The colony, according to Lough's story, was attacked on October 16, 1759 by about thirty Delawares, who killed eight persons, killed the stock, destroyed the harvested corn, burned the cabins and carried off one prisoner, Abel Westfall.
Thirty-nine people escaped. Some of the men, Lough's account states, were hunting elk on the West Fork, some were clearing land at Frederick Ice's settlement on Cheat River, some were at John Owens's trading post at the mouth of Ten Mile Creek (in present Greene County), while the women and children were off towards (now) Dorsey's Knob, gathering nuts and pawpaws.
Those killed by the Indians were Mr. and Mrs. Tobias Decker and their two children, Mr. and Mrs. William Zern and Abel Westfall's wife and son. The survivors scattered, going for safety to various nearby settlements.
