Phillip Hamman - Massacre Near Crab Orchard

Massacre Near Crab Orchard

In 1782, Hamman, his family, and the Baughman's began their move to Kentucky. Along the Wilderness Road at Dix River, near the town of Crab Orchard in Lincoln County, tragedy befell the party when Indians attacked their camp. Several accounts of this event are recorded in history.

The first account can be found in "Kentucky, A History of the State", published in 1887, in a statement given by Joel Baughman. He states that his grandfather, Henry Baughman, Sr. was killed giving his relatives a chance to escape when Indians opened fire on the group about eight miles above Crab Orchard. Among those killed were: Hamman's unnamed son, only seven days old; Christina's aunt Margarethe Baughman Ferrill and her husband, Jonathan Ferrill; two of Christina's uncles, Jacob Baughman and Hans Henrich Baughman. Christina's maternal grandmother, Margaretha Schwizier Baughman (December 25, 1698 – October 17, 1782) was killed during the attack.

A second account is found in the Draper Collection, Kentucky Papers, Volume 12, page 149, in an interview with George Yocum, Montgomery County, Kentucky. He states, "Phillip Hamman was in the defeated camps on Flat Creek (near Dix River). He, his wife, and little child, were in the company." They had undressed and lain down when the attack began. "He sprang, snatched up the child, and his hid gun, and his wife followed after."

A third account is found in "The Register", Kentucky Historical Society, Volume 36, July 1938, Whitley Papers, Volume 9. It states that "Baughman's Defeat was in October 1782 on the Wilderness Road and at the head of Dicks River. Jacob Baughman and his mother were killed. Mrs. (Christina) Hammans came into Crab Orchard in her linnen Wooley, wounded in the head with an arrow."

A fourth account is told in the Dickey Diary, Lee College Archives, Jackson, Kentucky. Rev. Dickey interviewed William Jackson Cope in 1898 and he told of his grandfather's immigration to America from Germany. He said his grandparents were camped by the river and a dog started barking. Someone cried, "That dog is barking at Indians." The Indians then attacked the camp an it was a fearful slaughter. The Indians ripped the bed tickings, and feathers were flying everywhere.