Settlers were shot while plowing the fields or gathering the harvests.

Bands of hostile Indians prowled around and made it dangerous for anyone to leave the clearing.
Frequently the first person to appear in the early morning would be shot at by an Indian concealed in the woods.
General George Rodgers Clark, commandant of the Western Military Department, arrived at the village in 1774.

As an attack from the savages was apprehended during the year the settlers determined to erect a fort as a defense for the infant settlement.

It was planned by General Clark and built by the people themselves.

At first they called it Fort Fincastle, in honor of Lord Dunmore, who, at the time of its erection, was Governor of the Colony of Virginia.