Brooke County WV Archives Biographies.....Buskirk, Captain Van 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Alice Warner Brosey http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 April 17, 2010, 6:57 pm

Source: History Of West Virginia In Two Parts
Author: Virgil A. Lewis

Captain Van Buskirk Killed.—In the summer of 1792, the last contest between the
Indians on the upper Ohio and a party of Virginians organized for that purpose
took place. The settlements in that part of the Panhandle now comprised in the
counties of Brooke and Hancock had suffered greatly from savage marauders. A
party of men organized under the leadership of Captain Lawson Van Buskirk—a man
well adapted to lead such an expedition. He was able and courageous, and more
than any other in the company had reason to desire revenge—his wife having been
murdered by the savages less than a year before.

A band of savages, about thirty in number, on no mission of mercy, were on the
Virginia shore, and it was quite certain that, retreating, they would attempt to
cross the Ohio at a point not far below the present site of Steubenville.
Captain Van Buskirk with his forty brave frontiersmen crossed the river and
marched cautiously in search of the Indian trail. After following it some
distance it was lost, but as the party neared the river again near the site of
an old Mingo town, near where they had crossed the stream, they discovered the
Indians concealed in a dense thicket of pawpaw bushes. Captain Van Buskirk fell
pierced by thirteen bullets. The contest lasted more than an hour, but the
Indians were defeated. Several of their number were killed. The Virginians lost
only their brave captain.

Additional Comments:
From Brooke County Chapter

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