Jacob CHRISMAN

                   The Chrismans are of German descent (Christmann) and were among the first settlers of the Shenandoah Valley and, later, Lee County. Many of the Chrismans appear to have moved to Wayne County, Kentucky around the same time as Charles Cocke. However, Gabriel and his brother Nimrod appear to have remained in Lee County, since they appear in the 1810 Personal Property Tax List.

Glade Hollow Fort, lists Isaac Chrisman. He was in Dunsmore's war, presumably at the battle of Pt. Pleasant. See "The Annals of Southwest Virginia" by Lewis Preston Summers, 1929 pg. 1424. Monument in Pt. Pleasant, Mason, West Viginia, that bears his name ( a memorial to those involved in the battle at Pt. Pleasant).

Killed by Indians in Ryer Cove, Lee ,Virginia.

NAME Chrisman, Isaac.

DATE 1778

SOURCE

Will Book 1, 1777-1792 (Reel 15)

p. 2. Inv. & Appr. rec. 18 Aug 1778.

p. 104. Accounts rec. 21 Oct. 1784.

NOTE Part of index to Washington County Wills and Administrations (1770 - 1800)

PLACE Washington County (Virginia.)

FORM Estate inventories. aat.

COLLECTION Virginia wills and administrations.

The birth date of Isaac Chrisman, November 9, 1736, was recorded in the diary of the Rev. John Casper Stoever, Jr., at the time of his baptism, June 5, 1737. From that date, there is a lapse of 24 years until our next written record of him.

There was much activity in the Valley during Isaac's teenage years and beyond. People were moving south along the valley Pike in large numbers. By 1740, all of the land in the Valley had been taken up and people were pushing even farther south.

The French and Indian War erupted when Isaac was 19. Indian attacks ranging from the running off of livestock to massacres of individual families, repeated alarms, "forting in," constant caution and alertness if not actual armed conflict became the way of life. Then a complication developed that was to have a bearing on Isaac's death 18 years later. The years was 1758, the English, hard pressed to force the French out of the Ohio area, invited the Cherokees to come north and help them fight the Iroquois, who were not only allies of the French, but also the major enemy of the Cherokee Nation. The invitation was welcomed, and 600 warriors were sent northward down the Shenandoah Valley. Unfortunately, the valley settlers were unaware of the arrangement. To them, any Indians seen in the valley were to be shot on sight, which they were. To further compound the situation, the British command treated them so badly that they soon withdrew and headed back up the valley, suffering casualties all along the way. Their reaction was predictable, prompt and violent. They turned upon the English who were most accessible to them.

In the extreme southwest of Virginia, settlement had begun along the Holston River in 1750, coming from both Virginia and the Carolinas. By 1755, it had grown to nearly 1,000 persons. Encroachment upon Cherokee hunting ground was sorely resented. The full force of the aroused animosity of the Cherokees was now turned loose upon them, and the settlement was obliterated with such violence that the Colonial government forbade any attempt to resettle. For several years the area was left uninhabited. Then, in 1768, a few settlers again appeared. It was to this area that Isaac Chrisman was to move his family about two years later.

In the meantime, Isaac married Jane Scott and left the Shenandoah Valley. His marriage was probably about 1757 or 8. The Dominion of Virginia extended indefinitely westward, and settlers were pushing into the Cacapon River valley beyond the low mountain separating the two rivers by 25 or 30 miles. It was here on Lost River, the most easterly of the Cacapon tributaries, in what is now Hampshire County, West Virginia, that Isaac next appears, at the age of 25. Courthouse records show that he purchased land from Francis McBride February 9, 1761.

What prompted Isaac's next move is not evident. On August 8, 1769, he sold 36 acres to Joseph Claypool and 350 acres to Abraham Fry, apparently preparatory to moving 300 miles south, for the next year, 1770, finds him listed as a tithable on the Clinch River. This is a tributary of the Holston, paralleling its upper reaches about 15 miles across the thickly forested mountains to the north. The move seems to have been made in the company of several families of relatives. Isaac's brother Abraham and his wife Kezia, their sister Rebecca and husband James Scott, and at least one of James' brothers, Archibald Scott and family, all appear in the Holston area about the same time.

Again for reasons that can only be surmised, Isaac took up land at Rye Cove directly on the Little Moccasin Trail, later to be known as the Daniel Boone Trail to the Wilderness. On March 25, 1774, Captain Daniel Smith surveyed 225 acres for him, and he immediately set about building a fort. At least one good spring was included in the half-acre enclosure. Built about eight miles west of Fort Blackmore, it appears to have been the most westerly fort at that time. It was considered rather unusually large, and was garrisoned with militia from the beginning.

