Pvt  Archibald Prater
Continental. Army, Virginia
1825-1864

      Archibald Prater was born in 1755 and was a farmer and native of Pennsylvania. On September 11, 1780, he enlisted in the Continental Army in Henry County, Virginia. He was 25 at the time, had brown hair, fair skin, blue eyes, and was 6' 2 1/2" tall. On the same day, a Jonathan "Pryther" was enlisted in Henry County (possibly his brother).

      After the war, he came down to Russell County, Virginia and married Sarah Martha Fugate (1763-1832) of Frederick County, Virginia, daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth Fugate, in 1783. Sarah was born in Fredrick County, but had come with her parents to Montgomery County some years before. Archibald and Sarah had at had thier son John a few years later, then Celeia who married David Cooper, and Elijah who married Jennie Patrick, and Nancy.

      Archibald with his brother Jonathan, along with Ebenezer Hanna of Pennsylvania, Clayton Cook, John Williams, and others, struck out to explore the western slope of the mountains after the war in search of homesteads. They entered Kentucky through Cumberland Gap and crossed to the head of the Licking River. They were threatened by Indians in the area and decided to move deeper into Kentucky. They settled in current-day Nicholas and Bourbon counties, but returned to the Salyersville area in 1800 and built a fort-- Licking Station or Prater's Fort (this area had first been explored by Dr. Thomas Walker in 1750). They hunted the rich Licking Valley where the large herds of buffalo, elk, and deer gathered to feed on the switch cane.

      The Praters joined the Burning Springs Baptist Church, started by their associates Williams and Hanna, in 1810. Randel Fugate, a brother of Sarah, was also a member (my grandfather Noah May was a member there at the turn of the century). The Praters lie buried on what is today the grounds of the Old Baptist Institute -- originally the old Bluegrass cemetery. Archibald and Sarah lived where the family of the late Judge D.W. Gardner lived in the 1950s -- not far from the high school. When the Magoffin Baptist Institute was having a new building erected, their graves were destroyed and the dressed-stone slabs that formed boxes over the graves were carried away.

Mark's 4th Great-Grandfather

Source: Kentucky's Last Frontier, Scalf  pp. 119-120 & 456

Updated 9:24 PM 1/27/2013
Mark S. Carroll