Person:Ichabod Ashcraft (1)

The list of settlers in (now) Fayette County, 1772, from property assessment rolls of Bedford County, lists under Springhill Twp the following: Ichabod Ashcraft, John Carr, John Carr Jr., & Moses Carr. Under "Inmates" (i.e., boarders or residents not heads of families) are included Richard & Ephraim Ashcraft. Springhill Twp included that part of (now) Fayette County east of Redstone Creek, and probably included all of Greene & Washington Counties as well.^[3]

"On the property now owned by Mrs. Evans Wilson, in this township, and on the line of the Cherokee trail, stood the Ashcraft fort. To this place of refuge the settlers were accustomed to flee when Indian difficulties were feared. It was named after Ichabod Ashcraft, who took up the property (199¾ acres, called 'Buffalo Pasture'), receiving his warrant for it, dated May 29, 1770. Here they built their fort near a bubbling spring. Long since the fort has disappeared. . . . The fort was built on the same plan as other early forts -- the second story projected out about one foot over the lower, so that in case the Indians shold attempt to fire the fort they could be readily shot from the loop-holes above. There was a stockade of an acre with a ditch and picket-line for the purpose of protecting the stock from the depredations of the savages. It is related that one morning Mrs. Rachel Ashcraft [Ichabod's wife] was awakened by the call of a turkey gobbler. She told her husband that she believed she would go out and kill it. Her husband said she had better not, it might be an Indian. The call was repeated, and Mrs. Ashcraft cautiously opened one of the port-holes and looked out. Presently the call of the turkey gobbler was repeated, and then out came the head of an Indian to see if anyone was stirring in the fort. she quietly took down her trusty rifle, and the next time he gave the call and protruded his head from behind the tree she sent a bullet through his head, striking him square between the eyes. Ashcraft's fort was built at the crossing of two Indian trails. At this crossroads suicides were buried, in conformity with an old English custom. It is said that the Indian shot by Mrs. Ashcraft was interred at this place. It is also related (but how truly it is not known) that he was skinned, and his skin tanned and made into razor strops, which were distributed among the settlers as trophies."^[3]

[following copied at Fayette County Courthouse, Uniontown, Pennsylvania; no citation included]

Writ of Partition of the Estate of Ichabod Ashcraft. June 1804 Accepted by El______

Fayette County. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the Sheriff of Fayette County greeting.

Whereas Daniel Ashcraft, eldest Son of Ichabod Ashcraft, late of George Township, deceased, this day presented a Petition to our Justices of the Orphan Court of the said county setting forth that his Father lately died in testate leaving a Widow to wit, Rachel Ashcraft, and from the Petitioner Daniel Ashcraft, Jacob Ashcraft, Jediah Ashcraft, Ephrain Ashcraft, Felix Ashcraft and Nimrod Ashcraft. Rachel Ashcraft intermarried with Jesse Stewart, Elizabrth Ashcraft intermarried with Joseph Coleman, Hannah Ashcraft intermarried with Thomas Colvin, Sarah Ashcraft intermarried with Gideon Jackson, and that the Said In testate died seized in his deisne as office of and in a certain misuage and tract of land in George Township containing two hundred 200 acres with the appurtenances? and therefore praying the Court to award an inquest to make partition of the premises afore-said to and amongst the children and representatives of the in testate in such manner and such proportion as by the laws of this commonwealth is directed if such partition can be made without prejudice to or spoiling the whole, but if such partition cannot be made thereof as aforesaid then to value and appraise the same. He and the said inquest is awarded by the Court according to the prayer of the said Petitioner. We command[?] you That ______ing with you twelve honest and lawful men of your ________ you go to the said ______ and tract of land and thus by their oath or solemn affirmation in the presence of the justice aforesaid by you to be named (if upon being named they will be present) the said ______ tract of land with the appurtenances having respect to the true value thereof, into ten equal parts you cause to be parted and divided if the same can be so parted and divided without ______ justice to or spoiling the whole and one of the said an equal part unto the said Daniel the oldest Son of the said Ichabod Ashcraft, deceased, one other of the said equal parts unto the said Jacob Ashcraft, one other of the said equal part unto the said Jediah Ashcraft, one other of the said equal parts unto the said Ephrain Ashcraft, one other of the said equal parts unto the said Felix Ashcraft, one other of the said equal parts unto the said Nimrod Ashcraft, one other of the said equal parts unto the said Jesse Stewart and Rachel his wife in right of the said Rachel, one other of the said equal parts to the said Joseph Coleman and Elizabeth his wife in right of the said Elizabeth, one other of the said equal parts to Thomas Colvin and Hannah his wife in right of the said Hannah and one other of the said equal parts to Gideon Jackson and Sarah his wife in right of the said Sarah to hold to them in ___alty you assign and deliver. But if the said Inquest cannot make partition of the said essuage and tract of land with the appurtenance with out prejudice to or _____ling the whole thereof that then you cause the said Inquest to value and appraise the same and that the partition or valuation so made you distinctly and openly have before our Justices at Union Town at our Orphans Court there to be held for the County of Fayette the second monday of June next under your hand and seal and under the hands and Seals of those by whose oath or affirmatioin you make that partition or valuation. And have you then there this writ.

Witness the honorable Samuel Roberts Esquire at Union Town the fourteenth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and four.

[signed] Ephraim Douglass

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} Neal, Martha Ashcraft. The Ashcraft Family: Descendants of Daniel Ashcraft. (Baltimore, Maryland: Gateway Press, 1994)
   pp. 25, 36-42.

   Ichabod enlisted in the first Revolutionary company west of the Alleghenies (second unit raised in Virginia). Michael Cresap, a friend of the Ashcrafts, raised a company of 130 frontier sharpshooters who fought as irregulars -- and marched 800 miles to Boston.
   
   In 1789 he became a member of the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Smithfield -- approved "by experience." However, in May 1790, he was accused by the pastor of drunkenness. (Too much "experience," perhaps.) On 9 Sep 1803, he was denied communion and finally dismissed from the congregation for drunkenness, abusive language, and fighting.
   
   He died intestate in late 1803 or early 1804. His son, Daniel, was appointed administrator by the court.

2. ↑ Veech, James. The Monongahela of old, or, Historical sketches of south-western Pennsylvania to the year 1800. (Pittsburgh: unknown, c1910)
   pp. 21-23.

   Responsible for establishment of "Ashcraft's Fort" on the line of the Cherokee Trail, in what is now Georges Twp (then Springhill Twp), Fayette County (then Westmoreland County), Pennsylvania -- about 10 mi south of Uniontown & not far from Smithfield. Built on land of the late Jesse Evans, located near Prospect Hill (aka Point Lookout). Ichabod received a warrant for the land in 1770 (before or after the fort was built? Some sources say fort was built before 1750, which seems unlikely...). Blockhouse construction; second story had loopholes and projected out over the base, and stockade was attached. Located near a spring; also said to be on a hill overlooking the Monongahela, very close to the Catawba Trail, which became "Braddock's Road."

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Ellis, Franklin. History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania: with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men. (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts, 1882).
4. ↑ Pennsylvania Archives
   vol. 4, p. 428.

   Captain, Westmoreland County Militia, Pennsylvania Line