One final event pushed hostilities to the breaking point. Isaac Crabtree, which name appears in the will of one of Isaac Chrisman's sons a number of years later, had been a member of Boone's party when the boys were killed, and bore an enduring hatred of red men. For no other apparent reason he shot and killed an Indian known as Cherokee Billy who was among the spectators at a horse race in a Watagua settlement. The Indians knew that no white man was ever held to account for the killing of an Indian under any circumstances, and their anger flared. The Colonial Government immediately dispatched Boone and Michael Stoner to warn the surveyors and scattered settlers out of Kentucky. By mid-summer, all who survived the wrath of the Cherokee were out. Col. Andrew Lewis was sent north into Kentucky along the Kanawha with a task force. Daniel Boone, William Cocke, William Preston and Arthur Campbell were left to supervise the Holston and Clinch River defenses.

Chrisman's Fort, also called the Rye Cove Fort and later referred to as Fort Lee, was in a strategic position at a crucial time. But "Lord Dunmore's War" involving the West Virginia-Kentucky Ohio River area was demanding men. Isaac was enlisted as a private in the militia under Sgt. John Duncan in Captain Daniel Smith's Company at the Glade Hollow Fort. This was part of the operation of the Point Pleasant Campaign which resulted in the defeat of Cornstalk, the Shawnee chief, and the legal opening of Kentucky for hunting. And, in March of 1775, Boone was commissioned to open up a passageway into the wilderness through the Cumberland Gap, which he set about immediately with a crew of 30 men.

Isaac's days were numbered. Sometime after July 5, 1776, when he loaned Major George Clark 20 pounds and accepted his bond, Isaac and two of his children were killed by Indians somewhere near the fort. On July 20, the Cherokee attacked Eaton`s Station at the forks of the Holston twenty miles south of Rye Cove, and Fort Watauga somewhat southeast the next day. A number of individual deaths occurred and military forays were ordered out.

The Rye Cove area was ordered evacuated by Col. Anthony Bledsoe, then in charge of frontier forces, and everyone was moved into Fort Blackmore. So, for a short time in 1776, the Chrisman Fort stood empty. In the fall, Col. Joseph Martin brought troops and spent the winter of 1777 rebuilding it. On several more occasions it was attacked by Indians, both Cherokee and Shawnee, with a number of casualties. Sometime later it was sold to Thomas Carter, and became known as Carter' Fort.

At Isaac's death, Jane was left with three known surviving children: Isaac, Jr. aged 10 or 11, Gabriel age nine, and Nimrod less than a year old, and possibly Catherine.

Not long after the massacre Jane remarried, probably during the next year, to Nathaniel Hix, by whom she had six more children (Frances, Rebecca, Archibald, James, John and Jean). Nathaniel died in 1801. Jane was continued on the tax rolls until her death in 1825.

[Amanda4.FTW]

The Chrismans are of German descent (Christmann) and were among the first settlers of the Shenandoah Valley and, later, Lee County. Many of the Chrismans appear to have moved to Wayne County, Kentucky around the same time as Charles Cocke. However, Gabriel and his brother Nimrod appear to have remained in Lee County, since they appear in the 1810 Personal Property Tax List.

Glade Hollow Fort, lists Isaac Chrisman. He was in Dunsmore's war, presumably at the battle of Pt. Pleasant. See "The Annals of Southwest Virginia" by Lewis Preston Summers, 1929 pg. 1424. Monument in Pt. Pleasant, Mason, West Viginia, that bears his name ( a memorial to those involved in the battle at Pt. Pleasant).

Killed by Indians in Ryer Cove, Lee ,Virginia.

NAME Chrisman, Isaac.

DATE 1778

SOURCE

Will Book 1, 1777-1792 (Reel 15)

p. 2. Inv. & Appr. rec. 18 Aug 1778.

p. 104. Accounts rec. 21 Oct. 1784.

NOTE Part of index to Washington County Wills and Administrations (1770 - 1800)

PLACE Washington County (Virginia.)

FORM Estate inventories. aat.

COLLECTION Virginia wills and administrations.

The birth date of Isaac Chrisman, November 9, 1736, was recorded in the diary of the Rev. John Casper Stoever, Jr., at the time of his baptism, June 5, 1737. From that date, there is a lapse of 24 years until our next written record of him.

There was much activity in the Valley during Isaac's teenage years and beyond. People were moving south along the valley Pike in large numbers. By 1740, all of the land in the Valley had been taken up and people were pushing even farther south.

The French and Indian War erupted when Isaac was 19. Indian attacks ranging from the running off of livestock to massacres of individual families, repeated alarms, "forting in," constant caution and alertness if not actual armed conflict became the way of life. Then a complication developed that was to have a bearing on Isaac's death 18 years later. The years was 1758, the English, hard pressed to force the French out of the Ohio area, invited the Cherokees to come north and help them fight the Iroquois, who were not only allies of the French, but also the major enemy of the Cherokee Nation. The invitation was welcomed, and 600 warriors were sent northward down the Shenandoah Valley. Unfortunately, the valley settlers were unaware of the arrangement. To them, any Indians seen in the valley were to be shot on sight, which they were. To further compound the situation, the British command treated them so badly that they soon withdrew and headed back up the valley, suffering casualties all along the way. Their reaction was predictable, prompt and violent. They turned upon the English who were most accessible to them.

