07/27/2026
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Strauther Van Pleak round barn. Decatur County Indiana. Strauther Van was a descendant of John Pleakenstalver a pioneer who arrived at Boonesborough in 1777 and was an Ensign serving under George Rogers Clark. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Katherine Skaggs was an 18th-century pioneer woman whose lineage directly bridges the famous Skaggs "Longhunter" family of Virginia and the early "Pleak" settlers of Kentucky. As the mother of pioneer John Pleakenstalver, her history is rooted in the dangerous, expanding American frontier. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Katherine Skaggs was born around 1728 on the early British colonial frontier, likely in Virginia. She was a member of the prominent Skaggs family, noted for their legendary hunters and scouts (such as Henry Skaggs, who famously blazed "Skaggs Trace" into Kentucky). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Around 1747, she married Johannes Blickensderfer (John Johannes Pleakenstalver Sr.), a German immigrant who had arrived in the colonies.Katherine and her husband settled along Meadow Creek in Fincastle County (which later became Montgomery County), Virginia.This area was a tightly knit frontier settlement where the Skaggs family held significant land tracking interests. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------James Skaggs Sr. was one of the earliest settlers on Meadow Creek, surveying land there as early as 1751.As the area grew, historic Virginia land records show that the Skaggs family sold portions of their Meadow Creek property directly to John Plickinstarvor (the elder Pleakenstalver).--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Living on the extreme edge of the western frontier, Katherine raised her children amidst constant wilderness hardships and the looming threat of regional geopolitical and Native American conflicts.Her children eventually adapted the long German surname Blickensderfer into phonetically easier pioneer variations like Pleakenstalver, Plickenstalver, and eventually Pleak. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Maternal Legacy ; Through her children, Katherine became the matriarch of a sprawling line of frontiersmen who helped shape the early borders of the American West: John Pleakenstalver (Pleak): Her son (born 1754) became a noted Longhunter, defender of Fort Boonesborough, and a co-signer of Tennessee's historic Cumberland Compact. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Catharine Delila Plickenstalver: Her daughter (born 1759) married into the Lester family, spreading the pioneer lineage further into the expanding territories. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Katherine Skaggs passed away around 1771 in Virginia at roughly 43 years of age. Following her death, her children and extended Skaggs relatives began their permanent, historic migrations westward through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and Tennessee.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Henry Skaggs was one of the most famous Long Hunters of the 18th century. He blazed "Skaggs Trace", a rugged hunting trail through Rockcastle County that later became a crucial component of the now Wilderness Road. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------John Pleakenstalver used these very same networks of trails when he migrated to Fort Boonesborough in 1775 and when he later traveled south to help build Fort Nashborough in 1780.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The lives of Daniel Boone, John Pleak (originally John Pleakenstalver), and Captain John Holder are deeply intertwined through the early frontier warfare at Fort Boonesborough, Kentucky. The most famous historical event uniting all three men occurred on July 14, 1776, at Fort Boonesborough. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Shawnee-Cherokee raiding party captured Daniel Boone’s daughter, Jemima, along with Elizabeth and Frances Callaway, while they were canoeing on the Kentucky River. Daniel Boone immediately organized a pursuit group. Both Captain John Holder and John Pleak (Pleakenstalver) were original settlers at the fort and joined Boone’s rescue party. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After tracking the captors for two days, the posse staged a surprise ambush, successfully rescuing all three girls unharmed. This high-stakes frontier rescue later served as the direct real-life inspiration for James Fenimore Cooper's famous 1826 novel, The Last of the Mohicans.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------John Holder was one of the premier defenders of the Kentucky frontier. Following the 1776 rescue, he actually married Frances Callaway—one of the young women he had helped Boone rescue. When Daniel Boone eventually moved further west out of the region, Holder was promoted to Colonel and took full military command of Fort Boonesborough. He went on to establish Holder’s Landing and a highly successful entrepreneurial outpost nearby. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Pleak / Pleakenstalver (The Longhunter)John Pleak was an 18th-century longhunter who legally shortened his name from Pleakenstalver. During the Revolutionary War, he served as an Ensign under Boone in the Fayette County Militia. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------John Pleakenstalver (also spelled Pleakanstalver or Pleak) was a prominent 18th-century "Longhunter" and pioneer who played a foundational role in the early settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee. Born on October 29, 1754, in Meadow Creek, Montgomery County, Virginia. