A party of a dozen hunters followed their trail and overtook them on Stoner Creek, a few miles above Paris, and fired a volley of rifle balls into their camp, which killed; one of their number and wounded two or three
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more. The Indians then fled; but after a short interval, contrary to their usual custom, they came back, and fired in turn upon the hunters while they were engaged in securing their stolen horses. Both parties took to the trees and the fight was continued for a long time. Finally the ammunition of the whites failed and being nearly all wounded, they were obliged to leave the Indians masters of the field. In this skirmish, which was the last that took place in Bourbon County, it was supposed the Indians lost half their number in killed and wounded. Only one of the hunters was killed. It is believed his name was Frank Hickman, whose skeleton was identified by the initials on his knee buckles.
From Collins' "History of Kentucky" we find so many connections with our Karsner and Lail families. Much of the information on Indian events are excerpts from that history.
This is a brief description of the tragedy that was enacted in the Blue Grass Region of Kentucky that lovely June day, two hundred years ago on 22 June 1780.
The destruction of Ruddle's Fort during the Invasion of Kentucky was one of the most important events of the Revolutionary War. The British Officer, Colonel Henry Bird of the Eighth Regiment of his Majesty's forces, with the help of the Shawnee Indians, was responsible for this tragedy. They came in the summer of 1780 with an army of more than a thousand British regulars, Canadian Volunteers, and Indians, bringing the first cannon ever used against the log forts of the wilderness. Col. Bird (Byrd) captured 470 men, women, and children; loaded them down with the plunder from their own cabin homes and drove them on foot from Central Kentucky to various Indian camps in the north. Some went to Detroit, a distance of 600 miles away; some to Mackinac and Montreal some 800 miles farther. Many were left in Indian villages along the way, as was Eva Lail, with her brothers George and Johnny. Their place of captivity during part of the time of their capture was at Shawnee camps at the head of Mad River, in the state of Ohio. The names of the Indian camps were Chillicothe III (Sh) 1780-82, and Piqua 11 (Sh) 1777-80, shown on the map of Indian Villages.
Our ancestral maternal grandparents, George and Margaret Lail with their children were captured that day. Casper, a young man age ca 30, was at the fort and was captured that fateful day. Casper previously had been serving in the Militia at Logan's Fort, which had already been attacked.
For the record, Collins' "History of Kentucky," shows Caspar Caseners name in the Militia list for Logan's Fort in 1779 and Glen Clift's book "Kentucky in Retrospect" lists his name as living at Ruddle's Fort the day of the massacre.
Casper knew George Ruddles from back in Virginia, and George's father, Isaac established Ruddles'Fort, out of the ruins of the Hinkston's Settlement. I have never been able to determine where Casper spent his days of captivity.
(Long quote from Lafferty’s "Destruction of Ruddle’s and Martin’s Forts completes page 40 and continues to the top of page 42).
(p. 42)
The story of their capture, of separation from families, of the hardships endured during the six weeks journey and the conditions under which they lived during the fourteen years of captivity is one of the most shocking in the pioneer period of Kentucky History. It is hard to realize that a woman of our lineage, Eva Lail, and her family endured so much on the frontier and we, generations of today, knew nothing about it. I don't know how long she lived with the Shawnees, but she ran a gauntlet to save her life, so the story reveals. A gauntlet was a double file of men facing each other and armed with clubs or other weapons with which to strike at an individual who is made to run between them. Most people who were forced to run the gauntlet did not survive their injuries.
Captain Isaac Ruddle came to Kentucky from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He was one of Kentucky's earliest settlers. He and his wife Elizabeth must have known the Kersners living there in the valley at the same time. During my period of research, I have found Isaac Ruddle's son, George, and Casper mentioned in the same article several times. While General George R. Clark was conquering the Northwest, Isaac Ruddle lived on Corn Island and later at Logan's Fort, that is now Stanford, Kentucky. In 1779 he established his own settlement on Hinkson Creek, in what is now Bourbon County.
Hinkson's or Ruddle's Fort was on the North side of South Licking, about a mile below the mouth of Townsend Creek, and a mile and a quarter above Lair's station, on the Kentucky Central Railroad. It was originally settled by John Hinkson in April 1775, who remained there for fifteen months and a little community was gathering around it; but it was abandoned in July 1776, through fear of the Indians.
As the Revolutionary War progressed, the Indians, incited by the British, traveled in War parties and committed depradations on isolated settlements such as Ruddle's Station. Ruddle, therefore, decided for the safety of his own family and those that had gathered about him to move into Hinkson’s deserted fort on the Licking River. He added to and fortified it, making it one of the largest and strongest in the Kentucky wilderness capable of accommodation from two to three hundred people. His garrison was composed of forty-nine men, in which was included some members of the Loyl (later spelled Lail) family. Namely, Henry, Peter and George.
The landowners living near Ruddle's pre-empted lands for miles around farming during intervals of peace and taking refuge within the forts when the Indians were on the warpath.
The spring following the hard winter of 1779 was unusually fine and the families saw their cattle grow fat on the luscious bluegrass and the rich soil gave promise of bounteous crops. Everywhere there was an atmosphere of peace