Plummers Landing in Fleming County, Kentucky — The American South (East South Central)

Stockton Grave

Photographed by J. J. Prats, October 21, 2019

1. Stockton Grave Marker

Inscription. In a field 2½ miles east, rock slabs laid like a stone wall mark Robert Stockton’s grave. Buried where he fell, killed by Indians, 1789. His wounded companion, Beacham Rhodes, went back to Stockton’s Station. Returning to site with friends, they found his faithful dog standing guard, “a circle of torn earth all around body, marking rage and disappointment of wolves.”

Erected 1977 by Kentucky Historical Society and Kentucky Department of Transportation. (Marker Number 1411.)

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Settlements & Settlers. In addition, it is included in the Believe It or Not, and the Kentucky Historical Society series lists. A significant historical year for this entry is 1789.

Location. 38° 18.425′ N, 83° 34.021′ W. Marker is in Plummers Landing, Kentucky, in Fleming County. It is at the intersection of Muses Mill Road (Route 1103) and Morehead Road (Kentucky Route 32), on the right when traveling east on Muses Mill Road. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 15425 Morehead Rd, Wallingford KY 41093, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Kentucky’s Outer Bluegrass. It is also in the American South,

specifically in the Upper South,

in Appalachia,

and specifically in Southern Appalachia. Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture

and also the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 11 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Ringos Mill Covered Bridge (approx. 3.6 miles away); Grange City Covered Bridge (approx.

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5.9 miles away); Memorial Forest (approx. 7.8 miles away); University Breckinridge School (approx. 11 miles away); The Bluejackets (approx. 11 miles away); First Faculty And Staff (approx. 11 miles away); Capt. William E. Barber, USMC (approx. 11 miles away); First Building And Land (approx. 11 miles away).

Another marker is no longer nearby. Goddard “White” Bridge (was approx. 4.7 miles away but has been confirmed missing).

Also see . . . The Men of the Backwoods: True stories and sketches of the Indians and the Indian Fighters. 1880 book by Ascott R. Hope. Excerpt from pages 142 and 143:

... Two Kentucky hunters, named Rhodes and Stockton, were sleeping in the woods, when a party of Indians fired upon them, then stole their horses and made off. They might as well have remained, for Stockton was shot dead and Rhodes had been so severely wounded in the hips as to be almost helpless. In this state he contrived to drag himself into a creek close by, and hid himself in the water for some time among a pile of brushwood and logs which had been drifted together. Finding that the Indians did not appear, he resolved to make for home, injured and exhausted as he was, and had actually crawled fourteen miles in six days when he was luckily discovered by another hunter.

The news having been brought to the settlement, a party of men started for the scene of the disaster, where they expected to find Stockton’s body mangled by wild beasts.
Photographed by J. J. Prats, October 21, 2019

2. Stockton Grave Marker
But no ! they found it untouched, with their comrade’s dog standing sentry over it, though half-starved and scarcely able to move. All around, the earth was torn up in a circle by the baffled wolves and panthers that this brave dog had kept off from its dead master.

(Submitted on March 18, 2020.)

Stockton’s Grave image. Click for full size.

via FindAGrave.com, circa 1908

3. Stockton’s Grave

Photograph in the 1808 publication Condensed History of Fleming County, Kentucky by Dan T. Fischer.

Artist Depiction of Frontiersman’s Hunting Dog image. Click for full size.

19th Century Engraving via Wikimedia Commons

4. Artist Depiction of Frontiersman’s Hunting Dog

Credits. This page was last revised on January 22, 2023. It was originally submitted on March 18, 2020, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. This page has been viewed 1,837 times since then and 45 times this year. Last updated on January 21, 2023, by Carl Gordon Moore Jr. of North East, Maryland. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on March 18, 2020, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. 4. submitted on January 14, 2023, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio. • J. Makali Bruton was the editor who published this page.