Merry Christmas and Letters 12/24/2025

From Ron and Brenda Snider. Hope to see you at the next gathering.

In addition here is a submission from Joe Putman.

~Traces of the Low Dutch at Boonesborough~
by Joe Putnam

I suppose most of the Dutch Cousins are probably already aware that some of our kin were connected to Fort Boonesborough. And there is a marker there bearing Low Dutch names!

I first read of our Low Dutch ancestors who tried to settle in the Boonesborough area in Joan England Murray’s book The Bantas of Pleasant Hill Kentucky. I later read Vince Akers’ detailed article The Low Dutch Company: A History of the Holland Dutch Settlements of the Kentucky Frontier. Last year I read archaeologist Nancy O’Malley’s book Boonesborough Unearthed, which contains a few references to our Low Dutch kin, though she erroneously states the Low Dutch families at White Oak Springs were German.

In short, Samuel Duree scouted out the area in 1779 and led a group of Low Dutch to the Boonesborough area in 1780 overland via the Cumberland Gap while Hendrick “Father Henry” Banta brought another group of Dutch down the Ohio river to the Louisville area. The Duree party associated with Nathaniel Hart at his White Oak Springs station, less than a mile from Fort Boonesborough, with Hart being a partner with Henderson in the Transylvania Company. Some Banta men briefly joined the Duree party and a Dutch fort was attempted on Muddy creek. But Indian attacks and land title struggles caused our Low Dutch to eventually give up the area and congregate near Harrodsburg by 1782. As the great siege at Boonesborough occurred in 1778, our ancestors missed that epic event.

I had last visited Fort Boonesborough State Park over twenty years ago, before I had done genealogy, clueless of my ancestors’ presence in frontier Kentucky. So this October I took a 150 mile drive into central Kentucky to revisit the fort! This year was the 250th anniversary of the settling of Boonesborough, but the special events were over before my visit.

And there it stood. In front of the main gate of the reconstructed fort, just past the parking lot, is the 1981 monument bearing the names of early Boonesborough pioneers. It is a four sided stone monument, with columns of names engraved on each side, topped by an obelisk. There are many Low Dutch names from several families engraved upon it. My 5th great grandfather “Father Henry” Banta is there, etched into stone as Henry Banta Sr.

I visited the reconstructed fort, which is open from April to October, which costs $8 admission per person. The folks there were friendly, and they had some decent displays, but I confess I thought Old Fort Harrod to be a better fort experience overall.

I drove down the road to a metal roadside historical marker (#1577) discussing Nathaniel Hart and the White Oak Springs station which stated that: “He was joined here by some Dutch families from Pennsylvania”. Yes indeed! I then visited the original fort site, down by the river, where a circa 1907 DAR memorial is enclosed by a rock wall inside the footprint of the old fort. Within sight of this is a very nice four sided monument placed by the Transylvanian, Colonial Dames, and DAR associations in 1935.

The Low Dutch connection to Boonesborough is nowhere near as strong as it is to Harrodsburg. My trip to Boonesborough was not as thrilling as when I held my ancestor’s 1783 marriage bond in Stanford last year, but I am still glad I went.

Don’t forget to gather up your items for the Silent Auction for the Next Gathering. Brenda Snider

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