Van Meter Fort

Site of fort, erected 1780, by Jacob Van Meter, Sr., who led a party of 100 settlers from Va. to "the Falls of the Ohio." They made their journey on 27 flatboats and suffered many hardships during their trip. One member of group, John Swan, was killed by Indians. Van Meter built his fort by the spring which supplied water for Elizabethtown for many years.

(Reverse) Van Meter Fort - Van Meter brought seed wheat from Virginia; built a grist mill. The fort, October, 1790, was scene of an Indian skirmish. Van Meter was a founder of Elizabethtown and Hardin County. Helped organize Severn's Valley Baptist Church, 1781; served in Revolutionary War as Captain in Clark's Northwest expedition. Buried at fort; remains later moved to Elizabethtown Cemetery.