Prickett’s Fort Served as Shelter for Early Settlers
Morgantown Dominion Post
16 April 2012
PRICKETT’S FORT STATE PARK, off Interstate 79 exit 139, is a
re-creation of the colonial fort built in 1774 by Jacob Prickett,
the first permanent white settler in present day Marion County.
Earl Core, in “The Monongalia Story,” reports that Prickett had
homesteaded near the site for little more than two years before
building the fort.
The creek where Prickett built his trading post, and later the
fort, became known as Prickett’s Creek. He reportedly had operated
the trading post as early as 1759.
Core described the fort as “one of the strongest forts in the
Monongahela valley,” built at the mouth of Pricketts Creek five
miles below Fairmont and about 1,000 feet back from the riverbank.
It contained at least 10 cabins and “had substantial blockhouses
on each of its four corners.”
The Pricketts Fort Foundation says on its website that the fort
“provided a place of refuge from American Indian attack for early
settlers.” It was built within 10 miles of three major American
Indian trails.
The fort now standing contains two-story blockhouses in the four
corners of 12-foot high log walls. Lining the weathered stockade
walls are 14 tiny cabins, some with earthen floors, for shelter,
with a meetinghouse and storehouse in the common. Up to 80
families could shelter there.
There are two gates: One double gate facing north and a smaller
gate facing west.
Just south of the Fort stands the Job Prickett House, built in
1859 by Capt. Jacob Prickett’s great-grandson, Job. It is an
original brick structure that has been restored to show the
progress that took place at the Fort between the 18th and 19th
centuries.
The house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places,
contains many of the original furnishings, tools and handmade
objects used by the Prickett family.
The Prickett family lived on the original Prickett homestead from
the 1770’s until the 1960’s.
Jacob Prickett is one of several well-known frontiersmen,
including Zackquill Morgan, who are buried in a cemetery at the
site.
EVELYN RYAN researches and writes this column. Send ideas and
suggestions to columns@dominionpost.com.