Westervelt massacre

The Westervelt massacre, also known as the Westerfield massacre, was an attack by Native Americans on a caravan of Dutch American settlers on June 27, 1780, near the frontier. Occurring amidst the backdrop of the Revolutionary War, the attack remains one of the largest massacres in the history of Kentucky.

The settlers, who were escaping Bird's invasion of Kentucky, left the colonial settlement of Low Dutch Station to relocate to Harrodsburg; the route they took went southwards via what would become the Old Shepherdsville Road to the modern-day Shepherdsville, before turning east-southeast down the trails along the Salt River, taking them through present-day Spencer County towards Harrodsburg. Harrodburg was fortified, making it an attractive location to escape Captain Bird's invading army from the north. However, the settlers never made it to Sheperdsville; British-allied Native Americans were active in the area immediately east of Low Dutch Station (where the Mall St. Matthews now stands).

The settlers, who were travelling in a caravan, were ambushed and massacred in a surprise attack by the British-allied Native Americans at night after they had travelled 12 miles on June 26. Debate exists over historians concerning the exact location of the massacre, though historical consensus places the event at Floyd's Fork and Broad Run, in modern-day Kentucky. The caravan was formed by Dutch-American settler Jacobus Westervelt and consisted of forty-one settlers from ten different families; ten of the seventeen settlers killed were members of the Westervelt family. Men, women and children alike were killed in the massacre.