Fort Pleasant — formerly known as Fort Van Meter and Town Fort and still also known as the Isaac Van Meter House — is a historic site located near the

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

of Old Fields about 5 miles north of Moorefield in

Hardy County, West Virginia Hardy County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 14,299. Its county seat is Moorefield, West Virginia, Moorefield. The county was created f ...

, U.S. Situated on the

South Branch Potomac River The South Branch Potomac River has its River source, headwaters in northwestern Highland County, Virginia, near Hightown, Virginia, Hightown along the eastern edge of the Allegheny Front. After a river distance of ,U.S. Geological Survey. Nationa ...

, a young Colonel

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

directed a fortification to be built here in 1756 during the escalating hostilities with Native Americans and French known as the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

. The fierce skirmish known as the

Battle of the Trough The Battle of the Trough (March or April 1756) was a skirmish of the early French and Indian War (1754–63) fought between Native Americans and Anglo-American settlers in the valley of the South Branch Potomac River in what is now northern Har ...

occurred about a mile and a half away the same year. The existing

Federal style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classical architecture built in the United States following the American Revolution between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was influenced heavily by the works of And ...

house, built just after the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1973. According to the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States and its territories; the Compact of Free Association, asso ...

, Fort Pleasant was also known throughout its existence as "Fort Hopewell" and "Waggener's Lower Fort." (The latter name distinguished it from Fort Buttermilk, also known as "Fort Waggener", about 5 miles upstream and also built by Capt. Waggener in 1756.) It was also sometimes called "Fort Van Meter", a name now commonly given to another Van Meter family fort some nine miles downstream at the northern end of The Trough which was built around the same time.

History

18th century

Settlement (1740s)
The area around Fort Pleasant was first settled by Isaac Van Meter (''ca.'' 1692–1757), his wife Annetje Wynkoop, and their four children in 1744, at which time the family constructed a fortified log cabin there. George Washington first visited the "Indian Old Fields" (as the area was called) as a teenager and conversed with Isaac Van Meter there in 1747-48 while he was surveying Lord Fairfax's land grant. Washington recorded in his journal that he met with "Mr Vanmetrise" on behalf of Fairfax, who asserted that the Van Meter tract was part of his own South Branch Manor (a part of the

Northern Neck Proprietary The Northern Neck Proprietary – also called the Northern Neck land grant, Fairfax Proprietary, or Fairfax Grant – was a land grant first contrived by the exiled English King Charles II in 1649 and encompassing all the lands bounded by the Pot ...

). Van Meter insisted that he had the land on the authority of the Virginia Council grants of 1730 and that they had nothing to do with Fairfax's grant. (Subsequent litigation played out until well after the Revolution, at which time the Van Meter heirs finally prevailed.) Hostilities (1750s)
In 1756, at the outset of the

, a large new fort and its supporting structures were erected on Isaac Van Meter's property by Captain Thomas Waggener under orders from now Colonel George Washington. The fort was first known by the name of the Van Meter family, which had also assisted in its initial construction and maintenance. It was a substantial

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...

d defense enclosing a

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

and

log house A log house, or log building, is a structure built with horizontal logs interlocked at the corners by notching. Logs may be round, squared or hewn to other shapes, either handcrafted or milled. The term "log cabin" generally refers to a smal ...

s. (Washington's written instructions indicated a quadrangular shape with 90-foot-long walls, bastions in the corners, barracks, and a magazine.) Fort Pleasant was one in a chain of forts that ran along the frontier of the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range ( ) — also spelled Alleghany or Allegany, less formally the Alleghenies — is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada. Historically it represented a significant barr ...

and for a time it served as the local headquarters for the Virginia Regiment on the South Branch. It was never attacked directly by Indians but several raids occurred nearby. Soon after its construction, the

(1756) took place a short distance to the north in and around the large river gorge known as

The Trough The Trough is a 6-mile long wooded gorge carved by the South Branch Potomac River (SBPR) and situated in the Allegheny Mountains of Hampshire and Hardy Counties, West Virginia, US. The area was the site of a 1756 skirmish of the French and In ...

. In 1757, working unprotected in his fields, Isaac Van Meter was attacked,

scalp The scalp is the area of the head where head hair grows. It is made up of skin, layers of connective and fibrous tissues, and the membrane of the skull. Anatomically, the scalp is part of the epicranium, a collection of structures covering th ...

ed, and killed by Indians of the

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

and

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

tribes. Renovations (1770s & '80s)
There exists a map/drawing of Fort Pleasant signed by James Witt and dated May 1770. The drawing shows blockhouses at the corners of the fort, suggesting that the structure was either remodeled or totally rebuilt sometime after the end of the War. After the 1777 founding of Moorefield to its south, the fort was known as "Town Fort" due to its proximity to the new town. When Washington was in the region for the last time — he visited Abraham Hite at Old Fields on 28–29 September 1784 — he observed that the Fort Pleasant blockhouse was still standing. Eventually, Isaac's son Garrett Van Meter (1732–1788) had most of the old fort and original family cabin removed and built a strong brick structure — half above ground and half below — in place of them for defensive purposes. (Parts of this unwieldy structure, connected by enclosed steps, still exist.) The "Great House" (1790s)
The large brick house at Fort Pleasant was completed by Garrett's son, Isaac B. Van Meter (1757–1837), and his wife Elizabeth Inskeep Van Meter, before the end of the 18th century. (It was built on the very site of the old fort, thus both Fort and house bore the name "Fort Pleasant".) The impressive residence is a massive double-chimney Federal-style building constructed of clay bricks fabricated on the Fort Pleasant farm. Its "

giant order In classical architecture, a giant order, also known as colossal order, is an order whose columns or pilasters span two (or more) storeys. At the same time, smaller orders may feature in arcades or window and door framings within the storeys that ...

" columns — colossal columns spanning two stories — were among the first such features in the region and Fort Pleasant mansion acquired a reputation as one of the "great houses" of the South Branch Valley.

19th century

A portion of the old fort apparently survived Garrett Van Meter's renovations and the construction of the great house by his son. When Samuel Kercheval (1767–1845), the local historian, visited the site in 1830, he remarked that "one of the block-houses, with portholes was still standing, and the logs particularly sound".Kercheval, Samuel (1833)
''A History of the Valley of Virginia''

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the northwesternmost Administrative divisions of Virginia#Independent cities, independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Frederick County, Virginia, Frederi ...

: Samuel H. Davis Thus, the last vestiges of the old fort did not vanish until later in the 19th century.

Other Van Meter settlements

Fort Pleasant is one of five significant VanMeter family dwellings in the Old Fields area; the others are Traveler's Rest, Fort Van Meter, the

Garrett VanMeter House The Garrett VanMeter House (''ca.'' 1830) is an historic home near Old Fields, Hardy County, West Virginia Hardy County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cens ...

, and

Buena Vista Farms Buena Vista Farms is a historic home located near Old Fields, Hardy County, West Virginia, USA. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The main house at Buena Vista Farms was built in 1836 and is a brick dwelling in ...

References

External links