1791 Ohio River Indian Attack
On the Ohio River in 1791, the flatboat carrying William Plaskett's family came under attack.
On 18 March 1791, William Plaskett (Jr.), his wife Elizabeth and six children (one having been born in Pennsylvania), in company with Daniel Light, a neighbor from where the boat was built, and Will Hubbell began their descent down the Ohio River.
They soon picked up passengers - first a Mr. Bagley, who took passage to Marietta. At Howells Ferry upon the Youghigiana River, a Mr. Oliver and three others were put aboard by a Mr. Putnam for the Muskingdom settlement. Captain John Ray, John Stoner, and Mr. Tucker, a Methodist preacher, took passage for Limestone, Kentucky.
On the 22nd, Francis Kirkpatrick with his two daughters and two other men joined the group. At Gallipolis, where six other boats were tied up waiting to descend the river, they heard of hostile Indian activities. For their greater protection, they continued down the river in company with the boat of Captain Greathouse, his wife, 12 children and two young men.
However, Greathouse’s boat was unable to keep up and the two boats were separated. On the 23rd at dawn, a few miles above the Scioto, three pirogues containing Indians attacked. One party boarded Captain Greathouse’s boat and killed or took captive all of its inmates.
The other two pirogues attacked Plaskett’s boat, wounding Daniel Light, a German passenger, Mr. Tucker who died later that day, and John Stoner who died two days later.
In the Indians’ second attempt to take the boat, Francis Kirkpatrick is quoted as saying, “The Devil trust you for our wants. Come on, we are prepared for you,” before taking a bullet through his mouth, which instantly killed him. He fell dead into the center of the boat among the wounded, four dead horses and a dog.
Captain William Hubble, the second unnamed passenger, and one of William Plaskett’s young sons, Joseph, were also wounded. The damage to the Indians’ boats was such that they retreated to the shore, from which they fired on Plaskett’s boat until they were stopped by the mouth of the Scioto River.
The boat reached Limestone the night after the battle without further incident, where Francis Kirkpatrick, John Stoner and Mr. Tucker were buried.