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Over generations, his descendants shortened the unwieldy surname to Pleak.He married Esther Wade around 1789 in Montgomery County, Kentucky, and the couple went on to have 12 children. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pleakenstalver is historically recorded as one of the original frontier settlers at Fort Boonesborough, the historic central Kentucky fortification founded by Daniel Boone in 1775. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the Revolutionary War era, he served under Captain John Holder’s company based at the fort, defending the vulnerable western settlements from British-aligned Native American attacks. He also historically participated in missions alongside General George Rogers Clark. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Salt Spring Trace: Known as a skilled Longhunter, Pleakenstalver’s intimate knowledge of the wilderness was vital. In legal land disputes of the era, he provided key formal depositions detailing the "Salt Spring Trace" and shortcuts used by early hunters to navigate through Howard's Creek. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In 1780, Pleakenstalver temporarily migrated south into Tennessee to help establish Fort Nashborough (modern-day Nashville). While there, he became a historic co-signer of the Cumberland Compact under the simplified name "John Pleak". This landmark document acted as the first governing constitution for the pioneers of the Cumberland River region and later served as a building block for the Tennessee State Constitution. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pleakenstalver eventually returned to his home region in Kentucky, moving past Morgan's Station to clear land and build a permanent homestead near Mt. Sterling. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Morgan's Station was a frontier settlement fort established in 1789 by Ralph Morgan on Slate Creek. It is located about two miles east of Mt. Sterling in Montgomery County, Kentucky. The station is historically significant as the site of the last large, organized Native American raid on a Kentucky frontier settlement. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ralph Morgan, a Virginia native and cousin of Daniel Boone, received land on Slate Creek for his services as a surveyor. In February 1789, he hired a crew of pioneers—including Tom Montgomery, Silas Hart, and Peter and William Hanks—to clear the land, plant crops, and construct a stockaded station. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Due to the constant threat of active scouting and raiding parties, along with its geographic isolation from other regional strongholds, the station was temporarily abandoned in September 1792 after three settlers were killed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In February 1793, six families (totaling 27 people) bravely returned to reoccupy the fort. Ralph Morgan left his children there for safekeeping while he and his wife traveled to Fort Boonesborough to secure supplies. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------On Easter Monday, April 1, 1793, a war party of 35 Native Americans targeted the settlement. The attack caught the fort completely unprotected; nearly all the men were out working in the surrounding fields, leaving only an elderly man and the women and children inside. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The raiders quickly rushed the stockade, killing the elderly man and a woman who was unable to travel. They took 19 women and children captive before burning the entire fort to the ground. One woman successfully hid inside the fort's spring house and was able to flee and raise the alarm. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A militia posse of roughly 150 men, led by Enoch Smith, quickly formed to pursue the raiders. Realizing they were being hunted and that their captives were slowing them down, the raiders executed 12 of the prisoners under a cliff overhang at Murder Branch in nearby Menifee County.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The remaining prisoners were carried across the Ohio River. While some captives were eventually ransomed or returned through late-frontier treaty negotiations over the years, others were never heard from again. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------According to WL McCoy after the attack. The men assembled at the nearby cabin of John Pleakenstalver and proceeded from there. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------John Pleakenstalver (also spelled Pleakanstalver or Pleak) passed away in November 1817 at the age of 63 and is buried in the Pleakenstalver Cemetery in Montgomery County, Kentucky. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Indiana Connection: His descendants later migrated to Indiana via land grants. His great-grandson, Strauther Pleak, built the famous, historically preserved Strauther Pleak Round Barn in Greensburg, Indiana. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Strauther Pleak Round Barn (also known as the Pleak-Morgan Barn), located near Greensburg, Indiana, is a uniquely designed historic structure built in 1914. It is widely celebrated for its distinct architectural styling and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The structure is commonly nicknamed "The Wedding Cake" due to its highly unusual, three-tiered visual aesthetic: Tier 1 (Base): The ground level, a true circular barn footprint featuring horizontal siding.Tier 2 (Midsection): A conical roof pierced directly through the center by a large, prominent interior silo featuring square, single-paned windows.Tier 3 (Top): A smaller, steeply pitched round cupola crowning the central silo.
