Individual Details

Mary M. "Polly" Van Meter

(11 Feb 1757 - 20 Jun 1832)

Mary Van Meter was born Feb 11, 1757, Berkeley Co., Virginia (Now West Virginia), the daughter of Jacob Van Meter and Letitia Strode. According to family lore, her childhood sweetheart in old Virginia, 16 year old David Henton, saved her life by shooting through the head an Indian who threatened her with a tomahawk. They married soon after and travelled to Kentucky as part of her family's migration west. Sadly, she was left widowed with two small children when her husband drowned in the Ohio River during the journey. Husbandless, she settled in what was then Jefferson Co. and part of Virginia (now Hardin Co., KY), during a time of Indian unrest when many white settlers where losing their lives. She became known in the area as the Widow Hinton.
In 1781 she was living at Squire Boone's Station on Brashear Creek, sometimes called "Painted Stone" near present Shelbyville, KY. In April of that year the station was attacked around sunrise by a band of Indians led by the white renegade, Simon Girty. Squire Boone, "in his shirt tail" and ten to twelve others grabbed their guns and rushed to protect the retreat of a work party that had left early to put in the corn crop. Squire was wounded in the fray, one arm was so shattered it never healed properly. By Sept of 1781 it was decided to abandon the Station because the Indian troubles were so bad. Everyone left except Squire, who was still weak and recovering, his 12 yr old son Moses, and the widow Hinton, as there weren't enough pack horses. The travelling party was ambushed 21 miles away and still 8 miles from Linn's Station. A day or two later about 300 men from the Falls of the Ohio (now Louisville) and other nearby settlements marched out, buried the dead and rescued Squire's family and Widow Hinton's, along with the stock which had wandered back and much of the lost belongings of the moving families.
During 1779 Major William Chenoweth came to Pottenger's Creek in Kentucky and entered lands in Jefferson (now Nelson) county, adjacent to present day Hardin Co. He had been granted land for his Revolutionary service. On March 5, 1781 he was appointed administrator of the estate of John (or David) Hinton. Later he married the "Widow Hinton." They raised nine children together. They built a large stone house near Dateville, about ten miles from Bardstown in Nelson Co. where they lived until their deaths. Mary died June 20, 1832, Nelson Co., Kentucky, four years after his husband William.




.

Events

Birth11 Feb 1757Frederick, Virginia, British America
MarriageAbt 1773David Henton
Marriage4 Oct 1781Jefferson, Virginia, United States - Major William Chenoweth
Census (family)1810Nelson, Kentucky, United States - Major William Chenoweth
Census (family)1820Bardstown, Nelson, Kentucky, United States - Major William Chenoweth
Death20 Jun 1832Nelson, Kentucky, United States
BurialWilson Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, Deatsville, Nelson, Kentucky, United States

Families

SpouseMajor William Chenoweth (1760 - 1828)
ChildWilliam Chenoweth Jr. (1782 - 1805)
ChildJacob Van Meter Chenoweth (1784 - 1851)
ChildAbraham Chenoweth (1785 - 1861)
ChildIsaac Calvert Chenoweth (1788 - 1858)
ChildMiles Hart Chenoweth (1791 - 1845)
ChildHardin Thomas Chenoweth (1793 - 1844)
ChildLetitia Van Meter "Letty" Chenoweth (1796 - 1875)
ChildRuth C. Chenoweth (1798 - 1868)
ChildJames Hackley Chenoweth (1801 - 1882)
ChildArthur Chenoweth ( - 1810)
SpouseDavid Henton ( - )
ChildHester "Hetty" Henton (1775 - 1858)
ChildJohn C. Henton (1778 - 1853)
FatherJacob Jansen "Valley Creek Jake" Van Meter Sr. (1723 - 1798)
MotherLetitia "Letty" Strode (1725 - 1799)
SiblingEleanor Van Meter (1742 - 1811)
SiblingAbraham Van Meter (1744 - 1781)
SiblingRebecca Van Meter (1746 - 1821)
SiblingElizabeth Van Meter (1752 - 1848)
SiblingSusanna "Susan" Van Meter (1750 - 1798)
SiblingRachel Van Meter (1754 - 1841)
SiblingIsaac Van Meter (1759 - 1840)
SiblingMargaret Van Meter (1759 - 1843)
SiblingJacob "of Otter Creek" Van Meter Jr. (1762 - 1850)
SiblingJohn Van Meter (1764 - 1806)
SiblingAlcinda "Alsey, Aisley" Van Meter (1766 - 1828)
SiblingWilliam Van Meter (1766 - 1808)