In the extreme southwest of Virginia, settlement had begun along the Holston River in 1750, coming from both Virginia and the Carolinas. By 1755, it had grown to nearly 1,000 persons. Encroachment upon Cherokee hunting ground was sorely resented. The full force of the aroused animosity of the Cherokees was now turned loose upon them, and the settlement was obliterated with such violence that the Colonial government forbade any attempt to resettle. For several years the area was left uninhabited. Then, in 1768, a few settlers again appeared. It was to this area that Isaac Chrisman was to move his family about two years later.

In the meantime, Isaac married Jane Scott and left the Shenandoah Valley. His marriage was probably about 1757 or 8. The Dominion of Virginia extended indefinitely westward, and settlers were pushing into the Cacapon River valley beyond the low mountain separating the two rivers by 25 or 30 miles. It was here on Lost River, the most easterly of the Cacapon tributaries, in what is now Hampshire County, West Virginia, that Isaac next appears, at the age of 25. Courthouse records show that he purchased land from Francis McBride February 9, 1761.

What prompted Isaac's next move is not evident. On August 8, 1769, he sold 36 acres to Joseph Claypool and 350 acres to Abraham Fry, apparently preparatory to moving 300 miles south, for the next year, 1770, finds him listed as a tithable on the Clinch River. This is a tributary of the Holston, paralleling its upper reaches about 15 miles across the thickly forested mountains to the north. The move seems to have been made in the company of several families of relatives. Isaac's brother Abraham and his wife Kezia, their sister Rebecca and husband James Scott, and at least one of James' brothers, Archibald Scott and family, all appear in the Holston area about the same time.

Again for reasons that can only be surmised, Isaac took up land at Rye Cove directly on the Little Moccasin Trail, later to be known as the Daniel Boone Trail to the Wilderness. On March 25, 1774, Captain Daniel Smith surveyed 225 acres for him, and he immediately set about building a fort. At least one good spring was included in the half-acre enclosure. Built about eight miles west of Fort Blackmore, it appears to have been the most westerly fort at that time. It was considered rather unusually large, and was garrisoned with militia from the beginning.

One final event pushed hostilities to the breaking point. Isaac Crabtree, which name appears in the will of one of Isaac Chrisman's sons a number of years later, had been a member of Boone's party when the boys were killed, and bore an enduring hatred of red men. For no other apparent reason he shot and killed an Indian known as Cherokee Billy who was among the spectators at a horse race in a Watagua settlement. The Indians knew that no white man was ever held to account for the killing of an Indian under any circumstances, and their anger flared. The Colonial Government immediately dispatched Boone and Michael Stoner to warn the surveyors and scattered settlers out of Kentucky. By mid-summer, all who survived the wrath of the Cherokee were out. Col. Andrew Lewis was sent north into Kentucky along the Kanawha with a task force. Daniel Boone, William Cocke, William Preston and Arthur Campbell were left to supervise the Holston and Clinch River defenses.

Chrisman's Fort, also called the Rye Cove Fort and later referred to as Fort Lee, was in a strategic position at a crucial time. But "Lord Dunmore's War" involving the West Virginia-Kentucky Ohio River area was demanding men. Isaac was enlisted as a private in the militia under Sgt. John Duncan in Captain Daniel Smith's Company at the Glade Hollow Fort. This was part of the operation of the Point Pleasant Campaign which resulted in the defeat of Cornstalk, the Shawnee chief, and the legal opening of Kentucky for hunting. And, in March of 1775, Boone was commissioned to open up a passageway into the wilderness through the Cumberland Gap, which he set about immediately with a crew of 30 men.

Isaac's days were numbered. Sometime after July 5, 1776, when he loaned Major George Clark 20 pounds and accepted his bond, Isaac and two of his children were killed by Indians somewhere near the fort. On July 20, the Cherokee attacked Eaton`s Station at the forks of the Holston twenty miles south of Rye Cove, and Fort Watauga somewhat southeast the next day. A number of individual deaths occurred and military forays were ordered out.

The Rye Cove area was ordered evacuated by Col. Anthony Bledsoe, then in charge of frontier forces, and everyone was moved into Fort Blackmore. So, for a short time in 1776, the Chrisman Fort stood empty. In the fall, Col. Joseph Martin brought troops and spent the winter of 1777 rebuilding it. On several more occasions it was attacked by Indians, both Cherokee and Shawnee, with a number of casualties. Sometime later it was sold to Thomas Carter, and became known as Carter' Fort.

At Isaac's death, Jane was left with three known surviving children: Isaac, Jr. aged 10 or 11, Gabriel age nine, and Nimrod less than a year old, and possibly Catherine.

Not long after the massacre Jane remarried, probably during the next year, to Nathaniel Hix, by whom she had six more children (Franc
                  

                   or 1739
                  

                   or 1751