Captain Jacob VanMeter Chapter

ELIZABETHTOWN

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If you would like more information on the DAR please email our chapter contact person Susan Evans McCrobie.

CHAPTER ORGANIZED JANUARY 10, 1947

Miss Margaret Ann Patterson, organizing regent, presented the eighteen charter members and their guests to the State Regent, Mrs. Hugh L. Russell and other visiting state officers at a formal reception preceding the organizational meeting. The name of Jacob VanMeter was selected as the chapter name to honor Hardin County's well-known, pioneer family.

In the later part of 1780, Jacob VanMeter Sr. built a fort on Severn's Valley Creek, two miles above the present site of Elizabethtown. VanMeter lead a party of 100 settlers from Virginia to southwest Pennsylvania and finally down the Ohio River by flatboat to the Falls of the Ohio. From the Falls of the Ohio, he set out over land some 40 miles to Severns Valley. He settled in the valley and there he spent the remainder of his days. VanMeter Sr. was one member of the Committee of Observation for Washington County, Pennsylvania, which met at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on May 16, 1775. This committee, like others established across the colonies, was charged with the enforcement of the trade boycott and, in effect, functioned as a quasi governmental system to take the place of the judiciaries that had been suspended. The members of the committee signed an Oath of Allegiance to the colonies and were all Sons of Liberty.

Also accompanying VanMeter Sr. to Severn's Valley was his nephew, Captain Jacob VanMeter. Captain VanMeter settled on over 3,000 acres of land received in payment for his military services to the United States during the American Revolution. He served as an Ensign in the Illinois Regiment under George Rogers Clark, fighting in Virginia, Illinois and Ohio in the 1777 campaign. Later as a Captain in the Virginia Militia he fought the Shawnee Indians.

A third Jacob VanMeter also settled the area. Jacob VanMeter Jr. was the son of Jacob Sr. The younger VanMeter also served on the Committee of Observance for Washington County, Pennsylvania, before settling in this area. There is no record of Jacob Jr. as a member of the 100 settlers. It is not known for sure when and how he arrived in the area.

Office Title	Officer Name

Regent	Susan Evans McCrobie
Vice Regent	Joyce Miller
Chaplain	Freida Woods
Recording Secretary	Beverly Smith Heath
Treasurer	Peggy Abbott
Registrar	Dianne Cooper
Historian	Rita Smith Byars
Librarian	Martha Gibson Lawson

CHAPTER PATRIOTS

EDMUND ABELL of Maryland	PVT. JAMES McWILLIAMS of North Carolina & Virginia
PVT. PETER ADAMS of North Carolina	PVT. SAMUEL MILLARD of Rhode Island
PVT. ELLIS ADKISSON of Virginia	PVT. SAMUEL NAY SR. of Virginia
PVT. JACOB ALFORD of Virginia	PVT. HEZEKIAH POUND of New Jersey
PVT. JEDIAH ASHCRAFT of Virginia	COL. JOHN SEVIER of North Carolina
JOHN BOONE of Pennsylvania	CPL. DANIEL SHEHEY of Pennsylvania
PVT. JOHN CHESTNUT of Virginia	JOSHUA WHITE SHERRILL of North Carolina
PETER CHIPMAN of North Carolina	PLIKARD DEDERIC SILVER of North Carolina
CPT. ROBERT CLEVELAND of North Carolina	RICHARD STITH of Virginia
PVT. TERRENCE CONNOR of Virginia	ROBERT TABB of Virginia
PVT. DANIEL DONNELL of North Carolina	SGT. SAMUEL TAYLOR of Massachusetts
ELIZABETH ELLIOTT of Virginia	WILLIAM THORNHILL, JR. of Virginia
VALENTINE FENTRESS of Virginia	WILLIAM THORNHILL, SR. of Virginia
AQUILLA GREER of North Carolina	CPT. JACOB VANMETER of Pennsylvania
CPT. MICHAEL HOLT of North Carolina	JACOB VANMETER, JR. of Pennsylvania
COL. JOSEPH R. HOPSON of Virginia	JACOB VANMETER, SR. of Pennsylvania
WILLIAM HORNEY of North Carolina	PVT. JAMES WILLIAMS of Virginia
PHILLIP LOCKARD of Virginia	PVT. MANLEY WINDSTEAD of North Carolina
GEN. JOSEPH MARTIN of Virginia	JOSEPH WRIGHT of Virginia