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PIGEON ROOST MASSACRE – A RE-ENACTMENT 2005
Welcome to The Pigeon Roost Massacre Re-enactment
We are the Painted Stone Settlers of Shelbyville KY. We would like to thank you all for the invitation to participate in Old Settlers Days.
Every year in Shelbyville we present the Long Run Massacre - a re-enactment of a 1781 event in which the station built by Squire Boone – younger brother of Daniel Boone – was abandoned because of raiding Indians.
Our members are not just from Shelbyville, Kentucky though. We have members from Louisville, Georgetown and even here in Scott County. We are re-enactors for one reason. History. We all love history and wish to bring it alive for all of you.
Our re-enactment from 1781 is part of the Revolutionary war. Not many people realize that Kentucky and her early settlers were part of that conflict. The British were arming the Indians and paying them for scalps in order to keep the colonists from advancing too far west. General George Rogers Clark was instrumental in fighting on this western front. But when the revolution ended in 1783 in the east and our country was formed the early settlers here did not achieve immediate peace like they did in the seaboard colonies. Indian raids continued. Settlers worked in their fields with guns at the ready.
For many the war in the west never really ended. And by 1812 when parts of Indiana were being settled The British were still encouraging the Indians to attack settlers. The Pigeon Roost Massacre was one of the first conflicts in The War of 1812 .
Pigeon Roost was a name given to this area because of its huge number of carrier pigeons. This particular pigeon is extinct today but in 1812 it made this a very fertile land.
The Pigeon Roost settlement was started by a group of 12 families that came to Indiana from Nelson County, Kentucky. This area had been purchased from the Indians by Governor William Henry Harrison in the Treaty of Grouseland in 1805.
The territorial capital was located in Vincennes. Settlement in Indiana was not encouraged and blockhouses were recommended.
But the 12 families that came to Pigeon Roost were not living in a fort or a blockhouse. Like many of the settlements in Indiana they were but scattered farms among the woods. The closest blockhouse was the home of Zebulon Collings about 5 miles to the south.
Each family lived in a clearing in a cabin surrounded by a small plot of crops with room for their livestock. The settlement occupied several square miles and the families who were mostly related, often visited back and forth among the cabins. All in all there were about 35 people at the settlement.
Although Indians had been a continual problem on the frontier, most families accepted the risk. They worked in the fields and around their cabins with a long rifle usually within reach.
Some stories say that the Indians had some justifications for their acts – the selling of whiskey followed by cheating in trades and there is the story of a theft of a white elk from them. But we will never know.
A band of Shawnees left their village near present day Lake County Indiana. They were led by a chief named Misselemetaw. They crossed the east fork of the White River in small groups so as to not draw attention to themselves. They made their way to the Vallonia Trail then crossed the Muscatatuck River and reached the Pigeon Roost settlement in early afternoon of September 3, 1812.
Jeremiah Payne, his wife Sarah McCoy Payne and little son Lewis started for the blockhouse at Vienna. Jeremiah then returned the five miles to his brother Elias’s cabin where he found Elias’s wife Rachel and their seven children massacred.
Elias and his neighbor Issac Coffman were in the nearby woods hunting for bee trees when caught by the Indians.
Coffman was immediately killed and scalped while Elias although wounded managed to get away. His dog went on the block house and led Jeremiah back to the spot where his master lay dying.
The patriarch of the settlement at Pigeon Roost was William Elson Collings. His wife Phoebe Hougland Collings was away but two of his children Lydia and John were at home with him. He was a great hunter and fighter and was known by the Indians of the area as “Long Knife” just as that great leader before him George Rogers Clark.
The day before the massacre Captain John Norris of Clark County, an officer in the Pennsylvania Militia, came to the settlement. Although he warned again of the Indian unrest the settlers were familiar with the Indians that passed through the area and were not afraid.
But September 3rd was different.
Collings son John was coming in with the cattle when the attack started but he made it safely to the cabin.
Wiliam Collings being a crack shot killed four Indians from his porch were he was eating watermelon with his old friend Captain Norris.
One of the Indians even tried disguising himself in woman’s clothing from one of the burning cabins but was discovered by the excellent eyesight of Collings.
William Collings, Captain Norris and the two children realized there position was becoming worse as darkness fell and tried to make it to the fort. Norris and the children were in the lead when Collings was fired upon. Although not hit his rifle was and would not fire. Although he called out to Norris to return with the other gun, they didn’t hear him and he was separated from the others. He managed to hide from the Indians and reach the fort the next morning.
The Indians killed Mrs. Richard Collings and her seven children along the creek.
Mrs. Rachel Huffman Collings was killed also along with unborn child.
Henry Collings was shot while working in his flax field. He was found two days later nearly dead but did manage to name his attacker before he died.
The wife, mother and children of John Morris were also killed.
Mrs. Jane Collings Biggs, her baby and two other children were out looking for their cow when the Indian attack occurred. She returned to her clearing to find her cabin on fire. She stumbled back into the woods and hid. As the Indians were passing her she tried to stifle her baby’s cries with the edge of her shawl, only to find after the Indians had moved on that she had suffocated her baby. She wandered the woods all night with her dead baby in her arms.
Dr. John Richey saw the Indians from afar and carried his pregnant wife Sichey through the woods all night long to the blockhouse. Their baby was born the next day.
The other survivors of Pigeon Roost were:
Mrs. Betsey Johnson who left her cabin when she heard the commotion. She made it to the fort.
Ben Yount, another settler, took his pregnant wife and children by horseback to the fort on Silver Creek where that night another child was born.
Mrs. Beal and her two children survived by hiding in a sink hole until darkness fell and then reached the fort about 2 AM .
It took a day for the word to reach Clark County were troops were sent out from Charleston the next day. But the rising river and falling darkness made the search futile.
This was only one of the attacks of the settlements in the War of 1812.
Afterwards many of the settlers moved back across the river into Kentucky or stayed safely in the blockhouses.
But peace finally came in 1814. And like the rest of our country, settlers followed.
We dedicate this re-enactment to the settlers that lived and died at Pigeon Roost and to their descendants who still live near by and are proud to share this bit of history with us.
This concludes the re-enactment of The Pigeon Roost Massacre.
We invite you to visit with the re-enactors and visit their camps. We have set up a special guest book over with a photo display of our re-enactors. Sign the guestbook to let us know you attended today and especially if you are a direct descendant of one of the families of Pigeon Roost. Just as we love to be asked questions about history and the pioneer’s life style we love to ask questions of people who can trace their roots back to these early families.
And last of all if you liked the Re-enactment today why not join us in Shelbyville, Kentucky on September 10 and 11 for the Long Run Massacre.
Again thanks for inviting us to Lexington Old Settlers Day.
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