The Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia borders Maryland and Virginia. The first European settlers started arriving about 1730.
also spelled Vanmeter, Vanmetre, Van Metre, Van Matre, Van Meteren, Van Maitre,
The New River flows through North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia .In 1755, Mary Draper Ingles (1732-1815) was captured by Shawnee warriors near Blacksburg and taken to Ohio. She escaped and made her way home by following the Ohio, Kanawha, and New Rivers.
He married Letitia Stroud on August 30, 1741 in Frederick County, Virginia. Leticia was the daughter of Edward Stroud and Eleanor Shepard.
Jacob and Letitia's children may have included:
Eleanor Van Meter (1742)
Abraham Van Meter (1744, married Elizabeth Cline),
Rebecca Van Meter (1746)
Susan Van Meter ( 1750)
Elizabeth Van Meter (1752, married John Swan),
Mary Van Meter (1757, married David Henton),
Isaac Van Meter (1759)
Margaret Van Meter (1759, married Samuel Haycraft)
Jacob Van Meter Jr. (1762, married Elizabeth Rhoads),
John Van Meter (1764), and
Alsey Van Meter (1766).
From Frederick County Road Orders
8 August 1754, Frederick County Order Book 6, p. 36
Ordered that Thomas Shepard Jacob Vanmeter and Robert Buckles being first sworn do view and mark a Road from Catons Ford the most convenient and best way to Vestals Gap and make report to next Court
In 1779, he applied for permission to take his family and "pass unmolested to the Falls of the Ohio." In the spring of 1780 they reached the Severns Valley, in what was then Jefferson, later Hardin County, Kentucky where he bought land from John Severns.
They were members of the Severns Valley Baptist Church, built a grain mill on Valley Creek, and operated a still and a tavern.
K-234
Jacob Vanmeter of Frederick Co.
96 A. near Potomack R.
adj. land he lives on in said Co. Capt. Thomas Swearingen.
Surv. Thomas Rutherford.
25 Feb. 1761
