Jacob Van Meter, Sr., Jacob was the fourth and youngest son of Jan or “John” Van Meter and his wife Margaret Miller Mulliner/Mollenauer. He was born in Somerset County, New Jersey in March 1723. He grew up in Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley, and became a wealthy land-owner and horse breeder.

He was married in Frederick County, Virginia on August 30, 1741, to Letitia Strode, and over the course of the next 25 years, Letitia Van Meter gave birth to no less than 12 children.

About 1768, Jacob Van Meter, together with John Swan, Sr., and others, claimed lands as part of northwestern Virginia, since established as a southwestern part of Pennsylvania. They sold their property in the Winchester vicinity and settled in in this area which was granted for service in the French and Indian War. They reached the vicinity of present Carmichaelstown (in present Green County, Pennsylvania), and “tomahawked” (marked on trees) such land as they wanted along Muddy Creek in what is known as “Ten Mile Country,” land lying along Ten Mile Creek, a tributary of that stream. Returning home, they brought back their families, slaves, and such household goods as could be carried on pack horses. There were about fifty people in the party who settled along Muddy Creek.

Jacob and his brother Henry Van Meter were granted land for services, and erected forts, both named Fort Van Meter located near each other on bottomland, not far from the mouth of Muddy Creek.

Migration from Greene County to The Falls Of The Ohio

The American Revolution had not ended but the men from “Ten Mile Country” had returned from the war in the Northwest Territory and some would be in the colony of over a hundred people organized by Jacob Van Meter, Sr., to move to “Kaintucke.”

On September 18, 1779, Jacob Van Meter and his family had been granted certificates of dismission by the Goshen Baptist Church. Soon 27 houseboats were, under the direction of Jacob Van Meter, Sr., floating down the Ohio River, bringing the families and all their household goods, livestock, and anything they could pile on the boats. All of the Van Meter children, with exception of daughter Eleanor, accompanied their parents, together with their husbands and wives.

One babe in arms was in the party, the little daughter of Lieutenant John Swan, Jr., and his wife, Elizabeth Van Meter. John was sitting on deck on one of the boats with his little girl in his arms when he was struck by an Indian arrow, fired from the river bank. His wife grabbed his gun and began helping the men ward off the attack.

Unfortunately, the Van Meter party was troubled by more than Indians on their journey to Kentucky. As it turned out, they had inadvertently chosen to travel during a period time of severe wintertime weather that was ever afterward known as “the Hard Winter of 1780.” In the spring of 1780, the Van Meter party reached the Severns Valley, in what was then Jefferson, later Hardin County, Kentucky. Jefferson County records reveal that Jake Van Meter, Stephen Rawlings, and Edward Rawlings all bought land from John Severns, for whom the valley was named. To protect themselves from Indians, they immediately built wooden “forts” (probably log blockhouses). Van Meter’s fort was located, according to one source, “near the big spring at the powerhouse on Leitchfield road, for a long time the source of the Elizabethtown water supply.”

Jacob Van Meter accumulated much land in Kentucky. At the time of his death, November 16, 1798, he owned 7,891 acres. The inventory of his estate covers four pages of Will Book A, pages 80 to 84, and 216, Hardin County Court.

Jacob VanMeter died at his home on November 16, 1798, having lived a long life of usefulness. He was buried on the farm near his home. His son, Jacob, procured a sandstone rock for a tombstone and cut the following inscription on it: “Here Lizes The Body of Jacob VanMeter Died in the 76 Yare of His Age November the 16, 1798,” the letters of which are today readable.

His wife, Letitia Stroud, died the following year. They saw the little settlement in its earliest years and did not live to see it grow into the important position it was destined to occupy in the new state. Many of their descendants live within the borders of the county they helped settle, others moved on to other frontiers in the developing country.

Many years later, the remains of both Jacob Van Meter and his wife Leititia were moved from the family graveyard and re-interred in the Elizabethtown City Cemetery in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Historical Marker

Kentucky State Historical Marker #1494, is located 1/2 mile west of Elizabethtown, US 62, Hardin County, Kentucky. The marker reads:

Site of fort, erected 1780, by Jacob Van Meter, Sr., who led a party of 100 settlers from Va. to “the Falls of the Ohio.” They made their journey on 27 flatboats and suffered many hardships during their trip. One member of group, John Swan, was killed by Indians. Van Meter built his fort by the spring which supplied water for Elizabethtown for many years. Van Meter brought seed wheat from Virginia; built a grist mill. The fort, October, 1790, was scene of an Indian skirmish. Van Meter was a founder of Elizabethtown and Hardin County. Helped organize Severn’s Valley Baptist Church, 1781; served in Revolutionary War as Captain in Clark’s Northwest expedition. Buried at fort; remains later moved to Elizabethtown Cemetery.