Notes

Census (family)

Wm Chenoworth 10301 02201 0 13
1 boy under 10 (James 9)
3 males 16-26 (Hardin 17, Miles 19, Abraham 25)
1 male 45+ (William 50)
2 females10-16 (Ruth 12, Letitia 14)
2 females 16-26 (? ?)
1 female 45+ (Mary 53)
13 slaves

(Jacob and Isaac where married by 1810. William Jr was dead. The only thing that doesn't fit are the 2 females 16-26, who are they?)


Census (family)

William Chenoweth 0 0 0 1 0 1 / 1 0 1 0
1 male 16-26 (James H. 19)
1 male over 45 (William 60)
1 female under 10
1 female 26-45 (Mary 63)


further down page:
John DeWitt
Nancy Dewitt
John Dragoo

Death

Bardstown Herald
July 21, 1832

Departed this life, the 20th day of June, at a very advanced age, at the residence of her youngest son, Mr James Chenoweth, on Wilson Creek in Nelson County, Mrs Mary Chenoweth, relict of the late Maj. William Chenoweth. In the death of the worthy subject of this obituary, society has sustained a deprivation of one of its most amiable and exemplary members. Emigrating to the state of Kentucky in early life, she had to encounter the dangers and difficulties peculiar to the situation of the country at that time. Those dangers, she sustained with a fortitude which seldom belongs to her sex. A narration of the incidents of a life so eventful, would be truly interesting, but the limits of this notice, precludes the recital. She would often, with fancy’s eye, in the latter part of her life, look back on the hair-breath escapes of her younger days, as a mariner, safe in port, after encountering the dangers and hardships of a tempestuous voyage. In the evening of her life, she enjoyed a repose derived from the comforts and enjoyments of a competence, which she had by her industry and prudence, been greatly instrumental in procuring for the maintenance of a numerous and beloved family. She had been, for about 40 years, a zealous and pious member of the Baptist Church; in which belief she died, and her friends have every reason, that she is now enjoying the fruition of those blessings which this world cannot give, and which she, by her piety and virtue, strove to deserve, while a pilgrim in this vale of tears.

A Friend

Endnotes

1. Thompson, Jess M., The Jess M. Thompson Pike County history : as printed in installments in the Pike County republican, Pittsfield, Illinois, 1935-1939. (Pittsfield, Ill.: Pike County Historical Society, 1967, 582 pgs.), p. 384.

2. Wood, Melba, Loper-Keller-VanMeter and allied lines : Rhoads, Keele, Searles, Haynes, and many other pioneer settlers of Macoupin County, Illinois (Godfrey, Ill.: Illinois Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1969, 57 pgs. ), has b. 2/12/1757.

3. McClure, Daniel E. Jr., Two Centuries in Elizabethtown and Hardin County, Kentucky. Including Biographical Sketches of Some of Their Prominent Citizens of Past and Present Times. (Elizabethtown: KY. The Hardin County Historical Society, Inc. 1979.), has b. 2-11-1757.

4. Unknown. A Story of a Van Matre Family. (Eleven pages copied by Shirley Lillie, found at the Genealogical Dept., Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.), 1757.

5. Lillie, Shirley., Van Meter genealogy emails and group sheets. (Montezuma, Iowa: Shirley Lillie, 1998.).

6. Lillie, Shirley., Van Meter genealogy emails and group sheets. (Montezuma, Iowa: Shirley Lillie, 1998.).

7. U.S. Census images. Heritage Quest Online. Subscription database through the Sonoma County Public Library. (ProQuest LLC, 2009.), 1810 > VIRGINIA > BERKELEY > NO TWP LISTED Series: M252 Roll: 66 Page: 541.

8. U.S. Census images. Heritage Quest Online. Subscription database through the Sonoma County Public Library. (ProQuest LLC, 2009.), 1820 > KENTUCKY > NELSON > BARDSTOWN Series: M33 Roll: 19 Page: 168.

9. Mrs. Mary Chenoweth obituary, Bardstown Herald, Bardstown, Kentucky, July 21, 1832, submitted by Carolyn Wimp to the Chenoweth Newsletter, Vol . 4, No. 3, Sept. 2005.