page_title: Westervelt massacre
hierarchical_section_title: Westervelt massacre
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Kentucke published in 1784 along with The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke by John Filson. Русский: Карта Кентукки, опубликованная в 1784 году вместе с книгой Джона Филсона "Открытие, заселение и нынешнее состояние штата Кентукки".
context_page_description: The Westervelt massacre, also known as the Westerfield massacre, was an indigenous attack on a caravan of Dutch frontier settlers that occurred during the American Revolutionary War around 3:00 am on June 27, 1780 in Kentucky County, Virginia, the present day state of Kentucky. It remains one of the largest massacres in Kentucky state history, and its modern location is near Brooks, in north-central Bullitt County, Kentucky. The settlers were traveling southeast from Low Dutch Station to Harrod's Town. The caravan's route took them south via what would become Old Shepherdsville Road all the way to present Shepherdsville, before turning east-southeast down the trails along the Salt Fork River, taking them through modern Spencer County all the way to Harrodsburg. But they never even made it to Shepherdsville. The settler relocation was in part a reaction to British Captain Henry Bird's invasion of Kentucky. The area immediately east of Low Dutch Station had been overrun with British allied Indians. Harrod's Town was fortified and a move south would lead the settlers away from Captain Bird's invading army from the north.
context_section_description: The Westervelt massacre, also known as the Westerfield massacre, was an indigenous attack on a caravan of Dutch frontier settlers that occurred during the American Revolutionary War around 3:00 am on June 27, 1780 in Kentucky County, Virginia, the present day state of Kentucky.  It remains one of the largest massacres in Kentucky state history, and its modern location is near Brooks, in north-central Bullitt County, Kentucky.  The settlers were traveling southeast from Low Dutch Station to Harrod's Town.  (Low Dutch Station's historical marker is at the intersection of Browns Lane, Bowling Parkway and Kresge Way, just northeast of Baptist East Hospital in St. Matthews.)  The caravan's route took them south via what would become Old Shepherdsville Road all the way to present Shepherdsville, before turning east-southeast down the trails along the Salt Fork River, taking them through modern Spencer County all the way to Harrodsburg.  But they never even made it to Shepherdsville.  The settler relocation was in part a reaction to British Captain Henry Bird's invasion of Kentucky.  The area immediately east of Low Dutch Station had been overrun with British allied Indians (where St. Matthews Mall is now).  Harrod's Town was fortified and a move south would lead the settlers away from Captain Bird's invading army from the north.  The caravan was ambushed in a surprise attack, during the night, after a day's travel of twelve miles.  The exact location of the massacre is not definitively known.  However, it is likely to have occurred at Floyd's Fork and Broad Run.  (After years of research, Kentucky historians have finally agreed that the site is knowable within a few hundred yards, and have erected a new official Kentucky state historical marker, as of September 2019.)  The Westervelt (also known as "Westerfield") caravan was formed by Jacobus Westervelt and consisted of forty-one settlers from ten different families.  Ten of the seventeen settlers killed were members of the Westervelt family.  The victims included men, women, and children. The Indians responsible for the massacre were allied to the British and received £5 for each victim's scalp cut off and returned to the British authorities.  The Indians were thus awarded £85 by the British for massacring the Dutch settlers.  The Westervelt Massacre had a chilling effect on the region.  A number of settlers from Low Dutch Station joined Colonel George Rogers Clark's militia after the massacre.
caption: The Westervelt massacre occurred approximately 12 miles southeast of Low Dutch Station on the way to Harrod's Town.  The settlements appear on Filsom's 1784 map of the County of Kentucke, Virginia.
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