Capt. Jacob Van Meter was born in 1752 at Frederick County, Virginia. Capt. Jacob Van Meter was the son of
Henry Van Meter and
Mary Ann Pyle. Capt. Jacob Van Meter was born circa 1762. Capt. Jacob Van Meter married
Catherine Ann Covenhoven, daughter of
John Covenhoven and
Lydia Predmore, circa 1772 at Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Capt. Jacob Van Meter married
Catherine Ann Covenhoven, daughter of
John Covenhoven and
Lydia Predmore, circa 1778 at Berkley County, Virginia. Capt. Jacob Van Meter married
Rebecca Rawlings, daughter of
Daniel Rawlings and
Sarah Nuttle, on May 12, 1793 at in the home of Rebecca's parents, Hardin County, Kentucky. Capt. Jacob Van Meter died on April 12, 1838 at Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky.
Capt. Jacob Van Meter was also known as Joisah Van Meter. Capt. Jacob Van Meter also went by the name of Miller Jake. Capt. Jacob Van Meter and
Catherine Ann Covenhoven to William Hanscher on August 31, 1772 at Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Capt. Jacob Van Meter was an Ensign and Captain in the Virginia Militia during the Revolutionary War.
He accompanied his Uncle Jacob Van Meter, Sr. for whom he was named, with a large company of kinsman and friends to Kentucky to settle Elizabethtown in 1779. They had come down the Ohio on 27 barges with their families, household goods and slaves and were given a pass to the Falls of the Ohio, unmolested. Tradition states that they landed at West Point and came inland to Severn's Valley, at the mouth of Billy's Creek, near a big spring; where he defended his family and friends against Indians and where his uncle, Jacob Van Metre, Sr., later built his home and mill for grain. (about 1 1/2 miles from Elizabethtown) it was called
"Fort Van Metre" and was one of the first forts built in Kentucky and easily located, as the city of Elizabethtown, still used this spring water for it's water supply as late as 1963.
Capt. Jacob Van Meter and
Catherine Ann Covenhoven helped establish the Severn's Valley Baptist Church, the first one west of the Allegheny Mountains 1781.
Later Captain Jacob Van Metre, at a site about 5 miles below his Uncle Jacob's fort on Valley Creek near Glendale, built a for also called
Van Metre Fort. He built a Mill and a Still on the land he has acquired.
These forts were needed to defend settlers against Indian raids for several years. Captain Jacob Van Metre's land on both sides of Valley Creek, from Elizabethtown to Blendale and over to White Mills, 12,399 acres, some of the best land in Hardin County.