For the full story on Cherry's Fort and the events that happened there, check out our article "Thomas Cherry and His Fort: Facts Clouded by Conjecture."
A school district, housing development, village, valley, stream, and road in this region all have one thing in common: their name. Whether it's “Fort Cherry,” “Cherry Valley,” or just plain “Cherry,” they are all namesakes of the same origin.. ; not the tree or fruit, but Cherry’s Fort and the family who built it. Cherry’s Fort was built in the summer of 1774 by Thomas Cherry II and his family and neighbors after they sold off their coastal Virginia and Maryland tobacco plantations and headed west into the Pennsylvania frontier to create new lives for themselves out of the wilderness.
Various features of Thomas II’s photographed descendants were composited into this modern depiction. The Cherry family would have been of high enough stature to dress in the middle-class fashion of the time, and likely would have worn attire like this in their earlier days before the frontier. It was unheard of for men of the time to wear any facial hair, so all of the frontiersmen would have been clean shaven. Simple handmade clothing of materials such as buckskins, furs, and linsey-woolsey were later made and worn on the frontier. (HFC)
Likely trekking west on the roads formerly blazed by General Braddock and George Washington years earlier, they made a stop at the Redstone Fort (modern-day Brownsville) before eventually reaching what is now Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County, where they decided to call home. The Cherry Family claimed three separate tracts of land right in-between tracts owned by future-president George Washington, and his cousin Lund Washington. After the tracts were surveyed , they were given the names “The Comley Green,” “Fairfield,” and “Fallowfield.” Here next to a good spring on a knoll overlooking the valley they set to work to create a life out of the wilderness. Because European settlement on this land had been illegal just six years earlier, hostile Native Americans defending their challenged claims to it were the greatest dangers the settlers faced at the time. In response to these hostilities, the settlers wasted no time in constructing their fort.
The Cherry Tracts in Mount Pleasant Township (PHMC)
Crudely built but effective, these log forts that dotted the countryside provided a safe haven for multiple families when trouble arose. Cherry’s Fort consisted of at least three of these log buildings arranged in the shape of a triangle. The main building was a blockhouse, 2.5-stories high and 25-feet square. Two other log buildings flanked this one on each side, and they were all enclosed within a stockade of pointed logs stuck vertically into the ground. A single entrance/exit door faced the nearby spring, allowing its inhabitants to easily fetch water when needed.
Thomas Cherry II died sometime in the late 1770s-early 1780s under mysterious circumstances. The date and manner of his death are up for debate, but several written accounts suggest that he was found outside shot through the head, lying dead next to the spring. He was buried nearby and was the first grave in what would become the Cherry Family Cemetery.
His son John Cherry would also find himself in the burial ground not long afterwards. In the summer of 1781, John was included in a mission to rescue Phillip Jackson, a carpenter who was kidnapped from his farm on Harmon’s Creek by a Wyandot raiding party. John Cherry accompanied Adam and Andrew Poe, who were famed Native American fighters. Along with four other local frontiersmen, they chased the kidnappers on horseback and intercepted them as they were getting ready to cross the Ohio River at the mouth of Tomlinson Run. One of the most famous Native American fights of the Ohio Valley during this time, the settlers succeeded in rescuing Jackson, but John Cherry was the party’s lone casualty. He took a bullet through his left lung at the start of the fight and died shortly after. He was then taken home and buried in the family cemetery.
This modern depiction of John Cherry is another composite of Cherry ancestor features to suggest how he may have looked. He was described in Adam W. Poe's book as "the handsomest man ever seen," (HFC)
By the early 1900s, all traces of the fort had disappeared. The land passed out of the Cherry family in 1890 when William P. Cherry died an aged bachelor, and his property was sold to a man named Martin Raab, who promptly tore up the many headstones of the family cemetery to be used around the farm, and turned the plot into a pig pen. Since then,the property has passed through various different owners over the years.
Most are met with blank stares when they ask where the fort that plays such a large part in our daily lives was actually located. “Somewhere in Cherry Valley.” “On Cherry Valley Road somewhere.” “Where the high school is, right?” These are the most likely responses you’ll get if you ask this question. Along Cherry Valley Road, between Loffert Road and Beechnut Road lies a remodeled farmhouse on the hillside. It was here, just to the rear of the house’s detached garage that Cherry’s Fort was built 250 years ago; here where our regional identity gets its name.
An aerial view of the Cherry property as shown on an 1876 map compared to present day. Note the “Old Fort” marker on the 1876 map. While certainly noteworthy, we believe this marker’s location is incorrect, as with many other smaller details across all of the maps from the 1876 Caldwell’s Atlas of Washington County. (J.A. Caldwell / Google Maps)
As the remainder of Cherry’s Fort disappeared, so did the family who it was named after disappear from our area. Most headed farther west to achieve new goals on a new frontier. Today there are no known direct descendants of this family left in the area. Though we may not know all the details about the Cherry family or their fort, they certainly live on in a name that unites scattered communities into an identity that we can all share.
For the full story on Cherry's Fort and the events that happened there, check out our article "Thomas Cherry and His Fort: Facts Clouded by Conjecture."